Writer's Wheel Magazine Issue 3 Autumn by Writer's Wheel

The FREE online creative writing magazine

Autumn 2014 Issue 3

Autumn2014Edition 3

Coming Soon

“The falling leaves drift by my window. The falling leaves of red and gold ...” And didn’t we strike gold with Issue 2 of Writer’s Wheel? I’ve been editing a creative writing magazine for more years than I care to mention but I can honestly say that this particular issue is the best I’ve seen for many a year – and it’s all the result of teamwork especially the input of our design genius, Rick. Any magazine, of course, is reliant on the calibre and enthusiasm of its contributors who are willing to share their expertise and experience with the rest of us. The editing is the easy part because this is just a matter of picking out the best material and getting the right blend of articles to cover almost all aspects of writing and genre to please the readership. The right blend of fiction and poetry helps to lighten things up a bit, while at the same time demonstrating the kind of novel submissions the JHP fiction editors are looking for. The hard part is putting the whole together in an attractive package that doesn’t come across as a trade journal, despite the fact that most of our contributors happen to be JHP authors.

Writer’s Wheel now invites contributions for the next issue of the free online quarterly magazine. We are particularly interested in features, articles and interviews from beginners, authors, publishers and readers on all writing-related subjects.

Writer’s Wheel is a stable mate of Compass Books, the writers’ resource imprint of John Hunt Publishing and the material submitted for consideration should reflect the hands-on, practical nut and bolts approach to writing rather than philosophical

Compass Books now has an impressive list of titles available in paperback and e-books and many of the articles give a taster of that particular author’s writing style. Whether we’re looking at the pearls of wisdom from the Mistress of Darkness herself, Sally Spedding; the positively practical approach of master craftsmen, like Nick Corder and Simon Whaley; or exploring new avenues with freelance writer Susie Kearley, Compass Books has the right titles to help you in expanding your writing opportunities. Writer’s Wheel has been compiled for the benefit of both readers and writers, and if there’s anything you’d like to see featured just send an email with your suggestions to publisher1@compass-books.net After all, our aim is that WW should be more like a writer’s club rather than just another writing magazine – and you don’t have to pay to join.

‘why we write’ reflections. Submissions: 1500-1800 words, longer pieces by agreement. We will be featuring extracts from both fact and fiction already published by JHP authors but we are also interested in receiving original short stories up to 1800 words and flashfiction of 500 words maximum, regardless of whether you are a JHP author or not. Stories may be previously published or part of a published anthology or collection. Original poetry should be a maximum of 40 lines.

Happy writing Suzanne Ruthven Maria Moloney Krystina Kellingley

Where possible, the submission should be accompanied by an author photograph and a 30 word biography; photographs that enhance the submission will also be considered. Material that is date-related can be submitted for entry on the Compass Books blog: http://www.compass-books.net/ blogs/compass Submissions should be sent by email and attachments to: publisher1@compass-books.net

From the Editor's Desk

Articles

Killing Your Darlings Elen Sentier

Writing in the Flow Melissa Unger

Sense of Place Judy Hall

First Appearances Nicolas Corder

The Big World of Travel Features Solange Hando

How To Write a Synopsis Suzanne Ruthven

Online Marketing for Authors Susie Kearley

Creative Pathways for Writers Suzanne Ruthven

Reviewing the Situation Suzanne Ruthven

How to Improve Your Chances of Winning a Short Story Competition Susan Johnson

In the Dust of This Planet From Obscurity to Bestseller Maria Moloney

Short Fiction

Writing a Novella Jenny Thomson

Ten Tips to Being Discovered as an Author Julie Day

Gossip and Fiction Colin Bullman

An Introduction to Poetry Jay Ramsay

Defining Fantasy Kevan Manwaring

Who is Tripping You Up Judy Hall

Choose Your Definition Marie Yates

Voice and Point of View Carolyn Mathews

The Girl Left Out in the Rain Helen Noble

Pick Your Brain Jenny Thomson

The Price of a Dream Krystina Kellingley

Regular Features Contributor's Guidelines

Poems by G. Michael Vasey and Gordon Phinn

Competitions & Events

Poems by Alicia Garey

Grammar Tips

Writers' Resource

AUTUMN 2014

Elen Sentier This is something every writer has to learn to do and it’s the hardest thing. When you first write your story or book or whatever it all feels wonderful and you’re likely sure it actually is wonderful … or at least hope that it is! But it won’t be. There will be all sorts of things wrong. Having climbed over the two major editing hurdles of typos and grammar we come to the nitty-gritty, the nasty bit. As you read through your work you have to be prepared to ditch things that really don’t work or don’t move the story on at all. This is difficult as usually we’re pretty fond of them. When writing, it’s very easy to leave in a lot of back-story stuff that was vital in getting the characters and the plot rounded and working but is probably going to be dull and boring to the reader who hasn’t journeyed with you all the way there. They probably don’t care about the heroine’s grandmother’s love affair with Prince Charming; for you, though, it was undoubtedly invaluable as you learned all about why the heroine is like she is through the history. Unless such a story is absolutely vital to the plot leave it out. This is what I mean when I talk about killing your darlings.

If you can manage to do as much of this as possible before it goes to the editor it will be far, far less painful for you. Having somebody else kill your loved ones, or even suggest killing them, tends to bring out the “you and who’s army?” in all of us. It’s also kinder to the editor too. They really aren’t the XYZ idiot you are probably calling them at the top of your voice when you get the manuscript back. And they almost certainly don’t have four left feet. And they really are trying to help you make the book as good as possible. If you do a lot of the killing for yourself first you get to feel less strongly about each of the precious ones the editor makes mincemeat of and can take it better. In fact you may possibly only need a large gin to handle it when she or he suggests cutting this or that paragraph which you thought was the bee’s knees. I know. I’m absolutely terrible at hearing this kind of stuff from an editor. I need kindness and coaxing … the poor editor must be wishing me at the devil! I do try to do as much of this as I can myself before sending the thing off to her. And I’m not sure it ever really gets better. It always seems to hurt. Having an editor you get on with, maybe even share an interest or two with really does help. Ho hum! I think I’ll get the axe out and have another go at the latest manuscript …

Sit in a café or shopping centre and focus on a pair of shoes. They may be in a shop window or on somebody’s feet. For five minutes write about those shoes. Don’t censor what you write or cross anything out. If they are in a shop window, think of the sort of person who would buy them. Where are they going? Why? If they are on somebody’s feet, look at how well they fit. Are they clean or muddy? What colour are they? Look at the colour and texture. What are they made of? Allow your imagination to take flight. What if those shoes had magical properties? For instance, what if someone bought them from a charity shop and then discovered they led him or her to a dangerous situation. Or – what if the wearer became invisible and the person was able to get revenge on somebody? For the next five minutes write more about the person wearing the shoes. What do they most want from life? What is stopping them from getting it? How do they walk? What is their voice like? What sort of clothes do they wear? What are their good and bad points? For your last five minutes, create the first two or three paragraphs of a story using one of the following starting points:

‘Surfing the Rainbow: visualization and chakra balancing for writers’ by Sue Johnson published by Compass Books

‘Unlock Your Creativity: a 21 day sensory workout for writers’ by Sue Johnson and Val Andrews published by Compass Books

    

I have never liked buying shoes… The shoes stood in the shop window red and shiny as apples… I didn’t mean to steal the shoes… The strange shoes led me in a direction I didn’t want to go… I knew I’d have trouble walking in them…

Have fun with the ideas you generate. See how many flash fiction stories you can create (approximately 250 words). Maybe you could do a collection of shoe stories. 5

“Glastonbury is a gateway to the Unseen. It has been a holy place and pilgrim-way from time immemorial, and to this day it sends its ancient call into the heart of the race it guards, and still we answer to the inner voice….The poetry of the soul writes itself in Glastonbury.” ~Dion Fortune, Avalon of the Heart I recently facilitated a ‘Write Now’ workshop in Glastonbury. I wanted to use the atmosphere of that ancient place to awaken something extraordinary in the participants. We spent the first evening in a stone built cellar chapel, a remnant of the ecclesiastical past that has a glimpse of something much older and more pagan at its heart. Glastonbury has, after all, been sacred for thousands of years. Here we confronted the parts of us that criticise and sabotage and generally get in the way of becoming our incredible creative selves, and we met our wise mentor to inspire us. You can do this for yourself through a simple visualisation (the subject of another article). I chose Glastonbury for the workshop because it is an incredible setting but even somewhere mundane can illuminate your story. Setting The setting is where your characters live. Setting the

scene, the atmosphere and ambience for your story is vital but, although it is telling you things you need to know, these have to be cleverly slipped in, almost inconsequentially, they are hooks that draw your reader in. Be subtle. What we don’t need is a block of clinical description, or a condiment of clichés. Above all, you need to infuse your story with a sense of place, to convey its essence. Every place has its story to tell and you can use a sense of place to set the scene or to tell the actual story – or interweave both. My writing group’s setting was Glastonbury. The essence is always sacred spirituality but the vehicle has changed many times over the centuries. And modern day Glastonbury – as in previous times – has more than a touch of the profane about it as a walk down the High Street showed. Participants were encouraged to use this contrast in their writing. Open your eyes, ears, nose and sense of touch as you journey through the landscape, inner and outer. The Glastonbury landscape Glastonbury sits in the middle of a landscape zodiac. These ancient hills are full of stories waiting to be told. At one time Glastonbury stood tall above encircling marshes, in a shining sea. The Tor, healing well, sacred tree, and Abbey ruins are today enfolded within a landscape zodiac that may have been trodden by Jesus

AUTUMN 2014 Christ himself. Tradition says he came here three times as a child. No wonder this site is designated the heart chakra of our world. In the Pagan view of the world, Avalon was where the dead went to the otherworld and where King Arthur and his knights await their call to return. Magical and mystical, Avalon exists in a parallel dimension to Glastonbury and is seen only through the inner eye of vision. Here the Grail resides, the legendary cup of Christ that has much older connotations. Avalon is the sacred heart of this landscape, the etheric chamber of the heart chakra of the world. Glastonbury is an interconnection of sacred sites from different traditions that create one numinous whole. The Tor and the Labyrinth Glastonbury Tor was home to Gwyn ap Nudd, King of the Fairies and Lord of the Underworld. It is also one of the places where King Arthur is said to lie awaiting the call to rise again and bring England to glory. Considerable mythological evidence exists for the presence of this king at Avalon. As Dion Fortune said, “the Tor is indeed the Hill of Vision for any whose eyes have the least inclination to open upon another world.” Now dominated by the tower of a ruined church that was cast down in an earthquake in 1275, it is believed that a stone circle once crowned the Tor, a Temple to the Sun. It is still an extraordinary experience to stand on the Tor at full moon and see the setting sun slowly sink into the west as the shining moon majestically rises in the east. Sunrise and sunset on the old English folk festivals of Beltane (May 1) and Llughnasadh or Lammas (August 1) are perfectly aligned along the axis of the Tor. The church was sacred to St. Michael, the Archangel of fire. In Christian tradition, Michael was the dragon -slayer who threw down the old Pagan gods. Before Christianity, the Tor was perceived as an enormous dragon lying in the landscape. Around the Tor wind the coils of a huge, multi-dimensional, serpentine labyrinth, an ancient ceremonial, processional way. Labyrinths and spirals were traditionally a part of Goddess worship, symbolizing the soul’s journey through birth, death, and rebirth. Today the labyrinth is used as a Goddess pathway into the heart. Exercise Picture yourself ascending the spiral labyrinth as it winds it way up and around the Tor. When you get to the top, you are in the heart chakra of the world. Feel the beating heart of Mother Earth coming to you through your connection with the Tor. Feel how it resonates within your own heart as the beats synchronize. If you are feeling brave, enter the cavemouth below the tower and walk down into the centre of the Tor. What and who do you meet?

Alchemical Marriage: The Red and White Springs Glastonbury’s Red and White Springs once flowed freely, one from deep within the Tor itself, the other from the foot of the adjoining Chalice Hill, until they mingled in a sacred stream: the Brue. As Dion Fortune says, this site was sacred to the Old Gods and their dark powers, and she suggests that the well was the magic mirror of Morgan le Fay. Chalice Hill was once the domain of this dark half-sister of King Arthur. Pupil of the legendary magician Merlin, she wove spells around her brother to ensnare him. Later, Chalice Hill was the mythical home of the Fisher King of Arthurian legend who suffered eternally from a grievous wound in whose heart he kept the Grail. Iron stains the Chalice Well spring deep red and the water looks like magical blood. Calcium deposits keep the White Spring clear. The two form an alchemical marriage. The eternally renewing phoenix, symbol of Aquarius in the Glastonbury zodiac, springs from this spot drinking the water of life from the springs. Below the Vesica Pisces Chalice Well cover, designed by metaphysician Bligh Bond in the early twentieth century, lies an ancient stone chamber large enough to hold a standing man. Its three sides were hollowed from a single piece of Sarsen stone carried many miles to this place. A sluice gate enables it to be emptied and refilled. Many people believe this was an initiation chamber for ancient purification mysteries that brought about death and rebirth. Others believe that a Grail cup was found here. As the sun rises over the Tor on Midsummer Day, a shaft of light penetrates the well chamber and touches the heart of anyone who stands there. Exercise: Imagine what it must have been like to stand in that chamber, blindfolded, to feel and hear it fill with water. But not to see. Describe the sensation of the water creeping up your body. Bubbling into your mouth and your ears. What fears emerge, how does it feel to be released? Does it lead to en -darkenment or en-lightenment? Creating a setting for your characters All it takes to create believable places for your characters to inhabit is a little bit of knowledge and a dollop of imagination. At the end of ‘The Birth of Venus’ Sarah Dunant describes how she used modern day Florence (where she has a flat) to imagine what it would have been like five hundred years ago. She describes how all the old buildings still exist, so she used her imagination to move from what Florence smells and sounds like today to how it would have been. This is how you move deep under the skin of a place and immerse yourself in how it feels to be in that place. When you know that, you can share it with your reader. When setting the scene avoid large chunks of descrip7

tion. Particularly when you are starting a book, chapter or story, don’t build up gradually. Go straight in and begin where possible at a point of high drama or tension – and use plenty of dialogue. This is a radio description of a tidal estuary but we can instantly see the place in our mind: ‘the tide retreats, the sun lights up a landscape of mercury and the birds swoop in to hunt’. Introduce your characters quickly. You can describe things in more details later as you interweave the place into the plot but you must hook your reader in immediately. However, a sense of where the action is taking place helps to draw the reader in. Remember to connect your character to the landscape, if they are in an environment that is strange to them have them notice the oddities and differences and show that they feel uneasy or excited until they have settled in. If they are familiar with it, they might take for granted things that the reader will find stimulating or intriguing. Think about the following description, what would you expect to happen next, are the ingredients all there? And, where do you think the story is set? ‘They had reached a place where the path dipped down into a dried-up watercourse. There was a termite mound to one side of it, and on the other, a small expanse of rock rising out of the red earth. There was the chewed-up pith of sugar cane lying to the side of the path and a fragment of broken blue glass, which caught the sun. Not far away a goat was standing on its hind legs nibbling at the less accessible leaves of a shrub. It was a good place to sit and listen, under a sky that had seen so much and heard so much that one more wicked deed would surely make no difference.’ That’s Alexander McCall Smith in Botswana and one of the clients is about to reveal a long held secret that he didn’t feel able to share within the walls of No.1 Ladies Detective Agency. That chewed pith makes it a very everyday place, not mysterious or magical although there is that glint of light from the broken bottle. The pith has been chewed and spat out – let go of - but the goat hints at how difficult it will be to access this secret that has been hidden for so long. Choosing your setting Not many books on writing mention the setting of the story but it is crucial if you are to set the plot and the characters firmly into the landscape and timeframe. In other words, it gives context. If you get the details right, it can take you immediately into the historical period you are dealing with, sets the mood and creates the atmosphere. A setting can also create tension or anxiety and be the driving force behind the way the story pans out. It can be symbolic or a metaphor for what is going on in a character – a house that is falling apart can reflect the gradual – or rapid – disintegration of its occu8

pants for instance. An isolated or bleak house gives a sense of loneliness and so on. While it is preferable to have visited the place itself, people do set their stories in countries they have never visited. They use guide books or Google Earth – the downside is that you never get the smells on Google Earth but apparently that is about to change. A useful additional source is an autobiographical story from someone who has lived there – this gives you the little things a guide book doesn’t pick up but which make the reader feel they too are inhabiting that place. Remember that while you may not have been there, your reader could well have been or know enough about the country to pick up inconsistencies which will throw them out of the story reactivating disbelief, instead of being carried along. Old maps are a useful source as is drawing out a map/ plan for yourself of your story’s landscape and making sure people don’t do stupid things that take them out of the constraints of that landscape. (If you’ve got to another world through the back of the wardrobe, remember to mention the wardrobe first for instance.) Bear in mind that weather plays a great part in shaping not only landscape but also the characters that inhabit it. This is the start of my novel Torn Clouds, published by O Books, which is set mostly in Egypt and weaves between five thousand years ago and the present time so I chose the British Museum for the opening, hinting at what was to come and hooking the reader into wanting to know more but not revealing too much as telling them too much at the beginning means they might as well not bother to read the rest. “Tell me, exactly why are you pouring beer over the lion goddesses’ head? It’s not a sight you see too often in the British Museum.” A face peers quizzically at me over the shoulder of My Lady. My heart thrums as I turn to the man stepping out from behind the great black basalt statue. As his laugh echoes down the gallery lighting up the gloom, the stranger’s sky-blue eyes crinkle at the edges. His long chestnut curls gleam in disarray and, high on his cheek, a crescent moon-shaped scar glows white. It’s alright, this casually dressed stranger poses no threat to me. Smiling, I turn back to my task. Quickly I offer bread to my Lady’s mouth. All honour to Sekhmet, Sa Sekhem Sahu. As I turn back to the tall stranger, a sudden shaft of sunlight catches the golden amulet at his throat and my hand moves instinctively to touch my own. As I finger the cool stone at its centre, my heart insists that it cannot be coincidence that he too is wearing My Lady’s emblem. “Ere, I told you, you can’t do that feedin’ the lion stuff in ‘ere. It’s not the bleedin’ zoo.” The

AUTUMN 2014 grumpy old attendant mutters again as he starts towards us. “Oh yes, we can. She just did.” My newfound friend grins. “But I think we’d better go to the coffee shop so you can tell me why. Shall we?” Courteously he gestures towards the door. Will he take my arm? No, not yet, he’s too impatient to do that now. His long stride propels me down the corridor, urging me past the book shop and into the formica and chrome interior I have come to know so well. Tingles dance up my spine. Why do some of the best, and worst, moments of my life happen here? And what am I to tell him? Can I really say… no, surely not… Mental description or verbal – and what about viewpoint? One of the things many writers battle with is whether the description should be visual – what the character sees and comments on inside his or her head – or aural,

decide from which perspective the scene will be described. In something which is written from the personal perspective, ‘I’, the narrator can only tell us what goes on in his head and report events at which he wasn’t present by repeating to us what other people told him after the event and what that evokes in his mind and emotions. For instance, in one example a secretive house cannot be seen from anywhere outside its grounds – a stark contrast to how it is later in the book when they’ve had to sell off part of the estate for council housing which is positioned right in front of the house, part of the concealing wall having been torn down. It’s a metaphor for what is happening to the house and its inhabitants. The house and the occupants are opened up to public gaze and, as the story unfolds, everyone in the surrounding countryside is drawn into the house through the events that occur there. Similarly a slight hesitation before entering the house is a hook that conveys the ‘other worldly’ nature of the house and hints at the supernatural experiences that will take place there. You don’t re-

Knowlton Church Jeni Campbell www.angeladditions.co.uk

described to someone else through speech. The viewpoint (perspective stance) taken will considerably influence how you are able to describe things both in terms of the setting and the action. If there’s only one person present, it’s all inside the head and no dialogue can take place unless your character speaks to himself (which is permissible!). But this can be described in a very personal way ‘I’, or in an impersonal fashion ‘the character’s name/he’. If there are two people present dialogue can be used to bring the scene alive but you need to

alise this at first reading, only when the story has unfolded. The other main character’s experience of living in the house is shared in dialogue between the two characters and tells us both the past and present story bringing the house alive, with characters from its past. It hints at things to come. Using all your senses Close your eyes and ask yourself: 9

What is the first smell you remember? What does it bring back to you of childhood and the places and people around you? Now think about the first sounds you remember. And what you first saw. Which was the most evocative? What happens if you leave one of the senses out? People tend to see places with their eyes – and therefore describe a visual picture for the reader. The sense of smell is evocative but so often overlooked, it can take you instantly to a place. If you’ve ever been in a back alley in Greece or the Balaerics in summer for instance, the reek of the dustbins instantly transports you. I used the word ‘reek’ to distinguish between winter and summer visits in my short story ‘Prelude in Valdemossa’: Three cats stalk a tall, green wheelie bin. Elegant toms on a rain-washed street. Suddenly one, thinner than the rest, leaps and dives in. He surfaces with his spoils – a bone over which they fight. It seems a poor reward for such a charming brigand. I’d like to linger but the tour guide is strident: “This way please. Do not be separated. Follow me.” Raising her umbrella in the air, she strides forward. Lethargically I follow into the winter gloom... There is a sudden whiff of coffee and I half turn, it’s exactly what I need. “Could I catch up with you later, I—” But the tour guide’s umbrella is insistent: “Come along!” Herded past a dark, forbidding wall we enter a tall church, ornate in the Spanish style. Rich gilding sparkles light above, deep red porphyry spilled like candlewax oozes coldness at my feet and candles flicker. The air drifts heavy with incense that catches at my throat. Terracotta tiles that had once been richly decorated are mostly cracked and bare where endless feet have polished them away, but in one or two places their colours shine out so that I seem to see the floor whole and beautiful once more… *** Tomcats still stalked the tall, green wheelie bin. Reeking now, it shimmered in dusty heat. The hot August sun was almost unbearable as I rushed… Similarly sound can be a feature of a place – birdsong, insect noise or the lack of it gives atmosphere and Sarah Waters’ mention of a bell sets an aural memory in place that will be repeated – with increasing menace – throughout one of her books. She uses sound to instil quiet terror: 10

‘But then, the next time it came, the pattering figure seemed to draw closer to the door, seemed to brush against it with an elbow or a hand, and the times after that, the pattering footsteps were accompanied by a light sort of grating sound. . . Mrs Ayres understood suddenly that, as it ran, the figure was catching at the panels of wood with its fingernails. She had a distinct impression of a small, sharp-fingered hand – a child’s hand, she realised it was; and the thought was such a startling one, she scrambled back from the door in sudden panic, tearing her stockings at the knee… At that, at their loudest point, the footsteps abruptly ceased. …She held her breath, until all she could hear, as if on the surface of the silence, was the rapid thumping of her own heartbeat.’ Describe without using clichés: A sunset at Glastonbury A stormy day at Glastonbury Your favourite place Your least favourite place Try including all your senses or only one and see what a difference that makes. Rewrite the following paragraph, changing the viewpoint, using dialogue and avoiding the cliché! Set the scene anywhere you like, real or imagined. ‘In the still bright moonlight the group of old ruined buildings which lay before them looked like something out of a fairytale. Judging from the shape of the windows, at first Amelia thought the main building must have once been a church or chapel, but when she mentioned this to George he said he thought the disposition of all the buildings meant it was more likely perhaps to have been a small priory or convent, particularly given its position. (Charlotte Bingham, ‘The Kissing Garden’ – it does get more lively in the next few paragraphs but still seems somewhat stilted and formal which reflects the characters and their relationship at that time, and also the timescale which was just post first world war.) Enjoy your writing! More descriptions of Glastonbury and other sacred sites throughout the world will be found in my book Crystals and Sacred Sites (Fairwinds Press, US 2013). Torn Clouds is published by O Books and Prelude in Valdemossa (a prize winner in the annual Rider Haggard short story competition) is on my website www.judyhall.co.uk

AUTUMN 2014

Solange Hando Guess how many English magazines are published around the world? Millions every year, with an average of 2600 copies sold every minute in the UK, according to industry data, spread across a huge range of titles, not counting newspapers and websites. Add North America, Australia, New Zealand, plus another 80 countries or so where English is an official language, and you may feel overwhelmed by the volume of global outlets. This covers all kinds of magazines but most feature travel of some sort. True, publications do vanish overnight but next time you hear of a shrinking market, remember that in this digital age, the world is yours.

