Cirque de la Vie

Delighted to announce that my short story, Cirque de la Vie, has been placed as a runner up in the Retreat West quarterly circus themed competition! 

Part of my prize was to have the story professionally recorded by a voice artist...and I have to say it's flippin' awesome! There are all sorts of background noises that add to the atmosphere of the story. You can listen to it here:

It was a story that came to me all at once. I wanted to include various circus performers or acts, and I had in my head 'the circus of life' as a working title. But which characters or acts to link to which aspects of life? 

As is the way with stories, it combines fiction with life in places - I loved the Bat Out of Hell musical; I was a lumbering lump when pregnant with Squidgeling T, and that really is what the midwife said to me when he was born! 

If you want to see what the judge had to say about it - or read the story rather than listen to it - you can find it here.

A little bit of flash...The Midsummer Madness

Wrote this for the 'Midsummer Madness' themed monthly competition in the Den of Writers...it was chosen as winner. (I get to set July's challenge now).

Anyway, I thought I'd share it with you, 'cos I'm rather proud of this one. It's less than 400 words.

The Midsummer Madness

“Are ye well prepared?”

Aliz nods, her eyes wide and dark in her face. “I soaked the rope in rosemary water like ye said, an’ the pegs were whittled fresh from holly.”

“Good. And the other?”

“I have it.”

No tremor in her voice. Will she remain as unaffected if she is forced to use it?

“Good.” I tap my finger on my top lip and glance around the clearing. Have I missed anything? The symbol is marked on the floor with white flour, thick black candles stand at each of its points, the jug is filled with rosewater… “Let’s get on, then.”

Aliz sprinkles the rosewater and the scent of summer blooms hang heavy in the air, masking the rancid stench of fear.

The earth is warm through my shirt when I lay within the floured sign. I keep silent as the still-damp ropes bite into my wrists and ankles, their aroma sharp and cutting against that of the roses. The ground vibrates under me as the pegs are hammered in and the other ends of the ropes secured.

Curtains of black hair frame her face when she leans over me.

“Is all done?”

She nods.

“Ye will stay by me, and watch to see if the madness descends?”

“Aye, my love.” She brushes my lips with her own.

“And if it does, ye will end me?”

Her eyes close then, shutting me out. But she nods. Again.

“Then move to yon trees and wait. Keep the blade near.”

I turn my face away so I will not see her leave. So little time we’ve had, Aliz and I, but if the madness descends on me, as it does on some men on the Midsummer of their twenty-fifth year, she will at least have something to remember me by.

Pray hope the babe in her belly is a girl, for I would not wish this uncertainty on any son. And I doubt I have Aliz’s strength to end a life if, by some miracle, I survive this night.

National Writer's Day

No, I didn't know there was one either! But there is, led by First Story. You can find out more about it here , but essentially it aims to promote and celebrate the pleasure and power of creative writing.

As part of the day, there's a challenge... 

HOW TO DO THE #247 CHALLENGE:

1. Write a 24-word story on a piece of paper (or record on video) starting with ‘One day…’
2. Take a photo of your story or take a photo of yourself with your writing
3. Share your original pieces of writing via Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, using #247challenge.
4. Tag three friends!

Simple! Why not have a go?

Here's mine:

Once a writer, always a writer?

I've recently joined a facebook group for students who went to my primary school in the 70s and 80s.

There are some amazing memories being posted - strange how names and events come back to you when you see the photos of old schoolmates. I found a few photos of my own, and although I recognise many faces, I don't often remember the names that should go with them... It's still something I struggle with, if I'm honest. I can remember you and things I know about you, but not your name. (In fact I can forget a name within moments of being told it...)

Anyway, in reminiscing and looking for the photos I found my old junior school reports, which cover Years 3 to 6 in modern schooling. What became apparent in reading them was that, from early on, I was writing stories, reading lots, and generally being creative rather than mathsy or sporty.

It was especially interesting to read about my writing...

Y3: Katherine thoroughly enjoys reading. Her creative writing is imaginative and carefully expressed with colourful descriptions and good vocabulary. She has learned to join her writing, but now tends to be rather untidy occasionally.

Y4: Katherine reads very well and seems to enjoy reading both to herself and aloud. She puts her spelling and vocabulary to good use in her creative writing, which is always lively and interesting, and sustained at length.

Y5: Creative English has been outstanding. She is able to express feelings and details and shows a sympathy for her characters. She writes lengthy stories and her punctuation, grammar and spelling can be so accurate that they hardly need correcting. She has an extensive vocabulary and her work is most enjoyable to read.

Y6: In her creative English work, Katherine is highly imaginative. She produces lively, spontaneous poetry full of descriptive phrases. Her stories are lengthy and follow a well developed plot. The excitement generated by the dialogue and the action shows that Katherine derives much pleasure from writing her stories. Punctuation, sentence structure and use of paragraphs are excellent. Her extensive vocabulary reflects her love of words and the depth of her reading.

Reading them actually made me a bit sad.

While the reports indicate that I've always loved reading and writing, and that I used to write decent stories even as a child, the reports make me realise how much of that joy and ability I lost over the years that came after.

When I think of how many years I've spent, re-learning the art of writing stories after a decade in a microbiology laboratory and another ten as a stay at home mum, there's a little bit of me that can't help wondering whether I should've tried harder to become an author earlier in my life. Especially now that my current ambition is to have published all five of Tilda's stories by the time I'm 60!

Mind, having said that, I'm also a believer that things happen at the right time; I know that if I'd not changed focus to science and worked as a trainer in microbiological awareness, and if I hadn't spent so many years training as a guider, then I wouldn't have developed my presentation, workshop and  and speaking skills which have been so vital to my school visits and talks. If the physical act of writing stories had all come too easily, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to seek out help, and as a result, make such wonderful writing friends. If I'd never offered to help listen to reluctant readers at my children's school, I'd never have even thought about writing stories for other people to read.

