Hurrah! I'm over the flu at last. It's meant rather a slow start to the year, but I'm cracking on now and I know that Margaret and Sophie are too.
We are deep in reading and writing reports for the Novel Prize, and are once again amazed at the variety of subject matter and the high standard of writing. The long list will be posted in mid-February and we are hoping to send out the reports then too. There may be a short delay though, as we have had more requests for reports this year. We'll do our best. After a lot of deliberation, we have decided to move the closing date for our short story competitions until later in the year. There is, however, the other Exeter short story competition that is often muddled with ours. It's an excellent competition with good prize money, run by Exeter Writers, one of the oldest writing groups in the country. Their competition closes on 28th February and all the information about entry etc is HERE
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A quartet of Exeter Writers took the train to Honiton last week, where we received a very hearty welcome at Honiton Library. Unfortunately for local residents, the weather was terrible, and the street entertainments, dancing and vintage car rallies were all cancelled. We were warm and dry, however, and enjoyed an afternoon of chat, excellent cake and lashings of tea. Here we are, from left to right Richard Handy, Yours truly, Margaret James and Su Bristow.
The lovely Caro and Rick are doing great things at Tiverton Community Radio, including running a literary festival from June 23rd to 25th. The CWMatters team will be there on Friday 23rd, at the author meet and greet, and also running a workshop in the afternoon. On Sunday 25th, I will be part of a women's writing panel with Su Bristow. I'll post more about that nearer the time, but here the link to theFestival's Fb page.
I was delighted to be a guest on Tiverton Community Radio last week, and they podcast their shows so it's still available. It's roughly in three chunks. In the first I talk about researching and writing Secret of the Song. Then I talk about the Exeter Novel Prize and our competitions, and finally how Margaret James and I wrote The Creative Writing Student's Handbook. Thank you for listening! A little while ago, I was stopped in the street by an ex-creative writing student. I hadn't seen her for years. 'I want to thank you for running that flash competition,' she said. That surprised me, because I didn't remember her story getting through the first round. I began to say I was sorry she hadn't done well, when she put her hand on my arm. 'No, you don't understand. Just entering was giant leap for me.' She went on to tell me about her long listing in another competition and what a boost it was to both her writing and more importantly, her self-esteem. Not only that, she'd now got her own email address, her own Paypal account and she was joining a writing group. There was no stopping her, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see her name pop up on competition listings in the future. I was reminded me of my own, now rather distant, past experience as a novice writer. Strangely, I don't remember writing the story all that clearly, but I do remember printing it out, filling in the entry form (I could hardly hold the pen, I felt so sure I'd make a mistake), then taking it to the postbox at the end of my road, and wishing it good luck. A great deal has happened since I received a call - on my land line - to say I was a finalist. I didn't win outright, but it was a win all the same. It gave me the confidence to keep trying. There are competitions out there for every kind of story, and fortunately they don't all have the same closing date. Deadlines may come all too soon, but they are marvellous for focusing for the mind. It's very easy to let the days slip by if there's nothing to work towards. Competitions are a great way of learning how to deal with rejection. Okay, I didn't win that one, but I might win the next. All writers need to learn that lesson and very quickly, especially if they have a novel they'd like published. Not winning doesn't necessarily mean your story is bad. We don't stipulate a theme for our competitions, but if you enter a competition that does, don't ignore it. If you leave your name on the copy, exceed the word count, or send in late - all these will result in disqualification. That's a shame. The first competition I organised was at the end of a term of creative writing. The class was quite small - eight, I think - but there were the usual rules, anonymous reading and then we had a blind vote for the winner. It was fun. Everyone enjoyed the challenge and the main thing that I discovered, to my surprise, was that everyone had seriously raised their game. Margaret, Sophie and I have all had considerable judging experience, not only of our own competitions, but as guest judges for other organisations. It's always a privilege, and we have a keen eye for winners these days, but that doesn't mean we always agree. As anyone in a book group will know, opinions vary and can be surprising. Can you surprise us? Check out the Exeter Story Prize and Trisha Ashley Award page HERE So much for not blogging! Now, not only do I have news, I am in the news! A little while ago I was asked to write an article for the magazine supplement of the Western Morning News. Oh yes, I thought, what a fantastic opportunity! But what happened next was way beyond my expectations. I was to meet with Kilian Hall aka The Smart Photographer, here in Exeter for a two hour photo shoot. First stop the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, then into Cathedral Yard and the Devon and Exeter Institution, which is where I wrote Secret of the Song. Anyone who has read my novel will know that there are many scenes that take place in the museum, and the pink foyer is an iconic feature of the Victorian building. Kilian was charming and took many fab photos that weren't used in the magazine, so I'm including some here. I'd really recommend him to all my author friends locally, and anyone else who wants a good photograph taken for that matter. It's an odd business being a writer, as everyone reading this probably already knows. You spend a lot of time with imaginary friends, often at the expense of seeing real ones. Then once a book is written, there's the worry whether anyone will read it. Having such an affirmation as a this newspaper feature is thrilling but the editorial gave me a lump in my throat. A big thank you to Becky, the editor. In celebration, Secret of the Song is at special offer price of 99p for the next few days. Here's a pdf of the article.
I am joining the ranks of Hopeless Bloggers. Clearly, once every three or four months is woeful. I had in my mind to delete the entire blog from the top menu bar, but who knows? One day, when life isn't quite so busy, I might resume writing here more often.
I know there are writers who are amazing and write two books a year a, with large families b, with whizzy fingers that type 5k words a day c, by getting up with lark (that could be my problem - no actual larks nearby) d, by not running exciting litererary competitions e, by having no other life but I am not one of those, although I sometimes wish I was. This year will see the completion of my next novel. New Year's Resolutions aren't my thing as a rule but there, I've said it. So if this blog slips even futher down the Hopeless Blogger rankings, that'll be why. I'll keep you posted. Oh wait... |
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