A little ray of hope

Overheard in the supermarket,

                        Little boy:    Look, Mummy, look!

                        Mum:             Yes, they’re lovely, but I can’t buy one today.

                        Little boy:    But books are GOOD!

I wanted to hug them both when, after a moment’s hesitation, the young mum put a picture book in her trolley.

Amidst all the doom and gloom in the news, it’s good to be reminded that the world hasn’t ended and there is still hope that we can help to make a bright future for younger generations.

* * *

(And because I’m determined to remain cheerful and optimistic, I won’t go into details about the problems I’m having with Blogger removing pictures from my two blogs. If this one or When I am Rich looks strange to you – please believe it’s not my fault!)

How many blog posts does it take to make a book?

When I reviewed my 2015 goal list I gave myself a little pat on the back. I hadn’t managed to achieve all my targets, but some unexpected successes more than made up for the failures.

But one statistic flummoxed me. I’d signed up to the Goodreads reading challenge and pledged to read 12 books over the year. I was certain I could get through one book a month, and secretly expected to read a lot more. And my grand total?

Only four books? That had to be a mistake. I checked the notebook I use as a reading record and decided I must have forgotten to enter some of my read books. I checked my bookshelves. They were crammed with books I’d read, but my notebook confirmed I’d read all but four in previous years. I remembered giving a bag of books to a charity shop. What were their titles? When had I read them?

It didn’t make sense. I’m reading all the time. Only that morning I’d read a couple of stories in Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special and …

Of course! I’d only counted fiction I’d read in book form. I hadn’t included any non-fiction, individual short stories I’d found in magazines and online, books I’d dipped into but hadn’t read from cover to cover, not to mention all those interesting articles in newspapers and on websites. And as for blogs …! How many thousands, millions, of words had I read on blogs? I’m sure if I’d added them all up they’d be the equivalent of reading War and Peace – at least!

I’ve signed up to the 2016 reading challenge, and have again chosen the modest target of twelve books, but I won’t be surprised or disappointed if I don’t make it. There are just too many reading distractions out there!

Here are two books (both Christmas presents) that I doubt I’ll get through by the end of the year. The last Writers’ & Artists’Yearbook I bought for myself was the 2012 edition, so I’ll be reading the new articles in this year’s edition very carefully, but the listings of publishers, agents, magazines etc. will be dipped into as and when I need them.

The other book, Photocrafty by Sue Venables, offers hours of distracting fun with suggestions for 75 photography projects. Can’t wait to get started on some of them. (Except I’m supposed to be writing – and reading!)      

Have you given yourself any reading challenges this year?

It’s (nearly) Christmas!

Have you got that tingly Christmas feeling yet? Or are you muttering ‘Bah, humbug!’ every time you hear a Christmas song? Are you eagerly counting off the days on your advent calendar? Or already wishing it was over, stressed out with all the preparations?

Whatever your state of Christmas readiness, here’s the perfect remedy to cheer you up, calm you down, and get you in exactly the right mood.

Hang a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the door, prepare your favourite tea, coffee, hot chocolate (or perhaps a glass of something stronger?), and enjoy ten minutes of ‘me’ time while you settle down with a Christmas short story from Alfie Dog Fiction. There are lots to choose from this year: some to make you laugh, some to make you sigh, many to remind you what this festive season should be about.

Oh yes, and there’s this one.

Ebook stories also make inexpensive stocking fillers, perfect for anyone you know who’s hoping Father Christmas will bring them a new tablet, laptop or iphone.

And for those who prefer ‘real’ books, Alfie Dog offers paperback editions of its anthologies, short story collections and novels.    

How many days is it now?

Island by Nicky Singer

A new book is always a treat, but I was more than usually pleased to receive this one ...

  ... especially when I looked inside.



When I came across Nicky’s story about Island on the Notes from the Slushpile blog several months ago, I went into full Victor Meldrew mode.

 I don’t believe it!

