Rae of Light

Us writers give ourselves a really tough time about how much writing we get done. We beat ourselves up about whether our characters are convincing enough or if we've used too many clichés or adverbs. We agonise over word count and have endless inner debates about the merits of a word in a sentence or the construction of a sentence to clarify meaning. We worry that we'll befuddle our readers or over egg a description. Writers have indeed turned self flagellation into an art. So I feel it's crucial that we also do a serious amount of R&R. In my view this should involve indulging in your vice of the moment to the max. We writers live on the edge when it comes to our attempts to deliver a piece of writing worthy of our audience. I feel our readers may think the writing process is all too easy. After all, we only have to sit down and write something. How hard can that be? So it seems only fair that we should be allowed to be a little extreme when ...

Sydnee Blake was born in New York, lived in France but spent most of her working life in London.  She has been an actor, theatre director and teacher.  Her stories appeared in Worldwide Writers and Brittle Star .  They have also been placed in awards, including The Ian St James, The New Writer and Fish.  She has two sons and four grandchildren. It’s published!   I have my book Finding Words in Whitechapel and other stories. It looks beautiful BUT the cost. The journey… The adventure began a year ago with a small publisher, who will remain nameless. For £680.00 my master-piece received Publishing Services: Title set-up and administration, an ISBN allocation, legal deposit, bar code which resulted in a 250 gsm printed full colour outside only paperback book. Print on demand = £3.46 for each copy. Less for large orders, of course. Okay. I had friends do the cover, friends edited my book and that saved me a lot but what happens...