That was fun – now it’s time to get on with some writing!

 

The first half of 2016 has been great fun. My writing and I have been out and about more than ever before – this is me last weekend at the Evesham Festival of Words open mic reading Monty and Jules Act 1 (the reading slots were a generous seven minutes, but I just couldn’t fit in the whole thing).

Since the end of last year, I’ve read at book groups, festivals, the Women’s Institute, the Mothers’ Union and I’ve hosted an open mic. I’ve met some wonderful fellow writers – many of whom are also independents – and made a host of contacts for future events. My book, The Woman Who Never Did, is even for sale in a real, non-virtual bookshop: Warwick Books, 24 Market Place, Warwick (website here).

Ok, I’ve only written a couple of stories and poems, but I am in print again thanks to Cleo being shortlisted in the Evesham Festival Short Story Competition – read more here.

What I haven’t done is the thing I set out to do at the beginning of the year – get on with my next book. It has a title: The Mother and the Ghost. It has an plot, a theme and a tentative structure. It’s constructed from several smaller stories and I’ve even started some of them often more than once! So now that my performing bug is satisfied for a while and provided life, in the form of my family, allows me the space to do so, I’m off to do a bit of writing.

See you after the summer.

 

Words! Words! Words!

This time last year I had never even read at an open mic event. Just last week, on 16^th June, I was hosting one – and I had the time of my life!

When my friend and fellow writer, Alycia Smith-Howard, asked if I’d collaborate with her on the Shakespeare 400 project for St Mary’s Church, Warwick, I was more than a little bit daunted. But having worked with Alycia previously on a National Poetry Day event at Charlecote Park, I was delighted at the prospect of working with her again. I was also very excited to see myself listed in a programme of events that included some very illustrious names from the world of Shakespeare and the theatre – including Dame Judi Dench!

The brief for Words! Words! Words! was deceptively simple: an open mic event, linked into the exhibition of the Shakespeare First Folio and King James Bible at St Mary’s, featuring local writers and poets reading work inspired by Shakespeare and/or The Bible. I started off by trying to write something myself:

‘Cry no more, babies. Cry no more…’

Way too silly, but perhaps I could do something on the theme of The Seven Ages of Man – or Woman. So next I thought about the school boy, or school girl:

‘By the pricking of my thumbs, Year 4’s sewing this way comes…’

Hm. It wasn’t looking good and things went from bad to worse with my next effort:

‘Shall I compare thee to an easy lay…’

I decided I needed to take a more considered approach and started work on Monty and Jules, a story inspired by Romeo and Juliet.

In the meantime, I contacted some of the talented people I’ve met over the past couple of years at festivals and workshops and challenged my fellow StoryVine writers to create something for a more mature audience. With the help of the Warwick Words Festival, the word spread to poets in local writers’ groups. Then leaflets and social media did the rest.

And what a night we had. In Warwick, The Globe’s Helen Jones couldn’t have been more welcoming (more about The Globe here). We were provided with a beautiful venue, a lovely panelled room with a magnificent period fireplace. All the writers involved came up trumps with a really diverse range of offerings: poetry, short stories, an extract from a novel, a short dramatic sketch, creative non-fiction (that was a new one for me, but I loved it), and a song. We were even joined by local potter, Carey Moon, who brought a selection of Shakespeare inspired mini-bowls to add to our offerings – see more of Carey’s work here.

The weather outside really was frightful (there was torrential rain, thunder and lightning, hailstones – you name it), but the readings were delightful and the room was packed, despite the weather. OK, it was rather humid and we all got a bit warm and sticky (well, I certainly did), but it was a great night – as you can tell by the smiles on our faces.

Jenefer Heap, Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn and Jacci Gooding

All the contributors provided a few words of introduction for me to use on the night, some have websites and there were a few cameras in the room. With apologies for the varied quality of the photographs, and with everybody’s permission, this was the running order:

 

Terri Daneshyar writes and performs stories for children and is a member of StoryVine writers group (read more about StoryVine here). She is currently working on a young adult novel. By day she teaches English at a local secondary school, which may become apparent as you listen to her offering.

