Category Archives: My Books

Celebrating Blue Harvest Creative – Above and Beyond…

This is my first official post on my new WordPress blog, after migrating everything from Blogger, and it’s a pleasure to dedicate it to Blue Harvest Creative. Blue Harvest are a design team who put their heart and soul into not only their work, but their clients too!

Beneath the Rainbow Art © Lisa Shambrook and Blue Harvest Creative

When I wanted to reformat my novel and get it into print, I consulted Blue Harvest. I’d seen their design work on other authors’ books and was impressed…and with their competitive rates, they should be your first stop, and probably your last! What I had yet to discover was just how far they go above and beyond. I knew how busy they were yet I felt like I was their only client due to the attention they offered me.

Beneath the Rainbow full cover wrap © Lisa Shambrook and Blue Harvest Creative

Chapter Heading Art – Bluebells © Lisa Shambrook and Blue Harvest Creative

Their work is first class and I loved the results, a great eBook and full print cover wrap. The interior formatting is the most superior I’ve come across and chapter heading art was something I’d only dreamed of. A running theme throughout my book is bluebells and I asked for bluebells on each chapter heading…I got it, beautifully. Everything I asked for…and much more, my own imprint, time to talk through the publishing process and anything else that I needed.

A group of BHC author’s decided that today would be a Blue Harvest Creative Appreciation day, and I’m happy to join in and promote their wonderful work.

It’s exciting to show off the incredible design work by this one of a kind, all inclusive author services company. They go above and beyond in everything they do, and we want to celebrate them and show everyone why they should #JustAddBlue! #BHC #BHCappreciationDay #BHCauthor #showthelove

Enjoy a look at all they do for their authors…(Thank you Ashley Fontainne for putting together the video)

Beneath the Rainbow SALE and TRAILER

4 Replies

The ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ Sale at Amazon…
I’m a bit late in promoting this, post NaNo delirium…but better late than never!

The prices are currently: Kindle version is now 77p ($1.25) and the Paperback is £5.10 ($8.09) until the end of the week 1st – 8th December.

And introducing the trailer:

Blurb:

“It’s those silly dreams that keep us alive.”

Dreams define us, shape us and realise our potential…they make us who we are.

Freya won’t let death stand in her way.
When she dies Freya knows she needs to move on, but is caught within her mother’s grief and the discovery of terminally ill Old Thomas. Finding she can affect the lives of those beyond her heaven she fights to reach her mother and wants to help Thomas realise his final dream.
Meanwhile, her family finds her own list of goals and soon discovers that Thomas has a burning desire to ride a motorbike.
Freya intends to create a rainbow, the last item on her list, to reach her mother, but her pale arcs won’t achieve closure. She needs scarlet like remembrance poppies then sunset orange and sunflower yellow. She makes green like her willow and blue like daddy’s t-shirt. Finally conjuring indigo, the shade of deepening night and violet to match Purple Ted…
Beneath these colours will Freya reach her mother, wait for Old Thomas and be ready to move on?

Discover the importance of dreams and fulfilment in Freya’s heart-breaking and uplifting tale of grief, hope, triumph and joy.

‘Beneath the Rainbow’ Prize Draw

18 Replies

To celebrate the relaunch of my novel ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ which will be available in both paperback and eBook from 12th October 2013, I am hosting a Rafflecopter draw.

The draw will last for two weeks from today.

There will be one print copy of the book up for grabs and three eBooks, suitable for any eReader (either Amazon or Epub files will be emailed to winners).

We’re also having an evening (or afternoon if you reside across the pond) of fun and games, with further opportunities to win eBooks, on 11th October. Click here to see and join event.

That’s all for now…enter the draw and keep Friday 11th free. See you on Facebook!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Giveaway open to all

Beneath the Rainbow: Cover Reveal

7 Replies

I’m bubbling with anticipation to show you something…something special!

I’ve been working with Joni and Vern over at Blue Harvest Creative to put together a package, and it’s time to ‘Show and Tell’…
Two years ago, I published ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ on Kindle. I then took the step of joining Twitter to tweet my book. You’ll never know how very, very grateful and relieved I am that I barely mentioned my book on Twitter. I very quickly realised how many people were just there to pimp their book, and I didn’t want to become someone who threw their book at people. So I made friends. I followed writers and readers and learned a lot.

