AmandaSteelWriter

I’m Amanda, a self-motivated wordsmith hailing from the realm of Middle-Earth. (Well, I live in Manchester in the UK, but I’m originally from Yorkshire, which almost sounds like The Shire, right?) With a fiery passion for crafting enchanting tales, I have embarked on many a quest to weave captivating content. My illustrious chronicles bear witness to the realms of marketing, media, and…

Editors Who Treat Writers Like Their Time is Worthless

As writers, most of us have come across editors (and other people) who seem to think a writer’s time is somehow worth less than their own. I’m not talking about the usual rejections and lack of responses, though that can be annoying, but understandable with the amount of submissions they get. I’m talking about one specific experience which may be the most time I’ve had wasted as a writer. This…

A New Writing Competition From Printed Words

Some of you will know Printed Words was formerly a quarterly e-zine and magazine, dedicated to publishing poetry and fiction (with the occasional book review or excerpt) from writers all around the world. We switched to anthologies after six issues. Words to Remember was a charity anthology which raised several hundred £’s for various cancer charities. More recently, From the Shadows, combined…

News: The ALCS Election and My New Writing Book

I have a couple of pieces of news I want to share. The first is my nomination for the ALCS board. For those of you who don’t know, ALCS (Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Agency) pays royalties to authors from secondary rights – such as photocopying and library borrowing. I’ve had several payments from them over the past few years, from my books (the written work and the graphics in them). I…

Words to Remember: Charity Anthology

It doesn’t seem like it was only September last year, when Words to Remember: A Printed Words Anthology was released. In that time, we’ve raised money for Marie Curie and Cancer Research. All the profits so far have been donated to these to charities. We hope to raise more for other cancer charities. Now is a great time to buy a copy, if you haven’t already. Amazon seem to love messing around…

Ten Signs She/He is Not the One

(This is a piece from my forthcoming collection of spoof clickbait.) They repeatedly call you by the wrong name and their eyes glace over as if trying to recall a far-off memory, when you ask them to use your real name.They take you shopping as a special treat but “accidentally” forget about you while you’re in the toilet and drive off, feigning ignorance when you call to ask where they are.They…

Ten Lockdown Activities to Inspire Creativity

While lockdown restrictions are being eased, life is yet to return to normal for many people. So, if you’re looking for activities to inspire creativity in yourself and others, here are some suggestions. Write Even if you’ve never written before, or the last time you wrote anything creative was at school, you can still write. A great way to get started is to free write. Just sit down with a pen…

Some of my 2020 Podcast/Radio Interviews

Photo by Stas Knop on Pexels.com My website where these are listed is closing in just over a month. So, I’m listing here, most of my interviews from last year. Hannah’s Bookshelf (talking about Ghost of Me and my podcast Reading in Bed) BBC Radio Manchester (reading my poem “12 Things Employers Don’t Want You To Know” followed by a short interview) Mysterious Goings On (talking to J.…

Book Review: The Greatest Hoax on Earth: Catching Truth While We Can – Alan C. Logan

When I saw this was well over 400 hundred pages, I was expecting it to be a tough book to read. I hadn’t seen the film Catch Me if You Can, though I had heard of it. It actually wasn’t difficult to get through the book. It tells the story of Frank W. Abagnale, but having since watched the film, I can confirm it’s a vastly different story from the one he and those involved in making the film would…

Last year I bought out a novel. I put six months of planning and more money than I could afford into marketing it. The pre-orders were promising, then froze as the pandemic took hold. Despite the book been shortlisted for an award and getting good reviews from the few people who did read it, reaching people and convincing them to read it was almost impossible. This year, I’m focussing more on…

My Successes and Failures of 2020

This year has been difficult for a lot of people, which is why I’ve decided to share my failures and successes of 2020. Hopefully, they will inspire others. If I’ve learnt anything, it’s to take opportunities when you find them, because you never know which ones will lead to something. Firstly, I was slowly building up my freelance writing, and the pre-orders from my novel “Ghost of Me” looked…

The Twelve Deaths of Father Christmas – Author Reading and Q&A

You can get your ticket here.

The Twelve Deaths of Father Christmas is a collection of twelve flash fiction stories with accompanying images, in which Santa dies in different ways. There’s a political slant to many of the pieces…

Protecting Your Mental Health During Lockdown

Now the UK is in another lockdown, many people will struggle with their mental health. I wanted to write about some of the things I’ve done to cope during Lockdown, as I’ve barely been anywhere or seen many people since March.

First my freelance work dried up around March/April and hasn’t picked back up properly ever since, then if you follow me on Facebook, you will have seen my posts about…

The Arts: Money Isn’t a Dirty Word

Imagine you’re a plumber and you go to fix a customer’s toilet, then you ask for payment. The customer looks at you, shocked, then complains that you’re only in it for the money. Or you apply for a plumbing job in a company and despite all your previous experience and training, they say you have to do a sample job for free. The job brings in a few hundred £’s for them, but nothing for you. They…

Why I Started an Online Workshop

When I started my Creative Writing MA in 2017, I never considered teaching the subject to anyone, but now I’ve set up an online workshop. Like most people in lockdown, especially those involved in the arts, my work dried up this year, along with my book sales. If I had a regular job to fall back on, it wouldn’t have been an issue, but I had just taken the plunge from making a part-time income —…

My New/Old YA Fiction Series

After having my book accepted by a publisher, they ran into financial difficulties within a year of the release, so I decided to take my rights back and re-publish First Charge.Having had the experience of being self-published, and having a publisher, I can see the benefits to both. I like the freedom to set my own price. With a publisher, more people share money, so it makes sense that the price…

Eight Things I Learnt From Being an Editor

I started Printed words in January 2019, and eighteen months later, I’ve just published the last issue. As a writer who sends out a lot of work, it was a big learning curve for me to be on the other side of submissions. Here are some of the main things I’ve learned.

The guidelines are there for a reason (usually)

As a writer, I’ve come across some guidelines that are more challenging than…