Nicky Singer is a successful author with novels for adults and children published by mainstream publishers. She was commissioned to write a stage play for the National Theatre and came up with the idea for Island. The play was produced at the Cottesloe Theatre (now known as the Dorfman Theatre), was also taken on a tour of London schools, and received very good reviews.

After the play finished, Nicky decided to turn Island into a novel in the hope of spreading the story to a wider audience. But when she presented it to her publishers they said – No. Their reason for rejection? They thought the novel was ‘too quiet’ and ‘too literary’.

Fortunately, Nicky thought there might be some people ‘out there’ who like quiet, literary books. And she was right. She set up a Kickstarter campaign to raise enough money to publish Island, and I was just one of 100’s of people who were happy to be able to help. (One of the other helpers was the Children’s Laureate, Chris Riddell, who offered to supply the illustrations for the book.) I think we all gave a great, big cheer when Nicky announced she had reached her target and Island was going to be published.       

Island will be officially launched on 6^th November. Do look out for it!

One for the readers

What would we do without readers?

     Writers would have to talk to themselves all the time (instead of just most of it).

     Publishers would go out of business.

     There’d be no need for bookshops or libraries.

     Even Amazon’s profits would tumble …

Which is why I was so pleased to see this competition for readers.

Alfie Dog Fiction is offering £100 for a very short – 30 to 50 words – review of one of its titles downloaded during March. Not bad for an investment of only 39p, the cost of its short story ebooks.

If you want to have a go, but can’t decide which story to choose from the 1,600 currently available, may I humbly suggest you take a look at my stories? I promise I won’t be offended if you write a less-than-glowing review of one of them, but I will be delighted if you win the prize!

Pass it on …

Sometimes you win when you lose

Last Christmas (that seems such a long time ago now), National Book Tokens had a puzzle on their Caboodle website where you had to solve picture clues to find hidden book titles. I enjoyed trying it, but I only managed to guess 16 or 17 of the 20 titles. 

So I was very pleasantly surprised last week to get an email from Caboodle saying that everyone who had taken part, but hadn’t qualified for the top prize, had been entered into a prize draw and I’d won a £10 book token. 

   

Some more books for my To Be Read shelf!

If you’re a book lover and you live in the UK or Ireland do have a look at Caboodle. They have regular book giveaways and competitions, all free to enter, and you can also sign up for special offers from your local bookshops.

Firsts

So, here it is, my first publication in a book!

I’m sharing it with 40 other authors who were winners or long listed in the 2014 Worcester LitFest flash fiction competition, and finding myself in the company of such a diverse and talented group of writers only adds to my sense of achievement.

I also performed my first public reading at the launch of the anthology. To say I was nervous would be an understatement, but it wasn’t quite as scary as I’d expected because the audience was very friendly and encouraging.

Another surprise ‘first’ was meeting several people whose names I recognised from the Internet, including fellow Alfie Dog Fiction author and blogger Jan Baynham. As we live on opposite sides of the country, I thought we’d only ever meet online so I was delighted to meet her in person in Worcester. 

I could get used to this literary life!

Fifty Flashes of Fiction is now available as a paperback from the publishers, and an ebook version will soon be sold through Amazon.   

Endings and beginnings

The end of the year is nigh!

Just realised I’ve only got 66 days to complete all my 2014 writing goals. Don’t tell anyone, but I haven’t even started on half of them. I’m also way behind with my reading challenge. (I’m reading The River King by Alice Hoffman at the moment and can’t help lingering over every word.)

But, ever optimistic, I’ve finally decided it’s the right time to do something I wish I’d done many years ago – I’ve signed up for an online course on Illustrating Children’s Books. I’m pretty sure I’ve left it too late to have any chance of becoming a professional illustrator, but it’s a subject that’s always fascinated me and I’m hoping that learning more about the technical side of illustration might be useful for my writing.

My first published stories were for children and I’d love to get back into writing for them. I have some ideas for picturebook stories where a lot of the story is told in pictures so it would be helpful if I could show a publisher some sketches instead of trying to explain it all in words. But even if nothing publishable comes out of it, I’m sure I’ll enjoy doing the course.

