28 July, 2024.

Dear Readers,

And Now To Unveil

…. Chapter 1 of Amanda Cadabra and The Hidden Depths read by me.

‘By me’ is one of the most unBritish things I can think of saying. Nevertheless, there it is. I hope that you enjoy it. You can just listen while you go about your day or night, but I have included some evocative images for you to look at.

Click to go to video of Holly Bell reading Chapter 1 of Amanda Cadabra and The Hidden Depths. Image of Holly Bell in witch hat reading from Amanda Cadabra book while grey British Blue cat looks up at her grumpily from the sofa in a sunny room

More To Come

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be unleashing the Chapter 1 videos for Amanda Cadabra and The Strange Case of Lucy Penlowr, and Amanda Cadabra and The Hanging Tree, which are now complete and waiting in the wings.

And about time too, you may rightly say. Chapter 1’s for all of the other books have been available for some time. So what brought on this almighty catchup?

The Dawning

Dawn sky in shades of orange with a books on a balcony in the foreground

The realisation gradually came to me that I depriving whole new audiences of the chance to join the Amanda Cadabra journey. The current covers have said ‘Cozy’ or ‘Young Adult’ or even for some, ‘Children’. Consequently, many readers of other genres have taken one look, thought, ‘That’s not for me’, and gone on their merry way, when they could have been enticed into peering beneath the cover and discovering what they might find to be a gem. You see my point.

I only recently came to this conclusion. Tim, AKA best-selling supernatural comedy author TJ Brown and illustrator of 15 years experience in the salt mines of the publishing industry, had been having doubts about the covers for the last couple of years.

When it finally dawned on me how right he was and that a more grown-up typographical style might be better, Tim began investigating possibilities with nary an I-told-you-so, which gives you some insight into the generosity of his character.

Emerging and Preparing

Over the weeks, the cover concept has been evolving. I shall tell you more about its curious journey when the new jackets are revealed in all their glory. If you’d like the inside story here and now, then I’ve told my precious subscribers who get the inside track. You can find them here. Drop me a line, and I’ll personally send you the latest letter where I tell all.

Woman's hand holding a trowel digging into earth in a garden in the sunshineBut I digress. So, while Tim’s creative genius has been at work, what have I been doing? Well, there’s been plenty to do to prepare the ground for the new look. Yes, that’s why I’ve been updating the amandacadabra.com website. Now it should be much easier and more appealing finding you way around to the choice goodies.

 

There’s a free prequel for you to download, if you haven’t acquired it already. It’s called Tempest’s First Day. It is the tale of what the irascible magical moggy was up to in the hours before he was reincarnated at midnight on the Cadabra workshop bench and the moment he makes his grand entrance to meet his future witch when she is just 15 years old. If you’ve got it, do, please tell a friend who likes an entertaining story, or indeed, cats.

There’s more I’ve been up to but it’s not quite ready, so I’ll let you in on it next time.

What Next and Thank You

As the preparations for the new look jackets and so on are coming to a close, the return to the new sequel, Book 9 in the Amanda Cadabra series, is at hand. Thank you to all you dear readers who have been so patient and stayed with me during the interim since the next book.

More Places to Shop For the Books

I’ve ‘gone wide’! Yes, that’s ‘wide’ and not ‘wild’ although I have my moments. In other words, all of the books except one that is lagging behind by just a few weeks, are now available, not just on Amazon, but on a entire ream of other bookshops like Kobo, Apple Books, and Barnes and Noble, and many more. So if you’re keen to find out more or to go ahead and buy a book, links will now go, not to an Amazon page but to one of the bright, new, shiny landing pages, one for each book. Here’s an example for book 1

Finally, An Emotional Moment and Please …?

Today, checking the status of the videos on the Holly Bell YouTube channel, I discovered that one of my videos has attracted over 1,000 views!

It’s this one:

Click to go to Thank You video. Image of a woman's hand touching pink flowers in a field of them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo4zXjW9mGw

Milestone with engraved glowing 1000 by a path with magical sparkles going up it in green sunny countrysideThe Holly Bell Author Facebook Page currently has 856 followers. Could you please help me get that up to 1000? This would be an epic milestone in the Amanda Cadabra journey. If you haven’t joined yet, here’s the link. If you know someone who’d like to join the fun, please do recommend it. It would mean the world to me.

Meanwhile thank you to you loyal 800 who have stayed with me through the past year when a health dip has meant I’ve been quieter than usual. I promise it will be worth it!

That’s all for now. I hope to be back next weekend with the next video release.

Until then,

Happy, listening, watching and reading,

Holly

 

PS If you want to start the series now:
Amanda Cadabra and The Hidey-Hole Truth

Available on Amazon

Paperback, Kindle
and Large Print

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About the Author

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Cat adorer and chocolate lover. Holly Bell's life changed in a day. A best-selling author friend telephoned and convinced her, that after years of penning non-fiction, she could write cozy paranormal mysteries. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Holly lives in the UK and is a photographer and video maker when not writing. Her favourite cat is called Bobby. He is black. Like her favourite hat. Purely coincidental.

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