Life is stranger than fiction!

It's true that life resembles fiction more than fiction resembles life. If I wrote about certain co-incidences or experiences, an agent may comment that it was a little unbelievable.

Take for example one day when I took our two spaniels for a walk on the paddock. Our Springer, Brook, as usual only had one thought in mind - retrieving the ball which I was throwing for her. Harlyn our Brittany spaniel, was busy tree-watching for any slight movement. A bird would be good, a squirrel would make her day! To her delight she locked eyes with a squirrel and so started a long stand off. No amount of bribery from me with a pocket full of treats would budge her. Eventually, I think the squirrel got bored and decided to make a leap for it. As it leap from the canopy of one tree to the next, it fell - onto the upturned face of Harlyn! She fell to the floor, the squirrel scampered off and Harlyn stood up and looked at me as if to say 'did that really happen?' The thing is, only me and a slightly over-weight red and white dog were witnesses to the drama. And although she swore me to secrecy over her embarressment, I thought it would be a good story to demonstrate just how crazy reality can be.

Great news! I received an email yesterday from a literary agent asking to read my full manuscript. Fantastic! I've worked on Blake, my antagonist, and hopefully he'll show a nicer side to his character.
I've also entered another competition. Describe a winter storm in 200 words. It's not a story, but a moment in time.

Winter Storm

Mauve clouds bruised the bi-polar skies, now grumbling miserably having been bright and sunny an hour earlier. Skeletal canopies lurched to and fro to the wind's egotistical demands, hushing bird song. Slowly at first, raindrops dimpled puddles like a rash. Tip tap on the dustbin lids.
A grey curtain of rain closed over the village, muting colours and beating a faster rhythm. Pewter skies unleashed a deluge , staining fences a shade darker and painting a glistening patina on pavements. Rain lashed against windows and over-flowed from gutters, splashing onto the tarmac below. Down pipes frothed and gurgled. Bulimic drains spewed leaves and debris into the road, unashamed and unrepentant. As the wind whisked up shrivelled leaves and prised roof tiles from their fixings, icy marbles played a deafening drum beat on car bonnets. Clattering. Rattling.
White-forked tongues licked the sky as the winter storm hit a crescendo. The clouds grumbled in reply as weak limbs were torn from scarred trees and scattered across the village green. As if shocked by its destruction, the wind sighed. The rain slowed to a gentle drizzle as a pale shaft of sunlight hinted at a smile from behind the clouds.

I Need Help!

No, not psychological help - although if you have any suggestions.......
I need help with my blog. I've just been browsing the net (and picking up the lingo!) and there are so many interesting blogs with photos, links etc. Just when I'm proud that I've actually worked out how to add a new post, I find out that I'm still at the starting block. A bit like my writing actually! Still, even the greatest writers had to start by learning how to spell their names!
I've tried following some written advice on my laptop and to be honest it looks like a foreign language. I'm not slow - honest. I passed my eleven plus and everything! But my head gets a faint buzzing sensation as I'm trying to process a list of, to me anyhow, technical mumbo jumbo. I suppose the buzzing could be from the sugar rush from the bag of Tutti Fruttis I've just eaten.
Anyway, my belated new year's resolution is to make my blog a little more 'all singing and all dancing' and to get a few followers! My lovely sister has signed up to follow me so already I don't feel like I'm talking to myself!

Watch this space!

Gossamer Wings

Gossamer Wings

If my resting place be this crescent of golden sand,
Will it cradle my bouquet of life's memories?
Will my shadow fly on resplendent waves
with each skyward-tossed champagne spray?

If my ashes were laid upon soft grains,
Will gentle zephyrs carry my soul?
Will I remember when I wed barefoot on these sands
in flowing gown, 'neath bare blue skies?

If my essence drifts through murmuring boughs,
Will you hear me whisper through autumn leaves?
Will my spirit walk each winding path,
re-tracing steps I took in life?

If my soul floats with fragrant blossoms
Drifting on a summer's breeze,
Will I dance, as night falls and stars a-light,
with golden angels on gossamer wings?

By Angela Barton

'Tweaking!'

I'm back! Has it really been so many months since I last gave an update?
As well as moving house and setting up a new business with my husband, I've also found time to write. I've started my second novel called Sugar and Spite, but at the moment I'm tweaking Lies and Linguine. That's the new working title of my first book.
I've had some wonderfully helpful feedback from two literary agents and two publishers. Before you congratulate me - wonderfully helpful doesn't always mean good. Yes I've had some confidence-boosting praise, which acts like the sugar that makes the tweaking easier to swallow! I've been told my novel is better than chic-lit, very competent, pacy and engaging with some good imagery. Not only am I delighted to hear this, but I'm grateful that these busy professionals took the time to let me know what they liked about Lies and Linguine. Not as lovely - but equally as valuable, is the tweaking which is also suggested! My antagonist is apparently too antagonistic. Having re-read my book, the agents are absolutely right. If I was Tess, the protagonist in my novel, I wouldn't have stuck around for half as long! So I've spent the last two months tweaking Blake! This encompassed giving him a conscience and some redeeming features. Just enough to make Tess stay with him until the last straw!
I've also joined Nottingham Writers' Group since I last blogged. We meet twice a month, alternatively listening to a speaker or sharing our work with the other writers. I'd recommend this to any new writer as it helps to receive positive critisism by people who understand that your work is precious to you, but that it also might need improving with the help of tactful suggestions. At last night's meeting we held the 'Verse of the Year' evening. I will hunt out my entry and post it shortly.
I've sent out two further submissions to literary agencies and I'm crossing everything!

Onwards and Upwards!

I find it so much easier to write from personal experience. My heroine lives in a village where I have lived and her parents live by a beautiful bay in Cornwall, where my family regularly stays. My fingers fall over themselves on the keys as I imagine walking around the places I've stayed or visited - so much easier than inventing a place. I do a lot of research too, but you can only write in your own words, what others have already written. It always seems very two- dimentional.

So, it is with that thought in mind that I'm off the London for two days on Wednesday to visit Hampstead Heath! One of my characters and her family have a day out on the Heath and climb to the top of Parliament Hill to look over the rooftops of the capital city. I'm very excited about taking a notebook and pen, and luxuriating in spending time doing what I love best. It helps to use the senses when writing. I want to smell the lakes and trees, feel the grass as I sit down to write and hear the children playing. I might even spoil myself and take a picnic!

I've entered another competition online. The prize is to have the work critiqued which I would find invaluable. Friends and family don't like to critisize so it's very difficult to get helpful feedback. I've enrolled on a creative writing course at The University of Nottingham, so that should be an eye-opener for me! Back to school! Quite nerve-racking....

A hook? Sounds fishy to me!

It's July and I've received my 5th rejection! Looking on the positive side, I was told that the main problem was that the 'hook' didn't grab them in the first 3 chapters I'd sent in. What's positive about that I hear you ask? Well, they hadn't laughed at my efforts or sent it back with a big red line through it. (Hang-ups from school days!)
Having mulled their comment over, I knew that they were right. I was too busy introducing characters and setting up the 'hook' in the first 3 chapters and it needed a re-jig. If only it was that easy! I imagined I could cut and paste a few paragraphs and be ready to send it off again to another carefully sought out agent. Then it slowly dawned on me that in order to get the reader gripped and wanting to read on, the 'hook' had to appear in the first few pages. This changed the opening scene, characters, time and month!! What made this even more difficult to do, was that I'd won a first chapter competition with firstwriters.com - and if I changed it, the winning chapter wouldn't be first any more! Do you see my dilemma?
I decided that I should listen to the professional agent, and morphed the 'hook' into my first chapter. I had to change lots of conversations and thoughts which my characters had had, in several chapters, but it seems to have worked. I can see now that it has improved my book and was worth the late nights, extra grey hairs and increased levels of sugar consumption. These problems are easily remedied by earlier nights, hair dye and going on a diet!!
Now I'm trying to design a book cover for my novel. I know that agents hate this, but I'm not doing it for an agent. I want to upload my work onto Harper Collins authonomy website and they require a front cover for that. I visited Harper Collins in February for a workshop and listened to what they had to say about the new site. It's an excellent idea which introduces new authors and their work to each other. The top five novels are looked at by HP agents, which is a great opportunity for the writers.
So I happily plod on. The key word being, happily. I love writing for the thrill of using my imagination to do anything I want with my characters. I'm on my second novel and wake up each morning wondering what calamities, adventures or love interests my characters are going to meet that day. And I'm in control!

It's June 1st and I'm over the moon that I have won first prize for some of my work. New Writers had a first chapter competition, to which I sent the first chapter of my finished novel. What a buzz! It's just what I needed after 2 rejections. Following the rejections I re-read my first three chapters and decided to delete a few sentences/paragraphs. Very scary - sometimes it's difficult to know when to walk away and when to tweak just a little bit more. Receiving the email which told me I had won and had my work published on the internet, was the boost I needed to send off my work to three more agents. Even if they are rejected again, I have an email that says that someone 'loves' my work, which is amazing.