Chrissy

Fabulous Fiona. This is one I want to read, but I’m waiting for the paperback.

Many, many thanks for this Kaz. Multiple lightbulb moments. As Philippa says, it can make a big difference finding a model that works for you (and indeed, different ones might apply themselves better to different works). I’m trying to structure a novella at the moment, which is obviously somewhat different to a novel, and some of the more s…[Read more]

Thanks Kaz. I’m going to print this out and have a thorough read.

How incredibly generous of you to share your notes in this way, KazG. Thank you.

So here it is – Part 3, the conclusion of the story of my publishing nightmare, and how I finally recovered the rights to my novel from an intransigent and uncaring publisher. It was financially costly – but not nearly as costly as it might have been, and taught me a great deal about what not to do next time. Final blogpost, with as much in the…[Read more]

The Womagwriter blog has info on this too https://womagwriter.blogspot.com/
(a useful site if you’re thinking of submitting to women’s mags)

And Della Galton blogged about it a couple of months ago on her site.

Brilliant Stevie. Have to say I loved that story, so I’m not surprised.

That’s great news Stevie. Wonderful to hear of a RWAV story hitting success so early, it bodes well for the field in general

Castle class are lovely. My first Hornby train was a Castle class. Wish I could remember which one.

…In fact one of my few relatively clear memories of my grandfather are holding his hand while we stood on the (very crowded) footplate of the Oliver Cromwell, a BR Standard 7 Class locomotive, for a short run up and down the rails at Bressingham in the early 1980s. All I remember is a glimpse of the fire in the furnace, being closed in on all…[Read more]

This is fascinating.

My grandfather, on my mother’s side, worked on the railways but I know virtually nothing of what he did, to my embarrassment. I gather he was responsible for maintenance of a section of track, and when he started, had something to do with using horses to shunt rolling stock into and out of sidings, this being before that…[Read more]

Newbury is my adopted home town, Ath. Needless to say it’s less romantic now though steam trains do pass through as I’m sure you know.

Richard,
My late father would tell of a train crash in Diggle, then in Yorkshire, in 1923 or 1924. He was four and witnessed the accident whilst out walking with his granddad. He was interviewed by the local newspaper and is reported to have said “It were a grand smash” or similar. I see from google that four people died, so it probably wasn’t so…[Read more]

Really enjoy these tales of the rails, thank you.

Another fascinating blog Richard. And unlike so many of them, where there were obvious risks being taken or safety features omitted, with this one it’s so unlikely as to surely have been unforseeable. Do you think the signalmen were reassured by all the built-in the safety features that nothing like that could have happened, freeing them to run t…[Read more]

That’s definitely one of the problems Bella – people, self included, really want these things to go well and can easily blind themselves to the problems. There’s that siren voice of ‘yes, but you’ll be published…’ – as if that means anything by itself

Thanks @philippaeast – you’re most welcome. I feel very silly having made all these avoidable errors, but I wouldn’t want anyone else to fall into the same trap. Mostly I don’t want people to get stuck with publishers who act in bad faith.

Would you mind retweeting the link the next time you’re on Twitter? Just to get the highest circulation…[Read more]