Author Archives: P.C.R. MONK

Some Body To Love to be staged in Cambridge

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Absolutely thrilled that scenes from my 3 act comedy Some Body To Love are to be staged in Cambridge at the ADC theatre café 26th October. So pleased that Julia Bolden will be directing it!

theatre cafe

HENRI, a miserly restaurateur in his 70s, tells his life-long friend JACQUES that he is going to have a body transplant. His long serving employee MARTHE, is pleased to be offered promotion whilst he is away. She hints that HUGUETTE, his daughter, may be in love. Henri warns his staff to keep up standards in his absence. Huguette tells her father that she is in love with ALBERT, the waiter. He asks Albert to have a sperm count before he will consider a marriage between the couple.

It will be produced by Andrew Shepherd of WRiTEON, the Cambridge-based group that stages rehearsed readings of new drama, are the organisors. The play is part of their First Stage programme and will be played on the 26th Octobre with three or four other plays.

 

Strange Metamorphosis wins 2014 LITERARY CLASSICS AWARDS

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Strange Metamorphosis picks up not one but two 2014 LITERARY CLASSICS AWARDS – The Eloquent Quill Book Award & Best Fantasy Fiction YA.

Eloquent Quill Book Award for one work of extraordinary youth fiction.

This comes a fabulous surprise, can hardly believe it!!

Here is a link to the awards page http://www.clcawards.org/2014AwardRecipients.html.

And here’s the press release which can also be viewed here >>

eloquent quill youth fiction 2014 was a record year for entries in the Literary Classics International Book Awards. With entrants from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and many more places around the globe, competition was tremendous. The extraordinary selection of books for young readers gave our reviewers and judges quite a lot to consider as they worked their way through impressive piles of books (and eBooks) for deliberation in this year’s awards.

Literary Classics announced its 2014 selection of top books for children and young adults today.  Award recipients were selected from entries received from around the globe.  The Literary Classics selection committee is proud to recognize the following titles in children’s and young adult literature which exemplify the criteria set forth by the Literary Classics Awards committee.

Literary Classics, an organization dedicated to furthering excellence in literature, takes great pride in its role to help promote classic literature which appeals to youth, while educating and encouraging positive values in the impressionable young minds of future generations.  Judging is based upon the criteria set forth by Literary Classics’ highly selective awards committee which honors books promoting character, vision, creativity and learning, through content which possesses key elements found in well-crafted literature.

The Literary Classics judging committee consists of experts with backgrounds in publishing, writing, editing, design, illustration, and book reviewing.

 

The Imprévu to be staged in Cambridge

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The Imprévu has been selected to be produced by WRiTEON at the ADC Theatre in Cambridge!

When two lovers meet in a Parisian café, the young woman suddenly finds it so difficult to take the leap of faith to start a new life with the one she loves. A couple exactly 25 years older meet by chance in the same café at the same time.

It is a one act play I wrote specifically for this theatre so I’m really chuffed it got through. WRiTEON, the Cambridge-based group that stages rehearsed readings of new drama, are the organisors. The play is part of their First Stage programme and will be played on the 26th Octobre with three other plays. 

Really looking forward to meeting the director and the actors! The casting session is being held this Saturday 4th Octobre.

Update: It turns out that I’ve been given the chance to direct the play myself 🙂

Literary Classics Seal Of Approval For Strange Metamorphosis

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Literary Classics Seal Of Approval

Literary Classics Seal of Approval

Literary Classics Seal of Approval

Thrilled to announce that Stange Metamorphosis has won another seal of excellence, this time the Literary Classics Seal of Approval 🙂 I’ve included the press release and the review below. Or you can see for yourself here.

Children’s Literary Classics is pleased to announce that the book, Strange Metamorphosis, written by P.C.R. Monk has been selected to receive the Children’s Literary Classics Seal of Approval.  The CLC Seal of Approval is a designation reserved for those books which uphold the rigorous criteria set forth by the Literary Classics review committee, a team comprised of individuals with backgrounds in publishing, editing, writing, illustration and graphic design.

