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