Jan_Glinton's profile

Once upon this century, from Oxford University There came news: the dons had picked Ruth Padel to teach poetry! So she came, happy and smiling At the press, all the while bragging That she was no little weakling Though a woman she might be: ‘I am part of history, The First Girl Prof of Poetry Of Oxford University! Bow down you all, and quake at me!’ Padel, Walcott and Mehrotra (were there others, I do wonder?) Fought it out, and Mehrotra was the first to go asunder. Some journos t...

29th October 2008 Ms Susanna Einstein Agent LJK Literary Management 708 Third Avenue 16th Floor New York, NY 10017 USA Dear Ms Einstein Re: Query Letter – The Tailor of Winchester I am writing in response to the Opportnity you posted on Urbis. I am seeking representation for my historical fiction novel, “The Tailor of Winchester”. This is the story of how a 12th century tailor’s life changes dramatically after he meets and helps a woman whose sister is in labour...

Chapter 1 The Beginning of It All My story begins in the year of Our Lord 118-. Our history books, and it is all too clear that they record but part of the full story, recite that by then Saxon rule in what we now call England had become naught but a distant memory for an older generation. The King that year was the Norman Henry II of the House of Plantagenet. French by birth, Henry had the good sense to sire many legitimate sons. Those sons in turn had the good sense to squabble for power, w...

Thank you all for your lovely reviews. They were so good that I couldn't choose the ones I'd take out; there is no more doubt we all suffered from removed reviews. To all the pedants: It was nonsense poetry not a limerick. Your words are all still up; do please take note my reviewee was not really that bad just not very flattered by what I wrote So that actually makes her quite a sad Cow who missed the point of Urbis entirely. I don't dwell on that issue any more; T'would be fun to you, but l...

I opened my Urbis inbox today and recoiled in mock horror. For waiting for me, on my laptop display, Was not a demand for a dollar, But a rebuke, and a gentle one at that, Telling me where I'd gone wrong: "Your review didn't meet our guidelines, you twat, And it's going to be removed, removed, removed. Yes, it's going to be REMOVED!" (Well, I wasn't really called a "twat") But someone had taken great umbrage: They'd complained that my carefully crafted review Was akin to a piece of garbage. I...