Wombourne Writers: August Homework

Next month's homework for the writing group I attend. Next meeting will be Wednesday 6th August at 7.15pm :)



Wombourne Writers: August Homework: Write a poem, short piece of prose, or letter based around the following small advert - up to 500 words: Bargain Buys. Picture of Japanese s...

Dreams becoming a reality!

It's been a while since I last posted an update. Since the Whitsun holiday it's been a time of many changes, some good, some not so, and some just amazing! I've had some setbacks in many forms, including getting up to water pouring through the kitchen ceiling from the bathroom, and much worse, losing our dear cat Pasta, who had been with me for nearly 16 years.

With my furry companion gone, I have thrown myself into my writing more than ever before. And I am reaping the rewards!

I have written since I was little, and my dream all of my life was to be published. As an adult I have longed to be at a stage where I felt I could start approaching literary agents, and this year I have. Petronella Beetletwitch and the Water Pistol Bandit starting receiving feedback with rejections so I knew I was getting closer. Then an agent asked for the full manuscript, so things were definitely taking off. At this point I had only ever considered approaching Children's literary agents, but started to realise that wouldn't necessarily be the best approach considering my love of horror and crime fiction.

It was Nibfest14 that spingboarded me towards my dreams. The week long write-a-thon founded by agent Laetitia Rutherford with Watson, Little Ltd was the starting point for A Witch in Time, which then became one of 7 shortlisted entries.

This competition led me to discovering the fantastic agent Laetitia Rutherford, who has since offered me representation :D I have a feeling this is the start of a wonderful partnership that will lead to many more books!

Excited and frantically writing A Witch in Time now, which hopefully will end up in bookshops in the none too distant future. Watch this space!

Wombourne Writers: July Homework

Wombourne Writers: July Homework: July Homework - Write the dialogue between these two ladies. 500 words approx.



Homework for this month for Wombourne Writers, the fantastic writing group that I attend. It runs the first Wednesday evening of each month in Wombourne library :)

Taking flight

Since I completed the last edit of Petronella and the Water Pistol Bandit she has been flitting about and landing in slushpiles. All seems to be going very well, Petronella is receiving a lot of positive feedback, my favourite being described as a 'terrific writer!'

Two agents have requested the full MS so far, so fingers crossed for a home for Petronella before too long. I'm feeling very hopeful. The whole process has been exciting, even a knock back hasn't made me feel hurt or rejected. I think a background in Fine Art has helped prepare me for this stage in the process. Anything creative is hard to judge as it is so subjective, people either love it, hate it or are ambivalent towards it, with a few grey areas in between. But basically it comes down to they either like it or they don't have an interest in it, just like a book and the whole submission process.

Now I'm waiting to see if I've found the agent who feels as passionately about my writing as I do. One who likes that all important factor, the 'voice'. Again, like anything creative, you develop a style of your own with time and practice, and it's what agents always say they are looking for. So fingers crossed my 'voice' is being heard and liked and it wont be long before I can post my 'I have an agent!' story :)

And in the meantime, I've been world building and character profiling for my new novel 'A Witch in Time'. It was started for the Nibfest14 write-a-thon, and was shortlisted. Now I'm adding and developing Feather's story, and loving every minute of this new adventure!

I'm a Nibfest14 Shortlistee!!!

On the 4th May at Midday Nibfest - The Festival of Writing announced a first line, which unpublished writers were then to take and write up to 5000 words. Either a short story or the start of a novel. It was a mad week of writing last week as there was exactly one week for this write-a-thon. Pens down and entry sent by midday on 11th May.

The opening line was... ‘It was a bright day in May, and the clocks were striking twelve.’ 

When I read that line a character popped into my mind, standing alone in a room full of clocks. Her name was Feather and she was a witch. A novel was born from that sentence, or at least the first two chapters. I'm now world building and character profiling, yes I even know what Feather has in her pockets, I've got to know her so well this past week.

I knew as soon these new characters had come into my life that they were going to have a good story to tell. I've only known them just over a week and I'm very excited to learn all about them and where they are going to take me.

I've been looking forward to seeing the results of the write-a-thon and eagerly awaited 10pm for news. I couldn't have hoped for better news! Nibfest14 notified me that I was one of the 7 Shortlistees :D Excited doesn't even cover it! I think I've driven my family mad this evening with my bouncing about the house and reminding them intermittently of my new status as shortlistee.

I'm one very proud writer right now, and cant thank the agents at Watson, Little enough for shortisting me. I now eagerly await Alex Marwood, Katy Regan and Abigail Tarttelin's decision on the overall winner. Good luck and well done to the other shortlistees!

Take a look at blog of Cassie Leedham, another one of the shortlistees at: http://cassieleedhamphotography.com/?p=658

For more information take a look at: www.nibfest.co.uk
Wonderful agents at: www.watsonlittle.com
And the writers: www.alexmarwood.com, www.katyregan.com and www.abigailtarttelin.com

The Zombie Who Came to Tea

Thanks to fellow writer James Brinsford: http://jamesbrinsford.wordpress.com/ the following re-write of The Tiger Who Came to Tea came about, it's the first draft of a modern classic in the making!

