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JUDE CALVERT-TOULMIN, WHO'S SHE?
Jude Calvert-Toulmin is the great-great-great-great-great Granddaughter of Stanislaw August Poniatowski, who was The Last King of Poland . A controversial leader who accomplished much in culture and education, and who once moved parliament to tears with one of his speeches, he died in St. Petersburg, a virtual prisoner and deeply in debt, on 12 February 1798.
Jude is also a grandmother. But prior to that...
Jude Calvert-Toulmin started a diary at the age of 13 and never stopped writing. Having left her hometown of Sheffield, in 1981 she graduated with an honours degree in Film & TV Production from Manchester Metropolitan University. She then moved to London, where at the turn of the 80's she worked as a freelance photo-journalist for the music press. Her work was first published in i-D magazine, followed by articles in Melody Maker and indy music rags like Masterbag.
She was the muse behind the Aztec Camera top ten singles "Walk Out To Winter" and "Oblivious", which Roddy Frame wrote about their relationship. She also worked as a geisha girl in a Japanese nightclub, a busker on the London Underground, and travelled in Europe, learning Spanish, French and Swedish in the process.
Jude also acted in several films, starring in Sheffield/L.A. film director Peter Care 's first film, the influential cult short Johnny Yesno, the soundtrack for which was composed by Cabaret Voltaire , who were amongst the godfathers of techno. Jude also acted in various Royal College of Art student films by directors such as Phil Shotton, co-originator of the word Madchester .
In 1995 Jude formed a band, Venus Tree, but despite growing attention from the Sheffield music press, gave it up once she was due to give birth to her third baby; one's babies are far more important than one's career, after all. Once her children were all in school, Jude started writing for publication again, this time for the climbing press, having articles published in the climbing magazines On The Edge and High (now merged into the mag Climb.)
Her last piece, Tits vs Homo-Eroticism, which is more acceptable at the crag? created a storm of controversy on the British climbing forums, attracting 30 separate threads and over 100,000 words written about the author and her light-hearted piss take of a 700 word article.
In 2005 Jude became a full time writer. STARBIRTH is her first novel. She is currently writing the sequel, A FLOWER OF STARS, and also planning the third book in the series, THE MOONBEAM. All three books are set in Sheffield and cyberspace.
Jude has been divorced twice , has two daughters, a son and a grandson, and lives with her fiance and editor Brian , and their cats Towser, Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa in Sheffield.
WHAT'S STARBIRTH LIKE THEN?
Beginning and ending with the word love, STARBIRTH is a humorous, erotic and romantic tale of a woman on the verge of suicide. So it's got fun, sex, love and death. You can't ask for more than that. If that concept is too surreal for you, then think Brief Encounter in cyberspace.
SYNOPSIS
All Dominique DuBois has to do is stay sane, and stay alive. She is perched on the precipice, on the very edge of madness, desperately struggling not to fall over the edge. Lots of things are pushing her closer every day though..
They all warned her about falling in love with a stranger on the internet. They warned Ben J about Dominique, too. She could be a 20 stone truck driver from Barnsley, instead of an unhappily married mother of three from Sheffield.
They were wrong. Having wars of words with strangers in cyberspace and being rescued by Ben J was the easy bit.
There are other things..
Dominique..s pre-adolescent daughter, Bluebell, has been hanging out with a teenage arsonist and been sent to live with her Dad in Manchester for her own safety. Shortly afterwards, her little sister Tiger-Lily follows. Then Dominique..s supposed best friend ..loses.. Dominique..s dog Chris, whilst walking him in The Peak District.
Dominique keeps trying to convince herself that shit happens, and that she can cope. But there are other things..
Dominique..s ageing rock climber husband Fordon Luff has realised too late that neglecting Dominique for his beloved rock has just cost him his second marriage. He..s putting pressure on Dominique every day, wheedling with her to leave home and abandon their son, Spike.
..Go on Dominique, piss off, why wait till the house is sold? Spike and I don..t want you here...
It gets worse..
Dominique refuses to leave her son, and whilst the house is being sold takes refuge in the attic, a bit like Rochester..s mad wife in Jane Eyre.
And worse..
Only the house won..t sell, and now when Fordon casually brushes past Dominique on the landing, he starts suggesting suicide to her.
All Dominique DuBois has to do is stay sane, and stay alive. And the only thing keeping her from going over the edge is a Blue Peter sticker on the headboard of Tiger-Lily..s old bed in the attic, on which is written, in a carefully fashioned scrawl, ..Tiger the best..s bed. I love my mum...
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BLIMEE! WHERE CAN I GET THE BOOK?
STARBIRTH hasn..t been published.
Yet.
When authors send samples of their writing off to agents, only about 1 in a 1000 end up being asked to send in what is known in the industry as a "full", or a "full manuscript."
Jude Calvert-Toulmin started being asked for fulls within approaching 3 agents. One agent from the stellar agency, Gillon Aitken, said that parts of STARBIRTH were "brilliant" and "hilarious". To get such good responses from agents so soon is mindblowingly unusual so STARBIRTH is off to a good start.
However nearly every author struggles to find representation for their first novel. J K Rowling was turned down by many publishers. She was told by one that her sentence construction was too complex and too long. 325 million people now beg to differ, wink.
The STARBIRTH website, which will contain excerpts from the book, is still under construction, and should be ready sometime in August. In the meantime, Jude is still unagented and up for grabs. If you want to find out more about Jude she's been running a successful blog for a year now which has had over 26,000 visitors. On the blog are articles about her time on the turn of the 80's music scene and also CYBEXes (cyber exhibitions) profiling the work of other artists and musicians.
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Don't forget to check out the author's MySpace pics for more pictures, including some of her home cooking, which is, after all, incredibly relevant to promotion of the book.
NB. This blurb has been written in the third person in order to make it sound dead impressive but we all know that Jude really tossed it off herself in her tea break.
"FONTIS NYMPHA SACRI SOMNVM NE RVMPE QVIESCO", as they say in Rome.
Jude Calvert-Toulmin blog:
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