Vibrant Imaginative People

July 2022, Issue No. 10

Your VIP Newsletter from Soulla's Writing Room

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Hello and welcome to July’s newsletter coming to you from a very humid and blistering, hot London. I’m not going to complain about the heat because it’s better than the cold, right? I’ve been drinking so much water I feel like a waterbed but it feels like summer with "love in the air, flowers in my hair".

What's it like where you are?

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The Village House has been Signed

I’m delighted to share some really exciting news. I’ve been offered a publishing contract with Kingsley Publishers who have signed The Village House for release Autumn 2022. I can’t believe it and on the day I received the email I was phoning everyone I knew to tell them. Honestly, I was like a child laughing and whooping at my desk. My eldest son walked in from work and I threw my arms around him in celebration. Such a fabulous feel-good moment. LOL!

It’s been a rollercoaster start and I have already been consulting with the design team on the front cover (My dear friend Anne worked really hard to create a design for me so I’m hoping her idea will go some way to informing the final cover). I am confident The Village House front cover will look amazing and promise to keep you posted.

Ooh, one more thing, Nadia Marks, best-selling author of Among the Lemon Trees has given me a fabulous story endorsement. I am feeling so blessed and grateful right now.

"Romantic, descriptive, and evocative… The Village House captures the authentic spirit of a Cypriot village."

Nadia Marks, best-selling author of

Among the Lemon Trees.

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Name a Cottage...

Thank you to all of you who put forward a cottage name for the homes of the two main characters in my next story, A Palette of Magpies.

I can announce that the winning names, selected from a total of fourteen, are Wisteria Cottage and unanimously still Chrysanthemum Cottage. Wisteria Cottage was mentioned twice and my own choice of Chrysanthemum Cottage was given the thumbs up by four of you. All the suggestions were absolutely delightful, so thank you again for taking part. I loved reading through your ideas.

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Manifest Your Dreams with a Life Board

Last month I put together a new life board and not only was it a therapeutic and most enjoyable project it has also focused my thoughts, efforts and action. I first began working with life/vision boards with some of my students years ago.

They were the ones who had sporadic attendance, punctuality or behavioural issues. Encouraging them to focus on the sort of life they wanted for themselves also served as a way to bring their focus closer to the here and now and to see how what they did in the present would likely impact on their future. Some used this to turn their attitude to learning and their lessons around and went on to pass exams and in the case of one girl, become a sports leader.

What do you do to stay focused and channel your energy into the things which will serve you and your passion? I’d love to hear what tactics and processes you use.

If anyone would like to try making a life vision board click here for the instruction sheet.

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Girls Love Mail and Handwritten Letters

Those of you who have followed me on Instagram for the past few years will know that I connected with a charity back in January 2016 and that connection still continues today. In December 2015, I began a new journey which took me along a very different path to the one I’d been following for almost ten years. I resigned from my teaching and middle management role in a local secondary school and took some time out to decide what I was going to do with the rest of my life.

With my mum still recovering from cancer at the time I decided I wanted to put my joy of writing into something that would give back and I stumbled across Girls Love Mail. The charity, based in California, USA, distributes handwritten letters to women who have been diagnosed with breast cancer. And so, I began to write. I committed to writing four letters a month and though the number and frequency of my letters has changed over the years I am still as committed to the charity as ever.

A few months after writing these letters, to women I will never meet, one of my letters was selected for inclusion in a book called Dear Friend. I guess this was the first time my writing had been published (outside of the school newsletter) and I was thrilled to be included in such a wonderful book.

Fast forward six-and-a-half years and Gina Mulligan, the founder of the charity, is coming to the UK! And I am going to meet up with her!

Receiving her email, last month was simply amazing and I can’t believe that after all this time we are going to meet up face to face. It feels like a miracle, especially after the restrictions on travel following the pandemic. This is definitely a meeting I am not going to miss out on.

