@janeshuff
Active 3 years ago-
JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 4 months ago
We moved away when I was three so I remember nothing!
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Indie publishing deal in the forum Podium 5 years, 4 months ago
Thank you @athelstone @janette @raine @thea @libby @sandradavies.
Verve are a small imprint of an indie press so there’ll be no books on shelves in Waterstones but they’re lovely people and the fit feels so right. The indie press route has worked very well for me and is well worth a try. They’re often more open to books that don’t quite fit into…[Read more]
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JaneShuff started the topic Indie publishing deal in the forum Podium 5 years, 4 months ago
Exciting news from me. On The Edge my ‘girl on a lighthouse’ thriller has found a home with Verve Books. It’s been a long journey with a lot of setbacks on the way and I am thrilled.There’s nothing like the moment when the e mail saying how much someone loved your book (with no caveats, no buts,) arrives in your inbox. It will be published in…[Read more]
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Yay, congratulations, Jane! That’s brilliant news, and so deserved! Really looking forward to reading it. xx
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Brilliant, Jane! Keep us posted and let us know when we can buy a copy.
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I’m assuming this is the one I read some years ago, which at the time I thought very impressive. Good to hear talent will eventually earn its reward.
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Well done, Jane, I hope it does stupendously well!
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Thank you @johnalty. I’ll be happy if it does what the publishers hope it will do! I might need your help as I’m contracted to write a second in the series and it is looking as though there’ll be a bit of sailing in it.
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Happy to help
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JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 4 months ago
This is such a HUGE subject Doug. And the quick answer is you should do whatever works best for you and your book. There are, I think, essentially three options!
Trying to interest an agent who will then approach publishers on your behalf (a must if you want to be pub’d by a big press) which can take a long time unless you’re one of the lucky few…[Read more]
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Thanks for the feedback. I’ve subscribed to Adam Croft’s podcast and it sure looks interesting. I listened to one episode today. He has a sponsor called Ingram Spark, and for curiosity’s sake I checked them out. It looks like maybe a vanity publisher…? But anyway, thanks for giving me info to consider as far as which path to take.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Pete Who? in the forum Blogs 5 years, 4 months ago
You’re quite right Richard. Although the lack of hoovering and the pile of christmas cards still waiting to be written might point to a different conclusion!
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JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 4 months ago
I never know where’s the best place to reply – so thanks!
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Richard's Literary Byways: Pete Who? in the forum Blogs 5 years, 4 months ago
I’ve just wasted an hour, thanks to you Richard, trawling through the internet searching for Brian Patten who was my particular favourite and ordered a copy of Little Johnny’s Confession which I am sure is the book of his I used to have. Fingers crossed.
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JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 4 months ago
Thank you for this, Richard. I spent my childhood and teenage years in Liverpool and The Liverpool Poets were a big part of it. I thought I hadn’t heard of Pete Roche but, amazingly, I found myself able to recite Somewhere On The Way as I read it so the poem must be buried somewhere inside the dusty old antique shop of my mind. Thank you!
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Jane, I’m taking the liberty of copying your post onto the thread. It’s a bit difficult carrying on a discussion in two places at once, and stuff has a nasty habit of vanishing from here.
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I never know where’s the best place to reply – so thanks!
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JaneShuff replied to the topic How do you deal with the ever-distracting Internet??? in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 5 years, 4 months ago
Weirdly enough it helps my way of working which is to do intensive bursts of writing and then let myself be distracted for a brief while before I attack again!
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JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 7 months ago
I think I agree and, in any case, I’m finding hard to impossible to plan without the realities of Covid19 informing the action. It is the current reality.
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JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 7 months ago
Thanks @raine. You expressed my quandary much better than I could. Still not sure which way to go!!
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I’m veering towards thinking that a contemporary book which ignores covid is going to date far faster than one which has it/its aftershocks in the background.
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I think I agree and, in any case, I’m finding hard to impossible to plan without the realities of Covid19 informing the action. It is the current reality.
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JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 7 months ago
It will be wonderful. And, of course, it is daunting but that is because you care about your writing and want it to be the best it can. Which is why it was so good in the first place!
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JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 7 months ago
Nor me! Although I am not good with those pictures!
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JaneShuff posted a new activity comment 5 years, 7 months ago
Interesting. I wasn’t planning on writing a story about the pandemic but was thinking about whether the story I had planned to write should acknowledge the pandemic. For example there is quite a lot of travel in it and it feels weird to have someone just hop on a plane given what’s going on. Have to think a bit more.