Maybe, sometimes, you need to let a talent rest, so that you can rediscover it later? But not just rediscover it - rediscover it and combine it with a few other skills you've learnt, so that it develops into something even bigger and better?

I wonder what 11 yr old me would have said, if you'd told her back then that one day those creative writing stories would mean she'd one day be published and passing on her love of writing to children her own age?

When your writing needs a Retreat...Part 1

The last few days, I've been on retreat - writing retreat.

A couple of ex-Cloudie friends, Moira (aka Maddie Please - The Summer of Second Chances; Come Away with me; A Year of New Adventures; The Mini Break) and Jane, set up A Place to Write some years ago, organising writing days and retreats. I decided last year to book into their Spring Writing Retreat in wonderful Weobley, partly because Mr Squidge is going off on a boys week later this year (windsurfing in Greece, Coronavirus permitting) and I thought if he can go away for a week, then so can I.

It has been totally worth it.

I drove down to Weobley on the Tuesday morning. Apart from half an hour spent in stationary traffic on the M42 because of an accident, and one wrong turn where the A44 morphs into another minor A road without any obvious signage, it was a good run. The flooding near Worcester was a sight to behold; muddy brown water, stretching as far as the eye could see on either side of the road. Although I've seen flooding around the Soar at home, this was a whole different level of flooding to what I'm used to.

Jane and Moira made me feel most welcome when I arrived, and I met Kirsten and Isabel, my lovely fellow retreatees. (Is that a word? If not, it is now!)

The Throne, where we were staying, is a magnificent sprawling 15th century house, and - when the heating was working (it wasn't on Monday night, apparently, so all the stoves were lit on Tuesday morning until the lovely Richard came to sort the heating out) it was the toastiest 400-year old house I've ever stayed in.

The Throne

Moira took me up the (first) wobbly staircase to my room - I knew it was mine because look what was on the door;

In fact, every retreatee who'd been published had their book cover on their bedroom door...and those that hadn't been published - yet - had made-up ones.

And my room itself? Well, take a look at this:

Glorious, isn't it? I could only climb into bed from one side though, because the floor sloped and one side had to be propped up on blocks to keep the bed level.

We don't think it's the EXACT bed that King Charles I slept in, but apparently he stayed a night in the house after the Battle of Naseby...

Then it was a quick tour of the rest of the house. I haven't got photos of everything that caught my attention, but here's a flavour...

The door to a bedroom...

And the bedroom itself

The modern kitchen extension against one of the
older parts of the house

The mantelpiece was as tall as me

Just one of the cosy writing nooks...

Beautiful bedroom beams

A lot of bare ceiling and cobwebs over the
bathroom 'pods'!

And some of the unplastered wattle inside the house.

I missed out the Goldilocks room (three metal-framed single beds in a shared room) and the rooms where folk were already in and unpacked...and the graffiti cut into a beam in the entrance hall.

Then it was back through my room, down the second staircase, and into the kitchen again. Yes, I did say second staircase, and yes, I did say through my room; I had two doors! I decided the edges of some of the stairs on this staircase had been nibbled by giant mice, they were so wibbly... 

After lunch - homemade spicy soup, delish - we all wandered off to various nooks to set up and get writing. Here's where I based myself.

The entrance hall

I remember reading somewhere that yellow is an energetic colour, good for creativity, and it certainly seemed to work; by the time we ate dinner that first evening, I had 2K words down on Tilda 4. Because let's face it - I was on a writing retreat - I needed to get some writing done! I decided to focus on bashing out new ideas rather than edit Tilda 3, and it was so good to be able to do that, knowing I'd be fed, watered, and very comfortable for the next few days.

The sun painting pictures on the other side of my nook

Wednesday morning, I got up much earlier than I would have done at home because a heavy vehicle passed by at 5am, so I only dozed thereafter. A few more hundred words after breakfast but before the workshop, and then the 'Day Girls' (some of the members of Jane's writing group) arrived and we cracked on. Here we all are, ready to work hard round the dining table...

L to R; Ann, Gill, Kirsten, Sue, Isabel, Jane, Moira

The workshops were run by the very lovely Isabel Costello (Paris Mon Amour, and The Literary Sofa blog), and focused on Inspiration in the first, and Motivation and Resilience in the second. I'm going to blog separately about the workshops in Parts 2 & 3 of Weobley, because I need time to digest and think about what I got from them before I share them with you. Suffice to say at this point that they were thought-provoking, fun, and very, very useful.

After lunch, it was free writing time again. I set up this time in the beautiful contemporary kitchen, and managed another thousand or so words before dinner.

And that was the pattern for the following day, too. Wake early, breakfast, writing, workshop, lunch, writing (and a quick walk around Weobley, taking in all the history and black-and-white-buildings. There might even be a blog post all about gravestones, because I found some gorgeous and surprising ones in the churchyard), dinner and conversation before early to bed.

It was such a luxury to be catered for. Jane and Moira shared the cooking between them, and in addition to the lovely homemade soup on the first day, we were treated to homemade cakes, quiche, curry, fish pie, and Chinese. We were plied with wine too - but only once the writing had been done. Who was it who said 'write drunk, edit sober'? Afraid that doesn't work for me, personally... The kettle was always on, and if you got peckish in between meals you could always help yourself to fruit from the bowl, or suck on a mint. I can't thank them both enough.

It was a brilliantly productive, relaxed, inspiring time.

Did I really need a retreat to get my writing done? I know I'm perfectly capable of writing without, but now, having done it, I think I did need it. My writing time is often fitted around other things and/or other people... For two and a half days, I could allow myself to focus on writing and pretty much nothing else. And I got a lot done in that time. Bearing in mind that two mornings were spent in workshops, I still managed to get 5K words down before I came home. I'd never have got that far in my normal weekly routine.

