Sandra

Thanks @@daedalus. In all honesty for every publication there are about a dozen rejections as well. It’s kind of a number’s game. People who run Barren Magazine are just great, so thoughtful of writers. Who knows 2019 might be the year for you.

Well done Elle. I’m impressed with all these publications. I still haven’t had one since my first nearly four years ago, despite a concerted effort recently. I did have a very kind rejection from Barren Magazine recently, which still counts as ‘a miss is as good as a mile’.

Thanks @philippaeast!

Road to Redemption

It was the hour before dawn on Christmas morning. Robert stood under a pair of bay trees at the far end of the garden and breathed deeply, calming himself. The darkest hour it’s sometimes called, but he could see the light was coming fast now, a sliver of red showing on the eastern horizon and he knew he’d have to hurry. Sho…[Read more]

Congrats again, @Elle!

My last story of the year has been published today by Reflex Fiction https://www.reflexfiction.com/a-thin-blue-line-flash-fiction-by-laure-van-rensburg/

Merry Christmas everyone and enjoy the holidays! xx

That’s brilliant news! Congratulations, cannot wait to read your story in Disturbing the Beast.

Yeah, do post an update when you have time, @philippaeast! I’d love to hear how it’s worked doing such big edits with your agent as editor. I didn’t really get much of that with mine, so would be interested to hear how it’s been.

Thanks Ath and Libby!

Yes I think my experience was unusual in the sheer volume of rewriting I ended up doing. It really didn’t help that I began writing the novel with absolutely no idea about plot or where I was headed. I’m pretty sure that if I’d had a clearer outline and idea of the shape of my book from the start it wouldn’t have needed 24…[Read more]

The Penlee lifeboat disaster was 37 years ago today, Twitter reminds me. If you haven’t read Richard’s blog about it, above, I highly recommend you do

Fascinating then and fascinating now! I think one thing that you express so well here is the sheer workload of writing a successful book. OK, not everybody is going to make the huge changes that you did, but the fact remains that ‘tinkering’ is almost never enough. Great blog.

The Blackest Cat in the Longest Night

That twenty-first, that longest night, much darker than before
I dragged my sorry soul up from the bench and through the door
‘Cross the gutters I did step, my footing slick and icy.
When something tried to trip me up! I stared; what did my eyes see?

A cat! – the cat, the blackest cat, a rat-tail in its sna…[Read more]