Monthly Archives: October 2019

The Eco-Friendly Christmas Gift Guide.

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plastic freedom Bambaw reusable makeup remover padsplastic freedom, handmade soap, bamboo, beauty kubes, eco-friendly, sanitary protection , bean and boy bean and boy handmade gin and tonic soapPlastic Freedom is a great website which has a huge selection plastic free products. They also do gift boxes. They have an array of eco-friendly stuff like Bean & Boy natural handmade soap, Bambaw reusable makeup remover pads, Beauty Kubes Shampoo and Helen Round’s reusable bamboo face wash set.

Plastic Freedom, the online store striving to eliminate the world’s plastic-footprint recommended these products to us and we were very impressed.

Founded by 28-year-old Beth Noy in 2018, @plasticfreedom_was started single-handedly from her spare bedroom. She now sells over 900 products that come from a number of sustainable suppliers, including vegan cosmetics, mother and baby products, plastic-free lunch boxes, kitchenware, travel accessories and everything in between.

Beth Noy lives entirely single-use plastic free herself, and some of her favourite products are: Beauty Kubes, PF x Sol Cup and Beeswax wraps.

plasticfreedom.co.uk

CLEAN TEETH, CLEAN CONSCIENCE

  • A new toothpaste that is 100% recyclable, with no single use plastic tube.

  • Unlike other toothpastes on the market, it contains no harsh soaps, antibacterials, petrochemicals or artificial colouring.

  • 100% natural flavouring, with papaya extract for natural whitening and essential minerals to strengthen tooth enamel.

C:\Users\Owner\Downloads\IMG_0040.jpg

A new toothpaste that is not only good for you but good for the planet is now available in the UK. Happier Toothpaste, from sustainable beauty brand Happier Beauty, has packaging made from traditional aluminium, that is easy and energy efficient to recycle. With 1.5 billion single-use plastic toothpaste tubes thrown away every year, Happier toothpaste is a great swap to reduce your carbon footprint.¹ There’s no unnecessary cardboard box either. Even the postal packaging for the toothpaste is 100% recyclable, wrapped in 100% recycled tissue paper and posted in a reusable bubble envelope.

The toothpaste itself is also refreshingly different, containing only natural flavourings and no nasty chemicals. Each ingredient in Happier toothpaste has been specially selected to have as minimal impact to the environment as possible. Other market-leading toothpastes contain many artificial ingredients that are unnecessary and, in some cases, harmful. Happier toothpaste contains no soap and instead has a low foam formula treated with coconut oil to create light refreshing bubbles without drying your mouth. Happier toothpaste also avoids Sodium Laurel Sulfate (SLS) which is commonly found in other toothpastes has been linked with causing mouth sores and ulcers, and is often used in shampoos and body wash.

Happier toothpaste also contains natural ingredients with great benefits. Papaya fruit extract is infused into the toothpaste which aids with whitening and prevents new stains from sticking to your teeth.

The toothpaste is 100% cruelty free and vegan friendly. It has also been specially formulated for sensitive teeth.

Faye Wilson, founder of Happier Beauty said: “Toothpaste is something we put in our mouths twice a day, yet nearly all of us are guilty of being unaware of what is actually in it. I created Happier toothpaste after I started seriously looking at what is in market-leading toothpastes and saw you need a chemistry degree to understand half the ingredients!

“We are completely transparent with our ingredients; explaining what each ingredient does and why we’ve included it in our toothpaste. We never use SLS, triclosan, parabens, petrochemicals, colours, artificial flavours or sweeteners.

“It is also very important to us that our products have little to zero impact on the environment. We’ve taken special care to source ingredients that are kinder to your mouth and 100% recyclable materials for our products right down to the tissue paper the tubes are delivered in.”

Happier toothpaste is available online for £12.00 per 75ml tube, with free UK shipping. It is available in Fresh Mint flavour.

For more information, visit happierbeauty.com.

Letter to my younger self by The Big Issue reviewed by Natalie Jayne Peeke

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If you could write a letter to your younger self, what would it say ?

Some years ago, The Big Issue began asking people that and since then, some of the most brilliant and successful people from the worlds of entertainment, politics, food, sport and business have had their letters published in the magazine.

This collection of 100 of the most incredible letters includes Paul McCartney writing on how he found inspiration, Olivia Coleman on overcoming confidence problems, Mo Farrah on the importance of losing, Arianna Huffington on knowing your motivations, Jamie Oliver on trusting your instincts and many, many more, including Rod Stewart, Margaret Atwood, Buzz Aldrin, Tracey Emin, Michael Palin, Melanie C, Dionne Warwick and Ewan McGregor.

