Magazine experiments and other stuff

So in the last 10 days or so since I last checked in I've added about 3,000 words to NRIMH although 1,000 of those were written this morning. I have to say that I am very happy with that because I don't thnk I have ever had such a productive morning in terms of written words. However I have decided to give the magazine experiment that I have seen a few people do before a try. You know the one, it's where you target a magazine every week or every fortnight and try to get something published in it. Hopefully it will focus my mind. The magazin de jour as it were is Take a Break and given that I have never had a sniff of an acceptance from Norah I think I'd better try the letter page.

Getting to know them again.

I've spent the last hour reading through the 19k words that I already have down on NRIMH, reacquainting myself with all of the subsiduary characters and who is connected to whom. I discovered that I'm rooting for S, that I actually feel sorry for J and that H's son started of being called James but became Peter a bit later. I settled on James. Let the new words roll.

Coping with the disappointment

So I heard back about three of the short stories I'd submitted. That would be "no, no and no again." Luckily for me they were all in the same email so at least I didn't have to read three seperate ones and when you're looking for silver linings in clouds then that's the best that I can do. Also I'd submitted BTL to an agent and they decided this week that they weren't in love with that either. Luckily for me I have a part of my brain that I can stick all the things that I don't want to dwell on in and I close the door and forget about them. This is an actual fact, well its not an actual room with a door obviously, but I am able to forget about things that I don't want to remember and this allows me to get over disappointment very quickly. I think it may be the silver lining attached to the cloud that was a road accident, partial paralysis and a stroke when I was 6 years old. Oh and please don't feel sorry for me because I don't remember any of that at all - seriously can't recall it. However getting back to my disappointing week, that's all the bad news. The good news (putting positive head on) is that I still have the Nice project, a couple (might be one) of short stories and a non fiction piece out there. Also I am very excited about my next big project "NRIMH." Some of you may remember those letters as it is a project that I started a couple of years ago but for reasons that I won't go into I decided that it would be best to stop. Well the time seems right now to carry on so that's what I am going to do.

Waiting game

Still no news about any of the things that I have out there. Don't you just hate the waiting? I do but what can you do - it's all part of the game. I'm at a bit of a loose end on the big project front. My "Nice" project is finished and out there so what do I do next? Well there are a couple of large bits in the WIP folder but I'm not sure which of those grabs me so to speak so maybe I'll have to come up with a new one. NO NO NO!!! For God's sake stop procrastinating woman and get on with it. They are all perfectly decent ideas that just need developing which they won't do on their own. Okay,that's the personal pep talk, rant, call it what you will over. I also have a short story that I have just finished which needs polishing and sending off and then I guess the waiting game will begin with that one too. This is an extra day off work for me and I have been forbidden from ironing, window cleaning etc so maybe its time to get my head down and do something creative.

This week

I haven't done a lot of writing if I'm honest this week mainly due to the fact that a) my mind has been on other things and b) due to "a)" I haven't got a lot of sleep and after going to work and all the other stuff that I have to do there's been no energy left for anything else. To cut a long story short my dad has been ill on and off for a few weeks but seemed to be getting better then on Tuesday he took a turn for the worse and ended up in hospital. It doesn't help when you live a hundred and odd miles away so you do your fretting from a distance. Anyway, crossing fingers and touching wood, it looks like he is on the mend and hopefully will be home in the next day or two. Another hopefully is that I will be able to see him this week as long as Mum thinks he is up to it. I don't want a random visit from me making him think that he is worse than he is. Anyway that's the reason behind the lack of writing but it has got me thinking about if there is something that you want to do you should do your darndest to do it because life is fragile and you don't know how long it will last. So with that in mind I am going to try and focus on attaining at least a modicum of success from this writing game. I know that I may never achieve the level of success that I aspired to when I was a chit of a girl who knew nothing about life but I don't want to die thinking that I didn't give it a try. So with that in mind I submitted an article today. Yeah I did say article not story but its a piece of writing at the end of the day. I had a bit of disappointing writing news the other day when I heard back from Jill at WN with a "thanks but no thanks" response to a story that I submitted in October but I took it on the chin becasue it goes with the territory. I have six more things out there at the moment so maybe I'll have better luck with one of them.

What I have done so far.

In my bid to get the ball rolling on the enthusiasm front I queried an editor about something I found in the bag only to get a reply saying that they were no longer in business so that was a none starter though I did appreciate them letting me know. Also I pitched an idea to an editor but I haven't heard back from them yet. I've also started editing some of the old stuff and one of them (maybe 2) are going to be winging there way into the world shortly. On a totally different note maybe someone can inspire me in my real life. I'll let you into a secret, I am not a huge fan of breakfast because cereal, toast etc are as dull as dishwater and if I'm honest a sandwich at lunchtime doesn't do it for me either. I mean I have had some lovely breakfasts sandwiches but generally they bore me. So what I would like to know is any ideas that anyone might have to tempt my taste buds. Okay so that was a bit random but hey ho.

What I found in the bag.

Oh I REALLY don't like this new blogger. Anyway, I have spent the last hour or so going through the said "bag" and put things into piles, some for now and some for later. I made a list of wesites etc that I had noted and I am going to look them up and work out what I was hoping to get from them. Then there is a pile of some other things that I want to start working on asap and lastly there are the things that have gone back into the bag for future reference. Things that I found that I feel are worth a mention are 1. A character that I would love to develop into a series of stories. She is too big for just one but I'm not sure what sort of outlet there would be for such a series. I'll try to get one story written and worry about the rest later. 2. Something that I wrote the day after my last dog died which made me cry. 3. An outline for a screenplay that when I started to read I could see playing out in pictures infront of me. 4. An idea that I wrote down that if developed properly would make a great tear jerker. 5. A few non fiction ideas that might be worth exploring. And this just came from that one bag. What about my drawers? What about the notebooks that are dotted around all over the house? I used to be so inspired. I used to be so enthusiastic. I wish that I could get some of that enthusiasm back because if I'm being honest I probably have been going through the motions recently.

What to do today

Something totally unrelated to writing caused me to rummage through my "wip" drawers a moment or two ago and while I was doing that I spied my "wip" bag. This is an old briefcase jam packed full of bits of paper and books etc that have ideas and partial stories etc written on them - you know that type of stuff because you may have one of your own. Anyway in a bid to get my short story juices flowing my "to do today" list consists of going through that bag. Could be a long day so I'd better get a cuppa before I start. Watch this space/

There was the sun.

Since I was last here, I am happy to report that the rain has abated and there is a strange golden orb in the sky which, if memory serves me correctly we call the sun. Oh hang on a minute - it's gone again - maybe I imagined it. On a different note I am still waiting for a reply to any of the sumissions that I sent out recently and some of them date back to last October so I would have hoped to have heard about them before now. Maybe no news is good news though so I will just hang on and hope for the best. I need to write some short fiction. It is a very long time since I wrote anything new in that respect and I'm feeling the need to do it but lacking the inspiration at the moment. I've spent the last few months on a longer project so the short stuff has been neglected and to be honest I am feeling nervous at the prospect of trying to do it again. If I am being honest it has to be soemthing like 18 months maybe even a bit longer since I wrote any new short fiction so I hope I haven't forgotten how to do it. I'll let you know how I get on.

Not a lot

I am such a bad blogger - but I don't need to tell you that because most of you know that alreday. It's not that I've deliberately not posted,it's just that I haven't really had anything to say. What have I been up to? Well I sent off the first three chapters of my Nice project one day last week so the long wait for a reply has started. They say not to expect anything for six months so it could be a long wait. I've given up on the stories that I sent to TLFF because the six months are up but I am still hanging onto the theory that no news is good news from WN. Other than that, not a lot, well nothing has happened. I had a week off work last week and spent the time enjoying morning lay ins, afternoon walks with the dog and nothing very strenuous in between. I went back to work on Monday with batteries fully recharged but it has been non stop catching up and H&S courses since then so I have had no time to write until now - and I'm blogging so maybe I'm a bad writer too. Don't know about the rest of you but this rain is getting on my wick. Three days solid now and still it shows no sign of letting up. Maybe I should switch the computer off and try to round up some wood incase I need to start building an ark.

Preparing for the "big" day

So here we are in another financial year and I think that it is safe to say that the exchequor will not be overflowing from the tax they get from what I earned in the last one. Having said that, anything that I owe I will pay which gives me the moral high ground over some of the better paid in our society who weasle out of paying what they should. Having said that they may well take pity on me and tell me not to bother. Okay so they won't - but they should. The few people that know that I write are amazed that I declare it and pay tax on it but as I tell them it is all in preparation for the day that I make it big.

Nice Project update and other stuff

I have finally accepted that the Nice project is highly unlikely to be finished by the deadline that I set myself which was the best part of four months longer than the original one.
The first draft is finished, in as much as the basic story is told but I needed to add around 19,000 words to get it to the length that it needs to be. You may remember that I intended to find those by developing characters and adding a couple of situations and while that is still the case, progress is proving to be slower than I anticipated. I have just taken a current word count and I still need to find just shy of 16,000 words for it to reach the publishers required length.
I'm not giving up on it though because I think that it has potential and is not that bad for a first attempt at a new genre.
On a different note I am still waiting to hear back about any of the short stories that I have submitted recently and yes I know it goes with the territory but it is a little disheartening all the same. I did however sell a short non fiction piece this week - well more of a filler really - just 250 words but at the end of the day a sale is a sale.

