This Christmas Help Publish ABCtales Author Celticman

Over the past few months ABCtales has helped turn two of its members into published authors via the crowdfunding publisher Unbound. A third member – Jack O’Donnell (known on ABC as Celticman) – is about halfway to publishing his book Lily Poole. 

This week, Jack sat down with ABCtales to talk about how and why he wrote this book, and the impact ABCtales had on it – you can read that interview here. He tells us about his writing process, the way the ABCtales community helped shape the direction of his novel, and the nature of reading and writing today:

 ‘Writing is about slowing down or capturing time, pickling it and putting it in a jar, on display’. 

You can help get Jack's book published by ordering a copy in advance. For only 10£ you'll get the book; you'll also have your name (or the name of a loved one, which makes for a much finer Christmas present than a Waterstone's voucher) listed in the back as a sponsor, and help bring another ABCtales author to readers and bookstores across the UK.

Jack's novel is a moving portrait of working class life in Scotland. It’s a ghost story – but it’s about much more than just the supernatural. It's also about family, the social services, community and the way Scotland is now. If you haven’t seen it already, have a look at the the trailer of the book here. 

'The little girl went down in the slush, not hard, the way adults do, but in that soft-boned sprawling way kids have. She was a cute little thing in her school uniform, the gold threads in the sailing-ship crest of St Stephen's glittering through an unfastened green anorak. A kirby kept her long hair, the colour of a sherbet dab, from fizzing over her face. She peered with clear grey eyes at John through the muffling snowfall. Getting up, she slipped again, clung to McIver's hedge, studying her feet and thick cabled socks ready to expose her ankles, as soon as she moved. Her eyes rested on his.' 

- an extract from Jack O'Donnell's Lily Poole