My Writing Year 2017

Today, as tradition requires, I shall be looking back at all the lovely things (writing and otherwise) that I've done during 2017. Many thanks to those of you who made the journey with me.

January - I started the year with the usual teacakes and goal setting with writing chum, Tracy Fells, and I shall be posting how I got on with them after Christmas. I re-joined the RNA New Writers' Scheme. The People's Friend made a new audio of one of my stories, 'Out of the Dark' which you can read here . Merryn Allingham was guest on my blog talking about her inspiration for The Buttonmaker's Daughter. Vivien Hampshire wrote a guest post for me on how to say thank you.

February -  The sixth anniversary of the day I started writing. Louise Jensen was my guest, talking about psychological thrillers. Simon Whaley was guest on my blog, talking about the business of writing.

March - We had a lovely weekend away in the grounds of a medieval abbey in Dorset and Alex Gazzola wrote a guest post on the mistakes writers make. I went on a ballroom weekend in Bournemouth and started writing my second novel.

April - I wrote an article for The People's Friend about a bread making course I'd been on and wrote a blog post on how to make your hobbies work for you. Margaret Mounsden wrote a post for me on writing pocket novels. Deirdre Palmer was my guest talking about writing a sequel. Went on a jive weekend to Hayling Island.

May - I interviewed Lynda Stacey. Had a wonderful holiday in Cadgwith Cove, Cornwall.

June - Liz Eeles was guest on my blog. I interviewed commonwealth regional prizewinner, Tracy Fells. Went on a weekend to Bath with my daughter to find Mr Darcy. Went to the RNA Summer Party.

July - Took an afternoon tea bus tour of London with my daughter. Went to the RNA Conference and interviewed Susan Griffin about what it was like to be an RNA Conference newbie.

August - Wendy's Writing Now had its sixth birthday. Alison Maynard wrote a blog post on her five tips for editing a novel. Sonja Price wrote a post for me on writing a novel set in unfamiliar territory. Finished writing my second novel and it received a glowing critique from my RNA New Writing Scheme reader. I sadly parted company with my agent. My article on the ballroom weekend in Bournemouth was published in The People's Friend.

September - Debbie Howells wrote a post about her latest psychological thriller. We had our annual holiday to Greece - this time to beautiful Paxos.  My novel pitch in the #TellAMH twitter event was a winner.

October - Alison Morton wrote a blog post on what not to do when self-publishing. Vivien Hampshire wrote a post on an insider's guide to a blog tour. It was publication day for my third story collection, Silent Night. I wrote a post on book marketing for dummies. I was a guest on Clare Flynn's blog. The commissioning editor of a major publishing house requested to read manuscripts of both novels. I was on Lynda Stacey's blog, talking about seeing Christmas through other people's eyes. Angela Petch interviewed me on her blog. I was guest on Anne Hamilton's blog. I was interviewed by Debbie at Brook Cottage Books, Emma at Books and Winegums and Rosie Hendry. I was invited to put an extract from Silent Night on Books in the My Handbag blog.

November - I wrote a post on editing out banned words. I went to the RNA Winter Party. I wrote a post on making Twitter Banners and adverts. I was guest on Karen Aldous' blog talking about the five things not to do at Christmas, the RNA blog where I discussed moving from short story to novel and Katrina Marie's blog talking about weaving Christmas memories into my story collection.  Had a week on La Gomera. 

December - I was interviewed by Morton Gray and Anne at Books and Authors. Full manuscript for first novel was requested by an agent. Second novel was shortlisted in Flash500 novel opening and synopsis competition. 

** Since writing this post my novel has won the Flash500 novel opening and synopsis competition! **

I haven't mentioned my story publications in this post as it would have taken too long to find them but I do have two in the Christmas special edition of The People's Friend which is out this week.

I'm feeling rather exhausted now!

And that's it folks. Apart from letting you know that as a special Christmas present (and a reward for wading through this post) I have reduced the price of the ebook version of all my short story collections to 99p for the Christmas week. Yes... all three of them!

Why not treat yourself on Amazon

The Last Rose Launch Party!

Welcome to the party to celebrate the launch of my new story collection: The Last Rose. No, no, you’re not the first to arrive and I can see by the bottle of bubbly that you’re holding that you’ll probably not going be the first to leave either!

Let me take your coat and pour you a drink... oh, I see you already have one. Well, that’s the spirit. The pink champagne goes beautifully with my rose theme, doesn’t it?

Yes, the place is rather grand isn’t it but I thought I’d push the boat out as it’s the second book I’ve published. I’m glad you’ve chosen to dress up for the occasion – that hat really suits you and I haven’t seen earings like those since I was last in Primark.

I’ve made a bit of an effort myself. Do you like my nails? I can’t pick anything up but luckily Tracy Fells is here to help out. “More canapes over here please, Tracy. What do you mean we’ve run out? Have a rummage around in your very large rucksack - I’m sure there must be some more hiding at the bottom.”

