Happy New Year - lessons and beginnings

Well, 2017 was a crazy ride wasn’t it? As we stand on the threshold of 2018 I’m hearing my friends

At the Society of Authors/Writers in Oxford
party at Balliol College

on Facebook wishing one another better times in 2018, not just on a personal level but a global one. We seem to have spent the past twelve months reeling from one shock to another or feeling threatened by dark possibilities to come.

But the solstice has passed. Days are still dark but we are turning towards the sun. Now is the time of beginnings, of new edifices built on old foundations.

When I look back on my 2017 it is full of dark and light. The first quarter was one of physical disability and a sense that my horizons were closing in because I simply could not walk without serious pain. The knee injury of the autumn allied itself with the weakness in my hip. I couldn’t get up and down the stairs without a stick. I couldn’t get out of chairs without the stick. I felt about 105 years old – and I believed this was going to be my future. You can imagine how depressing that was.

Now, at the end of the year, things are very different. To my undying surprise, I find myself an active gym member. I do resistance training. My muscles are more toned and I’ve lost over half a stone. I have more energy. I go up and down the stairs and up from chairs without a stick. Yay! There is a lot more progress to make but I feel Olympian compared to how I was a few months back.

What is the lesson from this? That your body matters – it’s the vehicle of all your creativity and when it is unwell it is hard to be positive or make progress in any other sphere of life.

The other main aspect of my 2017 was the workload. I am glad to have helped so many students and editorial clients over the past year. It is extremely fulfilling. But when you realise you’ve edited 1.2 million words during the year and none of them were your own, you start to wonder when you will ever match the service you give to others with attention to your own writing ambitions.

The lesson from this is that the balance of elements in one’s life needs to be evaluated, constantly, because it is so easy to let one aspect get out of hand. To that end I will be cutting back on my editing role and launching a whole new Fictionfire activity in January. Wish me luck!

Highlights of my year were the Oxford summer schools, teaching at Winchester, holidays in Cornwall and Provence, the publication of ‘Salt’ in Distant Echoes and my poem ‘Cooling’ in Vine Leaves Literary Journal. I read quite a few books as part of my IGISIRI campaign – but not nearly enough, because of those 1.2 million words of clients’ books. My latest IGISIRI is Geraldine Brooks’ Year of Wonders, which I have meant to read for years. It was stunning. I’m hoping next year to be more consistent in my IGISIRI reading - for previous posts on what IGISIRI means, go here.

I’ll sign off now with my warmest wishes that you all have a creative, fulfilling 2018 year ahead of you. I’ll be back this week with news of my new Fictionfire venture and historical novelist Anna Belfrage will be guest-posting.

Happy New Year!

Lorna x

Are you a writer - or do you want to be? Visit my website to download your free guide to living a productive writing life.

Where have I been?

Getting ready to start teaching
 at Oxford University
Summer School for Adults

It’s a while since I last blogged so this is a round-up of what was going on and advance notification of what is coming up!

Summers equate with creative writing teaching: no sooner had I finished running a part time course for Oxford University during the spring, but I taught at Winchester Writers’ Festival where my subject was the power of point of view, then two summer schools on two different programmes for Oxford University. This was my fifteenth  year at OUSSA and my fourth at the OUDCE Creative Writing summer school at Exeter College.

As ever, I was blown away by the quality of work I was assessing and hearing. I loved meeting my students and hearing their stories. Summer schools bring together the most extraordinary mix of nationalities, backgrounds, life experiences and writing dreams.

With lovely tutor and writer
Judy Waite, at Winchester Writers' Festival

By mid-August I was just desperate for a holiday, though! I hadn’t had a break since our holiday in Cornwall in early spring. But before I could relish any down-time, I had to face tasks I had been putting off for months – nay, years! I moved my website host, I created an opt-in PDF, I learned how to use Convertkit and moved my mailing lists to it, I got all the elements talking to one another!

Before we left for our holiday in France in September, I set up my new website landing page. I felt tired but pretty damned chuffed. What would be a walk in the park to some people was like climbing Everest to me, but I had done it – I had got that far.

Roussillon, Provence

We went back to Provence, which we had visited last year. And oh, it was still gorgeous. For two weeks I genuinely unwound and it did me a power of good. I even wrote something!

Back home, I soon got all wound up again. Life has been full on since then. I have been editing, mainly, for long-term clients. I’ve also been the co-ordinating judge of the short story competition Writers in Oxford has been running for young Oxfordshire writers. Now, our choices have been made and sent to Philip Pullman, our head judge. The prizes will be announced next week at the Writers in Oxford 25^th Anniversary party, held in conjunction with the Society of Authors.