Letter to my younger self is a moving, inspiring and powerful insight into the wisdom that age brings and how you can use this knowledge to shape your future.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, I have never read anything like this before, it is truly unique. Many of the ‘letters’ are inspirational. I especially enjoyed reading about people that I wouldn’t otherwise have heard of and discovering what they went through, what they were like when they were 16, and how they got to where they are now.

I equally enjoyed reading about the people I have heard about, I learned new things about them. Each story was empowering and encouraging. This book was so easy to read as each letter is relatively short and if you wish you can pick and choose what letters you want to read.

So if you’re in  need of some motivation, empowerment or if you’re just curious to learn more about some truly inspiring people then this is the book for you

Letter to my Younger Self:  Hardback- £16.99

 

Vanilla Reindeer – a personalised gift: by Natalie Jayne Peeke

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Don’t you just envy that person who gives the most beautifully wrapped Christmas presents? You wonder how they have the time and energy to find those gorgeous gift bags and chic bottle boxes. Well fear not, as now you can be that person the ultimate gifting guru with the help of Vanilla Reindeer.

No matter your needs Vanilla reindeer has something that will suit your needs they offer a range of products and designs ideal for Christmas for all ages from gift boxes to advent calendars and chocolate truffle boxes.

I was fortunate enough to sample the chocolate truffle advent calendar. I was able to personalise it with a picture of my children and a message and design of my choice and even able to choose the recipient and have their name added. The result is beautiful, the picture was clear and of a great quality, the chocolate truffles were divine and bigger than I expected.

The chocolate truffle advent calendar is a must for fellow chocoholics who need an excuse to have a chocolate truffle a day throughout December, it will also make a great gift for that someone special as you can make the calendar completely unique. A gorgeous calendar that will impress everyone.

Red Truffle Advent Calendar £22.99

Snowman Standard Advent Calender £11.99

www.vanillareindeer.com

My Writing Process – Karen King

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writing, my writing process, I’ve always been a bit of a planner, mainly because when I started my writing career over thirty years ago I wrote for teen magazines and children’s comics and had to send a synopsis of the story first, for approval. Now I’m living in Spain I write mainly romance novels but I still send a synopsis of the story I’m planning to my editor. She will make comments and we’ll flesh out the plot between us before I start writing it up.

I really like to know my characters before I write the story, and often trail Pinterest boards for photos of people that look like my characters, print them out and put them in my WIP folder so I have an image of them while I write. I also create a Pinterest board for every book I’m working on, looking for images that are connected to the story and repining them to my WIP board. I find that really helps me to brainstorm. Once I feel I know my characters well enough I start to write, freewriting the story as it comes and not stopping to edit or correct until I’ve finished.  Then I leave it for a couple of weeks (unless I’m on a tight deadline) then go back and edit it. 

I usually do four different edits, first I read all the way through to get the feel of the characters and story. I make comments in the margin or underline anything I want to change but don’t alter them at this stage. For the next set of edits I work on anything that I’ve marked up and pay particular attention to the story structure and timeline. For the third set of edits I pay attention to characters, dialogue and setting and for the final set of edits I look out for typos and grammatical errors. I’m now lucky enough to work for Bookouture, and we’re usually on a tight deadline so they ask for the first draft, then get back to me with their comments, which works really well. I always find it helpful to get their advice and guidance into making my story stronger.

I find I work best in the morning so ideally like to get up, grab some breakfast and start work for a few hours. I write most days and don’t usually have a word count I’m aiming at unless I’m on a tight deadline, then I’ll work as and when I can during the day, and late into the evening too until I meet that wordcount (it can be anything from 2-5,000 words).  I mainly write in my upstairs office which is in the studio apartment on the terrace but can also be found writing by the pool with my laptop in a box to keep the sun off my screen, or at the dining room table. I can write anywhere really, as long as I have my laptop, or a notebook and pen. 

If I get Writer’s Block I simply carrying on writing until the story flows again, then delete any rubbish I’ve written to get me there. Which is why my advice to new writers is – stop faffing about and just write! You can edit afterwards, the main thing is to get your story down.