Now, I love ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ and those who bought and read it thoroughly enjoyed it, but something was missing. I’d published directly from Word…and then later as I read Sophie Moss’ gorgeous Selkie books and discovered the beautiful formatting courtesy of Blue Harvest, I knew I could do better.

I engaged Blue Harvest and it was mentioned that along with reformatting the eBook, a new cover might work. I liked my old cover, I still do, and it took some heartfelt moments to let it go. It wasn’t long though before I had a concept brewing away. When I’d made my original cover I wanted Bluebells, but the season was over, and anyone who knows me knows I like using my own images. Now, I had images…and the trademark image for the book sat upon my Blog…right up there in the header.

So I would love to reveal my new cover all ready for a relaunch set for Friday 11th October…

I love, love, love this cover…and have already used it as template for ‘Beneath the Old Oak’ which is currently within its first edit phase…I am excited!

On Friday 11th October ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ will be available as Print and eBook on Amazon. I think I might have a party!

Blurb:

“It’s those silly dreams that keep us alive.”

Dreams define us, shape us and realise our potential…they make us who we are.

Freya won’t let death stand in her way.

When she dies Freya knows she needs to move on, but is caught within her mother’s grief and the discovery of terminally ill Old Thomas. Finding she can affect the lives of those beyond her heaven she fights to reach her mother and wants to help Thomas realise his final dream.

Meanwhile, her family finds her own list of goals and soon discovers that Thomas has a burning desire to ride a motorbike.

Freya intends to create a rainbow, the last item on her list, to reach her mother, but her pale arcs won’t achieve closure. She needs scarlet like remembrance poppies then sunset orange and sunflower yellow. She makes green like her willow and blue like daddy’s t-shirt. Finally conjuring indigo, the shade of deepening night and violet to match Purple Ted…

Beneath these colours will Freya reach her mother, wait for Old Thomas and be ready to move on?

Discover the importance of dreams and fulfilment in Freya’s heart-breaking and uplifting tale of grief, hope, triumph and joy.

Design Credits:

Cover Photograph by Bekah Shambrook

Cover Concept by Lisa Shambrook

Cover Design by Lisa Shambrook & Blue Harvest Creative

Interior Design and eBook Design by Blue Harvest Creative

‘Those Silly Dreams…’ Beneath The Rainbow Review

1 Reply

Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (Please do not use)

The scariest thing about having a book out there in general public land is not knowing what people will think when they read it, or even if they will read it…will anyone ever read it?

I’m lucky some lovely people have bought and read my book, and they seem to have enjoyed it! My friend, the lovely Sarah Nicholson at re-ravelling, took the plunge and read Beneath the Rainbow and wrote a beautiful Blog post about it at re-ravelling: here. Like I said it’s always scary when people actually read your book, so I was honoured and pleased to discover her enjoyment!

When Sarah told me she was reading it I knew it was near the second anniversary of the death of her husband, and I had no idea if my book about grief and joy would hurt or help…she writes:

‘Some books forever get caught up in real life events of the reader, something the author cannot predict, but in this instance it made my enjoyment of the book even richer helping me process a bit more of my own grief.

For me this is why I thought it was a great first novel and I would recommend it to anyone grieving because it is so beautifully written and thought provoking.’

I teared up when I read her praise and I was significantly humbled.

Something powerful happens in the mind of an author when they write and they always hope that that power, that inspiration, that something will engulf the reader, but they never know if it truly will.

I want to thank those who’ve read Beneath the Rainbow and enjoyed, and especially those who’ve left reviews whether on their Blog, on Goodreads, or on Amazon. You are so very much appreciated!

If you are interested my book is available on Kindle:

www.amazon.co.uk/Beneath-the-Rainbow for £1.53

and

www.amazon.com/Beneath-the-Rainbow for $2.32

(and other Amazon country variants…)

The Next Big Thing: Beneath the Old Oak

12 Replies

I was recently nominated to take part in The Next Big Thing by the lovely Donna McNicol, where we let you in on all the info about one of our works in progress…I chose my NaNo novel:

Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (please do not use without permission)

What is the title of your Work in Progress?

Beneath the Old Oak

Where did the idea come from for the book?

When I first met my husband I read my future mother-in-law’s poetry and really enjoyed her writing, ‘The Death of a Tree’ was my favourite. Years later, a seed (or acorn) of an idea crept in and I had to run with it, and with her permission I’ll add the poem to the back of the book.

