Vanessa Rigg

Thank you for the beta read offers. I’m not sure I’m ready yet, but I will keep you in mind, and return the offer. Swapsies!

Wow, thank you, everybody, for your kind, supportive words. I only relayed my experiences to show @Hilary that she was not alone, but your responses have touched me deeply.

@Debi – thank you for your support. Of course, you know all about my MS, and you really are the best.

@Hilary – re the suggested beta read, I’m happy to put my name forward…[Read more]

Congratulations, John, and thanks Libby for the challenge.

Congratulations, John! Well done to all – and thanks to Libby for the comp and the perceptive comments.

And thank you for your comments too, Mad Iguana.

Debi thank you for this. Yes, I do think you’re right about the agent giving her time and it’s true that my disappointment is down to my expectations and hopes more than anything else. As I say, she was perfectly ‘nice’ and of course her prime motivation is going to be can she sell it. But in the meeting, I felt her doubt about this came across…[Read more]

Oh Hilary! I was alerted to this thread by Ath. I can see you’re taking this well but I know how much it must hurt. I’m going to try to take a step back and see where the agent might have been coming from. Don’t shout at me!

Agents love books, of course, and get very excited when they are part of the process that leads to publication. For some,…[Read more]

Thank you everyone for your solidarity and kind comments about my writing, and for the encouragement to realise all the positives in this tale as well. And, @janette, for someone not to reply properly having suggested revisions – that is, indeed, unprofessional.

I am taking a step back from that experience and that novel, and working on the…[Read more]

Hilary, I am seething with outrage. Firstly, let me say your writing is beautiful and the comp entries we have both seen and heard about are testament to that. I’m not surprised but very pleased to hear that you had those full requests, but to drag you down to London only to relay so many negatives – including your age for goodness sake – that’s…[Read more]

To be fair, she didn’t say it was about representation. I just thought/hoped it would be. She said it was to discuss suggested revisions and how we might work together. As well as the thing about commercial/literary, there were so many aspects of the book that she thought didn’t work, I even asked her why she had wanted to meet me and she said…[Read more]

Rachel agreed, in the end, to a bath.

The water was hot. There were bubbles. The scent made her think of purple.

She closed her eyes. Lowered herself, let her hands float, slid down until her head was under water. She let the breath go out of her and waited. Slowly, she pushed herself back up. Water dripped from her face, her hair. Steam…[Read more]

A Spill of Tea

I thought I’d bagged the prize of a lifetime when I landed my new job and the salary that came with it. The buzz about the café I’d worked at was great, but buzz didn’t pay bills, did it? Buzz didn’t afford a better flat, one I felt comfortable inviting friends back to; a holiday now and then. This new opportunity, it felt like win…[Read more]

Congratulations Libby; well deserved. And thank you @janeshuff for a challenge well set.

@squidge hello! Great to hear the Tilda series is progressing. I’ve got the first one in the queue for bedtime reading to the boys and can’t wait to see how it’s evolved from when I first read it years ago on the Cloud. I think I missed that there as going to be a remake of David Copperfield as well. I see most films at our community cinema club…[Read more]

@kazg yes, how I will laugh! I came across my very, very first shitty draft a year or so ago and it was quite something. Good to see how far I’ve come, at least!

@philippaeast Hello Philippa!! Good to see you too. I’m not sure I’m at the elbow-grease point yet. Mostly shovelling all the words into various sorting piles while scratching my head and wondering when the novel will apppear. But it’s all good. Ideas firing off all over the place. How’s it all going at your end? So excited for you. Are you not…[Read more]

Looking to a Brighter Future

Me old bones ache, Vee, sitting here hour-on-hour, gawping at you in that hospital bed. Look how quiet you are; how still. Niver would’ve stayed so still in the old days, hey? Specially when we first met, at the rockabilly café, remember? Shaking the floor dancing and, later, rocking the back of my old Cortina, you sh…[Read more]

@raine Hello! Yes, I think I’ve solved it, though it would help if everyone could just accept that in the first few chapters of my novel, Thursday becomes Friday without anyone sleeping 😀

@kazg Hello to you too! I’m feeling a bit of second book pressure, mainly because Home had the USP of a child’s voice and this one doesn’t have that so I’m…[Read more]

@libby I didn’t for a long time (esp with Twitter) and now I have, it’s hard to switch off from it as it is addictive. But I think I’m learning to manage it better to get the best bits out of it without the worst bits dragging me down.

@janeshuff I’m sorry you and your family have been through a similar thing. It does change everything. I hope…[Read more]