K.L. Kettle's Blog

Book 2 editing update : nerd version

TLDR: I use spreadsheets and a tech delivery process call ‘agile’ to help me meet deadlines to avoid burnout. I offer classes and workshops if you’re interested in learning more.

So I’m working my way through structural edits/rewrites on book 2 - see story highlights for regular updates - and thought I’d take a minute to write a little about how I use my job skills to apply to my writing targets.

In my day job, I’m responsible for delivering large changes over time and one of the best delivery methods out there (imho) is called ‘agile’ - you may have heard of it or not. Agile delivery has lots of different tools and ‘ceremonies’ & I’ve seen over the year a lot of these filter into the writing processes of many people I know (probably through fellow nerds like myself). My favourite ceremonies are scrums, sprints & burn down measuring.

Scrums: daily goal setting (often with a team), reflection and ‘blocker’ removal. When I have a writing day I try to check in with my ‘scrum’ team - which are other writers I love - in the morning , where we gossip, support each other & help encourage completion of daily goals. It’s hard to scrum when I have a day working my day job, so on those days, I have a virtual scrum, where I write down my goals, acheievements & plan to get my ‘blockers’ out the way.

Sprints: a lot of writers I know use short writing ‘sprints’ to get words down. But In agile terms, sprints are normally several weeks long & are based on the amount of work you need to achieve & the resources (time & people) you have to achieve it. So if I have 80k words to write in 10 weeks, that’s 8k words a week, 1.4k per day. In sprints you work on the (smaller) weekly goal rather than the mountain!

Burndowns: (see picture) - a burn down is a way to visualise productivity (velocity) over the course of the sprints. The goal is to stay on or close to the line. To work more than you need to leads to burn out & is visible when your output line (in this instance ‘words left to edit’ over time) is below the standard velocity (a flat line showing what progress would look like if output was steady).

Anyway, long & short of it, I’m on track for my deadline (yay, @mattie2507) and I have a lovely spreadsheet to show for it.

Whether the book is any good, we’ll find out later!

If you’re interested in this more, or want to learn this things yourself I’ll be offering workshops, mentoring and classes online or in person from September

#writingtips

Learn more

2021. What a strange and long year. We may be towards March 2022, now, but today is the first day that feels like a new year for me.

The last year has been a blur. The publication of my debut being amazing, but it felt like a little paper boat on a wild sea, battered by the waves of the world. It’s been an amazing and tough year in equal measure.

Amazing things:

Launching ‘The Boy I am’

multiple lovely award nominations including The Carnegie !!

interviews, and YA cons and articles (oh my!)

The Boy I Am remaining in the Waterstones recommended YA for over 6 months, and as a thriller rec for the whole year

visiting awesome indie bookshops and sellers

the launch and success of ‘The Book Chain Project’ (More news on Season 2 coming soon, with a little delay). If you haven’t watched or listened do check out the links

Tough things:

the loneliness of a global pandemic

post-maternity return to full time work despite a global pandemic

writing book 2 (sophomore books are notoriously hard, and mine seems no exception to the rule) while doing a full time job during a global pandemic

managing toddlers, while writing a second book, and working a full time job during a global pandemic

not being able to visit schools and do in-person promotion for my book-baby

seeing friends and talented authors undergoing relentless and foul racist and anti-trans abuse online

cabin fever

the unfortunate impact on my mental health …

As the spring begins things feel renewed.

Thanks for all my friends and loved ones, both bookish and not, for their support in the last year, for the championing of my book and my work, and the continued kindness.

I’m hoping to post a little more frequency, to include more posts about upcoming things,

The launch of ‘The Boy I Am’ as ‘Jestem Jude. Zniewolony’ by Books4YA (part of Zielona Sowa) in Poland!

In person school visits - huzzah!