The retreat's not just about writing though...it's the conversation around the dinner table. Granted, a lot of the time it was about writing, but about experiences in the world of writing more than what we were writing about. We chatted about families, about ourselves, about the things we like to do outside of writing, about Coronavirus (can't avoid the blessed subject at the moment) and memories related to food - particularly after the Wednesday evening raspberry trifles...

In fact, d'you know what the last few days reminded me of? The best of the Word Cloud. Those days when we came together in one community as writers of all levels and experiences - chatting on the home page, sharing news of progress made and setbacks suffered, having a go at writing short pieces like we used to in the monthly comps... Yes. It was like a mini-Cloud experience.

Writing's such a lonely thing to do, most of the time, maybe I needed that support and encouragement, that time with like-minded people, to refresh both myself and my writing spirit.

Let's hope I can hang onto the positive vibes and continue to make good progress as the normal routine of life begins to make itself felt again.

(Huge thanks to my fellow retreatees and to the Day Girls for making it such a positive experience.)

A Milestone for Tilda 3 - and Car Park Capers

You've heard of A Tale of Two Cities? This is A Blog in Two Halves...

This morning, I finished the first handwritten edit of Tilda 3.

What does that mean, I hear you ask? It means that Tilda 3 has moved from the first s****y draft in a notebook, past the first s****y draft on computer, and is now a paper copy full of multicoloured scribbles. It's still as far from a proper, finished novel as you can get, but my read through has helped me to see where the novel needs expanding, and how the mahoosive climax can be written so it's all Tilda's fault...

It also means that, when I head off to Weobley next week, to spend four days at a Writing Retreat run by two wonderful ex-cloudie friends - Jayne and Moira - I am in a position to either start typing up all the edits to Tilda 3 OR crack on with the first s****y draft on computer of Tilda 4. This fourth adventure for Tilda is going to start in a dark place... and involves Issrayan dragons.

Nuff said.

And the Car Park Capers?

Yesterday, Mr Squidge and I went to Leicester. We don't go often - we're not into big name shopping and we can get most of what we need in the town centre at home, but I had to pick up the new Paschal candle and palm crosses for church from the cathedral shop, and he wanted to visit Nada, a zero waste store. I also had to begin the process of applying for my e-Visa for India (I'm off to Trichy again, mid-April, in case I hadn't already mentioned it), so we planned to drop by Belgrave Gate and a particular travel agent's on the way home.

Anyhow, we checked where we could plug Sparky in to charge while we mooched, and headed off to the car park.

Now, finding the recharging points in any car park is a bit of an art. They are normally on the ground floor, well signposted and have green parking bays. We drove around all three - extensive - floors in the Highcross Rooftop Car Park and couldn't see a single one. Now, we didn't really need to charge - we'd have got home again quite comfortably - but we thought we'd do it anyway, as keeping the battery topped up is better than letting it run low.

We ended up pressing the 'Help' button. "I'll get my colleague to talk to you," the nice lady on the other end of the intercom said. Five minutes later, with no more contact from the disembodied voice, we were about to park up and not bother charging. Then said colleague appeared in person - and directed us from the sunny rooftop, back down onto the first level, to 'the dark new bit.' That didn't sound particularly attractive, as dark bits in car parks aren't very safe, but off we went.

We drove round the roof twice, trying to find the way out (signposting really isn't this car park's strong point - the exit was a very narrow ramp, hidden behind a wall with a teeny tiny sign) and followed the instructions back to the first level. Even there, we couldn't find 'the dark bit'. Then - Alleluia! - a green charge point sign. And another, pointing the way to - yup, The Dark Bit.

Now, the reason for the darkness became apparent as we drove towards the charge pod points. The lights were on motion sensors. So this newer part of the car park was being environmental with reduced lighting for most of the time because - let's face it - all it would've been doing otherwise was shining on empty, stationary vehicles.

We plugged in, and it took a while to download the app to enable charging - different suppliers have different apps you need to sign up to, which results in lots of faff when you start using a new supplier anywhere. I spent the time admiring the artwork... They were very keen to get the environmental message over, weren't they?

After all that, can you believe we didn't get much of a charge? It took so long to download the app, the charge point didn't let us draw any more power because it didn't think we were signed up to it.

But at least we know where we can go in future. And we both got the shopping we needed, had a lovely lunch in The Globe pub, and a mooch around the city centre in the sunshine. On balance, a good day.

How to market your books - and yourself, as a writer

I've been forced recently to question whether I do enough to market my own books; I've had some really disappointing sales figures.

It got me thinking, and I was challenged to take a look at what I already do, marketing-wise, to see whether I can improve things. So...

Blogging.

I blog, and not as often as I used to, I'll admit.

There are two reasons for that. The first is that over the last twelve, possibly eighteen months, I've been in a bit of a funk. Life has felt like a huge effort - my world seems to have shrunk and I've been pretty down at times. I believe I am peri-menopausal (sorry fellas, if you're reading!) which has affected my mood, confidence, concentration, and motivation. Quite frankly on occasions I've just wanted to shut the world out and curl up in a ball until I feel better. Another reason is that the Squidgelings are both at uni now, and I have found it extremely hard to adapt to them not being at home, as well as coping with issues they have had while they're away. Maybe I should've pushed myself to still share my life and writing, but I simply couldn't.

At least the blog's still here, and it's still the first place people come to, to find out about me and what I write. I like writing posts - and I hope you enjoy reading them, even if there haven't been as many of late.

Website.

I do have one. But set up after the Scribbles 'because authors need a website', I never really saw the need for it after establishing a blog - and it's horribly out of date. I used a freebie website thing to set it up, but the problem was that I didn't find it easy to use or make changes to. I was also using it so infrequently, I'd forget how to do things or the templates would have been updated and I didn't have a clue. I've said before I'm a bit of a numpty when it comes to IT - I'd rather not do it than make a mess.

