The Wonderful Weeklies of today's blog title are, of course, My Weekly and Woman's Weekly. They've both published stories by me this week - and given me and all the books fantastic page space, coverage and editorial mentions! Two stories in two mainstream and best-selling woman's mags at the same time! Wheee!
You'll gather that I'm absolutely thrilled to bits as this seems to justify my existence (at least to me) and almost convinces me that sitting up here in the spare bedroom for hours on end making stuff up is Work. Am now off to "rearrange" the shelves in every newsagent's within a 30 mile radius...
And I've also just had the new My Weekly commission (on the strength of the 60s' stories) - it's for a 3,000 word Christmas short story to fit around an illustration they've sent. This is what they asked for with the three 60s ones as well, so maybe this is their new modus operandi?
It's a very similar picture (I think again by Lauren Bishop) of a leggy girl in a gorgeous red coat - but this one can be contemporary. As I only have two weeks to deliver it I think I'll probably make it an up-to-date rom com as that's the easiest thing to write. Oooh - now is that being a Proper Writer or is that just taking the easy way out????
My Weekly have already accepted a long traditional Christmas story from me for their Festive Special, so I think I'll have to make this one, which is aimed at their Christmas weekly edition, a bit different... I only wrote three Christmas stories this year, and MW and People's Friend bought one each but Woman's Weekly didn't like theirs (it might - probably was - have been complete rubbish, but I sent it while they were having their "fiction submission turn-around" so I've convinced myself it just didn't fit in with what they wanted at the time...) and it's too late to send it anywhere else now so I'll bank it for next year.
Goodness - a writerly blog post! I think I'll stop now before I ruin it with idle chit-chat about the mess that is my Real Life, and get on with writing the commissioned story which I've decided to call A Real Cool Yule. I'm okay with that as a title - My Weekly may not be, but at least it's given me something to start with - now all I need is the following 3,000 words... Sigh...
4 comments:
Hey well done Christina! That must feel fantastic! It was Woman's Weekly that I got the lovely reply from last week too. It was a Xmas story but about coping after losing my mum and they have a similar story in one of the oct issues. It was such a lovely refusal though that I'm planning on sending them some more stuff soon :)
Hope the 3000 words are going well...
Well you've certainly got a big workload there to keep you busy.
Happy writing.
Dx
mummy - yes, do keep sending to WW - if they've given you a lovely reply and a reason for not taking your story they must really like your writing and will certainly be looking out for other things from you - way to go! Why not send your story to People's Friend now? Think they're still looking for Xmas stuff.
3000 words are going okay - I think... Will let you know...
Debs - thank you. Happy writing to you too. I'm faffing - as usual - but will get there for the deadline (she says hopefully)... Love the pic - sigh...
Thanks Chrstina - it's written in first person so I'll have a look at their submission guidelines! You're a star :) Let you know how I get on!
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