Allison's Latest - October 2019

Just to say I'm almost at the end of the final editing stage on the book I'm working on as an editor at the moment.

The whole process has been enjoyable and I know I'm taking in things that will benefit my own writing. For example, editing someone else's work has reminded me to check for things that are easy to overlook in the understandable excitement of getting your story down and then out there!

How often do you check if your paragraphs are indented (a) properly and (b) consistently? Hmm...  this kind of thing is the final polish to your work before submitting it anywhere. But it is easy to rush that final polish or to forget it altogether (especially if you're close to a deadline!).

An important part of editing but it is not the only thing. Pixabay image.

What do you think of when you hear the word editing?

Looking out for typos, grammatical errors and so on? Yes, that is all vital, but so is checking that the structure of the story and the collection it is in makes sense. Collections have to have a sensible running order.

Some stories feed into others beautifully and you want a nice "flow". Readers do pick up on that. I know I appreciate it when I read stories that flow well together like that. It just adds that something a little extra special to the book and author, editor, publisher and, ultimately, reader will all want that.

Editing work needed here I think!  Pixabay image.

Other Ways of Being

Okay, so this is a collection of my own stories. Most of them have been published elsewhere or listed in a competition. Again, just like the collection I mentioned last time, this book went through all the same processes that all of our books go through:

·         Three stages of editing

·         Proof read (in this case I was a proof-reader and another in-house person proof read)

·         Design

·         Cover designs that produces a cover that looks attractive, is technically sound and speaks to the market place

·         First level marketing

So, here’s the blurb:

"Other Ways of Being" is an anthology of stories that ask us many questions about:
otherness: Is a stranger a threat or is he just trying to help? It may be as clever as being a fortune-teller but is it helpful?

• other times: Is the wild woman really a little girl that she used to know? Will they be safe now or should they worry about the bright soldiers marching? Which horror does the deep sleeper hide?
• other histories: Who was that strange child? How did they manage to feed so many people?
• other worlds: Can a couple remain together even when their natures threaten to keep them apart? Is a seemingly incompetent wizard cleverer than he seems? What happens when an alien makes a mistake and almost gives himself away? Do animals help each other in their struggle against the damage that humans are doing? Who exactly is the lady in blue? Is Bradley’s the best story ever?
• our near futures: Can a man survive in a dystopian future if he has no more human contact? What can ATMs do when society goes moneyless? What happens when the money runs out? Just how smart will the smartphone get? Or driverless cars for that matter? Where will we find sanctuary when the extremists start winning? What happens to the clones when the blueprint gets sick?
• other sexualities and genders: Will we get used to Toni?

Find it on Amazon here.

Because Sometimes Something Extraordinary Happens

This is a book we put together for our very own Debz Hobbs-Wyatt. All of the stories have been published before or have own competitions and now she has the rights back. They only needed the lightest of edits. So working with this book was different.

Debz anyway is an editor herself, but even so, it’s hard to edit your own work. Besides this work had already passed several gatekeepers. So, there was just a light copy edit and proof-read. I wasn’t involved in proof-reading so this delightful volume is waiting in my to be read pile. I’m familiar with some of the stories but not all of them. I’m looking forward to it.

Debz provided her own ideas for the cover and this involved a photo of her grandmother. My goodness, Debz doesn’t half look like her.

Meet a mixture of beguiling narrators, from seven-year-old Leonardo Renoir Hope trying to change the past so his dad doesn’t die, and George and his carrot-growing friends on an east London allotment waiting for the world to end, to Amy Fisher who realises that her husband, after his sudden death, is not who she thinks he is… but who is the other Mrs Fisher? This one adds a touch of medical horror to the mix.

All of the stories are about ordinary people when extraordinary things happen to them.

As usual we need reviews.

Find it on Amazon here