Excuse me - I've got that slightly zappy, sicky, headachey, hyper, caffeinated, jet lag thing going on, so may be a little less coherent than we all would wish.
After lunch (have I said how scrummy the food is here?) it was time for the next key note address: Carole Blake and Patrick Jansen-Smith, both of whom have worked for several decades on both sides of the publishing equation ie as both agents and publishers. As such, they were able to provide unique insights into the roles of each and the relationships between them.
What is clear is that the level of an author's involvement in promoting their own book is far higher than it has ever been. There is less paid advertising and a bigger emphasis on what can be done online, using social networking like Twitter, Facebook and ... er ... blogging. In fact, though this may send a shiver down the spines of the more retiring types, there is a huge requirement for authors to become perfomance artists, even though this demands very different skills from those needed for writing. Both speakers were clear that it's essential for there to be a collaboration between author, agent and publisher. After all, they all have the same aim: to sell lots of books.
After all the years of working in the industry, it was heartening to hear Carole say that she has never lost her passion and enthusiasm for good writing. The session was then thrown open to contributions and questions from the floor.
Foreign Rights
Ideally, there should always be a dialogue between author and translator. Some books that seem quintessentially English have done surprisingly well in other countries. It's impossible to second guess the market, however, so people shouldn't write a book with the foreign rights specifically in mind eg by having part of the action take place in another country (unless that's intrinsic to the story, of course). Good characters = universal emotions, so apply across the globe.
The US is a particularly hard market to break into; it's bigger in every way and also less forgiving ie if you don't take off mega with your first book you are less likely to receive backing for subsequent novels. (Some *ahem* might say that's also true for the UK.)
E Books and Digital Rights
They're confused. Everyone's confused. It's impossible to keep up with new developments and the constantly changing environment. Publishers are anxious to hang onto digital rights and are looking at old contracts which didn't have the clauses that are now relevant. The trade dubbed last Xmas as Kindle Xmas as so many people received blank Kindles as presents and there was then a rush immediately after Xmas to download e books. In the US, 15% of some titles have been sold as e books. The whole industry will be looking forward to the next 2 batches of royalty statements, which will reflect the impact in the UK.
Piracy is a major concern and they still don't know how to deal with it. Publishers are spending a fortune on research and development. Meanwhile, Carole said that she's notified of a new pirated version of a book every day. These can be tackled one by one, but it's impossible to keep track. Pah.
Advances
The problem with large advances (yes, there really is a problem) is that it's very hard for sales to match, and if they don't, the author has the stigma of having failed to sell out their advance by a large margin. It's very common for subsequent advances to be much lower - or, worst case scenario, for the author to struggle to get a subsequent deal at all. (*Ahem again* - nasty cough I've got there.)
The final word
After all that, I want to end on an up note, so I'll leave you with Carole's answer to a question re whether authors needing to 'perform' meant they only had a chance if they are young and beautiful.
'No,' said Carole. 'They just have to be interesting.'
Saturday, March 26, 2011
York Talk 2011 - David Nobbs
What better person to give the keynote address than David Nobbs, who says he has spent 48 years (years, people, not hours) writing about things that never happened and being paid for it?
David initially wrote 9 stage plays that were never performed. What was the missing ingredient? Turns out to be a subject close to my heart: he hadn't found his voice. So how did he solve that? By writing, of course, and simply by carrying on doing it.
David began his working life as a journalist but in 1963 he sold an idea to the BBC, which eventually became That Was the Week That Was. He then wrote material for comedians such as Tommy Cooper and Ken Dodd. But he was still struggling to write a successful book and the problem was that his words were good, but he hadn't yet come up with a compelling story.
He was refreshingly frank about his failures.
'Rejection,' he said, 'is depressing, but it's not a personal insult.'
Reggie Perrin was originally written as a half hour drama. No one was more surprised than David when the book morphed into 4 novels and 6 TV series. Now 76, he is still working full time and clearly loving it.
So where do his ideas come from?
'People,' he said. 'Listen to them. They're wonderful and the source of so much inspiration.'
Some more nuggets of Nobbsian wisdom:
David initially wrote 9 stage plays that were never performed. What was the missing ingredient? Turns out to be a subject close to my heart: he hadn't found his voice. So how did he solve that? By writing, of course, and simply by carrying on doing it.
David began his working life as a journalist but in 1963 he sold an idea to the BBC, which eventually became That Was the Week That Was. He then wrote material for comedians such as Tommy Cooper and Ken Dodd. But he was still struggling to write a successful book and the problem was that his words were good, but he hadn't yet come up with a compelling story.
He was refreshingly frank about his failures.
'Rejection,' he said, 'is depressing, but it's not a personal insult.'
Reggie Perrin was originally written as a half hour drama. No one was more surprised than David when the book morphed into 4 novels and 6 TV series. Now 76, he is still working full time and clearly loving it.
So where do his ideas come from?
'People,' he said. 'Listen to them. They're wonderful and the source of so much inspiration.'
Some more nuggets of Nobbsian wisdom:
- If you are writing a lot, some of it will be good and some of it will be very bad. And that's ok.
- Be persistent and don't take rejection personally. Fawlty Towers was originally rejected as being rubbish, having no potential and (can you believe?) not funny!
- Put your work aside for a month or so and then come back to it with a fresh eye.
- If inspiration is proving elusive, take a day off and do something completely different.
- But don't do that for 2 days running! Writers have to write!
- When you write, make sure you enjoy it. At least that way, you will have made one person happy.
Friday, March 25, 2011
York Talk 2011
Never say I don't love you. Here I am at 11.15 at night. Others are still in the bar, drinking. Many have already staggered off to bed. And me? Here I am, sitting in my room at my laptop, because I promised you a live Festival blog and a Debi never breaks her promises.
