Mothers, rhubarb and short stories

Just about to shut down the computer when I realised I hadn’t updated my blog. Been one of those days. Busy working on three stories, plus updating my web site, plus handling a whole load of calls from my mad mother. Sundays aren’t my favourite day. I tend to think of other people having Sunday lunch with families and friends and get a bit tearful. There, so now you know. I’m a lonely old soul. The only family I have, and believe me I wish I didn’t have it, is my 85 year old mother who has dementia. I know you will think badly of me, but that’s up to you, when I say that I don’t love her, and haven’t for a very long time. I had a bad childhood and have always had a ‘troubled’ relationship with her.  

She lives in Exeter and has a full time carer who’s not much younger than she is. He hates me, and thinks I’m after my mother’s money. I could write a book about the problem, and maybe I will one day. Right now, I just wanted to tell somebody. It helps sometimes.

Now to go and cuddle the dogs.

OTHER PEOPLE'S DOGS

Did rather better with the food and medication this morning, but still found it stressful. My biggest worry when I got up was whether Sally would have made it through the night without any accidents. Last night, after she was fed, she made a big puddle on the floor of the conservatory. Luckily all was well so I’m putting her accident down to the stress of being somewhere strange. Mind you, she’s a strange little dog. She doesn’t bark or make any nose unless she’s snoring and she totally ignores Humber’s toys. Apparently she considers herself top dog. Every now and then she proves this by trying to mount Humber! He just stands there and lets her get on with it.

I feel sorry for him. He’s got a bad leg, arthritis, but he still wants or run and play, even though his leg must be hurting him. Took them both for a walk to Primrose  Park, a huge open space, ten minutes walk from my house. You’d never know it was there. I can’t wait to see it later in the year. There’s an expanse of water which looks like prime dragonfly and frog country to me.

Having the dogs here is affecting my work. It will get easier once they’ve settled in. Then I’ll be able to relax a  bit more without jumping every time Sally coughs!.

LULU, SALLY AND HUMBER

You know what it’s like when you get something new? That’s how I feel about Lulu at the moment. I’ve spent years wanting ot have some books that I can show to  people so that I feel like a REAL writer, now suddenly I have three.

What I love is that you can order as many or as few as you want. I’m going to take some with me to Trinity College on the 16^th.

They hold an annual writers day with courses and speakers and the best thing is, it’s free. Last year one of the workshops led to an idea which I wrote up and sold to Woman’s Weekly.

If you’re interested in self publishing, why not follow the link below to my latest book? Then you might fancy having a go yourself.  It really is so simple – if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be doing it.  

http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/love-is-all-around/10271074

My two new boarders have now arrived and are busy settling down. I confess I’m a bit nervous. Sally, the white terrier, is 12 and has had one stroke already. The other one is called Humber who has arthritis and a severe limp. He’s 8.

They’re both on different diets and lots of medication. It feels like a hug responsibility. I’ve got pages of notes. Wish me luck! I don’t want anything to happen to them while they’re here.

Still thinking about THE CHASE

Spent the first hour filling in my shortlist questionnaire for THE CHASE. The problem is, I have no idea what they want to hear. I hope I’ve said enough to get a place on the show as it really is my favourite quiz show.

Now I have to write a poem for Leeds Writers Circle poetry competition. I don’t do poetry, but as this is a free competition with cash prizes, I feel compelled to have a go. I have the afternoon off. I usually spend Thursday afternoons volunteering at my Good Neighbours group. Hopefully I’ll be able to get a lot of work done. Tomorrow I have the two new dogs arriving and until they get here, I have no idea how much work they’ll be. I had a ten month old spaniel come to stay recently. She needed attention the whole time which was great fun but not exactly conducive to writing.

Yesterday when I was at York for the audition, I went into Waterstones to see if they had DIAMONDS AND PEARLS in stock. I’ve always wanted to be go to a book shop and see something I’ve written on the shelf. I couldn’t find it so I had a word with one of the assistants.  He checked. They didn’t have it, then he said the words that made me smile. ‘I’ve put one on order.’

THE CHASE and FICTION FEAST

I've just come back from York where I was auditioned for the ITV show, THE CHASE. The good news is, I've been shortlisted so fingers crossed I might get an expenses paid trip to London in the Spring/Early Summer  which would be great.

