E.L. Johnson's Blog, page 6
July 9, 2017
In it for the win!
So I've got really exciting news to share--- I'm the overall winner of this year's Writers' Games!
The Writers' Workout is a group that organizes a series of writing prompts over the course of two months, from May to June. Each weekend there's a prompt and a set of guidelines, and you have 72 hours to complete the challenge.
The top three winners are announced the following Friday, followed by the next prompt. It challenges you as a writer. This year the stakes were high-- allegedly over 400 people took part, and the rumormill was whispering there was a waitlist of 300+.
There's a panel of judges plus a guest judge that reads all the entries each week, and it's done on an anonymous points system so the judges don't know who the authors are or who they're voting for.
Following the games they print the top winning entries for each event in an anthology and donate the proceeds to NaNoWriMo.
This year they're printing the top 5 winning stories for each event. I placed 5th, 4th, and 1st for the events, so 3 of my stories are being published! It was also a total shock, I was named the overall winner for the writers games this year!
*cue the happy dance*
Delighted, excited, super excited doesn't even cover it. But yeah, all of those and a whole lot more.
As for the prizes...
I get a free 1 year subscription to FirstWriter and a free 1 year membership to Pacemaker! Plus some other goodies, but I'm not gonna share those yet.
You can check out the first two volumes of the anthology online (see pics below).
Watch this space, and keep writing!
Cheers
ELJ
Anthology of the Games, Vol 1. 
Anthology of the Games, Vol 2.
The Writers' Workout is a group that organizes a series of writing prompts over the course of two months, from May to June. Each weekend there's a prompt and a set of guidelines, and you have 72 hours to complete the challenge.
The top three winners are announced the following Friday, followed by the next prompt. It challenges you as a writer. This year the stakes were high-- allegedly over 400 people took part, and the rumormill was whispering there was a waitlist of 300+.
There's a panel of judges plus a guest judge that reads all the entries each week, and it's done on an anonymous points system so the judges don't know who the authors are or who they're voting for.
Following the games they print the top winning entries for each event in an anthology and donate the proceeds to NaNoWriMo.
This year they're printing the top 5 winning stories for each event. I placed 5th, 4th, and 1st for the events, so 3 of my stories are being published! It was also a total shock, I was named the overall winner for the writers games this year!
*cue the happy dance*
Delighted, excited, super excited doesn't even cover it. But yeah, all of those and a whole lot more.
As for the prizes...
I get a free 1 year subscription to FirstWriter and a free 1 year membership to Pacemaker! Plus some other goodies, but I'm not gonna share those yet.
You can check out the first two volumes of the anthology online (see pics below).
Watch this space, and keep writing!
Cheers
ELJ
Anthology of the Games, Vol 1. Anthology of the Games, Vol 2.
June 23, 2017
Noir at the salad bar
So I'm really excited to share, my short story "Beef Stew" has been accepted by Level Best Books for inclusion into their upcoming anthology, Noir at the Salad Bar!
I'm super excited about this. This story is one I wrote years ago and felt it was a little gem. I fall in love with characters, and this one is about Ogblud the ogre, who's a bit of a misfit with a heart of gold. If you want to read about his adventures, you'll have to buy a copy!
Here's the full announcement.
Cheers
ELJ
I'm super excited about this. This story is one I wrote years ago and felt it was a little gem. I fall in love with characters, and this one is about Ogblud the ogre, who's a bit of a misfit with a heart of gold. If you want to read about his adventures, you'll have to buy a copy!
Here's the full announcement.
Cheers
ELJ
April 30, 2017
So I didn't win
So once again I tried for the Sci-Fi London 48 hour flash fiction challenge, and I didn't win.
I'm being a sore loser. I won in 2014, and it gave me the confidence to take writing seriously. I'd already penned the first draft of a fantasy novel then, and winning made me think that whoa, I might actually be all right at this whole writing thing. The subsequent annual challenges gave me the chance to shoot for the skies, again and again.
But the stakes grew, as the competition grew fiercer, and try as I might, I haven't won. Again.
I want the prizes, the recognition, the publication, the formal public acknowledgement that I am a good writer.
But you know what? If I were in the hunger games scenario, I would have been in district one or two, where coming from a privileged background, you set yourself up for ultra high standards, and get unhappy when you don't meet them.
I'm not backing off. I'm not lowering my personal standards for myself. I know I'm a good writer, and I'm working on a pilot series for a tv show right now, whilst half way through writing a regency mystery novel.
What does this tell me? That winning or not, I'm a writer. And what do writers do?
We f***ing write.
I'm being a sore loser. I won in 2014, and it gave me the confidence to take writing seriously. I'd already penned the first draft of a fantasy novel then, and winning made me think that whoa, I might actually be all right at this whole writing thing. The subsequent annual challenges gave me the chance to shoot for the skies, again and again.
But the stakes grew, as the competition grew fiercer, and try as I might, I haven't won. Again.
I want the prizes, the recognition, the publication, the formal public acknowledgement that I am a good writer.
