Tag: authors

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2019 book round-up

As we approach the end of 2019, it’s the perfect time to look back at the books we’ve been reading this year and to choose some favourites.

Helen Lloyd: Skipping the obvious Atwoods etc., Max Porter’s Lanny has stuck with me, with a really haunting small child at its heart. And I’ve just finished – and sobbed over – A Short History of Falling by Joe Hammond, such a loving reflection on the nature of fatherhood, illness and death. Which reminds me of Kathryn Mannix’s With the end in mind, which I read at the beginning of the year and has changed the way I think about mortality and the end of life.

Ana Salote: The book that sums up the year for me is Climate – A New Story by Charles Eisenstein. We’re in the throes of converging crises. His analysis and vision gives me hope for what might evolve from the wreckage.

Becky Cherriman: I’ve been reading Book Parts, ed. Duncan and Smyth. It is a super geeky book about the anatomy of books and the history of those elements – from introductions to frontispieces to epigraphs. It’s written in an engaging self-conscious way and most contributors are women.

The Ghosting of Anne Armstrong by Michael Cawood Green is a fictionalised story about a 17th Century woman who accused her neighbours of witchcraft and an essay about the research published together. The researcher is present, haunting the novel and there is some interesting genre-boundary play going on. Exciting format published by Goldsmiths Press and the start of a new cross-form approach.

Raymond Antrobus’ The Perseverance (published by Penned in the Margins) is a stunning autobiographical poetry collection dealing with subjects such as Deafness, mixed raceness and grief and told with a love and understanding of language that resonates long after you close the cover.

Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez uses statistics and an accessible style to explore many of the ways in which the world is practically geared towards men and men’s lives.

Poems, Philosophy and Coffee by Helen Mort and Aaron Meskin (published by Valley Press). Poems by Helen and easy to read mini essays by different aesthetic philosophers respond to one another in this quirky book that highlights the relationship between the two disciplines.

The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis who has a knack for making the most entertaining and satisfying short (sometimes very short) stories from the most mundane events of life.

Angi Holden: Glancing through my reading log, the last line is usually the telling one: ok, but not great; a decent read; enjoyable; disappointing; predictable. It’s been a mixed year for reading but there have been a few which got ‘breathtaking’ or ‘stunning’.

My diminishing hearing prevented me following the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale so I read it instead. It needs little introduction, but if you haven’t read it, give it a go. It’s hard to believe it was published in 1985. Meg Wolitzer’s The Wife has also been adapted for the screen. The story of Joan, muse and second wife of literary star Joe Castleman, The Wife is funny, satirical and engaging.

My star fictions among 2019 publications included Anne Griffin’s When All is Said and Mary Beth Keane’s Ask Again, Yes. Both address family relationships and things said and unsaid. Anne Griffin’s unlikely hero is 84-year-old Maurice, getting gradually more drunk in an Irish bar. Not my kind of guy, but stay with it – he is a deeply flawed character and the five ‘toasts’ to people who have shaped his life form the structure of an absorbing read. In contrast Ask Again, Yes is set in America and looks at how love can survive between two young people when their families are torn apart by violence. Where do our loyalties lie and can there ever be forgiveness? Jessie Burton has been a favourite author since I read her debut, The Miniaturist. Her latest novel The Confession, like Wolitzer’s The Wife, has a literary setting. It concerns a young woman, Rose, who invents a false identity for herself in order to unravel a family mystery and resolve questions about her own identity. As she becomes drawn into her new life, so do we. Fascinating stuff.

The first of my non-fiction choices for 2019 was Jon Day’s Homing. Okay, so it’s a book about pigeons. Bear with me, they are fascinating creatures and I learned a lot about them. But Homing is so much more than a study of an obsessive but dying hobby. It’s part study and part memoir, exploring our need to settle down, to develop roots, to find a place we can call home. In an age of global migration, it’s more pertinent than ever. Top read of my year must go to a small collection of four essays by the late Oliver Sacks. Gratitude discusses the drawbacks and benefits of growing old and, following his terminal diagnosis, the implications of dying. It is especially resonant for me this winter, as I say farewell to my oldest friend. Gratitude does what it says on the tin.

