Being Jealous of Wooding

It's been almost a month! Argh!

Though luckily few things have happened. Chapters 24-26 are ready to be polished. Much was changed but what is now there feels streamlined and tight. Roll on 27-30!

Steve from RevolutionSF responded to a prod I gave him (they've had No Longer Living for five months now). He said that he remembered my story (hurray!) but thought that he had already replied (oh) but may have passed it onto Matt (hurray?). That was last week and I haven't heard back since. So, hopefully, that means their taking it seriously.

The same goes for Joe at Something Wicked, who have had Of The Father for seven months now. He assures me it is top of the pile, so I should hear from them soon too. Exciting!

At the moment, I am being relatively jealous of author Chris Wooding. First novel written at 16, agent by 18, published at 19. The jealousy that courses through me right now, you could bottle it. And I'm looking forward to his new book Retribution Falls. Grrrrr. I hate writers that I can't help but like.

Well, actually I don't. Good for him. I'm just jealous of his success. I'd like me some of that.

Here's hoping!

Thanks for reading.

Remembering

At the moment I'm remembering that there's a lot to remember about writing.

I have to remember that I'm allowed to write in short, descriptive sentences, not every one of them has to be some perfectly crafted epitome of the English language. Even Terry Pratchett (well down on the knighthood, old boy) spends most of his time just writing what he sees in his head, not fussing that the sentence is too simple. If it works it works.

I'm still working on Act Two. April will be a year I've been working on it and I'm getting sick of it. Felt I should have a finished novel by now, or be close to one at least. I might have been too fussy with it, trying to hard, but I think I might like what I have now and if I don't, well then I don't think I'm going to produce any better. I've got to stick with what my brain has given me. Neil Gaiman and other authors often talk of how the story in their head wasn't the same as the one that emerged on the page. I have to remember that too.

More practically, since I'm working on the middle of the book I have to remember everything that came before in Act One and what will happen in Act Three. Maybe this is simply the hardest part of the novel. I can't wait to get started on Act Three. I want this all to be finished so I can find out how this ends.

In the end, even if I keep working hard and produce a novel written to the best of my ability, it still doesn't mean I'll get published. All it takes is for a handful of people in charge to not like it or have schedules too full or have someone too tired to really read it and reject it and it's out. Luck counts for a lot and it counts for everyone. I have to remember that too.

Still nothing on the magazine front. I really want to be published soon, just a little wink from someone that I'm on the right track. For all I know a lot of people are rejecting me for one reason, like I over-describe or that my stories are too cliched and I'll never know that, so I might just be wasting my time. An idiot doesn't know he's an idiot, right?

Anyway, chin up. I'll just keep plugging away and hope for the best. All I can do is my best.

Thanks for reading.

To Write or not to Write?

A productive week has gone by, I feel.

I finished the latest go on Act Two and put it away for a bit, allowing the dust time to settle before I look at it again. There's a lot I want to change but I want to see how the changes I've just made settle into the story first.

To keep my mind occupied, I've made another pass on my new short story, The Old Factory Awards, and written the fast draft of Kids Today, which came out rather spiffing, I'd say. What I'm going to do tomorrow, I have no idea. I might try writing another story but I don't want to end up with a massive backlog of unfinished stories when I go back to the novel. Or do I? I don't want to take a break, I'm enjoying myself but a lot of unfinisheds can be irksome.

Anyway, it's been nice working on some new pieces for a while.

Friend Rob read The Old Factory Awards. He said he liked it, thought it was clever, enjoyed many lines from it and thought the beginning needed tidying up. I agree with him on that last one, at least. I don't know if I'm getting better or he's getting softer on me. Oh, how I long for some harsh criticism just to reassure me that I'm actually quite good and the people who read my stuff aren't just being polite!

No magazines have got back to me yet. Damn. I'm getting itchy. Nothing makes me feel better then sending something off. It beats waiting.

Anyway.

Thanks for reading.

Life on the Fast Lane

I can only apologise for missing last week's post.

Luckily, there is little to report these past two weeks. Things have been progressing very nicely with the novel with chapters 21 - 25 now complete (until draft three, that is). I still have niggling feeling about them. There's still a lot of stuff I want to put in on the theme but I think any more might be too much, these things need a delicate touch, I fancy.

All stories are still with magazines, especially hopeful about RevolutionSF and F&SF, either one of those on my credits will be a godsend.

