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Showing posts from 2015

Downton Abbey (2)

Hi everyone. I hope you had a good Bank Holiday weekend. It was a bit of a wash-out here so I hope it was better where you are. Actually, the wet weekend didn't really bother me too much. I spent most of it putting the finishing touches to a new website I've set up. This is to publicise the collection of letters I inherited from my grandmother which I'm trying to get published as a non-fiction book called 'My Dear Elsie'. Those of you who follow this blog will know that the letters have a strong link to the popular UK television series Downton Abbey . This is because they were written by my grandmother's close friend Ethel North, who was lady's maid and companion to Lady Winifred Burghclere, the elder sister of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon. As you may know, the Carnarvon family were the real-life inspiration for the fictional Crawley family in Downton Abbey and much of the series was filmed at their ancestral seat of Highclere Castle. The website, as we

Mid Life Crisis

Hi everyone. The summer seems to have gone on strike, doesn't it? I'm sitting here with the central heating on as there is a definite Autumnal nip in the air, possibly because it is the early hours of the morning. Actually, it was more like a Wintery nip when I opened the front door a few minutes ago to fetch the milk in. I'm surprised there wasn't a dash of snow on my red-top. Maybe the summer is having a mid-life crisis, (if summers have lives) which is something I feel like I'm going through at the moment, especially with my writing. It's probably been going on for months but seemed to really kick in when I decided to start sorting out all my unpublished work, namely my large collection of short stories, my eight children's novels and my three collections of children's poetry. I'm not sure what made me do it although worrying about the weight of the filing cabinet on my office floor was probably a factor. I don't think it was the best ti

The Carrot, Not The Stick

Hi everyone. I hope you've had a good couple of weeks and managed to get lots of writing done. I'm pleased to say that things have improved quite a bit since my last post  Coping With Criticism  in which I described how a "mauling" of the sample copy of my proposed non-fiction book with the strong link to Downton Abbey by a literary agent, had badly affected my confidence in the material. Thanks to a surprising act of "serendipity" (obviously the Universe hasn't quite given up on the project yet), I was given the opportunity to send the proposal and sample copy to my writing colleague author Dr Sheila Glasbey who writes under the pen name of  Rosalie Warren . Rosalie is an experienced editor and qualified proof-reader as well as the published author of several novels and scientific works. She runs her own editing, proofreading and critique service which you can find out about at http://www.affordable-editing.com/ Rosalie sent her comments back al

Coping With Criticism

Hi everyone. So Wimbledon has finished but I still have the Ashes and the Tour de France to distract me from writing so all is not lost. And it's a bit cooler (sorry if you love the summer!) although horribly humid at times. But then it is the middle of July so I suppose that's understandable. It's been a bit of a tricky time for me on the writing front since my last post and not just for the afore mentioned reasons. I heard back from the agent who had asked to see all the sample copy relating to my proposed non-fiction book Dear Elsie,  based on letters I inherited from my grandmother and which has a strong link to Downton Abbey. She asked to see the rest of the book which would have been great except that I haven't written it yet. My understanding is that with non-fiction books (unlike novels) you don't write the whole book until you get a contract with a publisher so it was a bit of a surprise. Anyway, I plucked up courage to ring her again to explain the s

The Heat Is On

Hi everyone. Well, that was a heatwave and a half! Hopefully by now it is on its way out (apologies if you are a sun worshipper) and temperatures will be more conducive to working. Mind you, I can't just blame the heat for a bit of a dip in productivity this week. It probably has as much to do with a certain tennis tournament which is now in full swing, no pun intended. I did manage to take the damp towel off my forehead and put down my Pimm's for a few minutes this week, to continue the ongoing quest to find an agent to represent my proposed non-fiction book  My Dear Elsie . As I've mentioned before, this is the book based on a collection of letters I inherited from my grandmother and which has a very strong link to Downton Abbey . The agent I approached this week actually invites phone calls for non-fiction book queries, which in itself is pretty amazing, not to mention extremely helpful. As I've said to anyone who will listen, it's easier to get to speak to

