‘Undelivered Mail …’ by Ms Paige Turner
To my horror, I have just discovered that my emails are going into most people’s Junk Mail. This is easily remedied if one has a small mailing list but I have 700 writers on mine: 700 people who have physically (how else could they do this?) given me their email address for an occasional mail shot to highlight mine and other writers’ wares. I have never phished an email in my long years of laptop industry. Alas, my private email list has also been targeted by computer company algorithms. I did find it rather odd that no one had replied to my private or work emails but when my son-in-law was not receiving any emails concerning my grandchildren, I became aware of this, well … horror.
I am now discovering companies like Mailchimp. There seems to be a whole host of these writing tools which are making Word and regular emails obsolete. How does one keep up with it all? Having spent the last year narrating my poetry collection: ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ – available here on Amazon Audible  Red Lipstick and Revelations  and my novel ‘Shakespeare’s Clock’ available here: Shakespeare’s Clock – I discover AI is now moving in on that territory. And all my mail shots giving the info’ on my audios have obviously fallen on fallow ground.
And as if the universe is speaking to me, when clearing out my many papers, I recently discovered an air mail letter, written some forty-seven years ago and in Russian, which had somehow found its way into my suitcase when I left my job in Montreal in 1977. I plan to post this undelivered mail and will keep you posted about that.
I also plan to investigate Mailchimp. If I don’t, like my blogs I will be speaking to outer space. If you are reading this, please let me know if you received my March mail shot and …please check your Junk Mail!

studentenquiries@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
‘Poetry with a Pen and a Passion’ – Saturday 25th May, Highcrest https://bit.ly/3SGpcvZ

Writing your Memoir/Life Writing – Saturday 8th June, Beaconsfield.
Writing for Children – Saturday 9th November. Beaconsfield.

My Amazon Audible excerpt of my recorded novel ‘Shakespeare’s Clock’ was featured on BBC Radio on Thursday 14th March. (Sorry about the delay but I have been busy recording the next novel ‘Blackberry Promises’ for Amazon Audible.)
The show is BBC Radio Berkshire (And it’s across quite a few counties) – Upload at 6-8pm on 95.4 FM, 104.1 FM, on Digital, BBC Sounds and here you can now listen on catch up:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0805r6w

I’m an hour into the programme. Leo Ulph says he ‘really, really likes this’ and promises to have me back.

Here is the link to my Amazon Audible of the novel and you can listen to a sample before deciding to purchase.

Shakespeare’s Clock

And here’s the link to the Amazon Audible of my poetry collection:

Red Lipstick and Revelations

Having written and recorded my poetry collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ published by Indigo Dreams and recorded the Audio to Amazon, I embarked upon recording my novel Shakespeare’s Clock published by Cranthorpe Millner and have now uploaded this to Amazon Audio.
This is the link. Shakespeare’s Clock
You can sample a free taster just by the cover before deciding to buy.
If you are in the business of ‘pencils and what not’ you will know how many hours it takes to write and in my recent case, record one’s words. And then of course, you hope someone will read them and so you set upon the marketing path and further hope that the sales take place: in a place crowded with books begging to be bought. If you’ve been on this journey, you will know the joy, when someone emails and says, ‘I bought it’ or ‘I downloaded your audio to my phone’. These words are to be cherished and I could kiss these people. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
These days, we are inundated with information and links, so, I will simply place a number of links before you and the chances are, if you know one of these writers or you see something that takes your fancy, you might just buy their book or download the audio. Let them know. And of course, if you can, leave a positive comment on Amazon or wherever the books live.

Here is the handy link to our When This Is All Over pandemic anthology. Let’s keep raising money for the Rennie Grove Hospice please. https://amzn.to/3xi8iay

Jan’s poetry collection on Amazon Audio for £5.59.

Red Lipstick and Revelations  (Free codes available in exchange for a review!)

Jan’s poetry collection book – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Lipstick-Revelations-Moran-Neil/dp/B0CLC4XMCV/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1708102673&sr=8-1

www.janmoranneil.co.uk and www.janmoranneil.co.uk/blog

In order of submission:

Virginia Betts’ two poetry collections – Tourist to the Sun and The Camera Obscure https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=virginia+betts&crid=3U7BNARYEV4PA&sprefix=virginia+betts%2Caps%2C124&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_14

