Beth Fuller's Blog

Hello one and all!

This has been a very busy week one way and another, but I did find time to squeeze in a little bit of art.

Marla Black

I like drawing my characters! I spend enough time with them, I might as well see what they look like!

I’m so excited to share her with the world next spring. It’s a bit of a nerve-wracking experience too, but hopefully it will go well and other people will love her as much as I do…

This week has mostly been dedicated to writing Prowler. I FINISHED MY 0.5 DRAFT! Hooray!!

If nothing else, that means that I have the story plotted all the way through. Now I just have to go and back-fill all the holes, and then it goes into its resting phase before the first round of edits.

I have also been working on a new stand-alone YA dark fantasy novel, called The Mudborn Twins. I’m fairly happy with it so far, but it obviously needs a lot of work, and I’m still only on the 0.5 draft of it. I’m hoping to get it ready for Pitmad on the 2nd December, but I know that it quite a tight deadline. If I miss it, there is another pitmad twitter event on the 2nd of March, I believe, only that’s quite close to the release of Felgrim, so I didn’t want to muddy the water there? I don’t know, we’ll just have to see how it goes.

What else? Oh, yes! I have started a very exciting new project that I’m very pleased to be a part of–an international anthology of fantasy short stories. They are all set in the real world with a bit of a Cthulu vibe, and we’ve got some fantastic writers on board already! It’s not due to come out until next spring, we’re right at the start of this project, but I’m so excited for it!

Other than that, I’ve just been website wrangling and trying to deal with marketing and mailing lists! Fun, fun, fun! I’ve got a marketing meeting with the lovely people from Heroic on Monday, so wish me luck for that!

Lizzy x

Hello one and all,

Exciting news! It is officially the press release announcement day!

You’re going to be seeing a lot more of this image over my socials soon…

I can’t believe this day is actually here! It all feels very surreal, but very exciting–it’s actually all happening at last!

Anyway, that was just a short check in–I’d better get cracking on with working on the sequel now.

Well, the big one is back to school now, so hopefully I will have more time for writing again.

I also finally finished my doodle. I’m not much of a digital artist, but at least it is a lot less messy than my explorations into watercolours and lino art!

(Left to Right Eaton Poole, Marla Black, Davon Wicksted)

May I introduce you to these three lovely idiots, left to right, Eaton Poole, the nephew of the imprisoned thimmaru leader of the undead rebels, Marla Black, the star apprentice of the assassin’s tower, and Davon ‘Little Tyrant’ Wicksted, the young king of Avillea.

I have spent a lot of time with them over the past year, and I look forward to introducing them properly to the world, even as I wrangle with the second book in the trilogy. I had a lot of fun drawing them, too, so I might even try making a few more pictures!

I have also been surreptitiously writing a new dark fantasy novel, The Mudborn Twins, even though I promised myself that I wasn’t going to start any new projects until the first draft of Prowler was finished. But, sometimes I think that big projects need to go through a gestation period, too, and it is OK to work on other books whilst they’re simmering. (Maybe.)

I really will try to do some more of Prowler now that the big one is back in school though.

OK, see you later. Happy September one and all!

Hello one and all,

I have some very exciting news today! I got sent my first ever piece of fan art. Russell Norman from the Read Lots Write Lots podcast (https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/read-lots-write-lots-deidra-lovegren-and-RZ5hJNTXwaA/) sent me a map he had drawn of Highmast, from my Reedsy stories.

Having people engage with your work is one of the best things that can happen as a writer. I was so chuffed when I received this. I couldn’t stop smiling all day!

(BTW, if you fancied catching up on the Highmast series too, you can find it here:

https://blog.reedsy.com/creative-writing-prompts/author/lizzy-duffield-fuller/)

I’m trying to engage more online, too, (the struggle is real!) so that’s this month’s writing resolution. I’ve also got to prepare for my interview on Friday, and get the big one ready to start school again. Chaos, as ever!

Hello!

Well, what a week it has been! My parents are up from London to visit for the holidays, so I haven’t had a long writing session this week–but I have managed to counterbalance that with some lovely date-nights with my husband. They are a very rare occurrence for us, so I’m not going to complain.

What a handsome husband, getting a bit windswept in outdoor dining for date night.

Having said that, I have got some writing news for you all.

I was asked to do a fully cast episode of the Highmast series for the Crossroads Cantina Podcast, which I had never done before. It was strangely difficult to write a radio play when you are used to writing third person stories, but I hope it went OK. It is supposed to be coming out in September, I think, so keep your eyes open for that.

