By Claire Buss, Deputy Editor, Write On! 

At Write On! and Pen to Print, we want to help connect authors and readers, playwrights and audiences, so we’ve created a Spotlight page on the last Saturday of the month, showcasing some of the exciting new reads and plays available. The curated list is based on books and plays that you send us, so if you’re an author or a playwright and you’d like your book or play in the spotlight, reach out to us at pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk. Whether you’re an indie author, with a small press or mainstream publisher, established or brand new playwright, we’d love to hear from you and shine a light on your new work.

Write On! offers other opportunities for writers as well. If you’d like us to feature an extract from your book or a short story, please send the extract, book cover and blurb to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk with the subject: Write On! Showcase (ensuring you have your publisher’s permission, of course).

Pen to Print are also looking for short videos from people reading a passage from their favourite book, or authors reading extracts from their own books. These videos will be featured on the Pen to Print YouTube channel and across our social media. Please send in your videos or links to pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk with the subject: Video Stories.

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The Medieval Scriptorium: Making Books In The Middle Ages by Sara J. Charles

This book takes the reader on an immersive journey through medieval manuscript production in the Latin Christian world. 

Each chapter opens with a lively vignette by a medieval narrator – including a parchment-maker, scribe and illuminator – introducing various aspects of manuscript production.

Sara Charles poses the question ‘What actually is a scriptorium?’, and explores the development of the medieval scriptorium from its early Christian beginnings through to its eventual decline and the growth of the printing press.

With the written word at the very heart of the Christian monastic movement, we see the immense amount of labour, planning and networks needed to produce each individual manuscript.

By tapping into these processes and procedures, we can experience medieval life through the lens of a manuscript maker.

Available to buy here

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable

The Housekeeper’s Secret by Iona Grey

The Lost Coast by Jonathan & Jesse Kellerman

Apprentice To The Villian by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

NOTICE TO STAFF: There has been a disturbing increase in cheeriness, sprightly behaviour and overall optimism of late. Please resume your former dark, ominous terrors at your earliest convenience. Mgmt.

Evie Sage has never been happier to be the assistant to The Villain. Who would have thought that working for an outrageously handsome (shhh, bad for his brand) evil overlord would be so rewarding? Still, the business of being bad is demanding, the forces of good are annoyingly persistent, and said forbidding boss is somewhat…er, out-of-evil-office.

But Rennedawn is in grave trouble, and all signs – Kingsley’s included – point to catastrophe. Something peculiar is happening with the kingdom’s magic, and it’s made The Villain’s manor vulnerable to their enemies … including their nemesis, The King.

Now it’s time for Evie to face her greatest challenge: protecting The Villain’s lair, all of his nefarious works, and maybe (provided no one finds out) the entire kingdom. No pressure, Evie.
It’s time to step out of her comfort zone and learn new skills. Like treason. Dagger work. Conspiring with the enemy. It’s all so…so…delightfully fun!

But what happens when the assistant to The Villain is ready to become his apprentice?

Available to buy here
Connect with Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Coaches’ Corner by James Marshall

James Marshall is an experienced sports coach, educator and accomplished athlete.

In a series of essays written over the last decade, he lays out a landscape of practical advice for sports coaches, physical education teachers and interested parents, that puts children first.

Ranging from useful advice on session planning, fitness testing and athlete motivation to critical thinking and thought-provoking essays on why perceived wisdom may not be so wise.This book is ideal for those setting out on a coaching journey, as well as experienced teachers and coaches who feel that something is ‘wrong’ with their system and are looking for guidance on how to improve their children’s experiences.

Available to buy here
Connect with James Marshall

House Of Glass by Sarah Pekkanen

Eight-year-old Rose Barclay refuses to talk after the shocking death of her nanny in the midst of her parents’ acrimonious divorce.

Attorney Stella Hudson is determined to help Rose speak, and discover what really happened. As Stella unravels the secrets of the Barclay family, the past and present collide with shocking consequences.

Everyone is a suspect in the nanny’s murder. Even Rose.

Is the person Stella’s supposed to protect the one she may need protection from?

Available to buy here
Connect with Sarah Pekkanen

One Hundred Moments Of Us by Jon Rance

They say life is made up of moments.

So is a relationship.

From the moment he sets eyes on Ashley Oliver at sixth form on the cusp of the new millennium, Charlie falls in love. It isn’t all sunshine and roses though and it takes several years and more than one chance meeting before they begin their relationship.

Will they survive everything the world has to throw at them or will the pressure of life, love, and London prove too much?

Told through moments big and small, trivial and significant, this is the moving and uplifting story of a relationship – the ups, the downs, and everything in between.

Available to buy here
Connect with Jon Rance

War Between Worlds by Andrew Stickland

Earth and Mars are in open conflict and 17-year-old Leo Fischer is right in the thick of things, fighting his own secret war behind enemy lines.