Jenny Hammerton Murder, She Cooked

Cooking With Columbo

Supper with the Stars

Cooking With Joan Crawford

Pat Abercromby – Song of Love. Book launch Beaconsfield Library – Tuesday 19th March at 2.00pm.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Song-Love-Pat-Abercromby/dp/1035836505/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.ecjr-xjQFsgAbul4bPRGrA.6lgFBq9jC1f4fQXIullD4nih2x1T_ZOy6tPxTBsM_LU&dib_tag=se&keywords=pat+abercromby+song+of+love&qid=1708105364&sr=8-1

Jane Edmonds has had poems published here: poetrykit.org.
Jane Mackinnon was commended in the King Lear contest for her poem ‘Unforgettable’
Let me know if you have any publishing news.

studentenquiries@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

‘Poetry with a Pen and a Passion’ – Saturday 25th May, Highcrest https:

https://bit.ly/3SGpcvZ

Writing your Memoir/Life Writing – Saturday 8th June, Beaconsfield.
Writing for Children – Saturday 9th November. Beaconsfield.

‘Back on the Beat …’ by Ms Paige Turner.
This is a bit late as I have been wining and dining myself in good old, beautiful Cape Town and apart from a singular, one-to-one consultation, for the first time, I didn’t do a scrap pf work but I was broadcasting my poetry, during my trip, on Radio Berkshire. Here:
The show is BBC Radio Berkshire (And it’s across quite a few counties)
on 95.4 FM, 104.1 FM, on Digital, BBC Sounds and here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0805r6w

You can get the catch-up on this link, I believe. It’s a BBC upload for ‘creatives’. I think this is the new buzzword and presented by the lovely (from what I can tell of his profile picture) Leo Ulph. When I managed to upload the links to Instagram and Facebook, I saw that the first ‘like’ was from my niece who I was seeing for wine and dinner that evening at the Cape Town Waterfront. (South Africa is two hours ahead.) I wondered if she thought I was flying home to a Radio Berkshire studio. She said ‘no’ but thought I was recording from my hotel room (which I have done in the past). Amazing – I just uploaded from my Amazon audio of my collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ and I’m on the airways from 6000 miles. Check it out. And Leo promises to broadcast more of my stuff.
My ‘Poetry with a Pen and a Passion’ workshop has been moved to Beaconsfield on Saturday 2nd March and it’s definitely running with a couple of places left – so please rush to sign up.
Here’s the link to my Amazon Audio of my poetry collection which I am always plugging but my second novel recording is coming up fast when I get around to uploading it.
The audible narrated by myself is available here for £5.59. Red Lipstick and Revelations>

‘Peter Pan’ at the London Palladium Panto’ Review …
My parents always took my sister and me to the London Palladium panto’. Sometimes we sat in the box, even though our origins were humble. So it was a ‘big thing’ and probably at that time one of the few productions rather than the plethora of pantos we get these days. When we took our two granddaughters to the Palladium yesterday, I said before the performance to Master Mind, our son-in-law, that when I was six and Dick Emery took his cat head off revealing Puss in Boots, I was disappointed: I wanted to believe in the cat.
To Peter Pan. I must be showing my age now. Those who were top-billed had one-man spots whilst presumably the intricate costume changes were taking place. Julian Clary was good, despite the relentless sexual gay jokes – when you managed to hear him above the equally relentless crash/bang from the orchestra. My senses were assaulted. How our four-year-old granddaughter slept through it all, I have no idea but my daughter did have to permanently cover her daughter’s ears. Jennifer Saunders as Hook asked where the children were as she ‘had seen more children on a Saga cruise’. If they were in the audience they certainly weren’t being heard, drowned out by the volume of the orchestra and the middle-aged hen party sitting behind us who were literally wetting themselves from the sexual gay jokes and their apparent pints of vodka.
The starring cast seemed jaded to be on stage, even before Christmas arrived. The one-man spots, advertising where they were starring next at each juncture had little to do with telling a story. Okay, I guess we’ve heard it all before, but have the children for whom I thought pantos were supposed to be for? In fact, numerous times the starring cast could be seen sighing when they mentioned: plot, plot, plot and saying, ‘Oh, should we get back to the plot? Is there one?’ There wasn’t really. Neither was there a murmur of ‘she’s behind you’ as that’s now probably old hat.
It was all very disappointing; but then I was showing my age as when I mentioned Dick Emery to Master Mind, the son-in-law, he said, ‘Who?’
2024 Creative Writing Classes:
Saturday March 2nd ’24 – Poetry with a Pen and a Passion at Highcrest.
Saturday June 8th ’24 – Memoir – a gift for your grandchildren and/or for posterity at Beaconsfield.
Saturday July 6th ’24 – Writing which Raises a Smile – The serious business of humour at Gerrards Cross. Saturday November 9th ’24 – Writing for Children at Beaconsfield.
Book through Buckinghamshire Adult Learning.
Contact: studentenquiries@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
Red Lipstick & Revelations – my poetry collection is now available again in paperback on Amazon at £7.99. Since my publishers Indigo Dreams have ceased to print it, I have been able to do this myself. Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLC4XMCV

The audible narrated by myself is available here for £5.59. Red Lipstick and Revelations

Please leave a review if you are able and Merry Christmas 2023.

