When I said my stories can be quite moving...

Having finally moved house, unpacked and set up my writing room, I am glad to say I’m back in the land of regular writing again. It’s taken a while to get back into the swing, and I am certainly not producing as many words as I should, but I’m getting there.

Moving is a time-consuming and stressful experience. From ‘What if it all falls through?’ to ‘Will the cats settle ok?’ to ‘Which room does this box go in?’ to ‘Where did I put the torch?’ it’s great to know it’s all behind us now and things can start getting back to normal.

But one of the oddest things is realising just how much the subject of moving house seems to have crept, quite subconsciously, into my stories in recent months, even when they are supposed to be about something else – bereavement, childhood, friendship, romance. So, when I tell you my stories can sometimes be quite moving, moving house wasn’t exactly what I meant - although it looks like that’s what you’re going to get!

First there was ‘Pictures of Yesterday’, written just as we were putting our own place on the market back in November, and which appeared in The People’s Friend on 26 March. Janet is staying at her gran’s house for the weekend, getting it ready for sale after the old lady’s death. Of course, she is curious to know who will buy it and what changes they will make, although she knows she doesn’t want to witness any of it, preferring to remember things just as they always were. Enter a young and dishy estate agent (mine didn’t quite fit the bill, but this is fiction!) who has come to photograph the rooms. He loves the original features of the old house almost as much as she does and, because this story is more about moving on and accepting change than it is about the sadness of moving out… cue romance!

The next issue of Woman’s Weekly, dated 10 May, will include another of my stories, ‘Fitting’, this time about a woman remembering a childhood friend as she clears out clothes and photos before handing over the keys to her mother’s home to the estate agent. Not so much about the moving process itself this time - but all that packing up, sorting things for keeping/throwing away/charity shops, and coming across keepsakes you haven’t seen for years (and the memories they evoke) certainly rings true.

Coming very soon, in the next People’s Friend Special, number 123, will be another story of mine, at the moment called ‘The Right Move’, but the editor may well change the title before it’s published, as she often does. This one is about a married but childless couple searching for a more suitable home now they are living with two very large dogs. All my own worries about whether to start looking for a new house before or after your own home is sold, and whether you could lose your new ‘dream’ home because nobody wants to buy the old one, come rushing to the surface here, but luckily all ends well, just as it did for us – and our pets!

And, lastly, a story called ‘A Chessboard Garden’ that I wrote right in the middle of the unpacking process and submitted just three weeks after moving in. Once the boxes have been dealt with, and a screwdriver and bit of paint have been put to good use inside, there is often a tangled mess of neglected garden and unmown grass waiting for attention, and some new neighbours to get to know too. The two come together in this story, a particular favourite of mine, which hasn’t even been accepted (yet!)… but I do have high hopes for it!

Last night I re-read and re-wrote an old but as-yet-unpublished story, ready to send it off to a magazine. Although largely a romance, it does involve re-marriage, a teenaged daughter and a house not quite large enough to accommodate them all, so when I tell you its title is ‘Room For Three’ you might just get an idea what theme has managed to creep in, yet again!!

 

NO PLANS TO MOVE AGAIN.... EVER!

 

A STORY TOLD, A STORY SOLD

What a difference that first story sale can make

 

There are lots of us out here in ‘womag’ land (that’s women’s magazines, for those who don’t know), who are regularly sending off our short stories, with varying degrees of success. After spending many hours, days, sometimes weeks, working on a story, all we really want is to see our work in print and to know that others are reading and enjoying it, but that means finding an editor who likes our story enough to buy it. It’s the only true indicator that we have been recognised as professional writers whose work is worthy of publication - and payment. And what a magic moment achieving that first sale is!

I can still remember how I felt when I received my very first acceptance letter. It was way back in 1997 and the story was called ‘The Real Father Christmas’, about a family feud and how a young boy’s belief in Santa helped to heal it. It was bought by Woman’s Weekly and, along with a lovely little illustration by someone called Katrina Lewis, who I had never met, it filled just one page, yet I was paid the grand sum of £230 for it. For me, this was the turning point in my fledgling writing career. I had won first prize in a national writing competition three years before, and had sent two previous stories to Woman’s Weekly, neither of which was quite right for them, so to get a yes at only the third attempt was pretty exciting. There would be no stopping me now!