Better Late Than Never

Hi everyone. Are you having a relaxing Sunday afternoon or a busy one? I don't know what it is about Sundays but I always find it harder to "kick-start" my working day on a Sunday more than any other day of the week. Last time I blogged about how to cope if you are waiting to hear back from an agent or publisher. I did try to take my own advice (honestly!) but it wasn't that easy. However, I did eventually get a response, although not quite the one I was hoping for. The good news is that the agent I approached thinks that my book based on the letters I inherited from my grandmother and with a strong link to the TV series Downton Abbey, could be a potential bestseller. (He actually used the word 'bestseller' twice in the email he sent me!) Of course, I do appreciate that this is only his opinion but I was still pretty chuffed, to say the least. The bad news is that he didn't feel able to represent me, so it's back to the Writers' & Artists

The Waiting Game

Hi everyone. My mother used to say that the day I stopped having a "new system" was the day she would start worrying about me. A familiar phrase of mine is indeed "I've got a new system" which usually means I've come up with some grand scheme or plan which I'm convinced is going to be the answer to all my problems, as well as the life, the universe and everything in between. Well, I'm pleased to say that I have a "new system" for this blog which means you should (if the system works) be hearing from me on a slightly more regular basis. We shall see. A couple of weeks ago I posted a writing tweet ( melissawriter95 ) which implied that "cold-calling" an agent was more scary than wrestling a shark. OK, maybe that is a slight exaggeration but then, I've never wrestled a shark. However, I have "cold-called" an agent and very scary it was too, although to be fair I did only get to speak to their PA which was probabl

When Your Characters Come For Tea

Hi everyone. OK, so I'm not going to beat myself up about how long it is since my last blog post. Suffice to say that I promised you an update on how my non-fiction book with the strong link to the hit TV series Downton Abbey is progressing and here it is. Wow. What a lot has happened in the last few weeks. My proposed book is based on a collection of letters and postcards I inherited from my maternal grandmother which were written to her between 1919 and 1933 from a close friend called Ethel North. Miss North was lady's maid and companion to Lady Winifred Burghclere, elder sister of the 5th Earl of Carnarvon (the one who discovered Tutankhamen) which is where the Downton link comes in. Anyway, in January, I started the process of putting together a proposal to send to literary agents and this has involved a great deal of typing, a great deal of research for footnotes (thank you Google!) and a great deal of background research on the Carnarvons, the Burghcleres and Ethel

The Life That I Have

Hi everyone. Happy Valentine's Day! I hope your "significant other" remembered the card and flowers or at least offered to clean the bathroom. I think I could probably count the number of Valentine's cards that I've received during my life on the fingers of a very small hand. (Ahhhh....) I've made plenty though and I will now unashamedly plug my crafting website http://www.melissalawrencedesigns.com/  where you can find exclusive handcrafted cards, stationery and gifts for all occasions including Valentine's Day. Anyway, back to receiving Valentine's cards. One I'd completely forgotten about (maybe that's why no one sends me any!) was sent by a male friend at university. He actually sent one to all my flatmates as well so I don't think it really counts. I came across the card the other day and I was struck by the beauty of the poem he'd written inside. Knowing it was pretty unlikely that he'd penned it himself, I looked the po

I'm Back. Again.

Hi everyone. You know you haven't blogged in a while when you can't remember your own blog address and have to find it via your website. Yes, I really did mean to blog regularly and yes, it really is September 2014 since I last posted anything. Oh well. The road to hell and all that as my late father would have said. So Happy Diwali, Happy Halloween, Happy Bonfire Night, Happy Christmas and Happy New Year. Delete which not applicable. I was actually shamed into starting to blog again when I came across Helen Yendall's wonderfully inspiring blog which you can read for yourself at https://blogaboutwriting.wordpress.com/  Helen writes the kind of posts I aspire to. Witty, concise, interesting , useful...Oh well, we can but try. Anyway, enough rambling. Time to bring you up to date on where I'm at with my writing. My main news is that my non-fiction book based on the letters I inherited from my grandmother and which have a strong link to Downton Abbey, is at quite an