 

In recent years Dinah Smith has been writing poetry from the experiences of a long life. In 2011 – 2012 she was named Warwick Words Poet Laureate.  Read more about Dinah here.

 

Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn writes novels, short stories and flash fiction. Her third novel, ‘The Broken Road’, was published in 2015. ‘Unravelling’, published in 2010, has won several awards. ‘The Piano Player’s Son’ was published by Cinnamon Press in 2013, after winning their novel writing award. Lindsay has an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University. Read more about Lindsay here.

 

Liz Jolly lives and works in Warwick and regularly reads her words at open mics in the Midlands.

 

Pam Wray is a member of Stratford-upon-Avon Writers Circle. Down the years she’s dabbled in all sorts of writing, including short stories, poems and song lyrics, and she’s hoping that one day soon, she’ll become an overnight success. Currently, her work is published in anthologies, and in women’s magazines.

 

Jane Scott wrote her first book, ‘Jane’s Book of Poems’ at the age of nine. While her children were young, she wrote pantomimes to raise money for the PTA and has since written many humorous poems and monologues for village events. These days, Jane writes, acts and directs for the Barford Drama Group.

 

Nick Le Mesurier is a playwright, occasional poet, short story writer, researcher, and blogger about birds and culture. He has had monologues professionally performed. He writes for a Coventry based charity that helps musical and other developing artists nurture their skills through performance.

 

Alycia Smith-Howard discovered Shakespeare when she was six and never looked back. Currently training to be a priest, she is also a writer, scholar and lecturer. Her greatest joy (husband and son excluded) is combining these roles as curator for Shakespeare 400. Alycia has written two books about the Bard, including a cookbook! Read more about Alycia here.

 

Having learnt to type on an old Olympia typewriter, Jacci Gooding is now celebrating all that modern technology has to offer and will be e-publishing her first collection of short stories in October.  She too has won a competition and would like to win some more! Read more about Jacci Gooding here.

 

Nigel Hutchinson trained as a fine artist, spent his working life as a teacher and always loved juggling with words. Georgia O’Keeffe said she painted to say things she had no words for, writing poetry is the opposite.

 

Sue Newgas works Front of House at the RSC which provides plenty of material to write about the Bard.  “When you see each production at least 30 times, you get to know the plot!” she says. Sue’s also a part of StoryVine children’s writing group (read more about StoryVine here).

 

Gwyneth Box’s writing explores the borderlands between translation and creation, and between memoir and invention. Although personal experience often provides the raw material for her writing, she believes that real life only serves as a stepping-stone to the poetic: facts can – and should – be sacrificed if they get in the way. Read more about Gwyneth here.

 

Vivien Heim has always loved reading but it was only after a bruising love affair, and on the advice from some friends to write as a kind of therapy, that she decided to write in earnest. Once she’d started on her first novel, she just couldn’t stop. She’s now well into the sequel and plans to complete this plus an accompanying cookbook by the end of the year. Read more about Vivien here.

To Read or Not to Read?

To read of course!

This is just a short post because I’m a bit busy. There’s only two days to go to my first time hosting an open mic evening and I’m feeling excited and nervous in equal measures. This time a year ago I’d never even read at such an event.

But this week, on Thursday 16th June, I will be introducing a host of talented local writers and poets Upstairs at The Globe in Warwick.

It’s all part of Shakespeare 400:History, Heritage & Faith, a programme of events centred around the special exhibition of a Shakespeare First Folio and a first edition of the King James Bible at St Mary’s Church in Warwick. I’m feeling especially honoured as other events in the programme have included a brilliant abridged version of Henry VI by the Playbox Theatre and a magical opening evening with Dame Judi Dench.

The idea behind my event is to bring together local writers and poets to share work inspired by Shakespeare or the Bible. We’ve got a great line up, a mix of poetry, short stories, drama, extracts from novels, a bit of creative non-fiction, and even a song. Some of the authors are veterans of the open-mic, some have much less experience – we may even have an open-mic virgin or two!

