Frost Magazine by Catherine Balavage introduced by Margaret Graham

Great great news! We are delighted that actor and entrepreneur, Catherine Balavage, has joined us to talk about her experience of launching and running the thinker's lifestyle magazine,  Frost Magazine, which she owns and edits. This is wonderful timing because, at a time when the Lib Dems are taking a bit of a battering, she features her final interview with Paddy Ashdown.

More great great news! Let me just tell you before Catherine begins, because I know you are all aching to hear...

Learning curve - arch that back! Granny Annie give a thumbs up

The grannies who skydived on 3rd May raised over £2000 for words4wounded. The sky was blue, the tandem blokes gorgeous, skydivelondon fantastic, the grannies out of this world, (almost literally) the cheerleaders LOUD (could be heard a mile up), and the post-dive champagne beyond necessary.

You will be hearing all about it from their perspective next time. As you know, everyone funds their own activity in our events, so the wounded benefit 100%. You can still sponsor by going to words4wounded.

Don't forget that our competition winners will be announced on 6th June on words4wounded website. Belters they are too. In fact, all the entries were, which made the judging tough, but we managed, and you'll love them. Next time there'll also be news about our new competition, the Independent Author Book Award - for self-published fiction for children or adults and memoir. Don't miss it.

Now to Catherine, who is an inspirational young woman with boundless energy. She is not only an actor, but runs Frost Magazine. She is enormously encouraging to new writers and to top it all, she is just in the process of finishing her own book, which is essential reading for anyone wanting to make the most of their skills in the acting world.

Catherine Balavage is the editor and founder of Frost Magazine which she started four years ago. She is also a writer and actor. She was chosen by the Federation of Small Businesses as one of the top Female entrepreneurs in the UK for International Women’s Day.

She has appeared on Luther, Placebo’s For What It’s Worth music video, The Garrick in the West End, Junkhearts, and Hugo. She has a film production company and directed her first feature film “Prose & Cons” in 2012. She was listed by The Herald as one of the Top 50 Young Film & TV Stars.

I often get asked why I started an online magazine. The answer is always the same: I am a magazine addict who grew up in a small Scottish town. Beautiful and peaceful it was but it lacked glamour and excitement. I would spend all my pocket money on magazines, and spend hours in Borders and WH Smith browsing every title that was even remotely interesting. I had a list of things I wanted to be when I grew up. Magazine editor was near the top. I knew all of the editors of all of the glossy womens magazines off by heart.

Of course Frost Magazine isn’t a print magazine, it’s an online magazine with a monthly e-edition,although I don’t know if I will always be able to resist the glamour of print. I was lucky enough to have good contacts when the magazine was started. Zac Goldsmith gave me an interview along with some advice (which was mostly “don’t go to print”. He is correct of course and was the editor of The Ecologist for ten years, which had recently gone from print to online, so he knew his stuff). Alain De Botton was wonderful and gave an interview. All of the contacts I had made as a writer started to pay off. As did the fact that I spent most of my early-20s at parties, working as a writer for a variety of online magazines. When I started my online magazine I wasn’t scared if it failed, because I had already worked in the industry. To be honest, even if I hadn’t I would not have been scared as the beauty of online is that the start-up costs are small. The internet has made the world a much more democratic place. I think the first year it cost something silly like $100 for the web hosting which was made back with advertising. So the first year we broke even. Not bad.

When I think back to when I started my online magazine what strikes me is how low my expectations were, and how I really didn’t know what I was letting myself in for. It is a lot of work and was started almost as a hobby. It is now a business which gives a lot but also requires a huge amount of work. The life experiences it has given me are amazing; I have gone to Toulouse to review the city and reviewed a large percentage of the restaurants in London. I have met amazing people and gone to fantastic events. We do London Fashion Week each season. We get sent tons of stuff every week to review: from hampers from farms in Tuscany, to champagne, to books and beauty products. In 2012 the FSB named me as one of the top female entrepreneurs in Britain and featured me in a special book for International Women’s Day. Not bad for a girl from a small town in the middle of nowhere. I also have over 70 talented writers. They really are amazing and I love giving them good experiences.

So if any of the above has inspired you then follow my tips below to start your own online magazine.

1)    Get Some Experience.

