Whhhoooo hooooooo, they have arrived, ready for release on 1st November!
Revenge of the Flying Carpet is a fun-filled feast for the imagination for 10-14s. If you want to be one of the first to get a copy, you can pre-order here. 🙂
Once again we have reached autumn and harvest time – how time flies, along with the swallows! Hope you have had a good summer.
Last weekend I went to stay with my brother, who moved to Ireland last year. It was my first time on Irish soil – what a beautiful country! One day we drove to the Atlantic coast. It was a windy day, and wow, how those waves were rolling in! But it was the pebbles on the beach that took my attention: they were all different sorts – really unusual. It reminded me how, although we are all so very different, with different gifts and from different walks of life, we are all in the kingdom of God together.
Some of the pebbles were so incredibly smooth, too! Rubbed up against each other, smashed by the waves and eroded by the rough sand day after day, the process is smoothing every sharp and rough corner. There’s a lesson there. If we are feeling battered by life, and bruised by people . . . we can rejoice! All those hardships are there to help us become more like Jesus.
I kept this one to remind me.
Paul learns a bit about that in the Revenge of the Flying Carpet, but more about that in a minute!
Please let me know if you’re interested in having a Dernier book party between now and Christmas. It’s a great way to get Christian books into more homes and earn some commission at the same time! I can email you all the details – just reply to this email or contact me here.
Because of our links with Angel Tree, I was privileged to be invited to Lambeth Palace to an event organised by the Prison Fellowship. What an amazing work they do. Listening to the speakers and talking to a chaplain from a Young Offenders Institution afterwards, I came away more aware than ever how vital it is we reach our children with the good news of Jesus while they are young. There are too many heartbreaking stories – some of the boys in the YOI are as young as fifteen. 🙁 You can read more about the Prison Fellowship and Angel Tree here.
With Joanna from Angel Tree
Please pray for the children of prisoners who will receive our books this year through Angel Tree. Many of them are vulnerable themselves. And do buy books for children you care for – you may never know what misery you might avert by the seeds you sow.
Please keep praying for our audio books and ebooks, too! A lot of work is going into each file. Ebook files will be uploaded to the CLC website very soon. As soon as they are available I will let you know, of course. Nearly there!
I’ve just finished recording Living in Hope for the Torch Trust for blind and partially sighted people. I Want to Be An Airline Pilot is done; Under the Tamarind Tree is next, so people with sight loss can have the whole set of Rwanda books on audio. Reading into the microphone is not as easy as it might seem, and re-recording the bits when I stumble or get a word wrong is time-consuming. But slowly we’re getting there . . .
Thanks to all who prayed for our time at the Christian Resources Together retreat last month. It was a great time of meeting up with friends in the trade, and supporting each other, so together we can get as many Christian resources out into the church (and the world!) as we can. It was especially lovely for me to have author Eleanor Watkins helping on our exhibition stand. Thanks Eleanor! Our authors are such a vital part of the publishing process, and are greatly valued. Eleanor and I gave away copies of Rebecca and Jade: Choices to retailers from Christian bookshops. We hope many will read it and recommend it to customers.
Copies will be with us any time now from the printer! I can’t wait to see them. The cover will have varnish swirls, which you can’t see in the jpg image. The release date for this book is 1st November, but I have a special offer for you (as you are kind enough to be subscribed to this mailing list). If you pre-order Revenge of the Flying Carpet between now and the launch date, I will send you, completely free, a copy of Deepest Darkness along with the new book, to pass on to a child on your heart. If you would be kind enough to write a review on our website when you have read it, I would be hugely grateful. The review can be as simple as ‘This was a good/bad book‘ or ‘I loved it/hated it‘ – you can write as much as you like, of course! We all look for reviews when we want to buy something, so the more reviews, the merrier. (This offer is exclusive to supporters on our mailing list, though, so please don’t pass it around.)
This is the link to our website. When you order, let me know you are a subscriber, and I’ll make sure your copy of Deepest Darkness goes into your parcel. This offer is only available pre-launch, so don’t delay, order now.
Revenge of the Flying Carpet will be available from your local Christian bookshop, of course, as well as from our website.