Being interviewed at Radio Oxford
to publicise Writers in Oxford's
Young Oxfordshire Writer competition

 And what about the website, you may ask?

Ah. Ahem … a work in progress still, but progress is being made!

Well, do go and visit: you can download my free PDF on leading a productive writing life!

In other news, I got published!

More of that in my next post too …

Download your free guide to launching a productive writing life by visiting the website here

Fictionfire - new directions for spring

What have you been up to lately? I ask because I haven't spoken to you for a while on this blog!

The truth is - and I think you'll recognise this - it's so easy to be pulled in multiple directions. It's also easy to see the days flitting past (and they flit faster, I swear, with every passing year.)

I hope 2016 is panning out well for you. Personally, I feel a blink of the eye has happened since I was drawing up my plans back in December.

I aimed to run more Fictionfire Focus Workshops and Retreats and I've done precisely that. The Simply Write Day Retreat and workshops on writing covering letters and synopses, plus how to improve your descriptive powers, all took place in February and March.

I've also been editing and mentoring - and am delighted to have been named by writing guru K.M. Weiland one of the top recommended fiction editors around: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/good-book-editor/  

But early in the year, I made the decision that this was the year to take my business to a new level, in a new direction. If you're regular readers, then you'll know that I started Fictionfire Literary Consultancy back in 2009 as a sideline to my main work as an English Literature teacher. I gave up conventional teaching in 2012 in order to concentrate on Fictionfire, apart from teaching gigs on behalf of Oxford University and the University of Winchester.

So, I lead a multi-stranded life (and one, thin, often-overlooked strand is my own writing ...)

You wouldn't think I'd want to take on more, would you?

Wrong.

I've been working hard over the past months on a whole new strand to weave into the Fictionfire tapestry. I'm not saying more about it right now, except to tell you that if you're interested in finding out about it before anybody else, I recommend you subscribe to my mailing list on the welcome page of my website here, because I'll be telling subscribers first and offering them ...

Ssh...

All good things come to those who wait.

In the meantime you can join me in Oxford for the final Focus Workshops of the season: How to Write Short Stories on May 7th and How to Edit your Sample Submission on May 14th. Find out more on the Focus Workshops page of the website.

Or if you'd value some peaceful time to write, some great food, friendly support and inspiration, plus four invaluable workshops on creating and adding depth to your characters, then come along to the second Fictionfire by the Spires retreat weekend. The dates are 21st-22nd May 2016. You can opt to come for the full weekend or on a single day basis. Find out all about the workshop contents and the schedule for the weekend by visiting the Fictionfire by the Spires page on my website.

Remember, sign up for my newsletter at www.fictionfire.co.uk for news, articles, inspiration, exercises and competition news. Oh, and advance notice of that new thing I was talking about ...

What have I learnt from 2014? Sharing thoughts about getting back on track when life derails you.

Sunset at Sennen, Cornwall

So, here we are again, at the cusp of the year, the transition point where we look forward and back. As I review the past twelve months, I rejoice in many things: the love of family and friends, a comfortable home in one of the most gorgeous cities on earth, professional progress, two significant writing competition wins, a growing network of supportive writing allies.

However, 2014 has also been a ghastly year. I started it with fine, overly-ambitious plans. In January a very dear friend went missing. Many weeks of agonising anxiety later, her body was found. I struggle on a daily basis with this, because she was a special, joyous person who’d been such a significant person in my life – and now she was gone, far far too soon, into the dark. A couple of months after her funeral, my brother-in-law, staunch, cheery, loyal and loving, devoted to my sister, had died – his death also completely out of the blue.

Shock and grief derail you. In despair and devastation, work is something to cling to. It gives shape to the days, it provides distraction. However I have at times taken on too much, driven myself too hard. I’m not one of life’s delegators – I always want to do it all myself. Over the past three years I’ve trained myself to work at dead of night – I’m a natural owl anyway. But I’ve taken it too far and for too long, to the detriment of health and concentration. And apart from the spurts of creativity which led to those competition wins, my own writing has ended up like the relative you haven’t rung in ages. Week by week it becomes more difficult to pick up the phone.

So what now? No resolutions – I don’t feel brave enough for those. Resolutions are broken and you’re burdened by that breaking. When I ran my workshop/retreat in St Ives in the autumn, we agreed it was better not to talk of ‘goals’ and ‘targets’ so much as anticipated ‘benefits’ from what we do.

