INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS SHOWCASE
#11 BLUEMOOSE BOOKS
Happy New Year everyone! As we enter Lockdown V.3 and news is pretty bleak and with the festive period over it is a welcome return to the Independent Publishers Showcase on my blog. To start the year, we welcome Bluemoose Books to the showcase.
Bluemoose Books was founded in 2006 by Kevin and Hetha Duffy and are based in beautiful Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire with the idea of bringing brilliant stories to readers across the world. And just look at the books that Bluemoose Books have published over recent years: Leonard and Hungry Paul by Ronan Hession still one of the most beautiful novels I have read in many years. The Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers is just a stunning novel and won the prestigious £25k Walter Scott Prize in 2018 and if that was not enough Benjamin Myers won the Portico Literature Prize in 2015 with Beastings and it also went on to win the Northern Writers Award in 2014 and went on to win the Gordon Burn Prize in 2013 with Pig Iron.
With a dedicated team of editors, they may not have a publishing house in the big city but what Kevin and Hetha did was to re-mortgage their house with the sole intention of bringing great stories alive.
They have a very exciting listing of books for publication in January, these can be pre-ordered by visiting their website with details below.
Keep an eye on their Twitter feed @ofmooseandmenor visit their website: Bluemoose Books
A selection of the fiction titles currently released and soon to be released through Bluemoose Books:
Captain Jesus by Colette Snowden
Published: 28th January 2021
Summary:
When three brothers find a dead magpie and peg it to the washing line, the resurrection re-enactment becomes a portent of tragedy to come, and a reminder of past guilt and trauma. In Captain Jesus we see a family struggle to cope as loss rips through their lives; through the teenage eyes of their mother, twenty years earlier, we glimpse the events that shape her response. The icons, influences and family histories that define faith connect the two narratives as the family gradually heals, thanks to the quietness of love and the natural world.
Should We Fall Behind by Sharon Duggal
Published: 22nd October 2020
Summary:
Jimmy Noone walks from one side of a sprawling city to the other, looking for Betwa, a friend he found and lost on the bustling city streets. Jimmy becomes the catalyst for lost lives colliding, exposing stories of tenderness, devotion, displacement and tragedy, and the subtle threads of commonality which intersect them all, making the invisible, visible again.
East Coast Road by Anna Chilvers
Release Date: 28th November 2020
Summary:
As university term gives way to the summer break she is plagued by dark memories and the only person there for her is her cousin – a cousin that no one else can see – together they embark on a journey that changes Jen and her world forever. ‘Haunting, shape-shifting and tense, ‘East Coast Road’ takes the reader on a thrilling quest which challenges our preconceptions. Chilvers is a master storyteller and she guides us through the complexities of devotion, faith, tenderness, grief and desire, all set against the rugged coastal edges of north east England.’ – HELEN MORT
The Sound Mirror by Heidi James
Release Date: 20th August 2020
Summary:
‘Tamara is going to kill her mother, but she isn’t the villain. Tamara just has to finish what began at her birth and put an end to the damage encoded in her blood. Quitting her job in Communications, Tamara dresses carefully and hires a car, making the trip from London to her hometown in Kent, to visit her mother for the last time. Accompanied by a chorus of ancestors, Tamara is harried by voices from the past and the future that reveal the struggles, joys and secrets of these women’s lives that continue to echo through and impact her own.’ The Sound Mirror spans three familial generations from British Occupied India to Southern England, through intimately rendered characters, Heidi James has crafted a haunting and moving examination of class, war, violence, family and shame from the rich details of ordinary lives.
King Crow by Michael Stewart
Release Date: June 2020
Summary:
Paul Cooper is an outsider. When he looks at people he wonders what bird they are. He finds making friends difficult especially when he has to move from school to school, so he obsesses about ornithology until he meets Ashley.
Winner of The Guardian’s Not The Booker
World Book Night recommended read.
Michael Stewart is a fascinating new voice, and King Crow is a fine debut novel. Part action thriller, part psychological drama, part birding manual. I’ve come across nothing quite like it. It’s a fantastic example of modern fiction at its innovative best.’ Melvin Burgess
For further information on the publications from Bluemoose Books please visit their website: Bluemoose Books
You can also find them on Twitter: @ofmooseandmen and also their Instagram feed @BluemooseBooks
If you have enjoyed this week’s showcase, please look out for my next Independent Publishers Showcase next week. If you are an indie publisher and would like to add your name to the showcase, you can contact me via Twitter: @TheLastWord1962
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