Capital Catch-up April 24

Anne has had a batteries re-charging week in Bavaria where the temperature prompted much ‘feet-up’ with a good book. Before the holiday, she spent time trying out a fresh beginning to the historical novel she has underway. Why is it so difficult to spot the right moment to start the action? Now plotting a short story set in Bavaria in the hope it’ll fare better than her sortie into fairytales did at Edinburgh Writers’ Club. It’s important to remember, would-be writers, that rejection forms part of the weave for a writer.

Cecilia/Sheila has completed a draft and read-through of An Unfortunate Return, the 27th of the Pitkirtly Mysteries. She has also written a couple of exploratory chapters of a different thing which has grown out of a short story and is provisionally entitled The Osborne House Calamity. This has a long way to go, however, and a bit more research is needed too.

Jennifer/Jo/Jenny is progressing slowly on a number of fronts. The most notable thing that happened was the idea for the next book in the DCI Satterthwaite series – something she had definitely not intended to write in the near future, but when an idea pops into your head so fully formed that you can outline a 27-chapter book in just a couple of hours, what else can you do but carry on?

J3 is also counting the days to the August publication of A Death on the Home Front. Watch this space!

Kate was well outside her comfort zone in attending an Edinburgh Writers’ Club zoom workshop on writing fantasy but came away with some interesting food for thought. She took part in a ‘writing sprint’ – meeting a fellow writer in a café for three and a half hours, writing for 45 minutes and chatting for 15 – a very useful discipline which saw her make some progress with a short story.

Jane is still working with her designer on the cover for Erin Cara and looking forward to seeing the end product. She is well on the way to completing her first draft of Bakhtin’s pet sitting adventures and enjoying drawing on her own experience of looking after other people’s animals. Recent research has included learning more about the moulting stages of Chinese Mitten Crabs and why not to wear rubber gloves when handling lively ferrets. An idea is brewing for an article about how far IT is taking us, prompted by reading a paperback and trying to ‘swipe’ to the next page.

Capital Catch-up March 24

Jane has decided to self-publish Erin Cara and is working on a cover with the lovely designer, Lisa Firth. Inspired by her current pet sit for a quirky little cat in Cologne, Jane has returned to writing her second novella about a Russian cat. Bakhtin has completed his Masters in Creative Writing, and is now looking after animals in Europe, experiencing situations he’d never anticipated. Having received a ‘light’ edit and a new cover, Jane’s boxset of her three novels is now available, entitled Hope and Deception (originally Travel in Your Head).

March has been full of interesting stuff for Jenny/Jo/Jennifer, though very little of it is writing related. In particular, she has enjoyed a trip to north Iceland and spent a riotous evening discussing detective fiction with her book group, illustrating her point by outlining how she proposed to reveal one of them as a murderer.

She is eagerly awaiting the proof copy of her first historical mystery (Death on the Home Front) which is due out in August, and has finished polishing the sequel (provisionally titled The Hired Lad). Her next task is to polish up the second book in her new detective series and start writing the third. But don’t expect much progress on this in April!

Sheila/Cecilia has been writing the 27th novel in the long-running series of Pitkirtly Mysteries, set in a fictitious small town on the coast of Fife that is somewhere near Culross but not nearly as picturesque.  She hopes to reach 50,000 words by the end of March and then complete the novel in early to mid April, by which time perhaps a suitable title will have emerged.

Anne had a seasonal short story acceptance. Author copies of A Maid and a Man have arrived from Ulverscroft and they look as evocative as they did in the picture. Shivery! She attended the 55th Scottish Association of Writers Conference at Westerwood, Cumbernauld. The weekend was full of interest – not least being an up close and personal experience of the local fire crew after a fire started in the hotel laundry. Great reactions from them and also the hotel staff. Delegates were, however, out of our cosy beds for over two hours. Fortunately no one was injured.

Kate also attended the SAW conference with its unexpected ‘moon gazing’ event as one of our number later described it. She enjoyed some excellent workshops especially one on humorous writing with Ingrid Jendrzejewski, and was delighted to be placed in three of the competitions including second place for Flash Fiction with a time-travel story – not her usual genre!