Soooo - the trip up wasn't as much fun as last year when I met Whisks on the train, but that one was hard to beat. It was enough that I arrived safely. There's little time for taking stock while at York (or breathing, but I do try to do that whenever I remember). So it was straight into the Developing Your Voice mini course with Emma Darwin.
Once again, I was reminded why the Emma/Debi partnership works so well. Emma comes from a far more literary perspective and is qualified at MA level, whereas I, as was pointed out to me last year, am a 'street writer', a monicker I'm happy to accept. The course went well, unless the participants were being very kind and generous and didn't like to hurt us; they certainly all said it had been very useful. Voice is such a slippery thing to nail down and very hard to teach, but I hope people were telling the truth when they said the course had enabled them to see where their own narrative voices were slipping and had given them the tools for repairing any slippages.
The less said about the literary speed dating the better. You try sitting at a table for 10 and trying to engage with everyone in a meaningful way before your 5 mins are up and they're all replaced by new people, all looking equally shell-shocked. Now try doing it while wearing hearing aids and finding ambient noise is as loud as the voice of the person sitting next to you.
After a classy meal (yum - and best thing was I hadn't cooked it) we sat back and prepared to admire the brave souls who had entered Authonomy LIve. Last year, you may remember the outright winner was Shelley Harris, who went on to not only get an agent, but also a two book deal with Weidenfeld & Nicolson following a bidding war.
Once again, there was little doubt about the winner, although there was a fabulous and very strong field. Cicely Haverly won with a sparkling and very funny excerpt of her book, chronicling the sexual awakening on a young girl, set in 1953. I have photos, but you'll have to wait. I'm tired and working out how to get them from mobile to laptop is too much for my brain right now.
So sue me.
Right - that's all you get for tonight. Night night, all. See you tomorrow.
(Note to self: do NOT sleep through alarm.)
Soooo - the trip up wasn't as much fun as last year when I met Whisks on the train, but that one was hard to beat. It was enough that I arrived safely. There's little time for taking stock while at York (or breathing, but I do try to do that whenever I remember). So it was straight into the Developing Your Voice mini course with Emma Darwin.
Once again, I was reminded why the Emma/Debi partnership works so well. Emma comes from a far more literary perspective and is qualified at MA level, whereas I, as was pointed out to me last year, am a 'street writer', a monicker I'm happy to accept. The course went well, unless the participants were being very kind and generous and didn't like to hurt us; they certainly all said it had been very useful. Voice is such a slippery thing to nail down and very hard to teach, but I hope people were telling the truth when they said the course had enabled them to see where their own narrative voices were slipping and had given them the tools for repairing any slippages.
The less said about the literary speed dating the better. You try sitting at a table for 10 and trying to engage with everyone in a meaningful way before your 5 mins are up and they're all replaced by new people, all looking equally shell-shocked. Now try doing it while wearing hearing aids and finding ambient noise is as loud as the voice of the person sitting next to you.
After a classy meal (yum - and best thing was I hadn't cooked it) we sat back and prepared to admire the brave souls who had entered Authonomy LIve. Last year, you may remember the outright winner was Shelley Harris, who went on to not only get an agent, but also a two book deal with Weidenfeld & Nicolson following a bidding war.
Once again, there was little doubt about the winner, although there was a fabulous and very strong field. Cicely Haverly won with a sparkling and very funny excerpt of her book, chronicling the sexual awakening on a young girl, set in 1953. I have photos, but you'll have to wait. I'm tired and working out how to get them from mobile to laptop is too much for my brain right now.
So sue me.
Right - that's all you get for tonight. Night night, all. See you tomorrow.
(Note to self: do NOT sleep through alarm.)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Back-to-Back Festivals
York! This weekend!
There's an amazing line up of talks, events and workshops and I honestly can't wait. On the personal side, Emma Darwin and I will be running the Developing Your Voice mini course on Friday. I'm hosting a Breaking the Rules workshop on Saturday afternoon and I'm also doing a total of 5 hours of Book Doctor slots over both days. That's when we meet the aspiring authors who have submitted a first chapter, synopsis and covering letter in advance for 10 intense minutes of critique and feedback.
Nicola Morgan has published a wonderful post, linking to another by Emma D, which describes exactly what we will be looking for in those submissions. So if you can't make it to York, you can use their checklists to examine your own MS. (And I owe a huge debt to them both for these posts which mean I don't have to write one myself, since they've said it all, and said it so well.)
I'm hoping to live blog the weekend again, as I did last year, so watch this space.
I'll be arriving back in London late on Sunday evening and then, before you know it, I'll be dashing over to the Telegraph Hill Festival with the East Dulwich Writers' Group on Monday evening, where we'll be reading from our second anthology, Hoovering the Roof 2.
At least that one won't take me several hours to get to. Still, you can't have too many Festivals, eh? And the last gig was a knockout, as you can see from this photo.
There's an amazing line up of talks, events and workshops and I honestly can't wait. On the personal side, Emma Darwin and I will be running the Developing Your Voice mini course on Friday. I'm hosting a Breaking the Rules workshop on Saturday afternoon and I'm also doing a total of 5 hours of Book Doctor slots over both days. That's when we meet the aspiring authors who have submitted a first chapter, synopsis and covering letter in advance for 10 intense minutes of critique and feedback.
Nicola Morgan has published a wonderful post, linking to another by Emma D, which describes exactly what we will be looking for in those submissions. So if you can't make it to York, you can use their checklists to examine your own MS. (And I owe a huge debt to them both for these posts which mean I don't have to write one myself, since they've said it all, and said it so well.)
