Tag Archives: Beneath the Rainbow

Live Your Dream and follow that Rainbow…

Life is meant to be lived…with passion!

I write about dreams – those dreams people have that define who they are, and what they want to achieve – and that’s how we should live. We should have a bucket list, a heart and soul full of wild expectations, and a desire to achieve great things.

I know that most of us are ordinary, we live day-to-day, working to provide, but that doesn’t mean we have to be ordinary… So, do it – live your dreams!

Take time out to think about your dreams…

Yes, most of the time we have to let our heads lead us, but every now and then,
let your heart take over and lead you on an adventure!

Be observant; see what beauty thrives around you

Write down your goals, and do all you can to achieve them!

Reach for the stars

Make time to have fun, and to do the things you love!

Aim high, set your sights…if you have nothing in your viewfinder,
there’ll be nothing to see, nothing to spur you on

Believe in yourself; believe that you can do it…

Most of all – never give up – giving up is a waste,
a waste of all the precious potential that resides inside you!

And, lastly,
‘If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.’
– Albert Einstein

beneath the rainbow, lisa shambrook, bluebells, the last krystallos,

Bluebells © Lisa Shambrook

TELL ME YOUR DREAMS…AND HOW DO YOU LIVE THEM?

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

Old Thomas has a dream…one that seems way out of his reach. When he talks about it, it’s with a wry smile and a sigh. Others live his dream while he watches on the side-lines. Will he achieve his last dream, the one that keeps him alive?

Find out in ‘Beneath the Rainbow’

Available at Amazon in Paperback and eBook

Beneath the Old Oak: Cover Reveal

6 Replies

Great oaks from little acorns grow…
(14th Century English Proverb)

I’ve been working with Blue Harvest Creative and we’re just about ready to unfurl the brand new cover of my soon-to-be-released follow up to ‘Beneath the Rainbow’…

I wanted a cover in line with ‘Beneath the Rainbow’, but didn’t realise that my own concept which was so similar, was not what I’d ultimately go with. Joni and Vern came up with a new twist to the cover which hints at the deeper story inside! The colours work wonderfully with a story of a young girl desperate to escape her history. The sepia tones surrounding the colour crop make her story even more poignant.

I fell in love with this cover as soon as I saw it, and it looks amazing next to its sister ‘Beneath the Rainbow’!

Blurb:
Meg thinks her mother is broken. Is she broken too?
Meg’s life spirals out of control, and when she mirrors her Mum’s erratic behaviour, she’s terrified she’ll inherit her mother’s sins.
Seeking refuge and escape, she finds solace beneath a huge, old oak. Life is as transient as leaves upon the tree and with the changing seasons, the timeworn tree shares its memories with her and she begins to learn and grow.
Amid the turmoil, Meg wants to run away, but a traumatic turn of events changes everything.
As a storm descends, can Meg survive devastating losses? Will she learn from the tree’s precious memories, and will she discover how to become as strong as the old oak?

Design Credits:
Cover Photograph: Lisa Shambrook

Cover Concept: Lisa Shambrook and Blue Harvest Creative

Cover Design: Blue Harvest Creative

Interior Design and eBook Design: Blue Harvest Creative

Also ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ is currently on Special Offer over at Amazon.

£1.35 for the eBook on Amazon UK or $2.25 in the US…until the 15th October…don’t miss it!

Keep a look out for the launch of ‘Beneath the Old Oak’…COMING SOON!

My Creative Process – The Grand Blog Tour

6 Replies

Thanks go to Nettie Thomson for nominating me for this Blog Tour…I got asked when it was named My Writing Process, but I was too busy to take part, so this second chance is much appreciated! Go take a look at Nettie’s answers here, then see what I’m doing…

Writing © Lisa Shambrook

What are you working on?

Right now I’m editing ‘Beneath the Old Oak’ and I’m very appreciative of beta readers! Sometimes you can be too close to your story and your writing and only someone else can catch the little things – or maybe the big things…

‘Beneath the Old Oak’ is the sequel to my debut novel ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ and continues seven years later following Meg, Freya’s best friend. Meg is now fourteen and her life is in turmoil. This story is close to my heart. They say write what you know – many of both Meg’s and her mother’s problems are things I’ve fought and done myself. Depression and anxiety affect entire families, not just the sufferers, and it’s a subject I’ve enjoyed tackling. Those who know my writing will appreciate a tough subject, but dealt with in an uplifting way.

The tentative blurb for ‘Beneath the Old Oak’ is:

‘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…’

Prior to resuming my editing, I’ve been writing flash fiction and enjoying submitting to contests and anthologies: Audiomachine’s Phenomena: Epic Heroes Event, The Anthology Club’s Pirate Anthology, Dirty Goggles 2014 and J.A.Mes Press Rebirth Anthology to name a few, along with traditional flash challenges like Blues Buster and Five Sentence Fiction.

