Life has been particularly hectic in the last few months, with having to balance the increased demands of a full time job, family, and time for writing. But I’m still as determined as ever to be published.

A lot has happened since my last post. I repackaged and send out another round of submissions for Soul Seer (aka Delve), out of which I had another request for the full which was subsequently rejected. Unfortunately I didn’t receive any feedback. It was almost like getting a standard rejection letter for an initial submission.

I also started a new wip, a young adult supernatural novel, which I’ve called To Breathe Again. It had a slow start but I decided to spend a few days over the Jubilee weekend at a writer’s retreat in Sheepwash, Devon, run by the lovely Deborah Dooley and her husband. I spent three blissful days at their lovely thatched cottage. For once I could write without interruption, either in my room at the desk that overlooked the village square, or in front of the open fire, whilst Debs fed me and fellow guests throughout. I came away from Sheepwash having written c.15,000 words. My only regret was that I could not stay longer, and do not know when I’ll have the chance to return.

And then this weekend, I attended the Winchester Writers Conference for the first time.

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It's been a while since my last post but I've been quiet for a reason. After experiencing my first full rejection of Delve, I've been working on a major re-edit of the manuscript taking into account the feedback from said agent. And in doing so I've now transformed what was a steady 127,000 word manuscript into a much faster, pacier manuscript coming in at just under 95,000 words.

So how did I go about it and what did I learn?

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It's been a while since my last blog, but by no means does it mean that I've been idle.

The last few weeks have produced both lows and highs. My lowest point came when I experienced my first rejection of the full Delve manuscript. That I'd got to the point of being asked for the full validated my believe in Delve and when the response came it wasn't the one that I'd pinned my hopes on. The agent in question gave mea some really good feedback saying that the manuscript was too long at 126,000 words, slowing the pace, and that for a first time YA author I should be aiming at 65,000 to 75,000 words. The good news was that the story, the characters weren't the issue, so I knew that I'd got the formula right, but needed to kill my darlings to make it pacier. I bounced back the next day and began to work on the re-edit of Delve to cut the length, and up the pace.

And in amongst it all, I heard from a fellow Writewords member that there was a conference about to take place arranged by the Verulam's Writers Circle where attendees would get a chance to pitch there novels to agents and editors in the business. Well I couldn't miss such an opportunity. I had two completed manuscripts - Delve, my urban fantasy, young adult paranormal novel, and x3 (previously titled The Curse), a chilling adult supernatural horror. I decided to pitch both, and spent the weeks running up to the conference making sure that I had samples for both (consisting of a synopsis plus first three chapters). With the re-edit on Delve, my first three chapters needed pace, and x3 needed to be dragged from first draft to a standard worthy of submission.

The Get Writing 2012 conference took place yesterday, 11th February 2012, at Hatfield University. There were the usual talks and seminars, all very well organised, but it was the afternoon that made it for me, having the chance to try and pitch my work. That and meeting fellow writeworders, Sharley, Astrea, Petal, Helen Black, as well as Judy, Nurgs and other writers. A short gaggle of witches was how Sharley's husband described us I believe, any my fellow coven members were all so lovely and down to earth.


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After a well earned break of sorts, one that saw me restless and writing both a short story, and trying to tackle something of a plan for the rest of the Delve series, I’ve started to get down words for the second book in the series, aptly named Evolve. I always think of a tag line for each of my novels, something to capture the essence of the book, and to keep me on the straight and narrow as I write it. This one is simple – Rowan’s powers begin to evolve, but she soon learns that she can’t save everyone, not even those close to her heart.

Having said that, it’s my first time tackling a sequel and whilst I have a rough outline in mind which no doubt will develop along the way, I’m pondering over the whole area of sequels and the temptation to ‘tell’ i.e. to reveal backstory from Delve so that anyone picking up the second book without reading the first will have some idea of how Rowan, my main character, and the rest of the crew got to the point that they’re now at

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Finally I can say that I've actually to stuck to one my New Year's resolution. On 2nd January, I set myself the challenge of finishing the first draft of 'The Curse' (working title). I'd already pushed my way through December to 40k words, but the challenge was to finish the rest of the manuscript in 9 days. At an average of 5,000 words per day, I saw it as a tough but achievable challenge. After all, I have a demanding full time job as well as a family. Of course, I could have used that as an excuse, but I didn't.


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Well my Twelve Days of Christmas challenge floundered right around Christmas Eve. The bottles of plonk sitting under the stairs, and the obscene amount of food that we buy every year and then wonder why, lured me away from the laptop.

Still for a novel that I began in July of last year, and which had only reached 17,000 words by December, I found that the fact that I'd laid the gauntlet down to myself spurred me that much further on. I managed 15,307 words in total over 5 days which is almost as much as I'd done in 6 months!


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I thought it would be tough to meet today's wordcount target of 5,000 words, but as soon as I got into the flow of the story, it flew from my fingers onto the keyboard. And I thoroughly enjoyed today's challenge - from dealing with switching viewpoints as well as timeframes, to developing my characters further, and finding new sides to them.

I beat my wordcount challenge once again, but this time by 14 little words. So total wordcount today was 5,014 words, and I punched it out in roughly under 4 hours, averaging at over 1,000 words an hour. I still need to speed it up a bit, although sometimes that raises the inevitable question of speed vs. quality.

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I re-engineered my previous schedule, and started afresh today as the fourth day of Christmas with a target of 4,000 words. I knew it would be tough, my biggest daily wordcount challenge so far, and that I'd get little time or peace to do it. So I started with my hour's lunch at work, twenty minutes while I waited in the reception at my local GP practice, finished off with 2 hours uninterrupted tonight, and I've done it! And in fact, I've not only met my wordcount challenge for the day but I've exceeded it.

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After failing to gain a foothold yesterday, I feel I'm getting back on track. I managed 2,037 words tonight and whilst I procrastinated at the beginning, I soon found my pace. So although I've the challenge so far has seen me slip and the stutter, I've managed in total 6,575 words in the last 8 days, but I'm roughly 4 days behind where I should be.

My plan now that I've found my pace again is to treat tomorrow as Day 4 of the challenge and to attempt 4,000 words. It's a big leap from what I've done, but I won't get any words down unless I set my sights high.

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I tried to get a foot hold, but I'm obviously wearing the wrong footwear tonight. Only managed 441 words and god was it painful! I'm tired, and just not feeling it tonight, so I'll try again tomorrow.