The Pride of Peacocks – Debbie Young's Writing Life

Round-up of a Busy Week

Posted on March 25, 2021March 25, 2021 by Debbie Young

Usually I post articles on a single topic on my blog, but this week has been so action-packed that I thought I’d share four news items instead:

one of my books, Murder Your Darlings, was shortlisted for a prestigious award, The Selfies
I was a guest on Joanna Penn’s fabulous Creative Penn podcast, talking about writing cozy mysteries
BBC Radio Gloucestershire‘s Dominic Cotter interviewed me about the new village Books on the Bus scheme
I published my latest collection of magazine columns, Still Young By Name

If you’d like to know more about any of these events, read on!

Murder Your Darlings Shortlisted for an Industry Award

The second time one of my novels has been shortlisted for The Selfies Award

My sixth Sophie Sayers Village Mystery, Murder Your Darlings, has been shortlisted for the adult fiction category of the UK Selfies Award, given to the best self-published books in the UK. There are also categories for Children’s Fiction and Memoir/Autobiography.

The Selfies were launched by publishing industry news service BookBrunch in 2018 and are sponsored by Ingram’s award-winning self-publishing platform, IngramSpark®, and supported by the London Book Fair and Nielsen Book.

I’m especially pleased for two reasons:

my first St Bride’s novel, Secrets at St Bride’s, was also shortlisted last year
Also this year there was a record number of entries

You can read more about the 2021 shortlist here. The winners will be announced on 20th April.

Interview on the Creative Penn Podcast

photo of Joanna and Thomas — Joanna Penn at my Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival, with illustrator and fellow author, Thomas Shepherd (Photo by Jonathan Penn)

A few weeks ago, independent publishing and creativity guru Joanna Penn invited me to be a guest on her hugely popular Creative Penn podcast, and this week the podcast went live.

I’ve known Joanna for a long time, and I first appeared on her show in 2016, talking about bookstores. I often see her at writing and publishing industry events, such as the London Book Fair, and she was a great guest speaker at my Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival a few years ago. Given that neither of us have been to any such real-life events for over a year, it was especially enjoyable to catch up with her on her podcast.

This time we were talking about how to write cozy mysteries, a genre that has been especially popular during lockdown, providing upbeat, escapist fiction for readers stuck at home. I also shared insights into my writing life.

Although recorded with an audience of writers in mind, I think cozy mystery readers will also find it interesting.

Click here to listen to the podcast on Joanna’s website, where, if you prefer, you can read the transcript.

My interview is the 540th (!) podcast on Joanna’s show, so if you’d like to hear more podcasts about writing and self-publishing, her blog is a good place to look!

Talking about Books on the Bus on BBC Radio Gloucestershire

Photo of Debbie at bus stop with book box — Pick up a book when you catch the bus (Photo by Laura Young)

If you enjoyed my post a couple of weeks ago about the new Books on the Bus box that I’ve set up in our village bus shelter, if you are in the UK, you might like to listen to my interview on BBC Radio Gloucestershire with presenter Dominic Cotter, who on Saturday was presenting the Breakfast Show. (I have a feeling you can’t listen outside the UK for licensing reasons.)

Before the pandemic, Dominic was presenting the Lunchtime Show, and my author and books journalist friend Caroline Sanderson and I were regular guests on his Book Club spot. With studio guests not allowed due to Covid restrictions, it was a pleasure to catch up with an interview down the line instead.

You can “listen again” to our conversation 1 hour 41 minutes in to the show, and it lasts about seven minutes. any time before 17th April, via this link: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p099118z

New Essay Collection: Still Young By Name

Now available in ebook and paperback

Finally, I’m pleased to announce that my latest collection of magazine columns, Still Young By Name, is now available in ebook and paperback. This is the second volume of columns I’ve written for the Tetbury Advertiser, an award-winning community magazine, which runs my musings on the first page of editorial each month under the heading “Young By Name”.

This book includes whimsical columns from the last five years, reflecting on topical issues of the moment, tempered with anecdotes from my past.