The Zombie Who Came to Tea by Emma Finlayson-Palmer

Once there was a little girl called Zoe, and she was having tea with her Mummy, in the kitchen.

Suddenly there was a thump and a thud at the door.

Zoe's Mummy said, "I wonder who that can be? It can't be the double glazing salesman because he came this morning. And it can't be the newspaper delivery boy because he only comes on Sundays. And it can't be your Dad because he's got his key. We'd better open the door and see."

Zoe opened the door, and there was a big, smelly, shambling old Zombie.

The Zombie said, "Brains! Sorry but I'm very hungry. Do you think that I could have brains and tea with you?"

Zoe's Mummy said, "Erm, I suppose so, come in."

So the Zombie shuffld into the kitchen and slumped down at the table.

Zoe's Mummy said, "Would you like a walnut?" 

But the Zombie didn't take just one walnut. He took all of them and swallowed the whole packet in one big gulp. "Brains," he said.

And he still looked hungry, so Zoe passed him some sausages. But again the Zombie didn't eat just one sausage. He ate all the sausages on the plate. And then he ate all the bacon, and all the cake, but he didn't like the cake so there was just some Zombie-mauled cake left to eat on the table.

So Zoe's Mummy said, "Would you like a drink?" 

And the Zombie drank all the tomatoe juice from the fridge and all the tea in the teapot. And then he shuffled around the kitchen to see what else he could find.

He ate all the chicken dinner that was cooking in the oven... and all the food from the fridge... and all the dog biscuits in the cupboard... and he drank all the protein shakes, slurped up raw eggs, and ate all the tins of cat food.

"Brains," he said, then shambled in the direction of the rabbit hutch.

"I think it's time to go now Mr Zombie," said Zoe's Mummy.

Then he said, "Thank you for my nice tea, brains. I think I'd better go now."

And the Zombie went.

Zoe's Mummy said, "I don't know what to do. I've got nothing for dinner, the Zombie has eaten it all!"

And Zoe was glad that the Zombie came as she didn't like chicken for dinner.

Just then Zoe's Dad came home. So Zoe and Mummy told him what had happened, and how the Zombie had eaten all the food and drunk all the drink.

And Zoe's Dad said, "I've got a very good idea. Pass me the phone."

So Zoe passed her Dad the phone, and Mummy fetched some leaflets from by the front door. They decided that they'd have a takeaway that night.

And they had a lovely dinner with pizza and garlic bread and ice cream for pudding.

In the morning Zoe and her Mummy went shopping and they bought lots of food to fill the empty cupboards and fridge.

And they also bought a very big tin of brains, in case the Zombie should ever come to tea again.

But he never did.

THE END

Watch out agents, here comes Petronella!

March was a bit of a write off as far as any editing and writing went. I've noticed that in times of stress I seem to write more lists, let's just say March consisted of a lot of lists! They serve their purpose though, they provide a focus, they are therapeutic, there is a feeling of euphoria as you cross something off a list :)

From mid February onwards we had a bit of an emotional rollercoaster in the Finlayson-Palmer household. Both sad and happy events have come and gone, death of a friend, birthdays of nearest and dearest. Sandwiched between these life changing events have been tummy bugs (far more than our fair hare in such a short space of time!), Dyslexia finally diagnosed with 3rd finlayson-Palmer (second so far, sure there's a third to come, not to mention Mommy Finlayson-Palmer, sure I am but never confirmed), littlest Finlayson-Palmer starting swimming lessons, second Finlayson-Palmer's 9th birthday party postponed due to torrents of vomit, break down of washing machine during said outbreak when we needed it most. Did end up with a lovely new sleek, ninja style black washing machine to match the oven and fridge (if sleek or ninja style could ever be applied to an appliance that makes such a racket!). Removal of the old one also caused flooding to the kitchen, nothing ever runs smoothly in our household, even the simplest of tasks results in some form of chaos! Two laptops and the main house computer all died during March when I was so close to completing the third draft of Petronella, just adding insult to injury!

At least amidst all of this my children managed to keep me going with their antics. They are a constant source of joy, stress, and inspiration :) It has been a pleasure to see my second son enjoy reading as much as he is from anime and Zelda books to Beast Quest (Thank you Adam Blade, whoever you really are!) especially when my eldest (also Dyslexic) is being very teenagery and resisting reading unless it is about squids or armies! I just hope all of my littlies grow up to realise just how fantastic a book is, how you can escape into any world, and be anyone you want to be in a book :)

After six months toil on Petronella Beetletwitch and the Water Pistol Bandit, and with help from friends with proof reading and editing, it is finally finished and ready to present to agents. Just hope it's as well received now as it was at Discovery Day 2 at Foyles last November. But with characters such as Bob the Ninja teddy bear coming their way, and the comical, bungling bandit Victor I don;t see how they couldn't enjoy it landing in their inbox! Watch out agents, here comes the first Petronella Beetletwitch book!