• Newspapers, travel pages and supplements, national, regional and local. • In-flight magazines: most carry features in English, relating to new routes or topical events on existing routes, including those of partner airlines. • Magazines issued by railway or cruise companies, highlighting places of interest along their routes or ports of call. • Women’s magazines, most have a travel or travel related page. • Men’s magazines, but you don’t have to be a man to write for them, or the reverse. • Lifestyle: health, property, spa, cruising, weddings and honeymoon, spiritual matters. • Publications targeting a specific age or social group: families, over 50s, gay, singles, religious communities, business travelers, disabled travelers, farmers, teachers, nurses. • Publications about sports and outdoors, golf, cycling, hiking, scuba diving… • Niche markets, such as bird watching, art, crafts, food and wine, heritage, vintage railways, gardens, antiques and even pets. • County or regional magazines. • Trade magazines published by hotel chains, tour operators, banks, stores or car dealers, plus online content and travel anthologies by National Geographic or Reader’s Digest.

Choosing wisely Most consumer magazines appear weekly or monthly. A weekly publication will need 52 articles a year for a travel page and more for special editions. That’s a lot of space to fill. A monthly will probably use 12 features during that time so every submission must be outstanding. Mean- Out of breath? That’s a good sign for now you know. In while, most newspapers publish several travel pieces in the big world of travel features, there’s a place for you. their weekly slot, plus a generous crop in weekend supplements. You do the math. Quality matters, numbers Now your turn too. • Choose a time and a place and promise yourself you will But how about those gorgeous travel magazines filling spend at least 30 minutes looking at magazines, this week their entire copy with features like yours? Tempting but and the next. Don’t read cover to cover at this stage, scan like most glossies, they aim upmarket. A famous name on titles and pictures and something will catch your eye. the cover, say Bill Bryson or Michael Palin, is sure to draw • Perhaps there’s a travel page you read every week. Is it attention and boost sales. The higher you climb, the stiffer in a paper or a magazine? Why do you like it? Is it the the competition but don’t despair. Everything is possible if photographs, style, content? If you enjoy a publication, you have an original idea and the right approach. you empathize with its readers and writing for them will come naturally. It’s a great place to start. Searching every corner of the market • Let your confidence grow and when you’re ready, venTitles come and go but the lure of travel remains; the ture out of your comfort zone, new markets at home, forrange of outlets continues to grow. eign publications on the web, some offering free trial subscriptions, others contributors’ guidelines. Where do we begin? Be A Travel Writer, Live Your Dreams, Sell Your Features

• Travel magazines: note that each one has its own slant, By Solange Hando backpacking, luxury, adventure, eco-tourism, or covers a Published by Compass Books 978-1-78099-944-9 (Paperback) £9.99 $14.95 specific destination, such as Italy or the Caribbean. 978-1-78099-943-2 (eBook) £6.99 $9.99 Described by Hilary Bradt, co-founder of Bradt Travel Guides, award winning writer and broadcaster as “An upbeat, practical and no nonsense guide to the competitive world of travel writing. In a compact succinct format, it covers every aspect of feature writing, from finding the right angle to selling your story. Packed full of tips to help you get started and succeed in the best job in the world.” And by Donna Dailey, awardwinning travel writer, “In her upbeat and encouraging style, Solange Hando takes you through the process of creating and selling travel articles and shows you how to think like a pro. This inspiring book is packed with sound practical advice and helpful tips from a seasoned travel writer.” So if you’ve always dreamed of being a travel writer, whether raw beginner or experienced freelancer, Solange Hando takes you on a step by step journey to becoming a travel writer and selling your features.

Every serious writer needs a website to showcase their work. If you don’t already have one, there are many free sites offering you the tools to build your own, and get your own URL, often free of charge. A website doesn’t have to be expensive or onerous. A simple site will do to get you started and it can evolve over time, just as you do. Before you get started, it's a good idea to browse other writer’s websites to get a feel for the kind of look, feel, and content that you want to display on your own website. Think about your colour scheme, navigation bar, how you want to present yourself, and what downloads you want to make available. You might want to include some of the following: – Biography or ‘About me’ page; – A list of some of your clients; – Sample articles; – Links to online stories that you’ve written; – Links to your social media pages; – A link to your book on Amazon; – A list of the services that you offer; – Testimonials from editors; – Examples of your photography; – Information on your PR work; – Contact details; – A blog; – An image of yourself so people can see who they are dealing with; – Images of your published works – books, magazines, newspapers; – Links to your clients’ websites. Free websites There are many free website building tools available online. They include: – Yola: www.yola.com – Webs: www.webs.com – Weebly: www.weebly.com – Moon Fruit: www.moonfruit.com Some people create their website using a blogging facility like www.wordpress.com or www.blogger.com. I’d suggest you play around with them and use the one that you find most intuitive, and the easiest to use. It can take a little bit of time to get your head around 12

how to use the content management system (the tools that enable you to edit the site), but once you've spent some time going through the options, none of these sites is too difficult to manage.

The problems with some of these sites are that the templates are quite rigid and what you can do with them is quite limited. These limitations drive some writers to pay professional website designers to create a more flexible site for them. But unless you have big design ideas, one of these simple sites is probably good enough to get you started. As long as your site gives you a place to showcase your work, that is the most important factor. Social media The other hot place to be, especially if you’re trying to promote your latest book, is social media. Sites like Facebook and Twitter are addictive, thriving and free! Things like prize give-aways for one lucky winner who ‘likes’ your page and shares your post can increase your following dramatically within hours. Some people use social media for fun, frivolity and as a channel to the latest news. Others are skeptical – underwhelmed by the mediocrity, pointlessness and drudgery of it all! Wherever you stand on the spectrum, there’s no denying that social media use is seeing unprecedented growth. The fastest growing demographic of social media users is the over 40s and it’s now so popular that even the elderly are engaging. Watch out for your granny on Facebook sometime soon! Now I should confess – at first, I didn’t ‘get’ it. I joined Facebook in 2007 and had one friend. I couldn’t understand why anyone would want to have their conversations in front of an audience of 300 people. I deactivated my account a few weeks later following a BBC news report about Facebook identity theft. I didn’t return to the scene until 2010 when I had an interview for a job as a Social Media Manager and needed a crash course in understanding what it was all about. I befriended my sisters, relatives, and anyone else willing to be my Facebook friend. Then I found a few old acquaintances online too.

AUTUMN 2014 My news feed started to provide insight into the lives of people I didn’t see very often – some of whom I hadn’t seen in years, and I started to understand the point of Facebook. It was another year however, before I was ready to condense my thoughts into 140 characters and brave the booming world of Twitter. Frankly, I had no interest in Twitter and couldn’t understand the appeal of it, until I read an article written by Matt Britland, an educational blogger whose tweets landed him a writing assignment with The Guardian. Matt began tweeting without really understanding the point of it all - just like me! First, he posted a few messages to friends, then he started to post his opinions on education in the UK and his following grew. Before he knew it, he had a sizeable following and when he tweeted his disapproval at Michael Gove’s education policies, it was followed an hour later, by a request from The Guardian newspaper to write a blog based on his tweets.

lots of people to tell. You can lure them into your story by publishing a sample of the text. Social media as a marketing tool can serve multiple purposes from staying in touch with editors, to promoting your newly published book. Is it for you? Maybe you feel a little unsure about social media, the time it takes, and how difficult it is. This approach is not for everyone, but there’s no denying that social media is the biggest growing medium in marketing, with arguably the greatest potential for you to engage with your audiences successfully. Think about it - most users stay tuned into their favourite social media platforms all day long on their smart phones, so the potential for this form of promotion to provide positive interaction with your followers is remarkable.

“I spent that evening channelling my fury into a post on the subject,” he said (The Power of Twitter, The Guardian Teacher Network, 31 March 2012). The day after the blog was published, Sky News got in touch with him asking for an interview on live television. He was starting to get quite a name for himself in the world of education and it was all from posting a few opinions on Twitter. This article spurred me to open a Twitter account and start tweeting. To date, most of my followers are aspiring writers but there are a few features editors and magazines in there too. Give your audience what they want The key to successful social media engagement is in identifying what your audience enjoy and value, giving them lots of it, and inviting them to be interactive and engage with you. Competitions can also drive lots of activity and help you gain new followers. The real key is to generate so much interest that people share your posts with their friends and then your following naturally grows. The term ‘going viral’ is now firmly established in the English language to describe the most widely shared social media posts. The advantage of having a growing band of followers is that when you want to promote a new book, you have

Learn more This article is an extract of Susie Kearley’s book, Freelance Writing on Health, Food and Gardens, published by Compass Books. Blog: www.susiekearley.blogspot.co.uk Facebook: www.facebook.com/susie.kearley.writer Twitter: www.twitter.com/susiekearley

Saffron watched the dust bouncing off the scorched soil, shifting sideways through the sheer force of the drops. It was mid-March and the start of the season of long rains. The cool relief was welcomed in by the open arms of the children who danced in celebration, barefoot in the dirt. The classrooms had cleared at the sound of the first taps of water on the school’s tin roof. Soaking up the cool splashes through their skin, the children revelled in the refreshing break from the long, hot season. As their teacher looked out at the gossamer of grey clouds gracing the sky, and to the sandy soil churning into terracotta clay beneath the playful pound of excited feet, a memory from her own childhood flashed into her mind. She closed her eyes to hear the sound of slamming doors in her past. Voices were raised and she soon realised that no one would be coming into the garden to push her on the swing as promised. Six-year-old Saffron had stood up and walked back as far as she could with the wooden plank resting halfway up her back. She knew that to get the biggest swing she would have to run and jump as high as she could, whilst holding onto the ropes. If her arms held out she would get the best ride. If she missed the seat, she risked thudding to the ground and bruising herself. With an explosive spurt and a determined tug on both ropes she had succeeded in hoisting herself onto the swing. The young girl had closed her eyes, gasping at the breeze on her face and enjoying the free-falling rush through her small body. When the ropes reached the apex of the movement, she had thrown back her head and flexed her feet out in front, parting the air and soaring through the wind, fuelled by her success and the freedom of her flight. The sound of screeching tyres had ruptured her joy. It was her father’s car, leaving the driveway for the last time. The swing slowed to a lull. She hung her small head. The clouds cried, their tears dripping over her sad shoulders. An hour must have passed as she twisted on the swing, scuffing her shoes up in the mud, weighted down by her waterlogged cardigan. Eventually her mother appeared at the door. Red-eyed, she sum14

moned her daughter inside the house, scolding her for the stupidity of sitting in the rain. No one interrupted the joy of the schoolchildren, who had now gathered into groups amidst the rains and were engaging in their usual playground games. Saffron looked on at their laughter and smiles. She followed the flow of the hand clapping and gestures of the girls standing in circles, and watched the wide- eyed expressions of the boys slipping and sliding on the rain-soaked tyres suspended from the trees, exuberant and carefree. Childhood memories could be the source of deepseated terrors, or a store of timeless treasures. Saffron’s mind was too full of the joy and laughter of the children that she had witnessed over the years to allow her private sadness to surface. Her attention was diverted by a truck pulling into the compound. It was bringing an important delivery, a new volunteer. She watched the driver jump out from the cab and gesture to one of the five men sitting on the open back. There was some shuffling and bending before a large suitcase was handed down to the driver. A young girl emerged from the passenger seat of the cab. She wore an inquisitive, if weary, expression. Her loose linen clothes were travel-creased. She looked up at the sky, as if to check that it was the source of the water falling on her head; a confused look passed over her face. Saffron waved a welcome, recalling the day she had first arrived at the compound. It was thirty years to the month that she had embarked on her journey to the African continent, where she learned that the rain was a blessing, not a curse. Her early years in England had been spent under a constant cloud. When the muted shades of the watercolour of her life eventually ran into one shapeless, grey smudge, Saffron knew it was time to seek a clearer vista. Leaving a lacklustre job and a loveless relationship, she had packed the first twenty-three years of her life into a case and walked out, leaving her umbrella in the hall stand. The images of the life she left behind were now a hazy blur in her mind; however, she could still recall every detail of her arrival in Kenya and her journey to the school.

AUTUMN 2014 Travelling north out of Nairobi, the roads soon gave way to rough tracks. Wide-awake, courtesy of the jolt of the bus, the hot sun had evaporated her outer film of sadness and reignited her will. She saw this opportunity as a way to dry out from the pervasive damp of her past, and warm up in anticipation of the future. For the final trek of her destination, to the school at which she was to become a volunteer, paid in food and accommodation, Saffron was reliant on the goodwill of a complete stranger. Kamau was the young driver charged with the task of the safe delivery of the new teacher. He had honoured his responsibility on that occasion, becoming a valued advisor and trusted confidante for the three decades that followed. On arrival, she had been greeted by a sea of children, from which one orphaned boy had broken free and run towards her. She had knelt down and looked into his shining eyes, asking, “What is your name?” “Habib,” he had whispered in her ear as she wrapped him up in her arms. From that moment, he would always be seen walking alongside her, holding her hand or sitting at her feet. When he became frail, she carried him on her hip. Saffron’s early days at the school became filled with the vibrant colours of the African landscape. She pressed her toes into the rich, ochre soil, bathed her soul in the depth of the crimson sunset and stared endlessly into the timeless deep of the night skies. Adjusting to

external life on the equator also forced an internal shift on the psyche of the young woman. She had become far more balanced in her approach to life; her pace of mind had slowed and her body had synchronised with the rhythm of the sun, the moon and the seasons. She had settled into her own skin and inched closer to the hearts and minds of her new family, shadowed always by Habib. Painting the walls of the school building in yellow, she encouraged the children to make their own marks with hand and footprints in bright, primary colours. As soon as each pupil learned their own name, they were allowed to paint it, along with the date, on a memorial wall. As the years passed, she became one of the few constants in the lives of the pupils, whose families struggled with poverty, illness, starvation and death. Saffron addressed each child as an equal and offered the same opportunities to all. Some walked miles every day to attend school, and just a smile or a word from her could make it worth their while. Against the backdrop of the violent, political struggles for power, the school became a safe haven for those whose lives were blighted by the greed and corruption of others. When she heard of conflict, Saffron counted her blessings and invested more of her energy into the creation of the school, which in return witnessed a steady increase in the number of keen students. As the national mood darkened, she painted colourful murals on the classroom walls and encouraged the children to sing louder. When people covered over the names of the pupils whose lives had ended too early through illness or violence, she simply repainted them in their rightful places. It had rained on the day she had repainted Habib’s name on the wall, and for the first time in five years she had felt a chill enter through a crack in her soul. Kamau had become a constant companion. Together they spent many hours trekking in the bush around the compound. He teased her about the lions lurking in the flowering Acacia thickets, when all she had spotted were the bees harvesting the white blossom to make their honey. He showed her where the valuable Miraa leaves grew, before they were harvested and transported around the country to feed the habits of Khat addicts. Also he had taught the young volunteer useful words in Kiswahili. Having explained how the local culture and customs informed the role of women in the rural community, he had raised an eyebrow when Saffron had invited the mothers of the children into the school to learn about sexual health issues and to practice basic literacy skills. Reserving his judgement as to the wisdom of her actions, he waited until he witnessed

the positive results in the local community, where the women became better equipped to look after themselves and the wellbeing of their families. From thereon in he supported all of her initiatives, including the nearby forestry programme. As a part of the country’s Green Belt movement, Saffron volunteered the services of all those in the compound who were fit enough for the heavy manual labour. He praised her wisdom when, in repayment for their efforts, the compound received valuable resources for their agricultural and planting projects. Together the two worked tirelessly to build a sustainable way of life for the villagers. They drilled boreholes to ensure a regular and plentiful supply of clean water and prepared the land for irrigation. Fencing projects ensured greater success in the rearing of cattle and goats. Saffron knew that the protection of the environment was a crucial factor in the construction of the social and economic infrastructure of the country. During the food crises and floods of 2004 and 2006, Kamau’s strength had helped to steady her nerve and hone her focus on the rebuilding work necessary to reinstate the life that had already been ten years in the making. He had his finger on the community’s pulse and Saffron offered creative solutions to the on-going social and educational issues. Her Women’s Good Health Group grew in popularity when the laughter from the room spilled out into the compound. Those who were suspicious about the initiative noticed how the women in the group smiled more freely and eased each other’s burdens. Kamau also had a special place in Saffron’s heart. Opportunities for intimacy were few and short-lived due to the communal nature of life in the compound. They savoured the moments by the fireside, reflecting on the tribulations and triumphs, amidst the comfort of its warm glow and the reassuring scent of wood smoke. The couple had also made excursions into the capital to attend conferences and collect resources for their environmental projects. On these occasions they had dined alone and stayed together overnight in a hotel in a quiet street, run by a cousin of Kamau. It was the one occasion that her beloved had taken the trip alone that would be forever etched in Saffron’s memory. That day, her dreamscape of life, the country and its people changed forever. Life went on, but the world had permanently shifted on its axis. The news of his unscheduled stop-off in the city shopping mall would forever ricochet around her mind, along with the ‘whys’ and ‘what ifs’ that tormented her, alone at night. Oblivious to the siege and the slaughter of seventy innocent people, Saffron had watched anxiously, waiting into the early hours for his

return, fear seeping into every inch of her soul. Eclipsed by the news of his death, she slipped into a waking sleep, losing her faith in the sun to rise. It was the chatter of the children that woke her up in the mornings. She was carried on the constant of their acceptance and optimism. When she slipped, there was always an open hand offering to help her along. Saffron had considered once more packing up her life and moving on. Her uncertainty had reverberated around the compound and echoed in the hearts of those who knew her. However, the nine months of her grief was a relatively brief moment in the psyche of a people whose fates had long been tied to the tumult of diaspora and natural disasters.