Some of you know I started Dernier Publishing when I saw the need for fun fiction for young people written from a Christian perspective. (That’s cutting a long story short, but it will do for now!) I began writing stories myself, so I had something to publish in those early years when I had no money and no experience (and didn’t want to be responsible for ruining anyone else’s stories while on that steep learning curve!). Actually, I found I loved writing fiction, but as Dernier has got bigger I’ve had little time for writing, as I’ve concentrated on publishing other people’s stories.
However, a few years ago I had an idea for a story that was burning in me. I began writing Revenge of the Flying Carpet – and actually finished it. We all know children who are bullied and badly treated at home and at school. Knife and gun crime are on the increase. Gangs bring violence because revenge is a way of life – and unless there’s forgiveness, there will never be and end to the suffering. It may be natural instinct to want to ‘get even’, but it doesn’t work – it just brings more pain to more people. Lives will carry on being scarred, hurt, torn apart. Children are not exempt.
I wanted to write a book that would bring hope to young people who suffer or who have suffered at the hands of other people. A charity we have links with runs trauma healing workshops for Christians in Nigeria who are victims of people who burn their villages, kill their families, kidnap their girls. Forgiveness is part of the healing process. Challenging? You bet.
In the Revenge of the Flying Carpet, Paul’s sister is mean to him – very mean. All the time. All his life he has had to put up with her mocking, bullying, mean nastiness. I wanted to show readers that although in this world there can be injustice, pain, abuse, oppression and all kinds of evil, one day there will be justice. And for now, there needs to be grace and forgiveness. We need to forgive, and we need to be forgiven. It’s then we find freedom. Paul finds this challenging, too, in the book, as he hears the good news of Jesus and starts to understand what it means. I pray the story will bring hope to anyone who has ever suffered at the hands of others, as well as being an enjoyable read! I hope it will help young people find forgiveness – forgiveness for themselves, for the wrongs they have done, and forgiveness for the people who have sinned against them. Or at least take a step in that direction.
I hope you will buy this book, read it yourself, then pass it on and buy more for the 10-14s in your life (you might even enjoy it yourself!).
Janet Wilson, Founder of Dernier Publishing
And that’s all I have room for!
Grace and peace to you,
Janet
P.S. I used to be Evans before I was Wilson, so I’ve kept J.M. Evans as my pen name. Still me, though!
We had a great time at the Christian Resources Together event at The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick, last week.
This event is so everyone in the Christian book/card/gift trade can meet together. Suppliers have exhibition stands, retailers from Christian bookshops check out what’s new . . . but it’s much more than that. There are times of worship and prayer, networking opportunities, we eat together and have an Awards Celebration. And we chat, laugh and commiserate with each other, depending what’s going on! There’s a unity among us; we’re all there because we want to serve the Kingdom of God. Friendships are made and grow, year by year.
Oh, and authors are welcome, too! This year, Eleanor Watkins came and signed her new book, Rebecca and Jade: Choices. We had a good time! Please continue pray for all the contacts we have made, and all the children who will read our books as a result of this conference. Thank you!
We have sent out our first Book Party Starter Pack! Here it is: 
It consists of 15 Dernier titles, 20 bookmarks, 20 leaflets and 4 posters (not shown).
This is an exciting development! If you would like to hold a Book Party, please contact us!
Would you like to see more Christian books in young people’s hands?
Would you like a bit of extra cash coming up to Christmas? 🙂
Do you like getting together with friends and family?
Host you own Dernier Book Party and it’s win/win/win! 🙂
It’s a great thing to give church children books that will encourage and inspire them to keep walking with God . . . and to share the good news with others who might otherwise not hear it. At an age when there are so many pressures on our precious young people to conform to the world, books can change lives. Well, the Lord changes lives, but from the testimonies we receive, we know that the Lord is using our books! They are a bit like seeds – who knows what fruit might grow?
Dear Friends and Supporters,
Thank you for reading this! And thank you so much for all your prayers for Dernier – please be assured they are making a massive difference. We are finding more and more outlets to get the good news of Jesus through story into young people’s hands . . . which is why we exist!
There’s so much excellent news this month, and so much to do, my head is spinning, so we need your prayers more than ever!
I do hope you will find among all this news, something that will help you reach out to the children on your heart.
