What a writer has to ponder I’m sure Green Mountains Review is a great journal, and I hold no grudges for them rejecting my work but seriously, what were they thinking? Who on earth thought that the way to deal with an International Reply Coupon was to sticky tape it to the front of the […]

Apocalypse and rejections So, I forgot all about this acceptance until a vibrant copy of Apocalypse Literary Arts turned up in the post. Sadly, it wasn’t in tandem with another chocolate and dried fruit bar from Green & Blacks (but I live in hope that the next magazine publication will repeat the dual delights of […]

(See my bento and die from food envy: mini omelette with chive tie, mini sausages, card suit couscous, carved card suit Babybel cheese, lemon drizzle cupcake, sweets and peanuts, home-made peanut brittle (lid snack) and kiwi and apple salad …) When rejection creeps up on you and when you reject … I’m going to share […]

Dealing with writing rejection (aka on robustness) A former student emailed me to point out that I might have sounded less than empathetic in my last post. While it’s true that I think you must be robust to cope with life as a fiction writer, I’m not unsympathetic (at least I hope I’m not) to […]

Willesden Herald Following the interesting developments in the Willesden judging, I feel I should post again, to put my viewpoint. Yes I was one of the infamous ten who ‘were not good enough’. For those who haven’t followed the story, ten of us were short-listed, but nobody won. There won’t be an anthology and nobody […]