@athelstone
Active 8 hours, 14 minutes ago-
Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 2 months ago
Hi Squidge, from login select Groups, then scroll down and select Donations, then select Forum 🙂 There are two topics. the first is a summary of where we are and how to donate. The second is for chat.
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 2 months ago
Den of Writers is a FREE forum. That means that nobody pays for membership and if you join you are absolutely entitled to use and enjoy the place as much as anybody – in fact, you are encouraged to.
However, people have enquired about contributing to the cost of hosting the site, so the Donations group will show you how to if you want to.…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Plotting workshop notes in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 2 months ago
Just brilliant notes.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Short Story Publication/Competition in the forum Podium 7 years, 2 months ago
Brilliant news, Stevie. Well done!
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 2 months ago
Well, that just answered my own question for me. At about half that price I might puzzle over whether I could stretch to it, but £5K is way out of reach
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Sounds to me like Harry’s got his head in the clouds again. Who on earth is going to commit that sort of money? Anyone who was confident enough of their abilities to make it seem worth it would be confident enough to think they didn’t need it, surely?
Incidentally, I see Retreat West, partners in this venture, is run by Amanda Saint, who was on…[Read more]
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At least 4 of the people in my self-edit group are publishing away, Richard. One of the our very own Bric. We definitely do not all move at the same pace along our paths!
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You’re as good a writer Richard. Anyway, people on each SE course are naturally at different stages when they come into it. Incidentally I still think that second novel of yours is cracking and would urge you to keep subbing it as well as working on AROS
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Agree with Daed and WB. We all take tge journey or mountain at what speed best serves us. And you should definitely keep going with AROS (as long as you want to!)
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 2 months ago
Oh yes (part 2): just to show how bad I am at reading things – it’s £4,950 / €5,700 / $6,500
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Well, that just answered my own question for me. At about half that price I might puzzle over whether I could stretch to it, but £5K is way out of reach
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Sounds to me like Harry’s got his head in the clouds again. Who on earth is going to commit that sort of money? Anyone who was confident enough of their abilities to make it seem worth it would be confident enough to think they didn’t need it, surely?
Incidentally, I see Retreat West, partners in this venture, is run by Amanda Saint, who was on…[Read more]
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At least 4 of the people in my self-edit group are publishing away, Richard. One of the our very own Bric. We definitely do not all move at the same pace along our paths!
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You’re as good a writer Richard. Anyway, people on each SE course are naturally at different stages when they come into it. Incidentally I still think that second novel of yours is cracking and would urge you to keep subbing it as well as working on AROS
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Agree with Daed and WB. We all take tge journey or mountain at what speed best serves us. And you should definitely keep going with AROS (as long as you want to!)
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 2 months ago
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Oh yes (part 2): just to show how bad I am at reading things – it’s £4,950 / €5,700 / $6,500
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Well, that just answered my own question for me. At about half that price I might puzzle over whether I could stretch to it, but £5K is way out of reach
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Sounds to me like Harry’s got his head in the clouds again. Who on earth is going to commit that sort of money? Anyone who was confident enough of their abilities to make it seem worth it would be confident enough to think they didn’t need it, surely?
Incidentally, I see Retreat West, partners in this venture, is run by Amanda Saint, who was on…[Read more]
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At least 4 of the people in my self-edit group are publishing away, Richard. One of the our very own Bric. We definitely do not all move at the same pace along our paths!
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You’re as good a writer Richard. Anyway, people on each SE course are naturally at different stages when they come into it. Incidentally I still think that second novel of yours is cracking and would urge you to keep subbing it as well as working on AROS
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Agree with Daed and WB. We all take tge journey or mountain at what speed best serves us. And you should definitely keep going with AROS (as long as you want to!)
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 2 months ago
I expect many here know about Jericho Writers, the successor to the Writers’ Workshop that hosted the Word Cloud forum. It seems that they are about to offer a one-year Writing a Novel course to include a pass to the Festival of Writing and either the Getting Published or Self-Publishing day. It also includes a full MS assessment, one to one…[Read more]
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Oh yes (part 2): just to show how bad I am at reading things – it’s £4,950 / €5,700 / $6,500
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Well, that just answered my own question for me. At about half that price I might puzzle over whether I could stretch to it, but £5K is way out of reach
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Sounds to me like Harry’s got his head in the clouds again. Who on earth is going to commit that sort of money? Anyone who was confident enough of their abilities to make it seem worth it would be confident enough to think they didn’t need it, surely?
Incidentally, I see Retreat West, partners in this venture, is run by Amanda Saint, who was on…[Read more]
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At least 4 of the people in my self-edit group are publishing away, Richard. One of the our very own Bric. We definitely do not all move at the same pace along our paths!
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You’re as good a writer Richard. Anyway, people on each SE course are naturally at different stages when they come into it. Incidentally I still think that second novel of yours is cracking and would urge you to keep subbing it as well as working on AROS
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Agree with Daed and WB. We all take tge journey or mountain at what speed best serves us. And you should definitely keep going with AROS (as long as you want to!)
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Who the hell is going to pay £5k for that? For £5k you could probably do one of the more prestigious creative writing MAs
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Flippin heck. That is steep. With no guarantee at the end of it that you’d be published…
Amanda does seem to be getting on well – there are some other ex cloudies working with her now as well.
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Interesting… almost feels like they’re trying to offer something similar to the Curtis Brown Creative course. That’s a massive amount to invest.
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Ok that’s mad. For £84 you can join skillshare (having got the first 3 months free) and pretty much learn evetything being taught here from a choice of 100s of different teachers. With a bit of research and determination, you can find professional author groups to join that will give you a lot of the hand holding and help. Ok it includes the…[Read more]
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Yes, Jules, that’s just what I was getting at above. If you’re so near to the start of your writing journey as to need everything in this package it’s still basically a dream/hobby. And how many have that sort of money to blow on a dream?