In fact, many rejections followed, but the occasional successes kept me going, and after three more (longer) stories in Woman’s Weekly, I managed to break through into other magazines too, with stories appearing in My Weekly, The Weekly News and The People’s Friend, who all paid less but gave me a home for those stories I knew weren’t quite written to Woman’s Weekly’s style. In all, I have now sold more than 120 short stories to UK women’s magazines, and it’s still a thrill to open up a copy and find out how each illustrator has tackled my story and characters, who often look nothing like the way I have imagined them! I’ve even had a couple of ‘fan’ letters from readers who have found something in my stories that’s resonated with what’s going on in their own lives – a great compliment to any author.

In recent years, my writing ambitions have spread and grown, largely down to the confidence and experience my short story successes have given me. Even getting used to the inevitable rejections and deciding not to be put off by them is a valuable lesson in the life of any writer. I have now written hundreds of articles and book reviews, a non-fiction book about solving cryptic crosswords, and several as-yet-unpublished novels, but short stories remains my first love and I can’t imagine a time when I will ever stop writing them. 

 

So, how do other womag writers look back on their first short story success? Was it a pivotal moment for them too, and what has happened since? I asked some of the UK’s most prolific and popular short story writers to tell me the story of their first womag sale.

 

Here’s what romantic novelist Natalie Kleinman has to say:  

 

In May 2012 I sold my first short story to Hjemmet, in Norway, some sixteen months after I first began submitting. I hadn’t appreciated until then what the time frame was, but I was obviously determined to succeed. I had in the meantime been shortlisted in competitions but this was my first sale and I can still remember how good it felt. That, and the £220 they paid me for it. The story was about a play on names where, should the hero and heroine marry (as of course they did) she would have a first name and surname that were in complete contrast to each other. Sounds weird, I know, but it worked and they do say love conquers all. 

My next sale, in October of the same year, was to The People’s Friend, and brought me the princely sum of £75, though I did go on to sell several stories to them, and the fee does rise with the number of sales. All in all I sold thirty stories to magazines as well as having two published in anthologies. It was an amazing confidence builder and led me ultimately to trying my hand at novels and, although I do submit short stories from time to time, my focus is now on my books.

Next comes Leonora Francis, one of very few black writers regularly contributing fiction to women’s magazines, and certainly the most successful:

My first story was published in The People's Friend in 2011. It was a comical story about a granddaughter encouraging her granddad to give up smoking in exchange for her removing her navel ring.  Whilst I thought I had 'made it', my second story with them wasn't published until 2012. Since then I've had over 120 stories published in women's magazines. At first my rejection rate was painfully high, but I can't complain because I learnt something new from each rejection. I still have some of those stories sitting on my hard drive and they make me cringe!

 

The best lesson I learnt during the entire writing process, for me at least, is to write what you want to write, instead of what you think the magazines want. It's the best way to find your natural voice. Once you've found your voice it makes writing specifically for magazines easier. I receive far fewer rejections than I used to - but I still get them!

I now concentrate more on serial writing and have written 6 serials for Woman's Weekly. I am currently writing one for The People's Friend. I believe the short story form is a good way of learning how to write. Many short story writers have gone on to write very successful novels.

It’s still quite rare to see a man writing for the womag market, but here’s Simon Whaley, who has had huge success with his non-fiction articles and books, talking about his own early ventures into the world of the short story:

My first womag story was published on 5th February 2004. I called it ‘Jungle Jane’, and it appeared in the weekly edition of Take A Break, for which I was paid £300 (they paid £400 for each subsequent story they bought from me for the weekly mag).The story was inspired by my sister who’d been on a girlie weekend with her friends, living it rough on a survival course. It reminded me of those team building exercises you have to do when employers feel staff aren’t getting on with one another. There’s always one person who thinks they’re in charge at these events, and so this story was partly my revenge on those people.