I'm hoping to live blog the weekend again, as I did last year, so watch this space.
I'll be arriving back in London late on Sunday evening and then, before you know it, I'll be dashing over to the Telegraph Hill Festival with the East Dulwich Writers' Group on Monday evening, where we'll be reading from our second anthology, Hoovering the Roof 2.
At least that one won't take me several hours to get to. Still, you can't have too many Festivals, eh? And the last gig was a knockout, as you can see from this photo.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
How Does Your Garden Grow?
Spring is definitely here, so I worked for 5 hours today on my allotment (aka Emma Darwin's garden). I spend most of my time glued to a laptop, either writing or editing, so it was good to get out into the fresh air and use my hands (and back, oh my aching back) to do something just as creative, but completely different.
Anyway, while I was digging, pruning and planting, my brain was still in authorial mode, creating an extended metaphor of gardening as writing. We often use the phrase, 'cutting out the dead wood', but it seems to me we can take the analogy a lot further than that.
Planning
As Spring approaches, gardeners think about the growing season ahead. We decide what we're going to plant, get the seeds in, perhaps research a bit about the best ways to produce healthy plants from those seeds.
Some authors do more planning in advance than others, but the minimum at this stage is to have an idea about the identity of the book you're going to write and start to think about your characters and the situations you're going to put them in. If there are areas you're not sure about, this is the point when you need to start thinking about where to go to fill in any gaps in your knowledge. It may be a matter of net surfing; perhaps there are non-fiction books you'll want to get hold of; or museums you need to visit; or people to speak to.
Planting the seeds
The gardener's seeds are the author's words. You need to choose the strongest, healthiest seeds and plant them in the most appropriate place. Different seeds/words have different attributes and where you put them is as important as how strong they are. Once you've decided on the best spot (sun or shade, soil type, drainage etc) some people might place them in neat, regimented rows; others might choose wavy lines or zigzags. Either way, you want them to be clear and easy to identify.
Weeding
Once the little darlings are beginning to sprout, you're going to need to be ruthless in dealing with those other darlings: weeds. This might be hard. Perhaps that weed is really pretty and you're reluctant to tear it up by the roots and bung it on the compost heap. But if it's taking the attention of the sun's rays and the soil's nutriments away from your plants, then it has to go. You could always pull it up and transplant it elsewhere if you can't bear to throw it away. You might even have a separate space for replanting those weeds you're really attached to. For a writer, this could mean creating a file for those superfluous scenes and threads that don't belong in your story.
Cutting out the dead wood
This is different from weeding. That dead wood had a function. It was once a living part of the bush or shrub. Without it, there would be no future growth. But its time has passed. It's tangled and unsightly. It distracts the eye from the beauty of the new shoots. At worst, it can strangle those fragile new buds and prevent them flourishing.
For a writer, this kind of redundant content consists of writing that you, as the author, needed in order to envisage the world you have created and the people within it so that you could convey them to your reader. But does the reader actually need it? If you've done your job well enough, they might well not. Maybe it's a chunk of back story or a character summary. Or a paragraph of telling that undermines suspense and interrupts the pace. Identifying this dead wood and being ruthless in cutting it out will make your story flow better. It had its function but now you need to prune it out.
Water liberally
In this analogy, the watering applies to the gardener, not the garden. Be good to yourself. Don't allow yourself to get dehydrated. Celebrate your successes and hard work by rewarding yourself with regular glugs of fresh water. Or gin.
Reap the harvest
Eating the fruits of your labours - there's no feeling like it. You grew that. You made it happen. It's the same for you when you finish your book. It's an amazing achievement and one which you should savour and feel proud of.
So there we go. Gardening as a literary endeavour. I've flogged the metaphor to death but it makes a change from my usual one of giving birth.
Here's hoping that some of the seeds we plant bear fruit and maybe even win prizes, whether they're for the largest marrow or the sweetest spinach.
Enjoy!
Anyway, while I was digging, pruning and planting, my brain was still in authorial mode, creating an extended metaphor of gardening as writing. We often use the phrase, 'cutting out the dead wood', but it seems to me we can take the analogy a lot further than that.
Planning
As Spring approaches, gardeners think about the growing season ahead. We decide what we're going to plant, get the seeds in, perhaps research a bit about the best ways to produce healthy plants from those seeds.
Some authors do more planning in advance than others, but the minimum at this stage is to have an idea about the identity of the book you're going to write and start to think about your characters and the situations you're going to put them in. If there are areas you're not sure about, this is the point when you need to start thinking about where to go to fill in any gaps in your knowledge. It may be a matter of net surfing; perhaps there are non-fiction books you'll want to get hold of; or museums you need to visit; or people to speak to.
Planting the seeds
The gardener's seeds are the author's words. You need to choose the strongest, healthiest seeds and plant them in the most appropriate place. Different seeds/words have different attributes and where you put them is as important as how strong they are. Once you've decided on the best spot (sun or shade, soil type, drainage etc) some people might place them in neat, regimented rows; others might choose wavy lines or zigzags. Either way, you want them to be clear and easy to identify.
Weeding
Once the little darlings are beginning to sprout, you're going to need to be ruthless in dealing with those other darlings: weeds. This might be hard. Perhaps that weed is really pretty and you're reluctant to tear it up by the roots and bung it on the compost heap. But if it's taking the attention of the sun's rays and the soil's nutriments away from your plants, then it has to go. You could always pull it up and transplant it elsewhere if you can't bear to throw it away. You might even have a separate space for replanting those weeds you're really attached to. For a writer, this could mean creating a file for those superfluous scenes and threads that don't belong in your story.
