Review of the Year

 

My resources file

New Year's Eve and the sky is blue for once. For how long, I ask? Anyway, it's that time when I look back on my writing year, warts and all. I find this interesting to see how I think year went to what actually happened. Somehow, it's never quite the same. I had to re-check some figures because Rue (the dog) kept wanting to chew my pen, or walked over me and the book I was using to tally submissions made this year. I'd already abandoned the writing room as he just kept standing on the bed behind me and pawing at me. 

So, the year went something like this:

I submitted pieces to 29 different publishers/competitions, which was far more than I thought, bearing in mind I spent a good deal of the year editing my novella. These submissions would have contained between one and three or four pieces. The breakdown of this is as follows:

Poetry: 25 of which 6 were accepted (one of these is still to be published)

Flash:   10 of which 2 were accepted

Short Stories: 3

Novellas: 3 

Poetry Collection: 1

Pending (waiting on their fate!): 3 flash, 1 novella, 2 stories (included in the tally above)

I admit I was surprised, and the end of the year was more successful than the beginning. I'm also surprised by what gets published and I sometimes wonder if I'm the best judge of my own work! I honestly expected a lot less to show for my contribution to the world of writing this year.

It was a sad year for publications as two of my favourites folded. Visual Verse (online) and Popshot (print) departed this year. Both were important in my life. The first time I read Popshot I fell in love with the art work, and the stories and poems seemed to radiate with me. I'd found a magazine that I adored. And after many submissions, finally my dream came true as they published a flash story of mine.

Visual Verse was my go-to place once a month. Their picture prompts stimulated me, and when I wasn't writing anything else, I'd write and submit to them. Over the years I've had around 30 pieces published by them. Mainly I wrote poetry, but there were a few flash stories too.

There are also a number of presses who seem to be in limbo, with nothing published on their websites and no new submission windows advertised. I fear these will also go the way of the others.

This year also saw the demise of Writing Forum magazine and a couple of other big name small press magazines. Yesterday I was going through a folder where I keep articles torn from writing magazines. I keep them for research. I took out all those no longer relevant, and this included websites of small presses I had kept. Most of these have also folded since I collected them. It's a sad fact that there are more writers than readers, that small presses are usually operated by volunteers who have other jobs and are trying to write themselves. They also struggle to gather enough subscribers to support their press. I try to subscribe to two publications. One can't do them all, and some are now very expensive. I also try to buy poetry books and fiction from the publisher direct where I can.

I've already commented in a previous post about the rocketing submissions fees of some competitions now. I have pulled out of submitting to places due to the cost (especially of first chapter comps). More presses are charging reading fees, though this is mainly in the US. I have paid these in the past, but no more.

I took part in a few writing courses this year:

Five Day Hybrid Challenge through Arvon (through email prompts) which was most interesting, and made me think. This was about mashing up genres and situations. Unusual!

A day class in London with The Poetry School looking at abandoning usual form (what I call experimental poetry).

Writing ghost and gothic stories with Writing Magazine.

I also enjoyed attending a few poetry readings at the Southbank, London and a day up there mainly for unrepresented writers, which was free and the best thing I'd attended in a long while.

The best part of the year was taken up with editing my novella, Tinsel Street, and submitting it. I haven't yet heard back from either place I've sent it to. These things can take an age, but after I had submitted it, I found it hard to write for a while. I think I was shattered. This has been a long journey so far.

I bought the Mslexia Diary & Planner with good intentions and barely used it. I cannot find just what I need in a writing diary. For this year I have bought a much cheaper diary and planner through a charity I support and will see how that works for me.

Plans for 2024: A lot of editing! I have so many things on file just sitting there. I am already editing two pieces, so I have made a start. I hope to submit a little more next year too. I have booked a week's holiday at the beginning of March with HF Holidays as they are running a writing and walking week in Bourton-on-the-Water. This is a first for them, so I snapped up a place as soon as it it went on sale! I've holidayed with HF many times for walking or special interest holidays. They are an excellent holiday company. The holiday includes writing in the mornings and walks in the afternoons and will also include some free time to either continue writing or do some self-guided walks. There is also some evening entertainment. I have been to their hotel in Bourton before and it is a lovely setting.

