Back at last!

I’ve enjoyed my two month sabbatical but now I’m back with a host of events planned. Between now and Christmas, my books and I will be at a dozen or so Oxfordshire events – literary festivals, books fairs and Christmas fairs – including at Wolvercote, Steventon, Kennington, Oxford, Didcot, Harwell, Faringdon and Abingdon. Thanks to the amazing Oxford Independent Authors for organising this tremendous effort. Keep an eye out for further information from OxIA and please do come along to meet authors, listen to talks and, of course, buy books. Books make the best Christmas presents in my view!

Talking of books, I was thrilled to discover that Note to Boy is now, thanks to the efforts of Colin Wade and the 1in200 initiative, on sale in the excellent Mostly Books in Abingdon (pictured below) and splendido Il Botanico in Headington, Oxford. Please do pop in and say hello. Independent booksellers like these are to be cherished.

In further news, I’ve sent But Mostly Mabel off to the publisher, SRL Publishing, and await further news with bated breath.

That’s all folks. A busy few months head!

Me and Note to Boy out in the wild!

Update from Clark Towers

Apologies. I’ve been remiss. It’s been a while since I posted an update on what I’ve been up to. Here’s a quick rundown.

At December’s excellent and very successful Oxford Indie Book Fair I had the pleasure of meeting Colin Wade, Steve Lunn and others of Oxford Independent Authors (OxIA), a newly formed group focused on marketing, promoting and raising the profiles of writers in the Oxford area. Their enthusiasm convinced me to throw in my lot with this merry band of active writers.

In May I attended my first OxIA event, HeadLitFest in Headington, Oxford. Both the weather and the mood were sunny, and the lemon drizzle cake some of the best I’ve tasted. There I bumped into some familiar faces: the authors Peter Tickler and Steve Sheppard; as well as meeting other OxIA members for the first time. I was out again with OxIA for the Risinghurst Fete in June, spending an enjoyable day talking about and selling books, eating yet more cake and soaking up the village atmosphere of a summer fair. I’ll attach a selection of pictures below.

It’s hard these days making your voice heard above the clamour of the big five publishers and their celebrity clients. Associations like OxIA, where writers join forces and pool their collective talents, help increase the volume of the noise we can make. All power to them! More profile-raising OxIA events are planned throughout the year.

Enough of the marketing! What about the books? A Novel Solution (published in June 2024, almost exactly a year ago. Happy Birthday ANS!) and Note to Boy (reissued this April) have been making their presence felt. Note to Boy was seen in Pimlico library in London, and A Novel Solution was featured in the Round & About magazine (see below).

What’s next? My third comedy, But Mostly Mabel, is nearing the final stages before submission to the publisher. This is a nail-shredding time for any writer. Will they like it? What edits will they ask for? Just generally, ‘Eeeek!’ I’ll keep you posted on how Mabel fares.

Finally, I’m taking a couple of months off over the summer months to recharge and rethink. Hope to be back again around September. Have a wonderful summer!