The new Fiction Feast has just arrived. I always pounce on it to see if Norah has used any of my stories, as she never lets you know when they’re due to appear. I’ve missed out the last few months so really needed to see my name, and there it was, Catherine Howard, spread over SIX pages. 

FF pay by the page so that’s a nice big payment on its way soon.

Short Story Success from the March issue of Writers Forum

Several people sent stories to me after rEading my column so I'm copying it here in case you missed it. 

 Short Story Success number 29

When I say that I mainly write for ‘women’s magazines, people often assume that all I write is romance. Luckily, that is not the case 

I enjoy writing about love, and no, I haven’t finished that Mills and Boon yet, but I would hate to have to do it all the time.

Both the weather and my mood affect my writing.  I find it more difficult to write about love and romance when it’s dark cold wet and miserable outside, especially when I’ve just been stood up (more on that in a moment). That’s why I enjoy writing for Take A Break’s Fiction Feast.   

To illustrate how varied the magazine is, I took an issue at random and made a brief summary of the stories. The results are as follows.

Three ‘Love Stories’ – one with two pages and another with three pages.

Five ‘Tales with a twist’ – three were one page long, and two covered two  pages.

Six ‘Put your feet up’ stories - one with five pages, two with  four, one with three,  one with two and a one pager.

Two ‘One from the Heart’s.’  - one over three pages and one with two.

Finally there was a Spine Chiller which was two pages long.  

One page stories are usually between seven hundred and a thousand words whilst two page stories hover around the fourteen hundred mark. Longer stories can be anything up to six thousand words so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find a length that suits you.

Now a brief explanation of the categories.

A Tale with a Twist covers any story with a surprise or twist ending. It could be a romance, a thriller, a slice of life, fantasy or even crime.

Love Stories are mostly typical boy meets girl, romantic stories.

Stories tagged as Put Your Feet Up vary enormously. Often they are ghost stories, or have some kind of fantasy  element. They can also be humorous or deal with relationships. Sometimes they are surprisingly dark in tone, even violent.  

The One from the Heart category often deals with relationships between family members or friends. These are generally relaxing to read and don’t tackle grittier issues.

Spine Chillers are basically spooky ghost stories. Crime Time stories also crop up occasionally.  

In this particular issue, seventy percent of the stories were written in the third person and two were written from a male point of view.

Hopefully, as you read the above you found yourself thinking,  I can write one of those, or I’ve already written a story that might fit the bill. If that is the case, don’t just think about sending one or two off - do it now. Don’t forget to let me know how you get on (akacatherinehoward@yahoo.co.uk)

Last month I mentioned Della Galton’s new book – The Dog With Nine Lives. I said it was about nine dogs, when it’s actually about a dog with nine lives. Sorry about this, but  I hadn’t read the book at the time (it’s still a great read).

As I mentioned earlier, my mood affects my writing. I joined an internet dating site a while back. Recently a man who looked perfect on paper (don’t they all!) contacted me and I eventually summoned up the courage to arrange to meet him. This was a huge deal for me as I haven’t been out with anyone since my divorce, five years ago.

Of course the swine didn’t bother to turn up. When I tried his mobile, it just rang and rang so I couldn’t even leave a rude message. Over the course of forty eight hours  I went from being on a huge high, with my head full of romantic ideas and possibilities, to feeling thoroughly fed up and deciding not to look for a new man after all.

 While I was on the ‘high,’ romantic stories flowed from my pen but the moment I crashed back down to earth, it became much more difficult. In fact, I’ve been feeling so annoyed I’m thinking about writing a crime story with guess who as the victim. That’s all for now. As always, if you have any problems or queries, or there’s something you’d like me to include in this column, drop me an email.

Next month, Spring will be on the horizon. I’ll be looking forward to those long hot summer days and the story writing ideas and opportunities they bring.

yesterday takes its toll

So far today, I’ve done a lesson for one of my pupils, given feedback on a story sent to me as a result of last month’s column in Writers Forum (see below) and tweaked two stories to send to Woman’s Weekly, which were rejected by TAB.

I was hoping to get on and draft some new stories but the muse is obviously gone off somewhere more interesting. I’m going to have a soak in the tub and come back, hopefully refreshed. Seeing that therapist yesterday has taken more out of me than I’d thought.