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Best of luck!
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Yes, best of luck, Jane. FWIW, I don’t think ignoring the pandemic is anything of a cop-out. I’m choosing to ignore it in my next one for similar reasons to some remarks above, that a) it risks becoming band-wagon and, if it does (hopefully) pass, Covid might age the novel by the time it comes to print. Mostly b) that books are commonly escapism,…[Read more]
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I agree there’s a risk of bandwagon. I think it can be hard, too, to think of something interesting to say about a situation when we’re still in it. Hard for me, anyway.
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Yeah, its a tricky one isn’t it? To ignore it completely, or assume that a book based two years from now can still ignore it completely seems a bit unbelievable to me. This is a world changing event, ignoring it for present/near-future settings would be odd imo. BUT I have absolutely zero interest in novels *about* it. I do think the shifting,…[Read more]
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Thanks @raine. You expressed my quandary much better than I could. Still not sure which way to go!!
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I’m veering towards thinking that a contemporary book which ignores covid is going to date far faster than one which has it/its aftershocks in the background.
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I think I agree and, in any case, I’m finding hard to impossible to plan without the realities of Covid19 informing the action. It is the current reality.
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JaneShuff posted an update 5 years, 7 months ago
Just wondering how you are all dealing with the Covid pandemic within your writing. I’m in the planning stages of a new novel and can’t decide. Do I set my novel pre-pandemic? Which feels like a bit of a cop-out. Do I ignore it completely? Same comment. Or do I try to set it in the current situation with the problems and concerns of the pandemic…[Read more]
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I think it depends how optimistic or pessimistic you are about the pandemic. Considering how long it takes between drafting a novel and seeing it in print (if it gets that far), if you take the optimistic view the whole thing will be over by then, it’ll no longer be a part of contemporary life, and nobody will worry much whether you’ve included it…[Read more]
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Not answering your question, exactly, but I’ve read a number of short stories which include reference to Covid and in general I find them offputting, a bit bandwagon, which might be because we’re in the middle of it. I think if your novel is set at the time, a passing reference to its restrictions might be enough. But the same (to include or…[Read more]
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Personally, I’d leave it out. So many people now must be writing pandemic stories, that the mention of it alone might put readers on guard. Also, optimistically speaking, by the time your novel comes out, life may have returned to normal and your story would be dated.
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Interesting. I wasn’t planning on writing a story about the pandemic but was thinking about whether the story I had planned to write should acknowledge the pandemic. For example there is quite a lot of travel in it and it feels weird to have someone just hop on a plane given what’s going on. Have to think a bit more.
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Best of luck!
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Yes, best of luck, Jane. FWIW, I don’t think ignoring the pandemic is anything of a cop-out. I’m choosing to ignore it in my next one for similar reasons to some remarks above, that a) it risks becoming band-wagon and, if it does (hopefully) pass, Covid might age the novel by the time it comes to print. Mostly b) that books are commonly escapism,…[Read more]
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I agree there’s a risk of bandwagon. I think it can be hard, too, to think of something interesting to say about a situation when we’re still in it. Hard for me, anyway.
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Yeah, its a tricky one isn’t it? To ignore it completely, or assume that a book based two years from now can still ignore it completely seems a bit unbelievable to me. This is a world changing event, ignoring it for present/near-future settings would be odd imo. BUT I have absolutely zero interest in novels *about* it. I do think the shifting,…[Read more]
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Thanks @raine. You expressed my quandary much better than I could. Still not sure which way to go!!
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I’m veering towards thinking that a contemporary book which ignores covid is going to date far faster than one which has it/its aftershocks in the background.
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I think I agree and, in any case, I’m finding hard to impossible to plan without the realities of Covid19 informing the action. It is the current reality.
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About time too! Great choice of publisher (and author) – it is as though it was meant to be. Congratulations, Raine x
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Susie in the forum Blogs 5 years, 7 months ago
Lovely story, Richard. Funny how some people stay with you over the years while others disappear from your memories.
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Choices in the forum
Things that go bump 5 years, 7 months agoHome believer spoon
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Aha, Jesmond. My brother lived there in the early/mid 70s. Lily Avenue. I visited a couple of times. Don’t remember much about it – but we were young.
We moved away when I was three so I remember nothing!