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RichardB replied to the topic My Publishing Nightmare – the story of a book deal gone bad (Part 1) in the forum Blogs 7 years, 3 months ago
Well, to be honest I was already pretty leery of small indies after various horror stories I’ve heard. Also the amount of work involved puts me off. If I’m going to try at all it’ll be by the agent route.
Nonfic could work for me, as I am coming to the sad conclusion that I am better at telling an existing story than at making one up. As for your…[Read more]
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RichardB posted a new activity comment 7 years, 3 months ago
No intention of doing any such thing in this case, Athers.
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Quite right too 🙂
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RichardB replied to the topic My Publishing Nightmare – the story of a book deal gone bad (Part 1) in the forum Blogs 7 years, 3 months ago
I think you’ve put me off trying to get published for life…
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RichardB posted an update 7 years, 4 months ago
Emma Darwin’s latest blog is one of her shortest – and most inspiring.
https://emmadarwin.typepad.com/thisitchofwriting/2019/01/as-a-mentor-and-teacher-and-writer-and-reader-theres-something-i-want-to-say-to-you.html-
Yes, yes, yes. Thanks for drawing my attention to it.
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Thanks @richardb
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Yes indeed. Need a duvet cover with it on. Or window blind..
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Touché!
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RichardB posted a new activity comment 7 years, 4 months ago
About half an inch when I got up this morning. All melted now, BUT I can see the Brecon Beacons from my window, and they’re still covered.
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RichardB posted a new activity comment 7 years, 4 months ago
Yes, Squidge, that’s lovely. Uplifting, heartwarming and empowering.
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Wonderful. Made me smile.
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That’s lovely Squidge. Just a compliment, and yes, those little things mean an immense amount.
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That’s lovely!
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RichardB replied to the topic Speed Kills: Salisbury, 1906 in the forum Blogs 7 years, 4 months ago
The usual reason given is for ease of maintenance in WWII. The streamlined casings were a diktat from the LMS publicity department (the LNER’s got them so we must have them too), and the Chief Mechanical Engineer referred to the batch of five un-streamlined ones he insisted on building ‘for comparison’ as ‘proper’ones.
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RichardB replied to the topic Speed Kills: Salisbury, 1906 in the forum Blogs 7 years, 4 months ago
Well, to be fair, accidents through excessive speed aren’t all caused by the heat of competition. One curve at Morpeth was the scene of three (count them) derailments within thirty years, all in the BR period: 1969, 1884 and 1994. Fortunately only the first caused any fatalities, six of them. And at Eltham Well Hall in 1972 the driver was…[Read more]
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RichardB posted an update 7 years, 4 months ago
Those Denizens who are veterans of the late-lamented Word Cloud may remember my habit of posting occasional blogs on historical railway accidents. For the new year, I thought I’d revive that tradition here. See below.
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RichardB started the topic Speed Kills: Salisbury, 1906 in the forum Blogs 7 years, 4 months ago
One reason that railway accidents make such sensational news is because, in contrast to the daily carnage on the roads, they are so rare. It was once said that you are safer in a British railway train than almost anywhere else. And one reason for that is the responsibility and care with which the vast majority of British railwaymen have always…[Read more]
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RichardB posted a new activity comment 7 years, 5 months ago
Er, no. It’s a run-of-the-mill piece of women’s fiction. I have just done a bit of on-line digging, and I’m appalled to discover that the author is represented by the winner of the British book Awards Literary Agent of the Year. The mind boggles. I mean, she can’t even punctuate. For instance, she separates a parenthetical phrase, not by bracket…[Read more]
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RichardB posted an update 7 years, 5 months ago
For those of you who don’t know, we’re still in the habit of giving our autistic son a bedtime read, and this can be quite instructive because he chooses library books I wouldn’t touch. The one we’re in the middle of at the moment could be set as a textbook on the subject of how not to write a novel. Belt-and-braces showing-plus-telling, long…[Read more]
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I know… Not a ‘celebrity’ author, is it?
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Er, no. It’s a run-of-the-mill piece of women’s fiction. I have just done a bit of on-line digging, and I’m appalled to discover that the author is represented by the winner of the British book Awards Literary Agent of the Year. The mind boggles. I mean, she can’t even punctuate. For instance, she separates a parenthetical phrase, not by bracket…[Read more]
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RichardB posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoVisiting EmmaD’s blog last night for the first time in a while, I found a delightful phrase that could be the motto for this group, though it’s actually from Jenn Ashworth rather than Emma herself. Anyway, I love it.
