After finishing an urgent editorial consultancy report, I headed off for a fab week in Devon. Came across this unusual sign screwed to the pavement!

Having had some requests ahead of the new school year for display materials, two posters promoting my Special Operations series have been added to this site under the ‘Events’ page – they are pdf documents and can be opened/downloaded by double clicking on the titles (and then saved if wished):

One is of me reading ‘Dogfight’ in its brilliant original cover and the other shows me with students at an event where the drama department was raided for disguises so that we could all be ‘secret agents’ for the day (my thanks to PGS for the photo).

Over the years I’ve read quite a range of manuscripts (from both published and unpublished writers) across genres from comedy farce to crime, from historical to literary, and so on… most aimed at the adult market – hopefully my in-depth reports are helpful to the authors in taking their work to the next stage. There are certainly terrific ideas out there, and common problems too, although every single manuscript has its own strengths and weaknesses – and that’s what makes it so interesting. My approach to each is generally the same, however, beginning with a quick read through, jotting down notes, then a slower, methodical read through adding comments to the manuscript, and researching any aspect I feel is necessary (esp. e.g. historical fiction). Then I draft my report, anything up to 16 pages, covering the key aspects (strengths and weaknesses) with examples and suggestions for possible edits or revisions. If the author has raised a specific question e.g. why initial agent/publisher interest didn’t lead to success, I do my best to point to reasons why this may have been. I also then do a ‘check through read’ to review all my comments – so, usually, I read a manuscript at least three times! If you’re looking an independent expert view on your writing – then get in touch. You can reach me via Cornerstones Literacy Consultancy (see my Home Page for details)

I’ve just realised that the ‘buy now’ link to CPI Book Delivery was switched off, so apologies to anyone who tried to click through to purchase copies of Daniel. The link should now be working properly!