I started my writing career reviewing theatre. Which was a pretty cushy job. The next stage was as an editor and writer for the now defunct Fringe Report. This second stage was more important as I learned a lot from the founder and owner John Park. A man who has been an amazing mentor. I also got another job reviewing West End shows, and wrote for The Guestlist Network, interviewing big stars and events. I also made good contacts writing for Memorable TV, a popular Australian blog and built up something of a following writing for The Huffington Post. A lot of this, most of it actually, was unpaid, but got me where I wanted to go.

2)    Be Fearless

When I was growing up my parents always said: “Don’t ask, don’t get”. Which is good advice really. You need to be fearless in asking people for interviews and going for story ideas. You need to have a clear goal of what you want and then you need to go for it. Wallflowers don’t get to have successful businesses. That doesn’t mean you can’t be shy, I can by shy but I always pull myself out of it because I have a job to do. Never be too scared to ask for a favour. You will be surprised at how much people want to help. Most of my early writers were my friends, and still are. We did a launch party in 2010 and over 300 people turned up. It was a resounding success but the planning was hard and a one day before the event the venue pulled out and I had to find another one and contact hundred of people with the change of address. Oh, and fill hundreds of goodie bags all by myself until 3am the day of the party.

3) Don’t Give Up

It is hard running an online magazine, and quite relentless. Everyday articles have to go up and hundred of emails have to be answered. There will also be events and people to interview. It is a lot of work and sometimes it gets hard to motivate yourself. Especially as it is hard to make money in publishing. Frost is still not at the point of making a lot of money, my wages are mostly in the experiences I have; but when times get tough and I cannot be bothered I remind myself that Peter Cashmore started Mashable in his bedroom in Aberdeen and is now a multi-millionaire. It is possible to make money with your own online magazine or blog, but it takes a lot of hard work and there are not many days off.

4) The Tech Side Is Easier Than You Think

This one is important. A lot of people ask how Frost was built and get impressed with my technical skills: don’t. It is a wordpress template and is pretty much all done for you. The rest is just a few tweaks and is easy to update. I am not very technically skilled but have always managed to do what needs done.

5) Don’t Let The Setbacks Get You Down

We have been hacked and had the site go down numerous times. I even lost everything once but somehow managed to restore the site on another server with a back up, losing a minimal amount of stuff. I now don’t even know how I did it but the fact is: whatever needs to be done is within you, all you need to do is put one foot bravely in front of the other.

6) Back Up

Always back up. This is important. You don’t want to lose years of work.

Paul Vates' playwriting experiences, and Margaret Graham

The Words for the Wounded team have been hustling and bustling about; judging the writing prize, sorting out an additional prize for November, and getting in a tizz about our skydive with skydivelondon on 3rd May (weather permitting). Sadly, my tizz has come to nought as an old injury has surfaced and I'm forbidden; the docs won't sign the form. Arghh. Talk about distraught. Couldn't kick the cat - poor creature, and Dick kept dodging, so I have just had to get a grip, and smile as the others, Jan Speedie, Penny Deacon, Rob Percy and my youngest daughter, now titled Granny Annie, get thoroughly over excited.  Thank you Annie for taking my place! We're really grateful.

The three real grannies are having a pre-jump lunch at The Wellington on the Strand on Friday to try out the new menu and new look.

We've had fantastic and far reaching support for the jump, from the very young (my grands are organising a cheerleading group which, and I whisper this, includes 'moi', complete with pom poms though I refused a ra-ra skirt), to donations from people like Bel Mooney of the Daily Mail - thank you, thank you, and to Frost Magazine who have blazoned us in their pages, and thank you to everyone for your wonderful donations to the cause.

As you know, we at W4W, are all volunteers, with the website run by Dick, 'he who must be disobeyed', so every penny goes to the cause except for about £30 annually for the printing of flyers.  Rest assured the sky dive is paid for by each person participating, and therefore, thanks a million to Lee Read, an ex-para, who has been very generous with his sponsorship in that direction.

We are already planning next year's event and think it will be white water rafting.

As for the judging. The standard of entries has been exceptionally high again, which makes it difficult so  we rely on each of us coming up with the same decision - which we have. We will be making the announcement on 6th June, on the website, and Writers' Forum will be publishing the winners in due course.

