JaneShuff

Good job, Ath 🙂
And thanks, Squidge. I’ll never look at a paint colour quite the same way again!

Well done, Athelstone. And thank you, Squidge.

Thanks Libby and Sandra – and once again, thanks to Squidge!

October beckons.

Congratulations on the win Ath, and for what it’s worth I found it uncomfortably horrific in its pervasive cult brainwashing manipulation – the sort of thing I usually avoid reading and very definitely cannot write, so am as admiring as I am uncomfortble with it.

And thanks Squidge for the competition which I took as opportunity to try out a…[Read more]

I very much like your story, Ath, exactly because of the problems you comment on. The twist worked really well for me, and I often don’t really enjoy such stories because the twist feels tacked on. This one, though, feels integral to what’s gone before. I also enjoyed it as a horror story but that was secondary for me. I could be over analysing…[Read more]

I might be a bit over sensitive, but it’s the kind of trope that surfaces when feelings are being tested: stories about minorities and their secret evil ways. The classic cases would be all the tales of alien mind-control and body take over that were so popular during the anti-communist frenzy in the US during the late 40s and 50s, or the ‘Yellow…[Read more]

Ath – really?!

Thanks for a fab competition, Squidge. You’ve brought a tear to my eye. I’ve been doing the monthly competition for nearly 10 years, although with fewer entries in the last few months, and this is my first win! There were some super entries this month; I’m really pleased.

I re-read my entry and worried that it might be steering too close to the…[Read more]

Apologies for the delay in posting – life got in the way!

Well these shades of beige definitely weren’t boring. Thanks to everyone who entered – thin on the ground perhaps (well it is York month) but not thin on quality.

Some really poignant pieces in this mix (Dreamweaver, Je m’appelle Missy, and Hil’s Tortoiseshell Specs) secrets in Battle…[Read more]

Thanks, all. I think from now on I won’t reply to form rejections. Certainly I shouldn’t have done it so long after I received them. It was just that tweet making me think I’d been rude! Perhaps she wasn’t talking about form rejections.

It’s never even occurred to me to reply to form rejections. What’s the point? Who’d bother to read it? I can’t speak for any other circumstances, because I’ve never been there (sob).

Hurrah for the fulls, Hil. A great sign, even if they don’t lead anywhere (yet). I’ve heard the ‘don’t reply to a form rejection’ from a lot of agents, so I’ve never done that. If the rejection is noticeably personalised, then I’ve sent a quick thankyou, and I always thank them after a full MS rejection. After moping for a bit!
I’d also guess that…[Read more]

Do you mean that you sent a ‘thank you’ to the agents after they declined? I haven’t done that in the past. Not that I’ve made many submissions lately.