Should check my logs and see when I sent Of The Father to Something Wicked. They did say they have a long response time but maybe I should just double check. Hmmmm.

Anyway, back to work.

Thanks for reading.

First you get the credit

For those of you that kept up with the Waterstone's What's Your Story competition, it was a surprise to no one that I didn't win. I did quite like the winners, especially The Day a Robot Appeared in the Vegetable Patch.

But, I did promise to post up my entry on the blog if I didn't win, so you'll be able to find it at the bottom.

The novel is still going. Really tired of it at the moment. "What? It needs even more work?" I cry. I really, really, really want to work on something else but I really, really, really shouldn't. Yes, there's still a lot of work to be done, yes, I could never get a penny from it in the end. But it needs to be done. I just need to man up and slog on.

Of The Father is now going to Revolution SF. I went through a long list of mags suggested by the Horror Writers Association, starting with the pro mags, then the pro zines, then the semi-pro mags, then the semi-pro zines. I judged all the ones I thought might like Of The Father on the following criteria a) who else have they published? b) How much do they pay? c) does the mag look good?

Revolution SF pays nothing and looks, well it's just text on a screen pretty much, but they have published Gene Wolfe in the past and it's kudos like that I'm looking for. Cash is nice but it's credit I need, I just hope cash will one day follow.

Anyway, here is the story. I hope you enjoy.

*Ahem*

Paperbound

By Grey Freeman

I was waiting for you to leave, a small smile touching my lips as I watch the last of you switch off the lights, slipping the bookshop back into dark velvet.

The books began to talk; the sports biographies catcalling from their shelves, wolf whistling to the blushing romance novels.

My friends, the children’s books, whisper “DON’T!” as I sneak out from between my pages and the shop falls into horrified silence as my pen begins to murmur across the card left behind on the dark shop counter.

It is not our place, we books, to create. Ours is to perform, to re-enact our stories for you again and again. But tonight, I am free to read and to imagine. While you are gone, I am free to write.

Back on Track

My internet was down last week, hence no blog.

Which is nice since I didn't have much to say last week.

This week however has been a good one. The novel feels like it's back on track. I completely stormed it this weekend and got lots done and I'm feeling my usual happy self again.

I was rejected by Murky Depths, yesterday, which is a shame. They said it was good and that I'd done a fine job getting into the head of the main character but they're not looking for a story like it in that length. Or as Roy Walker would have put it "It's Good But It's Not Good Enough."

I think the problem is that though I am now good enough to be published, I am not published enough to be published.

Which makes my next piece of news very contradictory as I am being published. Twisted Tongue got back to me and said that they would love to publish me. Aces. I shall be in their August issue and if I make editor's choice I'll get £10! Hurrah! I'm happy more for the kudos of course, to have one publishing credential on my covering letter shall be a right feather in my cap and no mistake and editor's choice would be even nicer.

They've asked for a short bio but I meekly requested to hold off until I find out whether or not I can also put Waterstones WYS competition winner. Let's see people talk that Roy Walker smack at me if I win that!

Right, I'm off to bed. A friend was kind enough to get me a copy of The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman (out in October *scoff* *scoff*). I'm really enjoying it, the beginning was excellent but I'm only two chapters in. I shall report more next week.

Thanks for reading,

signed

Grey Freeman (soon-to-be-published-author *scoff* scoff*)

The Form and The Function

It's been all about the desk clearing, this week.

I've had so much on my plate with adminy type things to do that I've been finding it difficult to concentrate on the novel. I suppose being a writer does involve some small amount of paper work but where's the justice in that? I'm meant to be sitting pontificating over a big mug of tea creating believable characters and worlds not writing the covering letters and synopsise to go with them!

Well, that's exactly what I've had to do. So a couple of days were put aside writing covering letters for Earworm Turns and RWBW to send with my submissions. I really don't like writing synopsise, feels like you're sucking the life right out a story exactly when you need it most. This was especially difficult for Earworm Turns as the concept is really quite simple. Man hears song on tube, thinks its the best thing he's eve heard, goes mad trying to find it. See? Not exciting at all but it makes sense if you actually read it!

Anyway, they're done now. Earworm Turns is off with Interzone. RWBW hasn't gone to Cemetery Dance yet as they insist on you sending an SAE complete with US stamps. Of course, you can't get US stamps in the UK and USPS (which the mag suggests) no longer post stamps outside the US. So, I'm asking a favour of a friend from work to bring some back for me after she's gone to Boston. (Thanks Audrey!)