I thought, instead of a buffet, we’d have a sit down meal. Don’t the tables look beautiful. Patsy Collins said she'd make me some rose table decorations but this is all she managed to come up with.

Please find yourself a seat at the table, there are some fabulous cakes and desserts which will be coming round soon. No, there’s not point in fighting to sit next to Della Galton or Teresa Ashby, they are not going to give away the secrets of their success. And just because Shirley from The People’s Friend is here, doesn’t mean she wants you to hand her that submission... go on put it away!

While the orchestra is tuning up, let me tell you a little about The Last Rose. It’s a collection of thirteen short stories about family and friendship and all the stories have previously been published in either The People’s Friend, Take a Break Fiction Feast or Woman’s Weekly. Are there any stories about my own family in here? Well, the marks on the doorframe in my story, ‘A Growing Family’ can actually be found in my kitchen and both my daughter and I have identical gold necklaces just like the mother and daughter in 'Links in a Chain'.

There should be something in The Last Rose for everyone: some, like 'The Writing on the Wall' and 'All Our Yesterdays' are thought provoking, others such as 'Look at Me' and 'Feels Like Coming Home' are poignant. If you like humour, though, 'The Toast of Maida Vale' is the one for you. Hopefully, whatever your taste, you will not be left wanting.

Why family and friendship? Well, they are both very important to me. Here are some little people who many of you will recognise – my grandchildren. They are three of my favourite people in the world and fabulous for exploiting when you have a book to market. If you’d just stand over there little ones and hold up the book so everyone can see and look cute... that’s the way!

Sorry, I’m going to have to leave you for a moment as my editor, Alan, has just arrived with some music for the DJ to play later. Oh dear, it looks like he’s brought his whole 80's collection and I have a horrid suspicion that Kajagoogoo might be in there somewhere – I’d better have a quiet word.

What a fantastic cake! I’d like to say I baked it myself but... well, you know me too well to know that to be true. Do help yourself to a slice... oh, all right two then... and while I have you captive, I’ll read you a snippet from one of my stories: 'The Writing on the Wall'.

The word appears slowly. As I pull away wet strips of wallpaper, the wall beneath is slick and shiny with paste but with every upward sweep of the scraper, the letters become more defined. Some letters are written large and others smaller. The writing is bold and defiant, written across the blank canvas of the wall with a flourish. The light is going and dusk has fallen by the time I uncover the final letter... REMEMBER. Remember what?

No, of course I’m not going to tell you the rest. If I did, there would be no reason for you to buy it here, would there? I’m not that silly! It's a bargain at £1.99 don't you think? Don't like Kindle? You're in luck because The Last Rose is available here in paperback too for £4.99... just for you! Thank you so much for coming to my launch party. If you do read it, please consider leaving a review on Amazon... I'd be really grateful.

 

I'm afraid I'm going to leave you now and mingle but I'll be back soon. In the meantime, thank you for coming and enjoy the party!

My Goals of 2014 - Did I Succeed?

At the beginning of 2014, I sat down over teacakes with writing chum Tracy and set myself some writing goals for the coming year - you can read the original full post here.

The goals (in brief) are below and I have commented on whether or not they have been achieved.

Goal: Increase my story output to three stories every two weeks.
Achieved? Yes and no. I managed this for several months until it became stressful! I realised that by forcing myself to write more stories, I was concentrating more on quantity than quality and unless my story is my very best, I don't want to send it. I also realised that by writing more stories I had to come up with more ideas and this started to feel like a chore rather than a pleasure. With this in mind, I dropped back to one story a week again - this feels just right and the ideas come naturally now.

Goal: Achieve my hundredth sale by the end of the year.
Achieved? I sold 102!

Goal: Write another serial
Achieved? Yes. Serial number two was accepted by The People's Friend and is almost completed.

Goal: Write a novel
Achieved? Umm... no. I started - really I did - but there was always something else I wanted to write. I'm a bit disappointed in myself but will try harder next year!

Goal: Publish a collection of my short stories in time for Christmas.
Achieved: A gold star for this as Room in Your Heart was published in September (available here.) It was only ever meant to be an ebook but after many requests, I published a paperback version as well.

So, as you can see, it was a mixed year but on balance, I was very happy with my achievements.

But do you know what the best goal of all was? It was to meet up with Tracy once a month to discuss targets and put the writing world to rights. We've managed every month for the whole year and I couldn't have a better writing buddy. I'll be posting my new targets for 2015 very soon - so look out for them.

Meet My Cover Designer - Guest Post Sarah Hughes

I would like you all to give a huge welcome to my very talented cover designer, Sarah Hughes. Sarah graduated with a degree in illustration from the University of Lincoln in 2013 and is now pursuing a career in illustration.