Progress or lack thereof

Well the Nice project is not coming along as quickly as I had hoped that it would mainly due to life getting in the way of dreams as it does on a regular basis. However I did have a pleasantly productive morning this morning which moved it on 600 words or so in the hour that I could give over to it. I think that it may move along quicker the further that I get into it because at the moment I am at the scene setting stage and that was pretty much done anyway so didn't need much tweaking but when we get to the nitty gritty as it were it will be a different kettle of fish entirely (hopefully.) Anyway an hour was all that I could give it at the moment so I'll have to be happy with that. As often happens on a day off the kitchen is calling me and I can feel quiche and a lemon drizzl cake coming on. Maybe even some cookies or shortbreads too.
On a different note, I still haven't heard back about any of the stories that I have sent out and as some of you know they were the first that I had sent out in a while so I just wondered what waiting times were like for various magazines these days. I've had several out since October and while 6 months used to be pretty standard some were sent to magazines that always replied quicker than that.
Anyway better go because I've just remembered the pile of ironing that needs to be fitted in.

Nothing SMART yet

No abjectives set yet but I am settling back into the real world. The day job was okay while I was away from it but there were a couple of, how shall I put this, slight hiccoughs bordering on monumental disasters that I had to take care of when I got back. But disaster was averted and all is well with the world now. I haven't felt the need to tell my boss what happened - working on the assumption that what he doesn't know won't hurt him, it seemed like the best course to take.
Then yesterday I attended the final day of a course that was assessing my management style. Apparently I my personality is an emotional introvert and my management style is ISNF or some such combination. Basically I care about people and think about how my decisions will impact on them. Also I like to think about a problem and make a plan of how to tackle it. The world will be a better place for knowing that I am sure.
I started what is essentially the second draft of my Nice project on Monday and so far have tackled a measly nine and a bit pages which have increased about 450 words to the wordcount but have added information about the MC, who, now I come to think about it is probably a bit of an emotional introvert herself.
Must get on with those objectives though because at the minute I am putting all of my eggs in one basket and that has come back to bite me on the backside before.

Transition to the real world

Well its back to the day job tomorrow after what my friend David refers to as "that bowl of cherries called paid liesure time," i.e. a week off work. I have to be honest and say that right at this moment the prospect is not filling me with glee but then I remind myself that there are millions of people out there who would like to be in my shoes so I've told myself to "shut up whinging and get on with it."
I will also take up the pink pen again tomorrow. I have had a week of rest from that too and if I'm still on that honesty thing, I haven't missed that too much either. I have just reeeaallly enjoyed a week off.
Tomorrow though, it will be back to the real world with a vengeance.
The day job will take care of itself and will depend a lot on what has happenend during the last week when I haven't been there. The transition back will be good or bad depending on what I find in the morning and as I won't know that 'til then there's not a lot of point worrying about it. As for writing, I will take a new look through rested eyes at my Nice project with the intention of developing some of the characters and ironing out some creases. At some point today I also want to come up with a list of SMART abjectives for my writing so there will/may be more on that later.
In the meantime there are 30 pages of "Jane Ryre" left to read.

Reminicences and other random thoughts

I've just read through the very first short story that I ever received payment for. Don't know what made me do it because I haven't looked at it since it was accepted back in 2006. That one was published in TLFF and not long after I had another two accepted by different magazines in quick succession I thought I'd made it. I wasn't a best selling novelist but I was onto something. Oh poor dillusional me. If only it were that easy.
I had 7 stories accepted in 2007, but only 3 in 2008. The following year was a bit better at 6 and then in 2010 I concentrated on non fiction though I did have a couple of stories accepted early in the year. And of course between these modest acceptances there were a mountain of rejections. There wasn't a single fiction acceptance in 2011 but there wasn't a submisson either until October and as you are probably aware, I am still waiting to hear back about those.
Don't know what made me look back at the first but I am feeling a nit nostalgic. I remember how happy I was when it was a) accepted, b) I received the payment and c) I saw it in print. I may even look for the magazine later because it is sure to be somewhere. The copy of MW containing the first travel article I was commissioned to write is still sitting on a chair in the kitchen - I was so proud of that one.
But 2012 has to be a year for looking forward. As Himself happened to say the other day apropo of nothing here,"It's never too late until they're nailing down the coffin." so there's still time for me to achieve whatever it is that I am trying to achieve from this writing lark.
I submitted a short story today - the first of 2012.

Early morning reflections

I woke up early and decided to come downstairs and have some quiet time reflecting on stuff. Well no, I intended answering a couple of emails but somehow ended up reflecting.
Its now 4 months since I started to submit fiction again and to be honest I haven't done much of it. I sent off 6 things back in the middle of October and nothing since. I haven't heard back about any of the pieces that I sent off but they do say that no news is good news. Not so in this case though methinks.
So not a very auspicious restart to my fiction "career."
Must try harder.
Must also try and go back to sleep for an hour or so or I'll be no use to anyone later.

Not much

I haven't written for a week and don't plan on much for another 10 days or so which is when I will revisit the Nice project and start the second draft. Himself has been off work for the past week which has eaten into the time that I would normally write (not that I'm complaining) and we are both off next week so I can't see myself doing much. Anyway that will have given me enough time away from the Nice thing so that I come at it with a fresh approach and as it is my work of choice at the moment, that is the one that I want to concentrate on.
Number One Son is coming for a visit tonight which will be good. We don't see him a lot so I am very much looking forward to that.
Other than that, not a lot happening here. It's been bloomin' cold but at least it seems a bit warmer today but wetter. Can't have everything eh?

This and that

So the first draft of the Nice project is finished. Its still very raw and needs a lot more work before I even contemplate doing anything with it but as first drafts go its okay I suppose. There is planty of room for growth in some departments though so something to work on.
On a different note, something has been niggling away at me for months. Its to do with a situation at my last job that I thought I had got over but clearly not as it still niggles so I have sent an email to someone in authority and right or wrong its done so maybe I can put it behind me now.
I have absoloutly no idea where this morning has gone. I sat at the laptop at 10.10 am and planned on getting the last bit of the Nice project down and I've done that, I also finished the "email" that has now been sent, I've looked at a few blogs that i follow and now I'm here and the morning has just about gone. Yet I have so much more to do before 2pm when its time to walk the dog. They all revolve around the kitchen and the cooker so maybe I should turn this thing off and get on with it.

Well I never

I just googled the old parentheical statement and I realise I've been doing it for years without realising it. That's probably because they weren't called that when I was taught English or maybe they were and Mrs Wilkinson forgot to mention it. Either way, I'm still not keen on breaking up the sentence up with dashes. And while I'm on the subject and my high horse I think that "breaking up the sentence" is better than the "setting off the sentence" that the editor chose to use.
Okay, best get down before I get saddle sore.
BTW since the last time I was here Nice has moved on by a mere 200 words or so (who am I kidding? Its more like 100) and I've spent the rest of the time looking into getting a better quote for my car insurance.

I didn't know I could....

...write one that is.
Let me explain.
I received an email yesterday which I have just opened from an editor saying that in a recently submitted article, I had written " a parenthetical statement." Really? Can anybody tell me what one of those is because I have absolutely no idea and certainly didn't know that I could do one. Way to go me! I have a new skill. Apparently I could have set it off with dashes rather than commas but I'd rather not of they don't mind because I'm not really fond of a dash in a sentence but I do quite like a comma.
On a different note I have a Sunday morning to myself so that involves a bit of writing (should be a lot but I'm making no promises) with a (now) nearly empty cup of Earl Grey by my side while the lovely Roger Federer plays tennis in the background (on the television that is, not actually in my living room.)
The writing that I should be doing is my Nice project which is currently around 28,000 words long and we are just getting to the crux of the matter as it were so it is an interesting time. I suppose I should sort out my "parenthetical statement" issue too at some point.
Maybe I'll put the kettle on again first.

The One Show

Did anyone see Richad and Judy on the One Show last night? Well without meaning for this to sound like sour grapes I did want to throw something at the television when Richard called his wife a "full time writer." Okay he is right because that is her job now, she is writing a book but who amongst you out there has received a two book deal without the first book even being finished? Not many I'm willing to bet.
What hope have the rest of us got when celebrities are given book deals on the back of their names?
Okay so I know it does sound like sour grapes but its too late now because I've said it.

Decision made

Okey dokey, whether she likes it or not I have decided the route that MC will take so onwards and upwards with that one.
Update on the fence. Himself has effected a repaur that means that we can at least unbar the dog flap allowing said dog to be able to go into his own (and only his own) garden and do whatever it is he does out there.
Okay, time to go and make burgers. Yes, you heard me right, I make my own burgers. Tonights version will be seasoned with tomatoes and oregano and served with mushroom and cheese on a poppy seed bun. They will be accompanied by sweet potato wedges and a side salad. Hows that for domesticity. So there you have another little known fact about me. I love cooking.

Writing +

The problem with writing a blog just about writing is that sometimes there's not a lot to write about and that makes for a very dull blog.
So what else is happening? well one of our fence panels is or rather was in the neighbours garden. Its now propped up half in the cupboard under the stairs and half in the kitchen. I should point out that the said cupboard is in the kitchen, the panel is not in two pieces, it is however I fear beyond repair. Not a lot we can do until the wind drops apart from keep the dog out of the garden. My neighbours fence is still intact as far as I can see so he couldn't go far, but best he doesn't go exploring someone else's garden without their permission. However because if the positioning of the now defunct fence panel in/out of the cupboard under the stairs it does mean that I can't get to the basket of ironing so it will have to remain not ironed at least for now. Every cloud eh.
On a writing note I have reached an impasse in my Nice project. What? Again? I hear you cry. Yes I have. 24,000 words in, my MC has a decision to make and depending on that decision, the story will move on in one of two ways. At the momnet, after this mornings efforts I'm not sure what she will decide. I think I need a piece of paper and a pros and cons list for each choice and go from there.
Yetserday was the first anniversary of the day that I was told I was being made redundant. It was horrible at the time but lookig at it now I think that it was for the best. Some things are worse like my salary and my team but as a former colleague told me a few weeks ago it took me ten years in my previous post to build those up so I need to give myself a break.