It’s about the life cycle of an old oak…and piqued my interest when I thought about all an oak will have experienced in its life…

What genre does your book fall under?

YA, the accompanying story covers some graphic and heartrending times for fourteen-year-old Meg.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Meg would be played by a young Emma Watson, someone who could convey holding the weight of the world on her shoulders, and her mother would be an actress like Emily Blunt or Anna Friel who could portray a complete breakdown.

What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book? (Okay, I used four sentences…)

Meg’s mother is anxious, depressed and neglectful. Meg thinks her mum is broken and wonders if she’ll be next, or is she already broken too? Meg wants to escape, but her mum beats her to it. Solace is found in a huge, old oak tree and Meg begins to learn to grow…

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Right now I’m planning to self-publish as it’s a sister book to my earlier book ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ already out on Kindle.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

This story was put on the back burner, but when I joined NaNoWriMo I knew it was the one I’d write. All the backbone was there, the story just needed fleshing out and writing, so the majority of its first draft was written in 30 days for NaNo… There’s still about 10K left to write (to add to my NaNo 50K), and I’m taking my time with the ending.

What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?

Not really sure right now, my reading is so eclectic I don’t know anything out there the same. Meg’s story is heart rending and fits well into YA.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The poem inspired the oak tree and I inspired the rest, to explain…I suffer anxiety and depression and have been through much of the experiences in the novel…I write what I know. (Though the novel is fiction)

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

How would you feel if you leaned against a huge, ancient, old tree and it spoke to you? Not with a voice, but with emotions and imagery…your hands tingle and prickle, and your mind floods with emotions so great you are overwhelmed. You are privileged to experience fragments of the old oak’s history…

Photograph by Lisa Shambrook (please do not use without permission)

I’m now supposed to nominate five further nominees for: The Next Big Thing…I’d love to know more from these wonderful writers:

Stacy: A Jar of Fireflies

Elisabeth: 40 Something Undomesticated Devil

Ruth: Bullishink

Mark: My Souls Tears

Meg: Darcy to Dionysus

There are so many more I’d like to nominate but many have already been nominated…so nominate yourself with my permission if I haven’t tagged you!

Be Inspired

12 Replies

I’ve been tagged by the wonderful Rowanwolf (check out her novel answers on her blog) in a new Blog Hop, which originated on Vicki Orians blog. The idea is to share our inspiration and hopefully inspire others! A great opportunity for us writer people to blog about our writing inspiration!

1. Answer the ten questions
2. Tag five other writers, link to them in your post so we can hop over and see their answers too.

The Questions:

1. What is the name of your book:
My current work in progress will be a fair time in edits…so I’m choosing to write about my last finished work called ‘Beneath the Rainbow’.

2. Where did the idea for your book come from?
I was walking past the children’s swings in our local park, thinking how much I loved the swings when I was a little girl and the first line came to me: ‘Freya was seven years old when she got hit by the car, it was a 4×4 with a bull bar.’ I couldn’t shake the line and a heartbreaking premise was born…

3. In what genre would you classify your book?
When I wrote it I had no thought of genre, age range or how to pitch it…only after it was finished did these questions come about. That caused problems…I would class it as an older children’s book, but many adults have enjoyed it too. The main protagonist is seven as mentioned in the first sentence and you can’t get away from that! I discovered that publishers would want a main character as close to the age of the children reading it…so seven was young and would older children relate? You’ll have to read it to decide what range it fits!

4. If you had to pick actors to play your characters in a movie rendition, who would you choose?
This is the hardest question…most of my characters (in all my writing) are gleaned from a mixture of my imagination and from characteristics attributed to my eclectic children, relatives and aquaintences. I find it hard to relate them to actors…though I will risk sounding really pretentious and admit my dream actor for frail Old Thomas would be Sir Ian McKellan. Freya would be an unknown, but have the presence of a young Dakota Fanning.
My own inspiration for Freya was my daughter who was just over seven when I wrote the book:

5. Give us a one sentence synopsis of your book:

‘In death, Freya knows she needs to move on, but is caught within her mother’s grief and the discovery of terminally ill Old Thomas…on earth her family discover a list of her wishes and determine to fulfil both hers and Thomas’s dreams.’

