THE UMBRELLAS OF HAMELIN

 

My new book THE UMBRELLAS OF HAMELIN is now available:

https://mybook.to/UmbrellasOfHamelin

Its official launch will be at M.A.B.L.E. (Fantastic Books massive Autumn book launch), which will feature, among many other things my brother and I on Zoom, talking about our writing. The little video is very short, and we do try to make it interesting, i.e. not to go on about our writing processes too much.

Details of the launch are here: 

https://www.fantasticbooksstore.com/m-a-b-l-e

The blurb for the book is this:  Get ready to embark on a journey through the best of storytelling with Sue Knight's short story anthology, The Umbrellas of Hamelin. From convent schooldays to the rainforests of South Island, New Zealand, to a future world with only one shopper left, these stories will give you chills of fear, then make you laugh aloud. Above all, they will keep you turning the pages.

While I would love to think that I have achieved "the best of storytelling" I fear that may be wishful thinking. But I do hope it will keep you turning the pages.  That is always my aim, as that is what I look for in a book - one that will take me into its world and keep me wanting to know what happens next.

And, accidentally, I find myself suddenly right on trend as Till They Dropped  (the short story that ends the collection, even though I wrote it first) tells the story of the last shopper left alive, in a world that has become a gigantic shopping mall, run by AI machines. 

The cover design is by the artist Bea Burchill (Aunt Bea).  She said if I wrote a short story she would illustrate it. I think she was trying to get me writing again.  So I wrote "The Umbrellas of Hamelin", and she illustrated it, beautifully. The publisher liked her illustration so much he has made it the cover!

I am now in the process of writing another short story, at Bea's urging, about a canal boat trip.  I need to get back to it. I know where it is going, but am at a bit of a loss how to get myself and my cast of characters there.

But whether I can write another collection I do not know...  it will be fun trying anyway.

The English ladies lost at footie to the Spanish ladies. But it was an exciting match (I only saw the last half hour having been at the meeting at the Kingdom Hall), so well done to both teams.  And the media has been full of the terrible story of the conviction of the nurse Lucy Letby for the killing of babies in her care.

It is hard to imagine a more brutal betrayal of trust.  I have been trying to blog about it, but what she has been convicted of doing is so awful that it is hard to find the right words.  I have one in draft, but I don't know if it will ever see blog daylight.