Alan Rain

Superb news Philippa, and no more than a writer of your calibre deserves. It’s really heartening to see Denizens getting good deals. Delighted for you, and can’t wait to see the final result

I’d hate to think that, @richardb – the truth is that it’s not that hard to avoid what happened to me. If you pursue the agent route, most of it is irrelevant anyway, although you obviously have to do your research into any agents who offer to represent you. In 99% of cases, just being aware of the possible problems means you can avoid…[Read more]

Thanks both. I think I probably did just about everything wrong that I could have done, but that doesn’t excuse the behaviour, or the performance, of the publisher. Caveat Scriptor…

Well done all! Let’s hope a Denizen wins

Good topic John. Will DEFINITELY enter this one (and apols to Raine whose comp I failed to contribute to)

I didn’t know about that one – lucky it wasn’t catastrophic. I admit to a fondness for the LMS streamliners, and, contrary soul that I am, prefer them to the much more successful LNER ones. This is partly because I was given a ‘Coronation Scot’ for my train set in my childhood (including a carriage by my grandmother, which I think was the last Ch…[Read more]

Well, I didn’t see that coming. Thanks, Raine.
Well done to all the entrants for taking part.

Fascinating and absorbing stuff as ever, Richard. As well as the wonderful clarity and readability of the technical matters, I find the culture of the railway companies and the way it affected how they ran their services really eye-opening. We have it pretty bad these days, with the worst combination of competition and monopoly, but at least we…[Read more]

Another interesting and entertaining story from the world of railways – thank you Richard.

Hope so @elle! In truth the numbers game is a problem for me, as I struggle to write enough to get the hit rate. Will keep trying though. The Barren editors are lovely, they gave me the nicest rejection ever 🤣

Well done Elle. I’m impressed with all these publications. I still haven’t had one since my first nearly four years ago, despite a concerted effort recently. I did have a very kind rejection from Barren Magazine recently, which still counts as ‘a miss is as good as a mile’.

Road to Redemption

It was the hour before dawn on Christmas morning. Robert stood under a pair of bay trees at the far end of the garden and breathed deeply, calming himself. The darkest hour it’s sometimes called, but he could see the light was coming fast now, a sliver of red showing on the eastern horizon and he knew he’d have to hurry. Sho…[Read more]