I did look at getting one set up for me, but the cost was prohibitive, especially if I wanted to transfer all my Scribbles over to a new domain/host/whatever it's called. I will work on it in the future, but even with some lovely advice available from BInk, it's literally all double-dutch to me.

Facebook.

I'm on it. As myself, not as 'Author', and I'll admit to being very careful here about posting marketing information. Mainly cos facebook take offence if you sell on an undesignated page, but also because facebook for me is about more than selling. It's friendship and keeping in touch, and I don't want to jeopardise friendships by seeming to ram my books down people's throats. Of course I share when I've got a new book out or a cover reveal, but I don't do it to gain sales - I do it to share my excitement.

In all of my social media, I'm genuinely me, and that's something that seems to be really valuable when...

Selling the books.

The vast majority of sales for my novels are direct sales - it's relationships that sell books in my experience. People will buy once they've met me, but if they see my books as being written by an unknown author, they don't tend to take a punt without some knowledge under their belt or a recommendation. That's where catchy blurb/eyecatching cover becomes important too.

In the vast ocean of books on Amazon, my novels are mere amoeba and have to fight extra hard for attention. Especially when it's probably not children - my target market - doing the searching for suitable reading materials, but their parents and grandparents. Ditto on a bookstore shelf; most bookstores have children's titles limited to the big names or popular formula series that children love to read.

My novels have proven to have crossover appeal (instead of middle-grade, they need an 'anyone over 9 years' tag!) but labelling them as children's books can put adults off buying them for themselves.

And the price...I've said it before and I'll say it again - selling children's books is hard. An unknown author, whose books are twice the price of a known author (I know, there's also economy of scale to consider) is unlikely to get chosen. But a lot of the time the price is out of my control...

So relationship is really important for my sales figures.

Reviews.

I do get some lovely comments from readers. I also get some lovely reviews, but not very many. That said, I'm not very good at asking for feedback. All my books are listed on Goodreads and I've done giveaways; I've had one review as a result. One. From several, multiple copy giveaways.

Book reviewers like to have ARC's (Advance Reader Copies), and I'd be happy to send some out - but who do you ask? Children? Adult readers? Book bloggers? (The latter are really hard to get featured by, and I've not seen many for children's books.) The latter tend to focus on big names...

Author events.

I do a fair few of these in schools, for groups, or at fairs. I normally hope to cover my table fee, if nothing else - but schools can be tricky as they may not want you to sell direct. Most of the money I make as an author comes from events where I'm giving a talk or running a creative writing session and charge a fee - any books sold on top are usually a bonus.

Guest blogs.

I don't do this very often, but sometimes I write blogs for other sites. This widens my reach, but doesn't necessarily convert to sales.



Looking at all of that, I think I market myself more than my books - but I market myself in order to sell my books. Does that matter? It gets sales...but maybe I need to backtrack a step.

Why did I start writing books in the first place? To give readers good stories. Did I want to be rich and famous? No - I wanted to encourage children to read. So maybe, just maybe, I need to not be so worried about the marketing? Having said that, I'll ask for more reviews. I'll blog more. I'll take another look at the website and attend more author events if life allows me to. I might even blow my own trumpet a bit more.

Oh, and I'll be sure to hand out some of my new business cards...

When writing's exciting

For most of the time, writing can feel like an uphill slog. You simply have to keep your bum in the seat and your pen in your hand (or fingers on the keyboard, depending on how you work).

Yes, there are occasions when I can legitimately NOT write, because I'm giving a talk, attending a book fair, or perhaps a workshop fro my own benefit; that's all still part of being an author, but it's not writing.

But most of the time, you're actually writing. And ultimately, it's a grind to get the story down, to create something that a publisher's going to want to publish and readers are going to want to read.

During that process, any author will tell you that they recognise certain stages. Here are mine:

1. Enthusiasm.

Particularly relevant to the early stages of working out a story, when ideas seem ten-a-penny and you can't get the notes down quickly enough. Notebooks are strewn around the house, with weird jottings like 'Name change!' or 'find out about cheesemaking' which make you wonder if you were suffering from temporary insanity. But you don't stop - you trust they'll all make sense at some point and be vitally important to the story you're creating. (Beware - this stage can also develop into 'Researchitis', when you get so bogged down in finding out facts to use in your story, you forget about the actual story...)

2. Hard work.

Thrashing it out. 'Growing' the story. Asking yourself questions until you're absolutely certain of this character's motivation or the time of day in that scene. Seeing the story develop into something you've got a real hope with. This probably covers my notebook version, when I'm working the story out in a general sense, and the 'shitty first draft on computer' stage too. It'll also carry me along quite comfortably to a little over half way through the 'first proper write up' on computer, where I'm beginning to edit fairly closely to produce a decently presented and structured version of the novel. Then...

3. The stall. 

You reach a point where, whichever way you turn, you can't see how to make the darn story work. All those great ideas you had seem really stupid now, and you need to fix them. But every resolution you think of churns up a new issue somewhere else, and the story begins to morph into a massively complex beast and you can't tame it. So you stop. Or feel discouraged. Or wonder how on earth you ever thought writing this novel was going to be a good idea. (And also the point where I'm most likely to give up on a story, though it's not happened that often. If I do give up, I hate that the story has 'beaten' me.)

4. Excitement.

I have to force myself back to it, ignore the stall. I'll go over what I've already written, editing the obvious things, but essentially familiarising myself with the story again. When I reach the point where I'm writing new stuff, I've probably rewritten or tweaked a fair proportion of what was already down and causing me issues. I'll have spotted plot holes and stunted dialogue or inconsistencies, made notes on how to address them, and the excitement begins to build as I continue. It's all becoming clearer in my head, the writing's flowing, and I'm then at a point where - quite suddenly - the momentum of the story is carrying me along, and I can feel the pressure mounting and my character's are doing their best to make things right but things are going wrong and there seems no way out for them and then - POW!

