Xander Michael

THis is great Squidge, love the immediate dive into her PoV, her frustrations and doubts. My only two thoughts are …
– some of the descriptive paragraph (Tilda gritted her teeth…) might be worth trimming. It’s a chunk of … background I guess, that perhaps needs only a hint here, with more details as you go on?
– and, I think someone else…[Read more]

Make time for day-dreaming. Fifteen minutes of doing nothing, except thinking about a particular scene, can help you visualise better.
Atmospheric music helps. As does wine. Or gin.
Okay, maybe not gin.

Happy dancing along with the rest, Kaz! Congratulations – this is so exciting. Sorry I’ve not been in among the beta readers but I’d love to catch up with this some time.

Thank you Squidge,I appreciate the input. Food for thought.

Thanks Jules.

You mean the coppery tang of blood as her scalpel slices through pale flesh?! Just kidding. I know what you mean, Laure, I need to work on the atmosphere.
I hope this exercise is helping others to get a grasp of what makes a story work – join in everyone.

Oh. My. Giddy. Aunt! Amazing news! So pleased for you!

Haven’t stopped dancing little happy dances since I heard. 🙂

Ava will be so loved by everyone who meets her. I can’t wait to see where she takes us. (and Jack. I love him a bit) xxx

Superb news Kaz – I’ve always loved your writing so know this is very well deserved. I’ll be in Melbourne in November, but more whizzing in and out a couple of times, on our way elsewhere, Will send you a closer wave, at least.

I’m going to go with the advice given and submit it to another comp, this time with its original title ‘The Grandmothers’. If it sounds familiar, it is because it was an old comp entry over on Cloud but which I polished up a little, this one set in a Celtic village (yes, rather like my other wip *blushes*). As I don’t want to compromise by…[Read more]

… And now I’ve found this thread!
Firstly, many congratulations, Elle, Daeds, Hil, Kaz and Jules. I’ll look out for those links.
I think I’ve already said too many times already, but I have also come first AND second in the same local comp, Pennine Ink, with my two entries. Not stumbling upon this first, I opened a fresh link and posted the link…[Read more]

Just read it – told with your usual heart-warming warmth, salted, as always with human reality. Excellent.

*blushes* Sorry, I’ve only just found this link. Yes, Mandy was indeed bloody brilliant and it felt oh-so-special to be sat listening to her. It was the proverbial cherry atop the York cake that had already proved to be one-to-be-remembered.

Yes, Hel – please do post – here or in our SE Group (not sure you’ve found that?) but let us know where. I definitely want to read it.

Only just found this Janette – brilliant and well-deserved news. Keep us posted.

Thanks so much everyone and many congrats, Philippa.

Raine, of course I can post it but, frankly, it’s not that wonderful. But I can if you want. Do you mean post it here?

How are you doing? What are you writing? Your work is so good…have you sent anything out to agents recently?

J. That’s AMAZING! You are storming the flash scene! Are they putting together an anthology? Or website publication, or something?

And yeah, when you have a pub date/name, pop it on the Podium forum so’s we can all cheer.