Debi Alper

One Jubilee I'm happy to celebrate. Interview with Shelley Harris

2012-01-13T11:34:00.000Z

Last night I was delighted to attend the launch party for Shelley Harris's debut novel, Jubilee. Shelley is living, breathing proof that debut novelists are still being published if they have talent, commitment and dedication. Shelley has bucketloads of all three and thoroughly deserves her success.

Unfortunately, the venue was too dark for me to take photos that can be used here. You'll just have to use your imagination ... Think red, white and blue balloons, union jack bunting, mini fish and chips, tiny cup cakes with edible covers of the book on top (!) and lovely Shelley reading in the same engaging and entertaining manner that first attracted attention when she read at York.

As promised here, I'm now even more delighted to welcome Shelley to my blog to ask her the questions I'm sure many of you will want to know the answers to.

Hi and welcome, Shelley. The first time I heard you read from Jubilee, I knew I was hearing something special. What made you decide to write this particular book?

The idea first started with a family photograph, a picture of my dad at a V.E. Day street party when he was a kid. What I found fascinating was the intersection of the public and the private. You can look at that picture and think you know everything about it – V.E. Day was a national celebration; we all ‘own’ it, in a sense. But of course behind the public face lie all sorts of more private things: the family relationships, what was really going on between the members of that community. We tend to think that, if you can see everything, you know everything, but that’s just not true at all. I’d recently done a photography course and learned about the split-second in which the image is taken, and I become fascinated with the idea of everything which might be leading up to that brief moment, and all that might happen afterwards, and we’re left with a vestige: that two-hundred-and-fiftieth of a second.

At first I thought I’d explore this idea through a novel set in 1945, but actually had a much stronger urge to look at my own generation’s iconic street party: the Silver Jubilee of 1977. That was such a year of change in Britain – a cusp year, really, in terms of our relationship with the monarchy, in terms of the way we saw ourselves. Right in the middle of a conservative Buckinghamshire village in this time of great change, I put Satish, one of those remarkable Britons who made their home here after being exiled from Uganda by Idi Amin. So the novel itself is also about the public and private: personal things, like secrets and lies; bigger things, like what it means to be British.

In Jubilee, I was really impressed at the way you seemed to be equally comfortable writing with the narrative voice of a child or an adult, male or female, white British or Asian. This is a rare and special skill. I wondered if all the voices came to you, fully rounded as they appear on the page, or if you struggled more with the ones that are not from your own direct experience.

Well, thank you for the kind words. It was actually surprisingly easy to write from a child’s viewpoint – I just opened my memory and dived in. But you’re right: it was much harder to write as a male, and quite intimidating to write as a British Asian.

In terms of gender-switching, I was surprised how much I had to learn about a male viewpoint, and how different it can be from that of a woman. I got my husband to talk me through what it is to be a boy, what the mechanisms of that culture are, which filters boys use to view the world. It seems to be a relentlessly competitive environment, and one in which power and status is constantly being asserted and re-assessed. At one point, I wrote a scene where boys were playing footie in the street. When the game was over, I had the biggest lads leaving the ball and walking off. He said to me: no, that’s not what they’d do. They’d chip it out of reach so the others would have to scramble for it. Girls have their own hierarchies, of course, but boy-world is more alien than I had imagined.

I was intimidated by writing as a British Asian because I wanted to be accurate and respectful, but also wanted to avoid liberal squeamishness, which is itself a kind of stereotyping. I researched by interviewing British Asians who had grown up here in the seventies, particularly those who (like Satish) came here from Uganda or, also like him, grew up in a very white community. They were remarkably generous with their stories, some of which I’ve used in the novel. They described a wide range of experiences; there was the woman who (along with Kelly Holmes!) was one of only two ethnic-minority children in her village, and was still hurt by how her family had been treated (hissed injunctions to ‘Go Home!’ at a dance in the village hall). And there was the Birmingham Sikh who’d had a high old time growing up alongside his white mates, and recalled begging to be allowed to spectate at a National Front march! Then an Asian friend shared her memories of family gatherings, helping me with those tiny details which, I hope, put the reader right in the heart of the family.

So: yes, it was very challenging to take on a new age, gender and ethnicity to tell this story. I’m relieved to hear that it’s worked!

It certainly did! On the subject of research, Satish is a cardiologist and the hospital scenes feel really authentic. Can you tell us how you made sure the medical details in the novel were accurate?

Well, I spent some time in a well-known London children’s hospital, getting a sense of what it felt like and how things worked. I can’t tell you how much I came to admire the staff there, and I can honestly say that they are heroes to me. I have a close friend who is a paediatrician herself, and I also made contact with a cardiac nurse at Alder Hey hospital; both of them shared their expertise with great generosity. Satish is a fractured human being, deeply fallible, but for the most part he is an excellent doctor. It was important to me that we get to see him being brilliant at least some of the time.

I’d like to go back to when we first met. You won the Authonomy Live event at York Festival of Writing and were swamped by agents as soon as you stepped from the stage. There's a perception that this was a sort of magical 'right place, right time' occurrence, but I know that your authorial journey up to that point had been longer and more arduous than that might suggest. Can you tell us a bit about that?

Yes, it’s an interesting bit of marketing, I suppose, the idea that in some way I had instant success, but it wasn’t like that at all. What took time was getting my manuscript to the stage where agents were very interested. So, I wrote (VERY part-time, because my children were tiny) for a year, and then sent what I had to a literary consultancy, and their feedback was extremely positive, but also involved a root-and-branch restructuring. Which means, of course, starting from scratch – literally, going back to page one, word one.

I re-wrote and went on an Arvon course about the second draft, during which the tutors – an established novelist and an editor – suggested some more structural changes. I made those, and then a friend gave the manuscript to an agent friend of hers, and she took me out to lunch and I thought ‘Whoopee – I’m in!’ And she liked it. But again, she felt it needed another rewrite. By the time I’d done that, her list was full. Then I booked my ticket to York Festival...

So, that’s the situation I was in when I won Authonomy Live: six years of hard work, three major rewrites as well as countless small revisions. That’s your overnight success!

Even after all that hard work though, you were still only at the beginning of your road to publication. For people who haven't had that experience, can you tell us how your journey continued after York?

When I left the Festival, a few agents had said they were interested in the novel. There was a breathless week or so when they were all reading it, and another fortnight when I met some of them for longer chats about Jubilee and the next novel, which I’d already started planning. A few offered representation, and I chose Jo Unwin of Conville and Walsh, who is seriously, seriously good, and great fun to work with. And then (this will not surprise you, of course) there were more revisions to get it ready to send out to editors. Every agent is different, but Jo is someone who really enjoys the editorial aspect of it; she has a keen eye, and there’s no doubt it was a better book after those rewrites. She sent it out in June. This bit was abominably thrilling; some of the editors sent notes to Jo as they progressed through the book, and there was a keen sense of ‘nearly there...nearly there...’

In the first week of July we went to meetings at four publishing houses. They were very welcoming – there was tea, cake and me trying really, really hard not to look as excited as I felt. I met roomfuls of people, and often they’d done something Jubilee-themed; there was a sparkly Union Jack cake at one, a table set out for a street party at another and at Weidenfeld & Nicolson there was homemade bunting up in the office. The editors started bidding straight after the meetings; Jo rang me after she’d received the first offer and said: ‘You will now definitely be published’; that counts as one of the best moments of my life (along with getting married, having my babies and Thatcher resigning).

The novel went to Weidenfeld and Nicolson’s Kirsty Dunseath, who is fantastic to work with (she also edits Carlos Ruiz Zafon, Paul Torday and Francesca Kay, among others). No sooner had we celebrated together when we embarked on – you’ll never guess what! – more revisions. We started medium (this subplot isn’t entirely convincing) and ended up small (you’ve used this word twice on the same page). As with all my previous rewrites, this just made the book better and better. Then they designed a cracking cover and we were off.

So now Jubilee has been released into the world, what plans are afoot for events? Are these going to tie in with the Diamond Jubilee?

I’m sure we’ll be doing some specifically Diamond Jubilee-themed events in June, just after the paperback comes out. Right now, I’m visiting bookshops and libraries, as well making some virtual visits – like this one – to blogs and websites. I have a website (shelleyharris.co.uk), where I’m keeping an up-to-date list of events.

You mentioned you'd already started cooking your next book. Can you tell us something about that?

Yes – but not much. I’m quite squeamish about discussing it, because I’m still at the first draft stage, and things are still developing. So, I hope it doesn’t sound too mealy-mouthed to give you the briefest of brief pitches (an elevator pitch, if the elevator was going up one floor, for a very lazy passenger): the next novel is about a very ordinary woman who has a midlife crisis, and does something absolutely extraordinary in response to it. Will that do you?

That will do me really nicely, Shelley. I know that need to keep schtum until you know what kind of baby you’re carrying. I wish you loads of luck with this book and the next and the next and the …

I’ve a feeling you’re not going to need luck though, because you have bags of talent, dedication and enthusiasm and I’m sure they will bring you the success and recognition you deserve.

Thanks for sharing and good luck with the next stages of your journey!

Shelley's website is here
Read about Jubilee and buy the book here.
Find out about the next Festival of Writing in York here.
Shelley has blogged about fairy dust here.
Shelley on her agent's website.

Jubilee - not that one - this one, by Shelley Harris

2012-01-07T15:42:00.001Z

Cast your mind back. Bit further ... bit further ... That's it! Stop right there and scroll down a bit. That's when I first mentioned the wonderful Shelley Harris when she won the Authonomy Live event at York in 2010. I predicted then that life would change for Shelley and I was right. (I often am; just ask my kids.)

Now move forward a bit to here. This is where I talked about Shelley's success with signing with an agent who negotiated a fab deal for her with Weidenfeld & Nicolson following a bidding war. (What a wonderful phrase that is; one which every author yearns to hear.)

Right, so now we're up to speed, let me update you. Jubilee was published at the end of December and I was lucky enough to receive a proof copy. And ... it's brilliant! The book has parallel timelines, each of which is equally compelling, one set in 1977, the year of the Silver Jubilee, and one in the present day. The main characters were subjects in an iconic photograph at a Jubilee street party and there's a plan to recreate the setting decades later, now that they are all adults. With themes revolving round what it means to be British, the impact of racial hatred, buried memories, corrosive hidden secrets and unhealed wounds, Shelley has created a highly impressive debut novel. Anyone who can remember back to the 70s will recognise the political and emotional landscape she draws with such skill and her flawed characters are conveyed with humanity and insight. As an ex-professional photographer, I particularly love the way she explores what is happening around the frozen micro second of a shutter click; what is seen and what is hidden.

Next week, I will be attending Shelley's launch and, to continue celebrating with her, I will be posting an interview here on this blog. Find out what motivated Shelley to write this book; how she nailed the voices and experiences of her diverse cast of characters; the ups and downs of her writing journey prior to that life-changing perfomance at York and much more.

Meanwhile, go and buy her book. It really is very good, y'know.

A Tribute to Emily 7 Dec 1981 - 13 Dec 2011

2011-12-17T23:44:00.001Z

Sometimes it's hard to find the words. Over the last few days, I've found myself using the phrase 'beyond words' many times. But the thing is, we're writers. We have to find the words. This is my attempt to find the right words to pay tribute to a very special person.

Emily Wiffen joined the East Dulwich Writers' Group in September 2009. Very early on, she demonstrated her commitment to the group and to her own writing. The first time I met her was when she came to help sell the group's first anthology at our occasional stall in Northcross Road. It was hard enough to persuade people who had their work in the book to come and shiver in the cold. I didn't know it at the time, but it was typical of Emily that she should volunteer for this far from glamourous task.

Emily soon became one of the most regular attendees at meetings, reading from her work in progress, a novel titled Our Street. Most authors will agree that they have much in common with their main characters. It seems to me that this was certainly true for Emily. Her narrator, Isla, was a special eleven year old girl who was aware of the social sickness that afflicted the other people living in her street; only she noticed the battered child, the neglected pensioner ... The refusal of other adults to see what she saw frustrated Isla and she decided that, if no one else was taking any notice of what went on in their street, she would make it her responsibility. She would watch and record all the 'wrong' things she saw and confront the adults with her findings, forcing them to act. Isla's determination, her sensitivity, her sense of social justice, her desire to change the world for the better ... these were all qualities that were clearly innate in Emily's own character.

Emily on the left at the stall selling the second anthology

When she applied to be included in our second anthology no one was in any doubt that she would be an asset. The ethos of the group, and in particular of the anthologies, is that everyone has to take an active part in every stage of the process. I remember the first time Emily read the chapter of Our Street at a public event. She kept her head lowered throughout and her voice was tiny. One of the things that was remarkable to us all over the next months was the amazing nature of her journey from that shy beginning. At event after event, the one thing you could depend on was that Emily would be there, volunteering to read and supporting others. Each time, her confidence increased until, the last time she read, it was with a strong voice and with eye contact maintained with the audience as she introduced them to her fictional world. She also took responsibility for organising events and, in this aspect too, she went from tentative beginnings to triumphant confidence, always challenging herself and pushing the boundaries beyond her natural comfort zone.

Reading at Carnegie Library in June 2011

When Hoovering the Roof 2 won the National Association of Writers' Groups Anthology Award, we had a celebratory party in September this year, with everyone bringing something to share: wine, nibbles, fruit ... Emily brought a packet of jelly tots. It was with her usual good humour that she handled our gentle teasing about her bringing down the average age in the group.

Emily in her rightful place: front centre, holding the NAWG certificate

The last time I saw Emily was at an EDWG meeting in late September where, and how ironic this seems now, she told us she had worked out her book ended. At a street party, Isla, the child protagonist of Our Street, climbs up on a table and demands silence while she speaks. Once she has everyone's attention, she announces all she has seen during her investigations. Emily described a beautiful, redemptive scene in which people would first be shocked, then shamed and ultimately healed. Although she will never write this scene now, in her mind the book was complete and I am able to share the resolution she planned here. At times like this, there is a strange pattern to the universe.

It was Emily who was handling the organisation of our most recent event as part of the Kirkdale Pop Up. On 26th November, six days after Emily had emailed with the latest information, I received an email from her father saying that Emily had been taken ill and was in intensive care. In spite of the appalling anxiety he and his family were dealing with, he was kind enough to stay in touch with regular updates. We allowed ourselves to be cautiously optimistic when he told us she had regained consciousness and was making slow but encouraging progress.

On 7th December, Emily's thirtieth birthday, her family read out her cards to her and I said we would wish to visit her as soon as she was strong enough. It was not to be. Last Saturday, her condition deteriorated and later in the week, we received the devastating news that on Tuesday morning, Emily died.

Under such circumstances, all words feel like platitudes and cliches and I haven't come close here to paying tribute to a talented woman who was warm, funny, compassionate, determined, supportive and sensitive; one of those rare people about whom no one has a bad word to say. It's so hard to express our shock and deep sadness and our hearts go out to Emily's parents and brother.

Rest in peace, Emily.

Emily reading at Telegraph Hill Festival in March 2011

The image from Hell

2011-12-02T16:23:00.000Z

Are you writing like a person who wants to write but has lost their pen in a snowstorm that came from a sky filled with clouds that were like cotton wool that had been dipped in ink and that would explain where your pen had gone?

That chair you're sitting on: is it hard like a nail but that can't be right because nails are pointy and it's best not to sit on them if you can avoid it so maybe it's hard like a celebrity's heart but who'd want to feel that squishing round under their buttocks? Or perhaps it's soft instead. Soft like ...

It's OK, I haven't gone (completely) insane. I'm talking about deciding when you need a simile and choosing the best image. The above was inspired by this wonderful collection.

Enjoy.

Pop in to our Pop up

2011-12-01T13:20:00.000Z

This writing life is full of challenges, so I'm rolling up my sleeves and preparing for a new one.

As you may well know, I've been an active member of East Dulwich Writers' Group for over a decade. Without them, I would probably never have completed a novel, let alone have two published and be able to earn my living as a freelance editor and creative writing tutor.

So when EDWG were invited to participate in the Kirkdale Pop Up, I offered to run a workshop on the group's behalf. I wanted to design a session that would appeal to all writers: fiction and non-fiction, novelists, short story writers, poets. I also wanted to aim it at as broad an audience as possible, to attract people at any stage in their writing career, from absolute beginners to more experienced writers looking for some company and to stretch their authorial muscles.

And this is the result. A 45 minute 'creative writing master class'.
In a South London pub.
On a Saturday lunchtime.
Two weeks before Xmas.
And did I mention that the session is free?

What could possibly go wrong?

It would be great to pack the event with eager writers looking for inspiration and socialising. If the worst comes to the worst, at least there will be an unending supply of alcohol.

For the full list of imaginative and entertaining Pop Up events, see here.

Brit Writers' Awards - the unfolding story

2011-11-16T13:10:00.014Z

There. See that title? That's me taking the splinters out of my butt and coming off the fence.

I recently blogged about Brit Writers' Awards but, at that point, I didn't name them because of the threats of legal action that had been taken against anyone who blogged about them. I have, however, commented on most of the posts that I've linked to below.

I don't propose to go into a lot of detail here, as just about everything has been covered in those other blogs and the comments. For now, I just want to make my own position clear.

Back in 2010, I was proud to be associated with Brit Writers as one of their 'high profile' (their words) judges. I blogged about the gala awards night here. I had no problems supporting their stated ethos of encouraging a love of writing and finding new and innovative ways to bring books by talented debut authors into print.

Though alarm bells were ringing, I ignored the concerns I had about the judging process. Brit Writers' Awards were new. They were establishing a mould-breaking model. Teething problems were inevitable. They had been overwhelmed by the response. The problems, I told myself, were organisational.

Then we got to the point when BWA launched their Publishing Programme - an initiative that felt wrong to me on many levels. I could no longer ignore the anxieties I'd had about the judging of the 2010 awards. I was alarmed to see other judges speaking out in blog comments. Knowledge is power and the internet enabled full discussions to take place and information to be pooled. At this point, I decided I no longer wished to be associated with Brit Writers and felt unable to recommend them to new writers.

But that was far from the end of the story. BWA recently launched a new initiative from their 'Agents' Division' and blogs and forums started buzzing. All the posts and comments were asking questions. Not making accusations, you understand, just asking questions. Fair enough? Surely, BWA would respond and explain the thinking behind their new initiatives. They would want to announce who their partners were, which publishers and agents they were working with, how their schemes worked etc, wouldn't they? Not to do so would be counter-intuitive. Why on earth would they have a problem with this?

But they did have a problem. Instead of giving answers and allaying legitimate concerns, they lawyered up and began sending out solicitor's letters. First to receive one was Harry Bingham, swiftly followed by Claire King and Jane Smith. There may be others - I don't know. Private messages and emails started to flood in to my inbox from people who been involved with BWA. Award winners, people who had been shortlisted, participants on the Publishing Programme, recipients of that email who had received confusing offers of paid help for their synopsis and pitch ...

But - and here's the thing - these people didn't want to speak out and be named because they had all signed confidentiality agreements with BWA. Whaaat????

The internet won't be silenced though. Telling writers they can't write is always going to be a bad move. Telling internet savvy people that they can't raise questions and share info runs counter to the ethos of the net itself. Telling communicators that they can't communicate? It's never going to work.

So I've finally raised my head above the parapet. There's so much info available, in spite of the legal attempts being made to stifle the debate, that I thought I could be useful here and pull it all together in one place. If I've missed anything, please do let me know and I'll add the links in updates. I'm keen to present every angle, so if you know of any positive posts then I'd like to know about them too. Please also note, there are further links within all the posts.

How Publishing Really Works - 2010 post re the Publishing Programme
Writer Beware - re the awards
Claire King - re the Publishing Programme
Claire King - re the Agents' Division
WordCloud - message re deleted posts after legal threats
How Publishing Really Works - re Agents' Division
Claire King - re questions she asked BWA by email and their response
Writers' Workshop - Harry Bingham's response to Brit Writers' Awards
Harry Bingham's list of questions to Brit Writers
Discussion on Absolute Write - includes response re schools' programme

Sally Quilford - re removing BWA from competition listings
Caveat Scriptor - Max Dunbar's view
Writer Beware - re the legal threats
Writers Online - includes a response from BWA - discussion is here
Vanessa Gebbie - adds her voice

The BWA site is here. Many of the pages are still under construction. The old site had much more information.

I'm sure we're far from the end of this story. One thing it does demonstrate is that people should always do thorough research before getting involved with companies and organisations - and certainly before parting with any money.

UPDATE - LATER THE SAME DAY.
BWA have removed the threat of legal action and have sent a response to Harry Bingham which you can see here.

UPDATE - 17 NOV.
New post by Sally Quilford
Also, see the latest comments on the How Publishing Really Works post here
Harry Bingham's final post re Brit Writers (he hopes) dated today
Claire King's response - also today

UPDATE - 18 NOV.
If you checked the above link to Harry Bingham's post about Brit Writers yesterday, you might like to check again as he has changed the final paragraph.
It now reads as follows:
This article was originally written and posted on 17th Nov and relied in part on a number of written statements made by the BWA, who knew their statements would be scrutinised. Unfortunately, I now have incontrovertible evidence that the company lies, even in circumstances where its claims are likely to be closely examined. Nothing this company says can be taken on trust. Its financial promises are unreliable. The same is true of its literary promises. Writers should avoid having anything at all to do with this company. The whole thing is incredibly sad.
This paragraph replaces a previous, somewhat more upbeat, conclusion to this post.
Just found this post by Martha Williams who is trying to make sense of this whole situation.

