Followers

Sunday 30 December 2012

Happy New Year.

Happy New Year to my blog followers.  Hope 2013 brings all you're hoping for.

To see my slogan for the New Year and my website. click here.

Wednesday 5 September 2012

Growing up in the 70's

Growing up in the 70's now published. An e.book for the kindle, there are four stories in all, mine's called 'High School Blues' They take you back to the days of platform shoes and flares, flowery shirts and tank tops. Hope you enjoy reading if you download.

Monday 16 July 2012

I won a competition.

I won a flash fiction competition.  You can read it here.  This is the last competition that Eddie Walsh is running, so I'm thrilled to be the winner out of 65 entrants.  Off to write some more stories now. 

Friday 6 July 2012

Latest article accepted.

My latest article to be accepted is called 'The Gentle Poet.'  This will appear in the September issue of The Great War magazine.

www.greatnorthernpublishing.co.uk

It's about The Life and Death of Rupert Brooke.  More details on my other blog.
www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com
 

Now I'm working on something for here.  Leaving home for the first time.  Should be finished soon.  Is anyone else having a go?

www.blackcoffeypublishing.com




Sunday 3 June 2012

A poem for the Queen.

Here's my poem for the Queen on her Diamond Jubilee.

www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

Hope she likes it if she's blog hopping after her busy day.

Tuesday 29 May 2012

A book signing.

Welcome to my new blog followers.  Have a look what Juliet's been up to over on my other blog.  www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

At a quick glance it looks like a book singing doesn't it?


Wednesday 25 April 2012

Trace your roots.

Have you ever wondered about your ancestors?  Would you like to trace your roots?  Take a look over on my other blog at Maureen Vincent Northam's new book.





www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

Sunday 22 April 2012

Thursday 5 April 2012

Thursday 29 March 2012

New picture

Here's my new picture, taken in the garden.  The other one was taken a few years ago, so thought I'd better update it.  Alan took this when we got home from work.  I always like to sit and have a read of my latest magazine with a cup of hot chocolate.  Good way to finish the day off.

My other blog is here.

www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

Monday 19 March 2012

Article writing.

If you're following Patsy's blog tour, she's here today. Tracy Fells blog.  Anyone who follows my blog will know that I'm always trying fiction writing, though I have had more success with articles.  I'm busy writing one up at the moment for The Great War magazine.  The editor has given me the go ahead for it, but I'm still brushing it up, so will tell you more on that later.  Also, I have an idea for an article that I'm typing up, and due to submit to a writing magazine. 

My first article was in Take a Break.  They wanted romance in the workplace, so I sent a few photos and a couple of pages.  It was fab when the editor rang.  I ran round the house jumping onto the settee.  It's true to life stories that editors seem to like best from me.  Thing is, this can have drawbacks.  When I wanted to take a picture of my mother in law's neighbour in her garden recently, she hid her face and ran into the house shouting, "No, no, I haven't brushed my hair yet."  My daughter said, 'that's because they know you as the lady who writes to magazines.'  She probably thought she'd end up in Woman's Weekly.  It had crossed my mind, so I can't blame her.  Nice to know they have such faith in me!!
Donkeys on Blackpool beach.  Aren't they cute?

Friday 16 March 2012

Escape to the Country.

I would like to welcome Patsy to my blog, talking about her debut novel - Escape to the Country.
If like me you've read Patsy's stories already, then you will be eagerly looking forward to reading this.  Over to Patsy.



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Can you judge a book by its cover?




Publishers spend time, money and effort producing covers for books, although it would be quicker and easier to simply print the title, author name, ISBN and price onto a plain background. Doing that would be of some help to the reader. If we already knew the author's work we could guess whether we might like to read something else by them. The title might give a few clues - 'The Princess who Seduced a Bricklayer' is likely to be rather a different story from ''Zombies on a Spaceship'. I don't think that would be enough to tempt most people to read a book they hadn't heard of by an author they hadn't heard of.



