Eifion Jenkins, who edits The Carmarthen Underground for me, has published on Smashwords. Have a look at smashwords.com and compare. What annoys me is the business of signing up to Amazon Merchant and having to pay out money to them. Eifion's book is called Gwenna's Gift (for young people).
Keep up, Swansea! Hope it's all crystal clear now. Just a note to Brian that I really regret putting my book on Kindle - it's worked out as being expensive for me. I'm doing my next one on Smashwords - the book will be readable on pretty much every type of e-reader.
Yes, I agree that BBC Wales seems to have a successful drama dept. I've never watched Merlin as I'm convinced it will be a load of rubbish! Why no one has dramatised Mary Stewart's wonderful Merlin trilogy, I'll never know - it's even set in the correct historical context. None of that helps you. We must remain hopeful, whatever happens.
What a let-down. Aside from money issues, there's no one with the guts or imagination to make the sort of programmes we took for granted 30 or more years ago. I agree with John Hurt on that. When you look atdramas like I Claudius and the plays that were broadcast each week back in the 70s and 80s, it's really sad that we won't see that sort of thing again. I've got the DVDs of I Claudius and I think even then the budget was about 5 bob (they only had about 3 sets) but it was brilliant.
Oh, good news. Any hope of dramatisation of the books yet? Much better than blydi Downton and Upstairs Downstairs!
Ooh, I still have some to catch up on, Brian. Martha is absolutely convincing so you have no worries there. Writing from the point of view of the opposite sex (even if not in the first person) can be very successful; I think of Arthur Golden (Memoirs of a Geisha), Donna Leon (the Guido Brunetti series which I love), Barbara Nadel's Inspector Ikmen stories and Susanna Gregory's addictive Matthew Bartholomew tales. I'm sure you won't get a red card from the referees anyway!
I am absorbed in the second novel about Angel Mountain at the moment and have just looked up Brian John on Wikipedia. He is in fact a serious scientist and is a leading light in GMFree Cymru. I believe the Angel Mountain saga was his first foray into fiction.
The stories begin at the end of the 18th century and we hear much about the French (and their failed invasion of Fishguard and the surrounding area) and Bonaparte so it's by no means insular and there are some violent and shocking scenes. The setting is Carn Ingli in Pembrokeshire and, having loved Newport (Parrog especially) and Nevern from childhood, it's very enjoyable to read these tales and have at least an idea of what the area looks like.
The first novel, On Angel Mountain, starts with the finding of diaries written in Dimetian Welsh, an archaic dialect. The diaries are the record of the life of Martha Morgan (nee Howell), mistress of Plas Ingli. We learn about the poverty of tenant farmers, the cruelty and machinations of landowners and how life was conducted generally in that time. There are arguments about education for the poor and this is a time when non-Conformists are rising in number.
There are two lawyers mentioned regularly, Lewis Legal and Will Final Testament; these are just two of the delightful names given to people whose surnames are ubiquitous, so you have Davy Death (who makes coffins) and Havard Medical, the Newport doctor.
I recommend the books as a very good read as well as shedding light on that part of Wales (Little England beyond Wales) in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I'm impressed too that Brian John is so successful in writing from a young woman's point of view.