5. The Finishing.

There's a resolution. Everything's not necessarily finished, but the story ties up in a logical place and it feels - finally - complete. Like a real story at long last.

6. The proper edit.

The simple (hah!) act of going over the whole story and polishing it until it's glowing.

At the moment, I'm working on Tilda 3, and I'm at the fourth stage. In fact, I'm only taking time off from it now to tell that I've reached it because I'm SO excited! It's getting very Jason and the Argonauts, and Tilda's right in the middle of the action, heading full tilt towards a climax of GIGANTIC proportions.

It might still be a few weeks before I reach the fifth stage, but it feels close. A lot closer than when I was stuck at stage 3, anyway.

For now, I'll keep writing...

No, that's not Tilda - that's Jason!

A boxful of books

On an extremely wet Tuesday, I received a delivery...

Tilda has arrived!!!

The books are a larger size than StarMark or Kingstone - they feel quite substantial. But it's not just the size or fabulous cover I am excited about. Look at this spine:

There's a number on it...indicating that this one isn't a standalone title - there are more to come! (Excuse the highly patterned knees in the pic; I had just got home from my dancing class when the parcel arrived. I'd not had time to get changed...)

And on the back, there's the beautiful dragonfeather itself, with what I've been told is now the 'series symbol' for The Chronicles of Issraya.

Squeeee!

Did I mention that Tilda's now available in paperback from Amazon, via Waterstones, and from Wordery? Kindle and mobi versions are available direct from Bedazzled Book Peddler.

Or that there is an official book launch on the 17th October at The Old Curiosity Bookshop and Tea Room? (Tilda will also be available to purchase there after the launch.)

Well, it is and there is! So you can get your hands on a copy via several different means - even avoiding the big A if you so choose. 

Please, if you read the book, do consider leaving a review on Amazon or Goodreads, as it's often word of mouth that gets them noticed. And I would love to know what you think of the first instalment in Tilda's story.

I'm off now to sniff new book smell...!

Slow stitching a story

If you've followed the Scribbles for a while, you'll know I like being creative in ways that don't just include words. Most recently, I've quilted, although I don't tend to use old fabrics in the way that true patchwork originated.

Today, I got my chance to combine story-telling with stitchery.

My church is hosting an exhibition in November, called the Art of Remembrance; a local artist, Jacqui Gallon, has a particular interest in using art with folk who have been bereaved, and is facilitating the workshops which support the project. The idea is that anyone can remember their loved ones by creating simple artworks - artworks that will be displayed during the exhibition at church.

(I'd already enabled one piece of art at NIBS - we used the 'I remember' exercise again, thinking of people we'd loved and lost, then wrote out words and phrases with coloured pastels and chalks and felt pens onto large sheets of paper. These large sheets will be quartered and used in one of the artworks.)

Today, we did slow stitching. It's a coming together of simple stitching - if you can thread a needle and do a running stitch, you can slow stitch - and of memories.

There was a wonderful array of materials to choose from - some dyed with natural plant material foraged from our church woodland - and after a brief introduction from Jacqui, we chose our bits and pieces and set to on a 'warm-up' which developed into the real thing. It was a privilege to be privy to some of the memories that had inspired the choices of fabrics and embellishments, and I can't wait to see them all displayed.

Moira's workbasket and some sample pieces

I thought I'd share the story behind the two pieces I finished and the one I have to complete.

Green.

My grandparents both had gardens. Grandma's was long and thin and sloped up behind the house. It was a functional garden, growing gooseberries and currants and veg - the only bit of lawn was right at the far end, near the shed, and I remember the bean canes behind the shed...

Granny and Grandpa's garden was much bigger, but there was still a lot of it turned over to produce. I remember Grandpa making pea pod wine after he'd shelled his peas...and my uncles breaking into the 'wine cellar' to drink it at the wake after Grandpa's funeral. There was a much bigger lawn, and paths around the back of the borders that we used to run around. Granny was registered blind, so sound and scent was important to her in the garden, so I was delighted to find a piece of fabric with a little bird sitting in a tree.

I knew this piece had to be green. As I sewed, the straight lines reminded me of the lines of produce, and I left the ends trailing because in spite of how carefully you plan your garden, there are always some plants that can't be constrained to the lines... 

Clothes.

I also have distinct memories of some of the clothing worn by my grandparents. Grandpa was a working man, so I remember his boiler suit. I also remember him in cricket whites at a weekend during the summer. Granny loved colour, even though she struggled to see it sometimes, and I can still see her in a kaftan and large floppy sunhat on the beach in North Wales when we holidayed together. With Grandma, I think of aprons and crimpolene dresses - she believed when you got to a certain age, you should dress a certain way. She only ever used one dress shop in Leicester, because it sold those kind of dresses.

Seeing the shirt in the material stash made me think of clothing, and although it's nothing like anything my grandparents would have worn, it gave me my theme. Using a complete piece of the garment meant it was recognisable as an item of clothing rather than simply a scrap of fabric, and it provided a strong link to my memories.

Black, red and blue.

A good friend of ours died suddenly, years ago, in a motorbike accident. He was - at different times - a boat builder, a policeman, and a fireman. We only tended to see him at Christmas, at a black tie dinner a group of us have held annually for almost thirty years.

This one has got to be stitched yet, but I chose fabric for the red and blue of his professions, and I want to stitch waves instead of straight lines, for the sea. The black fabric, black sateen ribbon and a black button represent the dinner jacket he'd wear at our Christmas dinners. I'd have loved to include a piece of black leather too - mainly for the bike leathers he stripped out of (having biked all the way from Orkney) at our wedding, revealing his posh suit underneath... But also because ultimately the motorbike he loved was the reason for us losing him.