Now she walked out, pausing ritually in the rain, allowing it to wash her clean. The children had gathered around the new volunteer, clamouring for her attention, shouting ‘Jambo,’ and stroking her long, fair hair. She was already welcome in their world, and in their hearts. “Welcome! The children believe you have brought the rain with you,” Saffron explained to her new colleague. “You are the first blessing of the new season.” (c) Helen Noble 2014 Photographs courtesy of (c) Caitlin Noble 2014

AUTUMN 2014

Suzanne Ruthven, author, commis-

down the self-publishing road and

himself, Aleister Crowley:

sioning editor, tutor, publisher,

our typescript hasn’t undergone the

Test the average man by asking

ghostwriter ... but not a literary

strict scrutiny of publishing profes-

him to listen to a simple sentence

critic.

sionals, then we only have ourselves

which contains one word with

to blame if the finished title doesn’t

associations to excite his preju-

“Reviewing has one advantage over

pass muster, and must shoulder the

dices, fears or passions – he will

suicide: in suicide you take it out on

responsibility of having produced a

fail to understand what you have

yourself; in reviewing you take it out

poor book. Self-publication is costly

said and reply by expressing his

on other people.”

enough but it may be worthwhile to

emotional reaction to the critical

George Bernard Shaw

consider a freelance assessment

words.

and/or edit before sending the fin-

This type of response is more com-

New authors often ask the question:

ished typescript off to the printers

mon than we would reasonably ex-

How do you cope with bad reviews?

and avoid a savaging at the review

pect and infinitely more vitriolic,

The answer is: That like critics, you

stage.

simply because we, as the author,

ignore them!

Reviewers tend to

have offended someone’s sensibili-

hover on the periphery of creativity

Authors are becoming more and

ties with the use of one particular

and many often seem to exist purely

more reliant on positive reviews on

word or phrase. Therefore the

for the joy of being negative about

Amazon (.com and co.uk) for the

whole book is damned on the use of

someone else’s writing.

cutting edge marketing of their

a handful of words.

books and although relevant blogs Presumably, if your book had been

and magazines are important for

So, if you happen to receive a bad

published by a respectable, main-

publicising our latest release to like-

review for your book at some stage,

stream publishing house then the

minded souls, Amazon is increasing-

don’t be upset by the ramblings of

typescript has passed through the

ly becoming our main shop window.

someone who has picked up your

lengthy process of being vetted by

Turn to the reviews for the ‘great

modest tome and found that it com-

the publisher’s readers and editors

and good’, however, and we can still

pares unfavourably with the work of

long before it gets to the production

find ‘bad’ reviews because someone

Noam Chomsky. You’ve written the

stage. These people are profession-

didn’t like a particular book – not

book, it’s yours – and it has found

als in their field and obviously

because of poor writing but because

favour in the eyes of a team of pub-

deemed your book worthy of publi-

it didn’t come up to personal expec-

lishing professionals or it wouldn’t

cation under that particular publish-

tation.

And the more waspish the

be out there for review in the first

er’s umbrella; they have endorsed

content, the longer the review –

place. Enjoy the satisfaction of your

your writing style, approach to the

which appears to dominate the doz-

achievement and think on the fa-

subject and content. Therefore any

en or so positive reviews from satis-

mous words by Brendan Behan:

bad review is purely the reviewer’s

fied readers.

“Critics are like eunuchs in a harem:

own personal take on your book

they know how it’s done, they’ve

and, just as we can never like every-

There is often another reason for

seen it done every day, but they are

one we meet in life, we can’t like

bad reviews and one of the best

unable to do it themselves.”

every book we choose to read.

comments on this mode of thinking was summed up by the arch-master

If, on the other hand, we’ve gone

of magick, mystery and mayhem 17

AUTUMN 2014

Maria Moloney Can a book suddenly rise from obscurity to become a bestseller? When Zero Books released Eugene Thacker's In the Dust of This Planet in 2011 it remained relatively obscure outside academic circles, until a series of events brought it to the fore, turning it into a bestseller and enabling the author’s rise to prominence. The back cover of In the Dust of This Planet reads: The world is increasingly unthinkable – a world of planetary disasters, emerging pandemics, and the looming threat of extinction. In this book, Eugene Thacker suggests that we look to the genre of supernatural horror as offering a way of thinking about the unthinkable world. To confront this idea is to confront the absolute limit of our ability to understand the world in which we live – a central motif of the horror genre.

Thacker tells of a family joke in which it is said that he writes books that nobody reads. He goes on to say that, after some time, he thought perhaps he should embrace that. In the podcast on RadioLab, Thacker says, "Maybe I should write books for no one to read." When asked if he was a pessimist, he replied with a laugh, "On my better days." Asked if he was a nihilist, he said, "Not as much as I should be."1 An unprecedented sequence of events led to the book's sudden rise in popularity. In 2014, Thacker's wife was watching the popular HBO show, True Detective, and recognized phrases from the book spoken

by the character Detective "Rust" Cohle. After further research she discovered that in a recent article the show's writer and creator, Nic Pizzolato, mentioned that he was reading In the Dust of This Planet as he wrote the show. A while later, Thacker's wife was looking through a fashion magazine when she spotted actress Lily Collins dressed in Goth make-up and clothing. In one of the photos Lily was wearing a sweatshirt that prominently displayed the cover of the book. It appears that a Norwegian artist had made a painting of the book, which in turn a fashion label had picked up and used on a variety of clothing items. A further ‘hit’ came in the video 'Run' shown after Beyoncé and Jay-Z announced their world tour 'On the Run', and made in the style of a movie trailer. About 37 seconds in, someone spotted that Jay-Z was actually, to quote, "wearing the book" In the Dust of This Planet, on the back of his black jacket. The trailer, about life and death, a sort of modern day Bonnie and Clyde, is dark, some say nihilistic, with shooting, explosions, and car chases. This high profile ‘visibility’ in turn led to articles in the national press and on prominent internet sites, raising the profile of both the book and the author, and accordingly sales rose. Some may be convinced that the book was simply appropriated for no other reason than its title is a ‘cool phrase’. But surely there is more to it than that? There is almost certainly a combination of

events and elements involved that need more consideration. It should be remembered that, at the very least, Nic Pizzolato was caught up enough in the book’s content to recycle it through the mouth of his character. It is also likely that the pessimistic theme of the book was central in the choice of that particular jacket for the tour trailer. This pessimism is then further reenforced both in the content of the video and the Goth style clothing. Popular nihilism is having a reawakening. Given the state of the world right now, and the general pessimism how could it not be? Whatever, your personal outlook, optimist or pessimist, it is certainly a subject worthy of more study. So in answer to the question: can a book just rise from obscurity a couple of years down the line? Well, in this case, yes, and not because it "slipped" out that the author is really J K Rowling. This is a mindexpanding book, which crosses the boundary between horror literature, pessimistic philosophy and occult mysticism. An enjoyable read that has come to the notice of many people and, like the Phoenix, has arisen from its ashes. Eugene Thacker is the author of a number of books, including After Life (2010). Thacker teaches at The New School in New York. 1. http://www.radiolab.org/story/ dust-planet/ http://www.lcsun-news.com/ las_cruces-opinion/ci_26553463/ airwaves-dust-this-planet-touchesnihilism

With 12 books in print, G. Michael Vasey is an established author with notable contributions in poetry, metaphysics, and business. He tweets at @gmvasey. Website is garymvasey.com The Last Observer book trailer not to be missed!

Who Am I? Try so very hard to be me The one you think that you know A persona imagined passively Minor differences in take Patterns in my speech It’s not about the things you make But about the who that you are And doesn’t that vary, be wary I can be anyone I want to be I can be anyone that you want to see Image is like clothing for the ego Nothing is certain in make believe Nothing has real solidity Floating variations in psyche Revolving interpretations inside me I project and you receive But the me that I want to be May not be the one that you perceive Am I real then? And are you? Imagined shadows hurtling Through some forgotten plane Like some silly Computer game I digress Regress A kernel of truth Remains aloof My higher self

It's All Fantasy It’s proven, so it has to be true And now there’s not a thing that we can do Yet another litany of lies Pulled off in front of our very eyes It’s a free show though So we mustn’t complain Hollywood in real-life Actors showing grief and pain The news isn’t so good And we are all so afraid Pulled in so many directions Playing out this dark charade Lies become truth become lies Who the hell can really tell? Stories and often, just rumors Everything merges simply so well But amongst all these sleepers One or two still think and question Suspect that they smell a rat Don’t swallow that suggestion Remaining single-minded Looking inwards and deeply Ignoring all this bloody nonsense Staying true; the free me It’s pretty hard to do When the information Becomes disinformation Packaged lies for easy consumption Easy meat and quite a treat For the controlling factor The Matrix men hidden deep While humanity is still asleep

God in the Body I take pleasure in watching the grey-blue clouds Choosing their paths through the twilight sky; Flair, Forty % Off Perfection without effort Is a daily possibility, But we insist on fighting Every step of the way. We call it discipline, We call it indulgence, And we devote ourselves Gaily to defining the games.

I take pleasure in the quilt draped over the couch As it passes between finger and thumb; I take pleasure in the traffic as it fabricates travel, Trading in nearness for distance every counted second; I take pleasure in your pleasure, my dear and dirty children, As you ripple through my person and practice for the day.

I am god in the body, divinity indwelling; Hear me in your doubt, greet me in decision.

Gordon Phinn's print books and ebooks are listed in detail on Amazon; his latest being an ebook of essays Embracing Your Divinity. His blog is at anotherwordofgord.wordpress.com and his video channel is youtube.com/thewordofgord 20

AUTUMN 2014

Short Stories

Poetry

Literary Events

The 2015 Commonwealth Short Story Prize The overall winner receives £5,000. Regional winners receive £2,500. Entries must be 2,000 words minimum, 5,000 words maximum. Runs from 15 September and 15 November 2014. http:// www.commonwealthwriters.org/enter2015-prize/

The 2014 National Poetry Competition £5000 first prize, £2,000 second prize, £1,000 third prize, seven commendations of £100. Entry fees. £6 for your first poem, £3.50 for each subsequent entry in the same submission, free second entry for Poetry Society members (including those joining now). Must not exceed 40 lines in length (excluding title). Entries can be on any subject. Closes 31 October 2014 http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/ competitions/npc/

Manchester Literature Festival 6 – 23 November 2014 Stories. Myths. Fables. Re-imaginings. Wild landscapes. Hidden histories. Epic adventures. Strange revelations. Various locations with a host of writers. www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.u k

The Harper's Bazaar Short Story Competition 2015 The winner will have their story published and enjoy a week’s holiday at the Duchy of Cornwall’s Manor House, Restormel Manor. Up to 3000 words. Closing date: to arrive no later than 12 December 2014 http://www.harpersbazaar.co.uk/culture -news/news/short-story-competition2015 Writers' and Artists' Yearbook Short Story Competition 2015 A cash prize of £500 A place on an Arvon residential writing course of your choice Publication of your story on www.writersandartists.co.uk No more than 2000 words. Closing date midnight on Sunday 15th February 2015. https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/ competitions Exeter Writers: Short Story Competition First prize: £500 Second prize: £250 Third prize: £100 No longer than 3000 words. Entry fee £6. Closing date 28 February 2015 http://www.exeterwriters.org.uk/p/ competition.html

Six Word Short Story competition

Winner: Michelle Jones

With love, she helped him die. Michelle Jones www.michellejones.me.uk

The Charles Causley Poetry Competition 2014 First prize £2000, Second prize £250, Third prize £100. There will also be 5 Highly Commended Awards of £30 each. Maximum 40 lines. Closing date 6 November 2014 http:// thecharlescausleypoetrycompetition.wordpress.com/2014-rules-guidelines/ War Poetry for Today Competition A grand prize of £500. Judges will also choose a runner-up, who will win £250. A third prize of £250 will be awarded to the poem that’s most popular with audiences online. War Poetry for Today officially launches on 4 August 2014, and continues until 28 November 2014, when three winning poems will be announced and read at the penultimate performance of Regeneration at the Grand Theatre, Blackpool. http://theatrecloud.com/education/creativeprojects/1000-in-prizes-in-our-war-poetry-fortoday-competition Café Writers Poetry Competition First prize £1000, second prize, £300, third prize £200, six Commended Prizes of £50. Funniest Poem not winning another prize £100, Norfolk Prize £100 awarded to the best poem from a permanent Norfolk resident not winning another prize £4 per poem; or £10 for 3 poems and £2.00 per poem thereafter Maximum of 40 lines per poem (excluding title). Closing date 30 November 2014 http://cafewriters.co.uk/home/news-2/poetrycompetition/

Cambridge Literary Festival Winter 30th November 2014 (also Spring Festival 15-19 April 2015) Newest fiction, cutting edge commentary and science, workshops, children's events and lots more. Tickets go on sale 15th October 2014. http:// www.cambridgeliteraryfestival.com/ Purbeck Literary Festival 16th February - 1st March 2015 Creative, comedy and blog writing workshops, poetry, performances and events featuring the works of Enid Blyton,T.E. Lawrence, Thomas Hardy, Percy F. Westerman and contemporary authors many of whom lived in or were inspired by Purbeck and Dorset. http:// www.purbeckliteraryfestival.info/ Chipping Norton Literary Festival 23rd-26th April 2015 Author talks, signings and readings; workshops; children's events (more info to come). http://chiplitfest.com/index.asp Last but not least a challenge! National Novel Writing month is November! "NaNoWriMo" challenges participants to write 50,000 words of a new novel from November 1st until the deadline at 11:59PM on November 30th. For more information see http:// nanowrimo.org/how-it-works

All Gloria ever wanted was a normal life. Instead she is having recurring dreams about Earth Girl, who recounts the story of her abduction and rape. When Gloria discovers that she is pregnant, despite her husband's long absence, she begins to question her sanity. Could she really be carrying Earth Girl's baby? Can she save her marriage while unraveling the mystery that ties her to the past and future and to a love that endures beyond time? Jan Krause Greene's debut novel is one of those books you just can't put down. The story is compelling and the characters keep you wanting more. Most readers will be inextricably drawn into Gloria's dilemma quickly. The plot twists and turns its way to an unexpected, but satisfying, finale. The moral heart of this intriguing tale centers on difficult issues that don't have simple answers. Greene's characters don't find the answers, but they make you hope that someone will. After you are done, you will keep thinking about it for a long, long time. Julie Mancini, Founding Director of Literary Arts Portland Jan Krause Greene lives in suburban Boston. A former high school teacher and newspaper columnist, she uses fiction and poetry to examine life's big questions from the perspective of characters both young and old.

On Dragonfly Wings â&#x20AC;&#x201C; a Skeptic's Journey to Mediumship, is a candid and personal search for the meaning of life, of death and of grief. It aims to give hope to those who have lost a loved one and to those who are about to pass beyond â&#x20AC;&#x201C; hope that this is not an end. Written for lay people, rather experienced spiritualists or mediums, and for anyone who is curious about exploring further, it provides practical tools to help readers find their own spiritual truth and path. Daniela I. Norris is a former diplomat, turned writer and speaker.

AUTUMN 2014 A mysterious package from an anonymous artifact donor arrives on the desk of Jill Levin, the senior curator at a Holocaust museum: a secret diary, written by the eldest daughter of St. Thomas More, legal advisor to and close friend of Henry VIII. As Jill and her colleagues work to authenticate this rare find, letters arrive to convey the manuscript's history and the donor's unimaginable story of survival. At the same time, representatives from the Archdiocese of New York arrive to stake their claim to this controversial document, hoping to send it to a Vatican archive before its explosive content becomes public. As the process of authentication hovers between find and fraud, and as the battle for provenance plays out between religious institutions, Jill struggles with her own family history, and her involvement in a relationship she fears will disrupt and disappoint her family. The stories told in the manuscript and letters, however, soon entwine to reveal the secrets that unlock the mysteries of the Tudor court, and the untold history of Jill's own heritage. Andi Rosenthal’s ‘Booksellers Sonnets’ is gripping historical mystery with a twist. We would happily recommend it to anyone who enjoyed Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book or Peter Manseau’s Songs for the Butcher’s Daughter—to anyone, in fact, who enjoys a good story told well. ~ Joseph's Bookstore, London Andi Rosenthal was awarded the Elda Wollagaer Gregory Poetry Prize at the University of Delaware, 1992 and the Achievement Award in Creative Writing (first place) in 1989 and 1992, and was the grand prize winner of the InterfaithFamily.com Essay Contest.

In the mid-1970s A Course in Miracles was published. It is a self-study course designed to help you undo your conscious and unconscious beliefs that you are separate from God so that you can return to your natural State of Boundless Love, Peace, and Joy. Since then it has become the Holy Book of over a million people worldwide who have experienced a loving transformation to a more peaceful life. But the Course, though beautifully written, is in dense and difficult figurative language that can be hard to understand. The Message of A Course in Miracles is a paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the Course into plain, everyday language which brings its loving message to the surface so that you can attain a deeper understanding of it faster. It is for anyone seeking a simple and clear means for attaining lasting inner peace. Liz Cronkhite has been a student of A Course in Miracles since 1984, a life-coach since 2000, and a mentor for students of the Course exclusively since 2006. 23

Poems by Alicia Garey The Red Dress Oh yes, the red dress It tells a story It dares to reveal The woman who wears it Smooth and slick Like a lollipop Like red lipstick Hugging its form in just the right places The red dress Dares to suggest Dares to suppose That the woman who wears it Has somewhere to go.

Far and Near There it was The golden light peaking over the cafĂŠ Like a movie set, the sky filtered pink and yellow The magic swift curve of the earth On that corner busy bustling Street lamps glowing A hint of blue backdrop above A sheet of water colored paper Brushstrokes over the hum of a Paris night Never mind lugging the luggage Upon arrival In the rain My pink coat too thin for warmth Never mind the unfamiliar Never mind the long walk to the hotel Cobbled streets holding antique shops Smart French women White tablecloths through storefront glass Pastries in a row Sweetness in the dough The light came home with me The sparkle and glow A language spit out with confidence Of which I hardly remembered from study A breakfast of oeufs and fromage The land of espresso and cream Overlooking the Seine

Alicia Garey is an interior designer and blog contributor for the Huffington Post. She lives in Santa Monica, California with her husband and their two children. 24

The Chartre countryside Brick houses with splintered wood doors Nestled among trees unknown Birds sing in the language of love Flutter by ancient bridges over the river Passing through shadows of spring To come home After climbing the Eiffel Dancing lights in the dark sky Visitors converge in the lift up Looking downward over the city with wonder The corner bistro Woven chairs tilting this way and that Wobbly squares for tables Just as I had imagined Parisians linger Over biscuits and smoke Take delight in the time Two hours for unwinding thoughts A mere American I come home with the blush of Paris In my life. The Homeless Couple She, long, thick, white tousled hair Leather tan skin Shoulders drooped Pushing a cart Of who knows what He, neck crooked Always looking down Dirty jacket Dusty eyes Stained pants Together they roam For 20 years or more Up and down streets Always as though they have somewhere to go Never diverting attention to cars riding by With no sadness in their step or in their eyes She in her plaid shirt Pajama bottoms Long, thin neck Was she pretty once? Are they still lovers These two Where do they go at night How do they stay alive While the rest of us sleep soundly In our plush beds Together they appear in and out of sight Darkened skin from outside exposure Both bent over Focused only on each other.

AUTUMN 2014

New Plant Won’t you grow new garden friend? Now in my care from your infancy To be nurtured by sun and droplets Of love and time Won’t you soothe below my feet Sprouting summer yellow And winter green. Won’t you live unobstructed By daily demands felt by human Life Who take delight in your presence Shimmering at dusk Spreading through earth With bugs clinging to nourish Wandering freely Oh plant of mine Won’t you be there When I need to ponder Won’t you be there when I don’t even notice at all In the ground you go Covered by soft dirt Sitting ever so gently atop My corner of earth When I see you tomorrow dear plant Will you have settled in your new home Forever our friendship with light it shall be Oh plant of mine I’ll care for thee.

Jenny Thomson Who could have failed to notice the rise of the novella? Where once most publishers wouldn’t touch anything with less than 90,000 words with a bargepole unless you were famous, now there are so many calling out for novellas, it’s hard to keep track. As writers we need to grab that opportunity and get writing to join the ranks of Stephen King (Hard Case Crime), Linwood Barclay (Quick Reads) and Tess Gerritsen (Rizzoli and Isles Series) who have all published novellas. In Tess Gerritsen’s case, her novella, John Doe featured the regular characters from her novels, so she could introduce them to new readers. And that’s another role of novellas; to get people buying your other books. Novellas are not a new phenomenon (Agatha Christie’s Three Blind Mice, which was eventually expanded and turned into her play The Mousetrap, is often described as a short story, but it’s a novella), but they are becom-

ing more popular with publishers and readers for a number of reasons. They’re perfect as eBooks and they also suit reluctant readers who find a full–length novel daunting or who just want something to read on the beach or on the daily commute. Of all genres, romance and erotic fiction are the ones to benefit the most from the rise of eBooks as books people wouldn’t like to be seen reading can now be surreptitiously read on an ereading device on a packed train. Novella-length fiction is perfect for e-books and that’s why there are so many opportunities out there. But, what is a novella? Chances are that you’ll ask ten writers that question and get a different answer every time and none of them will be wrong. There’s a lot of confusion about what a novella is which isn’t helped by the guidelines offered by publishers in their submission guidelines varying so greatly. For instance, I recently received a submissions call from a romance publisher who wanted “novella-length romance stories” and they asked for 10,000 to 15,000 words. To many people that may sound like the length for a short story or a novelette (usually considered to be a piece of prose of 10,000 to 20,000 words in length). To other publishers a novella may be 20,000-50,000 words. No wonder as writers we get confused. My first novella in the Die Hard for Girls series, Hell to Pay, comes in at 37,000 words. To me, that was its natural length and that’s what you’ll probably find when you write yours – your novella will also have a natural length. Don’t forcibly add chapters or scenes when it’s not called for. In novellas, readers will notice the padding even more than they would in a novel. The structure of a novella differs from a novel in many ways. First off, you need to get stuck into the action or the turning point ASAP, especially when a sample is probably going to be visible on Amazon as most publishers use the "search inside” function. No word can be wasted and don’t overdo the flowery prose. You must have your reader gripped right from the start. In Hell To Pay, my heroine wakes up in a psychiatric hospital with no memory of how she got there. Immediately there are questions that pique the reader’s interest.