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Chichester Uni’s creative writing MA costs £5,202, and features some fairly big names on the teaching roster. With all due respect to the people on the Jericho course, they ain’t Jim Crace or Kate Mosse.
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And of course at the end of that you have a postgraduate qualification as well as having received first-class teaching and support
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If I had 5k to spend, I’d spend it on an MA. YOu get the 1:1 tutoring from highly qualified teachers and writers, peer support, much more in depth writing tuition, and you end up with a degree that agents etc will sit up and pay attention to. No contest. (I wish I had 5k. I’d LOVE to study writing at MA level)
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Me too, Raine. And yeah if I had a soare 5k to spend on writing, that’s where my money would go too.
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Same
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Very much the same.
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Tick. I’ve learned that money spent on courses, assessments, etc isn’t necessarily well-spent. I’ve already wasted too much.
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Wow, Daeds, that comparison is a real eye opener. I wonder which will go best on a CV? He really has showed himself up for what he is IMHO.
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It is indeed a lot of money. It is rather aimed at complete beginners as far as I can tell, because somewhere (possibly in a blog about it) Harry has said that if you have completed a novel and are editing it then it probably isn’t for you (at least not for that novel) so it does seem like a write from scratch hand-holding affair. I’m sure that it…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 2 months ago
I was toying with splashing out on the Kindle edition but Andrew Motion’s review made me think about it. I probably will, though.
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I have now read Andrew Motion’s review and he sums up my frustration with the book perfectly.
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Thanks Ath.
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I think I agreed with Andrew Motion’s review too. Read Warlight when it came out and memory of details is beginning to fade. But, yes, a little disappointing. Sort of changed its nature part way through?
PS Motion’s review of Tessa Hadley’s latest, Late in the Day, pretty spot on too though I enjoyed it a little more than he seems to have done.…[Read more]-
PPS Actually I liked it, but I’m a big Hadley fan. However I didn’t put it down thinking I’d like to read it again.
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Ooh I’ve never read anything of hers. Could you recommend one, @libby?
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Of her novels, I’d go for The Past. Though I also like The London Train for the way it includes contemporary issues and anxieties.
The short stories are even better. I’d start with the last volume, Bad Dreams.
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 3 months ago
Fine with the cheerleading and tea. Not a great one for kicking people I fear.
My own writing is slow, with moments of excitement, thank you for asking 🙂
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Go for it, @philippaeast.
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I have pom poms, kettle, and boots at the ready…
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Thanks guys! I like the sound of Pom poms….
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I also today have banana, pecan and white chocolate muffins if you want one. There were overripe bananas lurking in my fruit bowl that needed a home.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Hull Paragon: The Million-to-One Chance in the forum Blogs 7 years, 3 months ago
I can definitely see the attraction in steam locomotives, and I have fond memories of holidays as a child, waiting on Newbury station for the express to arrive and whisk me away. I always prayed that it would be one of those wonderful swept-front, streamlined marvels, and was overjoyed if it was. Looking over the tracks to the Newbury marshalling…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Hull Paragon: The Million-to-One Chance in the forum Blogs 7 years, 3 months ago
Richard, it may be something I missed over the time that you’ve been writing these (excellent) blogs: I know where you used to work, but do you have a connection to the railway yourself?
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 3 months ago
Coffee if you have it, please. Monday OK so far. Trying to edit. Present rate about one line per hour.
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Busy. Pilates, meeting with the new vicar, mending an altar cloth, cooking dinner. Tonight…finishing off the Fifth Elephant and maybe some knitting. 😉
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Work, work, work… of the non-writing kind.
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I decided to do beta edit replotting, but have RUN OUT OF POST IT NOTES! Disaster. :-O
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Athelstone replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Robert Aickman's Bad Dreams in the forum Blogs 7 years, 3 months ago
Sounds like my kind of writer and you’ve definitely sold him to me.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Publishing Deal in the forum Podium 7 years, 3 months ago
Well done, Philippa – just brilliant news.
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😀
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 7 years, 3 months ago
Not a culprit at all. The name on the profile gave nothing away and I was the first to accept because I thought it was somebody I’d met recently and told about the site (I only knew her first name). Anyway, Jules has sorted “her” out now.
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Athelstone posted an update 7 years, 3 months ago
I’m trying, guys. PLEASE be careful who you make friends with
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No intention of doing any such thing in this case, Athers.
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Quite right too 🙂
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I wonder if it’d be an idea to insist on a profile for joiners? Can be faked, of course, but is a bit more of a nuisance to compile plus enables a bit more of an informed choice as to whether or not to befriend.
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The problem is not insisting on a profile. The problem is the necessary custom code to make it visible. It’s being looked into at any rate.
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Ah … thanks, Jules.
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Sorry! I was one of the trusting culprits who made friends. It just seemed unkind to refuse. I’ve learned my lesson now.
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Not a culprit at all. The name on the profile gave nothing away and I was the first to accept because I thought it was somebody I’d met recently and told about the site (I only knew her first name). Anyway, Jules has sorted “her” out now.
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Oo er. ‘She’ must be sore!
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Sore bot?
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😀
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I’ve checked there too Squidge, and it’s showing as not having a forum. No topics Ath.
That’s odd. There aren’t any settings I can see to make the forum more visible, or even to hide it or anything really. It’s a public group, can you see the forum if you join it?
Yes, you have to join.
Ah, well that’s my inexperience with the site then. I should have added ‘join’ as a step.