Capital Catch-up February 24

Jenny/Jo/Jennifer has been beavering away quietly under the radar this month – nothing to declare publicly, but plenty of background work. She has been working on the final edits for A Death on the Home Front (publication date in August), structural edits for the second book in the series (The Hired Lad), and notes of the third (The Waterbeck Affair). With her Jo hat on, she has also been working on her new detective series, and as Jennifer she has been poking some old manuscripts with a stick to see if any of them respond.

After publishing The Watcher in the Shrubbery earlier this month, Sheila/Cecilia has begun work on the novel currently known as Pitkirtly XXVII. She also recorded a podcast episode with Ben Bruce in a series called ‘Criminally Inspired’. The recording featured quite a lot of laughter and some singing as well as the chat.

Kate has submitted two stories to a magazine and hopes to get a third in before the deadline. One of the two involved turning an unpublished 1000-word summer story into a 2000-word Christmas story. Watch this space … An Edinburgh Writers’ Club workshop on story-telling provided food for thought on story-writing too.

Jane has joined the Stockbridge Writers’ Den and is enjoying meeting up with other writers weekly for a writing session in a local pub.  She has been researching more effective ways of using X (Twitter). Evidence shows that there is significantly more engagement with tweets posted in the middle of the night. Fortunately, Jane is a night owl! On the writing front, she continues to work on Kimono, although she’s finding it more difficult to ‘bond’ with her story than she’s done with previous novels.

Anne has seen the evocative cover for the upcoming, April 1st, library edition of A Maid and a Man. Having completed a non-seasonal magazine story, she is rising to the challenge of writing both summer and Christmas stories. Quadrille lessons continue but the footwork remains a mystery despite a recent class being graced by two demonstration team dancers.

Capital Catch-up January 24

Jo/Jenny/Jennifer has bounced back from the idleness of the festive season resolving to write (a very loose definition, which extends to thinking about writing) every day, and has so far been relatively successful.

This month her main project has been with her Jenny hat on, working away at major structural edits for the second in her historical mystery series while waiting for the final edits on the first. As Jo she has been thinking about the next in the Jude Satterthwaite series and also book three in her as-yet-unpublished Evie Petteril series.

Book 11 in the Jude Satterthwaite series:

Anne spent the early part of the month writing critiques for the entries in a competition. That’s quite a demanding task and takes up a lot of the functioning editorial brain. However, she has now begun work on a fresh serial and lives in hope that that editorial brain will shortly let her know who the heroine is going to be.

Having finished editing Erin Cara, Jane is once again deliberating over whether to submit it to publishers/agents or to self-publish. As always, there are swings and roundabouts. During the latter half of this month, most of her energy has been diverted to keeping warm during an enjoyable but bitterly cold holiday in the mid-west of the US. Jane is now working on Kimono.

Kate is picking up the tangled threads of an unfinished novel and hoping they will untangle and reveal what the best structure should be. She submitted a 10,000-word cosy crime short story to a magazine.

Cecilia / Sheila has been editing for most of January and hopes to publish The Watcher in the Shrubbery (Pamela Prendergast 2) very soon now. The final editing sweep resulted in the characters eating a few less sandwiches than they originally did, though they were tempted by afternoon tea on at least one occasion.

(Image by Jill Wellington on Pixabay)

Capital Catch-up December 23

Anne is thrilled to see her serial, Moving On, Staying Put, in the shops – People’s Friend, 30th December issue. She is busy reading and judging a competition and has some research work for a possible new serial underway.

Jane has been editing her final version of Erin Cara and preparing to submit it once more in the New Year. She has returned to working on her novel Kimono. Her novella about a cat, The Bakhtin Chronicles, one cat’s experience of academia, is now available both in Kindle and paperback, under the name JR Lili.

On the social side, Jane enjoyed participating at the Corstorphine Christmas Fair where Capital Writers had a table selling our books. She and Jennifer met for coffee and a lively discussion about all things writing.

Jo/Jennifer/Jenny has been enjoying a rest over the festive season. There’s been too much food to eat, friends to catch up with, football from which to hide behind the sofa … She has read many words but not written a single one in any seriousness.

Of course, she is full of good intentions and the New Year will see an uptick in productivity (fingers crossed). She has several works in progress and in the summer her first historical mystery, A Death on the Home Front, will be published by Northodox Press.

