Tag Archives: Bobby

News About ‘Bobby’ and a Visit

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Hi all,

While we wait for ‘A Night of Opposites’ to come back from being set out and made ready for publication, I have two pieces of news to tell you. Firstly, the island has just enjoyed a visit from a keen Jackson Marsh reader from the USA, who called in for a few days while on his travels. I often meet readers who come here regularly on holiday. These are kind folks who have supported my James Collins books, such as my travel tales and the Saddling series, the older novels I wrote when I was first starting out, and my other blog, the one about living on a Greek island. It’s always great to see them and chat, but it’s more unusual to meet someone who came here because of reading my books and blog. Here we are up on the roof with the island view behind us.

Great to meet you, Dan! Keep reading 🙂

I’m casually dressed in my old faithful sweatshirt that was once black, I think, or certainly a different colour, and which I can’t bring myself to throw away. It’s my hanging-at-home look. The weather has been good for the visit, and here on the island, the annual summer season is starting to get underway, with Greek Easter taking place this weekend.

In the meantime, I have had an approach from a major publisher (in the USA) interested in reading a second edition of ‘Bobby, a Life Worth Living.’ In order for them to consider this, I need to a) expand and refresh the book, and b) have it represented by an agent. In this case, the publisher was very helpful and pointed me to an agent they recommended and he/she/they have agreed to take a look at the second edition when I have completed it, with a view to representation.

So, as well as finishing the Delamere series, I am now to start work on ‘expanding and refreshing’ Bobby. There is no deadline, but I intend to start on the project tomorrow afternoon. (I would start today, but I play the piano on a Wednesday afternoon.)

The mornings will be taken up with ‘The Delamere Dilemma’, the final instalment in the series, and a story which will bring the Clearwater, Larkspur and Delamere series full circle. At least, that’s the intention. In the meantime, ‘A Night of Opposites’ should be back with me soon (the guys have been really busy), and all being well, I will upload that as soon as I’ve checked it. Hopefully, it will appear within hours, as all bar one of the others has done (with one, I had to wait over a week for it to appear, and that’s very unusual).

When the chairman of London’s Thirteen Club wakes to find 13 dead rabbits in his bedroom, he hires Jack Merrit to track down the intruder. The questions are many: Why were the rabbits each missing a foot? How did someone break in through bolted doors, and what is the criminal’s goal?

Jack and Baxter face a table of thirteen suspects. Among them are Jack himself and his lover, Larkin Chase. The case becomes a personal minefield as the mystery thickens, and when a more chilling threat appears in the same impenetrable house, a disturbing story from the property’s past intrudes into the present.

As Will Merrit investigates suspicious events from thirty years ago, the other Delamere men move in on their only suspect. Except, this is a game of opposites, superstitions and deception, and when the truth finally comes to light, Jack faces the most difficult decision of his career.

So, a new Delamere out soon, the 12th in the series already started, work on ‘Bobby’ to start again tomorrow (Delamere in the morning and Bobby in the afternoon), visitors from abroad, agents, publishers, and all the while still trying to sell what I have already written. I tell you, being an indie author is an ongoing battle of adventures and challenges.

Also, I have several promos to send you to this month, and most are MM Romance, but a couple are also historical mystery and mystery/thriller reads. All are ideas for new reads. Let’s start the list with this one:

Crime Fiction – Sequels

Genres: Mystery & Suspense / British Detectives, Mystery & Suspense / Crime, and Mystery & Suspense / Thriller

You know when you read one book and want there to be another? This collection of 26 titles from a variety of crime authors tells you straight off that these are sequels or another book in a series, meaning there are others that come before and possibly after.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/crimesequelsapr26/kquu04cym5

You Won’t Believe Make Believe

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It’s nearly the end of the month and ‘A Case of Make Believe’ is off to the proofreader tomorrow. The blurb is more or less done, the author’s notes are complete apart from a section about sewers (you’ll see), the cover is done, and I will finish it when I have had the back text checked. Usually, Andjela adds this and finishes the cover but she’s due to have a baby any day now, so we’ve made this alternative arrangement.

I’ll show you the full cover on Saturday, so stay tuned.

Soon…

Coming up next month, apart from the release of ‘A Case of Make Believe’, we have two promos to help out with. One is what’s becoming my standard (and successful) Mayhem and Motives promo where several of us mystery writers get together to cross-share titles via one page. The others are an LGBTQ etc., Romance and Fiction promo, into which I have entered Banyak & Fecks, and an LGBTQ etc., romance promo into which I have put ‘The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge’ and ‘The Mentor of Lonemarsh House.’ There will be a newsletter coming out with all the details soon, so make sure you are subscribed.

You can subscribe here or by using the box at the top of the righthand column on any page.

Bobby

For those who have read ‘Bobby’, the biography of my gay godfather, you will know that he was acquainted with Shirley Bassey (now Dame Shirley Bassey, singer of ‘Goldfinger’, ‘Diamonds are Forever’ and other great songs). I am about to send a copy of the book to Dame Shirley, or to her office, which may or may not reach her, because of all the famous people he met in his life, she is the only one still alive. Bob would have liked her to have a copy, I am sure, and I’d be interested to know if she remembers him, and the way her dog used to leap into his pond after she’d just had it groomed. (The dog, not the pond.) So, that’s this week’s admin, as is composing and arranging the newsletter, sending off the MS for ‘Make Believe’ and starting on the next book… Whatever that is going to be… I will have a look around some old newspapers from February 1893 and see what springs to mind.

