Blue Poppy Publishing

@bluepoppypub

Nano-publisher & provider of self-publishing services based in Ilfracombe, Devon. Submissions open for books with a strong focus on Devon and the South West.

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Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· 17d

#BookSky There is wisdom in the world that does not speak in words but in patterns. In the spiral of a frozen fern. In the symmetry of a snowflake. In the way the last oak leaf clings to its branch through every gale. It speaks in the deep, patient silence of the seed sleeping in frosty earth.

Snowflake macro natural crystal close-up, real photo
Note paid for download from Adobe Stock - credited to kichigin19

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· 23d

ffs The temptation to believe these crappy things is so strong. Like, sure, I know I have published some great books. I have written some. But every damn time it is always fake. Remember, NOBODY cares about your book enough to seek you out unless they want money. ALL unsolicited emails = spam.

Spam/Phishing email from "Andrew Collins" collinsandrew2e@gmail.com
With the subject line "Radio Interview & Editorial Feature: Bolton FM Partnership"
The email reads.
Dear Bluepoppypublishing,

I hope you are having an excellent week so far. My name is Collins, and I am contacting you on behalf of the Author Credibility Society. I recently spent time reading through the positive reader feedback and discussions surrounding your latest book, and I wanted to reach out directly because the impressive quality and perspective in your writing truly stood out to us.

Our team is currently preparing a fresh series of radio segments in direct partnership with Bolton FM, which is the United Kingdom broadcast station established by Doctor Andrew Dickson MBE. We are actively looking for remarkable independent authors to highlight on our upcoming broadcasts, and your book caught our attention as a great fit.

Our weekly broadcasts connect with a dedicated community of book lovers across more than one hundred countries, and our simple purpose is to give talented writers a welcoming space to talk about their creative process and share their work.

If you are open to this, I would love to invite you to have a brief conversation with us as soon as possible, completely at your own convenience, to discuss your book and explore the idea together. Please let me know when might be a good time for a quick chat.

Best regards,

Collins

Author Credibility Society

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· 24d

Anyone know what this is? I don't. My best guess is a molar from a grazing animal.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· 26d

My display has grown over the years as I add more titles to the catalogue, and find more awesome guest authors like @lizshakespeare.bsky.social @marciaclayton.bsky.social @ruthsd.bsky.social and Robin falvey At @southmolton.bsky.social pannier market

Two out of three tables of my market stall at South Molton pannier market.
Children's books on the left, novels and non fiction on the right. The other table, out of shot, is D and D stuff like dice etc.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jul 11

An old white man with thin greying hair and a salt-and-pepper (mostly salt) beard standing in front of a book stall with a Blue Poppy Publishing banner in the background.
He is wearing a t-shirt with five D20 dice in various pride colours.
The words on the shirt are, "When someone attacks one member of the party, we all roll for initiative."
He is pulling a silly face. He always pulls a silly face in photos and never looks directly at the camera if possible.
I know this because the old man is me.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jun 29

Not sure Odysseus has understood all the rules, but he's caught the soccer bug.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jun 23

New book has arrived. Only 100 copies of this. It will be a paperback after this sells out. Which it will. bluepoppypublishing.co.uk/product/the-... £12 until the official launch date 30th June

Front cover of the first edition hardback of The Feathered Tree by Allan Frewin Jones with spot UV highlights
It shows a girl's face framed by a magpie's wings against a starry night sky.

Back cover of the same book
The copy reads
She felt unbearably alone under that vast night sky. The stars seemed cold and distant and unfriendly. This suddenly didn’t feel like her world at all. It felt unreal and awry and somehow…inhuman.
She sat in the grass, one hand resting with spread fingers on top of the poisoned stump.
She felt a pressure like hot needles in her eyes.
She began to cry.
A voice sounded behind her. A female voice. Low and husky.
“Why do you weep, human?” it asked.

Polly Mutter loves nature, and her greatest friend is a beech tree, Fagus sylvatica, which stands all alone on a small hill at the bottom of her garden. She calls it Tree, with a capital T, and she confides all her innermost secrets to it. When Tree is brutally hacked down one stormy night, Polly’s suspicions fall on a school bully and her spiteful gang.
Despite setbacks, Polly is desperate to get to the bottom of this act of cruel vandalism, but the truths she discovers on her quest send her far beyond the world of school bullies and into a secret realm where hidden things thrive in a reality stranger than anything she could possibly have imagined.
These discoveries will change her life forever.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· May 21

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· May 15

Don't be fooled. He's not tired. If I suggested another walk he would be away like a shot and racing around again just the same as he already did But I have to be on the radio with John Acres on BBC Radio Devon in a minute, and then to work.

