Positive Reinforcement

Like a lot of writers, I keep my rejection slips in a folder, but sometimes I wonder what I'm going to do with them. Mostly, they just depress me and I'm hardly going to brandish a fistful at the first agent or editor who signs me up! The amount of rejections you've received seems to be held as a badge of honour in some circles, in that the more you've amassed before you get published, the better a writer you somehow are. True, you have persisted and triumphed over adversity, but some of those agents and editors must have been on to something...

Calm Descends

Not a lot to report this week, but I thought I'd blog anyway - I rarely miss an excuse to talk about myself ;-)

My Wired Week

I finally got a whole night's sleep last night and feel able to put fingers to keyboard. It's ironic that in a week where I'm suddenly being feted for my writing, that writing is the thing I've done least of...

I'm In Undiscovered Voices 2010 !

I am ridiculously excited to announce that I have been selected as one of the 12 finalists of the British Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) Undiscovered Voices 2010 competition. There were 150 entries and the competition was judged by a panel of publishing industry experts - 3 literary agents and 3 publishing editors. There will be an anthology published in February next year that will be sent to all UK and US children's agents and editors!

Help! I Can't Stop Proofreading

There are a number of things of good things that writing has brought to my life, like providing a sense of purpose and improving my ability to empathise in everyday situations. Unfortunately, it seems that as my writing gets better, so my intolerance to other people's bad writing gets worse. This occasionally manifests with me closing a blog page or putting down a book with a snort after just a few sentences, but mostly it comes out in the form of proofreading.

Arriving Fully Formed

Building a world is hard, and Candy Gourlay has covered some of this stuff in her excellent post on the SCBWI Fantasy Fiction Master Class. My personal epiphany came last night while watching Friends. Yes, you did read that right - a slightly dated sitcom involving six over-caffeinated New Yorkers on a sofa, trading bon mots and relationship advice.