When P.C.R. Monk set out to write his debut novel, he did so with the flourish and finesse of an established author. His book, Strange Metamorphosis, is as rich and layered as a buttery croissant and just as gratifying to devour. Seasoned with sage tidbits of choice life lessons throughout, steeped in adventure and sprinkled with just a touch of romance, this book is perfectly balanced to provide an enticing read that is destined to become a treasured piece of literature for the young and young at heart.

Marcel Dassaud is a boy of exceptional talent who is at a stage in life where he must decide between two paths, both of which have the potential for completely divergent outcomes. Reflecting upon his options, he finds himself uttering his contemplation to an ancient oak tree which, according to legend, possesses magical powers to impart great wisdom. Moments later he finds himself shrunken to the size of the bugs he once collected for sport. It is soon revealed to him by a gallfly that in order to return to his former state, he must embark on a quest to gather some of the royal jelly which is heavily guarded by bees. He must complete this task within three days, or his metamorphosis into a bug will be complete and he will never return to his human state.

Along the way, Marcel discovers much about himself, his friends, and the bugs he encounters while seeking the royal jelly. Strange Metamorphosis, is an exciting and whimsical adventure, written with great aplomb and a style which many authors can only hope to achieve within their lifetime.

Children’s Literary Classics, an organization dedicated to furthering excellence in  children’s literature, takes great pride in its role to help promote classic children’s literature which appeals to youth, while educating and encouraging positive values in the impressionable young minds of future generations.   To learn more about Children’s Literary Classics, you may visit their website at www.clcawards.org or www.childrensliteraryclassics.com

If you would like to find out more about the storyworld of Strange Metamorphosis visit www.strangemetamorphosis.com. See you there 🙂

Wattpad: Discovering And Showcasing Stories

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Ever Heard Of Wattpadd?

During my recent visit to the London Book Fair I attended Ben Galley’s
workshop on social media. He suggested you not spread yourself too thin and to limit yourself to just a handful of social media platforms. His favourite five, in order of preference, were as follows:

  • Twitterwattpad
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Goodreads
  • Wattpad

Okay, the first four came as no surprise but when it got to the fifth I wasn’t the only one to mutter “What what?”

Just Another Marketing Tool?

I approached it not without some disdain at first as it would mean learning to tame yet another marketing tool that would ultimately pinch more precious minutes from my writing time. Disdain, however, quickly turned to pleasant surprise.

It turned out that Wattpad is not just another social network spawned by Facebook. In fact it is a writers and readers platform. Writers are able to showcase their work to avid readers willing to discover and digest it.

It’s a good way for writers to get feedback direct from the horse’s mouth. It is a direct channel to the consumer/reader without going through the filtres and secondhand interpretations of the usual intermediates.

Publishing On Wattpad

The interface is amazingly intuitive and simply to use. Once you have signed up you can start publishing your work from a one-page short story to a full length novel. If you are publishing anything with a reasonable length it is worth doing it in installments.

For my short story Subterranean Peril, for example, I have displayed the fact that I will be adding new parts on Tuesdays and Fridays until completion. For a novel I plan to test on wattpadders I shall probably publish one chapter per week as the chapters are generally longer than the parts of my short story.

Wattpad Clubs

The best way to attract readers is to engage with the community both as writer and reader to get your face about. You can join various clubs but you can’t leave comments, though, until 3 days after joining. The idea of this delay is to encourage you to take time getting to know about the philosophy and how everything works.

I found this website interesting for publishing on Wattpad.

This Wattpad guide by an indie writer who has clocked up over 1M views is well worth reading too before you embark on your first publication.

Have you used WattPad either as a reader or writer? Do you have a favourite genre or indie author?

Check out Subterranean Peril on Wattpad

The London Author Fair ‘14: Roundup

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Writers, Agents, Industry Experts

london author fair 2014

Discoverability and Connecting with Readers seminar, chaired by Porter Anderson with Gareth Howard and Patrick Brown

In case it escaped your notice the London Author Fair aka LAF14 was hosted at the Hospital Club in Covent Garden last Friday 28th February. In fact the LAF14 came as the first in a series of International Author Fairs that aim to bring together both contract and indie writers around publishing industry experts.

