https://viewauthor.at/HelenHollick
On Thursday 3rd September I was getting ready for a long weekend with my daughter, heading for showjumping in Wales.
Checked my emails in the morning. There was another of those probably spam 'we'd like to publish an article about Harold the King' ... I've had so many of these fake things (all AI generated and a B* nuisance) However, my dear author friend, Alison Morton, gave me a tip about them 'if they are from @gmail or @hotmail etc then they are not likely to be genuine. A genuine mail will be (for example) from xxx@OfficialSender.com" and I checked ... it WAS @DailyMail.com... so I phoned. Genuine. They wanted a timeline article about the events of 1066 ... an article THAT DAY. Oh heck... I had 2 hours before we had to leave for Wales. Could I do it? Bloomin' right I could! (Although I pointed out they would HAVE to edit and check any facts I wasn't sure of)
So I wrote 2.500 words in 2 hours - and I'm proud of myself because I only had to check a few facts to ensure I had them right. (I mean, I had that novel published back in 2000 yet I remember the details of 1066 - well, as I think of them - pro-Harold anti-William) (Caveat here, I notice they did change a couple of things in editing, so not entirely my style of fiction writing - but this was for journalism - but... well, read on:
I sent my draft article, then climbed into the horsebox and we set off for Wales (2.5 hour drive).
FRIDAY
Not very good signal in Wales. I can't use a mobile/cell phoe easily because of my wonky sight, so I don't have any internet connections - but I needed to approve the final article. We managed to get it emailed to daughter Kathy's phone and she enlarged the text as much as possible, so at lunchtime Friday 4th Sept in between watching showjumping, sitting in the sun I (struggled) to read the text, but managed. They changed a good bit of my wording - style more than context, which was fine, I was more bothered that they hadn't messed about with the facts. (98% hadn't?)
So I approved it.
Phoned husband to get a copy of the paper on Saturday 5th - no shops near where we were ... crossed my fingers, hoped the article was OK. Enjoyed the showjumping.
SUNDAY
Drove home on the Sunday afternoon (a couple of winners' places rosettes and some nice clear rounds) Airbrakes on lorry playing up on way back, daughter, driving absolutely incredibly managed to get us home in one piece. (Lorryman coming to fix a gasket-thingy this week).
Delighted to see a double-paged spread in the Daily Mail :-)
It is also onlne (not sure if outside UK can access? )
A bit miffed that they used images from the dreadful King and Conqueror TV drama (which was utter rubbish) but I had no control over what images they would use. MY pleasure is my name in the Daily Mail AND... I got paid for it!
Now all I need is for a few people to go buy the book...
(and if you do read it online, I suggest don't bother with the comments at the end. I scrolled through a few and came to the conclusion that they are mostly written by moronic snarky idiots, so didn't bother with them.)
H :-)