How about printing the title onto a genre specific background colour? Pink for romance, I suppose and something the shade of putrefying flesh for zombie stories and blue for erotica. But I digress... This doesn't happen; books have cover artwork on the front and writing on the back. Does any of this matter?



The blurb on the back is probably the most read part of any book. I'm sure it's not just me who bases many of my reading decisions on those few paragraphs. While it's true that decision might be not to read, in the long run I think it's better for everyone if people don't repeatedly buy books they don't enjoy.



What about the cover artwork then. What can that tell us? I used to think the answer was 'not much' until the publishers of my book 'Escape to the Country' asked me for suggestions. It hadn't occurred to me I'd get a say (I understand new authors often don't) so I wasn't prepared. There's an important scene in the book that's sort of repeated so I felt an illustration of that would be good - and said so.



Then I panicked. The scene I'd described was dark (black and brown, not suicide pact like) my book is light and romantic. People who liked the cover might not enjoy the story. I tried to think if there were any books I'd read just after glancing at the cover. There were - I first discovered JD Robb because there was an image of a snowdrop on the cover of one book so I picked it up (and then read the blurb on the back - but I'd not have got that far with a sci-fi book if it hadn't been for the snowdrop). There were other examples, all of them involving something pretty. My cover wasn't going to be pretty!



Fortunately Phillip Grizzell who actually designed the cover isn't an idiot. He used my suggestion to create something that I feel sums up the book quite well. It's fun, light and romantic - I hope readers will agree the story is too.

Thanks for that Patsy, look forward to reading your book.

My other blog is here.  www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com




Saturday 3 March 2012

Tagged by Teresa.

Just noticed I've been tagged by Teresa, thanks for thinking of me Teresa, here's the answers to your questions.

1.  No, I love being me, and if I wasn't me, I would want to be me. (big headed eh?)
2. I always have breakfast with my hubby, and that's how I like it.
3. English, reading and story writing were my favourite subjects.
4. I don't watch much t.v. except I love itv 3 with the old programmes on like Poirot, or Doc Martin.
5.  I definately believe in ghosts, we have someone who walks up our stairs at 10 - 2 a.m in the middle of the night.  Maybe it was someone who worked nights.  It's very distingtive though, but not scary at all.
6. Star treck, haven't a clue on that, except that I love little r2d2.
7. My zodiac sign isn't the wandering saggitarius, nor is it the well balanced Libra.  I'm not the creative and artistic aquarius, nor am I the home loving Cancerian. I do love my home though, and I am an earth sign.  Have you guessed it yet?
8.  I'd be Huckleberry Finn from Mark Twain.  I love the adventures he and Tom from 'Tom Sawyer got up to. It would be great being outdoors all day long having fun.
9.  I'm not keen on artichokes, though to tell the truth,
10.  I haven't tried them, but probably won't as they look prickly and unfriendly.

There's my questions, now to tag someone.  As most people have already been tagged, I'm going to tag my other blog, as it's the one I use most.  My question is:- Which Charles Dicken's book do you like best.

TAG;--     www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

Saturday 25 February 2012

My poem 'Springtime' is on my word press blog.  This was written for a Writelink spring fever challenge competition.  It didn't get a mention, or get shortlisted, other than for the judge to say, 'Does anyone spring clean anymore?'  Hasn't she read 'Wind in the Willows' for goodness sake?  Of course we spring clean don't we?  Maybe not with so much vigour as in the poem...  Maureen said, 'it fair rattles along' so I'm glad she got the gist of it.  I printed it out and use it as a reminder that there's something needs doing. 

