Am I ready for tonight? I organised it, so I should hope so… Yesterday, I was chatting to Julie Mann , one of the librarians at West Kirby Library, and we remarked how the initial planning for New Tales for Old Byways had begun at a meeting a year ago. That was when the Wirral Bookfest had been scheduled for April, before the threatened library closures set everything back months. Julie will be taking photos tonight, just as she did for last year’s Words from Wordsmiths event. Wirral TV will be filming tonight’s event. This was confirmed only yesterday. It should be an interesting experience to have a film crew moving around. I’ll be reading Seth’s Basement , which introduces one man’s strange hobby; and also Food, which is one of my series about the Caldy Hill fae. But the program is very diverse, being a group effort. Hope to see you there!

Riverside Writers’ meeting last night was unusually well attended, largely due to the coverage given in the local press about an event I'd organised. We were joined by Gary Smailes from Bubblecow http://www.bubblecow.com/  who delivered an information-packed talk about today’s publishing business and the value of social networking. First Gary talked about the pros and cons of self-publishing, and the various options available. These roughly fall into two categories - the kind you pay for, or the web-based sort where you upload your MS to a print-on-demand site. Self-publishing is really only a valid option if you plan to sell a limited number of copies to a pre-established audience, such as friends and family or a circle of acquaintances who share a specific interest relevant to your book. Increasingly, mainstream publishers instantly reject any self-published works unless they have sold an absolute minimum of 3,000 copies, and very few achieve this. Gary then moved on t

While Richard spent the morning trying to sleep off one of his infamous migraines, I wrote more of Seth’s Basement , my effort for this month’s Riverside Writer’s project which was set on the theme of The Artificial Head. It’s been fun to write, and as far-fetched as my story may seem it’s actually based on a guy who had a similar set-up in his own basement. Truth can be stranger than fiction, for sure; I named one of my fictional mannequins Anton after the real-life character. Riverside Writers’ next meeting is tomorrow night, and we’re going to be joined by editor Maurice James who’ll be giving a talk about the kind of things editors look for in submitted MS.   Maurice runs the annual Coast to Coast writing competition. It’s been raining constantly here today, and both dogs are restless. It’s walkies time and they know they’re going nowhere. If it was just a light shower I’d dress Emily and Ygraine in their little raincoats and off we’d go. At least the fickle English weather

I have been waging war on the kitchen ceiling, polyfiller and spatula at the ready. The job would be so much easier if I could levitate. This would save having to climb up a stepladder and twist half-upside down so I can smooth away miniature potholes which bring something of a lunar texture to our temple of culinary experimentation. The house acts like a magnet for moths. There was a large, fat orange-brown one flitting round earlier, and snoozing on the ceiling is a particularly beautiful moth which looks like a Spanish lace fan. No wonder so many have been hanging out in our house--the bats are out in full force tonight. I've been photographing a few things in the garden, and have also begun weeding around the grove--which is badly overgrown with mare's tail. I've yet to find anything which can kill off mare's tail without destroying the soil for years to come. Anyway, the good news is that my Lady's Mantle has re-established itself under the contorted hazel-

by Peter Hurd, Treasurer for Riverside Writers .

Tim Hulme 's short story, The Trunk in Granny's Attic , was published in this month's edition of Writers' Forum after winning first place in this magazine's competition. As winner, he was also awarded £300. Tim has been a member of Riverside Writers for something like seven years. He holds the post of Secretary and Co-Treasurer for the group. He is also a member of Port Sunlight Writers. Carol Falaki' s first novel, Birth in Suburbia , follows the experiences of three heavily pregnant women. Filled with factual information about pregnancy and labour gleaned from the author's career as a midwife. Midwifery student Gemma aids each birth and learns new things along the way. Carol has been a member of Riverside Writers for approx. two years. Read Carol's novel here: http://bookrix.com/_mybook-carolfalaki_1228743771.3955790997 The date of the forthcoming Riverside Writers evening event, New Tales for Old Byways, has been confirmed for 7pm, Wednes

It was almost impossible to see where I was walking in the woods today due to the dazzling light. I should have worn sun glasses! The breezes drifting up from the calm ocean had an icy edge, and I suspect that tonight the temperature will plummet. The chill hadn't prevented half the local population from heading out for a walk, though. Perhaps they too were escaping from the dismal TV. The dogs love the woods, of course; there's a whole world of scent which is closed to human noses. Ygraine investigated a small puddle and discovered it was deeper than she'd anticipated. A lot deeper. I've just finished reading David Hunt's  The Magician's Tale , which I thoroughly enjoyed. Crime isn't my usual genre, but I found myself eagerly turning the pages of this well-written tale of a photojournalist who is gathering material for a project about male prostitutes in San Francisco. When her favourite model is murdered, the protagonist sets out to solve the crime.