Here, then, are how I hope to create benefits in my life in the coming year:

Balance

I need to find a better work/life balance and a better balance between helping other writers and paying attention to my own creativity. I don’t want to feel exhausted all the time. I want to refill the well and dip the bucket into the well.

Focus

I’ll continue to run my workshops in Oxford because I absolutely love face-to-face teaching and interaction. I’ll be running my second Fictionfire by the Sea Writers’ Workshop and Retreat in April and I can’t wait to see St Ives again. I’ll be teaching at the Writers’ Festival at the University of Winchester in June and in July and August will run creative writing summer schools on two Oxford University programmes. I’ll continue to edit and appraise manuscripts and mentor writers, of course, but will be wary of over-commitment in these areas.

Creation

I have so many stories waiting to be written or waiting to be revised and published. I won’t set specific dates but I will aim to get more of my work out into the world this year, not locked into hard drives and tucked into folders. The important thing, whether I have two readers, two hundred or two thousand, is to make the work available on my own terms.

How to do this? I have to learn to inhabit my own stories once more. When working on a client’s manuscript, in a way it becomes my manuscript – I have to live inside that story to discover its achievements and its flaws, to evolve suggestions for improvement. It’s an incredibly rewarding process and it’s a great responsibility when a writer entrusts their work to me – but at the same time, it puts me at a mental distance from my own imagination and my own plots and characters.

Re for revive

To sum up, 2015 means rebalancing of elements and rediscovering of joy – I hope. I aim to redefine the structure of my time, because I’ve slipped into a habit of being in Fictionfire mode seven days a week. I need to set aside days for my own writing and days for being free of all of it. I want to read more – I want to rediscover splurge-reading, from cover to cover, not getting through a book in sporadic, interrupted segments.

Someone very wisely said to me recently that I need to try treating myself as I would a client. So, balance, focus, kindness, honesty, nurturing myself instead of hectoring myself – I will try to incorporate these into my writing life.

As the New Year dawns, you might like to examine how you balance the elements of your life. Do you give yourself downtime? Have you evaluated where you stand and where you want to go and analysed how to optimise your chances of getting there? Bereavement makes us take a step – no, several steps – back from our own lives. Where are you in your life’s journey? (I hate to use the ‘j’ word, but it actually is the best metaphor for how we see our life-stories unfolding). If you’re young, you see numerous potential routes ahead and the sheer choice may dizzy or alarm you as much as excite you. If you’re older, those choices may have narrowed and you may worry that you chose the wrong paths. Is it too late to retreat? Can you make the best of the path you’re on? Can you choose another?

Sunrise over St Ives Bay

Take the long view of your life. What do you want to achieve with it? Achievement doesn’t need to mean money and glory. Achievement is that sense you have within yourself, quiet and satisfying, that you’ve made progress, that you’ve added something to the significance of your life that wasn’t there before.

I wish you balance, focus and the joy of creativity. I wish you love and fulfilment. I wish you every benefit you would wish for yourself in the coming year.

Fictionfire Literary Consultancy - the new series of Focus Workshops in Oxford will be announced imminently. Fictionfire by the Sea Writers' Workshop and Retreat in St Ives in April - places are already very limited. Sign up on my website to join the mailing list for news of workshops, courses and new developments.

Photographs copyright Lorna Fergusson

Writing Inspiration in the Far West: Liz Carr guest-posts about Cornwall, creativity and her cottage, An Dyji

Zelah Studio,
looking out over St Ives Bay
(photo courtesy of
Lynda Davies)

My lovely writing friend Liz Carr guest-posts about what Cornwall means to her and about her cottage, An Dyji, which she bought and renovated as a holiday let and a haven of creativity. Those of us who visit and love Cornwall will understand full well the appeal she describes here!

I discovered Cornwall when I was a child on summer holidays. Learning to body surf on Fistral beach, eating gritty cheese sandwiches, drinking soup which was either scalding hot or barely tepid from a wide-necked Thermos: these are some of my earliest memories.

As an adult, I returned to the county – and specifically St Ives – thanks to my closest friend, who so generously shared her lovely house with me and other worn-out London refugees. Zelah Studio, standing above Porthgwidden beach, will be our venue for Fictionfire by the Sea, thanks again to Lynda’s vision of her house as a place of creativity.

