Latest News From Leigh Russell

As regular readers of this blog will know, I'm a big fan of Leigh Russell's writing and I'm very pleased that her new book, Death Bed, is now available. I got my review copy a couple of days ago and I can't wait to read it.

You might be interested to know that there is a Limited Special Edition Hardback of Death Bed, individually signed and numbered. It is available only on http://www.noexit.co.uk/dbspecial/ as a collector's item, or gift. The publishers are only printing 200 and they're a bargain at £20.

Leigh has also let me know about a great new service she is providing for writers.

OPPORTUNITY FOR WRITERS WORKING TOWARDS PUBLICATION

Internationally bestselling crime writer LEIGH RUSSELL is offering expert critique to published and aspiring authors.

Benefit from Leigh’s experience of writing a bestselling series, combined with her skills as a creative writing tutor.

Leigh runs regular workshops for The Society of Authors, and for the annual Get Writing Conference hosted by the University of Hertfordshire.

Leigh will highlight the positive aspects of your writing, while suggesting ways you can improve your manuscript to make it fit for successful submission to agents and publishers.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR MANUSCRIPT

For details of submission and fees contact http://www.leighrussell.co.uk/contact.php

Leigh Russell’s novels have attracted glowing reviews in many publications around the world, including The Times, US Publishers Weekly and Star Magazine and have been:

o shortlisted for a CWA Dagger Award

o in Top 50 Bestseller list on amazon

o a Top Crime Book on Crime Time (voted by readers)

o a Top Read on Eurocrime

o No. 1 international bestselling female detective on kindle

o a Great Crime Sleuth on Lovereading

You can hear Leigh talking about crime fiction, how to get published, and many other topics, as well as reading from her books, on her Author Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/LeighRussellAuthor

For details of submission & fees contact http://www.leighrussell.co.uk/contact.php

Short Story Courses and Workshops

I'm delighted to now be able to share full details of my courses and workshops for early 2012.

Participants on 2011 courses said:

‘Very good value for money’, ‘The course is excellent and a must for anyone wishing to break into the women’s magazine market’, ‘Very supportive and constructive feedback’, ‘A fantastic day’.

Insight Into The Women’s Magazine Fiction Market – 3 March 2012

This workshop will look at writing for the increasingly tough and sadly shrinking women’s magazine market. So if you’ve been writing for a while and want to find out more about this market, this workshop could be for you.

This one day workshop is aimed at people who are interested in writing for the women’s magazine market. It will assume some existing experience of writing short stories and offer help to those who have not yet started to submit stories but would like to, and people who have been submitting for a while but want to increase their chances of success.

The market at the moment is very tough, and there are no guarantees of success, but you can maximise your chances by finding out as much about the market as possible.

We will cover:

• The current state of the market;
• How to tailor stories for particular magazines;
• Making sure your story stands out from the rest;
• What to avoid doing;
• Rewriting stories for a different market.

Lunch and light refreshments are included. The cost of the course is £35 which also includes a critique.

Moving On Short Story Workshop – 31 March 2012

This course will be practically based and will help participants work towards the first draft of a story for their chosen women’s magazine market. They will receive a critique of their story once they have had a chance to finish it after the course.

We will cover:

Coming up with a killer idea including mind-mapping and treasure-mapping techniques;
Thinking of a great title, but not being afraid to let go of it;
The difference between a twist and a surprise;
Creating great characters and writing convincing dialogue;
Using themes and motifs to lift your story out of the ordinary.

Lunch and light refreshments are included. The cost of the course is £40 which also includes a critque.

New for 2012

Day Retreat For Writers – 28 April 2012

Come and spend a day with fellow writers being inspired, exercising your writing skills and sharing your work in a supportive atmosphere at Delapre Abbey. I’m a short story writer, but all writers are welcome to come to this one and benefit from meeting other writers in a supportive atmosphere.

The cost of the retreat is £22. Lunch is not included but you’ll be able to purchase refreshments from the Abbey Tea Room.

All these courses are held in Northampton. Full venue details and maps provided on booking. Please email me for a booking form.

Online services

If you can’t make it to a workshop, don’t forget I now offer the totally flexible Hop On Hop Off online course (details here http://www.helenmhunt.co.uk/?page_id=37 ) and a critique service (details here http://www.helenmhunt.co.uk/?page_id=15 ).

If you have any queries about any of the above, please feel free to email me via my profile or leave a comment here.

Expected by Sarah England

I've been aware of Sarah England for a while now as an extremely talented short story writer. Her stories regularly appear in all the magazines and are always a fabulous read.

Sarah's also written a novel, and today I'm thrilled to have her as my guest to talk about that. This is what Sarah had to say about 'Expected'.

You know I’ve read an awful lot of chicklit - and what struck me more than anything, particularly with the hugely successful Shopaholic series, not to mention Bridget Jones - was that the female protagonists were upper middle class and rather well off. They had adoring families they could run home to. They had nice jobs in the city, friends with fab apartments, and they met dishy men who they wanted to marry and have children with. Well - funny and well written these chicklit books might be - but realistic??

So my heroine, Sam, is working class - from a sink estate she has no desire to return to. Sam dreams of having a career - yearns for a nice, safe place to live, and desperately doesn’t want to end up as a single mother on benefits like most of her school friends. So she makes a mistake and moves in with the outwardly desirable and very middle class doctor she met at a party. Instantly her mother spreads the news, begins to plan the wedding, and wastes no time in pushing (no pun intended) for grandchildren. So now Sam is trapped.