Try to end each chapter with a cliff-hanger or with a question to keep people reading. Chapters should preferably be short and punchy. That’s what readers expect in a novella –not meandering prose that takes twenty pages to describe the texture of a leaf or someone’s dress. Often novellas are read in one sitting.

AUTUMN 2014 The popularity of the Kindle platform to self-publish means there is lots of competition out there, especially in the romance, erotic fiction and fantasy genres. Not all of that competition is good, but there are lots of good writers out there, many who’ve been dropped by their publishers because they don’t shift as much books as James Paterson (who does). Do not under-estimate the competition because you have a track record with a traditional publisher. There’s no time for elaborate, lengthy back story in novellas, something you shouldn’t be doing anyway. Characters actions and reactions should bring out those kinds of details. Remember the first rule of all good fiction – show and don’t tell. Limit flashbacks as they will confuse readers. The same goes for point of view. You can have more than one point of view, but only if strictly necessary and it has got to move the story along, not drag it down so readers think “this character’s so dull, when are they getting back to the one I like.” Novellas like short stories are also an ideal medium for first person POV, but that doesn’t mean they are confessionals. The best thing about writing a novella is that you can have fun with it and take more risks than you would with full-length fiction. Unlike a novel, a novella is less daunting to write because it won’t take a year or more of work and if you find it’s not working, you can go away and do something else and go back to it. It’s easier to pick up your narrative thread.

people to read right to the end. For inspiration, why not check out this great list of 20 great novellas you must read http://listverse.com/2011/12/29/20-brilliant-novellasyou-should-read/ About the author Jenny Thomson is an award-winning crime writer who has been scribbling away all her life. A freelance journalist, her work has appeared in The Guardian, the Daily Mail and Scotland On Sunday. She’s has 8 books published in a variety of genres, including self-help and humour. Hell to Pay (the first book in a series of Die Hard for Girls crime thriller novellas) was published by Sassy Books in July 2013. The follow up, Throwaways, was published in April, 2014. You can find both books on Amazon. See publisher’s website for details http://www.sassybooks.com/authors/jenny-thomson Her third novella, How Kirsty Gets Her Kicks, will be published by Snubnose Press in 2014/2015. You can find her at http:// ramblingsofafrustratedcrimewriter.blogspot.com/ http://diehardforgirls.weebly.com/ Or, on Twitter at @jenthom72 and @diehardforgirls

This piece first appeared in 2013 in Words with Jam magazine http://www.wordswithjam.co.uk/2013/05/ writing-novella-could-writing-novella.html

Writing a novella can also help to flex your writing muscles, especially if it’s in a genre you’re not used to writing, and who knows you may even find that you’ve created characters that warrant a novel or a series of novellas as I did. In my case, this happened completely by accident and wasn’t planned. In fact, none of my novellas were planned. You need to find the way that works for you. When setting out to write a novella, one of the most important things is being able to describe your novella in just one sentence. Publishers and agents like to be able to describe books to others with as few words as possible. If you can’t do that then the idea you have is probably not suited for a novella as there might not be enough space to tell the story you want to. For example, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde would be: A man with a split personality; one good, one evil. Novellas generally should have one plot, although there can be subplots. There isn’t enough room to have more than one plot. Keep that for a novel. If you’re writing crime you can have as much twists as you want. I use the Stephen King rule – think what should logically happen next and then do the opposite. If you’re surprised by what happens next, your readers will be too and that’s what makes a good novella: one that compels 27

Julie Day I have been an indie author of adult and children's ebooks since November 2011, have published eleven short ebooks/stories, and in that time I have realised that the best way to be found as an author is discoverability. There are lots of ways in the wonderful world of the internet to be discovered, but here are my top ten tips. 1. Create a series. Readers like to return to characters they've already read. My 'Guardian Angels' YA set is a series. I remember reading series as a child. First it was Mr Men then Noddy, graduating to Famous Five, Secret Seven, Nancy Drew and Mallory Towers. I loved reading what each set of characters did time after time. Didn't you? I think that's what influenced me as an adult to write series for both adults and children. As an adult avid reader, I still like reading novels by the same author, especially characters who live in the same town. 2. Make the first ebook in a series perma-free (free forever). My bestseller, The Railway Angel, is perma-free. I initially priced it at 0.99c but only a few sold, so after a couple of weeks, I made it free and the downloads went up and up. Within a week, the downloads went from tens to thousands. I think that readers who have read my first Angel ebook, have liked it, have seen that I have more out in the series or other ebooks to read, and perhaps have downloaded or bought the rest of that series and my other ebooks. 3. Write, write and write. I always have a writing project on the go. I have read on websites and in magazines that the way to being discovered is to write more books, and the more I have out there, the more I will be found by readers. So, I have three series going, and one set of three. I also write in more than one genre to widen my appeal to readers. I write for middle-grade (9-12 yearolds), young adults and adults, so I can have two to three sets of readers. 4. I have each ebook on all the digital platforms. I know that some authors have had more luck with just putting their ebooks on Amazon and nowhere else, but I have mine on all the platforms, and have got downloads and sales on most of them. I have earned more from Smashwords than I have Amazon so far. I also believe that not everyone, especially children, own a Kindle. I think that some children (I know that my two teenage nephews have an iPad) own other ereading devices such as the Kobo or the Hudl by Tescos. I believe that having ebooks across all digital platforms, I will reach a far wider audience of readers. 28

5. Social media. I belong to Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and Pinterest. The etiquette is not to post/ tweet too much about your book. I have read that lots of authors do not like other writers bombarding them with posts/tweets saying 'Buy my book.' I usually only post when I have a new ebook out, and then I spread my news a little bit each day and post to different Facebook groups, tweets and email various writing groups I belong to. When I do post/tweet, I usually post about how much I've written on a story or what the main character in my work is up to at the point I've reached. A good site to use is PInterest, although mainly women use it. I find it useful because it is a visual tool for writing and promoting my books. I have boards with my book covers, people, places and things connected to my ebooks, and quotes that my characters might say in the books. I don't know if other people who have liked my pins, repinned the picture onto their own boards, have liked my photos enough to buy or download my ebooks mentioned in the pins.

AUTUMN 2014 6. I belong to online groups, and organisations in genres that I write in. I'm a member of the Romantic Novelists' Association (RNA). When I've emailed their Yahoo email group with promotion for a new ebook, one of the members has asked if she can have a tweet so she can tweet on Twitter for me, which she has done. I believe this is how I got into the Top 20 and 40 of two bestseller reads for free ereads. I belong to two online groups: internet marketers and Alliance of Independent Authors (ALLi). Most of the people in the internet marketing group live in the US, so when my coach, Rebecca Woodhead, posted in all the Facebook groups we are in about me finding out being an Amazon bestseller, it created a huge buzz, and the members picked it up, shared it, commented on it and tweeted on it, and more importantly, downloaded it. It went up the list. A week later, it was on the members' showcase bulletin of ALLi, which is based in the UK. That made it rocket up the UK list to the Top 20, which it hadn't been the week before. Also, back in April 2014, I did a library talk and updated my Facebook status, saying that I had done the talk and thought it was successful. ALLi's blog organiser asked if I could blog for them. I said yes. A couple of weeks later, it went up on the blog. I got two sales for that as well as a 4 star review and exposure for my ebook. So, being part of organisations and Facebook groups, mentioning my ebook, has created a buzz, and shot up the number of downloads for my ebook. 7. Talks. I started to give talks and workshops in my local libraries to both adults and children this year. I believe it is a good way to reach my readers directly. Last December I participated in one of my library's Christmas fayres. The main librarian mentioned at the time about doing more events. When we met in the new year to discuss me doing further events, the librarian suggested doing talks about publishing ebooks, knowing I had experience doing this. I agreed. This got me thinking about what I had learnt on my way to being an indie author. My first talk was called 'Five Steps to Publishing an Ebook'. At the end of that talk, the librarian suggested about doing a follow-up talk. Again, I thought about what I had learnt and could share about publishing ebooks. I also write fillers, and having done one talk about this which I remembered was successful, I thought I could do this again at this library. It is now booked for October this year. This can be another reason why it's good to write in different genres. I write for adults and children, and have done talks for adults and workshops with children. 8. Print on Demand (POD). Amazon have their own POD branch called Create Space. I understand that they have an easy guide on how to use it and how to create a cover for it. I haven't used it yet because I want to write and not waste time learning how to do this. So what I do is upload my Word document of the novel onto a

website called Draft2Digital, who then upload it to Create Space for me. I have more time to write the next ebook then. I find having print versions of a couple of my ebooks is a good idea, especially when I have talks and workshops planned. I have sold a few copies of my POD versions at my talks this way, and plan to do the same at the children's workshop. 9. Email lists. It has been said a good way to reach readers is to grow an email list. There are a few sites that you can use to set up emails to go to people automatically. The ones I know most about are Aweber Communications (which I use) and Mailchimp. I have read that a good way to reach readers is to put a message in the back pages of your ebook. I have started to do this. I write something like this: Dear Reader Thank you for reading my ebook. If you would like to receive news about future ebooks, why not sign up to my newsletter. You can do this by emailing me at...â&#x20AC;? A second suggestion, which I also do, is to ask people to sign up at talks I give. I have handed out slips to my audience to complete and return to me at the end of the talk. Next time, I might mention it at the start of the talk, saying if you want full details of the talk or more, then email me at (the list name). The first idea I got from fellow romance author, Julie Cohen, and the latter idea from Rebecca Woodhead. 10. Last but not least, as an author I think it is essential that you have a website and maybe a blog, too. The website can showcase all of your work. Mine has all my ebooks on as well as some of my non-fiction successes and what events I give. Having a blog is also a good idea. When I began blogging, I posted about what I write, places, people and things connected to my books. It evolved to being about writing as well as my passions for green and healthy living, to now blogging about my writing life, living with Asperger's Syndrome and travelling with food intolerances. When I blog, I promote the link on the social media sites, trying to do it throughout the day. So those are my top ten ways to get discovered as an author, especially as an indie author of ebooks. Good luck.

Julie Day writes magazine fillers, articles about Asperger's Syndrome, and short stories/articles about animals and birds. She also writes ebooks for adults and children. Her website is www.julieaday.co.uk.

There are many good reasons for reading D H Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover and one of the less recognised reasons is for the comments Lawrence makes about the writing of fiction and characterisation in particular. The reason for this neglect, of course, is that the novel was censored for so-called obscenity for more than 30 years. It was first written in the 1920s but only after Penguin Books tested the novel in the courts was it subsequently exonerated and published in 1961. Its reputation for being somewhat obscene, however, has remained in some quarters. Gossip is the discussing of the personal likes, habits, behaviour, weaknesses, and strengths (less often than the others) of other people. It is often frowned upon but no less indulged in for that. When we think of gossip it may be of two people talking about others in hushed tones over the garden fence, during a quiet moment in the office, on the bus, anywhere two or three are gathered together. Those who indulge in it (i.e. nearly everybody) often feel a little guilty about their habit; hence the fact that gossip has a pretty bad press. It therefore comes as a bit of a surprise when Lawrence in Chapter 9 of Lady Chatterley’s’ Lover appears to equate gossip with what the novelist does and he seems to say that literature is akin to gossip. And he is writing about literary fiction, not just potboilers. Lord and Lady Chatterley, in the novel, have a domestic help called Mrs Bolton who is in the habit of regaling Lady Chatterley’s husband, Clifford, with the latest gossip from the village of Tevershall. Lady Chatterley sometimes overhears the pair talking and feels a little guilty, not just at her eavesdropping but at being interested in the gossip. The narrator then writes the following and we can assume that the idea reflects Lawrence’s own:

She (Mrs Bolton) had unloosed to him the stream of gossip about Tevershall village. It was more than gossip. It was Mrs Gaskell and George Eliot and Miss Mitford all rolled in one, with a great deal more that those women left out. Mrs Bolton was better than any book, about the lives of people. The most interesting thing about this observation is that Lawrence compares Mrs Bolton’s gossip with the work of three admired writers. The difference is, of course, that the fiction writer’s presentation of human behaviours and weaknesses is not like gossip, about real people, but it is fictional; but, of course, many fictional characters are composites of real people. When the writer makes a judgement about characters we compare it with behaviour we know from observation of people in real life. We often ask if the fiction writer’s presentation of human behaviour is believable. People who gossip are interested in human behaviour; they may be trying to understand why people behave in certain ways. The fiction writer also has this interest and explores human behaviour and the motives for it. There is also an advantage to the writer over the gossip; he or she has time to explore and consider in considerable detail the subject and characters of the story. Lawrence pursues his ideas later in the chapter. He is noted for his moral stance in his fiction and therefore he would be unlikely to endorse gossip which is malicious. He writes: After all, one may hear the most private affairs of other people, but only in a spirit of respect for the struggling, battered thing which any human soul is, and in a spirit of fine discriminative sympathy. It is the way our sympathy flows and recoils that really determines our lives. And here lies the vast importance of the novel, properly handled. It can inform and lead into new places the flow of our sympathetic consciousness, and

AUTUMN 2014 it can lead our sympathy away from things gone dead. Therefore the novel, properly handled, can reveal the most secret places of life: for it is in the passional secret places of life, above all, that the tide of sensitive awareness needs to ebb and flow, cleansing and freshening. This makes clear that Lawrence believed that we should be sympathetic to what we may regard as weaknesses – even crimes – of people we know or hear about. Equally, good writers will deal with all characters in the fiction they write with what he calls “sympathetic consciousness”, or in a “spirit of fine discriminative sympathy”. After all, everyone is an example of “the struggling, battered thing which any soul is.” So, if I am reading Lawrence correctly he is saying all characters should be treated sympathetically and with understanding and this will be possible if we delve into what makes them tick and why they sometimes behave in ways of which we would disapprove. His use of the term “discrimination” of course means that we do not justify or approve of immoral behaviour. The behaviour may be condemned, but not the perpetrator. Writers often think of their main characters in terms of heroes, heroines and villains with possibly shades between these extremes. Should the villain, say the murderer, the paedophile, the cheat, the egotist, or the traitor be afforded sympathy? There is a temptation to condemn such people and characters and yet it is often found, if we think of villains in real life, that an understanding of their background and what drove them will lead us to be less condemnatory than we might have been. And surely one of the attributes of a good writer is to be analytic of character and as objective as possible. Perhaps a distinction needs to be made between what might be called literary or serious fiction and escapist fiction. There is no doubt that the out and out villain is afforded little sympathy and there is a certain pleasure for readers and filmgoers in metaphorically booing the villain just as theatregoers in the 19th century literally booed the villain when he came on stage. We would not particularly want our sympathies elicited for the arch-villains in the James Bond stories or the master criminals and tyrants who oppose the superheroes such as Batman and Superman. But then we don’t take these characters too seriously. We acknowledge the escapist nature of this kind of fiction. Notice how we sometimes excuse a “villain” if he or she does some virtuous act. A newspaper recently reported on a schoolboy truant and long-term petty thief who had also been looking after a sick grandmother. For the latter behaviour he escaped borstal training. Remember Charles Dickens’s A Tale of Two Cities. The character

Sidney Carton was something of a ne’er-do-well but at the end of the story he sacrifices himself for others. On the scaffold he utters the immortal words: “It is a far, far better thing that I do now than I have done.” His past behaviour is forgotten, or at least forgiven. It may appear impossible for the writer to have sympathy for, and the writer to elicit sympathy from readers for some character types. But it might be useful to think of them this way: what if the killer or paedophile was my brother or sister or my father or mother? It is considerably easier for the writer to endow their more heroic characters with some faults. We rarely find what may be regarded as the hero or heroine of a story being brave, resourceful, kind, generous, etcetera and not have some negative characteristics as well. Heroes often have weaknesses as, of course, do most people in life. Rather oddly, although the James Bond villains have no redeeming features Bond himself, in spite of his bravery and resourcefulness and being on the side of right, is also sexist, selfish and often without any compassion. In recent years modern TV drama has promoted the central character or hero as a person beset with many weaknesses. It is almost impossible to find a detective or policeman who isn’t a bad husband or wife and who is quite willing to betray a colleague, falsify the evidence and so on. Even in soap operas the favoured characters often have a clutch of weaknesses. They are more interesting than the stereotypical heroic type. Perhaps we need to rid ourselves of the terms “hero”, “heroine” and “villain” (as I have not done!) If you are writing purely escapist fiction then it may be acceptable and appropriate to have villainous villains and virtuous main characters. For more serious fiction with truly rounded characters, both the mainly good and the mainly bad, D H Lawrence provides good advice in pointing out the importance of applying discriminative sympathy when we are in the process of creating our characters. We need to respect characters as we should respect people but this does not mean that we sympathise with some of their actions. We should, as Lawrence wrote, “recoil from things gone dead”. Indirectly there is another thing that Lawrence reminds us of. Gossip is not to be condemned. Both your own gossip and what you overhear may well be the source of what could be a compelling piece of fiction. After all, gossip is usually concerned with human behaviour we Colin Bulman is the author of Fiction: The Art and the Craft, published by Compass Books, September 2014. He has written books, articles and stories and he teaches writing.

"Miss McBride, in all my years of representing clients whom other less well attuned legal brains would turn down as unwinnable, I have never come across one single case I could not win." He pursed his lips. "Until now that is. Do you honestly think citing a..." He cleared his throat. "And, I'm quoting your expert witness, Professor Romero here. ‘A virus that renders people incapable of rational thought and gives them an uncontrollable compulsion to consume human flesh, especially human brains,' is going to assist your boyfriend in his defence after he was caught by two police officers, standing over the lifeless body of his friend, clutching a baseball bat soaked in the blood and chunks of brain matter from the deceased, who was later found to have died from multiple brain injuries consistent with several blows to the head from a baseball bat?" "Yes," I said. "It’s the truth." Charles Benson, who had so many letters after his name it was like a game of Scrabble, eyed me like I was the last lunatic left in an asylum. "Did one of my learned colleagues put you up to this?" His eyes swept the room. "Are there hidden cameras? Is this some TV prank show?" His reaction was hardly a new one. I'd encountered similar reactions from other barristers who were convinced I was delusional. "No," I said, defiant, "this isn't a prank. This is real." He raised his chin. The gesture reminded me of a haughty child. "Well, in that case, Miss McBride, I can't help you. It’s a psychiatrist you need, not a man of law." Condescension seeped from his every word. It was hard to hide my disappointment. I'd been sure he was the one man who could help us and argue that Scott had acted in self-defence. His friend, Archie, was trying to eat him. "I'm sorry to hear that, Mr Benson." And I was genuinely sorry. If he couldn't help Scott in this way, he'd have to help him in another. "I honestly thought someone of your calibre, who'd successfully argued that a man wasn't guilty of murdering his wife because he mistook her for a lion, would have a more open mind." I paused to eye him with disdain. "Perhaps you could speak to Scott and explain why you won't help him. He's a teacher and a well-respected pillar of this community, just like you. It'll only take a minute. He's outside." Charles Benson's face went pumice grey. "No, I'm sorry, I don't have the time. My next client will be here." I stood up and walked over to the door. "Well, in that case our business is over, Mr Benson. But there's one last thing you can help me with." With a nod of the head, I opened the door. "I think you should meet Scott anyway, so you'll understand. You see, in the attack, he was bitten. More like a scrape caused by teeth sliding against his skin really. He didn't turn as quickly as they do in the movies or in The Walking Dead." I gave a wry smile. "Well, things are seldom as they are in the movies." Scott shambled into the room, feral eyes glowing as he saw his prey. His nails were ragged and torn and bloody from eating the two prison guards on the way over and the secretary outside. Charles Benson's eyes were wide with terror. "You better leave now, or I'm calling the police." His words were strangled. As Scott pinned him to the desk and sank decaying teeth into his fat flesh, I couldn't resist one last parting shot. "Do you believe me now, Mr Benson?" He was unable to answer. Scott had ripped out his throat – the blood that spurted out of the arrogant lawyer's veins reminded me of raspberry sauce on an ice cream cone. Blood is never as red as you think, not when you get used to it. Scott devoured the lips, then the nose, followed by the brain. The intestines he gorged on like cheesy string. Benson's fingers he wolfed down like hot dogs. Once he was done, he licked the blood and flesh from his teeth. I wagged a finger at him. "Christ, Scott, we’re gonna run out of lawyers soon." Scott drooled. "HUNGRY. BRAINS." My face softened. "Okay, but we need to tidy up this office and go. We have more legal brains we need to pick.” This short story first appeared in Pulp Metal Magazine in April 2014. When Jenny Thomson's not planning how to survive the zombie apocalypse (she wrote a fictionalised version called Dead Bastards set in Scotland) she lives on a Scottish island where she writes about tough women for the Die Hard for Girls series of books – Hell To Pay and Throwaways were both published by Sassy Books, an imprint of John Hunt Publishing. See publisher’s website for details http://www.sassy-books.com/authors/jenny-thomson

AUTUMN 2014

with poetry workshop facilitator, Jay Ramsay Poetry is an impulse as old as the human spirit: as old as language itself. We find it deep in time; in Isiah, Homer, St John, Corinthians (in the Bible), Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe – in writing and in names which have become myth and which have entered the stream of memory of our heritage and of our essence. Poetry and the word ‘poet’ comes from the Greek poesis, meaning ‘one who makes’. The poet, in relationship to words, is a maker of a special kind. In Latin, the word is vates meaning ‘seer’, diviner, or prophet. One who makes, and one who sees. These two meanings are at the root of what we are setting out to explore. The definition of poetry is something primary; it is something that precedes the rational intellect. Poetry comes from the spirit, from inspiration. Language is its tool. The mind is its mediator. Long before poetry was written down, and long before it began to be published as we know it, it was spoken aloud and learned by heart. In our own Celtic past, this was the function of the bard. In Anglo-Saxon Britain, the earliest English poems we have would have been spoken in many different and slightly varying versions before they reached manuscript form. This would include The Dream of the Rood, as well as an epic like Beowulf. The mediaeval figure of the minstrel, and in 12th Century France the

troubadour, continued this oral tradition, a tradition that is still alive today in Macedonia, the former Yugoslav country bordering Greece, and in Russia, where poems of immense length are still memorized.

with ritual language – personified in the poet-pharaoh Akhnaton with his famous Hymn to the Aten (Sun), who transformed his country through its monotheistic inspiration.

