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Who's in May 08's magazines due out 3rd April?

edited April 2008 in - WM and WN
Who's in May 2008's magazines (due out 3rd April)?

If you spot yourself, please let us know which magazine and which page. And the name the article appears under if it differs from your Talkback name.
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Comments

  • Just got mine - not had a chance to look through yet but well done to anyone who is in it!
  • Congratulations to Josie (again) and all TBers who made it! Well done, the lot of you!
  • Yes, mine's arrived too. Josie said she'd be appearing, and it is front cover position too. Well done.
    Haven't looked at the rest yet, but congratulations to everyone who gets a mention.
  • Oooh! They've put my letter in there! (p66 of WM). And well done to Josie!
  • That was fun Rebecca, well done.
  • Good one, Rebecca!
  • Nice item on MW, but apart from that, I just sent the editor a long email saying how utterly boring the magazine is! FIVE PROFILES! Malcolm's on page 42, with the one before it on page 40 ... is that bad layout or is that bad layout??? Clive Davies writing about Tolstoy. Wasted page. In all I counted 31 pages I did not read. I read both issues while waiting for a very large file to go by email. Done. Dusted. Nothing else to read. Boring, boring. My complaint is, if I was a new person picking this up for the first time and had not heard of any of the authors featured, would I be impressed? I think not.
  • I'm on page 66, Letters, too, entitled Happy Days, just below Rebecca's. Congratulations to Josie again and to Rebecca.
  • Yes, I turned to Rebecca's and saw your name afterwards. Well done!
  • My article about the National Year of Reading is on page 18 of Writing mag, with my photo and short biog on the contents page 3. Also spotted myself as shortlisted in the park bench poetry comp in WN, with my poem getting a whole paragraph's mention and a quote from it, in the adjudication article on WN page 29. Never had so much in at once before! Dorothy, I hope my article wasn't included in your list of boring bits! No time yet to read everything but congrats to all other TBs who have been included this time.
  • I noticed you VIv, you have done well lately, writing in WF and now here. I think you will be able to go to Barbados a few times!
    And congrats to everyone.
  • At only £80 for a double page article like this one, it could still be Blackpool! Thanks anyway.
  • Congrats to all who are in May's issue.
  • Well done everyone!
  • Congratulations to everyone featured in this issue. Talkbackers seem to have made quite an impression one way and another.
  • That's because we're all fabulous, Wordy ;)
  • Viv, my complaint was the many profiles, which the editor assures me people ask for and even ask for more (I am doubting this but still ...) and the articles that were of no interest to me: TV writing, poetry workshops, In Brief, Clive Davies, D ST J T, (boring!) bookshelf ... so much I don't read! and although she boasts of 70+ pages, she overlooks the fact that extensive advertising, including 2 pages for the magazine itself, are included in those pages. I don't see the need for a 2 page ad for something people are holding in their hand at that moment. The layout is bad, IMO. She refuses to accept that her designers are wrong, but then she would stick by them. It's getting rather expensive at £3.50 a copy to get something I read in 15 minutes ... it is tax deductible, that's all I can say. I have yet to find a market through WN or WM or learn anything from an author profile, despite their tips on how to succeed. As I pointed out, we all work differently. we can follow their tips but you can guarantee it won't work for us, as we are different people. It would also be helpful if I had heard of these people or was interested in their books ... ! At no time have I thought, that sounds good, I'll get that.
  • Thanks all for the congrats! I knew I was going to be in but thought it would be in Members’ News not on the front page – omigod! There are several blogs coming out of that one. I’ve never made front page news before. Alys reckons my head’s going to be too big to fit through the door.

    Also had the book launch for Eight Hours at Cardiff on Friday night, photos on my website and very short manic video at www.youtube.com/castingpods

    Will be going to the Foyles’ Short Story event in London this Saturday - http://foyles.co.uk/events.asp?#shor Also videoing a bit of that and podcasting. I’m on at 3.30 but hoping to be there for most of the day to see the other writers. V exciting. Anyone in London pop in and say hello!
  • I might be able to go, Josie, any excuse to pop in :P The one in Charing X Rd?
  • Congratulations to everyone who appears in the magazine - all justifiably well done I am sure.

    dorothy - I subscribed to WN for a few years ago then let it lapse for all the reasons you state. Since coming on TalkBack, I decided to re - subscribe, but haven't had the magazine yet (though the DD has come out of the bank !) I am wondering now if I should un -subscribe again ! Are we just cynical or what?
  • What a lot of Stars!! Big congratulations to you all. Josie, I am begining to think of you as quite famous - I've watched your You Tube film, been reading a chart topping story of yours on YWO and now you're on the front pages! Fabulous. :-D
  • thnx Josette! I have a friend's 12-yr old daughter following me around saying 'I know someone famous' since she came to the book launch on Friday. I think I might be famous within a very small select circle but not a household name yet. :-)
  • Just give it time, Josie!

