TWO Frome writers have now achieved a long-held ambition – to see their work in print. Gill Harry and Mary Macarthur, writing as Gill Ingram and Jesse Mack respectively, are both members of a popular local writers’ association.
Gill was a founder of the Frome Writers’ Collective (FWC), while Mary currently chairs the 111-strong member group and as a result, were able to benefit from the help FWC offers it members through its Silver Crow imprint.
The imprint, an innovative one, which offers a friendly alternative to either traditional or DIY.publishing, was set up by FWC just over two years ago, to provide a helpful appraisal and report service, access to publishing guidance and the opportunity for titles to be promoted and marketed as part of the Silver Crow brand.
Once Gill’s and Mary’s manuscripts had been submitted for their initial critique by the Silver Crow readers and editing recommendations dealt with, they made contact with a Bath publishing partner. From there, the books were sent to the printers and were finally delivered – a day neither author will ever forget!
Some of Gill’s inspiration came from her years in the classroom, including 12 years as the headteacher at Leigh-on-Mendip First School, but says she also got ideas from funny incidents in the past and tales she’s been told. These, together with her own imagination, combined to create a story which she hopes will entertain and make readers laugh, as well as tackling the problem faced by many children at one time or another – how to deal with being left out.
For Mary, the idea for ‘The Last Dragon’ sprang from a holiday with her four-year-old granddaughter in Lyme Regis, when they made a dragon in the sand. That image lasted and 10 years later the dragon returned to life in Mary’s imagination, developing a personality of its own. Mary, who has been a journalist and teacher, says that she wrote several versions of her tale before it became ‘a story worth telling’.
“Journalism is very different from novel writing,” she said, “so the transition was quite tricky, but working with my writers’ group has helped enormously.”
The publication of ‘Zoe and the Very Grumpy Witch’ and ‘The Last Dragon’ is not the end of the road for either Gill or Mary. Both are working on sequels. Gill is now busy editing and illustrating her second and third books involving Zoe, to follow the first ‘Grumpy Witch’ book, which had 60 pictures in all. Mary, too, is preparing a second dragon tale and plans a third one, with the central character of Will, and his sister, Evie, featured in both.
Both ‘Zoe and the Very Grumpy Witch’ and ‘The Last Dragon’ were published in collaboration with the Self Publishing Partnership and are available from Hunting Raven Books in Cheap Street, Frome, where Gill will be doing an author signing on Sunday 7th July from 11.00am-3.00pm.
For more information about Frome Writers’ Collective click on fromewriters collective.co.uk, while silvercrowbooks.co.uk will tell you all about Silver Crow.
Gill’s website is: gillingram.co.uk and Mary’s Instagram page is: instagram.com/jessemack author