Two friends have complained about writer’s block within the space of one week. They wanted to know how I get around this problem. Well, the truth is that writer’s block is not something I have a problem with, so it could be fairly argued that I’m not the best person to seek advice from. On the other hand, as it isn’t an issue for me, perhaps I’m doing something right--or, more accurately, something which works. Writer’s block does not exist outside a person’s own mind. If you’re bored with your story, how do think a reader might feel? Set aside the piece you’re working on and write something else. You can always come back to the original piece another time. To get into the creative flow, try a writing exercise such as the monthly projects we set at Riverside Writers. Members are asked to create a poem or short story (of any length or genre) on a theme such as a location, a phrase or object, an opening sentence, or we might use an unusual photograph as a starting point. Those wh

Ooow, busy day... First I wrote the first draft of a 1,500 shorty for Riverside Writers' latest project which is on the theme of "the punch bowl"--so my tale of an office party is called simply Punch . Next, the bedraggled hedge in our (freezing cold and distinctly soggy) front garden was returned to order with our strimmer. As I was working, our neighbour drove up in her car so I asked if she minded if I step into her front garden so I could trim both sides of the shared hedge level. She readily agreed. It looked a mess left uneven, so I did it for my own benefit. I left the trimmings strewn on her lawn. She and her two adult sons do have complete sets of fully functioning limbs, after all. *chuckles* Then I tackled stray dust bunnies under the dressing table, and retrieved the remains of the shredded paper bag which Emily had dismantled under our bed. I even used the stinky "lemon" furniture polish which smells like how marmalade on burned toast tastes.

A good article on turn-offs for lit agents: http://www.writersdigest.com/article/what-agents-hate/ The turn-out for the writers’ workshop broke all Riverside Writers’ previous records. There weren’t enough printed handouts to go round, unfortunately. So much for my guess-work! Among the crowd was Sci-Fi author Colin P Davies , who visited our group as a speaker some years ago. http://www.colinpdavies.com/index.htm Anyway, the workshop on constructive criticism - which I'd organised - generated a healthy amount of group discussion, which was one of my intentions. The practical exercise I’d prepared brought some levity. I read one page of what was supposed to be the start of a novel, which was written awfully on purpose, and people had to pretend that a member of the writers circle had presented this in all seriousness. How, then, would the group offer constructive criticism? Once they’d all stopped laughing, I pointed out that if they were to laugh at fellow writer’s efforts,

Dark of the Night: An anthology of shadows Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,491,928 in Books Publication Date: October 24, 2006 That's interesting... I was updating my bio details on my Amazon Connect page just now, when I spotted this. Jason, who features in my contribution for Dark of the Night ... also features in Rowan . With The Club you get to learn how Jason first came into David's strange, vicious life - which later has desperate consequences for Rowan. So the short story links to the novel, which is something I enjoy playing around with. Monday's Riverside Writers meeting was well attended, though partly because we were joined by another writing group who are linked to John Moores University. First, Antonia Prescott talked about her ten years experience as a children's book editor, and about the things which agents/publishers look for (originality, flair, marketable product) plus common mistakes which writers make when approaching these (format, addressing

Information taken from Amazon, just now! Barren Worlds Amazon.com Sales Rank: #59,895 in Books Publication Date: July 1, 2008 Ruins Metropolis Amazon.com Sales Rank: #59,393 in Books Publication Date: May 19, 2008 Ooow, that is goooood! Congratulations to the publisher (Hadley Rille Books) and my fellow contributors to these two anthologies. At Riverside Writers’ last meeting, the subject of constructive criticism was raised. Some of the members felt that they would like more feedback from the group after readings of work. Previously, Tim and I had backed away from giving too much crit as we’re only too aware that while people say they want criticism, most just want to hear “good” things. So we’ve tended to praise the good bits and stay silent over the not-so-good. Silence can say a lot. However, this can also lead to feedback being of little productive use. Before the group had its current resurgence of membership, some ex-members had been more critical – but while t

It looks sunny but it's freezing out there. Emily has dragged her increasingly tattered fleece blanket to the patio windows where she's made herself a nest. Ygraine is reclining on my patchwork cushions in the other room, while pretending to be asleep. I hate to disturb them but tough. They are about to help me continue beaking in my new purple walking boots. My trusty old ones (once blue and grey, now merely grey-ish and grey) are deliciously comfortable but have sprung a leak. They've lasted for something like seven years, and as they regularly get partially dunked in sea water that is no mean feat. The new ones are nowhere near as comfy. At the moment it feels like walking on springy bricks. Still, they are my favourite colour - and we all know how earth shatteringly important that is. Ahem. Cross-posted from:- http://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/blogs/booksblog/adelecosgrovebray/display.var.2183659.0.wonderful_words_of_wirral.php Monday saw me putting in a guest ap