The Merry Maidens

The layers of Cornwall’s history fascinate me: almost hidden from modern view stand mysterious worked pieces of monumental stone – remnants of its origins as an ancient and sacred place, separate from the rest of the country. Its magical quality hooked me early on. It was very easy to imagine piskies and other spirit creatures darting in and out of the great stones of Men an Tol or dancing among the Merry Maidens. It’s still easy for me to narrow my eyes and see mermaids swimming round St Piran’s rock, luring unwary fishermen into their underwater secrets.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Cornwall’s copper and tin mining industries overlaid the landscape. Now the ruins of mine chimneys, engine houses and lichen-coloured iron workings are visible on the skyline.

And today the far west has another life: as a sought-after destination for artists, writers and holidaymakers who come to enjoy the wonderful light, clean sweeps of pale sand and a turquoise sea that looks as though it belongs in the Caribbean.

In January 2014 we found ourselves able to invest in a small stone-built cottage just outside St Ives. At first sight, things weren’t too good. The house hadn’t been touched for about thirty years, and it definitely needed some TLC. But we knew it could be so different.

An Dyji

After just two months, An Dyji was reborn as a cosy two-bedroom cottage, ready for visitors. The name means ‘the small house’ in Cornish, which was its nickname throughout the works. We love being there: it’s tucked away in a hundred acres of woodland, but is only six minutes from the sea.

It’s the perfect place if you want to relax, recharge and rediscover your creativity. There’s something about being away from home that helps you to leave stuff behind and free your mind. Sighing: this is what happens to us the day after arriving. The combined effects of clean air, sparkling light and an ever-changing seascape cause muscles to unclench and jaws to unlock. The place gets in your bones and before long, you’re thinking about a new project or looking at your existing work with fresh eyes.

An Dyji

So, why not join us for a weekend exploring spirit of place, the spirit that the far west of Cornwall gives us? The programme is a unique blend of inspirational taught workshops and quiet writing time. We’ll be working with a group of like-minded people, and I’m looking forward to meeting Ann Kelley, an award-winning author who’s based locally. It’s going to be a fruitful two days, but for me the most important aspect is precious space and time.

Who knows what might happen?

You can find out more about An Dyji and book accommodation there, whether you're attending Fictionfire by the Sea or not, at www.stivesretreat.co.uk 

Fictionfire by the Sea Writers' Workshop and Retreat, 17-19 October 2014 in St Ives - details here. Bookings close on 15 October.

If you can't make it to Cornwall, Fictionfire Focus Workshops in Oxford, Oct - Dec 2014 are here.

Guest-speaker at Fictionfire by the Sea is Ann Kelley - see my post here.

(All photographs, except where noted, copyright Lorna Fergusson)

Social Media and Authors: Participation and Presence

The importance of social media for writers continues to be a hot topic and is one of the aspects we'll discuss in How to Publish and Market your Book, the day course I'll be running with Ali Luke at Trinity College, Oxford on 10th May (see the Fictionfire website for more details - there's an early bird discount price until March 16th). Here's the article I wrote for Writers in Oxford last autumn after attending a fascinating discussion where the speakers were Simon Rosenheim of Imago, and Dan Holloway, who is such a superb spokesman for indie publishing.

ARE YOU TWITTERPATED? SOCIAL MEDIA FOR AUTHORS

Dan Holloway at last year's London Book Fair

‘They pay you, they forget about you and about five years later return your rights to you,’ says Simon Rosenheim of Imago, a publishing solutions company, talking about the traditional model of publishing. Cue battle-weary grins from assembled writers in an upstairs room of St Aldate’s Tavern on October 2^nd. Simon describes the old throw-money-at-it-and-see-if-it-will-stick approach to marketing before he and creative polymath, poet, publisher and performer Dan Holloway show us the benefits of using social media to create our online presence. This, as Simon says, leads to publicity which is both free and targeted - and therefore more efficient.

This is great news – and I think we all know it. The problem for us as writers, though, is how to target it. Oh, and the effort of it all! Simon (who, ironically, is on neither Facebook nor Twitter) discusses how you need to be active and engaged, but able to recognise when you don’t want to devote any more time to it. At that point you can walk away – or hand the management of your social media presence to a professional. He reviews the unfathomable mysteries of Google algorithms, shape-shifting, unpindownable things that they are. I’m unsettled to hear that the keyword-selection technique no longer guarantees Google will pay much attention to you. Take that, you SEO spammers in my inbox!

