I've just read - and enjoyed - Bete de Jour; Intimate Adventures of an Ugly Man. I've been following the blog for ages, and this is the most engaging blog-turned-book I've read. He reveals details he only hinted at online, and I was dying to know the truth. The writing, as on the blog, is a delight. He's erudite, ascerbic, funny. He has a turn of phrase to love (for the entertainment) and hate (because you're jealous).

The blog is called Bete de Jour. The blogger uses the name Stan Cattermole, and claims to have a face like a bag of elbows. Having suffered all his life from the label "ugly" - not least at the hands of his parents - on the eve of his 30th birthday he made a decision. He was fat and flat-bound, had never experienced a loving relationship and was determined to put things right. So he started a blog, and to a large extent it worked. It brought him sex, recognition, friends, confidence and a book deal. The book itself is a moving, self-aware, honest account of the whole experience.

But... there's a problem. It's been doing my head in, and here it is: I don't believe Stan Cattermole exists.

Plenty of hot stuff for flaming June ...

On June 3rd: Tania Hershman, whose collection, The White Road and Other Stories, was commended by the judges of the 2009 Orange Award for New Writers, will be attending the Orange Prize ceremony in London where the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Orange Award for New Writers will be presented.

Sarah Salway will be reading at the Needlemakers Cafe, West Street, Lewes on Thursday June 11. The evening is part of the popular Needlewriters series, and other readers will include the poet, Andie Lewenstein, and debut novelist, Julie Corbin. – DOORS OPEN 7 pm, READINGS BEGIN 7.45 pm
If you plan to have supper at the Café, it’s probably a good idea to arrive in time to order and eat before the readings start.
– TICKETS: £5 (£3 unwaged), in advance from Skylark (Needlemakers) or at the door on the night.

 Rosy Barnes will be talking about her comedy novel Sadomasochism for Accountants at 3.30pm on Sat 20th June at The Borders Book Festival in beautiful Melrose in the Scottish Borders. She will be part of an event with Andrea McNichol (Moonshine in the Morning) and Anna Richards (Little Gods), two other debut novelists, and they will be discussing with agent Jenny Brown how hard it is getting published and whether any of them would contemplate doing it again...(yes, she says).

Leigh Russell's crime thriller, Cut Short, will be launched at Waterstone's, 11 Islington Green, N1 2HX 6.30-8.30 on Wed 24th June.  If you can't make the Real Life launch, you can attend the virtual version here on 10th June. You can also see a schedule of forthcoming events here.

And no matter what your literary taste, you're bound to find a lit festival to suit you here.

On the other hand, if you prefer to get your literary fix on a screen you may well be interested in this fascinating interview on Vulpes Libris, where Lisa Glass talks to Canongate's Managing Director, Jamie Byng, about avoiding mass market blandness and what he'd really like to see in his submissions intray.

 Or, if radio's your thing, Caroline Rance will be guest author on Rob Richardson's radio chat show, WriteOn, on Tuesday 16 June at 7pm. Listen online at Express FM: http://www.expressfm.com/ as she talks about her road to the publication of her historical novel Kill-Grief, the horrors of the 18th-century Gin Craze, and what it's like being a writer with a toddler in tow.

When should you start submitting stories?

When you are ready to receive rejections without being put off writing for the rest of your life!

Where can you submit to?

   - Literary Magazines - the advantage of these is you should never have to pay to submit your story. These come in various flavours:

• magazines published in print or online - or both
• magazines that focus on a particular genre (science fiction, erotica, fantasy, women's issues, crime, thriller, etc...) or non-genre (anything goes)
• magazines that will pay for your story (small amounts or larger) or those that don't pay (but might give you a free contributor copy if it is a print magazine)
• Magazines that call for submissions on a particular theme (submit short stories about dogs, for example) or magazines that welcome any submissions on any topic

• for most competitions, you have to pay to enter, which can end up expensive,
• But you win a monetary prize
• Many competitions announce a longlist and a shortlist, and appearing on one of these, even if you don't win, is great exposure and a good confidence boost!

 - Anthologies

• a book that is published with many stories by different authors, sometimes on a theme (e.g. motherhood),
• They often pay you a honorarium payment for your stories, and one or more contributors copies or a discount on copies

How to find these places

 - Magazines for writers (Mslexia, Poets and Writers,etc...)

