Amy Lord

Promo slide for a book called The Disappeared by Amy Lord. The slide shows themes including dual POV, urban decay, authoritarian control, resistance, dystopian future, banned books, Orwellian narrative.

Periodic reminder that I wrote a book about an authoritarian government snatching people off the streets, banning books, restricting universities and the media. Who knew it would turn out to be quite this on the nose.

It's called The Disappeared.

srlpublishing.co.uk/product/the-...

Double checked with the driver that I was going horse riding. "Horse riding, yes."

5 mins later, husband rang from the hotel to say the tour guide was looking for me. Turns out I was on the wrong bus and had inadvertently stolen another Amy's dog sledding trip 👀

Once on holiday in Iceland, I booked a solo day trip horse riding. Driver turned up at our hotel reception looking for Amy. That's me!

Got on the tour bus and started chatting to a couple who were going dog sledding. Hmm...

Got my copy, looking forward to reading!

Mar / Apr 26: Upcoming courses, workshops & events Here’s what’s coming up from your your friendly neighbourhood freelancers, lit mags and awesome independents over the next couple of months.

This month's #FromTheCoursesMouth includes wonderful-sounding stuff from @stillsquirrel.bsky.social @sagetyrtle.bsky.social @pleomorphic2.bsky.social @taniahershman.bsky.social @jmgatford.bsky.social @tenpennydreams.bsky.social

fromthecoursesmouth.substack.com/p/mar-apr-26...

Congratulations on your news, and all the empathy for your feelings on the publishing struggle.

That sounds interesting, will look it up!

Writing workshop: Making Your Characters Human Work on editing your fictional characters and making them more realistic.

This month, I'm leading an online writing workshop that's all about building realistic characters.

Come along!

📆 Wed 18 Feb, 7pm-8.30pm GMT

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-wo... #WritingCommunity

Yeah, it sucks. Ideally I wouldn't query those agents who didn't respond last time, but there's probably not a lot of choice now.

Sorry to hear that, it's a common story, unfortunately, such a difficult process.

My last round of querying was about 60% no response, so it's super disheartening to hear it's increased, although I suspected that might be the standard now.

The ones that email enthusiastically to say they're reading and ghost are so weird. It's not a good process for your self-esteem.

Thanks! ☺️

Hmm, that's actually more disappointing, if it means the queries only have a very short life where you might get a positive response. My longest was about 10 days, but the rejections are generally a lot longer or not at all.

Have just started querying another book so trying to keep my head up!

Q for writer friends: when querying lit agents, how fast do full manuscript requests come in?

Mine generally arrive within 24 hours of the query, which probably isn't typical, but does mean that I write off anyone who doesn't respond within a few days.

Would love to know what others experienced!

Writing workshop: Making Your Characters Human Work on editing your fictional characters and making them more realistic.

This month, I'm leading an online writing workshop that's all about building realistic characters.

Come along!

📆 Wed 18 Feb, 7pm-8.30pm GMT

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-wo... #WritingCommunity

That's kind of you! But don't worry, I'll grab a copy, got plenty of book vouchers from Christmas 😀

Fab, I did my have eye on this one!

Worth reading?

Yeah, I'm not disagreeing, all part of the same package!

So they can create all the apprenticeships they like, if they can't create jobs that pay enough to live on for those people to progress into, things aren't going to change and the arts continue to be impossible for anyone who doesn't have financial support elsewhere.

Access is an issue, but a big problem is that the money is so crap. I'm an arts freelancer, and regularly see f/t professional jobs advertised at what is barely above the minimum wage equivalent. But we've had years of funding cuts, no wage increases, and the amount of work available is shrinking.

Running my first workshop of the year tomorrow on Zoom, when we'll be focusing on writing a great beginning for your story!

I'd love to get a couple more people booked on if you fancy joining me 🥰👇

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-wo...
#WritingCommunity

Ha! I think it's more that my brain has never produced a linear thought in its life, but it is fun following the thread 😂

Why do I insist on writing these multi character/timeline/ alternate life novels that are impossible to describe in a one-line pitch?! 😫

That's fair enough, tons of mega popular stuff I didn't get on with, it'd be boring if we all liked the same things!

Sadly perfect.

Yeah, that pretty much captures the vibes of the show! I do enjoy it though 🤷‍♀️

If you didn't like that, you probably won't like the rest of it...

A banner image with a blank notebook and the text Writing workshop: In the beginning, Wednesday 28 January 7pm-8.30pm on Zoom £15/£7 amylordauthor.com

My first writing workshop of 2026 is coming up!

📆Wed 28 Jan

We’ll look at some famous story openings and think about why they might appeal to a reader, and consider some of the common mistakes with writing beginnings, before working on our own stories.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/writing-wo...