Look what I made!!!

I had a bit of a change from writing this week. It is the daughter's 18th birthday on Tuesday, and amongst the treats, I promised her a cake. We have been looking at some old family videos and she saw the assorted cake characters I have created over the years. Now I don't call myself a baker or cake maker by any standards, and I certainly cannot hold a candle to Buddy and co (Cake Boss). But I don't think that the results of my efforts this week are too shabby. I am always bursting with creative energy, and this was an outlet that made a pleasant change because I haven't made a birthday cake in, well AGES!!!!!. Perhaps I will write about it.  (Oh......I am doing!!!)

Anyway.....I have chapters to get on with now......(kids!)

Before You Submit Your Work…

For those of you who are still looking for representation from an agent or a publisher, here are some useful interviews –
Read these Brit Writers interviews with some literary agents and experts and follow their advice



http://www.britwriters.com/getting-published/before-you-submit.html

 

Snow Day

So it snowed. I don't know what happens in the rest of the world but we in the Uk have to have a little chuckle (or a moan) to ourselves every year when the white stuff comes and the whole country grinds to a shivering halt for a while.What it meant for me was a snow day - the school I work in is on fairly high ground and the inches of snow that fell meant that traffic was not able to move freely and the school had to make the decision to close. I get a bit irritated by the teacher bashers, who then go on to complain about school closures - I realise the inconvenience of course but nowadays lots of teachers live many miles away from the schools. If they can't get in, the school can't open to the pupils - there is a health and safety issue in inadequate supervision and its that simple. In any case my son walked to his school, which was open, and only a quater of the pupils turned up. Hey ho.

 

 

Snow causes school closures and travel disruption - Monday 21 January

• More snow expected with temperatures set to fall
• Heathrow cancels 1 in 10 flights amid de-icer issues
• School closures across England and Wales

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/21/snow-school-closures-travel


So I had an unexpected day off! Yey!! which meant a bit of cleaning and baking, and then several hours of glorious uninterupted writing. I polished off a couple of poems, entered two into a competition (I'll let you know how that goes!) and set about progressing with Albie. I'm a bit irritated with myself, as I inadvertantly moved some of the text about, and later realised that I had given away a rather large secret early on in chapter 5, so will have to cut and paste and  move it out of the way for now. I am not into editing too much as I write, but it will cause me difficulties if I don't. I have the skeleton of the whole story written down in my note book so there was no excuse for this. Don't know what I was thinking! Ah the trials and tribulations of writing!
Meanwhile I will continue to add little useful snippets that I pick up along the way with regard to writing and publishing. Thank you for your continued support. "Things" still happening in the wings, and I will let you know anything as soon as I can. Have a great week!
xx

Read This! Info on how to make quality submissions

Q&A With Jonny Geller, Joint CEO - and Managing Director of books - at Curtis Brown Literary Agency
Free advice and feedback for all fiction writers on how to submit their fiction to slush-piles.

http://www.danielclaywriter.co.uk/#/jonny-geller/4554084701

Which way to go?

interesting and worth a look!


One British author disagreed with the current rate of royalties paid to authors from digital sales. So he created a new publisher to try and create an alternative

Read more: http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/writer-dumps-publisher-launches-self-publishing-venture-over-e-book-royalties/#ixzz2HzFvQsek

bloggers hosting other bloggers

I am quite interested in this idea, thought others might be too. Would be interested in how you get on.

Authors Hosting Authors

This forum is to set up interviews with other authors on your blogs. If you are offering a new host, then please start a new thread:

http://www.worldliterarycafe.com/forum/123

help me to support you

As  a relative newbie to all this, I would like to express my interest in supporting other writers.  I know that bloggers  can have guest bloggers, and add links to other blogs and web sites.I don't know how to do this, so if any one can send me details, I will happily oblige.

heres hoping......

#

although I am 5  chapters in now........

Useful link for indie writers

I  thought that this article was really interesting - take a look for yourself. Looks like a useful blog /site to follow

'Top Ten Things I’ve Learned As An Indie Author ' Mollly Greene

http://www.molly-greene.com/top-ten-things-ive-learned-as-an-indie-author/

Please support this author

There are three reasons to take a look at this author's  blog and links.
1) His work looks very exciting and I certainly will be purchasing a copy and sharing with the children I teach. You might want to take a look for yourself.
2) You can help a fellow author to make progress with his work, and accomplish his ambitions
 and
3) I have learned loads from seeing  how Casey has publicised and marketed his book. I have been very impressed and you might learn  a few things from him too.

Please take a look at this blog AND help to spread  the word by sharing - after all, if we can't support each other.....
thanks
http://www.caseyseanharmon.com/
and
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/caseyseanharmon/the-everafter-chronicles-reign-of-the-night-creatu

Facebook Me!!!

One last quick word for today - you can find me on Facebook - Sadie's House Book One - The Key (type in search...?) - if you navigate your way there please click like (and add as friend?)

and also on Twitter  @Sadies_house

see you there!
x

Post Christmas Blues

So I am back from my holiday, and like many I suspect I feeling a sense of anticlimax following the holiday period. I have been very fortunate to spend the week away in beautiful countryside, spent half the time in a hot tub and just generally chilled out with my family. I did quite a bit of writing, but found myself writing prose and poetry, as well as continuing with Albie. I hadn't really excpected that. I have updated the poetry page, and will keep doing so until I find out how to add posts to that page (if enyone can enlighten me I would be most grateful - when I type in anything new it deletes anything I had already written and alters the post. I have to keep updating the one post!). I was in awe at the beauty of the sky, the sunsets, the brightness of the stars, and all the time realising that I was being rather corny and unoriginal, could not help but put pen to paper to record  my expereinces.

We stayed in a delightful old renovated barn - Stimmey Barn, to be exact, near Whitchurch in Shropshire (highly recommended!) and were well looked after. We spent lots of time visiting historic towns - Chester, Market Drayton, Whitchurch, Ellesmere and enjoyed shopping, walking and drinks in cosy pubs. So now it's pretty much back to reality.

 I hope that you are all well rested and in good spirits. Last year saw quite a few unanticipated changes in my life, not all as I would wish for, but I have lots to be thankful for. My proudest moment was finishing the book that I had promised myself my whole life. I have lots of wishes for this new year, not least of which is to make really great progress with publication. As soon as things get going I will let you know, but like I said, things are going on behind the scenes - I am learning that these things take time and that I must be patient.

Good luck to all the writers, authors and poets out there (and to everyone else, of course...!) - may you have all the inspiration you can write about and all the success you desire. Now, let's get busy....

xxx