New Years resolutions

Don't worry - I'm not going to bore you with a long list because I'm not going to bother with the long list of stuff that I don't stick to.
No I have only one and that is to shift the unhealthy amount of excess weight that I have carried around for too long.
There I've said it now.
As far as writing goes - I'm going to try and do it to the best of my ability.
Here's to 2012.

This year

My writing (sounds rather grander than it really is) has been a bit hit and missy this year. I started it with a nice little earner (not huge but fairly regular) that supplemented my income very nicely thank you very much and I have to be honest I concentrated on that rather than what I might choose to write. However when the company went belly up in the summer that came to an abrupt end. With that non fiction gig gone I decided to go back to my first love which is fiction. I submitted half a dozen things in October but so far have heard nothing back but wasn't that always the way. I did manage to sell a small non fiction piece at the end of October but that is all since the summer.
So I still have BTL sitting in a metaphoric drawer alongside the non fiction book that I wrote several years ago which needs quite a specialised market that I haven't managed to discover yet. And then there is my Nice project which is currently about 22,000 words long. Oh and there are about a dozen short stories sitting in various folders too.
Hopefully I will do better next year. I may even com eup with some resolutions.

Bad Blogger

Oh I have been a bad blogger again. Sorry. Its this Christmas thing - and work of course which always seems to get in the way of spending the day doing things that I enjoy.
Well first and forwmost, Merry Christmas everyone. I hope that you get to spend the day with the people you love and that your heart is full of happiness.
Spare a thought if you can though for all of those who are having a hard time making their Christmas happen. I have while I've been sitting here on my own waiting for everyone else (including the dog) to wake up and I thank God that I'm lucky enough to have my menfolk around me. I've also spent a moment looking at the two angels and the one red bauble amongst the silver ones on my Christmas Tree that represent those that we have loved that aren't with us any more.
Now, its time to enjoy my day and I hope that you all do the same.
Merry Christmas everyone.
x

Thinking on paper

I'm thinking out loud really or rather on paper/screen whatever but I'd be interested in anything anyone wanted to say. You see, the thing is that for a while I have been thinking of self publishing BTL, given that I can't get an agent to "love it" enough to take it on. Obviously these days digital is the way to go and so I have been thinking about that too. But my dilemma is that I am the only one that has ever read BTL all of the way through so how do I know that it is good enough and that anyone else will want to read it? How do I know that I'm not just kidding myself? I always said that I would never self publish but after reading an article by Giles Brandreth the other week I realised that unless I am a celebrity, my chances of getting a book published are just about nil and he mentioned self publishing. Of I don't know.
On a different note, my "Nice" project has just hit 20,000 words. I have revised my deadline to say that I want the first draft, second draft and a bit of a polish done by April.

Nicely nicely....

is how my "Nice" project is coming along. After the initial problem that was discovered after 7,000 words I am now back on track. The current word count is 15,020 (to be exact) and I am quite happy with that as I have managed to write at least a couple of hundred words almost every day and for me that is good going. I find that I really enjoy the days (like today) when I can sit down and have a good crack at it but I'm even enjoying the times when I can only fit in half an hour. Considering that this project is a complete change of tack for me I am quite happy.
On a different note, that Christmas thing is creeping up awful quick isn't it.

Not such a Nice project

Bit of a setback I'm afraid in getting 50,000 words written for my Nice Project before Christmas because 7,000 words in I have decided that I don't like the way that the story is going. I like the characters and the setting just not the direction so it will be going in a totally different one on Monday. The only consolation is that its better for it to happen after 7,000 than 17,000.

Nice new project and other stuff

My "Nice" project started 12 days ago and has to be 50,000 words long by Christmas. Well obviously it doesn't have be, I mean they aren't going to come and cart me away to prison if its not but I would like it to be.
As of this morning it is 5,400 words long thanks to a 1,200 word spurt this morning, ably assisted by 2 cups of tea and a Wagon Wheel. Don't know what possessed me to buy the Wagon Wheels - don't even like them - but it has to take at least some credit for this mornings efforts.
On a different note, I woke up the other day to an email saying that I have had an article accepted. It's only short so the pay isn't great but it's something else for the resume and it's the first thing in a few months. Still not heard back from anyone regarding the fiction that I sent out a few weeks ago but a few weeks is a short time in this game.
Other than that there's not a lot happening in either the writing or the real world.
That Christmas thing will be upon us shortly. How come, when we were little Christmas never came around this quick? Does time travel faster the older you get?
Oh one of my old boss's (should that be "es"?) caused a stir the other week by ringing my new place of work and when he was told that I wasn't in left his name as Mr Such and Such and said that I would know who he was and why he had rung. Yeah, course I know who he is and he rang to see if there was any gossip. I was actually very touched because he was my boss about 5 years ago and we kept in touch but when I changed jobs we sort of lost it. I'd tried emailing/ringing him a couple of times but when I got no response thought we were just drifting apart as people do. But no, he tracked me down though God knows how thinking about it because I work in a very obscure location. Turns out his phone was nicked and of course he had no back up of his contacts and he had to change emails for some reason that I didn't quite understand. Anyway I was touched that he'd made the effort. He was always more like a little brother than a boss. When I was asked at work who he was I just said that he was an old boss and let them wonder about the rest. Gotta have a bit of mystique. Me and mystique there's a laugh.
Anyway, I can tell that I am starting to waffle - must be giddy from the success of 1,200 words down today so on that note I'm off to make Pumpkin and Sweet Potato Soup (gotta do something with it) and bake biscuits.
Ta ta

Just curious

Just wondered if anyone was signed up to NaNoWriMo this year? Or have you done it before? Or generally what your thoughts are about it?

In the water

So that's it, my toes are back in the water and I have sumitted my first piece of short non fiction since (I checked my records) 15th October 2010. It feels kind of new and exciting and a little bit strange. The piece that I submitted was something that I wrote before my "sabbatical" but I hope to start something new later today.

Guilty as charged

I believe that I am guilty of not following one of my own rules of engagement, namely the one about not messing about because it gets you no-where. Indeed I think that I have spent a lot of the last year "messing about" and not being terribly serious about what I was writing. I was, I think, pretending that I was trying to be a writer, going through the motions as it were. They say that confession is good for the soul - so there you go. I confess I am guilty as charged - it's a fair cop. but the good thing about realising what I have been doing means that I get a chance to do something about it. I know that I said a couple of weeks ago that I was thinking of writing short fiction again but as yet I have done nothing about it. But that changes this afternoon. I start getting serious again this afternoon. It is in fact already afternoon. It's not like I'm putting it off for a couple of hours.
On a different yet similar note. I had a conversation with the dog this morning about BTL. I explained to him about how I loved it and I thought that other people would too - if only they got the chance to read it. I also told him that in this current economic climate publishing houses were taking on fewer and fewer new writers because it involved quite a big risk with their somewhat limited financial resources. He was of course absolutely riveted by this conversation and was hanging onto my every word. So then I asked him for his opinion on self publishing which is something that I said that I would never do. I mean, people are supposed to pay you to publish your work. Anyway, he didn't really have an opinion and chose that moment to fall asleep. So I wondered what you all thought. Is it something that you have considered or even tried and what were your experiences? Is it something that I should consider?
Anyway, serious head going back on now.

Thinking of paddling again

I'm seriously thinking of dipping my toe back into the short fiction water and I wondered if anyone knew if Best were still taking submissions. I think that I read somewhere that they were only doing fiction again for the summer. I'd appreciate any info anyone has because I have a story that I think might interest them.
I've been away from short fiction for about a year now and haven't really kept up with much gossip. Is there anything that anyone thinks that I should know?

Apologies

... for the whinging earlier on. It has just been one of those days. I think the basic problem was that I was feeling a bit down about who knows what and decided that I woul dbe happy if BTL was read by millions but to get to that stage I need it to be read by one.
Feeling a lot better now and remembering that happiness is not being a success at what you do but rather about being a success at who you are. Think I'm ready for a holiday.

Just can't say goodbye

I am working on NMBK and I am excited by it especially as I'm getting to the part where I actually feel that I have got to know it again so I can start new writing. However I keep thinking about BTL. I know that there is a market for it but I just need to find someone who is willing to look at it all. When I have sent it to agents I get really good coments about the writing though some of them do want me to get rid of one of the main characters but others say they like him so I guess its just a matter of opinion. I know that if I could get someone to read the whole book they would see how vital he is to it.
But agents only want to see the first three chapters which I have polished to death so I guess I should just get over myself and get back to NMBK. However I do feel better for getting it off my chest so thank you for that.
If anyone is wondering why I didn't just delete his its because I view this blog as a conversation and, as I have learned too often, once you've sais something you can't take it back.