The algid sky is doing its utmost to remind me that January is still winter. The weekend, however, saw us enjoying a long walk over Caldy Hill. The dogs love it up there; there’s so much for them to sniff at! It’s a wonder their little noses aren’t worn out… A whole world is available to them which we’re oblivious to. Riverside Writers met last night, and a lively evening it was too, with three new members joining us. January’s writing project had been set on the theme of ‘the diamond wristwatch’, and as always everyone had produced completely different work, including a smattering of poems – unusual for our group, as poets are thin on the ground. Over the weekend, Richard managed to plant most of the climbing roses, which we’ll train up the new trellis fence. There is room enough for more roses yet. I do like roses, particularly the perfumed varieties. Plus they’re tough plants which can withstand Wirral’s microclimate, which ranges from baking heat in summer to tearing oceanic ga

A busy day, yesterday. I spent much of it in Liverpool, wandering around the elegant Met Quarter with my mother. It’s not a particularly extensive designer shopping mall but we weren’t in a hurry to brave the sub-zero temperatures outside. We entertained ourselves by poking fun at spectacularly hideous party dresses. I still don’t see why a designer label warrants such silly prices, when the garment doesn’t look much different from high street merchandise. Certainly the quality of sewing or fabrics weren’t noticeably better. It was rather amusing, however, to see an old acquaintance of mine scowling dramatically from a huge photo in Guess ’s window...! We wandered into Mathew Street and had coffee in the John Lennon Café . There was only one other group of customers in there, but the coffee was good.  Mum's flying out to Australia soon where she'll be for three months, visiting various relatives. From there, we headed to the Christmas Market in Williamson Square. The fou

Riverside Writers met last night and we had two new people join us, which is always nice. Last month’s writing project was to create a poem or short story with the title of The Killing Tale , and all but one person had produced work for that. We were joined by John Gorman of the Wirral Academy of Arts, which has just been granted charitable status. He was able to tell us that the public performance (by professional actors) of submitted work for Wirral Writers Inc has been postponed until April 2008, in order to combine this event with another literary festival and so make promotion more effective. The bad news is that the Hallowe’en ghost tour has also been postponed until next year, because apparently I’m the only writer who’s produced any work for it! What happened to everyone else?!! Ah well, c’est la vive… I’ll use my work elsewhere in the meantime. *** It looks like there’s a storm blowing in for this evening. I’m having to keep an eye out for raindrops while I’m typing t

Forty-seven people attended the second meeting of Wirral Writers Inc, including six members of Riverside Writers . Once again, John Gorman ran through the list of proposed events, and then those writers interested in specific projects made arrangements to meet as smaller groups in order to start moving those projects along. Some time later this month, a permanent office will be established in the rather grand Birkenhead Park gates. Fear not, there will be no need to impale office equipment upon an iron railing. The park gates consist of a tall sandstone building with the gate itself set into its middle, rather like a portcullis. If you visit:- http://cmsen.eghn.org/etfg-birkenhead-garten and scroll to the second horizontal trio of photos, the park gates are the pseudo-Grecian building in the middle image. Apparently, this office is going to be named the Wirral Academy of Arts. I wonder if the doorbell will play the theme tune from Fame ? *evil chuckles* Anyway, it’s not too late

Riverside Writers met last night, and we had the pleasure of John Gorman ’s company as he had joined us to describe the proposed series of arts and literary events for the Wirral Writers Inc festival next year. Tim Hulme , (who’s stories have been featured on Radio Merseyside), and I had attended the inaugural meeting of Wirral Writers Inc. recently, and it was encouraging to see the enthusiastic reactions of Riverside Writers’ other members when they learned about how they could get involved. The most popular ideas proved to be the 15-20 minute monologues and dialogues, which will be written by writers local to Wirral, and then performed by professional actors on stage before an audience. There may well be a series of these performances, depending on the quantity of manuscripts and public response. To get things moving, Riverside Writers’ latest monthly writing project is to create a five-minute monologue on any subject. These will be read at our next meeting, on June 25th. Mea

Emily is peering over the edge of the extensive boardwalk, which runs along part of West Kirby beach towards Red Rocks at Hoylake, (by the houses you can see on the horizon. The beach continues behind these buildings). On one side is the golf course, on the other lie tall sand dunes, reed beds and ponds. Natterjack toads breed here, along with newts and tiny lizards which look like jewels. There are masses of wetland and shoreline birds, too, of course; the Dee Estuary is one of Britain's premier sites for migrating birds. The weather is rather grey and choppy today. You'll be able to see this for yourself if you take a peek through the Wirral webcam. I've just added this to my links list on my page. If you're patient, you might be able to watch the seals. http://www.camserv.co.uk/wirralcam/home.shtml Last night saw another gathering of Riverside Writers . This month's writing project had been set on the theme of The Missing Chai r inspired, apparently, by my