Posts

Showing posts with the label Book Savvy Spotlight

Book Savvy Spotlight on John Davies

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is John Davies * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us about yourself and your book 'Lyrics and Limericks'. I was born in Cwmafan, South Wales in 1948, attended Glanafan Grammar School, worked for 30 years as a chemist for BP Chemicals and retired in 2002. Married to Adrianne in 1971 and son, Ian, born in 1979. Our granddaughter, Freya, was born in 2010 and is the apple of my eye. I started writing as a hobby in retirement and 'Lyrics and Limericks' is my third book. I play guitar, have written some songs and also some poetry. The thought occurred to me, are song lyrics poetry? I sought the opinion of several songwriters and poets and their thoughts are included in the book. Having written many limericks, the book title required no thought and just tripped off my tongue. Q2. When you write, what emotion do you seek to evoke in your readers? That depends entir

Book Savvy Spotlight on Polly Morten

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  Polly Morten * Enjoy the interview. Q1 .  Can you tell us a little about yourself? I trained  in science, worked as a college lecturer, ran a beauty salon, lived on a sheep farm, ran local and national dressage competitions, dressage judge, competed in one day eventing, show jumping and dressage. I'm currently working at a local Stately Home, and training and working my two Labradors. I'm married with no children. Q2. Give us, if you would, 'Gift Horse' in a nutshell, for those who haven't yet had a chance to read it. An amusing weave of different people's lives, all brought together by a professional or personal interest in horses. Q3. Give us a sense of how this novel came together, if you would. Where did you begin, and how did you shape the narrative to create the final version of the story? I began by going to a creative writing group, never havi

Book Savvy Spotlight on Sue Hampton

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  Sue Hampton * Enjoy the interview. Q1 . Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'Pomp and Circumstances'? As an ex-teacher who used to stretch my pupils, I challenge myself by writing in various genres and styles for different audiences - from humour and fantasy to historical adventure. But I hope there's always a detectable 'essence of me'! Pomp and Circumstances isn't for children but young adult/adult readers - and all the action happens over twelve hours. One day changes the lives of five young Londoners. Q2. Why did you set Pomp and Circumstances on Royal Wedding Day? It was a day I began as an indifferent observer, of the central players and the crowd. But I found myself held captive on my sofa! I realised this unusual day was an opportunity for new, surprising connections. Q3. Who would enjoy this novel and why? Anyone over fourte

Book Savvy Spotlight on Maggie Kindred

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  Maggie Kindred * Enjoy the interview. Q1 Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'Training and supporting the care force'? My career took me through teaching, social work and practice teaching. Social carers generally are undervalued by society, and often undervalue themselves. So this book is about helping carers to recognise and value the skills they already possess, and develop these. Learning should be fun, and can make all kinds of everyday experiences more interesting and rewarding.   Q2 Why did you write this book? I committed myself a long time ago to producing sound practice-based material in a digestible style - particularly for carers, students who have had bad classroom experiences, and the non-academic.   Q3 What provided the inspiration for you to become a writer in the first place? As an educator, I loved trying to make theory 'li

Book Savvy Spotlight on Natalie Mason

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  Natalie Mason * Enjoy the interview. Q1.  Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'Poems and Rhymes for all Times? I am 35 years old and live in Stockport with my husband and two children. I have enjoyed a variety of jobs over the years including being a sports coach in schools. I currently work as a beauty therapist. I find this works well with my writing and I can enjoy them both. My book is a collection of poems touching on various aspects of life. It is about life and its various stages in general - there are a wide range of poems that all can relate to.   Q2. What provided the inspiration for you to write this book? I have written poems for my family from a young age; however it was never my intention to write a book at first. I got my inspiration for writing through daily life. Also I am quite sensitive to what others are going through and this inspires

Book Savvy Spotlight on Steve Perry

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  Steve Perry * Enjoy the interview.   Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'When Payday Loans Go Wrong? Financially speaking my life has been nothing short of a disaster due to my inability to control my finances - leading from one mess to another. Firstly it was a war with the bank, and then my catastrophic mistake with the payday loan industry. 'When Payday Loans Go Wrong' tells the story of how I managed to mess things up so badly! Q2. Why did you write this book? I couldn't change what had happened to me, the only thing I could do was warn others of the dangers. Q3. What provided the inspiration for you to become a writer in the first place? I was driven by rage. I felt an overwhelming need to tell others of what had happened to me, to warn them of the true damage the loan industry could cause and hopefully to prevent the same happening

Book Savvy Spotlight on I. C. Camilleri

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  I. C. Camilleri * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'The Blake Curse'? I was born on the 7th of February in Malta, an island in the middle of the Mediterranean. I graduated in Medicine and Surgery in 1993 and I moved to the UK shortly afterwards. And this is where I still live and work. Medicine and writing are my passion. The Blake Curse is my first published work. It is a psychological thriller and romance set in the beautiful city of Cambridge. Q2. When you write what emotion do you seek to evoke in your readers? Passion and love. How could I not write about love? My Mediterranean roots compel me to do so.   Q3. Why did you decide to begin writing and how much time do you dedicate to your writing? Medicine can be pretty stressful at times. Your patients become your whole life and how do you stop yourself from taking y

