Secret Smile Writing

My fifth book is up for sale

It’s a young adult book, written in poems. It’s about a girl named Caprice who finds her first love, and is naturally confused as it’s another girl.

It’s a story dear to my heart, haha. I couldn’t seem to get it to work as a short story or a novel, and I decided to write it in this form instead. And I like it

The paperback is £3.50, buy here.

And the ebook is free to download… for a limited time Download here.

In searching for writers/artists for the magazine, my writer’s block has gone. Just suddenly gone. I’m quite shocked, I’ve written three or four poems this weekend…

And thanks to those who have sent me stuff for the magazine there are so many good writers out there that I wish I’d known about sooner. But so far all I have is poems, some artwork or photography would be nice! Don’t make me resort to doing my own front cover as usual ^_-

Last post of the night, honest :]

I’ve set up a form, so if you don’t want to send an email you can just fill it in here and it will be emailed to me. Although if it’s an image you’re sending you will need to email

Thanks!

Calling all writers / artists! I’m starting up a magazine – looking for poems, short stories, paintings, drawings, digital art, whatever as long as it’s entirely yours! Everyone has a chance as it will probably be quite a big magazine, and I’ll hopefully be making more issues anyway. Also you’d retain all copyright etc. I should point out it will be non-profit for all of us, including myself, so if you’re in it for the money you’ll be sorely disappointed!

Oh and I will be looking for art/photography for the front cover too.

So let me know if you’re interested! And if you want to submit something now send it to lis.m.murphy@googlemail.com. I’ll be creating a form for this soon anyway, watch this space!

- The Editor ^_~

Considering a new edition of Little Vampire, with a new cover… I love the old cover, and it took forever for both of us to make, but there is a reason I need to change it. I had always planned to make a sequel (hence why it ends on a cliffhanger!) but I had also considered making it a series. And now I think I will be doing that, the Little Vampire series. So the first one will have a different title.

Plus I thought maybe a simpler front cover. I’ve always loved Jerry Spinnelli’s books, and I loved the editions with the simpler covers. Especially Stargirl -

And the Eggs cover, too…

So anyway that’s the idea! Will also make a hardback version. Still waiting for my hardback copy of Check, can’t wait!

Brand new hardcover special edition of Check now available here! A bit more expensive at £16.20 but I think it’s worth it, hardcover books with dust jackets are always good to have, so much better than a paperback.

Will update with a picture once I receive my copy

Also Check and Subtleties & Misconceptions will be up for sale on Amazon soon, will update nearer the time

Have joined tumblr, so I have a place to post all the random stuff I annoy everyone on Facebook with. And I’m going to continue to do this anyway.

So:

http://missnoir.tumblr.com

Hurrah, my cards arrived today from Vistaprint. I love the design on them… here it is:

So, hopefully more people will find their way here and maybe read some of my books. Vistaprint is addictive though… how badly I want the notebooks with my design on them!!!

Received my copy today Few formatting errors (such as the back cover being so dark you can’t even read the text) and a few poems appearing on the left hand side for some reason. Sorted now though

Anyway, still nice to have it Book number four… and having lots of ideas for book number five, I might add. I love this part, when all the characters start to come together.

Grace stopped aging officially at the age of 29 officially, but she still looked and felt as she had done at 25. People frequently guessed her age wrong: they always guessed a two digit number. In an attempt to keep things simple, she always went by the official age of 29 and she always called herself Grace. Her surname changed, and sometimes her hair changed, depending on where she was moving to. She moved around a lot, as did the others from the Old Families. They did it an attempt to remain anonymous, thinking Grace was doing the same. She had decided to go along with this for a long time. Let them think she was one of them! What did she care?

However, that was before she started to draw attention to herself. When she last stayed in England, she learned something important about herself: if there was one thing she knew better than anyone else, it was human nature. Perhaps it was a long life of observing, or perhaps it was a natural talent. Whatever it was, she began to see things differently to the others. She had always considered human life as a path, but now she could see it was nothing like that. Each human life was a chain, and each little decision, unconscious or otherwise, was a link in their life chain. Each one was unique, and often tangled with the chains of other possible futures which had not been decided yet. It had taken a long time to control. At first, she could see the lives of everyone she met in her own head. After a while, she learned how to see it only when she was looking for it.

With this revelation came another: if she could see the way things were due to go, she could step in and change things for the better. Her kind didn’t like to meddle in the affairs of humans, and she knew she would be punished if she did. But then, one night in the early 20’s, the simplest of things changed her mind. At the time she lived in a little house in London, pretending to be a widower. One night as she was doing the washing up, she heard a woman scream. Grace hurried to the window in the front room to see a beautiful dark-haired woman in evening dress being forced against a wall by a man in a smart suit. Without thinking, Grace grabbed the first kitchen knife she saw and ran at the man, in her nightdress, yelling incomprehensibly. The attacker looked alarmed and backed off immediately, running away before Grace could stop him.

Grace took the woman inside and offered her a cigarette and a gin, having a feeling it was exactly what the stranger wanted. The woman had black hair in a short bob, and dazzling blue eyes. She didn’t seem very shaken up by what had just happened, though anger radiated from her in waves.

“My husband,” she said finally. “He shouldn’t be drinking. And, really, I shouldn’t have told him so.”
“That man?” Grace asked in alarm. Why, she thought, do these beautiful women end up with such monsters?
“Yes. Him. I said, if you’re going to carry on drinking I shan’t be going home with you tonight. I came down this street heading for my sister’s, she’s just around the corner, but he followed me. ‘Some wife you are,’ he said.”
“Some husband he is,” Grace muttered darkly. “What’s your name?”
“Claudia. Don’t ask my surname, it’ll only depress me,” said the woman with a hollow laugh.
Grace topped up Claudia’s drink. “Can’t you stay with your sister for a while, and have some time away from him?”
“He’d never allow it, darling.”
“Then remind him of the knife-wielding neighbour.”
Claudia smiled. “I’m afraid not. I can’t seem to get rid of the man. I need his money. My sister’s poor enough as it is, I couldn’t live with her without a penny to my name.”
Grace sighed. She always forgot how important money was. With her, it just accumulated. She had been through so many jobs, taken out so many different bank accounts, and they just kept giving you money. Interest, they called it. “Listen to me. Time alone does you the world of good. I should know, I’m a widow.”
“There’s an idea,” said Claudia with a wicked grin. “I’d make a good widow.”
“No, I mean… get away from him. I’ll give you the money to go somewhere else. Travel, if you like.”
Claudia laughed as she finished the gin. “That’s ridiculous. Strangers don’t just hand out their life savings to women who they get mixed up with.”
“I’m not your average stranger,” Grace said carefully. “My dear late husband left me with a fortune, but I have no family to spend it on. I will not have children. I don’t want it, so I’m giving you enough to start a new life.”

Grace knew she was being forward, telling a woman to leave her husband when they had only just met, but she could also see Claudia’s life if she stayed with him. She couldn’t bear to look at it any longer. After a long conversation, and the remainder of the bottle of gin, Claudia reluctantly took the money and ran.

Grace still wondered what had happened to that woman. She could have tracked her down, of course, but it was too risky. The moment she intentionally changed a human life, they would have known about it. If she was to contact Claudia again, they would catch her. Since then, Grace had been on the run. She had always moved around a lot, but she had liked being able to return to her house in London whenever she pleased. That was what hurt the most: missing her true home. She was never afraid of being caught, because she knew she would always be one step ahead of them. They saw her running from town to town, country to country, but they never knew that she was not running away from them. She was searching for something.

Twelve things, in fact.