AlanP

  • Squidge replied to the topic Bumbling Round the Citadel in the forum Blogs 7 years ago

    Kudos for sticking with it all, Philippa – it sounds like it has really taken a toll over this year.

    Looking forward very much to reading it – I am sure that it will be worth every bead of sweat, nibbled fingernail and tear shed.

    And if it makes you feel better – Tilda’s just been published and even though we went through all the pages,…[Read more]

  • Philippa East replied to the topic Bumbling Round the Citadel in the forum Blogs 7 years ago

    Hah hah, yeah! Well, I suppose I could have not bothered reading the page proofs and just left it to the proof reader. But when I asked other authors, they all advised checking myself, saying I would KICK myself down the line if I spotted typos I could have caught! TBH though, I’ll take page proofs over structural edits any day!

  • Hello Denizens,
    Following up on my previous two blogs (which you can find here and here), here is the latest instalment on my publishing journey. I hope it is useful to you and good luck to everyone for whatever stage you’re at in your own writing journey xxx

    December 2018
    As you may recall, on 4th December 2018, I officially accepted a two-book…[Read more]

  • Squidge posted an update 7 years, 1 month ago

    OK – sorry to ask again, but…
    You know the captcha thing at login, where we say we’re not robots? I’ve logged in on 3 separate occasions today and when that page comes up, it’s counting down the number of attempts I can have, even though I’ve logged on successfully. Does this mean that we either have to stay logged in permanently to avoid the…[Read more]

    • I don’t know the answer, Squidge, but I had the same thing yesterday.

    • I’ve had this, Squidge, including being locked out for 20 minutes. Chrome and other Google-based browsers will try to keep you logged in and synced across sessions and devices, but it doesn’t always work well – or in some cases at all.
      The Captcha plugin isn’t playing nicely with our setup and Jules is looking at it. Unfortunately, the alternative…[Read more]

  • Lost and Found and Lost

    Arthur was rooting through a drawer in the garage, the one reserved for plumbing parts, searching for a tap washer. His gnarled hands scrabbled through off-cuts of plastic water pipe, white nylon fittings, a flushing mechanism still in its packaging, old tobacco tins holding copper olives, bolts, nuts and split pins. No…[Read more]

  • Well done, Athelstone. And thank you, Squidge.

  • Ath – really?!

  • Apologies for the delay in posting – life got in the way!

    Well these shades of beige definitely weren’t boring. Thanks to everyone who entered – thin on the ground perhaps (well it is York month) but not thin on quality.

    Some really poignant pieces in this mix (Dreamweaver, Je m’appelle Missy, and Hil’s Tortoiseshell Specs) secrets in Battle…[Read more]

  • Thanks, all. I think from now on I won’t reply to form rejections. Certainly I shouldn’t have done it so long after I received them. It was just that tweet making me think I’d been rude! Perhaps she wasn’t talking about form rejections.

  • Squidge posted an update 7 years, 1 month ago

    I know we’ve had an issue with bots at the mo – I’m getting the ‘I’m not a robot’ thing every time I log in, but I thought once we’d done it once, it meant you should be OK to log in without after that?

    • I’m getting that too Squidge. Can never sign in on the main page. Always get diverted and have to do the bot thing.

  • What’s your experience? What are your thoughts?
    I’ve been submitting to agents this summer and had a few full requests (all subsequently declined) and several other declines. Initially I replied (just thank you) to the ones who’d requested the full, and one or two others I’d met, and not to the others since I’d read somewhere that agents don’t…[Read more]

  • Wow, WB – that’s really comprehensive! Thank you. Also makes me realise I need to print out Andrew’s course outline and read it through properly…

    I’d be glad of an October start, cos I’m trying to set new routines around an empty nest, and it’ll be good to focus on something other than the lack of guitar playing and a deserted bedroom… ;)…[Read more]

  • Squidge posted an update 7 years, 1 month ago

    Just a reminder that there’s a week to go for September’s monthly competition…and for you to prove to me that ‘beige ain’t boring!’

    • I’m sorry I’m having to pass on this one Squidge. Combination of holiday and having work done at home. I did like your paint chart idea for prompts.

      • No worries – I know September’s busy for most folk, especially after York. Mean I won’t have such a difficult decision judging 😉

  • Been checking out the required texts… I’m getting a bit bogged down in Sin and Syntax, (for saying the author’s currently talking about brevity, she’s going the long way round to say a lot of it!) but Writing Fiction looks easier to read. Bird by Bird’s one of my most accessible reads (was given it as a gift some years ago), and I’d add How Not…[Read more]

  • Willing to have a go at this… Not sure how it’ll be structured in terms of posting – presumably a new forum for each unit, with each person posting within the forum? Hope it’s pretty clear, as I ‘lose’ threads so often!

  • Squidge posted an update 7 years, 2 months ago

    So it turns out that Amazon can reformat your ebook when you upload it for Kindle. Who knew?

    And I’d been blaming the publisher for all the extra line breaks, large text and blank pages…

    • Amazon is a menace, but we seem to be stuck with them if we want to sell books

    • I’m currently attempting to re-format my novels for publishing as ebooks – fiendishly tricky at times and not sure I’ve cracked it yet – sudden and random centering of paragraphs or indents, to say nothing of the change in fonts. A good reason to stick with print IMHO!

    • There’s definitely a knack to formatting ebooks but it’s easy when you’ve got the hang of it. I recommend the Smashwords Style Guide to get yoy started (perma free in ebook). And I might be able to help point people in the right direction if anyone is really stuck?

      • Some extra spaces end up turning into extra lines…apparently. SO glad it’s not up to me to do the formatting.

  • Just seen this – FANTASTIC, WELL DONE! Have a brilliant time at the ceremony. Bask bask bask!!!

  • Thanks @Raine, but I am YEARS away from submitting anything!

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