On deadlines & writing deliciousness - Rowena House

Oops! Long time no post. Apologies. My excuse: I’m finally on a deadline after nigh on six years nibbling away at my seventeenth-century witch trial work-in-progress, with three (max four) months to get Draft 1 developed, polished, and proof read, including an entirely new narrative perspective on the same events, told in alternate chapters, decided upon last year.

So, about one quarter to one third of a novel to write in three/months. That’s do-able, right?

The writing gods are [ATM] being kind in letting me get on with it, but that’s very unlikely to last on recent form with life duties, so I’m writing and editing daily whenever I can.  

Updates on RowenaHouseAuthor on Facebook if anyone feels like joining me for this last dash, followed by more reflective thoughts about the story, its history, how I’ve bent history and invented stuff, and whether that’s justifiable etc. That’ll be from May-September as I write the critical commentary for the PhD, of which the novel is the main part.  

More good news. I have four readers! Two supervisors and two examiners. Hurrah. While not exactly No. 1 bestseller stuff, four readers are enough to order myself not to waste their time with any residual Draft 1 slop (slop being a 2026 version of Hemingway’s more graphic/honest description of Draft 1). 

Luckily, last November, when I should have been writing an ABBA post, I was en route to one of the classiest, most instructive and motivational retreats I’ve ever been on.

It was a week at the Moniack Mhor writing centre in the hills outside Inverness, Scotland, a place that lots of fine writers have recommended and was high on my wish-list even before they announced that the historical fiction retreat would be led by Lucy Jago, author of A Net for Small Fishes, set just after mine and a lovely, very well-researched read, and Andrew Miller – squee – fresh off the Booker shortlist, whose Land in Winter was the winner in bookshop if (sadly) not on the podium. His Pure has been a touchstone for the voice of this WiP for years and a comfort go-to read for more than a decade. 

To top it all, the other retreaters were super talented, including a dear writer friend off the MA in writing for young people at Bath Spa, Eden Enfield, whose prose for both young people and adult I vastly admire. Honestly, who needs to get published when such deliciousness awaits?

To keep the deliciousness going, I’m thrilled to have been invited by another writer-for-young-people-turned-adult-historical-novelist, Liz Flanagan, to one of her launch events for her English civil war novel, When We Were Divided. 

So looking forward to celebrating its publication with her up in Heptonstall next month (where I haven’t been since 1985) and then getting lost in her story.

Happy writing, editing, reading, plotting, dreaming.

PS I got both copies signed. :0)

Rummaging through Long-lost WIPs - Joan Lennon

(Watty62 wiki commons)

As one project comes to an end, it's time to start gently simmering thoughts of the next one. And as a fan of recycling, I've done a little browsing in my files (and yes, that goes back a long way) of ideas I was excited about once upon a time. Hoping that in amongst all the unfinished bits and bobs there might be something I could really get my teeth into. Why not? I loved them once. Why not again? (And think of how much of the work would already be done!)

And in the way of these things, in an idle moment, I came across David Van de Kamp (a Serbian knitter/designer I follow on Instagram) musing in the same vein. He re-discovers an old knitting project - lifts it from its box - has a moment of loving reconnection - sees the lose threads - wonders what it was meant to be in the first place - gently returns it to its box and closes the lid ...

So far that's been me, too. I've rediscovered ideas without legs, or with just a leg and a half, or with too many legs. The idea soup has been well and truly stirred, but the bits that bob then just keep sinking into the depths again.

The lure of something brand new is getting stronger by the minute, though I don't look nearly as good without a towel as Archimedes. Yes, I think that's the way forward. I'm off to have a bath.

Pietro Scalvini (1737) (wiki commons)

Joan Lennon website.

Joan Lennon Instagram.

How was summer for you? by Miriam Halahmy

1. Weather..... plenty of that. I'm writing this on Tuesday September 13th and the temperature outside in my London garden is 32C. Since May we have had wet June, windy July, the hottest August on record and now another heatwave in September. I have not been short of weather this summer.

Writing at Selsey Bill in windy July

2. Health : without divulging much, this was a tricky summer with family health going up and down like a yoyo. The interface with the NHS was frankly scary - which the consultant finally admitted when presented with my timeline of ghastliness. The news on this front is not hopeful. Note to self - get even more canny.

3. The book festival : I was invited for the very first time to the Edinburgh Book Festival and nearly didn't make it ( see 2). In the end whizzed up for two nights, had a great event with 150 kids on The Emergency Zoo and the weather was boiling hot.

4, Amnesty International : I volunteered to read the work of an executed writer at the Book Festival. There were four readers and each one more poignant than the next. My writer, Delara Derabi, was only 22 when she was executed in Iran. Her poem began, 'Prison/ I want to give you a different name/ Who called you this the first time...There was hardly a dry eye - but most amazing was the audience were 40 or more people and these readings go on for every single night of the festival. A lot of people reached - wonderful initiative.

5. Writing : the summer is not a great time to write a book but I was in the middle of the WIP all summer as life veered to and fro like a storm-tossed boat. So whatever, I had to finish the book. I started on my beloved Hayling Island in windy July and at times it felt like I was walking through mud. Also, despite the wind, the sea and the beach kept beckoning me outside and away from my desk. Note to self - do not have a new novel on the go in summer time.