Book 2 progress and news

Online events/videos

The Book Chain Project Season 2

Stay tuned…

*** adapted from a letter written as part of the amazing Wildest Dreams ‘What if?’ Jan’21 Box ***

I’m so excited for those of you who hold The Boy I Am in your hands, and those of you who have yet to buy it! Looking forward to you meeting Jude, to see all the ways he will live outside of my mind and the worlds on the page. Will there be cos-play (I can but hope), fan art (Send me pics!), fanfic (link me, I want to read!)…

… Jude has been by my side for quite a few years, and it’s the most amazing feeling to free him into the world.

I’m editing this little blog outside with the wind in my ears on the top of a hill, imagining long ago (when I was 11) and I stood on the open roof of the World Trade centre in New York. I became intoxicated by heights, the fear they bring, their freedom and danger. It’s a feeling that has probably leaked into descriptions of High House in The Boy I am.

Looking over the green trees, it’s a view that Jude might only dream of; a sight like this would be the greatest freedom for him. But, as beautiful as the view is, from up high it’s easy to forget that the world below isn’t perfect. It’s far from the dystopian world in my book or other literature, but sometimes those worlds seem a little too near. I often wonder, if I was pushed, just one little push, would I fight for change? There are times I have, and just as many times when I’ve hung back, knowing there’s too much to lose. I’m not like Jude. He’s much braver than me. But then again, he has nothing much left to lose. Is that what it takes? Most people don’t fight the world unless there’s no other choice. Would you risk everything to create your utopia? What if your utopia was someone else’s dystopia? If not, what would it take for you to make that leap?

Let me know your thoughts.

I’m hoping to run some workshops about power systems and dystopia/utopias and would love to hear readers thoughts.

If you’re interested in an event let me know here, and if you just want to share your thoughts the comments are open below!

What a perfect way to end my launch month! It was a huge privilege to take part in this year’s inaugural ‘honkference’ put together by the amazing social team from the Golden Egg Academy.

Every year since the Golden Egg Academy opened its doors the team have hosted a glam birthday soiree at the Saville Club. I’ve been able to go every year, but of course thanks to the need to socially distance it wasn’t possible to party together this year. So, the team put together something EVEN BETTER: two days of free to access, unlimited entry panels on some fantastic subjects all to raise money for the incredible 'Seven Stories’.

Read more about the events below and the panel that I was a part of, all about Undiscovered Voices - the SCBWI run bi-annual competition set up to elevate new writing voices and which led to my work being ‘discovered’ and eventually published.

The Events

There were so many events that it was so difficult to chose from. With incredible speakers from all ends of the KidLit spectrum. Publishers. Agents. Picture Book authors, Middle Grade and YA. Panels covered broader topics than many conferences, with sessions on Mental Health in literature, and mental health for writers too; productivity hacks and information from ‘behind the curtain’ (things we wish we’d known before we were published). My two favourite sessions we co-scheduled but I was able to attend both thanks to the crowdcast technology (signing up meant I didn’t need to watch live).

First, Barry Cunnigham (Chicken House) gave an enlightening talk on points to consider when converting a story from book to film/television.

Second, Kevin Brooks, Juno Dawson, Holly Bourne and Kiran Millwood Hargrave (chaired by the beautiful Jane Martin) spoke with brilliance about Writing and Mental Health - a subject very close to my heart.

Given that the entire conference was free there were hundreds of people from all across the world dialing in. It was a huge gift and I hope the team at GEA can be persuaded to run it again. Seven Stories gained a great amount of support and I know had a spike in donations that weekend, so if only for that it was a great success!

The Undiscovered Voices Panel

Joining this panel was such a joy. Between us Simon, myself and Annalise represented Shortlisted winners from the last three anthologies, from 2016, 2018 and 2020 respectively. ‘Undiscovered Voices’ is a competition run every two years to find (usually) 12 new writing voices from UK KidLit.

Those who are shortlisted have their extracts, along with notes from the judges, published in an anthology that is then available to all and also is sent to influential agents and publishers.

