Sometimes the only advice you need is your own

Image by Prateek Katyal (Unsplash)

Websites v Blogs

 I thought I was doing well setting up a website. After Googling various ways to upload photos and using spacers, I was so pleased to get what I wanted. As I was doing so well, I decided to add social media buttons. It all looked straightforward, but could I get the damn things to work? More Googling, checking, putting my URL's in again, but no, they would not work. I read some things I didn't understand and was losing hope. Instead I looked to see how my layout looked to those visiting the site and the photo, which I had spent ages on inserting, was not there! It's in my edit window, but not visible to anyone. The social media logos were missing too.

At this point I thought, do I actually want this website? Writers are advised to have one, though I know several writers who don't have one. I've said all along that I've become attached to my blog which I have written since 2009. It's changed a bit from the early days, but I was beginning to wonder what I'd put on a website. Could I abandon my blog? After what I went through this morning, I've decided it is not worth the hassle. Yes, I've spent money buying a domain, but I can cancel the subscription so I'm not paying for something I'm clearly not going to use.

I cannot afford to pay anyone to build me a website, and no doubt there would be a monthly fee on top, so what this boils down to is a re-vamping of my blog. At present I only post about once a month. I think I need to be a little more active, but also to change the 'pages' around a bit. Although Blogger can be annoying at times, I can usually sort things out. I'm not very technically minded (I quit WordPress for the same reason). Blogger is more user friendly for me....better the devil you know!

So I am going to do some work on the blog which I hope people will enjoy.

Some time ago I spoke about Substack. I signed up a while back to follow a couple of people, and I now have a profile and a photo. That's as far as I've got, but I am considering using it in the future. I just need to figure out where I am going with it. I want to do something different to this blog, but link them. I think Substack could be a good substitute for a website as it has some of the same features.

News and an announcement

This afternoon I have been with my writing group. Just four of us today., I really wanted to be there as I can't make the next prose meeting, and maybe not the next writing session. We had a good chat about self-publishing as well as writing. I took along a sheet with three sections of five random words as prompts in case there weren't any prompts this time (sometimes there aren't). No one used them, but I brought them home and I may use them myself sometime.

I used the time to write my task for the course I am taking at the moment. Live Canon is running a four-week correspondence course in poetry 'Line breaks'. I'm in catch-up mode as I joined a few days late, but I'm really enjoying the first week. Feedback is given not only by the tutor but one can share their work with others on the course. So, today I was writing the piece for feedback. The task only took ten minutes (as per the task instruction), so I tried writing some poetry, but nothing was working. In the end I went back to something I started writing at the writing group before. I have done no plotting and this is the third part! I only write it when I'm there. I really must do some world building and work out what I'm aiming for. It's a sort of cli-fi story. I read out what I had written today and apologised if it didn't make sense, but the overall feedback was good. 

Photo by Samuel Regan-Asante on
 Unsplash

The back end of April had a piece of flash fiction published by Ink Sweat & Tears called The Second Coming. It's funny and I loved writing it. If you read my bio at the end you see that I have stated that my first full length novella is due to be published later this year. So, now seems to be a good time to announce the exciting news that Tinsel Street, my Christmas feel-good short novel is to published by Troubador, hopefully at the end of August. The copy edits have been done and I have a front cover! The printing of the inside is being done now. I have an author page already and there is a link to this blog. I am still working on the content of the author page and will share this too in the future. There's not much on there yet. Oh, and I am going to compile a Tinsel Street playlist on Spotify to go with the book! This was a late thought and I might not get a link in the book, but I will share it here. More news to follow.

Meanwhile, I am still submitting and managed six submissions last month. And that's me for now. Thanks for reading and have a good week folks.

Novellas, a poem and three book reviews

 The novella I have been working on for at least five years (set at Christmastime), is nearing completion. I had the feedback from my proofreader/beta reader and she brought up two things. I have worked on the major one (just one scene) and have sent that back for her for further feedback. I'd been putting it off and concentrating instead on the latest piece I am writing. I thought I was in the last five thousand words of completing that, but had a moment when I thought I should write something from another character's point of view, and then I had another idea to fire up some more tension between the main character and her husband. Because all this is still flying around my brain, I decided to solve the issue with my long-running novella. Once this is ready I want to send it out on submission and see what happens. Watch this space!

I have had a poem accepted by a magazine. It came as a shock as I submitted it back in March, and I probably was going to give up hearing from them. I don't yet know when it will be published. They wrote asking if my poem was still available and that they would delighted to publish it! I will let you know when I have more details.

Book Reviews

The Company of Heaven by Catherine Fox, is the last in the series of The Lindchester Chronicles (or so she says; she's said that before!) The book follows the clergy in the parishes and diocese after the last lockdown of Covid. As a bonus, there are three or four short stories at the end of the book covering Easters and Christmases. These books are always a good read and witty.

