While I haven't been working on Pandora, I haven't forgotten about her either.  I did some major editing work before deciding to concentrate on the new book and got the book down to 62,000 words (a 10,000 word cut.)

I need to keep concentrating on my new book, but a friend told me about a competition (auspiciously in Somerset, where Pandora is based) and also an unusual 24 hour window for open submissions at a publisher.  I didn't do all that work on Pandora to leave her unpublished, so I've e...
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While I'll continue to update this page with any developments relating to Pandora Wolfe, I've decided to set up another blog - "Thoughts from a distant shed," which is much more general, covering all the things that I usually talk about on here, but also my other writing and any other random nonsense that takes my fancy.

If you want to pop over there, you can find it here. You can also see it on Tumblr here.
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Well, it's almost Christmas.  A welcome break from the rat race of work and for me, a time for reflection. Christmas has often been the part of the year where I decide what I'm going to do for the next few months and wrestle with big decisions without the distractions of the working year.

The more persistent of you who have been checking the blog will notice that it's been a good long while since I updated it. There's good reason for that. At first because I felt there was nothing to tell, the...
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The Online Oxford English Dictionary has a few definitions of the word “Submission.”

 

One of those definitions is:

 

“The action of presenting a proposal, application, or other document for consideration or judgement:”

 

When your book is sent to a publisher, it’s called a “submission” in line with the definition above - i.e. you’re presenting your manuscript for consideration.

 

There are, however, other definitions. For example;

 

“The action of accepting or ...

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Last night, I was fortunate enough to be able to attend the book launch for the debut novel of another writer signed to the same literary agent as I am (Ben Illis).  

Her name is Gabrielle Kent (http://gabriellekent.com) and her debut novel, Alfie Bloom and the Secrets of Hexbridge Castle, was released this week by Scholastic and by now will be in Asda stores (and all good book stores) across the country.

Is this just a plug for her book? Well, not really, no. While I think it is an excellent b...
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Writing

Writing can be exciting – when you’re in the zone, on fire and the words just pour out of your fingers into the keyboard, as you write the cool bits you’ve had in your head for a while. When the story comes together in a way you didn’t imagine it would when you first sat down, when it writes itself.  Of course it can also be incredibly dull and frustrating – when you just can’t imagine what comes next, when the expanse of white screen just irritatingly refuses to be fille...

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In the time that I've been writing, I've had lots of friends, family, co-workers and acquaintances who know I'm writing a book ask me how I'm getting on. I'm always happy to talk about it - probably more happy than they bargain for, usually - once I get started on my favourite hobby horse, I can go on a bit!.  I really like their interest - it keeps me keen and it is appreciated, but I always feel the answers I give are a little disappointing:-

Frequently Asked Questions:-

When will you quit wo...
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The editing continues apace, with all of the additions to the story now in place and (hopefully) seamlessly worked into the narrative.  I was hoping the new parts would fit as at least one of them was already planned for book two, so I'd been laying a few clues already - overall I'm quite pleased with them.

Now I need to reduce the word count by about 4000, as putting in the new stuff has pushed the book up by that much (originally 5000, but I've cut out some of it already.)  I also know I nee...
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I’m well on with my edits now, having completed about 80% of the changes I think I need to make to satisfy the comments from the publishers, but now I’m getting to the end of the first re-draft, I’m reaching the point I always do, which is trying to overcome the crippling self-doubt (CSD) that I’ve just ruined the book.

This is quite a normal process for me (and from what I hear, from other writers,) but it’s still one of the least fun parts.  For me, the feedback/editing process h...

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I really must update this blog more often.  I hadn't realised it had been November when I did my last one.

I'm stuck into the editing now.  Not one, but two publishers have expressed an interest and one of those has given detailed feedback.  The gist of it is that they love the story, they really love the character of Pandora Wolfe, but they feel the book slows down a bit in the middle section and loses some of the pace.

After a long chat before Christmas with my awesome agent, Ben Illis, I had...
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Well, I'm now well on with my editing, following a very useful discussion and some suggestions from my agent. Progress is slow, but definitely headed in the right direction.  I'm hoping to have it done by Christmas.

In the meantime, here's a short story I wrote last winter.  

