WRITER'S BLOCK - William Becker

William talks to us from Oregon, USA. 1) Tell us a bit about yourself!   I have always had a fascination with history and the metaphysical.  At 8 years of age, I saw my first ghost.  It was another boy about my age that looked real. When I asked about him, I was told that he was dead.  My friends and I kept on playing. I went on to get my bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in public administration. These disciplines further developed my ability to verify sources, critical thinking skills and further my interest and understanding of history.  My parents were schoolteachers.  All during my junior high and high school years we traveled the country in an 8.5-foot camper.  These are among my favorite memories of my childhood. Dad was a history teacher, so we explored all of the major, and many off the beaten path historical locations in the Continental United States. Seeing locations in person with someone well versed in the history helped bring history alive to me. Later I found that as a medium and psychic I have other ways to see “living history”! I think all of these experiences as a child helped to develop my love of travel, with particular emphasis on ancient historic sites.  The more ancient the better for me!  As far as the metaphysical world goes, I have been working with in in various ways, and developing my psychic and mediumship skills for several decades.  Being able to see into the world around me at a deeper level and depth. This brings so much more richness and understanding to what is around me. My beliefs in the field and understanding come from my personal, direct, and physical experiences.    2)    How did you first get into writing?        Since I was a young child, I have enjoyed stories, and storytelling. Writing just came naturally as part of it. In junior high and high school I had several English teachers that encouraged me to write. I am one of the strange ones that really enjoyed writing research papers in school and university.  It’s always been a joy and something I’ve been good at. 3)    Please tell us how you came to work as a psychic?   I have been working with my psychic abilities since I was a teenager.  I as I got older and gained confidence, I did more work in locations and for people.  Many people told me I should become professional and charge for my readings and teachings. These people included my therapist. The event that really confirmed to myself that I was more than ready to go professional was a trip to the biggest avalanche train disaster in the country.  Included in the party was a woman who had extensively studied the site from a historical perspective and had written a book on the location. Others in our group had extensively researched the paranormal.    As I walked around the gravel parking lot, all the buildings were gone. But I told the others just what sort of things happened each place I stopped, and what the buildings looked right. I was right every time.  We then climbed down to where the trains had come to rest. I gave names, ages, occupations and descriptions of many of those who had perished in the tragedy.  In each case I was correct.    I also picked up on all of the paranormal experiences the investigators had had, and what the beings looked like.    4) Your book is In The Footsteps Of My Forebears: A Psychic’s Journey Through Time, which is a unique take on family history and spirits – how did it come into being? I grew up with my grandma telling me about the old country, her family, and life there. I had always wanted to go the see and experience her village and the places my family helped settle.  A historical society working with the descendants of the area started giving tours of the villages.  Several of my cousins and I were able to make sure we went to Grandma’s village, so we went on the tour.  I wanted to document the stories, history and what I had picked up as a medium in the places and make it a more complete experience to draw people into the story.  I had already published a book on other locations so this was a natural follow up. 5) What does being psychic enable you to bring to books that makes them stand out from other books on the paranormal and spirituality? The psychic and history combination allows me to give a much fuller experience of a location to the reader. I help them go to not just the physical or just the spiritual and combine the two. It’s something I enjoy doing for myself! 6) When not working as a writer and psychic, what do you enjoy reading? I usually read history, social justice, economics, and science.  However, I also have a favorite locked room mystery author, and there’s a good deal of literature and ancient literature I really love.  I’m a bit eclectic in my reading, just as I am in life. 7)  What’s next for William Becker?

I am working on my next trip abroad.  I have some truly ancient locations I want to explore, and I think I’m finding ways to do so.  I also have some books in various stages of development I want to finish.  I love writing but can be a bit distracted getting the projects finished.  Right now, I’m enjoying the visit of a good friend from the U.K. For details of William's book click here.

 

2021 Publication Wrap Up

This year has seen a wide variety of new books at Beul Aithris Publishing, possibly the widest since being established in 2017. The final of these has just been released with Malcolm J Ingham's children's book, Tales Of Old Billy Badger, illustrated by Mark Hetherington. 