I’ve been trapped, have you? I’ve been trapped in a lousy marriage, when my job was precarious and someone at work was gunning for me because my face didn’t fit. I’ve been vulnerable and scared. And I’ve been badly let down by the one person I thought I could run home to. So what keeps us going? Well hope, youth, optimism, fantastic mates and a massive sense of humour. And that’s where Expected comes from. Only I couldn’t leave Sam without a bit of spice - I think we’ve all looked up and met the eyes of a drop-dead gorgeous sex on legs - take me now - kind of guy?! Oh - just me then. Anyway, she deserved a treat after all she’d been through. Bit of a catch at the end, but ….well, never let it be said I do cheesy!

The fun bit? Oh venting fury and frustration! And the creation of monster mouse, Bernie O’Reilly - the smiling assassin. Yes I did have a giggle. Actually I loved writing this book - I had a blast!! Hope you like it too!

Thanks Sarah, the book sounds fantastic.

You can buy the book at Amazon in the UK here. Or in the USA/Aus here.

And you can find Sarah's website and blog here.

Writing Courses

I've got some new workshop dates set up for the beginning of 2012. Full details are on my website, but in brief ...

Insight Into Writing Short Stories For The Women’s Magazine Market will run in Northampton on Saturday 3 March.

Moving On In The Women’s Magazine Fiction Market will run in Northampton on Saturday 31 March.

New for 2012:

Day Retreat For Writers

Come and spend a day with fellow writers being inspired, exercising your writing skills and sharing your work in a supportive atmosphere.

The retreat will be on 21 April 2012 in Northamptonshire. Exact location to be confirmed.

Further details of the two workshops can be found under the ‘Workshops’ tab on my website. For a booking form, or if you have any questions, please get in touch via the contact page on my website.

And now for something completely different ...

If crime writing is more your thing, the fantastic Adrian Magson will be offering a course at Chez Castillon in April. Adrian really is a fantastic tutor, I've been taught by him so I speak from experience. And it's in France. What could be better?

More details can be found here

Leigh Russell's new book, 'Death Bed', is now available for download on Kindle and I'm very pleased to have Leigh as my Boxing Day guest! Leigh has very kindly given us some thoughts on beating writer's block for all those writers out there who need to get back into it after the Christmas lull!

Beating Writer’s Block

Where does the writing bug come from, and will it vanish as quickly as it appeared? Somewhere I wrote that I fell into writing like Alice down the rabbit hole. It’s an apt comparison because my writing career began very suddenly and unexpectedly when the idea for 'Cut Short' struck me, completely out of the blue.

Eight weeks after I started the first draft of my debut crime novel, I was fortunate enough to attract the attention of a publisher who offered me a three book deal. Three years on, and with three bestsellers to my name, I’ve been signed up for another three books in the series. An avid reader for years, I was catapulted into the Wonderland of being an author. Since then I’ve been on a writing roll, discovering the best cure for writer’s block: a publisher’s deadline.

But how do you stay motivated, month after month, year after year, without that compelling external deadline?

As fiction writers, we aim to persuade readers that the worlds we create in our books are real. The power to create illusions is what makes us writers. So you have to set your own deadlines and convince yourself they must be met. Work out your own schedule. Set a date by which your MS has to be ready, allow yourself time to research agents and publishers, and decide on a date when you are going to start submitting the MS. Stick to it as though it has been imposed by a publisher who is paying you to deliver. Following a schedule like that allows no room for writer’s block.

Leigh Russell writes the popular bestselling UK crime series featuring Detective Inspector Geraldine Steel. Leigh’s new book Death Bed is on kindle and available in print 2012.

Details of all Leigh’s books can be found on her website here.

Latest News - The new Geraldine Steel novel has been selected as 1 of 35 crime mysteries included in Amazon Kindle’s 12 Days of Christmas offer @ 99p. Follow the links above to find it on Amazon UK.

It is also $1.54 on amazon.com here.

Tears and Laughter

One of the highlights of this year for me has been my involvement in 'Tears and Laughter and Happy Ever After'. We've all been really excited about some of the great reviews we've had for the book.

You can read one here from the lovely and very talented Teresa Ashby. It means a lot to know that Teresa enjoyed reading it as she is such a fabulous short story writer herself.

Debs Carr has done a round up of some of our other reviews on her blog.

So, what can I say? If you're bored over Christmas and you fancy some short stories to read ... here it is.

Or you could browse our blog and read about how we were all inspired to write the stories.

But whatever you do, I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

Hop On, Hop Off Online Short Story Course

I’m very pleased to be able to announce my new online short story writing course which will start in 2012.

The Hop On, Hop Off Writing Course is in five modules which will run in a weekly cycle from 9 January onwards.

The modules are:

Character – how to build convincing characters that your readers will really care about. (running for the first time w/b 9 January 2012)

Dialogue – how to write authentic sounding dialogue that will move your plot forward and bring your story to life. (running for the first time w/b 16 January 2012)

Plot and Structure – making sure your plot works and your structure supports it. (running for the first time w/b 23 January 2012)

Theme – use of theme to make your story stand out from the rest. (running for the first time w/b 30 January 2012)

Bringing it all together – this module (which needs to be taken last) will help you bring together all you have learnt so far and will include a story critique. (running for the first time w/b 6 February 2012 and thereafter every week that the course runs)

Full details are on my website here. Please feel free to contact me via my website if you have any queries.