6. Writing - after Hayling all work ground to a complete halt c/o NHS. That was fun.

7. Then the book festival - still no writing.

8. Finally the last minute flight to a writing retreat in Greece! Yes, it was a bit far to go but I was on Methana in a centre on the side of the cliff and there was nowhere to go and nothing to do. Except write. I finished the WIP.

9. So to summarise - summer is not the best time for me to be writing a book. I like to be out of the city, travelling or by the sea or in the countryside. Beware the NHS - boy can it bite. And if you go to a book festival, be prepared to sing...???...I taught the kids a WW2 song. ( shrugs and grins). But now I'm ready to go back to school, settle down at my computer for the autumn writing projects, enjoy the world of writing and writers - well, anyway, when it cools down a bit.

Hope you had a good summer!

www,miriamhalahmy,com

Re-jigging my Editing Process by Miriam Halahmy

I am currently writing my seventh novel. I have published one novel for adults and three Y.A. and I have one book not yet taken and one which is just about to be submitted. But as Sue Gee, award winning author and Faber Academy tutor once said, "All writers are apprentices all their lives." So this blogpost is about my editing process with my Kindle as a relatively new and developing tool to help me.

Recently someone recommended Rachel Aaron's short ( and cheap £0.77) e-book and I decided to download it and see what there was on offer. I wasn't particularly interested in writing 10,000 words a day but I am always open to new ideas for the editing process.
The one idea I took away from this book was Aaron's recommendation to download your finished manuscript onto your Kindle and read it.
Why?
Because when you read a manu on a Kindle you read it like a reader.

I loved it! I was working on my new book, Behind Closed Doors, (BCD), about two teenage girls who are at risk of becoming homeless, for very different reasons. I downloaded the book, took my Kindle into the living room and sat down on the sofa which is where I read at least half of my books. I was in complete reader mode. This is such a different experience to either reading on the screen - my least favourite way to edit an entire book - or to printing a hard copy of the entire manu. With the hard copy I am much less relaxed. I sit there, pen in hand, scribbling all over the place and I am definitely not reading like a reader.

But sitting on the sofa with a cup of tea and a biscuit, nice and relaxed, each page appearing like a page in a printed book in that pleasing rectangular screen my brain was completely in reader mode. I read the book over a couple of days and then I put it to one side, went out for a long walk came back and wrote a couple of pages of notes by hand and with a nice clear head.

Ok - SNAP! You already do all this, I can hear you say and yes, I would think nowadays, a lot of writers do the same thing.

But then I had a new revelation. I went back to the computer, continued working on my book and finally sent the finished manu to my agent. All done and dusted, feeling pleased, etc.
Couple of weeks later I decide to download and read the manu again.
Groan! Suddenly I see loads of copy edits ( houses instead of house) - not earth shattering, I know, but I am beginning to realise that my Kindle edits could have been so much more.

However, after some feedback from an interested editor, it was decided to alter the last few chapters before widespread submission. This is my chance I think.
I rewrite the chapters - very satisfying job. Then I download onto my Kindle.
But this time I sit at my computer with the manu up on the screen.
I start at the beginning, chapter by chapter and every time I spot the error on my Kindle ( errors I have failed to see on the screen because I'm not reading like a reader and I seem to be much sharper in that role) I scroll down and correct it on the screen.
I catch all those pesky errors ( houses instead of house), feel I have a much cleaner text and press SEND in a much happier mood than before.


When I considered trying out this method I thought it would feel laborious and annoying.
In fact, I found it to be smooth and extremely satisfying.

From now on, I will be downloading in 10 chapter chunks ( I've just done that for the new WIP), reading on my sofa, making notes when I've finished and then working the Kindle and the screen version at the same time to build up to the much more perfected finished product.

Do you have an editing tip you'd like to share?

www.miriamhalahmy.com

The Dark Side... Savita Kalhan

Yes, I have one. I’m told that a lot. In a light-hearted question and answer session with a group of authors (The Edge) where the question was – Who is the most likely to have a body buried in the basement? – the majority vote was cast for, yes, you’ve guessed it. Me. I don’t happen to have a basement at home, and it’s probably just as well... But then I probably wouldn’t use my own basement should that kind of need arise...

I have written about the darker side of life even though my main audience are teenagers or young adults. I don’t spare them the dark themes, sensitive issues, or molly-coddle them in any way, but I do spare them any gratuitous gruesome details, extraneous graphic imagery, and from endings with no hope. The Long Weekend is pretty dark. All the teens and young adults who have read it have finished it with no problem, but the same isn’t true of some adults. A book reviewer very apologetically said she could not finish it – she was the mum of two kids.



Hell Wood



My current work in progress is, once again, very dark. When I finish it I’ll put it in a drawer for a few months and then reread it because only by taking that step away from it can I judge if it’s any good. I like to work with a title, but that title can change by the end of the first chapter. It started as ‘Fly Away’. Now it has become Hell Wood, which feels so right that I’m hoping it will be the final title. The name is real – I didn’t have to make it up as it exists in the area the book is set in, although I didn’t know that when I set about writing the story. The research came after the book was halfway through – it sometimes works that way.

Here are a few more pictures of Hell Wood, just imagine it darker...

Scum Pond

Badger Hole





Twisted Tree