Dan describes how he wrote a novel on Facebook and how his following helped him to sell many copies in Blackwell’s. His multifarious activities are proof that you can create a significance presence through social media. He demonstrates Twitter in action, projecting his Twitter-stream onto a screen, telling us to ‘think of Twitter as a big party and what you have to do is find your group of people’. (Some parties, though, are populated with crashing bores or look-at-me poseurs. So it can be with Twitter.)

One member of the audience spots that his Tweets probably amount to 300,000 words - couldn’t he have been writing books instead? Dan stresses how prolific he is in other areas and claims only to spend half an hour a day on Twitter. If that’s the case, I’m going to have a private chat with him: I love both Facebook and Twitter, but the latter is the biggest time-suck known to man.

The secret is management. Dan shows us hashtags and lists as ways of managing the endless stream of tweets. He claims that ‘there’s something wonderfully serendipitous about Twitter’. That’s so true: through social media you hear about events and make friends and connections in a randomly exciting way. It builds organically. Through Facebook and Twitter, I’ve found digital greetings often lead to personal meetings. Advice is sought and given, opinions shared, heads shaken in despair, congratulations offered. As Dan says, on social media ‘the real and the digital meet’. Whether you’re independently or traditionally published, you can’t allow it to rule your life – but you shouldn’t rule it out of your life, not if you’re an author in search of a readership. When you do a deal with a publisher, they’ll be looking for you to set up your Twitter-list anyway …

Now, I’m off to investigate the possibilities of Pinterest …

Links:

Lorna Fergusson is socially present at www.facebook.com/LornaFergussonAuthor and www.facebook.com/pages/Fictionfire-Inspiration-for-Writers and @LornaFergusson on Twitter.

Dan Holloway is on Twitter at @agnieszkasshoes and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/DanHollowayWriter . He has blogged about social media and community building at http://danholloway.wordpress.com/2013/10/03/community-building-for-writers/ 

His latest book is Self-publish with Integrity: Define Success in your own Terms and then Achieve It http://www.amazon.co.uk/Self-publish-Integrity-Define-Success-Achieve-ebook/dp/B00HAHFCXQ/

Pan Macmillan's Write Now Prize: my novel Hinterland is longlisted

I'm immensely proud and delighted that my unpublished children's novel Hinterland has made it to the eight-strong longlist for Macmillan's Write Now Prize. This process began when I submitted the synopsis and first three chapters back in December. In January, the full novel was called in, and a few weeks later I was notified that I'd made the longlist. I couldn't make this public for quite a while (argh!) but now the competition is heading into its next stage. Independent bookshops and their customers will get the chance to view the longlisted books via extracts and summaries - and they're the ones who'll vote for shortlist of four, whereupon a panel will choose the winner. The winner's book will be published in hardback and available exclusively to independent bookshops initially. I think this is a brilliant idea and hope that as many indie bookshops as possible will sign up - and that you, the customers, will join in with the process!

The other stories in the longlist are briefly summarised on the competition website: they sound dauntingly witty, adventurous and intriguing! I think it'll be a challenge to make the shortlist, but it goes without saying that I'd be ecstatic if it happened!

Here's a brief synopsis of Hinterland, along with a photo of a very significant location far to the west ... Hope you enjoy it!

'I hope you die!' yells Kick Delaney at his sister Olivia. Minutes later she's knocked down by a car. From then on, she's his 'zombie sister'. When the family moves to Cornwall, he discovers Olivia's zombie state is a defence against the Soulbroker, who's seized part of her soul and wants the rest to sell to the Anhungert, voracious entities of the Hinterland, the realm behind our own.

Kick fights to save Olivia, with the help of Argentail, the moon-dragon avatar of a long-dead Cornish mage. Ultimately, Kick must pursue the Soulbroker into the Hinterland itself. And it's there that a shattering choice awaits him.

Finally,  a reminder that my next Fictionfire courses are on the 18th and 19th of May (less than two weeks to go!). If you want to learn how to plot and pace your story, or how to craft a submission, go to my website to find out more and make your booking. Bookings must be made by midnight on 16th May. Also, if you've tried to ring or text me, my phone hasn't been receiving messages for a couple of weeks. I've changed phone and network so contact me again from the 8th, when the new network should kick in.

The Alliance of Independent Authors at the London Book Fair 2013: United We Stand

I visited the London Book Fair on Monday and Wednesday of this week, a year on from my first visit for Orna Ross's launch of The Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi), which I blogged about here. ALLi is a wonderful organisation and is going from strength to strength: if you're considering self-publishing I can't recommend too strongly that you should join (there's a link button in the sidebar of this blog if you want to find out more).