So please come along if you’re in the area on Thursday 16th June, from 7:30-10:00. You’ll find us Upstairs at the Globe, Theatre Street, Warwick. Did I mention the event is free? Just get yourself a drink from the bar and come on up.

 

Writing What You Know – or Not?

Hawkesbury Upton is a pretty little Gloucestershire village tucked away in the Cotswolds. I imagine it’s normally fairly quiet, but this certainly wasn’t the case last Saturday, 23^rd April. Thanks to the local literary power-house that is Debbie Young (check out her excellent website here), the village was transformed by the Second Hawkesbury Upton Literary Festival with a packed programme of workshops, panel discussions, readings and children’s storytelling, all in the delightful settings of The Fox Inn, The Methodist Chapel and a little café selling delicious cakes in the Methodist Hall.

I had a great day. I was kept very busy: reading stories (to grownups and children), listening to lots of interesting and inspiring writers, catching up with old friends, and sitting on one of the discussion panels, chaired by the lovely Jackie Kabler.

Our topic: Write What You Know – or Not?

Jackie was pretty clear of her own perspective on this question – after working for the BBC and ITV for twenty years, she’s set her humorous crime novels in a TV News studio (her first, The Dead Dog Day, was published in 2015), although she insists the murder of the newsroom boss is completely made up! My fellow panellists, Ali Bacon, John Holland, Mari Howard, Lynne Pardoe, and Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn, come from a variety of backgrounds, including teaching, social work and pregnancy counselling. Naturally there were a variety of opinions ranging along the continuum of:

Surely we all write what we know <———> But fiction means making things up

Speaking for myself, my plot and my characters are made up – to stick to what I know would be too constricting (and potentially libellous). Worse than this, it wouldn’t make for a very interesting story and insisting ‘Honestly! Every word is true!’ is no excuse for sending your readers to sleep. However, I use what I know to help me tell my story convincingly and bring it to life. My settings are based on places I know. My characters borrow aspects of their appearance, speech or mannerisms from people I’ve met or observed. Even the emotions I want to convey are dredged up from my own experiences and imagined into the story.

In my book The Woman Who Never Did there are two stories (The Spoiler of the Fun & A Game of Pirates) with scenes set in a theme park. Fantasy Chine is based on Blackgang Chine on the Isle of Wight. I’ve aimed for the same look and feel, but not a precise copy, because I wanted to be free to mould Fantasy Chine to meet the needs of my story. In Gingerbread, my character Gee Geoffrey is not based on any one person I know, but in describing her appearance I had in mind a real person. And, although I belong to a book group, none of the other members appear as characters in the title story, The Woman Who Never Did – we’re all far too young!

The Dangers of Writing What You Know

This leads me to a situation that rang a bell for a number of us on the panel: sometimes a reader assumes that a story is based on the author’s own life. Hopefully this is because you’ve done such a good job in making your fiction believable, but it can be a cause of embarrassment. When my story Lulu’s London was first published in the Cityscapes anthology, there were a few raised eyebrows and pointed questions about my past.

Another danger of writing, or using, what you know is the temptation to cram everything in – resulting in a text book or a shopping list rather than a compelling work of fiction. Any information must be used to serve the writer’s purpose. To complement or highlight the story, rather than to distract your reader out of it.

And If You Don’t Know? Research!

One of the suggestions from the panel was that often our early writing is centred on what we know, but there comes a point where authors want to spread their wings. I’ve written about my fear of Research before on this blog (click here). Some people love it, to me it’s an occasionally necessary evil. But maybe I haven’t been approaching it in the right way – Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn went to Venice to research her latest novel, The Broken Road. Whereas when I needed to research a setting I sat in a café in Kenilworth…

In summary, I don’t think it matters how we choose to write – the story is the thing, however much (or little) of your own experience you use is up to you. The best thing I can do is to point you towards some great products of a variety of approaches by listing my fellow panellists.  I’ve included a link to their own website or Amazon author page – just click on their name.