UPDATE 21 NOV.
Pah! A ridiculous challenge to me personally on Harry's blog to reveal my email correspondence with Brit Writers. If I did, it would be extremely embarrassing to them - and reveal nothing about me that you couldn't find out on this blog.

UPDATE 25 NOV
There's an article in the money section of The Times tomorrow (Sat). It's at this link but you have to pay to view online. The title is: The guide: Eager for recognition and acceptance, beginners with a manuscript are dazzled by a promise of publication

UPDATE 1 DEC
Martha Williams has posted an interview with BWA's CEO.

More on crumbling cookies ...

2011-11-11T11:41:00.001Z

URGENT UPDATE TO MY LAST POST RE BRIT WRITERS' AWARDS

PLEASE READ THE INFO AT THIS LINK AND PASS IT ON TO ANYONE YOU THINK MIGHT HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, IN CONFIDENCE IF NEED BE.

IF THAT'S YOU, PLEASE DON'T BE AFRAID TO SPEAK OUT. BOTH SIDES NEED TO BE HEARD, SO WHETHER YOUR EXPERIENCES HAVE BEEN POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE, THIS IS YOUR CHANCE TO HAVE YOUR SAY.

Update to this update: in the interests of allowing both sides to be heard, please see this link - a response from BWA to some of the questions that have been raised.

The Way the Cookie Crumbles

2011-11-09T11:45:00.004Z

Gasp. I apologise for being so scarce here. Mad, mad busy with a teetering pile of edits and running a 6 week self-edit online course with Emma Darwin.

Just popping in to alert people to something else that's been taking up a lot of my time recently. I'm going to have to highlight this via links I'm afraid; partly because of time constraints and partly because ... well, check the links and you'll see why I need to be very careful what I say here. There are links to further info within the posts.

Start here with this discussion on Claire King's blog.
Then go here to a further discussion on Jane Smith's blog, How Publishing Really Works.
And then here, to Harry Bingham's news that there's more to come.

If you comment here, please be careful not to say anything that may be deemed to be defamatory or libellous.

UPDATE: NEW DEVELOPMENTS ARE COMING IN DAILY. SEE HERE FOR THE LATEST FROM HARRY BINGHAM.

UPDATE DATED 15TH NOV - SEE MORE DISCUSSIONS HERE ON ABSOLUTE WRITE ... AND HERE ON SALLY QUILFORD'S BLOG ... AND THIS FROM MAX DUNBAR ... AND THIS AT WRITER BEWARE FOR YET MORE ANALYSIS.

Testing

2011-10-09T14:45:00.002Z

Is this going to work? My blog seems to have been deleted.

Debi does Quantum (again)

2011-09-24T16:54:00.001Z

Well, hasn't this been a week for mind bending science? Time bending too, is seems. Though my teeny tiny mind is struggling with the concepts and it seems I'm not alone.

From what I can gather, scientists think they might have discovered something about neutrinos.

(Struggling already? Don't know what a neutrino is? Think 'atom' and then think MUCH smaller - then divide that a few more zillion times and you're beginning to see just how small these little beasties are. Only whatever you come up with, neutrinos are smaller. They really are very, very small indeed.)

Anyway, as I understand it (ie not at all) what scientists at Cern think (because 'proof' is apparently a long way off) is that neutrinos might be able to move faster than light and ain't nothing in the universe that's supposed to be able to do that. (Though my sons move pretty fast when I tell them to tidy their room.)

Thing is, this is Really Important because, if true, it undermines the whole way we understand (or in my case, fail to understand) ... well, everything really. Because that 'everything' is based on Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity. (He had other theories but they weren't so special. I have one about Ordinary Relativity which explains why we all have some family members who are rather boring.)

So - all this Matters (think there might be a science-y joke there) because it opens up questions about the possibility of time travel. Taken to its logical conclusion, it means something could arrive before it leaves. Geddit?

Oh, look, you might have guessed by now that I'm several billion billion neutrinos short of being an expert so I'm going to try to relate all this to the craft of writing fiction.

Some time back, I dabbled (in the most amateurish possible way) with quantum theory, when I focused on whether it's possible for fictional plotlines to exist in parallel universes. Now I'm going to gird my loins and switch attention to how the same theory might relate to the way we create fictional characters.

Now, this is going to take a bit of explaining, even on the basic kindergarten level I'm operating on here with my aforementioned teeny tiny brain, so make yourself comfortable and prepare to make the ... er ... quantum leap into Debiworld (or one of them).

For starters, you need to accept the initial concept of an infinite number of parallel universes. In other words, each time any of us comes to a fork in one of life's many roads, a new world is created in which we take the other path. If you also accept that we are the sum of our experiences, as we make hundreds of these sorts of decisions every day, it stands to reason that each of these worlds contains a different version of us, sometimes varying by the merest tweak, at other times resulting in us becoming completely different people.

Got that?

In still more other words, if you accept that we are the sum of our experiences, it's logical to believe that there are an infinite number of ways we turn out. In some worlds, we probably die young; in others we may live to 100. At its most extreme, in one world you might be a dictator and in another, a victim, yet both would be versions of the same 'you'.

Right. You still with me? Do pay attention please. We're about to get to how this connects with writing fiction.

(In another universe, I will have got to the point earlier. If the new stuff turns out to be right, I got there before my fingers hit the keyboard. In yet another, I'll ramble on for ever and never get there. In that one, a version of you might hunt me down and slap me, thereby creating yet another universe. In that one, I will have a black eye. One 'me' will then sue you for assault. Another will fight back, giving you two black eyes. etc etc etc ...)

So ... ah, yes, the point.

Whenever I create a new fictional character, I'm aware that she is a version of ... me. She's based on a particular aspect of my character but it takes her in a direction that the Debi who is writing this post would never go. As a result of that, things happen to her that would not happen to 'this' me. And as a result of those experiences, she changes still more, becoming someone who bears no resemblance at all to me. But, maybe, she's a 'me' who does exist in one of those other infinite universes.

OK, so now we get to the point where the 'you' who is reading this tells the 'me' who's writing it if I'm talking unadulterated rubbish or if I'm on to something here. Or both. Or ...

In one universe, there's a Debi who wins the Nobel Prize for the above.

In another, I already have.

In this one, I'll be dismissed as a rambling incontinent. Them's the breaks.

There. I hope you understand it all now.

The Winning Formula

2011-09-21T14:47:00.000Z

Once again, I'm in the position of having some wonderful news to share.

I first met Dania el Kadi when she came on one of the Writers' Workshop courses I ran with Emma Darwin. From the beginning it was clear that Dania had something special. Her writing was fresh and original and it was immediately obvious her concept (chick lit story set against a back drop of the war in Lebanon) had serious potential.

Following the course, Dania had more than one edit with me, finishing up with a close line edit to ensure the MS was polished to perfection. It took time, hard work and commitment to bring her wonderful story to life, but it has certainly paid off.

Earlier this week, I received an email from Dania to tell me that her book, Summer Blast, is a number 1 bestseller in Lebanon! This is the link to the good news breaking on WordCloud. I'm looking forward to seeing Dania at the Getting Published event in October.

Summer Blast is available on Amazon.

Don't go away! I'm not done yet and have more to share.

Last night I went to a very special book launch.

Why 'special'? I hear you ask. Well, for starters it was in a gorgeous bookshop, Woolfson and Tay in Bermondsey. The format of an interview with the author was also different and made for a really interesting evening.

But without a doubt, the most special aspect of the event was the author, Michael Richmond, and the book he had written. Drawing on personal (and very painful) experiences, Sisyphusa is an allegory of the mental health system. Michael's writing is influenced by Kafka and Orwell and, as you can guess from the title, also owes much to classical Greek mythology.

This is an important book. It was important for Michael to write it and it's equally important for people to read it and try to understand how it feels to grapple with mental health issues, both as a sufferer and as a 'service user' (a term that is used in the book but one that Michael dislikes). As Michael pointed out, one in four people will fall into this category.

Most importantly, it's clear from the discussions and readings that the book is a stonking good read, written with wit, wisdom, humour and astonishing insight.

Sisyphusa is available on Amazon here.

So, getting back to that winning formula. (Ha! You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you ...)

Here it is:

fresh and original concept + writing talent + a willingness to learn and improve + objective feedback + hard work + perseverance

= A BOOK PEOPLE WILL WANT TO READ!

In Praise of Writers' Groups

2011-09-12T12:40:00.003Z

All authors need objective feedback, whether it be from trusted readers, paid editorial services, online forums or Real Life writers' groups.

Regular visitors here will know the personal debt I owe to the East Dulwich Writers' Group. This is from my biog:

I joined the East Dulwich Writers' Group although I had no previous experience of writing fiction apart from an abortive attempt to crack the women’s magazine short story market several years earlier. (Each story would start sweet enough but then gradually turned dark and twisted! Clearly my inner voice calling out ...) I wrote Nirvana Bites in the evenings in long hand lying on the settee and then typed it up in chunks using borrowed laptops. Eighteen months later, I had my first book deal!

You will also be aware that EDWG has produced two anthologies, Hoovering the Roof 1 and 2. The books are an eclectic mix of short stories, poems and novel extracts, complete with original illustrations.

Last year, we won the runners up prize in the National Association of Writers' Groups anthology awards.

This year ... we've only gone and won!

And here's the proof.

There's nothing quite like a good writers' group for providing constructive feedback and encouragement. The best groups (and EDWG is certainly one of them) form a local community of supportive writers, sharing skills and stories, celebrating successes and commiserating when the going is hard.

There isn't one in your area? Set one up yourself. Post on your local community forum or stick up notices in the library or local bookshop. That's how we started. A decade later, we have over 200 people on the email list, consisting of authors at every stage of their writing career, from those of us who have been published to absolute beginners. We keep to a maximum of 8 people at each meeting and have retained an informal and intimate ethos, in spite of our numbers. The email list is also used to share details of events and other items of lit interest.

Some of our members are also winners of prestigious competitions. And now the group itself has won recognition with the NAWG award. Did I mention that already? Did you know?

We won! We bloody well won!

For further details of the group, check out our website. You can also follow us on Facebook. And if you buy the books directly from us, you can do that here with a discount.

Oh, and in case you hadn't noticed ... WE WON! Perhaps I mentioned that already ...

Is there an editor in the house?

2011-08-26T00:03:00.000Z

Um ... yes, that will be me then.

Regular visitors here will know that I have been editing and critiquing manuscripts for several years now. (First mentioned here.) During that time, I have worked on an average of 2-3 novels a month.

Most of the manuscripts come to me via Writers' Workshop but some authors come directly to me. On Twitter today I was asked what I charge and what I offer and realised that info isn't readily available online without a lot of digging. (I also realised how hideously out-of-date my website is, but I can't imagine having time to sort that out any time soon.)

Anyway, the point of this post is to tell anyone who's interested what my editing services consist of and how much they cost.

The service
I like to be flexible and tailor my feedback to the author's needs, so the content of my report varies accordingly, though it will always be a minimum of 3000 words for a full length MS. This will usually cover the following:

the commercial potential of your concept and where your book fits in the market
analysis, comments and suggestions re structure, plot, pace, characterisation, prose style
if appropriate, feedback on your synopsis and covering letter

As an author myself, I'm very aware that I hold someone's beating heart in my hand when I work on their lovingly crafted book. I'm always careful to point out where an MS's strengths lie, as well as those areas that need attention.

As I said, different authors have different needs. Some people are hoping to be signed with an agent and achieve a traditional publishing deal, others may intend to self-publish, and some people might just love writing and want to make their novel as good as it can be. My feedback is designed to provide each person with what they need to have the best chance of fulfilling their particular ambitions.

Needless to say, it takes time to read a full MS and prepare a detailed report. I also offer further conversations after I send the report, to discuss any issues that arise or clarify anything where necessary. None of this comes cheap, but, at the risk of sounding like a certain advert, I think I'm worth it.
*tosses hair and gurns at camera*

Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes, the £££.

The charges
I charge £4.50 per 1000 words for a full length MS.
£75 for feedback on synopsis, covering letter and first 5000 words.
Other charges, eg longer extracts, proof reading etc, are available on request.

I have experience of working in all genres. Recently, I've had the enormous pleasure of seeing 3 authors I've worked with go on to be signed up with agents. Roger Hardy has written a fast paced international thriller. Sean Walsh has created a magical children's story and Katherine Hetzel is the author of a fantasy adventure story for young adults. See here for my blog post re Sean and Katherine and here for my post about Roger.

Please feel free to email me - info at debialper dot co dot uk - if you think I can help you.
Or leave a comment here.
Or message me on Facebook.
Or contact me on Twitter @DebiAlper.

I do sometimes wonder how any of us find time for writing.

Never say never

2011-08-11T10:11:00.000Z

In lieu of a 'proper' blog post, I give you this link about the rejections received by 30 authors who went on to achieve great success.

Read, ponder, giggle a bit and then get back to the writing.

Two special women, two special offers

2011-07-18T10:15:00.000Z

Blog posts are sparse these days, but I've popped in to share some special info with you all.

Lisa Donaldson is a regular poster on WordCloud, where she is known as Autumn. I met her at York, where she showed me an excerpt from the book she has written, recording her journey from cancer diagnosis, through treatment and to the point where she declares that 'she had cancer but cancer no longer has me'.

I could see at a glance that Lisa's book was compelling and well-written. The first agent she pitched it to said that it was gripping and asked for the full MS. But, knowing the way the industry operates, I had some concerns. I remember Dina Rabinovitch (a well-known and highly respected journalist, who sadly died in 2007) being told by one publisher that they 'already had their cancer book for that year'. I knew that Lisa's book would speak to many people and had the potential to attract a wide readership. But was she ready for the bruising encounters that are implicit in seeking a traditional publishing deal?

In our conversation, Lisa took me back to her reasons for writing the book:

She wanted to record her experiences.

She wanted to share them with people in similar positions and their families and friends.

She wanted to make money for charity.

She wanted to write a complete book.

It was clear to me that she'd achieved all those aims except the one where her book was available to others to read. Actually, she'd achieved an additional and very special one. Writing, she said, had helped her to find her voice. Following an online course, she has decided to turn her hand to writing commercial fiction.

In order to ensure her first book was 'out there', Lisa has made it available to read on her website. All she asks is that people make a donation via JustGiving, where all the money will go towards Breast Cancer Care. You can do that here.

So, go on, what are you waiting for? Read the book. Think about what this project means to Lisa and how little she's asking of you. Tell others about it. And then go and donate. It's not much to ask, is it?

And now for something completely different ...

I recently spent a glorious weekend with a bunch of Wonderful Women Writers. Yes, WWW is appropriate as I would never have met any of them in real life if it wasn't for t'internet.

One of them was Helen Hunt, who blogs here. Helen has virtually cornered the market for short stories. (She's also very, very lovely.) It seems like hardly a week goes past without hearing she has had another story accepted by a woman's magazine.

She has decided to share her expertise, and believe me, no one is more qualified to show people what the market requires and how to craft stories for magazines. Keeping the costs ridiculously low IMO, she will be running one day workshops. For £30 (!!!) you will have access to one of the most successful WOMAG short story writers around, plus lunch and a critique of a story submitted in advance.

Get in quick! The course takes place in Northampton on 30th July. If it's successful, Helen hopes to repeat the course in Sept. Details here.

Roger hath a blog!

2011-06-23T10:18:00.000Z

Further to the last post about newly-agented author, Roger Hardy, in which I bemoaned his lack of an online presence, I'm delighted to point you in this direction.

Roger appears to think I have supernatural powers. I'm not about to tell him otherwise. He also thinks that I'm the kind of person he'd like to get drunk with. I ain't sayin' nothin' on the score either.

Oh, thank you, universe!

2011-06-20T16:18:00.000Z

Almost exactly a year ago, I published this post. In it, I said:

I'M CONVINCED THAT THE DAY WILL COME WHEN I HAVE A GEN-U-INE ROGER HARDY BOOK ON MY SHELVES THAT HAS THE LOGO OF A MAJOR PUBLISHING COMPANY ON THE SPINE.

Today, I'm delighted to say that Roger has just made a giant leap forward in his journey towards publication. He emailed to say that he has been signed up for his sixth book by Peter Buckman from the Ampersand agency. The two met at the York Festival of Writing in 2010 and I'm sure they'll make a wonderful team. I'm now sprinkling fairy dust on Peter's efforts to secure a mega deal for Roger.

There's still no link for Roger, though I'm sure that's going to change at some point. But there is a link to a lovely post on the WordCloud that has me blushing so much you could make toast on my cheeks.

Being a Lazy Blogger

2011-06-17T09:46:00.000Z

Actually, that's not strictly true. I'm not being lazy, just veryveryvery busy. And, before you ask, that doesn't mean I've abandoned the blogosphere for Facebook and Twitter.

(Though if you twist my arm, I'd have to confess that I am there quite a bit. That's the difference between a post that takes seconds and one that needs more thought and time. You bloggy people are s-o-o-o demanding.)

Anyway, I'm just popping in to let you know that you can have a sneaky peek into my glamorous lifestyle, thanks to Michelle Teasdale at Winning Words. And, yes, I 'met' Michelle through Facebook, so there.

Also, East Dulwich Writers' Group have a couple of gigs coming up, the first being this Sunday as part of Bromley Literary Festival. Further details of EDWG events are on the group website.

There's lots of other stuff I'd love to share but I'm afraid it's going to have to wait ... Mainly, because I need to dash off and do said 'other stuff'.

If you haven't already done so, please track me down on Facebook and Twitter.
I look forward to seeing you there ... and there ... and sometimes here.

I've joined the Twitterati!

2011-05-25T20:37:00.000Z

Can't believe I've done it! I'm on a writing retreat and an unexpected side effect is that my lovely host has persuaded me to join Twitter.

So now, as well as this neglected blog, a hideously out-of-date website, a very busy Facebook page and various forums, I have a new distraction.

I blame the gin.

If this means anything to you, check me out at @DebiAlper

The People Collector

2011-05-19T10:45:00.000Z

Authors are often asked where we get our ideas and characters from. Friends and relatives have even been known to be nervous that fictional characters might be based on them. I was shocked and saddened when my sister-in-law asked if the sister-in-law in my Nirvana series was supposed to be her.

The fictional version is shallow and snobbish. Surely, my real sister-in-law didn't think I see her in this way. (I really don't.) And, even if I did, did she believe I would abuse our relationship by sharing my negative perceptions of her with the world?

The truth is, I do collect characters, but no one who knows me would ever be able to recognise themselves in my books. Most of my inspiration comes from people I encounter but know nothing about. My favourite people-spotting opportunities come from bus journeys.

I always sit on the top deck by the window. I look down on shoppers, workers, wanderers, seeing them from a different angle to the norm. Where is she going? What does his home look like? Where does she work? What's their story? I peep into uncurtained first floor windows to get a fleeting glimpse of people's internal landscapes; odd ornaments on the window sill, a torn sheet instead of a curtain, piles of old newspapers, a row of polished trophies ...

I can give full rein to my imagination. The stories I weave most likely bear no resemblance to the truth. Or do they? They might be eerily accurate. But it doesn't matter one way or another, because the person I've observed will never know they've inspired a story.

A little closer to the bounds of propriety, I like to eavesdrop on conversations. Take last week, for example. In the seat behind me, a teenage girl was talking about the tradition in her private school of playing pranks when pupils leave at the end of Year 11. Her personal favourite, she told her unseen companion, was when a group of pupils got hold of a cow. (At great expense, she added.) Cows, she went on to say, can go up stairs, but not down. Somehow, they managed to smuggle the animal into the school and up the stairs, where they abandoned it. With no alternative, the school was forced to arrange for the poor (and, no doubt, distressed) beast to be rescued by helicopter. Presumably, at further great expense.

The girl moved on to talking about her plans for the summer: a week at the family villa in France followed by a journey south for an extended stay in St Tropez.

I resisted the urge to turn round, so I never saw what she looked like. But she was speaking loud enough for me to hear (which is saying something) and appeared to have no concept of the extent of her privilege, or that most of her fellow travellers might inhabit a very different universe.

That girl might appear as a cameo in a story some time. The challenge for me would be to lift her beyond stereotype. I was so engrossed that it took me a while to realise I was on the wrong bus.

The next bus (the right one this time) provided contrasting, but equally fertile, ground for harvesting characters. Two middle-aged Jamaican men were discussing the iniquitous cost of a TV licence, which both agreed was a struggle for poor people to afford. From there, they moved on to talk about international politics and the subtle differences in the way racism is manifested in the US and the historical reasons for those differences. Then it was current affairs: whether the authorities in Pakistan had been aware of Bin Laden's whereabouts. By the time I left the bus, they'd become involved in a complex discourse on the nature of fear.

Rich pickings for a novelist: these men and their (possible) personal stories; any of the subjects they touched on; the rhythms and patterns of their speech; the timbre of their voices ... In many ways, the sheer depth of the insights these men gave means that they would be far easier for me to bring to life in a fictional setting than the girl would be, lifting them beyond the risk of cliche and stereotype.

So, whether you're sitting on the top of a bus, shopping in the supermarket, walking on the streets, wandering in the park, queueing at the post office ... keep your eyes and ears open.

