Since I began blogging last year, a few people have asked me where they can read my writing.
As I don't have any books published under my own name, and few of my articles seem to exist online now, I've put together a small selection of my work here.
You should be able to find your way around by clicking on the labels, over there to your right: if you'd like to comment on anything you're welcome. I'd love to hear your opinions. Meanwhile, please be patient as I build links and add content: it's not complete, and still needs work.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Novels
I've finished two full novels, have very nearly finished two others, and have notes and beginnings for a handful more. None of them have yet been published.
The Paradox Cloud is my most recent attempt, and at present I have no idea where it's going. I've written nearly 60,000 words of it, and it seems to be about the nature of life, death, soul and belief. It includes a singing mermaid who returns to the land; a kleptomaniac who was buried for centuries who now stalks the village, hiding from Death and his ever-outstretched hand; and a french bulldog which talks, and is being pursued by the Silence Brigade. I am as confused by it as you probably are.
Habits of Love and Revenge has been in development for several years: I intended to write it for my MA dissertation but my tutor (the novelist Lesley Glaister) was concerned that I'd find it too difficult to sustain the intensity of Ella, my main character, for the full length of the novel as she (Ella, not Lesley) is plainly bonkers. It’s currently around 60,000 words long, and I’m planning to get back to it once I’ve finished editing The Trivium.
Ambush of Shadows was my first attempt at a full-length novel, and it earned me a distinction for my MA in creative writing. It found me an agent in its first outing, but despite several very near misses it remains unpublished. It describes the isolated life of two families who live on neighbouring Welsh hill farms.
The Only Precious Thing is my second novel, and it documents the repurcussions of the breakup of a suburban marriage. I'm very fond of it: but it's too quiet and far too long. It's had a couple of outings, attracted some very positive comments, but has not been widely submitted.
The Paradox Cloud is my most recent attempt, and at present I have no idea where it's going. I've written nearly 60,000 words of it, and it seems to be about the nature of life, death, soul and belief. It includes a singing mermaid who returns to the land; a kleptomaniac who was buried for centuries who now stalks the village, hiding from Death and his ever-outstretched hand; and a french bulldog which talks, and is being pursued by the Silence Brigade. I am as confused by it as you probably are.
Habits of Love and Revenge has been in development for several years: I intended to write it for my MA dissertation but my tutor (the novelist Lesley Glaister) was concerned that I'd find it too difficult to sustain the intensity of Ella, my main character, for the full length of the novel as she (Ella, not Lesley) is plainly bonkers. It’s currently around 60,000 words long, and I’m planning to get back to it once I’ve finished editing The Trivium.
Ambush of Shadows was my first attempt at a full-length novel, and it earned me a distinction for my MA in creative writing. It found me an agent in its first outing, but despite several very near misses it remains unpublished. It describes the isolated life of two families who live on neighbouring Welsh hill farms.
The Only Precious Thing is my second novel, and it documents the repurcussions of the breakup of a suburban marriage. I'm very fond of it: but it's too quiet and far too long. It's had a couple of outings, attracted some very positive comments, but has not been widely submitted.
Non-Fiction
I’ve ghost-written and researched a few non-fiction books but can’t claim them for my own work without being in breach of contract, so please don’t ask me about them: I won’t tell!
I have a book coming out in late 2009 from Wooden Books, called The Trivium: Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. They’ve asked me to write two more titles for them, on similarly serious subjects, but no contracts have yet been signed.
Our house provides lots of material for me: it's huge, mostly derelict, isolated and completely off the mains. In 2002 I wrote a piece for the Sunday Times about how we found the house, and what our life here is like: most of the comments my family and friends made about it were not about the quality of my writing, but about the fact that I'd worn my wellies in the photo which accompanied the piece. The Sunday Times went on to commission many more articles from me, on subjects from the Edinburgh property market to eradicating weevils from your Weetabix, but my favourite was the one about how to unblock a toilet. It's a glamorous life, being a writer.
I've written many articles about renovation and off-grid life for other publications: subjects include depending on a well for water, dealing with dry rot, and installing our own septic tank, which was one of our summer projects a few years ago. We put up a wind turbine in 2005, and a piece I wrote about that won us a prize in the Yorkshire and Humberside Microgeneration Awards (the judges were probably more impressed by our stoicism in dealing with three system fires in the turbine’s first year of installation than by my writing, but we still got the prize). I had a nice little piece about my parents’ bad building habits published; and following a few years spent as the RSPB’s and the RSPCA’s official peafowl expert, I’ve had numerous articles published in various specialist poultry magazines, and I’ve been called (amongst many other things) a world expert in the colour genetics of guineafowl.
I’m now carrying out a little personal research into dyslexia, and intend to put together a proposal for a memoir about my writing, dyslexia and synaesthesia when I have a spare half-hour.
