A warm welcome to Kim Walker today, who highlights the new dimension offered by our virtual world of today.
Entente Cordiale – Or a friendly understanding, especially between nations. Politicians could learn a thing or two from authors and readers.
I’ve met people from around the world and that’s just within Crooked Cat, the publishers who took on my novel, Once Removed. Jane, for instance, has lived and set her novel in East Africa but there are other countries represented like Germany, Italy, Australia, Ireland, USA, Israel and the Middle East, to name a few. Their books are not political, they’re not even in the same genre, but they reach out to audiences across the globe and show the common thread of humanity.
This is also seen in Facebook groups like Bookshop Café, BookStop Café and Crooked Cat’s own Readers’ Community. People from many different countries are kind to one another, offering reviews and encouragement, sharing information, photos and ideas.
(Life is indeed full of surprises, Kim. Only a few months ago I found a Charity to support with my book, on the internet through Facebook!)
I met Sheila North through the Internet. She, like me, was born and raised in the United States but met and married a Yorkshiremen. It turns out she only lives about 20 miles from me. A couple of years ago she came to my writers’ group and interviewed a few of us for her radio programme, Book It, on Sine FM. We also shared a meal and walked my dog.
Sheila recently invited me to run a workshop for her writers’ group in Doncaster Library then allowed me to read an excerpt from Once Removed on Book It, rounding up a wonderful day by treating me to a meal at an American themed diner (we had to, didn’t we?).
If you’d like to listen to the wonderful Book It, this is the link: http://www.sinefm.com/podcast/show-141.xml
Here are a few links to Kim’s book:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/search?query=Once+Removed
Her blog address is; https://nutsandcrisps.wordpress.com
Jane Bwye 
Thank you for the opportunity to share my thoughts, Jane.
It’s a pleasure having you, Kim. And what you say is so true.
Hurrah! The Bookshop Cafe is my baby! Lovely to see it mentioned 🙂 I’m an author too, but love that the group connects readers and authors together in a very socially focused way. We’ve recently had dozens of members offer to send a member in Iraq their books as she can’t access English paperbacks. I’m hugely touched at what people are open and willing to do in the right FB environment. And I love the Bookstop Cafe too; Joff and his sister have a lovely ethos x
Great to hear from you, Yasminselena. I’m off to take a look at the Bookshop Cafe!
Thanks, Jane, for the piece on people and book groups. It’s interesting.