If you look back at the anthologies there have been over 100 books published from authors ‘found’ through this process. There are even more writers who are longlisted - even this can lead to future publication. It’s a great process, even if longlisting or shortlisting isn’t the outcome - I learned so much just preparing for entry. Honing the 50 word synopsis was one of the most important things I did, as it made me really find the heart of the story.

Learn more about UV

For the panel I surrounded myself with a halo of printed copies of The Boy I Am poured a nice hot cuppa and got to chatting with three of my favourite people. Sara walked through the history behind creating UV and the process of entering, before Simon and I talked about our journeys, giving back to the writing community through programs like UV (I mentor, Simon supports the selection process), and the benefits of entering.

We’ve all had such different journeys and reasons for entering the competition. For Simon James Green,

“[Undiscovered Voices] really seemed like the kind of thing that could turbo charge things for you a bit… in an industry where things go really slowly.”

Whereas for me,

“I was ready to write another story. I thought, I cannot put it in a drawer, because it keeps talking to me, it keeps wanting my attention, I have to have an ending. And so I thought, actually I won’t win a competition, I’m going to enter SCBWI Undiscovered Voices.”

UV has their kick-off event for the 2022 anthology on April 22 !

Me (top left), the amazing Sara Grant (top right), unstoppable Annaliese Avery (bottom left) and ineffable Simon James Green (bottom left)

Find out more about Annaliese’s debut here by clicking on the cover below.

Find out more about Simon & his many fab books by clicking the cover below.

If you’ve enjoyed this blog or found any of the content useful please do donate to Seven Stories by clicking on the button below! Donate!

You go through so many moments on the writer’s journey: the moment you decide to, and then finish, an actual book, with characters, and plot and that you actually think, yeah, this is worth working at; the moment you think, ‘maybe someone else might want to read this’; the moment you go, ‘no they won’t’; the moment you KNOW they won’t; the throwing in the towel; the picking it up; the hand wringing and friend-making and tentatively stepping out into the professional world of words. 

The most common moment is when you tell someone, ‘I’m a writer,’ and they (family, friend, colleague, the person you just met on the bus who would really rather you were not having a conversation with them) say, ‘Oh, can I buy your book.’ (or something to that effect), and you rapidly change the subject.

There’s this new moment now, when I get say ‘I’m a writer’ and then get to back it up when my conversational partner sits up, looks a little taken aback, and then, leans forward and wants to know more. I’ll be honest, for the rest of my life, I will love this moment the most. And I get to say, with chest puffed and hair flicked, ‘why, yes, thank you for asking, you may buy my book.’

Look, you really can buy it. I'm not kidding!

Launching a book in a pandemic, however, was not something I ever expected to happen. When I was 23 and was briefly working at Bloomsbury publishing, the highlight of the whole experience was supporting and promoting a simultaneous book launch for Susanna Clarke’s ‘Jonothan Strange & Mr Norell’, the amazing Kahled Hosseini’s ‘The Kite Runner’ and ‘Havoc, in its third year’ by Ronan Bennett. It was so glamorous. People would come up to me thinking I was a person of influence (I was not, but I let them think it for a little while). I was mostly there to sell books and on occasion pour champagne. When I was alone at that party I’d look out of the glorious window into Soho Square and imagine it was my book launch. I was the aloof, cool author who everyone wanted to talk to but no one could find.

By the time I actually launched my debut novel, one month ago now, it wasn’t anything like that. I’m sure glam launches happen (and will happen again) but multiple KidLit launches I’ve had the gift of attending rewrote my expectations.

Now, all I wanted - expected - was a gathering of loads of lovely people, some family, warm wine, cake with a sugar content that would put twinkies to shame, and maybe I’d say a few words before letting everyone mingle and then hop to the pub with a copy of my book under their arm. It would be cozy, full of laughter, and with some moments of abject embarrassment and pride.