I have a book coming out in late 2009 from Wooden Books, called The Trivium: Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric. They’ve asked me to write two more titles for them, on similarly serious subjects, but no contracts have yet been signed.
Our house provides lots of material for me: it's huge, mostly derelict, isolated and completely off the mains. In 2002 I wrote a piece for the Sunday Times about how we found the house, and what our life here is like: most of the comments my family and friends made about it were not about the quality of my writing, but about the fact that I'd worn my wellies in the photo which accompanied the piece. The Sunday Times went on to commission many more articles from me, on subjects from the Edinburgh property market to eradicating weevils from your Weetabix, but my favourite was the one about how to unblock a toilet. It's a glamorous life, being a writer.
I've written many articles about renovation and off-grid life for other publications: subjects include depending on a well for water, dealing with dry rot, and installing our own septic tank, which was one of our summer projects a few years ago. We put up a wind turbine in 2005, and a piece I wrote about that won us a prize in the Yorkshire and Humberside Microgeneration Awards (the judges were probably more impressed by our stoicism in dealing with three system fires in the turbine’s first year of installation than by my writing, but we still got the prize). I had a nice little piece about my parents’ bad building habits published; and following a few years spent as the RSPB’s and the RSPCA’s official peafowl expert, I’ve had numerous articles published in various specialist poultry magazines, and I’ve been called (amongst many other things) a world expert in the colour genetics of guineafowl.
I’m now carrying out a little personal research into dyslexia, and intend to put together a proposal for a memoir about my writing, dyslexia and synaesthesia when I have a spare half-hour.
Short Fiction, Poetry and Awards
I made my first attempt at publication when I entered a poem into the National Poetry Competition in 1986, and ended up with a runners-up prize for my poem Harvest. I also won the enduring admiration of George Macbeth when I told him that my winning poem was about the differences between love and sex, and that the girl in it got kissed about two thirds of the way down.
In 2008 I was a runner-up for the title of Poet Laureate of the Peak with my poem Into This Vast Room, which you can read here.
In the nine months before I started my MA I entered thirty five short story competitions and was placed in twenty eight of them: my winnings paid my MA fees, with enough left over to run to a couple of bottles of Champagne. My winning streak continued when I began my MA, when examples of my short fiction and extracts from Ambush of Shadows (my first novel) were requested for the Best of Year anthologies. I’ve since cannibalised parts of an essay that I wrote about the process of writing into posts for my blog about publishing, which you can read here, mixed in with a few bits and pieces about my computer.
Overall, I’ve won or been placed in around forty short story and poetry competitions including the National Poetry Competition, a couple of prizes from Writers’ News (I won their Winner of Winners prize in the same year that my sister won their New Subscriber Award—their two richest prizes: we had a lovely party), She Magazine, This Morning, QWF, the Philip Good Memorial Prize, Cadenza Magazine, Arc/Northern Writers, and the Asham Award. I am the recipient of an Oppenheim-John Downes memorial trust award; and I reached the final shortlist for the Tom-Gallon/Society of Authors award. Here's Loving Stephen, which tied for the Philip Good Memorial Prize, and here's A Bright White Luminous Sky, which won a prize from Cadenza Magazine.
In 2008 I was a runner-up for the title of Poet Laureate of the Peak with my poem Into This Vast Room, which you can read here.
In the nine months before I started my MA I entered thirty five short story competitions and was placed in twenty eight of them: my winnings paid my MA fees, with enough left over to run to a couple of bottles of Champagne. My winning streak continued when I began my MA, when examples of my short fiction and extracts from Ambush of Shadows (my first novel) were requested for the Best of Year anthologies. I’ve since cannibalised parts of an essay that I wrote about the process of writing into posts for my blog about publishing, which you can read here, mixed in with a few bits and pieces about my computer.
Overall, I’ve won or been placed in around forty short story and poetry competitions including the National Poetry Competition, a couple of prizes from Writers’ News (I won their Winner of Winners prize in the same year that my sister won their New Subscriber Award—their two richest prizes: we had a lovely party), She Magazine, This Morning, QWF, the Philip Good Memorial Prize, Cadenza Magazine, Arc/Northern Writers, and the Asham Award. I am the recipient of an Oppenheim-John Downes memorial trust award; and I reached the final shortlist for the Tom-Gallon/Society of Authors award. Here's Loving Stephen, which tied for the Philip Good Memorial Prize, and here's A Bright White Luminous Sky, which won a prize from Cadenza Magazine.
What Other People Think Of My Fiction
Ambush of Shadows
Editors’ Comments
I absolutely loved the book (the writing is some of the best I have seen in a submission all year) and was sad not to have the chance to offer.... I'm sure that with [your agent’s] guidance you will find a very good home for AMBUSH OF SHADOWS.
