Great little interview. Check it out if like me you’re busy with a children’s story for NaNoWriMo.
Our interview today is with Kieran Fanning. Kieran is a teacher in Co. Meath, Ireland. He has an MA in Children’s Literature and wrote 4 puzzle/adventure books for children.
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Interesting article! I found it encouraging too, since I’m working on a novel for children during #NaNoWriMo.
by Jean M. Cogdell
Is your genre one of the top percenters?
I hadn’t given this much thought, until reading a great article on Medium by Erica Verrillo from the Writing Cooperative. And boy howdy, the stats were eye-opening. Erica gives stats on most popular genres with readers, agents and includes which genres make the most money.
What surprised me most?
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Authors helping authors: share and learn!
Alright.
Let’s begin.
This post is about an acknowledgment of gratitude. In the recent event of releasing a story, and the errs along its way to a patient recipient.
Firstly, thank you, Chris Hall, a WordPress blogger, and published author, you have followed and offered wonderful feedback for some time, and I appreciate that greatly!
Doubly, thank you for the -and it’s a rough guess- 30+ emails we exchanged trying to send an ebook, across country borders. There were miscues, moments where it seemed like it would work, then didn’t. Well, eventually, with combined efforts and determination, we found success!
Thank you, Chris, for your interest in The Vague Ship, and help in discovering how to share books across the world!
Check out her blog here!
Lastly, this means I can extend my giveaway beyond the borders of the US.
Some useful hints here, even if you’re not necessarily considering going down the professional editing route.
I’m a huge fan of David Mitchell’s novels; I just love his writing. Then I came upon this article in The New Yorker. It fascinated me, particularly since I’ve been trying to sketch a map of the (only partly fictional) tunnels which run under the city of Liverpool to help in the process of writing my current novel.
You might enjoy his article too. Here’s the link: Start with the Map
I can relate to this. How about you?
by Liam Cross
As writers, we’re often referred to as some of the strangest, most misunderstood members of society, and it’s a theme that has certainly carried down from generation to generation. It’s probably to do with the creative lifestyle – always obsessing over a project and never being able to properly switch off.
It’s like we have this constant creative buzz in the back of our minds that is ready to erupt at any moment, spilling countless ideas and caffeine-induced plot outlines out into the real world. I say real world because at least eighty percent of our minds are occupied by fiction that was either penned by us, or by some other richer, much more talented writer.
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She hadn’t realised the consequences of taking down that old book and reading from it aloud. Nobody had warned her.
She’d always loved books; especially old books. Battered and bruised, but still adorable. Like a comfortable old armchair. The feel of the paper, pages yellowed at the edges, curled like parchment, worn down by the gaze of its readers. The smell: a little musty; a little dusty. And words which have been read and re-read; taken in, digested.
She’d been permitted to browse this ancient library. To scale the heights of the upper shelves and plumb the depths of the bottom-most archives. To swim in an ocean of promised words.
Finally, she made her choice, a heavy tome and rather old. The pages were discoloured, their edges torn, and the leather binding scuffed and stained. But the drawings of flowers and birds it contained were still colourful. There were passages of script held within the pages, although the language and spelling were archaic and hard to follow.
She took her prize to a remote desk and opened it carefully. She pored over it; savouring it. The illustrations were remarkable; tinted drawings so precise that they could have been photographs: two young girls dressed in pinafores, chanting a hand clapping game. Over the next page, a robust woman in a heavy woollen dress shouting straight out of the page at her, brows knitted with concern, arms open in appeal. A little further on, a poem was it? To be read aloud; of course.
And as she whispered the words, the world grew very bright for a moment, and then the lights went out.
Come, gentle reader, open the book! Look, she’s waving at you; page 229.
©2018 Chris Hall
I just had to share this. Why? Cos I’m a bit of a crazy cat woman myself, and it’s a kind of ‘cheer me up midweek’ kind of post.
Ever noticed that writers tend to have… lots of cats? Like not just one or two, but sometimes three or four? I could never quite figure out the obsession, until I adopted a few of my own (yes, I just said the word ‘few’, and yes, I may have more than one cat).
1) You will never again be alone, ever
2) They are excellent paper shredders… and you will cheer them on even when it’s the sole copy of your manuscript. You are eating that paper so well my little darling munchkin poo
3) Kittens. Just kittens. I mean, they do end up turning into cats at some point. But kittens
4) Cats are the only thing on the planet more bonkers than writers. This is reassuring to said writers
5) Feeling blue because you’ve just killed off one of your favourite characters? Never fear, the cat will help…
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Not trying to be pushy… but it’s your last chance to download ‘Sextet’ onto your Kindle (or phone with Kindle app). Offer finishes Tuesday 7 August.
SPECIAL OFFER
For one week only (1st to 7th August) my collection of short stories
‘A Sextet of Shorts’ is free to download on your Kindle or phone.
Click on the ‘Buy on Amazon’ box below:
Check out my Amazon author page – click here
Many thanks to The Haunted Wordsmith for this review of my little short story book ‘A Sextet of Shorts’.
Note the free offer runs until 7th August, so not too late to download for free!
luna's on line 