Lorraine Wilson's Blog, page 4

Is It Work Or Is It Art?

Hi beautiful creatures,

This post is coming to you from an Extremely Dreich day, Scotland is opting out of summer this year and I am having many feelings about it, most of them unprintable. I know I promised a book reccs post, or a workshop post or something else I’ve forgotten, but I am low on spoons and this is the particular brain noodle that’s been noodling for the past day or two so this is what you’re getting!

First a writing update: I handed in The Salt Oracle to my editor, which was a hu...

The Flower And The Bee

We had some sad news last week - a beautiful, wonderful lady went to sleep and didn’t wake up. I’d been planning on writing this week about Cymera Festival, and also - only slantwise related - the conversation around book festivals taking place in the UK at the moment. But instead I’m going to share a wee piece of flash fiction that was published by the lovely Anti-Heroin Chic online magazine in 2019.

Sleep well, Daisy. You were loved.

The Flower And The Bee

We watch the open window, falling sunl...

Book Awards, Bias and Balance

First a writing update! I’m in the middle of editing The Salt Oracle, which is due with my editor at the end of June. Edits are … hmm. They’re going at a good speed and I’m definitely ironing out a few creases, but I’ll be honest - I’ve done so much editing across three books over the past 7 months that I feel like my editing brain is a little fried. Even having given myself April to rest and play with Novella2, I’m still not convinced I’m doing my best, most thorough work editing this thing. HO...

Diary - We Are All Ghosts In The Forest

Hi & welcome to diary entry no. 4 for Ghosts! Last time I updated you, in February, we were just building up to planning ARC and blurb strategies, the cover was just about to be revealed and I was, I think, awaiting final proofs.

So where are we now?

Proofs -

My proofreader raised a question about a few words they felt were overused so my editor and I grabbed the opportunity for a last pass to see whether any of the uses needed editing. The words were to do with physicality - referring to characte...

Scaring yourself

About a week ago I finished a first draft of Novella 2 Chaos Boogaloo. I started writing it in early November last year, shelved it when developmental edits for We Are All Ghosts In The Forest arrived and finally got back to it at the start of April.

I’m not gonna lie - it’s a bit of a mess. It needs some serious edits and I’ve already got lots of ideas percolating for how to make it better. This is slightly embarrassing to admit but some of those ideas came when I looked at its original pitch (...

Publicity while the world burns

I’ll be honest, I’m a little nervous about sharing this one. People understandably have strong opinions on how they ‘should’ be acting online at the moment, so there’s a good chance I’ll put a few hackles up.

But this isn’t me telling anyone what to do, partly because it’s none of my business and partly because I don’t think there is a right answer anyway. This is just me trying to explore a difficult issue and talk through my imperfect choices in the hope it’ll perhaps help others who might be ...

Is there a book submission arms race

Hello and hope you all had a relaxing, book-filled long weekend. As Scotland is being incredibly dreich and ghastly this week, I have been getting back into Novella2 rather than doing any of the planned gardening. It’s lovely to be drafting again after months of editing, and also quite nice to be doing so under no external pressures as this novella is odd and ambitious, and I’m not sure what I plan to do with it if I even manage to pull it off.

Now. If you are one of my wonderful paying subscrib...

Diary - All The Birds Will Be Hostile

Hi fabulous people!

The last Diary entry for this book was mid-December, so it is high time I posted another one, being as we are on the cusp of submission.

First, where was I in December? I was mid revisions following beta reader feedback and I’d set myself this rough timeline of projects for the three months between then and now:

Get Ghosts copyedited by Feb.

Get edits back on Birds and revise whilst awaiting Ghosts copyedits.

Do publicity for The Last To Drown release in mid February.

Maybe possi...

Reading slumps

Hi, thank you for reading!

First a wee writing update. I have sent off proofs for We Are All Ghosts In The Forest so that’s (hopefully) the editing cycle finished for that book - hurrah!! Edits of All The Birds Will Be Hostile are back with my agent, and I’m taking a wee breather after months of ping-ponging between three different books’ edits. I might try to finish a novella draft I started in November, or if Scotland decides to be sunny, I might just spend time in the greenhouse getting my han...

The Thing About Boundaries

Way back when I was a baby writer, publishing a distant and barely formed dream, someone gave me this advice - decide now what you would be comfortable talking about on a stage, and what you wouldn’t. Draw those lines, and stick to them all the time, everywhere.

I never forgot that advice, and I’ve had cause to be very grateful for it.

I think boundaries are something that should be discussed more as part of Author 101 advice, because I have seen so many published authors talk about feeling compe...