The thrilling news is that we are launching the brand new Independent Author's Book Award in November, for self-published books; fiction or autobiography published within the last 5 years, to run alongside the 400 word prize. We're all very excited about this, but more about that nearer the time.

*

Now, Paul Vates is not only an actor, but a fantastic writer of prose and plays, and although he is funny, he is always empathetic, and imbues his work with an essential poignancy. It is this that makes his work memorable.

He is a member of The Chesham Writers and Scribblers and I was lucky enough to be invited to The King's Head Theatre Pub some months ago, in Islington with his friends at the Chesham group (and others). My old school friend, and new W4W team member, Jan Speedie, and I had lunch at the pub which has a fascinating history and oozes character, and worth a visit purely to see posters of the pop groups that have performed there. Because I am an old trout I can't remember them all, but I'm pretty sure Madness 'woz  there'.  We then hot-footed it upstairs to the intimate theatre to have a nose about and meet Paul and the actors. They all looked about 12, but then people do these days.

The Kings Head Pub has a great reputation for showcasing new talent, which frequently moves on to greater things  and we both loved the play, in fact everyone did. It was my first time at such an event and was expecting the actors to stand and read, but certainly not. They invested emotionally, and acted the play. It was funny of course, but given the 1 World War setting, how could it not be moving? We were to give our opinions afterwards but Jan and I had to nip off which was a great shame but I did manage a quick word to put in my twopennyworth, and the only thing I would have cut was the duck, which I didn't understand and which I thought slowed things up momentarily. Paul probably thinks, daft old bat. I suspect he feels that rather a lot around me,  but let the lovely Paul Vates tell you about his experiences himself...  Do let us have your comments on our blogs.

Paul Vates with actor Tom Knight
at The Kings Head Theatre

A few months ago, as part of The King’sHead Theatre’s Without Décor programme, our favoured actors were gathered together once more, for a rehearsed reading of my play Voltemand And Cornelius Are Joyfully Returned in front of a packed audience at The HopeTheatre in Islington, London.

This is how it came about: a play almost thirty years in the making.

 ‘Voltemand and Cornelius. They are joyfully returned’ is a line from Hamlet. Years ago – many years ago! – during the course of my ‘A’ Level Theatre Studies, we looked at Hamlet, Waiting For Godot and Rosencrantz And Guildernstern Are Dead. Ever since those days full of Shakespeare, Beckett and Stoppard, these two men, Voltemand (the stupid one) and Cornelius (the other stupid one) have toyed with my mind. Bound together as they travelled to Norway on Claudius’ demand. But the ‘joyfully returned’ quote. I know it should be read as ‘thank goodness they’re back’, but my mind romantically loved the idea of these two men bringing joy, being joyful.

Over the decades I have tried to write their story a few times, failing in each attempt because, although clear on the who I was always unsure about the when and the where.

Yet last summer, chatting to a friend (Professor Peter Doyle) and expert of WW1, my two Shakespearean colleagues were loosened from their shackles by the merlot I was consuming. Their world became incredibly clear the more my vision blurred. Lost in a wilderness, searching for home, I never knew where they actually were. It was Peter who placed the final piece of their jigsaw into my subconscious mind. Within hours I knew their world was The Somme, the trenches, no-man’s land. Then the parallels with Hamlet began to tumble out: madness, killing, love, being lost in place and purpose. The similarities kept flowing until the first draft was completed with surprising speed.

Meeting Sharon Burrell of To The Moon was the next stroke of luck. I presented the opening ten minutes of the play to her as a Short for a season of new writing – she had produced a short play of mine a few months earlier. I flippantly mentioned it wasn’t a complete entity, more of an opening scene. She demanded to see the whole thing and optioned it soon after.

Since then, Voltemand And Cornelius Are Joyfully Returned has been read and discussed by The Script Readers at Theatre Royal, Stratford East; workshopped by The Old Vic’s New Voices LAB; and had the first twenty-minutes performed as part of The Young Vic’s Freshworks initiative.

Paul Foulds, (narrator)
Toby Manley (voltemand)
Andrew Mudie (Cornelius)

Leading, in just a few months, to The Hope Theatre rehearsed-reading. These are standard affairs in the world of playwriting. A way of gaining information about the piece that would otherwise remain hidden: the actors ask important questions, the producer and director give their vision, the audience supplying the final honest truth about the piece. All these differing opinions are then carefully considered.