And if you're not a novelist, be aware that the person in the next seat might be watching you and listening to your words, storing them away for future use.

So, do you reckon this is OK? Or is it a form of identity theft? And does it matter one way or the other?

Resources

2011-04-22T11:15:00.001Z

I'm cheating here because this isn't a post as such, just a series of links. And some of them are links to posts that consist mostly of ... links to posts. Allow me to justify why this qualifies as the most Boring but Useful post on my blog.

I'm one week into the online self-editing course I'm running together with Emma Darwin on behalf of the Writers' Workshop.

It's going really well. Writers of all ages and in all genres, living in different continents and environments, all working together with the same aim: to produce the best possible writing. Love it, love it, love it.

In my feedback, I kept finding myself wanting to link to a blog post. If you're reading this, you'll know that, unlike Emma's blog, this isn't a lit blog as such. It's a hotchpotch mishmash soupy stew of rants mixed with tips and info, seasoned with a dash of laughter and with some spicy personal details sprinkled over the top.

In amongst this seemingly random jumble, there are some posts about the writing process but each time I want to link to them, I have to spend ages sieving through the other stuff to track them down.

So here are the links to the last couple of years' lit posts, all served up on one platter.

Success Stories
Sean Walsh
Catherine Cooper
The Thickest Skin (Jason Wallace - a prizewinner after 100 (!) rejections)
A Tale of Two Authors (Shelly Harris and Roger Hardy)

Why write?
Reasons for writing

Submissions
Dear ... Me ....

Festival of Writing posts
York 2011
York 2010 - check posts in April 2010

'Rules'
The Rule Breaker
The Rule Hater

The writing process
The writing gardener
The writing addict
Anyone Else Feel a Draft in Here?
Debi Does Quantum
Naming characters

Plagiarism
Writer or Thief?

Of course ...

2011-04-05T11:36:00.002Z

I've just realised it's April. How did that happen?

Just a quick post to let people know about some courses on offer this month (Quick because I have to dash off to do the prep for them!)

On 30th April, I'm running a 1 day workshop in Waterloo on behalf of Writers' Workshop. It's a How to Write Your Novel course, aimed at people who want to learn the basics and costs £99 (includes lunch, refreshments and a discount voucher for WW services).

If you're looking for something more advanced and want to work online and at your own pace as well as receive feedback on your own writing, Emma Darwin and I are co-leading a 6 week course beginning 16th April: Self-Editing Your Own Novel.

For details of both go here and click on the date of the course you're interested in or follow the links above.

If you can't afford any of the above but are looking for help with techniques, feedback from fellow writers, or just general chat with a warm and supportive community, I strongly recommend you get yourself over to WordCloud which is free and you can't say fairer than that!

Post York Posts - success stories!

2011-03-31T00:16:00.000Z

Some wonderful news to share!

I met Sean Walsh at York 2010 in a Book Doctor session and was blown away by his children's fantasy book, Peripherealm, and his mind-blowing illustrations. I worked with him during the year, in the course of which we cut 50,000 words. (It was a very long book!) Then he started pitching. As the rejections started coming in, I don't know how many times I had to convince him not to give up.

He came to York again this year and ... well, let's just say I wasn't going to let the opportunity pass to ensure Sean's book got the attention I was convinced he deserves.

And ... to cut a long story square, as my dad would say ... Sean has now been signed up, just a day after the Festival, by David Headley!
See full story, including Sean's own response, here.

That's not all my good news. I have another example of how persistance will pay off, if your book is good enough and you are committed to doing whatever it takes to make it the best it can possibly be. Another children's author with whom I've worked has also been signed up with an agent. Katherine Hetzel had a Writers' Workshop edit with Michelle Lovric and then 2 further edits and extended conversations with me before she began pitching. I'm too modest *cough* to repeat here what she said about the part I played in enabling her book to reach its potential, but I will say what an absolute joy it is to be a part of these journeys and to know that I've had a role to play. WordCloud link to this news is here.

One last story. It doesn't end with an agent signing an agreement, like Sean and Katherine's, though who knows what's around the corner? Do you remember me telling you about DW? The man who was determined to prove me wrong when I suggested he may not be ideally suited to writing fiction?

DW tracked me down at York and with great glee told me that 2 agents had asked to see more of the MS he pitched to them that we have been working on together. I've never been so pleased to be proved wrong.

So - whoever you are and wherever you are - don't ever give up. The right words, in the right time and the right place, and you too can experience this magic.

PS: feedback from York is now up on the Festival site.

York Talk 2011 - the thanks bit

2011-03-28T13:20:00.001Z

Mega thanks go to:

Emma Darwin - for proving once again to be the perfect co-tutor for the mini course. What a team!
all the agents, publishers and specialists who, in spite of everything, continue to demonstrate their passion for fabulous writing
the lovely peeps on the Blackwell's stall for selling our books
the other authors with whom I wish I could have spent more time
all the participants for trusting us with your babies and for all the words, words, words
the Word Clouders - what a wonderful, warm, funny and supportive community you (we) are
Laura, Deborah and Nikki from Writers' Workshop for the hard unglamorous slog wth none of the glory
Kate Allan for a mammoth organisational feat
Jeremy Guy - likewise and for the toothpaste
the staff at York for their friendly, helpful and efficient hosting
Susan Franklin, Lesley Eames and Sandra Norval for looking after the Book Doctors and agents and for the iron fists you wield from inside your velvet gloves
all of you for coming along for the ride, either in body or blog

and finally to Harry Bingham, who changes lives

York Talk 2011 - in pictures

2011-03-28T11:21:00.001Z

David Nobbs signing a copy of one of his many books

Some of the grand old ducks of York

Cicely Havely, winner of Authonomy Live

Emma Darwin and Jenny Beattie at the gala dinner

Harry and Laura from Writers' Workshop sifting through the competition shortlist

Kerry Fisher, winner of the Festival competition

York Talk 2011 - ooh, goody goody.

2011-03-27T23:26:00.000Z

Goody bags
This year, several publishers supplied free copies of their books, many of them hardbacks and others advance proof copies, for distribution to all at the Festival.

I was delighted to have sold several copies of my own books and thought that would mean I would go back with lighter luggage. Instead, my books were replaced by these freebies, but believe me, I ain't grumbling.

The grand finale

Kate Williams, historian and novelist, was the final speaker and she shared her personal experiences in the last key note address of the weekend. Not many people can have a week that consists of chatting to Jeremy Paxman about economic contraction on Newsnight on one evening, and then a day or so later talking about the origins of Battenberg cake.

The final, final say though, has to go to Harry Bingham, who said that he had spoken to the agents and publishers over the weekend and they had all said they were blown away by the quality of much of the writing they saw.

'Numerous agents were interested in numerous writers,' he told us.

Let's hope that several people will sign up with agents in the near future, having been asked to send their full MSes. And that those agents will succeed in getting deals for those authors. How wonderful it would be in the future for people to say their successful careers as authors began at York, as Shelley Harris was able to say last year.

Harry left us with these thoughts:

No one who had been there could be in any doubt whatsoever that the entire industry runs on passion.
It's vital to be a perfectionist - what the Festival does is to provide people with the tools to polish and perfect their writing.
Another P word, an equally essential component in the writers' toolkit, is persistence.
Writing is hard - so you'd better love doing it!

That's it, folks. I'll publish one last post tomorrow and that will be to share the photos I took over the weekend.

I'm home now, still dealing with that strange mixture of Knackered but Wired. The one thing that has hit me is that 300+ people in one vast room, don't seem to make nearly as much noise as 3 people (all male, 2 teenagers) in one small room.

York Talk 2011 - The Book Doctor is (was) in

2011-03-27T23:01:00.000Z

I had 18 Book Doctor sessions over the 2 days. Obviously, and as one would expect, there was a range of genres and also of potential in those submissions. But everyone felt they learned something really useful and specific to their own writing, including the effectiveness of their concept and pitch.

I was seriously impressed with some of them. Although I was only seeing first chapters and synopses, there were some who semeed they only needed to do a bit of tightening and polishing for their books to be ready to pitch to agents. If they didn't get any bites, they might consider getting an edit, but those special few were at the stage where I suggested they should try pitching them first, on the chance that everything was already in place and they could save themselves the expense of paying for a critique.

I hope people will stay in touch as I'd love nothing better than to see them succeed and know I had a small part to play in their journey.

Which reminds me ...

I was talking to someone who has spent their former career in the highly competitive corporate world. She couldn't believe the way everyone seemed to be so generously spirited, genuinely happy to hear about and celebrate other people's success. I hadn't really thought about how unusual and extraordinary that was. I've always taken it for granted that our collective passion and enthusiasm was for all writing, not just our own. Makes me feel even more happy and lucky - privileged even - to be part of the community of writers.

On which note ...

I had to forget something crucial when I was packing, didn't I? Toothpaste, that's what. On Saturday morning, I told someone in passing that I'd forgotten mine and had had to use soup (bleurgh). An hour or so later, Jeremy Guy, one of the extraordinary team of organisers, came up to me and said he'd heard I'd forgotten my toothpaste and I really should have told him.

Eh? I think I might have goggled at him. And then 10 mins later he found me and handed over a tube that he had dispatched someone specially to buy. I know this sounds wet, but I was so touched, and felt so cared for and looked after, I felt quite teary. *sniff*

York Talk 2011 - oh but I also forgot ... the gala dinner

2011-03-27T22:55:00.001Z

A chance to dress up in our glad rags and celebrate in style. The poshest of nosh and the bestest of company. What's not to love?

The winners of the Festival competition were announced during the meal and once again it was clear just how much talent and potential there was in that room. With only my teensy evening bag, I found myself in the almost unique position of realising I didn't have pen and notebook to hand, so I didn't manage to record the shortlist. (Though I couldn't possibly forget the well-deserved inclusion of the lovely John Taylor of Word Cloud renown).

Fortunately, the winner, Kelly Fisher, was sitting at my table. Kelly won on the basis of having the most wonderful opening line to her novel and I asked her to jot it down on the back of a business card so that I could share it with you here:

I was wearing the wrong bra for sitting in a police cell.

Good, huh???

Sadly, the rest of the evening was a teensy bit of a blur. Absolutely no connection whatsoever with gin and anyone suggesting otherwise will be facing a libel suit.

York Talk 2011 - oh but I forgot ... that workshop

2011-03-27T22:24:00.000Z

That last post refers to this morning (Sunday) but somehow I forgot some of the most crucial things that happened yesterday.

For starters, there was my Breaking the Rules workshop. I was a bit anxious about how much there was to get through and also that there were no gimmicks; all they were going to get was me talking at them non-stop for an hour. In the event, it seemed to go down better than any other single workshop or course I've run. I guess people just love breaking rules ... and the anarchist in me loves them for it.

I selected the rules that people had told me in advance were the ones they most found problematic: POV, show not tell, linear chronological structure, prologues, adverbs and adjectives and (briefly) speech tags, dreams, mixing tenses, mixing 1st and 3rd person ... You can see what I mean about how much there was to get through.

With each one, I defined the rule and explained why it mattered and what the consequences of breaking it are. I emphasised the need to check if breaking it really is the best way to tell the story, because you do need to have a compelling reason. And then I gave examples of the ways in which it can broken effectively.

The advantage of doing it in this way was that the workshop provided a good grounding on what the 'rules' are in the first place for those who are unsure, as well as providing techniques for those who feel that their book justifies a different approach.

Anyway, it must have been useful as I've never received such a positive response (the applause seemed to go on for an embarassingly long time). One participant even said he had learned more about creative writing in that one hour than he had in the previous 3 years.

I am going to post my notes on the Festival website at some point in the coming week.

York Talk 2011 - the morning after

2011-03-27T21:57:00.000Z

Lost an hour of sleep and I think we all felt that loss keenly. Especially those who spent much of last night with 10 other people, stuffed into one of the tiny bedrooms, accompanied by a bottle of whisky and another of vodka. (I wasn't one of those people BTW but they could be identified this morning by the green hue of their gills and the capacious bags under their eyes.)

Today kicked off with another Festival panel of agents and publishers, this time including Beverley Birch (commissioning editor for Hodder Children's), Jonathan Telfer (editor of Writers' News), Hannah Westland (agent) and our very own Harry Bingham.

Let's get the bad news from this session out of the way. Many of you will already know that an agent is likely to take on 1 in a 1000 of the MSes submitted to them. It's sobering to then hear that most publishers will take approx 1 in 4-500 MSes submitted to them - by agents. Blimey, you're probably thinking, those odds are so long they're out of the stratosphere. But people DO get published, so it's vital not to lose heart.

There has to be some good news to keep us all going. The panel were asked what was exciting at the moment. Wouldn't you know, but the answer was the advent of the Kindle and e books, which they all saw as part threat and part opportunity. In the US, any publishers not already on board with the technology are apparently being left behind.

Social media and networks are providing lots of ways for people to self publish and also for those with traditional deals to promote in a way that has never existed before. With the traditional publishing model, the publicity machine kicks in 3 months before publication. Now that authors have a major part to play in publicising their own books, they can begin the process with blogs, websites, Facebook etc 12-18 months before their book hits the shelves, giving them the chance to build up an advance readership.

In a way, it's both good news and bad news that the author now has such a large part to play in the process. Bad because promotion takes very different skills to writing and also because it takes time and energy away from the actual process of writing; good because it does enable writers to have some control over the content and methods by which they are publicised. I remember when my books were first published, I was warned not to do anything at all, but to leave all the publicity to the 'experts'. But the truth is that no one is going to give your books - and indeed your career - the same amount of focus and attention that you can bring yourself.

There is still considerable tension between authors and agents regarding royalty rates for e books. Part of the problem is the ease with which people can use the digital format for self-publishing. They can then offer their books for sale for tiny sums - as little as 70p or even free, thereby pushing them up the Amazon charts. Although there is no quality control for those books, traditional publishers are being forced to compete with them and deal with the public expectation that books should be that cheap. So how much would that leave as a royalty rate for the published author? About as much as it costs to buy a cobweb.

Finally, the panel was asked what single piece of advice they would give to aspiring authors. The answer was one I've often advocated myself: read!

To this Harry added by pointing out the value of critiques and editing. He also said that anyone who comes to the Festival will inevitably leave a better writer. Wise man, that Harry Bingham.

York Talk 2011 - post 3

2011-03-26T18:41:00.000Z

Excuse me - I've got that slightly zappy, sicky, headachey, hyper, caffeinated, jet lag thing going on, so may be a little less coherent than we all would wish.

After lunch (have I said how scrummy the food is here?) it was time for the next key note address: Carole Blake and Patrick Jansen-Smith, both of whom have worked for several decades on both sides of the publishing equation ie as both agents and publishers. As such, they were able to provide unique insights into the roles of each and the relationships between them.

What is clear is that the level of an author's involvement in promoting their own book is far higher than it has ever been. There is less paid advertising and a bigger emphasis on what can be done online, using social networking like Twitter, Facebook and ... er ... blogging. In fact, though this may send a shiver down the spines of the more retiring types, there is a huge requirement for authors to become perfomance artists, even though this demands very different skills from those needed for writing. Both speakers were clear that it's essential for there to be a collaboration between author, agent and publisher. After all, they all have the same aim: to sell lots of books.

After all the years of working in the industry, it was heartening to hear Carole say that she has never lost her passion and enthusiasm for good writing. The session was then thrown open to contributions and questions from the floor.

Foreign Rights

Ideally, there should always be a dialogue between author and translator. Some books that seem quintessentially English have done surprisingly well in other countries. It's impossible to second guess the market, however, so people shouldn't write a book with the foreign rights specifically in mind eg by having part of the action take place in another country (unless that's intrinsic to the story, of course). Good characters = universal emotions, so apply across the globe.

The US is a particularly hard market to break into; it's bigger in every way and also less forgiving ie if you don't take off mega with your first book you are less likely to receive backing for subsequent novels. (Some *ahem* might say that's also true for the UK.)

E Books and Digital Rights

They're confused. Everyone's confused. It's impossible to keep up with new developments and the constantly changing environment. Publishers are anxious to hang onto digital rights and are looking at old contracts which didn't have the clauses that are now relevant. The trade dubbed last Xmas as Kindle Xmas as so many people received blank Kindles as presents and there was then a rush immediately after Xmas to download e books. In the US, 15% of some titles have been sold as e books. The whole industry will be looking forward to the next 2 batches of royalty statements, which will reflect the impact in the UK.

Piracy is a major concern and they still don't know how to deal with it. Publishers are spending a fortune on research and development. Meanwhile, Carole said that she's notified of a new pirated version of a book every day. These can be tackled one by one, but it's impossible to keep track. Pah.

Advances

The problem with large advances (yes, there really is a problem) is that it's very hard for sales to match, and if they don't, the author has the stigma of having failed to sell out their advance by a large margin. It's very common for subsequent advances to be much lower - or, worst case scenario, for the author to struggle to get a subsequent deal at all. (*Ahem again* - nasty cough I've got there.)

The final word

After all that, I want to end on an up note, so I'll leave you with Carole's answer to a question re whether authors needing to 'perform' meant they only had a chance if they are young and beautiful.
'No,' said Carole. 'They just have to be interesting.'

York Talk 2011 - David Nobbs

2011-03-26T12:37:00.000Z

What better person to give the keynote address than David Nobbs, who says he has spent 48 years (years, people, not hours) writing about things that never happened and being paid for it?

David initially wrote 9 stage plays that were never performed. What was the missing ingredient? Turns out to be a subject close to my heart: he hadn't found his voice. So how did he solve that? By writing, of course, and simply by carrying on doing it.

David began his working life as a journalist but in 1963 he sold an idea to the BBC, which eventually became That Was the Week That Was. He then wrote material for comedians such as Tommy Cooper and Ken Dodd. But he was still struggling to write a successful book and the problem was that his words were good, but he hadn't yet come up with a compelling story.

He was refreshingly frank about his failures.
'Rejection,' he said, 'is depressing, but it's not a personal insult.'
Reggie Perrin was originally written as a half hour drama. No one was more surprised than David when the book morphed into 4 novels and 6 TV series. Now 76, he is still working full time and clearly loving it.

So where do his ideas come from?

'People,' he said. 'Listen to them. They're wonderful and the source of so much inspiration.'

Some more nuggets of Nobbsian wisdom:

If you are writing a lot, some of it will be good and some of it will be very bad. And that's ok.
Be persistent and don't take rejection personally. Fawlty Towers was originally rejected as being rubbish, having no potential and (can you believe?) not funny!
Put your work aside for a month or so and then come back to it with a fresh eye.
If inspiration is proving elusive, take a day off and do something completely different.
But don't do that for 2 days running! Writers have to write!
When you write, make sure you enjoy it. At least that way, you will have made one person happy.

York Talk 2011

2011-03-25T23:29:00.000Z

Never say I don't love you. Here I am at 11.15 at night. Others are still in the bar, drinking. Many have already staggered off to bed. And me? Here I am, sitting in my room at my laptop, because I promised you a live Festival blog and a Debi never breaks her promises.

Soooo - the trip up wasn't as much fun as last year when I met Whisks on the train, but that one was hard to beat. It was enough that I arrived safely. There's little time for taking stock while at York (or breathing, but I do try to do that whenever I remember). So it was straight into the Developing Your Voice mini course with Emma Darwin.

Once again, I was reminded why the Emma/Debi partnership works so well. Emma comes from a far more literary perspective and is qualified at MA level, whereas I, as was pointed out to me last year, am a 'street writer', a monicker I'm happy to accept. The course went well, unless the participants were being very kind and generous and didn't like to hurt us; they certainly all said it had been very useful. Voice is such a slippery thing to nail down and very hard to teach, but I hope people were telling the truth when they said the course had enabled them to see where their own narrative voices were slipping and had given them the tools for repairing any slippages.

The less said about the literary speed dating the better. You try sitting at a table for 10 and trying to engage with everyone in a meaningful way before your 5 mins are up and they're all replaced by new people, all looking equally shell-shocked. Now try doing it while wearing hearing aids and finding ambient noise is as loud as the voice of the person sitting next to you.

After a classy meal (yum - and best thing was I hadn't cooked it) we sat back and prepared to admire the brave souls who had entered Authonomy LIve. Last year, you may remember the outright winner was Shelley Harris, who went on to not only get an agent, but also a two book deal with Weidenfeld & Nicolson following a bidding war.

Once again, there was little doubt about the winner, although there was a fabulous and very strong field. Cicely Haverly won with a sparkling and very funny excerpt of her book, chronicling the sexual awakening on a young girl, set in 1953. I have photos, but you'll have to wait. I'm tired and working out how to get them from mobile to laptop is too much for my brain right now.
So sue me.

Right - that's all you get for tonight. Night night, all. See you tomorrow.

(Note to self: do NOT sleep through alarm.)

Back-to-Back Festivals

2011-03-23T00:06:00.000Z

York! This weekend!

There's an amazing line up of talks, events and workshops and I honestly can't wait. On the personal side, Emma Darwin and I will be running the Developing Your Voice mini course on Friday. I'm hosting a Breaking the Rules workshop on Saturday afternoon and I'm also doing a total of 5 hours of Book Doctor slots over both days. That's when we meet the aspiring authors who have submitted a first chapter, synopsis and covering letter in advance for 10 intense minutes of critique and feedback.

