I ranted commented previously about one line dismissals of stories, and how hard it can be to work out what they mean. I am such a hypocrite. I get another one line critique with a rejection and I am very happy about it. I like the mood this piece evokes, but overall I felt it […]
The real reason to write fiction, after all, isn’t to make money, nor to show the human heart in conflict with itself, nor to give a picture of one’s time, nor to call attention to the plight of any oppressed classes, but to show off. You want to be able to say to visitors, “Sit […]
Hello David, Congratulations! Your story ‘Avoiding Gagarin’ has been accepted for publication … That makes me a very happy old builder. Second acceptance for the month … year … century … Details to follow …
SURPRISE Cancer too is a prize You don’t have to queue at the newsagent’s to buy a ticket. They slip it in with the teddy bear, the Beatrix Potter china setting, the first photograph album, unnoticed. The final draw may be foreshadowed in the missed stitch in the booties grandma made put aside, only used […]
Dear David Stevens, Thank you for sending us “Good Boy”. We love it and would like to publish it … No, thank you!! Big smile! The things that get us through the day.
The world does not need this blog. It is not about huge successes, it is about dreams and memories and scratching away. It is about little things, like rejection slips and kid’s nightmares. Still, I have to be professional. It does not do to encourage further rejection by blogging about how many times a particular […]
In my comfortable childhood, how I longed for nuclear war(1). My friends and I, we were prepared. We didn’t have a bomb shelter, but we would make one in “The Darkies” (2) at fairly short notice. We didn’t have supplies, but we knew where to get them, at the very last minute. I convinced my […]
I suspect he must have made his way into dream at some stage, for me to feel about him the way I did, though I have no memory of the dream itself. It would not surprise me. My parents recall that I ended up in their bed in the middle of the night after being […]
The world of rejection slips is probably more impersonal than it ever was, now that form letters have been replaced by form e mails. As a person who is able to work out what people were thinking by the way they placed a stamp on an envelope, (I have a story about that somewhere), I […]
(Having mentioned Ron Dionne in my first post, here is a review of his novel SAD JINGO I previously posted elsewhere) We know why the children who read Harry Potter identify with the main wizard. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if there was magic in the world? And if there was, of course I would be […]
Nobody is looking 