Jo Jenner's Blog, page 11

Diary of an Aspiring Writer – E publishing the choices

In my previous blog http://jojenner.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/diary-of-aspiring-writer-how-to-e.htmlI looked at how easy it was to e-publish. From that a number of questions have come back as to how payment/royalties work and how much control Amazon has. I will attempt to explain my understanding and the choices I made because of this understanding. I am not saying this is the way everyone will want to go and I am not saying this is the correct way but this is my way. As part of the process of u...

Diary of an Aspiring Writer – How to E-publish

I have recently been considering my options when it comes to getting my work to a wider audience and like many out there the consideration to self publish is a very real one.
I have been writing short stories and publishing them on my blog for about a year and the feedback has largely been very positive. I also took part in last year’s NaNoWriMo (write a novel in a month) and managed to complete a 50,000 word novel. Since then I have been editing the novel, or rather not editing the novel, as...

The Gift

I hold it carefully in my hands, the red casing with the shield containing the white cross logo positioned near the bottom. I still remember the day Dad gave it to me, it was our twelfth birthday. Dad had always wanted a boy and when mum got pregnant he was over the moon, telling everyone who would listen how his boy would follow in his footsteps. The army life isn’t for everyone but Dad loved it and he assumed everyone else did.
When we were born Dad spent all his time with Robert, showed pe...

Home comforts

 She’d never been here before but she knew the address was right. She had written enough times, always sending the cheques, one a month. Harry must never know. He had forbidden her from having anything to do with this. Harry knew that she would only end up getting hurt and he had been right. These last three month’s there had been no contact except for the one letter that first time the cheque was late. Threatening the worst things, she couldn’t take the chance; she had to keep sending t...

Diary of an aspiring writer – Knowing when to move on

As part of my learning process I joined the Telegraph Creative writing group about a year ago. For those of you who have heard me mention them before I apologise for repeating myself and for those of you who have not…The Telegraph Creative Writing Group is a virtual group which is hosted by The Telegraph MyT website. Each month we have a short story competition whereby we all write a story to a theme set by a previous winner. At the end of the month we then have about ten days to read and vot...

The Forest of Morgana

I turned and looked at him, like I had never seen him before. My lips still wet from his kiss. My first, and maybe his too? I didn’t know, I could pretend. He smiled and turned, running in the direction of the commotion. Please keep him safe, I prayed, to whoever had the power to do that, and raced back to the Citadel.
 
 I had been friends with Gilfrim as long as I could remember. He had lived in the Citadel with his mother, my lady in waiting, until he started to show Creative tende...

Diary of an aspiring writer – Less is more

It has been a while since my last diary entry but I have still been posting a story each week as I promised at New Year.
I am afraid I now need to break that resolution but I am happy to do it, not because I can’t keep to it, but because I feel I am short changing my readers if I do.
One of the most important pieces of feedback that I have received from The Telegraph Creative Writing group is that they all have this image of me as a mother and career women who rushes around trying to do everyt...

The Golden Tie Pin

Every Saturday was the same. I went into town with the wife and then stood outside whilst she tried on dresses that she never bought. Very rarely she would treat herself to something but it was only on very special occasions. This particular Saturday it had been raining and I had moved to be under the cover of an old jewellery shop. I had been just glancing when I had seen it. A diamond tie pin just like the one my dad had worn. It was so beautiful and reminded me of him. I never found his wh...

Do as you would be done by

She looked up at her attacker and then down at the blood spreading across the white crisp shirt she always wore for work. Both her hands were clutching at her stomach, trying to stem the flow, but she knew that wouldn't help. She was starting to fade out now, she looked at him again. He was just a hobo who had been hanging around between the station and the office for the last week. She had seen him as she had bought her coffee from the street vender and walked into the office. She didn’t kn...

The Lady in the Cafe

 The half empty coffee cup sat in the middle of the table. It had sat there for over an hour. I hadn’t cleaned it away yet. I was waiting for the café to empty. It was already 4pm and most of the stragglers would be gone within the next few minutes.
Finally the last ones left. I had to start cleaning around the two old ladies that always came in on a Tuesday. They came in together and had afternoon tea every week. They always seemed to have so much to talk about. I never had anyone to ta...