I am absolutely thrilled with the cover Sarah has created for my short story collection, Room in Your Heart, and thought it would be nice if she could give us an idea of what it's like to be an illustrator and the steps behind creating a book cover.


What made you decide to be an illustrator?

I always wanted to do something art related. Throughout school and college, I dabbled in various art and design subjects and it was just a matter of narrowing down my choices. The freedom of all that illustration can encompass is what ultimately led me to choose that route - along with the ability to bring in elements of the other subjects should I want to.


Tell me a little about winning the cover design competition at Lincoln University.

There was a competition to design a cover for a children's novel, The Strange Encounter of Sally Shakespeare and Toby Tinker by Adam Rawlins, that was being published by a local publishing company (Hawkward Books). They targeted our university in particular for entrants so I was up against most of my classmates. Ultimately, the publisher and the author felt I had best captured the essence of the story, without being too direct, while also suiting the audience. They thought the cover looked nice too - but you could say that about plenty of the other entries - so these were some of the specific reasons mine stood out for them.


I absolutely love your cover design for my romantic story collection, Room in Your Heart. Can you take us through the process of how you designed this cover, Sarah?

Well, first I read a couple of the stories from the book to get a feel of what kind of personality the cover should have. From there, it was a case of getting out a bunch of ideas, starting with quick thumbnail sketches. These were then narrowed down and I worked with what was left to create more finished, detailed artwork before narrowing these down again, deciding on the final design and turning them into the finished image.


How do you work with the author in order to create the perfect design?

I involve them in each of the narrowing down stages so I know that I'm not completely off track and that the author is getting what they want. Also I make sure I have enough information to understand what an author wants from their book: sometimes there are nuances in genres and I don't want to misrepresent the author's work. For example, for this book the genre was romance but romance can be epic, chic lit, family drama... and those would all call for different covers, so getting a feel for the author's work is important to me.


How many drafts do you have to do before settling on the final design?

It mostly depends on whether I have a clear idea of what I want the image to look like early on or if I need to work through different ways to do things to find what I'm looking for.


How important do you think a cover is to a book's success?

Pretty important. I'm sure if a book had the worst cover on earth but was a truly spectacular book, then word of mouth would eventually get it to where it deserved. Generally speaking though, there are a lot of books out there and a good cover is one of the best ways to stand out amongst them.




Would you say you had a signature style?

Not quite as signature a style as some illustrators but there are some elements to my work that reoccur. It's more related to the way I use colours and create the art than having a specific way to draw things. I do eventually hope to fine-tune my style to a point where someone who knew my work would recognise something else I had done as mine. I would like to build up my signature style over time.


Are there any books you have seen where you've thought... I wish I'd designed that?

Maybe in terms of money but seriously, not really. If I like a cover that much, I'd be more likely to save it to a folder somewhere on my computer as inspiration, than wish I'd done it.


Where would you like to be in five years time?

Well, I would love to be at a point where I have published a graphic novel and have a steady stream of requests for book covers. I would also like to have a line of my illustrations on T-shirts in a high street shop and designed album covers and posters for musicians. There are quite a few pathways illustrators can branch down and I doubt in five years I'll have made a success of them all but I would like to get the chance to work on a variety of projects. Mainly, though, I would just like to get to the point where I can be making a living wage out it this, meagre or otherwise... preferably otherwise!

Thank you very much, Sarah, for being my guest this week and I wish you every success in your career.


If you are interested in discussing illustrations for your own project or would just like to find out a bit more about Sarah, she can be contacted here:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/SH_illustration

Website: http://cargocollective.com/sarahhughes/

Room in Your Heart, a collection of romantic short stories, previously published in The People's Friend, is available for Kindle and in paperback here

Happy with your proofreading?

I've been thinking a lot about proofreading recently. This is because I have been getting my short story collection, Room in Your Heart, ready for publication next week. Considering my stories have all been published in national magazines, I had thought that I had submitted them error free... how wrong could I be!

Once I'd uploaded the collection onto kindle, I checked again and four sides of A4 later, I realised how much had been missed by both me and my lovely husband (who proofreads for me). My writing buddy, Tracy Fells, looked at the stories again - she'll be reviewing my collection soon, so look out for that - and found more!

I thought that would be it, but when we were preparing the book for print publishing with CreateSpace we found more! I now know what an amazing job our magazine editors do before our stories are finally printed in their publications.

It also made me realise how absolutely essential it is to use a professional proofreader for a longer piece of work - such as a novel... fresh eyes and all that. If anyone has used a proofreader who they are pleased with, please feel free to add their names in your comments.

Shame a proof reader wasn't used for this children's book. I was glad, when I looked at it with my granddaughter, that she can't read yet - or it would have been a pretty ropey lesson in punctuation and she wouldn't have been happy about that. Can you spot all the errors?

 
Finally, I will be holding a launch party here on my blog next Monday and I would love you all to join me... and invite your friends!