Tag Archive: novel


Submissions Update

Filed under: My Writing — 4 Comments
April 12, 2013

I just realised that even though I’ve mentioned a hell of a lot of competitions and intiatives that I’ve entered, I’ve not come back to you about any of them! Fail.

I’m sure you’ve guess that since I’ve not come bouncing into view with big grins, capital letters and exclamation points, that I’ve not won anything. You’d be right, but I feel it’s important to pause, take stock and remind myself of what I have done, particularly at times like this in which it feels like I’ve done nothing at all.

So…

January
Full Circle, a short story submitted to Flash500
~The closing date for this competition was 31 March so judging will be happening now. I’m still waiting to hear back from these folk.
Silk Over Razor Blades, a novel submitted to the Amazon Breakthough Novel Award
~I didn’t make it through to the next round of judging. I’m not too devastated over that considering that pitching is not my strongest point and that’s how the entries were judged. It just highlights where I need to do the work.
Shackle of Gold, a short story submitted to Chudleigh Phoenix
~The closing date for this comp was 31 January so I need to chase it up really. Then again, I’m sure I would have heard back from them if I’d won. o.O

February
Silk Over Razor Blades, submitted to TorUK’s open submissions and to WEM’s Critical Reads Scheme
~TorUK: Another one I’ve not heard back from, though I’d expect this to take in the region of 12 weeks before I get a response. Still, I’ll double check I’ve not missed anything.
WEM Critical Reads: I’m a little disappointed over this one as it was just for a critique. Though the entry criteria is such that I’m probably not on a low enough income to get passed the gate keeper. That’s what I’m telling myself anyway. O.o
Shackle of Gold, short story to WEM’s Mentor Scheme
~This is my second entry to the mentor scheme, with a different story too and I’ve been unsuccessful once more. Either the competition is just SO strong that I’m out of luck, or my work just isn’t of the standard they’re looking for. Or both. Either way, I need to take another look at my writings and see what needs improving.

March
No submissions

April (so far)
Silk Over Razor Blades, The Affair and Clash Of The Animal Kings, all pitched to Carina Press during their open Twitter event last week.
~I haven’t heard back from any of those editors, so it appears that none of them were moved enough to pick up the stories for accelerated feedback. Saying that, I can still submit through their normal channels, so I think that might be next on my list.

There. Not so bad as I thought, but not so great as I was hoping. My aim is to keep submitting, to keep sending my work out there and this list tells me that I’ve not done enough of that. More, more, more! I can’t win anything or progress if I don’t make the effort. So… that’s my mission for this month. At least four submissions (that’s one a week).

I’ve already made a good start with my short story for the revenge competition but I can’t stop there. Need to do more. Go, go, go!Cheerleader from openclipart

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Neeeeeeeext!

Filed under: My Writing, Silk Over Razor Blades — 9 Comments
January 25, 2013

I should have mentioned this earlier on in the week, but I fail. Just a lil bit. Sorry! Anyway, for those of you who don’t know, Amazon runs an annual competition; the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award. This year they catagories have been expanded to include the likes of horror/fantasy/sci fi (woohoo!) so I thought I’d enter. Thank you so much Erin for posting about this and several other opportunities. I pinged it straight to my Twitter and Facebook, so I hope those of you who caught sight of it and have a novel ready to go have been able to do something about it.

Anyway on hearing about the opportunity with Amazon I picked up SORB and sent it straight out. There was absolutely no reason not to since the competition was open to my genre (yey!). I’ve received my acknowledgement and now just need to sit back and wait until February to see if I’ve made it to the next round or not.

Now, I named this post ‘Next’ because I’m trying to get into the habit of sending out my work. I’ve already talked about the Phoenix Subs Club and my entry into Flash500 and I thought, since it’s getting close to the point that HarperVoyager would advise whether or not they wished to pursue SORB, it is well passed time to see where else it can go. No sooner had I made that decision than I received an email from HarperVoyager advising that they regretfully would not be pursuing my novel. Perfect, right? Obviously it’s a shame that they chose not to take it up, but that freed me to enter Amazon’s competition with no worries, since both insist on exclusivity.

