MCave

  • Works for me! And with the subtitle, too…

  • Agree with you Raine, 100%! Loved Sandra’s start (among others!!) Well done, Sandra x

  • Tony – sorry, but Unrelenting Limelight doesn’t work for me either. Sounds like a tragedy set on a stage, and it sounds like your relative’s life was far from a tragedy.

    You said that if you’re not familiar with the name, why buy the book?

    Book buyers are a strange crowd, drawn in by all sorts of things. Surely it’s that ‘drawing in’ of…[Read more]

  • Squidge posted an update 6 years, 11 months ago

    I really should be keeping the old writing muscles warmed up, but I’m waiting for an edit to be returned, for the publisher’s opinion of Black Ruby (my two lovely betas have pointed out the weaknesses I thought were there, so that’s good!) to come through, and it’s fast approaching the end of term here and I have a whole primary school library to…[Read more]

    • Thinking time maybe, Squidge?

      • YEah, mulling and marinading time! End of terms and holidays are always writing-time killers, aren’t they? I’m sure you’ve thought of it, but I always try to have something I can do on paper over the hols cos I’ve got a much better chance of grabbing ten minutes with pen than on computer (especially as it’s an old beast that takes 30 mins to power…[Read more]

    • didn’t I reply to this too?? Cos it’s GAWN…

      • Can’t believe how busy end of term is…

        Yep, can do bits and pieces on paper, but I’m wary of putting too much effort in now if things change much further back and have an impact on later work. Such a fine balance. Doing lots of reading instead.

        • Reading is excellent @squidge. I’m not doing enough of that and feeling the lack myself. It’s such a good way of ‘filling the well’ isn’t it? Enjoy!

  • First off, I prefer your original working title – Limelight doesn’t say much to me, but the play on words makes me wonder who Lyttle was, and what sort of ‘long way’ was it? Journey? Promotion? Makes it sound quite comedic, too. It would certainly attract interest, regardless of whether anyone knows of your ancestor or not.

    With your subtitle,…[Read more]

  • Wow! Saw John’s news but didn’t realise Mad was in the longlist too! Flippin’ well done to both of you xx

  • Squidge posted an update 6 years, 12 months ago

    Just wondering – those who are members of JW, is there any way of seeing what the mini courses or workshops are before you book a ticket? Wanted to see if there was anything I hadn’t done before, but I think I have to say I’m going before I can look at the detail, which seems a bit barmy…

    • I have checked the site without logging in. You should be able to see it all. Click on Programme at top of page, then go down to the day you want to see and click on the + button next to, for example, the mini courses section of the timetable and it should show you all that is available.

      • That’s what I tried – but it just gave me broad info about mini courses, and I’m sure said I had to book a ticket before choosing. I’ll have another go though…

  • Brilliant! Loved the idea of ‘what horse’…and the 14th C sex manual. 😉

    Looking forward to reading. Well done, Jules x

  • Squidge replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    OK – finished it. Did not put it down…

    Bloody brilliant.

    I have to ask – how much of the premise dd you get beforehand? The stories all link so well together, I can’t work out whether it’s down to extreme luck in terms of the arrangement of the stories or whether the links written between each story are simply very well done to link what might…[Read more]

  • Squidge replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    I am about half way through and loving this. Especially how there’s an link between each story which binds them all together.

  • Squidge replied to the topic Multiple Den Success in the forum Podium 7 years ago

    Must get this…I’m a bit Pratchetted out at the mo, and this is going to be good!

  • Squidge posted an update 7 years ago

    Dilemma:

    Book 1 with publisher being edited. Waiting for their response to my responses.
    Book 2 with publisher, waiting to see if they like it – though I know it needs work.
    Book 3 story outlined in notebook.

    Question is, do I get stuck into writing up Book 3 properly on the computer, knowing I’ve got 1 & 2 to work on edit-wise; start…[Read more]

    • Do whatever excites you the most? Or do something else entirely? If neither of those are the answer, then I’d crack on with Book 3. Having a better idea of what happens in it, will inform your edit of Books 1 and 2 when the time comes.
      If ’twere me, I wouldn’t start yet another project (planning Book 4) as that’ll create more unfinished-ness and…[Read more]

    • Take time out to write something completely different and come back to this with fresh eyes and unexpected directions?