Cutting out the dead wood
This is different from weeding. That dead wood had a function. It was once a living part of the bush or shrub. Without it, there would be no future growth. But its time has passed. It's tangled and unsightly. It distracts the eye from the beauty of the new shoots. At worst, it can strangle those fragile new buds and prevent them flourishing.
For a writer, this kind of redundant content consists of writing that you, as the author, needed in order to envisage the world you have created and the people within it so that you could convey them to your reader. But does the reader actually need it? If you've done your job well enough, they might well not. Maybe it's a chunk of back story or a character summary. Or a paragraph of telling that undermines suspense and interrupts the pace. Identifying this dead wood and being ruthless in cutting it out will make your story flow better. It had its function but now you need to prune it out.
Water liberally
In this analogy, the watering applies to the gardener, not the garden. Be good to yourself. Don't allow yourself to get dehydrated. Celebrate your successes and hard work by rewarding yourself with regular glugs of fresh water. Or gin.
Reap the harvest
Eating the fruits of your labours - there's no feeling like it. You grew that. You made it happen. It's the same for you when you finish your book. It's an amazing achievement and one which you should savour and feel proud of.
So there we go. Gardening as a literary endeavour. I've flogged the metaphor to death but it makes a change from my usual one of giving birth.
Here's hoping that some of the seeds we plant bear fruit and maybe even win prizes, whether they're for the largest marrow or the sweetest spinach.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
For your URGENT attention
I'm waaaay behind. I should have posted days ago about the gig tonight at New Gallery, Peckham, where members of East Dulwich Writers' Group will be reading from Hoovering the Roof 2, our second anthology.
I was also too late to donate to this brilliant appeal from Keris Stainton. Bidding has already started. You can bid for all kinds of things: from a critique to signed copies of books. You can even bid to have a fictional character named after you. No one needs to be reminded of the horror that is continuing to unfold in Japan. Please support this appeal.
I was also too late to donate to this brilliant appeal from Keris Stainton. Bidding has already started. You can bid for all kinds of things: from a critique to signed copies of books. You can even bid to have a fictional character named after you. No one needs to be reminded of the horror that is continuing to unfold in Japan. Please support this appeal.
Wednesday, March 09, 2011
International Women's Day 2011
Today (yesterday by the time this post is published) is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day - a chance to reflect on how far we've come in the last century ... and how far we still have to go.
Through a miracle of co-operation and co-ordination, in over 70 countries around the world, at over 400 events, women gathered today on bridges in support of women's rights. The organisers, Women for Women International, have stated their mission:
The idea for Join Me on the Bridge came from the Country Directors of Women for Women's programmes in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo - two countries which have seen some of the most devastating impacts of war in recent years and where atrocities such as rape, torture and violence against women are commonplace. Women from both countries had decided to come together on a bridge which borders their countries, in the heart of the conflict; to stand up for peace and an end to violence against women. Their courage inspired women across the globe to emulate their example every International Women's Day, beginning last year.
I was at today's London event. We met at Borough market and I stood and watched as women of every age and culture gathered to make banners and mingle.
With Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger at the head of the march, we set off across the Millennium Bridge. At St Paul's the cloudless skies were studded with the hundreds of white balloons which we released. With songs, chants and good humour, we moved along Embankment in the Spring sunshine and then crossed back over the river to the South Bank to listen to empassioned speeches by women from as far away as Congo (the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman) and Afghanistan, as well as speakers from closer to home, among them Annie, Bianca, Cherie Lunghi and Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emmeline and granddaughter of Sylvia, and an ambassador for Care International. (See this article by Helen re today's event.)
I recorded our progress, step by step, on my Facebook wall. For me, it was like completing a new link in a chain that began half my lifetime ago. I was taken back several decades to marches that were in some ways similar, but the progress we have made was clear. Back then, the main criticism of the fledgling women's movement (criticism which I believe to be valid) was that it catered mainly for the needs of middle class white women in the developed world.
In 2011, that's categorically not the case. With the advent of global communications, the world has shrunk. No woman in the UK or US has an excuse not to know about the plight of women in other parts of the world; women who struggle simply to survive - because of their gender. The most uplifting aspect of today's event was the way it was enacted all over the world, with women (and their male supporters - another big difference from the early years) reaching out with a common purpose: for peace and equal rights for all women.
That shouldn't be too much to ask should it?
Through a miracle of co-operation and co-ordination, in over 70 countries around the world, at over 400 events, women gathered today on bridges in support of women's rights. The organisers, Women for Women International, have stated their mission:
To change the world, one woman at a time.
The idea for Join Me on the Bridge came from the Country Directors of Women for Women's programmes in Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo - two countries which have seen some of the most devastating impacts of war in recent years and where atrocities such as rape, torture and violence against women are commonplace. Women from both countries had decided to come together on a bridge which borders their countries, in the heart of the conflict; to stand up for peace and an end to violence against women. Their courage inspired women across the globe to emulate their example every International Women's Day, beginning last year.
I was at today's London event. We met at Borough market and I stood and watched as women of every age and culture gathered to make banners and mingle.
With Annie Lennox and Bianca Jagger at the head of the march, we set off across the Millennium Bridge. At St Paul's the cloudless skies were studded with the hundreds of white balloons which we released. With songs, chants and good humour, we moved along Embankment in the Spring sunshine and then crossed back over the river to the South Bank to listen to empassioned speeches by women from as far away as Congo (the most dangerous place in the world to be a woman) and Afghanistan, as well as speakers from closer to home, among them Annie, Bianca, Cherie Lunghi and Helen Pankhurst, great granddaughter of Emmeline and granddaughter of Sylvia, and an ambassador for Care International. (See this article by Helen re today's event.)