I did get a little break, however. Waterstones is doing a big writing competition 'What's Your Story' where you submit a very short story on one of their special postcards.
If you win you'll have the story printed in a small book of postcards alongside some big authors who have done the same: Neil Gaiman, JK Rowling, Nick Hornby, Margaret Atwood and such and runners up have their cards displayed in the shop windows nationwide.

So, I've already written my entry but I've been obsessing over how to present it. Shall I handwrite it? Type it up and stick it to a card, submit electronically?
I think the story in itself is fine but for something so short (134 words) it needs a little more atmosphere; more form. So I went through all the fonts on Word and chose the one that looks like it a) was written by hand because my handwriting is rubbish b) looks like it was written in pen and c) makes capital letters look bigger than lowercase letters.

I chose Freestyle Script in the end and I'll send it off next week after people I've sent it to give me back comments. If I don't win I'll post up the story on the blog. Can't say fairer that that!

As for the novel, I'm really not enjoying it still. Finding it really hard to get to grips with it. I'm hoping that now all the adminy things that needed doing are done it'll free up some headspace and I'll be able to dedicate myself more fully to it again. I'm printing it off now to get a different perspective on it. *Sigh* I think we need some kind of marriage counsellor.

Well, that's all from me!

Thanks for reading.

All in front like a wheelbarrow

Well, what is there to say?

Still editing the first few chapters of Act Two. It's going well. Think I'm a bit faster at the whole process now I know what I'm doing.

Rob returned the first chapter of Act One, complete with scribbled notes. The gist is 'the story is fine, just needs a polish' which I knew already. Quite a relief, really.

The Earworm Turns is now complete and I'll send that off to Interzone sometime in the next week after I've written a good enough covering letter. Finding that a bit difficult as it really is quite a simple premise and I don't think it sounds interesting unless you actually read it (and even then, I'm not so sure).

Murky Depths got back to me after I sent them the synopsis for Of The Father. They said they would like to see it. The Managing Editor even remembered I'd sent in something before but he suggested that I give Of The Father one last look through and see if I could cut it down before sending it as he thought that RWBW was a little overlong. I was a little miffed at that. I'd spent all that time editing it in the first place and he thought it still might need more? So I looked the story through; 1,400 words came out. It was a whole scene that came out plus about three other sentences. Anyway, that's been sent.

I also gave RWBW another look through before I send it to Cemetery Dance (again with a covering letter, I hate covering letters). About 700 words came out of that as well.

I suppose that's what editors are for. To make us writers look good.

So, hopefully, I'll be getting an acceptance for something soon.

Here's hoping.

Thanks for reading.

Finely Polished Words, in the pursuit of

A slightly late post this week.

It's been a fairly busy week this week. After the initial flurry of activity editing Act Two has frankly become a bit of a bitch. It's like starting a roll of sticky tape; I've just been skimming the surface unable to get my nail back underneath where it needs to be. It's getting easier, however, and I'm slowly getting back into it as I go.

I've written in new scenes I thought were needed, there's one I'm not sure will remain, there's a good chance it will get cut. Truth is I've never been sure about it, it breaks the flow of the story a little, I feel, but I really like the message it gives, I enjoy its juxtaposition with the status quo of the rest of the story, how human it is. So right now it has to stay until I either a) give in and delete it regardless or b) manage to fit the message in a different way. So that means it's just a massive A4 post-it note reminding me to try and get that message in.

In other news RWBW was rejected again. This time by Future Fire who said (and I quote):

"This was a well-written and convincing horror story, with nicely fleshed out characters and clever, well-paced narrative; the finale was especially chilling. However, the theme and content are not really what we are looking for in the magazine."

So that's 2 mags that loved the ending to 1 that hated it. A victory to me (for now).

That's all there is to report really this week. All there is left to do is copy and paste this section from Neil Gaiman's blog (link here to the full thing) which I found especially comforting and useful about the second draft stage.