The Ghost

I walk unseen among the living; they move instinctively out of my path.  I observe them rushing to and fro, filled with their own concerns while I pass my days wandering and experiencing the lives of others seco...

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Hi all and apologies for not updating sooner, but as I'm sure I've mentioned earlier, the publishing business is glacially slow and it's either accept it or go crazy, so I've opted for acceptance.

Things may be slow, but they DO move.  Pandora is still out on submission and is still being read with interest by publishers.   Frustratingly, most feedback from those who were not interested was along the lines that they really liked the book but either it was just "not quite right for them" or sim...
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Well things are still rumbling on behind the scenes, unfortunately nothing I can share publicly - which makes updating a blog about my progress a little problematic.

In the meantime, I thought some people might be interested in a couple of short stories I wrote a while back in response to prompts on a writing group.  Neither is from Pandora Wolfe's universe.  One is something I thought make a decent little picture book, if I could find an illustrator.  The other is a new take on an old story.

I...
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A whole lot of things are happening at the moment that it's too early to discuss on the blog, but let's just say that my agent, Ben Illis, is doing an awesome job and lots of things are starting to happen since Pandora went out on submission at the London Book fair. Please keep checking in.  I will update the blog as soon as concrete things happen.

While I wait, I have continued to work on the sequel to Pandora Wolfe (working title "The Iron Golem") and am making good progress.  I've also tidi...
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At long last I can finally reveal that I've signed with an agent - The Ben Illis Literary Agency (www.the-bia.com)

I've been in touch with Ben Illis - My agent - (just trying the phrase out there. Feels kinda good) for more than a year, ever since I submitted to A.M. Heath - the oldest literary agency in the country, which Ben's agency is affiliated to. Their children's agent was just about to retire and she referred my manuscript to Ben, who contacted me to say he loved the book and the main ...
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When I last blogged about it, I’d made the decision to send off my book to a professional editor after being advised that it needed a “final polish” by a literary agent whose judgement I trust and who has been very open and free with their advice to me since I first submitted to them.

Paying for an edit isn’t a cheap business, so I did my research.  As a generally quite sceptical person, I’d read a number of articles on unscrupulous “agents” or “editing services” which were r...

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This week, I've had the new experience of being interviewed for the blog of Sam Whitehouse, who guested on my own blog a few weeks back.  Sam is a fantastic new writer and his interview questions were great.  Read what he asked and what I said here....

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At the start of this year, I made myself three promises. I was going to eat and drink healthily, go running three times a week and write 5000 words a week.  A week in and so far (miraculously) the resolutions are holding. 

In terms of writing, nothing seems to work better for me than a firm target.  "X words by Y time".  Even better when I tell people about it (so I'm telling all of you.) The potential shame of saying I haven't done any writing when asked how it's going is always an excellent...
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It's been a while since I've posted and that's been deliberate.  In some respects, a lot has happened but in other respects, I'm still where I was before.  After sending my revised book back to the literary agent, I was pleased to see that he liked the changes.  I'd been a bit nervous about it, given that I'd basically reduced the novel by a third to make it more like the length that a Middle Grade (9-12) novel should be.  I needn't have worried though, because the agent pronounced it much im...
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Today we’ve got something a little different.  Sam Whitehouse, a new author whose work I’ve been reading and very much enjoying in recent weeks is on a blog tour, following my own guest appearance on his blog.  I hope you’ll enjoy Sam’s take on what inspires him to write and his journey so far on the Prophecy of Three quartet of YA novels (If you want to read them yourselves, links to their Amazon pages are below, along with links to Sam's own blog).

Over to you Sam…

Inspiration...

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Following on from my last post, I found this video (40+ minutes) of literary agents talking about getting published, the work of a literary agent and even self publishing to be very useful and informative. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31wOs05wyJQ&feature=youtu.be

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Although I've not yet signed with an agent myself, I have had a fair amount of success in getting agents to read my manuscript, so I must be doing something right.  As a result a number of other unpublished writers have asked me for advice on how to go about it.  Given that I've repeated this advice a number of times, I think it might be worth putting it on the blog.  If you're writing something and hope to one day publish, hopefully you'll find it useful.

