Morgen’s Saturday Shout-out 001

Hello everyone. This is me… on the right – a water baby – except of course I’m a bit older and wiser (and almost as far away from the sea as one can get in Britain).

A couple of weeks ago, I created https://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/me/morgens-saturday-shoutouts to inspire me to put a weekly post up about what I’ve been doing, see as the other posts are either about or by my guests.

I’d love to tell you that since that page went up that I’ve been working hard at my own writing, but sadly (and as per usual) this blog’s taken over and I’ve done nothing to my second novel, a mystery entitled ‘After Jessica’. What’s more annoying is that I have six wonderful first readers (hi Jenny, Graham, Tony, Robin, Catherine and Jessica) all waiting for me to get it done and send it over. Of course I don’t expect them all to come back to me (and certainly no quicker than I’ve been) but just knowing that one or more of them might should be pushing me to get it done… I know, it’s down to me to find the time and had it been November, I’d be doing just that for NaNoWriMo. I shouldn’t be hard on myself because I did / won my fifth NaNo in November and then had a backlog of emails etc then there was Christmas. Yeah, I know… it’s only three days.

So, in the meantime of me doing anything productive of my own, in case you’ve not stopped by my Morgen With An ‘E’ page, I’ve replicated it below to prove that actually I can sit my bum in my chair and do some work. 🙂 I hope you’re sitting comfortably…

Hello. I’m Morgen With An E, a writer of over 7 years (although I do remember writing a story about an ampersand when young and dabbling with limericks in my 20s, and I’ve always had my head in a book; formerly Stephen King but my tastes have softened somewhat… to crime and humour). I’m passionate about the craft, and wanted to share with you my knowledge and experience gleaned to-date, having studied under the tutorledge of Sally Spedding, Judith Allnatt, Sue Moorcroft, Joanna Barnden, Jane Adams, and Myra Schneider, and most recently Helen M Hunt. My contact details are here.

I write fiction, mainly short stories and novels with some poetry, and have been published in the UK, the latest being two flash fiction pieces in Cake issue no.3. I also submit to magazines and competitions  in the UK and overseas and won Ripping Pages competition January 2008 with a poem ‘Fight for life’, was shortlisted in the Verulam Writers’ Circle ‘Get Writing’ Competition 2010 with Feeding the Father, a based-on-a-true-story monologue, which was also shortlisted in the Writers’ News Short Story Competition October 2010 (so near and yet so far). I won the Northampton Writers’ Group Members Only Short Story Comp July 2010 and was also shortlisted at Verulam Writers’ Circle ‘Get Writing’ 2011 Competition. ‘Feeding the Father’ is available as a free eShort here (there are three other freebies) and will feature in an upcoming anthology ‘It’s all about me’.

I’ve written four and a bit novels (three for NaNoWriMo – www.nanowrimo.org: 53,000 in November 2008, (novel no 2 Jan-Oct 2009), 117,540 words in Nov 2009 (in 29 days!), 51,300 words November 2010 and scraped through the 50,000 barrier (with less than an hour to spare) in 2011. The ‘bit’ is a conversion of my Script Frenzy 2010 script which I’ll continue at some stage.

I wrote my first-ever script for NaNo’s sister site Script Frenzy – www.scriptfrenzy.org – which was a challenge to say the least. The target was 100 pages rather than 50,000 words but the layout so different that it was a much slower process. Although I’m glad I did it  (102 pages), it didn’t make me want to be a script writer (although I wrote a 5-minute play for Northampton Literature Group’s July 2010 task which was fun) so am sticking with the novels, short stories and occasional poetry. I have also had one of my monologues displayed alongside one of Jaroslaw Ancuta’s drawings – see www.jaroslaw-ancuta.com.

I’ve also had writing-related articles published in the NAWG April 2011 ‘Link’ magazine (Chorleywood Literature Festival Review), August 2011 (Blog interviews & Bailey’s Writing Tips) and October 2011 (The Benefits of Attending Writing Events) and a twisted fairy tale in April 2012 editions. I’ve been mentioned on Rosanne Dingli’s website as well as a short story (‘The Threadbare Girl’) published on Nathan Weaver’s site. This blog’s My Collaborations page lists everything to-date. ‘The Threadbare Girl’ is available as a free short story and part of my ‘Story A Day 2011’* anthology on Smashwords ($0.99 (£0.77 / AS$1.50)) *which has just received its first review on Amazon, a glowing 5*. 🙂

In July 2011 I guested on Tia Silver Bach’s blog on the subject of NaNoWriMo. In September, Jodine Turner invited me to talk about writing essentials. Later that month I said what it was (is) like to be a writer in the U.K. entitled The view from across the pond on JD Mader’s non-fiction blog.

In December 2011 I was nominated (by K.S. Brooks), and awarded (by JD Mader), a Versatile Blogger Award. Coming a few hours after the first (a 5*) review for my The 365-Day Writer’s Block Workbook they certainly made my day. Then Chaz Wood’s wonderfully dark blog I talked again about writing essentials (yes, it’s deja vu :)).

In January I guested on Fiona Veich Smith site to talk about overcoming writer’s block.

Then late February 2012 Cindy Vaskova bestowed a ‘Liebster Blog Award’ on myself and four other bloggers: Nerine Dorman, Icy Sedgwick, Sonya Clark and Emma Newman. One of my duties is to 1. Link back to Cindy (easy). 2. Nominate five others (not quite so easy but doable). 3. Post the award on my blog (done). 4. Bask in the love from the most supportive people in the blogosphere (easy, I do that already :)). 5. Have fun and spread the karma! (peasy). Thank you, Cindy.