Flying time

How can it be a month since I was last here? What have I done? Not a lot that I can remember.
Work has been a bit stupid because of sickness so that has taken up a lot of my time and energy, plus I have been feeling a bit under the weather so maybe time has flown by without me realising it. Well clearly it has.
I did have a conversation with an editor re the comma which apparently I don't use correctly sometimes. She/he (not sure which because they went by their initials) wanted me to put them where I didn't feel comfortable putting them but hey ho, c'est la vie and all that. In the end I put it down tio the fact that it is an American publication and they might use commas differently.
So that's what I've been getting up to and now I'm off to check what the rest of you have been doing. I've got a tenner that says its been more inetersting than what I've been doing.

Productive morning

Today is an unusual day off from the day job as in one where I don't have to do grocery shopping or go anywhere so I could sit myself in my chair with my feet up and laptop on lap (where else would it be?) relatively early and I am happy to report that it has been productive.I
1. Wrote 500+ words on NMBK which I know is not a lot but I am still feeling my way back into the project and although the word count wasn't high, if they were the right words - that's fine.
2. Wrote a short article which after polishing will hopefully be submitted this week.
3. The dreaded self assessment. Yuck! Hate doing it and for what its worth to the tax man it is a lot of effort but knowing my luck if I didn't do it I'd be the one that the courts made an example of. But its done now and that is the main thing.
All in all a good mornings work and now that noon approaches I might do a bit of ironing or who knows - I might even bake. Decisions decisions.

Number 3 update

Well, as decided upon by the majority, I am now working on the number 3 option which was NMBK which is currently just shy of 26,000 words down on the page. Where I left it was probably about half way through the book but there is a lot of developing to do so 26,000 words does not constitute 1/2 a book.
I gave the first chapter to my best girlfriend (its a girl rather than a bloke book) and asked her what she thought. She said that she liked it and wanted to know how the characters developed but as the first chapter is only about 2 1/2 pages long she didn't have a lot to go one.
So far so good.
Good choice everyone.
One more thing. What should I do with BTL? That's the book that had agents interested but not interested enough. I'm thinking stick it in a metaphorical drawer and forget about it but would that be the right thing to do?

The question to the answer

Please don't be annoyed by how uninteresting the question was but the question was:- What (if any) major project should I concentrate on. Should it be
1. DC
2. BTL
3. NMBK
4. NRIMH
or
5. GU
All of them are a WIP in some form or other and I didn't know which direction to take.
DC is complete in its current form but only 45,000words long and several years ago an author who has been really helpful to me suggested that as it stood it wouldn't easily fit into a genre. I totally agreed with her and decided to give it up to concentrate on BTL. I have however recently thought of returning to it and developing it.
BTL is complete at 67,000 words and although several agents have been interested one of the very interested no-one has taken it up. So I have to ask myself that despite the fact that I love it do I give up on it and try something else. That will of course depend on which number got the most votes.
NMBK is about 20,000 words or so but not finished. I left it alone while I tried to get agents interested in BTL.
NRIMH is also about 20,000 words and not finished. There is however a lot of scope for development with this one.
GU was simply "give up." That is to say give up the idea that I will ever write a book that will interest anyone enough to want to publish it.
When I asked the question I was perfectly prepared to go with the majority decision even if it was number 5.
So I asked some other people including my best friend what number to pick and I can now say that the option that got the most votes was number 3 so NMBK is the winner (lucky thing)
Thanks for all your input
x

Answers please

Without knowing the question I would appreciate a few answers. Is it
1, 2, 3, 4 or 5?
Thank you very much in advance for any answers provided.

Work, flu and the Tour de France

Sorry to have not popped over for a few weeks but life has a way messing up what you'd really want to be doing sometimes. I was on holiday from the day job last week but "proper poorly" though thankfully I am on the mend now. I know for a fact that I have only ever had colds before because this week I had flu. I thought I was dying on Tuesday. Then the two weeks before that I was working flat out (at the day job) without a day off which probably explains why I was so low that I caught flu.
Anyway, not to worry, like I said I'm on the mend now and have another week off from the day job to look forward to.
I haven't done as much writing as I would have liked since last we spoke but hopefully that will be remedied when the batteries are fully recharged after another week's R & R. I have one article that needs to be with the editor by tomorrow night and that will be it until the end of next week as we are taking off for a few days. I'll have the obligatory notebook in my bag so there might be a few ideas jotted down but that'll be about it next week and after that it'll be full steam ahead. I had to buy a new hoover on Friday so I need to get a few bits accepted somewhere to pay for it.
After watching the Tour de France from a prostrate position on the sofa this week I have added the Loire Valley to the list of places that I want to visit before I die. I've never really watched the tour before but I have become quite a fan though what possesses grown men to race up a mountain on a bike is beyond me. and then there's the even sillier racing down a mountain. Madness!
Well thats about all I have to report. Nothing very exciting I'm afraid.

Whats wrong?

With Blogger that is. At first I thought it was just me that was having a problem commenting on certain blogs (even my own) but then I have read that others are having similar problems. Did I miss something when I was away from Blogland?

Working out where to start

So, I have read everything that I have for NMBK and I must say that i was a little surprised where I had left it but there you go - thats life. Like I think I mentioned before, it does very much read like a first draft but that's probably because that's what it is so I'm not too worried about that. My problem - not that it is one really is how to start again. How do I write the next sentence? How do I get the ball rolling again? But hang on a minute, didn't I just say that it is a first draft so whatever I write next will not be written in stone and can be changed so what does it matter what I write next as long as I get things moving again. I think I will start with "Michelle gave up the effort of trying to sleep." That'll work I think and if it doesn't that's what the delete button is for.
Thanks for listening.

First drafts and short memories.

After enjoying 2 days off its back to the salt mines this morning (ya boo hiss and all that) but before I go up the mountain I thought I'd read more of NMBK as part of the getting to know you again stage. As a first draft it is okay but there is a lot of polishing to do before it ever sees the light of day. Having said that the premise is good (I believe) and the emotion is there but the writing just needs to be tighter. Its full steam ahead though with the reading. I'm changing nothing and I'm going to get the whole of the first draft down before I go back and start tweaking.
Talking of work, some of you will remember that I was made redundant in March but was lucky enough to find another job in the same field but with a different charity. It surprises me to realise that sometimes its hard to remember that I ever worked for another charity or on another location. I am so pleased with the way my brain has just adjusted to my new situation. Maybe this was how I got over being dumped by whatever that very tall lad was called that I used to go out with when I was a teenager (sorry can't remember your name if you're reading this which is possible if HIGHLY unlikely). Sometimes having a short memory span comes in very handy.
Mountain here I come.

Aaarrgghhh

I'm off to the hairdressers shortly for a couple of hours pampering but I thought that I read a bit more of NMBK before I went. While I was reading chapter 3 I had a ? moment followed by an aaarrrgghhh one when i realised that T's dad has a different name from the one he has later on. I thought that I'd changed all of them when I decided change his name (after about 10k words) but clearly not. Of well, changed now so all's right with the world again.
So shopping and hairdressers here I come. This is the first of two days together that I've managed to wrangle off from the day job in the world of charity retail and I aim to enjoy them.
TTFN

Full steam ahead

Well not quite full steam but certainly steamier than it was. No, not in that sense. I just mean that it is moving again.
What is? I hear you cry.
NMBK - that's what. You remember - novel number 2.
Its been on the back burner for a few months while I anguished over what to do with BTL (so far unpublished first novel but will be one day) but now that that's sorted in my head at least I can go back to NMBK which is currently around 25k words. Also as some of you know I struggle sometimes with fitting everything in but I have at last come up with a way of
a)working on the non fiction which while not my day job does help to pay the bills and makes me work to deadlines
and
b) having time to work on my novel on a regular basis.
So everyone is happy - well me at least.
Fiction is my first love, though I still don't have my mojo for writing short stories back yet. I do however love working on my novel - you know on this world that lives in my head.
There is a lot of conflict in the world in my head though so I am currently reading through what I have already written to get back into the heads of the people that live there and remember how they were feeling when I left off. As I recall, T was angry, M was scared and R was just the arrogant so and so he's always been.

Hurry up Smudge

I know that I should be working on the assignment that I need to finish but its one of those days when something else is on my mind. I had a call from a friend earlier saying that their cat (Smudge) had gotten out through an open window and, as it is a house cat they were naturally worried. I had hoped to have heard by now that it had turned up but no such luck. I know how much this cat means to my friend and no matter how much I try and concentrate on the job in hand I just keep thinking about the cat. I'm sort of clinging to the hope that she has turned up but my friend has just not called on account of it being late. Hopefully I will get a call in the morning. She'd better turn up soon because I only have 2 days before this has to be on the editors desk.

Final decision

What a job I had logging on? Talk about going around the houses - which we won't so I'll leave it there.
However, I did have something to say so I went around those houses I wasn't going to talk about and here I am.
I have made a final - yes I repeat FINAL decision about G - that is to say George, for that is his name.
Remember how I have always said that I love George and how I didn't want to get rid of him even though others had suggested that I should? Well you know that I already decided not to but I was going to try and give hime a back seat. Well not any more!!
I love George and he is what make BTL the book that it is which is a book that I love. I have read it several times and while its not Dickens or Shakespeare I enjoyed it. And it is only the way it is because of George and his relationship with E (not ready to reveal their name yet)
And how did I come to this decision? I read it again.
I decided this morning and I'm not sure why to read BTL in its original form. The one where George appears half way through chapter one as a voice rather than the rejigged version where he is the character in the retro clothing at the end of chapter two, and do you know what? I smiled . And despite what I might have been trying to convince myself of over the last few months E felt better for having him there right from the start. Sorry if I'm talking as if they are real people but they are real in my head.
What made the decision for me though was when, at the end of chapter 2, he utters the immortal words "Yes Love, I'm afraid you are."
So now its time to be honest about most of what I said here over the last months regarding the rijig making my MC a stronger character. I was trying to convince myself that I was doing the right thing and I now know that I wasn't.
A writer of dozens of books (who I will not name because its a personal relationship and they haven't given their permission) told me a few months ago, after reading both the original and the rejigged version told me to stick with the original and I should have listened to her. She said that George made it interesting.
So that's it - the rejig is over - the original stays.
Now, as my writer friend told me, I just have to find someone who loves it as much as she I do.
Can't tell you how much better I feel now.