Nicola Morgan has published a wonderful post, linking to another by Emma D, which describes exactly what we will be looking for in those submissions. So if you can't make it to York, you can use their checklists to examine your own MS. (And I owe a huge debt to them both for these posts which mean I don't have to write one myself, since they've said it all, and said it so well.)

I'm hoping to live blog the weekend again, as I did last year, so watch this space.

I'll be arriving back in London late on Sunday evening and then, before you know it, I'll be dashing over to the Telegraph Hill Festival with the East Dulwich Writers' Group on Monday evening, where we'll be reading from our second anthology, Hoovering the Roof 2.

At least that one won't take me several hours to get to. Still, you can't have too many Festivals, eh? And the last gig was a knockout, as you can see from this photo.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

2011-03-20T22:05:00.000Z

Spring is definitely here, so I worked for 5 hours today on my allotment (aka Emma Darwin's garden). I spend most of my time glued to a laptop, either writing or editing, so it was good to get out into the fresh air and use my hands (and back, oh my aching back) to do something just as creative, but completely different.

Anyway, while I was digging, pruning and planting, my brain was still in authorial mode, creating an extended metaphor of gardening as writing. We often use the phrase, 'cutting out the dead wood', but it seems to me we can take the analogy a lot further than that.

Planning

As Spring approaches, gardeners think about the growing season ahead. We decide what we're going to plant, get the seeds in, perhaps research a bit about the best ways to produce healthy plants from those seeds.

Some authors do more planning in advance than others, but the minimum at this stage is to have an idea about the identity of the book you're going to write and start to think about your characters and the situations you're going to put them in. If there are areas you're not sure about, this is the point when you need to start thinking about where to go to fill in any gaps in your knowledge. It may be a matter of net surfing; perhaps there are non-fiction books you'll want to get hold of; or museums you need to visit; or people to speak to.

Planting the seeds

The gardener's seeds are the author's words. You need to choose the strongest, healthiest seeds and plant them in the most appropriate place. Different seeds/words have different attributes and where you put them is as important as how strong they are. Once you've decided on the best spot (sun or shade, soil type, drainage etc) some people might place them in neat, regimented rows; others might choose wavy lines or zigzags. Either way, you want them to be clear and easy to identify.

Weeding

Once the little darlings are beginning to sprout, you're going to need to be ruthless in dealing with those other darlings: weeds. This might be hard. Perhaps that weed is really pretty and you're reluctant to tear it up by the roots and bung it on the compost heap. But if it's taking the attention of the sun's rays and the soil's nutriments away from your plants, then it has to go. You could always pull it up and transplant it elsewhere if you can't bear to throw it away. You might even have a separate space for replanting those weeds you're really attached to. For a writer, this could mean creating a file for those superfluous scenes and threads that don't belong in your story.

Cutting out the dead wood

This is different from weeding. That dead wood had a function. It was once a living part of the bush or shrub. Without it, there would be no future growth. But its time has passed. It's tangled and unsightly. It distracts the eye from the beauty of the new shoots. At worst, it can strangle those fragile new buds and prevent them flourishing.

For a writer, this kind of redundant content consists of writing that you, as the author, needed in order to envisage the world you have created and the people within it so that you could convey them to your reader. But does the reader actually need it? If you've done your job well enough, they might well not. Maybe it's a chunk of back story or a character summary. Or a paragraph of telling that undermines suspense and interrupts the pace. Identifying this dead wood and being ruthless in cutting it out will make your story flow better. It had its function but now you need to prune it out.

Water liberally

In this analogy, the watering applies to the gardener, not the garden. Be good to yourself. Don't allow yourself to get dehydrated. Celebrate your successes and hard work by rewarding yourself with regular glugs of fresh water. Or gin.

Reap the harvest

Eating the fruits of your labours - there's no feeling like it. You grew that. You made it happen. It's the same for you when you finish your book. It's an amazing achievement and one which you should savour and feel proud of.

So there we go. Gardening as a literary endeavour. I've flogged the metaphor to death but it makes a change from my usual one of giving birth.

Here's hoping that some of the seeds we plant bear fruit and maybe even win prizes, whether they're for the largest marrow or the sweetest spinach.

Enjoy!

For your URGENT attention

2011-03-15T11:33:00.000Z

I'm waaaay behind. I should have posted days ago about the gig tonight at New Gallery, Peckham, where members of East Dulwich Writers' Group will be reading from Hoovering the Roof 2, our second anthology.

I was also too late to donate to this brilliant appeal from Keris Stainton. Bidding has already started. You can bid for all kinds of things: from a critique to signed copies of books. You can even bid to have a fictional character named after you. No one needs to be reminded of the horror that is continuing to unfold in Japan. Please support this appeal.

International Women's Day 2011

2011-03-09T00:21:00.000Z

Today (yesterday by the time this post is published) is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day - a chance to reflect on how far we've come in the last century ... and how far we still have to go.

Through a miracle of co-operation and co-ordination, in over 70 countries around the world, at over 400 events, women gathered today on bridges in support of women's rights. The organisers, Women for Women International, have stated their mission:

To change the world, one woman at a time.

The idea for Join Me on the Bridge came from the Country Directors of Women for Women's programmes in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo - two countries which have seen some of the most devastating impacts of war in recent years and where atrocities such as rape, torture and violence against women are commonplace. Women from both countries had decided to come together on a bridge which borders their countries, in the heart of the conflict; to stand up for peace and an end to violence against women. Their courage inspired women across the globe to emulate their example every International Women's Day, beginning last year.

I was at today's London event. We met at Borough market and I stood and watched as women of every age and culture gathered to make banners and mingle.

With Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger at the head of the march, we set off across the Millennium Bridge. At St Paul's the cloudless skies were studded with the hundreds of white balloons which we released. With songs, chants and good humour, we moved along Embankment in the Spring sunshine and then crossed back over the river to the South Bank to listen to empassioned speeches by women from as far away as Congo (the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman) and Afghanistan, as well as speakers from closer to home, among them Annie, Bianca, Cherie Lunghi and Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emmeline and granddaughter of Sylvia, and an ambassador for Care International. (See this article by Helen re today's event.)

I recorded our progress, step by step, on my Facebook wall. For me, it was like completing a new link in a chain that began half my lifetime ago. I was taken back several decades to marches that were in some ways similar, but the progress we have made was clear. Back then, the main criticism of the fledgling women's movement (criticism which I believe to be valid) was that it catered mainly for the needs of middle class white women in the developed world.

In 2011, that's categorically not the case. With the advent of global communications, the world has shrunk. No woman in the UK or US has an excuse not to know about the plight of women in other parts of the world; women who struggle simply to survive - because of their gender. The most uplifting aspect of today's event was the way it was enacted all over the world, with women (and their male supporters - another big difference from the early years) reaching out with a common purpose: for peace and equal rights for all women.

That shouldn't be too much to ask should it?

Sue G's excellent adventure

2011-03-01T12:10:00.001Z

Regular visitors here may remember my enthusiastic review of Sue Guiney's novel, A Clash of Innocents. (If you need to refresh your memory, the post, which includes an extract from the book, is here.)

The novel is set in a children's home in present day Cambodia. As soon as they begin turning the pages, readers will have no doubt that Sue knows whereof she speaks in her book. It's abundantly clear that she has met those children, seen those sights, heard those sounds, smelled those smells and tasted those tastes - and not as a tourist whipping in and out again, but as someone who has given of their time and energy to support these people in their struggle with their past history and their present poverty.

Many authors believe they should 'give back' in some way to those who inspire their writing. For some people, writing the book and conveying those lives to the rest of the world would be enough. But Sue is not some people. Sue is special.

Over the coming month, Sue will be embarking on a tour of SE Asia, visiting Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore. She will be giving talks, sharing her expertise and experience and yes, selling books. Lots of them hopefully. Will this make her rich? Unlikely, given that most of the income from sales will be going to the numerous charities she is involved with there.

The main event will be a week-long series of workshops with teenagers at the Siem Reap shelter, Anjali House, aimed at enabling these children to access their experiences and emotions through language and equipping them with the literacy skills that should hopefully help them to find work. She has roped in other authors (yes, of course I'm one of them. Need you ask?) to give feedback on the children's writing via a wiki forum. There are already 15 students involved in the programme. Sue says she hopes that this unique scheme will 'enhance their self-esteem and ability to move out of extreme poverty into productive adult lives'.

Photo credit: Anjali House

This is 'giving back' on a grand scale. Sue has arranged the whole tour herself - you can get an idea of the logistics involved in this post. And you can see a video of Sue explaining her motivation in her own words here.

She will keep us all updated on her progress. If I'm this excited, I can only imagine how Sue must be feeling as she embarks on this amazing journey. I send my love and deepest respect and look forward to following developments through cyberspace as she blogs her progress.

The Rule Haters

2011-02-25T11:01:00.001Z

Further to the last post about defining the so-called rules of creative writing and working out how to break them effectively, it seems that this question is on a lot of lips and fingertips at the moment.

I thought you might be interested in these recent posts.
Emma Darwin gives her take on tools for writers (stating categorically that they are not 'rules') here.
Claire King has a wonderful spoof post here ...
... which inspired this version from Vanessa Gebbie.

Within those posts and the comments on them, there are yet more versions of various authors' takes on the subject. When I pull all this together, it's going to be interesting to see to what extent there's a general consensus.

UPDATE: See here for Guardian article listing personal versions of the rules according to a very impressive list of sleb authors.

Mind you, the full article is so long it could take valuable time to wade through that would better be spent ... writing. Isn't that the first and only non-negotiable rule?

The Rule Breaker

2011-02-16T12:26:00.000Z

Many of you will know that one of the things I will be doing at the Festival of Writing in York (not far away now) is running a workshop on Breaking the Rules.

I chose this topic as I know how people can get hung up on them there pesky 'rules' of creative writing (though 'guidelines' might be a better word). It's easy to internalise them to the extent that they stifle any creative spark that's struggling to push its way out from your clogged-up brain. Just as it's about to emerge, blinking in the sunlight, it's clobbered by someone wielding a big stick and shouting, 'You can't do that!' And that has to be a Bad Thing to anyone who loves shaping words into stories and doing something different and fresh.

On the other hand, I've edited countless MSes that don't work because the POV switches round so much the reader gets dizzy, or where it's impossible to work out where you are in the timeline.

So what I want to do in the workshop is to define what those so-called rules are and why they matter; to demonstrate what the consequences are of breaking them and stress that an author neeeds a good reason to do it ... and then provide the tools that will enable people to go ahead and do just that.

As one of the lovely people on WordCloud has said, it's like teaching a child to cross the road safely. It's best to cross at the lights, but as you grow up, you realise you can step out elsewhere, as long as you know what you're doing and do so with care.

So far, I've come up with POV switches, sticking to a linear chronological structure, not switching tenses or between first and third person, prologues and a few others.

What's on your list? Anything I'm missing?

So good I had to share ...

2011-02-11T13:19:00.000Z

This post may well throw you into a pit of despair - but it will make you laugh while you tumble down.

Horses for Courses

2011-02-10T00:14:00.000Z

If you're seeking help with your writing, there are a number of options. You might think about joining a writers' group - either in real life or online. If you're looking for a local group, this is a good place to start.

Perhaps you'd prefer the sort of detailed feedback you can only get from having your book professionally critiqued. According to this article more and more publishers are insisting that authors submit MSes that have already been through a thorough editing process. One publisher is quoted as saying,
“I cannot purchase a book I need to spend 40 hours editing.”
(That article was written in Canada, but the same could equally apply elsewhere.)

Or maybe you'd prefer to hone your skills in a creative writing course or in a workshop.

If that's your choice and you're not looking for something as heavy-duty as a degree course, there are enough options out there to suit everyone. These are just a few coming up shortly and, before anyone checks to see whether there's a degree of self interest here, I freely admit that these are ones I'm involved with.

Fancy an intensive one day workshop in London or Oxford for £99 including lunch and refreshments? The Writers' Workshop run a range of workshops for people who are just getting started and others for people who are looking for the skills to self-edit their novels. Then there is the one for screen writers, the one for ...

Oh dammit. Do I have to do everything around here? *grumble mutter grump* Why not just go here and see for yourself.

If you're looking for something a bit more hard core, howzabout the mini courses and workshops available at the Festival of Writing in York, 25-27 March? You can book for one day only or for the full weekend. Included in the price is the opportunity to pitch your book directly to agents and publishers or to have your writing assessed by a professional Book Doctor. To see what some of last year's participants feel about the experience, check out this blog post and the comments. One of the commenters describe the Festival as 'like speed dating with a politburo of writing experts'.

Or maybe you're prefer something you can fit in more easily with your own life. In that case, you might consider an online course, like the 6 week self editing course I'm running together with Emma Darwin, beginning in April.

If all this costs more than you can afford and you can't find a local writers' group that fulfills your needs, there are places online where you can talk about all aspects of writing, as well as getting feedback on your own work. It will come as no surprise that I personally recommend WordCloud as the best online community. And it's free to join.

Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but you are not alone unless you choose to be so.

An Open Letter to My Youngest Son

2011-01-24T17:06:00.000Z

Dear Youngest Son,

It's hard to believe that two weeks have passed since your barmitzvah. The buildup is so huge and so extended .. and then suddenly it's over. What will never come to an end, however, is the pride we took in the way you rose to the occasion. You didn't stop at the usual maftir and haftorah, but carried on to conduct most of the rest of the service too. I know I'm biased, but I'm not the only person to say you were both word and note perfect. In fact you were awesome, utterly awesome.

Of course you didn't have to contend with sickness, like your big brother had to when it came to his barmitzvah. As he said in his speech, he gave you an i-pod - you gave him measles. But in spite of that, I know he was also bursting with pride at your achievements.

The party at your school went really well too, once again thanks to those wonderful friends who worked flat out with us to set up the atrium and put the finishing touches to the food in between the synagogue service and the evening. The temperature was Arctic, but the warmth emanating from the love around us was positively tropical. And once we started dancing, things certainly heated up.

Above all, it was a child-centred party, and that's just as it should be.

But how amazing that your grandpa was there, eh? He was 80 when your brother was born and 82 when you came along. I remember once, when you were toddlers, I saw him looking at you both with a wistful expression.

'Shame I won't get to see how these two turn out,' he said.

But there he was, aged 96 and still the baby in his family, as he has an older brother still toddling on. And as I said at the time, I reckon you've both turned out pretty well and I know my dad wholeheartedly agrees with me on that score.

We have so much to be grateful for and you and your brother are without doubt the greatest of our blessings. I'm sorry we have so few photos of the party due to our camera choosing that moment to give up the ghost. Luckily, the divine Ms Lemon took a few pix that we can share with others to give a small flavour of the event.

And that's it. We've used up the leftovers. (My mum always said that if everything went, you hadn't made enough.) I can put the files away, mothball the documents and spreadsheets and move onto being the mother of two adults (in Jewish terms only - don't go getting any ideas). It's possible I may never again have to cater a party for 180 people 'all by my very own self', as you used to say.

Except we now have to work through a vast 'thankyou' list ... But we certainly can't complain about that and I know how grateful you are to everyone.

It ain't over until the fat lady sings.

Countdown to York Festival of Writing

2011-01-18T10:20:00.000Z

Only a couple of months to go to the next Festival of Writing in York and things are hotting up. Some of the biggest names in the business will be there: authors, agents and publishers. I can't wait to meet people like Nicola Morgan, whom I know online but have yet to meet in Real Life.

Click here to see the full programme.
Details of the Friday mini-courses are here. (I'm running one with Emma Darwin on Finding Your Voice.)
The workshop schedule is here. (I have a slot on Saturday on Breaking the 'Rules'.)
Included in the fee is the opportunity to pitch your book directly to agents or have it diagnosed and treated in one-to-one Book Doctor sessions. See here. (I have 2 sessions on the Saturday (though one is now fully booked) and 3 on Sunday.)

On the Saturday evening there will be a gala dinner and another Authonomy Live event. Remember last year when Shelley Harris won? You can see Shelley's own account of how the Festival changed her life here.

The last Festival was so amazing, I thought it would be tough to come up with another winner, but this one is shaping up to be even better. I'm looking forward to renewing connections with people that I suspect are going to become regular attendees, as well as making new ones, all in the fabulous setting of York University.

Tickets are going fast but there are still some spaces left. I know it's a lot of money for many people but I can promise it will be worthwhile. You'll have a wonderful time, meet some inspiring people, get some incredibly useful personal feedback, learn new skills ... and ...

Who knows? You could be this year's Shelley.

Raid the piggy bank; beg, steal or borrow; do whatever it takes but, if you possibly can, get yourself along here and start the booking process.

Look forward to seeing you!

The Thickest Skin?

2011-01-05T23:34:00.000Z

There are two things that are essential to achieve success as an author:

1) write a stonking good book
2) submit, submit and submit again. And again if necessary. And ...

The thing is, if number 1 is in place, you owe it to yourself not to give up too easily if the rejection letters flood in, no matter how much it hurts each time one thuds onto your doormat. You have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and pitch to the next person on your list. (After maybe eating several bars of chocolate and/or punching a pillow and/or downing a few gins.)

But how many rejections would it take before you gave up on a particular book?
10? 20? 50?

Until recently, I was telling authors whose books I was convinced were publishable not to give up until they had received 60 rejections.

But have you heard about Jason Wallace? He has just been named the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award for his book set in Zimbabwe, Out of Shadows.

The judges said:

'For us, this extraordinary debut novel was a unanimous winner. This compelling portrayal of a nation in crisis gripped us from start to finish and has stayed with us since ... A stunning debut novel without a false note. Accomplished and powerful, it changes the way you think.
But - and here's the rub -

- Jason was turned down by 100 (yes, you read that right, one zero zero) agents and publishers before being picked up by Andersen Press.

He is quoted in today's Independent as saying,

'I think I may have had a few low points when trying to get the book noticed, but in truth I don't think I would ever have given in.'

A few low points? A few low points??? How many people would hang on for that long, keeping the faith, rejection after rejection? Well, Jason did and just look at what happened to him ...

So what are you waiting for? Armour plate your heart and get that MS out there.

(NB: If the rejection slips do begin to pile up, you will probably need an objective assessment before you can be completely certain that the 'stonking' aspect is fully in place.)

Dear ... me ...

2011-01-02T15:26:00.000Z

So you've written a novel. You're convinced it's a masterpiece; quite possibly the best thing ever written. And who knows? You could be right ...

You're not worried about your covering letter, or the presentation of your manuscript. After all, the sheer brilliance of your prose and stunning nature of your story will surely shine through. I mean, you know enough not to have submitted the MS hand-written on the inside of a cereal packet, so what more do they want?

Well, stop right there. If you haven't bothered to do your research as well as proof read your covering letter, why should an agent bother to give you their full attention? On the assumption that the book itself is going to be polished and professional? The letter is the first thing they see and first impressions count, right?

Y'see, you not only have to give an agent compelling reasons to take you on, you also need to make sure you haven't given them any reasons not to ... like being sloppy with your pitch, for example.

Literary agent, Andrew Lownie, has posted a selection of opening lines in letters he has received over the last few months on his website. Thing is, the authors may well be the next (insert name of your favourite author) but we'll probably never know, simply because no agent took them seriously enough to find out. (My personal fave is, 'Bear Andrew'.)

There's no point in coming over all sullen and saying this is petty stuff and your naked talent should be enough to guarantee succeess... and if it doesn't it's cos there's something wrong with the industry ... damn philistines and bean counters ... yada yada yada ...

Look, it's just common sense.

Say you're going on a hot date. You're convinced your sparkling wit and humour cannot fail to bowl over the soon-to-be significant other. You're a fantastic catch, of course you are. Except if you don't bother to blow your nose and make sure your clothes are clean and your breath doesn't stink like mouldy kippers, is it likely they will stick around to find out if the other stuff is in place?

Anyway, I'll leave you with that thought. Less than a week to go to Youngest Son's bar mitzvah and it's all systems go. See you on the other side.

This year, I have mostly been ...

2010-12-22T12:35:00.000Z

Hard to believe how fast this year has sped past.

During 2010, I ...

edited approx 2 full length manuscripts each month, several of them 2nd reads
continued to act as mentor to a couple of special writers
attended the Festival of Writing in York
attended the Getting Published event in London
acted as a face-to-face Book Doctor to 30 unpublished authors
wrote short reports on extracts for another 10 authors
ran 6 full day workshops and one mini-course for Writers' Workshop
was a judge for the Brit Writers' Awards and attended the gala event
had a short story published in 33, the anthology with a story set in each of London's boroughs published by Glasshouse Books
contributed to Hoovering the Roof 2, the 2nd anthology from the East Dulwich Writers' Group, and assisted with the publication
attended loads of launches and lit related events
still has a WIP that's very much IP

So, for 2011, I'm looking forward to:

the next Festival of Writing on 25th-27th March - book here
more one day courses - see here
a new 6 week online course I will be running together with Emma Darwin
removing the IP from the WIP

But first of all, I'm in full on bar mitzvah mode. Just over 2 weeks to go to organise and cater the party for 180 guests for Youngest Son's Big Day. And I'm doing it all from our tiny kitchen. Mad? Indubitably ...

Stay safe and warm over the holidays. And keep writing. And reading.

Writing: a dangerous addiction?

2010-12-07T14:47:00.002Z

Dictionary definition of addiction: the condition of being abnormally dependent on some habit, esp compulsive dependency on narcotic drugs.