Normally I’d be querying the novel again, since my real aim is to get an agent, but while these competitions keep popping up, there is no harm in sending them there first. ‘Cutting out the middle man’ by potentially winning one of these things is a really attractive idea to me. And it may even help in the search for an agent, if I can say such and such a publisher is interested in my work and has offered a contract.

So I have another entry to add to my submissions spreadsheet. That’s already double what I was hoping to be able to do this month and I have another short story almost ready for this competition. I think I’m doing an okay job of building up the habit. :)

What about you guys? Have you entered competitions or made any queries lately?

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NaNoWriMo 2012

Filed under: My Writing, NaNoWriMo 2012 — 12 Comments
October 12, 2012

black notebook and red pencil from OpenClipArtI LOVE this time of year. Everywhere I look people (of the blogging world) are talking about NaNoWriMo and what they plan to do. Should they attempt it or not? What are other people doing?

I’ve been so wrapped up in my editing project that I’ve barely given it a scrap of thought. Its been mental. Now however, with the last hurdle in sight, I suppose its worth trying to decide whether or not I should even attempt it this year.

In truth, my brain is fried. So filled with vampires, Egyptians, knives and blood that even when I’m awake I’m seeing scenes from the novel. I suppose that’s just how it goes sometimes. The fact that it really does look like I’m going to finish in time is also exciting me and keeping it at the front of my mind.

But would writing just for the hell of it, be a nice break? Probably. I love writing first drafts. I find it so easy and NaNoWriMo is so freeing. No need to edit or critique yourself, just go and go and go and go. You have to admit there’s something beautiful about having complete freedom like that.

The twins have settled into a routine of sorts; in bed by six and a couple of feeds during the course of the night. I’m not as tired as I once was and I could actually see myself managing to do it without having a meltdown. I don’t have work to worry about, because I’m still on leave and there are no other deadlines or writing commitments looming. Not that I know of, anyway. All of this means that so long as I am realistic about my expectations then there’s no reason why I shouldn’t make the attempt this year. Ha, did you see that? Talked myself into it.

One problem though.
I’ve no idea what to write!

I had this problem last year, but I fixed it easily enough by choosing to write up a dream I’d had which gave me the final scenes. That novel isn’t even finished, but this year I want to finish the novel. Even if I don’t reach such a massive word count (like I normally do) I want a complete story. I think that’s a more realistic goal than trying to reach 100k. Particularly since my story this year might not need to reach that far.

I don’t have anything in mind. I have a number of somethings. This time, however, I have a plan. I’m going to let you guys pick! ^_^ Bwah ah ha ha ha hah a ah ahaa!

Over the next two weeks I’m going to give you an overview of the stories I have in mind. I’ll give you an idea of characters and plot (though no spoilers of course!) as well as genre. Then I’ll post a poll asking you guys to vote for your favourite idea. The idea with the most votes will be the novel I write for NaNoWriMo. That interactive element will make it even more fun and I like the idea of not knowing what I’m going to do until the time comes. Yes, I know, I’m crazy!

So stay tuned. Come Tuesday, I’ll be posting the first of my ideas. Hope you like them!

What about you guys? Any of you joining the crazy this year? :D

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Enough Is Enough?

Filed under: My Writing, Silk Over Razor Blades — 12 Comments
October 5, 2012

I’ve changed the title of this post several times. Each time I thought I captured the essence of what I’m trying to say, but this is my favourite. I attribute that fact to the youtube video I managed to find from one of my favourite shows; Will And Grace.

The clip is only nine seconds long but enough really is enough by the time you make it that far.

So what am I talking about?

Editing of course. That horrible little bug bear that drives all of us crazy. You know what I’m talking about. You refine and correct and rewrite and restructure and pare down and tighten, all the while thinking; ‘when will I know when I’m done?’

This is heavy in my mind right now. As the deadline for HarperVoyager creeps closer and all the feedback starts to roll in, I have to decide on my final edits. [Aside; the response to my call for Betas has been amazing. Thank you, all, so very, very much, for your constructive words and kind comments. Your understanding has been brilliant and the speed you've all come back to me boggles the mind. You're all awesome and I'm indebted to you. Please let me know if I can ever return the favour!]