N.B I’m the one waving my hands about behind Ali Bacon. Here are the other authors from left to right:

John Holland (almost out of shot – you can just see his nose)

Ali Bacon

Mari Howard

Lynne Pardoe

Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn

Jackie Kabler

You can find out more about the Hawkesbury Upton Literary Festival here.

 

Acknowledgements: Thank you to Joanna Penn and Thomas Shepherd for letting me use your photographs and to Sophie E. Tallis and Lynne Davidson for permission to use your lovely line drawings of The Fox Inn and the Methodist Chapel.

 

Hard at work? Or swanning about?

A bit of both, actually. 2016 has been a very busy year so far. And a very rewarding one.

I did get down to some serious work. As a warm up to getting on with my next book, I wrote two new stories and sent them off and I’m delighted to report that my story Cleo has made the short list of the Evesham Festival of Words Short Story Competition!

The festival takes place at the beginning of July and there’s a great line up, including Chris Hill (Bridport Prize winner), Katie Fforde (one of Britain’s most popular writers), and the Emergency Poet. I’m particularly looking forward to the Saturday afternoon open-mic session hosted by Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn because I enjoyed it so much last year. (You can read more about the festival here.) We’ll find out who the overall winner is at an event on 1st July, but I’m just really pleased that my story will be published in the festival anthology.

I have also made a start on my next book, The Mother and The Ghost, but I admit progress is a bit slow. Halfway through the draft of the first story, I got side-tracked by an exciting opportunity.

Shakespeare 400: History, Heritage & Faith is a programme of events centred around the exhibition of Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623) & King James Bible (1611) at St Mary’s Church, Warwick. The exhibition is being opened by Dame Judi Dench on Thursday this week, and the full programme includes a new version of Henry VI, film screenings and talks by historians and key figures from the theatre (see more here).

I’m thrilled that I’ve been asked to host an open-mic evening at The Globe in Warwick on 16th June. Since the theme is poetry and prose inspired by Shakespeare and the Bible, I’ve made an unscheduled shift to work on a sonnet or two plus a new short story called Monty and Jules – anyone care to guess what that one’s about?

In the meantime, The Mother and the Ghost is forced to fit in around these other commitments. It’s ticking along, I’ve got a lovely new big notebook with lots of notes and plans and sketches and a half written story called Nana’s Room, but I know I need to be more disciplined. And I will be. Soon.

Because at the moment I’m getting ready to go to the Hawkesbury Upton Literary Festival this weekend – it’s a great little festival in the heart of Gloucestershire and it’s free!(read more here) On Saturday morning, I’ll be sitting on a panel discussing ‘writing what you know’, then joining a group of short story writers to read my story The Journey – or maybe On the Way Home,  I haven’t decided which one yet. Then in the afternoon I’m scheduled to read my Henry stories for children, accompanied by a menagerie of stuffed animals …

I’ll report back next week.

 

 

Busy Writing – Back Soon

What fabulous words to write after the turbulence of 2015 – even if it did end on a high.

As per the heading, I’m busy writing. I’m starting off the year with a couple of warm up stories for upcoming festivals and competitions, then I will be diving into the next big thing – which is actually picking up a previous big thing that stalled a year or so ago. I’m trying to decide how best to approach the project. It’s too big for a short story, not big enough (I think) for a novel. So I’m not sure whether to try a novella or to write the strands as interlinked short stories. This is currently my preferred option, but it could easily change by the time I begin. I’ve got a bit of reading to do first – all that research I wrote about back in 2014 (read the blog here)

I also need to make time for some great literary festivals this year. I’ve been invited to join the Hawkesbury Upon Festival on 23rd April; my children’s writers group, StoryVine, will be providing storytelling and crafty fun at The Stratford Literary Festival on 28th April; and I’m looking forward to reading at the Evesham Festival of Words Open Mic on 2nd July. Plus, of course, there are lots of informative and inspiring talks and workshops to choose from – I don’t know how I’m going to find the time.

