Ears, digging, bursary
Approximately-weekly news, #59
Harris has had what you might call a Mixed Week. On the plus side, it’s a bit cooler, and the surface strata of the beach are beautiful.*
And there are so many hares about in the fields that he has been able to get his Best Ears out nearly every morning.
There have been a couple of minuses, though. First, someone has put a building site on a bit of land that used to be full of excellent sniffs and, if you were lucky, half of a day old burger.
We stood here for a full ten minutes, rooted to the spot, waiting for the fence to realise its error and move. It did not. (Note disgruntled ears.)
And the second minus in Harris’s week is that someone else (OK, me, don’t tell him) has filled in the hole he has been assiduously digging in the garden whenever I am not there to tell him not to. I have filled the hole with soil, sprinkled it with grass seed, and topped it off with wood chipping. This worked on the last hole, which is nicely grassed over and three feet to the side of the new hole. (There were about four weeks of no-hole between.) I also consulted the internet to see whether there was anything else I could do to request Harris to stop working on his tunnel complex. The internet told me that my dog might be bored (unlikely, as we have Romping every afternoon and plenty of walks, and the rest of the time he is asleep) or just a diggy kind of a hound.** It also suggested spraying a bit of Jeyes Cleaning Fluid around and sprinkling some chilli flakes. They won’t hurt Harris, he just won’t like them.
Hooray! I thought, for the fifteen minutes between doing the squirting and sprinkling, and coming back out into the garden to find the hole being re-dug. I asked Harris to kindly desist, and filled the hole back in.
All was calm for 24 hours, until I left the studio to see Harris having a lovely nap… on top of the soil/wood chipping/Jeyes Cleaning Fluid/chilli flakes…
In other garden news, here I am with the Very Tall Thing! You can probably see by my face that I could not be more pleased with myself if I had woven it with my own hands, from chlorophyll and petals and *fill in names of other components of plants later when you remember them*.
Because I do not wish to be part of the Untrustworthy Internet, please note that perspective means that it looks as though the plant is quite a lot taller than me, whereas actually I’m only about an inch shorter.
I never cease to be amazed by the generosity of writers.
Exhibit A (I’ve mentioned this before) There’s a place for a writer on a low income on my Zoom workshops, paid for by a previous client. If you’re interested in a place (dates and details here), please message me and we’ll sort it.
Exhibit B: (This is News): I have a bursary available to pay for half of the cost of a manuscript assessment, for someone who can’t afford the full cost.
Manuscript assessments involve me reading your manuscript and writing an in-depth report for you on all elements of your manuscript: plot, character, pace, structure, setting, writing. I’ll also give you insights into what’s working, what isn’t, and suggestions for improvement. Plus, I’ll include a reader report - a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of what a reader is likely to think/feel/care about as they read. And we’ll have a Zoom call to discuss all of this once you’ve had the chance to think about it.
The usual cost of this is £18 (£15+VAT) per 1,000 words. Thanks to this bursary, it’s available for £9/1000 words to a writer who couldn’t afford the full cost. So, if your manuscript is 80,000 words long, then the cost will be £720 rather than £1440.
Ts and Cs:
your ms needs to be ready to send to me at the beginning of August
you don’t have to prove that you couldn’t pay the full cost, I believe you
we can set up a payment plan
if more than one person applies I’ll pick a name from a (sun) hat
that’s it!
(Full details of what I do are here. I’m taking bookings for September onwards, hit me up.)
You may be able to glean, from the cheerful tone of this newsletter, that edits are going Rather Well. It feels exciting to read my editor’s notes and think ‘yes!’ when it gives me an insight into how I can make the book better. And even the things that make me think ‘oh, nooooo’ are always food for thought, and lead to something constructive.
I’m making a couple of tiny plot tweaks, but most of what I’m doing is allowing myself to explore more, to go deeper; ultimately, to try to minimise the distance between what’s in my head and what’s on the page. So that the story you’ll read when the book comes out*** is the one I want to tell.
In a final bit of garden news, the Purple Things The Bees Like**** are starting to come out. I love their dusty plumpness.
Until next week, my friends, be well,
Stephanie X
*Harris may not have noticed this.
**The internet also suggested making a designated dig zone, which I think is an excellent idea, except that I have neglected to teach Harris either to read or to understand the concept of arrows. So I’m not sure how to direct him to any of the bits of the garden I would be happy for him to dig holes in.
*** early next year. More soon.
**** I’m going to say it’s sea holly, with about 59.3% confidence.
I think Harris needs a book on him, just saying... x
Thank you, cheered up this bad-back-scribe no end! X