 - On the Internet: a few examples are:

• CRWR Opps Yahoo Group - sends you up to 10 calls for submissions and competitions a day
• NewPages.com - news about new literary magazines and more
• Duotrope - online searchable database of thousands of literary magazines, compiles statistics on response times, percentage of acceptances/rejections for each magazine
• JBWB
• Poets and Writers Online
• The Short Story site - lists of competitions and calls for submissions

 - Online writing groups

These are often a great source of ideas for where to submit your stories. For example: Zoetrope (free to join), WriteWords (paid membership)

How to submit

• First read something they've published to see if you like it

• submit only what they ask for - genre, word count, style etc... Don't submit magical realism to a realist journal, don't submit science fiction to a realist magazine
  

   

• submit EXACTLY as they ask you to - attachments or no, page margins, font size, spacing, email subject header, SAE. Don't give them an excuse to reject you on technicalities, because they will

What to check

• postal submissions or can you send by email?
• do they accept only unpublished stories?
• what rights do they ask for? First non-exclusive rights US or Worldwide
• do they reserve the right to edit your piece however they want and not get your final approval?

Once you've sent off your story, what can you expect?

First - look up the literary magazine on Duotrope to see the statistics they have compiled on how long it takes for this magazine to reply.

The reply you will get will be one of these:

• no response at all
• standard form rejection
• personal rejection - often very helpful, but can be negative
• rewrite request, rare but does happen
• acceptance

When you get accepted  - celebrate!! Then:

• withdraw your story if it is under consideration elsewhere
• check about edits etc...
• they will probably need your bio - a short autobiography about you and your writing, or anything you want to say, or very little. Good to write a standard one and have it ready.
• Find out if your story will be published in print, online or both, and when.

A surprisingly quiet month on the Bookarazzi front.  But then we all know that quality is more important than quantity, right?

John Baker's virtual tour to promote his new book, Winged with Death, continues throughout May.  You can see full details of the blogs he will be visiting and the dates here.  Track back to see the previous stops on the tour.  Today he is at the blog of our very own Elizabeth Baines.

Emma Darwin is busy in May, reading from and talking about her new novel A Secret Alchemy. On Friday 8th May at 7pm she's appearing at the Daphne du Maurier Festival, Fowey in Cornwall. On Monday 11th May at 10am she's at the Swindon Literary Festival, and on Tuesday 26th May at 2.30pm she's at the Hay Festival. A Secret Alchemy reimagines the world of the Princes in the Tower, through the voices of their mother and uncle. "Powerful and convincing" - Daily Mail. "Spellbinding" - The Times.

On Saturday 2 May, Caroline Rance will be signing her historical novel, Kill-Grief, at Waterstone's, Eastgate Row, Chester, from 11am to 1pm. Then on Sat 9 May, she will belatedly be celebrating the book's launch with a drinks party and reading at Great Missenden Library, Bucks, at 2pm – all are welcome to drop in for a glass of wine.

The eagle-eyed among you will spot that Caroline's next event is not actually a May Lit Bit – but it's near enough! She will be guest speaker at the Bucks Reading Groups' Orange Prize Discussion Evening on Monday 1 June, 7pm at Great Missenden Library. Caroline will be giving a talk entitled “Historical Fiction? All that research!” For more details, contact Lesley Ball on 0845 3708090.

No shortage of literary festivals taking place this month.  Details of all of them are here but the biggie of course is this year's Hay Festival. 

We're celebrating here at Bookarazzi!  There's nothing we like more than sharing in the triumphs of our fellow wordsmiths ...

As well as the usual eclectic mix of launches and events this month, we have some other fab news to share and more reflected glory to bask in.

Poetry rarely gets the attention it deserves, so it comes as a great pleasure to announce that Barbara Smith has been  awarded second prize at the prestigious Wigtown Poetry Competition.  Babs has received so many awards recently, she must be running out of wall space to hang them.  A very nice problem to have ...

And short stories are also frequently unrecognised, so it's wonderful to announce that Tania Hershman is one of two authors commended by the Orange Prize for New Writers.  Since they dodn't usually mention commendations, the final shortlist must have been very close run indeed.  

Mega congrats to both!

