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Squidge posted an update 3 years ago
aaargh! Apologies, such a busy day at church yesterday, totally forgot I needed to judge the comp! Am on it now…
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Squidge posted an update 3 years ago
Only a few days left to get something into the monthly comp… Looking forward to reading the entries!
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John T posted an update 3 years, 1 month ago
The proof copy of my novel has arrived. This is getting scarily real!
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Woohoo! Exciting as well as scary, I hope.
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Yep.
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Must feel wonderful, John. It’s been a long trip!
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It certainly has. I began writing seriously in 2004, at the age of 50.
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I can see some similarities there. I started around then as well. You were a couple of years ahead of me on the age front, but it seems we picked up our pen and paper about the same time.
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Not exactly surprising, given the similarities between our writing, but interesting.
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Mind you, I’m still puffing away a good stretch back from the finish line 🙂
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I’ll be cheering you on!
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Woohoo! Can’t wait for my copy.
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Being the the most amazing beta-reader, your copy will appear before I publish it. Pre-publication copies are currently at the printers.
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John T posted an update 3 years, 1 month ago
Any of you guys on BlueSky? I’ve found Raine and Athelstone. I’m @johnunworded.bsky.social
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I’ve requested an invitation to join. Can’t see any harm in trying it out.
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I have no invites to pass on yet, but I gather you get them after a while. It’s a fairly empty space at the moment, but I think it will fill up. People like Joanne Harris, Neil Gaiman and Chuck Wendig are on board.
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Squidge started the topic Monthly competition – September 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Your prompt this month consists of three words:
wheelbarrow, street lamp, and a pipe (smoking)
Use them however you would like, in no more than 300 words. Have fun 😉
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Squidge replied to the topic Monthly competition – August 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Oh blimey! Did not expect that at all… Wow, thanks, Sandra.
Everyone else’s was fab. Feel a bit of a fraud having popped in here for the first time in ages and getting to set this month’s challenge, but I’ll do my best x
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Squidge replied to the topic Monthly competition – August 2023 in the forum Monthly Competition 3 years, 1 month ago
Not quite sure where this was going, but it felt good to respond to a prompt for the first time in ages… Also not sure why only a bit of the text unbolded when I was aiming for the lot! Ah well…
“In a yellow rectangle, in the black facade of a house, a woman is laying a table.”
He could have picked any window, of any house, in any str…[Read more]
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John T posted an update 3 years, 2 months ago
My latest blog post. And how searching the attic at the back of my brain uncovered much that I had conveniently covered in dust sheets. In retrospect, my first novel on the subject in 2012 barely scratched the surface. https://johnalextaylor.com/fractured-memories-and-fiction-digging-deeper/
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John T replied to the topic Influences in the forum Blogs 3 years, 2 months ago
Oh yes, Alan Bennett’s diaries are amazing!
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John T replied to the topic Influences in the forum Blogs 3 years, 2 months ago
Yes, Kurt Vonnegut never hid behind ‘fancy’ writing. He’s a fabulous role model. Amongst contemporary writers, I would love Ali Smith’s way with words, and maybe Philip Pullman’s scope (mine is more like a microscope by comparison). I love the lightness and silly references in Philip Reeve’s children’s books. A lot of my favourite authors write…[Read more]
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John T replied to the topic Richard's Musical Byways: Pete Who? (No 2) in the forum Blogs 3 years, 2 months ago
Oh wow! That brings back memories. I heard Pete Atkin (without Clive James) at a soaking wet Bristol Folk Festival sometime in the early 70s, and again in Cardiff Student Union. And I loved his music. I had a Clive James/Pete Atkin LP from that time, but it is one of the many that I sold when I moved to a single room in Scotland in 1980.
As for…[Read more]
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John T started the topic Influences in the forum Blogs 3 years, 2 months ago
Have any of you thought about who your writing influences are? I’m asking, because I was about to write a blog about my writing influences, and then stopped, unsure. I know plenty of authors whose writing I adore, including a fair few in this Den. But influences? I’d have to go further back, and then I’m not sure at all.
Most of the authors I…[Read more]
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John T posted an update 3 years, 3 months ago
Sorry for my prolonged absence from here. What with writing a new novel and proofreading two other, as well as all the drama and complications of choosing to self-publish, all my writing energy has been directed in less sociable pursuits. But, I have news. My first book should be published within a month or so, when the wonderful Leigh Forbes has…[Read more]
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Drama and complications, John? Nothing you won’t overcome, I’m sure. Great news about the books, and loving the website.
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Cheers, Athelstone. Since I wrote that, ‘a month or so’ now looks optimistic, at least for the ebook version. Amazon are giving Leigh less freedom to format the book, and what looks perfect on Apple Books or Kobo looks a mess on Kindle. We need two different ebook versions to work around the limited options they now give. The paperback version is…[Read more]
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John T posted an update 3 years, 8 months ago
I’ve been neglecting you all in the Den since we moved back to Wales (Noswaith dda, bawb) but I’ll try and reconnect soon. Lots happening here – I’m self-publishing the first of three novels in late spring or early summer. Currently wrangling a website into shape (with help). Love to you all x
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Good to see you, John. x
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John, what are the novels you’re self-publishing – and where’s the website?
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Hi there. The website is ‘under construction’ but should go live in the next couple of weeks. I’ll post a link, if I may. The first two novels in the Apples in the Dark series should come out about 6 months apart this year. They’ll be in e-book on several platforms and print-on-demand via IngramSpark. I don’t want to get locked into the Amazon…[Read more]
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Well, you’ve been busy. Feel free to post a link to your website whenever you want to. Maybe in the Podium or Coffee Shop groups so it doesn’t vanish with the activity stream (although that may take a while anyway with the way activity here has slowed down).
The books sound fascinating and the sequel sounds familiar. Is it one you were working on…[Read more]
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Thank you, Athers. They are both a result of unpacking The Blackbird Effect, the novel that landed me an agent (for a while) in 2012 without attracting a publisher – and thereby making Harry hopping mad, because he backed it as the Next Big Thing. I wasn’t so surprised: it had too many themes and too too much business, leaving lots of passages s…[Read more]
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I do admire you for taking this view of things and for taking positive action to work through it. I think these sound like hard decisions.
My writing has picked up, a little, after a very slow few years. I’m about 70% into the first draft of a novel, although that in itself is a bit tricky as I wrote a fair bit and then abandoned it – so…[Read more]
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Hilary posted an update 3 years, 11 months ago
Hello Denizens,
If anyone would like an invitation to the launch of Sea Defences, please send me a message. It’s on Thursday January 12th at 6 pm in Sudbury, Suffolk. -
Hilary replied to the topic Prize and novel publication in the forum Podium 3 years, 11 months ago
<p style=”text-align: right;”>Thanks for ordering, Libby.</p>
Bridport don’t publish online because they publish an anthology – even the ebook is not cheap!-
Ah, right. It’s good though that you’ll be in the anthology.
Congratulations again!
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Hilary replied to the topic Free book in the forum Podium 3 years, 11 months ago
Congratulations, Thea! I can empathise with the heartfelt ‘At long last…’ Well done!
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Thanks, Hilary x 🙂
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