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Hello! Welcome to my newsletter for September/October 2019. In this issue:
 In our corner of the world, autumn is taking hold. Old patterns are changing.
I went to the Words Away Salon and broke the habit of a lifetime. As promised in last month's newsletter, I talked to the other attendees instead of sitting quietly, filling my notebook. It was good! I'll do it again. (Next salon is dark thrillers, if you're interested.)
New writing adventures are afoot. I've had this email from author and journalist Deb Curtis.
'I want to write a book that will inspire girls and women: Successful Women Have Grit: A Cowgirl Shares Life Lessons Learned from Horses.'
Deb is intervewing devoted horsewomen from all gallops of life: publishing, obviously, but also sports, business and showbiz. As you'd expect, her equestrian pedigree is flawless -  you can read it here. She's also a copywriter and journalist, and has a book or two simmering on the back burner.
Deb says: 'All of us grew up falling off and getting back on. I know I gained self-confidence, patience, empathy, work ethic, courage...I'd love to include a chapter on what you've learned in your life from riding.'

Life lessons...  Deb mentions patience, which is interesting. Humans of 2019 are not a patient species and I'm no exception. I know coffee's better if it brews for 4 minutes but can I bear to wait those 240 seconds? Can I wait for an answer to an email or do I want it ASAP? But when writing, I'm the very model of zen. Ever Rest has taken 5 years and counting. Lifeform Three was a mere 2. My Memories of a Future Life was epic - I made my first attempt in the mid-1990s, finally published in 2011. I had so much to learn - about writing, about myself, about what I wanted my first 'real' book to be. 

Now, on second horse and third novel, I know patience is the way. Did I learn this from horses or from my ornery books? Anyway, it takes as long as it takes. (Don't ask about today's argument with Val.)
Meanwhile this week, the UK books media report that Susanna Clarke has signed a deal for her second novel, 15 years after Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. Her agent, Jonny Geller, is saying it is 'unexpected', 'wonderful', 'perfectly constructed'.

The reward for patience. 
Deb and I will have much to discuss.

If you're champing at the bit, the pre-order is here.
Just as we were happily exchanging emails, bucking and whinnying around our respective fields, Deb said:
'I've been reading your self-publishing book! And I notice your Penny Appleton books have horses on the covers...'
Screeching stop. Those aren't by me. They're Joanna Penn (left).
I've had this before - I'm sometimes confused with Joanna because people find me through her podcast. Was that who Deb really wanted? I'd understand. After all, Joanna's empire is impressive.
I replied. 'There's something you should know...'
Deb came back. 'Oh no! Red face! I've been trying to do too much at once, late at night. No, I meant you! Life lessons from horses, eh? Here's one. From time to time, we goof.'
Work in progress
Noveling... Last month I began Draft 17 of Ever Rest after Dave's feedback. There are new scenes, which change the balance so I'm trying other events in new places. By chance I found an interview where Michael Ondaatje talks about The English Patient. His late drafts, he said, involved moving sections until he was happy with the emphasis and resonance, like cutting a movie. Exactly what I'm doing. The whole novel took him 6 years. You might enjoy listening (here, on BBC Book Club). 
Editing and mentoring... The biography I'm editing is nearly ready for submission to publishers. I'm now allowed to tell you it's about Dorothy Thompson, an American journalist who, from the 1930s to the late 1950s, helped expose the actions of the Nazis and other terrifying regimes and mobilised the USA to resist them. I'm now editing beyond the initial chapters. Also, I've begun a developmental edit on a novel that grew from a collection of poetry. This author loves timeline jumps, characters who might or might not be real. He's keeping me on my toes.
Out and about
I'm in Writing Magazine this month, talking about making the audiobooks of my two novels. I can't share a link as it's print only, but if you're curious the story is also on my blog here.
12 January 2020
My first appointment for next year's diary!
In January I'll be a guest critiquer on Pop-Up Submissions, an online show run by London literary agent Peter Cox and the Litopia literary community. They'll pick a handful of manuscript submissions and we'll discuss them, live on air. You can watch live or catch up on YouTube - and here are their previous episodes. If you're a Litopia member, you can submit a piece and it might be one they give to me!
The book event that went wrong
What about the two book events I was doing with my (retired) bookseller friend Peter Snell?
Oh dear.
I'll explain, in 10 bites.
#1 Expecting to discuss event programme with Peter. Months pass.
#2 Another author-speaker tells me I’m listed in the programme, and I'll be giving several talks about how to self-publish.
#3 Eh? I had no idea. (I thought I was still at #1.) And I'm not available at those times.
#4 Peter has had unforeseen family issues. New organiser in charge.
#5 I contact new organiser, mention #1, #2, #3, also mention that I charge for these kind of talks, in line with recommendations of professional author bodies.
#6 Organiser doesn’t want to pay. End of the line for me. I ask to be taken off promotional materials. Organiser says it’s too late, everything’s printed, we’ll tell people you’ve withdrawn. Butbutbut!
#7 Not happy. 'Withdrawn' implies I broke an agreement. There was no agreement, see #1, #3, #5, #6. Splitting hairs, storms in teacups, gnashing teeth, knickers in twists. Exasperation and stern words all round.
#8 Organiser directs stern words towards Peter but I’m not privy to them so we’ll have to imagine what they were.
#9 Sigh. The original plan was for Peter and me to reprise our So You Want To Be A Writer radio show, which would have been a hoot. How things have changed.
#10 All best wishes to Peter and his family. Go in peace.
I've just become a fan of...
This Twitter account, Postcard From The Past @PastPostcard . Tom Jackson collects 1960s/1970s postcards of picturesque holiday destinations and tweets them with choice lines from the messages on the back (it's a book as well). All of human life is here.
On the blog
This month I had a craft post at IngramSpark - How to outline a novel. I also had a pleasingly whacky interview at the online home of book blogger Davida Chazan. It's here: My kind of weird, my kind of wonderful.
A little horse
I was away in the middle of the month (photographing that lovely red ivy in Oxford, actually). An absence of a week, the longest since I've owned Val.
When I returned, he was ... different.
Not nervous. He didn't think I was a stranger. After our early troubles, that was a possibility. But our fine controls no longer worked. As if a software upgrade had rearranged our shortcuts, undone our shared language. All because I was away for a week?
My instructor said: 'It's probably because he's growing his winter coat. A horse never looks its best at blackberry time.'
Certainly, Val is turning tawny and fluffy, like a fox. And the air has a cold bite - when not delivering typhoon volumes of rain. There is much to occupy those high-strung scoot-brained senses. The landscape is turning a vintage colour. Hedgerows are rustling in a damper key.
New season, new adjustments to make.
Patience.
Til next time
R xxx
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Copyright © 2019 Roz Morris, All rights reserved.


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