Sheila/Cecilia is gradually working towards the end of her National Novel Writing Month novel, provisionally entitled The Watcher in the Shrubbery, although work on it has been seriously held up by Christmas and by the sudden need to write a seasonal short story for the UK Crime Book Club Facebook group.

Kate enjoyed adjudicating Edinburgh Writers Club’s Short Story Competition. Why not check out their programme?

She spent a happy hour sharpening pencils (small sample below). Displacement activity – moi?

For some time she’s had difficulties with her blog, katewritesandreads, Blogger having removed ways to Follow and cut off those who’d already followed from receiving notice of a new post. However, a techy family member has kindly sorted this (with widgets … ) The Follow button is at the foot of the post.

A very Happy New Year to all our readers.

Capital Catch-up November 23

November has been a busy month for Sheila/Cecilia. As well as starting a new mystery novel (working title The Watcher in the Shrubbery) as part of the National Novel Writing Month annual challenge, she has been knitting like mad for a Christmas project as well as collating and sending out papers for the AGM at the local community centre (also the scene of a Christmas Fair on 2nd December – includes Santa Claus, alpacas and Capital Writers at 5 Kirk Loan, Corstorphine).

November, for Jane, has been like the Parson’s Egg: good in parts. The good part has been spending several weeks in Italy. The less positive has been trying to resolve IT issues regarding her books, and losing her camera. On the creative side, she has almost finished what will be the last version of Erin Cara. She also has a new cover for her editing guide, and an amended one for her novella about a cat. In addition, Jane will now be publishing her humorous writing under the name JR Lili.

After a period of relative idleness leading up to the publication of the eleventh DCI Satterthwaite novel, Jennifer/Jo/Jenny has been busy in November. In the early part of the month she completed the first draft of Bleak Midwinter, the second in a new series of detective novels set in Cumbria. And she’s just back from a writing retreat in Derbyshire, where the walks, eating, drinking, pool games and dancing – yes, dancing! – somehow didn’t stop her working. Among the hedonism, she was working on edits to the second in her historical mystery series, titled The Hired Lad.

Kate has completed a story for a competition and almost completed a 10,000-word cosy crime story. She will have five anthologies of (previously published) short stories to sell at the Corstorphine Fair and is looking forward to seeing Santa Claus there.

Anne is looking forward to joining Kate, Jane and Sheila at Corstorphine Fair on Saturday 2nd December. She has written a free-to-read Christmas story which goes live on Novels Now the day before. Hope you’ll drop by one or the other.

Capital Catch-up October 23

Anne will be speaking at the Pentlands Book Festival Saturday 18th November in Colinton library. The Festival begins on 6th November and details can be found here.

Anne’s topic is writing ‘The Long Serial and Short Novel’. Her earlier short contemporary novel, Christmas at Maldington, is published in large print for libraries by Ulverscroft on 1st November.

Cecilia/Sheila published The Riverton Inheritance (Brighton Heirs 5) at the end of September. This novel had been on the back burner for some time due to circumstances and priorities but nevertheless it was fun to write.

She has also been compiling a collection of 13 short stories for publication in the next few weeks, as well as planning her next full-length mystery, The Watcher in the Shrubbery which she will start writing for NaNoWriMo in November.

Jo/Jennifer/Jenny (JJJ?) is taking a deep breath before diving in to three new books in three different series … 

The next DCI Satterthwaite book, Death in Good Time, is out next week. And she’s also working on the second books in both a new contemporary detective series and her historical mystery series.

Kate gave a presentation to Edinburgh Writers’ Club on the Before and After of writing short stories for women’s magazines – the research to do before you start to write and how to recycle/repurpose a story if it is rejected. She has begun to think of her competition entries for the Scottish Association of Writers’ Conference in March next year.

Jane’s creative energy has been reduced this month due to several minor health ailments, which thankfully are now improving. After more feedback on Erin Cara, she has killed off one character and created another. Currently she is fine tuning what she very much hopes will be the final version….

Jane has also been working on a new cover for her editing guide, Words’Worth: A Fiction Writer’s Guide to Serious Editing.

Catch-up September 23

Jennifer/Jo is adding a new name to her bio after signing a contract with Northodox Press for a historical mystery set in 1920. A Death on the Home Front will be published (under the name Jenny Dent) in August 2024.

In the much nearer future, the next book in the DCI Satterthwaite series is up for pre order. Death in Good Time features a murdered undertaker, a missing clockmaker, and a family secret, and can be pre-ordered here .