Odysseus the dog curled up on the sofa after his walk.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· May 14

Here he is looking like he has questions...

Odysseus my dog looking at me quizzically
He is mostly dark brown with peanut eyebrows and a cappuccino muzzle and legs. Vaguely German Shepherd colours but he's a Cocker/Collie mix.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· May 7

The latest dumb email scam this morning. It is 6am and I am still wide-awake enough to spot the gmail address. Besides which Pan Macmillan do not cold prospect unknown authors who sell one or two books a month. Alt text will be easier to read than the screen grab.

Email from "walsh kate pan macmillan at gmail dot com" so definitely NOT from pan macmillan who would have their own domain. It says ...
I am Kate Walsh, Publisher of Picador, specializing in literary fiction and narrative non-fiction.

As part of our ongoing editorial research and review of a wide range of contemporary writing, your work was recently brought to our attention. At Macmillian, we are continually interested in engaging with writers whose work demonstrates a strong sense of voice, narrative clarity, and the potential to connect with audiences across formats and platforms.

Our editorial team regularly explores both published work and developing projects across a broad spectrum of subject areas and creative approaches. We are currently open to initial conversations with authors to better understand their body of work, current focus, and any future projects they may be considering.

I would welcome the opportunity to learn more about your writing background and to ask whether you are represented by a literary agent. If you do have representation, I would be happy to continue any discussion through them; if not, I would be glad to outline possible next steps.

Please let me know if you would be open to a brief conversation. I would be pleased to hear from you.

Best Regards,

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Apr 21

I am such a bad artist. Meanwhile in Fontland ...

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Apr 5

New book coming soon #PictureBook #Cats #BookSky

Teaser for a new book, mostly text
Discover Lincoln's story
Cover reveal
Coming soon
Supports Hornsea inshore rescue

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Mar 29

More of this please. Beach toy library at Hele* Beach, so that parents don't buy more cheap #plastic buckets and spades that just get left behind. Refuse, reduce, reuse, recycle #PlasticWaste #Environment #Waste #SayNoToPlastic * Pronounced "heel"

A small "beach hut" about 3ft (1m) square, with a sign saying "beach toy library"
Borrow, enjoy, return.

Inside the hut are lots of buckets and spades, fishing nets, etc.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Mar 29

It baffles me when people say that humans are the best endurance animal ever. If you think that just try taking my dog for a walk and tire him out. #Dogs #Doggo #SouthWestCoastPath #Ilfracombe #Devon #Walking

Odysseus racing back after going too far ahead

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Mar 14

A lot of people care very much about the Sycamore Gap. Rightly so. 🌳

Dedication page in The Feathered Tree
Dedicated to the sycamore gap tree near Hadrian's Wall in Northumberland, cut down with a chainsaw by vandals in 2023.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Mar 13

Getting ready to send out ARCs of "The Feathered Tree" by @allanfj.bsky.social I have a handful of copies unallocated ... #BookSky #YA #YoungAdult #Fantasy #Environment #Trees #Review #BookBlog #UK #UKBooks #Devon @librariesunlimited.bsky.social Text in #AltText

Advance review copy of The Feathered Tree by Allan Frewin Jones
The cover features an illustration by the author of a girl's face frame by the wings of a magpie and the star studded sky. It also shows ghostly figures around the stump of a tree. The girl's eyes are a vivid blue.
The title and author name are hand written in a Uncial style script against a background of blue starry sky and beech leaves respectively.

Back of the advance review copy
It features a brief quote from the book, as follows:
She felt unbearably alone under that vast night sky. The stars seemed cold and distant and unfriendly. This suddenly didn’t feel like her world at all. It felt unreal and awry and somehow…inhuman.
She sat in the grass, one hand resting with spread fingers on top of the poisoned stump.
She felt a pressure like hot needles in her eyes.
She began to cry.
A voice sounded behind her. A female voice. Low and husky.
“Why do you weep, human?” it asked.

