Computers, Short Stories and Wedding

I've had a frustrating and worrying week with my computer after getting involved in a nasty antivirus scam - it's now being fixed by the wonderful local guy who is a whizz with computers. I bought my business XP model from him a few years ago.  I'm using husband's now and then, so I'm not online as much as usual, and it's been quite liberating! I suspected I was now online far too much, at the expense of writing and organising work, and now I know it was true. However, I'm equally sure I'll be back to normal once I have my own machine again!

Today, the very kind Lindsay Townsend invited me to talk about my recent experiment of putting some short stories on to Amazon kindle. If anyone wants to read it, you can find the piece at Lindsay's Romantics.

And now I'm really looking forward to my dear son's wedding on Friday. He's getting married on one of our small Scottish islands and will be in full kilt outfit. It's a small wedding which suits us all just fine! I'll post some photos on the blog next week.

Rosemary

Fancy a Virtual Regency Ball?

Today (Friday), I'm being roasted on the wonderful Author Roast and Toast blog, where the lovely hostesses, Sharon, Mary and Lynn are organising a virtual Regency Ball for me. Food and drinks will be served by the handsome Oliver. It begins at 10am (Eastern time) which is probably into the afternoon here in the UK.

It's an all-day fun party and I'd love it if some of you could join in the fun. I'll be available to chat to you off and on all day. Everyone who leaves a comment will be entered into the draw to win an e-copy of my new Regency romantic intrigue novel, Dangerous Deceit. The winner will be announced on Saturday.

Hope to see you there!

Rosemary (Romy)

A Little Kindle Experiment

Available now

A couple of my writing friends have been putting their novels on to Kindle very successfully and one of them,Chris, has been extremely helpful about how this is done. So I decided to give it a go in a smaller way!

At the moment, I have no intention of self-publishing any of my unpublished stories or novels, but I thought it might be a good idea to put together a collection of some of my published short stories. After all, they’ve only had one airing and some of them were in magazines years ago. There are also a couple of prize-winning stories among them. And I retain the copyright on them all.

So, my little experiment is now available on Amazon UK (£2.13) and Amazon US ($3.45). I chose only eight stories, all of which have vague similarities, in that they are each about relationships of some kind. The collection is titled: Reshaping the Past, with the subtitle of Short Stories of Love and Relationships. I designed the cover myself, which is really just to attract attention on the site, as it doesn’t matter on the Kindle.

The whole process was time-consuming, but the instructions Chris had provided made it all work relatively smoothly. And it was fun! Whether or not it will sell remains to be seen, but at least those particular stories are now available together and are easily downloaded by anyone who likes short stories. I can’t help thinking it’s a better use for them than lying forgotten in the archives!

Rosemary

Some Short Story Markets

Please note, I've added another one below (on Thursday), if you've looked already!

Since there is much talk at the moment amongst blogging colleagues about the loss of more fiction in some women’s magazines, I thought the following selection of markets might be of interest. They are a mixture of submissions and regular competitions.

Bon Marche
One short story of around 650 words. You need the coupon from the magazine (which is in Bon Marche shops)

Dark Tales
Horror and dark fantasy. Quarterly competitions.

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine
Famous US Crime Fiction Magazine – all kinds of crime; new writers welcome.

Glimmertrain
US journal. Good quality short stories. Free submissions and competitions.

Granta
High quality literary fiction

Riptide
Short Stories with an undercurrent. Also regular competitions (one on Devon just now)

Mslexia
Quarterly New Writing section - often themed (women only)

Planet Magazine
Welsh journal; takes unsolicited short stories.

The Yellow Room
Literary journal. Regular short story competitions

Writing Magazine/Writers’ News
Monthly themed competitions in both magazines; subscribers only in the Writers’ News section.

Writers’ Forum
Excellent monthly short story competition, especially for stories that are a little different. First, 2nd and 3rd prizes. Critique optional. Head judge is Sue Moorcroft.

Yours
Over 50s magazine with one short story. No stereotypes.

UK magazines still taking short stories (at the moment) are: Woman's Weekly (and Fiction Special) , People's Friend, My Weekly (if published there before), The Weekly News, Take a Break Fiction Feast. Hope I haven't missed any.

Rosemary

Twitter Newbie!

Well, I've finally jumped into another part of the 21st century social networking revolution and joined Twitter! I really did hold off as long as I could, determined not to add another time-wasting activity to my day, another one that would keep me away from writing.

However... the more I've been reading about all the authors who are now connecting this way, the more I began to feel left out. Since many of the RNA members are already onboard, as well as some of my writing friends, I knew I'd find enough people to follow who might begin to follow me. So I took the plunge yesterday - and was overwhelmed with all these tweets I started getting! But it was mainly from the people I knew, and who I was now following.

It's interesting so far. I have no idea yet how to make the most of it, but I'll learn as I go, especially when I have a couple of good friends to advise me on the way. One thing I do like is the fact you can't write any more than 140 character messages - I enjoy being that concise, although it's also a challenge. The first thing I did was to download the free Tweet Deck for the desktop, as that will organise the tweets in the way you want them and it does help.

So, I'll keep you posted as to how it goes and report back if it's really worth it. Meantime, if anyone wants to follow me I'm @RosemaryGemmell - and please let me know yours if you're way ahead of me!

Rosemary

Move Over Fred!



Strutting our stuff! Daughter took this from the audience
(I'm at the front right, about to turn!)

 

Well all those weeks of tap dancing for fun ended (for this session) in our debut show routine on stage in front of a few hundred people! Fortunately, most of them were there to watch their darling wee girls in the other routines, but we knew the theatre was full. My dear husband and daughter came to support me, or maybe to laugh. It was funny being the only adult dancers in the changing rooms and, believe it or not, all those little girls of various ages were wearing more make-up than us!



The oldies: I'm second from the right!

So what was it like? Honestly, we had last-minute nerves just before we went on, not least because we were in the spotlight on a strange stage area after months of dancing on boards in a church hall. But the music is everything to me, which is why I love to dance. As soon as I heard the opening bars, I was ready to roll, if not rock.

There were six of us and we did a little routine to Dean Martin’s catchy ‘Aint that a Kick in the Head’. You can click on the title to hear him sing it on YouTube. It’s amazing how much difference the music makes. I had difficulty practising without it, as every step came at a certain point in the song – that’s what dancing is all about to me, and the notes make me dance!

So was it worth it? Oh, yes! I always used to sing and dance as a child but I just never got the chance to do it on stage. And one of the best things about getting older is the inhibitions lessen again. I read in a glossy magazine that if an older woman wants to know what her real personality is, she should think back to what she was like as an eleven year old, before puberty. And you know what? That seems to be perfectly true!

For a complete change of pace - I'm talking about Regency dancing on my other blog.

Rosemary

Blog Interviews

Since I'm a new full length author, I've been really grateful to various people for interviewing me on their blogs. It's a lovely way to meet new online readers and friends and it's a relatively pain-free way to do some promotion and talk about the novel. When a book comes out first in e-book from an overseas publisher, we don't have the luxury of telling people to walk into a book shop if they want to buy the book, so everything tends to happen online - including the buying!

So once again, I am delighted to be featured on another writer's blog. Rachel Brimble is a UK writer who has become an online friend, and she kindly interviewed me for her blog where I'm appearing today. One of the lovely things about being on someone else's blog is that anyone who visits can check out that writer and her work.

So, if you have a moment, I'd love you to come and say hello on Rachel Brimble's Blog.

Rosemary