Symi, Film and Books updates

Symi update first, with some older photos as Neil still has my camera, and I’ve not been out to get new images yet. Maybe tomorrow. In Symi news… Well, I’ve just seen one of the taxi boats heading out around the headland towards the further beaches, one of Lucas’ boats I think. The old familiar boat drone and hum are back, bringing the summer with it, as the taxi heads out. Another boat is already going to Nimborio; I’m not sure if George and his brother have started their St Nicholas and Ag Maria service yet.

I made Yiannis laugh at the bar on Tuesday. Neil and I had met up to go to dinner (at 11.00 in the morning – long story, don’t ask) and, when I was given another glass of wine (only my third) at seven pm, I just mumbled ‘Panagia mou!’ under my breath. For some reason, this reduced Yiannis to fits of laughter. Must have been the way I said it. I was hungry and ready to eat and had been since the effects of a wonderful Olive Tree bacon roll lunch wore off at about five. Still, it was a lovely afternoon chatting to everyone who came by and watching Neil working. Ha-ha. A Georgio’s pork chop is just what’s needed after a hard day socialising, and very nice it was too.

Meanwhile, at the desk: I had a bit of an admin day yesterday, we both did. Neil came back on Tuesday and spent Wednesday morning working on the photos he took at his Niece’s wedding. I, on the other hand, got stuck into admin about films and books.

Over in the film office (in England), the admin department there are busy entering the film, ‘The 13^th’ into more film festivals, including the New York Greek Film Festival, so they are now busy doing promotions, and also working on the distribution deal with the distribution company. It looks like things could finally be moving along. Mind you, it may not be accepted to every festival, if any, but we can hope.

As for my admin, I was thrilled to see that ‘the Saddling’ has already gained six reviews, all five-star, at Amazon.co.uk. As I keep saying, these reviews, no matter how short, really help put the book up the rankings and the more a title gets, the more attention it receives from elsewhere. You can put them on whichever version of Amazon you use (.com or .co.uk, etc.) but they don’t get shared between the various Amazon sites. Most of my reviews are on .co.uk, which is understandable, and I went through the list yesterday morning. I found that over 11 books I have 65 reviews and most of them are five-star. I accept the few lower rated ones (left for the older books) as these titles were brought out in the early days of indie publishing and I did the editing and formatting myself, so yes, typos and things can be found. But, since ‘The Judas Inheritance’ I have used a professional editor (though we still find the odd typo, but then I’ve found typos in books published by Bloomsbury, and others), and so things are a lot better. I also ignore the one three-star review that was not about the book at all. Someone hijacked the review process to take a pop at Amazon and its tax status, which had nothing to do with my book. I reported this but nothing came of it, and it’s still there; the same crazed woman has posted similar things on other people’s books for her own gratification – very unhelpful for everyone else.

Anyway, today’s ramble is clearly about me and books as that’s what’s on my mind right now. If you would like to put a review up for me, that would be great. You can find all my titles listed on my author page here. Judas is in the lead with 11 reviews, and Jason is chasing his rear with 10, as are Stag and Gary in ‘Remotely’, also with 10, but Tom, Dan and Barry and the Romney Marshes are fast catching up with six already, and ‘The Saddling’ has only been out a couple of weeks. Please do take a look and, if you can bear it, share the pages around social media and also add reviews – we are saving up for a wedding after all, wink, wink.

Here’s one of the latest reviews for Saddling, which might help you make up your mind if you want to buy a copy.

“Wow! What a read.

Wow! Thank you, James Collins, for a brilliant thriller come horror, right up there with The Wicker Man! Delivered on Saturday, finished by Wednesday – unable to put the book down. Excellent final twist. This would make a brilliant movie.”

If you have read it, please don’t give away that final twist!

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Symi Shopping

I stopped off at a shop on the Kali Strata the other day, and had a chat with the owner. She let me take some photos of the inside and outside of the shop and I thought I would share those today. This will give new visitors to Symi an idea of the kind of high-quality things that are for sale on the island. There are other shops of course, and many of them too. We do have some of those ‘tourist items’ available for those who want them; guide books, maps and souvenirs, but we also have high-class jewellery shops and craft shops, many selling homemade items and art. A great variety of shopping can be done, from rope at the chandlers to gold at the gold shops. Here is just one example of what you can find when you visit.

Off to meet Neil from the boat now, so back tomorrow.