Following this is a synopsis as follows:
Polly Mutter loves nature, and her greatest friend is a beech tree, Fagus sylvatica, which stands all alone on a small hill at the bottom of her garden. She calls it Tree, with a capital T, and she confides all her innermost secrets to it. When Tree is brutally hacked down one stormy night, Polly’s suspicions fall on a school bully and her spiteful gang.
Despite setbacks, Polly is desperate to get to the bottom of this act of cruel vandalism, but the truths she discovers on her quest send her far beyond the world of school bullies and into a secret realm where hidden things thrive in a reality stranger than anything she could possibly have imagined.
These discoveries will change her life forever.

Dedication page:
This book is dedicated to the Sycamore Gap Tree, near Hadrian’s Wall in Northumberland, cut down with a chainsaw by vandals in 2023.
The stump survived and is sprouting, although it will probably take 150 years before the tree returns to its original grandeur.
The Sycamore Gap Tree is an example of how nature survives the brute force and ignorance of the human race.

First page of chapter 1 text reads :
n the worst morning of her life, 16-year-old Polly Mutter opened her bedroom curtains and saw that the tree – her tree – had fallen during the night.
Barbed wire twisted in her stomach and her legs were stone. She couldn’t breathe. The shock and the anguish hollowed out her brain.
It was the storm. The overnight storm that had beaten on the walls of Maven Cottage – that had hammered its fists on the roof tiles, that had spat its fury at the windowpanes – the storm had taken Tree from her.
An iron band tightened around her chest as she stared out at the world from the bleak darkness of her shattered heart.
The sky was bright, the sullen clouds of last night long gone, herded away by a southern breeze. Beneath her high window stretched the long, riotous garden, rain-sodden and lush. All the way to the hawthorn hedge with the slatted wooden gate. Then the sunken sideways track. The stile in the drystone wall. The soft grassy slope up to the round hill called Maggie’s Hump. And there, on the crest, Tree lay sprawled as though from a bullet in the head.
And frowning down, almost a kilometre removed, stood the sombre bulk of Scar Tor, eternal, unconcerned, bathed in mocking sunlight.
Pain expanded under her ribs. Her lungs demanding oxygen.
She took a shallow, gasping breath, her whole body shuddering. Her fists still gripped the eaves of the red curtains, her knuckles white.
Tree. Dead. Dead on Maggie’s Hump. Oh, no! No! No!
She tore her eyes free of the terrible sight and stumbled to her bedroom door, flinging it open and throwing herself down the stairs. She could hear herself wailing – it was a frightening, unnatural sound and it made her feel sick.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Feb 15

I do not have a website with Wix and even if I did I wouldn't fall for rubbish like this. But then again, I started my first website on Geocities and learned to code in HTLP, PHP, CSS, and MySQL before deciding using Wordpress was simpler. Not everyone is so savvy more details in #AltText

Email purporting to be from web service provider WIX saying that my domain has expired and I have to pay 237 euros to renew it.
A few red flags in this phishing scam email are
1. No personalisation. Genuine emails are always addressed to you by name.
2. The sender is <email-user-wix@wohnpark-popken.de> the important bit here is the part following the @ symbol which is NOT WIX
3. The URL on that Renew Domain Now button is also wrong, https://google-emails-wix.blogspot.mx/ i.e. a domain in Mexico!
Other clues to look out for are poor spelling grammar and punctuation, e.g a comma separating the Euros from the cents is incorrect formatting for the UK where I am.
A professional company, even WIX, would not get that wrong.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Feb 11

Well, I just noticed we have got a four star review along with 27 five star reviews. 😀 It looks a bit suspicious when all the reviews are five stars. 😂 www.waterstones.com/book/a-sprin... @waterstones.bsky.social #BookReviews #BookSky #Devon #DevonUK #HistFic #HostoricalFiction #Brixham #SouthHams

Screenshot of a five star review on Waterstones website for "A Spring Marrying" by Jon Rosebank.
“Perfect for a book group as there are so many angles to debate!”
I loved this book! I was completely enveloped into Jimmy's world of Devon around 1912. He is a fisherman and part of a crew that sails the smack boats for a living. The historical detail is amazing, and so well researched; the world is so completely believable. Jimmy falls in love and struggles to manage the relationships on land, whereas at sea, he knows his role and is confident. The book's start throws you straight into a quandary with different accounts of a death and from then on, it is a compelling read. There are a lot of characters, but not too many, each with a rich history, and intertwining skeletons in the closet. You felt part of the community, one that grew up together and grew old together. I stayed up until silly o'clock reading it and pick it up first thing the next day as I wanted to know what happened! Jon's writing draws you in - you have to read every word, but they are all worth it. After finishing I was so glad to have people around me to discuss and debate the story - perfect for a book group.