The impressive cast of experts featured representatives from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, Blurb and Goodreads, as well as a plethora of agents, not to mention the team at Authoright, who organized the event.

The absence of the major publishing houses was a disappointment although it left few surprised as to just how far away they have moved from the grassroots of their profession, i.e. writers.

Editing To Discoverability

The red line throughout was the insistence of the need to professionalize indie publishing. 8 seminars chaired by Porter Anderson and 18 workshops provided plenty of learning and informative substance from how to edit your book to marketing and discoverability.

laf14 workshop view

Arriving at Ben Galley’s Social Media workshop

The workshops for me constituted a less daunting place to exchange with people like Patrick Brown, Director of Author Marketing at Goodreads, as well as successful indie authors who were generous and eager to share their know-how.

On the discoverability side, I appreciated Patrick Brown’s tips for the Goodreads platform. One was about self-reviewing. He advised authors to go ahead and mark their own work. But instead of appraising it he suggested giving extra information such as what urged you to write your book.

In this way, you will be seen as adding value for the reader and not perceived as just blowing your own trumpet. Of course you will give your book 5 stars, after all, if you don’t utterly believe in it, who else will?

I asked Patrick about trolling on Goodreads. You know, those faceless profiles that give your book 1 star for no reason at all. To find out more about this discussion read my post on indieBRAG.

Sorting The Good From The Bad

It was often inferred that there is a lot of junk being published and the task for both reader and writer is how to separate the slag from gold. Let’s face it, Amazon would publish your aunt Maisy’s naughty memoires and rambling rose collection back to back if they could make a buck or two.

Truth is, the biggest flaw with Amazon is their total lack of quality control of content, even the worst books can miraculously get 5 stars whereas a quality novel whose genitor is the sole surviving member of his family might just get 2. To my mind, that’s just not fair, so I was surprised that there was no talk at the fair about book approval sites such as indieBRAG whose seal of excellence is fast becoming an indie standard which readers can trust. Indeed, 90% of submissions don’t make the grade.

PitchUp!

Attendees were entitled to pitch to one of the agents in the PitchUp! event organized by LitFactor, a sister company of Authoright. You had to get in your request early, though, as places were limited. That said, it was also possible to gently accost agents between QA sessions and during the end-of-day drinks.

I was one of the lucky ones. However, I was so concentrated on my one pitch and then the workshops going on that I didn’t think to make contact with any of the other agents. Shame on me, promise me you won’t make the same mistake and my writer’s soul will be absolved. It will be worth the practice because even if you wish to remain independent you might still need an agent to give you professional guidance as well as to help with the promotion side of things.

On the whole it was a remarkable initiative by Authoright whose next International author fair in the series will take place in New York this autumn. So keep your eyes peeled for the exact date, won’t you?

writers unite

Did you go to the London Author Fair this year? If so, what did you come away with?

B.R.A.G Medallion Honoree

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B.R.A.G. Medallion for Strange Metamorphosis

brag book readers appreciation group

I’m thrilled to announce that Strange Metamorphosis has won a B.R.A.G. medallion. B.R.A.G. is an acronym for Book Readers Appreciation Group whose mission is to:

B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree

B.R.A.G. Medallion Honoree

…discover new and talented self-published authors and help them give their work the attention and recognition it deserves. Our primary focus is fiction across a wide range of genres and we selectively consider non-fiction books as well.

Their readers, who are spread throughout the US and 10 other countries, judge the merits of the book based on the following criteria:

  • Plot
  • Writing Style
  • Characters
  • Copy editing
  • Dialogue
  • Cover/interior layout

strange metamorphosis BRAG medallion

It’s worth mentioning that only 50% of submissions to indieBRAG are accepted, of those 40% are rejected by their readers. In other words only 10% of the submissions they receive make it as honorees, so being selected for a medallion is a great encouragement.

My book cover now proudly bears the medallion on the Strange Metamorphosis website.

If you are an indie author I would recommend submitting your book, it’s got to be available in digital, to the indieBRAG website. If you don’t receive honoree status, no worries, they don’t publicize it.