    • Raine replied 7 years ago

      Personally, I’d get started with book 3, but that’s possibly not the wisest, knowing you’ll have to switch away from it again. BUt it’s not like you are having to enter an entirely new world, is it? (this is the next in series, isn’t it?). So perhaps it could even be good to keep you in the right place mentally and keep you enthused for the…[Read more]

      • Thanks all… I actually went on to outline book 4 after all, but pretty loosely. Rather lost my writing mojo this week due to a bout of hormones… I tend to want to sit in a corner and shut the world out when that happens. Not helped by a few things going rather wrong this week that left me feeling disappointed with life. But hey ho, we get back…[Read more]

      • @Raine – don’t worry re beta reading; as and when! I’ve begun to realise that book 2’s not as oven ready as I thought it might be…

    • Boo to the hormones, but pleased you’ve found a way to keep things moving forwards nonetheless. It all has to be done at some point, so in a way it doesn’t matter in what order. Whatever helps keep the momentum flowing(ish)

      • KazG replied 7 years ago

        good for you, @squidge. Moving forward despite all that is a major achievement. My (belated) approach would be to move on with the next bit of the story, I think. especially if you’ve got exciting bits to look forward to writing! I also find that writing the future can often inform the ‘past’ in that you can tweak and foreshadow knowing what comes…[Read more]

  • Squidge posted an update 7 years ago

    So… I’ve seen an advert for a ‘Write a book in an hour’ event run by a bookshop. To give the author credit, he has actually written a book that’s been well received.

    But surely, ‘writing a book in an hour’ is a poor description? Surely, the most you can hope to achieve is the outline of your story? There is no way on earth you can write teh…[Read more]

    • Raine replied 7 years ago

      YEah, that would irritate me too. LIke one of those godawful gimmicky diets/fitness regimes/etc. It’s both deeply unrealistic and misleading, but also demeaning to the effort it takes to create worthwhile writing. If he means an hour to *plan* your novel, then, meh, perhaps, in the roughest of rough outlines. But *write*? At 80k for a book, that’s…[Read more]

      • Yup. Irritating in the extreme. You might be able to have the glimpse of an idea in an hour if you were lucky…

    • So glad to hear it’s not just me, then. Mind you, I don’t suppose it would have the same appeal if it was called ‘Write a book over the next few years that might never see the light of day.’ 😉

      • No but it would be a lot truer! Which brings me to a serious question…. if you had known just how much work was involved in writing a passable book, would you have started in the first place?

        • Raine replied 7 years ago

          A single book, yeah I’d probably have still dived in. Being six zillion books in and still nowhere… I think I’d run a mile, screaming. Maybe I still will!!

          • The “How to write a book in an hour” thing is a one hour course in how to write a book.

            • In this case, I’ve been told it’s an hour with the author explaining how he wrote his book – hints and tips, kind of thing. Not even a course, more of an author talk.

            • THAT IS MISLEADING ADVERTISING, SURELY! So funny that we all interpreted it the same way!!! “Grr, how can anyone claim to write book in an hour, grrr!!!!”

          • I’ll come with you…

  • Squidge replied to the topic Unediting in the forum Blogs 7 years ago

    Laughing @jonathan! Comes out publisher-ready… in our dreams!!

    I understand what you mean about the ‘something bigger’s going on’ scenario. I had places where I could definitely see that happening and rewrote whole sections. And I also know what Jonathan means about being in a particular mood.

    I think my rule of thumb is going to have to be…[Read more]

  • Squidge started the topic Unediting in the forum Blogs 7 years ago

    I’m editing Book 1 of Tilda’s story series at the mo for Bink (good news – looking like it’ll be published earlier than I thought, in Sept. Yay!)

    I was told that there weren’t many things to look at – all nit picky stuff. Woo-hoo!

    Thing is, I had worked my way through half of the MS on paper, because I needed to get more into Tilda’s head (if…[Read more]

  • Squidge replied to the topic On Submerging and Re-emerging in the forum Blogs 7 years ago

    I certainly blog less when I’m writing – or busy, generally. The Scribbles are sadly neglected at the moment…

    I try to keep some level of engagement with the Den going, but when writing it can be either extreme; popping in to read but not comment, so I appear absent, or lots of posts asking for opinions or having a rant or despairing about the…[Read more]

  • Squidge posted an update 7 years, 1 month ago

    Tilda Book 2 got formatted and sent off to the publisher yesterday… Not sure it was the best way to spend a Bank Holiday Monday, but hey ho.

  • I think it feels sometimes as though it’s trying too hard… The kinds of words used, particularly. I know there’s a place for fabulous language – certain Denizens often take my breath away when I read what they’ve written, for eg! – but sometimes it feels laboured. As if the author thought ‘I must describe this thing beautifully to get across how…[Read more]

  • I think some ARE young, Sandra, but what I’ve seen of the Masters, it tends towards a fairly older crowd, often folks who’ve been doing other things in life first.

  • I think there is a different approach to writing if you do a degree/Masters in it. It’s almost as though, at the point of graduation, most folk have a perceived idea of what writing should be. Qualifying this because I know a creative writing lecturer, and am in a facebook group for one of the CW courses at a local uni. Some of the stuff I see…[Read more]

  • Load More