Dear all,
I would like to offer you free help with editing/proof-reading your manuscripts and/or covering letters/synopsises.
Do you find the feedback you get from your family and friends encouraging but not constructive enough (generally they don't want to hurt your feelings!)? Do you feel that before you send it out to publishers/agents, it needs a professional eye just to make sure it's polished? Are you fed up with reading it yourself (you do lose the ability to judge objectively and see any mistakes after number of readings). Or do you just want someone to review your covering letter and synopsis ( you've followed every rule you've found about how to construct them but want someone to make sure it doesn't sound too 'robotic')?
Well, I can help. All I ask is that you send an email to lahrdla@yahoo.co.uk with a short story outline first (I do need to screen who I send my address to) - I will then send you my address to which you can send your manuscript and SASE (so that I can return it with my feedback). You can send as much of your work as you want - first three chapters/ several pages, the whole thing... If you only need me to look at your synopsis/covering letter, you can email that directly – I don’t need a hard copy of it.
I don't ask for any fee - if you want it to be a free service, that's fine (Christmas has come early for you in that case!). If you find my feedback very helpful and want to reward my time spent on it with a little something - that's great! But honestly, I don't expect anything.
Now for those sceptics out here: who am I to offer advice? why would I do such a thing for free? how do you guarantee that I won’t steal your ideas? Well, the answer to the later question isn’t very satisfactory: of course, there is no guarantee, only my word of honour and the fact that each of you have special writing voice so that even if I wanted to steal your work, it would easy be proven so. I guess that it is a risk for you to take (or not) and you just need to trust your judgment. And why would I do this? I genuinely want to help! I have some free time and want to use it valuably and this combines my passion for books and publishing with doing something good. Finally, to answer the first question: I have a degree in Publishing and Literature; some experience in working at various publishing houses; and I write too (so I am sympathetic to what you may be going through .
I look forward to your emails! I’ll try to reply as quickly as possible (but please allow a week).
Best Regards,
Ladka Abdennour

Lord H and I got up in time to show our faces at church today, which was okay really. Some lovely traditional hymns, and I do always like that. As long as they get the right tunes of course - on the whole they did. St Mary's had a visiting priest today, who seemed very soothing. Just what you need on a Sunday. Mind you, he started off his sermon with an apology for talking about his visit to the family mausoleum and therefore sounding pompous. Actually, Lord H and I are much taken with the concept of having a family mausoleum that you regularly visit - ah, the vaults, the vaults, the family vaults ... - and would do it ourselves if either of us had one. We do wonder what in fact he might have been doing there - were they putting someone to rest or taking someone away? Perhaps they had to make sure old Uncle Albert wasn't up to his usual tricks and were there to put a stake through the old codger's heart or some such excitement? Did the priest have to check his supplies of garlic and silver bullets before he set off?? All very thrilling, you know - and probably not the thought processes the priest meant to encourage. Especially as the point of the sermon was that we turned our minds away from death and towards resurrection. My dears, by then I was already planning the decor on my own personal vault. Something fetching in gold and black perhaps?...


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I have moved out of my hermit phase, at last, and am now trawling the roads with Clio, the lovely wee car. I even went visiting the Pollok mob today and turned back into the wonderful sister-in-law I used to be; picking people up, dropping them off, chatting to small great nephews and neices - taking part in this life. A fabulous day wrapped itself around me: we gossipped, laughed, complemented, lied and were forced to keep crying at bay; the crying will have to wait for the funeral.


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In Where the wild things are, when I was talking about empathy in reading fiction, I had to stop myself going off on a tangent about whether and how writers worry about making their characters likeable. Honestly, sometimes writing this blog is as bad as writing my MPhil critical paper, and now my PhD's commentary. The closest analogy, I remember thinking in exasperation round about this stage last time, is gift-wrapping a porcupine. Every time I thought I had everything neatly packaged, so that I was clutching a tidy parcel ready for the sellotape and ribbon, a clutch of quills would spring out through it, ripping the paper and pointing in yet another fascinating direction. Compared to that, novels are mere hedgehogs to write - a bit wriggly, a bit spikey, might give you a nip and I deal with the fleas by coming over here and scratching the itch - but fundamentally (usually) well-behaved. Anyway, now I've got time to go where that particular quill was pointing, what's it all about?