In the meantime, though, I’ve been pondering the problem of what to do when you simply can’t find the right word in your thesaurus. Thanks to the Evesham Festival and the Vale Magazine, the Heaps now have the answer … you just make up a new one!

What I’m leading up to is this: I may not have much time for my blog for the next few months – and that’s a good thing, really, because it means I’ll be working on stories.

Wish me luck – I’m busy writing!

To find out more about the festivals mentioned, please click on these links:

Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival

Stratford Literary Festival

Evesham Festival of Words

 

Going it alone? Far from it!

Last week I had a little book launch for The Woman Who Never Did and it was so lovely I’ve been walking on air ever since – despite having a child off sick from school, and the housework and the ironing to catch up with, and all those cake stands, plates and glasses to wash up …

I had a fabulous evening in our local village hall, which was filled with wonderful, talented and inspiring women. Friends from my book group, the playground and around our village mingled with fellow writers and colleagues from my long-ago corporate days. My husband and children were there to support me and my mother made the trip from the south coast to be with us. We ate cake and drank bubbly and laughed and chatted the evening away. A number of friends told me this was their first book launch. ‘Really?’ I replied. ‘Mine too!’

    

Looking back to the blog I wrote in January, I can hardly believe this is the same year. The last two episodes have been titled Going it alone, but now I realise how very far from alone I am. Wow, ladies – just Wow!

   

Thank you to Sophie whose beautiful launch cake tasted every bit as good as it looked – and it looked so much like a real book that somebody tried to thumb through the pages! Thank you to Cath for saying such lovely things in her speech and for presenting me with an award put on my desk to remind me why I do this writing thing. Thank you to Colin and Kitty for their excellent baking skills. Thank you to Emma and Colette for helping organise and set up/clear up and for taking lots of great pictures to remind me what a great time I had.

And thank you to everyone who came along for making it such a special evening. Thank you for laughing in all the right places when I read my story FAB at 50. Thank you for buying my books and for wanting me to sign them. It meant so much to me to have you all there.

And now that the washing up is done, the child is going back to school in the morning? Well, I’m sure I can ignore the housework a bit longer …

Better get on with the next one!

 

 

 

Going it alone … part 2

Phew … it’s been a busy couple of weeks, but I’m finally there (and rather excited about it, as you can see). The Woman Who Never Did is now available from Amazon in paperback and on Kindle (click here).

So, how was it for me?

I knew from courses I’d attended, blogs I’d read and learned experts I’d listened to that all the self-publishing tools and services I needed were available online. Yes, I was nervous, but I girded my loins with the knowledge that I have a career background in IT – albeit in another life (more than a decade ago and pre-children).

I chose to use CreateSpace for print on demand paperbacks and Kindle Direct Publishing for e-books as I’d heard these were the simplest routes to reach the maximum people online at the smallest upfront cost.

CreateSpace

I figured it would be more difficult to get the formatting right for a printed book, so I started with CreateSpace. To begin with I found some of the terminology confusing, but, overall, it was much easier than I’d feared. The technology was straightforward and everything was set out in logical steps.

The trickiest part was getting the formatting right in MS-Word. I had to do a lot of fiddling about with page sizes and sections and headers and footers and page numbering … and all sorts of other things I’ve never had to bother about before. Every time I changed something it seemed to have an adverse effect on the formatting I’d already done – it’s lucky my children were out of the house at the time, because I used quite a few words I wouldn’t want them to hear.

Once I’d got the formatting right, it was surprisingly easy to upload the file and check it in CreateSpace.

Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP)

CreateSpace had a facility to send the file straight through to Kindle Direct Publishing, but I found some of the formatting I’d set up got in the way, so I went back to my word-processor to strip out section breaks and other extra formatting. Then it was simple to upload the new MS-word file directly into KDP.

Cover Story

I would have preferred a professionally designed cover, but the decision came down to economics. I chose to spend my very limited budget on editing rather than art work.

Actually, I had great fun. The fire theme was inspired by the first and last stories in my collection using a photograph I took one Halloween on our annual visit to the magical Godremamog Mill (see my earlier blog here). The author photograph on the back was taken by my friend Mike Long, the photographic talent behind Hi-Pix Photography (click here). Mike usually takes pictures of buildings rather than people, but he’s managed to make me look how I’d like to look on my best day.

