Monthly Archives: April 2017

appearances, authors, presentation, public speaking

Public Speaking – yay or nay?

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Do you cringe at the thought of public speaking? A lot of people do. Me, not so much. Stick a microphone in my hand and let me rattle on about something I’m passionate about, and you might have a hard time getting me stopped.

I recently spoke to a seniors’ group. I started with my first trip to Scotland in 1993. The intention being to discover my roots. But along the way, I discovered a few more things… a spooky mansion top of the list. I love reading about ghosts and hauntings so seeing this hulking ruin and hearing my cousin (who I’d met earlier that day for the first time) say, “Ooh that place is filled with lots of ghosties” was fodder for the future.

Couple that with the portrait of my grandfather with his first wife, presumably on their wedding day, that fueled the fire. Did I expect a novel to come out of it? Not at the time. Seven years later, a novelette was born, entitled Sarah’s Gift.

After that, I took a creative writing course and expanded my Sarah into a novel. Many re-writes later, it was suitable for submissions to publishing houses. I signed my contract in 2011 and after many more revisions, A Shadow in the Past released in the summer of 2012.

public speaking
Me in action…

I also spoke about my collection of short stories and the storefront writing contest I participated in and how the story from it became the title short in my collection.

public speaking
Reading the blurb of my current WIP (work in progress)

I read the current back cover blurb for my work in progress. A long-lived WIP. How when I started writing it a number of years ago, the actual event that was part of my storyline happened – and more than once! That was enough to make me put that project on hold for quite a while. But, it never really went on hold 100%. I gleaned information from the newspapers, websites and anything else I could find that would aid in the research for the book.

public speaking
Reading an excerpt

I read a short excerpt from my debut novel, A Shadow in the Past, and by then my ‘fifteen minutes of fame’ were over.

Afterwards, I spoke to people on a one-to-one basis at my display. The photo below shows the storyboard I had on stage more clearly.

public speaking
with my display

And how about those tartan boots?

authors, Cosy Mystery, Esme Quentin series, sBooks, Wendy Percival

DEATH OF A CUCKOO by Wendy Percival #review

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CuckooDeath of a Cuckoo

by

Wendy Percival

Cuckoo

Genre: Cosy Mystery

Series: An Esme Quentin Short Read

Release Date: 6 March 2017

Publisher: sBooks

A letter. A photograph. A devastating truth.

When Gina Vincent receives a letter of condolence from a stranger following her mother’s death, a photograph slipped inside reveals a disturbing truth – everything she’s ever known is based on a lie. Shocked and disorientated, she engages genealogy detective Esme Quentin to help search for answers.

The trail leads to an isolated and abandoned property on the edge of Exmoor, once the home of a strict Victorian institution called The House of Mercy and its enigmatic founder, whose influence seems to linger still in the fabric of the derelict building.

As they dig deeper, Esme realises that the house itself hides a dark and chilling secret, one which must be exposed to unravel the mystery behind Gina’s past.

But someone is intent on keeping the secret hidden. Whatever it takes.

EXTRACT

I ran down the steps and squeezed my way down the slim passage. In the recess was a narrow door but it didn’t match the faded, peeling paint of the remainder of the house’s decoration. It was brighter, as though it had been protected from the elements. As I stepped closer, I realised that’s exactly what had happened. Under my feet were pieces of broken planking. Until very recently, this doorway had been covered by a decorative panel and disguised. So who had uncovered it? It couldn’t have been there at the viewing.

LINKS

Buy link:

http://amzn.to/2nzijPK

Goodreads link:

http://bit.ly/2nieCuW

My Review

I found this book an easy read. I finished in one sitting. I loved Esme. She reminds me of a young Miss Marple, determined to get to the bottom of any mystery no matter how big or how small.

Wendy’s writing is strong and her descriptive narrative of the old Victorian institution, I felt like I was there along with her characters.

I’ll definitely be looking for more books by this author.

ABOUT WENDY PERCIVAL

Cuckoo

Wendy Percival was born in the West Midlands and brought up in the Worcestershire countryside. After training as a primary school teacher she moved to North Devon in 1980 to take up her first teaching post and remained in teaching for 20 years.

An impulse buy of Writing Magazine inspired her to start writing seriously. She won Writing Magazine’s Summer Ghost Story competition in 2002 and had a short story published in The People’s Friend before focusing on full-length fiction.

The time honoured ‘box of old documents in the attic’ stirred her interest in genealogy and became the inspiration for the Esme Quentin mystery novels Blood-Tied and The Indelible Stain. She is currently working on the third in the series, where the clandestine past of the Second World War provides the secret world into which Esme must delve to uncover the truth.

When she’s not writing fiction, Wendy conducts her own family history research, sharing her finds on her blog, www.familyhistorysecrets.blogspot.com.

Wendy lives in a Devon thatched cottage beside a 13th-century church with her husband and a particularly talkative cat.

You can find more on her website www.wendypercival.co.uk.

Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mJj8TC

Twitter: https://twitter.com/wendy_percival

Goodreads Author Page: http://bit.ly/2lhecIA

Blog: http://familyhistorysecrets.blogspot.co.uk

Website: http://www.wendypercival.co.uk

Publisher: http://sbooks.co.uk