Publication gave me the confidence to continue targeting the womag market, and ‘Jungle Jane’ was also my first success in the Australian mag, That’s Life. Since then, I’ve successfully sold stories to The People’s Friend, Ireland’s Own, Yours, The Weekly News and …  eventually, Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special (although that one did take me nine years to crack).

Not all men are quite so open about their gender when they first pop a toe into the womag water. Rob Nisbet was a student in one of my own creative writing classes (and very keen to make sure he met what he perceived to be the magazine’s requirements) when he made his first attempt. Rob explains:

I sent the story to People’s Friend, complete with Scottish names and a mention of a tartan blanket, thinking that might help - and I received my first rejection! I wasn’t disappointed though. I’d had a rejection letter - from a real magazine!

I reprinted the story and sent it to Woman’s Weekly and to my delight they accepted it.  In October 2006 I was paid £100 and ‘Jean’s Bread Pudding’ took up two pages in a national magazine. I bought several copies, and still have one nearly ten years later. I remember leaving one in the tea-room at work and being encouraged by the post-it-note comments that grew on the cover as it was read again and again.

I chose to submit this story under my wife’s name, with some vague idea that a woman author might be more acceptable to the intended readership.  Whether this helped or not I couldn’t say; I have used my own name in womags many times since then, purely to see my real name in print, but I still resort to becoming ‘Trixie’ if I feel a story is strongly from a woman’s point of view. 

I wrote as a hobby, but that first sale gave me a confidence boost and a focus. Magazines paid for stories that I would have written for fun! There have been many sales since that memorable first story. I’ve won a couple of national competitions, read in art galleries and fringe festivals, and recently had three audio stories recorded by Big Finish for their Doctor Who range. I’m still trying to get agents interested in a novel I’ve written for teens. I’ve had a few encouraging comments but all rejections so far.  But I know that just one acceptance can change everything!

 

 

And, last but not least, let’s hear from Wendy Clarke, one of The People’s Friend’s most popular fiction writers. Just wait until you read how many she has written and sold in only four years – a true success story if ever I heard one!

I started sending stories out to magazines at the beginning of 2012 – just a few at first to test the water. After nine story rejections, I had my first sale in July of that year. It was to Take a Break Fiction Feast and I was, of course, over the moon. The story was called ‘Try Saying Yes’ and was the story of a girl whose friend gave her the challenge of going through a whole day without saying no to anything. It was published in November 2012.

My next sale was to The People’s Friend in September of the same year. It was called ‘Dancing Queen’ and was the story of what happened when a ballroom dance class was double booked with a Zumba class (this was me writing about what I know as I’m a keen dancer). There followed several more sales to both of these magazines before I had my first sale to Woman’s Weekly in October 2012 – a story called ‘Too Much to Lose’ about a woman whose attempt to lose weight alienated her from her husband.

Totting up sales and rejections is difficult to do as a rejection to one magazine doesn’t necessarily mean the end of the road for a story. It might take several submissions before a sale. I’ve written around two hundred stories for magazines and, not counting those still ‘out there’, have around twenty that I haven’t sold (and probably never will as they were early ones and not very good!) At the time of writing I’ve sold 160 stories.

Although I still write for the other magazines, I now mainly write for The People’s Friend and have also written two serials for them. They don’t pay as well as the other magazines but I have a great relationship with them and know that they will take most of what I write. A huge plus is that when you start writing regularly for them you are assigned an editor to work with – I love working with mine.

Writing for magazines has been hugely beneficial to me. It’s been a way of learning my craft and without the short stories I would probably never have written my debut novel which I finished last year.

 

My thanks to all who agreed to share their ‘first sale’ stories with me. There are nowhere near as many women’s magazines publishing fiction these days as there were when I started out, but the ones that do are always in need of good stories, and most will welcome submissions from new unpublished writers. So, if you are still struggling to make your first sale, please don’t give up. Amongst all the hard work and perseverance, there’s still a lot of luck involved too. We all struck lucky… and so can you!

 

Viv

 

 

The January Sales

It's sooooo cold outside!