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Symi, Weather, Books and Martians

Thunder and rain is rolling in this morning (Monday). It came in at about 6.00, so I was just in time to bring the washing in. I have to head to Yialos later this morning, so I am hoping it doesn’t come back. We’ve had some unsettled weather this May, but the forecasts show that this should be settling down over the next few days. I can see a belt of rain heading towards us now, across the sea from the far coast so I will leave setting off to town for a while yet. I only need to get cat food for the fussy furry thing, but we all know how noisy it can be if he doesn’t get what he wants when he wants it.

I pulled a couple of photos from Facebook and the London Greek Film Festival pages so you can see ‘The 13^th’ director and producer receiving our awards. He’s the second on the left in the group shot and, obviously, the man in the other one. I’m just waiting to hear what the news is on the distribution deal now. Kickstarter backers should have received an update by now, but I have a copy here so, if you didn’t, email me and I’ll send it on to you.

We’ve had a great response, still on-going, from the good people of the Romney Marshes who are now gathering not only towels but also shampoo and even hot chocolate and biscuits for the boys, for when they arrive there on Friday for the football. The boys leave here on Friday morning and have quite a journey to get to Camber Sands for about five in the evening, so they will be ready for a shower and hot chocolate by then, I am sure. It’s a wonderfully heart-warming gesture from the Martians – or should that be Marshians?

In home news, Neil is due in Rhodes in [checks the time] 90 minutes and back here on Tuesday. Had I known there was going to be a Blue Star sailing from Rhodes on Monday we would have booked that so he was home earlier. He could still catch it, but the hotel in Rhodes is booked and paid for, and he is meeting a friend there for dinner, all pre-planned, so I think we are leaving things as they are. The cat is going slowly mad. Last night he spent half an hour running around the house (he never runs, unless it is towards his bowl), shouting and searching for something. I opened the courtyard gate, and he was out like a shot. He wasn’t home by the time I went to bed, so I had to shut him out. But there he was, at half five the next day, ready for breakfast and into the courtyard as soon as I opened the gate. He’s just been doing the same thing but, as it’s about to rain, I’m not letting him out right now.

Finally, today I have asked some of the other writers in a Facebook group that I belong to, if they have any books about Greece, or set in Greece. If any of them have anything, I thought I’d give them a mention here as I know our blog readers might be interested. If you have anything of your own that you have written and published on Amazon (so I can link), drop me a line and I’ll do the same.

And that’s that. Hopefully, in the next few days I will have my camera back and can go out and get some up to date images for these pages; I am still running on old ones – won’t be long now.

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Three awards for Symi Film

I can tell you that ‘The 13^th’, the film filmed on Symi in 2013, picked up three awards at The London Greek Film Festival on Saturday night. Best actress for the lovely Rebecca Grant, Best Music for Michael Bishop (the play-out music at the end of the film includes the sound of Symi bells, recorded on the island) and a ‘special mention’ award for Chris Hastings, director, producer and co-writer. Congratulations all round. I expect there will be another Kickstarter update for backers soon, giving all the details.

Meanwhile, the good people of Romney Marsh, in Kent, have been rallying around to supply towels and toiletries for the Symi football teams that are arriving there on Friday for the tournament. Due to finance and luggage restrictions, the boys aren’t able to take more than hand luggage, and the Pontins they are staying at doesn’t supply towels to its guests, which are heavy things to pack when over 40 people are travelling. Some of the Marsh football mums with children in the competition are arranging donations, with others, to be taken to the holiday park and then donated to charity afterwards. That’s a wonderful gesture, and I hope it all works out and the boys can have a shower when they arrive on Friday night, and after the games. It’s going to be a long day so they will need it.

While all that has been going on, a strong wind has cooled the temperature here down a little, but today (Sunday as I write this), the sky is blue, and the wind has dropped, so we should be warming up again very soon. And when I say ‘warming up’, it’s not cold, it’s perfect walking weather, and I am in t-shirt and shorts at 7.30 in the morning, so there is no need to panic.

People have been asking about the taxi boats. I have seen one going in and out of Yialos as I watch from up here, and I expect the others will be up and running soon. We are having one of those gaps between Easter and the start of school holidays when things really start to pick up, so it’s probably not worth running the boats just yet. The day trip boats that are coming in every day are bringing lots of visitors for the day, so things must be pretty busy over on Rhodes.

So, a few good pieces of news to start the week off there.

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Saturday Symi photos

Here are your ten random Symi photos for today, to keep you going over the weekend. The weather’s been a bit odd these last couple of days, I was back in long trousers last night, but so far today (Saturday) the rain has not come back. Tonight sees the awards at the Greek Film Festival in London so there may be some news on that next week, and later this week the Symi football teams (under 12/11) are off to play in their football tournament in the UK. I have a weekend of writing planned and, apart from some shopping, that’s all I have planned. Enjoy the photos, and I’ll be back next week.

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