In 2011, that's categorically not the case. With the advent of global communications, the world has shrunk. No woman in the UK or US has an excuse not to know about the plight of women in other parts of the world; women who struggle simply to survive - because of their gender. The most uplifting aspect of today's event was the way it was enacted all over the world, with women (and their male supporters - another big difference from the early years) reaching out with a common purpose: for peace and equal rights for all women.
That shouldn't be too much to ask should it?
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Sue G's excellent adventure
Regular visitors here may remember my enthusiastic review of Sue Guiney's novel, A Clash of Innocents. (If you need to refresh your memory, the post, which includes an extract from the book, is here.)
The novel is set in a children's home in present day Cambodia. As soon as they begin turning the pages, readers will have no doubt that Sue knows whereof she speaks in her book. It's abundantly clear that she has met those children, seen those sights, heard those sounds, smelled those smells and tasted those tastes - and not as a tourist whipping in and out again, but as someone who has given of their time and energy to support these people in their struggle with their past history and their present poverty.
Many authors believe they should 'give back' in some way to those who inspire their writing. For some people, writing the book and conveying those lives to the rest of the world would be enough. But Sue is not some people. Sue is special.
Over the coming month, Sue will be embarking on a tour of SE Asia, visiting Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore. She will be giving talks, sharing her expertise and experience and yes, selling books. Lots of them hopefully. Will this make her rich? Unlikely, given that most of the income from sales will be going to the numerous charities she is involved with there.
The main event will be a week-long series of workshops with teenagers at the Siem Reap shelter, Anjali House, aimed at enabling these children to access their experiences and emotions through language and equipping them with the literacy skills that should hopefully help them to find work. She has roped in other authors (yes, of course I'm one of them. Need you ask?) to give feedback on the children's writing via a wiki forum. There are already 15 students involved in the programme. Sue says she hopes that this unique scheme will 'enhance their self-esteem and ability to move out of extreme poverty into productive adult lives'.
This is 'giving back' on a grand scale. Sue has arranged the whole tour herself - you can get an idea of the logistics involved in this post. And you can see a video of Sue explaining her motivation in her own words here.
She will keep us all updated on her progress. If I'm this excited, I can only imagine how Sue must be feeling as she embarks on this amazing journey. I send my love and deepest respect and look forward to following developments through cyberspace as she blogs her progress.
The novel is set in a children's home in present day Cambodia. As soon as they begin turning the pages, readers will have no doubt that Sue knows whereof she speaks in her book. It's abundantly clear that she has met those children, seen those sights, heard those sounds, smelled those smells and tasted those tastes - and not as a tourist whipping in and out again, but as someone who has given of their time and energy to support these people in their struggle with their past history and their present poverty.
Many authors believe they should 'give back' in some way to those who inspire their writing. For some people, writing the book and conveying those lives to the rest of the world would be enough. But Sue is not some people. Sue is special.
Over the coming month, Sue will be embarking on a tour of SE Asia, visiting Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Singapore. She will be giving talks, sharing her expertise and experience and yes, selling books. Lots of them hopefully. Will this make her rich? Unlikely, given that most of the income from sales will be going to the numerous charities she is involved with there.
The main event will be a week-long series of workshops with teenagers at the Siem Reap shelter, Anjali House, aimed at enabling these children to access their experiences and emotions through language and equipping them with the literacy skills that should hopefully help them to find work. She has roped in other authors (yes, of course I'm one of them. Need you ask?) to give feedback on the children's writing via a wiki forum. There are already 15 students involved in the programme. Sue says she hopes that this unique scheme will 'enhance their self-esteem and ability to move out of extreme poverty into productive adult lives'.
Photo credit: Anjali House
This is 'giving back' on a grand scale. Sue has arranged the whole tour herself - you can get an idea of the logistics involved in this post. And you can see a video of Sue explaining her motivation in her own words here.
She will keep us all updated on her progress. If I'm this excited, I can only imagine how Sue must be feeling as she embarks on this amazing journey. I send my love and deepest respect and look forward to following developments through cyberspace as she blogs her progress.
Friday, February 25, 2011
The Rule Haters
Further to the last post about defining the so-called rules of creative writing and working out how to break them effectively, it seems that this question is on a lot of lips and fingertips at the moment.
I thought you might be interested in these recent posts.
Emma Darwin gives her take on tools for writers (stating categorically that they are not 'rules') here.
Claire King has a wonderful spoof post here ...
... which inspired this version from Vanessa Gebbie.
Within those posts and the comments on them, there are yet more versions of various authors' takes on the subject. When I pull all this together, it's going to be interesting to see to what extent there's a general consensus.
UPDATE: See here for Guardian article listing personal versions of the rules according to a very impressive list of sleb authors.
Mind you, the full article is so long it could take valuable time to wade through that would better be spent ... writing. Isn't that the first and only non-negotiable rule?
I thought you might be interested in these recent posts.
Emma Darwin gives her take on tools for writers (stating categorically that they are not 'rules') here.
Claire King has a wonderful spoof post here ...
... which inspired this version from Vanessa Gebbie.
Within those posts and the comments on them, there are yet more versions of various authors' takes on the subject. When I pull all this together, it's going to be interesting to see to what extent there's a general consensus.
UPDATE: See here for Guardian article listing personal versions of the rules according to a very impressive list of sleb authors.
Mind you, the full article is so long it could take valuable time to wade through that would better be spent ... writing. Isn't that the first and only non-negotiable rule?
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The Rule Breaker
Many of you will know that one of the things I will be doing at the Festival of Writing in York (not far away now) is running a workshop on Breaking the Rules.
