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Should I stretch this short story to a novel?

27/8/2018

12 Comments

 
One moonless night, when her daughter was but a few months old, Eve clawed back her silken baby skin and planted a bomb in her chest. It wasn’t as difficult as you’d imagine; a baby’s body is more malleable than an adult’s. Getting under her daughter’s skin was rather like peeling an orange. Or picking at the flap of a sealed envelope to slip an extra something inside.
 
It was only a small bomb, the size and shape of a button battery, albeit large in relation to her daughter. It was bigger, for example, than her daughter’s dainty fingernails, bigger than the snub of her nose. But, like a school uniform, the child would grow into it, grow until the bomb was eclipsed by the face of her wristwatch or an ornament she might hang from her ear. 


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I wouldn’t blame you if the opening has put you off my most recently published short story (or the length at over 3000 words) but, if you do choose to read it, you might be able to help me decide where, if anywhere, to take these ideas next.


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12 Comments

Finding comfort in books with blue covers?

30/11/2016

8 Comments

 
One of the pleasures of the physical book, as opposed to ebooks,  is the value it confers beyond the words within it.  Many of us find, despite potential minimalist inclinations, there are books we don’t want to let go of. Part of the pleasure of the book is to look at it.

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8 Comments

Planning for pantsers?

25/10/2016

10 Comments

 
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Although, like many writers, I find autumn to be the best time to tackle major writing projects, I’ve never yet been tempted to register for National Novel Writing Month. For me, the pace is too fast and the outcome too limited, but there’s nothing to stop me joining in informally, which is what I decided to try two years ago. Starting with three character sketches and a rough idea of the main plot points, I averaged a thousand words a day from the beginning of November onwards and surprised myself with a rough first draft of just under 80,000 words by the middle of January.



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    finding truth through fiction
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    COMING IN 2020 FREE e-book of prize-winning short stories FOR ALL SUBSCRIBERS PLUS three chances to WIN a paperback copy of my next novel

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    latest book:

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    Short stories on the theme of identity Published 2018
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    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
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    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of two novels.

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    My second novel published May 2017.
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    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
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