In April I was one of Catherine Noble‘s ‘crafty fella‘s… that’s certainly a first. 🙂 Thank you, Catherine, and later that month I was added to the Towcester Writers Group website, was awarded a ‘Lucky Seven’ by Kasia James, and listed as a top blogger by Finish Your Book (another WordPress site). I also met up with JD Mader again on the topic of the art of interviews.

Late May I was presented (online) with a ‘Beautiful Blogger Award’ by Sean Durity followed by another Versatile Blogger Award from Darlene Jones, and then another ‘Beautiful Blogger Award’ by Dicy McCullough. 🙂 And I revisited the topic of writing essentials for Nancy Dodd and then on Siggy Buckley’s site with a piece entitled Do as I do, not and as I say.

In June I was no.7 of 21 on a list of other bloggers who interview authors, won another Versatile Blogger Award from DK Thomas and a WGT Kreative Blogger Award from Siggy Buckley. I was also Jadis Shaw’s ‘featured book’ with a Story a Day May 2011 giveaway. Also that month I became an Associate of the Society of Authors.

Then in July I was listed 12th in Best Colleges Online’s Top 100 creative writing blogs, on the Fantastic Books Publishing blog as a ‘Useful Resource for Writers’ and a ‘helpful people & sites’ on Burrst.com. 🙂

In August I was awarded a Sunshine Blogger Award by Sophie E Tallis then I spotted my blog as one of Sheila Pearson’s favourites and Sophie E Tallis awarded me a Very Inspiring Blogger Award (I never knew there were so many). 🙂 Tony Riches asked me for 10 writing tips for new writers then a few days later I wrote a guest post for Tom Rizzo on crime writing. Later that day, Sheron McCartha listed this blog’s Books: Other’s Peoples / Novels & Novellas page on her sci-fi book review blog. The next day Gail M Baugniet listed this blog as an awesome blog to visit and a few days later I was mentioned on Helen Yendall’s blog. On the 22nd Christopher Farley awarded me a One Lovely Blog Award. It was a busy month! 🙂

Then in September Agnes Meadow invited me to be a (paid!) speaker (as “Queen Blogger”) at her Loose Muse event in Covent Garden, London, mid-March 2013 (I accepted, of course), Jaidis Shaw named me as one of her Author Resources on her new blog. and the same day Dorit Kedar told me via Facebook that thanks to some advice I’d given her she had a short story placed in an anthology. Mid-month novelist and writing guru Jane Wenham-Jones mentioned me in one of her Woman’s Weekly ‘Just Jane‘ columns. Then on the 24th September I was announced as one of Tribal Messenger Daily’s Top 50 blog for authors. 🙂

October 2012 started with me being nominated by Anne O’Connell for a Super Sweet award, then on the 2nd I was interviewed by Tom Blubaugh. On the 6th I signed up to (using my Twitter account, it was that easy) with RebelMouse which picks up my content from Twitter and Facebook as I produce it so I never have to do a thing. 🙂 Then mid-October I I’ve joined Wattpad. Are you on there? Do let me know. A couple of days later I was notified that a free eBook entitled ‘Ditch the Publisher’ I’d contributed to (my section’s no.7, entitled ‘The eBook revolution’) was released. 🙂 Then William R Bell ‘This is Your Life’d me. 🙂 And late October I received an email inviting me to join storylane where I was asked to lay myself bare (not literally, you’ll be pleased to know) but perhaps sharing a little too much information about my private life… including my most embarrassing moment!

A great start to November with the kick-off of my latest crime novel ‘Once Perfect’ (and this is going to be very grim) for NaNoWriMo 2012 and I uploaded my first (third-written) novel, my one-and-only-chick-lit-to-date, The Serial Dater’s Shopping List on to Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and Smashwords (and will be on iTunes, B&N etc. shortly). On the morning of Wednesday 7th November, I woke up to find I’d received a Written Acts of Kindness Award. 🙂 The next day, Yasmin Selena Butt mentioned me on her blog. Then on the 11th I was interviewed by Richard Godwin at his Slaughterhouse! On the 21st I woke up to a comment on my blog from Sophie E Tallis and a p.s. that she’d nominated me for a One Lovely Blog Award. 🙂 Then I submitted a 55-word story to Austin Briggs monthly competition.

I finished NaNoWriMo, with a few minutes to spare, ‘winning’ with 51,555 words then on the morning of 1st December, I was shortlisted on Austin’s competition. One of my interviewees epic fantasy novelist Yvonne Hertzberger won. 🙂 I received an email late on 4th December telling me I had won a professional video trailer from Writania for The Serial Dater’s Shopping List (TSDSL) with my pitch of ’31 dates in 31 days – what could possibly go wrong?’. 🙂 Then on the 5th I woke up to find I’d been nominated for a Blog of the Year 2012 award. 🙂 On 9th December TSDSL was featured on online magazine Female First! On the 18th December, Tracy Kauffman added me to http://literary.yolasite.com/bloggers.php. and later that evening I posted a part 3 of 3 guest post by crime novelist Neil Yuzuk who announced that he’s named one of his characters (a secretary, and I was a secretary!) after Rosanne Dingli and me! 🙂

January 2013 got off to a flying start with Cheryl Carpinello interviewing me on the 1st. 🙂

There is more on the Morgen With An ‘E’ page but I think that’s more than enough. 🙂 So, hopefully another thrilling instalment next Saturday with some news that I’ve actually accomplished something this week…

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As I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t unfortunately review books but I have a list of those who do, and a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words (and post stories of up to 3,000 words). Alternatively if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me posting it online in my new Red Pen Critique Sunday night posts, then do email me. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.