Cumbernauld – Land of Ice and Fire

Cumbernauld (near Glasgow) isn’t a place I think of as exciting, but when I was there in March there was lots of excitement. I was attending the Scottish Association of Writers annual conference at a spa and golfing hotel. This is an amazing, fun event, full of the friendliest people imaginable.

Speaking as someone who likes their own company, I had a fabulous time meeting up with old friends, people I’ve only ever seen on zoom calls, people whose names I’d vaguely heard of, and more. The weather, unusually, was dry and clear. So dry and clear, in fact, that when the fire alarm sounded at 00:15 on the Sunday morning, I dashed outside wearing little more than a short cotton nightie and my glasses straight into the grip of a bitter frost! Within minutes it became clear this was not a drill – the laundry was on fire – and I was shivering violently.

Strange things go through your mind at times like this, and I was wondering how ironic it would be to escape from a contained, small fire only to die of hypothermia. Fortunately, a writer I’d met for the first time the day before came to my rescue. Another pocket novel writer had the presence of mind to grab her car keys (but not her shoes – interesting priorities there) and bundled me into her car. Then she found a spare fleece in her boot. Fortunately she found some shoes for herself in there, too.

Long story short, it was over two hours before we were allowed back to our rooms. The last hour of that was spent in the bar with the alarms still blaring as the management couldn’t switch them off until they’d dispersed smoke from the corridors.

Once back in bed, I put on my yoga pants and long socks, and then threw the unused half of the duvet over me, too. An hour later I was finally warm and sank into a far too short sleep. Here’s a picture of the crumpled space blanket the management evenutally gave me after they’d made those in cars get out so they could check everyone was accounted for.

The previous day I’d won the humorous short story competition with a story I thought would never see the light of day. I only entered it in the spirit of taking part: the SAW conference hinges on it’s numerous competitions, and if people don’t enter, there’s not much of a conference! I wouldn’t have entered had I known I would subsequently have to stand in front of a packed room and read my Jane Austen, Conan Doyle, Life on Mars genre mashup aloud.

Anyway, I am now the very proud owner of the Margaret McConnel trophy for one year only. Here’s a picture of me holding it, along with my winner’s certificate. The trophy is a transparent sort of star bursting out of a pedastal, which is why it doesn’t show up well against the white certificate.

The adjudicator of the humorous short story competition, Ingrid Jendrzejewski, told conference not to get disheartened by rejections; you just have to find the right market at the right time. I think Shirley Holmes, Time Traveller embodies that because I have no idea where else I could have sent what started as a bit of fun just for me.

So, my message this month is don’t be dishearted by rejections. Make sure your work is as good as it can be, and keep looking for that perfect home. I’d had some feedback on Shirley Holmes from my WOMAG writing critique group, which I acted on and I’m sure that helped. This is why I keep emphasising the importance of networking and interacting with other writers. It really works.

If you’re stuck for places to send your work if the WOMAG’s don’t like them, why not sign up for Chris Fielden’s website and newsletter. He keeps a long list of markets and regularly sends news of short story competitions. He runs short story competitions, too.

If you’re a Scottish writer, or living in or near Scotland, why not join the Scottish Association of Writers? There is both group and individual membership available. Who knows, we might even meet up in Cumbernauld one year, but hopefully not in the carpark at silly o’clock.

If you would like to read Shirley Holmes, Time Traveller, click here. You’ll be asked to sign up for my newsletter list. I promise newsletters will be infrequent and only drop into your inbox when I have something exciting to share. You can unsubscribe any time anyway!

Decisions Decisions

My latest murder/sweet romance is out this week. Murder in Tuscany is a pocket novel published by My Weekly, and so is only on the shelves of supermarkets and larger newsagets for a few weeks (look in the magazine section).

I’m surprised it’s been published so soon, if I’m honest. I sent it in to Kirstyn at My Weekly when she was looking for summer holiday stories. As it’s set on an agriturismo in – no surprises – Tuscany, it fits the bill perfectly. I had assumed, therefore, it would come out over the summer. On a curious turn of fate, The Apothecary’s Daughter recently sold to Ulverscroft for their Linford Romance line, and that will be out in August! Something to look forward to.

However, this leaves me with no pocket novels out there. Which means I should be writing one, no? Yes! Except I have no inspiration at the moment and I’m struggling hard to write book two in what I hope will be a long-running crime series.

Book one, Murder at the Bakery was originally called Fingers in Pies, and I’m seriously thinking about reverting to the original title as I think it fits the quirky nature of the read better. However, that would take a bit of research, as I’m not sure what Amazon would do if I took it down and then put it back up with a different title and cover. Would they think I was ripping off my own book? You hear such horror stories…

On a slightly different note, I’ve had to consider my pen name again this week. Another author let me know that some people congratulated Sue Cook from Crime Watch on my latest pocket novel! Now, that’s not a problem as such, but the real problem is if you search for ‘Sue Cook author’, the chances are you’ll find her and possibly many other Sue Cooks, before you find me. Just put Sue Cook into the author search in Amazon and see how many you come up with.

Which goes to show you should be careful about the penname you choose. Why not use my real name, you ask. Well, that’s even more common that Cook, so I don’t think it would help. I also don’t want people beating a path to my door, so prefer to remain a little anonymous.

There are other reasons for being choosey about which penname you write under, as listed in this easy-to-read article by Kindlepreneur. Among these is using a name suitable to your genre and target readership. Lemony Snicket is a fabulous name for a children’s author. And it’s probably best to steer clear of anything that sounds like a serial killer if you’re writing cozies or sweet romance. You also need to ensure the names are available on social media, for URLs and so on. So much to think about.

Which leaves me with the dilemma: do I just stick an initial in my name to distinguish me the Crime Watch Sue Cook, or go for something completely different? Sue B Cook vs Merryweather Jones. Sue Z Cook vs Millicent Mischief.

Decisions, decisions.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve had to decide this week?