Welcome to the Short Story Club – it’s fantastic to see so many of you have signed up.  My name is Louise Doughty, and my blogs, including my columns from the Telegraph, can be found here.  Feel free to add your comments to anything I’ve written.  While you’re at it, browse through the discussion threads, where you will find other members introducing themselves and their writing, along with discussions about the stories that appeared in the Telegraph Review, by Lydia… Read more →

A.N. Other newspaper is running a regular slot in one of its magazines where it asks novelists to write a novel in 140 characters – including spaces and punctuation: a whole novel in a Tweet, in other words.  I’ve just done one for them, and having been a little sceptical about the commission, found I really enjoyed myself…. I can’t tell you what I did as it won’t be published in the paper for about three weeks, but I think I can safely claim it is indeed a whole novel encapsulated in a single sentence.

So… you know what’s coming, don’t you?  A whole novel, in 140 characters, no more, including spaces and punctuation, please…  The tricky bit is trying to make it a whole story, rather than just a sentence or a phrase.  For me, the answer was to not-over-think it, then it just came.

Maybe if… Read more →

This in an interesting article (see link below!).  Several agents are offering publishers the chance to re-issue backlist titles and, if they don’t want to, publishing them themselves…  Backlist sales are tiny even for really established authors, but I guess many authors would like the chance for their old books to see the light of day.  (Only three of my eight books are available on Kindle at the moment).  It’s another blurring of the boundaries that has occurred as a direct result of the e-revolution.

I’m sure you’ve all spotted this story… It’s very entertaining, and I can perfectly understand her wanting the freedom to write under a different name.  The only thing I’ve ever published pseudonymously is one short story but it was bliss to write, the feeling that I wouldn’t be held to account.

The really intriguing bit for me is, exactly how did the story leak out…?  Did the Sunday Times really just make a lucky guess and investigate the editor and agent of that particular crime debut, when so many are published every month?  Surely those involved in the publication would have a huge investment in letting the news leak sooner or later, possibly almost accidentally and probably without Rowling’s… Read more →

Apologies for posting the Friday Challenge a day late.  Wifi issues here but other than that, it’s beautiful in Bantry.  I am assured this is the first unbroken week of sunshine there has been in Ireland since 1995.  Terrific audiences here at the West Cork Festival – some turned out yesterday to hear me and Claire Kilroy read in the local library.  Before that, as a bit of fun, a group of us (myself, a publisher and an agent) formed a panel for an event called Writer Idol.  People submitted the first page of their novels in advance, anonymously – an actor read them out, and when we on the panel had heard enough, we lifted our hands.  If two hands went up, the organiser shouted ‘Stop!’ and we had to explain why we wouldn’t read on.

It was a brutal process – I was worried we would have… Read more →

The sporting sentences for last Friday’s exercise are fantastic – I’ve skimmed a few but will go back and read them properly, probably while I’m on my way to Ireland for a literary festival later this week.  This Friday’s exercise will have to have a green tinge, I think.

In the meantime, I thought some of you might be amused by this competition:

http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/qs_content1_tbp?storeId=10001&catalogId=10051&langId=100&title=Help&spotName=wl_competition_LouiseDoughty

I can already hear what Bay will think – yes, it’s yet another of those publishers’ promotional ploys – a competition to promote Apple Tree Yard, prize an afternoon at the… Read more →