Ticket to Ride by Tom Chesshyre isn't just for railway enthusiasts, though I'm sure they will love it. Tom travels through China, India, Russia, Australia, the USA, European countries and some lines in Scotland and Kent. He begins in Crewe, where he meets trainspotters, learns a bit of the lingo and about rolling stock. The book is peppered with Tom's humour as he meets all sorts of people on his journeys. I came across Tom when I bought his book From Source to Sea, about walking the Thames Path, which I am doing in short stages. I loved reading his descriptions of places he stayed and the people he met, especially when I'd walked the same part of the river. I let my friend borrow it and she then bought Ticket to Ride. This book has the same humour, and you certainly don't need any knowledge of trains to enjoy it.

Mrs England by Stacey Halls was unputdownable. I love her books and would probably read them in one go if I had time! Ruby May, a children's nurse takes a position in a house in Yorkshire in the early 1900's. The man of the house owns a mill and the wife seems rather distracted. Ruby looks after four children, the oldest 10 years old. Soon Ruby is confused about the couple she works for. She is drawn to Charles (mill owner), but the mistress, Lilian, has secrets. The atmosphere builds well with the backdrop of the rushing of the river, the mill, dark trees and dangerous crags. A well worked novel which captures the mood of the place and ties you up in knots as to who believe!

Update on writing and book reviews

 I have been writing. Oh yes, I have! While waiting for feedback on my Christmas themed novella, I went back to something I started at least a year ago. It will be part of a trilogy, and this is the last part. I'm about half way through now and these three stories are my first foot into a bit of horror. Getting back into it was a struggle at first, but I'm making headway now, though as usual I have no idea about the ending. 

Some weeks back, I went to an event at the Southbank Centre entitled Can Poets Speak to Trees? The event was hosted by Nina Mingya Powles, a writer and zinemaker from Aotearoa in New Zealand. Unfortunately one poet, Elizabeth Jane-Burnett (author of Twelve Words for Moss) was unable to attend, due to the train strike, but another poet came (sorry I forget the name) whose views were very close to mine on the state of the planet. The other poet was Pratyusha, author of Second Memory. The poets began by reading from their books before going on to discuss their poetry and the many aspects of it. These included which season were they most driven to write, how their poetry relates to the planet and trees, and if indeed we can speak to trees. I think the upshot was that we don't really understand the language of trees, though we know a fair amount about their relationship with fungi and the wood wide web. We know they sense things, like invasion, from insects, and can pass this information on to other trees (much like plants do).

It was a fascinating talk. The floor was then thrown open to the audience to ask questions. One question was: do you have hope for the future? One answer was yes, but not for us. The earth will survive very well without us. And that has always been my view. We need the planet more than the planet needs us!

I found the session very inspiring and already I could feel 'tree poems' bursting in my head. In the past I have written a succession of tree poems, which was why this talk interested me so much. I now have very rough drafts of another four poems to work on.

After the talk, I decided to re-join The Poetry Library. I was a member years ago, and in fact still have my original orange card. It fascinated the lady on the desk as she'd never seen one before. The Poetry Library has thousands of books, as well as study rooms and shelf displays of poetry magazines. At first it was a little overwhelming to know where to start, but I borrowed a couple by well known poets to get me started. You can borrow up to four books for four weeks. They also run events throughout the year with visiting poets and discussions.

Book Reviews

The first two books are related, though one is fiction and one is non-fiction. They deal with pre-historic Britain. I've had a fascination for the stone age since I was at junior school, and I've read many books about pre-history and where we as human started. My favourite fiction books were the Earth's Children series by author Jean M Auel. I remember reading The Clan of the Cave Bear avidly, and it is still my favourite book of all the series. It takes you back to the time when mingling between tribes occurred. The girl Ayla, was rescued from an earthquake by a woman of the Clan. The Clan speak mostly in grunts. Ayla was different, from a new tribe, more like us and the books follow her journey to adulthood. I could not wait to get my hands on the next book!

The first book, The Gift of Stones is a reminder of those times and is about a community of stone tool makers, knappers. The main character lost an arm as a child when he was shot with an arrow by one of the traders. The arm had to be amputated. The boy had never had the gift of stones that the others had, and was a bit of a dreamer. As he grew, the community thought him useless as a worker. One day on his wanders, he came across a woman and child living on their own. The father had gone to trade with his two sons and had never come back. The character begins to tell stories about his adventures to the community. He becomes their storyteller. One day after a raid he brings the woman and child back and for a while they live with his uncle, until the woman builds her own house. The story is told through the eyes of the woman's child. From my reading other books, I'm guessing this story is set in Neolithic times, just as the end of of the stone age, where it begins to overlap with the bronze age, as towards the end of the book the community come into contact with metal arrows. It is the main character who leads them out of their quarry when they realise that trading flint is no longer viable as metal takes over. This was a very different kind of book, by an author I'd not known before. An interesting read.

Ancestors: The Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials by Professor Alice Roberts, looks at the remains of burials from stone age through to pre-Roman times. She talks about who first discovered the remains (interested clergy and Pitt Rivers are mentioned), their attitudes to sexuality (males must have been the warriors), grave goods, religion and death. It was a fascinating read. Professor Alice Roberts has, of course, appeared in many TV programmes on the subject of pre-history. She talked about how we must not have preconceived ideas about what we find; about how technology has advanced so much from those early days with  the regular using of Carbon 14 dating, and more recent advances that will tell us even more.