Book Savvy Spotlight on Ray Matthews

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  Ray Matthews * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'Me and my Shadow? I am now living my dream life - doing almost all the things I ever wanted and fulfilling ambitions that were not possible before retirement whilst fully occupied earning a living. 'Youth is wasted on the young' is an understated comment made by my father, oh how true. Writing 'Me and My Shadow' has opened up new avenues I never thought possible. 'Me and My Shadow' is about a dedication to achieving goals in extreme sports.  The book is about endurance running events and how it all began with boxing as a young boy brought up in a South Yorkshire steelmaking town.   Q2. Why did you write this book? To start with, I wrote this book mainly as a record of some of my challenges and then later for my own satisfaction.   Q3. What provided the

Book Savvy Spotlight on Paul Purday

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  Paul Purday * Enjoy the interview.  Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself? I am a professional watercolour artist who has, due to various reasons retired from exhibiting my work, but will still paint commissions if asked. I painted the picture for the cover design of my book and the fact that I wrote the great proportion of it while sitting in shopping centres manning my exhibitions, meant that my art provided the opportunity for its execution.   Q2. What gave you the impetus to write a book? I have written poetry most of my life and had some published as well as winning a poetry competition. Writing a book is always something I have considered but never found the right time. I read the 'Dark Secrets' and liked the style. This gave me the impetus to write, particularly as I had hours on my hands while I manned my exhibitions of watercolour paintings.   Q3.

Book Savvy Spotlight on John White

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  John White * Enjoy the interview.   Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'Brook Breasting'? I'm just your average sixty-nine year old, who simply wants his writing out there in the public domain. My novel is about life in a village called Brook Breasting during one eventful year, with a little mystery thrown in. Q2. What provided the inspiration for you to become a writer in the first place? I've watched active people become bored stupid when they retire. I needed another absorbing hobby. Although my school results in English were abysmal, I decided that if I couldn't better the celebrity 'literature' in the bookshops, I'd stand shooting.   Q3. Your novel has such a unique and fascinating plot, where did you get your inspiration for it? I study people, that and fresh air is all I need for ideas. However, you have to be v

Book Savvy Spotlight on Nathan Robertson

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is  Nathan Robertson * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'The First Six Days? I am currently a research scientist working in the Biotech sector. I feel very fortunate to be working in science as I have the opportunity to investigate the workings of biology on a molecular level and gain an appreciation of the complexity of nature. My book reconciles the world of science and the biblical words of Genesis from the Torah (Old Testament).   Q2. Why did you write this book? A famous proverb in Judaism is that one can study the Torah (Old Testament) and understand the world, or one can study the world and understand the Torah. One only has to scratch the surface of the two worlds of science and Genesis and the perceived initial contradictions dissolve. I realised both science and religion are not only compatible but on the same page, bot

Book Savvy Spotlight on Oge Austin-Chukwu

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is Oge Austin-Chukwu * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'Pearls of Wisdom'? I have been writing since I was a child. I love words and the concept of using them to paint a picture that people can relate to. As a medical doctor in a busy hospital setting I couldn't seem to find the time to write or indeed do other things I had an interest in doing, so eight years ago I retrained as a General Practitioner and my work/life balance is so much better. I wrote Pearls of Wisdom because I believe there is so much we can learn from looking at other people's lives. My heroes are ordinary people who do extraordinary things because they believed in Someone and Something greater than themselves. The Bible is full of these ordinary people. Pearls of Wisdom aims to capture just a few of these women.   Q2. What was your motivation for

Book Savvy Spotlight on Peter Good

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is Peter Good * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'The Creator's Diet'? I'm a Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'Ndlovu-The White Elephant'? I was born in Kenya. Lived in the 'outbacks' of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania, before going to Rhodesia in 1958. I joined the BSA Police Force in 1959 - serving till 1967. The book is about a retired ex-police constable, who commits a murder, flees the country, but returned as the leader of a terrorist gang. He is on a diabolical mission, he is wily and ruthless, but he has one fear - a recurring dream in which he is crushed and gored by an elephant, that appears white in colour, and remembers that the police officer that is after him, was given the name NDLOVU - meaning elephant by the local chief as he never forgot a criminal till he caught him.