Christmas is long behind us, it’s dark and cold outside, and life’s feeling a bit flat.  Just the time of year when we all need a bit of a boost; something to cheer us up. And that’s where, for many of us, the January sales come in! Seeking out a bargain, sprucing up our wardrobes, doing something that’s fun and makes us feel good about ourselves.
 

But, for me, January sales mean something entirely different. To any writer of magazine stories, sales mean only one thing – an editor has read one of the stories we’ve sent in, liked it, and said YES! We have sold a story and are going to get paid for it. And that is just as exciting as finding a new winter coat at half price, I can tell you!

I am very pleased to have made THREE story sales during January, each one of them penned months ago and pushed out of mind ever since. Believe me, it’s absolutely no use sitting around worrying about whether a story has yet reached the editor’s desk and if she’s going to like it. The work’s been done and the end result is out of our hands. All we can do is get on and write some more.

Here are the stories of my January sales, what inspired them and how they came to be written, although I’m not going to reveal which magazine has bought them or what they are currently called (Editors often change the title anyway!)

 1.     Last November, Paul and I had been heavily into house hunting. Estate agents were ringing up every day, and we were already on first name terms with a few of them. At the same time, we realised we would have to think about inheritance and make the necessary changes to our wills once we owned our first home together. Combine those two elements and what did I get? A young woman having to sell a house after the death of her grandmother. It gave me plenty of scope to introduce emotion, with the house 

Saying goodbye to the house

evoking treasured childhood memories, and my heroine having to say goodbye, not only to her Gran but to the house too. I knew from the start where this story would fit and wrote it very much with that specific magazine in mind. Luckily, the editor agreed, buying the story just two months after it was submitted. Although magazines contain many stories about family homes and country cottages being inherited by grandchildren, the new owner usually decides to relocate and move in. My ‘twist’, whereby she does not follow the conventional route but lets the house go, accepts the inevitability of change and moves on with her own life, is what the editor says made this story rise above the rest. And the hint of romance with the friendly estate agent, lifting the mood at the end, didn’t do any harm either!

 2.     The second story was a strange one. I started to write it in the New Year, with no idea of what it was about or how it would end. Sometimes that just happens, with an opening line or a random image leading me off into the unknown. By the time it was finished, it was too long for the magazine slot I had decided to aim for, so I had to do some serious cutting – not a bad thing when a story has rambled onto the page with so very little forward planning. By 9th January I had a 2000 word story about… well, so many things. Childhood memories (again), being a twin, having to wear second hand clothes, losing a friend and, years later, deciding to try to find her again. There were all kinds of influences from my own life mixed up in this story – a heroine of my own age, having twin daughters, remembering school life and friendships decades later (a friend’s ruby wedding party had helped with that one), and having to clear out cupboards but not always wanting to throw everything away. I liked this one. It had a feel-good factor by the end, and it was bought by the first editor to see it, just five days after it was submitted, which is pretty rare!

So many to choose from!

 3.     The third story was written purely for fun, way back in June. I like a bit of gentle humour, and this one was based on a family game. You know the kind of thing we all play with our kids – Can you name a fruit or vegetable whose name starts with each letter of the alphabet in turn? What would you be called if you could have chosen your own name? If you were a car, what car would you be, and why? For the game in my story, I chose biscuits. If you could be a biscuit… Well, I love a good choc chip cookie, and I’m quite partial to fig rolls too, which I know are not everyone’s cup of tea. So, we have a group of young boys gathered for a birthday celebration, a harassed single mum and a gran helping out, all sitting together and playing the game, with some interesting results. But humour is a very subjective thing. It’s not always to everybody’s taste. The first magazine didn’t like it at all. ‘Sweet, but with no surprises’ was the verdict after a four month wait for a response. Yet, editor number two loved it – ‘a smashing idea’ she said, ‘and I loved the ending’. So this one has been seven months in the making, and it will probably be another couple before it is published. Patience really is the name of the game… unless it’s one about biscuits, of course!

A Year in the Life of a Writer

So, here are my highs and lows from 2015. It’s been a mixed year!