As the play changes with each initiative and programme, I feel the whole project is gaining strength and an identity of its own. Soon, I hope, Voltemand and Cornelius will be set free from my mind and be allowed to wallow elsewhere.

Joyfully, of course.

Babs Morton, 2nd place prize-winner in the 2011 Yeovil Literary Prize novel section - and an update from W4W. - Margaret Graham

Our W4W writing prize is now closed! Although we've had twenty fewer entries this year we've raised more money - because of the increased entry fee. We're wondering if the theme proved challenging and will perhaps try an open competition again next year.

The winners are to be announced on the website on 6th June together with final details of the money raised. What is already apparent is how high the standard is, how many more blokes have entered, and the increased number of memoir entries. Thank you, thank you, all of you who entered.

May I just ask that you check postage carefully. We've had a number of entries with inadequate postage - on A4 envelopes. This means we have to pay £1.09 in order to take receipt.

The skydive is booked, our weight and height are with Skydive London so chocs are being rationed. 3rd May is lift-off. We can't wait. But more on that as the weeks go by. Our thanks to Skydive London and to Lee Read who has sorted it. We thank him for his generosity and for making it easier for us - and harder to back out! As you all know 100% of every penny raised goes to the cause - we grannies are paying for ourselves but then why wouldn't we when it entails being strapped to a young man. The man is paying just for the  skydive!  To donate:  3 grannies and a man skydive

Today we welcome Babs Morton, who I had the pleasure of meeting at the inaugural Yeovil Literary Festival last year. Babs was placed second in the Yeovil Literary Prize in 2011 with Mrs Jones. As one of the founders of the Yeovil Literary Prize  I know only too well how tough the competition is, so well done!

So over to Babs who lives in Northumberland, a place close to my heart and the backdrop to my latest novel, out in October. I had a perfect week up there in the autumn of 2013 and it was good to be in my mum's pit village again - though no pits anymore.  So, off you go, Babs.

Firstly may I say thank you, Margaret, for the kind invite to pop in and chat.

I’m B.A Morton, Babs to my friends, a Geordie lass who escaped the hustle and bustle of Newcastle to live amidst the wonderful Northumberland National Park in Upper Coquetdale.

Babs (on the right) at the Yeovil Literary Festival 2013

I survived a varied career as a civil servant – hmm very exciting, nursery nurse – lets all sit on the mat, and kennel maid – get down Rover!, amongst other equally challenging positions, and now enjoy my part time role in the village GP surgery. I share my rural idyll with my long-suffering hubby, one naughty dog and a coop of very obliging chickens. When I hesitantly entered my debut novel Mrs Jones into the 2011 Yeovil Literary Prize I had no idea how that would transform my life. Mrs Jones, a fast paced, crime thriller set in New York, took second place in the novel category and that success helped launch my career as a published author. Mrs Jones proved to be a hit with readers and became an Amazon kindle best seller – gosh! who’d have thought it.?Certainly not me. The sequel Molly Brown followed shortly after and a third book is in the embryonic stage.

Now a member of The Crime Writers Association, and a self confessed crime fiction addict, I also write historical fiction. My Wildewood Chronicles trilogy is based on the history of my own cottage which was built on the foundations of a medieval chapel and crypt. My fourth book Bedlam, a psychological, horror thriller, was released in August.

I remain a friend and supporter of The Yeovil Literary Prize and I’ve twice made the long journey from the North East to help support and celebrate their valuable work in encouraging arts and literature. I remember vividly the moment when I learned of my success in The Prize and how the genuine encouragement of those who had judged Mrs Jones, empowered me to pursue my ambition as a writer. I feel honoured to be associated with them.

I confess to being one of the most technically challenged people you are likely to meet, however by some strange fluke I’ve managed to create a website of sorts. If you’d like to see what I’m up to and catch up with my work, here I am:

http://bamorton.weebly.com/

You can also meet my guests on the sofa at The Coffee House guest blog

http://bamorton.weebly.com/the-coffee-house---guest-blog.html

Babs’ tips - aka what works for me. Are you sitting comfortably?

