STORYWORLD

Marjorie DeLuca's Storyworld: THE SEAHAM PROJECT: a great link to the past : For my historical novel, UNNATURAL (still out for submission to publishers) and for my upcoming Amazon release THE PITMAN'S DAUGHT...

For my historical novel, UNNATURAL (still out for submission to publishers) and for my upcoming Amazon release THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER,  I relied a great deal on some amazing sources for inspiring pictures and details about daily life in the 19th and 20th century in the East Durham (UK) area. One great resource I'd like to mention is THE SEAHAM PROJECT  , an amazing collection of photographs, oral history, articles and other cultural artifacts. Here's a small excerpt directly from the section on Children Working in the Mines .  It makes you realize how lucky we all are nowadays. The little trapper boy Children as young as three or four were employed, with both sexes contributing to the work .  The younger ones often worked in small teams, with those pushing the corf from the rear being known as  thrusters . The thrusters often had to push the corf using their heads, leading to the hair on their crown being worn away and the child becoming bald. ...

Indie Author News: New Indie Book Release: The Forever Ones (Marjorie... : New Indie Book Release: The Forever Ones - Marjorie DeLuca YA Science Fiction (269 pages - July 2013) The Forever Ones deals with the r...

WWW Wednesdays comes  from MizB over at Should Be Reading  and was passed onto me by  +Brandy Graves  from her A Little of the Book Life  blogspot.  There are all these terrific sites out there promoting books and encouraging people to READ READ READ!  You should check them out.  Anyway WWW Wednesdays is all about your reading habits.  To join in with it simply answer the following questions: What are you currently reading? What did you recently finish reading? What do you think you'll read next? Here's my three answers: CURRENTLY READING: THE BURNING by Jane Casey This is a debut novel by UK author Jane Casey- a tense thriller with an interesting female detective named Maeve. RECENTLY FINISHED READING: DARK PLACES by Gillian Flynn From the author of "Gone Girl", another gritty, brilliant suspenseful story. READ NEXT SHARP OBJECTS by Gillian Flynn OK I'm hooked on Gillian Flynn's "visceral" styl...

Marjorie DeLuca's Storyworld: The Pitman's Daughter: The Story That Started it A... : " They put Rita's da's house into a museum" Setting of THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER A coalmine in the North-Eas...

" They put Rita's da's house into a museum" Setting of THE PITMAN'S DAUGHTER A coalmine in the North-East Pictures courtesy of the Seaham Online Project The very first novel I wrote is set in a small mining village in North Eastern England on a street of colliery houses.  It's a love story but it's also the story of a way of life that only exists now in museums. It's a story of love, survival and ambition all told against the backdrop of the coal mines that dominated the North-East for at least two hundred years.  Thankfully now the destruction left by the mines has disappeared and nature has covered the old scars but the memories still linger.   The Pitman's Daughter is the story of Rita and you can read it very soon on Amazon. This novel, written in 2000 has a bit of a history also.  Back in the days when a writer could contact publishers directly I had some high profile editors respond very favourably to it.  Here's a sample...

Great news!! The Forever Ones is now available in print for those of you who don't have Kindles.  Check it out at this link here.  It's also available in Canada, Europe and the UK.  I'm waiting for some reviews!! Click here to locate my Amazon page And for all of you lovers of historical novels, I'll soon be publishing an earlier novel of mine called The Pitman's Daughter on Amazon.  I'll tell you more in upcoming blogs about this epic novel about a street of colliery houses  in the North-East of England. UPDATE ON UNNATURAL, my historical novel about Mary Ann Cotton:  It's still doing the rounds of US publishers courtesy of my agent, Emily Sylvan Kim of Prospect Agency .

Marjorie DeLuca's Storyworld: You Can Write Too. : I know lots of you love to read but how many of you have a secret wish to write?  And how many of those are afraid to make a start becau...

I know lots of you love to read but how many of you have a secret wish to write?  And how many of those are afraid to make a start because they're afraid they have nothing to say?  My answer to this is TRY IT! You have to start somewhere and in my many years experience of helping high school students become better creative writers, the first step that gets the whole process going is to start a DAILY FREE WRITE JOURNAL!.  Here's how to do it: Go to your favourite bookstore and buy the most beautiful, appealing writing journal.  Make sure it's one that you love to look at, handle and - yes - smell!  Buy the craziest, sleekest or silliest pen.  One that takes you out of your comfort zone. Purchase the above items and head straight to the coffee shop where you'll treat yourself to a decadent, expensive and complicated drink as well as the yummiest pastry.  Sit down and admire your journal as you sip your frosty frappucino.  Handle the pen ...

I wanted to share some fascinating info I discovered while researching my novel-in-progress, A Proper Lady.   It seems that women's age-old quest for beauty took an interesting turn in the mid-Victorian era.  The use of cosmetics and any artificial potions, lotions and concoctions was frowned upon by the staid Victorians who believed a woman's beauty lay in her natural God-given charms. Washing in clean water was the only thing necessary to preserve the natural bloom of her cheeks. Since most young, eligible well-to-do women relied on physical beauty to catch a husband there was a major problem if you happened to be sallow, pimpled, swarthy or an aging spinster or widow looking for a last chance at marriage.  Or if you were married and had a husband with a wandering eye for the younger women.  Women such as these were preyed upon by unscrupulous "cosmeticians" offering all manner of exotic processes imported "from the harems of the Turkish Sultans" or ...

After years of hard work I'm happy to announce you can find one of my novels on Amazon Kindle e-books !  It's my sci-fi novel The Forever Ones, which is the first of a trilogy called The Iduna Project.  If you liked The Hunger Games you'll like this one.  It has drama, action, adventure and - yes - romance!  You can access the book at my Amazon author page .  It's available in all countries but only on Kindle right now.  Read it, review it and let me know how you like it.  You can send messages to me at the Amazon author page . For all you history buffs interested in my novel Unnatural -   my agent has finally submitted it to US publishers so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  I'll let you know what happens!