Perseverance and Productivity

First the exciting news I promised on Friday, although a few may have seen it on Facebook yesterday (but I'm giving fuller details here)! In another new departure, I submitted a short contemporary/fantasy novella set on Cyprus to great little Irish company, Tirgearr Publishing. Not only have I now signed a contract for the The Aphrodite Touch but they asked me to write further novellas to make it a series.

These are slightly sexier stories than I've written before and I had to make one important scene a little more so! Each story will involve a different couple on the island, trying to move their relationshiop on in some way. But the main recurring theme, and fantasy element, is that Aphrodite and Adonis play with people's lives each summer, 'helping' where possible, and they will be in each book. Since I've always loved mythology, this is fun to write. So I'd better knuckle down and start the next story soon.

I was thinking about perseverance recently, and not only because of getting some more work out and accepted. Some of you may know that I write for an online US company, Demand Studios (for the eHow UK section). We choose up to three titles at a time and we have to submit each article within a week of claiming them. On about three different occasions now, I started the reseach but was struggling to complete the article in time without becoming more stressed. Each time, I almost gave up and was going to release the title back into the system. And yet... the thought of earning a fairly good amount within a few days of submission made me pause and I persevered knowing I could do this.

The point is that it reminded me of the way I often work (and husband will confirm) - leaving things until the last minute, not persevering when it gets tougher if I have the option to move on to something else. Well, it's been a good lesson and seems to have come at the right time if I'm now expected to produce more novellas in a series. In the past, I've spent so many years procrastinating that I'm now determined to be more consistently productive. Wonder how long that will last! Does anyone else struggle to persevere with their writing projects?

Meanwhile, if you have time to take a look, fellow tween author, Tammy Lowe, is on my Flights of Imagination blog today with her great time-slip book, The Acadian Secret. And watch out for an invitation to my blog party launch for The Jigsaw Puzzle later this week.

Rosemary

Release Day!

Having more Internet connection problems but just wanted to mention that my new tween book, The Jigsaw Puzzle, is released today from MuseItUp Publishing! All eformats are available from their bookstore, and I'll be having an online launch once it's also available on Amazon.

Had some other exciting news but will wait until Monday to reveal that and hopefully I'll have the connection sorted out by then.

Have a good weekend,
Rosemary

The Jigsaw Puzzle Cover Reveal!

I'm delighted to reveal the brilliant cover by C.K. Volnek for my new Tween/Middle Grade book, The Jigsaw Puzzle, which will be released from MuseItUp Publishing as an ebook first at the end of this week. Publisher, Lea, made this great banner for publicity purposes. The boy on the cover is a very good image for twelve year old asthmatic and thoughtful main character, Daniel. His cousin Amy is the bossy one!

As usual, I'm aiming to have an online launch in the next week or two, over on my Flights of Imagination blog, and I'll announce the date here once it's arranged. I'm now almost finished making a trailer for it as, being a visual person, I love that side of creativity.

Here's a peek at the blurb.

Twelve-year-old asthmatic Daniel stays with his bossy cousin, Amy, her mum, and two cats in the Scottish countryside during the Christmas holidays while his parents take a trip to sort out their problems. When Amy and Daniel make up an old jigsaw puzzle, the cottage and garden gradually change to resemble the Victorian cottage pictured on the box lid.

In between searching for the missing Title Deeds of the cottage to save it from land developers, they complete the jigsaw and find a strange rhyming puzzle hidden within the box. What does it mean? Daniel and Amy soon find out when they become trapped in the past.

Will they solve the cryptic written puzzle and find their way back to the present before it’s too late to save themselves, the destruction of the woods, and their cottage?

No doubt you'll be hearing about it on Facebook and twitter, once I get into gear with promotion. Watch this space for the date of the online launch!  

Rosemary (or Ros for this book)  

P.S - A little later than expected, but another MuseItUp author is on my Flights of Imagination blog now with her lovely Tween book, The Shadow of the Unicorn: The Legacy. Leave a comment over there to have a chance of winning a digital copy of her book.

The New Writer Relaunched

I received an email the other day informing me that The New Writer magazine is being relaunched soon. You can have a sneak preview of the 12 sample pages from the relaunch issue here.

In addition to interesting articles, they normally run annual writing competitions. Two special introductory offers are available for UK writers at the moment:

• half price introductory copy
• reduced price one year subscription

You can order either or both on The New Writer website. I've ordered my half price copy as I'm always interested in writing magazines, even though I subscribe to most of them and get way behind with the reading!

Rosemary

A Dragon and a Princess

Over on my Flights of Imagination blog today, I'm featuring Bill Kirton's very special book for children, Rory the Dragon and Princess Daisy. Originally written to entertain his grandchildren, it is now helping to raise funds for the Children's Hospice South West after Bill's little great-niece, Daisy, lived for only 16 weeks when diagnosed with Spinal Muscular Atrophy.

You can read about the family's Friends of Daisy Chain and their great efforts in raising funds for families touched by life-limiting conditions.

Rosemary

Writing Market: Chicken Soup for the Soul

I've known about the Chicken Soup for the Soul series of books for a long time but I keep forgetting to try submitting anything! They offer a great opportunity to write non-fiction pieces on a wide variety of subjects and a full list of proposed topics is on their website. For instance, some of the upcoming subjects cover Miracles, Overcoming Challenges, Reboot Your Life, Stories About Cats and Stories About Dogs.

The guidelines are quite explicit: it should be a true, inspirational story about ordinary people doing extraordinary things. They should be written in first person, with a beginning, middle and end, and should create some emotion in the reader - they can be sad, funny, exciting. Maximum length is 1,200 words.

While I'm waiting for my new tween book, The Jigsaw Puzzle, being published by MuseItUp next month, I arranged print copies of my first tween book, Summer of the Eagles (as Ros). Lovely writer friend and former journalist, Sara, designed this lovely new cover for the print version and it's now available from FeedARead. I guessed some of the people at the conference would prefer a print version for this age group (around 10-13 years).

Wishing all my lovely fellow bloggers, friends and readers a Happy Easter weekend.

Rosemary

Writing Conference

Well, I had a great weekend at the Scottish Association of Writers conference, even though the hotel had a problem with the heating on one of the coldest, snowiest weekends of the year! They did eventually provide some industrial heaters to thaw us out, but the warmth of the writers attending ensured we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.

Our programme is heavily filled with competition adjudications - we anonymously enter the various competitions earlier in the year and anticipation is high as we listen to the judges criteria, opinions and results. We also receive a written critique on any work we enter. Friendly rivalry between all the represented Scottish writing groups adds to the fun, as we wait to see which group's members has the biggest number of mentions - our writing group did very well! I was stunned to come second in the Crime Novel competition as this is my first attempt at writing crime (it's set in Victorian times). We have to enter between 10,000 and 15,000 words plus a synospsis, and I've been advised to get the novel finished!

The rest of the weekend is taken up with seminars or workshops, chatting, eating and browsing the bookshop. An after dinner speaker both evenings kept us entertained until it was time to go and watch the short drama sketches or head for the bar.

I'd definitely advise all writers to try and attend at least one writing conference. Apart from the opportunity to meet other writers and discuss markets, problems, or ideas, we all continue to learn about our craft no matter how long we've been writing and getting published. And it's so inspiring talking about writing all weekend!

A few conferences I know of are: National Association of Writers' Groups, York Festival of Writing and Winchester Writing Festival. I'm sure you'll be able to find many more around the country.

If anyone likes slightly dark YA fiction that also appeals to adults, you might want to have a look at the featured YA book, Roman (Saints and Sinners) on my Flights of Imagination blog today.

Rosemary