It was a real privilege to see the thought and memories that poured into these simple artworks - many of them probably no bigger than six inches square - and I am sure they will prove to be a powerful stimulus for others when they are viewed.

And if you doubted that we had fun - remember that nice neat table at the start of the session? This was it halfway through the session...!

Tilda of Merjan

It's official - we have a cover for the first of Tilda's stories! Publication due in September, so keep your eyes peeled for pre-order buttons...

Camp NaNoEdMo and Project Black Ruby

I mentioned the other day that I'm doing Camp NaNoWriMo as Camp NaNoEdMo this month.

I'd already started working on the edit over the weekend, and I figured that I'd include those figures in the camp totals, as I'm aiming to have completed the edit of Project Black Ruby by the end of April.

So on the first day of camp, I have posted 7856 words edited. I was honest - said that that's three days' worth - and I am planning to edit something every day until I'm done, even if that goes beyond the end of the month.

In fact, I think I'll post my stats on here every day too, to prove to anyone outside of my camp cabin that I'm making progress. It's not something I've done before, but it might help to keep me motivated. Especially if you all keep encouraging me!

So, for Project Black Ruby so far:
30/3/19 - 4924
31/3/19 - 1697
1/4/19 - 1253
Total: 7856 words edited.

Within touching distance...

After a couple of false starts, I'm within touching distance of having the book I'm working on finished.

By which, I mean it's the first draft on computer; the story bones are there, but they are going to need fleshing out and polishing up.

There are still a couple of places I need to work on - a lot - particularly as most of the action happens in a mine, which results in lots of to-ing and fro-ing between the mine and other locations. To-ing and fro-ing gets boring after a while, so I have to decide how to get the story moving without needing to describe the physical journey.

And there are plenty of places where I've added notes because I've realised something doesn't quite work in the plot...

And of course there are plenty of points where I'm not consistently in the MC's POV, where I need to be able to write the action and thoughts in such a way that my reader is completely immersed in my MC's world.

And last of all, I have to look at book one in this series, to make sure this one feels similar in style.

So yeah, within touching distance, yet still a long, LONG way off. Going in the right direction though...

Workshopping!

This is just a quick update to let you know where I'm doing some workshops in the near future;

The first will be part of the Loogabarooga Festival 2018; I'll be in the Festival Den on Saturday 20th October, telling folk about the inspiration behind my books and sharing some of my favourite story prompts for those who'd like to have a go at writing or drawing their own stories. (Because storytelling doesn't have to rely on words...)

Then on the 22nd October, I'm off to Peterborough, to hold a couple of sessions for Potential Plus UK as part of their Big Weekend. We'll be making tigers and tea to go with The Tiger Who Came to Tea, and then finding out what's in my story bag...and making up a story or two about them.

I'll also be at NIBS this week, so I'm looking for suitable picture-based inspiration to use.

It's a bit too far off yet to plan World Book Day 2019 in Coventry at the Eden Girls' School (yes, I'm already booked for it!) but I'm thinking about it...

There's lots of church stuff going on alongside all of this - planning interviews for our new vicar, looking ahead to Harvest and Christmas services, helping to edit a book on the history of the church...

No wonder the WIP gets short shrift! My end of the year deadline for the first draft is slipping through my fingers.

But I wouldn't change a thing, if it meant I couldn't do workshops.

Wolves and Apples 2018

Wolves and Apples is a programme of support for aspiring children's writers, managed by Mantle Arts, which includes conferences, master classes and training events.

Have to be honest - I'd not heard of them before and caught sight of the 2018 conference details on facebook; I knew the venue (St Martin's conference centre in Leicester city centre), it didn't cost the earth (just over £30 for a day ticket), and I hadn't been to York for two years and I felt in need of some writerly contact. It also included the opportunity to have a 1-2-1 with an agent or a publisher by submitting your work early.

I bet some of you are thinking 'but Squidge isn't aspiring - she's already published.' But I reckon you can always go along to these events and get something out of it, so I booked on.

It was a really good day. There was a variety of panels, talks and workshops from a mixture of authors, agents and publishers, and I would think about fifty people attending.

First decision of the day - what to wear. Which sounds daft, but as I've attended church-related trainings at the centre (it's run by Leicester Diocese and linked to the Cathedral) and experienced the literal highs and lows of the aircon there, I knew I needed to layer up! Felt a bit boring in a grey jumper and black jeans, so I decided it was a sparkly shoe day... (It's also something you learn when you go into schools; wear something distinctive and the kids remember you for it.)

Arrived in brilliant but cold sunshine to sign in and got the Best Conference Badge EVER!

Fab badge with *wipes away lone tear* my
'Cloudie notebook...

My first session was Dramatic Screenwriting for the Younger Audience with Jonathan Wolfman. He went through his top ten tips rather than a complete intro to the craft - I've written a few short scripts in my time, but nothing huge - and lots of them could be applied to novel writing too. And I have to say that, having watched much CBBC with the Squidgelings when they were little, I had a bit of a fangirl moment when I realised Jonathan was the person behind Tracey Beaker's Dumping Ground and Wolfblood! Here's his top ten...