Right, where shall I start . . . OK, let’s begin with books to prisoners’ children:
Angel Tree
We are thrilled to be sending books to prisoners’ children again this Christmas via the Angel Tree foundation (an arm of the Prison Fellowship). Approximately *1,000 children* will receive one of our books each! How amazing is that? 🙂
The books are offered t
hrough prison chaplains and will be sent to the children of prisoners who have chosen to have their child sent a Christian book on their behalf. This is an amazing opportunity, to get the good news of Jesus into the hands of 8-16 year-old children, many of whom are in a vulnerable situation themselves. Please keep praying!
Here are some of the boxes of books we delivered (I drove through central London for the first time ever – scary or what!).
Book Parties
Here’s another fab way YOU can make a difference!
Would you like to:
Yes? We’re all set to trial “Book Parties” and would love you to host one! The run up to Christmas is a great time to invite all your friends over, so you can have fun, earn some commission and know you are doing your bit to share the good news with young people while you’re at it. :-)
Here’s how it will work (hopefully, eek!): You order a starter pack from us, with 15 books, (which you will only pay half price for), free bookmarks and leaflets, downloadable invites and order forms . . . have I missed anything? Don’t think so! Oh, FREE shipping!
Although you have to invest in the starter pack, you will only pay £44.92 (RRP £89.85). You can sell these books at the RRP at your party, of course, so get your money back and double it (if you sell them all), or keep them . . . or offer your guests a discount. You will also earn generous commission on each extra book ordered at your party, so the more books you sell, the more commission!
Just think, you may never know the seeds you may sow. From having fun with your friends!
We will start off with quite a high rate of commission, to get these Book Parties off the ground, so the time to act is now! Please contact me if you’re up for giving it a go!
5* Reviews
They’ve arrived! Real copies at last!
Rebecca and Jade: Choices has received three 5* reviews on Amazon! Congratulations to Eleanor Watkins, who has written this fab new book. If you have teenage girls you need a gift for, who have life choices to make of their own, this is the perfect present. Read more here. It’s a bargain at just £5.99!
Audio books
I’m currently recording some of our books as audio books for Torch Trust (for people with sight loss) – this is a new thing for me and I’m struggling a bit with the technology, but I’m getting there slowly. This is James from Torch Trust, who taught me how to use the recording equipment. Torch Trust have kindly agreed to allow us to use the final files ourselves, so I hope to bring audio books out for you at some point – for when you don’t have time to read to your children yourself, or to buy as gifts. 🙂 Please pray for this project!
Ebooks and Kindle Books
Last month I took all our novels off sale in the Amazon kindle store, so I could standardise the layout and add all the books which have never been available as ebooks.
I also recently met up with Neil Wardrope, Digital Director of CLC. We had a good conversation about working together to get Dernier books as ebooks on the CLC website.
Neil Wardrope, Digital Director, CLC
More and more children are using phones . . . but what are they looking at? What if they had Christian books on their phones to read?
We are now nearly ready to launch all our books as kindle and ebooks. Please pray for this project, too! In theory, we will be able to reach children/young people who are unable to get hold of our paperbacks, especially in countries where Christians are persecuted and/or shipping is difficult. They are also fab to have on phones, tablets and laptops, so young people have something excellent to read.
Watch this space!
Revenge of the Flying Carpet
Revenge of the Flying Carpet will be with us soon in paperback format. Yay! Brenda, a teacher, gave us this 5* review:
“Revenge of the Flying Carpet is an action-packed time travel adventure that maintains an element of intrigue and mystery right to the last page. Paul’s wide-ranging encounters and experiences help him to reflect on some of his real-life issues. An original and challenging read. 9-14s will love it. So did I!”
We are using a new typesetting programme and a new printer for this book, so I would value your prayers that all will go smoothly. Thank you so much.
Christian Resources Together
I am off to this trade event next week, at the Hayes retreat centre, Swanwick, meeting up with Christian booksellers and other Christian publishers. It’s a busy couple of days, but always an excellent time, because we truly are all in this together. Do support your local Christian bookshops, especially in the run up to Christmas. They need our help to keep going, and are a lovely bunch of people!
Phew!
Can that be all? Probably not! But will catch up with you all again soon.
Love to you all,
Janet
P.S. Don’t forget to contact me to order your Book Party Pack. :-)
Oh dear, I forgot to post July’s newsletter, after sending it to subscribers. Sorry! 🙁 Some of it is still relevant, at least, so do have a read!