To create the cover, I used Canva recommended on Debbie Young’s blog (here). After a bit of a learning curve, I found it could do everything I needed and I’ve managed to produce, on a shoestring, a format I can use for future books.

The most difficult bit was thinking up the blurb to put on the back. I wanted to give a flavour of the stories without giving the game away and I wanted to make them sound enticing without being cheesy. I’m definitely not sure I’ve got this right yet.

Then what?

After uploading the manuscript and the cover design, then came the reviewing. I ordered a proof copy and checked it for formatting errors. … and other errors … and then reviewed it again … and again. And again.

Actually, this was one of the main pitfalls of self-publishing for me. In a traditional publishing scenario, the book would now be out of the author’s hands. But when you’re self-publishing, you still have control of your book and with your fingers still on the key-board, the temptation is to do more than proofread. The temptation is to tinker. And to tweak. And to make just one more tiny little change because that word on page 158 isn’t exactly the word you really meant to use and wouldn’t it be better if this bit was taken out of quotation marks and put into italics instead … Those tiny little changes better be worth it, because the knock-on effect can be a whole load of re-formatting. Believe me.

And now what?

Now I need to let people know about my book. The Woman Who Never Did. Did I mention it’s finished? And you can find it on Amazon by clicking here?

I’m off to work on my marketing plan, now that I have something to market at last. I’m still dreading that bit, but what’s the point of publishing my book if I don’t let people know about it and encourage them to read it?

In the meantime, I’ve been away for a lovely weekend by the sea with my mum and my sister. We’ve paddled and consumed our own body weight in coffee and cake. And, speaking of cake (this is the fun part), I’m organising a little launch party to celebrate and to thank the many talented and generous spirited friends who have helped me so far. More about them next time!

Going it alone … part 1

It’s been very quiet in here for a while. Which, given my struggles earlier this year could have been a sign that things were going very badly writerly-wise (yes, I know that’s not a real word, but it should be). Whereas the truth is quite the opposite. I’ve had a very busy summer.

After flitting about on diverse projects for the first half of 2015, I finally found my direction and I’ve been speeding along, hurdling all obstacles – and only knocking a few of them over (the metaphor is ironic as the sports gene is missing from my DNA).

The result? My book The Woman Who Never Did will be published on Amazon on 12th October.

Who delivered the much needed boot up the bottom?

It was my father, which is so bittersweet because he will never hold my book, although he did read most of the stories when they were still roughly hewn.

Last Christmas it became clear that my father’s heart problems were getting worse and it wasn’t long before we realised they were never going to get better. The first few months of 2015 are now a haze of motorways and hospital visits culminating in an intense and emotional week in mid April when my mother, my sister and I took turns by his bedside as he slowly left us.

This isn’t the time to go further into that sad place, instead here is a picture of my father playing with my children on a happier day.

After the tears and the funeral (and more tears which come all of a sudden when I hear Frank Sinatra on the radio or I’m watching Wales play rugby) my head was clearer than it had been for many months. I realise this is a cliché, but the loss of someone so loved, who’s been so fundamental to your life really does ram the message home that nothing is forever. Everybody’s time is finite, and so if there’s something you’re longing to do then you simply have to get up off your bottom and do it.

Why Self Publishing?

I already knew I wanted to publish my collection of short stories, The Woman Who Never Did. There was just the one small problem – how?

It’s widely understood that the publishing business as a whole isn’t very interested in short stories. It’s because they don’t see a profit there (the clue is in the word ‘business’). Many publishers and agents view short stories as an appetiser, only worth sitting down to when there is a main course to follow – i.e. if the author is also working on a novel. But, for me, short stories are much more than that, they are the distillation of a full-sized story into something compact, but intense, something you can consume in one delicious, satisfying mouthful. A literary agent once told me not to ‘sell myself short’ when I pitched the idea of writing a novel as interlocking short stories – she just didn’t get it, and, consequently, didn’t get me.