The first thing I'd say is that getti...
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Ok - so I haven't posted recently but that doesn't mean that nothing's been happening. I heard back from the agent that I'd sent my improved manuscript to and he agreed - it was much much better, BUT (and there's always a 'but', isn't there?) it still needed a "final polish."   He said that he might have taken me on a year ago when he was still in the early stages of building his list, but now he likes writers to be 100% before he signs them up because he represents the writer, not the book a...
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While waiting for the results of my latest efforts to try to get signed with an agent, I decided not to waste time lingering and re-started work on the sequel.  One thing I found straight away was that I had kind of "lost my thread" and needed to get back into the story in order to continue it, so I decided to perform a line by line edit on the 20,000 words I'd already written in order to refresh my memory and make sure I didnt forget any important minor details.

Reaching the end of the proces...
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Two weeks ago, I reached the point where I couldn't edit the book any more without chopping out what I believed to be important sections of the story.  It's only 2000 words longer than the first Harry Potter book at the moment, so hopefully it's in the ballpark. I re-sent it to the literary agent who'd first suggested I reduce the word count and now I have to wait.  It's likely that this wait will be measured in months rather than weeks and though I'm desperate for feedback, I'll resist the u...
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I'm now on my fifth editing pass to reduce the wordcount of the book by the maximum possible.  It's very much an exercise in the law of diminishing returns, but each pass does yield a reduction, however small.  I'm currently sat at about 81,800 words and I think realistically I'll get to maybe 79,000 words by the time I'm finished.

This time, things are improved by the very able assistance of my god-daughter Natalie, who's just completed the first year of an English Literature degree (with fl...
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Well, this is the end of pass 3 of "operation word reduction."  I've managed to reduce a 118,500 word book to 85,400 although that's still not quite enough.  Although other books for this genre and age bracket have been bigger (Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief is 87500 words), they're outliers.  I won't be able to relax until I get to a number in the 70,000s.

It's an odd sort of task really.  I described it recently as like a sculptor trying to shrink a 10ft statue into an identical 7ft o...

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Another week into the editing and I'm down to 88,000 words.  There are definitely diminishing returns in this editing lark (because I am trying not to make changes to the actual story) but i'm quite impressed with how far I've come. The book started at 118,500 words, so that's 30,000 gone.  I think I will aim for maybe 11k more and that will be challenge enough. 

I've done some research and the first Harry Potter book was 77,000 words, the first Skulduggery Pleasant was 75,000, the first Arte...
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Well, as predicted the editing has slowed down as it progressed to the second sweep.  I'm down to about 95,000 words so maybe 20,000 still to chop and am just over halfway through my second pass through the book. I'm saving bits and prieces for the next book but nothing major.  Thus far I've managed to do most of it by thinning the existing text, shortening conversations and using tighter language, but I think I might get to the high 80,000s and then be left with only the actual meat of the s...
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I can't pretend I wasn't daunted by the enormity of reducing my 118500 word novel by 45000 words or so to make it marketable in the Middle Grade publishing world, but I went about it anyway.  At the end of about ten days of furious editing, I've completed my first pass of the book and reduced it to 99,700 words, a reduction of almost 19,000. 

Most of this was achieved by simply going through sentences and trying to find a way to say the same thing in less words ("She had seen" becomes "She sa...
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What a difference speaking to someone with knowledge of the industry can make:-

One of the main problems I’ve had since writing the Chronomancer’s Daughter was that I never knew which age category it fitted into;  Middle Grade (9-12 or MG) or Young Adult (Teen or YA).   Now, after speaking to three literary agents I’m sure that it’s Middle Grade.

This presents a small problem as Young Adult books (especially fantasy) can run to over 100,000 words, but Middle Grade books are never ov...

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Things are looking very positive at the moment.  One of the agents that I met at the event in London (and gave my first three chapters to) emailed me on Friday telling me she'd enjoyed the first three chapters and would like to see the full manuscript (which I duly emailed to her minutes later).

In terms of writing, I've kept to my 5000 words per week target, 15,000 (eight chapters) so far, perhaps a fifth of a way through the first draft.  I've managed to prise myself off Twitter and Facebook...
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Yesterday I attended an event called "How to Hook an Agent" run by Bloomsbury, the publishers of Harry Potter and the Writer's and Artist's Yearbook.  I and another twenty something aspiring authors got to meet four very interesting and helpful literary agents, two of whom work with Children's fiction.

