Something Happened In Lakeside View is the result of over 80 children working together collaboratively to vote on a project, create a town, vote on a common theme and then all write their own stories or poems set there…
We started the project last summer term and all the pieces had been submitted by January. It is now available in ebook and paperback across multiple platforms.
Here is the blurb:
Welcome to Lakeside View, a pretty little town much like any other. Or is it?
Scratch under the surface and you will find a place full of secrets and shadows.
A place full of darkness, magic, ancient curses and hidden horrors. Who would live in a town like this? Many people have come and gone and some have left behind their testimonies.
What happened in Lakeside View? Read on to find out.
This is an anthology of stories and poems written by the young people who attend creative writing clubs with Chasing Driftwood Writing Group.
Don’t forget to leave a review on your platform of choice if you do read it. And please be aware this is a creepy horror-based book that might not be suitable for those under 10 or sensitive readers.
cover for the anthology my students have written! Links coming soon! Image is mine
I blogged last week about the endless editing facing me after writing so many books and having them at various stages of drafts. This always seems to happen to me! I write and write and write, start new books when I have not yet published other books, and then at some point I inevitably end up with a lot of editing jobs… A seemingly endless list of books and projects to edit.
The thing is, I might just be as obsessive about editing as I am about writing. It has utterly consumed me this week and I’ve managed to tick off two of the biggest jobs I had.
Something Happened In Lakeside View is an anthology of connected short stories penned by the children I work with and this week I finished the final edits. I am now in the process of setting it up for publication and hopefully this time next week I will have buy links ready for anyone interested!
Here is the blurb by the way:
Welcome to Lakeside View, a pretty little town much like any other. Or is it?
Scratch under the surface and you will find a place full of secrets and shadows.
A place full of darkness, magic, ancient curses and hidden horrors. Who would live in a town like this? Many people have come and gone and some have left behind their testimonies.
What happened in Lakeside View? Read on to find out.
This is an anthology of stories and poems written by the young people who attend creative writing clubs with me at Chasing Driftwood Writing Group.
It felt like a huge weight had lifted when I declared that editing job done! In fact, the whole project has been very time consuming to put together so I should, in theory, have some more time on my hands for a bit.
The second big editing job was going through my editor’s edits on Black Hare Valley Book 1: 1996. I also got this done this week! I am now doing a final proofread/check through on my Kindle to mop up any lingering typos. Again, it feels like a weight has been lifted with that big job done.
These two books are priority for getting ready to publish or setting up to publish, so that will now take precedence over any other editing jobs I have. However, I am still slowly going through the second draft, or read-through draft, of The Dark Finds You Part 3. I still have a lot of misgivings about this one… But reading through and making little changes is helping me figure out the problems it might have!
So, on it goes… But at least the big ones are done for now!
When it comes to endless editing that just cannot be put off, I tend to just get my head down and crack on with it. I’ve had my Kindle with me at all times this week, so I have been editing in the car while I wait to go into work, and I have been editing in the evening, and then editing again before bed when normally I would be reading or watching TV. There’s simply no other way to get it done other than just get on with it!
Stay Home – A Year of Writing Through Lockdown is the first book published by the Community Interest Company myself and author Sim Alec Sansford run, Chasing Driftwood Writing Group. The book has been published under Chasing Driftwood Books and we hope there will be many more to come. In fact, we will be annoucning a brand new community writing project very soon!
So, what is Stay Home about and why did we put it together?
At the start of the Covid 19 pandemic, I turned almost daily to my blog to write about my fears and experiences as a nationwide lockdown saw the closing of schools, colleges and workplaces. The majority of us stayed home. We watched the world from our windows, took our daily walks, and turned to music, books and streaming services to entertain us. We also turned to gardening, pets and chicken-keeping! For a short while, our lives stopped and a new reality took over. As my blog posts and ponderings piled up, I decided to open up my blog to guests who might want to share their thoughts, feelings and experiences of life under lockdown. I had in mind at this point that putting together an anthology to publish under Chasing Driftwood would be a good plan. So, we opened it up to even more people, including the adults and children who attend our writing clubs and workshops.
We were overwhelmed by the wonderful submissions of personal essays, stories and poetry and we soon had a decent sized anthology on our hands.
It’s been a great learning experience for myself and Sim. Of course, as self-published authors ourselves we understand the process of compiling a manuscript, formatting, editing, proofreading, choosing a front cover and uploading to Amazon, but there were still new things to learn along the way. We would like to publish more anthologies in the future written by the people we work with, so Stay Home was a fantastic opportunity to learn from.
It has been published under Chasing Driftwood Books and is available now in ebook and paperback from Amazon. All the money from book sales will go back into the CIC to help fund our next community writing project. If you re interested in reading the book and supporting emerging writers and our next project, then here is the link to check it out.
The Glorious Outsiders 