1.  I take inspiration from everything and everyone. An image, a phrase, a line from a song, even a remembered scent from long ago can trigger the imagination. Once I have it, I run with it and see where it takes me. Remember, you don’t have to have the whole concept before you begin.

2.  I try not to over-plan. I write as it comes to me. Whether in frantic disjointed action scenes or considered prose, I just get it down. You can go back and have great fun tidying up later. In fact it can be quite funny and/or alarming to discover what you scribbled down at four in the morning.

3.  I am the most chaotic person. I write everything on a wee little netbook on my knee, amidst the noise and chatter of daily life. It works for me. So, be happy with your own routine, whether that’s behind a locked door in your writer’s study or in a shed at the bottom of the garden. Whether you have a daily word quota or a chaotic free- for- all, don’t worry about what works for others. Whatever feels right for you; is right for your book.

4.  I confess to being a genre hopper. Life is mixed bag and I try to reflect that in my work. Try to resist squeezing your gorgeous, plump round peg of a manuscript into an industry standard, marketable, square hole. It’ll just get knocked out of shape and lose that thing that says it’s yours and makes it special. Go easy on yourself and write what you like to read. Chances are your reading preferences are representative of a proportion of the public anyway.

5.  Invest in your characters. Bring them to life. Imagine the best and worst moments in your life, the funniest and saddest occasions and use that experience to make your character’s emotions and actions believable. Believe me, it can be quite traumatic to bleed your emotional plasma onto the page, but your characters will love you for it. If you end up changing a scene because you realise your character just wouldn’t do or say what you’d planned for them, you know you’re doing something right.

6.  Read. Take inspiration from others. Learn the craft from those that make it look effortless. Recognise the understated wow factor in another’s work and think about how they did it.

7.  Pick yourself up. Rejection by an agent or publisher doesn’t necessarily mean your work isn’t good enough, just that it wasn’t right for them. Similarly, reviews good and bad are just one person’s interpretation of your work.

8.  Above all, have confidence in yourself and enjoy being a story teller.

B.A Morton - November 2013

Liz Crosby, our 2013 winner with her thoughts on poetry and Margaret Graham bringing you up to date on W4W's fundraising skydive.

W4W asked Liz Crosby to guest for us this week. Liz is W4W's first ever 1st Place prize-winner with the poem Gas Warfare for Beginners (read it on W4W's home page) and we wanted to know the 'behind the scenes' story of her writing. Thanks so much, Liz. 

But before we see into Liz's world I must give you an update on the W4W fundraising skydive.  

The 'Skydiving grannies plus one' have fixed a date to leap from a plane (each in tandem with a fit young man - ah, now you get it) on 3rd May 2014. We are all on a diet as you have to put your weight down on the form. 'Whaaat,' we all shrieked, 'You cannot be serious.' Though the 'plus one' who is a young-ish bloke and revoltingly trim just looked smug and self-confident.  

Our fundraising page will be up in time for the posting of the next blog and I will have even more details in place for your delectation. Now over to Liz.   

Liz Crosby

I started writing poetry as a small child, wrote sporadically for the next few decades, and came back to it seriously on retirement.  As you already know, there isn't one 'correct' way to write, so all I can do is tell you how I do it.

I always carry a notebook with me to jot down any thoughts/lines/ideas.  For example, last year, as well as being inspired by a view, a city walk and a Brian Cox lecture, I was entranced by a misspelled sign in a bakery 'Glutton-Free Cakes' (I wish...) and part of an overheard conversation, 'the 'orse 'ad been stood in 'is dahlia bed' – pure poetry!

I find that each poem has a distinct 'voice' and  viewpoint.  I spent years trying to write one particular piece in the third person, and one day suddenly realised it should be in the first person, whereupon the poem seemed to heave a great sigh of relief and write itself in the space of a few minutes!  Another poem may have been written in rhyme but  needs free verse, or vice-versa.  Don't be afraid to experiment, while remembering that free verse still needs structure and control, otherwise it may become, in the words of Robert Frost, 'like playing tennis with the net down'.

I was fortunate to receive a 50s and 60s education, where punctuation and grammar were considered important, and this has provided a great framework. But it's been a hard lesson for me that sometimes all this must be abandoned if the poem needs it and I musn't  get hung up on correctness.

Personally, I don't think any subject matter should be forbidden – bearing in mind  legal constraints – but some may be unwise.

