Tag Archives: writing community

Rivers of London Award Shortlist Interview: Victor Ogana

It all started with a broken roof and a bangle made of cowries. Victor Ogana – Seeds of Heaven Check out the other interviews here. Shortly after Gollancz’s Rivers of London Award, I got in touch with the winners and other shortlistees to find out more about them and thier projects. In this post, VictorContinue reading “Rivers of London Award Shortlist Interview: Victor Ogana”

Rivers of London Award: Getting to Know the Shortlistees

Way back in February, one of my colleagues alerted me to the new Award being organized by Gollancz and Ben Aaronovitch, focused on lifting up the voices of unpublished BAME authors and fostering new talent in the industry. Fast forward to all the craziness of this summer’s pandemic and the announcement of the shortlist, whereContinue reading “Rivers of London Award: Getting to Know the Shortlistees”

News from the Querying Trenches

Friends, I have news. For all of you who haven’t yet seen it through my social media yet, I’m absolutely over the moon. After two years of shaping and revising this book to make it the best it can be, as of two weeks ago, I finally managed a major leap forward. I have aContinue reading “News from the Querying Trenches”

That Expat Girl edits a novel | Part I: Editing Goals

If, like me, you currently have a sprawling, vaguely-sensical monstrosity of a first novel draft on your hands, you may very well be wondering what to do with it. Let’s figure it out together.

Edit

edit /ehd-it/ (verb, with object) | A long, dismal process of rearranging broken things, aligning the ragged edges of mis-matched puzzles, filing too-sharp points to polished facets and hiding the unfinished corners. Trace over fracture lines with molten gold; find diamonds to set in the pockmarks. Perhaps the thing is not a ruin after all.Continue reading “Edit”

After Narnia (a Flash Fic)

When Lily Underwood, Queen of the Eight Lands, Empress upon the mountain, Consort of the God-king Achram Lord of Light, and Goddess of the Five Seas and the Islands of Orawn stepped back through the wardrobe door, she found that not a moment had passed. Her scepter was gone, and her royal robes, and sheContinue reading “After Narnia (a Flash Fic)”

Of Novels and Webmischief

One of my goals this year has been to get more of my work out there — not necessarily through the traditional publishing route, but on my blog, through medium, and — rather ambitiously — by posting the first novel I ever wrote (under a pen name) free on the web. So if you’re curiousContinue reading “Of Novels and Webmischief”

How you can use Nanowrimo to build a year-long writing practice

Five days into November, the fireworks are flying, the coffee is flowing, and all over the world, novelists from all walks of life are furiously scribbling away, aiming to reach the goal of writing 50,000 words by the end of the month. Started in 1999 when Chris Baty was told, in no uncertain terms, thatContinue reading “How you can use Nanowrimo to build a year-long writing practice”