With Sir Tim Rice and Wendy Clarke

In January, I joined the Council of the SWWJ and agreed to re-vamp their Manuscript Appraisal service, and I have now taken on the role of competitions co-ordinator too! As a long-term member, I have always enjoyed attending SWWJ events, and being on Council now gives me more input in the planning and something to actually do (apart from chatting and eating) while I am there! During 2015, thanks to my new role, I have had drinks on the House of Commons terrace, attended a wonderful lunch party at the National Liberal Club, and had tea with Sir Tim Rice. Lovely!

As a member of the Romantic Novelists Association’s New Writers Scheme, I have enjoyed some lively social events and interesting talks too, and in the Autumn I received my best ever ‘reader’s report’ for my most recently completed novel, which was described as already reading just like a published book. Shame that the first publisher I then sent it to didn’t seem to agree! Still, it’s early days and that novel has already been submitted elsewhere.

Short story successes have continued to come in, with stories appearing in The People’s Friend and Woman’s Weekly, and my first appearance in a My Weekly annual (2016 edition, but published a few months ago). And I still write regularly for Practical Pre-School magazine on my specialist subject of working and reading with young children, with at least one, and often two or three, articles in each monthly issue.



personalised crossword

I also started my new crossword venture this year. Having loved doing cryptic crosswords for many years and seeing my book selling so well (despite a problem with lost royalties which the publisher still hasn’t managed to sort out after many months of trying), I thought it was time I started compiling some of my own. Since making that decision, I have seen my writing themed crosswords in print in the SWWJ in-house magazine and online at Kishboo magazine, and have compiled several personalised crosswords for clients as birthday and Christmas gifts for their friends and family. I intend to do a lot more of that in 2016.

I have continued to make new writer and reader friends throughout 2015, both in person at writerly events, and through facebook and twitter, and this year I launched my own facebook author page to try to separate the writing stuff from the personal. It gained over 100 likes in only four days, which I was very happy about, and I will continue to update the page whenever I have writing news.

The highlight of the year though, in writing terms at least, was when literary agent Hannah Ferguson offered to represent me and my novel 'After I Leave Her', and the excitement of seeing the novel being sent out to, and talked about by, lots of the top publishing houses in the UK. We had a great meeting with an editor who showed every sign of being about to ‘take me on’, until her finance and marketing colleagues decided not to go ahead. That has to rank as the greatest disappointment of the year… from high to absolute low in one easy step!

On a more personal note, 2015 saw one daughter graduate with a merit in her Masters degree (lovely ceremony at Westminster Hall), while the other started a new nursing job and a Masters degree of her own. My oldest schoolfriend celebrated her ruby wedding anniversary, although the celebrations were marred by the unexpected death of her aunt who was travelling from America for the party and died en-route. And Paul and I, more than a year after our wedding, finally found a house we both liked enough to rush to the estate agents and start the ball rolling for a house move early in 2016.

But the best thing that happened this year, or in just about any year, was the birth of my first grandchild – the adorable Penny. Watching her grow and develop, and listening to her little giggle is a real joy, and spending time with her is the only thing I will willingly leave the laptop for.

Penny meets Santa!
 

Wishing everybody - writers, readers, family and friends - a very Merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous 2016.

Viv x

 

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Learning to live with a split personality!

Since getting married last year I find I am constantly juggling two names.   

I have been called Vivien Hampshire for a very long time, and certainly for my whole writing life. Although I’m far from famous, I am known by that name, both in women’s magazine fiction and pre-school magazine circles, and I’m reluctant to change it. Yet, in my personal life, it’s expected that I take my new husband’s name and become Vivien Brown, and I am more than happy to do that, despite the hassle it causes. Passport, driving licence, household bills, bank accounts, library card, doctor and dentist records, you name it… they all have to be changed.

So, because there are two very distinct and separate areas of my life, each pleading a strong case for the use of one of my two names, I have decided there is only one answer. I will live with both names side by side - not just during the immediate change-over period, but forever!