How the poem came about was, we were thinking of moving once. (Just the once)  An estate agent called in a smart long black woollen coat.  We had a big Belgian Shepherd dog at the time, who'd been shut out in the garden as he didn't take to callers.  After the snotty man had told me to get rid of clutter (cheek, I LOVE my nic nacs.) and told me to paint everywhere cream and pale brown like his house. Yuckkk.  I had pink walls and rainbow wallpaper at the time. Then he had a look at the bathroom which must be the smallest one in the world, he called it manageable. We had one chair under the window that was officially the dog's chair.  Before I could tell him this, the nice man sat on it.  I tried to finish the conversation where he was telling me to knock the back wall out, get rid of family photos, de-personalise, etc etc. without thinking of that black coat getting covered in dog hairs.  As he got up to leave, I said, "Oh, there's a bit of a hair on your sleeve" and tried brushing it off.  As he walked away, oh my lord, you've never seen such a sight.  He was plastered in dog hairs, but I hadn't got the heart to tell him.  So, I did a bit of magnola - ing, and as the poem said, put away photos, then as I walked round the house it just didn't feel right.

Although we live on the Roman Road, known as Watling Street, you don't notice the traffic that much, except the sirens of course;  everyone who calls takes  a look out of the front window and says, "What a view" - we look out onto a farmer's field, woodlands and hills with sheep on in the springtime.  I love it. 

Maureen who I mentioned earlier and Lorraine, are at Baskerville Hall soon.  They co-wrote ABC Writer's checklist, a book I refer to often.

Debz Hobbs Wyatt is the editor on creative cafe.  Both are brilliant editors, and if ever you need and editor, I would recommend both of these talented ladies.

To read my Springtime poem have a look on my blog here. www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

Saturday 18 February 2012

Well done Patsy.

Have a look here to see what's making Patsy jump for joy.  Well done Patsy, and can't wait to read your story.   

Tuesday 7 February 2012

Top 75

I recently acquired this little badge from the e.college, lots of other writer people had them as well, the top one was Miss Snark, with Liz Fielding second.  Now I'm off to type up some more stories for the Creative Cafe website here.  www.creativecafeproject.co.uk
 
 Welcome to my new blog followers.
My other blog is here.  www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

When creating characters, picture them in your mind before you write them down.  Colour of their hair, features, personality.  Are they tall, thin, chubby?  Think up some extreme situations; something exciting, frightening, hillariously funny.  See how your character reacts to this event.  Make sure you know them inside out before you get into the story.  Knowing your character will bring them alive, and give you a better chance of writing them as interesting people who will move the story forward, and make readers want to read more.
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Wednesday 25 January 2012

I'm in the top 75.

Well fancy that again.  From the last post, I've made it to the top 75 blogs of resources for writers.  That's quite exciting, though there are lots of great blogs in there.  If you think my blog's worth it, could you click on that badge in the sidebar please? 

I heard from 'Take a Break Fate & Fortune' today.  They'd had an article since last January (2011).  I sent the article on the 11.1.11.  (how spooky is that?) When I made enquiries, they hadn't a clue about the story.  This worried me slightly as I'd put personal photo's in with it, one that's irreplaceable.  This morning, I had a really polite and lovely letter saying that being as I had been precise and told them exactly when I'd sent it in, they were able to find it.  They must have liked it not to have sent it straight back.  Shows how important it is to keep records of what's gone where. 

My plan now is to write the story into a fictional one, then send it to Take a Break. 
My main writing blog is here.
www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com

Good luck to all other nominees...

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Fancy that!


Isn't this little badge cute. 

For students who are beginning a writing course of any kind, I would say write from the heart, and have an EMOTION as the key element of your writing.  Any work I've had published, from a short letter, to a two page spread in a Summer Special have all got one thing in common.  An emotion is involved.  Whether it's love, (always the best one) or embarrassment, (one editor's like a lot) or maybe jealousy where revenge is the driving emotion.  Keep in mind that without emotion, and great characters, there is no story.  For a good study of characters, I would recommend 'Under Milk Wood by Dylan Thomas.

My main blog is here.... www.susanjanejones.wordpress.com