I chose this topic as I know how people can get hung up on them there pesky 'rules' of creative writing (though 'guidelines' might be a better word). It's easy to internalise them to the extent that they stifle any creative spark that's struggling to push its way out from your clogged-up brain. Just as it's about to emerge, blinking in the sunlight, it's clobbered by someone wielding a big stick and shouting, 'You can't do that!' And that has to be a Bad Thing to anyone who loves shaping words into stories and doing something different and fresh.
On the other hand, I've edited countless MSes that don't work because the POV switches round so much the reader gets dizzy, or where it's impossible to work out where you are in the timeline.
So what I want to do in the workshop is to define what those so-called rules are and why they matter; to demonstrate what the consequences are of breaking them and stress that an author neeeds a good reason to do it ... and then provide the tools that will enable people to go ahead and do just that.
As one of the lovely people on WordCloud has said, it's like teaching a child to cross the road safely. It's best to cross at the lights, but as you grow up, you realise you can step out elsewhere, as long as you know what you're doing and do so with care.
So far, I've come up with POV switches, sticking to a linear chronological structure, not switching tenses or between first and third person, prologues and a few others.
What's on your list? Anything I'm missing?
I chose this topic as I know how people can get hung up on them there pesky 'rules' of creative writing (though 'guidelines' might be a better word). It's easy to internalise them to the extent that they stifle any creative spark that's struggling to push its way out from your clogged-up brain. Just as it's about to emerge, blinking in the sunlight, it's clobbered by someone wielding a big stick and shouting, 'You can't do that!' And that has to be a Bad Thing to anyone who loves shaping words into stories and doing something different and fresh.
On the other hand, I've edited countless MSes that don't work because the POV switches round so much the reader gets dizzy, or where it's impossible to work out where you are in the timeline.
So what I want to do in the workshop is to define what those so-called rules are and why they matter; to demonstrate what the consequences are of breaking them and stress that an author neeeds a good reason to do it ... and then provide the tools that will enable people to go ahead and do just that.
As one of the lovely people on WordCloud has said, it's like teaching a child to cross the road safely. It's best to cross at the lights, but as you grow up, you realise you can step out elsewhere, as long as you know what you're doing and do so with care.
So far, I've come up with POV switches, sticking to a linear chronological structure, not switching tenses or between first and third person, prologues and a few others.
What's on your list? Anything I'm missing?
Friday, February 11, 2011
So good I had to share ...
This post may well throw you into a pit of despair - but it will make you laugh while you tumble down.
Thursday, February 10, 2011
Horses for Courses
If you're seeking help with your writing, there are a number of options. You might think about joining a writers' group - either in real life or online. If you're looking for a local group, this is a good place to start.
Perhaps you'd prefer the sort of detailed feedback you can only get from having your book professionally critiqued. According to this article more and more publishers are insisting that authors submit MSes that have already been through a thorough editing process. One publisher is quoted as saying,
“I cannot purchase a book I need to spend 40 hours editing.”
(That article was written in Canada, but the same could equally apply elsewhere.)
Or maybe you'd prefer to hone your skills in a creative writing course or in a workshop.
If that's your choice and you're not looking for something as heavy-duty as a degree course, there are enough options out there to suit everyone. These are just a few coming up shortly and, before anyone checks to see whether there's a degree of self interest here, I freely admit that these are ones I'm involved with.
Fancy an intensive one day workshop in London or Oxford for £99 including lunch and refreshments? The Writers' Workshop run a range of workshops for people who are just getting started and others for people who are looking for the skills to self-edit their novels. Then there is the one for screen writers, the one for ...
Oh dammit. Do I have to do everything around here? *grumble mutter grump* Why not just go here and see for yourself.
If you're looking for something a bit more hard core, howzabout the mini courses and workshops available at the Festival of Writing in York, 25-27 March? You can book for one day only or for the full weekend. Included in the price is the opportunity to pitch your book directly to agents and publishers or to have your writing assessed by a professional Book Doctor. To see what some of last year's participants feel about the experience, check out this blog post and the comments. One of the commenters describe the Festival as 'like speed dating with a politburo of writing experts'.
Or maybe you're prefer something you can fit in more easily with your own life. In that case, you might consider an online course, like the 6 week self editing course I'm running together with Emma Darwin, beginning in April.
If all this costs more than you can afford and you can't find a local writers' group that fulfills your needs, there are places online where you can talk about all aspects of writing, as well as getting feedback on your own work. It will come as no surprise that I personally recommend WordCloud as the best online community. And it's free to join.
Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but you are not alone unless you choose to be so.
Perhaps you'd prefer the sort of detailed feedback you can only get from having your book professionally critiqued. According to this article more and more publishers are insisting that authors submit MSes that have already been through a thorough editing process. One publisher is quoted as saying,
“I cannot purchase a book I need to spend 40 hours editing.”
(That article was written in Canada, but the same could equally apply elsewhere.)
Or maybe you'd prefer to hone your skills in a creative writing course or in a workshop.
If that's your choice and you're not looking for something as heavy-duty as a degree course, there are enough options out there to suit everyone. These are just a few coming up shortly and, before anyone checks to see whether there's a degree of self interest here, I freely admit that these are ones I'm involved with.
Fancy an intensive one day workshop in London or Oxford for £99 including lunch and refreshments? The Writers' Workshop run a range of workshops for people who are just getting started and others for people who are looking for the skills to self-edit their novels. Then there is the one for screen writers, the one for ...
Oh dammit. Do I have to do everything around here? *grumble mutter grump* Why not just go here and see for yourself.
If you're looking for something a bit more hard core, howzabout the mini courses and workshops available at the Festival of Writing in York, 25-27 March? You can book for one day only or for the full weekend. Included in the price is the opportunity to pitch your book directly to agents and publishers or to have your writing assessed by a professional Book Doctor. To see what some of last year's participants feel about the experience, check out this blog post and the comments. One of the commenters describe the Festival as 'like speed dating with a politburo of writing experts'.
