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JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 6 months ago
Congratulations to all for the great bunch of entries! And A Happy New Year!!
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Traditional or Self-Publishing? in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 7 months ago
Good article @dougk.
For anyone looking to submit to Indie Presses in the UK and Ireland, the Indie Press Guide produced by Mslexia is a good place to start. Also, if you don’t have an agent to check a contract for you, the Society of Authors in the UK will check it at no charge. I’ve found them VERY thorough!
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Indie publishing deal in the forum Podium 5 years, 7 months ago
Thank you @athelstone @janette @raine @thea @libby @sandradavies.
Verve are a small imprint of an indie press so there’ll be no books on shelves in Waterstones but they’re lovely people and the fit feels so right. The indie press route has worked very well for me and is well worth a try. They’re often more open to books that don’t quite fit into…[Read more]
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Aha, Jesmond. My brother lived there in the early/mid 70s. Lily Avenue. I visited a couple of times. Don’t remember much about it – but we were young.
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We moved away when I was three so I remember nothing!
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JaneShuff started the topic Indie publishing deal in the forum Podium 5 years, 7 months ago
Exciting news from me. On The Edge my ‘girl on a lighthouse’ thriller has found a home with Verve Books. It’s been a long journey with a lot of setbacks on the way and I am thrilled.There’s nothing like the moment when the e mail saying how much someone loved your book (with no caveats, no buts,) arrives in your inbox. It will be published in…[Read more]
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Yay, congratulations, Jane! That’s brilliant news, and so deserved! Really looking forward to reading it. xx
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Brilliant, Jane! Keep us posted and let us know when we can buy a copy.
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I’m assuming this is the one I read some years ago, which at the time I thought very impressive. Good to hear talent will eventually earn its reward.
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Well done, Jane, I hope it does stupendously well!
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Thank you @johnalty. I’ll be happy if it does what the publishers hope it will do! I might need your help as I’m contracted to write a second in the series and it is looking as though there’ll be a bit of sailing in it.
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Happy to help
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Pete Who? in the forum Blogs 5 years, 7 months ago
You’re quite right Richard. Although the lack of hoovering and the pile of christmas cards still waiting to be written might point to a different conclusion!
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Pete Who? in the forum Blogs 5 years, 7 months ago
I’ve just wasted an hour, thanks to you Richard, trawling through the internet searching for Brian Patten who was my particular favourite and ordered a copy of Little Johnny’s Confession which I am sure is the book of his I used to have. Fingers crossed.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic How do you deal with the ever-distracting Internet??? in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 7 months ago
Weirdly enough it helps my way of working which is to do intensive bursts of writing and then let myself be distracted for a brief while before I attack again!
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John S Alty replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 9 months ago
Well done, @seagreen, excellent story.
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JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 10 months ago
Just wondering how you are all dealing with the Covid pandemic within your writing. I’m in the planning stages of a new novel and can’t decide. Do I set my novel pre-pandemic? Which feels like a bit of a cop-out. Do I ignore it completely? Same comment. Or do I try to set it in the current situation with the problems and concerns of the pandemic…[Read more]
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I think it depends how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the pandemic. Considering how long it takes between drafting a novel and seeing it in print (if it gets that far), if you take the optimistic view the whole thing will be over by then, it’ll no longer be a part of contemporary life, and nobody will worry much whether you’ve included it…[Read more]
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Not answering your question, exactly, but I’ve read a number of short stories which include reference to Covid and in general I find them offputting, a bit bandwagon, which might be because we’re in the middle of it. I think if your novel is set at the time, a passing reference to its restrictions might be enough. But the same (to include or…[Read more]
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Personally, I’d leave it out. So many people now must be writing pandemic stories, that the mention of it alone might put readers on guard. Also, optimistically speaking, by the time your novel comes out, life may have returned to normal and your story would be dated.
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Interesting. I wasn’t planning on writing a story about the pandemic but was thinking about whether the story I had planned to write should acknowledge the pandemic. For example there is quite a lot of travel in it and it feels weird to have someone just hop on a plane given what’s going on. Have to think a bit more.
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Best of luck!
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Yes, best of luck, Jane. FWIW, I don’t think ignoring the pandemic is anything of a cop-out. I’m choosing to ignore it in my next one for similar reasons to some remarks above, that a) it risks becoming band-wagon and, if it does (hopefully) pass, Covid might age the novel by the time it comes to print. Mostly b) that books are commonly escapism,…[Read more]
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I agree there’s a risk of bandwagon. I think it can be hard, too, to think of something interesting to say about a situation when we’re still in it. Hard for me, anyway.
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Yeah, its a tricky one isn’t it? To ignore it completely, or assume that a book based two years from now can still ignore it completely seems a bit unbelievable to me. This is a world changing event, ignoring it for present/near-future settings would be odd imo. BUT I have absolutely zero interest in novels *about* it. I do think the shifting,…[Read more]
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Thanks @raine. You expressed my quandary much better than I could. Still not sure which way to go!!
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I’m veering towards thinking that a contemporary book which ignores covid is going to date far faster than one which has it/its aftershocks in the background.