If you’ve ever read the SORB page, then you’ll know that I’ve been writing this novel for almost half my life. It started as something so small and simple and has evolved into a major part of my writing life. I always come back to this novel, even after promising myself that I’m done. And every time I come back to it, there are changes. I can honestly say that recent changes have all been for the better; several chapters have been rewritten and some have been removed. One character is gone for good and two others have been given a major overhaul. Clunky, pointless scenes have been streamlined. Dialogue has been punched up. Naught adverbs and pointless verbiage has been given the old heave ho. But is it enough? How will I ever know?

If I’m waiting for validation in the form of an agent/publisher, I’ll be searching and waiting for the rest of my life. Possibly. I could be that this novel is never picked up and then what? Will I just keep editing it forever?

bird and little chicks in nest from OpenClipArtObviously that’s just silly. I can’t do that. Nobody should do that; eventually, everyone has to let go. The little chicks have to fly the nest.

I have decided, heaven help me, that this edit of SORB is my last. No more. After this, I bite the bullet and move onto the next two books in the trilogy. That or leave it alone completely and move onto pastures new. It’s sad, but I can’t keep picking at this novel any more. It isn’t healthy. Besides, I have plenty of other ideas that I need to tackle and I can’t do that while still lingering over this piece.

What about you guys? How do you know when you’re done? Do you have a novel that you’ve just beaten and beaten to death? Do these feelings ring any bells for you? As ever, I’d love to know. :)

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Its The Job That Never Gets Started As Takes Longest To Finish

Filed under: My Writing, Silk Over Razor Blades — 15 Comments
September 7, 2012

One of my favourite quotes from The Lord Of The Rings. Not earth shattering, or deeply moving, just plain, sensible advice. And from one of my favourite characters; Sam Gamgee. He’s quoting his dad of course – the Old Gaffer – but its none the less something he says to Frodo when they are starting to feel the pain of the day to day trudge towards Mount Doom.

So why am I starting with this quote?

Silk Over Razor Blades (SORB) has had a good rest period. I’ve written lots (LOTS) of flash, a couple of short stories and a novella since looking at it last. Its time I went back to it and gave it a bashing like it will never forget. I need to finish it. It needs to be done.

I downloaded a trail version of Scrivenor and separated the whole manuscript into chapters (I really like Scrivenor and have decided that I’m going to buy it at some point, but that’s a separate post). Then I started picking at the first chapter which, in truth, is the worst of the lot and needs some really rough treatment to be the way I want it to be.

Then I stopped. I stopped dead and haven’t looked at it since.

That was over a fortnight ago.

I feel so… I can’t even think of the right word for how I feel. I’m going to rest with ‘scared’ because that’s the closest approximation I can make.

I think back to 2010, when I started querying and I know now that I wasn’t ready. Since then, the piece has had a savage rewrite and lost about 30,000 words that were just dead weight. Now I’m looking at it again, desperate to query it but terrified to take the last steps which will enable me to do so. I have a plethora of excuses (hehee, thanks Char! I was desperate to get it into a blog post!) and though valid (some of them) they shouldn’t stop me working. Not when this is what I want (what I really, really want).

(yes, even now I can’t take myself seriously)

When I think of how much this story means to me, and how long I’ve spent on it, my chest constricts and its hard to breathe. I can feel my mouth drying out even as I write this and there’s an annoying little tic in my left eye (though that may be more to do with the fly that just took a kamikaze dive at my face). Clearly this novel is the source of an emotional roller coaster for me, such that the mere thought of giving it the last edit it needs to really shine, fills me with dread.

What if I can’t do it?
What if I don’t like it?
What if, when its all done and there really is no more I can do, its still not good enough?!
Crying face from OpenClipArt

I sit in front of the computer and do every other job in the world except the one that needs doing most. And ‘needs’ is certainly the right word. I need to do this. If only for the closure and the ability to move on afterwards I need to do this.

But if I don’t start, I’ll never finish.
*sigh*

Thanks Sam Gamgee. I think the time has come. I think SORB is finally going to get the editing work it needs to go out into the big wide world. I have to let my baby go….

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