Renewed vigor

So another week has passed without me coming over. My blog is perhaps starting to feel the same way that my mother does.
Anyway - done now - got to make the best of it.
As I have mentioned ad infinitum I started a new job in March which took/takes up a lot of my energy and time. But it is essentially the same job that took/takes up so much time as I did before but in a different and (has to be said) better environment so I should be used to it. However I did go from one to the other without a break - not even a day - and I think that took its toll because I was kn... very tired. But I had last week off work and I feel a zillion times better.
I had a lovely week of finally doing some chores that I've been putting off for ages (a fact that gets me down by itself) baking, cooking, taking the dog to the beach and visiting sleepy market towns for shopping and pub lunches. And, while that was all good, the best bit was that there was no alarm and I slept until I woke up which was such a treat and absolutley fantastic.
Back to reality tomorrow though but at least I can face it with renewed vigor which is something that I hope to apply to me writing too. It has sufferred, I have put it off but the fact fact that I haven't even looked at a piece of writing for a week means that I want to now. Having just said that though, does that mean that I'm not really writer material because I have often read that writers "have" to write and frankly I didn't last week.
Here we go.

WHAT!!!!

How can it be nearly a month since I was here? That's ridiculous - where is the time going?
Well as you can see I am still alive and kicking. I have spent the last month writing non fiction as the short fiction bug has still not returned and tinkering about with BTL. Which brings me to the reason I am here.
An update.
To be honest I haven't done much on BTL in the last month either. Seems that making a living is getting in the way - again. However I did delve into it a few minutes ago and realised that my MC wasn't speaking in her voice. Remember how I said after chapter 1 that she had finall found her voice and I like it. Well I have had to admit to myself that in my haste to get through it (remember I did set myself a deadline) I wasn't being thorough enough at pruning. I think the first chapter is fab possibly the second too but the following three have probably been rushed and I think that I will have to go back and have another look at them and make sure that MC is still speaking with that voice.
So that's the plan anyway.
Right so I'm off to see what the rest of you have been up to in the last month.

The wanderer returns

Just a quick note to say that G has finally returned to BTL. He hasn't had a speaking part yet but as the enigmatic stanger with the retro clothes watching the policeman walk away from the scene of an accident. I don't think he's going to be quite so cocky this time round but who knows because like I said he hasn't opened his mouth yet.
Have had such a productive morning. I worked on some articles as well as BTL, I baked some cakes, made a pie and even got to the bottom of the ironing pile. Not quite sure what has come over me but I wish every day could be so productive.

Starting Officially

So it is "officially" April which means that the rejig of BTL has "officially" started. When I gave myself a six month deadline it seemed such a long time but I know from bitter experience that it is not anywhere near as long as you think it is. So, I'd best get on with it and not bleat on about it. I have a couple of things that I am committed to writing this morning so I will get on with chapter 2 at some point this afters. Or at least that is the plan unless number 1 Son should turn up showering me with Mother's Day gifts. I'm willing to wager that I'll be rejigging this afternoon.

Still no sign

I managed to do both things. I caught up on a bit of sleep and I also did some rijigging. I have now completed chapter 1 (round of applause) and guess what? There's still no sign of G. I have however decided on the perfect place for us to get our first glimpse of him and I believe it will towards the end of chapter 2. I'm thinking that his introduction will be brief and fleeting which of course both mean the same thing but I'm sure you catch my drift as it were. We and MC will see him briefly and maybe at this stage not pay hime too much attention, only later will his importance become apparant. This idea only dawned on me about five minutes ago and I am very excited about it.

Best laid plans

Thanks to the workings of my internal clock which somehow managed to take the loss of an hour into consideration I still woke up at the normal time. So instead of the usual 6 hours sleep I managed to get 5. Yay!!!! However I was awake and bright eyed so I've got on with the day and will hopefully catch up with the sleep later. That means that I did a couple of hours writing which is as we speak winging its way towards Editorland (wherever that is) and this afternoon I'm planning another hour on BTL. That is not written stone however as I may well be snoozing on the sofa this aternoon.

Weird week

It has been such a weird week.
I started it as the employee of one charity and ended it as the employee of another and have worked everyday inbetween. In a way its a good thing that I didn't have a break because it didn't give me time to dwell on what was happening but boy am I tired. The three day induction that I have had with my new employers has involved a 40 minute drive morning and night which is way more than I am used to. Luckily for me, from Monday its a 10 minute drive well 15 probably to my new place. So while I would normally have fitted writing into the few hours that I'll have spare in the morning something tells me that I will probably be asleep.

1st report

Okay so I spent almost an hour tweaking BTL and I thought I would report on progress. Well, considering I haven't touched any fiction writing since the October it went alright. It felt fine.
There are now 66 more words than there were before and none of them refer to G - he hasn't reappeared yet. However my MC has finally found her voice. The interested agent from last year said that she liked the voice of the MC but now it is perfect - just right for her - and me.
I have to say that there have been times in the last few months when I wondered if I would ever touch fiction again because the non fiction is ticking along nicely but after making the committment in Blogland to do it and actually making the effort to find the time, I really enjoyed it.

Rejig starts today

Remember that rejig of BTL that I said I would start in April and give yself 6 months to do? Well, alright, I know its not April but I'm starting it today and I am giving myself until the end of October to complete it. I don't anticipate getting much done before April though mainly due to a bungle on my part which means that I'll be working at my current job (apart from today and Sunday) until next Wednesday and starting my new job on Thursday. Also an appointment this afternoon means that I won't get more than an hour to look at it today. I just wanted to make the public commitment to doing it (hence the post) because I'll be more inclined to do it then. I still don't know where I'm going to find the time to do it but I will - from somewhere. I hear that sleep is very over-rated.

Stuff

My head has been all over the place since January. Although I never said the word, I know that most of you probably realised that I was losing a job that I loved and being made redundant. I've been there a long time (9 years) and its a job that I've enjoyed. During February there was a chance that I could stay with the organisation but it would involve an hours commute in the morning and another one at night. I considered that for a while though I wasn't looking forward to the drive. Then I was offerred the chance to do the same job for a different organisation only 7 1/2 miles away from where I live so I snatched their hands off.
Needless to say, writing has not been a priority for me in the last three months.
So here's the situation at the moment. I have one more week of actual "work" which won't be easy because to see a place dieing on its feet is not nice and I work with volunteers who are going to find the process particularly hard so I'm going to be doing a lot of "picking up" this week. Then after that there are 3 days of actual closure. Then , and I know this was bad planning on my part, I start my new job the next day.
Hopefully when that process is out of the way I can start getting back to normal.
Also as some of you know, I used to write fiction with varying amounts of success but after a particularly unsuccessful early 2010 decided to concentrate on non fiction which I have been doing since October. That is going okay and I will still continue with that but from April I want to work on fiction again - or at least some of it.
My novel BTL had some interest from an agent last year but there were some twaeks that they wanted, Sadly after the tweaks they still didn't "love" (their words) enough to take it on. Personally I think that the tweaks requested were too harsh but they did make for better writing. So, from April I am going to give myself 6 months to tweak BTL again - not going as far as the agent wanted (they made me get rid of G and as those of you that have lived through this with me know - I love G, nay maybe even a little in love with him) but making the writing more of the style that the agents tweaks created, Sorry if that last sentence makes no sense but on here I write as I think and once its said, its said, just like in a proper conversation between friends.
That's the plan anyway.

Changes

I start a new job in at the end of the month (Yay!!!!) but it means that I've moved here to Frugal City. I'm sure that it will be a lovely place to live but I'm on my own over there so if anyone fancies popping over with their own words of wisdom now and again that would be great. If anyone would like to come and live in Frugal City I'm sure that there are places to stay at a reasonable price.
On a serious note I'm really looking forward to the challenge of the new job but the initial rewards will not be financial - hence the move to Frugal City. Actually its a place that I've tried to visit from time to time in the past but somehow stark economics have a way of focusing the mind.
Anyway now that the day job has been sorted maybe I can settle down to writing again.

A mixed bag

Writing went well earlier today and I achieved what I wanted to do. The Editors (I think of them as a life form like The Klingons) weren't so happy with something that I did the other day but thats a rewrite not an outright rejection so that was alright too.
Tonight though the article I wanted to research has fallen flat and I have achieved nothing but that could well be down to one of two things:
1. The fact that I spent an hour crying for no reason - must be my age
or
2. When I decided that A glass of Port would cheer me up, I drank too much of it and now all I want to do is go to sleep.
Oh, and if that wasn't bad enough, I've lost a follower. Hope they're not under the ironing pile because if they are they are lost forever.