World Book Day © Lisa Shambrook

How does your work differ from others of its genre?

I write eclectic flash fiction and enjoy experimenting with genres!

‘Beneath the Rainbow’ is placed in contemporary fiction, but it’s been enjoyed by everyone from 9 to 99 years old. ‘Beneath the Old Oak’ will hit the market as YA contemporary fiction.

How does my work differ? My writing definitely has its own voice, vibrant, lyrical and emotional. I work with the senses, description and colour, and my imagery stands out. If you really want to ‘feel’ what you read, try mine…

Why do you write/create what you do?

I write because it’s an urge I cannot deny. I’d go mad if I couldn’t lay down my thoughts on paper! I’m a creative soul, I need an outlet and it takes whatever forms my inspiration demand, from art to short stories, scrapbooking to photography, and craft to novels…

Notebooks everywhere © Lisa Shambrook

How does your writing/creative process work?

My heart is in control of my process, and I often have to rein it in, or nothing would get done!

I keep my inspirations jotted down, but generally only work on one big project at a time. Right now I will finish and release ‘Beneath the Old Oak’, and then work on the final book ‘Beneath the Distant Star’ which waits in its first draft form.

After that…who knows? I have a lovely children’s dragon adventure trilogy, and an epic dragon fantasy in the works…

I’m a planner. NaNoWriMo taught me discipline and that I need to plan! I pretty much work out a novel with a chapter-by-chapter plan, which will then spawn scenes and then writing. I also keep scrupulous notebooks of information eg: chronology, dates and times of sunsets/rises, flowers in season, character info, eye colour…it’s so easy to switch eye colour half way through a book, or a car model…been there!

My heart will determine my next work…

Flowers_Fairywings_Wood_Anemone_Last_Krystallos

Fairywings Anemone © Lisa Shambrook

What I love about this Blog Tour is all creatives are catered for…and you need to look out for the following on the 26^th when they take the baton for this tour:

Amanda Makepeace: www.amandamakepeace.com Her art is not to be missed!

Ruth Long: www.ruth-long.com Her words just blow me away!

Bekah Shambrook: www.bekahcat.wordpress.com If you want scary zombie make up, she’s your girl!

Website © Lisa Shambrook

You can also check out my website: www.lisashambrook.com

And find ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ on Amazon UK and Amazon US.

Beneath the Rainbow Book Talk: WI

8 Replies

Yesterday, I hid my nerves and set out for my very first book talk.
Last November our local WI (Women’s Institute) booked me for a talk about ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ and I spent time deciding how to present my book to its best effect.

Lisa_Shambrook_Beneath_the_Rainbow_display_March_2014

WI Display ‘Beneath the Rainbow’

I took Bekah, my daughter along for support, and we arrived early to set up, then we relaxed while the ladies went through their business meeting. This not only helped to keep me calm but meant I was able to gauge my audience. This was a lovely group of ladies, and they matched the WI theme ‘Inspiring Women’…it was great to give my first presentation to such a positive and supportive group!

I introduced myself and talked of my love of reading, writing, and creativity, before moving onto my book and its central themes. I chose to use photographs and pictures, including some from my book trailer, to illustrate my talk. This served two purposes: to allow me prompts on their reverse and to engage the audience with images. Images are so intrinsic to the way you want to paint with words that pictures are a really good prop, and were received with enthusiasm.

Lisa_Shambrook_WI_Talk_audience_march_2014

WI book presentation

I mingled questions in regard to the book themes to the audience during the talk to encourage interaction and got a great response. I closed by reading an excerpt of the book. It is heartening and incredibly reassuring to receive nods, and smiles, and applause!

Lisa_Shambrook_Chapter_excerpt_WI_Talk_march_2014

Author Lisa Shambrook reading ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ excerpt

I then opened the floor to questions, and enjoyed sharing my answers with these lovely ladies. Questions included:
Do I write shorthand on paper or on a computer?
What age range is my book suitable for?
Do I have any specific writing qualifications?
How did I get published?
Am I writing a sequel or any further book?

The WI showed me much warmth and invited me to draw for their raffle and to judge their ‘favourite book’ competition. I was congratulated on my confidence, my display and my presentation! My nerves didn’t show and I am very grateful for my history of teaching at church, which has allowed me confidence in front of a group!

I handed out free ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ bookmarks and chat with the women, made a few paperback sales and signed books!
I have much appreciation for this group of women who made my first presentation enjoyable and fun. I am now confidently available for further talks and book chats! Check out my website: lisashambrook.com for details and how to contact me.

Note: March 6th is WORLD BOOK DAY and ‘Beneath the Rainbow’ will be on offer on Kindle at just 77p or $0.99 AmazonUK and Amazon US

Lisa Shambrook World Book Day 2014 Quote

World Book Day March 6th 2014

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…)

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

‘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)