When was the last time you met with someone you never dreamed of meeting for real? I’d love to hear your experience.

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VIP Member Spotlight

This month’s spotlight is on a wonderfully engaging and positive member of the #bookstagram community and who, for both authors and readers, is a source of great book reviews. Let’s face it, book reviews are what help to sell books so without book reviewers and bloggers choosing new books to read would be a much harder task.

So, I asked Pauline Reid what a typical day in the life of a book reviewer looked like and this is what she came back to me with:

“I want to thank Soulla for inviting me to talk about my daily life. Well not to disappoint you, readers, my life is varied, and each day is a completely different day to the next. The only bit I try and keep the same is the time I wake up. I listen to either a podcast or audiobook, and then have breakfast after which I go for a walk, but that depends entirely on the weather. This sets me up for whatever I feel like doing next.

I'm a firm believer in using what's around me, so this year, in addition to reading and reviewing books, I have been a bit more creative and experimental with my baking. I started off this year with cupcakes and then moved onto ANZAC biscuits and just recently chocolate chip cookies. I’ve tried a new loaf recipe for afternoon tea, my Ginger and Date loaf, I have been told, is a winner.

Lastly but by no means least, my love of the garden and flowers, encourages me to spend time in the garden. It looks like this spring will be spent putting veg in pot plant holders, something we have done before and proved successful. My son gave me a gift box of flower seeds for Mother’s Day, and I’ve never cultivated flowers before and is extremely rewarding, exciting, sometimes nerve wracking but well worth it to see something come to life, like life itself.

I have left my bookish life till last as this is interwoven with my daily activities. I'm never bored. I'm a creator and have my own YouTube channel and Podcast; I love creating something from nothing. In my downtime, I read, and review books and cover most genres and formats and here are three of my favourite books for 2022 so far:

1. Through The Labyrinth by Jill Yielder (paperback)

2. The Ghost Rider by Ellen Read (ARC read eBook & to be released 7th August).

3. The Garden of Hopes and Dreams by Barbara Hannay (audiobook)

My motivation behind reading and becoming a book blogger and reviewer is to one day find employment in the Publishing Industry. I am very organised in the way I do reviews; I use an app called Trello. As I read, I pull out different sections of the story that interest me, names of places, quotes, etc and copy and paste into Trello. By the time I have read halfway, three quarters of the way through I have an idea of where the story is going and what I want to write down. I also let it sit for a while and come back to do with fresh eyes to make sure it makes sense. 

My advice for anyone who wants to become a serious book reviewer is, you are a one-man band, you not only read books, but an understanding on how the process of authors make books is useful, you must be an analytical person. Number one rule is, it is your opinion, find your own voice, I try not to read other reviews that influence my judgement. Authors will recognise this, and they come to you, not you go to them.”

Wow! I think I need to sit and enjoy a little relaxation after that busy account. Sounds like a very absorbing and fulfilled life.

Is it something you might consider doing? Or perhaps you already are a book blogger. It would be great to hear your story too, so get in touch.

You can connect with Pauline and follow her book recommendations and read her reviews across her platforms listed below:

Goodreads  https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/63985331-paulinereidbookreviewer

Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/paulinereidbookreviewer

Twitter   https://twitter.com/Pauline_Reid_?t=YCKScocAYancrONxTV7YHw&s=09

Instagram  http://www.instagram.com/paulinereidbookreviewer

You Tube  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJEW7cB3Qc_-ERZ185dpckg

Podcast  https://open.spotify.com/show/2cbi4asNaEojhPaBCdglgd?nd=1

Blog 1  https://paulinereid.substack.com/

Blog 2  http://paulinereidbookreviewer.blogspot.com/

Blog 3  https://paulinereidbookreviewer.wordpress.com/

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Until next time…

Stay safe my friend and thank you so much for reading. If you have any ideas for future features, please let me know. This is your VIP Community too. I wish you a fabulous next few weeks until we chat again.

Lots of love, Soulla xxx