Apologies

... for being such a bad and infrequent blogger. Goodness knows what my new followers must think. I used to have things to say once upon a time - and now and again some of them were interesting.
My only excuse is that things are still up in the air regarding the day job and as I'm sure at least some of you will know that occupies pretty much every waking hour of the day. Well that's not my only excuse actually, the other one is that I haven't really done anything that's worth mentioning. Maybe that is connected to my first excuse though.
Since I stopped writing fiction I'm not struggling with word counts or rejigging plots and I just seem to get on with it. I'm still not as prolific as I was before Christmas but that may also be connected to the first excuse. if only I didn't need a day job life would be so much easier. Some of you may remember though from the full time writing experiment earlier in the year I cannot support myself through writing and I do need a day job. Plus, for me personally (and this could prove a problem if I do get my fiction mojo back and get a book deal which means I have to write full time) freelancing is a bit too unstable for me. I like to know that there is going to be monet going into the bank once a month and that it will be enough to just about cover the bills. I know its not very adventurous but I'm not prepared to see my family go under so that I can follow a dream.
Talking of fiction mojo - I haven't got it back yet but I am building up to revisiting a project in a months time or so. I am going to knuckle down to it and see what happens. Its not coming back on its own so maybe I have to force the issue.
I'll try not to be away so long next time.

Not such a good start...

..to the new year writing wise but not so bad either so what am I moaning about? It has been "okay." January wasn't as prolific as December but it had a few successful days. February has got off to a slow start but then it is only the 3rd so there's time to improve.
I was on a roll before Christmas but then I sort of lost the momentum and never picked it up again. Well I guess I have had a lot on my mind - and yes its still whizzing round the space between my ears.
And a quick note about the "full time writer" experiment. It was relatively successful but it taught me that I'm not really at the stage in my writing where I can afford to give up the day job and rely on what I can earn from writing.
Heres to the rest of 2011.
BTW Its dear old Ma and Pa's 60th (yes I said 60th) wedding anniversary today. Go them!!!

Update

Just thought I would pop over and give you a quick update on this week's project. So far I am 2 days into the 3 day project of writing "full time" and I have to tell you that I found/am finding it quite difficult. Not the writing part which is fine but the discipline. Actually sitting at a key board for hours on end researching and writing meaningful stuff may sound idyllic but it is so tempting to make another cup of tea or eat another bit of cake.
I was delayed on the first day by a computer problem when I thought that I might have a virus and so had to run some anti-virus software. That stopped me doing what I wanted to at that time but it did allow for reading a bit of BTL and deciding what I was going to do there. So technically I suppose it wasn't wasted time but it just stopped me from getting all the writing that I wanted to do done. Then before you know it, it was 2pm which was my designated stop time (I did start just after 7) so I didn't get the prep done for the second day. Yesterday I didn't get everything done that I wanted to either mainly due to the fact that I spent a while on the phone to a lovely bloke at Dell because I had lost my wireless Internet connection and as everything that I am submitting this week is via email, a connection is sort of vital. Turns out I'd caught a button so it was easily remedied but I did feel a twit. Also the fact that the prep wasn't done the day before held me up. Nil desperandum I thought I can catch up on Friday (3rd day) which I might except that I'm going to knock off early today because Himself has bought tickets for "The King's Speech" (lovely man, can't wait.)
So if anything these few days has taught me that if I were to do this on a regular basis I would have to be more disciplined but I think that I knew that already. I have to say though that I have been so impressed with myself for not surfing the net and actually getting on with the job in hand.
I guess the success of this experiment will be in how much of the stuff that I have written is picked up by editors because as someone who is not independently wealthy and does actually need to make a living unless someone buys the stuff that I write when I do it as a "job" then we're not going to eat much.

Plan for tomorrow

The plan for tomorrow is to put a full shift in writing - that is at least 6 hours. I'll let you know a) if I manage it and b) if I achieve what I want to.
Night all.

Time for a change

I wasn;t going to blog about this but I was sitting here lap top on knee, dog's head on feet writing an article and I thought what the hec, things are always better when you talk about them. So here goes.
The result of the meeting I had last week (remember I asked for good vibes) was that the job that I currently do is coming to an end in March so it's going to be a time of change for me. The job is gone at least in its current location and probably all together but there are still some negotiations to be entered into (so I believe - daresay I'll be the last to know.) Anyway, nil desperandum and all that because I believe that it will be okay in the end and that I am being moved into another phase of my life. I've faced worse and come through it and with God and good friends on my side I will do again.
So let me get to the point of the post. It is a time of change and for change and as luck would have it I'd booked this week as a holiday from work so I'll have lots of time to think about it. I think that I have a drastic idea for BTL but I'm going to give it some thought before I commit myself to anything.
Anyway must go I've got an article that needs to be submitted by noon and its currently 10.15am with barely a word on the page. Wonder if I've got time to make a cuppa? What am I saying - there's always time for a cuppa.

Hi

I see that I have some new followers so I just wanted to say hello to you, thank you for choosing to follow my antics and welcome to the merry band. Blogging has been a little lax in the last month or so and depending on how today's meeting goes I can't promise what it'll be like in the weeks to come but I will try to keep you updated with what is going on in the Land of the Pink Pen.

Good vibes please

Its getting on for midnight and I know that I should go to bed because I'm tired but I'm a bit scared that I won't be able to sleep when I get there. You see, I have a meeting at work tomorrow that I'm really not looking forward to and I don't want to spend all night thinking about it. Sorry I haven't blogged this week but my mind has been elswhere - sadly.
If you're not doing anything tomorrow around 11am (GMT) please send me good vibes.

Time warp

According to my phone it is 23.59 in the year of Our Lord 2100 which freaked me out a bit when I saw it at half six this morning. It still says that by the way. So I'm not stuck in the past but 90 years in the future which. Well let me tell you it looks pretty much the same as 2010 did when I was there yesterday except we must have developed some sort of super flash anti aging device because I've just seen Dave and Nick on the news and they haven't aged a day since I last saw them. Maybe it wanlt the news - maybe it was the History Channel.
Happy New Year to you all - whatever year it is.

Random ramblings

Think I might be finally coming down with that flu bug that's flying around though having said that I actually feel better than I did half an hour ago so maybe not - who knows. Maybe I'm just looking to peg the blame for my inactivity on something.
I have a couple of assignments that need to be completed but I just can't seem to put the metaphoric pen to paper. Luckily for me the deadline isn't 'til next week so hopefully I'll have got my head in gear by then. On top of that I really and I mean REALLY want to get back on with BTL and NMBK.
I have a bit of a dilemma with the first one because I have polished it to death but I am wondering if it would be better and more commercial (seamless reference to my last post) if I changed it - pretty much completely. I had some interest from an agent earlier in the year but they wanted the whole thing changing so that I came at it from a different angle so at the moment I am toying with giving myself 3 months to try and change it and see what the outcome is. Do you know what? I wasn't actually toying with that until I wrote it without really thinking about it but now I think that it is something that I will do. The only issue now is finding the time to do it.
So the old year is almost done which I always find very sad but the new one is yet to come and that always gives me a lovely feeling of expectation. Anything is possible just before a new year. having said that "anything" invariably involves some bad stuff too so lets hold off the celebrations just yet.
I thought that I would share the best and the worst of 2010 with you and the owrst came very easily - I lost my mother-in-law very suddenly. She just didn't wake up one morning and that was horrible. At the moment I can't think of anything worse that happened in 2010. The best however is proving a bit more difficult. Oh come on woman - something really good must ahave happened this year. Why is it then that I really can't recall it at the moment? I think that is probably a reflection of the society that we ;ive in. No can't think of the best thing that happened to me in 2010 but if any of you can remember me telling you about something good can you please let me know.
Okay so I am rambling now so I will shut up.
Anyway - here's to a happy New Year everyone.

A little thought

I'm starting this post with a bit of trepidation because I really don't want anyone to get the wrong idea about why I am writing it. The aim of it is to pass a comment, a reflection if you will and is definitly not an attempt to get you kind folks out there to say nice things about BTL. I am not trying to provoke flattery from anyone.
Okay so now we've establishe dthat maybe I should get on with it.
Himself (best husband in the whole world) bought me a book for Christmas that a film I have been known to enjoy on occasions was based on. I will not be naming names here but suffice to say that the film falls into the "romcom" category and the book therefore is "chick-lit." His research had told him that the book was much better than the film and contained "a lot more." Okay then, methinks, I'll give this a go, a little light entertainment over the festive period.
Okay so lets cut to the chase and get to the heart of the matter. As a piece of writing, well how can I say this, its not that good. Mrs Wilkinson my old English teacher would be shivering in a corner if one of us had handed it in. No hang on that's not fair because obviously the writing is grammatically correct etc etc but to me it just doesn't seem to flow. Its all a bit stilted - he said she said but how on earth is anyone feeling sort of thing.
But here is an author who has written and published more than one book and sold the film rights to one of them so she must be doing somthing right. And she is - she is commercial.
Which brings me back to my thoughts on BTL and my writing in general - maybe its just not commercial enough.
Just a thought - and here's another one.
Can we stop eating yet?