Oh, yes, and I’m also going to do NaNoWriMo this year.

Perhaps I’ll prove the old adage, if you want something doing, ask a busy woman!

Shall I? Shan’t I?

5 reasons to decline an invitation to a book launch

• It’s too far to travel there and back in one day.
• It’s not my book.
• I won’t know anyone there.
• I doubt it will be a bestseller.
• They want me to read – out loud!

 5 reasons to accept an invitation to a book launch

• What a great excuse for a weekend away.
• It’s an anthology and my prize-winning story will be in it.
• I’ll meet some new people there.
• I’ll be able to buy a few copies to show people I’ve been published in a real book.
• My first public reading – how exciting!

 So, yes, I’ll be in Worcester on 30 November for the launch of 'Fifty Flashes of Fiction’.
 Will anyone else be there?

Concealing and revealing

In a recent post on her blog, Sally Jenkins asked how other writers respond to questions about their writing. I was a bit surprised, but relieved, to find I’m not the only one who hates talking about his or her work. Admitting that the story you think is your best ever has been rejected for the umpteenth time, or that no, your novel hasn’t been published yet because you’re still working on the second draft, all sounds so boring – especially to non-writers.

For many years, only my closest family knew I was writing, and if they embarrassed me by mentioning it to anyone else I always played it down. I’ve only had a few stories published. It’s just a hobby. I’m sure it’s not the sort of thing you’d be interested in reading, etc. etc.

These days, I do put ‘Writer’ on forms that ask for my occupation, but in social situations where I can’t hide behind a ‘proper’ job I’ll mumble something like, ‘Oh, I do a bit of writing.’ But then I change the subject as quickly as possible!

But when writers are asked about their reading it seems the opposite is true. The Alfie Dog Fiction blog – Alfie Dog Bites – is currently running a series of Writers on Reading and it’s obvious that the featured writers all love talking about other people’s writing.

Perhaps the next time I’m asked what I do, instead of saying I’m a writer I’ll say I’m a reader. That will be so much easier!

Slowing down, speeding up, changing hats

I’ve noticed that as I get older some things take a little longer than they used to. Getting up from a kneeling position, threading a needle or recalling someone’s name all demand a bit more time and effort these days.

On the other hand, some tasks have become quicker and easier. For example, now my husband and I no longer need to wear smart clothes for work I’ve cut my ironing time from hours to minutes!

But one change that took me completely by surprise when I noticed it, is how much my reading speed has slowed down. When I had a lot less time for reading, I easily managed 2–3 full-length novels per month. But when I looked back at the books I’d read during 2013 I realised that each one took me 6-8 weeks to finish. Why? After so many years of practice I should be really good at reading now. It’s still one of my favourite occupations and something I do every day.

The only explanation I can think of is that I'm forgetting to change hats (another symptom of the passing years!) If I’m reading an interesting, well-written book I tend to have my writer’s hat on. As I read, I’m also analysing why I like this book and what tricks the author is using to keep me turning the pages. When I come across a particularly good sentence or paragraph I’ll read it several times in the hope of learning how to improve my own writing.

A book I don’t like so much takes even longer to get through, because I read it with my editor’s hat on. It takes me ages to go through it with my imaginary pencil; correcting awkward phrases, crossing out unnecessary words, and putting question marks where something just doesn’t seem to make sense!        

I need to find my reader’s hat again, and to remind myself to keep it on I’ve accepted the Goodreads 2014 Reading Challenge. I’ve pledged to read 12 books - one a month – but I’m hoping that if I can speed up I might manage a few more. 

I got off to a good start by finishing Life After Lunch by Sarah Harrison , but now I’m struggling. My second book is The Summer Boy by Henry Mitchell. I’ve only read the first few pages but they’re so skillfully written that I want to linger over every word ….

Have you set yourself any reading challenges? How are you doing?