You will soon get to see another character too, so keep your eyes peeled.

August Promos and a Biography

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Hello everyone!

This month, I have two new promos to tell you about and there’s something very special in one of them.

Bobby, a Life Worth Living

That’s the title of the biography of my godfather. I started working with him on this in 2004 when I was selling my house in the UK. We spent over eight hours in interviews while he told me his life history, and it’s a fascinating one. It’s also a very gay one because he knew he was ‘different’ back in the 1920s, and left home when he was 14 (in 1933) to explore London, where he became a rent boy. He did that job, as he saw it, from the age of 14 to 19, before going to war in the Navy. There is much more that comes after too.

I am hoping that I’ll be able to put up some of our recorded interviews as audio files on my website within the next couple of months. More news about that in due course.

Meanwhile…

August Promos!

This is how I am getting my books known, and your participation is much appreciated. All you need do is click the link to the promo and browse some titles, no need to buy anything unless you want to, and it doesn’t cost a thing. What it does do is help authors like me receive more attention, and that’s always a good thing.

The two I have joined for August are these:

Mayhem and Motives

Mystery, thriller, suspense novels
102 titles
Running All month

In this one, I have my series starters: Deviant Desire, Guardians of the Poor, and Finding a Way.

Find a new Favourite Author

This is a varied selection of 27 titles including biographies.

It also runs all month.

I have entered my biography of my gay godfather into this promo in the hope it will gather more attention. I have to say, it’s done very well in its first month, and that’s because I have been able to share it on social media historical info pages and groups. Places like ‘Memories of Old London’ have been interested because Bobby was from south London and lived most of his life in the city, while his life spanned from 1919 to 2007.

That’s it for now. I hope you have a great August. Thanks as always for your interest and support.

Yours

Jackson

What’s Going On?

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Today’s blog post is a general chat about what’s going on, what’s coming up, and what’s new. I have had family staying for the last couple of weeks, so I’ve not been able to get much done, but I have been working in the background and now I have two projects on the go. Here are a few notes.

Where There’s a Will (The Delamere Files book four)

After being held up in a most unusual queue at Amazon for six days, Will has launched himself into the world. This is the first book where Will Merrit is the central character, rather than his older and more cumbersome brother, Jack. Both brothers are called to an isolated castle to attend the reading of a will, and the reason why becomes clear only when the will is read.

Although it has only been on sale for a couple of days, Where There’s a Will has already overtaken Deviant Desire and Finding a Way for the number of sales this month. Interestingly, it has sold more paperbacks than Kindle versions, which is nice to see because it means the book will be on display on several bookshelves around the world.

What’s the Next Delamere File?

I have been searching for the next title and story, and I now have some possibles. I am thinking of setting the next one in the world of magic, magicians, Mr Maskelyne and Cooke’s entertainment at the Egyptian Rooms, or something similar. I have a draft title, ‘A Case of Make Believe’ but that’s tentative. I do, though, have a challenge set by a friend who said he would buy five copies if I included a character by a certain name – and that’s something I intend to do, no matter what the story ends up being. ‘Cutthroat Fanny’, or ‘Fanny Razor’, is the madam at a Clerkenwell molly house (boy brothel), and she’s an arch criminal, of course. She may well be the sister of Violet Flay from the earlier books.

I am about to start on this story, but first…

Bobby – A Life Worth Living

I have been working on this for several years off and on – mainly off, actually, for one reason or another. Now, though, I am at the stage where Andjela is thinking up a cover, and I am on my final proofing before sending the text off to the boys to be formatted. Expect yet another Jackson Marsh in a few weeks’ time.

This though, is not a novel, but the true story of my godfather.

Born in Gambole Road, Tooting in 1919, Uncle Bob was my godfather. Lovely, dear, but why write his biography? Mainly, because many years ago, he asked me to. He had a story he wanted the world to hear. Here’s the opening:

Robert Charles Thompson was many things in his life, among them he was a son, a schoolboy, a teenage sex worker, a gunner in the Royal Navy, a mushroom farmer, a landlord, and head housekeeper at a prestigious London hotel. He was also my godfather and very, very gay.

Uncle Bob’s story begins in Tooting, London, in 1919 and ends in Peacehaven, East Sussex, in 2007. He wanted the book to be called, ‘Bobby, a Life Worth Living,’ because he always said that was what he had had. It might easily have been called ‘The gay story of 20th century Britain’, as you will see.

The hotel in question is the Hyde Park Hotel, London, where he met many famous people including David Bowie, Winston Churchill and the Dali Lama.

I’m hoping Bobby will be out before the end of the month.

Promotions

As you may know, I have been involved a few promotions this year, and they are proving very useful for gathering new readers. Also, I hope, they have been useful to other authors too, because where I publicise my books as being in them, so everyone else involved does the same, and we do a joint group promo to help each other out. You can find out more about these via my newsletter (there will be one early next week), here, and on my Facebook page and private group. Coming up in July, we have a promo with lots of historical fiction, two others that revolve around crime stories past and present, and one that’s all about pure MM romance (The Mentor of Barrenmoor Ridge will be in that one.)

Watch these spaces for more details.

And Finally

This weekend will be taken up by finishing ‘Bobby’ and plotting ‘A Case of Make Believe’ or whatever it will be called. On Monday, work will begin on the next Delamere, and I have an idea that we may see a couple of Larkspur Academy men make guest appearances…