Reflections

I have half a cup of tea left and am feeling reflective. It must be that time of year again.
Its been a funny old year and not all the ha ha variety.
Writing wise, the ability to write fiction seems to have deserted me but that's okay as I've been trying my hand at more journalistic/feature type stuff which is what I wanted to do for a living when I left school so to a certain extent I'm living the dream.
I only had one short story published this year but all that I have out there are two stories with Jill Finlay and one to an American market that I think may have gone bust. They were all sent in September and while I haven't given up hope on them, they are at the back of my mind and will be a bonus if anything comes of them.
Non fiction wise I had my first ever travel feature commissioned by a magazine this year which was quickly followed by another. Yay (I thought) I'm on a roll - only to be informed by the editor that they are changing style and have enough material in stock to see them through to that change. She said that she would be in touch when they had more work for me but so far I haven't heard anything. I also had several pieces in the local paper mainly around work and what was happening there - sort of promotional stuff - which gave me great satisfaction. Latterly I have been writing for an American outlet and that seems to be going okay but doesn't leave a lot of time for the book that has gone back into the drawer.
However I have to say that I am more than happy with the way that the writing year hss turned out. It didn't take the direction that I hoped it would at the beginning of the year but life has a way of doing that. Maybe I'll look back on what I wrote when I was feeling reflective last year and see just what I did hope the year would turn out like.
I don't know what I want from 2011 other than we get through it in one piece. Writing will be what it is and I'll enjoy the ride most of the time (hopefully). I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing and hopefully make more time to work on the book because I have too much time and effort invested in that to just give up because I haven't found anyone who believes in it as much as I do - yet.
Anyway, the tea is now gone and I have presents to wrap and stuff do do in the kitchen so I will wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I'm hoping to have all my men with me on Saturday and that will make me happy - I hope that something makes you happy too.
One final thing which I wasn't sure I was going to add but once I've typed it its said and it will have to stay said.
Lou, I miss you, we all miss you and you are the one red bauble amongst the silver ones on my Christmas tree.

A bit naughty

I'm not going to apologise for not being around for ages because it sounds insincere when I say it all the time. I am though.
i have been busy writing non fiction with a bit of success which is good for the morale and the pocket. However, do you know what? I have done something very naughty. No - calm down its nothing like that - I've decided to give myself the day off - or at least the morning. Usually on my day off during the past few weeks I have written an article or researched one but today I just can't seem to concentrate so I have decided that I'm taking some time off. I'm not sure if I'll manage a full day because like I said previously this non fiction lark is a bit of an addiction at the moment but I'm definitly having the morning.
I am going to make a cake, some curried parsnip soup (for lunch after I've walked the dog) and try to find a trashy Christmas movie to watch which I may well sleep through.
Sounds like a plan to me.
Oh and while I'm doing it I will be keeping my fingers crossed that these dinner plate sized snow flakes that are falling from the sky don't decide to stick because I was hoping to travel south on Sunday to deliver Christmas presents.
Oh and by the way - I had a rejected story returned through th epost the other day - ya boo hiss!

Apologies from a bad blogger

I feel like I have been a very bad blogger recently and I feel the need to explain myself.
I have developed a bit of addiction. Luckily for me its just to writing. In the hours before bed time when I used to answer emails and blog I now write, in the morning with breakfast when I used to do the same I write. Its good because I enjoy it but it does mean that I have forgotten to do the other things that I enjoy sometimes.
I am concentrating on non fiction these days as some of you may know and I love the discipline of it. I really enjoy the research. I'm not saying that I don't enjoy fiction anymore just that I am concentrating on other stuff at the moment.
Anyway, enough of that.
We're now enduring our 7th day of heavy snow and frankly I am heratily sick of it. I didn't get to work on Monday and had a struggle to get there on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today is a day off but I have just heard that the person covering for me hasn't got in and so the place is closed. I haven't had the nerve to ring my boss and tell him yet. I'm looking forward to walking the dog this afternoon though because it is very pretty and he loves it. It is very funny. Having said that if it could all have disappeared by the morning that would be fab.

I know somebody will know

When I say that I want to know this for a friend - trust me I do. It is not a euphemism for anything.
This morning, unable to get out of the village because of the snow I was talking on the phone to a friend who is also stuck at home about our relative "hobbies." Now she has more success than I do and asked me if I knew how much she was allowed to earn from her "hobby" before she had to declare it to the tax man. Well, never having earned more than a few hundred pounds in any financial year it wasn't a question I could answer but I said that I knew a group of people that would know.
That is your good selves in case you didn;t recognise the description.
Any offers?
Stay safe every one. This afternoon I have to trek through the foot of snow to the nearest shop to get supplies. It's only 4 miles - uphill.

Sorry

...for not being around lately but I just wanted to pop over tonight and tell you what I've been up to.
I have been writing every day with the exception of Saturday's which are a working day for me (day job) and I don't write on a Saturday evening because that's an evening to spend with Himself, Strictly and X Factor. I've been writing a lot of non fiction and through research for said writing I have learned a lot of stuff that I didn't know before.
Sadly I haven't found a lot of time for writing on the book and I need to work out a way of fitting that in. Maybe I need to do what my friend jan does with excercise and schedule it into my diary.
So things are looking good writing wise for me at the moment. I know that it's not very interesting (what I've been up to) but its just the way it is.
The best thing that I have learned this month is discipline and finally I have some as far as writing is concerned.
That makes me happy.

Still here

Its been a while since I was here but I just wanted to reassure you all that I am still alive and kicking.
I had a bit of a trauma on Saturday involving losing power, electricians and a "redundant circuit" but luckily for me I went to work after I called the electrician and it was fixed by the time I got home.
On the writing front I have found that since I changed direction away from the short story I have become more focused and I have found a writing discipline that I haven't had before. I am writing every day and that is something that I haven't done before. I fond that I am in a routine now. I find that I'm barely surfing the internet either these days unless it is for research. I couldn't tell you the last time that I went on facebook. Also I am really sorry that I haven't checked out other blogs recently. I'm going to try and get on top of that tomorrow. I would do it today but its almost midnight and I'm thinking that I should go to bed.
Okay so that's it really. Just wanted you to know that I am well and I am really happy with the way things are going at the moment. I could do with more hours in the day though if anyone knows where I could find some.

Another rule

I added another rule to the rules of engagement and that is to be honest with yourself about why you write.
I write to be published - and I want to be paid for it.
I know a lot of people that say that they just write for themselves and that is absoloutly fine. Every now and then I write poetry for myself. But when it comes to prose be it fact or fiction I do it to be published. Its not a grand scheme to get rich because God knows I'd be wasting my time there but more far a personal satisfaction that someone has chosen to publish what I have written and validates that by paying me for it.
As a teenager I had two carrer aspirations. One was to be a journalist and the second was to write a book or maybe even two or three or four - you get the idea. Maybe this is just my way of living the dream.
So rule number 2 - be honest with yourself.

Decision day

This lunchtime at work I was sitting by a window just watching the world go by and with my mind wandering something blindingly obvious came to me. As regular visitors may remember I have mentioned more than once that I never feel like I have enough time for writing all of the things that I have on the go. Well nothing has changed in that direction and to cut short a very long thought process I have decided to give the short stories a rest at least for a while. I haven't had a lot of success with them this year which in itself can be very disheartening but I have had more non fiction published than ever before. So that is what I am going to concentrate on for the next few months. Well that and my book which is my real baby.

Again and again

So I managed to underwhelm Norah again - twice - in one day. I only sent one of them on the 15th of this month. That being the case, I'm hanging onto the fact that she has had one of my stories since mid-August.

Found it

I won't bore you with every one of these that I write but as it's my first here is my article on ehow.

another update

Just popped over to let you know that there was an email waiting for me this morning to say that my article has been accepted. Yay!!!
I have another one to do and as I have a few days to get that in I think I'm going to do it at the weekend and probably time myself to see how long it takes.
I'm not sure where the article will appear just that it's somewhere out there in the black hole called the internet - probably the How To website but I'm not sure.

e-article update etc.

Just thought I'd pop over and update you on my foray into the magical world of the e-article. I now have a follower on Helium even though I have only wrote 2 articles which is a bit weird but I am embracing the experience and on Sunday my bio was approved by Demand Studios meaning that I could claim my first assignment which I duly did. I submitted that article (about Kalo card readings) on Tuesday and had it returned for some rewriting. According to my friend who writes for them regularly this is standard practice and I shouldn't worry about it. Anyway I made the changes and resubmitted last night. When I first submitted it I did so about 11.30pm on Tuesday night and the re-write request was waiting for me by the time I got up. There was no such email this morning so I don't know if that is a good think or not.
Should they accept this article I will be paid $15 for it which is a below minimum wage return for the amount of time it took me (probably about 2 hours) but I do hope yo get quicker if I continue on this road. Finding an assignment that I can write about is very time consuming but having said that I have claimed another assignment this morning and it was much quicker.
On the fiction front, I am re-engaging with NMBK and have polished a couple of short stories one of which I subbed the other day. I haven't started any new short fiction for a couple of weeks. I have however come up with a couple of ideas for articles so I need to buy a 2011 diary and pop a couple of deadlines in there.
It's all go.

Not a page turner.

Well I've been accepted by Helium and Demand Studios and have written a couple of articles for Helium and tried to write one for DS but apparently the review I made to my bio hasn't been cleared yet so I can't write anything yet. So allow me to tell you what I've found.
Helium seems easy to write for, both of the articles that I wrote have been accepted but then I don't see how the aren't. It was like you write, you post and it's there. As yet I haven't been able to work out how you get paid. My friend who does this type of writing to pay the bills since she lost her job said the same thing so she doesn't write for them much so I might follow her lead on that one for now.
As for Demand Studios they pay regularly and quickly but I have been struggling with the articles that they want. One of the gems yesterday was Beer Faucet and Shank Assembly. What????
Needless to say I feel like I hven't got very far on the sites themselves but things that I have read on there have started trains of thought for other things.
This internet writing lark may be the future but give me a page you can turn any day of the week.