Ah yes, empathy. The thing is, whoever your main character is (or two, or three, but probably not more), the reader's going to spend a lot of the book in their company. One way or another, you have to get us wanting to care about what happens next, to keep turning the pages.

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Was delighted to see another five-star review of Maloney's Law on Amazon which you can find here (see full post for links), or alternatively below:

"Paul Maloney is a private investigator with an ex-lover Dominic Allen who is CEO of his own international company. He is the one Paul can never forget and as a result he has little hesitation in taking on a job for Dominic. Very quickly Paul realises he is out of his depth in more ways than one. His world will never be the same and he must face his own demons as well as those of his family before he can come out the other side with the hope of a fresh start. As ever the characters are carefully drawn and believable. It is clear both Dominic and Paul are the products of their upbringing and experience. The conclusion is satisfying and shows Paul a sadder and wiser human being. This is not a comfortable book to read and it reveals a ruthless and amoral side to big business which we would all prefer to ignore. It also shows relationships between parents and children as problematic and full of misunderstandings and capable of being resolved if both sides are prepared to make the effort. Well worth reading if you want something different from the norm."



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Anyone got experience of editing a book?

I think I'm due to start working with Iota's editor, Kimberly Cole, soon. Having edited magazines and prepared copy for all kinds of publications I'm pretty au fait with the process for articles and features. But working on my own book manuscript will be completely new to me. I've been wondering how long it generally takes and what the pitfalls are, if any.

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Agreed several weeks ago to participate in a writing marathon. I’m told it involves 50 prompts - literary fireworks - dispatched at intervals over a 12 hour period and it’s happening tomorrow. It’s in aid of Volunteer Reading Help (VRH), a national charity that ‘helps disadvantaged children develop a love of reading and learning’. The best work will be published in an anthology, available spring 2009 and all profits go to VRH ... (more)

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No real need to cover your ears and blush today, people, as the Swearing Queen of Godalming is (relatively) under control. Or - which may be more likely - too drained to shout. Thank goodness for calming pills, eh. Anyway, you'll be pleased to hear that I finally got the all-important operation code last night due to a combination of (a) my very talented and totally lovely sister-in-law-to-be Googling it for me (thank you, Sue - I was way too stressed to think of that, doh!); (b) the Clinic finally ringing me up with a list of possible codes; and (c) the Consultant (well, gosh, I must indeed have sounded desperate ...) herself ringing me up and suggesting that I didn't have to have either the D&C or the ablation, and could in fact just have the Laporoscopy and the Hysteroscopy, but she'd discuss it more with me next week. Lordy, but it's getting more complicated by the minute (not least due to her rather snippety comments about my nice GP's "interference" - then again, dear, at least he's had the decency to read my medical notes, and no-one else round here has). Anyway, I'm keeping calm (deeeeep breaths and humming ...) and I'm not going to think about it till next Thursday. I'm fully convinced I'll opt for just the 2 operations however. Let's minimise the fiddling around is what I say ...


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It is always a real treat having our babies for the weekend and we cherish every second but my God is it tiring! And of course having them and then the humdinger meant that no writing at all has been done this week - except for one very short poem in preparation for Poppy Day and this blog. Now next week, I will make sure I do something. I have promised a fellow Writewords member a critique on her children's story so that is my first priority. I also need to upload some new work of my own because the summery poem and kid's story currently displayed there are now weeks out of date. Plus, I really do have to make some time to sort out the research I have already done for The Historical Novel - or The Emma Book as it is now known throughout the family. And I still need to find a way that I can maintain a steady income whilst promoting the Yuck series, so there is plenty to do. It is just a case of finding the time. Still - something will turn up, I am convinced of that.


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Duncan Glen, who died on 20 September 2008 was a poet, literary historian and critic, editor and designer but I knew him as my typography tutor. Duncan headed the Graphic Design department whilst I was a student at Preston Polytechnic between 1974-78. The department had evolved out of the Harris School of Printing and it was not only an inspiring place to be but an interesting time to be there. Duncan used the traditional letterpress facilities in the basement of our department to publish his own imprint Akros - and as students we were invited to practice our typographic layout skills on individual editions ... (more)

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