Right. So let's look at the compulsion some of us have to write and see whether that qualifies us as word junkies.

Stratospheric highs followed by crushing lows? Yep.
Feel like you're only truly alive when you're doing it? 'fraid so.
Feeling bereft when you're not doing it? Uh huh.
Oblivious to the outside world when you're on a high? True.
Impact on members of your family, who are driven crazy by your glazed eyes and distracted air? Can't deny it.

So what kind of person is susceptible to this condition?

I always thought it safe to assume that those most vulnerable are those who have always loved books and reading since early childhood. They know how it feels to enter a different world, to explore new places and meet new people, to hear a story being told - all inside their own head without ever leaving the comfort of their armchair.

It's not such a huge leap to progress from this passive form of being a book junkie, to one who feels irresistably drawn to take the next step: to create worlds of their own and people them with casts drawn from their imagination.

So when I received an MS for editing back in May 2008 and read the covering letter, you can understand why my heart sank - and why, in spite of the dozens of MSes I've edited since, I remember this particular one so well.

'I don't read books,' the author said. 'But my wife does. And she thinks it's good.'

Eh? Run that by me again? That statement begs so many questions, I hardly know where to start. The author was obviously well-educated and highly intelligent.

Did he truly believe that feedback from his own wife (whose only apparent qualification was that she reads books) was sufficient justification for him to have given up his job in order to write? (Yes, you did read that right.)

And why on earth would he choose to write if he never read? Most of us write the kinds of books we would like to read. How could he make that decision? And how could he know what works and what doesn't? What readers want and expect? What the rules are for different genres? As I later said in my report, it's the equivalent of someone who's never swam more than a length of the bath attempting to swim the Channel.

Anyway, I had a job to do. As soon as I began reading it came as no surprise that an enormous amount of work needed to be done in almost every area in order to raise the standard of the MS. In that respect, the author was far from unique. I have edited worse MSes whose authors didn't have the added disadvantage of not being avid readers.

As I continued reading, the reason this author had for writing his book became more clear. He was working through, in a fictional setting, some very personal and painful experiences.

Good on him! It was a testament to his determination to transcend those experiences and turn them into something constructive and meaningful. And blimey, he had written a whole book and that's an achievement in anyone's ... book.

I gave him the usual lecture about managing expectations and the financial realities faced by writers - even those authors considered 'successful'. I pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of his book. I didn't hold back on how much work he needed to do on it.

To be honest, I was pretty convinced he'd written the book he needed to write; the process had been cathartic and healing, but that would be the end of his writing career.

After I sent him the report, he replied to say my comments were spot on, in all but one regard. He was determined to carry on writing. He told me he 'thoroughly loved it' and had already embarked on his next book, although he knew it would most likely be a 'fruitless exercise'.

Sure enough, I received the draft of his second book in December 2009. I can't tell you how delighted I was to have been proved wrong. The author assured me he was reading fiction now. This new MS was a very different book and the progress he had made in every aspect of creative writing was impressive.

We continued to exchange emails. I was reassured that he was realistic. He just wanted to hone his craft and continue to work on this book. He told me he was surprised to find out how much he was loving the writing process.

Yes, that's right. He was hooked. There was to be no going back.

DW and I met in Real Life when he attended a Writers' Workshop course that I ran in September. I could see how much he wanted to stick his tongue out at me and say, 'Told you so.' I honestly wouldn't have minded. There's a fellowship among addicts. He was a welcome addition to the colony.

In November, having polished according to his original report and using the new skills he'd picked up at the workshop, he submitted the redraft. More mega improvements. But that meant he'd now moved onto another level. To his disappointment, this report was the longest I'd done for him yet. It's ironic - the better the quality and overall standard, the more there is to say about it. (It doesn't take many words to point out a problem that recurs throughout an MS.)

'That's it,' he said when he received the report. 'I've had enough.'

He hadn't though, of course. As soon as he spotted the validity of the feedback, he could see how it made sense. It didn't make him throw away the crack pipe. Instead it made him excited all over again as he saw how he could make his creation better still.

I know he loves me and hates me in equal measure. I am his dealer, after all. But the addiction is all his. Just to make it clear what to expect now that he's confessed to his compulsion, I can do no better that to quote The Eagles.

'This could be heaven and this could be hell ...'

The Commitments

2010-11-09T23:51:00.001Z

Less of a post and more of an excuse, I'm afraid.

Too busy to blog? How can this be...?

In the tradition of 'show, don't tell' beloved injunction by creative writing teachers everywhere, here are a few of the things coming up soon.

25th November - Glasshouse Books gig at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace. Emma Darwin and some woman called Debi Alper will be reading from 33, the anthology with a story set in each of London's boroughs. Karen McLeod and Paul Burston will be reading from Boys and Girls.

26th November - members of the East Dulwich Writers' Group will be appearing as part of the Peckham Literary Festival at Review Bookshop in Bellenden Road.

9th December - the writers' group will be launching Hoovering the Roof 2, their second anthology of short stories, poems and novel extracts by writers both published and yet-to-be and a couple of winners of some very prestigious competitions. Initial launch event at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace.Other events to be arranged.

Various dates - running workshops and (new for 2011) online courses for Writers' Workshop.

25-27 March - the 2nd Festival of Writing in York. I'm down to run a mini course on Developing Your Voice with Emma Darwin, a workshop on Breaking the Rules and 5 Book Doctor sessions. Can it possibly be as good as last year? All the signs are that it will be even better.

All the time - critiquing, mentoring, school stuff, parenting, daughtering (?), arranging Little Guy's bar mitzvah in January ...

Oh, yes. We're here again.
And once again, there are 200+ people on the invitation list.
And once again, I'm going to be doing all the catering myself.
When it was First Born's turn in 2008, regular readers here may remember the high drama when FB went down with measles the week before.
Dare I hope this one will be less traumatic? Please?

Oh - and meanwhile my own poor WIP lies abandoned and whimpering in the corner, pleading for attention.
Hang on in there, baby. I'll be back soon as ...

So Sue Me ...

2010-10-28T10:19:00.001Z

The only possible good way to be sued is to invite a Sue to your blog, so that's what I've done.

Today, I'm delighted to welcome Sue Guiney here as part of her virtual tour to promote her latest novel, A Clash of Innocents.

There are three good reasons to read this book:

1) It's a wonderful book and you'll know there are delights in store as soon as you look at the sumptuous cover and turn to the first page.

2) It's the first novel from new kids on the block, Ward Wood Publishing, and anyone brave enough to launch a company in today's climate deserves respect and support.

3) It's a wonderful book - and you can't say that too often.

Set in present day Cambodia, Sue conveys with remarkable compassion and empathy the pain of a country struggling to come to terms with a bitter past and the damage wrought on its youngest citizens, as well as the inner landscape of those who care for them. For ten years, Deborah, an overweight 60 year old American, self-confessed earth mother, has run the Khmer Home for Blessed Children, where she is the much-loved only parent to forty children, from toddlers to teens. But Deborah is carrying her own damage too. She's managed to cope with it pretty well until the arrival of a new volunteer, a young American woman called Amanda, who is clearly hiding some terrible secret from her own past.

With rich and luscious prose, Sue evokes the sights, sounds and smells of a country that will be unfamiliar to most readers and is virtually unexplored in contemporary English fiction. Her characters reach out from the page and into your heart, their narratives mirroring that of the country in which they play out their lives.

I'm always telling writers they need to show, not tell, so in the spirit of that authorial tradition I've asked Sue to do a virtual reading here, so you can see for yourself the wit, warmth and wisdom she brings to the written word.
**********************************************************************************

May

It didn’t really take ten hours to get to Kep. Now that we were nearly two-thirds of the way through this first decade of a new century, a road had been created to parallel the Mekong and connect the capital with the southernmost portion of the country. Notice I said ‘created’ and not ‘paved.’ Although tarmac was occasionally in evidence, just enough to make us feel as if the land beneath our borrowed wheels was under our control, more often than not the road turned again to dirt, slowing our progress as if to remind us that this was, indeed, Cambodia we were crossing and nowhere else on earth. But given that it was May and the entire country was aching for rain, all that dirt had turned to dust. We kept the car windows closed for as long as we could, but eventually we had to open them. There is only so much that the air conditioner in a twelve year-old Toyota can do. We hardly cared, though. Sam and I were happy to inch along, in and out of tiny nameless village after tiny nameless village, smelling the sweet scent of ripe mangoes and bananas baking in the afternoon sun.

It had been a while since we had ventured into this part of the country. Whenever we were able to get away I tried to take us somewhere new. For all its faults, I do love Cambodia and I want my kids to love it, too, but not for its new luxury hotels and gilded palaces; not for its sharp-eyed entrepreneurs and go-getting hustlers; not even for the tradition of its monks or the beauty of its art. I want them to love their country as it is in its heart, where the need to recreate life with each new season is accepted and respected, where generations hold each other’s hands and turn towards tomorrow, where hope refuses to die and laughter is used like fertilizer to keep their spirits growing. Some years we ventured north towards Siem Reap and the ancient temples of Angkor. Two years ago I took a group of boys to Tonle Sap Lake where pigs live in water and alligators are raised like sheep. But Dr Reith had said to head for ‘the coolness of the sea’, so we headed towards Kep and the Gulf of Thailand. Sam hadn’t been there since she was little and her excitement was growing with each kilometer. How much had changed, I wondered?

Not much. One benefit of going slowly is that you can take your time to see what is outside your window and beyond the dust clouds. The countryside is so harsh and so beautiful. Fields of rice paddies stretch for miles studded with the bony frames of oxen, white against dirt brown. Distant hills are clouded with haze like oases, mirages in a sun-parched expanse. Your eyes water as you stare and you can almost remember that in just one month or two all of this will be flooded by the rising waters of the monsoon season. Trees will then look like bushes; those distant mountains like outcrops. This scenery has lasted forever, will last forever, ebbing and flowing with time and the seasons, green turning to brown and back to green again, earth becoming water becoming earth, reminding us that of all the constants in this world, the most reliable constant is change.

The roads are never empty. Far from it. Roads here are not just ways of getting from one place to another. They are places in themselves. People live beside them. Animals walk in them. On their edges makeshift shops sell everything from lotus flowers to transmission fluid. There are no curbs, no sharp delineations between spaces to move and spaces to stop. Everything is everywhere. Motos pull up beside oxcarts beside bicycles-built-for-five beside open-backed trucks carrying thirty workers to the fields beside air-conditioned buses filled with American tourists beside Mercedes with government license plates and rolledup windows beside horses pulling trailers full of construction equipment beside barefoot children walking walking walking. Like the earth that transforms to water, here the past merges with the future leaving you with nothing else to do but work if you can in the mornings, rest as you must in the hottest part of the afternoon, and sleep as best you are able at night.

Dear Mr Marr ...

2010-10-16T15:35:00.000Z

Sigh ... there's nothing new about blog bashing. (See here for a post on this blog from 2006 on the subject.)
Andrew Marr is the latest to voice his negative thoughts on bloggers recently at Cheltenham Literary Festival, provoking the inevitable cyber backlash.

It's all too, too tedious, darling, so I'm not going to bother to enter the fray as such. I just thought I'd deconstruct his comment and see if it applies to me.

socially inadequate, (quite possibly)
pimpled, (thankfully not)
single, (nope)
slightly seedy, (no again - I'm very seedy, as anyone who knows me in Real Life can attest)
bald, (nope)
cauliflower-nosed (yuck, no. My nose is definitely a potato)
young (Yes! Yes! Oh, all right then, no)
men (nope)
sitting (yep - definitely guilty on this one)
in their (and this)
mother's (but not this)
basements (or this)

So that leaves me with sitting and in their as the only parts of his comment that apply to this particular blogger.

See here for some of the other bloggers who break Marr's mould.
Or just take a stroll through my blogroll.

Blog Action Day - water

2010-10-15T11:41:00.001Z

The topic for this year's Blog Action Day is 'water'. You can find links to support the figures below at the link here.

So here it is: water by numbers.

Nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean water.

40 Billion Hours: African women walk over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 18 kilograms to gather water, which is usually still not safe to drink.
38,000 Children a Week: every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions.
Wars Over Water: many scholars attribute the conflict in Darfur at least in part to lack of access to water. A report commissioned by the UN found that in the 21st century, water scarcity will become one of the leading causes of conflict in Africa.
A Human Right: in July, to address the water crisis, the United Nations declared access to clean water and sanitation a human right over. But we are far from implementing solutions to secure basic access to safe drinking water.

Water over-consumption in industrialized countries:

While the developing world faces a water crisis, those in industrialized countries consume far more than their fair share.

Food Footprint: it takes 24 litres of water to produce one hamburger. That means it would take over 19.9 billion litres of water to make just one hamburger for every person in Europe.
Technology Footprint: the shiny new iPhone in your pocket requires half a liter of water to charge. That may not seem like much, but with over 80 million active iPhones in the world, that's 40 million liters to charge those alone.
Fashion Footprint: that cotton t-shirt you're wearing right now took 1,514 litres of water to produce, and your jeans required an extra 6,813 litres.
Bottled Water Footprint: the US, Mexico and China lead the world in bottled water consumption, with people in the US drinking an average of 200 bottles of water per person each year. Over 17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 percent of which will never be recycled.

Water and the environment:

The disregard for water resources in industrialized countries impacts more than humans – it causes environmental devastation.

Waste Overflow: Every day, 2 million tons of human waste are disposed of in water sources. This not only negatively impacts the environment but also harms the health of surrounding communities.
Polluted Oceans: Death and disease caused by polluted coastal waters costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year.
Uninhabitable Rivers: Today, 40% of America's rivers and 46% of America's lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.

Water solutions:

The good news is that there are great organizations working on solutions and new tools that empower people to do their part to address the water crisis.

Building Wells: Organizations like Water.org and charity: water are leading the charge in bringing fresh water to communities in the developing world.
Conservation Starts at Home: The average person uses 465 litres of water per day. Find out how much you use here.
Keeping Rivers Clean: We can all take small steps to help keep pollution out of our rivers and streams, like correctly disposing of household wastes.
Drop the Bottle: Communities around the world are taking steps to reduce water bottle waste by eliminating bottled water.

Change.org|Start Petition

Weaving Words with Rosy

2010-10-14T09:59:00.001Z

I'm delighted to welcome Rosy Thornton here today to celebrate the launch of her 4th novel, The Tapestry of Love.

Catherine Parkstone, a divorcee with grown up children, decides to make a new start. She moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cevennes mountains to begin working as a seamstress. Living in isolation and dealing with kind-hearted but reserved neighbours, French bureaucracy and extreme weather, Catherine may have internet access but the themes in the book are timeless and universal.

This is a gentle novel, packed with rich sensory detail and a beautiful sense of place.

So back to this blog tour. Rosy has come up with a novel idea. (See what I did there?)

The backdrop to the story includes the mountain landscape, Catherine's tapestries and the local cuisine. Cevenole recipes use local produce in the peasant tradition but can be easily reproduced anywhere else in the world.

Rosy has sent me some of these mouth-watering recipes. If you would like to receive a copy, leave your email address in the comments box and I'll send them out to you.

Enjoy!

PS: DON'T FORGET TO DISGUISE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BY USING 'AT' RATHER THAN '@' ETC TO FOOL THOSE CUNNING SPAMBOTS

Breaking (and entering) news ...

2010-10-04T11:14:00.001Z

I would love to write a full post about the amazing Getting Published event on Saturday.
I'd like to give you details on how doing 19 back-to-back Book Doctor sessions was intense but very rewarding.
I wish I had the time and space to tell you what an indispensable tool this book by Harry Bingham is - the writer's bible without doubt.
I would include links to Twitter, to Writers' Workshop, to Wordcloud ...

Then I'd say that I hope to see you tonight at the Story of London event at Victoria Library where I'm reading from my short story in 33.

Sadly, I can do none of the above. On Thurs evening we came home to find our home being burgled by 5 guys.
It could have been much worse. Most of the stuff was piled up and ready to go. If we'd been a few mins later ...
And, most importantly, even though they utterly trashed our home, no one was physically hurt.

The point I'm getting to here is that my biggest panic was that my laptop was missing. It's ancient and the letters have rubbed off the keys, but it's worth more to me personally than all the other stuff put together.

I found it on the balcony the following morning. The hard drive was lying separately and the cable and charger were gone. I'm trying to sort all this out, while still needing to carry on with my usual essential workload. Meanwhile, I can't get an internet connection on it, so can't get into Outlook to access my emails.

If you need to contact me electronically, you will have to do it via comments here or via Facebook for the ttime being.

Normal service will be ... etc ... etc

With friends like these ...

2010-09-30T12:17:00.000Z

It's 9 months since I finally gave in and joined Facebook. Time for an assessment.

Apart from the occasional confusion between FB (First Born) and FB (Facebook), I have to confess I'm really enjoying it. I love the immediacy. A blog post can take hours to compose, especially if it includes links, photos etc. In contrast, I can type up a wall post in seconds. As a way of letting people know what's happening day by day (and sometimes minute by minute) there's no comparison. OTOH, posts are often shallow - do I really need to tell the world that I've just dropped a tub of marge?

As I work from home, I think of these as the kinds of quickie conversations I'd have round the kettle or water cooler or on fag breaks if I worked in an office. I can pop into my home page and see an instant snapshot of other people's recent posts. They make me feel connected to the world Out There and make me smile - or commiserate - or fume. Whatever the reaction, they're contact with other human beings and that can't be a bad thing, no?

Blogging has suffered in terms of quantity. Having FB as the place for daily updates means I inevitably publish fewer posts here. But that's good because it is actually less of a distraction from my own writing as I don't have to devote the hours and effort it takes to compose frequent blog posts. Page views haven't suffered as much as I anticipated when I realised I was posting less. In fact, as I usually link to posts on my FB wall, if anything I have more readers on the day a post is published.

I now have over 2000 friends. There's a large number of people who are family and Real Life friends. There's another swathe consisting of people I have never met in RL but consider them as genuine virtual friends, whom I've 'met' through blogging or forums. That still leaves an awful lot of people I have only the flimsiest of connections with. The vast majority have come to me as requests via mutual links. I check them briefly and if they have a lit connection or look like the kinds of people who would like my books, I add them.

So 9 months after I came on board as a blushing virgin, it's time for an audit. FB etiquette is very different, but I have my own take on it now which I feel comfortable with. I've started to delete people who I don't know but who use my wall to post their own poems or links to videos etc. Because they're on my wall, they appear personal, but they're not of course. They've sent the same thing to hundreds and maybe even thousands of others, and by so doing they shunt my own posts down the page.

Just because we may not know each other in Real Life, we have to remember that an FB contact is a human being, not a virtual creation or roving bot. The same rules of mutual respect apply in both worlds IMO. If you came round to my home, I would invite you in. We'd chat. I'd put the kettle on and rifle through the cupboards in search of biscuits.

But while I'm in the kitchen, I don't expect you to push all the pictures on my living room wall out of the way behind the settee and replace them with your own pictures. That's just rude. So anyone who does that, or the FB equivalent, can expect to be dropped from my friend's list. Fair enough?

Right, I'm off ... to link to this post on FB of course. If you're not there already, I'm here. Wanna be my friend?

Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner ...

2010-09-24T14:24:00.000Z

... that I can't help being excited by appearing in the Story of London Festival, reading from 33, the anthology from Glasshouse Books. See here for a blog post by Bobby Nayyar.

I'll be at Victoria Library from 6.30 pm Monday 4th October.

For further info re this event and others in the Festival, you'll need to check the links.

I'm currently snowed under with work that needs to be done prior to the Getting Published event on 2nd October, so please forgive the brevity of this post.

It's all good, though I do wonder when (or if) I'll ever get a chance to wash my hair ... I'll be the one wearing a hat. Or a wig. Or possibly a paper bag ...

Oh, and I regret to inform you that Jimi Hendrix sadly won't be able to make it. Apart from that, I feel great.

In an English urban garden ...

2010-09-21T14:26:00.000Z

It's almost a year since Emma Darwin transformed my life by offering to allow me to use her garden as an allotment. I thought I'd share the highs and lows of a very productive and satisfying few months.

Successes

Broad beans were the first to appear and I was so excited that I forgot they were broad beans and picked the whole pods and steamed them. They were delicious, but the real things, once I'd allowed them to mature, were better still.

Spinach. This has gone on and on for months. I pick it as I need it; sweet young leaves for using raw in salads and iron-rich mature leaves for mixing into risotto, curry or just as a steamed vegetable.

Onions. Very satisfying to watch them grow. Even more satisfying to eat them. I'm planning on planting lots more this time.

Garlic. As above re onions.

Tomatoes. A veritable forest! Sweet and juicy - essence of tomato-ness.

Potatoes. Harvested some and I'm leaving the rest in the ground until needed.

Rocket. Peppery gorgeousness - and self-seeding too. Can't ask for more than that.

Butternut squash. Not ripe yet but I've got my eye on them. Love the way they take over such a vast space - like benevolent squatters.

Apples. I can't lay claim to anything other than collecting them and distributing them far and wide. There are still several carrier bags filled with them sitting in my kitchen. Apple pie, anyone? Crumble? Cake? Juice?

Partial successes

Lettuce. I had one fab crop but word must have gone out to the South London slug and snail community. They nabbed the next plantings as soon as they raised their delicate little green heads.