Rule number 1

I have come to appreciate that the markets available to us (or is that we) writers is a small one. Okay, so I'm a bit slow on the up-take what can I say?
I read an article the other day about someone who writes for websites and said that these were the future. A friend of mine has written articles for websites since they were made redundant a year and a half ago and seems to be quite successful. They're on holiday at the moment so I can't pick her brains but I just wondered if any of you had any experience of this outlet.
Rule number one of my "Let's do this thing" philosophy is Always be on the look out for a market.- that number is subject is subject to change as and when I come up with more rules.

An anniversary

Today is a special day for Himself and I. At 3pm, 28 years ago this very day, he and I tied the knot in St Marie's Cathedral in Sheffield. How can that be? 28 years is a ridiculous amount of time. Having said that my parents were also married in that building though it didn't have the exalted title of "cathedral" then and in February they will have been married 60 years - now that is ridiculous. However what my own anniversary means is that this place here, this county, this village will have been my home 28 years tomorrow. We spent our honeymoon here at home so I left my parents home spent one night in a hotel and then took up residence here in the North East. And to think I can remember telling Mary Elliott (girl who was in my class) that I couldn't imagine living anywhere other than Sheffield. Funny how life turns out isn't it?

I'm back from .....

...the beautiful city of York and I am happy to report that I had a wonderful time. Being a Yorkshire girl born and bred it is a kind of spiritual home and I feel so much better for bathing in it's glory for a couple of days.

P.S.

As regular visitors may know it is a rule of this blog that once it has been written it has to stay so I just want to add something to my last posting. To any editors or any one else that may be reading this with a view to commissioning my words of wisdom - I am not messing about at this - I take what I write very seriously - it's just that I am lacking a bit of direction at the moment. I need to get my mojo back.

Honesty needed but not just yet.

October is a time of relection for me. For those of you that were around when the "ugliness" was hanging over me you may remember that it happened in October so I do spend a lot of time "thinking" aound this time of year. So that is what I've been doing for most of the hour and a bit sice I woke up. To be honest there's not a lot else to do at 5.30 on a Sunday morning.
I thought that I would look back at what I was writing on here last year. After I'd done that I went a year further back and so on until I got to 2007 when I first started the blog. I maybe should point out that I only looked at the month of October and not everything that I ever wrote.
It was interesting that in 2007 and 2008 I used to write a list of what I had done the week before and then one of what I was going to do the week after. It was all pretty mundane stuff to be honest. I'd given up making the lists by last year. What scared me a bit - well not scared because that's ridiculous - but what I noticed was that some of the stuff that I was writing on there that I was "going" to do I still haven't done. What am I messing about at?
We're having a few days away this week so I know that I won't get much done until after that but maybe the time has come to re-evaluate what it is that I am trying to achieve from this hobby of mine. If it is just an enjoyable distraction that I do for myself just because I enjoy it? That is fine but something tells me that that isn't all I want from it. I need to be honest with myself because if I can't be honest with me then there's no hope and do something about it. I think that I sometimes say to myself that even if I don't succeed at least I'll know that I've tried. But will I because at this moment it seems to me that I've just been messing about.

11 days left

I know that for a lot of us, time off from the day job makes us happy because we can spend all of our time writing. I know this because I have had holidays like that myself. But this time I gave myself permission not to write and it feels great. Much as I love it I have also enjoyed not doing it. Does that make sense? It's not that I haven;t written at all, I have tinkered with a few things, submitted a story and queried another but there has been nothing major. I have also been thinking and thats part of the doing.
I am just relaxing and I can't believe that I have only had 3 days off so far. I am so chilled.

Weird feeling and empty banks

This is a bit weird.

It's 7.10am on a Monday morning and I'm still sitting in my dressing gown and the dog hasn't been walked. It can only mean one thing.

NO WORK TODAY - HOORAH!

Actually no work for two weeks unless you count tomorrow afternoon when I have to go in to complete the stocktake that I completely forgpt about when I booked these two weeks.

It just feels so odd. I haven't had two days off together since May so the prospect of 15 of the little blighters is mind blowing.

Anyway, sadly I have to report another rejection from Norah since the last time I posted. She had three of my stories and now that the second and third have both been returned all hope lies with story number one which if my memory serves me correctly she has had around two months. But at least you know where you are with a rejection. I much prefer it to the "if you haven't heard from us in so many monaths" approach because even after the deadline has expired I'm still wondering if they might be running a bot behind schedule so maybe there is still hope.

These two weeks won't involve a lot of writing as there are lots of little chores around the house that need to be attended to plus we'll be having a few days away next week but I'm hoping to fit some in. The story banks are running a bit low and need to be refilled.

Once again.

Well I managed to underwhelm Norah at TaB once again. I just can't work out what it is that she is looking for. Maybe one day (deep sigh.)

Interesting time ahead.

I was flicking through a very old newspaper yesterday when a very small article caught my eye and I immediately thought that it would make a fantastic base for a story. I think that it would be too long for a short story if that makes sense - so I'm thinking a book. The trouble is that it will involve a LOT of research and that is something that I haven't really done before.
It should be interesting if nothing else.
By the way, if anyone has any advice in this department I really would appreciate it. I will need to research life in a certain period so that I can develope the characters and the research a certain event.

This and that

Okay, so what has happened since the last time that I was here? Well I got another rejection but that came as no surprise because if you remember the last time I got a rejection I said that I knew what the problem was and feared that the other story that they were holding had the same one. Clearly it did.

I've also been "getting on" with a few of the things that I mentioned the other day. I have submitted 2 stories and have another just waiting to be dropped into the post box. I've also done some research on a couple of articles and even looked at a possible agent for BTL. I'm just not sure if I'm ready to let that baby fly yet.

Thursday is usually a good writing day for me but I fear that won't be the case today. I have to go out at one o'clock and will be out for the rest of the afternoon. Before that I have to walk the dog and as I've been up since 5am I might try and fit in a nap. I hate waking uo early because I spend most of the time tired enough as it is but when I've been up early I'll be no good to anyone after about 6pm. I might get an hour or so's writing in tonight if I can stay awake that long.

Right so I'm going to print off the cover sheet that I forgot to do when I printed the rest of the story out yesterday and post my latest mini masterpiece off as I walk the dog. Did you see that? Two birds with one stone. Now if I could only sleep walk the dog I'd be laughing.

All quiet in the pink pen front

The pink pen has been very quiet for the last week or two. I've been working hard on the day job and have been too tired at the end of the day to do much writing. Sadly that is what pays the bills so has to come first.
I have done a bit of work on NMBK but that must have been about a week ago so that hardly counts and I did come up with a story for my writing group but apart from that, not much else that I can recall.
I had an idea yesterday for a piece of non fiction so I am going to try and start the research on that this week but of I'm honest I'm not sure of the market. It's a light hearted piece that is written not quite in bullet point form but with a short piece written about several things about the same subject. I've written similar pieces before but I'm not sure if the market is still there. I also had another non-fiction idea so maybe I'll give that some thought too. The fiction success seems to have dried up a bit at the moment. What am I saying? Success has - full stop. Never mind - there's always that day job that I mentioned.
I am also planning on submitting a couple of things this week. They are stories that have been either sitting in a folder for a while or have been reworked after rejection but I think they are worth an outing.
I've just checked and I currently have 10 pieces out there but three of them are with TLFF and are coming up to the 3 month deadline so I can probably kiss an acceptance from them good-bye and another one has been with Allas since March. I queries that one a couple of months ago but still haven't heard anything. Maybe I should assume that they haven't received either email and give up on that one.
Oh and of course I shouldn't forget BTL which is currently sitting in a drawer (metaphorically speaking) waiting to sent out to agents. I really should look at somewhere to send that.
So all in all I have a few things to be getting on with and hopefully when I come visiting blogland in a few days I will be able to report that I have been more productive.

mantra de jour

After following my mantra de jour i.e. be hyper critical on your writing before sending it out there I submitted a short story today so that was good. The day hasn't been a total waste then. The truth is that I have done very little else. It's a day off from the day job today and that's exactly what I did - I had a day off. Apart from going to the supermarket this morning and making some lunch for Himself and I, I have done nothing else and do you know what I feel so much better for it. I've been on a downer in general recently and today is just what I needed to recharge the batteries. Who knows - I might even potter into the kitchen to knock up some tea in a bit.
I feel like I want to start a new "big" project but I'm just not getting the inspiration? Any ideas of how to get inspired? Usually it comes to me when I least expect it so I maybe need to just hang around a but longer and wait for it to come to me. Either that or get the love back for the two "big" projects that were started and then mothballed.
I'll give it some thought.

The week so far

Well, let me see. I had another rejection - ya boo hiss and all that. On reflection though it probably shouldn't have gone out there yet. The ending was/is a bit weak. (Note to self. Be hyper critical about your babies.) No surprise really. I have another with the same editor which I have a similar feeling about and if their usual time scale is anything to go by I'll be hearing about that one in the next week or two. It's all good though - I can take it.
On a brighter note I did get paid for a writing job that I was asked to do. It wasn't a lot but it all counts.
I've just consulted my writing diary (not half so grand as it sounds) and this week I seem to have given myself a lot of submission deadlines. However bearing in mind my new mantra to be hypercritical on myself that might get whittled down while I review endings etc.
I submitted a couple of things this week but I seem to have hit a bit of a - well a rather big actually - wall as far as acceptances go. I haven't had one for ages. Just as well I didn't take that dream I had a few weeks ago seriously and hand my notice in after telling the boss I was giving it all up to be a writer.
Anyway best get on, things to do, people to see etc not to mention find time to read more of the new Jeff Lindsay (might not have spelled that right - sorry Jeff) which himslef bought for me as soon as it was released. I love Dexter Morgan.