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

My books:: Dell and Emmelisa Planemaker are two ordinary children who lead uneventful lives in a small town in Lancashire until they discover a unique computer that takes them on an extraordinary journey. They are guided by a strange-looking man from a far-off distant planet who helps them to undergo a tough space mission: to follow their father's Trail of Light.

Born in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, this anthology shares stories about what it takes to beat the odds. More than 100 writers contributed these essays, fiction and poetry to raise money for disaster relief charities in the region. Featuring writing from Orson Scott Card, Wil Wheaton, and Robin Lee Hatcher. At times tear-jerking, at times humorous, this book is guaranteed to inspire and remind readers that the human spirit knows no boundaries.

"Universe Pathways" is a Greek magazine specializing in science-fiction, fantasy, horror literature and art. The English version of the magazine is published every four months. The magazine publishes stories and artwork from Greek writers and artists as well as writers and artists from all over the world. The publishers also accept music, paintings, comics and articles about cinema and modern Science.

Website:: http://shelaghwatkins.co.uk/

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Famous For Fiction

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Welcome to the Published Authors Network

Replied Oct 3

Shelagh's Blog

Wales Book of the Year

The Power of Persuasion is on the list for Wales Book of the Year, an annual prize administered by the Welsh Academy:

Yr Academi Gymreig – The Welsh Academy is the Welsh National Literature Promotion Agency and Society of Writers. The Academi runs events, courses, competitions (including the Cardiff International Poetry Competition run with the support of Cardiff Council and offering a first prize of £5000), conferences (see details of the forthcoming Belfast Meets Wales conference here), tours by authors, lectures, international exchanges, events for schools, readings, literary performances and festivals. The Academi is also responsible for Services to Writers and now offers bursaries, critical advice and administers the annual Wales Book of the Year award.

http://www.academi.org/about-academi/

The book can be found on Google book search. Click on "Preview this book" to browse through the book:

The Power of Persuasion

Bookmark II

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Shelagh's Page

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.

Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine

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, 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

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The Power of Persuasion

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Mr. Planemaker's Flying Machine

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Shelagh Watkins's Blog

Widgets

On April 27th 2008, I added a widget for the Published Authors Forum to the network site . Today, I checked the stats and the number of hits totals 4,243. This is the widget: Continue

Posted on June 11th, 2008 at 8:30pm — 3 Comments

Wales Book of the Year

The Power of Persuasion is on the list for Wales Book of the Year!

The annual Wales Book of the Year prizes, established in 1992, are awarded to the best Welsh language and English language works in the fields of creative writing and literary criticism. Prizes are awarded annually to the best works of fiction and literary criticism by Welsh or Welsh interest authors, in both Welsh and English. The winners each receive £10,000. Prizes are awarded for the best books published d…

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Posted on May 23rd, 2008 at 12:30pm — 12 Comments

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

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 — 13 Comments

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 — 18 Comments

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At 8:00pm on October 6th, 2008, Paul J. said…: Hi Shelagh,
greetings. The site problems I was having seem to be resolved, but only tobe replaced my new site problems. I went to lots of trouble to change my profile appearance, only to have it changed back to how it was before. Any ideas?

Sincerely,
Paul

At 3:05pm on October 4th, 2008, Aine MacAodha said…: Hi Shelagh, thanks to the hand of friendship, I'm just new here and trying to get to know the different things to do, Take Care, Aine

At 8:16pm on October 3rd, 2008, Gina Collia-Suzuki said…: Thank you for the welcome Shelagh, it's very good to be here.

At 9:54pm on September 29th, 2008, Sandra Kay said…: Thank you, Shelagh. I'm still getting my feet wet....well, maybe just my big toe! I'll be more active when i get back from vacation.

At 7:02pm on September 29th, 2008, ILLusions said…: Thank you Shelagh I appreciate the welcome.

At 9:07pm on September 28th, 2008, Crystal Dawn said…: _

Thank you, Shelagh. I love your page! There is so much in the way of reading.

At 12:13pm on September 25th, 2008, Paul J. said…: Hi Shelagh,
What on earth is wrong with this site? When I try to eliminate things on my history (even of the last day or two), itwill not allow me to eliminate anything!!! All other NING sitges will allow me to do so, but this one will not allow me to eliminate any!

Also, many times when I try to send someone a message, and click on their message link, nothing happens. It is also not allowing me to send private conmments. It is also not allowing me to approve comments. What is wrong? Please help!

Sincerely,
Paul

At 4:57pm on September 24th, 2008, Aidana WillowRaven said…: Thanks, it's not happening on my other nings, just this one... do u report it or me and is it just me or the whole site?

At 4:51pm on September 24th, 2008, Aidana WillowRaven said…: My "edit" buttons also are not showing up.

At 4:43pm on September 24th, 2008, Aidana WillowRaven said…: I am having problems with the site, it's not letting me approve or delete comments on either my comment Wall or my blogs nor did it let me send you a private message... yet I can leave comments... any help?