This is the synopsis — does it cut the mustard? — Help! I need representation So…I’m thinking the time has come to snag myself some representation — I need a Literary Agent. Or…should I just take a chance and submit directly to some publishing houses? What to do? I’m at a stage with my WIP where it’s suddenly ‘come together’ — quite miraculously actually. This…

To understand who we are is a fundamental need — Parish records In the sixteenth century the Government began keeping records of persons who were neither royal, nor nobility. For the first time the names, occupations and relationships of ordinary men and women were recorded for posterity. It was also the first time paternity could be attributed to a particular sire. Pedigree…

I can see the moment in my mind’s eye — “If you have a skeleton in your closet, take it out and dance with it.” Carolyn MacKenzie When I was three and bit years old, I saw my father slap my mother across her face. She cried. When ‘the slap’ happened we were in the small kitchen of the first…

Her life went from dreams to screams — Stories change each time someone tells them Inevitably, stories — even true stories — change each time someone tells them, but the facts in this story are largely undoubted as they were reported in the local newspapers at the time. My recounting of this story to you mainly relies on the information archived in libraries in large…

Working in two POV’s — For the first part of this exercise you will take an ordinary object and write about it as if you were it i.e. using the 1st person point of view. For the second part of this exercise you will give your object a name and write about it using the…

Letting your imagination flow from one word — For this creative writing exercise you will choose one abstract noun as your starting point and allow your imagination to answer a series of questions. The idea is to allow yourself the freedom to create a profile of your word in an unusual and innovative way and without mentioning the…

It didn’t end well — Law and Order In Walmgate, York The 1839 County Police Act gave each county the power to set up their own police force. When Sir Robert Peel set up his London police force constables were paid a shilling a day’ — a ‘bob (hence the epithet ‘Bobby’). However, there was no ‘set wage’ for parish constables…

The heinous crime that shocked a village — Carnkie is a small, windswept village on a hilltop near the town of Helston in West Cornwall. The villlage has a population of approximately 400 folk. It was in this quiet, rural setting that a crime was committed that shocked the village and surrounding communities to the core. In 1998…

Put to bed and left to die — Forty-nine year old former Virgin air-stewardess Michaela Hall was the mother of two school-aged children and worked as a support officer for a charity which supported prisoners released at the end of their sentence. It was through her work that Hall met forty-three year old drug addict Lee Kendall. Despite…