I also received an open call for Holiday short stories from my romance publishers, so I managed to make two of those this week: the first is a play on a traditional Victorian ghost story, with a romance wrapped in and is called The Blackbird, and the second is a follow-up on Charlotte and Edward’s adventures in The Heir of Drymote, which I called Charlotte’s Surprise. I only submitted them today though, so we shall have to wait and see to find out if they are successful. I’m quite pleased with them though, so even if Devine Destinies don’t want them, I might find somewhere else to put them.

My third, and perhaps most exciting, piece of news is….I am being interviewed today for the Bandit Fiction Podcast! It is a taped interview, which is very nerve-wracking, because I have only ever done written interviews before. I have the tendency to ramble when I’m nervous, but, as my husband said, they can probably edit it all down afterwards, so it will hopefully come out alright…as long as I don’t say anything too foolish!! I’m not sure when that is coming out, but I will let you know.

Apart from that, it’s been quite mundane things. I have actually managed to start growing my mailing list now, which is very exciting, but I am having rather a lot of trouble with the technological side of things. Mailchimp keeps locking me out, and Mailerlite insists on an email I don’t have. Oh well, it’s all fun and games in the end, I suppose. If anyone has any suggestions on better software, or how to manage it properly, I would gladly receive them!

I am also hoping to upgrade to a snazzier website, but, again, it’s finding the time to do it…especially when you are a bit of a Luddite, like me. Everything takes so much longer than you think it should! I have a vision in my head of what I would like it to look like, but whether I could find a way to make that happen is anyone’s guess.

In utterly unrelated news, I also have my second covid jab today. I’m pleased to get it before the term starts up again and my maternity leave ends.

Hope you’re all well and safe,

Lizzy XxX

Verdict: 5 stars — The perfect crime story

N.B. This review may contain spoilers

My husband always tells me that I couldn’t be a judge, I’m far too soft-hearted. I always want the criminals to get away with it in the end–especially in Golden Age detective stories, where the alternative is the noose. Given that particular foible, it seems that Verdict of Twelve is practically hand-crafted for me, as we are introduced to several characters who, quite literally, get away with murder and other criminal practices…not in the dock, but in the jury stand.

It is an innovative and unusual practice to start a crime novel with an examination and history of the jurors rather than the case itself, and yet, under Postgate’s careful crafting, it really works. The reader is brought through the various lives of the jurors as main characters, not incidental to the plot but, in fact, crucial to it. It is the individual lives of these jurors which makes them return the verdict which they do, with a nice little twist that brings the novel around full-circle in a very satisfying way. The defendant’s innocence or guilt is secondary to the biases and experiences of the jurors which they bring with them to the courtroom. So crucial, in fact, are the jurors themselves, that we don’t get down to the real meat of the case itself until page 100, just over 40% of the way through the book.

Gilbert Mitchell said that “the machinery of the law in action” displayed within this book was splendid–a judgement that one cannot help but agree with. As Postgate takes you meticulously through the process of the trial, the novel focuses tightly on the psychological profiles of the brightly, and yet realistically wrought characters (described, as Martin Edwards notes in his introduction, with “brilliant economy”) than on the last-minute twists, dramatic revelations or moments of breathless suspense which are the crime novels usual stock in trade.

This meticulously mechanical depiction of the court is displayed all the more prominently by Postgate’s use of “recording dial” visuals with the novel. (see below). These images add a certain clarity and help to suggest a technical, unemotional impartiality to the presentation of the case, which contrasts sharply with his main message–that judgements rely on emotions rather than facts.

The story-within-a-story element of Sredni Vashtar, a short story by Saki which becomes crucial to the plot, also adds another layer to the novel. As Postgate so starkly reminds us, it is not the facts that win a court case, it is who can tell the best story. If this, perhaps rather bleak, assessment is true, and should Postgate ever have taken it into his head to become a lawyer himself, he surely would have had nothing to worry about on that account, for he can certainly tell a tale.

In my opinion, Verdict of Twelve is a fantastic novel, well-deserving of its place in the oeuvre of the British Library Crime Classics collection. A better crime story would be difficult to find.

Well! We’ve been very busy lately. My husband has just turned 30, so my eldest son and I made 30 cupcakes for the occasion. It is also my youngest son’s first birthday next week, so we’ve been very busy with that, too, but, nonetheless, I do have a writing update for you…

This week’s exciting news is that I have had a short fantasy story, Wheat and Gold, accepted into the Hero’s Anthology! It isn’t coming out until next year, I believe, but I’m still very pleased to be included.