    Well done to Viv, Rebecca and Verica too.
  • TP Yup, Charing Cross Road. This from the Foyles site:

    Saturday 5 April

    Short Short Story Festival
    In association with Tales of the Decongested

    Join us to celebrate Get London Reading with a free Short Short Story Festival – a full day of events examining and celebrating the short story from every possible angle. Involving almost 40 writers including Toby Litt, Tom McCarthy and Andrew Holmes the day of readings and discussions includes a lunchtime writing workshop and culminates with a special Tales of the Decongested with the opportunity to submit your short short story (no longer than 1000 words) for a special flash fiction reading.

    Attendance is free for all sessions, but due to the casual nature of the event, reservations are not being taken and seating will be allocated on a first come, first served basis on the day.

    Bookings are being taken for the lunchtime short story workshop where places are strictly limited, please email [email protected] to reserve your place.

    For a full line up of the days events please click here <http://www.decongested.com/new/SSFestivalProgramme.doc>

    The Gallery
    10am – 8.30pm
  • :) No promises, as this weekend might be taken already, but I'll see what I can do. Be nice to meet you properly, though, so I'll give you a 'whisper' if I'm going.
  • Congratulations Josie. Great to be on the front page! Congratulations to Rebecca, Verica and Viv. Not read your article Viv as I've not had a chance yet but I'm looking forward to reading it. :P
  • edited April 2008
    I'll look out for all TB's entries.Congratulations.
    I agree with Dorothy to some extent. I don't bother to read the DSJT column, and I've given up trying to read Clive Davies- perhaps it's just their style I can't get on with.
    I wonder if WM has not got as much stuff to fill the pages each month, so are bulking it out with author profiles as they will cover a number of full pages.
    I'd be happy to have less profiles and more shorter filler items.
    Did you all fill in the questionnaire that was in April's WM?
  • No. I've filled n several questionnaires and said the same thing every time - nothing changes.
  • I suspect they look at what gets the most votes, what gets the least votes and perhaps decide changes on that.
  • Well done to all those included in the Magazine. Good stuff, Josie, things are looking good for you.

    I'd just like to say that I enjoy the Clive Davies' articles. On several occasions I've gone on to read the authors he mentions. This month's was also relevant to me as I've just bought the new War and Peace mentioned (going through a big Russian thing at the mo.)
  • I hope they have got plenty of stuff to fill the pages, as they politely rejected an article idea I offered recently saying they were "well stocked". Of course they could have just been letting me down gently!
  • edited April 2008
    Well done, everyone! Nice to see so many familiar names in the magazines.

    Re the winning story in WN - I enjoyed it, although the ending was a bit predictable, but I would just like to say a word for poodles who are constantly having the p* taken out of them, including (in passing) in that story.

    We used to have a poodle and they are very intelligent dogs. It's not their fault that some people give them daft haircuts!
  • Then we have to assume the Editor has decided that author profiles are in.
  • DSJT column? Sorry to be thick - but what do you mean?

    By the way, congrats to Rebecca (v. funny), Verica (good point), and Viv - good show! :)
  • The DT Column on page 32 WN.
  • It is pretty pointless, I have to agree.
  • Well done Josie, Verica, Rebecca and Viv. Lovely to see your hard work paying off...even if does only stretch as far as a rainy weekend in Blackpool, Viv. ;)
  • Just read the article about The National Year of Reading, Viv. Well done!

    I keep putting my postcode into the search box on the site, but just get a map saying I am here, which I know. I was hoping for a list of local events. What am I doing wrong?
  • You probably then have to click on another bit on the screen, or else there isn't anything going on! :)
  • Thanks, everyone! And well done to Verica and Viv!
  • Dorothy: "It would also be helpful if I had heard of these people or was interested in their books ... "

    I think it's a fair point. There do sometimes seem to be a lot of author interviews in the magazine. But I seem to remember many threads on Talkback complaining about the column inches given to celebrities and wishing for interesting stories from "real" people. One of the things I get from reading about the up-and-coming writers is that a lot of them actually ARE real people: struggling with the same things I do (exhausting day jobs, demoralisation, how to be a productive writer and have a life too, etc.). None of them have yet shown me a magic formula for how to balance my life and be successful, but all of them offer that little bit extra encouragement.

    I also have to keep asking myself how I'd feel if the situation was reversed - if I was the new author, struggling to make a ripple in the literary pond, only to be beset with cries of "I'm not interested because I've never heard of him". I actually think that part of WM's commitment to helping aspiring authors includes showcasing the achievements of new, up-and-coming writers once they achieve their first successes. It's much-needed publicity and encouragement for the writers themselves. I know how much I'll value that, in the far-off day when I'm hawking my first poetry collection around :)

    For those who want the "celebrity" author interviews there are always a fair few of them too. We've had Joanne Harris, Ken Follett, Tracy Chevalier, even (*shudders*) Gyles Brandreth in the last few months. These are hardly people that nobody has heard of.