Or maybe you're prefer something you can fit in more easily with your own life. In that case, you might consider an online course, like the 6 week self editing course I'm running together with Emma Darwin, beginning in April.
If all this costs more than you can afford and you can't find a local writers' group that fulfills your needs, there are places online where you can talk about all aspects of writing, as well as getting feedback on your own work. It will come as no surprise that I personally recommend WordCloud as the best online community. And it's free to join.
Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but you are not alone unless you choose to be so.
Monday, January 24, 2011
An Open Letter to My Youngest Son
Dear Youngest Son,
It's hard to believe that two weeks have passed since your barmitzvah. The buildup is so huge and so extended .. and then suddenly it's over. What will never come to an end, however, is the pride we took in the way you rose to the occasion. You didn't stop at the usual maftir and haftorah, but carried on to conduct most of the rest of the service too. I know I'm biased, but I'm not the only person to say you were both word and note perfect. In fact you were awesome, utterly awesome.
Of course you didn't have to contend with sickness, like your big brother had to when it came to his barmitzvah. As he said in his speech, he gave you an i-pod - you gave him measles. But in spite of that, I know he was also bursting with pride at your achievements.
The party at your school went really well too, once again thanks to those wonderful friends who worked flat out with us to set up the atrium and put the finishing touches to the food in between the synagogue service and the evening. The temperature was Arctic, but the warmth emanating from the love around us was positively tropical. And once we started dancing, things certainly heated up.
Above all, it was a child-centred party, and that's just as it should be.
But how amazing that your grandpa was there, eh? He was 80 when your brother was born and 82 when you came along. I remember once, when you were toddlers, I saw him looking at you both with a wistful expression.
'Shame I won't get to see how these two turn out,' he said.
But there he was, aged 96 and still the baby in his family, as he has an older brother still toddling on. And as I said at the time, I reckon you've both turned out pretty well and I know my dad wholeheartedly agrees with me on that score.
We have so much to be grateful for and you and your brother are without doubt the greatest of our blessings. I'm sorry we have so few photos of the party due to our camera choosing that moment to give up the ghost. Luckily, the divine Ms Lemon took a few pix that we can share with others to give a small flavour of the event.
And that's it. We've used up the leftovers. (My mum always said that if everything went, you hadn't made enough.) I can put the files away, mothball the documents and spreadsheets and move onto being the mother of two adults (in Jewish terms only - don't go getting any ideas). It's possible I may never again have to cater a party for 180 people 'all by my very own self', as you used to say.
Except we now have to work through a vast 'thankyou' list ... But we certainly can't complain about that and I know how grateful you are to everyone.
It ain't over until the fat lady sings.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Countdown to York Festival of Writing
Only a couple of months to go to the next Festival of Writing in York and things are hotting up. Some of the biggest names in the business will be there: authors, agents and publishers. I can't wait to meet people like Nicola Morgan, whom I know online but have yet to meet in Real Life.
Click here to see the full programme.
Details of the Friday mini-courses are here. (I'm running one with Emma Darwin on Finding Your Voice.)
The workshop schedule is here. (I have a slot on Saturday on Breaking the 'Rules'.)
Included in the fee is the opportunity to pitch your book directly to agents or have it diagnosed and treated in one-to-one Book Doctor sessions. See here. (I have 2 sessions on the Saturday (though one is now fully booked) and 3 on Sunday.)
On the Saturday evening there will be a gala dinner and another Authonomy Live event. Remember last year when Shelley Harris won? You can see Shelley's own account of how the Festival changed her life here.
The last Festival was so amazing, I thought it would be tough to come up with another winner, but this one is shaping up to be even better. I'm looking forward to renewing connections with people that I suspect are going to become regular attendees, as well as making new ones, all in the fabulous setting of York University.
Tickets are going fast but there are still some spaces left. I know it's a lot of money for many people but I can promise it will be worthwhile. You'll have a wonderful time, meet some inspiring people, get some incredibly useful personal feedback, learn new skills ... and ...
Who knows? You could be this year's Shelley.
Raid the piggy bank; beg, steal or borrow; do whatever it takes but, if you possibly can, get yourself along here and start the booking process.
Look forward to seeing you!
Click here to see the full programme.
Details of the Friday mini-courses are here. (I'm running one with Emma Darwin on Finding Your Voice.)
The workshop schedule is here. (I have a slot on Saturday on Breaking the 'Rules'.)
Included in the fee is the opportunity to pitch your book directly to agents or have it diagnosed and treated in one-to-one Book Doctor sessions. See here. (I have 2 sessions on the Saturday (though one is now fully booked) and 3 on Sunday.)
On the Saturday evening there will be a gala dinner and another Authonomy Live event. Remember last year when Shelley Harris won? You can see Shelley's own account of how the Festival changed her life here.
The last Festival was so amazing, I thought it would be tough to come up with another winner, but this one is shaping up to be even better. I'm looking forward to renewing connections with people that I suspect are going to become regular attendees, as well as making new ones, all in the fabulous setting of York University.
Tickets are going fast but there are still some spaces left. I know it's a lot of money for many people but I can promise it will be worthwhile. You'll have a wonderful time, meet some inspiring people, get some incredibly useful personal feedback, learn new skills ... and ...
Who knows? You could be this year's Shelley.
Raid the piggy bank; beg, steal or borrow; do whatever it takes but, if you possibly can, get yourself along here and start the booking process.
Look forward to seeing you!
Wednesday, January 05, 2011
The Thickest Skin?