Book Savvy Spotlight on Nicola Burgher-Kennedy

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is Nicola Burgher-Kennedy * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'The Creator's Diet'? I'm a public health nutritionist with approximately 15 years experience. I'm resident nutritionist on Premier Christian Radio Station, a wife, mother and a Christian. The book is a result of much research and provides a summary of the biblical principles on nutrition to help individuals make the best food choices for their health and ultimately their destinies. Q2. Tell us how you became a nutritionist? I actually never set out to be a nutritionist but rather was going down the doctor route. But then in a final module of my first degree which was nutrition related, I changed directions to study nutrition. Q3. What made you write this book? So many things really, but primarily my father's death from prostate cancer and the incidenc

Book Savvy Spotlight on Andrew D Malloy

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is Andrew D Malloy * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'Bible John'? I'm a father of four living in Central Scotland. I run a couple of businesses and due to my busy lifestyle, I often find it hard to find the time to sit down and write. Worse, I'm a real procrastinator! Maybe I'll tell you about it tomorrow! Seriously, businessman by day and father all of the time leaves little opportunity to get the creative juices flowing. Pity we have to sleep sometimes! The novel,' Bible John - Closure', is actually a sequel to my first book, Frantic! which was earlier released through another publisher. Ninety five percent fiction - serial killer Bible John did actually exist in the late 1960s - the book features the life and times of the detectives of Strathclyde Police Force and their struggle to catch a killer following h

Book Savvy Spotlight on Fred Maddox

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is Fred Maddox * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book 'A Genuine Fake?' I had been around the motor car business since leaving school until early retirement. I initially started as an apprentice mechanic at a large Rover dealer and then filtered into the spares side of the industry working for a national chain of wholesalers progressing to regional manager.   A Genuine Fake is a story of how a young lady struggles with her antiques business against what she sees as unfair competition. She is introduced to a plan which turns her business around, but having achieved success she becomes engulfed with greed and wants more. She resorts to underhand and illegal tactics to achieve this. As with most greedy people though, fate is always ready to take a hand. Q2. Why did you decide to begin writing? What sparked the desire to pen your firs

Book Savvy Spotlight on Jeremy Lousada

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is Jeremy Lousada * Enjoy the interview. Q1.  Can you tell us about yourself and your book 'Two Dachshunds at Troy'? I'm seventy, have been married for forty two years; have never not owned a dog and love boats and water. The book is the true-life story of two of my dogs and their travels, making, of course some allowances, for occasions on which we might have misinterpreted each other. Q2. What inspired you to write 'Two Dachshunds at Troy'? Love. Some famous author once said that anyone who writes a book does so to make money (and by inference to get it published). This book was the exception. I wrote it as a present for my wife and because I wanted to do it while events were fresh in my mind. I never tried to publish it until re-reading it some years later I thought it might be enjoyed by others who have loved a dog. Q3. What emotion do you seek to evoke in yo

Book Savvy Spotlight on Louise Wilkinson

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter.   Our Guest is Louise Wilkinson * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us about yourself? I am a retired history teacher who taught history in a secondary school in Stockton-on-Tees for nineteen years. I am 50 years old and have had to take ill health retirement. I have an old dog, a young dog and two cats. Q2. What inspired you to write the book 'The Kipper Patrol'? My research into the Auxiliary Air Force, and my own personal interest in local history. To be honest, the book was a spin off from some research I had been doing for an MPhil research degree. As part of the research I had interviewed a great many veterans from auxiliary squadrons who did not really understand what an MPhil was, but who wanted me to write a book, so the idea for the book came from them really. Q3. You have written about a period in history that is about 60 years ago, how can you be so sure that the

Book Savvy Spotlight on Harry Riley

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is Harry Riley * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us about yourself and your book 'Captain Damnation & other strange tales'? Growing up during World War II, I was an only child, mother worked full time and there was no father to keep me in line. (He was a soldier, missing; presumed dead.) I'd never met him until he returned after the war from a Japanese prison camp. Then I was six years old and having a wonderful time, with lots of friends and many good aunts to fuss over me. I didn't have many books but enjoyed the radio and this fed my imagination so much that I've never fully recovered. Now after a lifetime in commercial printing, happily married with two grown up children and a granddaughter, I'm still addicted to all things theatrical and possess a childish sense of fun. Writing 'Captain Damnation & other strange tales' enabled me

Book Savvy Spotlight on Peter Hodgson

Image
Bringing you exclusive interviews with authors featured in the Book Savvy Newsletter. Our Guest is Peter Hodgson * Enjoy the interview. Q1. Can you tell us about yourself and your book 'Jack the Ripper-Through the Mists of Time'? My Ripper book reflects a lifelong interest in the puzzle of the Ripper's identity. Since my days as a teenager I have been interested in true crime. It started after I read the Sherlock Holmes stories. If I could have my time back I would have joined the police force. The urge to solve crimes is embedded in my desire to write crime fiction. The real-life crimes of Jack the Ripper have been converted into films and fictional writings, and my book shows how the reality of those ghastly murders have been used by the entertainment industry. I have undertaken much research to make the book as accurate as possible. It is, I hope, a valuable contribution to a modern cultural myth. I would like to add that my son, Stuart, has created pencil por