If you do, however, the encouragement doesn’t stop there. Not only does your novel get independently qualified as a high standard novel, the indieBRAG team will also publicize your book through their own social network and qualify it on other platforms such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble and Goodreads with a mark.

To add to this, you can also get invited to do an interview and ask for your work to be independantly reviewed. You might also like to join their GR group and see what’s happening on their Facebook page.

Would you like to discover some great independently approved indie books? Well, just click on the link hereafter to browse through a list of carefully selected indie books 🙂

 

London Author Fair: First Ever

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London Author Fair 28th February

london author fair

london author fair february 28th

Marketing your book, be you a contrat or an indie author, has become widely accepted as part of the job. If you don’t do it, then you sell fewer books, or none at all, it’s as simple as that.

This means emarketing though the web, chatting with people who you generally only know in a two dimensional way. So let’s not overlook the physical side of marketing. For me, there is nothing more gratifying than meeting like-minded people in the flesh. Well, there is a brand new fair coming to town this month that has been designed to help new and unpublished authors in the digital age, the London Author Fair:

Yep, the first ever London Author Fair aka LAF is taking place 28th February. A chance for authors  to meet other authors, agents and industry players like Goodreads. There will be seminars, intimate workshops, networking, crowdsourcing and literary agent pitching events (although I believe slots have already been snapped up for the latter).

The fair rounds off with a late-night drinks reception and a further chance to do some networking. I don’t quite know what to expect but I’ll report back after the event.

£20 Off!

tickets london author fair

A ticket for the London Author Fair cost £90 but, thanks to authonomy.com, if you enter the discount code LAFAuthonomy you get £20 off! I entered it after the deadline date and it still worked, so give it a go 😉

Venue and Directions

The LAF will be staged at the The Hospital Club near Covent Garden. Here’s how to get there:

By Tube:

Covent Garden Tube Station, Picadilly Line (blue) in Zone 1. It’s only about 2 minute’s away from there.

By Train:

If you’re coming in from outside London,

  • From King’s Cross, take the Picadilly Line direct to Covent Garden 3 stops.
  • From Victoria go 1 stop north (Victoria Line) to Green Park and change onto the Eastbound Picadilly Line, 3 stops to Covent Garden.
  • From Paddington station, the best option would probably be the Bakerloo Line (brown) to Picadilly station, 6 stops, then change to the Picadilly Line (blue) 2 stops east to Covent Garden.

Book your London Author Fair ticket today. Please drop me a line if you’re going!

Review Manuscript Found In Accra by Paul Coelho

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Review Manuscript Found In Accra by Paul Coelho

I thought this was going to be a true story, instead it is more like a monologue of Coelho’s WISDOM, which is nonetheless grand (okay, okay, I’m a fan of his universe). It is full of advice given by a wise man on the best course of actions to take in given situations. You can but agree with this advice because it is WISDOM. Once I accepted it as a lecture I found Manuscript Found In Accra truly enlightening.

That said, beware, there is no antithesis, no character that challenges the WISDOM. I would have loved to have seen a character saying something like, “I had a comfortable life, now I am ruined, my wife has gone off with my best friend and now the left wheel of my cart has fallen off, my hair is falling out, my hemorrhoid is playing up and I can’t find a job because I’m told you can’t teach an old dog new tricks…”

But there isn’t, they are all about to be slaughtered by invaders the following morning and everyone accepts the WISDOM. It is frustrating. What’s more, you don’t get the end of the story, they all go off having been told to remember the words of WISDOM which they must pass on even though they are all certainly about to die. The story ends there.

But I enjoyed the book whose WISDOM is such that at least a part of it will speak directly to everyone with regard to their present situation. Except, that is, if you’re chips are really down and you have become so ugly and fallen so low that you have started collecting really good cardboard boxes for a night under the arches with your stray dog, your only mortal friend. But if you are, you probably wouldn’t be reading this book anyway. No, WISDOM is best digested and most easily adhered to when you are comfortably sitting in your own favourite armchair in your own home safely snuggled away from the “unwanted visitor”.

BTW, if you have become really poor you won’t understand any of this because being poor of course makes you stupid, i.e. unwise, doesn’t it?