Ezra Pound, TS Eliot’s close friend and collaborator, referred to poetry as the wise language of the tribe. We can see then that poetry, in its origin and essence, has clear preoccupations: the first is to speak truth, the second is to communicate that truth, and the third is to communicate it in language that sees, feels and dreams – in what ordinary or mechanical language is incapable of, in other words. This is fundamental.

In Victorian and Edwardian England, and even more recently, people in school were learning poems by heart or by rote. In connection with other and related cultures, poetry understood as something magical was deeply rooted in tribal feeling, and embodied in the shaman, the Bushman and the Aborigine, who by going into a state of receptive trance brought back messages as well as healing from spirit. Ancient priesthoods, such as the Ancient Egyptian, were imbued

Poets are the sensitive antennae of their culture: of the place and time where they live. David Gascoyne, who became known as a young poet inspired by Surrealism in the 1930s, calls the poet a ‘seismograph’ – someone who experiences things not only personally, but collectively. All art tells the story of its time – poetry, we can say, tells that story uniquely in words. The history of poetry in any culture is bound up with storytelling in this sense – and it is in this sense we can understand it as a form of cultural divination. Poetry divines the psyche of the culture it emerges in, and as poetry moves through time, the evolution of cultures in all their patterns of growth, decay, crisis, and rebirth. Over time, poetry has emerged in different forms, each with different emphasis, named in periods (usually

in retrospect). So during Renaissance England we have the ‘Silver’ court poets of the early 16th Century (the court of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I), the ‘Metaphysical’ poets of the mid-17th Century; then the ‘Augustan’ poets of the 18th Century, then the sudden brief revolutionary flowering of Romanticism after William Blake in the 1790s, before its slow dilution in Victorian times, and the disruptive reorientation of 19th Century poetry in both craft and content in ‘Modernism’ through Ezra Pound and TS Eliot in the early 20th Century. The intellectual and academic status of poetry is something relatively recent, in so far as many people still feel the withdrawal of poetry as something accessible and comprehensible, reinforced in the way it has been taught. It is easy to forget that poetry was read as something seminal by large numbers of people, long before our age of television, DVDs and popular fiction. Tennyson, the poet laureate of his time, was a best seller, and Byron’s Child Harold sold out in London as soon as it was printed. Our age places an emphasis more on the visual imagination. Poetry is now more popular again than it has been for at least a century, even though publishers, especially the profit-driven ones, still mostly fail to recognize it. Poetry has constantly been redefined across the breadth of human emotion and direction, and it has as constantly been defended, as far back as Sir Philip Sidney’s text of 1519. Others have followed, notably through Romanticism, with its strongly valueorientated agenda. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote: “The poet, described in ideal perfection, brings the whole soul of man into activity, with the subordination of its faculties to each other, according to their relative worth and dignity. He diffuses a tone and spirit of unity that blends and (as it were) fuses, each into each, by that synthetic

and magical power to which we have exclusively appropriated the name of imagination.” – Biographia Literaria Percy Bysshe Shelley was both more forthright and more simple in his Defence of Poetry in declaring poets to be the “unacknowledged legislators of mankind”, and in his political poems he speaks to that spirit in the English people, both in his Song to the Men of England (sung for many years in working men’s clubs), and in The Mask of Anarchy, written in rage after the terrible Peterloo massacre of 1819. There weren’t many who thanked him for telling the truth about oppression. Poetic truth isn’t any more comfortable than the teaching of the Gospels; and near the time of his untimely death (in 1822, aged only 29) Shelley numbered only 11 people he knew of who were actually reading his books.

In both Coleridge and Shelley’s statements, you can hear the ancient echo of the consciousness I began by naming. The difference is that, centuries later, we find the poet in effect ‘detribalized’, and the advent of the outsider, named by existentialist philosophers and writers. The relationship between poets and their society has always been tenuous and ambiguous because the best poets find themselves saying what their culture would rather not hear. Even in poets as relatively integrated into their society as John Dryden and in the 18th Century Alexander Pope, there is an awareness of this and an accompanying solitude. The satirical emphasis which was magnified in his contemporary Jonathan Swift, famous for his Gulliver’s Travels, drove Swift into madness. Swift’s Gulliver remains, surrounded by a horde of Lilliputians only too eager to tie him down. And there is a Gulliver in all of us. In more recent times, alienation in society and its lack of ecological relationship has been reflected in maladjustment – and in the suicidal deaths

of poets such as Sylvia Plath and Harry Fainlight. More and more people are awakening to the price of distance and disconnection through a sensitivity which is, at root, poetry itself: its wellspring and source. And now we find ourselves in a time when contact with that source has become imperative, and not only for those of us who are poets – but, once again, for all of us. So what is poetry? Or rather, what can we mean by it? There is a connection with prose (especially in Modern poetry), but the difference, apart from an obvious intensity and density of language, reflects on the function of poetry as heart-speech. Poetry moves the heart where it reaches us and enters us, touching us at a level that is by definition deeper. All poetry aims to do this, whether it succeeds or not. But we know when it does – there is that distinct yet ineffable sense of our breath pausing, our eyes as if opened inwards, poised over the written form and movement among the lines, or where the poem ends, leaving us suddenly opened, quietly, blended with its feeling through each nuance of its word order and rhythm. I remember vividly the first time I read Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind, walking down by a Surrey river, down the hill from school. It was in a little battered leather Victorian edition I’d picked up for pence. Not so much to read as to have, and I found myself opening it as I stood near the water. It was an autumn afternoon, and the leaves had turned russet, glowing, and there was a breeze along the river and in the trees above it, enough to suggest wind that the leaves whispered to, hushing the air and suggesting a sense of anticipation at the same time. My eyes moved into the poem, and immediately its rhythm held me, and as I read I was no longer aware of myself standing there, as the sound of the leaves blown by the wind began to move and the words glowed and

AUTUMN 2014 caught fire, image after image drawing me through towards its ending. It was a moment out of time – we all have them – where the poem entered me and I entered it. It was a turning point, as I only later came to realize. Something began in me that afternoon. I can say I was moved, but it was more than that. The feeling was of being called – of being addressed. I didn’t know what it was, and I put the book away and walked on, finding myself seeing the river and the trees above it and the leaves in a way I hadn’t before – or hadn’t consciously. I wasn’t looking at them, I was seeing them: I was seeing them alive. And they were calling too, and I was saying Yes – I say ‘I’, but it was also something else in me that was at the same time more familiar to me: utterly familiar, in fact. It was my own voice. Poetry has to do with that unique voice we all have in us. It is not something we have generally been taught to believe, or give credence to. And this is something more than literature as we generally understand it. These are living words: not merely to be dissected or pinned like the wings of a butterfly. We all speak a generalized language, defined by nationality and influenced by conditioning we are all molded by; and beneath that, spoken or unspoken, is another voice. A door opens – and poetry can open that door into our own heart and towards our own truth, whatever it may be, and whatever it may need to sound like. A door opens – and a journey begins. It is a call from the depth of us to be who we are. And it is the voice which can say, or begin to say, ‘I am’. It is our birthright. Poetry is a quest. At the same time,

poetry is a response to the world – a response and an argument, both politically and spiritually, and particularly now the winds of change are blowing. We each need to have a vision of our time and what is happening in it and a sense of why it is happening. By going more deeply into ourselves we are able to go more fully into the world and our relationships in it, with friends and strangers, seeing that we are all part of it. We are part of Creation and we are co-creators. We find ourselves different from the world and its current values, and that is the dynamic of poetry. There is a cliché about poetry being ‘unworldly’ and this is the truth in it. We are in the world, but not of it (as St John says). You could call this the outer calling. It is a calling to wake up, and to begin to see a way beyond the wasteland of nationality, prejudice, denial, exploitation and pollution; seeing a way too beyond these things in us and the unimaginative language we speak. The poet inside us wakes and stirs, as the world stirs towards rebirth. As George Trevelyan wrote in Magic Casements:

“In our over-masculinated society, in which logical analyzing intellect is used to gain our ends, the more feminine intuitive faculties are often allowed to go dormant. But these are precisely the faculties that make poetry. True imagination can blend with the being within form, and rediscover the miraculous oneness of all life. The poet is one who can crystallize into words this profound experience of identity.” We need space in order to write, and we need to learn to go inside and make a center there. Then it can begin. There are as many ways to write a poem as there are people to

write poems. The contemporary scene is a rich arena of diversity and difference. Poetry exists on many levels – light-hearted and serious, meditative and passionate. It is wrong to start out by thinking there must be a ‘right’ way to write a poem. Poems often know more about themselves than we do, and the important thing is to let them come as they want to – in other words, to let yourself speak. Revision and rewording, if necessary, can come later. Another useful point to make here is to do with self-esteem (or the lack of it). Your poem, like your experience, need be no better or worse than anyone else’s – it is yours. Comparisons are often unhelpful and deenergizing. We need to focus on and trust what we are trying to say. It is not an exam, and there is no certificate. It’s much more challenging and more pleasurable than that – and there’s no one here to mark you down. There’s no competition, either – and no prizes. We are the prize – and it’s greater than anything we have so far imagined. And perhaps a little stranger, too.

Jay Ramsay is an acclaimed poet, teacher, workshop leader, performer and UKCP accredited psychosynthesis therapist currently working in private practice at the Lotus Foundation, London. He is also a popular poetry editor with his own page in the New Age spirituality magazines Kindred Spirit (1997-2004), Caduceus (since 2002) and More To Life (since 2006).

The Poet in You by Jay Ramsay is published by Compass Books ISBN 978 1 84694 025 5 156pp – UK£11.99/US$24.95

Defining Fantasy Kevan Manwaring

‘This is a regrettably true tale such as no correct thinking person ought to regard seriously.’ James Branch Cabell To define something as nebulous as Fantasy is to perhaps attempt an impossible task – the kind of thing a hapless heroine will be forced to undertake in a fairy tale: to sort rice grains from wheat, needles from straw, the false from the true. As a genre, it is notoriously difficult to pin down – like an over-sized worm in a fairy tale; it has a tendency to wriggle away. In The Encyclopaedia of Fantasy (1999) John Clute gives voice to this, saying that Fantasy is: ‘a most extraordinarily porous term, and has been used to mop up vast deposits of story which this culture or that – and this era or that – deems unrealistic.’ He cites Brian Atteberry’s notion that Fantasy is a ‘fuzzy set’, which can best be described through ‘prescriptive and exploratory example’. Yet, to avoid this quest slipping through our fingers, we need something solid to hold onto, to guide us. A phial of Elendil to light our way, or a Sting-like blade to glow blue when we encounter an ugly untruth. One could argue that all fiction is imaginative to a lesser or greater extent, but in Fantasy the imaginary is emphasised. In fact, perhaps the only sustainable definition of the genre is that it is only limited by your imagination. However, it is wise to begin with the familiar, the reliable, before venturing out into more chancy territory. The good old ‘Strider’ of a guide, the OED (the fit-for-the -wilderlands concise version), defines it as the following: Fantasy (n): the faculty or activity of imagining improbable or impossible things. 2. a genre of imaginative fiction involving magic and adventure The latter is the popular perception of the term, but the primary definition remains obscure – as though an etymological version of The Man in the Iron Mask has occurred, with one definition locked up in an oubliette, while the other basks in the glory. It is time to release the lesser known aspect (the Faculty; as opposed to the Genre) from the dungeon — a key aspect which is often sadly lacking in Fantasy fiction. It is important to distinguish between those immortal twins, Science Fiction and Fantasy, although this is notoriously difficult. Arisen from the same gene pool of the imagination, they have been raised in very different 36

ways, and encountered wildly divergent fates – yet they are often conjoined in bookshops under the ‘Science Fiction and Fantasy’ category. Sometimes firstborn Fantasy is even subsumed under its later sibling – all books of a fantastical nature lumped under ‘SF’ – who Set-like wishes to slay his brother. But Fantasy rises Osiris-like, in the Underworld of the Subconscious, where he resides – the archetypal judge of all our endeavours. It is the source of all invention. Fantasy is the Nile, from which a vast delta of subgenres has been generated. At best, Science Fiction might be classed as the ‘Lower Nile’ – but that makes it no less important than its older sibling, even if he may carry some dream-silt from more ancient lands. But, perhaps we need a less poetic analogy, or demarcation – to stop the Nile of Fantasy from flooding all the lands of minds and men. Robert Silverberg has a crack at it, in his introduction to The Fantasy Hall of Fame, but admits ‘the impossibility of making any of these definitions stick: ‘Science Fiction is that branch of Fantasy which one generally deals in extrapolations of the consequences of technological development, and which attempts to stick fairly rigorously to known or theoretically possible scientific concepts. Fantasy is a much broader field of fiction that is less firmly bound to the tyranny of fact, and for the purposes of any given story is permitted to assume nearly any idea as plausible, though it is desirable for the author to elicit a suspension of disbelief through the plausible development of a basically unlikely notion.’ For the record, my working definition is that Science Fiction has, at its core, a rationalist/scientific explanation of the universe; while Fantasy offers a magical or mythic explanation. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, and with new discoveries in science (quantum physics especially) the boundaries between science and mysticism are blurring (territory authors such as Philip Pullman explores in His Dark Materials trilogy). JRR Tolkien is perhaps the greatest Fantasy writer of all time; certainly he is incredibly influential and possibly the most emulated author in fiction (i.e. endless Sword and Sorcery pastiches). He disliked the use of allegory (unlike his fellow Oxford inkling, CS Lewis), and liked to describe his stories as Fairy Stories in the truest sense, that is, set in an Otherworld: ‘most good fairy tales are about adventures of men in the Perilous Realm’. He argues that the successful writer of ‘fairy stories’ is one who: ‘makes a Secondary World which your mind can enter. Inside, what he relates is ‘true’: it accords with the laws of that world.’ It has an internal logic – consistency, causality and an ecology of its own (often sharing some laws with our own world, i.e. gravity, night and day, hunger, sleep).

AUTUMN 2014 In an exploration of several famous Secondary Worlds, Realms of Fantasy, Edwards and Holdstock say: ‘The writer must not cheat: the laws governing the invented world may be different from our own, but they must be applied consistently.’ Essential qualities are Realism and Conviction – the author has to totally believe in their world, and if they do so thoroughly and skilfully enough, they may make the reader forget that it is invented, or at least willingly suspend their disbelief. Not all Fantasy is set in a Secondary World, but it is by far the most common trope. A Secondary World Fantasy: ‘takes place in an invented world, which may or may not have some doorway into our own.’ A general survey of different kinds of Secondary Worlds include: Stories set in the ancient past; Stories set in present-day lost worlds; Stories set on other planets; Stories set in the distant future; Stories set on Fantasy Earths quite separate from our own but with affinities to it. Notice that many of them tread in Science Fiction territory, but it all depends on the ‘explanation’ behind the Way Things Work, as well as language, or tone, e.g. there is a world of difference between William Gibson’s Neuromancer and Michael Ende’s The Never-Ending Story (both imaginative fiction of the Eighties). Fantasy is the means by which we may imagine and enter into other worlds. It is closely associated with Imagination – it provides a gateway. However, Tolkien goes to great lengths to elucidate on the difference between Fantasy and Imagination. Firstly, he defines the latter as ‘the power of giving to ideal creations the inner consistency of reality.’ Having established this, he then goes onto to tease out the quintessential difference with Fantasy:

Let us end this brief examination by citing Tolkien one last time, who declares: ‘Fantasy is a natural human activity. It certainly does not destroy or even insult Reason; and it does not either blunt the appetite for, nor obscure the perception of scientific verity. On the contrary. The keener and the clearer the reason, the better the Fantasy will it make. This last caveat is a critical one. Any who venture into the twilight realms of Fantasy need a sharp sword and a keen eye, to avoid being mired in the swamps of softfocus whimsy, mazed in the caverns of cliché, or assailed by the plague of plagiarism. At its best, Fantasy forges something of beauty and substance so real, so alluring we want to step into it and live there. CS Lewis describes coming across a copy of Phantastes: ‘The glorious week end of reading was before me. Turning to the bookstall, I picked out... Phantastes, a faerie Romance, George Macdonald. That evening I began to read my new book... I met there all that already charmed me in Malory, Spenser, Morris... But in another sense all was changed... It was Holiness.’ Fantasy creates imaginary, magical worlds that do not exist, but so skilfully, that we wish them to do be true, at least for a little while. Desiring Dragons by Kevan Manwaring is published by Compass Books ISBN 978 1 78279 583 4 – 266pp – UK£14.99/US$24.95

‘The mental power of image-making is one, or aspect; and it should appropriately be called Imagination... The achievement of the expression, which gives (or seems to give) ‘the inner consistency of reality’, is indeed another thing, or aspect, needing another name: Art, the operative link between Imagination and the final result, Subcreation.’ For the purposes of his essay, ‘On Fairy Stories’, Tolkien sought a word which embraced: ‘both the Sub-creative Art in itself and a quality of strangeness and wonder in the Expression, derived from the Image.’ This quality, essential, to fairy-story, he sums up as ‘Fantasy’. He cites one of its chief effects as ‘arresting strangeness’, and although he acknowledges some people bridled at this (‘They dislike any meddling with the Primary World, or such small glimpses of it as are familiar to them’), he refutes their misconception – that Fantasy is mere idle dreaming. He argues that true Fantasy is ‘difficult to achieve’. To create a world so convincing that it ‘commands or induces a Secondary Belief’ is something Tolkien says requires the art of elvish art of enchantment: ‘To the elvish craft, Enchantment, Fantasy aspires, and when it is successful of all forms of human art most nearly approaches.’ 37

Your creativity may well be affected by a figure that lives inside you and of whom you are probably not even aware – except when you hear its nagging voice and feel its fearful vibes. An inner saboteur, for instance, subtly obstructs your purpose or trips you up, an inner critic constantly criticises and tells you you’re not good enough, and other figures with similar agendas such as subtle manipulators can have taken up residence too. These voices became lodged in your subconscious mind somewhere in the past, and still try to ‘keep you safe’ or whatever function it is they think they are performing – they seldom start out as malevolent but they have a definite agenda. They arise in childhood, or other lives. Unfortunately, when you outgrow the need for that particular help, you do not necessarily lose the figure and its purpose is subverted. Meeting the figure and explaining that you have matured and now have different needs

©Terrie Birch

Figures that sabotage us often lurk in dark corners. 38

will usually release the sabotage, criticism, manipulation and so on, and the figure may well be persuaded to take a more constructive part in your inner life. A constructive inner critic is extremely useful as you can self-regulate your writing. The exercise below communicates with the saboteur but you can easily adapt the exercise to meet other inner figures such as the critic or manipulator. Visualisation: Meeting the saboteur Sit quietly and let yourself relax. Withdraw your attention from the outside world and bring it deep into yourself. In your mind’s eye take yourself to your favourite place. Spend a few moments enjoying being in this space. Walk around and enjoy its unique feel, its sounds and its smells. When you are ready to seek the inner saboteur, look at what is beneath your feet in your favourite place. You will see that there is a trap door in front of you. Open this trap door and descend the ladder below – remember to take a light with you or look for a light switch as you go down the ladder. This is where your inner saboteur lives. This figure may be reluctant to come out into the light and may prefer to stay in a dark corner. It this is the case, try to reassure it and coax it into the light so that you can communicate more easily. Ask the figure what purpose it serves. [Wait quietly and patiently for the answer, do not push]. You will probably find that the figure once had a positive purpose but that this has changed over the years. If so, thank it for its care and concern and explain how things are different now. Ask the saboteur if it will help you by taking a more positive role in your inner life. If the answer is yes, discuss this and ask for a new name to go with its new role. If the answer is no, ask the saboteur if it is willing to leave you and take up residence somewhere where it will not frustrate your purpose. You may need to do some negotiating here. Most saboteurs eventually agree to become more positive or to leave. If the saboteur has been particularly obstreperous, sending it for a Spa Holiday for the duration could be a solution, just imagine it being whisked off to be pampered and petted, this usually works a treat. (If yours absolutely refuses, it may need a different approach under the guidance of someone qualified in spirit release techniques, see www.theschoolofintuitionandhealing.co.uk)

AUTUMN 2014 When you have completed your discussions or negotiations, leave by the ladder and close the trap door. The figure may well come with you and can be encouraged to find an appropriate place to settle. When you are ready, open your eyes. Take your attention down to your feet and feel your feet on the earth. Be aware that your feet are connected to the earth, grounding you. Picture a shield closing over your third eye. With your eyes wide open, take a deep breath and stand up with your feet firmly on the earth.