Last year, ALLi launched in an upstairs seminar room far away from the hustle and bustle of the main Fair. This year we were down and dirty, on the shop-floor itself (though still somewhat ghettoised away from the Big Guys and the Big Publishing Stands). The Author Lounge was the focus of indie activity, sponsored by KDP, Kobo and Matador, curated by marketing specialists Authoright. A year ago, this would all have seemed ambitious. This year it became clear that maybe it wasn't ambitious enough - the lounge was heaving with people and it was obvious that authors are so keen to join the publishing party a space three times the size could easily have been filled!

The purpose of the Author Lounge was to give writers the chance to listen to talks and presentations - and even to pitch directly to agents. This is unheard of - agents inhabit the International Rights Centre upstairs: an elevator rises like a stairway to heaven from the midst of Earl's Court 1, but no humble scribbler should attempt to mount it. However, in these days of publishing flux and uncertainty (about which I'm writing a separate article), agents are descending from on high, publishing services are touting their wares to authors as well as publishers. Last year we had a toe in the door - this year we've crossed the threshold.

As well as attending talks and seminars,  networking proved to be a crucial aspect of attending the Fair. We all networked like crazy - and it's a process which is not only necessary but can be nerve-wracking. Orna, though, was the perfect hostess and match-maker, ensuring useful contacts could be made in an atmosphere of fun and friendship. I was able to present my newly-republished novel, The Chase, and information about my literary consultancy, Fictionfire, both to published ALLi members and to aspiring writers who're considering self-publishing.

On Monday, ALLi launched its new book, Choosing a Self-publishing Service - the title explains all! It gives advice about self-publishing and service-providers and will be updated regularly. Orna is very concerned to flag up warnings about providers who are out to scam newbie self-publishers and highlight those who provide an honest and trustworthy service. Guest-speaker C.J. Lyons, who's sold 1.3 million 'thrillers with heart' bellowed to the audience 'you're all CEO of your global publishing empire' with the same yee-haw verve that Joni Rodgers had when she told us at last year's launch that 'we're all riding the sand-worm, baby!' (And if you've never read Frank Herbert's Dune you'll have no idea what that meant!)

The crowded Author Lounge

The book-launch came on the heels of talks by representatives of Kobo, Goodreads, Troubador and KDP. I'd arrived fairly late and then couldn't get near enough to the talks to hear - as I mentioned, the place was overcrowded and I think nobody really expected the Author Lounge to be quite as spectacularly successful as it was.

Joanna Penn and Orna Ross at the party

The launch was followed by a party for ALLi members, sponsored by Amazon (!) at the nearby Pembroke Pub - more networking in an atmosphere of excitement and nervous energy.

I didn't attend LBF on Tuesday but on Wednesday I turned up, carrying the new Kobo Mini ereader I'd bought after talking to Shayna Krishnasamy at the Kobo stand on Monday about my plans to publish to Kobo now that I've already published on Kindle. I attended a truly dynamic presentation by Joanna Penn on Advanced Online Marketing. Typically, her talk was full of honest personal experience, solid facts, statistics and up-to-date ideas. She focussed particularly on the importance of keywords and keyword research, talking also about the crucial need for us to have mailing lists and an established social platform. She discussed the 'marketing funnel' leading from attention, through interest and desire, to action. And she stressed the need to build relationships - this, I think, is a central theme of the Fair and of all our self-publishing activities. You can't do it if you lock yourself away. You need to put yourself out there. When I look back at the past five years of my career, everything I've done, every blog I've commented on, every writing event I've attended - everything has led to consequences and connections I couldn't have even imagined at the start. I'm busier and more tired than I can possibly say - but I'm also happier, in the sense that there's adventure and potential in it all and the fulfilment that only comes from being in charge of your own destiny.

Joanna Penn presenting 

Finally, there was a drinks party back at the Author Lounge (though the drinks, even the water, ran out too quickly!). I want to mention all the lovely people I met, old and new friends - and thank everybody who liked the cover of The Chase! First and foremost, there's Orna herself, who is the onlie begetter of the Alliance. I can't wait to see where she takes it in the coming year! Then Joanna Penn, of The Creative Penn (go there for oodles of publishing and marketing advice), the adventurous Dan Holloway, children's writer Karen Inglis, who gave me lots of practical advice. Roz Morris - I was sorry to miss her author presentation at the Kobo stand because I was at Joanna's talk - sorry! Writers Jerome Griffin and Rohan Quine; Stephanie Zia at Blackbird Books, who'll be bringing out my friend Jacqui Lofthouse's next novel; David Gaughrean; Mark Lefebvre of Kobo; Ben Galley and finally the lovely Catriona Troth of Triskele Books - my cover was designed by Jane Dixon-Smith who also designs the Triskele covers. Scroll down for lots more pictures!