Purple sprouting broccoli. Only three seedlings survived the invasion of the slimy ones. I've sprayed them with an eco confection and hope they make it to maturity.

Compost. The bin is full and not a particularly pleasant sight (or smell TBH) but it will be worthwhile if it produces enough compost for all the plots.

Failures

Subsequent lettuce and other salad crops (see above).

Having, with great pride and excitement, constructed a fabulous set of interlinked bamboo canes to support the 50+ runner bean seeds I planted, you can imagine my disappointment when the slimies ate the whole lot.

They also scoffed all the pak choi.

Spending time in the garden, sun on my back, pottering, pulling up weeds and tying up tomatoes, has given me enormous amounts of pleasure. It's enabled me to get away from the computer, chill out and get some good honest dirt under my nails.

Emma - you've made a nought-but-a-balcony woman very happy indeed. Thank you!

Little bitty lit bits

2010-09-15T10:36:00.001Z

And the winner is ...
In the last post, I invited people to vote in a poll to choose a title for the next East Dulwich Writers' Group anthology. It's strange that the group finds editing relatively simple, but when it comes to something as simple as the back cover blurb, intro or title, the discussions can generate endless debates and some very strong feelings.

That's why the public poll has been so helpful. It came as a surprise to some that the overwhelming reaction was that we should stick with the title of the previous anthology, Hoovering the Roof.

The public has spoken. We have listened. We're now working to a tight deadline in order to publish Hoovering the Roof, The Second in late November.

Novel Spaces
My guest post on Novel Spaces is up today. Click this link if you'd like to see my version of the tools essential for writing.

The Story of London
As part of The Story of London Festival, I will be appearing at an event in Victoria Library in Buckingham Palace Road (hey! I'm at the palace - nearly) with Jemma Wayne and Tom Bromley. We'll all be reading from 33, the anthology published by Glasshouse Books. (I wrote the story set in Croydon.)

Click here to see more Glasshouse events. To celebrate Glasshouse's inclusion in the Festival, they are making a special offer: if you order either 33 East or West before 8th Oct, you will get the accompanying volume free. Simply put the code: Story of London in the special instructions, when purchasing through PayPal. If you'd rather not use PayPal, then please email sales@glasshousebooks.co.uk.

Getting Published
Apparently (and somewhat surprisingly - it looks like a very useful day indeed) there are still a few places available for the Getting Published event on 2nd October at the Royal Overseas League. (Yet another vaguely royal connection? Where's my damn tiara?)

If you've completed a novel or non-fiction MS and want to know how to go about the next steps, this is the event for you. There's a packed and very entertaining programme (including a party afterwards - yay!) and you'll meet publishers and agents as well as getting direct feedback on your opening chapter, synopsis and covering letter from one of the Book Doctors. Click here to see the full programme.

PS: JUST SPOTTED THIS VERY POSITIVE REVIEW OF 33 ON AMAZON.
For short story fans, the final one "How Lucky You Are" by Debi Alper packs a punch making you glad you purchased these books.

A literary smorgasbord

2010-08-29T11:41:00.000Z

I'm dusting the cobwebs off the blog and, as so often happens these days, I've accumulated a huge amount of literary 'stuff' to share which I will assemble into a single post.

Hoovering the anthology
You may remember that the East Dulwich Writers' Group published our first anthology, Hoovering the Roof, last year.

I'm delighted to announce that the book has been shortlisted for the National Association of Writers' Groups awards. Result to be announced at a ceremony on 4th Sept.

Meanwhile, we're editing the content for the 2nd anthology, to be published in Nov. And this is where you come in. We need your help (again) to choose a title. Please go here to vote in our public poll.

Blushing for 33
There are several events coming up to publicise 33, the anthology of short stories with one set in each of London's boroughs.

You can find details on Glasshouse Book's Facebook page and the books (spilt into 2 volumes) are available to buy on their website.

Meanwhile, there's a very nice review here that had me dancing (and snivelling).

Blogging for the Spaces
I have been invited by the lovely Liane Spicer to write a guest post for Novel Spaces. My post will be appearing there on 15th September.

Getting Published
The winning team who organised the fabulous Festival of Writing in York earlier this year have turned their awesome talents to a Getting Published Event on 2nd October in London. It promises to be a very productive and useful day. In case you're wondering, I'm one of the Book Doctors.

Dance Your Way to Psychic Sex
This book by Alice Turing is magic. Yes, you read that right - it's not just about magic ... Even the way it has been produced has an undeniable whiff of the supernatural about it.

For a read unlike anything you will have come across before, order your limited edition copy here. You can read reviews (including one by yours truly) here.

Clashing Innocents
While I'm sharing news of recently or about-to-be published books, I'm betting you will find Sue Guiney's latest novel impossible to resist. I can't wait to receive my copy and I'm excited that this blog will be a stopping post on Sue's virtual tour. Watch this space ...

Protecting PLR
This is really important, people. The info below is pasted from the petition which I hope you will sign in order to protect this vital resource.

The Public Lending Right scheme, under which authors receive 6p when a book is borrowed from a public library, is funded by the Department for Culture Media and Sport. Over the last three years, while public spending has been buoyant, PLR’s allocation has fallen by 3%: over 10% in real terms.

While accepting that DCMS has been instructed to reduce its budget, we ask the Secretary of State, Jeremy Hunt, to recognise that the £7.5m spent on PLR gives effect to a legal right and is not a subsidy. It provides working writers with a modest income when their books are read by library users free of charge. PLR is particularly important to authors whose books are sold mainly to libraries and to those whose books are no longer in print but are still being used.

Press coverage tends to focus on a few successful authors, yet most struggle to make ends meet. PLR provides a significant and much-valued part of authors’ incomes. The £6,600 upper limit ensures that the fund helps those most in need.

The admirably efficient PLR Office has already cut its running costs very substantially. Any reduction in PLR will have an immediate and detrimental effect on the ‘front line’ payments to authors.

A Tale of Two Authors

2010-07-27T15:12:00.000Z

Is there no end to the uplifting author stories in this blog?
It seems not ...

Remember I told you about Shelley Harris's triumph at Authonomy Live at the Festival of Writing in York?
Well, I'm delighted to pass on the news that Shelley's book had several publishers slavering over its potential and she has now signed a two book deal with W&N (who also published my first two books).

You can read Shelley's amazing journey in her own words here on WordCloud.
Exciting, or what?

(What d'you mean, you're not already on WordCloud? It's only the best writing community on t'internet - and it's free to join.)

And the other tale? No links for Roger Hardy as he has no online presence.

I first started working with Roger in October 2008. His novel, Miracle in Carvoeiro, needed a lot of heavy engineering and there were issues in almost every area of plotting and characterisation, but there was a kernel of something very special there. Two weeks later and after a lengthy email exchange, he was back with a complete redraft, asking for a second read, which I completed as well as posting the amended MS back to him.

By December 08, I was still discussing polishing and pitching of Book 1, but had meanwhile received Roger's second book for editing. He'd hopped genres and produced a very good Da Vinci Code-esque book. I thought The Eye of Sayf-Udeen had serious potential - it was different enough to provide a fresh angle on the formula - and was far better written IMO than Dan Brown's books. I was seriously impressed at the way Roger had learnt the lessons from previous feedback and incorporated them into his new writing.

So, by this time, Roger was pitching Book 1, editing Book 2 and already talking about Book 3. More emails and in Jan I sent him the report of The Eye of Sayf-Udeen. In Feb, he completed the first draft of his third book. Artcore is a thriller set in the gay scenes in Amsterdam and Brighton. Once again, I thought that his book should be theoretically publishable once he'd completed an edit.

By March, he had self-published the first book on Lulu and I was working on the critique for Artcore as well as a reread for The Eye of Sayf-Udeen. I sent him an email re the latter, saying,
'Roger – I love it! Huge respect and kudos to you – I really feel you are on the brink of coming up with a publishable MS.'

In April 2009, I pitched The Eye of Sayf-Udeen to the Writers' Workshop for the free read they offer for books recommended by editors as having commercial potential.
They agreed with me ... YIPPEE!
... and pitched the book themselves to a well-known agent. YIPPEE!

The agent felt the market for the genre was over saturated. BOO!
Roger decided he'd carry on pitching to other agents himself.

May 2009 and I was editing the redraft of Artcore.
July 2009 found me editing the 3rd draft of Artcore

Book 4, Sylvia, arrived on my desk in October 2009.
Alas. I had told Roger I was convinced he'd get there in the end as long as he kept on writing and pitching. Sadly, with this book, he seemed to have forgotten that each book needed to be better than the last; that he needed to focus on quality, not just quantity. Although his writing skills has improved beyond recognition, I felt this was his weakest book yet.

With characteristic resilience, Roger took the criticism on the chin. I told him I thought he needed to slow down and do some more reading in order to prepare for his next book, which we had already discussed.

After lots more discussions, I received the first draft of The Zarathustra Principle in March 2010. This was Roger's most ambitious book yet. Set in Cologne in the 1920s, it told the story of a relationship between a young agnostic man from an Orthodox Jewish family and a fellow student, the two united by a shared love for Nietzsche. That scenario, and the central European setting in the days before Nazism took a hold, has been explored in literature before but what made Roger's book stand out was that there was a strong spiritual element in the form of a latter day prophet.

What worried me was that this unique quality was both the book's greatest strength and its fundamental weakness. We all know how publishers like to pigeon hole books and my concern was that this one was straddling genres. But damn, it was good!

Meanwhile, Roger and I finally had the chance to meet face to face in York. Later in April, I received the second draft of The Zarathustra Principle for editing.

And now? Roger is still pitching his previous books and has amassed a sizable pile of rejection slips.
Think 'water' ... Think 'duck's back' ... He's published all four (neither of us count Sylvia) on Lulu and he's cooking his next book.

It sounds as though it will incorporate his undoubted strengths.
It sounds as though it will avoid both the genre-straddling and the too similar/too different conundrum that has dogged his previous books.
I know it will be very well-written.
It sounds like this could be the one ...!

By now, you're probably asking yourself why I'm sharing all this with you. Maybe you're exhausted just thinking about Roger's prodigious output and his determination to keep on writing and pitching.
'After all,' you might say, 'Roger still hasn't fulfilled his ambitions in spite of all that incredibly hard work.'

But there's the point, y'see. Roger's writing skills, which always had genuine potential as far as I'm concerned, have gone from strength to strength. At times his creations have tortured him to the point of obsession, but most of the time he has derived wonderful satisfaction from the creative process. He is also determined and persistent, rolling with the punches and never allowing rejections to make him lose sight of his goals.

I'M CONVINCED THAT THE DAY WILL COME WHEN I HAVE A GEN-U-INE ROGER HARDY BOOK ON MY SHELVES THAT HAS THE LOGO OF A MAJOR PUBLISHING COMPANY ON THE SPINE.

I wanted you to hear his name here first!

Incidentally, if you have a book that's ready to be released into the world, you might be interested in the Getting Published Day this October, which should give you many of the tools you need.

Good luck!

A (true) fairy tale

2010-07-16T11:32:00.001Z

Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I'll begin ...

Once upon a time, (last night actually) I attended the Brit Writers' Awards at the O2. G and I were sitting at a table with a very nice group of people but one woman in particular stood out for her warmth and friendliness and she shared her personal story with us.

Catherine Cooper worked as a primary school teacher for 29 years until four years ago, at the age of 50, she was simultaneously diagnosed with both breast cancer and a debilitating genetic condition resulting in severe disability. She was forced to take immediate retirement on medical grounds, thereby losing her health and the job she loved in one devastating double whammy.

As we all know, we can't control what life throws at us. All we can control is how we react to the hand we're dealt. Catherine's response to her situation is awe inspiring.

'I always said I'd write a book when I retired,' she told us. 'The retirement came somewhat earlier than anticipated, but I saw it as an opportunity to get going.'

Disabled, pumped full of drugs and in constant pain that prevented her sleeping at night, she began writing a series of children's books, illustrated by her husband.

'I wanted to write the kind of magical fantasy adventure story I would have enjoyed reading to my classes, had I still been teaching,' Catherine said.

She told us it was writing fiction that kept her going through the dark days and nights, and she gave thanks for the chance it gave her to escape from a grim reality into a fictional world of her own making.

Catherine self-published the first three books and began taking them into schools, inspiring children with her love of books and reading. She set herself a target: 500 books to be sold by Xmas; another 500 by Easter; 1500 by the summer. Each target was met and exceeded.

Humble in spite of this impressive success, Catherine was surprised and delighted to be short listed in the BWA children's category. When her name was announced as the winner and we watched Catherine, walking with the aid of two sticks, make her way to accept her award, all of us on the table were choked.

But the story doesn't end there. Oh no ...

The evening wore on, with more uplifting tales of writers achieving their dreams. The only category for published writers was won with universal approval by the mighty Terry Pratchett. All around the O2 applause broke out as each new winner went to collect their awards.

And then ... the grand finale as we waited to hear who had won the overall BWA award. £10,000, an instant book deal, 300 copies of the winner's book already printed and hot from the press, universal acclaim ...

Drum roll, please ...

And the winner was ... Catherine Cooper!

So, if you're one of those people who are always making excuses why they can't write ... or who crumple under life's knockbacks ... or believe dreams can't come true ... be inspired by Catherine's story.

But note: this success didn't come to her out of thin air. It came about through her determination to rise above adversity; her ability to create something positive from the most negative of circumstances; days, weeks and months of sheer hard work; the generosity of her spirit and the magic of her own imagination.

There's no doubt that this is just the first day of the rest of Catherine's life and I'm sure you will be hearing more from her in the future. Meanwhile, you can get a sneaky preview of her Jack Brenin series of books here.

Amazing though it is, Catherine's was not the only magical personal story last night. I was blown away to hear that the winner of the short story category was Helen Hardy, longstanding and valued member of the East Dulwich Writer's Group. (Before anyone suggests corruption, let me hasten to add that I judged the full length novel category, so had no hand in Helen's well-deserved success.)

Helen was unable to accept her award in person because ... she gave birth earlier the same day! How magical is that?

And if I may be so bold, I'd like to add one small piece of personal evidence that I have had a small part to play in The BWA story. On page 5 of the souvenir brochure there were quotes from Cameron, Clegg, Alex Salmond, a Local Literacy Leader, a member of the Muslim Writers' Awards (from which BWA grew) and two judges. One of them was Professor Thom Brookes.

Guess who the other was ...

Here's what I said:
With the dire situation currently reflected in the publishing industry, and the almost insurmountable difficulties faced by new writers in achieving that elusive first deal, initiatives like the BWA provide a much-needed and welcome opportunity for new authors to receive recognition for their writing.

So there we go. That's the end of the (true) fairy tale and I hope all involved live happily ever after.

As for you, what are you waiting for? Come on. No excuses now. Get writing!

Clear your diary ...

2010-07-01T12:02:00.003Z

Oh boy, July is barely underway and I'm already overwhelmed at the number of crucial dates in my diary.

So, on the basis that a lit date shared is ... a lit date shared ... I'm giving you all the info in one post so you can put them in your diary too.

Hope to see you there ... and there ... and ...

*********************************************************************************
What
Members of the East Dulwich Writers' Group will be chatting to passers by and selling Hoovering the Roof, their first anthology, as well as other books by EDWG members. HtR is now on its 2nd print run, having sold out of the 1st.

When
10.00 am - 3.00 pm Sat 3rd July

Where
Northcross Road market, London, SE22

******************************************************************************
What
EDWG members are at it again - this time with munchies and readings from Hoovering the Roof

When
4.00 - 6.00 pm Sun 4th July

Where
Alhambra (sumptuous shop selling Spanish goodies), 148 Kirkdale, London, SE26 4BB

*******************************************************************************
What
24 hr Oxfam Bookfest readathon.

Last year’s Bookfest resulted in a 40% increase in book donations to Oxfam, and hundreds of thousands of pounds of additional book sales in the months following Bookfest. When you consider that the sale of just 21 books is enough to equip a whole classroom in Vietnam, or that a normal month’s book sales buys safe water for 2.1 million people, you can appreciate how much more your support of Oxfam’s Bookfest events can achieve.

When
9.00 am Mon 5th July - 9.00 am Tues 6th July. 7 members of EDWG (including some woman called Debi Alper) will be reading in 20 minute slots between midnight and 2.00 am. (Gasp)

Where
Oxfam Bookstore, 91 Marylebone High Street, London, W1U 4RB

UPDATE: THE TIMINGS OF THIS EVENT HAVE BEEN CHANGED. IT WILL NOW RUN FROM 8.00 AM MON 5TH JULY AND WILL FINISH AT MIDNIGHT.

******************************************************************************
What
EDWG event with readings from the anthology

When
7.00 - 8.30 pm Thurs 8th July

Where
Review Bookshop, Bellenden Road, SE15 4QY

********************************************************************

What
Launch of 33, short story anthology published by Glasshouse Books with a story set in each of London's boroughs. Authors include Stella Duffy, Emma Darwin, Nicola Monaghan, Jess Ruston, Rachael Dunlop and many more. (That Debi Alper woman crops up there again.) See here for further details.

When
From 6.30 pm Wed 14th July

Where
The Press House Wine Bar, 1 St Bride's Passage, EC4Y 8EJ. If you can't make the launch, you can pre-order a copy of the book here.

*******************************************************************************

What
Brit Writers' Awards Ceremony. The talented finalists, selected from 21,000 entries, will hear the results in a stellar evening. (Hang on - that Alper woman isn't one of them ... oh yeah, she was one of the judges instead.)

When
Thurs 15th July

Where
IndigO2, O2 Arena, Peninsula Square, London, SE10 0DX

********************************************************************************

What I really need now is an extended lie down in a darkened room.
Can't see that happening before August ...

A Hearty Welcome to the Magpies

2010-06-23T09:57:00.001Z

I'm delighted and honoured to be this week's stop on Elizabeth Baines's blog tour to promote her gem of a book, Too Many Magpies.

It's over a year ago that Elizabeth was last here, promoting her short stories (busy woman, eh?). As that took the form of an interview (which you can see here) this time I've asked Elizabeth to do a virtual reading.

First the intro:
Can we believe in magic and spells? Can we put our faith in science?

A young mother married to a scientist fears for her children’s safety as the natural world around her becomes ever more uncertain. Until, that is, she meets a charismatic stranger who seems to offer a different kind of power… But is he a saviour or a frightening danger? And, as her life is overturned, what is happening to her children whom she vowed to keep safe? Why is her son Danny now acting so strangely?

In this haunting, urgent and timely novel, Elizabeth Baines brings her customary searing insight to the problems of sorting our rational from our irrational fears and of bringing children into a newly precarious world. In prose that spins its own spell she exposes our hidden desires and the scientific and magical modes of thinking which have got us to where we are now.

Got that? Sounds good? So here we go. Top up your glass. Make yourself comfortable. An extract follows.

FOR SORROW

On the baby’s first birthday the Smarties on the cake went frilly round the edges. The first sign of odd things happening.

No one took it seriously.

He said it was magic. (He; he doesn’t have a name, not here, not in my head.). ‘I told you,’ he said afterwards, ‘things would start happening now you and I have met.’

‘Magic,’ said Danny too, four years old and excited, waiting in an agony of impatience for the start of the birthday tea in the garden, though never in any doubt that things would go as planned, or that birthday teas would go on happening, and Daddy always come to join them in time.

And, this time, he did. He came round the side of the house, Daddy, my husband, ducking under the honeysuckle and coming to kiss us all, smelling faintly of the lab, that sharp high chemical smell.

He was a scientist, my husband. He had a rational explanation. He looked at the Smarties and grinned. Lovely teeth, he had, not a single filling, and naturally curly hair. The kinks of it glistened in the sun. It came back to me then, all the reasons I loved my husband.

‘See,’ said Danny, pointing the funny way he did with his left middle finger, ‘they’re like little mince pies.’

And they were, each sweet surrounded by a perfect row of frills. My husband looked at them and laughed.

‘Osmosis,’ I think he said, I wasn’t in a state to remember the actual word. Something about things running, their contents seeping through their skins, leaving themselves behind. At any rate, he said I must have put them on when the icing was too wet.

Of course. Because of what had happened, I hadn’t been in a state to judge the drying time of icing.

But it was odd. Why, for instance, if things had melted, had the colours not run?

I cut the cake. I doled them out, the magic Smarties. A piece for my husband, and one for each child.

And the blackbird pipped confidently, as if that garden and those hedges would always be there for him to call across; and there we sat, husband and wife and two-point-four children, point-four being the child we might have had if certain chemical chances in our bodies had or hadn’t occurred, and which we’d never have now, now things had started to happen.

It was the day before the baby’s first birthday that I met him.

In the park there were magpies, too many to be counted. When I was a child there were never so many of them — one for sorrow, you said, two for joy — but now there were too many for such short rhymes or such simple messages, they’d multiplied and colonized the towns.

That afternoon we’d both been on a committee, educationists drafted in to advise on artists in schools, my first outside commitment since before I’d had the babies. My first time back in the world.

Though I wasn’t really back there; I couldn’t concentrate on the dry committee language, I’d got too used to simple sounds linked to the vivid senses, or to holding and
rocking without the need for words at all.

It was hot in that committee room, early May and unseasonably hot although there’d been no sun all day. They had the window open and puffs of engine smell rose up through the still air. They were discussing the database of artists, and I was thinking idly of how in the centre of town there was never the sound of birds.

