2nd Opinion on My Entry to a Young Adult Fiction Competion.

I whittled my entry into the young adult fiction competition down to 5,000 words. The novel is multi-cultural. To make sure someone unfamiliar with some of the customs  in the first chapter understood them, I asked another author, who visited my house today, to read the first chapter while we drank tea. He really liked it,  and the hook in the first paragraph intrigued him so much that he wanted to know how the plot would be resolved at the end of the novel. Phew! I felt a little more confident so I edited and revised 2,500 words.
www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

Children's Fiction Competition

A long time ago I wrote a multi-cultural young adult novel. However, it is only 30,000 words long so I thought there would not be a market for it. So, while browsing Writing Magazine's 2016 Competition Special I was delighted to find Times/Chicken House Children's Fiction Comp for full-length novels, 30,000 words suitable for readers 7-18. So, I am revising the novel and plan to enter it in the competition.
www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

Turning off My Internal Editor

During today's tea break read an article in Writing Magazine. It is A Novel in A Month by Steven Chapman. The topic is the annual NANoWriMo challenge about getting 50,000 words in a month.

I am still resisting the urge to revise and edit each chapter of Tuesday's Child before I finish the first draft, so I found the following of particular interest.

"By beating your inner editor into submission you'll soon realise how good a writer you actually are. It sounds contradictory but without that nagging voice beating your every move, you'll focus on plot and character development rather than fussing over the finer details."

Historical Novelis
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Don't Lose The Plot

edited and revised. Now that I am writing my new novel, Tuesday's Child, I want to finish the first draft as quickly as possible. I don't plan to edit and revise until I complete it. However, since I'm writing so quickly I'm afraid of losing the plot, so I've decided to backtrack and record the main events in each chapter. This means that even if I resist the temptation to edit and revise I need to read what have written and make a few notes. If anyone else I meet implies that writing is easy or that it is a nice little hobby I'll want to strangle the person.

Historical Novelist
www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

Writing Tuesday's Child

I'm pleased with myself. I woke three quarters of an hour later than usual at 6.45 a.m. It's now 9 20 a.m. and I've dealt with daily, morning 'writerly' business and written over 1000 words of my new novel, Tuesday's Child a sweet Regency Romance.

Flash Fcition Competition

I enjoyed yesterday evening at Watford Writers. There were some excellent entries in the flash fiction competition, the theme of which was the Wrong Room.

I didn't expect to win a prize for my piece which I wrote in haste simply to participate. It is called Five Star Accommodation. A woman is made welcome at a hotel where everything is white. Her clothes are in her room but her knitting is not there. Bored she searches for some books. In the drawer by her bed she finds a pamphlet. The header is: Welcome To Hell. She is in the wrong room at the wrong time and plans to lodge a complaint.

In other words her hell is boredom in a pristine hotel.

Flash Fiction

I'm looking forward to attending this evening's meeting of Watford Writers. Those who wish to have been asked to write and enter anonymous flash fiction. The theme is Wrong Room. The word length is between 250 and 275 words. More often than not, I am too busy to compete in flash fiction at Watford Writers. owever, although I don't expect to win I've written my Wrong Room tale with a twist at the end and chose a title for it. Members will read copies of all the entries and enter a score of 1 - 10 on a tick sheet. There are 1st, 2nd and 3rd prizes for the stories with the three highest scores.

Research & Writing Historical Fiction

I had decided to complete the first draft of my new novel, Tuesday's Child, a traditional Regency Novel, without pausing to research. Until yesterday I put a word in bold to remind me to research a fact when I work on the second draft. Having made that decision I decided on the minimum number of words I should write every day in order to finish the first draft by mid December. Yesterday, the current chapter didn't evolve according to plan. I spent most of the time dedicated to writing researching essential facts and failed to complete my self-imposed number of words. That is annoying because it's so difficult to find time to catch up when I don't reach my targets. If I had a report card I would enter :'Must try harder.'

Sunday's Child by Rosemary Morris Back Cover

Sunday’s Child By Rosemary Morris

A Sweet Regency Novel

Back Cover

 

Georgianne Whitley’s beloved father and brothers died in the war against Napoleon Bonaparte. While she is grieving for them, she must deal with her unpredictable mother’s sorrow, and her younger sisters’ situation caused by it.

 Georgianne’s problems increase when the arrogant, wealthy but elderly Earl of Pennington, proposes marriage to her for the sole purpose of being provided with an heir. At first she is tempted by his proposal, but something is not quite right about him. She rejects him not suspecting it will lead to unwelcome repercussions.

