Well, the first weekend of 2024 has arrived and I’m getting around – a few weeks “late” perhaps – to posting a writing news update on this personal blog.
The main thing I want to confess is that I’m feeling fortunate: fortunate to have been able to persist with this freelance life (writing, teaching, editing, mentoring, coaching) full-time for the past 10+ years, and part-time (writing, editing) for another 10+ years before that. Fortunate that there is a cup of coffee in front of me as I write, a half-eaten croissant still visible on my plate at the good café – Colonna & Smalls – where I’m writing this blogpost early on a Saturday morning, surrounded by fellow residents of (and visitors to) Bath, where I live in SW England. Fortunate that my wife and I live at the top of a hill so our house hasn’t flooded in the recent extreme rains that have affected the U.K. Fortunate that… I could go on in this way about all the ordinary and extraordinary circumstances of life… Just getting safely through the maze of each day feels like a kind of miracle.
And I’m feeling fortunate, too, to be able to post an update here that my craft guide Unlocking the Novella-in-Flash: from Blank Page to Finished Manuscript won two book awards as the end of last year approached.
Some days things seem to go well with your writing or your art, some days they seem to go less well. Those are the ups and downs of the creative life! We writers send out our stories, poems, books into the world without any real idea of how they’ll be received. The response for each piece of writing can be very different AND can vary over time.
So, I recognise there’s a strong dose of good fortune inherent in a book winning an award – when a tiny adjustment in a judge’s mind on a different day might mean that someone else gets to write a happy news update blogpost about a different book. Yes, there’s hard work involved in writing a book. But often there are also lots of happy accidents – and lots of help – along the way.
A professional golfer – I think it was Arnold Palmer – once said: “The more I practise, the luckier I get.” I wish I knew as much as Arnold Palmer about the mysterious process by which practice translates into results!
Big thanks again to the publisher, Ad Hoc Fiction, for designing the hard copy of Unlocking… so beautifully. To artist Lucie Arnoux for the brilliant cover images. And among the book’s many beta readers and contributors, two in particular deserve special mention – John Mackay and Johanna Robinson – for their detailed proofreading and copy editing support across the manuscript.
And this particular book, what is it about? I hope you might be tempted to find out more here!
And here (again) is one of my favourite poems speaking about the ups and downs of life, by one of my favourite poets, R. S. Thomas. When I read it, I think of the ever-changing whims of existence – the way that (as Arnold Palmer might have put it) some days the ball bounces kindly for you on the fairway, some days it spins backwards into a bunker. Some days – we’ve all had plenty of these – you’re not even on the fairway at all. Either way, I hear Arnold Palmer persisting and telling us all: if you want to keep going, you have to put the last shot out of your mind and address the next one properly. I like this poem so much that I have it pinned to a cork board in my home office space. Whenever I feel I’m going through a rough patch with my creativity, its words offer a steadying perspective.
I don’t know if Arnold Palmer used to read poetry – but I like to imagine that he would have recognised the truth of this one…
Night and Morning
by R.S. Thomas
One night of tempest I arose and went
Along the Menai shore on dreaming bent;
The wind was strong, and savage swung the tide,
And the waves blustered on Caernafon side.
But on the morrow, when I passed that way,
On Menai shore the hush of heaven lay;
The wind was gentle and the sea a flower
And the sun slumbered on Caernafon tower.
Reviews:
“I know good teaching, and folks, this is it.” (Kendall Johnson at MacQueen’s Quinterly)
“[T]his brilliant guide… detailed, informative…I have never been so excited to start a workbook!” (Jonathan Cardew at Bending Genres)
“[V]ery much the printed equivalent of taking a focused MA on the topic of the novella.” (Judy Darley at SkyLightRain)
“My copy is plastered in yellow stickies and I will be continually returning and delving into different sections of this craft guide again and again… think of it as a guide to writing good fiction and developing any narrative form.” (Tracy Fells at The Literary Pig)
“[J]am-packed full of knowledge…this book finds that sweet spot where most writers would feel empowered…[A]ll-encompassing, motivational and in-depth.. worth its weight in gold…” (Matt Kendrick)
“This book is a classic…a five-star resource that will help thousands of writers produce the best possible version of their creative work” (Lily Andrews, Reader Views)
“Michael Loveday’s book is a perfect resource…Loveday does something different: here, readers are provided with a complete course which will, hopefully, result in a novella-in- flash being written… it is certainly money well spent.” (Matthew Tett, Writing in Education)
“There is magic in what Loveday says in his craft book.” (John Brantingham at The Journal of Radical Wonder)
“If you’re a fiction writer you should read this book.” (Sharon Pruchnik, at Goodreads)