Four star review says,
“A good read”
An enjoyable story - immersive, with unexpected twists.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Feb 1

If a tree falls in the forest but it doesn't reach the ground, Has it really fallen? Hands up if you love trees. 🤚✋

A tree, fallen in such a way that it is held off the ground, and parallel to it, by other trees around it.
It is about three feet off the floor and held fast.

At one end, it has fallen between two close growing trunks, pushing them slightly apart but held fast by them. The stump is visible at the far end (right of image)

In the middle, a sapling is bent but not broken under the weight of the larger tree. It will recover and, quite probably, grow up and around on both sides of the dead trunk over the years.
It will be quite a talking point.

At the crown end of the fallen tree. Here it has been stopped by the branches of a slightly smaller tree that has lots of small trunks growing close to the ground as if it has been pollarded.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Feb 1

The Feathered Tree is taking a little longer than I thought to get to the #ARC stage, but I will have a PDF very soon prob. this week and paperback a week later. So, #Publishing #Review #Blogs who wants one? #YA #Fantasy by a seasoned trad published author. #BookSky #BookBlog #UK

Cover for The Feathered Tree by Allan Frewin Jones. Artwork by the author.
A girl's face is framed by a starlit sky above and the outstretched wings of a magpie below. The face consists mainly of the eyes which are bright blue. The remaining features are made up of other elements such as a tree stump on a hill, the full moon, and shadowy figures.
The title and author name are hand drawn on a background of bright green beech leaves.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 29

They also have frogs, chicks, and bears. So cute. #Devon #Crochet South Molton pannier market

Other hats available include frog and chicken, plus there are cowls with bear and doggo ears.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 29

#Axolotl hat. Only available at South Molton pannier market, #Devon #Crochet

Crochet axolotl hat. It's an ivory coloured beany hat with ear flaps incorporating little front claws. On the top, either side are the pink frond things in a sparkly pink slightly fluffy yarn.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 28

Is it this?

Cool looking Star Trek spaceship
Can't really describe it much beyond that it is black and looks like a high tech robot raven doing aerobics.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 28

Aww, they look like little rabbits with butterflies in their mouths.

Lamium amplexicaule, aka henbit deadnettle
Taken on 1 May 2023, 14:02
Wikimedia Commons
Pho by Gilles San Martin from Namur, Belgium

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 28

I thought, 'gosh, it's amazing that anything is flowering so early.' Then I noticed more colours ... Once again, can't identify any of them. 🙁

Some sort of bush covered in pale pink to ivory flowers. The leaves are slightly variegated with an edge of frostiness to the yellowish green.

Another bush, a lot more green but with a couple of bright pink flowers and the promise of more to follow.

A spiky bush with grey-green leaves and small dusty-blue flowers all over.

A compact bush with bright green serrated leaves an bright yellow flowers. Sort of like a dandelion but definitely not. Unless there's a dandelion bush I don't know about.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 28

Took the dog out for a quick romp around our little public garden at the back of our house. Spotted this little thing flowering in January and it made me smile. No idea what it is. My dad, grandfather, and great-grandfather would all be appalled. 🤣

Small blue flower poking out of the foliage. No idea what it is but it sort of looks like I think violets look like.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 12

The title is, "The Feathered Tree" I can share a mock up of the cover. #DevonBookHour And this is the first time I have gone public with the author name.

Rough mock up of the cover for The Feathered Tree by Allan Frewin Jones
It is all hand drawn by the author and features a girl's face outlined by the outstretched wings of a magpie.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 12

Electrics are off while the engineer installs a smart meter, so I am catching up on some reading for the biography of my grandfather Frank Kingdon-Ward. Check out the bookmark! 😉😀

My copy of "Plant Hunting on the Edge of the World" open with the bookmark I am using which is an invitation card for an "At Home" hosted by my great grandfather Professor Harry Marshall Ward in the new botanical laboratory on Tuesday March 1 , 1904
On the occasion of the opening of the new buildings.
Attended by his majesty the king.

Blue Poppy Publishing @bluepoppypub· Jan 5

I am still after reviewers for a young adult low fantasy ARC with an environmental theme. By a seasoned author with, according to Goodreads, 104 titles, published by the likes of Hodder and Hachette. Here's the artwork we are using on the cover. #BookSky #YoungAdult #Environment #Trees #Review