"On the second and subsequent drafts, you do four things. 1) You fix the things that didn't work as best you can (if you don't like the climactic Rock City scene in American Gods, trust me, the first draft was so much worse). 2) You reinforce the themes, whether they were there from the beginning or whether they grew like Topsy on the way. You take out the stuff that undercuts those themes. 3) You worry about the title. 4) At some point in the revision process you will probably need to remind yourself that you could keep polishing it infinitely, that perfection is not an attribute of humankind, and really, shouldn't you get on with the next thing now?"

Thanks for reading.

A Weekend of Two Halves

I'm completely shattered.

Camden Crawl was a real blast and I had a really good time running around seeing bands, celeb spotting, drinking, dancing and laughing with a good crowd of friends.

Managed to get some writing done. The redrafting of Earworm is going very well and I should hopefully manage to finish it by next week.

I received two rejections from magazines this weekend. Here's the first:

Dear Mr Freeman,

Thank you for submitting "RWBW" but I'm afraid I'm going to pass on it. This tale didn't grab my interest, I'm afraid. Good luck to you with this one, and thanks for sending it our way.

Sincerely,

Fantasy and Science Fiction

A bit harshly worded I'm sure you would agree but this was word for word the same as their last rejection so it sounds like their standard message.

Here's the second one:

Dear Graeme,

Many thanks for submitting 'Of The Father' for consideration by The Future Fire. We enjoyed this story very much, but have regretfully decided not to take it for publication.

Although this is a very moving, convincing, and well-crafted horror story with an ominous and poignant twist developing gradually (rather than slapping the reader in the face at the end as many cheap and patronising stories do), ultimately it is not quite in the social/political vein that we are looking for in The Future Fire at the moment. This is not a criticism of the story, and we hope very much that you will consider sending us more of your work in the future, as I strongly suspect we will find something appropriate that we can use one day.

Many thanks again, and hope to hear from you again.

Regards,

The Future Fire

Much more encouraging. I read this one over a few times. So what now? Easy. RWBW will go to Future Fire (once I've double-checked their submission requirements) and Murky Depths have started asking for stories up to 10,000 words long so I'll send Of the Father to them. Brilliant.

Back to work.

So much for make-believe

I have to give it to them, Shimmer Magazine were very quick to respond when I sent them RWBW. I only wish that they had accepted it. Editor Beth sent it back with the comment

"I've read quite a few stories where priests consider their faith; it's really hard to make such a classic story feel fresh."

A fair enough comment, I suppose. If that's how she felt about my story then that's how she felt. It was only to be expected as they have a long list of things that they don't want to see which will make me scrutinise their magazine much harder next time to find out exactly what it is they do want. They seem awfully picky (would I be saying that had they accepted? Perhaps not.).

The worrying thing about the comment, I guess, is that her comment which can be summarised as 'your story isn't original' is near the opposite of what Murky Depths said about the same story 'fairly original,' (or something).

It's strange having my work getting such mixed comments, so which of them is right? It's bringing a lot of worries to the surface about the novel. How will agents and editors look at it and decide whether it's good enough? All these writing tips pages say to get it as good as you can. But how good do they mean? I can keep writing and fixing and drafting but will it still get rejected if it has, say, 15 minor errors like typos and misplaced punctuation? Will it then get rejected, commentless, leaving me to wonder why it got rejected when all it needs is a slightly better copy edit rather than an extensive rewrite? Is it like a driving test? One major mistake or fifteen minors and you fail?

I can only try my best in the end but still it's causing me some concern at the moment. Plus, as each rejection comes and goes I'm becoming less and less enamoured with the stories doing the rounds at the moment and I don't think the next batch are any good either. Maybe the third generation shorts will have potential....

Oh well, bugger it. Back to work.

Thanks for reading.

So that was Easter

I blinked and I missed it!

Posting a little late this week, I spent the holiday at my parents. Nice to be with my family again and see a few friends I've not seen in a while, but I always get stressed because I don't have a writing nook, a little quiet sanctuary to hide away in when I need to get my writing done.

The novel is getting along, a few more chapters as good as I can make them for now. There are still a few scenes I'm not 100% on but hopefully if I look at them again in a few months I'll either have forgotten why I didn't like them or have come up with a solution. Anyway, I'm hoping Act One is almost finished (I mean it this time) and I'm looking forward to getting stuck into Act Two.

Weird Tales rejected me, perhaps I'm aiming too high submitting to these high-end mags... Nah, you gotta aim high otherwise what's the point? So RWBW has gone to Shimmer Magazine.

Only a quick post today. Things are simply ticking over.