If you are non-visual: Holding a cleansed and dedicated (i.e. one that has been cleansed under running water and asked to work with you) anti-sabotage crystal such as Blue Scapolite, take your mind around your body and allow yourself to feel intuitively where your inner saboteur lurks. Communicate through sensing, asking the same questions as above. Remember to cleanse the crystal by placing it under running water and putting it out in the sun after use. Crystals for overcoming self-sabotage: Scapolite, Larimar, Turquoise, Tourmalinated Quartz

Crystals for overcoming inner criticism: Rutilated Quartz, Rose Quartz, Aventurine, Blue Chalcedony, Rainbow Obsidian If you find an inner critic, ask that the criticism will be constructive, helping you to restructure your work with clarity and vivid imagination. The Inner mentor A much more constructive figure is the wise mentor or creative daemon that also lives within you, meeting this figure is usually a much more joyous experience although the figure may be elusive at first and need persuading to make itself known. An excellent starting place for seeking your mentor is within your heart. This figure knows much more than you know you know, especially about yourself, and can be extremely helpful when you learn to listen. Visualisation: Meeting your mentor Sit quietly and let yourself relax. Bring your attention away from the outside world and into yourself. In your mind’s eye, take yourself to a favourite place, somewhere you feel comfortable, safe and at

home. Spend a few moments enjoying being in this space. In your mind’s eye walk around and enjoy its unique feel, its sounds and its smells. You will see that a small building has appeared in your favourite place, let your feet take you to its door. Put out your hand, open the door and go in. Your mentor will be waiting to greet you. Spend time with your mentor, ask what your purpose is in life, what skills you already have that you can bring to bear in your writing. Discuss how your mentor can assist you by dropping ideas into your head or helping you lay your hand on exactly the piece of information or inspiration that will set you off, and create a signal that your mentor can use to catch your attention. When you have finished, ask your mentor to always be there for you. Then come out of the building, close the door but know that you can always return. Make your way back to the place you started from, bring your attention into the room and stand up being aware of the contact you make with the floor. Move around. Remember to listen to your mentor. It can be helpful to tune in daily. If you are kinaesthetic (i.e. a touchy feely person) use a cleansed and dedicated crystal (i.e. one that has been cleansed under running water and asked to work with you) to link to your mentor and do not cleanse after use. When you need to contact your mentor, simply hold the crystal to make contact. Crystals for meeting a mentor: Mentor Formation (several crystals clustered around the base of a larger crystal) Selenite, Faden Quartz, Spirit Quartz, Petalite, Tanzanite, Blue Chalcedony Adapted from Good Vibrations: Psychic Protection, Energy Enhancement and Space Clearing (Flying Horse, Bournemouth 2008) and Life Changing Crystals (Godsfield Press, London 2013)

www.angeladditions.co.uk 39

He rapped on the door and walked straight in. It was 9.15, a wet Friday night in late October. The middleaged guy behind the walnut veneer desk glanced up and a tired, irritated look crumpled his face. ‘I need help,’ Mark said, coming directly to the point. ‘—You want to make an appointment?’ ‘No.’ He heard himself sigh. ‘This won’t wait.’ For the space of a minute the guy was silent. Mark knew what was running through his mind: Business is business, right? If he let Mark walk back out through his door there was a good chance he’d never see him again, and Mark didn’t need the downmarket address to tell him Mr Andrew Parry couldn’t afford to pass up the chance to make some money. Besides, anybody still at their desk this time of a weekend didn’t have much calling him home. None of that made him feel any better. Pushing ahead, Mark opened up his wallet, throwing down a wad of crisp notes. The sudden shine in Parry’s eyes told him it was a done deal. ‘Why don’t you take a seat, Mr —?’ ‘Mark,’ he said. ‘Mark Thorn.’ ‘Well, Mr Thorn.’ Parry spread his hands. ‘I’m at your service.’ Maybe the lateness of the hour had worn down his professionalism, or maybe it was that primordial part of the brain talking to him; sending a message that the smell of cash urged him to ignore, but Mark saw Parry’s hand dip into his open desk drawer. For an instant, his fingers curled around a familiar red and white pack before letting it go again. ‘Go ahead,’ Mark told him, smiling. ‘Smoke if you want to. You don’t need to be on your best behaviour 40

with me. I used to be in the same line of work. I know hypnotherapists don’t much practice what they preach.’ Parry’s one, thick eyebrow scuttled up into his hairline in surprise. When he spoke his voice held a hint of amusement. ‘Well, well. It isn’t often I find a colleague on the wrong side of the desk.’ ‘No,’ Mark agreed, glancing past him to the night stained panes of the sash window. In the glow of the sodium street lighting, the rain beading the glass resembled a handful of jewels someone had carelessly spilled. ‘Not often.’ Parry lit his cigarette, his eyes openly curious and Mark heard himself sigh again. He was wishing he still smoked. ‘A year ago tonight.’ Mark let his gaze travel back to the window, watching a cherry tree cast furiously dancing shadows as wind mercilessly lashed the frail limbs. ‘I was in my office. It was late.’ He glanced at his watch. ‘Around this time as a matter of fact. If I hadn’t split up with my girlfriend the night before, I would’ve been on my way to a Halloween party. 'But—’ he shrugged— ‘shit happens, as the saying goes.' ‘So, there I am, sitting at my desk, shuffling paperwork from one corner to another and feeling sorry for myself, when the door opens and a lady with l-o-n-g, honey coloured hair, walks in.’ Mark glanced at Parry and saw he was growing bored. Right about now he was probably thinking he’d got himself a case of common ole’ garden, hypnotherapist lusting after client syndrome. Well, and that was okay. In time he’d realise his mistake.

‘She wanted my help – there and then, and she paid me more than I usually made in six months. Tell the truth, she didn’t need the money to persuade me. She was a goodlooking woman – but it was more than that. There was something about her. A quality … a … a force. It was almost—’ he laughed thinly— ‘mesmeric.’ ‘She was having a recurrent nightmare, she said.’ He gave Parry a crooked smile. He was looking at Parry, talking to him, but old memories were pulling at Mark like a riptide, dragging him down. The gusting wind slammed rain against the window with a sound like Old Nick’s toes tapping. She started and shivered, her pale grey eyes, wild and afraid. ‘It’s the same sound.’ Her voice was ragged, strangulated by terror. The fingers of one hand plucked ceaselessly at the collar of her black, designer dress. ‘Same as the dream?’ After a moment she nodded, stiffly, as if she couldn’t quite remember how to make her neck work. Mark looked away from her, he‘d never seen someone so petrified before. He needed a moment to think, to weigh things up. Through the window he could see a solitary birch tree. Its boughs, tormented by the storm, reminded him of a shabby, angry, old man, shaking his fist with so much venom that the rage quivered all the way through his body. Thunder mumbled in the distance and one part of his mind waited for a burst of harsh light to stutter across the black skies. The hair on the nape of his neck had begun to prickle and a sudden chill caressed the space between his shoulder blades and slid down his spine. Weather’s cooling,

AUTUMN 2014 his brain told him – but he already knew that was a lie. He already knew it was something there, inside the room with him that iced his blood. Despite that, he sat on, lost in the colour of her hair. Parry had lit another cigarette. Boredom was still glazing his speckled, hazel brown eyes. Mark noticed a bluebottle on the windowsill. ‘I asked her all the usual questions,’ he told him. ‘It’s always the same dream?’ ‘Always! Every night.’ Her voice was heavy, weary. ‘How long have you been experiencing this dream?’ ‘It – it started the night after he died.’ ‘The night after your husband died. That’s —’ ‘Almost two years now,’ she said and laughed, a cracked, raspy sound that combined desperation and a certain chilling eroticism. ‘Bastard won’t even let me alone now he’s dead.’ ‘By then,’ Mark said, taking off his wristwatch and letting it dangle from between his fingers, idly watching as it slowly swung back and forth, ‘I’d heard enough to know it hadn’t been the best marriage in creation. I was fairly certain a degree of violence had been involved. Not of the broken ribs variety, nothing as serious as that. Just a slap here or there. You know the kind of thing,’ he said, looking at Parry’s cigarette in the ashtray. Parry’s eyes ticked back and forth, following the rhythmic movement of the timepiece. ‘Yes,’ he said. ‘I know.’ ‘I should’ve been disgusted, outraged. I tell ya, I tried to be. But there was a part of me that seized on an image of my own hand connecting with that perfect, silky, white skin like a starving dog onto a T-bone steak. Sick huh?’ ‘Yes,’ Parry said. ‘Sick.’ ‘And you know the worst?’ she said, leaning across the desk, pushing her face close to his. She was breathing as

hard as if she’d just run the fourminute mile. Mark caught a smell – sour milk and bad apples. She looked into his eyes and he saw how bloodshot her own were. Horror consumed her face, eating into her features, pulling the flesh tight, until Mark thought if he looked hard enough he’d be able to see through the thin layer that was left, right down to the very bones. She strained, trying to carry on, to speak. All that came out was a low, thin whine. Her throat worked, her sensual mouth twisting and writhing like a separate entity. Every muscle in her face clenched, bunched and jerked spasmodically as tears ran unheeded down both undulating cheeks. ‘The worst is,’ she panted. ‘I’m scared all the time. Scared it’s never going to stop! That he’ll always be there … coming to get me.’ She was sobbing openly now, the way a small child would cry: unabashed and unrestrainedly. ‘I c-can’t stand to think about that and I c-c-can’t get the thought out of my head! It’s there every second of every day and every … every long, lonely night. But I know you’ll help me, Mr Thorn,’ she said, and for a moment Mark was sure there was something dangerous in the burning, frantic stare she fixed him with. He felt his balls shrivel as cold fear unfolded in his belly. ‘You know,’ he said. ‘That was probably the first time in my life I’ve ever been afraid of being alone with a woman. You ever been afraid like that?’ ‘Afraid?’ Parry said. ‘Yes.’ ‘Then excitement replaced the dread in my gut. “Tell me about the dream,” I said. I was thinking that this was the sort of case that could make my reputation for me. The sort of case small time practitioners dream about.’ He almost smiled at his unintended pun. ‘She started to talk in a low, rambling, half-whisper.’

‘It’s night-time and it’s raining – just like it is now. We’re in the car. He’s driving. The rain’s hammering down and the wind’s shrieking all around us and I’m scared because he’s driving too fast. I tell him to slow down, but he won’t. Fucker never would do anything I asked.’ She made a sound somewhere between a laugh and a moan. ‘I plead with him but he takes no notice, so I open the door and leap out into the road. The next minute he loses control and plunges off the pier, into the sea. I start screaming and yelling for help but by the time they get to him, he’s dead.’ She paused, rocking convulsively. Her hands wrapped tight around her middle as if holding herself together. ‘In my dream I think, that’s the end of it – he’s gone. But then, everywhere I go, I see him. He’s become a zombie. He starts chasing me through an empty department store. Everything’s covered in dust sheets. And he keeps coming. Relentlessly! Coming. ‘And I’m running. Running higher and higher into the building. Finally I’m on the roof. Trapped! And he’s coming. ‘Somehow, I can never remember how, I manage to escape back onto the street. I get into my car and lock the door. I put on the seat belt and I’m just about to start up the engine when I glance at the passenger seat and … he’s there. He’s staring at me – that cold, hard look of his and I realise, I’m never going to escape from him. He’ll never let me go. Never!’ And you wake up, he thought, crying and feeling afraid and … guilty. ‘Guilty?’ She nodded, considering. ‘Yeah. I do. I do feel guilty.’ Her head was down, her shoulders slumped, hands hanging between her knees. Then she raised her eyes and looked right at him. ‘Which is purely foolish.’ She sat back, beyond the radius of the fake Georgian table lamp. From the shadows he heard her laugh and there was nothing even

remotely erotic about it this time. This time it seethed with insanity and Mark felt a fist clench around his heart. Something in him reared up and started pounding someplace in the back of his head, screaming at him to get the fuck out of there. But he only went on sitting, watching the way her hair seemed to shimmer. Even without the light of the lamp shining on it. ‘Stupid isn’t it? I mean – I didn’t feel in the least bit scared or guilty when I did it. When I finally shoved that knife into him I’d already rehearsed it in my head a thousand times. The only thing I felt was an intense, almost… sexual pleasure. But the dream – the dream’s making me crazy. It’s making me lose my mind. ‘I thought it would stop if I was dead.’ She leaned forward again, yanking down the collar of her dress, revealing a bloodless but livid gash across the skin of her throat. ‘But—’ she choked, her voice dropping to a faint whisper— ‘it didn’t.’ Her burning eyes fastened onto his. ‘It didn’t stop.’ ‘That’s when I heard it, that droning, heavy buzz bluebottles make – you know, the really big fuckers? They were everywhere, on the ceiling light, all over the window. There was one crawling on my desk. And I thought – where the hell have those damned things come from? It’s too cold for flies. ‘She moved so fast it was a blur. Next minute the fly’s remains were smeared across the old desk’s leather top. ‘I knew what she was by then. I knew why I’d felt that chill when she’d first walked in. Even after she’d hypnotised me, part of me had still known what was going on. Let’s face it – how many regular human beings can read thoughts? ‘I told myself, ghosts can’t really hurt you. People see ghosts all the time and they’re around at least long enough to tell the tale.’ Mark stopped dangling his wristwatch and fastened it back on before

looking into Parry’s slack face and half-hooded eyes. ‘I was wrong. You know that, don’t you?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Uh-huh. I was wrong. Ghosts have a way of getting what they want. A way of making you slip through the spaces of this world and into theirs. Ghosts can suck you out from your dreams. And they can manifest a solid physical presence to someone in trance. To say, a medium or, to someone, say … in a hypnotic trance. ‘Yeah.’ He nodded. ‘I know what you’re thinking – that’s why the bitch hypnotised me.’ Mark laughed, a flat, mirthless cackle. ‘Must’ve been as easy as pie. I was probably tired enough to be half way there on my own by that time of night – and – you know what they say, Parry – there’s no-one easier to sell to than a salesman. And who could be easier to hypnotise than a hypnotist?’ ‘Now you see,’ she said and her voice was almost apologetic. ‘I tried to speak,’ Mark told Parry, ‘but all I could manage was a stiff, jerky little nod. I was the one now having trouble making my neck work. ‘She raised her arm and out of the corner of my eye I saw a glint of light off to the left of me. I thought it might have been the lamp reflecting off something shiny but my head wouldn’t turn. I couldn’t look away from her hair. ‘Her arm slashed out and I felt a thump in my chest. I didn’t feel any pain, but all the strength just seemed to drain out of me. ‘I tell ya, Parry, I couldn’t believe it. Even as it was happening – I just couldn’t accept I was going to die! ‘Her arm stabbed at me again and I felt another thump. Everything started fading in and out. ‘I thought I must’ve passed out and come round. She was standing over me, looking at my face. Then I was looking at my face as well. Surprise was written all over me.’ Mark shrugged, faintly embarrassed. ‘Well – I certainly didn’t have

being murdered in mind when I got out of bed that morning. ‘I could smell that odour again – sour milk and bad apples. Only now it was stronger.’ ‘You’ll help me,’ she said, holding out her hand to him. ‘And everything will be alright.’ Behind him, Mark heard the creak of the door opening. He felt her walk into the room, coming to stand by him. Her chill breath spilling the reek of sour milk and bad apples onto the back of his neck. Something buzzed past his ear and a fat, blue body crawled lazily across the cream coloured phone. An instant later and he was scraping its innards off his palm onto a corner of the desk. ‘But you know what? Even the best plans don’t always work out.’ Mark glanced toward the woman at his side. Her head was down. Her hair, enchanting as ever, hung loose, falling forward to cover her face. ‘She picked the wrong guy,’ he said. ‘I couldn’t help her. ‘Still, the lady was never one to give up easily. She’s determined to give it another try.’ Slowly, she raised her head. Mark winced at those burning, red eyes. Another year of hell had turned them into pools of hot lava. Light flashed on the knife blade in her hand. He turned to Parry. ‘Between you and me, I don’t believe it’ll work this time either. But you try telling that to a goddamned, obsessed, madwoman.’ Krystina Kellingley is a commissioning editor/copy editor/publisher of imprints Axis Mundi Books (esoteric books), Cosmic Egg Books (Fantasy/Sci Fi/Horror), and Lodestone Books (Y/A). She is currently working on an adult supernatural fiction novel. She has had several short stories published in spiritual magazines as well as many online articles on dream interpretation and other subjects. Krystina travels internationally to tutor in writing workshops as well as privately mentoring new writers of adult and children’s fiction.

Grammar Tips

AUTUMN 2014

Copyeditors often come across commonly confused words. These can be because the author is genuinely confused or sometimes because of typing errors and they have been missed in the final edit. So be aware of the following: Advice/advise Advice (noun). She needs advice about her financial position. Advise (verb) is to offer a suggestion. I'd advise him not to proceed with the court case.

Lead 2 (verb and rhymes with bead). Being in charge or in a front position. I will lead the way. Led (past tense of lead). She led the way home.

Imply/infer Imply is to drop a hint (the speaker). Are you implying that I'm lying? Infer is to make a guess (the listener). She inferred from what he said that he was lying.

Who's/whose ‘Who’s’ is a contraction of 'who is'. Tom, who is a doctor, ran to help. (Tom who's a doctor ran to help). Whose (belonging to or associated with which person). Whose dog is this?

It's/its 'It's' is a contraction of 'it is' It is a shame you can't go. (It's a shame you can't go.) 'Its' is a possessive adjective. The dog wagged its tail. (The dog wagged it is tail would be incorrect)

Your/you're Your is a possessive adjective, so it belongs to you. Is this your dog? You're is a contraction of 'you are'. I am a doctor and you are a nurse. (I'm a doctor and you're a nurse.)

Lightning/lightening Lightning (atmospheric electricity). There was a flash of Accept/except lightning. Accept (verb). To take or receive something that is Lightening is making something less dark. She is lightenoffered. She refused to accept the gift. ing her hair today. Except (preposition). Not including. I've packed everything, except my toiletries. Loose/lose Loose (not fixed). The chickens are loose in the garden. Affect/effect Lose (to not have anymore). I'm trying to lose weight. Or Affect (verb). Influence. Being in love affects his judge- Don't lose your keys. ment. Effect (noun). His charm had no effect on me. Past/passed Past (noun). In the past, she has been married twice. All right/alright Past (adjective). Summer had passed and it was now auTwo separate words. Alright is actually a misspelling of tumn. 'all right', but is gaining acceptance. Passed (past participle of the verb to pass). He passed his driving test. And She passed the church on her way home. All together/altogether All together means collectively. Sight/site Altogether (adverb). Entirely/completely. Sight (noun) is the power of seeing. His sight was impaired so he wore spectacles. Alter/altar Site (noun) a place where is building or structure is situAlter (verb) means to change ated or is to be situated. This is the site for our new Altar (noun) is as table used in religious ceremonies. house. Or a place where something took place. The site of the Battle of Waterloo. (But commonly incorrect is Awhile/a while 'sight' when short for 'website'. It should be 'site'. Awhile is for a short time. Please stay awhile. A while is a period of time. It has been a while since I vis- Then/than ited home. Then (subsequently or afterwards). She entered the house and then went straight to the kitchen. Breath/breathe Than (comparison). My house is bigger than your house. Breath (noun). Reference to the air you are taking in and exhaling out. There/their/they're Breathe (verb). You are inhaling and exhaling air (an ac- There (a place). The shoes are over there. tion). Their (possessive, so it belongs to them). The two soldiers clicked their heels. (The heels belong to the solCould have/Could of diers). Correct - could have They’re is a contraction of 'they are'. They are going Incorrect – could of shopping today. (They're going shopping today.)

Lead/led Lead 1 (noun and rhymes with bed). A soft heavy metal. They had the lead pipes replaced with copper. 43

Choose your definition Working with young, and not-so-young, people who have experienced the worst that life has to throw at them continues to take me on a fascinating journey. Learning from people who have quite literally turned their lives around is a privilege and has led me to question why some people choose to forge ahead while others do not. I use the word ‘choose’ carefully and with trepidation as I am forever being told that ‘it’s not that simple’. What if it is that simple? What if we make it that simple? I began this journey with Dani, the main character in

Reggie & Me, as a way of encouraging young people to choose their own path in life. The core message is that each and every one of us has the power to define ourselves. We do not have to accept labels or carry the actions of other people with us. Life involves a steady stream of influences and more often than not, we choose the influences that resonate with us. Whether that involves the music we listen to, the food we eat or the clothes we wear; we choose what ‘fits’. The influences then extend to positive and negative experiences. We all have both of these on a daily basis, depending on what we choose to focus on.