Great people, a great Fair - and here's to a great future for us all!

NOTE: there's only four weeks to go until my next Fictionfire day courses! Book now for How to Plot and Pace your Story on May 18th and Perfect Pitch: How to Craft your Submission on May 19th. For full details and to make your booking go to the Fictionfire website. To find out more about The Chase, visit Amazon or the Fictionfire Press website. The novel is now out on Kindle and other ereader formats and a paperback edition will follow.

The moon over Earl's Court at the end of Day 1

Looking out over Earl's Court 2

The unique Dan Holloway

Catriona Troth of Triskele Books

One of the big guys ...

Crowds at the AuthorLounge

Joanna Penn, Brian Felsen of Book Baby and Orna Ross

Author Roz Morris, looking pensive!

With Joanna Penn: she's holding the cover of The Chase and I'm holding my Kobo Mini with her third novel, Exodus, on it

Learn how to plot and pace your novel, then how to pitch it: upcoming Fictionfire day courses

Trinity College, where I hold my Day Courses

The current series of Fictionfire Focus Workshops is well underway, with Point of View, Dialogue and Style as upcoming subjects. In addition I've posted details on my website of the next two day courses I'll be running at Trinity College, Oxford - here they are:

How to Plot and Pace your Story (May 18th)

So, you've hooked your reader with a blindingly good opening to your novel. That was the easy part: the challenge lies in keeping that reader intrigued enough to read the rest of it! This day course is designed to help you structure your plot so that it hangs together well. We'll look at the typical elements of a satisfying storyline and discuss whether you should plan in detail or risk a more instinctive, less rigid mode of composition. We'll brainstorm ideas and try out methods of visualising the overall shape of the novel. We'll explore how to pace the narrative and how to troubleshoot it when the momentum falters. We'll consider genre-expectations and pitfalls to avoid. With exercises, discussion and analysis of examples throughout, we'll discover how to create a storyline that draws your reader in and makes them say 'I couldn't put it down!'

Thank you so much for a really informative day! Not a second was wasted and I learned heaps about plotting which let me see the shape of my own work more clearly. Also, I appreciated the relaxed atmosphere in the class - there really was no pressure. (E.G., writing about an earlier Fictionfire course on plotting)

A view of Trinity's beautiful lawns

Perfect Pitch: How to Craft your Submission and Land an Agent (May 19th)

You've completed your writing project - congratulations! Now you want to get it out there to readers. This day course is designed to help you meet the challenge of making your pitch in a focused, professional way. Practical exercises will guide you through crucial self-editing techniques so that you can hone your opening chapters. We'll look at the components of the pitch-package: those polished opening pages or chapters, the query or covering letter and - what everyone dreads! - the synopsis. Using exercises and examples, we'll discover how to make an agent - or editor - want to see more. You'll learn how the publishing industry works and how agents want to be approached, along with what puts them off. Even if you're not aiming to publish by the traditional route, the skills of creating a powerful opening and a compelling summary of your novel will help you to bring your work to your readers' attention. The marketplace is crowded: here's how to make yourself stand out!

Once I was ready to submit the novel to literary agents, I approached Lorna to help with my synopsis and covering letter. Again, the feedback I received was invaluable and I learnt a lot. Lorna's friendly professionalism meant that I felt comfortable throughout. and it obviously worked: I secured an agent and a publishing deal! (Katherine Clements, who now has a three book publishing deal with Headline)

In the beautiful Sutro Room where I hold the courses

To find out more about the course venue and how to book, visit the Fictionfire website www.fictionfire.co.uk. There is an early bird booking discount available until 28th February.

Meanwhile, currently only one place is left on the first of my Point of View workshops on February 23rd - for Focus workshop details, go to www.fictionfire.co.uk/page26.htm

New Year Writing Inspiration: Upcoming Focus Workshops

The new year - time for those fresh starts: TV adverts urge us to start new diets, leaflets come through the door advertising gym memberships. How many resolutions have you made - and perhaps already broken? For writers, a new year marks a fresh chance to get going on a planned project or complete one which has stalled. I wish you every success if you're starting out - or even if you're feeling bogged down and want to know how to rev up your self-belief and productivity.

