Do Not Go Quietly

So, 2012: 

1. I began my PhD journey at Nottingham Trent Uni.
2. Travelled to California for the Bold Strokes Book Fest. Shopped.
3. States of Independence publishing conference. LGBT panel with Andrea Bramhall,  Rebecca Buck and Kev Troughton.
4. 3rd Annual BSB UK book festival. Eleven authors attend.
5. The London Olympics 2012. I was there. 
6. I made contact with the paternal side of the family after nearly thirty years.
7. Redundancy
8. Florida. Mom. Kayaking with dolphins. Harry Potter land.
9. The house falls apart. Washing machine floods kitchen. Toilet tanks splits in half.
10. Teaching workshops on writing.
11. New business opportunities land in my lap.
12. Meet England Foootball manager Hope Powell.
13. Work with 300 teenagers over three days. Rewarding.

And in 2013, so far:

1. PhD project approval. Novel work begins in earnest.
2. Teaching writing workshops. 
3. The Nottingham Festival of Words. LGBT Panel discussion and reading.
4. States of Independence?
5. Business funding?
6. 10th short story comes out.
7. Conference in Belfast: Mapping Feminist Movements.
8. 4th Annual Bold Strokes Book Festival, UK.
9. Conference in Nottingham: The F Word in Contemporary Literature
10. Travel to the US. Not sure where yet.
11. Editing. Writing. Reading. Editing. Writing. Reading.
12. Dec: 1st draft of novel finished.

Thank you. For reading, for coming along on my journey. A writer writes to be read, and without you, I would be less.

Happy New Year. Do you have plans for 2013 yet? 

Book: The Gift of Death by J. Derrida

Song: Hijo de la Luna by Mecano

Work with me

So, not too long ago I posted information about my new consulting business, Global Words.

I’ve posted a few new courses that are coming up, and I’m in the process of planning a few online workshops as well.

I’ve got two coming up, and the one on Saturday is almost full, but the one in January still has some spaces. I’d love you to join me. And, if you’re interested in the online workshops, give me a shout.

Coming up:

Constructing a Novel with Victoria Oldham

Saturday 1 December 2012, 10.30am–4.30pm

The Workshop

One of the questions I’m most often asked as an editor is, “How do I get started?”. This workshop will help you begin the process of putting your ideas for a novel into working order. We’ll start with the basics of story construction, and by the end of the day you’ll have the workings of your new novel in place.

This workshop is for beginners, short story writers encroaching on the novelist’s territory, and people who have something started but aren’t sure where to go next. You don’t need to bring anything but an idea and a way to jot your ideas down.

Cost: £40 full price, £30 NWS members
Dates: Saturday 1 December 2012, 10.30am–4.30pm
Where: the NWS meeting room.
To book: Contact us on admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk.

Editing Your Prose with Victoria Oldham

14 January – 18 February (6 weeks)

Victoria is back with her much praised Editing Your Prose course. So many people were asking about it we decided to run it again! See what past participants have said:

“I was a bit stuck on what type of editing the second draft of my novel needed – now I’m not.”

“It more than met my expectations – covering material I hadn’t thought about – despite my own professional editing experience. [...] I now understand things I’ve been told before, that didn’t entirely make sense. It’s improved my planning process almost beyond recognition.”

The Course

The first course of action when writing is to write. To get your ideas down in, at least theoretically, a cohesive and plausible way. But when you’re done with that, it’s time to give your work some tough love. This six-week editing course will go over various aspects of self-editing, including point of view, structural gaps and how to fill them, word choice, dialogue and basic editing tips on both line and structural levels. You will be working on your own manuscript, and the instructor will use examples from everyone’s work in order to show, not tell.

The Tutor

Victoria Oldham is a professional editor with a publishing house in New York, and has published more than sixty articles and short stories.

Cost: £48 full price, £36 NWS members
Dates: Mondays, weekly, from 14 January to 18 February 2013, 7–9pm
Where: the NWS meeting room.
To book: Contact us on admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk.