Be Brave, Be Successful

Fantastic news this week. One of my students from last year on the 'Write a Novel in a Month' course has published his book.
See it here on www.murderersapprentice.com
I had a lovely email from him saying that he had been trying to write the book for over two years before he started the course and once he had finished the course he completed the book within three months.
So. Hope for you/us all.

I love it when I hear that students have done well and this news at a really good time as I was feeling a bit low earlier this week - too much marking and not enough time for my own work. I was beginning to wonder what I was doing.

I also had a big falling out with an old friend this week. I can't put details on here, it wouldn't be fair to the parties concerned, but it made me think about the nature of loyalty and living life fearfully. There is an old proverb that says - to live your life fearfully is to live half a life. As writers we are brave every day we face the page - we have to be.

As we go into the final week of the course I am asking all the students to be brave and keep going - you are so close to the end, it is in sight and you will feel such a sense of achievement when you reach the end. And you never know - in a year from now I may be getting more emails about publication dates.