Creepy Tales for Boyz and Ghouls

This week sees the release of my Writers’ group’s new anthology, ‘Creepy Tales for Boyz and Ghouls’. It is aimed at children 6-11 years old and was chosen to coincide with the Essex Libraries Summer Reading Challenge.

I have been very excited about this one, even more so than the previous anthology ‘The Other Way is Essex’. I love Children’s books!

I knew early on that one of my pieces was going to be a poem inspired by my daughter and the funny things she comes out with. It is called ‘Monsters in Mum’s Knicker Drawer.’ It was so much fun to write! Our wonderful illustrator Addi came up with a brilliant picture to go with it.

My other piece is a story called, ‘The Ghosts Next Door.’ I had to do a little research for that one as my ghosts are from the 40s.

There are many more poems and stories in there with ghosts, creepy houses, goblins etc.

All proceeds from sales of the book will go to Farleigh Hospice who also benefited from our last anthology.

If you would like to try a sample before buying, my poem is the first piece.

Please give it a try. It is available on Amazon on paperback and kindle.  

The Tension is Building

I am really excited by my Novel at the moment. I have been working on it for approximately 3 years so the fact it is having this effect on me now is a surprise.

I was really excited when I first started writing the first draft. What was in my head blew me away but it didn’t look so good by the time it had travelled through my fingers and onto the page. This was due to my lack of skill in the use of words back then. The first draft looked childish to me.

Since then I have joined a writing group, which has proved invaluable with critique and support. I have also met other writers around the world via Facebook groups and Twitter. Then there are the books I have read and the TV that I have watched that have inspired me.

I am on the third draft and it is starting to really take shape. I was struggling with a really important scene in Chapter Three, the moment that the Serial Killer/ Stalker seduces the female lead who he has been watching for months. He has planned it down to the last detail and I wanted it to be intense, but my previous effort was a bit flat and boring.

I decided to put a call for help on a few Facebook groups. I asked for opinions about how she would smell, feel etc. It came up with some mixed responses. You could tell the people who enjoyed reading Thrillers; they embraced it and used vivid description. The others seemed to be scared by the question. It was a fun experience and gave me loads to work on.

I have written that scene this morning and I love it! It has also made me realise things about my characters that I didn’t know before. I now have loads of new ideas for the rest of the book. My characters are much more alive now and if that is how I feel hopefully future readers will feel the same.

Review of 'THE FALL'

For the past five weeks I have been glued to the TV every Monday night by ‘The Fall.’ The first two episodes in particular were so intense that they left me buzzing for days, unable to think about anything else.

I am writing my first novel, a Thriller including a serial killer, at the moment. My character is very different to Paul Spector, but I found it inspirational and helpful with my own book. For one thing it taught me that I had to give my Antagonist a really great job! The Bereavement Councillor Job given to Spector is pure genius.

I was so hooked on the storyline surrounding Spector that the other subplot went over my head; I will have to watch it all again so I can take that in too.

I have read some of the articles surrounding the programme and know that it has evoked criticism about the level of violence against women. As a female viewer there are things I would have done differently if I had written it.

I think if you are going to have a serial killer targeting women you have to make the viewer sympathetic towards the victims. The Sarah Kay murder I found intensely brilliant. I found his bizarre ritual with her dead body insane but I loved it. She came across as a strong character in life, caring and intelligent. So why did Annie’s character have to have a seedy side? It reduces the sympathy the viewer feels for her and I think that if you are going to have violent scenes against women you have to feel sympathy for them.

I would also have changed the character of Katie. I would not have made her such a Lolita. She could still have the crush on Paul but she could be less forceful.

Stella Gibson’s character is a bit over the top too. Was it really necessary for her to have her buttons undone while being interviewed, or rubbing marks off her boobs while talking to men?

I really loved Sally Spector’s character. She had an amazing Job, was caring and innocent. Why did they have to have her initiating rough sex with her husband after he had admitted to an affair? She was the perfect character, why ruin it? It makes it look as if the writers are trying to say that all women want it rough.

One thing I found strange in the final part was Spector lying about having an affair with Katie, a fifteen year old, when he could have made up anyone else instead. You have more chance of your wife forgiving an affair with a grown woman than a child. Why would he decide portraying himself as a paedophile would be the best option?

I am not sure how they are going to manage another series involving Spector. I will be looking forward to it and I hope that they learn from the mistakes in series one. It has the potential to be amazing if it could only be more considerate to the female viewer.

 Flashing Jamie’s topless body isn’t enough, not that I’m complaining you understand!

Update On My Novel In Progress

I have been working away on my novel for approximately three years. It has been a long process, and has included some periods of procrastination, but I can see the finish line now.