Teika Bellamy: Fiction-wise, The Prestige by Christopher Priest, Things in Jars by Jess Kidd, The Dollmaker by Nina Allen, Something Like Breathing by Angela Readman and Separated From The Sea (a collection of short stories) by Amanda Huggins stood out for me. I also read oodles of science fiction short stories, as well as poetry, but need to do them justice by writing a separate post about the best of them on my personal blog. Non-fiction-wise, I can highly recommend A Shadow Within: Evil in Fantasy and Science Fiction (edited by Francesca T Barbini and published by Luna Press Publishing) and not just because it includes an essay by me; it’s simply a fascinating insight into the nature of evil and how authors, filmmakers and franchises have responded to the important question of what it is that makes a person evil.

And on a lighter theme… I also wanted to add that both my children really enjoyed reading Moon Juice (poems) by Kate Wakeling (published by the Emma Press). Happy reading in 2020!

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Welcome to the authors of The Forgotten and the Fantastical 5!

Now that all the contracts have been signed, sealed and delivered, I am delighted to be able to announce the authors of the upcoming The Forgotten and the Fantastical 5, which will be published either late this summer or autumn time. They are:

Becky Cherriman

Noel Chidwick

Carys Crossen

Donna Day

Rosie Garland

Kim Gravell

Katie Gray

Sarah Hindmarsh

Jonty Levine

Keris McDonald

Louise Richards

Angela Readman

Aliya Whiteley

I am ever so glad to welcome these authors to the Mother’s Milk Books family – some of them are relatively new to writing and some are experienced and, indeed, very well known. Some I’ve already published. All the authors’ stories complement one another; themes running through the anthology are: glass, wolves and what it means to be human. It’s going to be a fantastic book!

Now to commissioning some art for the cover. Please do let me know about any artists I should be aware of.

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Highlights of 2015 and some of our favourite books

It’s been an age since we’ve had a new post so I will do my best to do a succinct round-up of our 2015 highlights.

Fireworks image by Teika Bellamy

To date, 2015, was our most intense publishing year, with four books being published: The Forgotten and Fantastical, Hearth, Oy Yew and The Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize Anthology 2014: The Story of Us. My youngest was at home with me for most of that time, and so I have to remind myself that it was quite a feat to even produce these four books while looking after him and running a household!

Financially, Mother’s Milk Books is run very much as a break-even affair, which means that pre-orders and trade sales to authors and shops etc. ensure that I manage to pay the costs of printing. However, in June this year I realized that we wouldn’t have enough money to cover the costs of printing of Oy Yew, so I emailed out an SOS to our newsletter subscribers. I was heartened by the amount of support (financial, practical and emotional) we were given and due to this support it got us through a tough time. Every month since June has continued to be difficult (we REALLY need to make more sales) but fingers-crossed we will be able to “keep on keeping on”. With SEVEN books being published next year, with a bit of luck our sales figures will increase. These are the seven titles I am getting very excited about: Echolocation by Becky Cherriman, The Forgotten and Fantastical 2, Maysun and the Wingfish by Alison Lock, Handfast by Ruth Aylett and Beth McDonough, Baby X by Rebecca Ann Smith, Nondula by Ana Salote and The Mother’s Milk Books Writing Prize Anthology 2015: Love.

2015 was also the year I received the Women in Publishing’s New Venture Award. Here is what I put together for the press release (which, ironically, got buried here in The Bookseller, but which will, hopefully, be seen here):

“I am delighted to be the recipient of the Women in Publishing’s New Venture Award for pioneering work on behalf of under-represented groups in society, particularly so because having been in the publishing business for four years now I am very aware of how challenging the book trade is! Mothers (and breastfeeding mothers and children) shouldn’t be an ‘under-represented’ group in society, but sadly we are because, all too often, our stories aren’t heard or are dismissed as being merely about ‘women’s issues’ and therefore niche and uncommercial. I am extremely proud to be part of the diverse and thriving UK independent publishing scene, which dares to take editorial and financial risks to ensure that vital, unheard stories get told, particularly since Nottingham, where we are based, has just now become a UNESCO City of Literature. My hope is that this award will go someway to highlighting the excellent work of my authors, illustrators and co-editors so that Mother’s Milk Books can continue to keep publishing books for many more years to come.”

My statement got me thinking more and more about ‘unheard stories’ and so I asked my authors and co-editors to list some of their favourite books of 2015, which had been mainly published by indie presses and were, by and large, given little recognition by the national press. I hope you will add some of these to your 2016 to-read pile!