Jane writes lyrically and well, and is a writer with great talent.
Her work is haunting and compelling.
She has written a hugely readable novel, with wonderfully vivid characters and a great sense of place.
MA tutors' comments:
E A Markham: Here is a writer who has the gifts most others lack: fluency, a command of the language and control of tone that we associate with the 'literary writer'.
Lesley Glaister: Beautiful, physically realised writing, some extraordinary descriptions and a strongly evoked atmosphere.
Livi Michael: An absorbing and beautifully controlled narrative, powerfully atmospheric and very well observed. The physical presence of the landscape is made palpable as it needs to be since it is such a force in the characters' lives, and the houses too, and the impossible demands of the farm. An accomplished narrative that handles layers of history and a complicated network of relationships in a supremely assured way.
The Only Precious Thing (novel)
Literary agent:
This writing is peerless.
Sally Zigmond (prize-winning writer, novelist, and ex-editor of literary magazine QWF, who is, I’ll admit, a friend of mine):
I am overwhelmed by the sheer gorgeousness and wonderful luminosity of 'The Only Precious Thing'.... I adore Elizabeth even if I want to slap her occasionally. I don't think I've ever yet read anything else which captures so exactly what it feels like to be a mother of young children—that almost sexual and ecstatic love for your children together with the mind-numbing exasperation of being there for them 24/7. The party scene is a perfect cameo. I can taste that foul wine in the paper cup. A bit of judicious editing would make the pace more lively without destroying any of your exquisite expressive prose... [but] it's nigh on perfect.”
Comments from Authonomy Members:
I wish I had half your talent for sensual writing! This really is a tour-de-force display of evocation, lyricism and emotional expression.
Really, you've got something special here, so my mind reels at how good your new novel must be. . .
You can certainly write and create a wholly convincing and engaging atmosphere and the details are beautifully done.
I can see you moving into the kind of area peopled by Rachel Cusk and Charlotte Mendelson.
You write with enormous passion; each word oozes raw emotion.
You've achieved a level of authenticity here that I was striving for in my book. I'm full of admiration and extremely jealous. Hopefully I will learn from your style and your insights…. I found your perspective very clear, very engaging. Your writing of Elizabeth and her children was acutely observed, very truthful and - consequently - very moving.
Editors’ Comments
I absolutely loved the book (the writing is some of the best I have seen in a submission all year) and was sad not to have the chance to offer.... I'm sure that with [your agent’s] guidance you will find a very good home for AMBUSH OF SHADOWS.
Jane writes lyrically and well, and is a writer with great talent.
Her work is haunting and compelling.
She has written a hugely readable novel, with wonderfully vivid characters and a great sense of place.
MA tutors' comments:
E A Markham: Here is a writer who has the gifts most others lack: fluency, a command of the language and control of tone that we associate with the 'literary writer'.
Lesley Glaister: Beautiful, physically realised writing, some extraordinary descriptions and a strongly evoked atmosphere.
Livi Michael: An absorbing and beautifully controlled narrative, powerfully atmospheric and very well observed. The physical presence of the landscape is made palpable as it needs to be since it is such a force in the characters' lives, and the houses too, and the impossible demands of the farm. An accomplished narrative that handles layers of history and a complicated network of relationships in a supremely assured way.
The Only Precious Thing (novel)
Literary agent:
This writing is peerless.
Sally Zigmond (prize-winning writer, novelist, and ex-editor of literary magazine QWF, who is, I’ll admit, a friend of mine):
I am overwhelmed by the sheer gorgeousness and wonderful luminosity of 'The Only Precious Thing'.... I adore Elizabeth even if I want to slap her occasionally. I don't think I've ever yet read anything else which captures so exactly what it feels like to be a mother of young children—that almost sexual and ecstatic love for your children together with the mind-numbing exasperation of being there for them 24/7. The party scene is a perfect cameo. I can taste that foul wine in the paper cup. A bit of judicious editing would make the pace more lively without destroying any of your exquisite expressive prose... [but] it's nigh on perfect.”
Comments from Authonomy Members:
I wish I had half your talent for sensual writing! This really is a tour-de-force display of evocation, lyricism and emotional expression.
Really, you've got something special here, so my mind reels at how good your new novel must be. . .
You can certainly write and create a wholly convincing and engaging atmosphere and the details are beautifully done.
I can see you moving into the kind of area peopled by Rachel Cusk and Charlotte Mendelson.
You write with enormous passion; each word oozes raw emotion.
You've achieved a level of authenticity here that I was striving for in my book. I'm full of admiration and extremely jealous. Hopefully I will learn from your style and your insights…. I found your perspective very clear, very engaging. Your writing of Elizabeth and her children was acutely observed, very truthful and - consequently - very moving.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