A train rolled over the viaduct, blue-and-grey toytown carriages sliding unbelievably along the top of a sky-high brick wall towards the suburbs where my husband would be putting the children to bed.

Tonight, for once, the baby would have to go to bed without his breastfeed.

On cue, as I thought of that, my breasts tingled, automatic, with primitive life, and on cue the familiar sleepiness overcame me. I’d lost the drift of the argument in the room now. I’d gone too far, metamorphosing down those baby years, and I was gaping now, hardly breathing in this flat dry committee-land. I yawned.

He’d hardly spoken till then.

He didn’t speak when he didn’t have to. Knowing too much about words to squander them.

I looked, I noticed him, for the first time really, just before he spoke. I saw a careful tension around his large mouth. Fastidiousness reining in something else.

And when he spoke he held his lips as though tasting something. Testing.

I knew then. He had the power.

As we crossed the park afterwards, suddenly there were birds again. Magpies, dropping out of the trees, like bunting, like Jacks-out-of-boxes. They cackled, they seemed hilarious.

We tried counting.

‘Seven,’ he said. ‘What does that signify?’

I said, too sternly, that I didn’t believe in charms or spells.

He laughed. I saw that his teeth were bad, stained and very full of fillings. He said: ‘There are charms and there are charms, and there are spells and there are spells,’ and I had no idea what he meant.

The sun came out, dazzling and disorientating between the trees. The magpies glistened then, medallion green and alchemy blue. They were watching us sideways, they cocked their heads slyly over their bird-shoulders, waiting, or maybe taunting, it was hard to say.

We moved on, and they flapped away into the columns of sun between black tree trunks, still there but suffused and melted with the light.

He said, ‘Seven for a secret never to be told.’

I said quickly that I didn’t believe in secrets. And I told him all about my husband, and about the kids, to indicate at once that there was no chance whatever, should he be thinking along those lines, of any kind of intrigue, any kind of setup where I’d need to make divisions, protect him from knowledge or guard my family’s privacy from him. And, to nip in the bud any growing attraction, I babbled on about the children in the bourgeois way I’d guessed by now he wouldn’t approve of. But those shapes in the sun, I could sense them shifting. I lost courage in what I was saying, and he was laughing at it anyway, showing those big handsome teeth with all those awful brown fillings. I guessed suddenly what he’d meant: that the best charm, the real secret, is in losing your fear.

I’d stopped walking, I discovered. The bark of a tree was behind me, ridged and warm. Under my feet something crumbled, sugary, the dead catkins off the tree.

I said stupidly, no not stupidly, I thought it might protect me, it was one the things which Richard and I held most important in our life together: ‘We only give the children sugar at special times like birthdays.’

After all, it was my baby’s first birthday next day.

It didn’t work, that spell. And I knew, after all, that it wouldn’t. I sensed, didn’t see him come closer. He took hold of my hand. He knew that vivid power of touching, he knew without being told that once he’d made contact I wouldn’t be able to take it away.

The magpies flew off again.

The first time I’d seen so many was the day I discovered I was pregnant with Danny, my first child. Three for a girl, you once said, four for a boy, god knows what seeing so many could mean.

He had hold of my hand.

He said, ‘What are their names?’

If this has whetted your appetite, follow the rest of the tour here.
If you'd like to hear Elizabeth's podcast, go here.
Links to reviews can be found in the sidebar on Elizabeth's blog here.
Next stop on the tour is at Tom Vowler's blog here.
The last stop was at Nuala Ni Chonchuir's blog here.
For further insights, I really do recommend you check out the other stops on the tour.

UPDATE: ERRORS ON THOSE TOUR STOPS.
LAST ONE WAS AT VANESSA GEBBIE'S BLOG HERE
.NEXT WEEK ELIZABETH WILL BE APPEARING AT ECO-LIBRIS (WITH WHOM SHE IS PLANTING A TREE FOR EACH COPY)

Because you're worth it?

2010-06-14T13:20:00.000Z

An interesting double take on literary prizes.

Lionel Shriver’s 2005 novel We Need to Talk About Kevin has received the public vote as the most popular previous Orange Prize winner. Nevertheless, she's very disparaging about the value of literary awards in this article in the Independent last week.

Even more to the point, she's hesitant about recommending a career as a writer, saying:

I'm very sympathetic to aspirant writers. It's very difficult and there are no guarantees that cream will ever rise to the top.

It'd be totally hypocritical to discourage people from joining my profession, which was good to me in the end, but I have qualms about being encouraging. The odds are stacked against you. I want to give people enough of an idea of the capriciousness of the industry.

Michele Roberts, one of the Orange prize judges, conducts a robust defense of literary awards in this article, also in the Indie.

But she too is relentlessly downbeat about the realities facing authors, saying:

Deciding to write means volunteering for poverty: 20 years ago, publishers might offer certain well-known writers six-figure advances on sales and could afford to be reasonably generous to some of the less well known. Those times are over.

Nowadays, many authors augment their meagre incomes from writing by taking on whatever freelance work they can get, or by teaching. A joyful acknowledgment that you write from a sense of vocation, driven by single-minded devotion to language, image-making, storytelling, co-exists with a sense of belt-tightening, an increase in the sheer bloody-mindedness necessary for survival as an artist.

When I conduct workshops, I always have a section that I call 'managing expectations'. On the one hand, I don't want to destroy dreams and hate the idea that someone might feel so discouraged to hear how high the odds are stacked against them that they feel there's no point in continuing to write.

On t'other hand, I still get MSes for edit in which the covering letters state that the author 'just' wants to pay off their mortgage or take early retirement and write full time. Clearly, it would be wrong of me not to balance their expectations with a reality check, however unwelcome that might be.

If someone decides that there's no point in writing on the grounds that there's such a minuscule chance of achieving fame and fortune, I suspect they were never truly committed in the first place.
You can write and hold down an unrelated job.
You can earn money by doing other related work.
You can grow your own veg and shop at Lidl.
There are ways to survive, if you're prepared to set your priorities accordingly.

Yes, there's a payoff. Rent still has to be paid, food still has to be put on the table. We seem to have returned to the concept of the starving artist in the garret boiling up old shoes to make soup. Progress, eh?

But if you're prepared to accept the likelihood of poverty ...

... and you have the hide of a rhino ...

... and you realise that this road will be bumpy and you have to watch out for the potholes ...

... and have the energy to climb back out of those you fall in along the way ...

... I genuinely believe there can be no more rewarding way to live a life.

Those highs when your writing takes wings ... when your characters take you in surprising directions ... when you slap yourself on the head, yelling, 'Of course!' ... when you sit back and reflect that you have created an entire world and populated it with an eclectic cast drawn from inside your own head ... when you fall in love with a particular phrase or image ...

Ah, there's nothing like it.

If the price to pay is eating pasta five nights a week and a minimal social life (apart from lit events - lots of them!) then so be it. I'm in.

And anyway, there are still those amazing stories of people who make it to the big time, even though they are few and far between.

As the old lottery slogan used to say, 'It could be you!'

Watch out for visiting magpies

2010-06-13T14:02:00.000Z

I'm delighted to announce that Elizabeth Baines will be visiting here on 26th June to give a virtual reading as part of her tour to promote Too Many Magpies.

I've been very remiss - I should have been posting about this long ago.
You can check the previous stops on the tour here. And here.

The current stop is at our very own Barbara Smith's blog.

Next week - Vanessa Gebbie.

33 London Boroughs ... 2 Great Books

2010-06-07T14:17:00.002Z

I've mentioned before (most recently here) that I have a short story coming out soon in a 2 volume anthology to be published by the innovative new publisher, Glasshouse Books.
33 has a story set in each of London's boroughs and looks like an eclectic and exciting mix of styles and unique approaches.

It's all systems go and guess what - you're invited to the launch party!

33 EAST / 33 WEST
THE LAUNCH PARTY
Wednesday 14 July from 6.30 pm
The Press House Wine Bar 1 St Bride’s Passage, EC4Y 8EJ
Please join us to celebrate the launch of our most ambitious project yet.

33 boroughs, 33 shorts, 1 London.

From Bexley to Brent, Havering to Hillingdon.
Entrance is free for all.
Please RSVP to events@glasshousebooks.co.uk.

Click here for more details and to order copies.

Click here to see the authors for 33 East and here for 33 West.
(Lots of familiar faces and some new ones that I look forward to meeting in Real Life.)
Follow Glasshouse Books on Facebook and check for updates.

Debi's deafisms

2010-05-31T11:45:00.000Z

The improvement in the weather has been matched by a corresponding improvement in my hearing, but my world remains muffled compared to most people's.

Here's the latest insight on the day we bought First Born an I-Pod Touch for his 15th birthday.

FB: I've got a rugby game.
Me: You'd rather be gay?

First Fruits

2010-05-25T13:28:00.000Z

For the first time in over fifteen years, I have a garden to potter in, thanks to the wonderful and generous Emma Darwin. (Emma and I met online months before we discovered a few years ago that our Real Life homes are mere yards apart.)

Take one author with a bad back, a generous and warm spirit and a neglected garden.
Add another author with a strong back, a determination to make time, but no garden.

Put them together and what have you got?

Beans, that's what. And onions, garlic, potatoes, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes ... to add to the fennel, wild rocket, rosemary, thyme, parsley, chives, bay etc flourishing on my balcony.

So here I am, living on a council estate in the heart of the metropolis, feeding my family on home grown organic produce - and loving it!

Child detention continues - Sehar's story.

2010-05-19T15:42:00.001Z

In spite of the weasel words uttered by this new government, the shameful practice of child detentions and deporting vulnerable refugees is continuing.

Please click on the link and be prepared to be filled with shame - and then get angry and act!

URGENT ACTION ALERT - The UK Borders Agency is planning on forcing Sehar ...

You've got to laugh

2010-05-13T13:30:00.001Z

Just as I was thinking we were in dire need of some good quality political satire, this was brought to my attention.

Together with the link in the previous post, it's at least an indication that we've got humour on our side.
We're going to need it ...

Tomorrow Belongs to a Conservative Future - Spitting Image Tomorrow Belo...

2010-05-13T13:05:00.000Z

Debi's deafisms (and a teensy bit more)

2010-05-13T09:27:00.000Z

No, I haven't been abducted by aliens, though the results of the election have left me wishing that I had been.

I've been so rushed off my feet that I didn't even know the news until 24 hours later. Talk about finger on the pulse ... Still, at least I had an extra day for being in denial. Small mercies indeed.

Anyway, due to aforementioned rushed-off-feetness, I don't have any time to blog so I'm just going to give you this latest insight into my muffled world to be going on with.

FB: My French exam was so funny today.
Me: I didn't know you had a friend Suzanne.

Flash in the Pan

2010-05-04T09:23:00.000Z

You have no idea how much I would love to be here

If you're not as busy as I am at 1pm today ...
And you're sickened by the media manipulation of the forthcoming election ...
And you want to give vent to your frustrations along with a friendly mob of like-minded people ...
And can get to Parliament Square ...
And have always wanted to join a flash mob ...

... check the details here and give a shout for me.

Dog Days

2010-04-26T22:57:00.001Z

G didn't do the marathon this year.
Regular visitors here will know that this is a break with tradition going back over a decade.

To be 100% honest, I was relieved not to have to go through that hideous buildup in tension to marathon day this year.

Instead, we were all looking forward to a nice relaxing Sunday. I was out with the boys and G went for his usual 10+ mile run.

All was going according to plan until G rang me to say he'd been bitten by a dog. He'd been minding his own business, running round the park, when a yapping terrier shot towards him like a bullet and sank its sharp, bacteria-ridden teeth into his leg.

It was only a small wound inflicted by a small dog but he had to go to A&E for a tetanus jab. When he heard G's diabetic, the doctor insisted he take anti-biotics as any infection could have serious consequences.

Grrrr!
(That was me, not the dog.)

I'm not sure it was better than a marathon build-up ...

Keys to a happy life

2010-04-24T18:34:00.001Z

Mmm. Lovely sunny day, I thought to myself this morning. How shall I spend it?

With lots of work related items jiggling for my attention, I went for the self-indulgent option.

I dug the folding lounger out from the basement shed and carried it into the grounds of the estate, just below the balcony. The only other things I took with me were my WIP, a bottle of water and a pencil.

Luxury. Time passed as the sun moved across the sky throwing my chair into shadow.
No matter. I was too busy to move, lost in the craft.

First Born and his friend passed saying they were hungry. I chucked them my keys and told them to help themselves.
Little Guy kissed me goodbye as he headed off for a friend's party.
The sun moved behind the block, throwing me into deeper shadow.

Scribble, edit, polish ...

What time is it? Already? Missed lunch. I really ought to eat something. Could do with a pee too. Suppose I should go in ...

And that's the point I realised that FB hadn't returned my keys.
But that he was outside.
And the keys were inside.
And Little Guy had locked the balcony door.
And hadn't taken his own keys with him to the party.
And G was out for the day.
And no one has any spare keys.

A combination of helpful neighbours, a step ladder and a small child not too scared to be fed through a tiny window means that I'm now able to tell you about this several hours later.

From now on, no one gets my keys. No one. If they haven't got their own, tough. They're hungry? Tough. Need the toilet? Tough. Next time, maybe they'll think more carefully. Harumph!

York Wrapped Up

2010-04-17T12:15:00.001Z

The previous posts have the feel of a headlong dash through last weekend in York at the Festival of Writing. No links, no photos and - let's not mince words here - not a lot of style. It's tempting to go back and edit the posts but that would be cheating. As an experiment in live blogging, they're the product of the weekend and a valid reflection of it.

Now that I have the benefit of hindsight, I've decided to go back and fill in some of the gaps. Actually, who am I kidding? It's also because I'm finding it hard to move on. I still have people I need to get back to with feedback but that doesn't excuse my new found tendency to squat on WordCloud checking for new posts every few minutes. It's like when you've been at some iconic rock concert or a life-changing political event. Years later, you still exchange conspiratorial glances with those who shared the experience, knowing that from such events lives are changed.

'York 2010. We were there ...'

So - back to filling in those gaps.

Entering the zone

I was in the zone before I even left the train. A woman sitting across the aisle from me leaned over and asked if I was Debi Alper. Whisks recognised me from my avatar on WordCloud. As hers is a cupcake (though a particularly attractive cupcake) she would have been a lot harder to pick out in a crowd. For both of us, it felt like a positive and sociable start to the weekend.

Red dots

Everyone was issued with a small badge with their name on. Those of us who had a specific role as authors, agents, editors, publishers or organisers, had little red dots on our badges. As someone pointed out to me, it was like the stickers placed on artworks sold at an exhibition.
'I'm Debi. Buy me.'

Queens of the red dots, Adele Geras and Emma Darwin

Self-editing mini course

Emma Darwin and I had to cram our usual 7 hour workshop into 4 hours (including a tea break). With such a large group, it was impossible to give individual feedback on participants' own writing, but a combination of exercises and lots of Q&A meant that the course was still interactive.

Authonomy Live

I am filled with admiration for those brave writers who took part in this event on Friday evening. It would be enough of a challenge to read aloud to a panel of experts and an assembled throng of approx 400. How much more so when the words you are reading are your own? The judges felt unable to agree on a shortlist of 3, so 4 people were put to the public vote which was overwhelmingly in favour of Shelley Harris's beautiful reading. (Shelley got my vote for her gentle and touching excerpt set during the Silver Jubilee in 1977.)

There was an instant buzz around Shelley - a spontaneous indication that this is her time. While she was still trying to take in her award, agents approached her from every angle, asking to see the rest of her book. At the last count, I believe 7 had expressed an interest. From such stuff, dreams are made. Will Shelley be the first to be signed up by an agent as a direct result of the Festival? Though I'm willing to bet she won't be the only one ...

Shelley Harris, winner of Authonomy Live

Those one-to-ones

It's inevitable that some people were happier with the feedback they got in their ten minute slot with agents than others. The feeling I got was that most people were realistic about the book trade and the chances of their book being published. They were equally realistic about the financial reality and if they weren't, there was an inexhaustible supply of authors telling them how it was virtually impossible to make a living out of writing, even for those considered highly successful.

For every person who was disappointed by the agent's response, there were several more who found the feedback very useful. Many of the agents made useful suggestions about the sort of thing a particular writer would seem to be best suited to, providing plenty of food for thought.

Although each of the 10 minute slots flashed past, I felt in my Book Doctor sessions that I was able to make fundamental and (hopefully) useful suggestions for everyone. Many of the authors sought me out afterwards so that we could continue our discussions. I was really impressed with the overall standard of writing and it was very gratifying to know that I was able to give practical advice that would take their work to another level.

There were times when I felt more like a therapist than an editor. There was a clear trend for people to be self-deprecating and over humble (usually the most talented writers!). I suspect this reticence was a way of pre-empting rejection and possible failure. Yet, I saw some seriously good writing and intriguing concepts as well as a clear urge to tell stories. It's almost as though people need permission to write by being told they're not wasting their time. As if creating worlds of our own and peopling them with a cast formed from our own imaginations could ever be a waste ...

Literary Death Match

My chance to be Cheryl Cole (or possibly Louis Walsh) came on Saturday night when I was part of the judging panel for the brave participants of the Death Match. Some threw themselves into the performance, using props and costumes, while others preferred to let their words do the talking. With an equal split between published and unpublished authors, the panel decided to even out the obvious advantage in order to encourage those who are (as yet) unpublished.

Who'da thunk it could be so hard? Consensus was hard to reach. The ones that engendered the strongest feelings split us down the middle. Not a bad thing for the authors concerned - better to be either loved or hated than to evoke a unanimous mild response. Do you hear me, Mr Marmite?

In the best X Factor tradition, the audience ruled supreme and demanded Adele Geras should be added to our shortlist. Adele's piece was so overwhelmingly fabulous we had felt it would be obvious to everyone there that she was in a class of her own and, as she needs the validation less than the aspiring authors, we hadn't included her. Nevertheless, she won the audience vote and in a warm and generous gesture, presented her bottle of champagne to Mary Flood, for her moving and powerful story of an eviction based on real events.

Mary Flood, winner of the Literary Death Match

Workshops and keynote addresses

In advance, I had pictured myself gatecrashing some of the workshops and thought my biggest problem was going to be choosing which to attend. In the event, I was so busy giving feedback on people's writing that I never had the chance to go to any of them. Luckily, in the spirit of generosity that underpinned the whole Festival, the organisers have made much of the workshop material (and the keynote addresses) available on the website. See here

Busy authors at the POV workshop

A Literary Bubble

With no tv, radio or newspapers and every conversation seemingly lit-related, we were cocooned from the outside world with no idea what was happening 'out there'. Who knew that the entire Polish ruling elite had been wiped out in an air crash? We were all too busy, totally immersed in Word World. The only real criticism I've heard so far about the whole weekend is that there was simply too much to fit in.

And there's the rub. I think that for many people, the opportunity to have direct face-to-face feedback from an agent was the initial hook. But no one in their right mind would pay that kind of money for a 10 minute session. So useful though that feedback was for most people, it was only a small part of an entire weekend devoted to the craft of writing and the business side of publishing.

The range of workshops ensured every angle was covered.
The keynote addresses were inspiring and entertaining.
The evening events were fun and informal.

But I think for most people the best part of all was simply being there and mixing with other writers at all different stages of their writing careers. There was no hierarchy or obvious cliques. Though some people knew each other in advance (stand up, WordClouders) at any stage you could find a mix of professionals and aspiring authors chatting, laughing and exchanging words.

So what did everyone have in common, given the diversity of backgrounds represented?
Well, obviously everyone there could afford the fee, but apart from that we all share a passion for words and the amazing things we can do with them, a love of storytelling and an endless fascination with other people.

An event like this changes lives, some in a more subtle way than others, but all positive.
Almost everyone will have received some useful and specific advice relating to their writing.
Most will come away inspired to write and uplifted.
Many have caught the eye of an agent and been asked to submit more of their work.
Some may end up signing a contract with an agent.
And some may even achieve their dream of seeing their words in print.

Will it happen again? What do you think?

The incredible energetic and creative team behind this year's festival are already looking ahead. You can register interest for 2011 now here. The full website has been left up here. Huge thanks to the awesome Harry Bingham and Tommy Kristofferson from the Writers' Workshop, Kate Allan (who somehow managed to juggle incredible professional organisational skills with the needs of a new baby) and Jeremy Guy.

The indomitable Harry Bingham

Meanwhile, the next best thing to actually being there is to join the community on WordCloud. It's free to register and there's a whole world of useful info, chat and supportive exchanges. Check out the host of different groups - or start a new one yourself. Write on walls, join conversations, look up specific info, browse the blog and (my favourite part) the forums.

I Get the Last Word

Thanks to Avis Hickman-Gibb, I now have a new designation. I was explaining why I thought Emma and I are such a good team. Emma is mega qualified to MA level and scatters her talk with learned literary references, whereas my writing evolved from a more organic approach. It was only later that I was able to analyse and deconstruct what I had created from instinct.

'Ah,' said Avis, 'You're a street writer.'

Yep. That's me. A street writing woman.

York - All Talked Out

2010-04-11T22:31:00.000Z

I'm home after a ghastly journey. I arrived about an hour ago and this is the first time I've sat down.

'Tired' doesn't come close, though my brain is still zapping.

I have much more to share - including photos - but I'm sorry that there will be a delay before I can get round to it.