But how do I manage that without tying myself up in knots and confusing everybody else? If you are about to get married, especially you writer ladies out there, believe me, there is a LOT to think about…

Firstly, I have no real choice but to continue to write as Vivien Hampshire. Using my new married name would have felt like starting all over again, with regular readers not recognising the new name at all. When it comes to those professional childcare and early education staff who read my articles about working with young children, it would also worry me that they’d have no faith in an apparent new writer and I would lose all the benefits (a wealth of knowledge, experience and credibility) that I have built up behind the old one.

So, I have opened a new facebook ‘author’ page where I will forever be Vivien Hampshire (Author) - it’s very easy to do – and that’s where my readers and writing friends will be able to find me and where I will talk only about my books, stories, and other writerly stuff. You can take a look at it here . This blog will also continue under the name of Vivien Hampshire, as will my Amazon author page – to ensure it matches the name on my books – and my membership of writing organisations like the SWWJ and RNA. As for twitter, I am Vivien Hampshire there too, and intend to stay that way, as most of my tweets are of the writerly kind.

For my general daily chat, friends and family, likes and shares, photos of my cats and granddaughter, etc. I am retaining my personal facebook page, where I have already made the switch to calling myself Viv Brown – with the old name retained on my profile page in brackets for those who are either curious or confused!

Email: Well, what can I say? The thought of the number of people I would have to tell if I changed my email address scares the hell out of me. And plenty of people use obscure email addresses that don’t include their name at all, so in that area Vivien Hampshire it is, and will (probably always) remain, no matter who I am communicating with.

As for the important finances… I’ve changed my name at the bank, but I’ve also kept just one small rarely-used savings account open at another bank in the old name, so I have somewhere to pay in the odd stray cheque that sneaks through the net bearing the Hampshire name. I was amazed at how soon my regular bank started refusing to accept cheques in that name, even though their records must show that I’ve been called by it for well over 30 years!

Of course, when magazines or publishers pay me fees or royalties, they need to know my ‘official’ name too – the one that matches my bank details, but they are more than happy to publish me under the old name, so I suppose Vivien Hampshire has now become my ‘pen name’. Lots of writers use pen names; it’s just that mine is my ‘ex-name’ and not a made-up glamorous one as many others are! Of course, I’ve had to tell PLR, ALCS, and DACS of the name change too, but they all have facilities within their systems to cope with authors' pen names (multiple ones if necessary). And when it comes to the tax man, he now knows me as Vivien Brown, with a ‘trading name’ of Vivien Hampshire. Simple!

 

Then there’s ID. I still haven’t changed my name on my passport, mainly because it costs a fortune to do it, so I’m waiting for it to expire, when I will have to buy a new one anyway. It makes holidays interesting, as I’m sure the hotels we stay in abroad must assume we are not married – not that they care these days. Just remind me not to book a double room in Dubai until it’s been sorted! But I have changed my name on my driving licence (to ensure it matches the name on my car registration documents and insurance), so by producing either the passport or the driving licence, both of which carry a photo, I can still legitimately prove my identity under either name, at least for now. And the marriage certificate comes in very handy sometimes to prove both who I was and who I now am – like when selling my house, which was bought when I was a Hampshire but is now being sold as a Brown. Oh, boy, isn’t it complicated?

And so all I have to master now is learning to sign my new signature without thinking about it, and without having to stop mid-flow and apologise that I’ve started to sign the old one. It still happens occasionally, after more than a year.

And, of course, most importantly, I have to remember which of my two personalities I am supposed to be at any given time - depending on where I am and who I’m talking to! So, on that note, it’s Goodbye for now – from both of us!

 

 

 

 

 

PROCRASTINATION: A big word, and an even bigger mistake!

I must stop monkeying around!

Why is it so hard to get back into the swing of things after a week away?

 

Eight days away from my desk. That was all it was supposed to be. Plus maybe one day before setting off – for packing – and another after flying home – for unpacking! So, why is it that, a week after arriving back from my sunshine holiday in Lanzarote, I still haven’t managed to get back in the swing?

When I was still going out to work I would have had no excuses. Ignore the piles of washing and the half empty case still open on the bedroom floor and just set off for the office. It might have taken a few evenings to catch up with the household stuff, but catch up I would, and fairly quickly too. And my mind and body would have been right back into the day job as if I’d never been away. Working from home now, and being my own boss with nobody breathing down my neck, seems to have put paid to all that!

