Voices Across the Pond

Anyone who is looking to sell their short fiction, particularly if, like me you are writing in the SF/horror genres, will sooner or later start to submit to markets based in the States. In fact, although there are some excellent small UK based magazines, over in the States the short fiction scene in these genres is positively flourishing, so really you’d be daft not to.

Now as a UK based writer who writes in UK English, I used to spend many a long hour painstakingly converting all my UK spellings to US ones to have a version of my story to send across the pond, but after a time I stopped doing it.

The main reason behind my rationale is that UK and US English seem to differ in more than just spelling. There are all sorts of words and phrases that exist over here but not over there, and I’m sure – in fact I know that I use a lot of these in my writing, without even being aware.

So out they go in UK English and you know, I don’t think it makes any difference. I’ve sold a number of stories now to markets in the States.

It is interesting though, some of the words and phrases that differ. Okay, we all know the obvious ones such as ‘flashlight’ for ‘torch’ or ‘sidewalk’ for ‘pavement’, but a new one on me, which Eric over at Hadley Rille Books pulled me up on in the edits of my ‘Footprints’ story, was the phrase ‘as of old’. (Which for any American reading this blog means ‘as in the past’.)

It had never occurred to me that this might be a very English turn of phrase. I wonder what other phrases and words I use that leave our American cousins scratching their heads in confusion.

Competition Time

I am contemplating whether to enter any writing competitions this year.

I think I’ll probably have a go at the Yeovil Prize again. I like to support this one, partly since it is my local prize, and partly because I’ve done well in it in previous years, culminating last year in me winning the Western Gazette award for a local author as I was shortlisted in two categories, with my novel, Myth Making being highly commended.

Competitions with a category for novels are few and far between, but this year, I’m not sure my WIP is far enough along to enter. Perhaps I’ll save it for next year, or maybe, by the time the deadline approaches (31st May) I’ll feel differently.

But I will definitely be having a go at the short story category. It’s written, just needs a bit of a spit and polish and I’ll send it in.

"Rosemary Lane" now up at Pseudopod

My short story "Rosemary Lane" has just gone up at Pseudopod.

It's the first time I've had a story published as a podcast - so I'm very excited. You can download the MP3 file here at Pseudopod, so listen and enjoy, and if you like it leave a comment.

As for me, I'm off to celebrate!

Footprints Sale!

I’ve just heard from Eric T Reynolds over at Hadley Rille Books that my short story ‘Last Traces’ has made the line up for their forthcoming ‘Footprints’ anthology.

This will be my third story to be published by Hadley Rille Books and I am, needless to say, delighted. They produce some fabulous books and it’s great to be a part of it!

In fact, if anyone reading this is on the lookout for a great market, they’ve just announced a new call for submissions for a new anthology, ‘Destination: Future’. I’ll certainly be sending something in for this one!

Memories

For some years now I’ve been looking at my late father’s memoirs gathering dust on my hard drive and thought how nice it would be to get them into print for family and friends. The problem always was that we only need a handful of copies between us, and most people from my writers group who have self published have used printers that do print runs of several hundred, which, in this case is quite unnecessary. Add to this the fact that any form of self publishing or vanity publishing is completely off the agenda as far as my own work is concerned, it was looking as if my father’s memoirs were destined to remain for ever electronic.

But then a new guy at my writers group, David Smith, told me about Lulu.com. So I checked them out, and came to the conclusion that, for what I needed, they might be the way to go.

Well, worth a try. So I re-formatted his old Macintosh file and uploaded it. And I managed to dig out a photograph to use for the cover, and I can keep the file private – most important since this is family stuff and not for public consumption.

So all I need to do now is order one and see what it looks like. And hopefully that’s this year’s birthday present for my Mum sorted!

Writing Weather

The rain has been pounding down all day washing away the last of the snow. Rivers and roads are one and the same and where I once looked out on fields all I can see is a brown muddy lake. The Frome has burst her banks (not that she ever needs much encouragement to do that!!) and I’m so glad that I live on a hill!

The wind is lashing rain against my windows, but my fire is warm. This is good weather to get some writing done – and as I’m writing about a flood at the moment it’s rather appropriate.

Winter for me is the best time to write – the time when I get the most done. For, come the summer with light nights and sunny days the fields and the valleys will call me, and I’ll be heading for the beach instead. (Assuming we have a decent summer this year!)

Control those Characters!

This is the part of writing I like the most – the moment my characters start to take on a life of their own.

I reached this point last night with the WIP. One of my characters went and did something quite unexpected, and yet it was the right thing for him to do. It added a bit more excitement to the scene I was writing. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it first!

Of course, if my characters get too carried away it can be a bad thing. Sometimes they want to go off at a tangent, and when I first started writing I used to let them get into all sorts of pickles. I’m stricter with them now. I know where they have to end up and if they start to digress too much it’s down to me to steer them back on track.

But even so, they never cease to throw up surprise after surprise.

Of course, if you don’t write you probably think I’m quite mad by now. But I’d like to wager that any writers reading this know exactly what I’m talking about.

(I wonder what they’re going to surprise me with next?)