Cathy Bryant: Selkie Singing at the Passing Place, poetry by Sarah Miller and Melanie Rees. It’s the best BOGOF deal I’ve ever experienced. Though Hearth by Sarah James and Angela Topping is up there when it comes to collaborations.

Beth McDonough: Nell Nelson at Happenstance is doing amazing work, and publishing beautiful pamphlets. In her reading windows, she gives so much of herself to support poets. I’ve just read Jim Carruth’s Killochries (Freight Books). Described as a ‘verse novella’, it’s very wonderful.

Alison Lock: The Emma Press for tales of myths and legends for children with Falling Out of the Sky.

Angela Topping: Ruth Stacey’s Queen, Jewel, Mistress: A History of the Queens of England & Great Britain In Verse (Eyewear)

Becky Cherriman: I’ve just read Sumia Sukkar’s, The Boy From Aleppo who Painted The War (Eyewear). An emotive portrait of the war in Syria condensed into one family’s experience. Telling the story from the perspective of an innocent with flaws (the protagonist is on the autistic spectrum) and a unique way of seeing the world makes us focus on what counts in war – people. It couldn’t be more relevant.

Sarah James: Ruth Stacey’s Queen, Jewel, Mistress: A History of the Queens of England & Great Britain In Verse (Eyewear). Each queen is a given a distinct voice, in poems that take a range of poetry forms and styles befitting their time. They’re women’s viewpoints, but the worlds they belong to and are set in mostly men’s; its depiction therefore unconfined. The imagery is wide-ranging: nature, animals, birds, blood, war, lust, secrecy, politics, violence and the hidden messages of nursery rhyme. The poems are full of memorable lines and metaphors. Some of the poems are thoughtscapes, others landscapes. Some carry a narrative, others spark against each other to create a bigger story. All of them are very human, and very much recommended.

Mark Goodwin’s Steps (Longbarrow Press) is one of those beautiful collections that somehow manages the feat of being in constant movement (word play, riff, layout) while also capturing the stillness of each precisely observed moment and creating a sculpture of words on the page. These are poems of all the senses alert and voiced, with energy in the lay-out, punctuation and varying line lengths to create pieces that are quietly adventurous and daring, and always uncluttered. All of the poems are alive with beautifully stunning but entirely unfussy or unforced images. A very beautiful and enjoyable collection to read. Robert Peake’s The Knowledge (Nine Arches Press) has been a delight. These poems are the kind that create their own space of existence, no matter how noisy a place or head space I was reading in. To bring such calmness and focus to a reader reading in unideal surroundings is no mean feat, perhaps enhanced by the fact every poem feels complete, crafted and sufficient in itself, not needing the reader to move on at any pace other than what comes naturally; this what comes naturally being subtly and imperceptibly set up by the poems. From closely observed nature, Peake links to philosophical insights, human needs and warm humour. Family relationships, not belonging and the surreal humour of English phrases can also be found. This is, in fact, a wonderfully wide-ranging and encompassing collection of poems which resonate after putting the book down.

Rebecca Ann Smith: I am very much looking forward to reading Erinna Mettler’s Starlings early in the new year, it’s very nearly reached the top of the reading pile. Starlings is similar in structure to David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas in that it is made up of linked short stories. It has some fabulous reviews, and is published by Brighton-based indie Revenge Ink. Mettler, who’s also written award-winning short stories, is online at http://www.erinnamettler.com/

Ana Salote: I love Liz Brownlee’s Animal Magic, Poems on a Disappearing World. Liz has astonishing empathy for the animal world. She doesn’t just observe, she inhabits her subjects. She cares deeply about animals and makes us care by homing on the essential character of each species. Diversity is more than the mere shuffling of DNA. We share her fascination with the results of that process. The fine-tuning of the animate to its surroundings produces delightful quirks of design; each one individual, precious and irreplaceable. She expresses all of this in language which is exquisite, poignant and frequently witty. It can be read by children and adults with equal enjoyment. I can’t think of a better way to educate children about wildlife and conservation.

Tom Bellamy (co-editor and founder): These are very funny: How To Be A Public Author by Francis Plug (by Paul Ewen and published by Galley Beggar Press) and We Go To The Gallery: A Dung Beetle Learning Guide by Miriam Elia (Dung Beetle Books).