Contact Links

Website: http://www.karenking.net/

Twitter: @karen_king

Karen King Romance Author Facebook Page

Karen King Young Adult Books Facebook Page

Pinterest: https://uk.pinterest.com/karenkingauthor/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karenkingauthor/?hl=en

Single All The Way

Blurb

Snow is falling, bells are ringing… and my heart is broken. I pick up the phone to tell my mother about Oliver and me. But before I can, she says, ‘I don’t exactly know how to tell you this… But I’m leaving your dad.’
Single together for the first time, 34-year-old Meg and her warm-hearted, long-suffering mother Sally are cancelling Christmas, and running away to a tiny cottage on the Cornish coast. For Meg, it is the perfect place to heal, away from all the mistletoe, while for her mother it has a special, and secret, place in her heart – from a love story that seems a lifetime ago…

Meg and Sally find they’re getting to know themselves, and each other, better than ever before. But as they are unable to resist getting involved in the village Christmas celebrations, they encounter two handsome local strangers.

Sometimes, it’s being away from home that helps you realise where your heart is. What neither woman knows is that, by the time the new year rolls around, one woman will have fallen in love with her husband all over again, and one marriage will be over for good…

An escapist, romantic and heart-warming novel for fans of One Day in December and No One Cancels Christmas.

Buy links

AMZ: https://geni.us/B07XDYL7GHCover
Apple Books: https://tinyurl.com/y4dkhrvl
Kobo: https://tinyurl.com/y6apzqe2
Googleplay: https://tinyurl.com/y5hc6nfn

 

The Top Alcohol Gifts This Christmas

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wine advent calendar from laithwithe

Wine Advent Calender

Wine Advent Calendar: Case of 24 – £69.99

This wine advent calendar from Laithwaite’s Wine Christmas range is a brilliant idea. Have fun all December. There is a half bottle for every advent day. It has a great mix of wine. Perfect.

From www.laithwaiteswine.com

Tiki Lovers Pineapple Rum – Infused with Pineapple Extract – a new Rum experience

This is a fantastic rum, perfect for Christmas.

Our Tiki Lover’s Pineapple Rum from The Bitter Truth is a rum blend infused with an all-natural, pineapple extract from South America which is allowed to rest for several weeks.  This gives the flavours of sugar cane time to mingle elegantly with fruity layers of juicy pineapple, while maintaining the full and complex aromas of the rum blend. Made using a careful blend of aged and unaged Jamaican pot-still rum, 3-year-old Barbados rum, aged in former Bourbon Whiskey barrels and some young column-still rums from Trinidad and Guyana.

This new rum is bold, vibrant and taste-rich with both the rum and pineapple characteristics being given space to shine.

The Serve: Brilliant in all tropical drinks and tiki cocktails.

Available from masterofmalt.com, thewhiskeyexchange.com

Price £28.95

 

Brut Zéro from Bouvet Ladubay

We were very impressed with this wine and we are very fussy indeed. It is a delicious and fun bubbly. It’s a limited edition sparkling dry wine from Bouvet Ladubay and the first time it has been available in the UK. It’s currently available at Lay & Wheeler.

As the name suggests, this cuvée has no dosage, and so has not a drop of residual sugar. As a result, the wine expresses abundant freshness and minerality, supported by bright citrus and green fruit.

From www.laywheeler.com

Tomatin Scottish

Tomatin Scottish, whisky

Fantastic whisky. These are perfect stocking fillers.

El Bandarra Red
El Bandarra Red, wine, alcohol,

This is juts fantastic stuff and perfect for Christmas. Xarel·lo and Macabeo grapes are macerated with 50 herb extracts such as clove, cinnamon and bitter orange. After fortifying the wine, it is given a touch of caramel and balanced in Solera oak barrels for two months.

ABV: 15%

Serve: On the rocks with a slice of orange and an olive. This is ready to go or can be topped with soda/tonic.

Available from winebuyers.com, masterofmalt,com, thewhiskeyexchange.com, drinksupermarket.com

Price £21.95

Dark ‘n Stormy Ready-to-Go Cocktail Can – The Perfect Stocking Filler

Goslings Rum Dark ‘n Stormy ready-to-drink cocktail

Cocktails in a can usually taste artificial or just not nice. Not so this Dark ‘n Stormy. It tastes amazing. Just as good as the same cocktail made in a bar or at home.

When you need a convenient, highly refreshing drink that can quickly hit the spot, wherever the parties at, what better than our brand new Goslings Rum Dark ‘n Stormy ready-to-drink cocktail in a can that has just launched in Waitrose!

The iconic Dark ‘n Stormy is Bermuda’s national drink and a trademarked cocktail, which mandates the use of Goslings Black Seal Rum. The name is said to have originated when an old salt observed that the rum floating on top of the ginger beer was the “colour of a cloud only a fool or a dead man would sail under.”