6. Is your book already published/represented?
I decided to self-publish and the book is available on Kindle at Amazon. I love this book, but I know my writing grows stronger and with advice have decided this is my practise book…with the issues surrounding genre and age range, I decided to leave it as it is and concentrate on other writing for more traditional publishing.

7. How long did it take to write your book?
I began in March 2009 and finished the first draft in October 2009, I then suffered a serious bout of depression and shelved the book, going back to it in 2011. About a year all in all.

8. What other books within your genre would you compare it to? Or, readers of which books would enjoy yours?
If you like emotional, lyrical stories and don’t mind weeping a bit…you should like this!

9. Which authors inspired you to write this book?
That’s easy…I read ‘Loser’ by Jerry Spinelli and adored it, and I love beautiful stories with a lot of heart and emotion. Aside from this book, I am inspired by the fantasy writing of JRR Tolkien, CS Lewis and Garth Nix…

10. Tell us anything that might pique our interest in your book.

My blurb reads:

“It’s those silly dreams that keep us alive.”

Dreams define us, shape us and realise our potential…they make us who we are.

Freya won’t let death stand in her way.

When she dies Freya knows she needs to move on, but is caught within her mother’s grief and the discovery of a terminally ill old man. Finding she can affect the lives of those beyond her heaven she fights to reach her mother and wants to help old Thomas realise his final dream.

Meanwhile, her family finds her own list of goals and soon discovers that Old Thomas has a burning desire to ride a motorbike.

Freya intends to create a rainbow, the last item on her list, to reach her mother, but her pale arcs won’t achieve closure. She perseveres for scarlet like remembrance poppies then searches for sunset orange and sunflower yellow. She recreates green like her willow and blue like daddy’s t-shirt. Finally conjuring indigo, the shade of deepening night and lastly violet to match Purple Ted…

Beneath these colours will Freya reach her mother, wait for Old Thomas and be ready to move on?

Discover the importance of dreams and fulfilment in Freya’s heart-breaking and uplifting tale of grief, hope, triumph and joy.

These are my tags: (I know there are only supposed to be five, but I couldn’t help myself, so six it is…)
Jo-Anne @jtvancouver
Angela @Angela_Goff
Daniel @surlymuse
Angela @ang_writes
McKenzie @Love_Kenzie_
Cameron @CameronLawton

Lucky Seven Tag…

3 Replies

I feel privileged! I’ve been tagged in Lucky 7. Here’s how it works…

1. Go to page 7 or 77 in your current manuscript.
2. Go to line 7.
3. Copy down the next seven lines/sentences as they are – no cheating.
4. Tag seven other authors.

My current WIP in is several states of editing, and I’ve used a couple of excerpts lately in Five Sentence Fiction, so I grabbed the last manuscript I’ve written from my book ‘Beneath the Rainbow’, this is Page 7 on my Word document…though, obviously you’ll get a different paragraph from the Kindle version!

‘Her friends sat by their parents, not all had come, some parents thought services like this were too much for ones so young to bear, but Freya smiled at those who had come. Her friends sat there, stiff and quiet, in awe of the occasion. One or two of the boys had let their minds wander and one was studying a spider crawling up the side of the pulpit.

Her best friend, Meg, stared at the coffin, and swung her legs to and fro. Meg liked the flowers and nodded to herself in approval at the bluebells. She leaned close to her mother and whispered. “Is she in there?”

Meg’s mother glanced down mortified at her daughter’s question, but relieved that it had been whispered, a child not so well brought up might have said it out loud…that was too much to consider.’

So now to tag…you may have been tagged before (sorry), but I like your writing…so if you haven’t already…we’d love to see your work!

Ruth Long – @bullishink

Angie Richmond – @write_me_happy

Mandy James – @akjames61

Jo-Anne Teal – @jtvancouver

Nayuleska – @nayuleska

Abi Burlingham – @AbiBurlingham

Emma Pass – @EmmaPass

‘Variety alone gives joy…’

1 Reply

Looking at the themes of my own book made me wonder about books for children these days…It begins with the line ‘Freya was seven-years-old when she got hit by the car. It was a 4×4 with a bull bar.’ It deals with death from the outset, and continues with themes of grief and guilt. However it is balanced by the inclusion of Freya’s heaven…as seen from a seven-year-old’s point of view and purposely laden with rainbows and flowers and sparkly things…Hope and insight is gained from death, grief and terminal illness, dreams are wished for and ultimately our dreams are the things that give us hope. When we strive for the things we dream of…we triumph.