Don't be afraid to take your pen from the paper - or fingers from the keyboard - and prune.  Sometimes it may be necessary to remove what you consider to be your best lines, which always causes anguish! My particular difficulty is always the title of a piece, I am seldom happy with my choice.

Read the poem aloud.  A piece may sound fine in your head and look good on the page but be completely wrong when spoken.  Some poems may need a lot of editing, with others the first draft is the one.  Sometimes you may set the poem aside for weeks, months or even years, but don't panic!  Relax, get out of the muse's way, she and your unconscious will be working on it.  My winning entry for 2013 took a year or so to write

.

I always write with a pen on paper – somehow I need that physical connection – and transfer the work later to computer, and I'm never far from a dictionary, a thesaurus and Brewer's Phrase and Fable.

Read lots of poetry, from the classics to present day, but don't get too discouraged by thinking you will never write anything as good.  You won't know unless you try. And even great poets had their off days – read Wordsworth's 'The Thorn' where he describes a pond  - 'I've measured it from side to side: tis three feet long and two feet wide'.  Not his best lines!

Self-publishing is no longer the elephant in the room. It is loud, proud and working well. Read Jane Carling's guest blog. Margaret Graham

Introduction by Margaret: 

Self-publishing used to be the elephant in the room. We all knew about it but no-one advertised the fact that  'Vanity Publishing', as we called it then, would be considered an option. How times have changed. With the advent of e-books and on-line booksellers like, and let's not be coy about this - AMAZON - and I write that loud and clear, writers aren't waiting around but strutting their stuff for the world to see. Or in other words, self-publishing. 

There are all sorts of avenues open to them. You can format your own book into an ebook and sell on-line or there are loads of organisations that will format it for you. You can create a physical book. Again, there are many companies to help you and I noticed at the Winchester Writers Conference, now known as Winchester Writers Festival there were many self-publishing stands. 

Recently I have self-published alongside my traditionally published books. Maeve's Afternoon Delight didn't find a home with my publisher  Random House(it happens) but I liked Maeve and felt she should see the light of day so I whacked it onto Amazon. She's ticking along nicely while I get on with the Easterleigh Hall series for Random.

I'm really thrilled that Jane has agreed to write this guest blog for us as it's such a topical subject. I've read, and enjoyed, Pandora's Box, written after her Mills and Boon course which was held under the Tuscan sun. Jane has a love affair with Greece which is where it's set, and it's fun, sunny and saucy. Pandora's Box's journey to the light of day is a journey for our time. Look and learn.   

Don't forget to head for our Virgin Giving page once it is set up to receive donations for Team W4W's tandem skydive. I am doing it with two other W4W team members who are, like me, women old enough to have more sense. (My agent despairs of the lengths to which I will go to be strapped to a fit young man). I've just heard that we could be joined by a bloke, a younger one. Heavens! I will post more news when it I get it. Incidentally, we are paying for it ourselves so every penny will come through to W4W. 

Now over to Jane.

Jane Carling My Self-Publishing journey

       

I had an idea for a story after attending a creative writing course in Tuscany. The venue was idyllic but I had not read the small print. Bowled over by lovely location shots, I did not realise that this romantic writing course was based on Mills and Boon. Whilst it was quite an interesting week, I am not the sort of writer who obeys the rules and the formulaic process that M&B require was just not me. I was not too surprised therefore when they rejected my first three chapters.  I carried on regardless as I believed in my story and veered off into my own imaginative world. About eighteen months later I finished Pandora’a Box,   a fast paced romantic tale of love and loss set in Greece and was ready to go. Being no spring chicken, I decided to self-publish, as by the time a publisher actually took me seriously, I might be too old and or gaga, although I am open to any offers.
I researched various options via Google, Writing Magazine and Amazon Kindle. Publishnation (www.publishnation.co.uk) was the clear favourite. It is much better to be able to speak to a human about this process and David Morrison could not have been more patient and helpful. He explained that all I had to do was send the document as a word attachment and they do the rest. The cost for this was a mere £95.00 for publication on Kindle or paperback. I decided to go for both options at £135.00. This price includes obtaining your unique ISBN number and all formatting. There are additional proof reading, marketing and critique services available. Publishnation use Lulu (www.lulu.com) for the print on demand facility and all I had to do was set up an account with them.
For the cover I had a clear idea in mind as the story is a good holiday read or a winter warmer. 
I sourced a company called IStockphoto (www.istockphoto.com) and for £10.00 purchased the cover.

