A BOOK FOR THE 250TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE CIRCUS

TWO TRAPEZE ARTISTS, LINKED BY BLOOD, LINKED BY THE CIRCUS, DIVIDED BY HALF A CENTURY

THE BOY WHO COULD FLY

There have been three 'final drafts' but it's finished at last. Now comes the wait while it's edited, proof-read and the cover is completed.
In the meantime, here are the first few paragraphs as a taster:
Just before midnight on the 4th of December 1941 a bomb fell on Number 23 Deremont Street,
It killed Jamie Bird's Mum and Dad instantly and it buried Jamie beneath tons of rubble.
Five minutes earlier when the air raid siren began its warning wail his Mum had rushed to the kitchen to cut sandwiches, fill a flask with hot cocoa and turn off the gas. His Dad had rushed upstairs to collect thick jumpers and scarves to keep them warm in the street shelter.
They had told Jamie to wait inside the family's Morrison shelter in the dining room, which was supposed to be safe. But it didn't feel safe. The thunder of bricks, the screech of metal, the groaning of timbers, the hiss of water escaping from fractured pipes terrified him.
'Mum! Dad!' he cried. Where were they?
He called again and again but brick dust had clogged his throat and he didn't think anyone could hear him.

SWITCHING GENDER

Male? Female? Or Even, One Day, Transgender?

I hadn't really thought about it before, but recently I realised that coming up to half my stories and novels  have been written from the viewpoint of the opposite sex, that is, from the viewpoint of a man or boy.

I can't give a reason, except that for certain themes and situations it seems to fit. For instance, in my short story THE FLOATER, an elderly man is on honeymoon with his very young second bride. In THE SMILE, an English couple are stranded in a remote Spanish village still adhering to the decrees of the Spanish Inquisition. The husband is the narrator.

In THE MYSTERY OF CRAVEN MANOR and THERE'S A LION IN MY BED!, both for Middle Grade readers, the main characters are boys of 11 or 12.

And in CABBAGE BOY, the novel I'm writing now,

the viewpoint character is a boy coming up to 16 years old.

So, a note to all writers: don't just accept that you have to write from the viewpoint of your own sex. If  your story needs it, try changing gender. It's easier than you think!