Have your name immortalised in print by Kate Long

Read all about this fantastic charity: The Quintessentially Foundation supports charitable activity worldwide that improves the health, education and welfare of disadvantaged communities...LINK HERE


Novelist, Kate Long (writer of The Bad Mother's Handbook and more) will immortalise your name in her next novel. You need to be in it to win it, so go do your BIDDING!

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Kate Long's Website: LINK HERE

Writers' Retreat - Criccieth

I'm off to Criccieth tomorrow, yippee!! It's the writers' retreat, tied in with the Masters degree. We have to read a lot, write a lot, and take it in turns to cook once a week. I am so looking forward to this experience, though feel strangely nervous/excited. Hell, if I can move to Uni lock stock and barrel, I can do this little thing, eh?

I will report on my return.

Novel Talk

Well, I'm finding out more about the novel as I write it. I'm now doing a pov from Grandma's perspective. Her Granddaughter goes to visit Grandma often, and lets her talk about the old days.

I'm writing Grandma's memories in a kind of monologue at the moment, and I'm hoping that works. I say monologue because after an initial short para when Granddaughter goes round to Grandma's, the rest of it is Grandma talking about her memories.

The way I'm writing this novel now, with Grandma's monologues, I'm able to release information about things that might have played a part in making the MC behave the way she is. Of course, we can only rely on Grandma's memory of what took place, so that, in a sense, makes it unreliable, though still, hopefully, believable.

Hmmmm, Time - for New Novel

I've written the first chapter! Or thereabouts. Now, because I'm submitting my novel extracts to the MA workshops, I have to have stuff in and ready, so I'm being MADE to write it.

This is good in some ways, yet I now find myself not knowing enough about the novel I now want to write. Or should I say enough about how the plot might evolve. So with that in mind, I plan to do a bit of planning over the weekend.

I'm going to miss out on subbing some work for next Thursday's workshop, which is fine to do every now and then. I do have something already subbed for next Tuesday's workshop, so while I think and plan I'm still going to get feedback on what I've already written. It'll just give me that bit of extra time to try to find meaning to what I'm writing, a shape or a form, might be a start. I also want to think a bit about story and character motivation.

New Novel

I'm thinking about what to write in a new novel. Over the last few years I've had a few novel ideas, started them, and always, enthusiasm for the idea has either petered out, or it hasn't seemed like the novel I really want to write.

I don't know why this is. I think I need to really look at what I want to say, at the style, content, genre. I want to think hard about this over the next week or so, because I could write this novel as part of my Creative Writing M.A.

I love reading about families, how they function, or not in some cases. It's a good idea to write about what you like reading about, I think. So...thinking...thinking...

University Blogging

I've finally managed to open the elusive DOCx files. After spending far too many hours on trying all sorts of ways to open the documents, I finally downloaded File Format Converters.

It won't work with Internet Explorer, but it does work with Firefox. Now, I don't know if that's because of the UNI server, or what.

Anyway, I can finally open everyone's docs, which is good news. I didn't want to have to keep asking people to send me the old word doc files, or paste into the body of an e mail, which one kind student did for me.

I didn't want to have to go to the library either, not when I have my own pc and printer set up here in my flat. It really annoyed me, the thought of having to go to the library. I mean, I work three full days each week, too, so it's not as though I have all the time in the world.

Computer related stuff really does my head in sometimes, especially when I can't get things to work. But hey, I can now relax in the knowledge that I CAN OPEN ANY DOCUMENTS I LIKE!!!

University Blogging cont...

Had my second workshop on Thursday. Very good! I was a tad confused about which students were submitting work on which days. See, Tuesdays we have workshops with both full-time students and part-time students. Thursdays it's just for full-timers. Part-timers, plus one of the full-time students (to make up the numbers) were asked to submit their work on Wednesday.

I was under the impression that the full-timers didn't have to read and critique the part-timers' work, but we do. To add to that, the full-timers who have a workshop on Thursdays, have to submit their work on-line by lunchtime Friday, ready for the following week's Thursday workshop. I work Fridays, so had to get it in on Thursday evening at the latest. With me so far? No, I'm not surprised.

The worst bit is that I couldn't open quite a few of the docs that had been submitted, as they were in Docx format, apparently the latest in Word.

Anyway, I e-mailed to say I was having problems and some of the students have re-submitted to me in the 'old' Word doc format, but some haven't yet got back to me. I have to have six critiques ready for Tuesday morning. I work all day Monday, so that leaves, just Sunday. Sigh.