Rebecca Bellamy (beta-reader and young editor extraordinaire): Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery and Oy Yew by Ana Salote.

Jerome Bellamy (tea boy): Puff The Magic Dragon.

Teika Bellamy: Sara Maitland’s Moss Witch (Comma Press), Angela Slatter’s Sourdough and Other Stories (Tartarus Press). I was profoundly moved by Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go. I was also glad to read Smallcreep’s Day by Peter Currell Brown (published by Pinter & Martin) and I can see why it was described as a masterpiece. There is so much in it that is still so relevant to society today. I’ve also just now started reading Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed which is simply stunning. Also, for budding writers I highly recommend Orson Scott Card’s writing guides: Characters and Viewpoint and How to Write Science Fiction and Fantasy (which is where I first found out about Butler’s books; Card is a big fan of hers). Poetry-wise I very much enjoyed Only The Flame Remains by Adam Horovitz (it is beautiful and haunting) and also Destroyed Dresses by Cara Brennan (Valley Books) touched me with its gentle, bittersweet charm.

Thank you for all the support you have given us throughout 2015. I wish you and your families all a happy, healthy and creativity-filled 2016!

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Cue long pause and me thinking… (the random thoughts of a publisher)

When a friend recently asked me what was involved in publishing, it took me a fair while to reply.

Cue long pause and me thinking…

We’re all consumers, in one way or another. When I eat my toast, I don’t think about how it got on my plate. I’ve got a vague idea about wheat being harvested, flour being milled and then voila! it’s bread and it’s in a bag and then it’s on my plate…

Rather like consumers of food, it’s not often that ‘consumers’ of books consider the book-production process.

Before I became a publisher I had no idea of what was involved in the making of a book. The writer writes, right? And then the publisher does some talking to the writer. And then the printer prints the book and voila! the book is now in my hands and I am free to criticize it endlessly, with not a thought for all the effort that has gone into its making.

Now I know. I really do truly know what goes into publishing a book because I’ve overseen every step of that process. And although I haven’t counted the number of steps involved it’s probably about a fifty-step process! (And that’s not even including all the work of the author, by the way.) There’s simply so much involved. It can (roughly) be split into: 1) book acquisition 2) editing & proofreading 3) book production i.e. typesetting, cover design, printing 4) marketing, promotion & advertising i.e. getting the book known, and 5) book selling. Number 6) is the whole business end, which includes the writing of contracts, long-term publishing plans, selling rights, finances, accounting, website maintenance. And of course there’s all that reading to be done…

Although I pretty much like all the aspects of publishing, the one thing that really excites me is this: reading a manuscript that I fall head over heels in love with. I also get pretty excited about getting just the right image for a book cover (pairing art with words is my thing!). And planning which books I’m going to publish in the coming years is also very exciting, but much more fun when you’ve got someone else to discuss it with.

So after I’d considered all the above, I finally gave an answer to my friend, and probably rather bored her with all the details!

Recently, I had to admit that I was becoming overwhelmed by the amount of ‘to-dos’ on my to-do list. I really needed someone else to be involved with Mother’s Milk Books. It was time (and this is where I get to feel very grand) that I got an Editorial Assistant.

So today, I am welcoming my new Editorial Assistant, Helen Lloyd who, as you can imagine, is passionate about breastfeeding and great literature. I am incredibly delighted to have her on board.

Over the coming months I’m going to be shining a light on all those wonderful folk involved in Mother’s Milk Books, from the incredibly important tea boy to the Editorial Assistant, as well as all the many, and varied, fabulous authors whose books I am going to publish in the coming months/years. Some of you may be familiar with them already as Mother’s Milk Books authors and some of them will be new to you. So welcome, Sarah James, Angela Topping, Ana Salote, Rebecca Smith and Alison Lock. I am super-excited to be working with you all! So if things seem quiet, in reality they’re not. I’m either busy actually doing the things on my to-do list, or conversing with Helen, or drinking tea and chatting to the lad who makes my tea.

Thanks again to all those who support Mother’s Milk Books. If it wasn’t for the readers (or should that be book consumers?!) who actually part with cash to buy our books we wouldn’t be able to keep this whole show on the road.

p.s. there is also the brilliant book of fairy tales taking shape in the background (more on that later!) and

p.p.s. I’m also running a giveaway on Facebook right now. Why not pop along to our Facebook page and enter to win some lovely (and new) greetings cards?