Both of my novels have been long listed in the SpaSpa Book Awards 2014 competition!
The Phoenix Project is running in the Psychological Fiction category and A Chronicle of Chaos is running for the Fantasy prize. How exciting! Finger crossed 🙂
    
Take a look at the full long list here: http://bookhippo.uk/awards/longList2014.php
One of my current projects is a children’s version of my upcoming novel ‘The Shield of Soren’. This book is one of the tales in the Light and Shadow Chronicles series and the protagonist is a mischievous 10-year-old boy – Soren Nitaya. Due to this, I decided to have a separate edition of the story aimed at children aged 9-12. This book is entitled simply ‘Soren’ and is written under the name ‘Danielle Cain.’
As a primary school teacher, I am lucky enough to have a wonderfully creative and engaged class of children right under my nose! I am currently trialling the book with my class and we are three quarters through. The children do not know that I wrote the book as I wanted their honest feedback and didn’t want them to suck up to teacher!
Well, the feedback from the kids so far has been AMAZING! They absolutely LOVE the story and are thoroughly engaged with the characters. Some comments so far include:
I love the way that Danielle Cain describes things. It makes you feel like you are there in the book.
The book is so good because when the characters are sad, I feel sad too, and when they are happy, it makes me feel happy.
It is the funniest and saddest book I’ve ever read at the same time!
I asked them to rank the class books we have read over the past two years and, aside from one or two die-hard Collins fans, this was the unanimous result:
So, as you can imagine, there is a huge grin on my face right now! I’ve even had some of the children writing letters to the author to ask questions and tell her how much they are enjoying it! I cannot wait for the day when we finish the book and I tell them the truth.
I have been editing as I go along, making changes here and there, listening to their comments, adding more of the characters they love, cutting short the parts that drag, and all of this is down to the children and their comments. When the book is finally ready, I plan to give each child a free copy so they can see the dedication in the front to all of them. Â I feel so lucky to have this amazing opportunity to test-run a book. It is perfect market research right at my fingertips!
On top of all of this, my headteacher and another local head (who is very influential in the area) are very enthusiastic about my writing and thrilled about the prospect of having a children’s author working in their school. I have completed all sorts of lessons and activities based around the book, and so I have decided to put all of my plans and resources together and release a teacher’s guide and lesson pack to go with the book. I can then sell this to schools and teachers!
I am really hoping this will be a huge opportunity for me and who knows, maybe I’ll even get one of the big kids’ publishers interested. It’s all taking off!
Here are some examples of the children’s work based around Soren:
Title: Simmering
Author: S.E. Rise
Genre: Erotic Romance
Who would you rather find in your bedroom, a steamy hose-wielding fireman or a dangerously obsessed ex-boyfriend? What if you found both? Romance writer Allison Fairchild is growing frustrated with her first attempt at Erotica until she reads a well-timed magazine article. What working man makes the best lover? The article sparks an idea and her eyes are irresistibly drawn to the top-ranked firemen just across the street. It might be coincidence or driven by fate but it is all the motivation she needs.
Ali has herself assigned to a firehouse and is committed to doing her job; getting incredible sex stories from actual firefighters and, in the process, try not to become one. At least that’s her intention until she meets the Captain, a by-the-rules professional with an enticing off-duty wild streak. Ali and the Captain put their wills to the test to resist the chemistry heating up between them. But unbeknownst to Ali, her cheating ex-boyfriend has set his eyes upon her again and if he can’t have her, no one can.
Erotic and Horror author, S.E.Rise attended Austin Peay University on a track scholarship. Later in life, he became a Captain of an ALS Ambulance in 1996. On his off time, he enjoys salmon fishing and strives to do the impossible. He now lives in Alaska with his wife and children but in 2007, he published his first novel and continues to write gripping and enticing stories which leave readers breathless.
Website: http://seriseauthor.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/S.E.RisewriterEroticThriller
A few weeks ago I organised and took part in a huge worldwide author event on Facebook called Get Down with the #Awethors. Another author named Rocky Rochford and myself put the event together, including cover wars, tag-line competition, character takeovers and just general discussions about books and reading. It was an enormous success and I was proud to have been involved with it because, all the events aside, the people who came along on the day were simply amazing. They talked, joked, laughed, supported one another and generally showed themselves to be a lovely bunch!
Being an author is not always easy. There are low days, very low days, and sometimes it’s all you can do not to give up. There are negative reviews, tough deadlines, harsh editors and that’s all the external pressures. I won’t even start on the crippling self-doubts and neuroticism many writers suffer from.
This group, however, has reassured me on numerous occasions that I can succeed and that I am far from alone on this difficult journey. I feel like I have a hefty fellowship alongside me on my descent into the depths of Mordor.
Since the event, the discussions have continued. We’ve had word count competitions, post tag games, and every time somebody posts a snippet of their writing asking for feedback, they can be sure to get lots of support and valuable advice.
To top all of this off, Rocky Rochford had the fantastic idea of putting together an anthology of short stories by all of our awesome authors. This anthology is due for release around October 12th 2015 and will be an eclectic collection of all different genres and writing styles.
October will also see our next big Facebook event, which is sure to be even bigger and better than the first one. Hope to see you there!
Immersive fantasy fiction 