My launch, virtual as it was, delivered EXACTLY that (minus the pub part, for now).

We only had ‘room on the zoom’ for 100 people so I even got a little of the exclusivity my young and deluded self would have desired. The one thing I always dreaded doing at a launch - an interview - was going to be a necessity, and the incredible Dr Leah Phillips, who I have fangirled over for a few years agreed to host. Leah has written some amazing academic books and papers about YA, and women and identities in YA, and is the founder and chair of the YA Studies Association. So it was sort of like being interviewed by the foremost expert in the thing I have been fangirling about, and also slaving away at for decades.

Speeches preceded, of course. My incredible editor Mattie Whitehead basically made me cry (my other fab editor, now Senior Commissioning Editor of Oneworld’s Rock the Boat children’s and YA list, Katie Jennings was there too to celebrate). Everyone joined wearing masks to mimic the masks worn by the women in the Auction events.

Some of the people I thanked included my fabulous crit group who were part of so much of this journey: Charlotte Teeple-Salas, Olivia Wakeford, Helen Simmonds, Jenny Rees, Mandy Rabin, Andrea Fowkes; the fabulous SCBWI and the Undiscovered Voices team,  Golden Egg Academy and Word Theatre, through whom I learned to hone the craft I had been working on for years alone. Thanks of course included my family for all their support, and my husband who missed his thanks as he was addressing crying babies in the room two doors down. Then we got down to the interview, I drank 3 glasses of fizz - still being poured by me after all these years - and we closed with a fab Q&A. We recorded the event so hopefully I’ll share that soon!

There’s a sadness in me though as one person who I wished could have lived to see my book published, the INCREDIBLE person and talented Jane Zingale died a week before my book was published. Jane was one of my greatest supporters and my twin in submitting flash stories. She was there when I gave up my last book and when I told her about this new idea I’d had. She was the first to read a lot of my work. Her writing is spectacular, please read her words or listen to her stories when you can. She also inspired a character in the book, Madam Cramp.

A virtual launch meant some of my dearest friends from overseas could dial in. My 94 year old great-uncle and my friend’s 2 year old. How many book launches get such amazing breadth of experience and geography attending? Certainly not the kind of events you have in posh houses in Soho square. It may not have been glam, or exclusive, but it was magnificent. It meant lots of lovely booksales for the awesome Through the Wardrobe Bookshop during a time when it’s so important to buy books! Also, I got dressed up for the first time in almost a year, so that was definitely a bonus. Though, I was also wearing jeans and slippers. Best of both worlds.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Now … onto book 2!

See some of the tweets from the amazing people who attended, pictures and even drawings from the launch! https://twitter.com/i/moments/edit/1358042288111427596

One of the amazing parts of the Childrens’ writing community is how supportive so many are when others looking to get their stories into the hands of new readers and the #WriteMentor program has elevated and supported so many!

I’ve seen so many authors I respect support this in the last year that I wanted to do what I could to be part of it, so this summer I’m excited to have been selected as one of the mentors. Of course, it’s not just me there are fantastic people you can apply to work with (up to 3) by 17th April 2020.

To find out more about the program, it’s opportunities and how to apply go here

(https://write-mentor.com/mentoring-pr...)

About me:

I've been writing as long as I can remember, but it wasn’t I opened myself up to working with other writers, teachers and the community that I really found my voice. It’s hard to expose yourself to feedback, so anyone who applies I hope you reward yourself for just taking that first step, whether you’ve done it before or not. I have been submitting to agents with various MS since 2008, have been part of the Golden Egg Academy as a ‘buddy’ and speaker, and after being shortlisted for UV2018 will be published with my YA book in early 2021.

What I can offer:

Thanks to some quite time-consuming life stuff I’m not able to support full MSS this year, but will happily work with any applicant on a partial or submission.

