News from June

This is a photograph of a book of poetry, containing one of my poems. In January this year, I entered a local poetry competition with United Press. They had sent flyers to libraries, advertising free entry to their competition. So I entered it, a few months later I received a letter to say that my poem had been shortlisted. In June this year, I had to buy my own copy of the book, which, as they do not charge an entry fee I thought was fair.

Self Publishing

Piccalilli Kindle Edition.

Two days ago I self published my short children’s novel Piccalilli for 8-10 year olds about Lillian, a girl who is missing her brother Joe, a soldier in World War One.

I originally started writing this story for my mum and my nana (the original Piccalilli) but as I got to the end of the first five hundred words,  I realised the story is for children.

Update 4/11… today I have added a new cover. When Amazon have finished altering this for me, I am going to press the ‘advertise’ button and see what happens. With remembrance day coming up, and because the story was inspired by my great uncles who died in the first world war, I had an idea to try and sell enough copies to get me through the £100 threshold (Amazon don’t pay writers until their book has sold a certain amount) and then donate this to the British Legion. Unfortunately, I think I have left it a bit late this year, as there is only one week to go. Because it’s such a long shot, I sent a personal donation instead to the British Legion.

My Short Story in Take a Break’s Fiction Feast

See that picture in the bottom left corner, ‘Confessions of a cake-deprived bride’? That is the description for my short story ‘Eat Me’ . I was thrilled by the entire experiment, following the submission guidelines, writing editing and sending my little story through the post … and then getting a lovely e-mail to say it had been accepted for publication! I laughed my head off when I saw my name and my words in print. The professional editors had waved their magic wand and gave it a final polish (changing the names, adding the word ‘implored’ that sort of thing) . Proof that it is worth sending and submitting work.

Every good blog deserves a first post

Towards the end of a day, where it appears I do not have enough man power or hours to complete all the things I want to write, I have decided to start this blog. Hopefully soon I will have a few more moments to blog ‘the story so far’ and news of any writing competitions I have tried, rejections and exceptions and so on and so forth. It’s a short and sweet start.