The final book I want to mention is Nightwalking by John Lewis-Stempel. Split into the four seasons, the author walks the fields with his dog catching glimpses of wildlife we would probably not otherwise see. He walks in rain and snow, and the heat of a summer's evening. Nothing stops him. There are also diary notes from each season and a glossary at the back of the book. The prose is beautifully poetic as the author describes his surroundings and the animals he sees. You feel you are with him. I also love the front cover! This is a keeper.

Finding my mojo

 

Writing can be an up and down business. I don't really believe in writer's block as such. It's more to do with how you feel, and I certainly don't worry about it. If I'm writing and I get stuck, I'll walk away for a while, maybe move to a different form of writing, like poetry if I'm struggling with fiction, or vice versa. Otherwise I might just leave writing for a while and spend more time reading or doing something else. Eventually something will spark me back to writing again.

I've spent the best part of this year so far on my new novella. Work has been intense since having an editor critique for me. Lots of cut and paste, moving timelines and extra scenes followed before two read-throughs - one on the laptop, the other from a printout of my manuscript. Those edits then had to be fed back into my file copy. I was beginning to find myself separating from the work. I'd read it so many times I was falling out of love with it and I could no longer judge my own writing. I pushed myself to get the edits into my file copy earlier this week, and then couldn't resist a tinker to the ending! Finally, I have sent out my manuscript to a couple of friends for feedback. It's a weight off me.

Free of all that work, what was I to do now? I have lots of work on my laptop that needs editing, stuff I've not looked at in years. There's also a work I started last year (or was it the year before), which I'd mislaid somewhere on my laptop and then found again. I could go back to that. Submissions have plummeted to a record low this year, maybe I should see what I had and which submission windows were open.

It is the latter I did. I went into my flash fiction file and took a look at a few stories I'd written. With some editing I improved them (hopefully). I ended up sending out to three publications, which involved two flash fictions and three poems. It felt good. 

Maybe it was the act of spending so much time on one manuscript that was wearing me down. I felt unproductive, as I had nothing to show for it. That isn't true of course, as I was working really hard. I was just conscious that I wasn't really waiting on subs as there was nothing now to wait on, and it was going to take months before the novella made anymore headway.

I was feeling that I'd lost my mojo, especially as I was struggling to keep positive about the novella. It was time to try other things. One of things was attending a crime writing workshop on Saturday morning in Wimbledon Library. It was good to be around writers again, and the workshop was interesting. Run by two local authors crime writers, Joy Kluver and Biba Pearce, there was an introduction of the type of crime novels one could write from procedural to cosy crime and all else in between. We had go at writing a first scene, then split into two groups with a tutor and shared our writing or notes. There were two further exercises about characters and setting and lots of advice. I think there will be follow up workshops in the future. 

While I enjoyed the workshop, I'm still not sure crime writing is for me, though I love reading it. I do have one crime novel written during a frantic NaNoWriMo event some years ago, but I've not been back to it, and I would need expert advice on some police stuff (I mainly Googled it!). Sometimes I write around the edges of crime, but never full-on crime with all the police procedural stuff. However, I love forensics to the point when I see a police forensics van pass by I get all excited, and I've read quite a few books on the subject. However, I never dismiss the idea of writing any genre.

The the other thing that helped me find my writing mojo was reading the latest copy of Mslexia magazine. I enjoyed an article about indie authors and as always I went to the back pages to see which submission windows are open. This was also helped by the email I received from Robin Houghton with a list of poetry publication deadlines for June. Sometimes things just come together. Hence the submissions already mentioned.

I didn't think I'd be submitting anything this month apart from my poem to Visual Verse, so when I found it had been published I took that as a 100% success rate for the month. I'm going to have change those statistics now. My poem Curtain Call is based on a photo on the website of a cat.

What next? I don't know yet, but at least I've found the excitement in writing again and that's what it's all about.

Are you a seasonal writer?

 

The print out of my manuscript

This blog post is only possible because I woke up early and couldn't get back to sleep. It's spring. The weather right now is pretty good, and my social calendar is in overdrive. So, when do I have time to write?

The fact is I'm more a bad weather writer. This time of year my work rate drops. Instead, you'll find me out more than in, and when I am in that's in the garden with a book or gardening. This is my favourite time of year. Long days, more light and hopefully sunshine and warmth. I need them. In a former life I think I was a reptile, because as soon as there is a hint of warmth in the sun I'm on my bench by the back door soaking in the rays. 

Bad weather, especially the cold, and especially those grey, blanket-cloud days bring me down. To help, I write. I get far more writing done in the winter or drab autumn days. So unless I get going early in the morning in summer, before it's warm enough to sit outside or go out somewhere, writing is doomed.

So, what is happening with the novella, I hear you ask (or not!). Well, I have finished the next stage of edits, added the tweaks necessary after my location visit to Peterborough last month. Then one morning early (see?) I actually printed out all the pages. I am now too busy to do the print edit! Well, at least for the next couple of weeks. This might not be a bad thing as the story needs to settle. My intention then is to go find a quiet place, somewhere away from the house - maybe a cafe or riverside - and begin reading through it.