But you know what? If I were in the hunger games scenario, I would have been in district one or two, where coming from a privileged background, you set yourself up for ultra high standards, and get unhappy when you don't meet them.
I'm not backing off. I'm not lowering my personal standards for myself. I know I'm a good writer, and I'm working on a pilot series for a tv show right now, whilst half way through writing a regency mystery novel.
What does this tell me? That winning or not, I'm a writer. And what do writers do?
We f***ing write.
April 23, 2017
Working with an editor: take one
So I heard from my publisher's editor, and I gotta say, I was really nervous.
So so far no one, and I mean no one has read my ms, except the publisher and editor. I was anxious because of all the sex scenes, and was dreading the editor's comments.
My fear? That she would say "Right, so, the sex scenes. Um...No. Take them out, they're horrible! They're gross and icky."
Or at least that's what I thought. I imagined hours upon hours of hard grueling work, arguing points of grammar and struggling to keep my concept and narrative.
Instead, it was absolutely fine. I learned so much about the process, and found her a privilege to work with. I shouldn't have dreaded her comments at all. Don't get me wrong, it was hard work and I spent the better part of a day going over each edit and doing line by line read-throughs of every single page of my 200pg+ manuscript.
But it is absolutely worth it. The writing improved, bits that were confusing or odd were reworked or taken out, and I only had to really redo two scenes for clarity, and not even that was bad.
Revising and editing can seem really daunting but I found this a really fun and focused learning experience.
This next step of my journey to become a published novelist is happening. Watch this space!
Cheers
ELJ
So so far no one, and I mean no one has read my ms, except the publisher and editor. I was anxious because of all the sex scenes, and was dreading the editor's comments.
My fear? That she would say "Right, so, the sex scenes. Um...No. Take them out, they're horrible! They're gross and icky."
Or at least that's what I thought. I imagined hours upon hours of hard grueling work, arguing points of grammar and struggling to keep my concept and narrative.
Instead, it was absolutely fine. I learned so much about the process, and found her a privilege to work with. I shouldn't have dreaded her comments at all. Don't get me wrong, it was hard work and I spent the better part of a day going over each edit and doing line by line read-throughs of every single page of my 200pg+ manuscript.
But it is absolutely worth it. The writing improved, bits that were confusing or odd were reworked or taken out, and I only had to really redo two scenes for clarity, and not even that was bad.
Revising and editing can seem really daunting but I found this a really fun and focused learning experience.
This next step of my journey to become a published novelist is happening. Watch this space!
Cheers
ELJ
April 9, 2017
why you should say yes
This is a year of opportunity.
Last year I offered to do tweeting for my local writers' circle. Within weeks we amassed a following of over 200 members! Admittedly it's not a lot, but it's a start. But this led to something else: an opportunity.
A few members wanted to know more about Twitter, and last June I gave a talk to the group on: How to use Twitter to build your author platform. Everyone knew Twitter and a basic idea of how to use it, but not everyone knew what an author platform was, nor how to best use Twitter to build their platform.
This talk was the start of something: building expertise. It made me feel good to support my fellow writers and help teach them about social media, and it served as a talking point during my interview for my next job.
I now do it professionally, and it's super fun. The lesson to take away from this? Say yes to things. Obviously not poor life choices like drugs or 'hey, want to jump off this cliff?'
No. But saying yes to opportunities, however small, can lead to something greater.
So the next time someone asks if you'll do something, say yes, and see where it leads.
Cheers
ELJ
Last year I offered to do tweeting for my local writers' circle. Within weeks we amassed a following of over 200 members! Admittedly it's not a lot, but it's a start. But this led to something else: an opportunity.
A few members wanted to know more about Twitter, and last June I gave a talk to the group on: How to use Twitter to build your author platform. Everyone knew Twitter and a basic idea of how to use it, but not everyone knew what an author platform was, nor how to best use Twitter to build their platform.
This talk was the start of something: building expertise. It made me feel good to support my fellow writers and help teach them about social media, and it served as a talking point during my interview for my next job.
I now do it professionally, and it's super fun. The lesson to take away from this? Say yes to things. Obviously not poor life choices like drugs or 'hey, want to jump off this cliff?'
No. But saying yes to opportunities, however small, can lead to something greater.
So the next time someone asks if you'll do something, say yes, and see where it leads.
Cheers
ELJ
April 8, 2017
Exciting news
So I am super excited because... I have a publisher!
Yup. A publisher is going to publish one of my books. I am proud to announce that my debut novel, The Inheritance Murders, will be published by Sands Press this autumn!
More fun tidbits to come. I cannot wait until I start working with the editor and can share sneak peeks of the cover and whatnot. Can. Not. Wait.
Cheers
ELJohnson
Yup. A publisher is going to publish one of my books. I am proud to announce that my debut novel, The Inheritance Murders, will be published by Sands Press this autumn!
More fun tidbits to come. I cannot wait until I start working with the editor and can share sneak peeks of the cover and whatnot. Can. Not. Wait.
Cheers
ELJohnson