Aimed at children from the age of eight, the book aims at teaching about wildlife and nature. Coupled with Mark's illustrations, it is a lovely title that will no doubt be a great stocking filler for any young animal enthusiast. It mingles tales of Billy with those of other animals around him, including otters, foxes and rabbits amongst others. Many of these were inspired by the creatures Malcolm himself has captured on his wildlife trail cams, which you can see for yourself if you go to his Twitter @ingham_mal. 

The illustrations add beautifully to the stories, bringing them to life in an evocative manner. Mark Hetherington certainly has bags of talent - or is that a sizeable badger sett of talent?

Further details of The Tales of Old Billy Badger can be found here, with links on where to purchase a copy

Another project that Mark was involved was William C Becker's In The Footsteps Of My Forebears: A Psychic's Journey Through Time, in which Mark designed the cover and provided photo editing. William C Becker is a psychic medium, coach and author based in America, and he takes a unique turn on genealogy using his talents, something, which no doubt those enthusiastic about researching their family trees would love to do. 

The book recounts William's journey back to his ancestral homeland, visiting the places where his family once lived. The photos alone provide an evocative view of this trip, but it is what William picks up psychically from his passed over relatives that add that extra special twist to the book. It is a title that stays with the reader long after finishing it, and perhaps will lead them to look more into their own questions about where they come from.

Further details and links to get your copy of the book can be found here.

WRITER'S BLOCK - Kevin McCann

Click here to get a copy!

1) Tell us a bit about yourself!

Born in 1954 in Widnes, moved to Blackpool on my fifth birthday, went to teacher training college in Liverpool when I was 18 back in 1972 and have lived there ever since. I was a teacher for sixteen years and also taught Creative Writing for Liverpool University but also began working in Community Arts. I left teaching in 91 and have been trying to make a living as a writer ever since. I’m married to Danielle (a McGregor), no kids but two cats…

2) How did you first get into writing?

 I was encouraged at school by a really great English teacher. He set up a monthly school paper an asked me to write a serial for it…which I duly did. I wrote a second one called Wings of Death but then graduated onto articles, political stuff mainly: anti-Vietnam war, anti-apartheid and also the odd poem…though they were always rejected! I also wrote for Fylde Free Press (hippy paper) and odd articles for The Dead-End Blues Club News. Again, mainly political stuff. 

3) You tend to favour poetry and have written many poems - what draws you to this style of writing?

Hard question. What makes you fall in love with one person rather than another? I think it began because I was lousy at sports and couldn’t sing or play the guitar – this was the 60’s – and it was a way of trying to make myself look windswept and interesting…and attract women. I grew out of that phase after listening to Dylan and realising that poetry could be so much more than “I really love you so why won’t you go out with me?” OR “Why’d you dump me…I’m sensitive I am…you’ll be sorry when I’m dead!” And when I got to college I began writing even more – three a week on average – and showed them to an English tutor called Matt Simpson who was a published poet. He said a few encouraging things and told me to lose all the adjectives…and from there he was my first mentor. I wrote, organised college readings and began exploring pub readings in Liverpool. I had my first poem accepted by a proper magazine, met a lot of other poets, kept writing etc. So, I suppose it’s an addiction…

I also believe that poetry is a natural as breathing and that people turn to it in times of strong emotion because nothing else will do. I remember after Hillsborough one of the kids from the school where I was teaching died there & a lot of the pupils witnessed the full horror unfold. That Monday a poem was posted up on my classroom notice board. It was followed by others, lots of others. By the end of the week every bit of available wall space in the school was covered. The poems were raw and un-crafted and so vastly superior to the utter drivel thar the Beeb pumps out on National Poetry Day, that there really is no comparison. Poetry isn’t a substitute for stand-up any more than it’s the sole province of the inbred privately educated “elite” – it came from the people and it belongs to us. To paraphrase Bill Shankly: Poetry isn’t a matter of life and death. It’s more important than that.

 

Click here to get a copy!

