September's Storychat No Stone Unturned Another lively month on StoryChat with insights from readers of Val Chapman's story. If you haven't yet read Val's story, find it here Some readers guessed the ending: some didn't. lily commented, “You tell stories very well. I honestly didn’t expect that ending.” But Hugh W. Roberts "thought everything seemed … Continue reading Still Time to Join in…
Category: beginning writers
Seasonal Confusion
It was late 2019 when Phil, from our writing group, had the idea of producing two collections of Christmas stories – one for adults and one for children. It is difficult to summon the Christmas muse once the festive season has passed. By the time we felt Christmassy enough to produce seasonal stories in 2019, … Continue reading Seasonal Confusion
KDP paperback tips
more self publishing and a shameless plug
Second Time Around: Novice Self-publishing
Self-publishing second time around
Where the Wild Winds Blow by the Whittlesey Wordsmiths
I’d like to thank Eva Jordan for her review of our writing group’s anthology Where The Wild Winds Blow.
Eva’s most recent title, Time Will Tell, is her third and concluding story about the Lemalf family, following 183 Times a Year and All the Colours In Between.
Book Review – Where the Wild Winds Blow by the Whittlesey Wordsmiths
Independently Published
Recently, a member of a local writing group approached me and asked me if I’d be interested in reviewing a book they had put together and published. Honoured, I said I’d love to.
Where the Wild Winds Blow is an eclectic mix of fact and fiction, featuring short stories, poems and memoirs contributed by the various members of the Whittlesey Wordsmiths. I have to say; I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I will admit I was pleasantly surprised. Informative, thought provoking, and at times, enjoyably humorous, it was a real pleasure to read.
At just over 400 pages long it is quite a dense book, but for me it is not a book that should be devoured all at once, but rather savoured, slowly. Neither does it need to be read sequentially, but rather…
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Switching on the imagination
I sometimes feel that, as a fledgling writer, my advice on here is rather like the blind leading the blind (excuse cliche ). With that in mind, I share these thoughts from our writing group’s blog.
A spectacular Fenland Sunrise One of the most beautiful sunrises I have witnessed
Reading is a means of switching on the imagination. The pictures drawn in the mind, the voices heard and the drama that unfolds can be as real to a reader as anything encountered in life. In many ways it is a better reality, one that is acceptable on the reader’s terms, limited by what they want to take out of it or see within it.
As writers we grope around for the switch that lights the imagination of our readers. The words though must first paint pictures in our own minds, we are after all the first reader. Hopefully these pictures will be seen in the mind’s eye of our readers. We know they will see different pictures to ours, pictures on their terms. The voices too they hear will have different accents to the ones in…
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Danny Boy
As previously reported, I entered the recent 24-hour short story contest run by Angela Hoy's Writer's Weekly. com (https://24hourshortstorycontest.com/ ) – just to see if I could. Thinking up stories on the hop isn't my strong point. As promised in my earlier post, the story is reproduced below. On the date of the contest, (around 6pm … Continue reading Danny Boy
Where Commas Fear to Tread
commas again - where NOT to use them.
A Diversion
Challenges from Chris Fielden and Friends I’ve been following Chris Fielden’s website for many moons, at https://www.christopherfielden.com/ and have twice entered short stories in his annual To Hull and Back competitions. It’s a lighthearted and responsive website. Chris is generous with advice, offering listings of current competitions and advice about entering them, among other things. Since I first … Continue reading A Diversion
Commaful
Just a quickie... I found a new site yesterday - new to me, anyway. It's called commaful. You post stories or poems or just random thoughts and add pictures (supplied by the site). It's best used for shortish works - I added a twenty-line verse I haven't looked at for ages (but it's the shortest … Continue reading Commaful
