This morning The Mini Dictator asked, “So, Grandad, are you an author now, instead of a head teacher?”

We were getting ready to visit Bear Bookshop, because it is one of her favourite places and she has been saving up her pennies and thought she might buy herself a book out of her very own money (and probably knowing that I would buy her one too!)

TMD loves books and is fascinated by authors, has her favourite author (Julia Donaldson) and is always creating her own books. She knows that I wrote WSG and had clicked in her brain that, if I’d written a book, I must now be an author.

When we arrived, with TMD clutching her purse, the wonderful Jenny pointed her towards one of the displays and there was Who Stole Grandma? on an actual bookshelf in a proper bookshop . . . and in that moment I officially ticked off one of my absolute top Bucket List items. Jenny had told me that she had made a space for WSG, but seeing Moosh looking out from her shelf was such a special moment!

Huge thanks to all of you who have helped me get to this point 🙏🏽

And very special thanks to Bear Bookshop (https://bearbookshop.co.uk)

Just for the record: TMD bought herself Zog and the Flying Doctor and, yes, I bought her not one but two more Julia Donaldsons 🤣💜

The WSG Delivery Tours have been majorly disrupted by tumbles down canal embankments, collisions with canal bridges and the need to self-isolate, but we’re back on the road!

Taking copies of WSG to friends, who we haven’t seen for far too long, and those who have been long lost (35 years), and to people we’ve never previously met (but have connected to through sharing WSG) has been such fun.

Last Thursday added another wonderful moment.

Our friend, Fi, had messaged to say that she would like to get her hands on a proper turny-page copy of WSG for her Mom, Joanie. She was hoping that I’d be able to send one to Suffolk in the post.

Rather brilliantly, having only ever been to Suffolk once in our lives, we had plans to go to Latitude, our first ever festival, which is at Henham Park near Southwold . . . i.e. Suffolk! Even better, our Airbnb (tenting / glamping / campervanning were not on the agenda) was only 25 minutes from Joanie’s and so I suggested that we drop off a book on our way.

Even better, when we shared our travel plans, it turned out that Fi would be arriving back in Suffolk the day before us, for her very first visit in two years. So plans were made and ETAs shared.

Fi’s Dad, Joanie’s husband, Geoff (‘Big G’) had Parkinson’s Disease and sadly passed away in November 2019. Because of this I was a little anxious about visiting a woman I had never met and giving her a book that I am certain will bring back painful memories, but meeting Joanie was a true joy. Much as I might have wanted to keep the conversation away from PD, Joanie steered the conversation straight at it and we talked about Geoff, and about our respective losses, and about caring for a loved one, and about the type of adored man he was and about the wonderful memories he had left her with.

Still, I was worried about her reading WSG and I told her so and her response made me float, “Mark, you’ve written about love and laughter and that’s what is important.”

As a postscript, we met up with our son, Alex, at Latitude, where he was playing with two different artists and I was finally able to sign his copy of Who Stole Grandma?, which was particularly special, because his Grandmother nurtured his musical giftedness and there I was signing his copy in front of the stage that he would perform on. She’d have loved that.

This week I had the most lovely surprise pop up in my email inbox!

I can not speak for other authors (yes I just used the A word about myself – only as part of a group, though!), but, for me, sharing Who Stole Grandma? with others has been an abundant joy. I read the reviews, even though I keep hearing that one shouldn’t. I embrace the messages that people send, wallow in them, cherish them, share them with HMW and allow them to waft me around. But nothing quite prepared me for this email.

It was from Moosh’s oldest surviving friend, Elisabeth.

Elisabeth and Moosh became friends in Iran, when I was just a boy. They were part of the expat community into which Aly and I would fly for our school holidays. Elisabeth’s family had welcomed and befriended our family when we arrived.

Elisabeth, who I last saw over 40 years ago, had written to say that she had read WSG and to share memories that reading it had provoked, of wild flower holidays to Turkey and Corsica, that she and Moosh had gone on together, and of family camping adventures next to waterfalls in Iran, and most crucially to send love to Aly.

More than any other of my lovely WSG experiences, Elisabeth’s message brought Moosh back to me. It was almost as if Elisabeth’s compliment was coming out of Moosh’s mouth. So, now, I’m floating.

Then, as if that loveliness was not enough, as I was writing this, HMW chirped, “Aw, isn’t that lovely?”

She wasn’t doing her normal trick of reading over my shoulder as I write, but was showing me a review that she thought I’d already seen. I hadn’t seen it, because I’d completely missed it! For me it is an especially important review because it was written by someone who works for Parkinson’s UK.

Someone hold my feet, because I might just float away 💗

I still hesitate to use the word ‘author’ in a sentence about me, but I imagine that I am like almost every person who publishes a book in that I dreamt of seeing a proper, turny-page copy of Who Stole Grandma? on display in an actual bookshop.