When I wrote the first draft it was hurriedly scribbled with pen and paper. It has been through several re-writes since then, including the one I am working on now. I am hoping that will be the last before editing.

I have learned a lot since I first started the story. My early attempts at grammar etc were embarrassing and I have been steadily improving with the help of my Writers’ group, Facebook Writers’ pages and my English class. I still make mistakes but I am still learning.

It is a Psychological Thriller. I love my characters including my serial killer antagonist, who I have a crush on!

I sometimes feel under pressure to get the book finished and out there, as everyone else seem to knock out a book a week. Okay, probably an exaggeration!

The voices in my head won’t let me rush it though. They tell me to take my time and make it the best I can. And there are plenty of great Authors who take years to write a novel, especially a first one.

I am not sure if it is the rise in Indie Authors and E-Books that makes us feel under so much pressure. All writers want to be published so that they can feel like a “Real Writer” and justify the long periods they spend being unsociable.

My book will be finished and I have a good outline for the sequel. I am excited and nervous about letting anyone else read my work, as I am the only person to have seen it. I am trying to get it ready to be edited during the school holidays as I know I will not get much writing done with a child at home.

Hopefully the book will be ready to publish later in the year.

#AprilPrompts Growing Day 6

The subject for the April prompts challenge today is growing.

This started me thinking about two different aspects of growing. It reminded me of my daughter and of my own growth as a writer.

My daughter was premature and she weighed 3lb 10oz at birth or 1.652 kg. She wore premature baby clothes for babies 3-5 lb and they were still too big for her. We took her home from hospital when she was four weeks old weighing 4lb 5oz.

She looked like a new born baby for several months. I remember taking her to the library when she was three months old and she still only weighed 7lb. I got her a library card; they must have thought I was mad.

She was later than most children passing some of the normal stages of growing. She was late crawling and she didn’t learn to walk until she was two.

She is now ten and no one would ever know she had been a premature baby.

The other subject I wanted to write about is my growth as a writer.

I always knew that I wanted to be a writer but I think lack of patience and self belief stopped me from ever submitting anything. I just wrote for my own enjoyment.

In 2011 I took part in NaNoWriMo for the first time. I didn’t make the word count but I met a lot of writers through the facebook page, which led to me joining Writebulb writers’ group.

It has been an amazing few years for me. I have learned so much, and my writing has improved immensely. I have had work published in the writers’ group anthology and have some pieces ready for this year’s children’s anthology. I also am nearing the finish line on my own WIP which is a Thriller novel.

My confidence is growing every day and I am excited by what the future might hold for me as a writer.

Do you ever feel cheated by an ending?

Have you ever read a book that has let you down with the ending?

This has happened to me a few times.

One book by a great Author finished with an open ending, where it didn’t really finish. Nothing was achieved by me spending several days reading it. Nobody won and the baddies weren’t stopped. The sad thing is that it was a brilliant book that had me excited to reach the end.

Another Author who did this to me was the Horror writer Shaun Hutson. It was many years ago and I can’t remember which of his books it was (I loved his books in my 20s and devoured everything he did!) It had what I like to refer to as the “Called in for your tea” ending. It was almost like he had been called down for dinner and had called out “Give me a minute I just have to finish the book.”

Obviously not true but that is what it reminded me of. It was rushed and finished abruptly.

Sometimes TV lets you down with the ending too. I remember a series called Sea Of Souls, where identical twins who were separated at birth meet again. One is married with a son the other is single. The single one sets out to steal the other ones life. She succeeds! It ended with her murdering her sister, stealing her husband and son and getting away with it. You work out that the husband knows, but has decided the newer model is better but the confusing thing is that the child doesn’t realise that the imposter isn’t his mother.

This is unrealistic, the child would have known.

This episode left me wound up for days, I was so annoyed by it. It is years since I saw it but I still think of it sometimes. Maybe the author wanted to leave a mark on people’s brains; he/she certainly did on mine.

Open ends are becoming increasingly popular nowadays, I see it a lot in short stories.

Call me old fashioned but I love a great ending, if it is going to be left open I want some more to come.

Should you leave a bad review?

This is a subject that has been used in many blog posts that I have read recently.

Most people say that they wouldn’t leave a review under 3 stars and I have always agreed with them.

Is this the right thing to do?

I have come across a lot of badly written e-books since I bought my kindle last year. Most of them were free or very cheap so I wasn’t particularly ripped off but I feel strongly that it is the responsibility of the Author to make sure that what they produce is good enough to justify asking people for money for. Even if it has been given away for free you are still asking people to give up their time to read your work.

Maybe we should leave bad reviews.

