OK. So this is my first attempt at a personal blog. I'm trying to make this one distinct from the YoungRebel Publications company blog, so I can talk about my writing and my life a writer, separate from my life as an editor. Except I can't really can I? My writing will never be quite the same now.  Why is that, I hear you ask? Well, the answer is, I'm not the same writer I was before I started YoungRebel.

 It's reading submissions. It changes you.

 I mean it changes you as a writer, obviously. I'm still the same dippy airhead I was before I became an editor, although I wish sometimes that weren't the case. Transforming magically into Linda Carter would be nice . . . (stares off into space) . . . yes, well, let's not get too carried away. There's nothing like reading a slush pile and analysing what makes a story enjoyable, and therefore publishable, for sorting out your own writing foibles. And what have I learnt? I've learnt to start a manuscript with action, dammit, and to avoid descriptions of weather in the opening sentence (that comes up a lot). I've learnt to write EDGY, to make dark stories really dark and romance stories really touching. I've learnt that the best stories evoke deep emotional reactions in a reader, whilst bad ones leave the reader cold. And most importantly, I've learnt to read my own work like an editor. That one's a killer. My editor is tough!