Happy National Short Story Day

To celebrate why not enjoy a little bit of ‘me’ time? Put your feet up and

click here to download a free story from the wonderful

 

 And instead of rushing around looking for last minute Christmas presents, did you know you can now send Alfie Dog Gift Vouchers to your friends and family from the comfort of your own pc, laptop or smartphone?

Happy reading!

Number crunching

 I’m pleased I didn’t attempt NaNoWriMo this year because I completely failed my ‘easier’ challenge to write 1,000 words a day throughout November. My grand total for the month was a measly 5,182 words – not helped by the fact that I wrote nothing at all on five of the allotted days!

In my defence, I should add that these were carefully chosen and edited words – not the crazy jumble that spills out during NaNo – so for every one I counted there were probably a dozen or more discarded.

As well as recording the number of words written, I made a note of where I’d used them, and this turned out to be a much more useful exercise.

About half of the words produced:

• 4 new pages for my adult novel

• half a chapter of my children’s book

• a flash fiction story

• 4 short blog posts 

And where did the other half go? Into comments on other people’s blogs and forums.

Conclusion  I’d do twice as much writing if I didn’t spend so much time reading!   

P.S. If you like reading and doing puzzles (and live in the UK or Republic of Ireland) National Book Tokens is currently running this competition to win a year’s supply of books.

Just what the doctor ordered

I didn’t take to my bed, but for more than a week I had a cold, niggling aches and pains, couldn’t think straight and generally felt under the weather. Keeping warm indoors seemed sensible but only added boredom to my other symptoms. Eventually, I needed to get some shopping and thought a short walk in the fresh air might make me feel better. It didn’t. 

I picked up a few essentials in our village shop and looked around the shelves in the forlorn hope of finding some miracle remedy. Cough mixture? I had plenty at home. Chocolate? I managed to resist the temptation. Then I came to the magazine rack …  

Many years ago, The People’s Friend was one of my main target markets. I bought it most weeks and read it carefully from cover to cover to get the feel of what they published. All that research paid off when I had two short stories and two articles accepted by the editor. But then I wanted to try other magazines and different types of writing, so I stopped buying it so often and gradually lost touch.

As I looked through the latest issue I was pleased, although not surprised, to discover it’s hardly changed at all (except it now has a Facebook page). Yes, I’m sure some people would describe it as an old-fashioned magazine – especially if they remember their mother or grandmother reading it – but the reason it’s survived since 1869 must surely be because it found a winning formula and has stuck with it. I wonder how many of today’s celebrity magazines will last that long?

I spent the afternoon sitting with my feet up, drinking tea and enjoying a good read.

Bliss! 

And, not only did I start to feel physically better than I had for days, but the fog in my brain finally cleared and a new story idea began to grow. It’s a feel-good story that I think might be suitable for the Friend … 

A (short) commercial break

My short story Kerb Drill is published by Alfie Dog Fiction today.

It’s a feel-good, family story about a problem every parent has to face sooner or later: how do you let go of your children, yet still keep them safe?

Available HERE for just 39p!

In a variety of e-book formats – if you haven’t got a Kindle, iPhone or similar gadget you can download Alfie Dog stories to read on your ordinary, old-fashioned computer.

Short but sweet

So it’s only 75 words, and there’s no payment, but I do feel quite proud of getting a paragraph accepted on Paragraph Planet today. It’s one of my favourite websites for these (short) reasons:

• It takes less than a minute to read each daily paragraph but together they cover a huge range of genres, subjects and styles.

• Telling a story, introducing a character, or describing a scene in exactly 75 words forces a writer to examine every one of those words very carefully.

• If you want to improve your own writing skills you can click over to Paragraph Planet’s companion website Writing Workout and try some of its very short exercises.

 Now back to the  l-o-n-g  job of editing The Novel!

A book, a film – or both?