I am not suggesting that we should be spiteful or bitchy, but maybe we should let potential readers know that they shouldn’t waste their time or money on a particular book.

I have heard people say that what one person hates another might love and this is true. I have seen 1 star reviews for books that I have loved, sometimes I feel like there are people out there who just get off on leaving nasty reviews. I am sure that if a book is genuinely good the positive reviews will far outweigh the negative.

We all have different tastes and I am not saying that I would leave a bad review on a book because it was not quite my kind of thing, but I think we should leave low star reviews on books that are poorly written or not edited properly.

I know of people who have left bad reviews and have suffered abuse from the Author or their families. This is childish behaviour. I have also seen Authors react positively to bad reviews and take on board the comments. It must be painful receiving bad remarks about something you have put so many hours into, but that is part of the job description.

Authors have to be tough!

Managing your time

I often hear writers saying that they haven’t had the time to write. I refuse to use this excuse for my lack of writing as it would be selfish.

I know of writers who work long hours, raise a family and still find time to write. What these people have is good time management, and the motivation to drive them forward towards their goals.

I have the luxury of not having to go out to work. I have worked since having my daughter, but my hubby was happy for me not to so I could stay at home and concentrate on writing.

It doesn’t actually mean I write more though, if anything I am actually less organised with my time.

When you have to juggle work with housework, children and writing you seem to plan your day better. When you have loads of time on your hands you seem to just waste it.

Maybe that is just me!

I am definitely writing more this year so far though. I am charging through the re-write of my novel and am very happy with how it is going. I have also managed to write a lot of short pieces including children’s stories, poems and flash fiction work.

I think I just need to treat it more like a job and give myself working hours. It only actually takes about 1 hour to write 1000 words on a good run, which isn’t a bad amount to be aiming for daily. I could produce the first draft of a novel in 3-4 months in theory!

 

The best time to write. Are you a morning person?

It never ceases to amaze me how many people are up writing while I am fast asleep.

I am a lazy person who can’t function without at least 7 hours sleep, preferably more! Part of me envies those people who get their writing done early.

I get most of my writing done while my daughter is at school, but I can’t help but wonder what my writing would be like if I shoe horned my butt out of bed early and wrote something before life got in the way.

Just think how much more I could fit into my day. I could read more books, take my dog for longer walks (extra thinking time) and go out to lunch more.

I cannot convince myself to actually do it though.

In my defence it is cold at the moment and the heating is not left on over night, but there is no excuse in summer.

It isn’t as if I need perfect conditions to write in. Some people need their own room, no noise, a view of the garden etc, but I am not one of those people. I can write standing at the worktop while watching the dinner cooking, I can write while my daughter is playing in the same room and I even used to write while listening to my ex neighbour shouting, screaming and swearing.

I just need to free up some more hours in my day. I will have to work at it.

When it is warmer!

When can you start calling yourself an Author?

I recently created my own “Author’s page.”

A lot of my fellow writers had their own and after much consideration I decided it would be a good idea.

Before the introduction of e-readers, when you had to be published the traditional way or through vanity publishing, you probably wouldn’t have called yourself an author unless you had at least one book in the shops.

E-publishing means that a lot of writers now have the ability to publish their masterpieces reasonably easy.

I am hoping creating my page will motivate me to finish my novel. In the past I have allowed myself to procrastinate for long periods. My WIP was started over two years ago, and I am writing my second draft. I do not want to allow myself to drag this novel out too long; I have the sequel to write!

To be a successful writer I have to start thinking of myself as a writer. “Fake it 'till you make it,” is something I have heard many times.

I have wanted to write novels since I was very young. It is not a hobby, it is what I am, a writer. I have had a piece published in an anthology, “The other way is Essex,” and will hopefully have two pieces in a Children’s anthology to be released by summer this year.

My recent experience signing books at Chelmsford Library helped to make me feel like an Author too!

I have read many affirmations that tell you that all you have to do to get what you want is to think about it regularly.  The power of the mind!

I am a big believer in affirmations and visualisations; I just have to put them into practice.

That is why I decided now is a great time to create my new page.

Reading to your children.

I read to my daughter from the day I took her home from hospital. She was born prematurely at 32 weeks, and we were told that she could be behind in her development. I had always known that it was important to read to children to help with language and bonding.

She came home from the hospital at four weeks old. I had baby books, and I read to her every day while she lay in her crib. When she was three months old we moved into a new flat and I got her a library card. She weighed seven pounds at the time and was still very small and I can still remember the strange looks they gave me.

I loved picking out rhyming books, and would make all the animal noises. I would make sure I was alone though! I would take out twelve books every three weeks and I would read them to her every day. I think I enjoyed it more than she did.