So it seemed the only realistic route was self publishing. This was something I’d shied away from until I went along to Joanna Penn’s inspiring Guardian Masterclass and she turned my ideas upside down. The internet age is such an exciting time for writers. E-books, print on demand, downloadable audio books – there are so many achievable ways to reach our readers. And so many tools available to help us make a product with a look and feel that’s just as professional as the mainstream. As traditional publishing routes become less and less accessible, the pathways opened up by the internet offer opportunities and freedoms we could hardly have imagined even a decade ago.

I feel like a writer back in the nineteenth century turning out pamphlets on a little printing press in my back room. Only I’m not limited by how many I can afford to print or whether I know someone in the next town who will stock them for me. My book can be available to the whole world and I need very little capital to get it out there. Self publishing doesn’t seem like vanity publishing anymore. This is Pioneer Publishing.

 But it’s gonna take time (a whole lot of precious time)

It’s all achievable, but it’s still hard work doing it yourself and it takes up a lot of time. I feel as though I’ve spent most of the summer indoors bent over my laptop (at least the weather wasn’t up to much this year). There’s a lot to learn and some very fiddly software out there. It hasn’t always been easy and I’m not there yet, so I shall save the details for my next post. I need to get on – did I mention I’ve got a book to publish?

Before I go, I will mention one very important thing. Although I’m self publishing, there’s one step I didn’t try to do all alone and that’s editing. I looked on Joanna Penn’s website (click here), a cornucopia of useful information, and found a list of editors including a name I recognised from the Birmingham based Pow-Wow Writers Group (click here). Katharine D’Souza (click here) has been just what I needed, she understood my stories from the offset and has helped me see where they still needed work; her grammar and punctuation are better than mine too! I may have thought I was ready to go, but I wasn’t and Katharine’s input has been more than worth the money as I hope the end result will show.

 Two weeks to go!

Before I can sink back down on my bottom, or rest on my laurels as it’s more elegantly termed, I have a frantic couple of weeks ahead. The last touches to my cover, a final round of formatting and uploading, and a scary sortie into the world of marketing, which is such an alien environment that I may need protective clothing! Thankfully, I am armed with this brilliant little book by Debbie Young (click here).

Cross your fingers for me – I’ll be back soon.

 

 

Postscript – As well as being wonderful sources of wisdom and information, Joanna Penn, Katharine D’Souza and Debbie Young are also talented authors of fiction. Please check out their author pages on Amazon:

                                                             

Joanna Penn                                Katharine D’Souza                                    Debbie Young

 

 

Out in the Big and (not so) Bad World

Yesterday I read my story Fab at 50 at the Asparwrite Open Mic in Evesham Library.

The event was organised by Lindsay Stanberry Flynn, a fine writer who’s featured on this website before. The emcee was the outgoing Worcestershire Poet Laureate, the hilarious (even if he did insult the Welsh!) Fergus McGonigal and he opened the session by introducing the new Laureate, Heather Wastie – she had us in stitches too with her wonderful weather poem, about the effect on her spirits of not so wonderful weather.

I was really nervous about reading my story – to tell the truth, on saturday morning I’d have liked to pull out. Because, although I regularly read at children’s events, it’s rather more intimidating reading to grown-ups – and grown-up writers at that!

I didn’t need to worry. I had a great time. All the other writers were so warm and welcoming and I was much too busy enjoying their work to let my nerves take over. When it came to my turn I felt I was among friends.

Many of the writers I heard yesterday have their own websites. So, if you’re looking for a good read, try some of these:

Heather Wastie               Lindsay Stanberry-Flynn              Fergus McGonigal

               Bren Littlewood                 David Penny                      Tim Stavert                        Myfanwy Fox

Debbie Young                    Ellie Stevenson                  Polly Robinson

The following don’t have a website at the moment, but keep an eye out for them too: Leena Batchelor, Maureen Hall, Alan Durham, Beverley Drew and Suzanne Pullen.