 Once, Georgianne had wanted to marry an army officer. Now, she decides never to marry ‘a military man’ for fear he will be killed on the battlefield. However, Georgianne still dreams of a happy marriage before unexpected violence forces her to relinquish the chance to participate in a London Season sponsored by her aunt.

 Shocked and in pain, Georgianne goes to the inn where her cousin Sarah’s step-brother, Major Tarrant, is staying, while waiting for the blacksmith to return to the village and shoe his horse. Recently, she has been reacquainted with Tarrant—whom she knew when in the nursery—at the vicarage where Sarah lives with her husband Reverend Stanton.

 The war in the Iberian Peninsula is nearly at an end so, after his older brother’s death, Tarrant, who was wounded, returns to England where his father asks him to marry and produce an heir.

 To please his father, Tarrant agrees to marry, but due to a personal tragedy he has decided never to father a child.

 When Georgianne, arrives at the inn, quixotic Tarrant sympathises with her unhappy situation. Moreover, he is shocked by the unforgivably brutal treatment she has suffered.

 Full of admiration for her beauty and courage Tarrant decides to help Georgianne.

 Available from MuseItUp Publishing, Amazon Kindle, Nook, Omlit, Bookstrand Mainstream, Kobo and elsewhere.

To read the first three chapters and view the book trailer please visit: www.rosemarymorris.co.uk

 

Early Morning Service & Weeding

I attended early morning service and returned home feeling cheerful. After a glass of water and a snack, I worked in the garden. I cleared a flower bed of grass and weeds, and found a space for one of the hollyhocks planted from seed and debated whether or not to dig up the geraniums in the bed, pot them up and put them in the greenhouse. Usually, they survive over winter in my greenhouse.

Novelist's List of Things To Do

I like to be as organised as possible. Writing and 'writerly' activities 6 a.m. to 10 a.m., even if I break off mid-sentence at 10 a.m.when drafting my new novel,Tuesday's Child a sweet Regency romance, and between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. Mind you, the hours are not set in concrete but I do write etc., nearly almost every day.

Lists help me to plan what I'm going to do. I have three lists titled, Urgent, Necessary and non-urgent. At the moment I have the following on my lists. Complete 30,000 words of my novel by the 30th September. Complete 60,000 words by the 31st October. Write a blog for Love Romance Cafe, which will be published in mid-October. Learn more about Amazon alogorithms and social media. Add my author's page to amazon.ca. And various other 'writerly' matters.

On today's urgent list. Sow the broad bean seeds which have been soaking in water overnight and also sow rocket outdoors. Cover the turnip and radish seedlings with fleece because an animal - probably a fox - dug a hole at the end of the rows. Plant green and purple basil in pots and stand the pots on the heated propagator. Make spiced vinegar for beetroot pickle made with beetroots from the garden which I have already cooked - this is on my urgent list but it won't take long.

However, lists are not infallible. Yesterday, one of the most urgent things on my shopping list was sugar because I plan to make more marrow and ginger jam spiced with cardamon, and some apple butter with windfalls this week. I forgot to buy the sugar and had to pop into the corner shop to buy some before I attended my 14 year-old grandson's birthday.

Gardening Organically & Cooking

Beautiful day here in S. E. England, so I took advantage of it. I sowed winter lettuce in a trough in the greenhouse, and also sowed land cress, mizuna and rocket in trays. I use home made compost and add liquid manure to it i.e. chicken manure steeped in water. A couple of days ago I boiled rosehips and cooking apples until they were soft. I then left the mixture to strain through a jelly bag. I didn't have time to make the jelly so I put the liquid in the fridge. Today, I m...ade the jelly. Phew, it's always difficult to judge when the fruit has set. I also made macaroni cheese and cooked potato, carrots and runner beans from the garden for lunch. For desert I had stewed Bramley Apples - the apples from the garden. Then, with a little time left over I made scones to have with butter and homemade jam before I give my daughter a hand with her children this evening. All in all a very satisfying morning.

Where Do You Find Ideas For Your Novels

When someone asks me: Where do you get the ideas for your historical fiction?:  I reply that reading historical non fiction often triggers an idea. For example, while reading about James I's flight from England, I sympathised with noblemen whose honour did not allow them to swear an oath of allegiance first to his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, who ascended his throne, and, after their deaths, to his daughter Anne during his life. I asked myself what the effect of their refusal would be on their children. With the plot an theme in mind, I imagined the hero and heroine and their circumstances. Next I named them. Finally I filled in detailed character profiles. When they were completed I wrote the first sentence of Tangled Love. I find lengthy character profiles for major characters and shorter ones for minor characters very useful to refer to as I write. Instead of pausing to consider, for example, who their parents are or where they went to school I already the answers. However, this doesn't mean they can't surprise me.