The day covered how your submissions should be structured and what agents look for. I was pleased to note that I was already doing the majority of things right and was the only person who had ac...
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Today has been a very mixed day in dealing with literary agents.  One of them came back last night saying that she had liked the idea but had not "connected with the voice" which I think means that she doesn't like my style (the precise opposite of the comments the last agent made) so the book wasn't for her.  She was very nice about it and I was grateful she'd taken the time to read it (she got back after four weeks which was good going), but I'd be lying if I said I felt great afterwards.

An...
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So far I've kept up with my self imposed challenge of 5000 words for the first week and it's looking good for week two with 4000 words written and 3 days to go.  If I can keep this up, then it's entirely feasible that I could have a working first draft of the Iron Golem within 3 months.

No news on the agent front.  I was hoping to have heard back from one of them just before Easter but nothing so far.  I know they all went to Bologna children's book fair the week before and it's entirely possi...
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Well here we are a day ahead of the deadline and I've done just over 5600 words (20 pages) of the Iron Golem.  No doubt whatever I write will all have changed beyond recognition by the second draft, but it's important to get the words down (I just can't write out of sequence).  Already we've seen one cool new magical item and met a new and slightly dodgy character.

Lets' see if I can manage another 5000 by a week on tuesday. 

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A good start to the Iron Golem.  I promised myself 5000 words by next tuesday and I'm at almost 3000 so far.  Added to the little bits I'd done already that puts me into chapter three (plus the prologue).  Some of it has been hard going (lots of potentially interesting distractions) but I forced myself to keep going and I'm quite pleased with the results. 

Already totally off the reservation as far as the story plan goes, but that's not unusual.  The bits I've changed so far are the parts I t...
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While thankfully not one of the two agents I'm waiting to hear back from about their requests to read my whole manuscript, I did recieve a reply from an agent I'd almost forgotten that I'd written to.  Her rejection was so nice, I've decided to share it.

Dear Russell,

Thank you for sending me PANDORA WOLFE: THE CHRONOMANCER'S DAUGHTER.

While I enjoyed reading your work, which stood out from the many we receive,
I’m afraid I didn’t feel strongly enough about the story to take it
further, althou...
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Made some progress on the short story tonight (2500 words in) but then felt it wasn't what I really wanted to be doing, so at long last, after much planning and procrastination, I've started writing the Iron Golem, the sequel to the Chronomancer's Daughter.

I'd already written a prologue some time ago but had been struggling with my plan for the first chapter as I felt it wasn't exciting enough.  In the event, I've totally re-planned the first chapter so we get into the action on the first pag...
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Just had an email from another agent asking for my full manuscript and asking me to check in with her before accepting a deal with any other agents.  I must be doing something right - at least I know there's nothing wrong with my first 3 chapters if it can interest 3 agents.  Fingers crossed!
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I had to share some excellent character portraits done by my extremely talented Niece, Emily.  They really bring the story to life.



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Spending the week touring Northern cities for the day job, I feared I'd get no work done but on the train I actually got the time to finish the first draft of the second Pandora Wolfe book plot - approx 60 chapters plotted out.  Got a long weekend this week, so I intend to try and pull it into some semblance of order, change the timings of some events and ensure the pacing is right. Once that's finished, I'll start the writing proper. By the way, the working title of the sequel is Pandora Wol...
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The day job has been demanding far more hours than its usually due this week, requiring all the time and effort that I'd normally put into writing but hey, gotta keep paying those bills. Turns out I am motivated by money after all, or at least the risk of not having any.  Still, I managed to have some ideas and will attempt to get them down in black and white this week.  No more news from agents yet, so the show must go on as they say.

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Looks like all my eggs are back in one basket again. The second agent who asked for the manuscript last week came back to me on Friday to say that while she'd hugely enjoyed it, she didn't feel the 100% commitment that she'd need to represent me.  I had originally been hoping for more feedback but I'd read during the week that a lot of agents give fairly general feedback as they don't want to steer writers in the wrong direction. In all honesty I'd already been looking at the other writers sh...
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Well a second agent has got in touch and has told me that she's really enjoyed the first three chapters and wants to read the rest. I sent her the manuscript tonight and she replied immediately saying that she was looking forward to reading it.

