Until 2016...

Wishing you a happy Christmas/Solstice/winter break/Hogmanay/birthday - and anything else you may like to celebrate.

Will you be making the most of seasonal inspiration and writing Christmas stories for next year, or sending your imagination into long, warm days and conjuring up something to submit early next year? Maybe you'll read instead, or take a complete break from the printed word. Have fun however you spend your time.

Best wishes for 2016.

Just to say ...

My romantic novel Escape to the Country is currently available for 99p/99c. Offer ends on the 21st.

I do try not to post too annoyingly often about me and my writing here. Those of you who're interested in what I'm up to can find the details on the news page of my website.

Changes at My Weekly

After 45 1/2 years of working in fiction, LizSmith, fiction editor at My Weekly has decided to retire. She'll leave on December 18th.

I'm sure I'm not the only person who'll miss her.  Liz always responded to every submission (although as a one woman fiction team she did have to restrict these) giving reasons for any rejection and often suggesting improvements to the story.

Last year I was lucky enough to meet Liz in person and if anything she's even nicer than she seems online.

Best wishes for the future, Liz!

Liz's replacement is Karen Byrom, who has worked for DC Thomson for thirty years.

Hello, Karen. I, and many others I'm sure, look forward to working with you.

Update

It seems I may have jumped the gun, or jumped to conclusions with my last post. Possibly both! Katherine Davison is still with That's Life Fast Fiction and it seems Judie Durrant is dealing with fiction for the weekly magazine. If I find out more, I'll update the update!

I don't have a photo of me jumping anything, but here's one of me standing near a gun (taken by my boss at the time as we were actually working and absolutely definitely not having a snowball fight).

News from Down Under

Thanks to Alan Williams for an update on That's Life in Australia. There is now a new person in charge of fiction - Judie Durrant.

When work is accepted, new author agreements will be sent out for signature. If they're the same ones as can currently be found on the website with the guidelines, there doesn't seem to be any change. Do PLEASE read it through and be sure you understand and agree before signing though. The same thing applies to any other agreement or contract any publisher may send out.