Jane has spent much of this month working on her website.  She has also written an interview for writer Karen Louise Hollis. Her current novel Kimono, parked for several months, is now on the road again, albeit it at a slow speed and directed by an occasionally faulty GPS.

Anne had two stories published by People’s Friend this month. She has typed THE END to the serial. What next? Christmas is on the horizon and so it must be time to write the free-to-read story in lieu of Christmas Cards.

Kate has a story in the current People’s Friend Special No 249. A Christmas story will be forthcoming in a PF nearer the festive season. Currently she has nothing out on submission and is dithering over the completion of various projects. Luckily, the resumption of the weekly creative writing class she goes to and the new session of Edinburgh Writers’ Club will be further distraction.

Since the last catch-up Cecilia/Sheila has published Two Steps to Murder, the 26th of the Pitkirtly Mysteries. The fact that her son’s legs appear on the cover may explain why it has already sold over 250 copies for Kindle. She has now almost finished with the ‘other’ book she’s been working on since April 2022, and will be glad to be rid of it in time to take part in National Novel Writing Month in November, even if she hasn’t yet made up her mind which of two possible ideas to work on next.

Capital Catch-up July 23

Kate’s new People’s Friend serial, Footsteps in Ashbridge, begins in the issue dated 29 July. Several of the characters appeared in her previous serial The Saturday Scribblers which was published a couple of years ago. The Saturday Scribblers is now available on Kindle if you want the full Ashbridge experience … She is looking forward to one or two a lot of Edinburgh Book Festival events and is lucky enough to (just about) see its current venue from her front window.

Anne has seen some movement in the serial world this month and is working hard to stay ahead of demands. She’s also been paid for two short stories. Yay! Next month is Festival time in Edinburgh when loads of wonderful drama is available and many writing get-togethers are scheduled. During this quiet spell (ahem!) she’s signed up for a knitting challenge in aid of a Scottish charity. You can keep track of her progress through Facebook, should you wish.

Cecilia / Sheila has written another 30,000 words of the 26th book in her Pitkirtly Mystery series this month and it’s approaching a conclusion. She has also spent a bit of time sorting through some short stories with a view to publishing a collection later in the year, and with any time left over she’s trying to finish a different novel that has been on hold for a while.

Jane is almost halfway through writing the first draft of her novel, Kimono. Recently she participated in an author’s spotlight on Facebook which was an interesting experience. She is currently putting together a revised version of the boxset of her three novels with the new covers.

Jennifer/Jo has had a productive month, though largely behind the scenes. She has completed, and is about to start editing, the first draft of book 11 in the DCI Satterthwaite series, and has planned a different book which is now ready to write.

She’s finding it hard to resist the lure of the garden, though …

Capital Catch-up May 23

Kate has a story called More than Memories in The People’s Friend and is interviewed about it as Writer of the Week (issue dated 3 June). The third instalment of her latest serial has left the building. She’s had a great idea for a story title (though she says so herself); now she has to work out the story to go underneath it …

Anne has had a great trip to Turkey where she walked on wildflower-covered hillsides and descended into the underground cities in Cappadocia. Rounding off a memorable holiday in Istanbul, she’s come home with several ideas bubbling away. Instalment Two of the serial has been bought, Instalment Three submitted and Instalment Four in draft prepared. Phew! She needs a holiday.

Cecilia (Sheila) is happy to have completed and published the 4th of the Max Falconer Mysteries, entitled Rights and Wrongs. This one is a sort of locked room mystery that takes place partly in a museum. Work is still progressing slowly on another two novels.

Jane is now 20,000 words into writing her new novel, Kimono. Currently looking after a sweet little cat in the charming old town of Staufen, near Freiburg, Germany, she is hoping to find inspiration for her second Bakhtin novella, in which her Russian cat pet sits around Europe. The house has an attractive deck area where writing ideas are interspersed with trying to work out whether Suzi wants to come outside or simply hover by the glass door. 

Three out of the five Capital Writers recently had a pleasant catch up over tea and scones.

Writing? Writing? Oh dear! Jennifer/Jo has been busy doing nothing recently, although she occasionally adds a sentence to Death in Good Time (DCI Satterthwaite #11). She’s been reading and thinking …and is hoping to have some news soon.