SUBSCRIBER SPOTLIGHT
48 NOVEMBER 2019 http://www.writers-online.co.uk‘At the age of sixty I found myself redundant, coming out
of an office job with very little redundancy money,’ writes
subscriber Leslie Jenkins.
‘I decided to enrol in acting classes at Sylvia Young
Theatre school and then RADA but writing was always
my first love. I was determined to get my little astrology
book Astral Cats, astrology for cats published but nobody
was interested. After thirty rejections I felt so low. I always
worked from home as a part-time clairvoyant and decided
to train as a English TEFL teacher and work from home as well. I had to
reinvent myself.
‘I kept going, polishing my work then a call came from The Wolfenhowle
Press and said they loved it and wanted to publish. I cried with happiness. The
wonderful Tylluan Penry, publisher, said it would make a lovely little book. It
came at the time that my sister has passed away so what with this and losing my
job I felt happy humble and blessed with this good news.
‘I had previously worked on my children’s picture book Mrs Jacaranda Stories
but nobody wanted to know. After 32 rejections and endless literary agents I put
it to one side then reworked it again. Two years after Astral Cats, on my 65th
birthday, Blossom Spring Publishing that did children’s picture books accepted
Mrs Jacaranda. They said it needs polishing but the ideas
are there and would make a beautiful book. This book is
dedicated to my three children.
‘With Astral Cats the idea came when I was in the
garden one day and one of my cats chased a butterfly
and I felt that cats like humans have a birthday and a
character of their own so to write about their zodiac signs
seemed a perfect idea. With Mrs Jacaranda Stories I was
in Portugal on holiday years ago when I was on a coach
trip delayed in traffic. I glanced at jacaranda trees so Mrs
Jacaranda came alive.
‘I’m now working on another Mrs Jacaranda book. There
is also a follow up to Astral Cats due to be published, Astral
Dogs, so the future is positive. Never give up on yourself.
Nobody wanted me and at the age of 65, now published, it
can be done.’Stars aligned for success
S
Alternative realityWorth another look
‘About six months ago I temporarily set
aside the half finished novel that I had
been wrestling with, and decided to
revisit the short stories that I had written
over the last few decades instead,’ writes
subscriber Alan Orchard.
‘This is an interesting exercise for any
author to undertake, as study of the texts
will reveal how your writing style has
evolved over the years.
‘I selected what I considered to be the best ones, making revisions to them
where I deemed it to be necessary, and assembled them into an anthology,
Things Behind The Sun, which is now available on Amazon Kindle.
‘This was my first venture into e-publishing, and I viewed this unknown territory
with some trepidation, but – provided you commission a good producer to do the
necessary file conversion and help you set up your KDP account – it proves to be a
relatively painless exercise. I would certainly recommend other short story writers to
review their back catalogue of material and consider this option.
‘Then you need to think about how you are going to promote the resulting book- but that’s another story, and you could say that this article is the first paragraph!’
‘The last couple of years
have been an exhilarating
series of firsts for me,
with four books accepted
for publication by two
different publishers,’
writes subscriber Andrew
J Harvey.
‘My first book,
Nightfall (Book 1 in the
Clemhorn Trilogy) was released by Zmok Books in
February 2019, while the first of the three Portal
Adventures is due to be released by Peasantry Press
in January 2020.
‘These successes have followed a long
apprenticeship over the past thirty years during
which I completed and submitted over twelve,
separate full-length manuscripts to a number of
publishers. Frustratingly, my only success over
this period was the acceptance of a single short
story by an Australian SF&F magazine. So, it was
with considerably lowered expectations that, after
reading an article in Writing Magazine about a
new Canadian based publisher, Peasantry Press, I
submitted a series of three young-adult/middle-
grade science fiction stories. You can understand
my excitement when, following a requested redraft
of the stories into “American English” (I am
Australian), I was offered a three-book contract
a year later. This was not only my first contract,
but a three book contract at that! Trouble on Teral,
the first book in The Portal Adventures, is due
for release in January 2020. The second, Crisis at
Calista Station, will be released in March, with the
third, Vortex on Vertu Prime, in May.
‘Shortly after having the Portal Adventures
accepted, I received a further boost to my confidence
when Nightfall, the first in my adult, alternate history
trilogy was accepted by USA-based publisher Zmok
Books. Balancing the needs of the two publishers
to progress editing on four books, as well as my
continuing responsibilities as principal of Hague
Publishing (an independent Australian publisher
of science fiction and fantasy), while temporarily
heading up a small government department at
the same time was an
interesting, and at times,
exhausting challenge. But
having that first book
in my hand certainly
made it all worthwhile.
I am incredibly proud of
Nightfall, which tells the
story of an Earth which
has been taken over from
another dimension.’
Website: http://www.
andrewjharvey.com