Review of 2024

 

The completed jigsaw puzzle

Good morning. I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. I'm back to typing this on my lap downstairs, as at present I have a jigsaw puzzle on my writing desk. It has been completed, but I cannot bear to pull it apart just yet. It will have a new home as I am passing it on to my youngest son and his wife. They love jigsaw puzzles and are masters at them!

Well, I keep threatening to have a new website or to switch to Substack, yet here I am still blogging on Blogger. I understand how it works and there is comfort in something you know. For now, I'm still here.

I'm starting with my submissions for 2024:

Flash - 9 sent and one published

Short stories - 6 sent and one published

Poems - 31 sent (some in blocks of 3 or 4), three published and one shortlisted. One was a prize winner, yet wasn't published! I won't be submitting there again.

Novellas - Around 7 submissions, all the same novella, my Christmas one. No takers, but one still pending.

Pending - 14 pieces of writing still pending. Some seem stuck, never heard back (do I class these as rejections?) and some more recent submissions that I don't hear about until around February.

Misc - I wasn't sure where to stick this one. I submitted Page 100 of a novella to a competition which gave feedback. I didn't get picked, but I received some very good feedback, in that it pointed out what didn't work! This will come in handy when I go back to edit the whole novella. 

I didn't submit as much this year as I've been working on longer projects, but I was surprised by how many poems I submitted.

Writerly things I took part in during 2024:

• Writing course with Indie Novella
• Writing and Walking week in the Cotswolds
• Various online Zoom/Webinar workshops/talks in writing, self-publishing and using Substack
• Outspoken event at Purcell Room, Southbank, London (poetry and music)
• Poetry Unbound - evening with poet Padraig O'Tuama at Southwark Cathedral
• The Alternative Book Fair, Islington, London
• Author/book event
• Read a poem at Cafe Writers open mic night, Norwich
• Worked with an editor (Developmental Edit) on a novella-in-flash
• Joined Sutton Writers
• Still continuing to meet with London Writers' Support Group

The top 5 books I read in 2024:

Fiction

The Naming of Moths by Tracy Fells (flash and short story collection)

Three Gifts by Mark Radcliffe (main character is told by someone that he can trade some of his living years in exchange for his life and the health of his family. Clever story)

Haven by Emma Donoghue (Monks who founded Shellig Michael and how it affected each one. Riveting stuff)

The Lamplighters by Emma Stonex (Three families of lighthouse keepers and the story is told from different points of view. A keeper goes missing, but how? Will the truth ever be known? Brilliant)

Night Side of the River by Jeanette Winterson (Collection of ghostly short stories. Hauntings and new ideas of being haunted by AI. Great stuff. Couldn't put it down)

Non-fiction:

Rose West - The Making of a Monster by Jane Carter Woodrow (Harrowing, but delved deep into backgrounds. Very investigative)

In My Mother's Footsteps - A Palestinian Refugee Returns Home - Mona Hajjar Halaby (Eye opening, heartbreaking and written before the current conflict, Goes back to the times of the first expulsions)

Abroad in Japan by Chris Broad (Author goes to work in Japan as a teacher of English. This is about his time working there, his travels around the country and people he met. He is famous for his YouTube Videos of living in Japan. Funny and I learned a lot from this book)

Only When I Laugh by Paul Merton (He grew up not that far from me and I know the places he talks about, especially Bishop's Palace Gardens in Putney. A very shy boy who grew into a comedian and who I love watching on Have I Got News for You. We also something else in common - old black & white silent comedy films before the 'talkies'. I was a huge Buster Keaton fan.

I wanted to fit this one on the list, so as an extra I nominate Things You May Find Hidden in My Ear by Masab Abu Toha. This is by a Palestinian poet who was born in a refugee camp and writes poetry about his experiences, like seeing his friend killed, and living with fear and carnage around him. He speaks of just wanting to live in his own country free from persecution and with all the everyday things others take for granted, like regular water and electricity supplies. Again, this was book was written before the present conflict.

For three years I have bought various Planners for my writing, but none of them have really worked. Many have things in them I would never use, and I already have a system for recording my submissions (a book and index cards). This year I am doing something different and have bought a project book with tabs I can write on for various things like deadlines for submissions and to record the progress of my novellas through various stages of development. Hopefully, this one won't get abandoned half way through the year like some of the planners! I tried hard to think about what I really needed and what I didn't want. Besides, Planners are so expensive, especially when you don't use most of it.

As for goals for this year, the only two I want to see come to fruition is for my Christmas novella to be published, and to finally publish my flash story collection. I shall continue to submit to small press magazines and the odd competition.

Do please feel free to comment on anything I've said. Maybe you have a top book list, a way to record your writing progress, or something else you would like to share. 

Happy New Year, and happy writing and reading.