It’s official! My debut novel, Gods of Avalon Road, is coming soon from Blossom Spring Publishing. Here’s a preview of the cover:
Gods of Avalon Road is an urban fantasy set in London. Inspired by my former career as an Archaeologist, combined with a love of mythology, the story takes place in present day Fulham with historical flashbacks to Iron Age Britain.
I’ll be posting more updates as they happen. Hope you can share my excitement!
My novella, Zombie Reflux, was published in 2014. It’s a satire of contemporary UK society set in a rural Norwich town where the residents are turned into zombies because of pesticide in the surrounding fields. There’s a video of me reading chapter 1 on YouTube, if anyone’s interested.
Next year there is a TV show coming out with a similar storyline to mine: it’s a satire, set in a rural English town and the residents are turned into zombies because of a toxic substance.
But what’s the difference? My story has had modest success and even lost me a few readers/subscribers because it offended some people, whereas this story is having commercial success; it’s being made into a TV show, after all.
So what’s the takeaway? Maybe commercial success has as much to do with timing as having an established readership: maybe a genre or topic has to be right for the market at the right moment to reach its widest possible audience. As for my story? Zombies never die, so the right time will come along. And hey, at least I came up with the idea first!
Mountain view on a family holiday. This would make a great writer’s retreat!
Apart from a relaxing family spa break, the highlight of this month has been choosing between 3 sample novel covers for my forthcoming book. My publisher incorporated all my ideas into the designs and wanted my opinion on which font I liked best for the title. I’m really excited, especially to be included in every stage of the publishing process. It’s starting to feel real!
Since the weekend, I’ve been busy making some small revisions to my soon-to-be-published debut novel, which is forthcoming later this year. My publisher’s editor suggested a few minor word-choice changes, which was straightforward, as I was able to do this by find and replace: there were about 38 words to change. Making selected vocabulary changes didn’t take anything away from the story: if anything it improved the novel, making it less repetitive.
After I finished reading through the manuscript again and making the necessary amendments, it was time for a lovely walk in the park to relax!
In a previous post, not too long ago no less, I mentioned that I was an old-fashioned sort of girl, the kind who likes to sketch out first drafts of a story in longhand. Whilst that is true, for me, there are practical considerations to be made, especially with a toddler to take care of. I consider myself lucky, both as a writer and a parent, that I have a day job in a secondary school. This gives me the maximum amount of hours for both my novel writing and my child, considering I work only 9 to 3 on weekdays and have 8 weeks off for summer when school is closed. Last year, my laptop blew up. Since then I had struggled to think of a practical replacement for it. The laptop itself wasn’t really convenient: too much temptation for a tot’s hands and the cord was a trip hazard. But writing in a notebook meant having to spend hours that I don’t have typing up what I had written. The solution? Time for a tablet.
A novelist friend said that typing on her ipad with a wireless keyboard was handy for her. Generally I had heard that tablets and ipads weren’t convenient for writers as they were slower than laptops and PCs. But for me, slow output is better than no output. Something lightweight and more portable than a laptop appealed to me too, not to mention toddler-friendly.
I got myself a tablet in May and I haven’t looked back since.
I can honestly say, getting one for novel writing was such a good decision that my only regret is not having bought one sooner!
Photo credit: clip art-library. com
This time last week, I was still in a tizzy trying to wrap my head round my first manuscript acceptance. Yesterday I signed my debut novel contract after spending 3 days reading through it. Now that I have officially been welcomed as an author with my publishing house, it’s starting to feel more real.
When I was a 20 year old university student in the midst of writing a children’s fantasy novel (which has now been trunked), my dream was to have a novel out with a publisher by the time I reached 40. I am delighted that this goal has become a reality, a few years short of that mark, no less.
Tonight, and this weekend, I’m celebrating along with my writer hubby and our literary baby (who actually piles his dinosaur board books onto our laps for us to read to him). I will be posting more about my debut novel as it progresses.
Reviewing my finished final draft 2 years ago and a hint about a theme in the novel!
Two years ago I finished my first fantasy novel manuscript while pregnant and on maternity leave.
One month ago I received my first request for a full novel manuscript.
At the end of last week I digested even better news – my novel is going to be published!
I’ll be honest, over the years I had become accustomed to getting rejections and so, when I received the good news last Thursday that my novel has been accepted for publication, I admit I had to read the email several times for it to sink in! Even then, my brain struggled to process it: I have dreamed of becoming a published novelist since I was in my early twenties, and for the moment to finally come seemed surreal.
I’m now awaiting the next stage of uncharted territory – my first author contract. More news as it happens…
In the past month since I last posted, I have received great news: my first full manuscript request from a publisher for my debut fantasy novel. To say that I am excited is an understatement! As any writer knows, tackling the slushpile is a long process: generally you submit three sample chapters of a finished manuscript along with a one page synopsis and a cover letter. More often than not you receive a form rejection letter thanking you for your submission and stating that you will not be published on this occasion. Sometimes you may be lucky and receive a few lines of feedback in a personalised response, usually explaining that you have developed an interesting idea, or that you have a strong author voice, but the particular story is not what the publisher is looking for at the moment. To receive a full manuscript request is rare indeed. A publisher reads your sample and wants to know the full story. Hooray! In my experience, I have received a full manuscript request on only two occasions: once for my literary novel manuscript after one year/twelve slushpile rejections(it’s still making the publisher rounds nineteen rejections later) and now in this instance with my fantasy novel ms after one and a half years/ fifteen slushpile rejections. Here is the first request I received for my literary ms back in 2013:
With yesterday’s news that Brexit has now been delayed until October 31st, Joseph Robert’s sample poem, Billion Euro Cheeseburger, from his poetry and fiction collection, Brexit Brokeshit is published on his blog just at the right time: the will-we-won’t-we ongoing saga of the UK leaving the EU will be continuing for some time yet, so the reality in Billion Euro Cheeseburger is as much a possibility as anything!
The full collection is available in print and as a free PDF Ebook with links on Joseph Robert’s author blog.
Although it doesn’t feel like spring here in chilly Northern Ireland, I have finally dusted off the literary cobwebs and started working on my third novel manuscript. Literary novel 1 and Fantasy novel 2 are still making the rounds of traditional publishing – more updates here. For now, a bit more about my writing process for Novel-in-progress 3.
As an old-fashioned kind of gal, I am a fan of using longhand to etch out my initial drafts, before typing everything up. The Bumper Value Jotter above is perfect for this: I can type then rip out chapters as I go. For anyone worried about the waste of paper involved in such an endeavour, fear not! I am environmentally conscious and recycle as I go!
In the past, I wrote first drafts on beautiful, hand-made notebooks that I bought at Camden Market while living in London. These are admittedly lovely to look at on the bookshelf, but as any writer knows, a story can go through many drafts before reaching the final polished manuscript. It’s simpler to write on disposable notebooks and print out a finished proof copy on Lulu before preparing to make the publishing rounds.
As for the content of my latest work-in-progress? It’s a literary story, of a travel nature. I’m not one to talk much about my writing before it sees the light of day, so that’s all I’ll say for now. I’ll be updating my novel progress page as it happens, so you can follow more tidbits from there.
Leilanie Stewart 