Due to working on the novella and my busy social life, submissions are at their lowest. I've just about scraped one a month recently. That's hardly likely to up my success rates. The more you submit the more chances you have of something being accepted. I knew this would be a lean year after the madness of last year, but part of that is just down to me However, this novella has been the main project of the year so far, and I've had to concentrate on that. I have other things waiting in the wings to edit, but I'm guessing they might have to wait until winter!

So, my question is, do you have a season for your writing? Or is it just me? 

Review for 2022

 

Mslexia Diary

Well, here we are into another year. It's pouring with rain, so an ideal time to write my review for the last year.

My goal for 2022 was to submit at least five pieces to different publications each month during the year. I began with much enthusiasm, but later things became a struggle, and some months I wondered if I would make it. I did! Some months I sent submitted seven times, but there was no way I could keep that up! So, here is breakdown of what I sent and the results:

Poetry I submitted 59 poems (obviously sometimes I sent two or three at a time as most publications prefer to see a variety of your work). Of those 59, 11 were published and one longlisted. That's about 20% of my work!

Flash I submitted 21 flash stories, and of those 4 were published and one longlisted.

Short Stories Nine were submitted and one was published.

Pamphlets Two submitted. Still waiting on the result of one.

Novellas One submitted on which I am awaiting the result.

I am also waiting to hear on 12 of those poems submitted last year (I heard back on a block of three this month) and waiting on six flash fictions.

At the end of September I published my second Novella, The Chair. 

I took part in several online workshops in writing flash, poetry and horror, as well as a weekend online conference run by Alliance of Independent Authors.

For the second year running I took part in flash-a-day during November and got myself a whole host of new stories to work on.

At the beginning of last year I won Writers' Forum magazine's poetry competition which I had entered in 2021, but the result wasn't printed until early 2022 when I also received my prizes!

The biggest highlight of the year for me was having my flash story published by Popshot, a magazine I admire very much. One of the most beautiful magazine must be Seaborne, in which I was luckily enough to have two poems published in the same issue.

Last year was the most successful for me and the most exciting. So what are my goals for this, I hear you ask. Well, I would like to set up my own website. Over Christmas, I read a book about doing just that. It was a library find, but when I come to look into creating my website, I shall have to borrow the book again! It showed various platforms and the ease of use, as well as what they can or cannot offer. I've more or less decided on which platform to use.

My other goals are to continually review my projects and publish another book. 

What I learned from last year:

• While submitting so much writing helped me gain more successes, I also found I might sometimes submit something that wasn't quite right just to hit my target!
• The Legend Planner I bought for 2022 worked to a certain extent, but there was much I didn't use, and I tailed off half way through the year. It did have lots of pages to write on and I used it to write a list of projects on the go and see where I was at with them and what to do next to move forward. I also worked out my review in it. However, for this year I have purchased the Mslexia Diary as it is written by women writers for women writers. It has listings of publications and competitions at the start of each month and loads more useful stuff depending where you are with your writing. This feels more relevant and useable.
• I over committed myself sometimes by signing up to things with enthusiasm and ending up not being able to give everything my full attention, November being one of those months. I also missed an online workshop I'd signed up for with Mslexia because I totally forgot!

Before I end, I thought I would list my top three reads of last year in the fiction and non-fiction category. I read a lot of books in a year (though not as many as some in a Facebook Book Club I belong  to, but then I also read magazines). I read a total of 72 books and here are my top three:

Fiction

The Island of Missing Trees - Elif Shakaf for it's beautiful prose and story set in Cyprus and England. Outstanding read.

Sea Change - Alix Nathan. A mother waves to her child as she sets off in a new contraption called an air balloon. When it crashes in the sea it is thought the mother is lost. Instead, she is rescued and lives in a different part of the country, but the shock of what has happened makes her speechless and for a while unable to remember. Meanwhile, her daughter is brought up by the artist man who loved the mother, but he drinks and suffers from depression. The story follows both mother and daughter until they are brought together.

Small Pleasures - Clare Chambers. An usual story about a woman who claims she had an immaculate conception and a woman news reporter who is asked to follow the story. This brings her into contact with the mother and daughter and also the man who is not the father but loves the little girl. The story has a tragic ending. When I saw it coming I was yelling 'no!' Have the hankies ready.

Non-fiction

The Wicked Boy - Kate Summerscale. I could not put this down. Far better than The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, this is about a young boy who murders his mother and what happens to him during the rest of his life. The murder is gruesome, but there was evidence of parental abuse. The boy was sent to Broadmoor where he turned his life around. I was astounded at the positive way mentally ill patients who had committed crimes were treated. I thought it would be awful, but they were forward thinking, and the boy was finally released and had a whole new positive life, even serving in the war. An incredible story.

The Seven Ages of Death - Dr Richard Shepherd. If you don't like detailed autopsies, this isn't for you. The saddest were the babies. The evidence the doctor gleans, often proved the opposite of what the police hoped because they wanted to pin a conviction on someone they have arrested. It is fascinating and absorbing. The book is split into the seven ages of man (just like Shakespear's poem The Seven Ages of Man, that I so like). I loved this book so much (I have a 'thing' about forensics and death, it seems) that I've borrowed another of his books from the library. 

