Gratifying Competition Result

This month’s issue of Writing Magazine arrived in the post today, and I was shortlisted in the Tight Situation Short Story Competition! I’m particularly pleased with this result, because the story I entered went through a development process I’m planning to cultivate more often in my writing this year.  I worked on it in several stages, […]

The Delights of Scribophile

One of the other writers on the course I attended recently at Moniack Mhor told me about an online critiquing website called Scribophile, so I decided to check it out. I found signing up and navigating around very easy.  They have a checklist of all the various things you can do on the site, which […]

Life Plus 2M

My story, The Sentencing, is part of an anthology that’s been put together by David Zetland for the Life Plus 2M project.  The project has entries from storytellers, imagining what effect an increase in global water levels would have, and also thought pieces from scientists and environmentalists, predicting the same thing. You can order the […]

Learning About Revision

I spent the whole of last week on a writing course at Moniack Mhor, near Inverness.  It was aimed at science-fiction and fantasy writers, with workshops in the mornings, led by the two tutors, Juliet McKenna and Pippa Goldschmidt, and the afternoons left free for individual writing time.  I always find these kind of events […]

The House

In its heyday, the house stood in substantial grounds, and its nearest neighbour was at least half a mile away.  The family that owned the house could trace their history back generations and were extremely proud of their heritage.  The house hosted many a lavish party and saw hundreds of guests enter through its magnificent […]

Measuring Success

This blog post marks a major achievement in my writing. At the beginning of the year, I joined the Get Your Words Out online community of writers.  In order to sign up, you have to pledge to write a certain number of words over the course of the year.  They also have to be certain […]

Distracted by the Shinies

I’m supposed to be finishing a final polish of the novel, ready to send it to Cornerstones for a professional edit report.  My deadline for doing that, set by my wonderful husband who is paying for report as my birthday present, was 2 November.  But it’s now nearly three weeks later and I’m only halfway […]

Helping the Crew

I was recently introduced to an interesting way of thinking about the conscious and subconscious parts of the mind, which I’ve found very helpful in working on my writing.  Think of the mind as a ship, with the captain steering and looking out to the horizon, and the crew working away below decks, out of […]