No word count boot camp, no productivity porn.-
hah hah! Love it. I also love Jenn Ashworth, for the record, so love that it’s her phrase. Good point, I haven’t browsed EmmaD’s blog for a while either…
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RichardB posted a new activity comment 7 years, 5 months ago
Don’t be too hard on yourself about the word count. For me, getting the words right is far more important, and the added stress of targets is a distraction from that. Anyway, this is SloMo, right?
Yes, Daeds has a real talent for explaining tech stuff lucidly to the lay reader.-
Thanks @richardb. I agree with you. I’m not normally a word-count watcher. I was just feeling a bit bogged down so counted up to see if I’d achieved anything at all!
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Well done on moving forward with the editing, @libby. Each word edited, is a word closer to the end! (My midwife told me that about contractions, and I decided it made a good life mantra!!!)
Also – my neighbours have a big whitebeam over hanging out garden. When the leaves are first coming out in spring, that silvery white is just so lovely!…[Read more]
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Yes, and the leaves drop early so you’re stuck with them quite a long time @raine 🙁
Agree that contractions are good mantra for a lot of things!-
I think we should all cheer on ANY forward motion, painful and incremental included, especially at this time of year! And 1000 a day is high energy by my current standards, so well done @libby. And I too love your leaf pic.
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PS I also agree that the @daedalus signature style is a particular talent for making the (what I would find by default) boring, fascinating.
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RichardB posted a new activity comment 7 years, 5 months ago
I do it on my kindle, for exactly the reasons you state, @raine . But I like to do it sitting by my computer, so I can make the changes as soon as I spot the need to. Speaking of which, I still stick with a desktop for the actual writing because I like to have a ‘proper’ full-size keyboard. My daughter gave me a rather upmarket keyboard…[Read more]
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RichardB posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoNice post, @kazg, and one that resonates with me. I’ve always worked by chipping away, little by little. I don’t set myself targets, and I try not to think about how far I still have to go, in case I get discouraged, something I’m far too prone to. The night driving analogy puts it in a nutshell. Surprising how those few metres at a time mount up.…[Read more]
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Thanks @richardb 🙂 And yes, there is so much truth in that ‘one step at a time’ adage. Really it’s the only way anything ever happens, regardless of the pace. One little task at a time. Congrats on finishing the rewrite, and enjoy the read! Always an exciting point 🙂
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It is a good analogy. Another one someone gave me during my MA was ‘you’re looking at the whole mountain and you just need to look at the next rock’
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Congratulations Richard. I hope you are taking a moment to pat yourself on the back.
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Yay for finishing the edit, @richardb! That’s fantastic. Hope the read through goes ok. HOw do you do this bit? On paper or screen? My final read is on my kindle as it looks totally different compared to paper or laptop – so I spot things I didn’t before. But earlier not-strictly-editing reads are mostly from laptop.
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I do it on my kindle, for exactly the reasons you state, @raine . But I like to do it sitting by my computer, so I can make the changes as soon as I spot the need to. Speaking of which, I still stick with a desktop for the actual writing because I like to have a ‘proper’ full-size keyboard. My daughter gave me a rather upmarket keyboard…[Read more]
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@richardb, I used to sit on the sofa with my laptop and lots of cushions, but I finally set up a desk, so now have the laptop on one of those stands that lift the screen, and a proper keyboard attached. Best of both worlds, and I’ve been surprised (horrified) by how much it’s improved my concentration. :-O I read my wip-on-kindle in bed! Just…[Read more]
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RichardB posted a new activity comment 7 years, 5 months ago
The problem was the one I mentioned a couple of days ago: the bloated chapter full of stuff the reader already knew. I was shrinking from it because there were several threads/issues involved and it was going to be hard work keeping track of them and figuring out what I could get away with losing. I solved it by being bloody ruthless – something…[Read more]
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Oh well done on the ruthlessness! And that sounds like such an important thing to have fixed. I wonder if part of our Fear can come from the sense that if we try to change tricky elements in the MS, the whole thing will fall apart….
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RichardB posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoA good last few days. This weekend I have sorted two probs with my revived MS, the ghost story A Record of Sin.
The first was the paragraph formatting. which was in a mess inherited from the days when I didn’t know how to do it properly. I’ve been through the whole MS and put it right.
The second was a last, rather tricky POV change. Tricky…[Read more]
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Well deserved G&T, I reckon!
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RichardB posted an update in the group
December SloMo 7 years, 5 months agoThis has got to be my spiritual home. I do everything in slow motion. Ask MrsB.
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