Welcome ... Toni Bunnell

I'm delighted to welcome Toni Bunnell onto my Blog today.

Toni Bunnell is a musician, a wildlife biologist, a broadcaster and a writer of songs and stories. Toni lives in York, has run York hedgehog rescue centre for 28 years and has written two books about hedgehogs: The Disappearing Hedgehog and Rescuing the Disappearing Hedgehog. 

Toni has also written a non-fiction book on Music Therapy, published by M&K Update, as well as several works of fiction. She lectured at Hull University for over sixteen years and has appeared on television many times, including on Love Your Garden, Countryfile, and in June 2015, The One Show. 

Her passion for writing developed following the loss of a close friend and resulted in a book of poems: A Life Well Lived. 

Her most recent works focus on the gothic and supernatural. The Nameless Children is Part 1 of The Soil Chronicles and is followed by the sequel: The Dead Space. 

For more information about Toni and her books visit her website: www.tonibunnell.com  or her author page on Amazon by clicking on the links.  Toni is a member of Promoting Yorkshire Authors

Christmas Wishes and some exciting news ...

I'm delighted to have been invited to take part in Hull University's three day English Literature Festival organised by The National Collaborative Outreach Programme. The Festival starts on the 6th February 2018 and is aimed at raising aspirations of students aged 13-18 across the Humber region by increasing their knowledge of careers in writing, publishing, illustrating, marketing, public speaking and much more.  A selection of panels and workshops are planned and full details will be available shortly on the website: www.force-higher.co.uk and on the Twitter feed @Force_HE  #ELFHumber2018.

I am also looking forward to being part of the Bradford UK Indie Literature Festival, which is returning for a third year on the 28th July, and is once again being held in the fabulous Kala Sangam in the centre of the city.  This is a free event, with 40 authors in attendance, so there is sure to be a book to suit all tastes.  Details on how to obtain a ticket are on the UKindieLitFest website.

Kala Sangram, Bradford

As it is the holiday season, I have reduced the price of the Kindle version of my romantic suspense novel, The House on the Shore, until 3rd January 2018.  You can download a copy from Amazon for only 99p/99c instead of the usual price of £2.99/$2.99.

2017 is drawing to a close, so I would like to thank everyone who has attended an event or purchased a book and who has supported me in anyway, a very Happy Christmas and a Healthy and Prosperous New Year.  I hope to see you again in 2018.

Talks and Puppy Dog Tales

Writing is, for the most part, a lonely profession, but once in a while I receive an invitation to give a talk. A couple of weeks ago, I spent a delightful morning talking to the members of the Parkgate Branch of the University of the 3rd Age.

For those of you unfamiliar with the name, the University of the 3rd Age is an organization for those people no longer in full-time employment. Members can take part in educational, creative, and leisure activities including, languages, music, computing, bird watching, crafts, and of particular interest to me, literature and book groups.

This was my second talk to members of the U3A, and I can honestly say that on both occasions I felt welcome. I had a great time talking about my books, writing and the publishing industry. Thank you Birdwell and Parkgate Branches for inviting me, I just hope I didn’t waffle on for too long!

I said at the start of this post, that writing is a lonely profession, and it is. For the last ten years I’ve had a constant companion in the form of my Border collie, Lucy. Sadly, Lucy passed away in December. Since then the house, and my office, have been a quiet, empty place. No more. Meet Rosie, my nine week old Border collie. Like her predecessor, she’s intelligent, (too intelligent at times) and is now my constant companion. There’s not a room or place I can go without her following me. Given time, I know that will change, but for the moment, I kind of enjoy being a surrogate mum, although she’d rather I played with her than write. But I like a good challenge, so I’m finding new, interesting ways to make book number three come to life.