    Dorothy, different people need different things from the magazine. You've had a lifetime in writing and publishing, and we can all bear testament to your wisdom and willingness to share it. It may be that you're simply at the point where the "how-to" articles and the top tips from the interviewed authors are things you learned years ago. That doesn't mean that there aren't a lot of us who still need to learn those things. Also, your genre interests now are quite specific. The poetry articles may be of no relevance to you but they're probably the most important part of the magazine for me. Others need the articles on the women's-magazine stories, the writing for children, the TV writing, even Clive Davies (whom I personally find fascinating, although I can see he may not be to everybody's taste). In a magazine that's trying to be all things to all people, maybe the problem isn't so much that other interests are OVER-represented, but that yours are UNDER-represented. That's certainly an issue that could be worked on.
  • No, Amboline, that's got it upside down from my thinking. First and foremost, though, I don't know Tracy Chevalier (I knew a Toni Chevalier years ago and got her husband's first book typed for him) and I don't honestly know Joanne Harris either!
    My complaint is the LACK of how to articles, not that I don't want them! I don't want FIVE or SIX profiles from people I have never heard of. Their books should be their publicity, not them in a writing magazine. In a newspaper, their books get the review, not them. See the difference? I judge a book by the cover and blurb, I might well find these people in a bookshop (second hand preferably until I know if they are any good - being published does not mean good, as I keep finding out - my daughter is reading a book by an eminent historian and equally eminent writer and it is riddled, literally, riddled with errors and confused writing) and decide to give them a try. I do not want them plastered all over my writing magazine. Of the latest batch of people, only our MW deserves the publicity, he's worked damn hard for his success, IMO.
    I offered WN a set of nuts and bolts articles on how to write. They are under represented. I don't need them, perhaps, but others do and that is where I think the magazine should slant itself, toward offering a wide range of writing articles, not 'look I made it' articles and smiling people who are clutching copies of their published books. My Writing Day is another wasted page, do we really care???? Does anyone care that I write in a room covered in moons and stacked with books on medieval life? any chick lit or thriller or crime writer could not care less!

    My interests cannot now be represented in a writing magazine. After 30 years of writing and 13 of editing no magazine will hold my interest for very long. But I would like a half hour read, not a fifteen minute one. This morning I had a lovely feedback letter on my own magazine. I work on the layout extensively, changing, getting the balance right. Two profiles in 4 pages is NOT getting the balance right, IMO and I told her so, in some very long emails yesterday.

    The magazine needs: script writing, TV writing, novel writing, article writing, children's writing, poetry, short stories, possibly the Helpline (if someone else did it!) Stuart Palmer and Greta with her computer clinic. If yo can't fill 70 pages with that, you're not doing the job properly. Am I about right here? Clive Davies has no real place in a writing magazine. He reviews, he doesn't tell you how to write. Grumpy Old Bookman is funny but - having the contents page spread over 2 pages is cheating. Having your own advertisement spread over 2 pages is cheating. Overlarge graphics are cheating. We do not need profiles! Using my layout, Amboline, would that not appeal to everyone? Forget my interests, if there aren't lengthy articles on how to cope with medieval dialect, strange armour, complicated politics and death and destruction, there is nothing there for me!!!!
  • I must say that largely I agree with you Dorothy. I enjoy some of the profiles, but there do seem a lot. Although with the 'how to' parts there is a risk that newcomers will 'join' in the middle and old hands will have heard it all before, most specialist magazines will have that same problem and will work round it, I would have thought.
    It would be nice to have specific writing exercises to do, which I've seen occasionally but a regular slot would be better. Or other 'how to' articles that aren't quite so broad brush as a lot of them seem to me.
  • Sometimes, though, the books on the shelves aren't enough for publicity purposes - how many times have you by-passed a book on the shelf because you don't know the name of the writer? I do have to agree with amboline on that one, I'd love to be there in WM telling people that, if even I can do it, there's hope for others, as well.
  • I buy by title and blurb, more than writer. I look for different names, to widen the range of people I do buy and read. I do not read the profiles, nor do I remember their names, so they are passing me by. I still say that five or six profiles is overkill, it's almost making WM a review magazine, not a writing magazine. I dropped membership of the Historical Novelists Society as all they featured was reviews. I can do without that as 99.99999% of them were not in my historical time frame.
  • Fair enough. I have to say, I often do pick up a book by an author I've never heard of if the cover strikes me as interesting. I do quite like reading the profiles, though, even if some of them write what I would never dream of reading (eg sagas, which there seem to be a lot of at the moment). It's all grist to the writer's mill.
  • I bought Gillian Flynn's book, 'Sharp Objects', after reading an article about her in WM a few months ago. I really enjoyed the book.
  • You've all said things I've agreed and disagreed with. It is finding a balance.
    I agree that just because I can't get into Clive Davies' articles, it doesn't mean it shouldn't be there- though strangely enough when he first started contributing his articles I enjoyed them. But much of his stuff recently just doesn't appeal.
    I'd prefer to cut the profiles by one and fill those pages with something else.
    As said the magazine has to appeal to all levels, and that is the hard balancing act.
    :)
  • I often wish the Judith Spelman interview only covered up to 2 pages, not 3.
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