AUTUMN 2014 Sometimes, unthinkable things happen. Dani shows us that we still have the choice about how we define ourselves. Dani chooses to concentrate on making sure she succeeds at school and in her newfound love of sport so that she has choices about her future. This is no mean feat as her final year at secondary school is challenging to say the least. Unfortunately, she faces the same challenges as an increasing number of young people. That is why this story matters. There are two ways in which I hope that this story will resonate with readers. Firstly, if the reader is experiencing their own challenges, whether they mirror Dani’s or not, there are strategies they can learn in order to thrive in the face of adversity. Secondly, for readers who are supporting someone through a challenging time, there are tips about the significance of the messages that they are giving. For readers in the midst of their own challenges, there is a message of hope. The story is told through Dani’s diary as she navigates her way through starting a new school in year eleven. Her rollercoaster year mirrors the experiences of many young people who find themselves being isolated, bullied and with a desperate search for meaning in the midst of chaos. The story begins as Dani has seen her rapist jailed; moving away is supposed to be a new and exciting start for her and her Mum. Life doesn’t always work out the way we had planned though, does it? It takes every ounce of strength that Dani has to keep going and to make the best of her new situation. It is not easy to take these steps every day; I don’t know anyone who would say that it is easy. I do know that it takes just as much effort to remain in a dark place. Anyone who is reading the book already has a 100 per cent success rate of getting through each day. Dani not only shows them that they can take the necessary steps to make each day better; she shows them how. For readers who are supporting someone through a challenging time, the story acts as guidance about ways to approach positively supporting that person and planting seeds that will help them to move forward. One of the reasons that I began exploring a story of this nature was because I wanted to positively tackle one of my biggest annoyances in life. ‘Your life is over’, ‘you have a lifelong journey of recovery’, ‘my life is ruined’… these are common messages that survivors are faced with or that they find themselves saying. Life is not over; it does not have to be a lifelong journey of recovery and it is not ruined. Life still has the potential to be

as incredible as the person wants it to be. These messages need to be challenged. On any given day, there is always something to be thankful for. That is a starting point. For Dani, she had support and she found solace in her dog, Reggie. As she took more control over her life, she found other ways to make sure that she made the most of every day and created her own opportunities. That’s not to say that there aren’t bad days; of course there are. Who doesn’t have bad days? Dani shares how she copes on these days and how she then restarts with the things that she knows help her to feel better. That is essentially the secret to success. It’s about facing the setbacks, no matter how large or how small, finding a way through them and refocusing. Dani’s story offers hope. She works hard to ensure that the choices she makes lead her down a positive path and she is a role model to other young people who are facing their own challenges in life. After all, we’re all surviving something. Marie Yates is an author and coach who works with survivors of rape and sexual abuse. She also imparts her positive, inspiring survivor's message with genuine warmth and passion to a variety of audiences. She lives in Birmingham, UK. You can find her online at: http://indigo-turtle.co.uk

Reggie & Me is published by Lodestone Books October 31st 2014. ISBN: 978-1-78279-723-4 (Paperback) £6.99 $11.95, EISBN: 978-1-78279-722-7 (eBook) £3.99 $6.99.

So you're sitting at your desk planning your novel. You know roughly what happens at the beginning and end and you'll cross the bridge spanning the middle when the time comes. You know the sex, age and occupation of your main character and the challenges he or she will have to face. At certain intervals in the story there will have to be CONFLICT, the timing of which will no doubt have been prescribed by whichever book doctor you're currently consulting. And then there's the question of narration. Whose voice is telling the story? My voice, I hear you say, because this is the way I write. True, but I'm thinking more of the voices of the narrator and the characters themselves. When I embarked on my first novel I felt most comfortable writing in the first person: the main character, Pandora, is the narrator and everything filters through her eyes, ears and consciousness – in other words, her point of view (POV). This POV influences the protagonist's reactions to other characters and situations, so should be consistent with his or her age, history and circumstances. Maintaining consistency is easy if you know your protagonist inside out. On the other hand, there is a temptation with the first person POV to include too many inner thoughts, which could irritate readers, particularly if the character overindulges in negative emotions like self-pity. Just like in real life, the protagonist-narrator can never know what's going on in the minds of others, or, for that matter, in the pub down the road, unless someone tells them or they're physically present. How much easier it would have been to have got inside the heads of Pandora's co-characters, rather than having to guess their reactions from the way they gulped, narrowed their eyes, chewed their knuckles, etc. But if I had entered their craniums, an eagle-eyed editor would have picked it up at the manuscript stage and promptly bluepencilled it out. To quote Jane Austen, "it's a truth universally acknowledged", that the inner workings of the minds of other characters can't be inspected at the drop of a hat unless we choose to have an omniscient narrator – a God-like figure 'speaking' in the third person – who knows everything about everybody! This would solve all 46

our POV problems, except that the omniscient narrator is no longer in fashion. Modern day readers would rather have the intimacy and immediacy of the protagonist telling the story as it happens, than an anonymous, clever-dick narrator feeding them pieces of information as he or she sees fit. With this in mind, I had to be careful that my protagonist never stated that she knew more than she could have known. Here's an example, taken from my second novel, Squaring Circles, of how she came to the conclusion that another character felt he had revealed too much. "‘So if you didn’t tell her about Charles being in hospital, who did?’ ‘Search me. Maybe that witch Dido saw it in her crystal ball.’ ‘It has to be Theo who told her,’ I said, ‘but why would he?’ ‘That young man’s got himself mixed up with the wrong crowd, just like Rosemary. It’s money, money, money with them. Everything else goes by the board.’ He stopped. I could see from his flushed face that he thought he’d told me too much." When I finished the first book, Transforming Pandora, I realised that first person narration could be restrictive, so I looked into the alternatives. One option I considered was third person/single POV, which still allows the main character's thoughts to be revealed, but by a narrator rather than herself. So the final line, above, would have read as follows. "He stopped. She could see from his flushed face that he thought he'd told her too much." What the change in POV does, is to distance the protagonist from the action and put him or her on a similar footing to the other characters. The reader still has more insight into the protagonist's state of mind and motivations but not so intensely as before. It can also be argued that descriptive writing sounds better in the third person. Here's an example from the first chapter of Squaring Circles. "I strode towards them, hampered by my high heels, which had begun to sink a good half inch into the earth. By the time I’d hobbled over to them, still clutching Jay’s coat, the pair had reached the shelter and were locked

AUTUMN 2014 in an embrace." Here it is written in the third person/single POV. Do you prefer this style? "She strode towards them, hampered by her high heels, which had begun to sink a good half inch into the earth. By the time sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d hobbled over to them, still clutching Jayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s coat, the pair had reached the shelter and were locked in an embrace." There could be an added dimension to this as well. If Pandora happened to hear some birdsong on her way across the paddock, a third person narrator could probably get away with identifying the bird, its markings and what it had for breakfast, with no reader questioning it. The third person narrator is allowed to be something of an expert, but make your main character a walking encyclopedia, and your readers might well go on strike. As you can see, I decided to continue with first person narration in the second

book for the sake of consistency. But if I were starting over I'd probably go for third person/single POV. To me, it seems a more natural way of storytelling and adds another voice to the main character's, giving an extra 'layer' to the book. It's fun to experiment. In Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights there are two main narrators, Lockwood and

Nelly â&#x20AC;&#x201C; neither of them totally reliable, with Nelly repeating a wealth of gossip and hearsay. Bronte cleverly made sure that, at any stage in the book, the reader is always aware of more than whichever character is giving their version of events. Emily certainly knew what she was doing. Switching the POV without any warning can cause misunderstanding. Therefore, if a writer wants to introduce a different POV, the best way is to give the character a separate chapter, with a chapter heading indicating who is narrating. Then the reader is always clear about whose voice or thoughts they're hearing. This is not to say that this rule can't be broken, but skill and artistry are required to do it well. I chose this topic because it's a very common slip when someone first starts to write seriously, but quite easy to correct once it's pointed out. We just have to ask ourselves questions like: Who is telling the story? How do they know this thing? Is the narrator the same all the way through this chapter and, if not, have I made the change clear? Finally, paying attention to voice also applies to how characters sound and what they say. We can't hope to make them all sound different, but it helps to ask the following question. Can I tell the difference between characters without using: 'he said/she said/their name said/their job said'? Have you decided which POV you're going to choose for your next book or short story? It could depend on the genre you choose. The omniscient narrator suits epic adventures stretching across the centuries; the first person narrator creates an intimacy with the main character; the third person narrator is found in every genre and is the most often used these days. If you're interested in multiple points of view, see Heartbreak Hotel by Deborah Moggach where new chapters, and even paragraphs within chapters, are preceded by the character's name. Look again at books you've enjoyed and see how those authors have handled it. Isn't writing fascinating?

Carolyn Mathews, a former English teacher is working on the third in the Pandora trilogy. Her interest in contemporary spirituality informs her fiction.

Author website: http://carolynmathews.co.uk

In September of 2004, while on a walk around Paris, a single sentence popped into my head: Peter never ate. Insistent, it kept coming back again and again, in an effort to dissipate it; I put it to paper. The three words called out to me from the page. The short sentence was like some sort of motor, or magnet. I touched my pen back to the paper and let it lead me over the course of a few months, sentence by sentence until I had written enough sentences to cover over 60 pages. Those pages are the first half of my book Gag. Now, what’s interesting about this is not that I wrote over 60 pages; it’s how I wrote those pages. I wrote them unconsciously. Yes, I know…that’s impossible. So, obviously I wasn’t literally unconscious, but I wasn’t using what I consider my conscious mind to write. In other words, I had never written a book before, I didn’t have a plot or outline, characters sketched or any idea at all what I was going to write about. I would just get myself to a quiet place, read the last paragraph I had written and then just pick up where I had left off and keep writing until it felt natural to stop; sometimes it was an hour, sometimes it was 8 hours. It was a strange, invigorating, and somewhat frightening experience. After those initial 60 pages, life intruded and I put them aside to go back to a daily job. But the experience had changed me. I started expressing myself much more freely in writing of all kinds, I started a blog, wrote some articles. But it just wasn’t the same feeling. A few years later I found myself with a chunk of free time, I dug out the pages and shared them with a friend who vehemently encouraged me to ‘finish’ the book. How could I ‘finish’ what I hadn’t even consciously started? After putting it off for a few weeks, I gathered my courage and sat down to write. Lo and behold – it happened again. My conscious brain clicked off, something else clicked on, and the second half of what was to become Gag surged forth. I tried to explain the sensation to a friend, and the closest I came to expressing it correctly was by saying that it 48

felt like I was driving in a car on a dark road with no idea where I was or where I was going, but I had the headlights on and could just see enough to stay on the road. I would look ahead into the little illuminated patch of ground and keep inching forward. My sense of time was completely altered when I was writing, a whole day could go by in what felt like an hour. Words gushed out of me like an open faucet. The next day he emailed me a television interview of the French author Patrick Mondiano. When asked how he wrote, he described my experience, verbatim. I knew in that instant that I had experienced the elusive ‘flow’. I had been fortunate enough to accidentally tap into what I now believe is an innate source of creativity that exists in us all.

AUTUMN 2014 I believe that when I sat down to write that first day I wasn’t held back by fear or other typical blocks because I didn’t consider myself ‘an author’ nor did I particularly yearn to be – I had nothing to ‘prove’ or to ‘lose’, so the words just flowed out untainted by my critical conscious mind. And that was the day that changed my life forever.

Melissa Unger is a writer, creative consultant and the founder of Seymour Projects. She has spent the past 25 years working with individuals and organizations from a wide variety of creative fields. She currently resides in Paris, France.

Websites: For those of you who feel something stirring within you, I http://melissa-unger.com/ hope that reading this book and the story of how it came http://seymourprojects.com/ into being will encourage you to express yourself creatively in a manner unhindered by any conscious boundaGag: One rainy afternoon in a Brooklyn diner, Peter ries or codes. Howland punctures an egg with his fork. Undercooked, Relax. Good or bad does not exist, those are subjective the egg oozes a thick, snot–like goo; repulsed, Peter terms, reach toward authenticity instead. I have come to pushes the plate away and never eats again. Fifteen believe that our truest voice can be found in creative years later, feeling as fit as the first foodless day over a activities in which we release rational thought and allow decade ago, he heads to Paris, arguably the gastrosomething other than our conscious mind to fill in the nomic center of the universe, to have another go at food. Enter, Dallas Foster, a mysterious individual who blanks. leaves a dramatic and unshakable impact on Peter’s life. I know this isn’t big news. I don’t purport to put forth any An offbeat, incisive observation of the ways in which we new or groundbreaking philosophical ideas. I just hope to thrash into and cling onto each other; bursting with vivencourage you to take the time to ignite your inner id dialogue, intricately painted characters and a breathspark. Scintilla animae as it’s called so poetically in Latin. taking plot, Gag is a fantastically written portrait of two strangers entangled in the most curious of relationMy greatest wish is to inspire you to tap into your imagi- ships. This inventive novel wanders down unexpected nation, explore your subconscious and to shout your soul avenues and uncovers the darkest corners of both its characters and the serpentine city in which they conthrough your fingertips. verge. What I felt writing these pages was the nearest to a state of grace that I have experienced in my lifetime and I wish Gag is published by Roundfire Books. ISBN: 978-1-78279 -564-3 (Paperback) £7.99 $13.95, EISBN: 978-1-78279that experience for everyone. 563-6 (eBook) £4.99 $7.99

Number Rules Tips on how to present number within text Spell out numbers under 10 (some authors prefer this to be under 100). The exception to this is when you have a sequence – Her children were eight, nine, 13 and 14. Keep it consistent – Her children were 8, 9, 13 and 14. Treat larger numbers the same – seven million, 22 billion. Never start a sentence with a number. Incorrect: 17 was such a young age to be married. Correct: Seventeen was such a young age to be married. It looks better to spell out numbers within dialogue – "I'm fifteen," she said. Hyphenate compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine. Spell out centuries – nineteenth century is better than 19th century (but at least try to th avoid superscript – 19 century). 49

How To Write a Synopsis Suzanne Ruthven

It’s often said by writers that it’s harder to write a synopsis than it is to write a complete book. This is because the synopsis must encapsulate an entire story in order for a publisher or agent to judge whether they wish to see the full typescript. Nevertheless, a well-written synopsis, together with the first three chapters of your novel will tell them all they need to know about your writing in the first instance.

Conclusion The importance of a good synopsis cannot be stressed strongly enough. Avoid leaving the writing of it until the last minute or you’ll look upon it as a job to be got out of the way without too much thought. A rejection or acceptance may hinge on how much effort you’ve put into writing it. Keep it short and snappy by studying the blurb on the cover of recently published books and see how the publishers have encapsulated the story, in order to Generally speaking, a synopsis should be no longer grab the browser’s interest in just a few words. Warning: than an A4 page – single spacing = approx 500 A long, rambling synopsis can mean instant rejection of words. your book. Only introduce the principal characters and restrict yourself to a thumbnail sketch of each in one How To Write for the How-To Market by Suzanne Ruthsentence per person. Even if the narrative is ven is published by Compass Books and contains 33 simcharacter driven, a publisher or agent is going to ple exercises to help you start your non-fiction folio. be more interested in the plot. ISBN 978 1 78099 722 3 – 156pp – UK£11.99/US$19.95 Ask yourself: what is my story about? Now retell the story as if you were answering the question Creative writing offers one of the widest opportunities asked over dinner – any more than 500 words for full-length tutorials and the Compass Books’ stable and your listeners’ eyes would begin to glaze mates of How To Write For The How-To Market include over with boredom. Lynne Hackles’ Handy Hints For Writers; Jay Ramsay’s Don’t write the synopsis in a chapter by chapter style The Poet In You; Linda M James’s How To Write & Sell – tell the story as a piece of well-crafted mini- Great Short Stories; Simon Whaley’s The Positively Profiction. ductive Writer; Susan Palmquist’s How To Write RoAnd yes … publishers/agents DO want to know how mance; Nik Morton’s Write A Western in 30 Days; Sarahthe story ends! Don’t make the mistake of think- Beth Watkins’ Telling Life’s Tales or Deborah Durbin’s So ing that if they want to know how it ends they You Want To Be A Freelance Writer. will send for the complete typescript. It doesn’t work like that. Make sure you include important moments of intense highs and lows, but avoid drawn out descriptions of who’s doing what to whom. Make an opening statement about when and where the story is set. This immediately identifies the period/setting in the reader’s mind. For a non-fiction book the rules are still the same because you are still telling a story but without characters. Give the reason for writing a new book about the subject, and why you think it will have reader appeal. Also give a hint of any new or original information you have obtained that adds a spark to the subject and justifies a publisher adding the book to his lists. A synopsis for Self-Help and How-To books can be submitted as a chapter-by-chapter breakdown, because the publisher can immediately see from the chapters how the book will progress. Opening sample chapters will give an example of your writing. Put the finished synopsis away in a drawer for a few days before sending it off. Sometimes it’s better if we allow our ideas to simmer.

AUTUMN 2014

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” -André Gide

May 13th, 2026 There it is—a blue marble in the blackness of space, sweeps of white fuzzing the spherical surface, so small you can put your thumb over it and blip it out of existence. The Earth, suspended in the darkness, silent and fragile. But this is deception. It’s moving very fast, and just because you can’t see and feel it, doesn’t mean it’s not the truth. The moon photo of the Earth was shot by astronaut Timothy Skies, who said if he could drag the world’s politicians up into space, choke them by the necks and say, take a look at that, you bastards, perhaps there might be a way forward. I don’t share his optimism, but it’s a perspective few have had the luck to experience— witnessing another gravity—standing in greyish moon dust, kicking up clumps of it only to see it slowly float in a snowflake sprinkle back to your feet. I liked the shot and kept it tucked underneath my SWAT uniform and flak jacket, pinned over my heart. A good luck charm through the bank heist gun battles, the

crack house raids, and the L.A. riots that erupted in 2022. It was then, through the conflagration of 7th Street when I saved Timothy Skies and his wife from the Charleston Building under a hail of sniper fire. The day before, nearly all of us were called in for riot duty. The National Guard had been called up, but hadn’t arrived. We lined up outside L.A. Superior Court looking like helmeted centurions. We stood shoulder-to-shoulder uneasily with our fulllength polycarbonate riot shields in front of us, black truncheons in hand. The crowd was massed in front of us on Erwin Street, an ocean of humanity boiling in a sea of anger over sweeping cuts to city pensions. L.A. was going bust, and the 6:00 news had carried the hard reality. Fissures of angst were like cracks in the pavement over promises that couldn’t be kept. Two DARPA BigDogs stood on each of our ends, machineguns mounted on their backs armed with rubber bullets. Taller than the old models, they stood head-high. Their strange, articulating black metal legs were in a standstill march, as if about to charge. They had attached heads to the things. As the red camera eyes within swiveled back and forth, the dogs glowered, showing their sharp, metallic teeth. This was a mistake, I had told Sergeant Smith. You don’t want to agitate the crowd. You don’t want to antagonize. You want to play defense. Smith told me it was above his pay grade, that a level of curiosity above him was eager to know how they’d perform. Even with my helmet capped over my ears, the crowd’s yelling and shouting grew to a wave of stadium noise. The air vibrated with tension. The mob just in front of us hurled rocks, yelled out taunts. Then someone threw a Molotov cocktail at us and the guns atop the BigDogs started firing. The first row of instigators went down, but the second line had shields—some metallic, some like ours. Canisters of tear gas were lobbed into the crowd but many of the protesters had masks. Like insects, their rage pitched higher into a war cry. Then the line charged. We dug our back feet into the pavement anticipating their surge. A Peacekeeper drone flew over and dusted the crowd. Too late. A melee. Chaos. One of the BigDogs charged through the crowd. One of the last things I remembered was a severed arm inside its jaws. The wall of police split apart by the spears of arms and legs unafraid of the whacks of our clubs. I began clubbing people until the swarm fell upon me, kicking and beating me until I fell unconscious. Extract from The Cause. Roundfire Books, Paperback 978-1-78279-763-0. Out November 28! "It's epic, ambitious, powerful and inventive..." ~ Martin Fletcher, former editor of Douglas Coupland author of Generation X

This symptom-based A-Z directory by Judy Hall, author of the best-selling The Crystal Bible, will help you to identify exactly the right crystal for your needs, whether for healing of the mind, body, psyche or spirit, and will point you to useful stones for improving vitality and well-being, and for balancing the chakras. Listing over 1,200 symptoms, it is a practical first-aid guide based on sound crystal healing principles that have been practised for millennia. An internationally known author, astrologer, psychic, healer and workshop leader, Judy has been a karmic counsellor for over forty years. Her books have been translated into fifteen languages. She lives in Dorset, UK. Author of the excellent The Crystal Bible, Judy Hall is truly a master of her subject and the book is a clever idea well executed. ~ Paradigm Shift

This second A–Z directory by the author of The Crystal Bibles introduces a new generation of healing stones. Many are fresh to the market and have exceedingly high vibrations that raise consciousness to the next level of awareness whilst still having practical healing applications. Crystal healing is a gentle, noninvasive system that it returns the body to optimum balance. This directory assists in identifying exactly the right crystal for your needs, whether it is for healing mind, body, psyche or spirit; balancing your chakras or supporting your wellbeing. Listing over 1,250 ‘conditions’, the directory also includes essential information for keeping your crystals working for you. ...a required reference book in every Metaphysician Practitioner's book collection. A true spiritual 'First Aid' kit for the discerning soul. (Review for Crystal Prescriptions 1) ~ Rev Dr Sandra Gaskin www.spirit-work.net

This third A–Z directory by the author of /The Crystal Bibles/ explores the effects of electromagnetic field (EMF) pollution and geopathic stress (GS) on health and well-being, and the dis-eases and healing crystals associated with them. Including 20 crystal portraits, the directory assists in identifying the right crystal for your needs whether it is for personal energetic support and healing for EMF and GS effects, or environmental protection against electromagnetic and geopathic stress. With practical applications, the directory also includes essential information on keeping your crystals working for you. This is really awesome. Wonderful tool. I can’t wait till it comes and out I can buy heaps to pass onto customers. Give it a try. The ‘ripple’ affect will be amazing! ~ Nicky Crocker, geomancer and earth healer OUT DECEMBER 12!