4) Your books include Diary of a Shapeshifter and Ov - tell us a bit more about them!

Diary exists because I got invited to be part of the Poets in Schools scheme – I was going into schools getting kids writing poetry but had nothing of my own to read them so began writing poems aimed at children. I had a couple accepted by Usborne for a new anthology they were doing and then started getting requests from other editors…which meant I read a lot of children’s poetry and thought a lot of it was dreadful. Badly scanned, twee and ultimately boring…John Foster being one very notable exception. He taught me a lot. Once I had a big enough body of work, I began hawking it round…and there was rejection after rejection and some really rude ones (your work’s on file…in the bin) but being a stubborn get, I persisted and eventually found BA and Mandy. The book’s got a back story (when life’s crap, day dream) and is very influenced by Blake (love him!) – his Songs of Innocence was intended to be a children’s book and it is…but what it also is, is a collection of poems that can be understood by kids and enjoyed by adults and that’s exactly what I set out to do.  I wanted to produce well-crafted poems (as opposed to “that’ll do – they’re only kids”) that an adult could like as well.

Ov started life as a vague notion to maybe write a novel. I’d made numerous false starts but this one wouldn’t go away. It took me a year to write the first draft and three to finally polish it. It was hard work and I loved it. I’d shown it to a cousin who was a publisher’s reader – her response was to tell me I had no real talent but at least writing was “a nice little hobby for me” – the fact that I found out later she’d rejected the first Harry Potter gave me some small consolation!

The book itself is about a second-generation Irish child who’s an isolate – like I was – and like me he consoles himself with daydreams and fantasies fuelled by the stories his Uncle Liam’s told him. And from there it becomes a hero’s quest. I’m working on a sequel. Progress is slow.   

 

6) Do you enjoy the freedom of creative expression and imagination that writing for a younger audience brings, and how does it differ from writing for adults for you?

Yes, I do but it only differs in my subject matter and vocabulary. I think writing aimed at children should be just a carefully crafted as work aimed at adults….and quite frankly I hate (note that word) the kind of “say knickers and make them laugh” school of poetry just as much as I despise the “your dreams are like rainbows” pseudo inspirational tripe I also encounter. Poetry should be as well crafted as possible, emotionally true and create an emotional as well as an intellectual response. If it doesn’t, the it’s failed…and don’t get me started on the poetry as a moral instruction school…

5) Going back to your work as a poet, what poets/poems inspire you and why?

So many…back in school (apart from Byron, Shelley, Coleridge and Keats) it was Dylan Thomas, Brian Patten, Owen, Sassoon, Lewis Carrol, Yeats, Eliot…but I think it was reading Patten and listening to Bob Dylan that started me on writing myself. The forms they used were form I could at least attempt. As I got older, I read much more and tried out new forms as I went along. I think a lot of people choose to write poetry because they think it’s an easy option. Learn these seven rules and you too can be a poet! It isn’t and you don’t choose poetry – She chooses you. And from there it’s a lifetime of work, study and frequent disappointment. But you carry on anyway because you have no choice but even if you did, you’d carry on anyway…because there’s nothing like it. Nothing.

 And when it works the buzz, you get is like nothing else.

I often think of Pasternak. He was a truly great poet who suffered greatly during his lifetime. His work was suppressed or “re-edited” (rewritten by hacks) – his great novel Doctor Zhivago was denounced as anti-Soviet (it isn’t – read it!) and he died a broken man. Compared to that my life’s easy. You asked me who inspires me – him above all others. 

6) When you aren’t busy writing, what do you like to read?

Anything that takes my fancy. Novels, short stories, poetry…I also love bio’s of writers, actors, painters, musicians and technical books. To me they’re all adding to my knowledge. I also read a lot of political stuff. I don’t believe a poet should be above politics – quite the opposite. My Uncle Bill (a West Cork man) told me when I fifteen that if I was going to be a poet, I’d spend my life “agin the government” – he was quite right.

7) What is next for Kevin Patrick McCann?