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I think I agree and, in any case, I’m finding hard to impossible to plan without the realities of Covid19 informing the action. It is the current reality.
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John S Alty replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 10 months ago
Excuse the bizarre formatting, this had indents when I wrote it.
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John S Alty replied to the topic Monthy Comp – September 2020 in the forum Monthly Competition 5 years, 10 months ago
Sunset
The sun melted into the horizon like a knob of butter in a frying pan and behind it the sky was on fire, it’s flames dancing on the restless sea. Soon, for this was the tropics where sunset and darkness are never far apart, a million stars would come out to play. Frank and his sister, Sarah, sat shoulder to shoulder, their feet half b…[Read more] -
JaneShuff replied to the topic Susie in the forum Blogs 5 years, 10 months ago
Lovely story, Richard. Funny how some people stay with you over the years while others disappear from your memories.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 10 months agoHome believer spoon
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JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 11 months ago
Some advice please. I have just started reading aloud everyday via Facetime to my father who has Alzheimers and we are close to getting to the end of the book he had picked up. So I am looking for something else to read? Does anyone have any recommendations? His passion was sailing although he is quite happy to read anything. Short stories might…[Read more]
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Sorry – can’t really help. The only remotely sailingy books I can think of are @daedalus‘ eponymous book, ‘the life of pi’, ‘this thing of darkness’ and MM Kaye’s ‘trade winds’. He’d enjoy Daed’s perhaps? And ‘this thing of darkness’ is awesome, (& ~biographical) but the other two prob not ideal!
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What about that perennial fave of mine, Hemingway’s ‘The Old Man and the Sea’? It’s quite short, the plot and language alike are stripped down and simple, yet it’s so moving.
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Oh, and for most of the story it’s a man alone in a boat. Ought to be right up your father’s street.
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Hi @janeshuff I’ve had a quick look through the public library catalogue. I haven’t read any of the following but how about:
In the wake of heroes : sailing’s greatest stories introduced by Tom Cunliffe
London : Adlard Coles Nautical, 2015.
All at sea : true and tall tales / trawled by Libby Purves. Fontana Paperbacks, 1984. Published to…[Read more]-
Joshua Slocum’s ‘Sailing Alone Around The World’ is great. Then there’s Francis Chichester’s book about his own circumnavigation, which I think was just called Gypsy Moth, or possibly Around The World In Gypsy Moth? Thanks for recommending Daedalus @raine – very kind. It’s OOP now but I’ll see if I have any spare copies left
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Thanks @richardb, @libby, @daedalus. Great suggestions. If you had a spare copy, Daeds, I would happily buy it.
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Thanks Jane. I only have two left I’m afraid, and I didn’t want to go lower than that. There may still be some in a shop or two somewhere which I’ll chase up but very few of the places I sent copies to on sale or return ever got back to me
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If you can that would be great Daeds.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years agoI think most writers are also great readers and have acquired an instinctive grasp of story structure. That doesn’t mean a bit of conscious knowledge won’t help. But sometimes you have to trust your unconscious.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic The ultimate story/narrative arc in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years agoOoh what an interesting conversation!
I think it’s quite hard (impossible for me) to tailor a novel according to a detailed framework and I will often start with only the inciting incident, the external problem the MC has to fight/solve and the antagonist forces, whether they’re people or circumstances, then let the story develop a first draft…[Read more]
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JaneShuff posted an update 6 years ago
i amtrying to write a synopsis for a novel with multiple timelines and viewpoints. I cannot write the synopsis so that each time and POV shift is noted because it will be too long. Do you think it is OK to say something along the lines of….. Meanwhile, told from the POV’s of X, Y and Z, in 1957, this happens, that happens and catstrophe e…[Read more]
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I think your approach is fine, though in the interest of saving words I would not bother referring to POV in the synopsis. You could mention the book is seen from multiple POVs in the covering letter, perhaps?
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This might be a candidate for starting with a single sentence stating the basic premise of the story, then adding a second sentence and then a third. etc. mentioning time span only insofar as there are several. Good luck!
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In a word, yes. You can definitely sum in up in that tell-y sort of way in a synopsis.
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Or as Bella says, just mention that it’s from several POVs at the start and then just talk about the events without mentioning the POV it’s from as you go.
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Thanks @kazg. And thank @bellam and @sandradavies. I’ve had a another go just concentrating on telling what happens and ignoring the POV and it is falling into place.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Planning vs Winging it. in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years agoThe starting point for every book has been different for me and my process has changed as well. I used to plan very little but now I do try and start with the main thrust of the plot clear in my head otherwise I risk wandering too far down interesting paths that lead nowhere. But I need the actual process of writing words and sentences to…[Read more]
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Where to start? in the forum
A place for Stupid Questoins 6 years, 1 month agoHi Andrew. The only stupid questions are the ones you don’t ask and it doesn’t matter how ‘far’ along the learning the craft of writing journey you are, there are still more things to find out about and old things to be reminded about.
Emma Darwin’s blog The Itch of Writing has a host of useful blogs if you haven’t come across it already. This…[Read more]
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