Writing successfully means being open to ideas, being experimental, trusting yourself - but also learning from experience, whether it's your own personal experience or that of a writing buddy or teacher. My Fictionfire Focus Workshops have been running for some time now and what I love about them is how warm and relaxed yet how productive and inspiring they have proved to be, creating a small friendly community of regular attenders who are keen to share ideas and provide mutual support. I hope that sometime during 2013 you'll be able to join us!

Here are the titles of the two upcoming blocks of workshops, starting later this month:

WINTER 2 BLOCK

WALK-ON PARTS (January 26th)
It's important that even minor characters are convincing - we'll explore how to bring secondary characters to life and what functions they can perform in your story.

LOVE IS IN THE AIR (February 2nd)
With Valentine's Day approaching, we'll look at how to portray love and romance in your fiction - whether that passion is unrequited or fulfilled, brief or everlasting, innocent or corrupt ...!

PLAYING WITH POINT OF VIEW 1 (February 23rd)
In the first of two workshops about point of view, we'll look at the advantages of the close perspective: using first or second person in your story.

SPRING BLOCK

PLAYING WITH POINT OF VIEW 2 (March 2nd)
We'll explore degrees of distance when it comes to perspective: how to use third person, multiple points of view and omniscience.

DYNAMIC DIALOGUE (March 9th)
This is a re-run of a popular workshop from last year. Writing convincing dialogue is an important skill to learn: it will make your characters spring to life and inject your plot with energy - but you need to do it right!

SHARPEN YOUR STYLE (April 6th)
In this workshop you'll be invited to bring samples of your own work as well as engage in exercises designed to make you look closely at how you express yourself. The ability to look dispassionately at your writing and refine it until it says precisely what you want it to say, is of crucial importance if you want to self-edit your work.

Each three hour workshop costs £25 and there are discounts for booking more than one within a particular block. You can find out more and make your booking by going to the Focus Workshops page on my Fictionfire website.

Later in the spring, I'll be running two day courses at Trinity College, Oxford. How to Plot and Pace your Story is on 18th May and Perfect Pitch - How to Craft your Submission and Land an Agent is on 19th May. Details are on the course dates and details page of the Fictionfire website.

Booking is open for all of these - I hope you can join us! In the meantime, a very happy and creative New Year to you all!

History in the Court 2012

History in the Court is a wonderful annual opportunity for lovers of historical fiction to meet one another and their favourite authors. It's run by David Headley, owner of Goldsboro Books in London. Last week I scooted up to the big smoke to attend for the second time. The bookshop is quite small, so people spill out into the street, with chatter and laughter broken only by the occasional sound of a wine-glass breaking...

It was lovely to meet again two writers I met last year: first, Douglas Jackson, who writes thrillers set in ancient Rome under his own name, and a different strand of thrillers, the most recent of which is The Isis Covenant, under the name James Douglas. Like so many writers, he works to a gruelling production schedule but clearly loves what he does - we had a good chat about how useful Google satellite is when researching locations.

I also met Karen Maitland, one of my favourite historical fiction writers, again. I've read all of her books and strongly recommend them - her latest, set in Iceland and Portugal, is The Falcons of Fire and Ice. We discussed Icelandic volcanoes and medieval health remedies!

It was great also to see the lovely Jenny Barden, who's caught up in the whirlwind of promoting her book, Mistress of the Sea (see my previous blogpost here about the launch) - and in organising the Historical Novel Society's Conference, which starts tomorrow!

I had hoped to meet Lynn Shepherd at last, the author of the brilliant Tom-All-Alone's - but one of the penalties of milling about in the street in the semi-dark is that it's very difficult to know who's there! Some writers wore badges, but you feel uncomfortable barging up to someone and staring fiercely at their pectoral region ...

I was also remiss on the photography front (blame the wine) - so I only have one of Karen Maitland. Here's the link to my report on last year's History in the Court, which is more heavily illustrated!

On Saturday, I'm off to the Historical Novel Society Conference, and I'm really looking forward to it. There are fascinating panel discussions and talks lined up, pitch meetings and the chance to socialise with authors and readers. Three of my Fictionfire clients will be there, so I'm looking forward to catching up with them.

Two Saturdays after that (13th October), I'll be running my writing workshop I Need a Hero, about how to create memorable heroes and heroines in your fiction - full details of that and the other workshops in the autumn/winter series are on my website here - they include setting up your social platform, writing short stories, and creating villains with relish!

www.fictionfire.co.uk