Getting Books Out of Boxes
A couple of weeks ago I did a stock-take and was horrified at the number of books we still have in boxes, when they should be out there, in children’s hands! I mean, producing books to encourage and inspire is great, but what’s the point of having them in boxes? It’s like the man who buried his talent. Not good.
Even as I write this, I can hear the combine harvester and the tractors at work in the field over the road – the harvest has begun! We didn’t know when the farmer would come . . . in the same way, we don’t know when the final harvest will come.
I see the boxes stacked up every day, but seeing the actual numbers in black and white hit home. So, I had a long think, prayed, got some advice, and have:
It seems to me that people are sincerely concerned for their young people, and if only they knew our books existed, and how they have changed lives, they would buy them. As you do! 🙂 We need to spread the word.
And don’t forget, you can also buy our books from Christian bookshops.
Share the Wealth
Someone loves the Beech Bank Girls books! “My 10 year old has read the first 2 of these and loved them so much she wanted to get them for her best (non christian) friend for her birthday. She said they would explain to her really well what being a Christian meant. Love my little evangelist! Will get her the others and stock up for her to give away!”
Camps and Clubs
Let’s pray for camps and clubs taking place over the summer. They can be life-changing. I went on a Crusader’s (now Urban Saints) holiday to Cumbria when I was about fourteen, and it was hugely helpful to me in my new-found faith. If you would like books for a club/camp you are involved with, to give away to participants, please let me know. I have a soft-spot for camps, and taking a book home means the message goes home with the attendees, to water the seeds you have sown.
The City Kid
The City Kid goes to Uganda! Author Clive Lewis took as many copies of The City Kid as he could manage when he went out to Uganda to visit family recently. He gave several copies to Dickens Zziwa, from Scripture Union Uganda. These books are hugely appreciated, with their life-changing message.
If you, or someone you know, is visiting a church or school abroad, could you give them a handful of books to take with them? The young lad in the story gets himself in such a terrible predicament, he wants to end his life, but finds Christ. It’s a gritty, moving story. One of the young lads we know who read it told us, “This is how life really is.”
We are still working on more efficient ways to get our books to Africa. Please pray for this process.
And that’s all for now! Thanks so much for your support,
Janet
P.S. Don’t forget to enter the competition to win a copy of Under the Tamarind Tree! And visit our Sale.
P.P.S. Are you a retailer? Happy to give you extra discount on our sale books. Please contact me for more info.
Now, more than ever, we are living in a society in which overt sin is becoming ever more pervasive and ‘normal’; the darkness can at times seem overwhelming and our children are out there in it.
The need for excellent books for young people written from a Christian worldview is great. There are plenty of stories which have incited interest in the occult and witchcraft, violence, materialism and worldly relationships, but what about books where the Lord is God, where faith in the Lord Jesus Christ matters, where people pray and read the Bible?
These don’t have to be dry subjects! – they can be as alive, real, funny, scary and sad as any secular story, but with the enormous extra bonus of a spiritual perspective.
What we fill our minds with, is what we become. What are the children you care about filling their minds with?
Our vision is to produce excellent, relevant, fun novels for young people aged 8-17, to encourage and inspire them in their walk with God, and to show non-church kids what they are missing!
Every now and then we hear more depressing statistics about young people leaving the church; anything we can do to show them that it’s great to be a Christian has got to be good and it’s a fact that most people come to know the Lord when they are young.
We can’t afford to be complacent.
We have heard about young people becoming Christians after reading our novels, and had reviews saying, “This is the best book I’ve ever read.” And who knows how many seeds have been sown, all over the world? Thrilling!
Reading the books with your children gives you an opportunity to discuss issues raised in the stories, such as prayer, forgiveness, bullying, teenage pregnancy, body image, illness and freedom of choice. Words are powerful, but you only have a small window of opportunity before your children grow up. The Bible urges us to share our faith with our children; stories give an opportunity to chat things through – don’t put it off.
Our children’s faith is priceless.
One day ‘the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the Lord.’
We so want our kids to be there.
If you share our vision, please sign up for our news and prayer letter. Once a month we will keep you in touch with what’s new.
Janet Wilson, Founder of Dernier Publishing
May the Lord bless you, and the children on your heart,
Janet Wilson
Let’s pray for Christian clubs and camps taking place over the next few weeks, all over the world. Such precious times!