Bodysnatchers - Suzie Lennox. Do you see a pattern here? I took part in an online author event about a year ago with Suzie Lennox. Her passion for the subject rubbed off on me and I had to buy the book. I'd seen the film Burke & Hare who operated in Edinburgh, but this subject has always interested me (yeah, I'm weird that way). The book is full of events both macabre and funny of how people made a living from digging up the newly dead and selling them to medical students studying autonomy, as well as selling teeth and hair. A lively, informative book, well researched.

Well, that's it for now. I've submitted my first poem today. Let's see where this year will take me.

 

Editing and when you hate your manuscript!

The writing room

 This month I am editing and making plans. Perhaps it's that autumn feeling of a new academic year and beginning new projects. I decided to look at the work I have and where I am at with it. I've been back over a short novella I wrote some years ago. I suppose you could say it's the first novella I ever wrote. It had been through a beta read/proofread a couple of years or so ago before I had ProWritingAid installed my on laptop. I gave it another run through using it and it picked up some sentence construction it didn't like. So, I looked at each. Some I left because they were dialogue which includes part sentences and slang. It's knowing when to obey the rules! However, it was useful and I did make charges. Even sentences it didn't flag up I reworked because I wasn't happy with them. The manuscript has now been through three edits in a week. Now comes the hard work. This is a novella I'm thinking of self-publishing. It's been a year since I tackled KDP for my novella-in-flash and I remember how stressful that was. The good thing is I don't have any deadlines, no one breathing down my neck to get it published by a certain date.

I am reading a stand alone Ian Rankin book at present (Westwind). I love it that the author writes about his writing process in his books. This is a reissue, so he has updated it and done a few edits. But he was describing how he felt about the other books at the time, ones he was either writing (a Rebus) and editing another. How his agent had problems selling Westwind, and how when he did, the editor wanted re-writes. Ian said how it became a book he couldn't look at anymore and it didn't feel like his work either. It got me thinking about how writers often don't have a say with agents/publishers. Yes, they do all that hard stuff, the selling, promotion etc, but it gets taken out of the author's hands. The author may not like the cover, may think (as Ian Rankin did) that it no longer feels their own. Ian Rankin has come back to his book and likes it now, but often the editing process distances the writer from the work. You get to hate it and can't make a judgement anymore of whether it is good or not. Basically, you just lose interest.

This happened to me with the first full novel I wrote. I went over the start so many times I couldn't read it anymore. I was getting it ready to submit it to a novel competition (it didn't get picked). It's still on my laptop. One day maybe I'll be able to go back to it.

I must admit I'd love to have someone to take care of marketing. I'm not good at that. My main writing is not novel writing either, though I have written them. I prefer flash, short stories and poetry. That feels different to novel writing in the whole marketing area. Everything seems geared to the bestsellers.

Meanwhile, back at the laptop, I've also re-written the ending of another novella and am gathering feedback on that. This one I might send out to see if it get picked up before I consider self-publishing.

I am still waiting to hear from two online journals when my pieces will go live. The waiting is dreadful and I keep checking because sometimes journals don't tell you when they publish.

Finally, I was thrilled to hear from The People's Friend late last month that they wanted to feature me as their writer of the week on their website. Would I be interested? Hell, I would! They forwarded a set of interview questions and I asked my son to take a photo for the piece. It went live on Monday 5th September. You can read it here. I was out on Monday, but when I had the chance, I stopped to take a look and did a little 'woop!'

What have I been doing?

Blooming May by the River Thames

Sometimes I really have to think about what I have spent the last few weeks doing. A friend said to me recently that I have such wide interests. That is true, and can mean that my concentration wavers. Trying to fit in all my passions can end up with me not giving enough attention to one thing. In the past I definitely used to get waylaid by any new obsession. Those things that held my attention enough I would eventually come back to. Those things are music, reading and writing. I was also good at starting things and not finishing them. I have tried hard over the years to change this, and to a great extent I have achieved this. But I do have a 'waiting list' of things I want to do, but as yet cannot give enough time to.

One of my more recent obsessions was online courses. I would sign up for free courses on FutureLearn or OpenLearn and realise I had too many on the go at once. When it comes to writing, I have amassed rather a lot of work that needs editing. I try not to have two things on the go at once (I don't count poetry as that is a nice side distraction when I get stuck with other writing, or I just have the need to write it). I find it hard to switch between editing one document whist writing another. Too many characters and storylines to contend with. Do others have this problem?

Recently, I have been reading feedback on a novella I have written. It is out for more feedback now as an issue arose and I need to know it that's one opinion or me! I need more beta readers, that's for sure, and that should be my next priority.

Having started off well with my submitting earlier in the year, I can feel myself flagging. I have reached my goal each month, but I have to push myself. I do think having the right frame of mind helps and I seem to be having a lull in enthusiasm right now. Instead, I have been on a reading frenzy, and getting round to finishing those half read books that have been lingering on my coffee table. These are non-fiction. Last year I began reading a book on Victorian England and abandoned it for fiction. I got back into it a few weeks ago and have really enjoyed it. I bought it for reference purposes really as I have written something set in the Victorian age (it needs editing, of course!) and this book has been helpful. Another book came my way about musical history, and having read that, it sent me back to another book I abandoned on Early Music. Several years ago, I attended a course at Morley College on Early Music,  but the course was cancelled after only two lessons.There were only three of us in class. I was pretty cheesed off (for once it was not me giving up!). I particularly loved learning about how music began and the simple way of writing music. One of my great regrets is that I cannot seem to learn to read music (I have tried several times).