So it it was with some trepidation that I walked into our most local bookshop and asked the owner, Jenny, whether she would be willing to give shelf space to a completely unknown writer from up the road (who didn’t even have a printed book yet).

Jenny was so welcoming and generous and as keen to support local writers as I was to support a local business and the shelf space request evolved into a book launch / book celebration plan.

So, it is lovely to be able to now share that we are holding a ‘Who Stole Grandma?’ night at the utterly lovely Bear Bookshop, a wonderful, recent addition to Bearwood High Street, where our granddaughter loves to visit for story time after school on the days that she is with us.

Click here https://bearbookshop.co.uk/ to get a flavour of why I find Bear Bookshop such a special place.

Our ‘big night’ is Tuesday 20th July at 7:00pm.

• Two Readings from Who Stole Grandma?
• A Q & A
• Music: Paper Plane (Alex’s Song for Moosh (Chapter 41))
• Raffle for Parkinson’s UK
• The Tunnock’s Tea Cake Game (Chapter 44)
• Book Signing (donations for Parkinson’s UK)

My hope is that you will come to experience Jenny’s fabulous shop, especially her selection of children’s books. Come to buy books for your children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, pupils and children of friends. And that you will help us to raise more money for Parkinson’s UK, while enjoying an evening of celebrating ‘Who Stole Grandma?’.

As numbers are necessarily limited, if you would like to join us on 20th July, please PM me before 8:00pm on Friday 9th July 2021.

Bear Bookshop is at 588 Bearwood Road, B66 4BW

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/wsg4puk

The exhaustion and excitement of your eyes popping open and your brain lighting up at Stupid O’clock (5.14am!) to the certain knowledge that today is the day that your book is released on Kindle!

To be a million percent honest, my long-term dream was to have Who Stole Grandma? on a bookshelf in a bookshop that I could walk into. Rather brilliantly, however, plans are already in place for that to happen.

The Kindle dream only started pulsating in my head when we uploaded WSG to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing) a couple of weeks ago and I thought that it would instantly be available EVERYWHERE, only to be told, “No, Mark, you have to wait.”

But now the waiting is over and Who Stole Grandma? is officially a ping-around-the-world, tree-saving, open-on-your-phone Kindle e.book AS WELL AS BEING a turny-page book for those old school people like me, who still love the smell of a paper pages.

Up to the end of July, £1.50 of every Kindle purchase will be donated to Parkinson’s UK.

#parkinsonsuk

#WhoStoleGrandma

#THEBOOKSHELF

I will be using the promotion of ‘Who Stole Grandma?’ to raise funds for Parkinson’s UK.

WSG is the story of mine and Mom’s time together after we learned that she had Parkinson’s Diseases. Although the book is not about Parkinson’s, the time that we shared, and all the fun we fitted in between the challenges and sadness, stemmed from Mom becoming ill.

Now my sister, Aly, who is a principal character in WSG?, has been diagnosed with PD, so my intention to run this fundraiser has been greatly magnified.

Up to the end of July I will donate all of the earnings from paperback sales through Amazon (49p per book) and 50% of earnings from e.books (around £1.50 per book) as well as collecting donations for signed copies where it is possible to meet people.

I am ordering a batch of books to be the signed copies that people have requested and the plan is to bring the books to you, have a coffee and a catch up and collect donations. At the moment there are several Birmingham & Black Country get togethers in the planning, including a Book Launch Evening at a wonderful local bookshop. There are also, joyfully, 5 Delivery Tours beyond the Midlands in the offing:

• The M1 Tour (heading towards North Yorkshire)
• The M6 Tour (heading for the Scottish border via The Wirral)
• The M5 Tour (heading towards Somerset & Devon)
• The M40 Tour (towards London-ish)
• The Languedoc Tour (via Kent, Normandy & the Haut Vienne)
• If you’d like to be included in one of these WSG Delivery Tours, PM me your address and we’ll sort out money when I see you.

And now I get to say: ‘Who Stole Grandma?’ is available worldwide, right now, as a turny page book AND can be pre-ordered as an e.book to pop open on Sunday.

I would be hugely grateful for any support you can give me in letting friends know about WSG and my fundraising. Thank you in advance.

#parkinsonsuk

#WhoStoleGrandma

#THEBOOKSHELF

Oh the joy!

Hearing the letter box rattle, knowing that I was expecting it to . . .

Then hearing a hefty thud and internally yelping, “Don’t drop my book!”

I hadn’t let on that the Amazon tracker had informed me that the very first printed copy of WSG was arriving two days early. Her Most Wonderfulness and I were in Wales, celebrating our anniversary and the important step of getting WSG onto Kindle, when the message popped onto my phone. In fact HMW was still fast asleep and I was watching woodpeckers and nuthatches and cute little mice from the hot tub.

I didn’t say anything as we packed the car and tidied the Airbnb. I didn’t say anything as we pootled home watching traffic jams head in the direction we were coming from. I didn’t say anything as we played with our granddaughter. But I was bursting to!