When she learned to crawl I would keep the pile of books on the coffee table so she could pick them up whenever she wanted. If I sat down she would automatically bring a book and climb on my lap for me to read. When it was finished she would get another, then another and so on, until I had read them all. This routine could happen several times a day.

By the time she was two and a half she would memorise her favourite books and read them to her imaginary friends.

She was behind in a lot of things. She didn`t walk until she was two and struggled with fine motor skills, but she has always been at least a year ahead in reading, literacy and mathematics. She was reading Harry Potter books when she was six and I love to see the excitement on her face when she receives a new book that she loves. It reminds me of my childhood when I loved books so much I would take them to bed with me and cuddle them. I was a strange child!

My first experience of "Book signing"

On Saturday 16^th February my writers’ group hosted our first book signing at Chelmsford library in Essex. I say first signing, that is because I hope it was the first of many.

Our first anthology, “The other way is Essex,” was released late last year. It is available on kindle and paperback. It is a collection of poems and short stories highlighting the great things about Essex. I am proud to have been able to be a part of it, and am exceptionally pleased with the finished piece.

The signing was from 10-1, and the time went far too quickly. We sold 17 copies of the anthology, and a few of the members sold copies of their own novels and poetry collections. All profits from sales goes to Farleigh Hospice, a charity very close to my heart as they took care of my father in his final stages of cancer.

We are starting work on a new anthology at the moment. It is aimed at 6-10 year olds and the subject we were given was “Creepy House.” I have submitted a poem and a short story. We are on a tight deadline this time as we are aiming to have the book out before the summer book read starts in the Essex libraries.

 Essex book festival launch is on 1^st march. I will be helping out at that for a few hours and we will be selling the anthology as well as setting some writing challenges for the public.

I have had an amazing time since joining my writers’ group “Writebulb.” It has grown a lot in the time I have been going, (I joined in January 2012, as my new year’s resolution!) Every month seems to bring new members with it, all bringing their own contribution to the group. Everyone wants different things, some want to publish novels, some write just for fun and some are not sure exactly what they want but are learning a lot as they go along.

It has been a lot of fun .If you are not a member of a group, I suggest you look into joining one, or if that is not possible you could start your own!
 

E-books. Are they a good thing?

When e-readers first came out I was very against them. The thought of reading off a screen seemed insane to me.

My sister-in-law was the first person I knew who bought one. The idea of having loads of books with me wherever I went was too hard to resist, so I bought one January 2012.

I love it! I have discovered some amazing authors who I wouldn’t have found without my kindle. I can buy books for a great price, and I can buy them any time of the day. Without my kindle I would never have discovered Kealan Burke’s books, and “Turtle boy” and “Kin” were my favourite reads last year.

The downside of the kindle though seems to be just how easy it is to download a book. Everyone seems to be doing it. And there are some shocking books out there that are not even free or cheap.

This post was inspired by a conversation I had with some writer friends last week. We were discussing the fact that on a facebook page we had seen a post that recommended reading a “How to write book.” The name of the book escapes me, but what I can remember was the person recommending it admitted it was full of typos. I loaded the sample and this person wasn’t wrong, it was littered with mistakes. It is almost laughable that someone could write a “How to write book,” who can’t even be bothered to have their work proofread.

When did it become acceptable to charge money for something that is not good enough to be published? The book in question wasn’t cheap, it was over £3.00.

This is not the first time I have found this in a “How to write” book. I have found at least a half a dozen examples of such bad writing, and there are plenty of novels, novellas etc that are just as bad.

It is the job of the author to make sure that what they are putting out there is good enough. The author needs to make sure it is edited and proofread, and by someone else preferably.

I write novels. I haven’t been published yet, and I may look into self publishing when the time comes. The reason I have not published yet, when all my writing friends have done already, is that my work is not good enough yet. I am getting close, but almost isn’t enough. I can’t justify expecting people to part with their money to read something that isn’t worth it. They won’t want to read anything else by me in the future if they are left unsatisfied.

I am working hard this year at improving my writing. I have joined an English course to improve grammar, punctuation etc, and I am taking on writing challenges. I had a piece of work published last year in an anthology with my writing group, called “The other way is Essex.” It is available on Amazon in e-book and paperback form, and is raising money for Farleigh Hospice. We are also working on a children’s anthology this year also for charity. I am really enjoying working on the new one; my daughter is a great source of inspiration.

I think it is great that it is easier for authors now. Before e-readers it was so hard to get published that a lot of people didn’t bother to try, just writing for their own enjoyment.

 We just all need to act professionally. It is not okay to sell bad books just because we are in a hurry to see our name in print.