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Athelstone started the topic The Den and its oddities: part 1 – commenting on 'updates' in the forum The Writers' Lifeboat 7 years, 10 months ago
An update is a comment that isn’t part of the thread of a forum topic. Somebody can reply to it or add a further comment. Replies and replies to replies are indented below whatever they are a reply to, comments are not but they all follow in sequence below the original update. Comments on updates are made by clicking on the black speech bubble…[Read more]
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Sandra replied to the topic Wip beginning… in the forum Critiques 7 years, 10 months ago
Raine, as you know, I’m a lazy, non-analytical reader, so you’re getting facile first impressions from me – and thanks for ‘stochastic’ – but I thought this a really enticing beginning, launching lots of characters, all of whom promised interest, tension and above averagely intelligent entertainment.
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Changed my ‘base’ name from Lorraine Wilson to Raine, so’s it’s easier to tag me. Else it just gets confusing to try to work out how to tag…
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Raine replied to the topic Wip beginning… in the forum Critiques 7 years, 10 months ago
Dammit autocorrect! I’d not spotted the domain thing. Gah.
But thank-you for the vote of confidence. I’ve been vacillating back and forth like you wouldn’t believe!
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Raine started the topic Wip beginning… in the forum Critiques 7 years, 10 months ago
I’ve tinkered with this about 600 times, and now can’t tell whether the narrator-type voice works for this. It doesn’t stay this ‘external’ beyond this first chapter, but it felt like the best way to tie all the characters and inciting moments together. But now I have doubts…Any thoughts v welcome. (1,500 words ish, but even just thoughts on the…[Read more]
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Jules replied to the topic Den monthly competition September 2018 in the forum Competitions, Open calls and Writing Opportunities 7 years, 10 months ago
Impact
The EVA suit’s read-out flashed Warning! Oxygen levels at 18% in eerie red. Jepson’s mind was foggy, irrational. All her training hadn’t prepared her for the reality of being stuffed into a damaged evacuation tube and launched into the airless void.
It had begun with impact. Many in fact, although Jepson only counted three as notew…[Read more]
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Raine started the topic Pitching opportunity for northern writers in the forum Competitions, Open calls and Writing Opportunities 7 years, 10 months ago
DHH literary agency are holding a pitching event aimed at increasing accesibility for writers outside the southeast! Yay. It’s in York, which honestly, not north. But we take what we can, I guess!
http://www.dhhliteraryagency.com/blog/pitch-dhh-york
The event is on Dec 1st, but you have to submit and then they’ll invite you to pitch. Check the…[Read more]
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Amanda Berriman (Skylark) replied to the topic New Blog from Emma Darwin in the forum Blogs 7 years, 10 months ago
Bit late to this but yes, I’ve done (am doing!) a version of this. It works best when I’m trying to finish something. I’ve got a chart with a chain of squares and the idea is to make the chain as long as possible without breaking it. There’s no daily word count to reach. As long as I write a sentence, I can colour in a square. It’s worked…[Read more]
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Amanda Berriman (Skylark) replied to the topic Festival Dreams in the forum Blogs 7 years, 10 months ago
Lovely to meet you, Anna. I hope you had a great festival! 😊😊
Thank you, Kaz! -
Amanda Berriman (Skylark) replied to the topic Receiving an email headed 'Offer of Representation'…. in the forum Podium 7 years, 10 months ago
😊😊😊
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RichardB posted an update 7 years, 10 months ago
Three years ago I was told by a WW editor that my first novel hadn’t a hope of being published because there is no market for ghost stories, and particularly not those about haunted houses because they have been done to death. I was in the library last Saturday, and what did I find? ‘This House is Haunted’ by John Boyne (2013). And is the title…[Read more]
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I have received six arcs this year so far about exactly that, Richard. And I note many othets coming into the library where I work. They are all some permutation on the haunted house. There is definitely a market for it.
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And there’s The Silent Companions out recently and doing really well as a reading group type thing…
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Forgot to say: though I say it as shouldn’t, I find the book less convincing as a ghost story than my own, and the climax is a bit OTT. Well, I’d better carry on with trying to lick my MS into better shape.