Her Most Wonderfulness only guessed when she saw the Amazon guy walking away from the house followed by my not-quite-athletic attempted leap for the front door and then silence. The silence was the sound of me cradling my Amazon parcel and thinking, “Gosh, it’s heavy!”

It all got a tiny bit emotional after that as first I and then Her Most Wonderfulness and then Yeeshy held / stroked / cradled The Book and WhatsApp messages pinged.

Stunningly, two friends immediately announced that they’d just bought turny page copies of WSG on Amazon. I didn’t even know it could be bought yet!

It’s the next morning now, and everyone else is asleep, but me and The Book are in the spare room planning Covid Safe Delivery Tours and a local book launch as fundraisers for Parkinson’s UK. I’ll let you know about those in the next few days.

On Sunday, there was the excitement of opening a WhatsApp message from your booksmith guru to find your finalised book cover. I’d sent a collection of review comments from when I’d shared WSG last year and the designer had selected a few to be included beneath the blurb. I’m blaming those for the resultant rush of sweaty-eyed emotion 🤣

Then there was the doubled excitement of arranging the moment when you will ‘meet up’ remotely to upload ‘Who Stole Grandma?’ to Kindle AND order the proof copy of the turny page version.

I just knew that I wouldn’t sleep for the two days to now, due to suppressed tiggerish excitement! Hence the bout of today’s very early morning bout of shirt ironing and household chores – I think I was ‘nesting’!

BUT . . .

(Cue images of an inordinately Tigger-type bouncing) . . . We did it! We did it! We did it!

‘Who Stole Grandma?’ is now out in Kindleland. Technically, YOU can’t buy it yet, but I HAVE seen the test run on my Kindle – truly lovely chills-inducing experience! The tiny amount of hair still remaining on my head was all stood on end!

After a long gestation period, WSG? is out in the world. Right now, it’s off with the clever Amazon people being checked over for any glitches, but, the first proper turny page book(s) will drop through our letter box this weekend and I will be able to order 100 turny page copies for those of you who have asked for a signed copy First Edition (which sounds rather grand!) and then it will go live and be available.

Tigger Days 💜

(Very Nearly) Published Author 🙏🏽

Sláinte Babs 🥂🥂🥂

#THEBOOKSHELF

#booksmith

#WhoStoleGrandma

It turns out that one of the joys of trying to self publish a book is all the other stuff!

What page colour will you be using? How many ISBN numbers do you require? Do you have a website? What is your publisher name?

Thankfully, I have been guided to the answers to #1 & #2, and technophobe me has been coached to achieve #3, by my very patient daughter – which left the question of #4.

When you buy ISBN numbers, you are asked what your publishing name is. I didn’t have one, nor any clue as to what I should choose – clearly ‘Penguin’ had been taken!

Casting around the dusty corners of my brain, I came up with Olive Tree Publishing, inspired by the fact that there have been olive trees visible from each place that I have sat to write Who Stole Grandma? – Andalusia, Languedoc and Smethwick, yes Smethwick! But, it turns out that Olive Tree is a popular name in publishing.

In mild desperation, now casting around our living room, my eyes took in the 200 elephant ornaments on our picture rail, ours is literally the elephant house, so Hathi House – hathi being Punjabi for elephant.

In time I hope that Hathi House will be home to several books. I’ve created pages here to outline the different working projects that are fluttering around the bits of my brain that actually are functioning.

A friend described the difficulty (if not impossibility) of spotting your own written errors as ‘snow blindness’, which perfectly described my discomfited, disorientation in the last month of trying to iron out the last wrinkles in Who Stole Grandma?

Their efforts to rescue me from that blindness, by identifying the many traps that I had managed to snare myself in, make me enormously grateful to the following friends:

Judith Allen

Nick Baggott

Nandeep Bambra

Margaret Blaikie

Jane Brock

Diana Bowden

Katie Boyle

Kim Bradbury

Sally Clarke

Sue Collin

Teresa Costello

Anne Grego

Brian Helsby

Rick Hermolle

Marian Hills

Erica Hughes

Julie Kirkbright

Tony Lacey

Ranjit Lanyon

Leonard Morrison

Leigh Pipkin

Lyn Porter

Aly Posselwhite

Neil Posselwhite

Farrah Rehman

Cath Rindl

Seana Roberts

Jess Rutter

Cath Sharkey

Pete Simmons

Liz Ward

Helen Wells

Jen Wilkinson

Liz Wright

Some of you I have not seen in far too long, so hopefully we can remedy that in the months ahead.

Some of you I have never met, but I hope that I may do so, soon.

To all of you, along with my heartfelt gratitude, I send my favourite greeting, courtesy of Nortons (a truly wonderful, newish, Irish bar in Digbeth, Birmingham) – Sláinte Bab🍀