Monday 23 May 2016

Such a shame

I was pleased to see two short stories in the UK That's Life Summer special. Don't get too excited though as I contacted them and was told by smeone in reader's services that they've had a change of policy and won't be continuing with the fiction. Sigh.

Who makes these decisions and why - and is there anything we can do to convince them that readers do want fiction in their magazines?

Tuesday 17 May 2016

The tears of an editor

This comment appears with my story 'Letting Go' in the 31st May issue of Woman's Weekly. The feedback I got from Clare (assistant fiction editor) was that it nearly made her and Gaynor Davies cry. Very shortly before I'd had a different story rejected for being too sad. It's hard to get the balance right, isn't it?

Do you like writing or reading tear-jerkers?

Got any thoughts on what makes a story a tear-jerker in a good way, rather than being depressing?

Monday 2 May 2016

Shhhh

OK, this isn't strictly (or at all) womag, but I'm hoping that if I type really quietly, I'll get away with it ... My novel Paint Me A Picture is on sale this week for 99p / 99c.

It's one of those hard to describe, not really in any genre books. It's not historical, romance, erotica, fantasy or action. I could almost call it 'coming of age' except the lead character is 53. There are deaths, a police presence and inquest, but it's not exactly a crime story. I wish 'books with lots of food in' was a genre, because that'd fit all my novels.

Just to bring a hint of womag to this post, here's a link to another of my books which does contain a couple of womag stories and which is FREE.