RichardB

Richard,
My late father would tell of a train crash in Diggle, then in Yorkshire, in 1923 or 1924. He was four and witnessed the accident whilst out walking with his granddad. He was interviewed by the local newspaper and is reported to have said “It were a grand smash” or similar. I see from google that four people died, so it probably wasn’t so…[Read more]

Really enjoy these tales of the rails, thank you.

Just nipped into the Den in the middle of a busy week to discover another of your interesting blogs, Richard, so had to stop and read. Thank you!

Another fascinating blog Richard. And unlike so many of them, where there were obvious risks being taken or safety features omitted, with this one it’s so unlikely as to surely have been unforseeable. Do you think the signalmen were reassured by all the built-in the safety features that nothing like that could have happened, freeing them to run t…[Read more]

Sounds like my kind of novella, Stevie 😁

Sounds like my kind of writer and you’ve definitely sold him to me.

Thanks Richard. I’d never heard of him but have down loaded a collection of his and will have a look – maybe not at night with the wind howling round the house like it did yesterday evening!

That’s definitely one of the problems Bella – people, self included, really want these things to go well and can easily blind themselves to the problems. There’s that siren voice of ‘yes, but you’ll be published…’ – as if that means anything by itself

Go for it, Stevie. I bet you can knock out more words in 5 months than you think. And worst case scenario, you’ll still have the makings of a story if you don’t hit the deadline.

Thanks @philippaeast – you’re most welcome. I feel very silly having made all these avoidable errors, but I wouldn’t want anyone else to fall into the same trap. Mostly I don’t want people to get stuck with publishers who act in bad faith.

Would you mind retweeting the link the next time you’re on Twitter? Just to get the highest circulation…[Read more]

Oh goodness, @daedalus. How awful. Please put Part 3 up soon! I can’t bear seeing you in this awful pickle!!

Thanks again for sharing. I really hope your own experience will serve successfully to protect other authors who may otherwise have gone down the same line.

And you’re doing brilliantly at it John 😉

I know I’m incredibly talented, Daeds, I’m just pretending to be modest.

Thanks, Bella, will take a look 🙂 x

Congrats and good luck both – John, don’t do yourself down, you have a talent with the short story

Thanks Philippa, Thea. Not much prospect of me progressing but I’m sure Elle is in with a chance.

Amazing news, John and Elle! Fingers crossed for the shortlist…

I’ve just published Part 2

My Publishing Nightmare – the story of a book deal gone bad (Part 2)