ABOUT ME

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Morecambe, Lancashire, United Kingdom
In the mornings I’m a Nursery Cook, the rest of the time a Writer. Been writing for decades: short stories, plays, poems, a sitcom and more recently flash fiction, Creative Writing MA at Lancaster Uni and now several novels. Been placed in competitions (Woman’s Own, Greenacre Writers and flashtagmanchester) and shortlisted in others (Fish, Calderdale, Short Fiction Journal). I won the Calderdale Prize 2011, was runner-up in the Ink Tears Flash Fiction Comp & won the Greenacre Writer Short Story Comp 2013. I have stories in Jawbreakers, Eating My Words, Flash Dogs Anthologies 1-3, 100 RPM and the Stories for Homes anthology. My work’s often described as ‘sweet’ but there’s usually something darker and more sinister beneath the sweetness. I love magical realism and a comedy-tragedy combination. My first novel, Queen of the World, is about a woman who believes she can influence the weather. I’m currently working on a 3rd: Priscilla Parker Reluctant Celebrity Chef. Originally from West Midlands, I love living by the sea in Morecambe, swimming, cycling, theatre, books, food, weather, sitcoms and LBBNML … SQUEEZE!

Wednesday, 10 July 2013

They’re Not Mythical – Part Two

Tea at the Midland

The ‘mythical requests for the full’ of my previous post are very real. Since February, I’ve had a total of three agents requesting the full manuscript of Queen of the World, two of which have ended in rejection. The third arrived in my inbox yesterday and I sent my manuscript on its way. I’m banking on the truth of that often used saying ‘third time lucky’ but I won’t be putting it down to the gift from a seagull I got recently. In my hair and on my shoulder it was. How on earth can that be considered good luck?

A special Queen-of-the-World related THANK YOU goes this month to my holiday guest, Stella (@stellakateT) who sat on my sofa for a fair chunk of her visit reading my novel. On the last day we went for afternoon tea at the Midland Hotel here in Morecambe and Stella made it very obvious she had read, enjoyed and absorbed my novel from a lot of that-bit-where’s and talking about the characters as if they were real people.


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3 comments:

  1. Stella10 July 2013 at 12:31

    It's such a good story that if this agent doesn't pick it up then they are mad!!
    Not to give too much away but I felt like I was with the characters up on the mountain.
    Loved spending time reading it on your sofa. :)

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  2. Lindsay11 July 2013 at 06:06

    Sal,

    Sorry to hear about the rejections, but these days no agents ask for the full MS without very good reason - ie: they like your pitch, synopsis etc. So it must be good and publishable. I do hope it's third time lucky, but should that not be the case, keep going.

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  3. SAL PAGE11 July 2013 at 06:38

    Thanks Stella ... and as we discussed last week I'm thinking about a sequel!

    Thanks Lindsay! Yes it is very encouraging and more than I expected when I started submitting. Even if I do get a thrid rejection there will be no giving up ...

    Sal

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