I'm going away tomorrow for a few days with the family and I have to confess I'm really looking forward to tuning out. I know there will be people coming here wanting to hear more about the most stimulating weekend I can recall and I do apologise as I won't have access to the internet for a few days.

Back soon!

York Talk 4

2010-04-11T13:07:00.000Z

OK. It's official. I've lost the plot. I think it might be something to do with having drained the reserve adrenalin tank and running on pure will alone.

I can't even remember what happened on which day any more. I'll return to what happened yesterday tomorrow. Argh. See? No idea what day it is any more.

1.30 this morning I was still reading through submissions in my room. Stumbled into breakfast at 8.00 and along with my coffee and cereal, by the time I got to sit down I had another 4 pieces to read. In theory, I only had one hour of 1-1s booked today. In practice, I haven't had a moment to pee.

I ran to my room just now after lunch, realising I was late for the author signings. As I grabbed some books I saw a caretakery guy who asked which room I was in.
'Ah,' he said, 'you're the last.'
'Last what?'
'Last to hand your key in.'
'Oh! What time should that have been?'
'9.00 this morning ...'

Gasp. Bless him, he said it was fine and not to rush. As if ...
So off I ran - arriving too late for the signings.
Damn and damn again. Apart from anything else it would have been nice to have fewer books to carry home.
Ah well, them's the breaks.

I need to pack now and get ready for the final round up. There's so much more to tell you but it's going to need to unfold over the next few days/weeks.

I hope I've given enough to convey the atmosphere over the weekend.

Eeek- I haven't even told you about last night's Literary Death Match yet ...

York Talk 3

2010-04-10T14:02:00.000Z

I got through breakfast without dribbling coffee down my chin or growling. Result in itself.

Then it was off to hear Katie Fforde's keynote address. She gave 10 pieces of advice that were not only sensible and practical, but also very entertaining.

Show, not tell - so here are some examples of the wisdom of Katie:

Finding your voice is a bit like having an orgasm. Before you have one, you don't really know what it is. Once you do, you have no problem identiifying it - and enjoying it.

You have to want it enough. I want to be size 10 - but I obviously don't want that enough.

I am a bit bored by my voice. I'm also a bit bored by my face. But I can't change either.

Follow that, eh? But I had to cos then it was straight into my POV workshop. Initially I'd wondered how to fill an hour on that one subject. In the event, I could have continued for far longer given the chance.

And I got another round of applause at the end so I must have got something right I guess.

Then zoom - off to my first session of 1-1s. 6 authors and their work - 10 minutes each for feedback. This was immensely gratifying. Having read and absorbed all the submissions in advance, I felt I had useful things to say. Writers are so vulnerable and of course all of those of us who are authors as well as editors know that from the inside. Being in a position to encourage and point out strengths (cos everyone has them) as well as weaknesses and practical suggestions for dealing with them felt really constructive.

I feel privileged to be in that position, especially when you can clearly see how something can be improved (eg you're starting in the wrong place ... or you're over relying on dialogue to impart info ... or can you justify this timeline distortion?) and you see the person's face as they see how much better their work could be with some tweaks ... wonderful stuff.

And one submission I immediately pitched to the organisers and they have hooked him up with an agent. I've no doubt whatsoever that his book will be on the shelves at some point. How amazing to have been a prt of that process.

I crossed over the lake (did I mention the lake? the omnipresent swans, geese, ducks? the lovely setting?) in the company of Katie Fforde, Adele Geras (longtime hero of mine) and Emma Darwin, thinking - ooh look at me ...

I've had lunch (during which I read and discussed 2 new people's writing) and have decided to miss the next session so I can blog. While I've been sitting here, a woman drifted past in a dreamlike state saying she's had a very positive reaction from her agent pitches and it looks like she's on her way to being represented.

I need to rush now, so once again don't have time to add the photos. Patience, peeps. I'll get there eventually.

York Talk 2

2010-04-10T08:01:00.000Z

OMG. I can't believe I'm sitting here blogging at this time of the morning.
The York air is positively crackling with creative energy.

Back to last night. Shelley Harris won the Authonomy Live session with her beautiful and evocative story set during the Silver Jubilee. I have a photo of Shelley with her bottle of champers - haven't got round to uploading the pix yet. Patience, my dear blogmates.

It took real guts to those who took part in this session. Can't be easy to stand up and read to an assembled throng of hundreds as well as a panel of experts. Kudos to all.

I went to bed midnightish to read some late submissions. And I don't suppose you'll be surprised to hear sleep was elusive. So many brain cells jostling for space and bouncing off the walls of my skull.

I'm so not a morning person, yet there I was at breakfast at some ungodly hour, desperate for a cloak of invisibility until I get some caffeine. No cloak. Must remember to pack that next time.

I keep meeting people. Ah there's G - she came on one of my London courses. And there's R - I've been editing his books for years and now have the face to fit to the name. Oh look. There's H from my writers' group. And F, who I met at a London book launch ...

I've sneaked out to write this post and there are all these people coming up to chat. How is it possible to have approx 400 people all in one place and for them all to be so fab? What are the odds against that? I haven't met a single person who's been negative in any way.

Right. Off now for Katie Fforde's keynote address. Then my POV workshop. Then ...

Well, catch up later.

York Talk 1

2010-04-09T20:06:00.000Z

Yeesh - what a ride. What a buzz.

Teething problems for some at check in sorted and straight into the mini course: Debi and Emma double act. In spite of large numbers, it turned out to be quite interactive. Intense? You bet. A huge amount to get through in 4 hrs.

Hard to interpret those expressions.

Were those frowns of concentration/discontent/confusion/boredom?

Feedback was good. We got applause! That has to be good, eh?

Whoosh. Straight into the literary speed dating aka organised chaos but a good way to meet a large number of people fast.

And what an amazing bunch of people. All those writers, all that creativity and enthusiasm. All in one place.

Hardly enough time to appreciate the food. It was good though. As far as I can tell because I wanted to talk and to listen, not eat.

Barely enough time to digest the grub and certainly not enough time to digest all the wonderful words coming at you from every angle.

Because - whoosh again. Authonomy Live. Brave writers reading their work to the assembled throng and the panel, Simon Cowell, Cheryl Cole and ...

... oh hang on. Wrong bunch.

I'm sitting here, listening to the writers' words and the panel's feedback and thinking how lucky I am to be here. And blogging for all of you who can't be here.

Apologies for the lack of links. I've taken some pix but haven't got round to uploading them yet. Will try again tomorrow.

Debi's deafisms

2010-04-07T14:41:00.000Z

Part 3 in an occasional series giving an insight into my muffled world.

FB: Is it true that Hong Kong is a country?
Me: Well, I don't think you could really say that. Hogwarts is a school, not a country as such. Though metaphysically speaking ...

Closerer and closerer to York

2010-04-06T23:05:00.000Z

Right.

Mini course and workshop: prepped
Submissions for Book Doctor slots: received and ready
Hair: Cut and dyed
Teeth: tobacco and coffee stains scrubbed off by dentist
Minor surgery to remove cyst on spine: gulp ...

... tomorrow morning

Oooer ...

Me, him and some books (and a rogue Sainsbury's carrier bag)

2010-04-05T15:54:00.000Z

Just rec'd this pic from the Magnificent Meloney, featuring yours truly, the legendary Dan Maitland and some of them there book things.

Hoovering the Roof - the East Dulwich Writers' Group anthology published in November -has gone into its 2nd print. Yippee!

More events planned.

Oh my aching sides ...

2010-04-04T15:06:00.000Z

We're all familiar with the spam emails offering to make us rich quick involving movements of vast quantities of dubious currency around the globe for which they *ahem* need your bank account details.

Does anyone ever get caught by these emails?
Presumably some people must be sufficiently gullible, otherwise what's the point of sending them in the first place?

Sometimes though, I do wonder if the spammers are losing heart and just going through the motions.

Otherwise, what possible justification could they have for sending this email I received today?

Hello I am Mrs.Yengeni from south African a Parliamentarian Wife i contacted you to be my project partner and stand as my Husband foreign partner for transfer of US$15 million into your account for investment You maybe familiar with the news about my husband legal position. endeavor to read the website : Mrs.Lumka

Could this be the most lacklustre attempt at fraud yet?

Literary balls

2010-04-02T15:03:00.001Z

I'm referring to the number of lit-related balls I'm juggling at the moment.

I've just finished reading and critiquing one book and have another MS waiting.

***

A week from today I will be in York for the Festival of Writing.

By this time next Friday, I'll be part of the way through the mini-course I'm running with Emma Darwin - Self Edit Your Work for Market.
With over 60 participants booked, we won't be able to give individual feedback but are working hard to ensure the course will give aspiring authors the tools they need to edit their own writing and learn the requirements of the market.

The following morning, my workshop on POV has been shifted to a giant amphitheatre as a result of 90+ bookings.

My one-to-one Book Doctor slots on Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning are also booked out.

In between, there's a veritable feast of stuff going on and there had better be plenty of coffee available to keep me going when the adrenalin runs out.

I'm grabbing a few days after that to go away with the family. (Remember me, guys? I'm your mother.)

***

At some point, I really hope to be able to make my own WIP a priority. I've typed up the revisions and now just need to go through the 2nd draft for the final polish.

***

I've completed my short story set in Croydon for 33 and it's been accepted by Glasshouse Books.
The launch is scheduled for 6th July and there are plans afoot for lots of events.

***

Blimey, but there are a lot of people writing their hearts out in this world ...
I've just received an email from The Brit Awards. (I'm one of their 'high profile' sic judges.)
The response to the competition has been overwhelming and they've had to postpone the process.
The Awards ceremony will now be happening on 15th July.
Meanwhile, the first layer of judging is taking place with over 21,000 submissions being sifted through by the first layer judges.

***

I could go on. I have more workshops booked in central London coming up soon, for example ...

***

And on and ...
There's plenty more where that came from but I really should be getting on and doing it rather than talking about it.

I'm considering live blogging the Festival, so I shouldn't be gone too long.

Meanwhile, I need another coffee.

Debi's Deafisms

2010-03-27T23:15:00.000Z

Part 2 in an occasional series giving an insight into my muffled world.

Two for you today - to make up for my absence recently due to pressure of work.

1)
Emma: I'll talk to my next door neighbours, Sam and Alan.
Me: Your next door neighbours have salmonella?

2)
Ring at doorbell. I open door to see 5 small children, aged 5-7.
Guliz (spokesperson): Hello, Debi. Sorry to disturb you. We were wondering if you could possibly let us have one very small potato.
Me: Oh. Sure. Just hang on there a minute.
Thinks: potato prints? Potato gun? Sweet.
Me: Here you go, guys. The smallest potato I could find.
Children: Sideways glances at each other. Feet shuffling. Obvious discomfort.
Me: Is there a problem?
Guliz: Um, well that's very kind of you, Debi. Thank you. Only what we wanted was a small container.
Marie-Lise: Can I have the potato anyway?

Anyone else feel a draft in here?

2010-03-11T15:08:00.000Z

I'm in the process of working through the first draft of Identity Flawed.

I love this craft of reshaping and adding flesh to the bones of a story.
It's a time for crazy mood swings though.
One minute I'm thinking it's pretty damn good and might even be the best thing I've ever written.
The next I'm convinced it's crap and I'll never be able to write another publishable book again.

Anyway, Emma Darwin has posted recently about the importance of this stage and I thought I'd say how I approach it. There as many different ways of writing as there are writers, but this is what works for me.

Draft 1.
This is where I'm chucking the story out. I rarely plan ahead (though at some point in the writing I will probably have a vague idea of the story's trajectory) and I don't read back through until I've finished. I let the story unfold as I write by placing my characters in situations and watching to see how they react and what happens as a result and where that leads onto next. In this way, I find out what's happening at the same time as the protagonists - and the reader. At some point, the story will grow wings and the characters will take me in unsuspected directions. (I've blogged about this before here.)

As the story develops, inevitably adjustments will be need to be made in previous chapters to fit into what is revealed by later developments. I usually write in longhand. When I type up a chapter I print it out and mark the MS with any issues I know I'll have to return to later. At the end of the 1st draft, I'll have a complete MS covered in scrawl relating to those issues and any others that come from feedback from my writers' group.

Draft 2.
This is just as crucial a stage in the crafting of a novel as the 1st draft and can't be skipped over. I start by making the changes I was already aware of and then begin reading through to see how the whole thing hangs together. I look for inconsistencies in character and plot. Structural issues like unnecessary timeline distortions. There may be scenes and even whole chapters which are superfluous and need to be deleted, where I was just writing to continue the flow. If the section has no role in driving the narrative forwards it has to go. There will also be sections that are vital to the plot but which I have skated over in my rush to splurge out the story. I'll check that any sub plots are properly woven into the main narrative and that there are no irrelevant threads or characters. I'll look out for POV shifts and any areas where I should be showing not telling (or the reverse!).

NB: This stage is vital, whether you're submitting your MS to an existing agent (as I am) or pitching to a new one. It's just as crucial if you're submitting the book for an editorial critique. You should never let anyone see your MS until you have ensured you have made it as good as it possibly can be yourself. Don't expect anyone to accept your novel because they can see it's a hidden gem. If it's a gem, it needs to be so bright and sparkly they can't avoid noticing it.

Even if you're submitting the MS for a critique, it makes sense to polish it as best you can before sending it to an editor, in order to get the best value from the feedback. Ironically, the longest reports I've written have been for books with the greatest potential. That's because it doesn't take many words to say things like 'You're using far too many adverbs throughout' or 'Stick to a linear chronological narrative whenever possible' or 'Watch out for confusing POV shifts' etc.

Draft 3.
Ah, the final stage. This is the polish and is also essential. With this last read through, I make sure I've always used the right word/phrase/image, that there's no clunky prose and that every word earns its keep.

And that's it. You've completed a book. It's no longer your WIP and it's time to launch it into the world.
Good luck!

Forward to the Festival

2010-03-10T17:49:00.001Z

Less than a month to go to the Festival of Writing in York.
And, yes, I'm really excited about it.

Imagine - a whole weekend spent in the company of other writers, being surrounded by the full literary experience of talking about the crafting (and selling) of words.
Bliss.

I'm going to be the there for the full weekend.
On Friday, Emma Darwin and I are running the Self Edit Your Work for Market mini course.
Saturday morning, I'm running a workshop concentrating on how to deal with the thorny problem of handling POVs.
Then, on Saturday afternoon, I'll be doing an hour of 1-1 sessions, meeting with writers (who will have submitted writing in advance) and discussing their book.
Saturday night, there's a gala dinner. (What to wear???)
Then on Sunday, I have another session of 1-1s.

In between, I'm going to have to decide whether to explore York, gatecrash some of the other workshops, hang out and chat with anyone around, or (and this is my fantasy) sit and work on my own WIP, inspired by the atmosphere.

Oh and there will be lots of people there I'm really looking forward to seeing. Some I already know - either through my writers' group or because they've attended workshops I've run in the past. Others I know through blogging or Facebook. And I can't wait to put faces to authors whose books I have worked on but who I've never met in Real Life.

Bookings close on 25th March, so if you'd like to join us all, you'd better act fast.

Happy World Book Day!

2010-03-04T17:09:00.000Z

Here's a way to celebrate this auspicious day ...

Buy a copy of 100 Stories for Haiti.

It contains stories by some wonderful authors, it was put together with awesome speed and efficiency, it's for a cause that cannot have failed to move you over these past weeks, it's a symbol of how writers and the internet can make a real difference and ...

... it's a book, and everyone should buy at least one of them there things today if they possibly can.

Enjoy!

In Bed with Debi

2010-03-01T14:00:00.000Z

Did that get your attention?

Probably not. And definitely not, I suspect, when you hear the list of things I found in my bed when I woke up this morning:

A pair of swimming goggles
An unidentified green cotton pouchy thing
11p in change
A (used) blood glucose test strip

But sadly no car keys. They've been lost since Friday and replaced this morning at a cost of £130. I can think of an awful lot of things I'd've preferred to spend that kind of money on ...

Adapt or die

2010-02-23T16:20:00.000Z

This day should have been spent working on my WIP - except my printer had other ideas ...

I managed (only just) to avoid my initial instinct to crawl under the duvet and stay there until someone made things work (which would be a l-o-o-o-n-g time).

Instead, I finally got round to creating a separate blog for the Revo posts published on this blog in 2008/9.
I've been promising myself I'd do it for ages. I wanted the posts to all be in one place for ease of use for anyone doing research - or just curious.

For those of you who weren't hanging out here back then, the posts are about my time living in Grenada during the revolution, coup, US invasion and aftermath 1982-1983.

For some ridiculous reason, I can't seem to add links in the sidebar, and some of the photos seem to have gone AWOL so it's still a work in progress, but it's there and it's real.

Comments are disabled on the new blog, but feedback will always be welcome here.

There is much spitting and gnashing of teeth chez Alper today

2010-02-23T11:18:00.000Z

Look. I'm not difficult. I don't ask for much. I do believe I give more than I take in life.

So why oh why, when all I want to do is print my own sodding MS, has my printer chosen today to act up? I print other people's MSes all the time without any trouble.

I spent yesterday working on the 1st draft of Book 6 online for the things I already knew about.
Next stage is to print a hard copy and work through to produce a 2nd draft.

I have the time (which is rare in itself).
I certainly have the inclination ...

What I also have is a malevolent printer who's squatting next to my desk chuckling to itself as I sweat and swear over its inner workings.
It is, I tell you.

I'm held in thrall by a useless piece of crap technology that has worked fine(ish) for all the years that I've had it and has chosen today of all days to act out the part of a recalcitrant gremlin.

The way I see it, I now have 3 choices:

1) I can take to my bed and refuse to get up until the world goes away.
2) I can get the saw out of the cupboard and spend a pleasant day hacking bits off the printer.
3) I can go for a walk and attempt to breathe while I do so.

Right. I'll try for option 3. But I tell you this, if when I get back there's no change in the attitude of hpdeskjet 990cxi, you'd better lock your doors and stay away from the windows 'til I tell you it's safe to come back out.

Me and my mates are on the warpath. Shit technology is in our sights and its days are numbered.
Be afraid ... be very afraid ...

The Long List

2010-02-18T13:28:00.003Z

I've just sent my regular 'what I'm up to' email to my agent. It's always good to take a step back and remind myself exactly how it is I spend my time, so I thought I'd reproduce it here.

I've been approached by a new publisher, Glasshouse Books, and asked to contribute a short story to an anthology with a story set in each of London's 33 boroughs. Mine is set in Croydon.
I've been doing an enormous amount of editing, mostly through Writers' Workshop, but some also direct to me. I've also been mentoring an unpublished writer, which has been very rewarding.
I've been hosting creative writing workshops, some alone and some in tandem with Emma Darwin.
I've been asked to be one of the 'high profile' (their words) judges for the Brit Writers' Awards.
I'm participating in the Festival of Writing in York in April: co-hosting the mini course, running a workshop and taking part in Book Doctor one-to-one sessions.

my writers' group has set up its own imprint and published an anthology - the first print run of which has sold out. My contribution is a tighter version of the first chapter of Me, John and a Bomb (largely due to the local link)

As far as I'm concerned though, the most important piece of news is that I've finished the 1st draft of Identity Flawed and I'm very excited by it. My top priority now is to work on this whenever I have time. I hope to get the final draft to you within the next few months.

So you want to be a writer?

2010-02-16T12:50:00.001Z

Are you sure? Are you really sure?
Even after reading this?

Puff the Magic Dragon

2010-02-14T16:57:00.002Z

I'm under no illusions. I know perfectly well that the one thing that could make a difference to my ears as well as my general health would be to stop smoking.

I assumed all smokers knew that. Surely there are none of us left still in denial ...

Check this conversation I had yesterday while huddled in the cold with a fellow addict.

Her: I've got a hole in my lung.
Me: Oh dear. Shouldn't imagine smoking is a good idea ...
Her: Aha! That's where you're wrong. my doctor told me on no account should I give up smoking.
Me: Really?
Her: Yep. Apparently, the tar is blocking up the hole. If I stop, the tar would go and the hole would open up and get bigger.
Me: And the doctor told you this?
Her: (rolling another fag) Yep. I've got asthma too. I've only got about 60% lung function. D'you know what the doctor told me to do if I have an asthma attack?
Me: Let me guess. He told you to smoke a fag.
Her: Yep. He said that way I'm concentrating on taking deep breaths in.
Me: Was this by any chance the same doctor who told you about the tar ...?

Now, like I said, I'm not in denial about the health-giving properties of tobacco, but any activity that has the upside of giving you insights like the above conversation has to have something going for it ...

I got the power!

2010-02-11T23:12:00.002Z

It's like this.
My bionic ears, aka Desdemona and Hortense, are callibrated to my maximum hearing loss (approx 70%).

But here's the thing: my hearing fluctuates.
So when it's not too bad, D & H amplify every sound so that I can hear worms turning the earth. In Australia.
The volume control is not sufficently adjustable to turn it down to a more normal level.

I don't mind really. It makes life ... interesting.
Yesterday, for example, I was sitting on the bus and found I could hear both sides of other people's mobile conversations. Which was even more remarkable as I can't hear my own phone.

Like I say, interesting. It would have been even more so if the conversation I was eavesdropping on had been in English, but you can't have everything.

Anyway, I'm thinking about auditioning for Heroes if only I can convince them my power isn't dependant on digital devices. Please don't shop me ...