I’m working on a new collection of adult poems, writing short stories and a sequel to Ov. I read a lot, watch very little TV and hope I don’t die of Covid. I’m still hoping for the Nobel Prize for Literature – if Dylan can win it, I’ve got to be in with a shout – and being an agitator for socialism.

The New Hallowe'en book is now available

 The 2021 Hallowe'en book is now live! This is a unique book that shows one man reconnect with his ancestors in a way not many can. The blurb is as follows:

“I grew up with my grandmother talking about the old country, our family and villages. All of my life I wanted to visit the land of my forebears, but it didn’t seem like a dream that could possibly come true.”

Finding out where you come from by understanding who our ancestors were, how they lived and events in their lives is a very profound experience. If none of that happened, where would we have ended up? Understanding their history can give us a stronger sense of our own identity and how we fit into the world. Most people will get that from looking up historical documentation, photographs and visiting their ancestral homeland. Imagine if you were also able to combine this with the ability to see beyond the veil that separates this world from the next. Imagine visiting where your family came from and their spirits were also there to accompany you. It is, as William Becker shows in this book, a very powerful experience, when he returns to the German Volga region from where his grandparents emigrated to America in 1912.

William Becker, International Psychic Medium, Psychic Life Coach and Teacher.

With his bachelor’s degree in history and master’s in public administration, William combines his love of history and his psychic abilities to allow people inside the deeper reality that surrounds us. His philosophy is that the more we know of the beings and worlds around us, the better we know how to more fully experience and live this life.

Get your copy now click here

Catch Us On YouTube

 

Beul Aithris Publishing can now be found on YouTube! There will be a range of videos related to our books. Please subscribe to keep up with the latest content here.

Our first video features Malcolm J Ingham's trail cam footage of badgers getting up to what badgers do best from the Scottish Badger Conference. 

Arran Omnibus

For those keen to see what happens next on the Isle of Arran in Miller Caldwell's successful crime trilogy, we are happy to tell you the wait is over! The following two parts of the trilogy have been published in Omnibus format. The paperback is now available on Amazon, with the Kindle Edition available shortly. The paperback is £10, while the Kindle edition is £3.99.

The blurb on the back reads:

Retired Postman Ronnie Jackson suffers from Dementia. He retains a very early hour of rising and on several occasions sees something suspicious at the Blackwaterfoot slipway. He is not believed. Can Ronnie make sense of what has happened to him and can he settle happily after his traumatic experiences?

"What I liked about the novel Dementia Adventure is that it educates about Dementia and how sufferers live with confused minds. It is also an exciting and adventurous ramble around the Isle of Arran." CYRILL BARNETT

Seaweed In My Hair

Central London gets Kate and Greg Bailey down. The skills of a hair stylist and a health club manager seem transferable to the Scottish Isle of Arran. But the move turns out to be a disaster for them both. As their relationship tears apart, Kate must survive traumatic events. Can she turn her world around on her own? Can she possibly find contentment in her life as the wild sea churns over and the fresh sea breezes blow in her direction?

"A heart-warming story based on lovely Arran." MORAG RITCHIE

Seaweed In My Hair and Dementia Adventure follow Murders At Blackwaterfoot in a trilogy of Arran crime books. All stories feature Sergeant Rory Murdoch, and of course, Blackwaterfoot. Sometimes his territory lacks serious crime but his cases are always challenging.

For details on how to get copies, please check the page in our book directory here.

Miller will also be on Arran shortly with signed copies. 

WRITER'S BLOCK

 

Welcome to the first of many in our Writer's Block series! 

Ann Massey is interviewing her fellow Beul Aithris Publishing writers and artists giving you a chance to get to know them and their work. 

Next up we have supernatural fiction phenomenon Petula Mitchell, who released her debut short fiction collection At The Crossroads in September 2020. 

ANN MASSEY: Tell is a bit about yourself!

PETULA MITCHELL:  I'm 58 years old, married and have two grown up sons. I'm a grandma to two boys and dog mum to a pair of retired greyhounds. I work part time for the NHS as a health care assistant and phlebotomist at my local surgery, a job I have done for  almost eighteen years. I have also been a dental nurse, a barmaid, a school dinner lady and sold TV's so it has been a varied work life! I have a few hobbies including cross stitch embroidery, gardening and I love taking photos of the local landscapes. I live in West Sussex so we are on the doorstep of the South Downs National Park and less than half an hour from the coast.

