Friday 25 September 2015

I Love Autumn!

I love autumn. Not just because it's birthday time for me, but because it always feels like the time for new beginnings. As I've said before, I think many of us associate autumn with the start of the academic year.

I did some goal setting at the beginning of this month and one of the things I did was to sign up for The Fish Flash Fiction Online Writing Course. I've always wanted to write better flash fiction and when writer friend, Diane Simmons recommended this course, I knew I had to sign up. What better way to kick start my writing? I'm currently working my way through the second module and it's great fun. I can thoroughly recommend it. Mary Jane Holmes is a fantastic tutor and turns around assignments in a very short space of time. I'm learning a lot!

I was thrilled to bits when Richard Pike of Curtis Brown Agency said that he'd be very happy to read the revised version of my novel whenever I was ready to resubmit. I've made a few changes already and have written a new outline. Let's just say it's a project that's bubbling under.

A more urgent project is a serial I'm writing for The People's Friend. Again, I've written a rough outline and the first few hundred words. I'm on a tight deadline for this one, so from next week, the serial will have to take priority.

A little bird told me that prolific womag writer, Della Galton, currently has fifty pieces of writing out there. I totted up and I currently have fifteen. My aim is to double that, at least, by Christmas. I submitted a 3,000 word story to The People's Friend this week and have started writing a new one with them in mind. I also have one almost ready to send to Woman's Weekly.

I was thrilled this week to receive an email from Janine Enos of Bridgend Writers' Circle asking me to judge the final few stories in their annual short story competition. I used to judge at least two short story competitions a year, but haven't judged any in a while, so this is something I'm really looking forward to.

Finally, I found out this week that one of my stories has been shortlisted in The Doris Gooderson Short Story Competition. That gave me a much needed boost, because in other news, our beloved guinea pigs died within a week of each other this month. They were six-years-old, so had a good innings, but we miss them so much.

3 comments:

  1. Autumn is definitely a productive time of year, Jo, and your fabulous output of work proves that admirably. Wishing you great success with all your writing and looking forward to hearing about the continued successes which I am sure will soon follow. It's such lovely news about the Doris Gooderson competition, especially as it came during such a difficult week. xxx

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  2. What a fantastically exciting Autumn Term, Jo. Wish you lots of fun and luck with all your upcoming writing goals. Fantastic news about your novel. I hope that transpires the way you wish! I also love Autumn and watching the colours change; smelling damp earth and breathing in the aromas of the wood fires burning. All the best.

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  3. Good luck with your #PitchCB submission when you decide it's ready to send - I am still waiting to hear from the agent about mine. I hope you're enjoying writing the serial. You'll be thrilled when it's published and you see the illustrations. The process between writing and seeing it in print can be a long one but well worth it.

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