Since getting home I have washed my way through several loads of laundry, changed the bed (well, who wants to get back between the dirty sheets you left behind more than a week before?), collected the cats from the kennels, read through pages of emails (many of them of the junk kind), stocked up at Sainsbury’s, been to visit my elderly mum and helped her to change her bed and get her supermarket shopping too, done a little light gardening and a thorough hoovering of the house, and attended a funeral. All of which I would once have fitted in around work, but now these oh-so-essential tasks seem to spread themselves out and take over, so when it comes to my writing, I find myself sitting down each evening and thinking: It’s not worth starting anything now. It’s late. I’m tired. There’s always tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes!

Writing is supposed to be my job now. My priority. My passion. So why am I not doing any? To be honest, since arriving home, writing anything other than the shopping list has been pretty much non-existent. I did manage to rattle off an article one evening, mainly because it was commissioned, so there was a deadline – and a welcome fee - involved. But what I really want to write is fiction, so why am I not doing it? I'm procrastinating; that's why! Making excuses, and finding silly reasons to put it off. 



My latest published story

The one short story idea that did emerge this week chose late at night to pop into my head. I was already in bed but the whole first page was fully formed in my mind before I went to sleep. The trouble was - by the time I woke up it had disappeared without trace. Yes, I should have got up and made notes, but it’s hard to get motivated at one a.m., and I would surely remember at least the germ of it come morning, wouldn't I? Sadly not. I’ve spent a lot of fruitless hours trying to recover it, but I already know it’s gone for good. Still, one of my stories, called The Anniversary Waltz, is in the Woman’s Weekly Fiction Special that’s just hit the shops (November issue). It’s one I really enjoyed writing and am very happy to see in print, lovely illustration and all, plus I have just sold another story to The People’s Friend, so with that kind of boost, it won’t take me long to find another idea - and to nail it down next time. No excuses!

And, as for my novel in progress? Well, let’s just say that a novel is like another world, one that I have created in my own head, and I need to step back inside it as soon as I can... but it’s closed its doors to me. Temporarily, I hope. After just a short time away it’s been very easy to ‘lose the thread’. And there’s only one way back in - I need to re-read the whole thing right from the beginning to remember where I was, who’s doing what, where and when, and recapture what I had planned for them next. Luckily, I’m only a few chapters in, so it won’t actually take too long. But please, remind me not to go away again until it’s finished. Or at least to make some proper notes as soon as each new plot idea strikes, even if it is in the middle of the night. Losing the thread after 7000 words is manageable, but when I’ve got all the way to 70,000? I’m not sure I could cope with that!  

A BLACK BELT IN CROSSWORDS!

Taking my writing in a whole new direction...

 

It’s September and I can hardly believe I’ve been married for a whole year already. Where does the time go? I wouldn’t say there’s never been a cross word between Paul and me over the last twelve months, because having a bit of an argument from time to time (or even every day!) is a healthy part of married life… isn’t it? But ‘cross words’ of a different kind do play a big part in our daily lives – those of the black and white squared variety.

Crosswords are great for keeping the old brain cells in good working order, playing around with words and expanding vocabulary, and for developing patience and persistence – all essential requirements for any writer – and no day is truly complete for me without enjoying, and finishing, the crossword in the paper! My record for the Daily Mail cryptic is now down to around eight minutes on a good day, but I have to allow a whole lot longer if I decide to have a go at the Telegraph Toughie!         

I often browse through ebay or Amazon looking for ‘crosswordy’ items too. There are so many – pens, egg cups, mugs, cuff links, ties… My crossword-patterned furry slippers all the way from America have finally fallen apart after nearly three years of wear but unfortunately nobody seems to sell them anymore, so I can’t replace them, but I have just added two great t-shirts to my collection: a black one with the logo ‘Live Breathe Sleep Solve’, and a grey one with ‘Black Belt in Crossword Puzzles’ emblazoned right across the chest. A bold claim, maybe, but I have been solving them for fifty years so it’s one I feel justified in making.
 

