Kate Hudson

Thanks Philippa. It’s magical realism, so never going to be an easy sell, but I’m not giving up quite yet. At least I have that bit of paper from a professional saying it’s good that I can get out and stroke occasionally to console myself! Thinking about retiring my adventurous soul and writing some chick lit instead. :/

Following a really positive book doctor report on my MS that said in a fair world my book would get published, I started submitting back in May. I’ve had nothing but form rejections.
So my advice PB is, when the rejections start coming in, you have to hold on very tight to the fact that it’s not your writing that’s bad, it’s just very difficult to…[Read more]

Another excellent blog, Richard. You got me to invest my beer-tokens in Keith Roberts and now it looks like I’ll be blowing the dust off my wallet for James Cabell.

Totally barking, Ath, but very very well done!

MPO is that if the cloud goes then all communication with participants goes too and you aren’t responsible for that. Attempting to continue with a subset wouldn’t be the same competition, would it?

One issue I can foresee with moving the competition here is that when it closes for entries, we may well have entrants who do not wish to join another forum in order to participate. Also, I don’t have a way to contact all members except via the Cloud should it go toes skywards. I think I will be backing up topics and the wall as we go along once…[Read more]

I always approach a new blog from you, Richard, with a feeling of anticipated pleasure. I am never let down.

Presumably we’ll shift the challenge over to here if the Cloud breaks. It often doesn’t load for me at all, particularly if I try to go onto the notifications page.

I found the Cloud has been slower and more erratic than ever over last few days. Could be coincidental or coukd be increased activity I guess. Suggest that everyone keeps a record of their choices and the story when it comes to it, just in case.

Also while keeping an open mind to the feedback you receive, don’t forget you’re in charge and you can ‘Accept, adapt, reject’. You don’t have to take on board all advice you’re given and the best way to decide what is and isn’t useful is to read feedback and then give yourself time to think about it, coming back to it after a little break with a…[Read more]

It’s worth reminding ourselves here of Neil Gaiman’s famous quote:

‘When someone tells you something isn’t working, they are nearly always right. When they tell you how to fix it, they are nearly always wrong.’

Yes, there wasn’t much fantasy being written then, certainly not on the industrial scale we have today.

Obscure though Cabell is to the reading public, he has been quite influential in his genre. He nfluenced later writers of humorous fantasy like Jack Vance and Fritz Leiber, whose stories also feature protagonists who fall some way short of…[Read more]