Philippa East

Thanks, Giselle. You’d do well to duck.

I love this thread!

Richard, wow, brilliant writing. That disjointedness works so well.

Whenever I have to write violence I think of Silence of the Lambs, when you really don’t see/read that much, but the tension is huge. Lots of small suggestions can build on our inner fears.

Janeshuff, so happy that you’ve found the solution! Now, all you…[Read more]

The Book of Death

I’ve waited a long time to claim this one; lurking in shadows at each sniff of her foetid breath, or a glimpse that would transpire to be a rag in a tree. One day she would err, I knew it. Until now though, the loathsome hag had remained one move ahead, vanishing into the night before I reached the aftermath of her latest c…[Read more]

Never Judge a Book

No, sir, we don’t hold property any more. Not since 1 October. Yes, you did just miss out. Yes, if it was a gold bar we probably would look after it and if you ever find one of those on a park bench then don’t hesitate to come straight here. But this is a book. Well, look after it but leave us the details and we’ll conta…[Read more]

Pow to you, too @philippaeast!

@janeshuff – ah, the sweet sound of a scene being NAILED! That gives me shivers of satisfaction. Everything pulling together and resonating all over the place…can’t wait to read the rewrite 🙂

Should I look forward to seeing an entry? 😉

Sorry for the misunderstanding when I meant commercial, supernatural, etc… I meant submission in general not your novel in particular.

The prose is not typical however the story in itself is just the story of an Irish girl growing up in the 60s and her relationship with her sick brother. Just let me know what you think once you’ve read it. My…[Read more]

That’s a cracking idea, Sea!

Hi Alan,

Regarding Galley Beggar, I think you might want to double check but I believe they only accept literary fiction so no genre fiction (commercial, fantasy, horror, etc…) so if your novel is a paranormal fiction I don’t believe it is something they publish.

The only book I read from them was Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half Formed Thing, which is very experimental, stream of consciousness prose but I loved it (I just love her as an author)

Ha, Kaz! Have you snuck into my house and been reading over my shoulder? That’s pretty much where I’d got to – thanks in no small part to this thread. I was avoiding the scene and the complicated POV didn’t help. However I think, by making it somehow trigger a flashback to the earlier scene where she is beaten up by her husband and making her feel…[Read more]

Richard, that is truly a shocking piece of writing – awful to read but really well done. Very powerful. It doesn’t feel gratuitous to me, awful as it is.

Jane, I think I know the scene you’re referring to 😉 Reading through this thread and going back to my own comments to you, the issue I had with it was that it felt as if you were avoiding the…[Read more]