My Publications

Seems I need to make a list of my published books again, so here goes:
Children's Books Published by LMH Publishing Co
.https://www.lmhpublishing.com/children  click all the pages

short stories

environmental stories

Prize winning stories

Chapter book

Published by Carlong Publishers (Caribbean)Ltd  
http://www.carlongpublishers.com/book_listing_subject.php?id=32

Chapter book

BIAJ prize winning novel

I am the series editor for Carlong's Sand Pebbles Pleasure Series. There are nine books (including mine) in the series.








Available adult book titles

http://www.peepaltreepress.com/multiple_book_list.asp?au_id=10

 ebook on amazon

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007U78HEC

 More to come Stay tuned

See my other blog at  http://hazeldeebooks.blogspot.com/

Delroy and the Marog Princess - A Good 'e'read

http://www.smashwords.com/b/175987

Short Description :

"Delroy believes he became a marog, a type of frog, when he was swept into an underground river in Jamaica. His resolve to forget that awful event is shattered when Rana, the Marog Princess, becomes a girl and appears in his village. After his goal to turn her into a marog fails, he realizes he’s falling in love with her. Now his greatest fear is that she will transform before he can win her heart."

This is a lively tale, follow-on to Delroy in the Marog Kingdom, published by Macmillan in their Island Fiction Series. When the story begins, Delroy is just settling back into his normal life with his mother, and his father's family including his half-brother, Mario. He is even doubting that he had been a marog  and experienced living with them - until the return of Tevon, a boy the villagers thought had been drowned six years earlier. Immediately Delroy recognizes him as the boy-turned-marog he had met in his previous adventures. When Rana turns up, he no longer doubts his memories, and must deal with the threat against her so that she can safely return to her father in the marog kingdom.

There are several twists and turns as Delroy finds out more about marog history and tries to save Rana from a dangerous marog turned human who wants to kill her. Interest is heightened by the budding romances between the teen characters.  The author also enriches the story with clever use of references to the Tainos from Jamaica's past and the folkloric, River Mumma.

This is a very good summer's read for the YA age group. Get your copy at:   http://www.smashwords.com/b/175987

Independent Schools

 

Listen tomorrow, July 4, to the radio launch of the Directory of Independent Schools on Power106, 10 am to 2:30pm.

The Directory is a comprehensive list with contact numbers for all 'private' schools in the island - from pre-schools to high schools to special schools for the gifted as well as the handicapped. Also vocational schools, including music, computer, nursing schools,etc.

It's a call in program , so join the conversation and air you views on the role of independent schools in our country and their contribution to development.

Coming soon - Another Delroy story-update

Helen Billy Elm Williams

Cover for 'Delroy and the Marog Princess' which will soon be available as an e-book

UPDATE Now available at 

http://www.smashwords.com/b/175987 

This is the second story in the Delroy series. The first, Delroy in the Marog Kingdom was published by Macmillan

Look out for this exciting, intriguing continuation of Delroy's adventures with the marogs. 

Drog

Last week, I went to look at the illustrations for my upcoming children's book being published by LMH Publishing in Jamaica. They are verrrrrry interesting. It's a picture book for ages 6-8 about a dreggen named Drog, who lives in DreggaeLand. I will share a picture of Drog when I am allowed. Stay tuned.

When are you going to publish my book?

I suppose that in  this modern age when every thing is instant - even publishing can be instant via 'e' publishing, it must be difficult for authors to understand that they have to wait to get a response from a publisher. And that publishing can take up to two years from date of submission ( I have had to wait longer). and that enquiry after two weeks will not hasten the procedure. New authors, especially, are often guilty of the overzealous request - for WHEN will I be published.

 'Attitude' does not help either, the threat to take the Ms elsewhere will not move your manuscript any faster through the process and might well turn off a prospective publisher of your story.