What I’m interested in :

YA is a difficult but really rewarding market to write for, the caliber of new work is so exciting right now, and agents and publishers are buying less quantity and focusing on the interesting, the diverse and the subversive. I hope that you’re as passionate about writing YA as I am! Here are a few things to help you with what we could work on together…

‘Sci-Fi, Contemporary, Thriller, Mystery, Dystopian, Time-Travel, Action/Adventure’ are the genres I listed - but I’m interested in any story that asks important questions in new ways, stories that lay challenges at your feet as a writer and will resonate with your readers long after the last page.

I’m looking for compelling characters that speak to universal themes, and new/own voices which need a platform in the market.

If you have a powerful story that pushes and challenges perspectives, if you know the story rules and are ready to play with them in ways that surprise then come get me!

Any story which asks questions and comes from strange places to hold up a mirror to our world.

The question that pulled me into writing my debut novel The Boy I Am was ‘what kind of feminist am I?’ What question about yourself or our world compels you to write your story and for others to read it?

2018 was a crazy year, everything moved fast and then the real work started.

I thought it was about time I posted an update on the journey to publication. While it may seem quiet where you are, this end of the stick has been a busy one. There has been a lot of exciting stuff as well as some hard stuff too.

As I enter the year before The Boy I Am is released, with a lot of adventures ahead, and most (I hope) of the tough editing behind me, it feels like a good time to share.

After spending so much time, pre-agent, working towards that goal. It felt like a mountain top. And yes, it is. But you know what you see when you get to the top of the mountain? Another mountain.

The exciting stuff:

Finishing last ‘structural edit’ while having dinner at the base of the Burj Dubai’s restaurant. Enjoying a lovely glass of whisky. Having a little happy cry. (Mar, 2019)

1) Having an agent and editors who love your book and want to make sure it’s the best it can be. Who ‘get it’ without you needing to explain. It makes you feel in the company of super-powered creatures, like - ‘how did they work that out, can they actually read my mind?’

2) Seeing friends’ books come out and gushing over how beautiful they are, and being able to feel the inner squee of ‘me soon’.

3) Growing and learning from amazing authors debuting around me and absorbing their fabulous encouragement, therapy, information. The warm-embrace of not feeling alone.

4) Seeing my name appear in magazines and feeling like someone must have made a mistake before realising, no, that’s me, it’s okay, I deserve to be there.

5) Being able to support writers coming up behind me, the amazing UV20 list, Bare fiction, Bath Childrens’ Novel competition, places on amazing retreats, readers of Words & Pictures, new Golden Eggs … as many as I can to share what privilege I have been blessed with to get here, and to now exist ‘behind the curtain’.

6) Celebrating the people who got me here, feeling held tight as I stand up on their shoulders.

The hard stuff:

1) Accepting that making changes to my MS in the editing process may take more time now, because there’s so much more pressure to get it right for future readers, not just to try and woo an agent or publisher (see above note on fabulous editors and their support). Being okay with letting it take time.

2) Managing the ‘how long?’ question when I tell people my book is out in 2021. Not feeling the pressure to rush.

Standing back and absorbing just a little of the effort and work done. (Dec, 2019)

3) Book 2 ideas, and putting them down. Finding a new process now we’re in a new world.

4) Being daunted by the book market, and pulling focus back to ‘the craft’.

5) Fitting editing my book, and planning my second, while managing the busiest year of my life (both personally and professionally).

6) Enjoying it.

7) Mentally preparing for bad reviews, more rejection and the not insignificant chance that no one will buy my book(s).

This month particularly these feelings above are in focus. I was invited to share my author journey with over 20 members of the Golden Egg Academy program - some of whom have been at my shoulder the last few years. It was a wonderful moment. It felt like an ending of a beginning. in 2014 I sat around the same table, with an earlier draft of ‘Boy (then called ‘The Rotten Hive’) printed, and bound and ready for my notes. Ready to learn. I had a Schrodinger mind - every thought was two universes overlapping, one where i knew, ‘This is it, I’ll have an agent in a year’, and one of self-doubt, ‘what am I doing here, I don’t belong."‘ So, to return 5+ years later, with the newest bound print of my professionally edited MS, possibly* the last big edit before proofs and ARCs and a book on a shelf… oh my.

