Monday 30 September 2024

A Summer of Mammoths – Part 1 – The Grand Italy Mammuthus Tour





 

My summer has been bursting with mammoths, which has been both marvellous and memorable. As you will know if you know me, or follow me on socials, I am a tad mad on anything mammoth. This is a by-product of research for a book which has stuck. The last few months have been full of mammoth!

It began with our first family holiday since 2018. To celebrate my youngest’s completion of his school career and taking advantage of being able to travel outside peek time, we went to Italy. We immersed in exquisite cuisine and iconic art, but also mammoths!


On day one is Rome I found an addition to the herd, which I named Roma, much to my kid’s dismay! I also spent time, while waiting for the family to rouse in the mornings, reading about the battle to conserve mammoth bones they found on a 1950s archaeological dig within the city.

But Florence was the jewel in our Italian mammoth adventure, with a visit to the Museo Di Storia Naturale Gelolgia E Paleontologia. This museum had a huge collection of beautifully curated mammoth specimens, including no less than four almost complete Southern Mammoth skeletons found in the appropriately named ‘Tusc’an’ region of Italy. Despite the museum being located a few step along the same road as the Galleria Academia that houses the famous David, it was empty. We had the whole place to ourselves to explore and enjoy the exhibits.




Venice too had a few mammoth gems, in curious Scopri Museo di Storia Naturale di Venezia. Which is like a blend of the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and The Pitt Rivers. with a modern curated Natural History section and a cabinet of curiosities style anthropology section.




All in all I was delighted to have indulged my obsession an shared it with my family  although I’m not sure they quite so pleased!



Freshly back from Italy and it was a race to get everything ready to help with the #TuskForce team of volunteers at the Hill’s Product quarry in the Cotswolds for a Palaeontology dig at the site made famous by the BBC documentary David Attenborough Mammoth Graveyard.  More on that in my next post!

 


Tuesday 10 September 2024

September - Be Kind to Writers and Editors Month. A guide to spreading kindness…

September - Be Kind to Writers and Editors Month. A guide to spreading kindness…



I just learned that September is the official ‘Be Kind to Writers and Editors Month’! Now I firmly think writers and other creatives within the business should be treated well all year around, but what a lovely thing, to think here is a official month dedicated to our welfare!

Every month I try to support other pre-published writers by sending them postal affirmations, (read more here), but here are some tips on other ways to be kind to writers and editors, many of which don’t cost a penny!



Ways to be Kind to Published Writers



  • Buy their book!
  • Load out their book from the library (they receive a small sub od money for each time the book lent.)
  • Leave a review online. (you can review a book on Amazon, even if you didn’t purchase it there).
  • Do a shout out on social media.
  • Recommend it to a friend.



Ways to be Kind to Pre-Published Writers




  • Ask about their WIP Work in Progress.
  • Give them time to write.
  • Ask if they need anything to assist with writing: highlighters, post-its, caffeine, chocolate, hug.



Ways to be Kind to Editors (and Agents)




  • Thank your editors and tell them how grateful you are for their help whipping your manuscript into shape.



Ways to be Kind to Writers – Published and Pre-Published, Editors, Agents (anyone in the industry)





Send them…

  • Cake.
  • Chocolate.
  • Caffeine.
  • Wine!
  • A kind word.


Wednesday 27 March 2024

Beads of Submission - Signing with an Agent!

 



A few weeks ago I posted a blog about my endeavour to receive one hundred rejection in 2024, and in order to a have a constant visual display of my progress I was putting beads in a jar. A blue bead for every submission, and a pink bead for every full manuscript request, long-listing or short-listing etc. By the point of posting, I’d already added my first pink bead.




There is great news the pink bead has changed into a special bead made of actual mammoth bone. Why? I am delighted to say I’ve signed on Lauren Gardner and her assistant Callen Martin of Bell Lomax Moreton, with my mammoth book!


 

However, looking at my jar, it looks wrong, as it only has a bead for every submission I’ve made with this manuscript in 2024, which is misleading as I’ve been subbing this book in previous years. So I went back to my spread sheet to tally up the real submission statics and therefore added them to the jar.



 

Ashley Grimes Mammoth Whisperer in all its forms, has been subbed 42 times and received 6 full manuscript requests and I offer.


 

In addition, it was subbed to 15 competitions, and not so much as a long-listing or honorary mention.

But this is still only part of the story, as I started writing when my youngest was coming up to his first birthday – he is now driving and sitting his a-levels! So, to get to this point I’ve written 8 (completed) novels, I novella, I chapter book and countless picture books, all of which have been subbed and therefore I have a massed a huge pile of rejections. I haven’t tallied all these up, as counting isn’t my strong suit (dyscalculia), but I am delighted to have reached this milestone.

I am very much looking forward to working with Lauren and Callen.