But these strong themes of death and grief made me wonder…Should we protect children and teens from specific themes in books?

These days any subject matter under the sun is up for grabs and writers contend with them in many different ways.

I enjoy books of all varieties and genres, and it made me think back to my own days of reading, curled up on a sofa or turning pages by torchlight beneath the covers, well past my bedtime…

My childhood was spent reading. I was a frequent customer of a tiny local bookstore in the backstreets of Brighton with a shelf in the back room full of second hand children’s books, where I spent a good hour or more choosing books while the little, white-haired, old lady who owned the shop sat reading novels or sorting stock. She kept a pile of ‘Famous Five’ books aside for my visits and it didn’t matter how ragged they were, I still wanted to buy them!

So what did I read when I was small?

Everything I could lay my hands on…when I graduated from picture books, I discovered Enid Blyton, ‘The Castle of Adventure’ had me hiding inside the gorse bushes with Philip, Dinah, Jack and Lucy-Ann as they out-foxed thieves and smugglers! Then came the aforementioned ‘Famous Five’, I wasn’t a ‘Secret Seven’ fan, I wanted to be tomboy George! I also devoured ‘Malory Towers’ and ‘St Clares’ and longed to attend boarding school with Darrell Rivers and her friends… and can you believe it there’s actually a tongue-in-cheek website here informing you of Darrell and her cohorts whereabouts now…weird!

I spent the last of my preteen years reading horsey stories…I adored ‘The Silver Brumby’ series by Elyne Mitchell, I read them over and over and over again…Patricia Leitch’s ‘Jinny’ series, all the ‘Jill’ books by Ruby Ferguson, and anything by the Pullien-Thompsons.

Horse books were interspersed with ‘Watership Down’, ‘Duncton Wood’, ‘The Tuesday Dog’ any animal stories and anything by Malcolm Saville, especially ‘The Lone Pine Five’.

Then I will be forever grateful to my middle school teacher Mr Lawrence who introduced us to fantasy, he read Susan Cooper’s ‘Over sea, Under Stone’ with such enthusiasm and verve that I fell in love with the genre. I spent a whole summer immersed in ‘The Dark is Rising’ Sequence…

That was it…then followed Tolkien…’The Hobbit’ and ‘The Lord of the Rings’…my life was complete and I would be life-long fantasy fan!
My teenage reading collection grew and grew and was eclectic. I loved Judy Blume, beginning with ‘Blubber’, getting my English teacher to let us read ‘Tiger Eyes’ as a class when we were fourteen, and my embarrassment with ‘Forever’ as a very naive fifteen-year-old! This is where the diversity in my collection began, reading about love, jealousy ‘Jacob Have I Loved’ Katherine Paterson, anorexia ‘Second Star to the Right’ Deborah Hautzig, parental desertion and adventure in ‘Homecoming’ Cynthia Voigt, Concentration Camps and escape ‘I am David’ Anne Holm, pregancy ‘Dear Nobody’ Berlie Doherty, and much more, death, guilt, murder, abuse, relationships, classics like ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ Harper Lee, ‘Little Women’ Louise May Alcott and (forgive me) a stage of ‘Sweet Valley High’…
Thus you can see that my reading was vast in themes and ideas!
I’ve even kept most of my books, but sadly many are boxed up in the attic after, I’m ashamed to say, my own children prefer the X-Box… sacrilegious! My youngest is my most prolific reader and loves to write herself, so at least I have one chip-off-the-old-block!
So, no I don’t think children or young adults should be protected from certain themes, obviously I don’t want young children reading about sex or being exposed to true adult themes at an early age, but most themes are relevant to teens and important in their lives.
It was my own book that made me ask the question…and ultimately I believe that books are what encourages us to dream…to capture experiences that we may never find ourselves. We find ourselves in the books we read, whether it be acceptance or rebellion, adventure or peace, love or hate…it’s all there…and books were how I learned to express myself. A love of vastly different books taught me to embrace this weird and wonderful culture in which we live!

As my character old Thomas says as he is told to let go of ‘his silly dreams’, “…it’s those silly dreams that keep us alive.”

Variety is the spice of life!

(Title quote by Matthew Prior-The Turtle and the Sparrow)