Philippa East

Ugh. What a hateful drive. Glad you made it in the end.

I remember a family holiday to Belgium. We took 2 cars – stepson had not driven on the continent before. The idea was to drive in convoy, with an understanding that if we got separated hubby and I would press on to our destination because we had a fairly limited time slot in which to pick up…[Read more]

Thank you. This has been an interesting, if worrying and depressing, read. Caveat author.

Good for you for being so persistent in the face of such recalcitrance.

You have my sympathy on two counts, Squidge. Fifteen or so years on, I still shudder at the memory of my only encounter with the Boulevard Périphérique in Paris – which will remain my only encounter if I have anything to do with it. And losing the GPS signal just when you need it: I’ve been there too, more than once. So frustrating.

Glad the d…[Read more]

The Coventry Ringway was designed by someone with a grudge against all mankind.

Thanks both – I can honestly say I have never experienced the stress/panic I did yesterday. Once I knew I was safe – ie at the school – I was OK. Quite cathartic to write it all out though and wonder why I responded like I did when I don’t usually react in this way.

@daedalus Thank you for posting these. And all credit to you for your resilience.

These look amazing, Kaz, what a great workshop it must have been. Thank-you so much for sharing. That might be my day’s reading sorted out!!

Oh Squidge, what a nightmare! I’d have been getting panicky too, being lost and in heavy traffic and with a deadline is a terrible combo. Hope the G&T therapy helped and today is devoid of traffic and Coventry. But all that aside, your visit itself sounds wonderful, so huge well dones for that. x

This looks really interesting. Thanks for sharing, Kaz.

Thanks Kaz. I’m going to print this out and have a thorough read.

How incredibly generous of you to share your notes in this way, KazG. Thank you.

Oh dear Squidge. My sister lives in Coventry and I go to great lengths to avoid driving on any part of the Ringway so I sympathise. Sounds as though your day went brilliantly though!

So here it is – Part 3, the conclusion of the story of my publishing nightmare, and how I finally recovered the rights to my novel from an intransigent and uncaring publisher. It was financially costly – but not nearly as costly as it might have been, and taught me a great deal about what not to do next time. Final blogpost, with as much in the…[Read more]

Along the same lines, I saw a warning about a competition that was asking for all rights to ALL entries (not just listed ones) with no reversion mentioned. Yeah, don’t agree to that!

I second what @Phillipaeast says – mags/comps generally ask for first publication rights or english language rights for a period between (ime) 3 months to a year.…[Read more]