Spread the love!

One of the reasons I write is to share my love of things. I wrote The Showman’s Girl - and my non-fiction book Circus Mania - to celebrate my love of the circus in the hope it would inspire readers to investigate the fabulous world of the big top.

I wrote Nashville Cinderella to celebrate the Nashville song-writing community, to show how hard the song-writers and musicians in that world work, how they all know and support each other, and how they craft songs from their own lives and relationships. I suppose, really, it came from my love of country music.

So it was great to read a couple of customer reviews of Nashville Cinderella on iTunes from people who were inspired by the story to discover country music:

“A great read from JD, inspires me to get some country on my ipod!”

“Loved reading this book, really inspirational. From reading this I found a new love for music that I never thought I’d find. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a new romantic novel to bury your head in.”

Reviews like that really warm my heart because they show I achieved what I set out to do. So if you’ve read the ebook and enjoyed it, do please post a review and spread the love!

(and, as they say in the circus, if you didn’t enjoy it... keep it to yourself!)

The Showman’s Girl and Nashville Cinderella are available to download from Amazon and iTunes, or to borrow in the Linford paperback edition from your local library.

Royal Approval for The Showman's Girl!

From Afghanistan to Vietnam, Italy to India and Peru to China, participants in 47 countries around the globe staged special events to celebrate World Circus Day on April 20. I was proud to do my bit to represent the UK and celebrate the day by giving away my newly launched ebook The Showman’s Girl as a free download on iTunes.
And, to prove my involvement, it was an honour to receive the above certificate from HSH Princess Stephanie of Monaco, Honorary President of the Federation Mondiale du Cirque.

The Showman’s Girl follows the adventures of Emily, who runs away with the circus in the 1930s.
If you missed the free download, you can still buy it from iTunes for just 49p!

Or you can borrow the Linford edition paperback from your local library for free!

World Circus Day 5 will be celebrated on April 19, 2014. But if you can't wait until then for some circus slapstick, International Clown Week begins this August 1st!

Bullet bra and ice-cream!

Natty
as I drew her

For Natty Smalls, the star of Polka Dot Dreams, it’s all about the look: 50s hairdo, vintage clothes and, living up to her name, even retro underwear in the form of a bullet bra and girdle. As she puts it, a period-perfect figure requires the right foundations; for Natty, there was no stinting behind the scenes.

While thinking about some of the rock’n’roll outfits Natty wears in the story, I found myself drawing her. So I was knocked out to see how closely the cover illustration of the Linford large print paperback edition resembles my original sketch, even down to the ice-cream, courtesy of her boyfriend Matt’s rock’n’roll-themed ice-cream parlour.

Check it out in... or, rather, check it out of your local library now!

Easy Tiger!

After my previous post with a picture of a lady and a very relaxed leopard, here's one of a gal and her tiger in a rather more playful pose. The game girl is Mabel Stark, one of the most celebrated big cat trainers from the golden age of the American circus in the 1920s. Wrestling with her favourite kitty, Rajah, was all part of her act, hence her tough leather suit. Mabel and Rajah got on so well that he used to share her bed on the Ringling Brothers circus train, although there were several ocassions when life in the big cat cage got out of hand and she was badly mauled by less house-trained lions and tigers, both in training sessions and in front of the public. Her life is told in fictional form in Robert Hough's novel The Final Confession of Mabel Stark. It's a rollicking read, similar in many ways to Water For Elephants but far, far better in it's depiction of blood, guts and sawdust and its evocation of Stark's spunky, spiky voice. Click over to the Circus Mania blog to read my review of The Final Confession of Mabel Stark among my pick of 5 Great Circus Books for Summer Reading.

Life on the high wire

Did you thrill to the sight of Nik Wallenda crossing the Grand Canyon on a tight wire? (Watch the Sky News clip here)

For more high altitude hi-jinks read The Showman's Girl in which Emily runs away with the circus in the 1930s and becomes a wire-walking star. Daredevil Jayne urges her on, but tragedy is just a footstep away.

Download The Showman's Girl from Amazon or borrow the large print paperback from your local library.

I love this picture of a lady and her leopard. It's a 1975 circus publicity shot from David Barnaby's biography of Britain's last big cat trainer Martin Lacey. Click over to the Circus Mania blog to read my review of The Great British Circus - Views of Martin Lacey (Book Guild).

Writers' Forum

The new Writers' Forum is out now and includes a feature on how I wrote the My Weekly serial A Life of Loyal Service about a Buckingham Palace maid despite having never written a below-stairs type of story before... nor even having watched Downton Abbey!

I was also pleased to read in this month's issue an interview with crime writer Peter Lovesey by Joan Moules. Lovesey's Sergeant Cribb series was a favourite of mine in my early teens, having turned to titles like Wobble To Death and The Detective Wore Silk Drawers after watching the TV series based on the books.

Although I don't write much crime, Lovesey's writing was a definite influence and inspiration to me in terms of his crisp, clean style, jaunty tone and sense of humour.