Getting back into the writing groove.

I don't know where the last few months have gone. It seems as if one minute I was working on a short story about the Essex coast, inspired by a trip there in May, and the next minute summer, and its whirlwind of festivals, holidays and birthdays, was behind me. Start of term work has taken up every minute of every day and I didn't even get round to blogging about my trip to Dublin, City of Literature. No time for writing at all! The only consolation is that my mslexia writers diary shows that a number of submissions I have made haven't reached their closing dates yet and last night I had that wonderful moment of realisation that an email from a competition was good news, not rejection!
A short story, in fact one could describe it as a short short story, has been awarded 3rd place in the UK Carer's writing competition and will be published in an anthology. This is a story I have a particular fondness for, having a written in Norwich, another City of Literature, so all the gadding about must pay off!

Looking around.

Its been a horrible week, with the Referendum result and all the ensuing, and ongoing, angst. This isn't the place for discussing that but I find it painful that I am currently polishing a short story about a trafficked Eastern European woman who is willing to risk her life to get to the UK and to try to improve her lot once here.

That particular story didn't meet with any success in Mslexia's short story competition but that's an extremely tough challenge and I have a good feeling about entering it into another competition.

Which brings me onto the topic of identifying suitable markets. I have invested in a rather expensive little directory  from Mslexia entitled Indie Presses. I can't wait to have a proper look at it!

PS At least I had a few mildly witty words in Mslexia's summer issue, on the Forum page, extracted from a comment I made on their Facebook page.

Busy times. My writing has been more or less put on hold due to work commitments and family events. However, just over a week ago I attended a workshop held by Norwich Writer's Centre at the beautiful Dragon Hall in Norwich. The day had two topics - Crossing Genres, which the workshop leader Emma Healey did in her debut novel 'Elizabeth in Missing', and Writing the Big Concept. Most of the other participants had, or are doing, a Masters in Creative Writing at UEA and were interesting and entertaining. I came away feeling inspired, with what I feel to be a pretty good  understanding of how to cross genres (and why one would do it). Now I just need to think of a Big Concept that inspires me - sometimes I feel quite glum that the topics that I am naturally drawn towards Asperger's Syndrome and Alzheimers have been the subjects of many writer's work.

Where next? Emma Healey, quite naturally, didn't reveal the concept of the book she is currently writing. My guess is that it's illness related. Lisa Genova is working on a book about Motor Neurone Disease, after her stunning books on Alzheimer's ('Still Alice') and Huntington's Disease '(Inside the O'Briens').

Thought, and inspiration, required.

In the meantime, I need to get back to a half written short story and , yes, there is a medical fact at its heart.

In high spirits following a weekend at a festival so even the rejection of three pieces of work by a Literary magazine couldn't dampen my spirits too much. One has to look on the positive side, which is that these three pieces of work are now free to take flight to new destinations.
One thing that did strike me though was how useful Submittable is. I don't know much about its background but organizations are increasingly using it to receive submissions. Once one has rememberd one's password,  all one's current submissions  through Submittable can be tracked and show up as Received/ In-progress or Declined.
Note that I haven't yet seen what shows up on Submittable if a piece of work is accepted! Fingers crossed I will find this out soon!

"Careful or you'll end up in my novel." Great notebook...but is it a threat or a promise!

Quiet week on the writing front. The only writing news I received was that whilst a Flash fiction submission did not make it into Issue 7 of Bare Fiction magazine, the editor would like to keep it to consider for Issue 8. As, he tells me, they publish less than 2% of the submissions they receive, that is better than an outright rejection.

Weary and wheezy!

After five days of fighting off a fluey feeling whilst not missing a moment of the Cambridge Literary Festival, I have succumbed and taken to my bed. As ever, lots of inspiration at the festival, particularly at the Debut Writer's event. But today, all I can do is watch TV (the whole series of London Spy in one go!) as holding a book and focusing is too tiring!
Pleased to say, I've got a quieter few days coming up so I'm going to have a look at the Winchester Writing Competition  and decide what to enter.

Looking for inspiration for writing!

On Saturday I visited The Poison Garden at Alnwick Gardens, Northumberland. It was the day's must-see for me. In some ways it was disappointing - this early in the garden year (or the poisoner's year?) there was very little showing through the soil and the Guide stuck to talking about what she could point out. The plants that require a Home Office Licence were locked away in greenhouses although they are displayed in 'cages' later in the year. But some of the Guide's stories relating to the plants stirred up some memories of things I have read and heard in the past, particularly in rural Essex.
What amazed me most was that the Guide told me that I was the only person who she had ever seen making notes! Its left me questioning whether other writer's don't see the link between places like this and inspiration. Maybe some writer's find out about nature, science and folklore online. But of course it could be that others have better memories and don't need to make notes!