Away from writing I have read many books this year. Eighty-three to be exact! The books that have particularly stood out for me and make it to my top three (four in the case of fiction) are as follows:

Fiction:

Metronome by Tom Watson. Set on an island where two convicts (a couple) are coming to the end of their sentence, but the warden doesn't come. Everything begins to fall apart and all they thought they understood isn't as it seemed. This is a tense story as the two turn on one another. I think you might call this dystopian fiction, if I have to put a genre on it. A tense and brilliant book.

Maureen Fry & The Angel of the North by Rachel Joyce. This is the last in the 'Fry' stories. It is a small book compared to the others, but so good. Humour and sadness. Maureen goes off on a journey of her own to see a garden dedicated to Queenie. She goes with a degree of anger, but finds something else. Beautifully written.

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. This was Michelle's first adult book (I have since read another of hers and loved that too). Full of darkness, ghosts and spirals into madness. A group set out on a scientific mission into a cold place near Norway (I think it is). Accidents happen and one man (main character) is left there on his own waiting for rescue. What he experiences almost sends him mad. Tense and compelling.

Forever Home by Graham Norton. This was my final read of the year. I've love all Graham's books and each time they get better. This one was brilliant. Carol has been living with Declan, whose wife walked out on him and their son and daughter. They become the talk of the village and his children and her mother disapprove. When Declan becomes ill and Carol has an accident, his children take control, having Declan moved to a nursing home and they throw Carol out of the house as they want to sell it. Declan was adamant that he never wanted to sell the house, but the son has a Power of Attorney, and there is nothing Carol can do. Or is there? This story is about dysfunctional family life, secrets and eventually it becomes evident why Declan never wanted the house sold. There are twists (never saw that coming!) and a fair amount of humour. I loved Carol's mother, Moira. I couldn't put this one down. The best yet.

Non-Fiction:

From Source to Sea by Tom Chesshyre. Tom's account of walking the Thames Path is great. I love his humour and because I am walking the path, I recognise some of the places he stayed or saw. This one is a keeper.

Ice:Tales from a disappearing world by Marco Tedesco & Alberto Flores d'Arcais. I don't know why I'm obsessed with cold places, because I hate the cold! But this book was so good and very descriptive. I'll never forget the way the author described the sound of the ice shifting under him when he was in his tent at night. Makes you realise how vulnerable we are. A wake-up call to climate change and what we a losing.

The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry by Dr Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne. These are interviews with patients who have committed crimes. Some of them are referred because they are suicidal, others just difficult. An insight into the mind of others and why they commit violent crime, including murder. When you read the background to some of the patients, it is no wonder they are disturbed. Nothing is ever straightforward. Some of the patients were helped to come to terms with what they had done and were able to move on, others were not. This is a heartbreaking read at times, but also positive things came out of most of the patients mentioned in the book.

Finally, I found a couple of new authors (to me). Mike Gayle writes feel-good books, and I've just found another of his in a charity shop. My book pile is growing again! Anne Booth is another feel-good writer whose second book I must get hold of sometime. Special mention is made to C J Tudor and her book The Drift. This book was pacey and tense with mixed timelines. Cleverly plotted. I think her books are getting darker, but I love them.

And then for Christmas I received Elly Griffiths' Norfolk. Readers may know how big a fan I am of Elly Griffith's books, and this beautiful full colour coffee table books is filled with spectacular photos of places where some scenes from the Ruth Galloway series take place. I love this book and have been eagerly awaiting its release. It was worth it. This is a keeper.

Well, that's me for 2023. Thank you for continuing to read my blog, and welcome to any newcomers. I'd like to read more independently published books next year. If you have any recommendations (your book or someone you've read), please write me a comment. The only genres I don't read are fantasy and hard core horror.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL