Editor’s Letter
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Meet The Team
Mathew and Lesley first explored the idea of combining their skills in June 2020.
Lesley applied for and was accepted for SYPs (Society for Young Publishers) Launch mentorship scheme for freelancers and entrepreneurs wanting to work in publishing. She’s been teamed with Aimee Dewar, who works in design and marketing.
Aimee has given her some incredibly useful tips for getting our business off the ground and she will be working with Aimee until Christmas 2020.
Lesley has been teaching creative writing to adult learners at her local sixth form college for four years, and alongside this she’s been taking courses through CIEP (Chartered Institute for Editors and Proofreaders).
You can read more about Lesley elsewhere on the Author’s Pen website.
Mathew has been taking his MA in Creative Writing at Hull University and has been helping authors to self-publish for fifteen years.
His background in web-design, alongside Lesley’s BA in Business Studies and years of experience, melds our skills together and means we’re able to support authors at every step of their writing journey.
If you haven’t already done so, then please look too at our Facebook page, Author’s Pen – A Community of Writers, which is stuffed full of inspiration and tips for getting your writing off the ground and keeping that motivation going.
Happy writing,
Lesley and Mathew
Contents:
- Author Showcase: Veronica del Valle
- Writing Prompts
- Book Review: Shadows Rising by Madeleine Roux
- Contact Us
Author Showcase: Veronica del Valle
At her first Launch meeting Lesley met fellow mentee Rebecca Millar from Millar Editorial.
Rebecca mentioned that she’d been approached by a client, Helen Hart at Silverwood Books, who Rebecca had worked for previously and who was looking for a mid-grade editor.
With a love of mid-grade, Lesley leapt at the opportunity to work with Helen and her author Veronica Del Valle.
Veronica is a fantasy writer with an MA in Creative Writing from Kingston University.
She published her first novel, The Word-Keeper with Silverwood in 2019.
Her new novel, The Book of Four Journeys links to The Word-Keeper and explores some of the history of this book’s characters.
In her latest book, Veronica has delved into her love of Inuit mythology to write her story of Mumik and Pimnik: a tale of twins separated at birth and raised on different poles, whose quest to find each other begins at the same minute on the same day.
What does a journey do to the one who journeys?
This is a middle-grade fantasy book made of four stories: Alfalfa Spooly, Lincoln Jax, Neboo McCloudy and Mumik & Pimnik.
The collection is about change, crossing the threshold into the unknown and weathering our greatest fears.
Whether by foot, by sailboat, by hot air balloon or with a paraglider with a little propeller on the back, these four journeys are about deep inner transformations and discoveries.
The heroes and heroines of these tales will venture into paths that lead them through wild adventures, risks, uncertainties and, most importantly, possibilities.
WARNING NOTICE: This book is different from others in that the reader won’t find in it any dragons, wizards, trolls or ogres.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not fill to the brim with peculiar and unexpected characters.
Writing Prompts
Every month we provide you with some writing prompts.
See if any of these can inspire you to write a short story or even a paragraph:
- I probably shouldn’t be telling you this but …
- This time we went too far …
- ‘The guy at the bar sent this over.” The barman gestured across the room and the girls’ eyes swivelled, their conversation stalled by his words …
Book Review
Shadows Rising – Madeleine Roux
This one is for the fans, by the fans.
As a life-long gamer, I have played World of Warcraft since its launch; this book is written for me.
It is not like a normal fantasy saga, though it is over sixteen years old, so you need to know who everyone is to get the best out of this novel.
There is none of the expected character building. There is some, but they do not live long enough for it to come to fruition.
A Simple But Predictable Story
The story takes place between the current Battle for Azeroth and game expansion and the forthcoming Shadowlands (mine is on pre-order).
Whilst I enjoyed the book, I knew nothing was going to be fully resolved, more of a positioning of pieces on the board waiting for the dice to roll.
The story centres around Queen
Talanji and the fight to protect the loa of death, Bwonsamdi, from the plans of Sylvanas Windrunner.
The story is simple enough, if not predictable.
I only say this because, as a player, I know what is coming and therefore what must happen. In some ways this makes the storytelling follow a predetermined path. Much like following a questline in the game.
Final Thoughts
I would have preferred something deeper and with more soul searching. Something exploring the heart of the characters as every great fantasy does.
The close ties to World of Warcraft limit this. After all, it is essentially fan fiction, and there are moments of this, which I enjoyed.
Because of this, I am unable to recommend the book to anyone who does not play the game.
Contact Us
That’s all for this month.
If you have any questions or would like to speak to either Lesley or Mathew to discuss how we might work together, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
You can do that by emailing authorspen@outlook.co.uk
We’d love to hear about your manuscript and writing aspirations.
Please don’t hesitate to share our newsletter with other aspiring authors.
Until next month,
Happy writing!