John S Alty

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).

I’ve always sent quick responses, even for rejects (“Thank you for yor time”, etc) – I think it’s out of habit, I guess, though nobody’s complained – yet 🙂

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]

I’ve generally replied in the past to agents who have read the full and the type of reply has depended on the type of mail they’ve sent. if it’s been a fairly short ‘not for us’, I’ve just thanked them but if they’ve gone to the bother of giving me some feedback, I’ve normally thanked them for it specifically and told them how much I valued it,…[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.

Oh yes, 373(ish)

Tortoiseshell Specs

I wear tortoiseshell specs. My dear old mum did too. And Dad. A family tradition that I hadn’t really thought about. I mean, we had so many things that I hardly even noticed. Family traditions, that is. There were words we used that I thought were just normal. Mum called me dinny if I did something daft and lairy when I was n…[Read more]

Thanks @janeshuff & @katemachon !

Fabulous Elle – well done.

Fantastic achievement @elle! Congratulations

Found out a couple of days ago that both flash fiction I entered in the Storgy Magazine Flash Fiction Competition have made it on the shortlist and both will be published in the competition chapbook!

Seed Cathedral

It was not the first of its kind but it was the one which marked the moment past which things would not return. There were too many and they were too popular. And tomorrow was my day. Today was Alfie’s – my brother.

“We who hold our rockets,” said the priest, garbed in a sheet in the roofless shadow of the abbey, “sit together…[Read more]