If I could have cried and still come across as a professional, I would have. But it wasn’t an end, because I’ll be there again I imagine, and after all, every ending is a beginning.

*hopefully

“Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”

— ‘Closing Time’, Dan Wilson, Semisonic

I’ve always sought a traditional publishing deal because of the desire to collaborate. For me the art of curation, and the benefit of external support is the only way to improve my writing … this year, more than anything I feel like the product of many hands.

Soon I get to do the one thing I’ve dreamed about more than picking up my book from a shelf, walking to a till, and buying it; I get to write my acknowledgements. I can’t wait.

2021. It’s coming.

Late last year the amazing team at SCBWI Words & Pictures magazine asked if I would pull together a few blog posts for their KnowHow series. I’ve been a huge fan of W&P for some time, the team are really supportive of new and emerging writers, the craft of creating stories and the community as a whole.

Here follows my collected posts on ‘plot’ with some of the key things I’ve learned over the years. I hope you find them useful.

Part ! - So you think you can’t plot?

All writers feel blinded by plot sometimes…

Part II - How to get through a plot block.

Includes 2 exercises (w/ways to expand & use them in your book) for you to try; & recommends a great book 'What If?' (Pamela Painter, Anne Bernays)

Part III - Perfecting plot.

Did you know you can breakdown plotting from acts all the way to sentence structure. If you're stuck, with the big picture, go smaller; if you're lost in the detail, fly above to find the road that will show you the way.

Part IV - To plot, or not to plot?

In the last of my #plot articles I try to list myriad #plotting options, explained #pantsing (Not what you might think it is) & how both techniques can help/hinder you.

I hope you enjoyed the articles, and really recommend reading further around the W&P site, as well as following them on twitter for lots more tips, tricks and news.

There are lots of great resources online, places where you are encouraged to ask fun questions, help others in the writing community and sometimes ask yourself some difficult questions.

Thanks to this month’s #GEAVember, run by the incredible Annaliese Avery (@AnnalieseAvery on twitter) and the GEA Academy (of which I am a ‘graduate’), this was what I was faced with this morning:

Thanks, A. And thanks for your incredible thread and honest words. How would I answer this question though? (Not in 240 characters I’m afraid.)

But here’s the short answer: I don’t.

The truth is, I don’t attempt to deal with it. Instead, I try to accept it, and use it.

How? I hear you cry. I’ll try to explain.

Kuzushi (the art of breaking balance) is also used in jujutsu, where the opponent's attack is deflected using their momentum against them in order to arrest their movements then throw them or pin them with a technique— thus controlling the opponent.

In Work/Life

According to research from 2011 :

“approximately 70 percent of people will experience at least one episode of impostor syndrome in their lives. It may be especially prevalent among women considered to be high-achievers. Many people experience symptoms for a limited time, such as in the first few weeks of a new job. “ (reference).

So, In a room of 10 writers, colleagues, family members, only 3 people won’t know what it’s like to feel the voice telling you that you don’t know what the hell you’re doing.

How to use it:

I am confident in the knowledge that whomever I am talking to at any point : Famous Author, Scary Publisher, CEO, Graduate Marketeer, Second Time Mom, You….WE ARE ALL BLAGGING IT. WE HAVE NO IDEA HOW WE GOT HERE. WE ARE HOPING NOT TO BE FOUND OUT. And yet, we seem to do what it is we were put there to do. It’s a social contract that this is a fact, and we keep going. Knowing this helps me treat people kindly, honestly, and like people. It humanises the person under the ‘title’.

