Books and more books

World Book day is coming up - March 5th to be exact - but in this house it seemed like yesterday was actually the world of books day. I had a lot of trouble settling to work because it seemed that every time I sat down there was a ring at the doorbell to announce another postman/delivery man with yet another parcel of books.

That's what you get for living in a house of two writers - Crime and Passion as the Offspring labelled us. And yesterday there was a fair balance of both my books and the Babe Magnet's.

There was the upcoming Indian edition of Cordero's Forced Bride which is out in March, just as it is in the UK. Then the very handsome Afrikaans edition of The Sicilian's Red-Hot Revenge.

But for me the most exciting deliveries were two for the Babe Magnet. These are books I've been looking forward to seeing for a while so it was great to have them actually 'in the paper' so to speak.

Victoria's Spymasters (The History Press) is - well, just as it says - 'an insight into spying in the age of Victoria'. And in one of those peculiar coincidences that sometimes happens, as the Magnet was writing about one particular 'Spymaster' - Sir Mark Sykes last year, his remains (Mark Sykes' that is, not the BM's!) were exhumed in September 2008 in the hope that taking samples from them might lead to the hopes of a cure for the flu (Spanish Flu) that had killed him in 1919. This is the Magnet wearing his Historian hat - the one that he'll be wearing when he teaches the Writing The Past Course in Caerleon in July.

The other book is one that I personally love. Those students who were on his course in Fishguard last week and anyone who had attended Caerleon in the past know that as well as dealing in history and the Grim and Gruesome books, the Babe Magnet is a very fine poet. Much of his work has appeared in 'slim volumes' that don't really make many bookshop shelves so I was thrilled to get my hands on the Selected Poems and Monlogues that is now published by Emerald Publishing. I may be a total specialist but the Magnet is nothing if not versatile.

It seems a really good way to celebrate World Book Day with lots of different titles, reprints and new, arriving to fill up our shelves . . . now if I could just find a little more time to read . . .

Kate Bit - Good news and poetry

Before I post the next guest blog I need to just sort things out, making sure who has sent a blog and who hasn't so here's a quick Kate bit to say

1. I was checking my links and things on the blog this morning to make sure that all were still working anbd accurate and I discovered that both At the Sheikh's Command and The Italian's Forced Bride have lovely big red Sold Out signs across them over on eHarlequin.

Which is great news for me - not so wonderful if you were looking for copies of either book to buy. Apparently they are still available in the Large Print editions on eHarl so I'll leave the links live for a little while - and there are some lurking on the Amazons. But if you're one of those who've bought a copy already, I owe you a great big THANK YOU! for such a wonderful result.

2. In her guest blog, Julie Cohen set the challenge to readers to write a poem about one of my books - if you haven't already checked out the contenders, I do recommend that that you go and check them out - there are some great entries. And no, Lord Alfred is not the BM ! (Though I think I know who . . .)

In honour of which, and because there was a general request for a printed version of some of the poems that were read out at the celebration dinner - I'm still waiting for permission and copies to print of the other poems, but I've twisted the BM's writing arm and have been allowed to reproduce a copy of the poem by 'im indoors.

Important - please remember that this is copyright:

ROMANCE

For Kate Walker

And it's the wonderful, colourful dance of life

We sing today

And we believe what we say
For the words we make
Are about the chances we take

And it's the romance of life
The irrational passionel that enhances life

We sing today,
The high not the low,

The fire and the glow,

The words flying high

From the new lover's sigh.

We sing today

And in the dance of each heart

The fearful new start,

The wonderful, colourful dance of life.

In romance we revisit the spoken vow

And the warming rush of living now.

The uneasy taking

And the laughs in giving.

We sing today
And we believe what we say

For the words we make

Are for their own sake

For the believers who dance
And still delight in the thrill of chance

We sing today

(c) Stephen Wade 2007

'im indoors

I’m never quite sure whether delivery men and women and the postie love us at this house or hate us. One thing’s for sure is that they see a lot of us and so for the self-employed delivery man we provide plenty of work on a regular basis. If you don’t count the number of books we order from Amazon and other on line bookshops (and I’d really prefer not to count them – I don’t want to know the truth!) there are still plenty of parcels of our own books – mine and the BM’s - arriving at the door in cardboard boxes. Yesterday was a bumper day, even by our standards. There were American edition copies of my April book (well, I say April, but I see from the Waldenbooks listing it’s actually out already) Sicilian Husband, Blackmailed Bride. They came early in the morning.

Mid morning brought proofs and picture images for the BM’s upcoming Heroes Villains & Victims of Leeds. Not quite a book box but substantial all the same.

A lunchtime delivery was a huge box filled with author copies of The A-Z of Yorkshire Murders and Yorkshire’s Murderous Women. Two more to add to my ‘grim and gruesome’ collection he tells me. And those are just his January and February books – in the coming year, we can look forward to : Revised editions of Straightforward Guides to Creative Writing/Freelance Writing/Performance Poetry, Plain Clothes and Sleuths: A History of Detectives in Britain, Foul Deeds and Suspicious Deaths in Grimsby, Spies in the Empire, another (joint) guide to Creative Writing . . . Phew!

Not just a Babe Magnet, you see!

And not just an author of the ‘grim and gruesome’ books either. On my shelves there is special pride of place for the poetry collections, one of which I blogged about last year. This is the result of the BM’s years as Writer in Residence in Lincoln Prison where one of the important projects he was involved in was Storybook Dads where men in prison record a story for their child into a CD and the result is then sent to a little boy or girl and may be the only contact they have with a Dad ‘inside’.

So – as talking to several people yesterday reminded me about this – let me share . . .

Storybook Dads on B Wing

I fumble with the mini-disc player,
Reach high for the socket
(It’s used for haircuts)
The flexes are knotted, and behind us,
As we crouch in a corner,
Cells are opened, it’s like falling timber,
Officers bellow out exercise time.

Dad chooses a story to read and send home.
He’s nervous, choosing between Aladdin
And The Badger’s Bath. Wearing his grey tracksuit
He is not like a dad. At visits though, it’s his face

That matters. Now it’s his voice,
At first quiet, shaky, hesitant.
But now we’re into the badger’s story
I’m not there anymore; it’s him and his daughter.
Hello Rachel, it’s your dad here.
I love you and I want to read you this.
Love, dad.
He reads, then stops. ‘I can’t do this!’
But I urge him on and smile.
He almost chews the mike to hide the noise.


For five minutes, I’m not there at all
And he’s not doing time. Carefree,
he ends with a song.
‘I made that one up. She likes songs.’
I carry away eight minutes of happiness.
Never thought you could measure that.

© Stephen Wade 2006

Yep – not just a Babe Magnet.

And yes, Marilyn (thank you) - very special to me