Pandora’s Box is my first book. It was published in October 2013 and is available on Amazon Kindle, Amazon in paperback and Lulu and so far is doing quite well. However a word of warning for those over enthusiastic and impatient writers, please ensure you proof read everything and don’t get carried away by the euphoria of holding your first book. In my haste to get this done in time for my Aunt’s birthday, I did exactly this and people have pointed out some typos and a couple of errors. So when that first baby arrives make sure it is perfect before you finally let go. However, when I told my mentor this she smiled knowingly and replied, “Welcome to the Author’s world, Jane.” Knowing about the silly errors was irritating, like a crooked picture, so I have corrected and re-published.

My next project stems from a short story task as given to my inspirational writing group, Chesham Writers and Scribblers, by our mentor. Their blog is http://writersandscribblers.wordpress.com 

My website is www.janecarling.co.uk and my blog http://janecarling.wordpress.com

Kate Kelly's guest post - Margaret Graham

Happy New Year Everyone! 

I've known Kate for some years now, and what has always struck me is her endurance. She has written for years trying this and that, and always improving. Now she has really hit her stride with the successful Red Rock for young adults, published by Curious Fox. She's a lovely writer with some excellent tips. Enjoy!

And do remember that Words for the Wounded Writing Prize is now open for entries. Details on www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk Remember that every penny goes to Tedworth House Recovery Centre and we raise the prize money separately. The spring is drawing closer and that is when Jan Speedie and I do our sponsored sky dive. Megan my granddaughter has decided that we should do wing walking next year. That requires some thought!

How I became a Children's Author by Kate Kelly


People often ask me why I opted to write for kids, and I’ll answer that it wasn’t a straightforward decision. It took me a while to find my genre.

Oddly the first novel I ever penned was aimed at young teenagers. This novel, like so many first efforts, was truly awful and is rightly consigned to the ‘box-under-the-bed’. But the act of creating this monstrosity was a valuable lesson – I realised how much I needed to learn, and I set out to do that.

Now I have always been a huge fan of Science Fiction, and that is what I started to write. But this time it wasn’t novels – the place I really honed my skills as a writer was with the short story.

Short stories are something I would advise every aspiring writer to dabble in. They teach you focus, and to be concise. They also give you more scope to experiment – if your try something out in a 60K word novel and it doesn’t work that’s a lot of time and effort only to find yourself back at square one. But if you try something out with a 2K short story and it doesn’t work you’ve only spent a couple of hours and learned a valuable lesson, which makes it worthwhile.

So I wrote short stories. I entered them into competitions. Some of them were shortlisted. I sent them off to magazines. Some of them sold.

At this point I turned my attention back to novels, since I knew that novels were what I really wanted to write.

It was also about this time that I was re-discovering children’s fiction through my own kids. It was wonderful to meet so many old friends – books that have stood the test of time, but there was also a wealth of literature that was new to me, and it was a wonderful discovery.

As I shared these stories with my kids I started to wonder if some of the ideas I had buzzing around in my head were in fact better suited to be children’s stories, rather than adult books. I decided to test this idea and it worked. The result was Red Rock, my newly published children’s novel.

But writing for children is not the same as writing for adults. So, for any aspiring writers out there who are thinking of writing for children, here are a few of my top tips:

1.       Get rid of the parents – the kids should drive the story forwards, not the adults.

2.       Make you main character slightly older than the top of your target audience age range – for example if your MC is 12 then you target audience will be 9-11.

3.       Learn to think like a child again.

4.       Keep the language age appropriate but don’t dumb down (and mind those expletives!)

5.       Keep the subject matter age appropriate – romance is for teenagers – not for 6 year olds

6.       Write for the kids of today – not the kids of 20 years ago

7.       Listen to how kids speak and understand how they socialise – it keeps changing.

8.       Know your market - read other recently published kid’s books

But above all, enjoy it and keep writing.

Kate Kelly’s debut children’s novel RED ROCK, a Cli-Fi thriller for ages 10+ is published by Curious Fox.