Issue 13 – November 2021

Editor’s Letter

Today I woke up to find the first snow had landed. It’s definitely beginning to feel like Christmas and the bite from the wind today was very fresh.

I’ve spent November completing a CIEP course on Word for Practical Editing, which has taught me how to incorporate macros into my editing to remove some of the more commonly introduced errors. I’ve also come to the final module in a six week course on Developmental Editing with Sophie Playle, which followed on from the CIEP course in Fiction Editing and from Louise Harnby’s Editorial Report course. These courses have taught me so much more about editing and about the role of an editor in marrying together the author’s passion for their project with an agent’s and publisher’s need for a manuscript with commercial viability. This ties in with editing a manuscript both sympathetically to the author’s style and to ensure the sentences sing from the page. Additionally, ensuring continuity, character and plot development and a story that drives itself forward to a satisfactory denouement.

In addition to these two courses, I have completed a second set of edits for Lenie Palor’s children’s story about the adventures of Luning-Ning and Alipia, a delightful book about a young girl in the Philipines who befriends the family’s working buffalo.

Lenie’s book has been illustrated by a friend of hers and you can see one of the illustrations and learn a little more about Lenie on her author page. 

Happy writing,

Lesley

Contents: Writing prompts, book reviews

Writing Prompts

In keeping with today’s snow and blusters, I’ve included some Christmas themed writing prompts:

Jemima shook the wand free from her Christmas stocking and pointed it at the family cat. She squinted her eyes and focussed beedily, muttering words that came from goodness knew where …

The shop’s alarm pierced the festive mood. David looked in the rear view mirror to see a petite woman dominated by a huge screen tottering towards him and with two security guards in hot pursuit …

Karyn slid down the wall outside the nightclub. She really didn’t feel good and trying to convince the bouncers that she hadn’t even been served yet hadn’t worked. Her eyes wouldn’t focus.  She felt herself being hauled to her feet, who was this man with the proprietary air? …

Book Reviews  

The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, by Charlie Mackesy

I know, I know, this was last year’s hotly touted book for Christmas. I had grabbed it from my immense tbr pile because I felt I couldn’t possibly be the only person who hadn’t had the chance to read it yet, could I?

A friend of mine said that her sister was so enamoured of Charlie Mackesy’s book that she still gives it to people as a gift. She’s given away more than twenty copies to date and I can see why. It is a book that is all about kindness, self-acceptance and the importance of friendship. Charlie Mackesy’s illustrations and simple heartfelt sentences are uplifting and speak to each and every one of us. To the child still locked inside our souls and to the adult we’ve become. Not that this is a book for adults. It is a book for everyone, because as long as we strive to be kind and to do our best then we are all good enough.

If you don’t own it yet then now is the perfect time to buy it for yourself or for your friends.

We all need Charlie Mackesy’s wisdom served with a little of Mole’s cake. 

Where Snow Angels Go, by Maggie O’Farrell

I was a little disappointed by Where Snow Angels Go. It felt as if it took too long to get to the point where the Snow Angel gets the girl’s mother to come and check on her. There seemed to be a lot of unnecessary repetition and fluffy build-up to this point. Additionally, the focus was on the Angel and not on the girl’s health, which was surely the Angel’s mission? Conversely only one page is devoted to her illness and recovery.

After a slow start, the story picks up the pace and we see the girl doing anything she can to persuade her snow angel to return. It’s only when she is in genuine danger that she feels the gentle arms of the snow angel guiding her to safety once more. When she learns that no one else has seen the snow angel she sets out to ensure everyone she loves will gain their own protection from a snow angel.

Writing and illustrations are beautiful throughout and I get the impression this book is one that is designed to be bought as a gift. 

The book is aimed at five to eight-year-old children and yet it includes a lot of punctuation that isn’t taught until years five to six (English school system). As it is quite a long read, then I can only think that it is designed to be read to or with a child, rather than independently?

I really wanted to like this more. Unfortunately, I also can’t upload the cover because the image is too large.