Yes, you read that correctly! There are new things afoot for me during 2021.
BUT! First, before I talk about that, Booktopia, the WONDERFUL people over at Booktopia are searching for the Booktopia Favourite Australian Book… which turns into an award. I was lucky enough to have The Shearer’s Wife nominated and I’d love it, if you felt you could vote for that pretty little book of mine. Rose and Ian were favourites to write and it would be lovely if they could see their way into the top twenty or so!
Head across here to vote. There’s heaps of amazingly good books and you can vote for more than one.
If you haven’t read The Shearer’s Wife and you’d like to, you can order it here.
Now for the new things afoot. One of my aims in life is to help people, which is why I founded DVassist.
Now that’s up and running, I’m changing direction. I’d like to help unpublished authors take another step forward to getting their books published.
Some of you may know that last year I launched a writing course called Between the Pages. It’s had a fantastic take up, so much so, I decided to add another string to it called Beyond the Pages.
Beyond the Pages is a manuscript appraisal service. Here’s a testimonial:
“I highly recommend Fleur McDonald’s editing advice and courses! Fleur has helped me immeasurably over the last few years in bringing my scripts to life. During the writing of three books, Fleur has offered constructive advice and spent several weeks assisting me at a distance with the last one, bringing her eagle editing eye to troublesome spots. Her advice rings in my ear: ‘If the writing is not driving the story forward, it shouldn’t be in there.’ Thank you, Fleur – it’s inspiring working with you!” (name withheld for privacy)
I’ll be able to take on one manuscript per month only. If you would like your MS ‘appraised’ for structure and storyline, then you can purchase it for half price (for a short time) here.
Coming soon, to make this ‘class’ a full package, is a course of meditations to help focus on writing and your creativity. Meditations have worked brilliantly for me and I use them every day.
As we know, trying to organise large events of any kind is a little wobbly at the moment, but I’ve had quite a few invitations to speak at events across WA early next year. As the vaccine rolls out, hopefully we’ll be able to get back to these events again across the nation. If you’d like me to come and speak at your event, please get in contact with Rebecca. She’ll be able to help get it organised.
Of course, I’ll still be writing two books a year, bringing you Detective Dave and his adventures, but this year there is, for me, an absolute focus on helping new writers. If you think I can help you, please get in contact.
Look forward to hearing from all you writers… And readers who would like to become writers!
