Julie Cordiner

One week left for the March comp, with one excellent entry as yet.

With crime fiction, it seems that the ‘THIS IS WHAT THIS IS signifier is a silhouetted man walking down a tunnel or over a bridge or along a lonely road BUT IT IS ALWAYS THE SAME BLINKING MAN!!! and I wonder authors don’t put their foot down. Even more so when I see what can be done by a small company with ‘This is our undoing’

@Daedalus, that’s so unutterably awful it’s tipped all the way over into wonderful!

@libby, @athelstone, thank you. I’m delighted with my foxy. 🙂

I think you’re right in that figures are often used as a massive ‘THIS IS WHAT THIS BOOK IS’ flag, like for bodice rippers or YA urban romantic fantasy, or twee historical rags-to-riches stories.…[Read more]

Our local indie bookshop – https://www.drakethebookshop.co.uk/ – is doing a brilliant job of keeping us stocked up with books – and says he has deliveries of stock arriving daily for click and collect. I’ve already spent £100 with him this year – and my ‘need’ list grows ever longer.

Catalyst

Despite the haste of his extreme, and unavoidably, late arrival – ‘Sorry, sorry, bastards took my phone so no way to warn. I’ll be fine, just need to wash the blood off … nose, yeah. Not broken. No, it’s fine, Alix paid my cab off at the door. And yeah, the police took witness statements.’ – he’d caught a glimpse of her as he hurri…[Read more]

Now our winter comp is over – may I remind all of you wonderful story tellers that the monthly ones are still running, March already half-way through.
At present no contenders.

Stunning, Raine.

@Daedalus, it was mainly making the manifests more fleshed out (so to speak) so they felt more real and the way they worked made more sense. So small tweaks throughout rather than a big edit. And totally justified, I think. I am prone to the vagueness, as you know!!

Thank you @Daedalus. It’s a great mag & the editorial team were fantastic throughout. The acceptance followed on from a revise & resubmit, so it took a while but I’m delighted it’s out.

Well done, Janette!

Yay indeed – well done Janette! And well done for choosing from such a disparate selection, Athers.

The Softness Of Untouched Snow

‘I say, Lilian, there’s a fair covering out there. Fancy a walk – a slide?’
‘Silly old beggar.’ I shook my head and carried on knitting. ‘Out there, in that? Slipping and shivering – at our age?’
‘Shivering means you’re alive. Come on, old lass, it’s been a long time indoors. Lets make some footprints afore anyone…[Read more]

Just Another Night at the Theatre.

Suspenders. Check.
Stockings. Check.
Corset and lacy panties. Check.
Stilettos.Check.
Pearl necklace. Make up to die for. Check.
Lab coat. Check.
Rubber gloves. Check.
Rice, torch, water pistol, newspaper, confetti, party hat, rubber gloves. Check.
Sense of humour. Check.
Willingness to participate.…[Read more]

Oh – and contractions? Bunkum! If you have a distinctly voiced character, they will ‘think’ and describe in contractions just as much as they use them in dialogue. I’d have no luck with this editor cos I often write voice with contractions…makes it more real to me as the writer, and immerses the reader in the story, in my experience.

Is it worth having a look at how you’ve used ‘I’, Doug? If you’re using it frequently, then yes, definitely worth looking up psychic distance. There’s a big difference between ‘I sit at the table near the window. Outside, I see a man fighting to keep his brolly up in the wind and rain’, and ‘I sit at the table near the window and watch the man…[Read more]

Having heard of someone else’s concern about the danger of overusing ‘I’ I am more sensitive, and have seen writing where it becomes a pain, but it’s hard to cut beyond a certain point. As for contractions – sometimes NOT to use them adds an unnatural stiltedness; like Jane says, their use needs tailoring to what’s being written.