Scary Stuff

Having a children's novel published has been my goal for (ahem) many years. However, when I imagine this dream becoming a reality, I always skirt around the changes it would probably mean to my life. A lot of published authors talk of promoting their work, interviews, talks in schools, newspaper interviews, social networking and book signings. I must admit it all seems a bit frightening, which has made me question whether I'm putting a hundred percent into my writing efforts? Am I afraid of what might happen? I'd like to think that if I ever get that wonderful letter/email/phone call that starts the dream rolling, then I'd take it all in my stride. I hope so, anyway. As a writer, I just want to see my book on the shelves!
Anyone else have the same fears? When I started writing as a teenager, I naively thought that I'd just post off the MS, sit back and wait for the cheques to roll in. Haha. HaHa. Ha.

Spring Cleaning

I seem to have had a lapse in writing efforts, both blogging and short story wise. I've not got around to doing the re writes I was talking about. Well, I've done one actually, but I'm still not happy with it, so that's not going anywhere yet.
I could do with a creative episode, just lately I'm too easily distracted.
I'm in a spring clean mood at the moment, but am very frustrated because I haven't yet bought the paint etc to revamp. I've just had to make do with cleaning stuff. I'm a bit fed up to be honest. I've had a bit of a clear out, but somehow seem to have more clutter than when I started!
Although, it has been nice to see a bit of sunshine lately, I even wore my sandals today! It wasn't a great idea, my legs were freezing, it isn't summer yet is it?
I could do with a spring clean in my head, I think.

Re-Writes

I am about to re-write 2 stories for People's Friend, which have come back to me (very promptly again-1 week). I have a good feeling about one story, which was one of those which just seemed to flow, obviously it's not flowing in the right direction as yet, but I don't want to give up on it. Having said that, I do get that sinking feeling when I get a reply such as '..the storyline was too weak to sustain the reader's interest...' It's hard not to feel a bit down, but I suppose they know exactly what they're after, whereas I'm just going for a best guess, based on the other published stories in the mag. I'm just not getting it quite right. I need to keep the overall feel, whilst adding a bit more intrigue if possible... I hope that's the case anyway and if I keep trying I'll manage another hit with them. The other story had more of a comment, saying that the ending was lovely, but the beginning was a bit down-beat. In this case, that's really helpful to me, just perk up the beginning!
I think I might give Woman's Weekly a go again, I've got a story that's had some nice comments from various mags, but it's a bit unusual, I wonder if WW might go for it? I've never had anything more than a standard reply from them, but I know their stories vary a lot, so it might be worth a try?

Thanks to the cats

I've managed to re write a third attempt for a PF story, which came back as having too predictable an outcome. I suppose I'd have to agree, so I'm posting it off again tomorrow, I hope it's an improvement.

However, something has just cheered me up immensely, I just mooched over to Spikethecat only to find the results are out already for the comp, they weren't due until 31 March, and although I didn't win, I'm one of ten selected for publication in the book! I'm so pleased. Thanks to my cats who were the inspiration for the story!

Inspiration

Inspiration comes from so many different sources, my favourite is a fabulous vivid dream, many a time I wake up and frantically scribble down a brilliant plot, like a movie I have just watched in my sleep, sometimes it's still dark so I scrawl in pencil on whatever's to hand. In the morning I have to decipher my scrawl, which is great fun in itself. I love those dreams! I've not actually had one of those for a few weeks, but I have notes about two that haven't quite turned into stories yet, but i will have a go when I get chance. Anyone else get those?
However, my cats have inspired a recent story, the one I entered in a comp, not sure if it's any good, but I enjoyed the writing, it was meant to be funny but I've not entirely sure I've nailed humour, writing wise. I admire anyone who can write humour, it's not easy is it?