Skip to main content

Island Fiction e-books now available online

Island Fiction e-books available online!
St. Francois Girls, Belmont

We put everything on the menu for our children, except the treasures that  require at least a little effort, self respect and discipline.  Then we lambaste "Them" with the burden of every social ill. We hear ad nauseum about "The Youth Today" as though they are a separate specie, as though we adults and parents and leaders had nothing to do with who they are becoming.

With the exception of crime, we protect our kids from nothing these days. Well, another exception is suffering. We seem intent on protecting them from every good, ole healthy struggle, with the promise of building character, that comes along.

Teens want a legit stretch that's why there's so much mischief when they are not challenged. Island Fiction series was published with this in mind. Our heroes struggle with themselves and their circumstances and make the journey home, metaphorically and sometimes, literally.

It's true, the movies aren't out yet; not even in development actually. We've no merchandise to offer at fast food outlets, but kids who read IF usually light up with something like, "When is the movie coming out? I could just see it so clearly!"

Look, if you reading this blog, I preaching to the converted.

So I'll be direct and keep it simple - Buy books for kids - they love them! Read aloud with kids, even adult ones - they love it!

Share books, swap books - PUT THEM ON THE MENU.

Keep awake in learning to like books yuhself; cultivate and sustain a reading lifestyle  - teens can smell hypocrisy in Trinidad, from Tobago.

And yes, of course Island Fiction titles are great gifts for traveling, packing, downloading -  these unique, electrifying, fast paced adventures are suitable for mature readers, both boys and girls from 10+ and up and are great "first" chapter books for reluctant teen and young adult readers.

Caribbean people may be glad to know there is not a witch, warlock or vampire in sight. Yaaaaa! You will meet River Mumma, La D'iablesse, Alex a Waspachu of the Cougar Clan on the S. American continent who sees and hears the legendary pan man from a nearby island; there's a suicidal student who flunks Common Entrance exam and opts to  swim through time on the back of a turtle named Odysseus. You'll encounter Legba and the temptress Zulie and the androgynous blue skinned Loba and did I mention, an entirely new race of Goans? And much more...

This is a writers' blog yes, but remember we need readers - they are our oxygen. So spread the word!

Above All,
Happy Writing, JJ

Comments

Helen said…
Any more suggestions as to how we can spread the word? Delroy in the Marog Kingdom was used by the Jamaica Library Service in their reading competition and got good TV coverage, but when I phoned a few school librarians, I discovered that they had never heard of the book! Nor the principals of most of the prep schools in Montego Bay.
I have been doing press, TV, appearances both free and paid, in schools, libraries, events for twelve years now. Ten books later many people don't know my name and have never heard of my books - and this is a MUCH smaller market here in Trinidad. It is no different for any author in any town or city anywhere in the world. We have traded the question, "How can I get published?" to "How can I sell my book(s)?" that's all. It comes as a surprise if our expectations were based on the more glamorous success stories that are so prominent in our popular culture.
Having said all that - do you keep a blog, moderate a Face Book Page? The more related content and more active your social media skills it appears to keep the circulation of the books alive. Here what - if you come up with any great ideas share with the rest of us too! smiles.
Billy Elm said…
Thanks, Joanne. I'm surprised that people in Trinidad don't know you and your books. Maybe I shouldn't be. Perhaps there's a lesson in that for me.

Popular posts from this blog

Mari Popova reviews: Gabriel Garcia Marquez "Living to Tell the Tale"

Above All, Happy Writing, JJ Read all: http://www.brainpickings.org "If you're going to be a writer you have to be one of the great ones…After all, there are better ways to starve to death." Gabriel García Márquez  (March 6, 1927–April 17, 2014) is one of  the greatest authors of all time , and yet he had an unlikely path to greatness. His life-story is an emboldening antidote to the tyrannical myth that the crib is the crucible of creative genius...

UP A Tree, With a Good Book...

Think of your young readers this way: up a tree, with a good book and worried that the sixth book in the series marks the end, because then what will he do!  All 6 Island Fiction titles are available as e-books at: https://macmillancaribbeanebooks.com/  or jump to Time Swimmer by Gerald Haussman, one of my all time favorite teen titles: https://macmillancaribbeanebooks.com/timeswimmer.html Or why not kick start August reading with: Night of the Indigo by Michael Holgate which won a Silver Moonbeam Medal for "Teen Spirituality" https://macmillancaribbeanebooks.com/night-of-the-indigo.html Pictured: Battle of the Labyrinth, Percy Jackson Photo credit and copyright: J. Johnson What to read when Percy Jackson comes to an end? Now young Caribbean readers have a series rich in speculative fiction sci-fi, fantasy, magical realism. Check out all 6 titles of the  Caribbean's first-ever teen series with cinematic writing that even reluctant readers will

Looking Up...

Above All, Happy Writing, JJ I am convinced we are all on a spectrum from "Wounded" to "Recovering" Creatives. Being creative and wounded seem to coexist as a part of our human condition. Observation reveals that even as functional Creatives, we collude, propagate and inflict wounding on ourselves and other creatives. Putting malice aside, (or perhaps even including it), if ignorance can be  simplified to the individual "ignoring what is within",  then who really can be 100% beyond its dark, sticky reach 100% of the time. With this in mind, it is a  life-saving effort for sincere 'working' creatives to expect, even anticipate resistance.  And at least, to include the work of having to transcend it. The more insistent we are at our creative endeavours, no end of obstacles will arise both from within our own complex unconscious and outside; from others in our range of influence, and beyond. SO, what to do with all these voices? Nay-sa