I have finally heard from The People's Friend that they are taking a poem of mine for their Fireside Book 2023. I'd given up on this as I was told I'd hear by March. I think this poem has been with them now for a year. Still, Visual Verse published another of my poems last month. There are 18 pieces of my work on their website, but I know there are more. One year I was published by them every month. I still enjoy the challenge of writing to a picture prompt within the hour.

My writing has taken on a darker and more weird (surrealist?) flavour in recent weeks. I've been writing a lot of flash fiction in this style. The more I write flash fiction, the more I enjoy it. It's a bit like knitting on large needles, you have a finished item quickly!

So, what keeps you motivated to write and what takes you away from it? Here is my lineup. 

Distractions/not want to write:

• Mood
• Sunshine (I don't want to be indoors when the weather is good)
• Trips out (for content for my travel blog!)
• Rejections
• Other interests

What motivates me:

• Mood
• Ideas
• Acceptances
• Writing buddies
• Certain friends
• Workshops/courses
• Trips out

As you can see a couple of things appear in both lists. What never bothers me is writer's block or lack of ideas. Sometimes I get overwhelmed by how much writing I have and how little of it has been published, and how little of it I've just not got round to editing! I love the writing process, but it takes time to edit. What do you struggle with?

To end with, here is a little challenge (no prizes, sorry!). Write a piece of flash fiction or a poem using all the following words (the order doesn't matter, unless you want to make it harder!):

clock

envelope

rhythm

sneering

slide

egg

Good luck! If you want to post your efforts into comments, do, but please be aware that anything published here would not be eligible for submission to magazines or competitions as they would consider it already published.

Feedback and some good news

 Good morning writers and readers! I received the feedback on my novella (Christmas theme) recently. I decided to leave it for a while, though there was the temptation to open the file. My current  novella was nearing completion, and I didn't want an added distraction. So, I ploughed on with my writing. One day I worked on it off and on throughout the day to get it completed. The piece runs to just under 50,000 words, the longest novella I have written so far.

Having saved and filed my document away to stew, I opened the feedback document. This particular lady and I use Tracker in Word. Somehow I must have clicked something I've not used in the past and I couldn't get it to do what I wanted. Frustration kicked in, and I was making mistakes and deleting things I didn't mean to. Tracker has all sorts of things you can keep tabs on, but I just wanted to make the changes, not keep what went before. I really need to learn how to use it properly. I'm sure there is a YouTube video I can watch. You can find anything on YouTube.

Eventually, I got it to work, though I still don't know what I did to right it! All the amendments have now been made. These are the silly things like typos, grammar, punctuation and sentences that don't sound right. All my usual things, like changing names of people and change of tense came up (though I picked up one that was missed). It's advised to do most of these things in the final run through, but I prefer to have a lot of these ironed out first and to get an overall feedback. There is still a bit of work to do. Mainly, this is description. I charge quickly into my stories and when I leave things out, it's usually description. So the next thing will be to go through it again and fill out the detail. But I'm going to leave it for a week or two now and go back to it fresh.

I have two poems due out in Seaborne magazine next month. They only publish poetry and stories about the sea, and it thrilled me to learn they are taking both my poems. I'll post a link when I know the day of publication.

Now the sun is calling me. Time to stop writing and get into the garden with a book.

Completing the novella and other things

The entrance to a new pestestrain 
walkway/cycle path

Blogger is changing, but I'm not sure it makes any difference to the reader, unless it makes it easier to leave comments! Bloggers will be moved to the new version from late June, or you can do it beforehand. I have decided to do it now. The layout in editor looks more modern, that's all really. Hey ho!

So, what have I been doing since I last blogged? Well, since finishing my poetry challenge I decided that it was high time I finished one of the novellas I've been writing. I chose to work on the dystopian one I began last year, and yes, I've completed the first draft. Hang out the flags! It needs a lot of work, some scenes will need a re-write and the ending probably needs more work. 

In the last throws I decided to go at it in Bruce Willis style - all guns blazing (Die Hard is my favourite movies). I just sat down and wrote without really thinking, and strangely it worked. I found myself with different exit statagies for my characters as things fell into place.  I wrote the final chapter in one almightly splurge and refused to stop until it was done, afraid I would lose the momentum. Now I have to leave it for a while to settle.

The other novella is set over a Christmas period and I think that will have to wait until at least October. I can't get into it yet. Besides, another year won't matter. This has been on and off for about three years already.

Since completing my poetry challenge I have writted only two poems, both on the same day. I've not even typed them up yet. They sit in my note book.