1. Write with your heart. Rewrite with your head. Scripts take as many edits as novels, and they need to breathe, too. Apparently Jonathan knew Tracey Beaker had got where it needed to be when he made himself cry...
2. Everything is a metaphor. But for what? You need to discover the universal within your characters or situations - Children of the New Forest and Tracey Beaker are both essentially about loss of family for example. And that metaphor must resonate intuitively and instinctively with your audience. You could say it's like a theme in a novel.
3. Arcs within arcs within arcs. Each story has an arc, each act has an arc, each scene has an arc...just like in a novel.
4. Don't tread water, turn the story. In other words, keep the action gong!
5. Don't be subtle, be subtextual. Add depth, not obviousness.
6. Create characters within a moral architecture, not role models. Write for entertainment, not education - yes, Tracey Beaker didn't behave well all the time (and Jonathan had had many a discussion with parents who wouldn't let their kids watch the programme because her behaviour wasn't what they wanted to see in their own children) but she was brave and loyal and did things for the right reasons.
7. Make your characters EARN the resolution. How much pressure do you put them under and where are the big moments where they have to make a choice?
8. Don't do set-up scenes. Start within the story. Or - don't info dump!
9. Precinct dramas are the norm in TV. Mainly because nothing to do with children will ever have big money thrown at it, and setting the script in one main setting is cheaper, ultimately, to film than a globe-trotting extravaganza...
10. What to do when you're stuck. Go back to a moment of choice or a turning point and make the complete opposite happen.

The next session was Creative Collage-Making for Writers, with Jenny Alexander. It appealed because it offered the promise of more than just words, and as I'm a creative person in lots of different ways, I thought I'd pop along.

The premise is that as writers, we have two parts - the child and the adult, the playful and serious. The child is the creator, the adult is the one who pulls that creation into a useable form. But all too often in the creative process the 'adult' in us pokes their nose in too soon and stifles the 'child'. Jenny does a lot of work with writers to try to keep the adult out of the way - to allow the child in us to come up with solutions by allowing our subconscious to play. I've done a session like this before, with Shelley Harris at York, but that was all word based. With Jenny, we'd be using pictures.

We started with a question about our current WIP - I wrote 'What's the title of Tilda's first story?', because the working title is too obvious. And then we set that aside and tore text and pictures out of magazines. They just had to appeal to us... I found myself recognising scenes from the WIP in certain pictures, and tore away quite happily. Then we stuck them on a big sheet of paper...

With the finished collages in front of us, we started to write. Just 90 seconds each time, on the following:
1. Describe what you see in your collage.
2. Pick out five striking things.
3. Choose one of them and imagine yourself to be it. Describe yourself.
4. As that same object, write how you feel
5. Now write what you want.
6. And finally, what you fear...

It wasn't an easy thing to do - at stage 5, my adult brain kicked in, and I wrote 'how can I imagine what water wants, except to flow along the path of least resistance back to the sea from which I sprang - to my source? It's a bit ridic...'

But what seemed amazing was that everything linked back to that initial question - an initial conscious intention, a subconscious exercise, reflecting back on the conscious mind and possibly providing an answer. For me, I discovered through this that the Power in the story is central, not a particular person, so perhaps my new title needs to go down that route?

Other collages made by the group gave new insights into characters, or new angles to the stories they were telling, and Jenny shared some of her examples with us too. They were all very personal, unique, and useful. I was so impressed the technique, I bought one of Jenny's books, and will perhaps be trying out a few other exercises the next time I have  a burning question on the WIP!

The other book's from the cathedral bookshop,
and is still writing in a way; it's about writing prayers

Keeping with the non-wordy theme, I opted for Writing from Images with Pam Smy next. You've probably seen Pam's work without realising it, because she is an illustrator with lots of book covers under her belt - but she is also the author of Thornhill, a mould-breaking illustrated YA novel.

The crux of Pam's talk was that as a creative person, you need to be self-aware and confident, and our lives and experiences shape us until we are a mix of so many things that ultimately blend together to create the work we want to create. Which is something that applies to any creative field, not just writing or drawing. It was fascinating to see how Pam's love of illustration, of particular books, of landscape, of walking, of creating atmosphere, had all gone into the blender and produced this beautiful book. Incidentally, it took 4 years, 165 paintings and lots of hard work to put it all together.

Just some of the things that make Pam, Pam and add to her work

Oh - and remember Jonathan talking about metaphor? Thornhill is about bullying, and if you know where to look, there are hints from the very first picture in the book. (Hint: look for the cat, although he's not the only one)

I had a 1-2-1 over lunch with Ruth Huddleston of Old Barn Books. She was very complimentary about the sample I'd sent ("beautiful opening, great world building, you can certainly write,") but felt that I needed to really hone in on the theme of the book. I think I'm aware of that - just not sure how to find it in retrospect, because I wrote an adventure story ten years ago when I was less experienced and didn't even know you should have a theme... What was also rather lovely is that Ruth said my writing had a bit of a feel of Kiran Millwood Hargreaves (Girl of Ink and Stars), a book I read and enjoyed very much.

My view while munching on a tune mayo pannini...

After lunch, we listened to Anne Fine - yes, Anne Fine! - talk about What I Wish I'd Known From the Start. I have to be honest. I know Anne only through the shelves of the school library; she has written a lot of books, *whispers* but I've never read any of them, a fact that will be remedied ASAP. Now in her seventies, Anne is a lively and entertaining speaker, and lots of what she said would have applied to very many of us in the room. Like - work out how many hours you want to put in, and how many life allows you. Keep track of progress with your book, or it's easy to become disillusioned. Work on a physical copy when editing - it's easy to rearrange bits if you literally cut and paste. There's no one way to write a book - it's a product, not a process. Read your work over and over in lots of moods - that way, it'll appeal to more readers!

She also had some notes of caution, like 'your grandchildren will love anything you do, but not everyone is a writer!' And admitted that nowadays, she would probably not have had the career she has had, because she didn't know how publishing worked back in the day, and nowadays the 'bean counters' seem to have more of a say in what gets published and how authors are promoted than readers.

The last session was You Can't Take the Editor out of the Author... with Non Pratt. Non writes edgy contemporary YA novels, and she described how she became an author via becoming an editor. She writes for 14 year old Non - the Non who wanted to read stories that simply weren't being written at that time, so she wrote them herself.

She took us through her own writing process (lots of post it notes, notebooks, and coloured pens!) and how she approaches editing.