A true taste of Bermuda – the Dark ‘n Stormy ready-to-drink can is made using Goslings Black Seal Rum and Goslings Stormy Ginger Beer with no mixing and no ice required.

Price £2.20 for a can/ 3 for £5

Available at Waitrose.com

 

Gin Baubles – £35.00

The perfect gift for: The Christmas tree decorator
gin, gin baubles, christmas

We love these. They look great, are a fun idea and the gin is superb. A crowd pleaser and the perfect ornament for your Christmas tree. Pickering’s Gin Baubles, filled with Edinburgh’s Nine Botanical Gin, are a fun take on the classic decoration. If the temptation is too much, the best thing about these baubles is that they’re refillable, no-one will ever have to know!

From www.laithwaiteswine.com

A PUBLISHER’S YEAR: OCTOBER – AWARDS, ASSOCIATIONS AND AUDIOBOOKS

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Hello and welcome to the next Sapere Books instalment! Lots of exciting things have happened over the past few months. In August I worked with Simon and Schuster’s Sara-Jade Virtue to judge the RNA’s annual Joan Hessayon Award for New Writers. The books we read were all very different and very worthy nominees, but luckily we were unanimous with our winner: The Lost Village by Lorna Cook.

September also saw the whole Sapere Books team attend the Independent Publishers Guild Autumn Conference. The IPG has a wealth of resources for publishers and arranged fantastic talks for the conference. One area it has led us to mull over is audiobook publishing. We have come to the conclusion that it is too expensive for us to experiment with at the moment, but we will certainly be pitching all of our books to audio publishers both in the UK and the US to try and secure publishing deals. We did actually get approached by Tantor Media last month, and we have sold the audio rights to them for the first three books in J C Briggs Charles Dickens Investigations series, which is exciting!

At the beginning of this month we hosted one of our semi-annual author meet-ups. It is lovely to spend some time with our authors face to face, and to encourage all our authors to get to know one another. Everyone is spread out all over the country, and not all of them belong to genre-specific groups like the RNA and CWA, so it feels good to have informal catch ups to discuss industry news, writing projects – and life in general!

Last week the team attended the Crime Writers’ Association Gala Dinner, which happens every year to reveal the winners of their prestigious Dagger Awards. We are the current sponsor of their Historical Dagger, which had already been whittled down to six fantastic books, but I have to say S G MacLean was a very worthy winner for her third Seeker novel, Destroying Angel.

We also have some exciting company news to share. If you have been following these blog posts, you will know that we had been actively looking to sign up some historical nautical fiction. Well, I can know officially announce that we have signed Justin Fox, represented by the Aoife Lennon-Ritchie to our list. Justin is working on a series of novels set in the second world war around the South African Cape, and we hope to publish the first one next year.

As always, we’ve been busy publishing lots of fantastic books. New series we have launched include the Inspector James Given series by Charlie Garratt – traditional English murder mysteries set in the lead up to the Second World War; the DI Jemima Huxley series by Gaynor Torrance – a troubled female detective struggling to stay sane while solving complex murder cases; and the DS Hunter Kerr Investigations by Michael Fowler – a crime team solving serial killer cases in Yorkshire. We’ve also launched two psychological thrillers by Gillian Jackson – ABDUCTION and SNATCHED – which are receiving fantastic reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

We also focussed on publishing more ‘backlist’ titles. We recently signed up Dorothy Mack’s Regency romance backlist, which were first published in the 1980s/90s. The first one, THE SUBSTITUTE BRIDE is selling particularly well at the moment. And we have just starting reissuing Alan Williams’ historical thrillers, with his Cold War espionage novel, GENTLEMAN TRAITOR, out this month.

Amy

 

5 Ways to make your office more productive

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An office is a space that needs to be as productive as possible. After all, it’s a place where we go to work, not to relax or unwind. There are a lot of things that can be done in order to have a very productive office, so make sure to give a good thought of what you need to do for your own office.

 

Make the layout functional

No one wants to work in an office maze, where getting from one point to another feels like an unwanted adventure. That goes double when you have clients. The layout of the office should feel natural, and whenever you’re looking for the thing you need, you shouldn’t have to spend a lot of time looking for it. Spend extra time reinventing your office’s layout if you have to because it will save you a lot of time and hassle in the future.

 

Have your collaboration space feel unique

More often than not, colleagues need to work together on a project. They’ll definitely need extra space to work, but a mere conference room is rarely enough. The amount of space is rarely the problem, as to how that space is utilized is much more important. Making sure that the collaboration space has its own décor, and with all the necessary equipment is key to having your employees work as productively as possible.

