Meet my guest Wendy Clarke

Wendy Clarke, has had phenomenal success in getting short stories published in the notoriously difficult area of women’s magazines. Recently I read a collection of her short stories, ‘Room In My Heart,’ and was blown away by the scope of subjects she covered. I was particularly struck by one called ‘The Courting Cake’ which was set in the Lancashire town of Chorley, a town I’m familiar with. Somehow she’d managed to convey the Lancashire-ness of it even down to mentioning a dance hall that I used to patronise when I was younger! When I asked her if she knew the said dance hall, she admitted she didn’t but had done her research. That’s what I call dedication.

She now has a new collection of short stories out, ‘The Last Rose,’ and to celebrate its launch, I asked her to describe how she’d first come to write, what inspires her to write, how long it takes her to write a story and, as she’s now writing her first novel under the auspices of the Romantic Novelists’ Association New Writers Scheme, how it will affect her short story writing. Here’s what she had to say.

At school, English was always my favourite subject. Being pretty much a dunce at anything bordering on scientific or mathematical, I would look forward to these lessons and find my shoulders relaxing when I walked through the classroom door.

              I met my old English teacher last year. He’s over eighty now and it was the first time I had seen him since school. He asked me what I was doing with myself. “I’m a writer,” I said, surprised he remembered me. It was the first time I had been confident enough to say these words but I had just sold my hundredth magazine story and felt that I had earned the right!

              “Now why doesn’t that surprise me?” he said.

              I can’t describe how wonderful it was to hear him say that, for I had always looked up to him as a writer and a teacher. It was all the more pleasing because just three years earlier, I had heard the sad news that the school I was teaching in was closing and that I no longer had a job. His words gave me faith in my career change.

              Having not written anything, except exam papers, school reports and lesson plans, since leaving school, this new path had been an unexpected one. The memory of those English lessons where I had created the stories and poems that I loved, must have stayed with me, though, for when my brother suggested I try the online writing course he had just completed, I jumped at the chance. I loved it and went on to do a second.

              After the course ended, I carried on writing and started sending stories to women’s magazines. To my surprise, I had my first acceptance quite soon, quickly followed by sales to two other magazines. A few weeks later, my first story was published, complete with illustration. I was thrilled but not only that... I was hooked! In fact I’ve been writing short stories ever since.

              I’m often asked where I get my inspiration from and I would say all over. I read papers, I listen to the news, I watch the adverts, I eavesdrop on peoples conversations and I keep my eyes open. Sometimes I feel like a spy! A story can take anything from two hours to two days to write – it depends on the length and how inspired I feel. Historical stories take longer because of the research.

              My success as a short story writer is in large part down to my tenacity. I’m a great believer in setting goals and achieving them. In the early days I would say to myself, ‘I will not stop trying until I have had a story accepted by this magazine.’ Later the goals became, ‘I will have a serial accepted’, then ‘I will have an article published.’

              Once these goals were achieved, I realised there was one final one left – to write a novel. Having decided the genre would be romance, I joined the Romantic Novelist Association’s New Writers’ Scheme in January of this year and I would like to say that I am forging ahead with it... only I’m not. The reason for this is because I can’t shake off my love of the short story, so I am doing both.

              I have also just put together and published my second collection of short stories, The Last Rose which has taken up time. My writing friend Tracy Fells would say it’s all procrastination... but I call it trying to do everything I love!

That was fascinating, Wendy, especially the bit about meeting your old English teacher. Many congratulations on your success – and the best of luck with writing your novel. 

Here are the details of Wendy’s book http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Rose-Stories-friendship-ebook/dp/B00U1WBAC4. Wendy has a terrific blog if you’d care to take a look here http://wendyswritingnow.blogspot.co.uk/.

It's Never Too Late To Learn

A couple of souvenirs from our day

On Saturday, 5^th April, I went to a fabulous writing day led by the brilliant Sue Moorcroft. Organised by Marilyn Rodwell, the co-ordinator of the Birmingham Chapter of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and thanks to a grant from that highly esteemed organisation, it was a huge success. Sue Moorcroft is known to many of us through our association with the RNA and, besides being the author of several acclaimed novels, short stories and serials, is a writing tutor. What follows is a brief precis of all we learned.

We’d all been asked to bring a book reflecting the genre we tended to write in and discussed the importance of cover images and the need for back-page blurb to reflect the content of the book. We were surprised to learn that in the US, the romance genre always features a man on the cover whereas in the UK, it tends to be a woman. Next came a discussion about ‘saggy middles’ – not our own but those of a work-in-progress – and some of the ploys we can introduce to liven up turgid prose. Sue advocated a one-sentence synopsis which summaries the plot – a useful tool if speaking to journalists or anyone who asks, ‘What’s your book about?’ We discussed the different kinds of heroes and heroines and agreed that when a hero was said to have leadership skills, in a woman the same skills she was said to be bossy! We discussed how to give our characters more depth and make them act, react and interact.

I was impressed by the venue, the prestigious new Library of Birmingham, although not so impressed by the fact that, on the way out, the down escalator wasn’t working and it was very hard on my dodgy knees. Because of the problem with my eyesight, my husband had accompanied me to Birmingham, though not to the workshop. Bless him, he bought me a souvenir mug from the gift shop which read ‘Rewriting The Book,’ very appropriate since that’s what I’m doing with my novel!

Time to 'fess up!

Yes, it's confession time. I've had my reader's critique on A Suitable Young Man/Save The Last Dance For Me from the Romantic Novelists' Association New Writers' Scheme for a few weeks now and said nothing about it. The reason I haven't mentioned it before is because the reader had written quite a harsh report, leaving me devastated and demoralised, especially after such a good report last year. 

However, while at the RNA Conference, I had a lovely chat with the New Writers' Scheme, Melanie Hilton (who writes Regency romances as Louise Allen.) She agreed that the report was harsh but said that, had the reader not believed it was worthwhile, she wouldn't have written such a comprenhensive report. Melanie also confessed that even after having numerous books published, she still gets reports like that from her editor!

She advised starting with the easier edits; that way the rewrite wouldn't be as daunting. In fact, when I finally looked at the manuscript, I discovered that the reader had comprehensively annotated pages in much the sam way I would imagine an editor would do. These suggestions are extremely helpful and it's those I will be making a start with. Once I've done those, I'll look again at the report to see how much of her other suggestions I can take on board.

Although my heart quails at the thought of yet another rewrite, I know that it has to be done if ever I am to be published.

A steamy experience!

Ha! That got your attention, didn't it? Actually, I was talking about last weekend (12th-14th July) when I was a delegate at this year's Romantic Novelists' Association Conference. The steamy experience stems from the fact that the air conditioning in The 
Edge Conference Centre had broken down. Although portable air con units and fans had been hired, we still steamed in the extremely warm temperatures. Here are some random thoughts of the weekend.

Who designs a building with windows that don't open especially when, predictably, the air con breaks down during the hottest weekend of the year - meeting up with old friends and making new contacts - established authors are some of the nicest people around and so generous with their time - the abundant greenery of Endcliffe Student Village - interesting and informative workshops - pity I had to come out of a couple before I flaked out - spendid Gala dinner on Saturday night with everyone dressed in their finest, fancy shoes, plenty of wine - hard-working organisers and committee members - sitting out in the blissfully cool night air - regret that I hadn't taken my comfy old sandals and paying the price with swollen feet and blisters - saying goodbye to everyone - regret that it was over with for another year - roll on next year!

Yours truly at the Gala Dinner.

Belated Blog

Many apologies for not blogging for such a long time. I had been busy editing my latest rewrite (seven so far plus numerous edits) of Save The Last Dance For Me in preparation for resubmitting to the New Writers' Scheme of the Romantic Novelists' Association. On 18th May, with huge sighs of relief, I sent off the finished manuscript and am now awaiting a reader's critique. I fully intended taking a break of a few days before tackling anything else but a short holiday in the Cotswolds and catching up with garden tasks and, most recently, the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations, means that I have not yet done so. But, back to normal now, and I am resolved to start again tomorrow!


A few weeks ago, in the May issue of Writing Magazine, I read an article by Adrian Magson on what it takes to be a writer. One of the things he said really struck a chord with me and, I guess, with many of my fellow writers. I quote: "A hunger to write. Not to be confused with an obsession for compiling lists, but that innate passion to be a writer, in whatever form. This usually manifests itself early in life, leading to a relentless haunting of bookshops and libraries, or a deep attraction to writing materials. And writing, of course. Goes without saying." Sums me up in a paragraph! I can't resist bookshops (especially second-hand ones), libraries (all those books promising a good read) and stationery shops (to buy notebooks, of course!).