I didn’t think I was a fan of vampire fiction but I did enjoy reading The Radleys by Matt Haig. It’s about Peter and Helen, abstaining vampires who are so desperate to be accepted as a respectable, middle-class couple that they have kept their true nature secret even from their teenage children.

When I started reading the book I was a bit puzzled by the author's writing style. The whole story is told in the present tense and the chapters are very short, most only two or three pages long. At first, I thought this might be a ploy to entice younger readers – the book was originally written for adults but there is also a Young Adult edition - but then I discovered that The Radleys is being made into a film and suddenly the style made perfect sense. I don’t know if Matt Haig was looking ahead and thinking about film rights as he wrote the novel, but any filmmaker reading this book would be struck by how easily it could be rewritten as a screenplay. The chapters are really scenes and the present tense (he says, she walks, they sit down …) enables the reader to instantly ‘see’ the action as you do when watching a film.

I suppose the next step I should be aiming for – after the little matters of actually finishing my novel and getting it published – would be to have it turned into a film. But I’ve just realised that:

•  my chapters all contain several scenes
•  a lot of the ‘action’ takes place in character’s heads
•  there are flashbacks with different characters having different memories of the same past events
•  some of the ‘dialogue’ is in the form of thoughts
•  none of my characters look remotely like any famous actors or actresses 

I could start rewriting the whole thing again …
But do I really want to commit to all that extra time?
No, I think I’ll just stick with what I’ve started – that’s difficult enough!

Do you have your sights set on Hollywood?

90,000 new stories!

Congratulations to Roxanna Toyne and Olivia Hunt who were the gold prize winners in BBC Radio 2’s 500 words children’s story competition. You can read or listen to all the winning and shortlisted stories here. The thing that surprised me most about this competition was that they received over 90,000 entries!  

When I was a child I was always making up stories for my own amusement but I can’t remember ever being encouraged to write fiction by my teachers or parents. The only creative writing I did at primary school was essays – we called them compositions – with uninspiring titles such as What I Did in the Holidays. I confess I sometimes made them a bit more interesting by adding some fiction!   

I loved reading, but I think I assumed that the people who wrote all those stories lived on some remote planet. They certainly weren’t ordinary people like me – or anyone I knew. When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up (why do adults always ask children that impossible question?) it never occurred to me that being a writer was even an option.

It wasn’t until I was well and truly grown-up that I started to wonder if anyone else might be interested in my stories, and it still took several years of writing in secret before I plucked up the courage to show some of my work to a publisher.

I think it’s wonderful that not only are so many of today’s children producing imaginative and well-written stories, but they also have the confidence to share them. The only problem is that my ‘must read’ list is going to keep getting longer and longer!

How old were you when you decided you wanted to be a writer?

Live first, write later

I've been a fan of Adele's music ever since I first heard her, but my admiration went up several notches recently when I read she's turned down a large sum of money to write her autobiography. What a sensible young woman!  

Celebrity biographies may be a good source of income for publishers, ghostwriters, celebrities and their agents, but I do agree with Adele that, at the age of 24, she really is too young to start penning her life story.

Have you written your autobiography? Do you plan to? What do you think is a good age to tackle such a project?

A blurb too far?

I’ve just finished reading a novel that was on the bestseller lists not long ago. Sadly, I found the most positive thing about it was that it turned out to be a good choice for bedtime reading: two or three pages each night and I was fast asleep. The plot was predictable, the characters unremarkable, but I kept turning the pages hoping it might improve. I was disappointed.

After plodding on to the boring end I re-read the blurb on the cover that had attracted my attention to this book in the first place. It included quotes from well-known writers and critics featuring words like superb, remarkable and brilliant.

Of course all readers and reviewers have different tastes, and one person’s literary masterpiece is another’s mediocre potboiler, but I couldn’t help wondering if some of these adjectives had either been taken completely out of context or had been accidentally attributed to the wrong book.

So what words would I like to see on the jacket of my novel if it's ever published? How about superb, remarkable and brilliant? Now all I have to do is make sure the story inside the covers lives up to the hype!