With yet more rejections I'm not really submitting anymore. I know this sounds awful, but I can't be bothered. At some point I will look into self publishing, but I'm not ready yet. I've cancelled one writing magazine subscription as I barely read it anymore. What I have been enjoying instead is writing my travel blog over on WordPress, though travel is out at present, I have been using archive pictures about trips in the past. In the last couple of weeks I've also been exploring local places. Because I have to walk everywhere (we don't have a car) I have to make sure I allow myself the energy and time to walk back. So walks between two and three hours! It's been wonderful. I found a great field of horses I didn't know existed adjoining a park where my boys used to play Little League.

I enjoy finding out the history of places and writing about them. I'm an avid photo taker, just ask my Facebook friends! I can honestly say that since lockdown I've taken far more photos than usual. I take loads in my garden, always looking for new angles, something unusual, and in the last few days I've been cloud watching. I've been reading The Cloudspotter's Guide along with The Cloud Collector's Handbook (both my the same author). 

I am now jogging every other day. Some days it takes an effort to get going, but the weather has been so good that being out early (anywhere from 6.30 - 7.30am) is brilliant. I've been running for six weeks now, and no it doesn't get any easier. I split the park into five sections, with the first section being the longest run without stopping. The legs are doing well, but the lungs still heave. The other four sections are short sections. At some point it might be good to try and join two together, but for now I'm happy my knees haven't given up and I'm able to maintain that first section goal.

The park where I run

Every Monday I avidly watch Grayson Perry's Art Club and I always do a picture on the theme of that week, even if it is rubbish, my picture, not the theme. At the moment I seem happier working with pencil, pen marker, felt tips and coloured pencils, and sometimes charcoal. Here are my last four pictures.

Rizzo

Fantasy

Through my window

Home

My book pile is reducing dramatically, and I found a pile of poetry books/magazines while I was delving into drawers and cupboards. I think soon I shall be adding books from my wish-list, especially as I have only around four novels left to read. Everything else is non fiction, but rather long non fiction!

Oh, and the songwriting course is going well. I have completed the fourth week of six, have put a melody to the tutors words, recorded it on my laptop and uploaded it to Soundcloud - so proud! I got some good comments. I have written lyrics for my own song and have tried putting it to a melody, but still working on that. This has taken me way back to those days of writing in my bedroom at home. Very strange feeling.

Satellites, flames and the aroma of art materials

Ah, the whiff of paper and charcoal

Some surprising things this week - the excitement of watching Starlink Satellites moving through the sky over our house one night, the aroma of new art materials, and finding a spark has ignited the flame in writing.

Yes, this is the week when we were to see meteor showers in the night sky. Well, never saw those (though a friend north of London says she saw them on Monday night), but the experience of seeing the Satellites was wired and awesome. They came over our roof top in a line, a tiny light each like high flying planes. They were spaced out in equal distance, and there were masses of them coming one by one moving at a steady pace. It was fascinating. My son tells me these are to do with the internet. I wonder if our signal was stronger as they came over our house! As for the meteor showers, I did spend a good deal of time looking for them to no avail, but Venus has been so bright these nights and seems closer. I'm no astronomer, so I have no idea if it is any closer.

Venus (taken with my mobile)

This morning my art supplies have arrived. Now that is exciting too. I had not noticed before (or have forgotten) the aroma of art material. Books, yes. I am a sniffer of books, a toucher of books. Books are seductive. But paper and charcoal? Well, yes. Mmm. With the good weather holding it might be a few days before I get down to any real art. My attempts at watercolour last week were laughable. Now with the right paper....well I'm not holding my breath. I seem to either produce something good or very, very bad. We shall have to see.

I made tentative connections with my novella and everything was painfully slow and painful to write. I felt nothing in particular. I tried working out next scenes in my head and lost a lot of sleep one night over it, but in the morning I reeled off over 2,000 words. When I read it back I was surprised to find I quite liked it, despite having changed the tense a few times and even the POV. But I could rectify that straightaway. I seem to have found a way forward, though no ending as such - I hope that will sort itself out in the same way as this part of the story unravels. But I noticed that I was excited by what I was writing and I've written something for the last three mornings. I am back to my mulling between writes. When that works and the ideas come then I can't get the words down fast enough. I'm trying not to think far ahead and writing for myself. This began as a dystopian story and I thought it was for adult readers, but now I'm wondering if it falls in with young adult as the main character is a thirteen year old boy. I do read young adult myself sometimes if the story appeals, like Seeker by William Nicholson and Half Bad by Sally Green. For now I just want to finish it and then maybe I'll be able to finish the other novella I started several years ago.

One sad thing happened at the weekend. The tree in the alleyway was butchered by the guys from the garage because the branches hung over their garage roof. Technically the tree probably doesn't belong to anyone, though my neighbour had a tree surgeon in a few years ago to cut it back as it was overhanging her garden and house so much. But she lives in South Korea and only comes home once a year. The garage guys just used a hacksaw and made a terrible job of it. I felt bereft as that tree, which I consider 'my tree' because its the first thing I see from my lounge window, brings me so much joy as I watch it change through the seasons. All kinds of birds visit it too. I thought they were going to cut the whole thing down but they have left some of it and I am grateful for that, though it looks how I feel.

