Newbie

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’.

Very clever John – you’ve left me poised and nervous as to what sort of ‘reality’ comes next.

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]

Congrats again, @Elle!

Untitled (398 words)

In the dark before dawn the phone woke me. Its light made me squint. A window was broken at the shop, said a female police officer.

I pulled on a thick jumper and skirt and, with a thumping heart, drove into the centre of town. My shop – high-quality second-hand women’s clothes – was in a small road off the high stree…[Read more]

Yeah, do post an update when you have time, @philippaeast! I’d love to hear how it’s worked doing such big edits with your agent as editor. I didn’t really get much of that with mine, so would be interested to hear how it’s been.

I look forward to it!

Thanks Ath and Libby!

Yes I think my experience was unusual in the sheer volume of rewriting I ended up doing. It really didn’t help that I began writing the novel with absolutely no idea about plot or where I was headed. I’m pretty sure that if I’d had a clearer outline and idea of the shape of my book from the start it wouldn’t have needed 24…[Read more]

Thank you for this blog Richard – and Daeds. I hadn’t read it before. I remember the Penlee disaster but had forgotten the terrible details.

I have my RNLI Christmas card from a friend who always sends one. It’s very amusing. Santa’s reindeer in crew safety helmets.

I bought my cards this year from the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society, another…[Read more]

In absence

‘Anna’s party’s on the 21st. I’ll stay over.’

Anna. Beth’s sister. She and I had a hate:hate relationship for reasons neither of us ever disclosed to Beth. Beth had sense enough not to ask.

On this occasion my smile was for more than gratitude at her tact. An entire night to myself; twelve plus hours, taking into account Be…[Read more]

The Penlee lifeboat disaster was 37 years ago today, Twitter reminds me. If you haven’t read Richard’s blog about it, above, I highly recommend you do

Thank you for posting this, Philippa; it’s a great insight into your novel’s development and your own progress as a writer. What you say is both heartening and daunting. So much work! I’m really pleased you have an agent you like, one who is helping you develop the MS to an even higher level and who – by the sounds of things – shares your own…[Read more]

Fascinating then and fascinating now! I think one thing that you express so well here is the sheer workload of writing a successful book. OK, not everybody is going to make the huge changes that you did, but the fact remains that ‘tinkering’ is almost never enough. Great blog.