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Calendar of upcoming events

13th Sept: Preparing for Submission with Aisha Bushby begins

16th Sept: Free Dialogue Workshop with Maz Evans

24-26th September: WOWCON

Issue 7 is out now!

Read an exclusive interview with Leah Johnson, award-winning author of ‘You Should See Me in a Crown’ and ‘Rise to the Sun’. And so much more!

Buy your copy here.

Buy an annual subscription here (4 issues including the current one).

Our complete back-catalogue is here.

Community Learning Hub

Coming up for Hub members:

- Webinars for August are on Writing a Series (Vashti) and Rhyming PBs (Clare).
- September's Beyond the Agent guest is Sim Kaur Sandhu, Editor for Fiction, Non-Fiction and Picture Books at Macmillan Children's Books on Monday 13th September at 8pm!
- Our book club read for this month is young adult novel HEART-SHAPED BRUISE by Tanya Byrne.
- PitchHero: judged this month by Clare Wallace of Darley Anderson

We are offering so, so much and are very proud of our Hub and the people in it, but we always welcome new writers to sign-up at any time!

If you're serious about improving your writing, learning more about the industry and making friends, this is the place to be. 
Come join us; writing can be lonely, but it doesn't need to be.

More information on the hub here

WOWCON - 2 weeks to go!

You can view the conference line-up here.

You can book your tickets, agent 1-2-1s, workshops, talks and panels here.

Group Mentoring - sign up

Our first pilot group, led by Lauren James, has just begun and are loving this new format and opportunity.
More details on this pilot are here, but note that the spaces filled up before we got a chance to shout about it, so it's full for now (but there's a waiting list form on the site).

In addition to Lauren's group, focussing on MG, Teen, and YA, we will also be launching 2 new groups in January, one led by a PB author, and one by a CB/MG author.

You can sign up to the waiting list and first to be emailed with details of these before they go live to everyone, by popping in your email here.

Spark Mentoring

WriteMentor Spark is a monthly, online one-to-one mentoring service. Working with a children’s author, you will receive ongoing developmental editing, writing advice, publishing insights, and direct feedback on your manuscript to help you elevate your writing craft to the next level.

Spark Mentoring is always available if you need extra help or support each month.

CHECK OUT our new page, which we hope is clearer for all those who want to know more.

Final word from...

The Sands of Time

Every one of us has uttered these words: 'I just don't have the time…'

It might be for your writing (we often don't give our craft the priority it deserves in our lives - more on that later), or for other things in your life, like socialising, see family more, or just getting everything, or anything, done!

Time is a funny old thing, isn't it?

It's the foundation up which we live almost every aspect of our lives - from knowing when to do things each day, to co-ordinating almost every aspect of social life, and sometimes to live in defiance of it, to stay up too late, or sleep in until past midday! (Oh the outrage!)

But it's arbitrary, in the end. It's a tool we use to help us, not to hinder us. To bind us in a straight-jacket, limited by it's tick-tocking, it's small and big needle swinging round all day, every day, instructing that we can't possibly do X, Y or Z because 'it's not the right time for that…'

Like, it's 10.30pm - time for bed, maybe? You have the urge to write a little, but you'll pay for that in the morning, because you must rise at 6.30am with the kids, to get them ready for school, before going to work yourself. Or because your dog must be walked at the 7am or the consequences are…well…smelly.

We also view time in a funny way as writers, because the process of writing a book can take months or even years. That's a long time for one single project, in any field. And so if we don't maximise our time on a day-to-day basis and make small progress every day, that time stretches into years and years. It can seem endless and that can feel demoralising.

And, we also view time in terms of age. We all see the 18 year-olds signing the 3 book deals, the 21 year-olds who win awards and movie rights. And as we approach certain age landmarks, we often ruminate the whole age and time aspect in our heads.

'If I can get an agent with this manuscript, I will be 49 by then, and if it sells, then maybe the book will be out by the time I'm 57, so maybe by the time I'm 70 I can have 3 books published…'

Or something like that! Go on, admit it, you've all thought this!

And when we do that, Time becomes our enemy. It's a spiral into negative thoughts - it festers into an attitude of 'what's the point' or 'that's far too much time to invest in this, when it might not even sell…'

Again, we've all done it.

So here's 3 statements to keep in your head when Time creeps up on you, and tries to whisper it's dark magic in your ear:

1. Don't look at the clock - when the inspiration strikes, let it pour out. Time is relative.
2. The book will take as long as it takes. If it's 3 months, amazing. If it's 3 years, that's also okay. In the end, readers don't think about how long it took the author. They care about the words on the page, so focus upon writing the best book you can, no matter how long it takes.
3. You are NEVER too old. Nor is there an ideal or good age to get published. You are NOT running out of time.

It's not a competition, and when you lie on your death-bed, many, many years from now, you won't be thinking of that other author who sold a book at 21, and published 40 books in their career, you'll be reflecting on what you did, with the time you had. And if that's one book, that one child read and connected with, wouldn't it be worth it? Wouldn't that be enough?

That's what matters and that's what we must all focus upon this week as we write our wonderful and important stories.
Writing can be lonely, but it doesn't need to be.

May the Force be with you!

Stuart, Florianne and Melissa
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