Thanks for reading.

Too Hard?

Good morning!

At least it is while I write this.

I was having a lot of difficulty with editing recently. I was reading each line, cursing because I didn't think it was very good and then trying to exchange it for something better. It was all taking a very long time even to get a page done and I was absolutely exhausted by the end of it all.

Now here's a strange thing you didn't know about me; most of my epiphanies happen in the shower. When I was younger they happened when I was brushing my teeth, now its the shower. It's like my brains been working hard on something without consulting me and hands me the results with a rather self-satisfied smile on its face while I rub shampoo into my curly locks.

So here was the epiphany I had on Wednesday. I'm trying too hard. Editing needs a gentler touch than the one I've been giving it. I could sweat over a single sentence for hours over how Theo opens the door but I shouldn't be. If the sentence says clearly and concisely what needs to be said that's all that matters!

No matter what kind of story you're writing or whatever scene, horror, romance, comedy the sentences themselves don't matter. They need to be clear, of course, they need to give that crucial bit of info to create the image in the reader's head, but the horror or romance or comedy comes from the paragraphs, the story, not the sentences.

I recently finished reading Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay and there was one scene in particular that sent a chill down my spine. Now ask me to point out the one word or the one sentence that made that scene scary. I can't, of course I can't. It was the scene being described I found scary, the situation itself. I imagined myself in that situation (someone trying to break into your house while you're still inside, unable to see out the windows because your own reflection obscures the glass) and I got scared. That's how you write. That's how you make the reader feel what you want them to feel. Pretty, well chosen words are great and help to enhance but clear, well thought-over description beats all.

Right, with this newfound idea on editing and redrafting (which is working wonders) I have to go rewrite a few scenes.

Weird Tales still has my story RWBW. If they haven't got back to me by Wednesday I'll chase them. Also I'll be sending Of the Father to Shimmer magazine if I have time today.

Well, that's it from me.

No wait! I had a strange dream last night and the last thing I remember before my alarm woke me was a song. It had a kind of samba rhythm and the only lyric I recall was "I played my Xbox but it was a Kiss Box." Not the best lyric ever but it seems so... not like something I'd think I'm near convinced it's part of an actual song but can't find it anywhere on Google. Can anyone conform its real or am I just nuts?

Thanks for reading!

The Week Off

There is very much to be said in this whole 'having time off from work' thing.

Today, I managed to have a whole 5 hours writing done, making a significant dent in reading through Act One, wandered into town and had a look around, bought Stardust on DVD (which also ticks the box 'remember what it was to love') and booked an appointment at the dentist.

I know what you're thinking. 'Wow, Grey, stop before you give yourself a heartattack!' Well, I enjoyed it, so get stuffed!

The read through's going well, Now have 12 chapters behind me that I'm pretty damned pleased with and I think is actually in a state to be sent off to an agent.

I won't, of course, want to have the whole thing finished before I send it but it has given me a sense of accomplishment, which makes a nice change. There's still a long way to go yet but I am, at least, going.

Two of my friends have sent me info on short story competitions, which was very kind of them, always nice to be thought of. It's just a pity I don't have any stories within the word limits at the moment.

Interzone rejected a story. They're either very efficient or didn't read the story at all. They didn't even bother to write the full title of the story at the top of the formal, standard slip. Most vexing. I'll have to look into finding a new home for Of the Father, I for one think its quite good.

On the other hand I'm still waiting on hearing back from Weird Tales. In two days they'll have had it for a month and in my experience they are good with rejecting stuff after long enough to make you think they read it but promptly enough so you don't chase them. If they don't reply soon I might start getting excited and start hoping that they're liking it and giving it some hard thought towards publication. Murky Depths liked it, maybe Weird Tales like it better (please, please, please).

Anyhoo, back to enjoying my week off. I wonder if all this writing and no actual work is what it feels like to be a real writer. I'm guessing not but it's fun to pretend.

Thanks for reading!

The Subtle Art of Being Rejected

Mixed feelings today.

Those of you with the canniness to read the title of today's post can probably already hazard a guess about what I'm going to be talking about.

Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine rejected my story Of The Father with a semi-polite slip of paper informing me that the story didn't really 'grip them' but urging me to continue sending my stuff to them. Pretty standard fare for a rejection note really and it has been added to the pile.