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Not actually a Haunted House, but still ghostly, and very creepy, Susan Hill’s Dolly is the most enjoyable book I’ve read this year.
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Yes, don’t give up @richardb! I’m not sure the talk of fashions is much help being as agents are always guessing on what will be next, and the things in the shops were signed two years before. We were told about 4 years ago that post-apocalytpic was done. But there are still agents asking for it, and still new books appearing in the shops. And I’m…[Read more]
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I’m going through agents at the moment listing those with that particular request.
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2013, you say. Maybe he was the one who did it to death…
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I believe you when you say the book was less convincing than your own, Richard, I remember reading yours and really enjoying. It was spooky enough for me. Good luck with your MS and fingers crossed it will be available to buy soon.
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Athelstone replied to the topic Logging in in the forum Admin and Technical 7 years, 10 months ago
Hi John
I’m assuming that you get the login screen with user name, password and the login button, but that if you click the button it just goes on showing you that screen. I wondered whether a broken page was lodged in your browser cache which is stopping the ‘logged in’ screen appearing even though you have successfully logged in. I’m not saying…[Read more] -
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Raine replied to the topic New Blog from Emma Darwin in the forum Blogs 7 years, 10 months ago
Ugh, toothache is awful @alanr. Hope it eases. I know that guilty feeling for not writing, but sometimes its good to step away for a while too. Or at least that’s what I tell myself when school hols make time to write a rare commodity!
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Raine replied to the topic As an opening… in the forum Critiques 7 years, 10 months ago
Naomi ALderman is great @squidge! Not always a comfortable read, but (haha) very powerful. I loved The Power, and I’ve also just read her newest – The LIars Gospel, which you might enjoy. I think. Some might not like the angle it takes, but I thought it was beautiful in its own way.
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Sandra posted an update 7 years, 10 months ago
An anthology of poetry, kept beside the loo, results in a LOT more poetry being read than if I keep it by the bed.
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lol! I used to read poetry way more than I do now. Perhaps I should try your trick! Or by the kettle, to read whilst waiting for it to boil?
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I’ve been reading a bit more lately. The resurgence started after I bought Alan Bennett’s ‘Six Poets’ selection for the Orkney break. I remember thinking ‘Blimey, I wouldn’t have chosen that’ and never looked back
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Ath, Did you ever get round to reading Orkney’s no.1 poet, George McKay Brown?
The anthology I’m currently reading is 1992-2001.-
embarrassed to admit that I said I would, but I didn’t. However…I have just bought his collected works and am looking forward to some light and delightful reading if these words from ‘the poet’ are typical: When all the dancers and masks had gone inside
His cold stare
Returned to its true task, interrogation of silence.-
collected ‘poems’ not works
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Yup – that sounds like GMB – he inspired so much of my print work when I was at college.
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I wish I had been inspired at art school. I allowed myself to be ‘shaped’ into a worse artist than when I arrived.
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At least I had the courage to quit and go to university. Ah! The world of grants and state-paid fees.
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Benefit of being a ‘mature’ (haha) student.
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Did somebody in this thread alter or delete a reply? Just curious because a lot of it seems to have disappeared
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Yeah I found that- then THIS time I see above your last comment a box saying SHOW ALL 10 COMMENTS so perhaps it’s a space-saving gimmick.
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Ah – and it doesn’t work 100 percent.
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I can highly recommend Wild Embers by Nikita Gill. Her stuff is beautiful and makes me cry quite a lot! Also got Kumukanda by Kayo Chingonyi which is good too. A lot about coming from Zambia to the UK, which my mum did, so it feels personal in some ways.
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I’m finding it’s not the beautiful but the thought-provoking, recognition of something previously unvoiced that is currently jolting me into appreciation.
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Hilary replied to the topic Festival Dreams in the forum Blogs 7 years, 10 months ago
Thanks for posting this, Skylark. I, too, was very sorry to miss your speech, but glad to hear about it and glad it all went well. You continue to be an inspiration to others of us who are taking a LONG time!
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