AUTUMN 2014 Shaman, artist and author Elen Sentier writes, "I was first taught the trees of the goddess as a child. The old ones from the village would tell us about the tree, how it lives, what creatures it lives with, its whole environment. They would tell us stories then we would go to the tree and sit with it, listen to what it had to show and tell us. Later, we would ask it for a piece of its wood to make its spirit- home. These were rituals but all so natural and normal they were just a part of life and living for me as I grew up. TREES OF THE GODDESS will help you find your way of doing this." A beautiful tribute to the nature beings that refresh our Planet and our spirit, Trees of the Goddess is a portal to deep feminine wisdom ways - a guidebook that will make the mystery and magic of trees come alive for all who read. ~ Llyn Roberts, MA, author of The Good Remembering, Shamanic Reiki and Shapeshifting into Higher Consciousness. LlynRoberts.com and eomec.org Elen Sentier has encompassed the knowledge and wisdom of our beautiful trees in this wonderful book. Fascinating information not only on the magic of trees but how they intertwine with the universe, how we can work with them and what amazing sources of information, inspiration and guidance they can be. This book goes far beyond the structure of Ogham and takes the reader on a spiritual journey through the forest of the Goddess. ~ Rachel Patterson, author of Pagan Portals Moon Magic

Elen Sentier lives with her husband, cats and a host of wildlife in a lovely farmhouse in the back of beyond by the river Wye in the Welsh Marches, where she writes and teaches the ways of the awenydd, the British shamanic tradition.

Miracles are a natural part of daily life – we just don’t notice. According to your wants and needs life is trying to unfold in your best interest. But circumstances, thoughts, doubts, fears, emotions and many other things get in the way. Not all you hear, see, feel or know is beneficial… What possibilities would await if you could navigate the life you live more effectively, staying one step ahead of others and of change? What if you always had a solution for the challenges you face – to ease your journey? Do you want the best from what love, family, friendships, home, work and finance have to offer? Life is not always as it seems. Underlying issues, perception, cause and effect, karma, intention and soul purpose simultaneously play out together on unseen levels. For the seemingly miraculous to happen, for life to function properly, all aspects and all facets must work in sync – including us. Life is not against you – it’s working with you, providing daily what you ask for and what you need – though you may not realise... This is always the driving factor that drives life. Deep within your psyche, within your own survival system, a higher sense of ‘being’ is creeping forward – you’re part of something major going on – it’s why you’re here... Your own soul is ascending, a new world order is birthing through, you are evolving. Divine Guidance is written to help you recognise where you are within your journey and life agenda – so you can harness your personal power and regain control – regardless of what’s unfolding in your now. Every time you use this book you’ll get precisely what you need – without exception. Divine Guidance has the power to make a difference in your life, are you ready to use it… How truth can help you - I know well myself. Free of illusion and Ego - this book is a true inspiration that will heighten your awareness and purpose to what is most needed - to inspire and help you move forward. ~ Deepak Chopra. 53

One of the hardest decisions a writer has to make is how much physical description to give about a character before the reader sees them in action. Does the reader need to know about height, hair or eye colour, weight and build? Do they want to see clothes, the way someone walks or if they’re wearing a wedding ring? Books such as The Da Vinci code seem to have plenty of character description and backstory before they set the characters in motion. True, Mr. Brown has been very successful, but surely there are pithier ways of giving us a pen portrait? After all, the modern reader has a massive visual vocabulary, culled from pictures, films, television and the net. We are used to processing information extraordinarily quickly. Staying put as we take a still picture of our character, before we allow ourselves the luxury of animating them and having them actually do something, can be a bit tedious. Elvis Costello’s song Satellite starts with the line, ‘She looked like she’d learned to dance from a series of still pictures.’ It could almost be a blue-print for writing sharp, accurate description. Apparently, Alan Plater’s character notes for the character of Trevor Chaplin (played by James Bolam) in The Beiderbecke Affair read, ‘Trevor always walks as if it’s raining.’ Can’t you just see both the awkwardness of the dancer and the trudging, shoulders-down slouching of Trevor Chaplin? And yet we know nothing else.

Setting the characters off, then having the reader discover things about them as they go along is probably a much better way of ensuring that readers are hooked in. They want to read on to discover more about the characters, who reveal themselves in snippets as the novel unfolds. Surely, this is much more intriguing than winding up characters like clockwork mice before letting them loose on the reader. Unbelievably, you can even take your cue from a writer as prolix as Thomas Hardy, who manages to keep his visual description of his most famous heroine down to a few lines. Our first encounter with Tess Durbeyfield gives us only this in the way of description: A young member of the band turned her head at the exclamation. She was a fine and handsome girl – not handsomer than some others, possibly – but her mobile peony mouth and large innocent eyes added eloquence

to colour and shape. She wore a red ribbon in her hair, and was the only one of the whole company who could boast of such an adornment. We have to wait several paragraphs whilst her father embarrasses her in front of her friends, before Hardy gives us a bit more of her, telling us about her way of speaking, which gives him another chance to focus on her physical features: The pouted-up deep red mouth … had hardly as yet settled into its definite shape, and her lower lip had a way of thrusting the middle of her top one upward, when they closed together after a word. Phases of her childhood lurked in her aspect still. As she walked along to-day, for all her bouncing handsome womanliness, you could sometimes see her twelfth year in her cheeks, or her ninth year sparkling from her eye; and even her fifth would flit over the curves of her mouth now and then. …A small minority, mainly strangers, would look long at her in casually passing by, and grow momentarily fascinated by her freshness, and wonder if they would ever see her again: but to almost everybody she was a fine and picturesque country girl, and no more. Perhaps more important than the amount of description is the fact that we encounter Tess whilst she is doing something - we see her in action, and thus we avoid static description. It’s not a bad idea to think that you’re writing the movie, rather than attempting to describe a photograph. By avoiding static description, Hardy makes her alive. Let’s See Their Worldview But we can be even cannier than that by amalgamating physical description, the character’s attitude and getting our story rolling along all at the same time. One of the great introductions of 20th Century literature that combines these elements has to be Raymond Chandlers’ opening to The Big Sleep. Chandler’s detective, Philip Marlowe, tells the story in the first person: It was about eleven o’clock in the morning, mid-October, with the sun not shining and a look of hard wet rain in the clearness of the foothills. I was wearing my powder

AUTUMN 2014 blue suit, with dark blue shirt, tie and display handkerchief, black brogues, black wool socks with dark blue clocks on them. I was neat, clean, shaved and sober, and I didn’t care who knew it. I was everything the welldressed private detective ought to be. I was calling on four million dollars. The main hallway of the Sternwood place was two storeys high. Over the entrance doors, which would have let in a troop of Indian elephants, there was a broad stained -glass panel showing a knight in dark armour rescuing a lady who was tied to a tree and didn’t have any clothes on but some very long and convenient hair. The knight had pushed the visor of his helmet back to be sociable, and he was fiddling with the knots on the ropes that tied the lady to the tree and not getting anywhere. I stood there and thought that if I lived in the house, I would sooner or later have to climb up there and help him. He didn’t seem to be really trying. Marlowe is established straight away. The description of his clothes shows us that not only is he a man for detail, but the implication is that he’s smartened himself up for the job. He’s sharp-witted (I was sober and didn’t care who knew it). And the description of the luxury he en-

counters is both witty and shows us that this isn’t his natural milieu. Even the joke about the stained-glass window is a clever indicator that Marlowe is capable of rescuing someone. It’s either some deliberate foreshadowing by the author (can Marlowe rescue a damsel in distress?) or if not, then it’s a neat coincidence that can give the literary critics something to write about for decades to come. And, vitally, the story has got underway. Marlowe has been called to the Sternwood mansion. We also know that he’s on an investigation (I was everything the welldressed private detective ought to be). And lastly, we have intrigue - why is he going to this house? And, when all is said and done, we turn the next page to find out what is going to happen, not to see if our heroine’s smart Easter bonnet is salmon or cerise. If you want a rough rule-of-thumb. Keep it pithy – you can always build it up as we go along. Obviously, a short article can only cover a fraction of a big topic such as this. There is much more in Nicholas Corder’s Creating Convincing Characters. Out Now!

Creative Pathways for Writers – the 10 Secret Steps 1. There are more ideas locked away in your unconscious mind than you could ever write about in a whole lifetime – but how can they influence your creative writing. The secret is finding the key to access them.

7. Use your imagination when exploring other artistic mediums such as painting, sculpture, music, etc., because creativity is a state of mind. The secret is allowing other influences to stimulate the creative impulse.

2. There is a story (article or poem) behind everything you encounter during your daily routine in both inner and outer worlds if you have the courage to experience and explore. The secret is learning to look behind the obvious.

8. Give your imagination free rein and open up your unconscious mind to the creative possibilities around you; if necessary do the opposite of what is considered the norm. The secret is having the strength to dream.

3. No matter how mundane and/or familiar a scene, there are countless different angles from which to view it. The secret is thinking ‘sideways’. 4. You are unique: no one can access the same experiences and memories, which means you have the ability to generate unique responses to situations. The secret is knowing how to express yourself. 5. Creative energy fuels creativity, so immerse yourself with creative images and stimulating art forms to give fresh ideas and ignite the creative flame. The secret is tapping into whatever can unleash creative energy. 6. Encourage the flow of creative energy from your unconscious mind through visualisation, meditation and relaxation. The secret is drawing energy from other sources.

9. By connecting to your unconscious mind you can explore the wealth of universal memories of myth, fantasy and symbolism – but don’t be embarrassed by your ability to travel to the ‘hidden’ world. The secret is channelling your favourite childhood images. 10. Certain images or symbols open the door to the collective unconscious; try working with these mind pictures to stimulate your creativity no matter how ridiculous or outrageous at the beginning. The secret is focussing the mind on those things that will encourage creative energy. An extract from Life-Writes: Where do writers get their ideas from? ... It’s called Life by Suzanne Ruthven ISBN: 978-1-84694-853-4 UK£12.99/US$22.95 Paperback ISBN: 978-1-84694-854-1 UK£6.99/US$9.99 E-book www.compass-books.net : Facebook.com/ JHPCompassBooks

Susan Johnson

Pick up any writing magazine and you will find dozens of short story competitions. If you are keen to hone your craft and learn more, the ones that offer critiques by established authors are definitely worth entering. Even if you don’t win, you may learn something that will put you ahead of the other entrants next time. Take note of the following points to make sure you submit the best possible entry this time! Read the rules carefully before you start to think about the story. Up to a quarter of competition entries are disqualified because writers have disregarded one or more of the rules. Make sure you are not one of them. Is there a theme? If so, take time to think of a fresh angle. A good tip is to take a large sheet of paper and try to come up with fifteen possible ideas. Discard the first five you think of – most people will have gone for these. The best ideas are usually the ones that have been hardest to find. Stories with a touch of humour or an unusual twist will usually stand out from the crowd. Who is your main character? What is memorable about them? Are they interesting enough to hold the reader’s attention? Write a short biography (approximately 150 words) for that person before you begin work on the story. Some of the information won’t appear in the story, but it will add depth to the character if it is in your mind when you are writing. Can you find a magazine picture or old photo that looks like them? Remember to give your character a name. It’s surprising how many competition entries have characters with no names. What is the character’s problem at the beginning of the story? For a story to sustain the reader’s interest there needs to be an element of conflict. This doesn’t mean people being nasty to each other or yelling and screaming – it means that there needs to be sufficient action to keep the reader turning the pages. Many competition judges report that they read a lot of stories where there is no plot. Stories are about change – and your characters should change in some way by the end of the story. Where is the story set? Your reader needs to be able to picture where the events are taking place. The best way to do this is to show your character(s) in action in the setting. Visualise your story before you start writing so that you can see places and people clearly in your mind. Remember that your task is to entertain your reader! What time of year is it? Use weather and the seasons to create mood, atmosphere and dramatic tension. For 56

instance, additional conflict could be added to a story if a thunderstorm occurs when your characters are having an argument and the heroine drives off at great speed in dangerous conditions. Use the senses. Colours, sounds, smells and textures all help to give the reader a full picture of what is happening. I once critiqued a story set in an oldfashioned kitchen. The writer was unhappy with what she had written. However, the story was transformed when she added the smell of bread baking, the orange and yellow flames leaping in the fireplace, the sound of the grandfather clock ticking and the texture of the purple velvet cushion on the rocking chair by the fire. Keep your first paragraph short so that the reader is drawn into the story. Aim for a good first sentence – known as a ‘narrative hook’ – that will engage the interest of your reader and makes them want to know what happens next. Build the story towards a strong ending. Don’t just stop because you’ve run out of words! Allow the main character to solve their own problems – no lottery wins or previously unknown great aunts dying and leaving them a fortune. Similarly, unless you can think of an original way of doing it (for example Sue Townsend in ‘The Queen and I’) don’t end with ‘and I woke up to find it was all a dream.’ Dialogue should add to the development of the story or show the character in action. Read it aloud to make sure it flows properly. If a person speaks in a dialect, give a flavour of it but don’t try and create it exactly on the page. Too many dropped aitches look like a line of tadpoles going across the page and it isn’t easy to read. Be ruthless - cut any sections that hold up the action. Remember that what people say isn’t necessarily what they are thinking. Don’t forget facial expressions. Edit your work carefully. For instance, if you change the name of a character as you write, then make sure that you don’t leave any traces of the old name. I once read a competition story where a writer had changed the name of the main character’s husband from Fred to Charlie. Unfortunately, at the editing stage, she failed to make all the changes, creating a confused ending that spoiled an otherwise good story.

AUTUMN 2014 A good title will help to make your story memorable. Again, try making a list of possible titles and pick the best one. Look for inspiration in a book of poetry, proverbs or the Bible. Titles that include a colour or image are also good – for instance “The Blue Glass Jug.” Keep a special notebook for good titles and first sentences. Keep within the stated word count. Your story is likely to be disqualified if you exceed it. If you need to lose a few words, go through the story and look for words that you’ve over-used (we all have them!). Use strong verbs so that you can cut any adverbs. For instance, it gives a stronger picture if you say “he raced” rather than “he ran quickly.” Check your punctuation and spelling. Print a copy of the story and read it carefully. Double-check any words you’re not sure about in the dictionary. Don’t rely on the computer spell-check. If there are two or more possible spellings of a word, make sure you’ve got the right one. I once judged a competition where one entrant wrote about a character riding across a ‘baron’ landscape. There were several other howlers, spoiling what was potentially a good story. Check the rules again. Is there anything you’ve overlooked? I once had to reprint a story because the rules said the page numbers should be on the top right hand side of the page and I had put them where I usually do – at the bottom. Does your layout look professional? Double-space your work unless told otherwise. Indent the first line of each new paragraph and each new line of dialogue. Don’t leave additional gaps between paragraphs unless you are indicating a change of scene or viewpoint. Print your work on one side of white A4 paper. Use a

size 12 font and Times New Roman or Arial typeface. Don’t print it on yellow paper with a border of fluffy ducklings in the hope of attracting the attention of the judges. You will do so – but for the wrong reasons! If you would like your story returned or have requested a critique, remember to enclose a large envelope with sufficient return postage. (Some competitions state that no entries will be returned). Keep a copy of your story. Don’t send your one and only copy. Post your entry well before the closing date. Keep a record of what you have sent and when the results will be announced. After that date, you will be able to try it with another competition if you haven’t been successful this time. Finally – if you don’t succeed this time – try again! Read your critique carefully if you have one, but remember that it’s only one person’s opinion. Learn to trust your own judgement. Read it through again and see if there are any improvements you can make before you send it out again. Good luck and keep going. Remember that you make your own luck by being persistent! Sue Johnson www.writers-toolkit.co.uk Sue Johnson is published as a poet, short story writer and novelist. Her first lucky break came when a story her college lecturer didn’t like was short-listed in a competition. The story ‘It all seemed like yesterday’ was published in ‘Woman.’

Check out the following books published by Compass ‘Surfing the Rainbow: visualization and chakra balancing for writers’ by Sue Johnson

‘Unlock Your Creativity: a 21 day sensory workout for writers’ by Sue Johnson & Val Andrews

COMPASS BOOKS WRITERS’ RESOURCE DIRECTORY Krystina Kellingley is a reader and commissioning editor/ copy editor/co-publisher across various imprints. Author of a children’s novel, she has had several short stories published in spiritual and fiction magazines as well as online articles on dream interpretation and other subjects. Krystina travels internationally to tutor in writing workshops as well as privately mentoring new writers of adult and children’s fiction. She has a First Class BA (hons) in Imaginative Writing and Literature and an MA in Creative Writing. She lives in the UK. Here is what one author has to say: “I felt very lucky to have Krystina Kellingley as my editor and mentor. She is a sensitive and intuitive professional with broad vision and a huge knowledge in creative writing. Krystina is a visionary who has the ability of traveling deeply inside the story as if she were one of the characters. All this ensures a high quality on her work.” F. T. Camargo, author of Shanti and the Magic Mandala. Find her on, http://writerswheel.com/ RESOURCE: Editing at all levels, mentoring, fiction manuscript appraisal, tutoring, workshops, re-writing, ghost writing. Maria Moloney has been part of the John Hunt Publishing team for six years and runs editorial services and foreign rights. She is also a publicist and co-publisher across various imprints. The author of five MBS books with two more in the offing, she has also authored a children’s fantasy novel, and is currently writing the sequel. Over a number of years she guest lectured at Liverpool John Moores University, and now holds workshops in writing fiction and non-fiction and on spiritual subjects internationally. She has had many articles published, and as well as being a team member on Writer’s Wheel magazine, she was co-founder and former deputy editor of Irish magazine, Brigid’s Fire. Maria has a BA (hons) degree in Imaginative Writing and Literature, and has studied both Writing and Research at postgraduate level. She lives in Ireland. Find her on, http://writerswheel.com/

Sally Spedding is an experienced adjudicator, speaker and workshop leader at many literary festivals and writing conferences, where she enjoys meeting aspiring writers and helping them get published. She is a manuscript appraiser for the CWA and regularly assesses work sent by all those who have stayed in touch. This has firmed up her belief that new, original talent is too often overlooked for the safe bet. She lives in Carmarthenshire, UK. Find out more at http://www.sallyspedding.com/ RESOURCE: tutoring, manuscript appraisal, speaker, workshop leader. Sarah-Beth Watkins has been a freelance writer for over 20 years writing for magazines and websites such as Your New Baby, Changing Ireland, Banulacht's Gender and Development Bulletin, Take a Break, Scouting, Motorcaravan Motorhome Monthly and many more. She has written over 300 articles for the web on a variety of subjects. Her most recent work includes writing articles for Wikio Experts, Vista magazine, Overblog and New Consciousness Review. Sarah has also tutored creative writing and journalism courses for various colleges and community centres. She is the author of Telling Life's Tales, The Writer's Internet, The Lifestyle Writer and Life Coaching for Writers available through Compass Books. She lives in Ireland. Find her on https://www.facebook.com/SarahBWatkinsWriter RESOURCE: Non-fiction tutoring, coaching for writers, making the best use of the Internet Simon Whaley regularly facilitates workshops and courses at writers' festivals and events, and also at writers' groups. His practical and hands on workshops offer tips on non-fiction writing including: how to analyse your target publication, drafting your magazine article, writing letters for publication, writing travel features, creative non-fiction and maximising your ideas. He lives in Shropshire, UK. For more information visit http://www.simonwhaley.co.uk/workshops-talks/

RESOURCE: Editing, mentoring, workshops, fiction and non-fiction manuscript appraisal.

RESOURCE: workshop facilitator, tutoring

Suzanne Ruthven has authored over 30 titles in the country lore, MB&S and creative writing genres, as well as ghostwriting a further ten books for other people, including a field sports autobiography that was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. She has also tutored at writers’ workshops including The Annual Writers’ Conference (Winchester College), The Summer School (University of Wales), Horncastle College (Lincolnshire), the Cheltenham Literature Festival and the Welsh Academy - following which she was invited to become a full member of the Academi in recognition of her contribution to literature in Wales. She now lives in South Tipperary, Ireland. Find out more at http://suzanneruthvenatignotuspress.blogspot.ie/

Nicholas Corder is the author of hundreds of articles and fifteen published books and plays. He writes mainly on the topics of historical crime and on writing skills, but also light stage comedies. He has worked in a variety of community settings and as a university lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University and the Open University. His novel The Bone Mill is set in the murky world of body-snatching in 1820s Stoke. He is currently working on a new novel with a contemporary setting, as well as a book on writing crime, which will be his second outing with Compass Books: the first, Creating Convincing Characters, will be published shortly. He also writes songs for The Pie Men, a light-hearted musical duo. He lives in Shropshire, UK. See www.nicholas-corder.co.uk and www.thepiemen.co.uk

RESOURCE: Ghost-writing, tutoring, workshops, non-fiction manuscript appraisal.

RESOURCE: Public speaking, workshops, teaching, manuscript appraisal, mentoring, writer-in-residence.

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