An Introduction to Creative Writing at the Beaconsfield Adult Learning Centre this autumn … by Jan Moran Neil
It’s been a strange and interesting return to teaching Creative Writing at the Beaconsfield Adult Learning Centre this autumn. After twelve years of running these courses I left in 2000 to set up my own Creative Ink for Writers’ classes. I returned as the present tutor fell ill – initially I thought for five weeks. The group was so lovely I ended up teaching a full course of ten and was touched by their comments on a recent observation. (Which was also strange to experience after 52 years of dinosaur teaching.)
“I have loved this course – I wanted to experiment with creative writing. This course has taken me out of my comfort zone, but that has been good.”
“I was inspired by a friend to do creative writing, but didn’t know where to start. This course and Jan’s teaching have been inspirational.”
“I have appreciated the little hooks to hang things off that Jan has given, so helpful.”
“The feedback I have received has been helpful and constructive.”
“I am learning the rules around writing, this has been very helpful.”
“The homework assignments have given me inspiration.”
(The observer uses double speech marks – single now seem in vogue.) So I now have agreed to four workshops for 2024 listed here:
Saturday March 2nd ’24 – Poetry with a Pen and a Passion at Highcrest.
Saturday June 8th ’24 – Memoir – a gift for your grandchildren and/or for posterity at Beaconsfield.
Saturday July 6th ’24 – Writing which Raises a Smile – The serious business of humour at Gerrards Cross. Saturday November 9th ’24 – Writing for Children at Beaconsfield.
Book through Buckinghamshire Adult Learning.
Contact: studentenquiries@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

Red Lipstick & Revelations – my poetry collection is now available again in paperback on Amazon at £7.99. Since my publishers Indigo Dreams have ceased to print it, I have been able to do this myself. Here’s the link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLC4XMCV

The audible narrated by myself is available here for £5.59.

Red Lipstick and Revelations

Please leave a review if you are able.

Writing Dates for your Diary … with Jan Moran Neil
Poetry with a Pen and a Passion – Highcrest Adult Learning Centre – Saturday 2nd March, 2024
Life Writing – A Gift for Your Grandchildren or for Posterity – Saturday 8th June, 2024 – Beaconsfield
Writing Which Raises a Smile – Humour – Saturday 6th July, 2024 – Gerrards Cross
Book
Book through Buckinghamshire Adult Learning.
Contact: studentenquiries@buckinghamshire.gov.uk

The present group at Beaconsfield this term is lovely.)
Red Lipstick & Revelations – my poetry collection is now available again in paperback on Amazon at £7.99. Since my publishers Indigo Dreams have ceased to print it, I have been able to do this myself. Here’s the link:https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLC4XMCV

The audible narrated by myself is available here for £5.59.

Red Lipstick and Revelations

Please leave a review if you are able.
I am snowed under with recording my second novel ‘Shakespeare’s Clock’ for Amazon Audible.

‘Creative Writing Course with Jan Moran Neil …’
There are two places left on my 5-week Creative Writing course at the Beaconsfield Adult Learning Centre beginning next Wednesday 1st November. To enrol go to studentenquiries@buckinghamshire.gov.uk
Most writers have re-enrolled from the first few weeks. Lovely group. Email me if you want to find out more.
And …
If you are an Amazon customer you can buy the audible of my poetry collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’ for £5.59 here: Red Lipstick and Revelations. You can taste a free sample right next to the cover. Please leave a review if you do purchase.

