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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 6 months ago
What becomes of the broken hearted?
Tomorrow, if I make it through the night, I celebrate my one hundred and ninth birthday. I hate my birthdays. Life’s punctuation. People wander about pretending it’s a secret that there will be a party for me in the day room. The press may attend. The staff will say things such as, “Well done”, as though…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 7 months ago
Winter is a-drawing in. Throw another log on the cat and pull up your writing gear. Time to turn your attention to matters of ancient tradition. Yonder peasant is freezing to death looking for Wenceslas’s famously warm footprints, the Daddy Longlegs are queuing up to die on your carpet, and the Winter Short Story Challenge is here! This is a…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Chit Chat in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoPost wherever the fancy takes you – the activity stream is fine. If you want to start something, in the nicest possible way, that will be easily accessible and not scroll out of sight, here’s a good place.
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Athelstone started the topic Q&A in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoIf you have to ask…
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Athelstone started the topic Voting in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoOn the face of it, what you have to do is quite simple. However, those of you have been through this before in previous challenges will know that in fact it is extraordinarily tough.
When the writing stage of the challenge closes on 2 February 2025 at 22:00 UK time, the voting stage begins. No doubt most of you will have read many of the entries…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Rules in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoSome Basic Story Rules and Guidelines
The challenge is to produce a short story. In the way that the term is usually understood, what is needed is a work of fiction. By all means stretch this definition as you like, to include, for example, an imaginative account of true events, but please avoid essays, reportage, political polemic,…[Read more]
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Athelstone started the topic Welcome PLEASE READ THIS FIRST in the forum
A Different Time 1 year, 7 months agoWelcome all.
This year, I have borrowed from the method often used in the monthly competition. The theme of the challenge, A Different Time, is a prompt. That is to say, look at the phrase and use it in any of the multitude of possible ways that occur. You might choose to write an historical piece, or a recollection of something that happened in…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 7 months ago
Well, it’s September. Something is usually afoot by now, but I’ve been tied up with finishing a draft and editing, amongst other things. Is the formula too tired? Anybody up for another spot of winter writing?
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I’m up for it, Ath. I find the comp helpful and reading other people’s stories helps my writing too. What about setting a choice of three general topics but without the choices about objects – would that make your and Jules’ lives easier? So, I don’t know, a story concerning either love, crime or war. Maybe too a longer deadline for joining the…[Read more]
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I’m up for winter writing, Ath. I haven’t been around here much because I’ve been busy with both book two (currently being typeset by Leigh Forbes) and three (less than halfway through first draft) as well as trying to promote and sell book one. Several book fairs and talks about using my own epilepsy in fiction lined up in the near future. But I…[Read more]
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Jolly good! I shall put my thinking-cap on.
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Brilliant!
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Athelstone replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 7 months ago
I’m usually a late respondant, and as Libby says it is a busy month.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Substack in the forum Coffee Shop 1 year, 7 months ago
Well that’s excellent. I don’t think she’s the kind of person who makes that stuff up!
If it’s any help (it won’t be) I had good vibes from a couple of book doctor people, followed by disasters with agents. I think I picked badly.
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I think it’s hard to know how to pick well. As with Richard’s experience of agents, it seems the unadmitted part of their job description is to have narrow vision. We know they will want MSs that are often versions of what already sells but they don’t add that this discrimination can be taken to a fine degree.
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Which isn’t to deny the pressured commercial environment they work it, just that authors can be turned down for seemingly odd or circular reasons, the ‘nobody reads stories about [insert topic of novel]’ type of response.
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I think you’re right on all points. I know that it’s probably more a tendency of agents from the larger, more commercial agencies, and that it isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it’s clearly a factor. We live in a world where many shops and stores no longer choose what to stock; the algorithms determine what is or is not delivered to the shelves. So…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Substack in the forum Coffee Shop 1 year, 7 months ago
Emma’s writing is just marvellous.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Thirty Days in the forum
Beta Reading 1 year, 7 months agoBrilliant. Thanks Seagreen.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Thirty Days in the forum
Beta Reading 1 year, 7 months agoMe, please ☺️
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Athelstone replied to the topic Thirty Days in the forum
Beta Reading 1 year, 7 months agoHah! That’s an interesting comparison, and thank you for it. If I assign a strangeness value (SV) of 5 to Sunken Land and, say, 8 or 9 to Viriconium, then Thirty days is mainly a 4 with the occasional 6. I am doing very different things. Thank you very much for the offer. I hope I can appeal to a wide range of readers.
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Seagreen replied to the topic August 2024 monthly competition in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 7 months ago
Well done, Sandra, and thanks Libby for inspiring a rather fun-to-explore effort ☺️
For a variety of reasons, I never studied Shakespeare at school and had to go off and read a sonnet (or two!) to gauge the appropriate level of thees, thines and thous.
Ath and Terrie – both delicious reads!
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 7 months ago
Phew, after a bit of panic and faffing about with the Beta Reading group, I’ve posted a request for reading.
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Athelstone posted an update 1 year, 7 months ago
OK, I had a try at the Beta Reading group. Soon after I posted, I felt that it was too public. I didn’t want my synopsis etc on show. Temporarily I’ve made the group private while I have a think. Apologies for the confusion. Ideas welcome!
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Also, now I think about it, apologies to anybody who might have liked to try the beta reading option, but couldn’t opt to make it private like I can
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Do you actually need to provide a synopsis in a beta reading request? I would have thought a brief outline of what sort of novel it is – genre, style etc – might suffice. Then there wouldn’t be such a need for privacy.
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I think you’re right. I put the guidelines together based on a variety of sources, and a brief synopsis was a common suggestion. However, it ought to be part of the private correspondence between author and reader, not out there on the web.
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