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Shelagh Watkins Female United Kingdom: shelaghwatkins; Share

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Shelagh Watkins's discussions

Children Book Market Testing Made Simple

Congratulations Connie! Four hundred book sales is quite an achievement! I'm not surprised you managed to find a new publisher. Good luck with the children's books!

Tagged: books, children, marketing, tips

Added a reply May 13

Welcome to the Published Authors Network

Hi David, Welcome to the forum! It's good to see another Lancastrian. Being an Everton fan, I'll have to forgive you for supporting Man. United. Good luck with the latest book! ~Shelagh

Tagged: novels, work, writing

Added a reply May 12

Internet killed the paperback star

Interesting to note the split infinitive in the quote: estimated to currently have 995,000 words This too, apparently, is becoming accepted. Seems like the Americans boldy went and changed the rule... Continue

Tagged: google, internet, books, italian

Added a reply May 4

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Shelagh's Blog

Bookmark II

Presenting The Power of Persuasion

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Profile

My hometown:: Arthur's Stone, Gower, Wales

My books:

Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine is a story of flight, fantasy, adventure and courage. Although Emmelisa Planemaker is a strong-willed little girl, she misses her dad, who died when she was only five years old.

Emmelisa and her brother Dell have a happy and carefree life until their father becomes ill and is forced to retire at the age of forty-three.

After retirement, Mr. Planemaker decides to build a scaled, model airplane because he wants to build something lasting for his children but he dies before completing the task.

Three years later, Emmelisa is being seriously bullied at school by a group led by the notorious school bully, Mayja Troublemaker. When Emmelisa becomes increasingly withdrawn and unhappy, she seeks help and advice through the computer her father had used to locate specialist model aircraft companies in his quest to build a model airplane.

The computer is more than just a computer and full of surprises: Mr. A. Leon Spaceman being one of them! He guides the two children to Hardwareland, where they train to become astronauts and take on an extraordinary mission into space: to follow their father's TRAIL OF LIGHT.

I am also working on a sequel, Mrs. Planemaker's Flying Carpet, to my first published novel, which I hope to complete by the end of 2007.

Stories of Strength

In October 2005, one of my poems, Hope for a Safer Place, was chosen for inclusion in the anthology Stories of Strength, which was written in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to help raise money for Disaster Relief charities.

Leo's Daughter: Mistress of the Web

My first short story was accepted by Universe Pathways Magazine. Special thanks to George Sotirhos at Universe Pathways for reading my story and accepting it for the English version of the magazine.

Issue 5 of the English magazine with my story inside can be previewed on lulu.com:

Universe Pathways preview

My story, Leo's Daughter: Mistress of the Web, is on page 167.

You can find Issue 5 of the English magazine here:

Universe Pathways: Issue 5

E-book: Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine
Price: 25% off -- was £3.99 now only £2.99 Juvenile fiction: Dell and Emmelisa Planemaker are two ordinary children who lead uneventful lives in a small town in Lancashire until ...

Domestic Clasifieds

Website:: shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

About Me

Shelagh Watkins

I'm Shelagh (that's the Irish form of Sheila!) I was born in Lancashire, UK and graduated from the University of Leeds before I moved to Scotland, where I completed a course in Information Technology at the University of Glasgow. I have many interests, including artwork, computing, reading and all forms of writing, but I particularly enjoy writing for children. I wrote Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine as a children's novel but there is more to the book than just a story, although readers are left to figure out the underlying philosophy for themselves.

When I began writing in 1998, I wrote my first unpublished novel, The Power of Persuasion. The story, set in Scotland, is about a married woman in her mid-forties, who writes a letter to a national newspaper in response to features written by one of the paper's freelance journalists, who has quite a reputation as the newspaper's theatre and film critic.

Despite the fact that the newspaper does not print the letter, the journalist seeks out the woman who wrote it and follows her around. The novel is very tongue-in-cheek and full of humour, but remains unpublished. Although it will be out soon! I am currently rewriting the story and it should be finished in the next few months.

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The Power of Persuasion Added by Shelagh Watkins
Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine Added by Shelagh Watkins

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Shelagh Watkins's Blog

How to make your own widget

Most of the responses to my last blog post asked for help to make a widget for a blog. If you have a blogger blog, follow these simple instructions: Click on this link: http://www.widgetbox.com/create/create_widget.jsp Then click on this link: BLOG/FEED A box will open up: Make your blog or any feed (RSS/ATOM) into a widget. Blog/Feed URL: (e.g. http://www.myimaginaryblog.com or http://www.myfeed.com/rss.xml) Type in the ad… Continue

Posted on April 26th, 2008 at 9:31am — 15 Comments (Add)

Let widgets do the work for you!

I set up the Published Authors Network on August 5th 2007. Three days later I posted my first blog after I'd created my first widget on widget.com. I wanted to share the feature with the members here, but it was early days and we had less than 50 members. Now we have over 400 members so I thought I would tell everyone just how hard my blog widget has been working for me without me doing anything. This is the widget:… Continue

Posted on April 25th, 2008 at 4:00pm — 11 Comments (Add)

Thinking of self-publishing?

I received a request from Shahrukh Husain to write an article about my experience of self-publishing (which has not been great!) The article is now up on Narratives Online: http://www.narrativesonline.com/index.php/user/showInterviewSession/3 Scroll down to: Ms. Watkins on Self Publishing You may have to log in to read it. ~Shelagh

Posted on April 9th, 2008 at 6:30pm — 16 Comments (Add)

Help with book promotion is only a click away!

Newsletter for Published Authors I've added a newsletter to the Published Authors Forum. The forum provides an extra place to learn from established authors, as well as up-and-coming authors, about how to build a platform to gain greater recognition in a world full of authors trying to sell their books on the Internet. The newsletter will assist members in how to make best use of the forum to improve neworking and communication skills. Check out the first newsletter and become… Continue

Posted on March 29th, 2008 at 11:45pm — 10 Comments (Add)

The Power of Persuasion

The Power of Persuasion is now available online, please check it out: http://www.lulu.com/content/2048817 ISBN: 978-1-84799-667-1 If you view the preview of the book, you will see the first page of Chapter One on page 3 of the preview. These are some of the comments I have received about the opening three and a half chapters (approx 6,50… Continue

Posted on February 24th, 2008 at 9:50am — 19 Comments (Add)

Comment Wall (278 comments)

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At 11:19pm on May 15th, 2008, Vivian Gilbert Zabel said…: Thanks for the welcome. I thought I had joined some time ago, but guess I hadn't.

Vivian

At 8:41pm on May 15th, 2008, Dyan Garris said…: Hi Shelagh. What a beautiful way to spell your name! Thank you for the friendship.

Dyan

At 6:18pm on May 13th, 2008, Leigh Lundin said…: >Welcome to the network!

Thanks, Sheila.

At 9:03am on May 9th, 2008, Carrie White said…: Thanks so much for welcoming me :) Love the site! x

At 3:12pm on May 7th, 2008, Cliff said…: Thanks for the welcome

At 5:20pm on May 4th, 2008, Peggy Lee Johnson said…: Thanks for the welcome :)

At 10:09am on May 4th, 2008, Writer113 said…: thanks for the welcome

At 12:47am on May 4th, 2008, WR.PARK said…: Shelagh:

I have a suggestion. I've posted twice on the discussions forum and have received no replies, which is fine, but it would be nice if we knew that the subject was viewed and how many times. Is there a way to add that?

Bill