Growing Tomatoes

At last, a sunny day after several chilly, rainy days. I took advantage of it after I completed the self-imposed quota of words for my new novel.  I sowed a row of radish seeds and then cut off the foliage on the tomato plants in the front garden so that the plants would put all their energy into the fruit.. Short of time earlier in the year I planted the pot grown tomatoes in the front garden, but from then on did not have time to nurture them. More recently I discovered masses of tomatoes on the plants that were sprawled over the ground. I shoved stakes into the earth and tied the plants to them. Today I picked a few ripe ones. Hopefully, more will ripen before the first frost is forecast. If they do, I'll have the best harvest I've ever had and might stop growing any in the green house. Cross fingers the crop won't be ruined by tomato blight. I think I'll make a tomato sandwich to eat at teatime.

Productive Day

Very productive day. Off to a good start with the novel when everything fell into place as I wrote. I might hate it when I revise, but for now I'm pleased. Early in the day the sun shone so I decided to sow radishes and winter lettuce after I finished working on the novel. To my annoyance it poured with rain. Housebound, I made five pounds of apple chutney. I also simmered rosehips and apples to make rosehip jelly. The juice is now dripping through a jelly bag.

Missing Heroine

I worked on my novel for longer than usual. Afterwards something niggled at the back of my mind while I collected a prescription from the doctor's surgery, had it filled in at the chemist and then withdrew some money from the bank. I hurried home to greet son number two whose birthday is today. Off we went to my favourite vegetarian restaurant, Sakonis, in Harrow. As usual the food was delicious. While enjoying both the meal and my son's company, I realised what was wrong the part I wrote this morning. The hero attends a dinner at his parents' house to which, I realised, the heroine should have been invited. Tomorrow, much to her relief and my own she will be there.

Almost Wasted Day

Apart from being on target with my new novel, today has been unsatisfactory.  Yesterday I went for a deep tissue massage. This morning when I woke I ached all over and some of my joints hurt. Nevertheless, I forced myself to make a birthday cake for son number two. I tried a vegan recipe in this month's edition of Asda's free magazine. It includes maple syrup, dates and pecans. The flavour is delicious but the cake is heavy. I weighed all the ingredients carefully, followed the instructions and backed it in a pre-heated oven. After lunch, because the after effects of the deep tissue massages always make me tired on the following day I continued reading Mary Called Magdalene by Margaret George and then had a nap.

Nature's Bounty

After a weekend at my youngest son's house I brought home four pounds of blackberries picked in the woods behind his house. I also came back with a couple of pounds of rosehips from his garden with which I shall make either rosehip syrup or jelly. In addition to the blackberries and rosehips I brought home a large bag of apples from his garden. Added to those from my four apple trees if they store well I'll be lucky. Unfortunately, the internet service at my son's house is  pedestrian.  Yesterday, I was busy so I did not post any messages. Today I got on with writing Tuesday's Child before making four pounds of blackberry and apple jam, after which I went for a deep tissue massage.  Tomorrow, as the masseuse suggested I should take things easy.

Tuesday's Child - Introducing the Back Story

My new sweet Regency Novel is a follow on novel from Sunday's Child published by MuseItUpPublishing. The heroine is one of the characters in Sunday's Child. It is essential to include some of her back story. Although I didn't intend revise the novel until I finished the first draft I realised that I needed another way to present the back story to the reader. After worrying about it while I wrote 22,600 words, I realised the best thing to do would be to write a prologue with the relevant, but amended, text taken from Sunday's Child. I drafted the prologue this morning and think I've solved the problem.

Writing a New Novel - New Technique

This is the first time that I have written the first draft of a novel without revising and editing each chapter after I have finished it. It is also the first time that I have not researched details as I write. For example I referred to a child riding a pony and wrote pony in bold. When I revise the novel I will research ponies and name the breed which he is riding. I am nervous, but if I can stick to my target to write a set number of words every day the first draft of my novel, Tuesday's Child, which will be approximately, 95,000 words, should be finished in late December or early January. At the moment real life has intervened so I'm 1,800 words behind, and this weekend I'm visiting my youngest son and his children. Hopefully, I will manage to fit in some writing.