Writing Conference

I'm looking forward to this year's Get Writing Conference on Saturday and am celebrating having seen that my short story has made it to the long list in the Get Writing Cup.  There are three of us from Tring Writers who've made the long list which is a great result for the group.
I'll be chatting to an agent ref my middle grade/ya novel whilst I'm there too which I'm looking forward to though with some trepidation !!!

Competition 2nd place

My brilliant local writing group Tring Writers Circle hold an annual short story competition and this year's theme was 'forbidden'.  We had a good length of time to get the story written but as my focus had been on a last minute revision of the novel, time was running out so fast that I'd only managed to write two hundred odd words when I finally sat down at the computer around 8pm to write the story with a midnight deadline.  My theme was August 1961 and night the Berlin Wall/barriers were put in place.  I didn't get to complete my story as I ran out of time and, at 11.50 with 200 words left to write, I wrote a two-line paragraph to finish it off, spell checked it, read it through and submitted it at 11:58.  On competition night my story amazingly came in second .... with the short amount of time I'd spent writing I certainly didn't expect to be placed at all :)  Thank you TWC xx

No nails left

Latest scoop on my middle grade/tween novel is that I contacted the editor/agent who had given me such positive feedback on the first chapter she saw last year.  Going on previous form I didn't expect to hear back from her but late one night I checked my emails and there was a message from her asking to see the rest of the manuscript.... making me swear out loud and wake DH!
Cue frantic last minute revisions - undertaken late at night as our eldest daughter was in the middle of her GCSE's and had first shout on the computer.  I hadn't replied straight away as I wanted to make sure there were no glaringly obvious errors and she then called me to make sure I'd received her email.  How I managed to stop myself from screeching down the phone I'll never know :)  Anyway I sent it across to her just over five or so weeks ago ... will post again when I've heard back.

Brilliant masterclass .......

The SCWBI masterclass was brilliant, a great session from Lil Chase which really made me re-think how to go about plotting/structuring a novel.  I made copious notes which I'll definitely be referring to over and over in the future.  As part of the session we had to write an elevator pitch for our wip.  I've always found these even more terrifying than a synopsis .. at least with a synopsis you've got more than 4/5 sentences to get it right. You know what your book's about but to try and get it into 5 sentences is near enough impossible but I did it and even read it out loud to the rest of the group. 
The session was held just off Leicester Square so after the masterclass was over we had to go to the bar afterwards .... it would have been rude not to and several drinks later (all non alcoholic as I was driving) emerged into a bright sunny afternoon and walked straight into a demonstration marching down the Strand, caught a bus up to Oxford Street and tried on a couple of dresses in Debenhams before going home. 
All together a fabulous day out and one I'd recommend to anyone writing children's/YA fiction.

Blog published on Berko Writers website

I recently attended a great evening at BerkoWriters devoted to writing sex .. not something I need for my current middle grade/YA novel but it was a interesting evening with lots of laughs and readings from novels I hadn't come across before.  On an email sent after the event, there was a request for poeple to write something for their blog.  Determined to get my act together this year I replied and my piece has been published on their blog today ... here's the link ... http://www.berkowriters.co.uk/berko-blog/

Easter weekend is looming and I will make a super human effort to set some time aside to get my final revisions down.  I'm booked on a masterclass in London in May through the SCWBI which is being run by Lil Chase.  I'll be taking my manuscript with me as we'll be going through current projects and looking how to get the pich right, where it would fit in the market place plus the best way to sell them .... can't wait.

Anthology Launch

My brilliant writing group Tring Writers Circle had a launch event last week for our anthology of short stories.  It was a great evening with some captivating readings, wine, nibbles and a great chance to catch up and pat ourselves on the back.  We were lucky enough to secure sponsors to cover the cost of producing the book itself so all proceeds from every book sold will be going to our local hospice. 

Query sent

Having put it off for the last month I have sent the first three chapters plus synopsis to the agent whom I met at this year's Get Writing Conference.  She'd sent me an encouraging email after the conference plus also passed on comments from an editor who I was due to meet but had been unable to attend.  According to the website if they don't contact you within two months then they're not interested ... so by that score I might hear by the beginning of January but then again I might not.
It's difficult knowing what to concentrate on for NaNoWriMo ... either make a start on book 2 or do I start something new??  Not wanting to spend too much time on book 2 in case the fate of book 1 is to remain on my hard drive I've been doing a mix of the two but am very short of the daily target word count.  I haven't got anything on during the evenings this week so am planning to get a few thousand words down by the weekend ...