Novel Racer - Cally

Here's one of newest Racers, Cally, http://callytaylor.blogspot.com/.

"I’m in my early thirties and am one of those annoying people that claims to have been writing since she knew how to. As a child I loved to write and draw and created lots of little ‘books’ that I hole-punched and tied together with wool. I even sent one off to Penguin when I was eight. It was rejected, of course, but I received a lovely rejection letter (probably the nicest one I’ve ever received) and it didn’t deter me from writing more (ah, for that kind of youthful determination again!).I’ve continued to write on and off since then (mostly terrible, terrible poetry during my teens and early twenties) and started my first novel in 2004 – a YA effort. About 52,000 words in I suffered a big plot wobble (was it too dark for a YA audience?) and stopped writing to think about the plot and…never got started again. Instead I started writing short stories which I instantly loved writing because there was much less slog and you could produce a complete story so quickly. Since then my stories have been published in print and online and last year I was Runner Up in the Woman’s Own short story competition and my story and photo (eek!) were published in the magazine.In February this year I saw the ad for the Waterstones/Cosmopolitan chick-lit competition and decided to enter. I’d had a kind of chick-lit with a twist idea for a novel for a while and it needed writing. It’s probably too ‘out there’ for the competition but I’m loving writing it (despite my constant protestations to the contrary) and I’m determined to finish it. When it’s finished I’m going to go back and finish my YA novel. 52,000 words is too much work to abandon so cruelly!"

So, I am waiting to hear from all the other racers. I have one more profile to post and then we're finished.........come on and don't be shy!!!!

I'm back from Budapest and its good to see the sun shinning here. I am all fired up to begin the rewrite of August Rock. I read Donald Maass's book Writing the Breakout Novel. This fueled my notes and now begins the transformation! I'll keep you posted.