If you really can't wait, then go into epublishing. It's quick, low cost and gets you instant results.

 link to my other blog

Link to hazelcampellbooks

Review of My Darling You ( my new ebook of adult stories)

I thank Geoffrey Philp for his review of my ebook My Darling You. Among other things he says:

The stories in My Darling You are engaging in their deft development of character, use of dialogue, and adept handling of plot. But there's more. They also give the reader a brief glimpse into the lives of characters who have been changed by love while skillfully exploring Jamaican attitudes toward sexuality ("Emancipation Park) and the influence of the church on the romantic decisions of its members ("First Love").

But wait, there's even more......

Read the full review here
http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/2012/04/e-book-review-my-darling-you-by-hazel.html

My New Blog

I HAVE STARTED A NEW BLOG to talk about

my first ebook - a collection of short stories

my writing for adults
Check it here
http://hazeldeebooks.blogspot.com/

Writer's Reward

Ages 8-12

I haven't been posting for some time. I must confess that writing for adults has seduced me away from writing for children for a bit. All writers know that you have to follow  the muse where she leads. She has a mean kick if you resist.

Anyway, on Saturday, March 17, it was book fair day in Kingston at Emancipation Park. Many children and parents turned out to look and buy books As I sat in the  Carlong booth, I was pleased to see that some of the children had already read at least one of my books published by Carlong in the Sand Pebbles Pleasure series for ages 8 -14.


One boy, when he heard that I was the author of Miss Bettina's House, came over to speak to me. We chatted a bit about the story and in leaving he turned back to add: 'You know what I find funny? Animals adopting a boy. I really laughed at that.' That was my reward for the day.

Also Miss Bettina's House was featured on a children's program, Kids Say, on local station TVJ. The host, Suzanne, read a portion on the book to some very alert youngsters and I was interviewed by a nine year old. Rewarding Saturday.

Catch the repeat showing of Kids Say on Wednesday 21st on TVJ at 4:30 pm

I'll see if it is possible to get the video for posting.

The Future of Children's Books

'So here's a conundrum.. If you have kids, you get told over and over limit their screen time. And you're also told, instead of screen time, get them reading more, which is all well and good, except that these days, many children do their reading on a screen, which raises some interesting questions about how children read today and what direction things are headed in children's book publishing

             2012 National Public Radio®.

Read the discussion in this topic here:  http://www.npr.org/2012/02/18/147099486/the-future-of-childrens-books 

Since we, in the Caribbean,  are so linked into the rest of the world this could also be our future - at a slower pace.

 

Today's Food for Serious Thought

Here's an excerpt from an article in the Vancouver Observer
Since we don't do much of this kind of research in the Caribbean  (that I know of) we have to look at the trends elsewhere and match these to our own observations. Check out the article
http://www.vancouverobserver.com/blogs/new-education/2012/01/30/parenting-advice-how-make-teenagers-read-book

Based on research over the last 20 years teenagers that don’t read books are less likely to attend college, have reduced language skills, experience depression more frequently then non-readers and have lower paying jobs. That is a lot to be alarmed about. Research also notes that reading fiction has significant benefits to the brain including increasing attention span, developing empathy, improving overall social cognition and enhancing reasoning ability. Reading books benefit our teenagers in so many ways.

Six Impossible Things

I follow a number of interesting blogs, one of  which is Random Thoughts by Bish Denham, a children's writer. I was just reading her post on Alice in Wonderland- the movie

http://bish-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/search/label/Alice%20in%20Wonderland

in which she says:

 the thing I took home with me, that will stay with me the longest, is this lesson from Alice: that she imagines at least six impossible things every day. And I thought, what a great writing prompt!

She lists her 6 impossible things and got me thinking about what I would choose,. so, here goes

Snow in Jamaica

Moving sidewalks- no more traffic
                                                       

Self-repairing body parts

Knowledge injections - no more schooling

Thought travel -think of a place and you are there 

Peace on earth ( very tongue in cheek that)

Some of these are already in science fiction.

Share your 6 impossible things