Since writing my book ‘How to Crack Cryptic Crosswords’ (details here) I’ve had a real urge to start compiling crosswords of my own, and it’s proving to be a great success.

I started earlier this year with a crossword to celebrate the impending birth of my granddaughter Penny, packing it with references to cots, bottles, nappies, rattles and all things baby – and I loved doing it. I also ran a small competition here on the blog, offering a personalised crossword as a prize, and the winner, Wendy Clarke, asked me to compile one especially for her husband Ian’s fiftieth birthday. What fun that was! Wendy gave me all sorts of information about her man and I weaved it into the clues – everything from his favourite drinks, cars and music to the names of family members and pets, holiday destinations, hobbies… and a whole lot more!

Then a friend I hadn’t seen for ages happened to spot me talking about the blog competition on facebook and got in touch to ask if I could make up a similar puzzle as a birthday surprise for her partner’s mum. My first paying customer! Emails went backwards and forwards, with more and more obscure facts about the unsuspecting Barbara changing hands, and again a highly personalised crossword emerged, with every clue having some connection with the lady’s life, work, friends and family, even though we have never met.

I have also started writing regular cryptic crosswords with a distinctly writerly theme for inclusion in the quarterly magazine sent out to all members of the SWWJ (Society of Women Writers and Journalists), and did another, with the clues all based around writing and reading, for the competition page of a recent issue of Kishboo, the e-magazine for fiction lovers. Both are worthy causes so I didn’t charge, although I have discovered that compilers can easily command a fee of around two hundred pounds or more for writing even a fairly small themed cryptic crossword puzzle for a popular newspaper or magazine!

So, to stop me worrying over the latest plot problem in my work-in-progress or wondering what’s happening with the completed novel that’s currently with my agent, I’m going to take occasional time out from my fiction and article writing work and compile (and hopefully sell) a few more specialist crosswords. Not to try to make my fortune, but because it’s fun to do, I’m getting pretty good at it and, as hobbies go, it’s a lot quieter than knitting - my husband just can’t tolerate all that rhythmic needle clacking!

My aim is not for my puzzles to appear in national newspapers - many more experienced people than me are already doing that, so the competition (excuse the pun) is likely to be fierce - but for them to become unusual and highly personalised keepsakes to be presented as gifts for birthdays, engagements, weddings, anniversaries, or at leaving parties etc. I might tackle some specialist topics too if I can get a trade paper or club magazine interested in publishing one for their members to crack. You name it… any theme, any celebration, any life story... and I will do my best to produce just the right tailor-made and totally unique crossword for the occasion. No two will ever be the same!

Rates start from just £15 per puzzle, depending on the size and level of complexity. Does that seem a lot? I hope not, as each one can take several hours to put together. Crosswords will be delivered to you as PDF documents by email, in colour and suitably decorated, all ready to print - or even to frame! – with the solution provided separately in case you get stuck.

So, if you fancy having a special crossword written just for you, or as a gift for a friend, please get in touch and help me to get this new venture off the ground. Feel free to email me at vivienhampshire@btinternet.com to find out more, ask for a price list, or place an order. If it takes off, prices will go up to a more commercial level next year, and I may even get myself a proper website. Wish me luck!

Viv

And, just to show I really can do it, here’s what some of my satisfied customers have to say so far:

 

I was wracking my brains trying to find something unusual to give my husband for his 50th birthday and Viv came to the rescue with the idea of a personalised crossword. I would say it was his best present! (Wendy Clarke, winner of my blog competition)

A wonderfully unique, personalised gift for anyone who loves cryptic crosswords. Viv takes the time and effort to find out many details about the recipient which makes the clues and/or answers particularly meaningful. She is able to tailor the difficulty to their level. You will even have fun finding out things you didn't know about your loved one. Highly recommended. 
(Sally Alfred)

Many thanks for creating a bespoke cyrptic crossword for the summer 2015 issue of KISHBOO e-magazine. It was a fun, fresh and original addition to our pages. and an enjoyable challenge for our readers. (Editor, Kishboo)