The Splendid Novel, The Hot Novella, the Sparkling Newsletter
Yes, I tell you where my work and publishing is at!
I know I’m posting quite a lot. That’s establishing the newsletter while I develop how it will work in future. I found informative titles help open rates and this one ought to be welcome to most of you!
The splendid novel
“The novel is a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it.” Randall Jarrell.
I’ve finished the structural edit on Dear Heart (working title). This is a solid book, close to delivering what I want. For new readers, my lay readers thought it was tremendous in the earlier draft.
1880s Victorian London sees Mrs Ashton - a social climber and fraudulent medium -and her truculent Northern servant Mrs Bradshaw - desperate for a wealthy patron. Braddie is also Ashton’s “dear heart” – her lover, bodyguard and conscience. A wealthy young woman seeks a private audience, and the couple are plunged into intrigue and danger, a tale spanning from a wealthy estate to the lowliest dockside slums. There’s a rising-14 fierce slum lass determined to be a detective. And it’s a spooky romp.
Two older women eight years into a forbidden relationship (and cross-class - fans face). Can they stop a murder?
There is another big editing pass ahead as described in my post. I’ve done a fifth and it’s in excellent shape. Continuity, clarity, looking for ambiguities, seeking cuts, language, character speech etc. I’m profoundly certain my writing and editorial process could be better but I’m still not sure how. I hope to be ready to submit in mid-January.
Photo S Dodgson. Me at York Art Gallery. The Lamp by Amy B Atkinson is poetic and evocative - she was a female artist who did quite well (exhibited RA at 17), unmarried, and toured Europe with her female ‘room-mates’ for many years.
In the last few weeks, I’ve been down in the dumps about it, wondering if I should just walk away from writing forever. There’s no doubt publishing hands out knocks.
But tenacity and time and my mojo is back.
My three options are: (in rough current order of preference)
Find another agent to represent my work
Direct submission to publishers, an option if I go with a smaller press or one of the digital only imprints.
Self-publishing
Timing? Realistically, it could be at least a year before I land a publisher or choose another route. I probably lost eighteen months through the pandemic, and over a year doing Dear Heart for other reasons. Trad publishing is SLOW. I’m as keen to get more books out as you are. I’m considering ways to give early access to my books although this is fraught with difficulties. Or perhaps self publish something in the gaps?
The Novella
What will I be working on in the meantime? Glad you asked.
I am really interested in the novella (working title) Dark Deeds At Suncup High. Trying to write something with a proper plot and good characters in 40,000 words is challenging, but also new, intriguing, and I want to succeed.
First day at a new high school - Sally, not lacking in self-confidence, meets Judge, a handsome and widely admired athlete. They are sure they have met before but where? With a burgeoning relationship and a gang of interesting new friends, Sally is soon in the swing of it, organising a campaign to save a much loved teen hangout. Yet she feels that something very odd is going on.
I call this a fable for adults.
(Art) Cordwainer Bird
I suppose my schtick is ‘this all looks like an understandable setting’ except ‘something odd happens’. In Our Child of the Stars it was aliens. However light-hearted there is something serious and however serious there is something light-hearted.
Substack
The new newsletter platform has several advantages but also some odd features I am working through. What will be useful to you and how can I make it work for different interests? I really want to serve the ‘just send me the news’ crowd!
There are these regular posts, which you can comment on, or send me feedback on. Don’t be shy. Remember it’s a public place and I’ll moderate comments for kindness sanity and relevance.
There is a Chat function. That’s a space where you, subscribers, can post messages. We can talk about my work, your thoughts and questions, anything arising etc. If you post there you’ll get notifications of subsequent posts. That might get annoying and the simple thing if not interested in Chat is ignore those alerts.
There is Notes which is a sort of social media. Notes can be seen by other Substack users and is where you see posts I liked and reposted (aka restacked).
Substack is very fond of speaking like an IT person ‘easy to do this, get the reader to set up their own Substack account and adjust their own settings…’
While that is not hard, it is not user friendly. I’d like far more solutions of the ‘one click – no more notifications’ type.
For example, you should just be able to click something not to see notifications from Notes. At present not sure you can.
Thanks for your support.
PS yes the school picture is AI but this is long enough already. Full explanation later, given my hostility to AI in art and writing. It’s an experiment to prove a point.
That Victorian one sounds like a fascinating novel - and good for you for keeping going. The whole writing business can certainly be a nightmare at times, but occasionally there are glimmers of positivity!