 

Have all the desks fully equipped

No employee likes to borrow items from a colleague. While there are items that the employees themselves are solely responsible for, most times, it’s the employers obligation to make sure that the desks are equipped with all of the necessary basics. Stationery supplies should never be overlooked, which is why you’ll want to find a store that has everything you need, like TheWorks.

 

Use lighting efficiently

You’ll be surprised as to how much lighting affects productivity. Bad lighting is absolutely unproductive, as it can cause headaches, eyestrain, and fatigue, while a severe lack of lighting can even feel entirely depressive. Making sure that the entire office is fully lit with the type of lighting that’s called task lighting is definitely the way to go. However, break rooms should be lit differently, so as to make sure that the employee actually rests once they’re there.

 

Make sure the air quality is adequate

Air quality has a tremendous effect on office ambience. Making sure that all of the air filters are maintained, and functioning is key, otherwise you risk total unproductivity. Stale air has a severe negative psychological effect, which can be devastating in any kind of office, either big or small. Keep the air fresh and clean at all times, and never skimp out on quality filters.

 

Maintaining productivity in an office can be difficult. There are so many things to keep track of, and every little detail can mess up the already delicate balance. Make sure you spend more than enough time analysing the situation, because unproductivity can really cripple a business.

 

Sponsored Post.

 

SISTER SCRIBES GUEST: TRACY REES ON WISE WOMEN

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When I first met Tracy Rees on Twitter I had a real fan girl moment – The Hourglass was one of my favourite books. I plucked up courage to ask her to write a piece for Frost, little imagining that during the subsequent exchanges of emails, she’d turn out to be everything she writes about below and more.

 

I always imagined that if I were ever published, it would be with something niche, perhaps something literary or quirky. Instead I find myself writing commercial women’s fiction (historical so far, but watch this space…) and I feel incredibly lucky. It’s a wonderful genre: accessible, comforting, profound and escapist all at once. And it’s a wonderful community; there’s something very special about the bond between women writers, at any stage of their journey.

As women, we have particular challenges, I think, in addition to those of our craft. Even today – and I certainly consider myself a modern woman – there is something in women (Nature or nurture? Probably both) that constrains us to care for the needs of others before ourselves. I certainly don’t mean that men aren’t caring because I only have to look at my own father and partner to know how amazingly kind men can be. But in women there is something that makes us feel guilty and unbearably stressed if we:

  • switch off from thinking about other people
  • pursue a pastime that often seems to have no measurable purpose
  • turn the phone off and spend hours alone, staring into space

Photo credit: Phil Lewis

And what is writing if not a taskmaster that demands all of the above?

Yet if we don’t try, how will we ever know what we’re capable of? What our strange fragments of story ideas might become? How far along our writing journey we might go if we give it our best shot? Exploring our dreams as far as possible makes us happier, fuller people, which in turn allows us to help and support others.

My mother, a true-blue bookworm, was the earliest cheerleader of my writing dreams. But support from fellow women-writers comes in many forms, from comforting cuppas to celebratory glasses of bubbly, from long, in-depth conversations to a hastily dashed-off email in an hour of need. When I was first published I didn’t know any other authors and I felt desperate for people who understood. That’s all changed now and I value it more than I can say, so much so that I’ve launched an appraisal and mentoring service. I love helping people and it’s hugely satisfying to be part of that chain of experience and knowledge, one to another.

There are long-established writers who encouraged me early in my career when I was struggling with unfamiliar challenges. There are writers a few years behind me, coming to terms with the demands of being a professional author. And there are aspiring writers, still discovering all the joys of writing, as well as the more gruelling aspects (Chocolate biscuit, anyone?). We are all a community and the friendship of those who understand what we are trying to achieve is a magic that keeps us going.

There are wise women in all my books, from the alarming Mrs Riverthorpe in Amy Snow, to mystical Old Rilla in Florence Grace to Gwennan (aka Gran) in The Hourglass. In my latest book, Darling Blue, the three protagonists, Blue, Delphine and Midge, are each struggling to find their way. By pooling their wisdom and uniting in friendship, they are able to guide each other and achieve more than they ever could alone. Which is exactly what I’m talking about here.

www.tracyrees.com

Twitter @AuthorTracyRees

Instagram @tracyreesauthor

Tracy Rees always wanted to be a writer. She first worked in medical publishing, then as a counsellor for people with cancer and their families, but like many writers has had many other jobs along the way. A Cambridge graduate, Tracy lives on the Gower Peninsula but divides her time between Wales and London, where her partner lives.