Sounds promising!  TTFN



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A chance reading of an article in a writing magazine has led me to do something I've never done before and entered the book into a competition.  The Northern Writer's Awards is for new (i.e. unpublished) authors living in the North of England and winners will be rewarded with prizes ranging from cash to editorial support and contacts in the publishing industry.  The closing date is 31st but I won't hear anything until the summer. I've only really had the confidence to try since letting people...

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Despite a potentially fatal bout of Man Flu (or as my wife cruelly refers to it "a mild cold" - she'll feel ever so guilty when I'm gone) I've heroically continued to plan this weekend and have reached chapter 41.  The story is hotting up now and I've added the first bit about Lord Morland's (the leader of the bad guys) magic powers.  Not long now before what's really going on becomes apparent to the main characters.

Only maybe 15 or so chapters to go to the end of the plan but I already know ...
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A month after sending my manuscript I succumbed to my inner OCD which kept saying "I bet they never got your email and you're waiting in vain" and emailed the agent to check it had arrived (while being clear that I wasn't checking on progress or being pushy).  They got back straight away and said it had been recieved and was in a queue, so I can relax.

On the plus side I haven't been idle and have continued plotting out book 2 - up to chapter 34 so far. I've invented three new magical items fo...
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57 Likes on the Facebook Page and 100 likes of the website. Not too shabby for a week old site with no rude things on it! Thanks for the sharing and recommending everyone. :-)

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Firstly, welcome to all the new people who’ve found their way here.  We’re up to 52 likes on the Facebook page and 96 on the website so thank you all and I hope you’ll stick with us until publication and beyond.

 

Today is a planned night off writing so just a quick post. I won’t be giving away massive spoilers to say that The Chronomancer’s Daughter involves time travel, as does the sequel.

 

And it got me to wondering just what people’s views were on time travel (except t...

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Another productive evening.  Despite coming home feeling like an arthritic octogenarian from my first couple of gym visits of the year, I sat down and immediately cracked on with the planning.  A couple of hours later and I had another 3 chapters plotted out which is enough for one evening. 

I'd originally thought the blogging, the facebooking etc would prove a massive distraction from actual writing (and so it did while the novelty of constantly hitting the refresh button to see the extra li...
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Maybe it's just the fact that I had my first day back at the day job, perhaps it's because I went for my first run of the year today, quite possibly it's just the potential embarrassment of blogging yet another day of time wasting but whatever it is, I actually did enough work on the second book today to feel like I no longer have to hang my head in shame.

I'm still at the planning/plotting out stage, which is my least favourite bit (if you don't count proof reading - something my volunteer re...
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I've been looking through my plan now for over three hours and have somehow managed to do almost no work on it other than a few minor changes to about 3 sentences despite being busy for the whole time. On the other hand I've spent ages on Facebook and this website, checking the "likes" and chatting to friends to encourage them to visit. The facebook page in particular has proved an immensely successful work avoiding mechanism, especially since I am still technically doing work "for my book", ...
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Google has now found the website so people can search for it.  Another small step in the right direction.

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The new year is well and truly here and I've decided I'd better crack on with the work on the second Pandora Wolfe book.  I've read that publishers and agents like you to be well on with a sequel because almost all book deals are for at least two books.  If someone reads and likes your book, they want to be able to pick up a sequel fairly soon before they lose interest.  Besides that, I've got a story to tell and I need to get it down on paper or it'll drive me bonkers.

I've plotted out an ove...
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Thanks to everyone who's fed back on the website.  I'll be taking your ideas on board and I appreciate the encouragement.  On the good news front, a very talented artist I know has said he's interested in doing some artwork for the web page, which will do a lot to improve the look.  I'll update you on the progress with this.

Lots of friends have shared the link to the site on facebook. Thank you for that.  Using the "six degrees of separation" theory, friends of friends of friends of friends o...
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Well, this is my first foray into the blogosphere. Congratulations on finding the site and I hope you'll find it interesting.  I've spent the last two years writing and polishing my children's/YA novel, The Chronomancer's Daughter and now I've decided to blog my progress as I take the long road to try to get it published. 

First, a little background. I'd been writing on and off my whole life and have even completed a couple of novels, though nothing that was ready for publication (I can admit...
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