@clebs
Active 1 year, 11 months ago-
Terrie replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years ago
my offering is based on the original heartbreak challenge .
I titled it –
<p style=”text-align: center;”>Heartbreak Is A Killer</p>
You asked, ‘what becomes of the broken hearted?’ The more oblique and pithier question would be ‘How do the broken hearted cope?’I’m not naming names because if I did …. Well, let’s just say that’s not a go…[Read more]
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RichardB replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years ago
This is in response to the original prompt, ‘What becomes…’
599 words (Phew!)Glan-y-Nant
She’s the reason I’m so far from home in this quiet corner of Carmarthenshire where the tourists don’t come, driving along this grass-grown lane to nowhere, neither knowing nor caring where I’m going. Walking-on-air. light-in-the-face, ice-in-the-heart…[Read more]
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Athelstone posted an update 2 years, 1 month 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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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly competition, September 2024 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 1 month ago
**A smol warning for all the darkness most foul; my headspace is aging like fine wine, and therapy is expensive ????**
<p style=”text-align: center;”>_________________________________________________</p>
<p style=”text-align: center;”>Home</p>
There were dreams I slipped into and out of. Through their haze I saw a prince and castle, figments of…[Read more] -
Athelstone posted an update 2 years, 1 month 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 2 years, 1 month 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 2 years, 1 month 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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RichardB replied to the topic Substack in the forum Coffee Shop 2 years, 1 month ago
A bit off-topic, but hey, this is the coffee shop, right?
I too have a huge amount of respect for Emma Darwin. And she gave me the happiest moment of my writing career.
The only time I went to the York Festival I (naturally, considering what I’ve just said) booked a book doctor slot with her. Mine was the first slot of the day, and as we sat…[Read more]
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Athelstone replied to the topic Substack in the forum Coffee Shop 2 years, 1 month ago
Emma’s writing is just marvellous.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Thirty Days in the forum
Beta Reading 2 years, 1 month agoBrilliant. Thanks Seagreen.
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Seagreen replied to the topic Thirty Days in the forum
Beta Reading 2 years, 1 month agoMe, please ☺️
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Athelstone replied to the topic Thirty Days in the forum
Beta Reading 2 years, 1 month 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 2 years, 1 month 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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