When I reread the columns while I was compiling the book, it struck me what an extraordinary five years 2016-2020 was.

While much in the world had changed, both on our doorstep here in the rural Cotswolds and on the global stage, I also celebrate precious things that stay the same.

Each column – ten per calendar year – is just 500 words long, so this book is easy to dip in and out of whenever you want to be diverted from the pressures of daily life.

The cover image is from a watercolour painting by my father, and although I confess I hesitated before putting a cow’s bottom beside my title, it made me laugh, and I love the calm the whole image exudes. I hope you like it too.

Here are store links in case you’d like to buy it:

For Regular News Updates

cover of The Pride of Peacocks — This fun novelette is available exclusively to members of my Readers’ Club.

If you’d like to receive a monthly enewsletter including the latest news on my books and events and also have a chance to enter a free prize draw for something related to my books, please click here to join my Readers’ Club, and you’ll also receive a free download of my novelette, The Pride of Peacocks, in the ebook format of your choice.

In next week’s post, I’ll be talking to Alison Morton, my next guest for my Travels with my Books series.

Reader Offers, Writing

Introducing My Latest Book – and a New Mini-series

Posted on February 5, 2020June 21, 2021 by Debbie Young

I’m pleased to announce the publication of my latest book, The Natter of Knitters, a light-hearted story about a village knitting campaign that goes somewhat awry, with entertaining results.

Here’s how some early reviewers have described it so far:

“Top writing!” “Warm and witty”. “Heartwarming.” “Totally enjoyable and unputdownable.” “Can’t wait for more.”

New Series

The Natter of Knitters is the first in a new spin-off series from my Sophie Sayers Village Mysteries called Tales from Wendlebury Barrow. It features Sophie Sayers and many of the key players from my village mystery series, plus the usual intrigue, village gossip and humour, but without the murders! Each story will also introduce a new character from the village. This time, it’s Ariel Fey, an enigmatic loner new to the village who hopes to turn self-sufficient.

Each of the Tales will be a quick read, about a quarter as long as one of my novels. Technically speaking, that makes it a novelette or a short novella.

Why the Short Format?

The idea for this new series came to me last summer when I was writing The Pride of Peacocks, the short novella available exclusively to those who join my Readers’ Club mailing list. (Join here if you haven’t already done so and would like to claim your free ebook!) I really enjoyed writing it, and readers have also been enthusiastic.

Ebook and Paperback

The Natter of Knitters – the baby of my book family

The Natter of Knitters is now available in ebook and paperback. Yes, paperback too! Although it’s much shorter than a novel, I know that a lot of my readers prefer paperbacks to ebooks, and I didn’t want to let them down.

So, inspired by the little books you often see by the till in high street bookshops, such as the Penguin 80 series, I decided to issue the Tales of Wendlebury Barrow in a similar format. The size of a picture postcard (6″ x 4″), they are adorably cute, and perfect for slipping into your pocket or handbag to read on the move. They also make great gift ideas, fitting neatly inside a birthday card.

How to Order Your Copy

Paperback: click here to order online. From March, you should also be able to order it via your local bookshop – just quote ISBN 9781911223511 to help them find it on their database.
(If you have trouble sourcing a paperback, just send me a message and I’ll despatch one to you myself and take your payment online.)
Ebook: click here to place your order in your preferred ebook format, wherever you are in the world.

Now to Whet Your Appetite with the First Couple of Pages…

1 Flash Bang

A bomb in Wendlebury Barrow?

Clive Wren, the local paper’s photographer, could hardly believe his good fortune. For once he was in the right place at the right time to scoop a news story worthy of the front page. It made a welcome change from his usual tedious assignments, snapping endless staged presentations of giant cheques or forced line-ups of local sports teams, new school classes or old biddies celebrating significant birthdays and anniversaries. This was the closest he’d ever get to his dream of reporting from a war zone, and he was going to make the most of it.