Imposter syndrome makes my life easier. There are even catchy songs about it in Epic musicals to hum to yourself when you remember we’re all in the same boat….

In Writing

The fact is we all see how the world looks at us one way, and feel another way inside. It’s made worse by social media where we’re encouraged to seem ‘Over’ competent, in all things - life, food presentation, house cleanliness, weight control, handwriting….

And the amount by which we feel incompetent in contrast is then exacerbated with any creative art, or in fact any endeavour that’s a gnats wing apart from our egos.

How I use it:

I write about it. Feeling this way is fundamental to the human condition, a universal theme, and that makes it perfect story fuel!

My entire writing ouvre to date (ouvre is my favorite word right now I think) seems to be dealing with this very thing. From the stories I wrote as a kid, to my book to be published, to the book ideas I come up with.

How the world sees us VS How we see ourselves.

How well I’ve done this you can judge for yourselves when ‘The Boy I am’ comes out in 2020 (#ShamelessPlug)

In my head

We all have an inner narrative. On the outside I’m hyper-productive, happy, busy, creative etc etc but many find it surprising to find my reality is I have impostor syndrome in everything I do. In my place in the world, my role at work, my writing, my relationships with friends, my husband.

Whats-more I’ve suffered with ‘high-functioning depression’ (which is pretty common) and periods of mania too where I feel un-thwart-able. I know I’m not unique or special in this. In fact, thanks to the openness of the world these days, I feel that’s pretty normal. Yay for normal!

There are days when I wish I didn’t have those feelings of incompetence but I’ve come to accept them as a sort of super power. Why? …

How I use it:

Here’s the thing people don’t talk about enough. Not only is it common, Impostor Syndrome is a good thing.

Lack of this feeling is not a good idea. Mania, over confidence, ego-centric thinking… that way Despotism lies! It’s called the Dunning Kruger effect, you may have heard of it. If not, watch this:

Bless my impostor syndrome, it makes me strive to be BETTER.

Final thoughts.

Here’s the best way to use it. Talk about it. I do: at work, with my boss, with people who work for me, colleagues etc; at home, with my husband, my family; and hopefully with any writer that asks.

Because the reality is that while we’re busy feeling incapable, we’re all getting better. We all feel Imposters because our boundaries of understanding what is ‘good’ has moved. And when that happens we don’t realise how far we’ve come while worrying about how far we have to go.

On the days I forget that… I watch this.

*Please share and promote this opportunity within your networks so that there is great diversity taking advantage of the funds!*

Following the recent announcement that my YA book #TheBoyIAm will published with Stripes Publishing in 2020, to celebrate this and all the people and support I have had to achieve it I wanted to find a way to best reflect what it means.

Reaching this milestone is not a solo endeavour - it represents hours of investment: of time, of money, of energy and of the encouragement of others (including emotional and financial support). I'm very mindful that there are people out there with the talent, but not the means to get their voice out there. 

So, I’m ‘giving back’, supporting FREE ENTRY places for low income (for flash, short stories & poetry) to the Bare Fiction 2018 Competition , and to the Bath Children's Novel Award.  

GET WRITING!

Bare Fiction mag is a great launchpad for new writing, short, flash fic & poetry. I was Highly Commended in 2016 and I highly recommend it, as well as the Bath Children's Novel Award, as great entries into the writing world.  

If you would like to apply click the links below - and please share with your communities to get the news out that these places are available. 

http://bit.ly/BareFic_Fund_Apply (Applications to use will be open for 2 weeks from July 18th 2018!) Open to Poetry, Flash fiction & Short Stories.)

http://bit.ly/BCN_Award_Fund (Applications Open to Children's Novels from now until Dec 2nd 2018.)

I can’t wait to read the amazing work.

You can also support the funds yourself too by clicking on images below.

Update: 23-7-18 - In more lovely news the Bookseller has published an article on this and the support from other authors, such as Kit de Waal.