What's left of 'my' tree

In my own garden I have installed a tiny fountain in my tiny pond. This pond is only an old pet carrier which arrived without a lid. The company just sent a complete one and never asked for the bottom bit back. I found a use for it. The pond became stagnant in my little wildlife garden. So I bought the fountain, cleaned the whole pond out and installed it. The only thing is that because the wind has been so strong the water gets blown over the grass and I filled it three times yesterday. The fountain is solar powdered and I have to move the panel around to catch the sun as where the pond is is rather shady. I moved the panel away from the sun yesterday while the wind remains strong and will try again.

So, that my week.

Novellas-in-Flash

The only way to understand how a novella-in-flash works is to read one. I'd heard about the form, which is newish, so I picked up a copy of How to Make a Window Snake containing three flash fiction novellas from the Bath Novella-in-Flash Award.

It was interesting to note that none of the individual flash stories by  Charmaine Wilkerson that make up the title of the collection, had been published before. The other two novellas had been published in part before in magazines or online.

Basically each piece of flash is a stand alone story but forms part of the over all novella. Charmaine Wilkerson's How to Make a Window Snake dealt with a family coming to terms with tragedy. Each flash repeated some element mentioned in the previous piece/pieces. I liked this one a lot. The second story A Safer Way to Fall by Joanna Campbell dealt with violence. While parts of this one were very powerful I felt it also drifted off in a direction I didn't feel it needed to. The final story Things I Dream About When I'm Not Sleeping by Igrid Jendrzejewski looked into the lives of a couple who grappled with mismatched wishes. I enjoyed this one too, following the thoughts of the woman. I particularly enjoyed the flash piece about eating ice cream in the bathroom!

Of the three authors, I have come across Ingid Jendrzejewski as she ran a session on submitting to competitions at Swanwick Summer School a couple of years or so ago. I'd never heard anyone talk so fast. She had a lot to get through during her allotted time. She gave us very useful information at rapid speed. There was a lot to take in!

The form of writing a novella in flash rather appeals to me and I may well give this a go sometimes. This was a nice book with very different stories and a great introduction to this form of writing.

New Year, catching up and reading poetry on trains

First post of the New Year. I heard about my novella at the end of December - didn't get on the shortlist. Oh well. Yes, I was disappointed but when I went back to it I realised that the opening isn't strong enough. I had already changed it once before I entered it for the competition, but it can be improved and will be! I had the idea of submitting it somewhere else. However, looking at the criteria for this particular place I'm not sure if it falls into their categories (sci-fi and fantasy). My story is more supernatural. My other problem is it's length. Very few competitions exist that take word counts of around 15,000 words. I still like the story. I'll take another look at it sometime and see what revisions I think it needs.

My 10p copy of War and Peace with  cover
sellotaped together!

I'm still trying to catch up on magazines and am now well into War and Peace, Dare I say I'm quite enjoying it now! I think I will watch the TV adaptation. It might help me clarify things, but the book has definitely become more interesting. Part of the problem is getting into that mindset of reading books written so long ago. They style of writing is so different. A lot of the books I read I fast paced, and this is a slow one. Once I accepted it I began to enjoy it.

On a different note I often see posts or articles stating that people are never seen reading poetry on trains. I must be an exception then because I do. If the book I am reading is too big to carry around I take whatever else I have to read - writing magazines, poetry books and small press magazines, even On Religion, a magazine I consider one of the best multi-faith magazines (subscription only). I love looking to see what other people are reading (I'm just so nosy) and I don't mind it they look at what I'm reading. Poetry books are handy sized reads and often fit into my handbag. Maybe we should make this the year of reading poetry on a train - let everyone know it's cool to read poetry. Who is with me? Why not take a photo to prove it too!

The fun or formatting and writing something new

I finally got my Novella sent off. I spent a week editing. After a long break I thought it was about there. I thought trying to ready a poem was bad enough but there are far more words to tinker with in fiction (in this case approx 15,500 words). Then I had the nightmare of submitting on line. Actually it was more the formatting to fit the guidelines that had me running screaming - headers, footers and page numbering which I needed different to the normal due to having to submit a synopsis (yes, I needed one of those again!) and a cover sheet all in one document. Word's advanced features nearly had me suicidal. I had to watch several YouTube videos until something finally worked and I got my different numbering only to find the headers had changed! I got round that one. I couldn't face anymore. Now I have a long wait (December) to see if I even reach the long list.

I've been taking a bit of break from writing but I miss it. I have loads of editing waiting but meantime I have decided to enter a flash fiction competition. It took a day of mulling and sketchy notes, then just getting something down before I had a light bulb moment and wrote something I like. The word count is 250 - not a lot to conjure up a story. I need to take one last look at it and then submit.

Whenever I take a break from writing for a few days I wonder if I will ever get back into it. I know I need time to do other things and stand back from the laptop for a while, get some air and make the most of summer. With no holiday plans for the summer it is easy to just carry on but I know come September everything will be full on again. I've signed up to a few online courses starting in September and then I'll be involved with the church group I lead. This is my last year leading it, so hopefully I will have more time in January.

My enthusiasm for poetry writing has waned a lot lately but I still want to submit a set of my best to a magazine and have another go. My poetry seriously needs an overhaul but now is not the time.