‘Alma Maters …’ by Ms Paige Turner
In one weekend I was invited to three of my four alma maters from which I graduated and hath flourished. The first was the Ark Oval Primary School – or as I knew it – Oval Road Primary – last Friday for their 150th Anniversary. The second was the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama – or simply ‘Central’ as we knew it – on Saturday. And lastly the University of Cambridge – on Sunday.
Such institutions encourage financial donations – and why not? Ark Oval sits in Oval Road, Croydon – a mere javelin-throw or so from Croydon High Street where tragically a fifteen-year-old Old Palace pupil was knifed to death. It’s a deprived area and after speaking to two assemblies of pupils in a sea of maroon uniforms – which has not changed in sixty years – I took a tour of where I grew up and was reminded of how far I had come. To …
‘Central’ which – apart from celebrating Professor Sally Mackey’s retirement – a former Head of Applied Theatre and Education – was fund raising for students having difficulty in financially support themselves in our capital city. The Embassy Theatre was jam-packed and I watched a film of our beloved Studio 1 – where I rehearsed and learnt and flourished – being demolished to make way for a new future studio. Hundreds of A4 sheets of paper – with memories of hours spent in that venue descended upon the to-be-built studio’s foundation as a time capsule. I reminded myself that I had emailed in some words and at that moment, Professor Sally Mackey asked if Jan Moran Neil was present. She read out the sonnet I had written in 2016 when the demolition took place. Here it is:
Bedrock by Jan Moran Neil (nee Titterington) T 72- T 76
after James Elroy Flecker and for Studio 1.

Future students of our sweet English tongue,
beneath this bedrock sit our foreign words.
We once danced above, sang, gave breath, were young,
spoke sonnets, supped, flew with Pinter’s old birds.
Unknown fleeting footfalls now it’s your turn.
We can only guess at your far-flung lives;
embed worded messengers in this earth
and send to you these underpinned archives.
Dig deep. For what is central to your art?
A core, a base, solid unweathered rock,
backbone, root, foundation, pulse, beating heart,
a place to return when all runs amok.
But hey, like us, laugh, sleep rough on barley wine.
Hello from the back syllables of time.
Sally Mackey is filmed reading the sonnet at the end of this link on You Tube.

https://youtu.be/eQwsQYOScaM
I cannot begin to tell you how proud I was and hope that the time capsule will be opened in 150 years to come. A third reminder to me as to how far I have come and that it’s not where you are in life but how far has been your journey. And that journey begins at a parental knee – hence our ‘alma maters’.
My covid jab took place on the Thursday so I’m afraid I didn’t have the energy to get to Cambridge on the Sunday.
If any past Oval Road students would like to donate then here’s the email address.

Ark Oval Primary Academy 150th Anniversary fundraising campaign – JustGiving

If any past Central students would like to donate then go to the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama website and the Sally Mackey Bursary Fund and you can donate here: donate online 
And if you would like to purchase the Amazon audio of my poetry collection ‘Red Lipstick and Revelations’ for £5.59 then this is the link: Red Lipstick and Revelations

‘To Market, To Market …’ by Ms Paige Turner
So having spent months upgrading my laptop, buying recording equipment, recording my poetry collection ‘Red Lipstick & Revelations’, opening accounts with Amazon Audible, filling in all my details, finding the right pixels for my cover, uploading all my files, waiting for approval, I then realise that I must go to market. What’s the point in having it out there if no one listens?
Amazon Audible give you a few ‘promo codes’. Free codes to give to ‘influential’ people who might help sell your spoken words by giving a review. But generally, one has to go out to one’s contacts and well, sell. That’s if you don’t have an army of publishing marketeers behind you. Which, like all the other thousands of authors out there in the market place, I don’t.
I am used to having a reading and signing books with real people. Not watching a slowly moving sales dashboard so I suppose the audible launch was a bit of a deflated balloon.
Undaunted and fuelled by the fact that my spoken collection had reached number 1 on Amazon for Grief and Loss Poetry and Love Poetry (I didn’t know I had written any love poetry) last Tuesday, I decided to enjoy my day in this September sun. Like the mayfly, I was certain this number 1 spot would survive only the day. So before setting off for Quaker Poets, I did two things. I paid £10 to have an ad on Facebook. I thought I was just paying for my cover to be spread more widely amongst my own friends and not to the general public. (I don’t read instruction leaflets.) So how disconcerting was it, to have two very, very, rude comments from people I don’t know and whom know nothing about my word wares? It took me two whole days to stop the ad on Amazon Audible.
The second thing I did was to take a screenshot of my first place to print out and frame.
So, to my three blog readers, if you haven’t bought it for £5.59 then here it is: Red Lipstick and Revelations

Or if you are ‘influential’ tell me, and I will gladly send you a promo code. You just need to be an Amazon customer – which many of my contacts aren’t. So, I will have to rely on that number one spot. Which, (and I check) had slipped down the top ten by lunchtime last Tuesday when I arrived home from Quaker Poets and will probably be 661 by tomorrow.
Such is the life of a poor performing poet …
PS You don’t need to be an Amazon customer to listen to a freebie sample next to the cover on the link. If you do listen to the whole thing and like it, please leave a review. You see … I can’t stop …