Stephanie Cage - Writer

I know, science fiction and Easter aren't exactly a usual combination, but I've been thinking about it recently because of rediscovering Colleen McCullough's extraordinary novel, A Creed for the Third Millenium .  Colleen McCullough is better known for writing The Thorn Birds , but she's an extraordinarily varied writer and Creed is a kind of futuristic retelling of the Easter Story, centring around psychotherapist Joshua Christian (the symbolism of the name is obviously intentional).  Joshua accidentally hits upon the cure for a condition he calls 'Millenial Neurosis', and in his quest to bring the cure to the world, he finds himself thrust into a prophetic role which sits uncomfortably with him and his family.  Two other science fiction stories which loosely retell the story of Jesus' life are Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein, and Behold the Man , by Michael Moorcock.  Stranger was one of my favourite books for a long time, and I'm still...

Another thing that's happened during the past few weeks is that I ran a workshop on editing and rewriting for Barnsley Writers Group .  There were some great questions ranging from the very philosophical - 'What is a book?' - to the much more practical - 'How do you manage the pace of scenes?'  They're clearly a very dedicated and talented group of writers, and I always enjoy meeting other people who share my fascination with stories.  The handouts (available from the Barnsley Writers blog) only scratch the surface of what we covered, but one of them lists useful resources to follow up, so if you want to find out more, grab that one and pick out the books that interest you.

Now that I'm back online (I hate BT, did I mention that?), I thought I'd let you know about some of the great things that happened during my forced absence from the computer.  Thanks to a suggestion from a new friend from the RNA , I went to hear Kate Mosse (the author, not to be confused with Kate Moss, the fashion model) talk about her bestselling first novel.  The book is called Labyrinth (not to be confused with the film Labyrinth , which is one of my favourites, or the film Pan's Labyrinth , which I've never seen).  I wanted to ask her whether sharing her name with a fashion model, and having a book which shared its title with a popular film, helped or hindered her marketing, but I didn't quite dare! Kate Mosse was speaking at Hull University as part of a series of events, and was great to listen to, despite some problems with the sound system, which meant that the interview went something like this: Interviewer: hmmmm mmm fmmmm bmmmm gaaaa? Kate: It...

I've been away from my blog for a few weeks, for a few reasons, both technical and otherwise.  What better to return with than a celebration of my wonderful publishers?  The Wild Rose Press is about to turn five years old - a ripe old age in the still-fresh world of e-publishing. There are e-publishers and e-publishers, and The Wild Rose Press is definitely an e-publisher to be proud of. Not only do the folks at The Wild Rose Press publish great stories (and no, I'm not only saying that because they published my e-book, Desperate Bid and made it available on Amazon too - they publish loads of great romances, including some by the wonderful Rachel Brimble and Rae Summers ). They also make a point of giving lots of help and feedback to new writers.  Their blog Behind the Garden Gate is a must-read if you write romance, or are curious about what goes on behind the scenes at a publisher.  Oh, and they're really nice people too.  This post about Agonis...

This week on Book It I'll be reviewing Diane Chamberlain's ' Breaking the Silence .'  I found it particularly interesting that my picking up this book about a troubled family and a child whose response to emotional turbulence is elective mutism coincided with a very interesting discussion at academic romance blog ' Teach Me Tonight ' about speech difficulties in popular fiction (which mentions, in passing, The King's Speech as part of this phenomenon). Up until this point, I hadn't given a lot of thought to speech difficulties as a theme, but once it was mentioned, it seemed to crop up everywhere. First I happened again across a book I'd read a few years ago, ' Overheard in a Dream ' by Torey Hayden, the best-selling American author of a whole series of books on troubled children, including several elective mutes.  Although the novel was a compelling and moving story, it didn't quite seem to me to retain the power and simplicity of h...

Now that, thanks to the ubiquity of the Kindle, e-books are finally coming into their own here in the UK, I thought it would be fun to share a few of my favourites.  I'll admit that this is a rather biased list, since it is chosen only from those books which I happen to have read in electronic form, but still... here, in no particular order, are my favourite five e-books.  If you're thinking about taking the plunge into reading e-books by contemporary authors, or you're just looking for something new to read, any of these is a great place to start.  Slightly Foxed, by Jane Lovering A deliciously light, funny read, which I loved even more than her first, 'Reversing over Liberace', because this one happens to involve a heroine who loves books, works in a bookshop, and falls in love with dead poets. Fire and Shadow, by Imogen Howson I ummed and aaahed for some time over which of Imogen Howson's books to include, because I love them all, but ultimately the win...

My lovely publishers, The Wild Rose Press , have some great giveaways for Read an E-Book Week .  I've just downloaded half a dozen to add to my electronic to-read pile.  If your computer/e-reader isn't already groaning under the weight of your wish list, you can access eight fabulous free e-books at: https://digibookscafe.com/index.php?main_page=specials Unfortunately, my book ' Desperate Bid ' isn't among the freebies, but it is only $4.25 at full price.  And if that's too much of a stretch, there's 50% off my two short story collections at Smashwords (full details are in my earlier post ) making them just $0.99 each. So there's an e-book for everyone, whatever your budget.  Happy reading! And thanks to everyone who's shared their experiences of e-books with me this week in honour of Read an E-Book Week.  If you haven't done so yet, feel free to comment below. I'd love to hear your experiences, especially as after years of happily ...