I have also finally got my Dev edits for Felgrim in (and we have officially settled on the name Felgrim for Book One, so that’s exciting, too.) We have decided to call the overall series title the Darkwatch Trilogy, so the name hasn’t disappeared entirely.

I also got a couple of new reviews for The Heir of Drymote, so that is always encouraging. I still don’t feel like I’ve quite cracked marketing for it yet, and I still need to work out how readers’ mailing lists work, but reviews are worth their weight in gold, so they say, so I’m not going to complain about that!

In less good news, I’ve had all my queries for Factory and Forge back now and no one has accepted it yet. I did get some quite positive feedback from one agency, who gave me some suggested edits and told me to reapply in six months time once I had implemented them, so that’s my next job I think.

I am also trying to crack back in to the weekly Reedsy competitions. It’s a good practice to write every week, and I want to get back into it again, I’ve just been so busy with the edits for Felgrim lately, that I haven’t had time to do anything else! (I don’t have that excuse any more!)

I think that’s it for now. (I still need to work out how to finish these posts. It feels weird to say goodbye, and it would be weirder still to sign them, like a letter. Possibly I should ask more questions to round it off, but does anyone ever actually answer them? Perhaps I will experiment, and see what works best.)

Lizzy

Hello one and all!

So, we’re back from London today. We spent the week down there visiting my parents, so I didn’t get very much writing done, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have any updates for you–it was, in fact, a very busy week for writing!

For one thing, I decided to participate for the first time ever in PitMad on Twitter, and it certainly lives up to its name! It was a bit manic having everybody retweeting you and trying to keep up with your own retweets all day. I had quite a lot of success for my first year. I had quite a few extra follows, and I got three likes from different publishers! How exciting! I’m going to do one last run through through my Factory and Forge manuscript, and then I’m going to send that in to them on Tuesday and see what happens. It seems to be positive though, so hopefully it will go somewhere.

I also got the go-ahead from my excellent editor, Catherine, to send her the Anthology manuscript, so that is going over to her to look through on Monday.

And I got an email from my fantasy editor, Fred., too That left me in a bit of a pickle, actually. He said the editorial team at Heroic aren’t keen on the name Darkwatch for my demons, so I need to think of a new name for them–and, subsequently, for the novel itself! I’m not really very good at names, so I’m still trying to rummage around in my brain and think of one.

Unfortunately, I’ve already told people that the book is called Darkwatch, and I’ve doodled some pictures with the name in, so they’re all wasted now, but never mind. It will hopefully make the book better in the end, and that’s the main thing.

Davon is supposed to be shying away from the demon, but my husband said it looks like he’s trying to karate chop him, and now I can’t unsee that!

Apart from sending in F&F on Tuesday, my other writing goal for this week is to write a short Reedsy story. I haven’t written one in a fortnight, and I want to try and keep up with it, so I can’t let it slip again. I also have my TPAU application to make for work though, so I’m sure to be busy! Wish me luck!

Hwyl Fawr!

Hello one and all!

Sorry that this post is coming up late this week. Both my boys have had awful colds, so we’ve had very disturbed nights and everything has got on top of us a little bit.

I’ve got some exciting news, I’m going to be a part of a romance anthology! It hopefully will come out around Christmas time. I’ve been working on a Victorian short story for it, which features an artist, named Bartholomew, and a maid called Martha. I don’t actually have a title for it yet. I’m always awful at titles.

In other news, I have now met my senior editor for Darkwatch. His name is Fred and he seems very friendly, so I am looking forward to working with him to improve the book. I have also started outlining Mallesti, the third book in the trilogy, and I’m investigating how to make reader mailing lists. (If you would like to sign up to be on my mailing list, please let me know! You can get in touch via the contact page). Busy, busy, busy!

Keep safe

You can kill a rabbit, if you catch it in your snare,

You can kill a ferret, if it wanders from the lair,

You can even kill a sparrow, if you can shoot it from the air,

But darling, oh my darling, don’t you ever kill the hare.

If you’re brave and if you’re foolish, you can kill the big, black bear,

You can kill the cunning adder if you do it with great care,

You can kill almost any beast but hunter, pray, beware,

And darling, oh my darling, don’t you ever kill the hare.

I’ve had vague ideas for turning this into a story — but I have a dozen other projects to finish (and start!) first. It’s hard not to get distracted into new projects and to force myself to focus on the ones I am currently working on. I get enthusiastic about the new ideas I have, and its difficult to force myself to finish old projects I am getting a bit bogged down in instead.

If anyone has any tips for dealing with that, I’d love to hear it!