@libby
Active 1 day, 14 hours ago-
Janette posted a new activity comment 8 months, 4 weeks ago
Thank you, Sea, for such a good challenge. Congratulations @Libby – a worthy win.
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Hilary posted a new activity comment 1 year, 4 months ago
Thank you for ordering Sea Defences, @libby
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KazG posted a new activity comment 1 year, 6 months ago
@seagreen, @richardb, @libby – thank you all, @athelstone has kindly extended an invite to me and I’m accepting with alacrity! 😁
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Daedalus replied to the topic Film, storytelling – psychic distance again – and looking under the bonnet in the forum Blogs 1 year, 7 months ago
Sorry for delay in replying to your very interesting thoughts @libby, but I’ve been neck deep in work lately.
Re modernists etc using the techniques and ideas of psychic distance before Gardner codified it. Yes, absolutely, a large measure of what he was doing was identifying techniques that were already out there. I would suggest that his…[Read more]
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Alex replied to the topic Monthly competition July 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 1 year, 7 months ago
Thanks @Libby. It was fun to write.
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Raine replied to the topic Monthly Comp – February 2022 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years ago
Thank you guys for entering! And for writing such fun pieces – they all have something special to them, I think.
@athelstone I love the details and voice of yours, the small touches that make each character so recognisable.
@sandradavies well, naked men wrestling, what more can anyone ask for really?? Love the balance of violence and tenderness…[Read more] -
Knicks replied to the topic Eagle! in the forum Blogs 2 years, 6 months ago
The link works, @libby, and the news really warmed my heart along with my morning coffee. The fact that the river was declared dead in the 1950s also brought to mind The Great Stink in @kazg‘s Time Catchers, though the Stink and the declaration were almost a hundred years apart. So happy to hear about the baby seals, sunning on the banks, eating…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly Competition – August 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 6 months ago
😃 Thank you, @seagreen, for the competition and for choosing my piece! I’m so glad you enjoyed it, it was most delicious to write. I took inspiration from what came to mind with the prompt, which was that scene in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast when Maurice (Belle’s dad) was on his way to the science fair with his invention, and Phillipe (the…[Read more]
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthly Competition – August 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 6 months ago
Five glorious entries and oh, so difficult to choose! Many thanks for participating 😊
Anyway, down to business. You know what Iβm like with feedback so Iβll keep it brief.
@sandradavies – Loved the voice, the descriptive language (gingerbread brown and the notion of a magical, travelling kaleidoscope β how perfect!) Then, just the hint of threa…[Read more]
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Seagreen replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum Coming Home 2 years, 7 months ago
@sandradavies Ooh, me too! 😉
@knicky and @libby – Piety came out of nowhere and beat down any contender who dared to raise their head above the parapet. She might be a feisty one ☺️
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Knicky L. Abbott replied to the topic Chit Chat in the forum Coming Home 2 years, 7 months ago
@libby Same! When I got the email notification this morning. It’s so cute and unusual, I want to know more right away, especially with the other choices 😊
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Thea posted a new activity comment 2 years, 7 months ago
Yes, that’s a good idea @libby; I would give that a ‘like’ if I could π
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Seagreen replied to the topic Monthly competition July 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 8 months ago
You know, I’m always surprised when I win the monthly comp (not that it happens often!) but never more so than this time. Such strong entries – I did feel mine was a little lightweight in comparison.
Thank you, @Libby, for hosting the comp and for such fabulous feedback, and thanks to Ath, Sandra, Squidge and Knicky for making me work harder to…[Read more]
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Knicks replied to the topic Monthly competition July 2021 in the forum Monthly Competition 2 years, 8 months ago
Thank you for hosting this month’s comp, Libby, and for your thoughtful words on my piece. And congratulations, Seagreen, I thought your piece was wonderfully evocative. I enjoyed each entry for this month.
@Libby Grit was about my rather difficult pregnancy, and how the only peace and pleasure I found (from the daily waves of nausea and hostile…[Read more]
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Thea posted a new activity comment 2 years, 8 months ago
Hi @libby, to tie in with your comment about reading the first few chapters, I wonder if sampling say the first 5K words of an MS might be helpful in deciding whether to take on a beta read? I think this would be better than reading a synopsis as it would give a sense of the style of the writing while not revealing the book’s ending. As for a 200k…[Read more]
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@Thea – I entirely agree with your suggestion of sampling before committing; it rarely takes long to decide ‘not for me’ with a book bought (or not bought) for pleasure; even more important if one is to give valuable feedback.
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Absolutely, and if it’s an audio book I always check out the narrator’s voice too.
Very impressed by your annual haul of 200 books, wow!
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JaneShuff replied to the topic Beta Reading Discussion in the forum Blogs 2 years, 8 months ago
Wow. So so much interesting and useful stuff, @Libby ! It would make a brilliant checklist for anyone. It will take me a bit of time to assimilate it all. I will say though, with my ‘Being betaread’ hat on, that I wouldn’t expect a beta reader of a whole novel to cover all that for me in one go if anyone is feeling a bit daunted.
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RichardB posted a new activity comment 3 years ago
@libby, I’m copying your post onto the thread so I can reply without it all vanishing into limbo.
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Raine replied to the topic Cover reveal for This Is Our Undoing in the forum Podium 3 years ago
@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. π
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]
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Athelstone posted a new activity comment 3 years ago
I hope this isn’t a sign of things to come. While I was checking your blog’s status, I spotted two other posts for “approval”. One was from @libby and the other from @raine. Libby, apologies. The post has a date indicating that it was created yesterday, but the number suggests it’s much older. It’s your post on bookshops and the impact of covid.…[Read more]
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No problem, @athelstone
I thought at the time that as I’d started a new thread, it was waiting for moderation. Then I sort of forgot about it. It was from last year when book wholesalers were hampered by Lockdown 1 and therefore bookshops couldn’t simply order stock in usual way.
As a postscript, ordering from the existing stock of a small…[Read more]
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Oh no, @daedalus, we’re not going to be haunted by all the babies murdered, are we? π
Seriously, good luck with that. If anyone can, you can.-
Thanks! Itβs looking pretty sparse, I can tell you
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59 for me.
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It’s arrived already @hilary . It’ll take me a little while to get to it – I have some library books to finish first. I’m impressed by your publisher. I hadn’t heard of Lightning Books before. In addition to Sea Defences I bought some novels and memoirs from their antipodean collection.
Thank you, Libby. Good to hear you found more books from them too.