Easterlies

There’s a bit of an easterly swell coming in today. Fresh and ever so cold. A good day for walking along the beach and trying to untangle all the conflicting advice I’m getting at the moment about the novel I’ve been rewriting.

Something New

The rest of the coutry is blanketed in snow - I think everywhere except here - but we never get much down by the sea. Even the hills that I look out on have a light dusting!

Still, the cold weather is a good excuse to stay in and get on with some writing. But I also wanted to share with you a new project of mine. This year I'm going to attempt to grow my own veg. And to catalogue my successes/disasters I've started another blog. So do pop over and give me some moral support - or - if you already grow your own - share your wisdom with a newbie!

A Patch of Dirt

A Good Start

It’s gorgeous here at the moment – freezing cold with clear blue skies. It’s lovely out in the hills – hardly another soul to be seen and only the deer and buzzards for company. Normally the sea and the ridgeway keep the frost away, but not this year. This is the way winter should be.

2010 has got off to a good start – with my first sale of the year!! I’ve just heard that Sorcerous Signals will be publishing ‘Return to Athelnay’ in their May issue. I’ll post the link to it once it comes online and I hope as many of you as possible will pop over and have a read.

So, refreshed and enthused, it’s back to the novel edit. The end is in sight, and the MC in the WIP is nagging at me to get on with it. I’ve neglected her for long enough, but not for much longer.

New Years Resolutions

Happy New Year everyone.

A new year and a new decade. I hope everyone has been letting it in with style. I wonder what 2010 will hold as far as my writing is concerned?

At the start of 2009 I set myself a number of writing targets. So I thought I would revisit them and see how I got on.

Here they are:

1. Find an Agent to represent Myth Making
Nope, although I’ve come close twice with this one, and it’s not over yet!
2. Sell a short story to a SWFA pro market
Nope, no joy with this one
3. Sell more short stories than in 2008 (more than 3)
Nope, only two sales this year
4. Complete first draft of current WIP.
Nope, only half written, due to the amount of time I’ve spent on the rewrites of novel 1.
5. Enter the Yeovil Prize again.
Well yes – I managed this one – didn’t come anywhere though!
6. Start putting reviews on my blog.
And at last a proper yes, a couple of reviews and also some guests.

Well that wasn’t particularly successful was it? :-(

But just a moment – if you a reader of Nicola Morgan’s blog you’ll have seen this post about writing resolutions.

Looking at these targets again perhaps they weren’t the smartest. The first three are clearly aspirations – they’re my ambitions, not fully in my control. The last three are the only true targets. So, 2 out of three. Not so bad.

Bearing that in mind here are my new writing targets for 2010.

1. Complete the final rewrite of novel 1 and get it back to that agent!
2. Get novel 1 back out in circulation should Mr Agent pass.
3. Complete first draft of WIP
4. Complete 6 new SF short stories
5. Maintain my blog with guest and reviews and interesting writing articles.

On that note it just remains for me to wish everyone a Happy New Year – may all our writing dreams come true in 2010!

Christmas Wishes

I would just like to wish all the readers of this blog a very merry Christmas. May all your Chrismas wishes come true and have a fantastic break. I'll see you all back here in 2010.

2009 Writing Achievements

So what has 2009 been like for my writing? Well not too bad actually. Of course there’ve been disappointments, rejections, entries in competitions that came nowhere – but when I put together everything that I have achieved this year – well here it is and I’m quite pleased with this 2009 writing round up.

Publishing achievements:

Short Stories Published in 2009

Rosemary Lane, Pseudopod February 2009
Cone Key, Escape Velocity Magazine, March 2009
The Last Traces, Footprints (Hadley Rille Books) July 2009
The Oracle, Jupiter SF, July 2009

Short Story Sales in 2009

The Last Traces, sold to Footprints Anthology (Hadley Rille Books) published July 2009
Symbionts, sold to Absent Willow review (publication due Feb 2010)

Writing achievements:

Total number of short stories completed: 7

Novel status – 1: Two complete rewrites
2: ½ written first draft

Also – the Hangman Inn Anthology compiled and edited for the Yeovil Cre8ive Writers (includes one of my own short stories).

So all in all, not a bad year when I list it like that. I think I deserve another glass of mulled wine.

Tinsel and Lights

The run up to Christmas has begun in earnest. The kids spent a wet and grey Saturday afternoon decorating the tree whilst my husband wrestled with last years lights trying to get them to work – finally admitting defeat and heading out to buy a new set!

As usual our tree looks very much as if someone grabbed and armful of decorations and lobbed them in its general direction, even though it took a whole afternoon of painstakingly stacking as many baubles as possible on one branch for the kids to achieve that effect!

Anyway, time for the writing to go on the back burner – for a while – mulled wine and mince pies are the order of the day – and there seems to be a non stop round of school fayres and parties. Still the turkey is ordered, the pantomime tickets bought, the cards in the post and all I need to do now is finish off the Christmas shopping.

It’s a good time to take a break. The re-written short story has been dispatched, and the rewritten novel is, well, rewritten. I plan to send it back to the agent in the new year, but for now I can forget about it and get on with enjoying the next few weeks.