Now, Non said she wasn't a big planner - she knows the start and the end, and then fills in the middle exciting bits before she links them all together - but her editing is definitely planned! First stage is to Read (no pens allowed), Ruminate and React. Then she makes pace notes for every chapter before preparing a synopsis. The she sets to work, aiming to cut at least 20% from a first draft (aims for 80K...first drafts have been up to 500K!); review the timelines and seasons, reviews each character outline and check that your heart is in the book.

She was a great presenter and I can see exactly why she is such a hit with her teenage audience. She said in a later panel session that YA writing has to involve hope - teenagers will look for hope even in the bleakest of books - and they need to end the book knowing that they have the tools to survive and face life. I admire her for being able to write novels that achieve such a major result for their readers.

And that was it - a short panel session at the end to allow Q&A's to be put to many of the session leaders, and I was back on the bus in my sparkly shoes (one attendee admitted to shoe envy and I had quite a few other comments) and home to mull over everything I'd heard...and to write this blog.

Getting reaquainted

I've been having some issues with the plot of my WIP - working title Black Diamond - recently. Even given that it's been too hot to really think, and I know I'm more of a pantser than a planner, all the threads just weren't coming together.

I blogged about it on the Word Cloud, and received some really helpful suggestions. (You can read about them here, in Plotting Panic)

As you'll see if you read the blog, I finally recognised that I'd had a similar problem before; I caught myself writing 'I know what happens...I know what my characters will do.' The important bit there is 'I' knew. I wasn't giving my characters enough room to breathe and do their own thing, tell their own story. I was trying to force my version of the story upon them.

Once I'd realised that, I apologized to my MC, Tilda, and decided to reaquaint myself with her by doing something really simple.

I read the book I'd already written about her.

Now, Mage of Merjan isn't polished. In fact, I saw lots of things that still need to be addressed before it's published. But I forced myself to read it without a pen in my hand - vital to do, I've found, if you want to read as a reader rather than as a writer. It's all too easy to take your focus from the story to how you've used the words that tell it, if you see what I mean?

Anyway. I re-read Tilda's first adventure. And it was like connecting with an old friend. I reminded myself of her courage, of her questioning mind, of how in all things she is seeking to be and do the best she can, while learning about the Power that her homeland relies on.

I picked up Black Diamond and re-read what I'd written so far. I added comments in capitals in places where I knew I'd have to address issues Tilda's way - not mine - and then I carried on writing from where I'd left off.

Yesterday, I added another 5000 words, and revealed a major plot point - all because I allowed Tilda to tell it from her point of view.

So. If you're stuck in your writing, whether it's a series or a standalone, perhaps you need to ask yourself if you're forgetting whose story it really is...

The Book Cover Challenge

Last week, a facebook friend nominated me for a challenge he'd been doing.

Basically, you posted a picture of a book you loved, every day for seven days, with no explanation and no review - just the picture of the cover. Oh, and nominate someone else to do it as well. (Which I didn't - I'd rather you made that choice for yourself...)

I said that at the end of the week, I'd post on here with my chosen books, and tell you a bit about why I loved them so much, so here goes.

Day 1: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett

This was the first ever Discworld novel I read, and like Lady Sybil, I think I fell a little in love with Sam Vimes, the alcoholic guard who was doing his best to be a good copper. I also fell in love with the whole Discworld scenario and Terry's writing style - so much so that I think I possess every Discworld novel he's ever written, and there is a whole shelf in my house dedicated to his writing. The only piece of fan-fic I've ever written was based on Discworld - The Watchbox Project.

Day 2: Katherine by Anya Seton

I was 16 and in the school library when I saw this book for the first time. I only picked it up because it had my name, spelt my way, on the cover; although Katherine was a popular name when I was born, it was usually spelt with a K and an A or Y, or a C with an E. Not a K and an E. I loved the historical richness of the novel, even though the story focused more on character than pushing the historical facts. And I could also imagine myself as the heroine, because we did share a name, after all.

Day 3: Peepo by Janet and Allen Ahlberg

I can still recite this almost off by heart, we read it so many times to the Squidgelings at bedtime. I loved the illustrations, the music in the poetry, the repetitiveness... We even had two copies of it - hardback when they were very little, and paperback when they were older. 'Here's a little baby, 1,2,3, sit sin his cot. What does he see...?'

Day 4: The Message by Eugene Peterson.

It was only relatively recently that I understood the difference between a translation and an interpretation when it came to bibles. The Message is an interpretation, but it speaks to me more clearly than some of the translations I've read. As my faith is an important part of my life, how can I not love the scripture I use to help guide my life as a Christian?

Day 5: Goth Girl by Chris Riddell.

If I'm honest, I've never read this story. I bought the book simply because it was an object of great beauty. The illustrations are wonderful, there are silver foiled skulls along the spine and the edges of the pages are coloured metallic purple. Best of all, it's signed by Chris Riddell himself, from when I went to see him speak at one of his 'Ask the Laureate' events. And there's a teeny tiny book within the book, too...

Day 6: Lookalikes by Joan Steiner

This book (and another in the same series) kept my children quiet on so many car journeys! Every picture is made up of everyday objects, and you can spend ages on just one picture, trying to spot all the components.

Day 7: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone by J K Rowling

If I'm honest, I wasn't too fussed about the HP series when it first came out. It all passed me by, so that I didn't begin reading until I think the third book was published. By then, Harry Potter was really causing a stir and I thought I ought to see what all the fuss was about. I loved reading all the books for myself - but enjoyed them even more when I read them, aloud, to the Squidgelings. We tended to read them on car journeys, and there were several times when, having reached our destination, we were not allowed to get out of the car until we'd finished the chapter.

So there you go. Why I picked the books I did, although there were so many others I could've chosen... Maybe I'll have another go at the challenge soon, squeeze in a few more favourites?