Along with the rest of the crowd assembled around the village green, Clive had jumped at the sound of the explosion. Without missing a beat, he pressed and held down the shutter button to capture a series of photos a split second apart. Thus he recorded the passage of time as charcoal-black smoke emerged from the device hidden in an innocuous clump of grass in front of the old oak tree. Dark tendrils curled up among the branches and reached out to wrap tentacles around onlookers. And on the precise spot where the device had exploded, to everyone’s surprise, there emerged like a genie from a lamp—

But there was no time to gawp. Clive had better call it a wrap and scoot back to the office before any locals shared the photos they’d snapped on their phones, which, via social media, might reach his picture editor before he did. If he was quick, he’d just have time before his next shoot at Slate Green. He could gather the facts later.

AND FINALLY… Enter my Readers’ Club Prize Draw to Win Sophie’s Luxury Scarf

On 14th February, I’ll be holding a prize draw in which one lucky member of my Readers’ Club will win the scarf knitted by Sophie in The Natter of Knitters, in four beautiful floral blues, in a luxury mix of merino, cashmere and silk. If you’re not yet a member of my Readers’ Club, click here to sign up now, and I’ll add your name to the draw.

Join my Readers’ Club by 14th February for your chance to win the scarf that Sophie knits in The Natter of Knitters

Reader Offers, Writing

Join my Readers’ Club to Enter an Exclusive Prize Draw for Sophie Sayers’ Luxury Handknitted Scarf

Posted on January 8, 2020January 8, 2020 by Debbie Young

In my first post of 2020, I’m pleased to invite you to enter an exclusive prize draw to win an item that features in my new novella!

photo of knitting wool and needles — Sophie chooses “a pleasing combination of forget-me-not, bluebell, cornflower and hyacinth, and stuck the needles through, skewering all four balls of yarn like a fluffy kebab”.

Happy New Year to you! To brighten up what can be a gloomy time of year in the English countryside where I live, I’ve decided to hold a prize draw to mark the launch of my imminent novella. The Natter of Knitters will be the first in my new Tales from Wendlebury Barrow series, featuring Sophie Sayers and friends, plus plenty of new and interesting characters.

The Natter of Knitters is about a village yarnbombing event that goes wrong. The plan is to wrap a tree on the village green in handknitted scarves to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless, before the scarves are sent to an appropriate charity for distribution.

As always, Sophie finds herself volunteering to take part, despite not knowing how to knit. – but as as Carol blithely tells her, “Everyone can knit once they know how.”

From the basket in Carol’s shop, Sophie chooses wool in four floral shades of blue: forget-me-not, bluebell, cornflower and hyacinth.

Forget-me-nots are a recurring motif in the Sophie Sayers series. In her fourth adventure, Murder by the Book, her bookseller boyfriend Hector, secretly a romantic novelist, presents her on Valentine’s Day with a book called The Girl with Forget-me-Not Eyes – the colour of Sophie’s eyes, of course!

And the prize is…

The scarf Sophie knits in the story, handcrafted in a luxury mix of fine merino, silk and cashmere – see the “before” picture of the raw materials at the top of this post.

If you’d like a chance to win the finished scarf, all you have to do is join my mailing list. When you subscribe, you’ll also have the option to download a free ebook of another Sophie Sayers novella, The Pride of Peacocks. Current members of my list will also be included in the draw.

The draw will take place on 14th February 2020. Romantic? Moi?

The Natter of Knitters will be published on or before 14th February. (I’ll confirm the precise date shortly.)

A Valentine’s Day Mystery

cover of Murder by the Book — Sophie’s plans for Valentine’s Day are scuppered by a body down a well

In the meantime, if you fancy a topical read between now and then, the fourth Sophie Sayers Village Mystery, Murder by the Book,, runs from the beginning of January to Valentine’s Day, and is available as an ebook from Amazon and all other major ebook stores, and as a paperback either from Amazon or to order from your local neighbourhood bookshop (just quote ISBN 978-1911223269 and they’ll be able to order it in for you).

JOIN MY MAILING LIST HERE FOR A CHANCE TO WIN SOPHIE’S BEAUTIFUL SCARF