When a mission goes tragically wrong, Leo has to get away from Mars, and for that he’ll need the help of the one person he knows he can truly trust – Skater Monroe. But Skater is off somewhere in the Asteroid Belt, and the last time they spoke she wanted to punch his lights out.

Besides, Leo’s bitterest enemy – Carlton Whittaker, the crazed president of Mars – is about to unleash his most devastating weapon against the unsuspecting Terran invasion fleet. Is now really the time to abandon the fight?

In this nail-biting climax to the Mars Alone trilogy, Leo must face his greatest challenge yet. He has the chance to save two worlds, but at what cost to himself?

Available to buy here

Five-Star Stranger by Kat Tang

Would you hire someone to be the best man at your wedding? Your stand-in brother? The father to your child?

In an age where online ratings are all-powerful, Five-Star Stranger follows the adventures of a top-rated man on the Rental Stranger app as he navigates New York City under the guise of characters he plays, always maintaining a professional distance from his clients.

But when a nosy patron threatens to upend his long-term role as father to a young girl, Stranger begins to reckon with his attachment to his pretend daughter, her mother, and his own fraught past. Now, he must confront the boundaries he has drawn and explore the legacy of abandonment that shaped his life.

Available to buy here

The Last Witch In Edinburgh by Marielle Thompson

In an alternate Edinburgh of 1824, every woman lives in fear that she will be the next one hanged for witchcraft. All it takes is invoking the anger, or the desire, of the wrong person.

Nellie Duncan, beautiful and unwed, keeps to herself until she encounters the Rae Women’s Apothecary. There, fiery Jean Rae and the other women provide cures and teach others that they too can aid the winter deity, the Cailleach, embracing her characteristic independence, agency, and craft, in turn becoming witches themselves.

Nellie finds a place and a purpose at the shop, and a blossoming romance with Jean, as she learns about nature-based craft and a witch’s ability to return to life after death. But the Cailleach has an ancient enemy intent on stripping the power of the deity and all her witches, leaving a wake of patriarchal violence and destruction. When heart-breaking disaster strikes, Nellie flees and spends the next two centuries hiding from the world–until love gives her the courage and the motivation to come back.

Nellie’s past is waiting for her there, and hanging witches is no longer the only means of oppression. But this time, Nellie refuses to run–either from her foes, or from her resolve to awaken others to the unimaginable power that can come with fighting the patriarchy in its many forms–and finding one’s own magical inner-strength.

Available to buy here
Connect with Marielle Thompson

A Certain Kind Of Starlight by Heather Webber

Everyone knows that Addie Fullbright can’t keep a secret.

Yet, 12 years ago, as her best friend lay dying, she entrusted Addie with the biggest secret of all. One so shattering, Addie felt she had to leave her hometown of Starlight, Alabama, to keep from revealing a devastating truth to someone she cares for deeply. Now she’s living a lonely life, keeping everyone at a distance; not only to protect the secret, but also her heart from the pain of losing someone else. But when her beloved aunt, the woman who helped raise her, gets a shocking diagnosis and asks her to come back to Starlight to help run the family bakery, Addie knows it’s finally time to go home again.

Tessa Jane Wingrove-Fullbright feels like she’s failing. She’s always been able to see the lighter side of life but, lately, darkness has descended. Her world is suddenly in shambles after a painful break-up, her favourite aunt’s unexpected health troubles, and because crushing expectations from the Wingrove side of her family are forcing her to keep secrets and make painful choices. When she’s called back to Starlight to help her aunt, she’s barely holding herself together and fears she’ll never find her way back to who she used to be.

Under the bright side of the stars, Addie and Tessa Jane come to see that magic can be found in trusting yourself, that falling apart is simply a chance to rise up again, stronger than ever, and that the heart usually knows the best path through the darkness.

Available to buy here
Connect with Heather Webber

Remember, if you’re an author and you’d like to see your book in our Saturday Spotlight, email: pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk and send us the details of your new novel.

For details of Penguin RandomHouse new releases, visit their website here.
For details of Hachette new releases, visit their website here.
For details of HarperCollins new releases, visit their website here.
For details of PanMacmillan new releases, visit their website here.
For details of Simon & Schuster new releases, visit their website here.

Disclaimer: Amazon links are given for ease but please remember there are a number of other online retailers operating, including hive (which helps to support independent book shops), Kobo, Apple Books, Google Play and Nook as well as online stores for bookstores such as Waterstones, Barnes & Noble and WHSmiths. 

Issue 21 of Write On! is out now and you can read it online here. Find it in libraries and other outlets. You can find previous editions of our magazines here.

You can hear great new ideas, creative work and writing tips on Write On! Audio. Find us on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Google Podcasts and Spotify. Type Pen to Print into your browser and look for our logo, or find us on Podcasters.Spotify.com.