If you would like to order books for a church event you are involved with, please use the coupon code: CHURCH at checkout for 20% off your order.
Author Clive Lewis visited Uganda recently. He says: “I took over 30 copies of The City Kid with me on our recent trip to Uganda, distributing them to various people with an interest in youth work. Dickens Zziwa [CEO of SU Uganda] was very pleased to receive 12 copies as well as the modest proceeds from another dozen that I ‘sold’ for a donation to Scripture Union Uganda.”
We are delighted that young people in Uganda will have access to this excellent book. Please pray for those who will read it! 🙂 The City Kid is a ‘prodigal’ style story about a young lad who gets involved in corruption and tries to end his own life. But he is spared, and finds Jesus. That’s a very short summary! Why not buy a copy, see if it might be suitable for the young people in your life?
N.B. It’s a gritty book, not for the faint-hearted. You can read the first chapter here. Click on the link, then scroll down!
Book Launch
We had a wonderful time at the book launch of Rebecca and Jade: Choices last month. Thanks to all who prayed! Thanks also to author Eleanor and all at Bethesda Evangelical Church in Hay-on-Wye for hosting this lovely event. Lots of people came, ate cake, bought books (including Beech Bank Girls books) and talked!
The book was sold in the Hay Festival Bookshop. Please pray for the girls who will be reading this book, making choices of their own.
Rebecca and Jade: Choices in the Hay Festival Bookshop
Death and Grief, Life and Hope
News of so many tragedies involving young people have hit our screens recently, and have left us all reeling. The terrorist attacks in London and Manchester, the terrible fire at Grenfell Tower, the forest fire in Portugal. Grief, shock, pain, fear uncertainty, homelessness, lives that will never be the same again.
Even young people who don’t know anyone directly affected are shaken, and many don’t know where to turn. Most have never had to think about death and grief before; now many are thrown into a new reality.
We are trying to get as many books into young people’s hands as possible, to sow seeds of life and hope. I know you will be trying to do the same.
All our books hold out the seeds of faith, hope and love.
The first review I ever received via email, was about The Treasure Hunt, from a girl called Emily, and was just one short sentence: “This is the best book I ever read!” I knew then we were on to something. Not because The Treasure Hunt is the best written, most brilliant, most entertaining, thrilling book in the world, but it has a secret ingredient . . . it’s not just entertainment . . . it holds faith, hope and love. As do all our books. And there’s nothing greater than these three things.
Terence
We had our own individual tragedy, as the day after we returned from holiday our cat, Terence, was hit by a car in the road. We buried him in the garden, where he loved to play. Sweet, fun little kitty, full of mischief and adventure. I know many people not far away have lost loved ones, and he was only a cat, but we still miss him.
From a Children’s Worker:
“I gave them [books] to the children I work with on a Wednesday. Noah (9) said ‘Hey! This is a Christian book!’ with a big smile on his face.”
Delighted to hear stories like these. So many children, even from church families, don’t have the opportunity to enjoy books that will encourage them in their faith and feed them good things. Thanks to Wendy, who gave these books away. Who knows what the Lord might do through them?
Revenge of the Flying Carpet Cover
Drum roll, please! Fresh from the designer, here’s the front cover of Revenge of the Flying Carpet. Thanks to illustrator Lorraine and designer Gill!
Please pray we will have the finances to bring this book out as planned in the autumn. We give a lot of books away, but the costs involved in production generally include the cover illustrator, designer, editor, proofreader, typesetter, and the cost of actually printing the book. As we have low print runs, the cost per copy is high. It’s a dream to sell thousands of copies, so we can lower prices and reach more children (there are 1.9 billion children in the world – the dream is to reach as many as we can, as long as we can!). Please pray with us, because we know the Lord is able to do way more than we can ask for or even imagine. 🙂
Thanks for reaching the end of the newsletter! Bless you for putting up with me for this long. 🙂 Here’s a win/win offer . . . 10 books for £50, to help you with your clubs, camps, end of terms and parties. Any books you like . . . just contact me if you’d like to take up the offer!
May the Lord bless you,
Janet
FREE shipping within UK: please contact us for shipping rates abroad. Thank you :-) Dismiss