Jonathan

Contentwise it is all good and fine. Oh – “Black Shug, black shug” – that’s really creepy, like a chant. And there are some great lines and expressions in here. Stylistically, as it is now, I would want a little more editing to happen before I would be ready to read on, but that may be a matter of personal taste. The tense seems to change a little…[Read more]

I find Twitter is an invaluable resource for at least finding agents and getting some idea of what they want. Hashtags such as #MSWL (manuscript wish list, web homed at http://www.manuscriptwishlist.com) can be helpful, as can various “pitching events” such as #Pitchwars, #SFFPIT, #DVPit, #PitMad and so on. It’s not hard to figure out how to use, and you…[Read more]

There are quite a few independent presses and publishers in the north, and there’s a great sense of coalition about them all. I’m going to a talk-to-the-publisher with Bluemoose Books (the ones that published the Gallows Pole by Benjamin Myers) at a literary fest in town in a couple of weeks. Hopefully they’ll have reviewed my MS by then. I’ll…[Read more]

@juliec not really other than what they say on their site and twitter feed. I do know that they tend to be one of these “if you don’t hear back from us, assume it’s a no” which is why I never heard back from them… I queried Hannah Sheppard before (YA), but I think I will go with Harry Illingworth (SFF) this time.

@Raine they replied saying if the MS had been turned down and not re-worked, then don’t resubmit, but if it has been reworked and the writer feels it could benefit from another look, then repitch. That answers that! I’ll have to check to see what I sent.

Does anyone know if an MS we have submitted to them before (unsuccessfully) is eligible for this event, if it has had a rewrite? If no-one knows, I’ll ask them.

Very nice! I’m just discovering the joys of submitting short stories to online magazines. It has a nice quick turnaround unlike *The Behemoth*, aka my fantasy novel(s).

@RichardB good point. I suppose it would be a group in itself, admin’ed by whichever subset of people want the task, with the “accept members” functionality providing the security.

Thanks guys. I suppose my issue with groups-per-wip is they tend (to me) to become a bit of a maintenance hog. Also, it seems quite separated from everything else in that you see only that WIP, and never happen upon anything else. If someone just wants to post one small piece of a work-in-progress, I wonder if setting up a whole group for it could…[Read more]

Ooh, hmm, okay, now this is challenging. To me, in the opening bits, there is definitely a disembodied voice that says things like “Let her have this moment.” or “Two more people now, to the north of Devendra Kapoor, both of whom he knew although Lina Stephenson did not, yet.”. That opening section is very cool. I like it.

However the voice…[Read more]

Hi Squidge. I think the second one is much smoother. For me, there are no points where the “forward-motion” (if you know what I mean) vanishes. The situation is clear, and the level of tension is good – I am thinking that her creating the illuminorb is the “hmm … that’s rather interesting” thing of note that happens before the “yeah, ok, now that…[Read more]

Great blog, Skylark, and it’s so good to have seen your journey through the cloud and onto that stage (though I wasn’t there this year, you know what I mean). Long may it all continue! 🙂 Laughed at the train incident though. I did something similar when I was about 18 or so and had a few shandies. Difference was this was an older train where the…[Read more]