Murky Depths then wrote in soon after to, this time by email, to tell me that they too were going to pass on a story I sent them, RWBW, but with a more interesting response.

A bit of background needed here, I think.

I sent Murky Depths the story Contract a few months before, they rejected it but the editor who took the time said 'You have a gift for dialogue and I'd like to see more of your work.' Very encouraging, I grinned for about a week and told anyone who would listen (that's a lie, I just told everyone) what they had said.

With RWBW I tried to Utilise My Contacts in the Industry and sent the story straight to that editor instead of to their submissions email address. A month went by and still I didn't hear anything, their promised response time is 4 weeks. I chased but still received no reply until I sent a strong worded email to their submissions email. Not too strong worded just a 'look guys, still not heard anything, going to have to assume its a no' type message.

I got a reply quite quickly from Terry Martin the Managing Editor telling me that I'd been wrong to send it straight to an editor and should use the submission email like everyone else. So much for utilising contacts, I thought, feeling a bit of a prick. He did say though that he was feeling kind and would put my story at the top of the slush pile and I would hear within the week what they're decision was. That was two weeks ago.

So now they've rejected me and the lateness was understandable as the email came from Terry himself with notes from some of the other editors as the story had been good enough to go around the desks and hadn't just fallen at the first hurdle.

Here's what they had to say:

"This is really good. Very tense, the ending unexpected. Though I'm not sure if the theme is right for MD."

"This one seems to set up the tension well and the ending, though perhaps sudden, is a little different, but I don't know that it's a Murky Depths story."

"This has a good idea, but it takes an awful long time for it to play out. It might be better if the story started with the man coming in. Plus, it's very dialogue-heavy, and a lot of the narrative feels like it's just to pad the dialogue out. I'm not sure it's ready for publication at this time."

So there you have it. Very encouraging and some food for thought.

My only regret when I'm rejected is that really there are so few places to send short stories. There's maybe five big magazines and one story doesn't necessarily suit all of them. So say you have a story that appeals to only one of them, either by genre or subject matter or even word length, then it just takes that one person to reject it and the story feels sunk because you hardly have anywhere else to turn. Does anyone know of any good shorty story mags out there?

It's sad that short story publishing just isn't the industry I've been told it used to be.

But those are the breaks, I guess, I can either piss and moan or get back to work...

Back to work it is.

Thanks for reading.

Peace out.

Allow Myself to Introduce... Myself

Hi.

So this is my new blog. For the past year or so I've had a blog on Myspace but thought that maybe I should move to having one on Blogger for the following reasons...

1. It reaches more people, not just the people who use Myspace. That's the point of a blog right? Getting lots of people to read it?

and 2. Doing it this way let's my blog screen look like author Neil Gaiman's. Brilliant! It's like being a real writer already.

Anyway, so what am I going to be talking about, some background.

I'm 24 years old, male and live in North London. Ever since I was around 7 I've been writing little stories on and off and adulthood has finally given me some discipline to actually try to write every day and get something published. I thought a blog would be nice to talk about what I'm writing, what I'm learning as I fumble my way through the process and maybe if I make it big then people will be able to look back at this and see what I was like back when I was just starting out.

So we're clear, I have no big dreams of stardom. Well, actually I do, who doesn't? But I'm prepared to take my knocks, I have a neat pile of rejections under my bed and all I really want is to be able to make a living doing what I love and perhaps give some reading pleasure to a few people out there.

Now, time to talk about more current events. At the moment I'm busy working on a novel, a science-fiction (I guess) for young adults going by the name These Twisted Designs. The title's not set in stone, I've changed it about once a month for the past three. This is the fourth novel I've written but the only one I've begun to build up the nerve to consider sending off to agents. The first draft is done and I'm currently stumbling through the vast forest of editing, try to turn my story into a novel.

I've also written a few short stories in recent times, which are currently sitting on the editor's desks of a few magazines. Of The Father (which I think was my best work of 2007) is on it's way to Fantasy & Science Fiction in the US, RWBW is with Murky Depths and Contracts is with Twisted Tongue. I've never been published before. I came close once but the magazine folded before my big debut.

I've also got a load of other stories in first draft form on the back burner but I'll talk on them as and when I get around to completing them.

Well, that's it from me for just now. Thank you very much for spending a few minutes reading my blog, I hope you come back soon and if you ever have questions or comments then please don't hesitate to get in touch.

Peace out, y'all.