AM: How did you first get into writing?

PM: I first started writing when I was a child and would sit for hours making up stories and reading them to my unfortunate family, and when they got bored I had an audience of dolls and teddy bears. As a teenager I used to always submit things to the school magazine and was very pleased with myself if they got printed. Then there was a long gap while work and family life took over. About ten years ago now I decided to have another go at writing.

AM: You have many published short stories that have a supernatural theme - what draws you to this genre? 

PM: I used to avidly read ghost stories as a child. The Armada books series was a firm favourite and I can still remember stories like 'The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall' and the' Man who Walked Around the Kirk Widdershins'. I think growing up reading my mothers Edwardian copies of Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, which were not sanitised for the modern era even by 1960s standards, was a big influence. There are elements of the supernatural in most of those stories. My parents were old Sussex people and familiar with the stories and folklore that occurs locally too. My dad and his brothers certainly knew how to spin a story. There is always that part of the human psyche that likes to be scared all be it in a safe and controlled environment. Placing strange events in a normal mundane setting and seeing where the characters go is interesting both as a reader and a writer I think.

AM: Your book At the Crossroads is a collection of your supernatural tales, tell us a bit more about it!

PM: At the Crossroads is a collection of stories I have written over the past two to three years. Lots of the ideas sprung to mind when talking to friends, reading articles or just being out and about overhearing conversations. I always have a notebook in my bag or at least jot down things on my phone. By and large I tend to set stories in the present. It's somehow more unnerving to have a ghost or entity on the motorway or in a modern hotel than it is in an old castle to me. Some of the stories explore what happens when those that have gone before are disturbed and some look at how the supernatural can live among us without being noticed. I also ponder on where we go after we have run out of time ourselves.

AM: You have also written true haunting and creepy articles for Spooky Isles relating to your neck of the woods in England, especially Sussex and Surrey. Do you find being surrounded by these sorts of locations helps inspire your writing?

PM: The area around Sussex that I live in has a story or a spectre in every corner! With the trend for ever more housing development and new people moving into the area it's important I think to make sure the stories don't get lost. Landmarks like Chanctonbury and Cissbury ring have dozens of stories about them going back to the Iron Age. The Downs themselves are criss crossed with trackways and lych roads that have been used for centuries. Old stories of demons and devils, dogs, witches and even UFO's in the modern era abound. It's hard to not find a village or a copse without a story. In the case of St Leonard's Forest near us there are tales of being chased by the devil, dragons, saints and mysterious black cats. It's all here in abundance so there is certainly plenty of inspiration to find out about the weird and the peculiar.

AM: When you aren’t busy writing, what do you like to read? 

PM:   My own reading shelf is a real mixture! I read about art history and actual history. I adore sci fi! One of my great frustrations is that I write terrible sci fi stories myself. Detective fiction with a dose of Nordic Noir (I love Jo Nesbo). I like Val McDermid, Ian Rankin and Ken Bruen so anything that is a bit dark I suppose. Spy stories by Le Carre and a good rip roaring thriller or adventure by Alistair MacLean or Clive Cussler. I like historical novels too. Simon Scarrow and his Roman novels are firm favourites. I enjoy anything about polar exploration, partly because I can never quite work out why people want to go anywhere that cold!

AM:  What is next for Petula Mitchell? 

PM:  I have taken a few weeks to have a good think about a few projects and noodle around with some ideas. A ghostly detective novel and a short story set in the arctic are underway along with working on something in a totally different genre as time allows.  Now I just need to stop procrastinating and actually finish them!

GET YOUR COPY OF PETULA'S AT THE CROSSROADS, WITH IT'S EYECATCHING COVER BY MARK HETHERINGTON VIA THE BEUL AITHRIS PUBLISHING WEBSITE.