I have always written in bedrooms. Indeed, the only place I have written (with the exception of my first published book, written in the botanical gardens and libraries of Durham University) has been bedrooms. The first was a room I shared with my brother when, at the age of seven, I began writing stories in little red cash books. Things have moved on a bit since those days (it’s not that far off half a century), but I’m writing this in a bedroom.

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Behind the camera are a bed and a chest of drawers that groans beneath the several hundred books on my to-be-read pile along with the rest of my CD collection. The bed comes in handy. My health is poor and if I need to rest or sleep, it’s just a couple of paces away. As is everything else I need.

Tucked behind the bookcase in the foreground is a baize covered card table that I use when working from printed material. Headphones betoken the importance of music to my writing. My entire collection of CDs is on the computer and I often play stuff when I’m doing a first draft.

Behind my chair you can see most of my reference books. Dictionaries (I keep the big OED elsewhere), style manuals, grammar books, yearbooks, computer manuals, and all the other things you would expect. The two top shelves rotate as I keep reference stuff for books I’m working on. Top shelf is currently connected with a spy novel I’ll be drafting later in the year. Beneath that is material I used for a novel just completed along with reference texts on Celtic history.

The other shelves contain Arthurian material and the start of my non-fiction books. There are four more large bookcases just out of shot to the right. Then more in the hall. And the living room.

There isn’t much of a view from the window; just the garden of the people who live in the flat upstairs – a functional space – and you can’t see any of the surrounding countryside. That, and the fact the room is tucked away in the quiet corner of the flat, means I have few distractions.

Spring has sprung, but you'll find no April fools here.  Instead, we have more fab Bookarazzi launches and events to titillate your literary taste buds.

On Sunday 5th April Emma Darwin, whose latest novel is A Secret Alchemy, will be appearing at the Oxford Literary Festival with Martin Brasier, author of Darwin's Lost World, to talk about history, narrative, Darwin and creative thinking. 10am in Festival Room 2. £7.50 http://www.sundaytimes-oxfordliteraryfe ... 5april.htm

Brian Clegg will be special guest at the British Science Association London Book Group on 29th April, to join in the discussion on his book Ecologic. The event's at 5th View Cafe in Waterstone's Piccadilly, at 7pm. No need to book, just come along - it's free to attend. Find out more about Brian and his books at http://www.brianclegg.net

On April 2nd Tania Hershman will be hosting Sue Guiney on her blog, TaniaWrites, as part of Sue's Space-Time Virtual Book Tour to promote the release of the paperback of her novel, Tangled Roots. Sue's tour moves on Wednesday 8th April to Elizabeth Baines' blog .

WRITING EVENT: DEAD FUNNY: Helen FitzGerald and Rosy Barnes discuss comedy writing, gore and dismemberment at Word Power Books, 43-45 West Nicolson Street, Edinburgh, Tuesday 28th April 2009 at 7pm. Rosy Barnes, author of Sadomasochism for Accountants, will be appearing with “Thinking Woman’s Noir” writer, Helen FitzGerald, at top independent bookshop, Word Power Books.
They will be reading from their latest books and discussing issues like women and comedy, the grotesque, how far should you go and what “noir” means anyway…Come along, enjoy a glass of wine and stock up on some signed editions.

Caroline Rance's debut historical novel, Kill-Grief, is out on 16 April from Picnic Publishing. Described by the publishers as “a literary cross between Casualty and Eastenders”, Kill-Grief follows the story of a young woman whose determination to escape her past leads her into life as a nurse in the hard-drinking world of a 1750s hospital. Kill-Grief is available from:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Kill-Grief-Caro ... 301&sr=8-1
For more info, visit Caroline's website at http://www.carolinerance.co.uk

You can see full details of John Baker's virtual tour to promote his new book, Winged with Death, here.

And in general lit news ... The London Book Fair is on at Earls Court from 20-22 April.  Beware though - authors who go along hoping to be uplifted and inspired have described the experience as the equivalent of a cow popping along to Smithfield meat market.  

For a more positive experience, you might like to check out The Word Cloud, a new online forum from those clever people at the Writers' Workshop, bringing together writers of all shapes and sizes, both published and yet-to-be. Registration is free while they're in the process of building the site up, so get in there now while the going's good.

You may also be interested in BookBrunch - a daily book trade news service.   And then there's BatchConnect - a new service from the Booksellers' Association, creating links between authors, publishers and booksellers.

As usual, you can full details of literary festivals taking place in April here.  

Enjoy!