Claire Waller

  • Are you using gmail’s webmail service?

    I just had a quick try and noticed that when I clicked on a Word document, it was opened in Google Docs and not Word. My suspicion is that Word is fine but there’s something wrong with the way gmail is rendering Times New Roman. If that’s the case, then a fix depends on what browser you’re using and what…[Read more]

  • I wonder too 🙂

    Can I ask for a bit of clarification? If you type out some text in Word using Times New Roman, it looks fine. When you send that as an email attachment and subsequently view it, it appears blurry and hard to read.

    At the risk of sounding daft, how are you viewing the attachments? Do you open them with Word, i.e. if Word isn’t…[Read more]

  • It’s a strange one isn’t it? I wonder if @athelstone can help?

  • JaneShuff replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    I downloaded it on the boat on the way home and it’s fantastic.

  • Daedalus replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    Yes, it was partly extraordinary luck, partly John’s skilful setting of the tone and throwing up some ideas before things got started and linking text after the selection, and partly in the selection and ordering of stories. (As I was going to write the opener, I got to see all the stories. It’s true to say there were a few that while being dec…[Read more]

  • Jules replied to the topic New historical fiction novella in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    Yay! I’m so glad you posted this, Daed. Highly recommend it to everyone who likes hist fic especially WWII. It’s an excellent novella. Can’t wait for the next one 😁

  • Jules replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    I think the linking text definitely helped @squidge. As did the editors having a clear idea of what they were looking for and how to make it all fit together. And I think the opening and closing stories gave the anthology shape too. But we weren’t actually given that much of a premise other than ‘demon invasion of Victorian Britain’ which expanded…[Read more]

  • Squidge replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    OK – finished it. Did not put it down…

    Bloody brilliant.

    I have to ask – how much of the premise dd you get beforehand? The stories all link so well together, I can’t work out whether it’s down to extreme luck in terms of the arrangement of the stories or whether the links written between each story are simply very well done to link what might…[Read more]

  • I hate to post here twice in quick succession, but it turns out publishing has something of waiting for a bus about it. You may recall I posted a little while ago about having signed a deal for three historical novellas with Sharpe publishing. I thought the Den might like to know that the first of these, ‘Harpoon’, is now out…[Read more]

  • Sorry to hear that @jeand – I can’t say I have a clue why it’s doing that but with luck one of the more tech savvy Denizens will be able to offer a solution

    Btw if you want to create a new topic with this question, try going to the main ‘Lifeboat’ page https://www.denofwriters.com/forums/forum/den-of-writers/the-writers-lifeboat/ and scrolling to…[Read more]

  • Jules replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    Glad you’re enjoying it @Squidge I love the interlinking text – it really adds sometjing to the collection. I love the shared world aspect of the anthology too.

  • Squidge replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    I am about half way through and loving this. Especially how there’s an link between each story which binds them all together.

  • Jules replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    This was such a great project to be a part of (not least because I was basically asked to write war of the worlds fan fic 😉 ) Matt is being humble by the way. He’s written the opening novellette The Battle of the Alma, which sets the scene and tone for the entire anthology. It’s an excellent piece of fiction with stellar world building. (I keep…[Read more]

  • Daedalus replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    Thanks Squidge, Sea and Kaz! Just to say a bit more about this, Hell’s Empire is a linked anthology based around the premise of a demonic invasion of Victorian Britain at the end of the 19th century. I’d suggest ‘War of the Worlds’ but with demons in place of the aliens’ as an elevator pitch, but that wouldn’t really do it justice, as there’s a…[Read more]

  • Squidge replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    Must get this…I’m a bit Pratchetted out at the mo, and this is going to be good!

  • Daedalus started the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    Hi all. First of all apologies for the absence, but things have been rather busy with writing and the puppy. I want to take time to mention this, though, as it’s a publication featuring no fewer than four Denizens – @woolleybeans, @jillybean, @madiguana and your servant.

    Hell’s Empire – Tales of the Incursion

    A unique anthology of two thr…[Read more]

  • RichardB posted an update 7 years ago

    Nice birthday present yesterday: the first in the latest round of rejections.

    • Happy Birthday!

    • I hope it was a happy birthday anyway. Sorry to hear about The Last House, but it’ll sell, trust me

      • KazG replied 7 years ago

        Happy belated birthday @richardb! I read of someone (name escapes me) who used to collect rejections and aimed for a certain number each month, each one being an achievement and a measurement of activity and submission. So each one worthy of celebration. I’ve actually found that approach helpful myself, bizarre though it seems…

  • Squidge posted an update 7 years ago

    Dilemma:

    Book 1 with publisher being edited. Waiting for their response to my responses.
    Book 2 with publisher, waiting to see if they like it – though I know it needs work.
    Book 3 story outlined in notebook.

    Question is, do I get stuck into writing up Book 3 properly on the computer, knowing I’ve got 1 & 2 to work on edit-wise; start…[Read more]

    • Do whatever excites you the most? Or do something else entirely? If neither of those are the answer, then I’d crack on with Book 3. Having a better idea of what happens in it, will inform your edit of Books 1 and 2 when the time comes.
      If ’twere me, I wouldn’t start yet another project (planning Book 4) as that’ll create more unfinished-ness and…[Read more]

    • Take time out to write something completely different and come back to this with fresh eyes and unexpected directions?

    • Raine replied 7 years ago

      Personally, I’d get started with book 3, but that’s possibly not the wisest, knowing you’ll have to switch away from it again. BUt it’s not like you are having to enter an entirely new world, is it? (this is the next in series, isn’t it?). So perhaps it could even be good to keep you in the right place mentally and keep you enthused for the…[Read more]

      • Thanks all… I actually went on to outline book 4 after all, but pretty loosely. Rather lost my writing mojo this week due to a bout of hormones… I tend to want to sit in a corner and shut the world out when that happens. Not helped by a few things going rather wrong this week that left me feeling disappointed with life. But hey ho, we get back…[Read more]

      • @Raine – don’t worry re beta reading; as and when! I’ve begun to realise that book 2’s not as oven ready as I thought it might be…

    • Boo to the hormones, but pleased you’ve found a way to keep things moving forwards nonetheless. It all has to be done at some point, so in a way it doesn’t matter in what order. Whatever helps keep the momentum flowing(ish)

      • KazG replied 7 years ago

        good for you, @squidge. Moving forward despite all that is a major achievement. My (belated) approach would be to move on with the next bit of the story, I think. especially if you’ve got exciting bits to look forward to writing! I also find that writing the future can often inform the ‘past’ in that you can tweak and foreshadow knowing what comes…[Read more]

  • Athelstone posted an update 7 years ago

    Have thoroughly enjoyed reading the monthly competition entries so far. Glad I’m not judging.

    • Me too – an astonishingly varied and well-worked collection.

      • Am just about to spend a week travelling round the UK visiting family (hello internet@sea) and am looking forward to reading them all!

  • Thanks, Raine. Looks good 😊

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