 

 

Introducing the Arran Trilogy by Miller Caldwell

The next set of releases will be uncharted territory for  Beul Aithris, as we debut in crime fiction with a nice 'Tartan Noir' trilogy from prolific author Miller Caldwell. The first release, Murders At Blackwaterfoot, introduces the character of Arran policeman Rory Murdoch. 

The blurb for Murders At Blackwaterfoot reads:

Based at Lamlash on Arran, PC Rory Murdoch has a minimal caseload, giving him ample time to think about his daughter, Ella, and her special needs. Then three murders occur in close succession. His supervising officer, mainland-based D.I. Samuel Grant, is not supportive. Can Rory stand up to this bully and undermining superior?

Rory receives a letter from Belgium and Ella has a remarkable insight both of which lead to High Court trials in Ayr. How can Rory cope with three murder trials while his mind is preoccupied on greater matters?

This is a fast-paced story set in the stunningly beautiful island of Arran with elements of humour, pathos, romance and great sadness.

 'This was a marvellous story and I even shed a tear or two.' Morag Ritchie

Arran isn't exactly a hot bed of crime? So how did Miller find the inspiration for the trilogy?

"I saw a large bull in the field next to our holiday cottage on Arran. It eyed me and I wondered what its next move would be. It was mine however. The dividing hedge was the issue. On my side was a bushy cotoneaster hedge with only half a top. A bull's neck half, and of course on the field side, it had been nibbled to the bark. I tore off a strip of hedge and waved it in front of the bull. Too late I noticed I was wearing a red jumper. I froze.  

The coal black bull approached and with a tongue as long as a child's arm, it took the branch from me and devoured it. Of course it wanted more fodder and I provided several extra portions of the hedge each morning. We became sort of friends, in fact very good friends and I plucked up courage to stroke its neck. On the last day, the bull was already standing with its neck into the garden when I realised it was stamping the soft field with its front left hoof, the sort of matador bull-teasing stamp. I looked over into the field and saw a salmon coloured stone briefly appear. Was it a hand. Was it a body? Well, that inspired the story. But even when I had written it, I realised I had created Constable Rory Murdoch.

Surely there could be other cases for him at Blackwaterfoot? So Murders at Blackwaterfoot is the first of the trilogy of Arran tales. Seaweed in My Hair and Dementia Adventure will follow soon. The size of the island, the Blackwaterfoot characters and the holiday atmosphere helped to concentrate the mind. But as all have serious crime, I had better apologise to the Arran Tourist Board. Holiday bookings in Murderous Blackwaterfoot will be down!"

Murders at Blackwaterfoot will be available on 24 May, while Dementia Adventure and Seaweed In My Hair follows later in the year as an omnibus edition. 

 

 

Happy New Year

Admittedly a bit late, thanks to the reshuffling of life under another lockdown in Scotland, I want to wish you all a happy new year - the fourth of Beul Aithris' existence! We live in precarious time still, but somehow, we will rumble on!

There are a number of new titles in the works for this year - including Soul Talk by Simone Cowgill and cover art by Robert Haworth, which is due out this spring; a Tartan Noir trilogy set on the Isle of Arran by Miller Caldwell due out this summer; our now traditional Hallowe'en book, this year by American author William Becker; and Malcolm J Ingham will see the release of his second title with Beul Aithris, Tales of Old Billy Badger, which will be illustrated by our resident artist, Mark Hetherington.

Dates of publication may have to shift thanks to the nature of pandemic life (ie, as well as running a publishing house from home, there is also an enthusiastic young reader who currently has to do homelearning for the foreseeable future as the schools in Scotland are closed to most children until further notice!). But any changes will be noted on the blog and social media. If you don't already, please follow Beul Aithris on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for all sorts of interesting stuff! 

And for all available titles, please check the Book Directory. We have a lot of books on Kindle at low prices and several are on KindleUnlimited, and they are available immediately rather than having to wait on physical delivery, which may be useful if you are looking for a quick escape from any lockdown or self isolation. Print books are of course still available. Details for everything are in the book directory. 

Keep safe!