There are two things that are essential to achieve success as an author:
1) write a stonking good book
2) submit, submit and submit again. And again if necessary. And ...
The thing is, if number 1 is in place, you owe it to yourself not to give up too easily if the rejection letters flood in, no matter how much it hurts each time one thuds onto your doormat. You have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and pitch to the next person on your list. (After maybe eating several bars of chocolate and/or punching a pillow and/or downing a few gins.)
But how many rejections would it take before you gave up on a particular book?
10? 20? 50?
Until recently, I was telling authors whose books I was convinced were publishable not to give up until they had received 60 rejections.
But have you heard about Jason Wallace? He has just been named the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award for his book set in Zimbabwe, Out of Shadows.
The judges said:
'For us, this extraordinary debut novel was a unanimous winner. This compelling portrayal of a nation in crisis gripped us from start to finish and has stayed with us since ... A stunning debut novel without a false note. Accomplished and powerful, it changes the way you think.
But - and here's the rub -
- Jason was turned down by 100 (yes, you read that right, one zero zero) agents and publishers before being picked up by Andersen Press.
He is quoted in today's Independent as saying,
'I think I may have had a few low points when trying to get the book noticed, but in truth I don't think I would ever have given in.'
A few low points? A few low points??? How many people would hang on for that long, keeping the faith, rejection after rejection? Well, Jason did and just look at what happened to him ...
So what are you waiting for? Armour plate your heart and get that MS out there.
(NB: If the rejection slips do begin to pile up, you will probably need an objective assessment before you can be completely certain that the 'stonking' aspect is fully in place.)
1) write a stonking good book
2) submit, submit and submit again. And again if necessary. And ...
The thing is, if number 1 is in place, you owe it to yourself not to give up too easily if the rejection letters flood in, no matter how much it hurts each time one thuds onto your doormat. You have to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and pitch to the next person on your list. (After maybe eating several bars of chocolate and/or punching a pillow and/or downing a few gins.)
But how many rejections would it take before you gave up on a particular book?
10? 20? 50?
Until recently, I was telling authors whose books I was convinced were publishable not to give up until they had received 60 rejections.
But have you heard about Jason Wallace? He has just been named the winner of the Costa Children's Book Award for his book set in Zimbabwe, Out of Shadows.
The judges said:
'For us, this extraordinary debut novel was a unanimous winner. This compelling portrayal of a nation in crisis gripped us from start to finish and has stayed with us since ... A stunning debut novel without a false note. Accomplished and powerful, it changes the way you think.
But - and here's the rub -
- Jason was turned down by 100 (yes, you read that right, one zero zero) agents and publishers before being picked up by Andersen Press.
He is quoted in today's Independent as saying,
'I think I may have had a few low points when trying to get the book noticed, but in truth I don't think I would ever have given in.'
A few low points? A few low points??? How many people would hang on for that long, keeping the faith, rejection after rejection? Well, Jason did and just look at what happened to him ...
So what are you waiting for? Armour plate your heart and get that MS out there.
(NB: If the rejection slips do begin to pile up, you will probably need an objective assessment before you can be completely certain that the 'stonking' aspect is fully in place.)
Sunday, January 02, 2011
Dear ... me ...
So you've written a novel. You're convinced it's a masterpiece; quite possibly the best thing ever written. And who knows? You could be right ...
You're not worried about your covering letter, or the presentation of your manuscript. After all, the sheer brilliance of your prose and stunning nature of your story will surely shine through. I mean, you know enough not to have submitted the MS hand-written on the inside of a cereal packet, so what more do they want?
Well, stop right there. If you haven't bothered to do your research as well as proof read your covering letter, why should an agent bother to give you their full attention? On the assumption that the book itself is going to be polished and professional? The letter is the first thing they see and first impressions count, right?
Y'see, you not only have to give an agent compelling reasons to take you on, you also need to make sure you haven't given them any reasons not to ... like being sloppy with your pitch, for example.
Literary agent, Andrew Lownie, has posted a selection of opening lines in letters he has received over the last few months on his website. Thing is, the authors may well be the next (insert name of your favourite author) but we'll probably never know, simply because no agent took them seriously enough to find out. (My personal fave is, 'Bear Andrew'.)
There's no point in coming over all sullen and saying this is petty stuff and your naked talent should be enough to guarantee succeess... and if it doesn't it's cos there's something wrong with the industry ... damn philistines and bean counters ... yada yada yada ...
Look, it's just common sense.
Say you're going on a hot date. You're convinced your sparkling wit and humour cannot fail to bowl over the soon-to-be significant other. You're a fantastic catch, of course you are. Except if you don't bother to blow your nose and make sure your clothes are clean and your breath doesn't stink like mouldy kippers, is it likely they will stick around to find out if the other stuff is in place?
Anyway, I'll leave you with that thought. Less than a week to go to Youngest Son's bar mitzvah and it's all systems go. See you on the other side.
You're not worried about your covering letter, or the presentation of your manuscript. After all, the sheer brilliance of your prose and stunning nature of your story will surely shine through. I mean, you know enough not to have submitted the MS hand-written on the inside of a cereal packet, so what more do they want?
Well, stop right there. If you haven't bothered to do your research as well as proof read your covering letter, why should an agent bother to give you their full attention? On the assumption that the book itself is going to be polished and professional? The letter is the first thing they see and first impressions count, right?
Y'see, you not only have to give an agent compelling reasons to take you on, you also need to make sure you haven't given them any reasons not to ... like being sloppy with your pitch, for example.
Literary agent, Andrew Lownie, has posted a selection of opening lines in letters he has received over the last few months on his website. Thing is, the authors may well be the next (insert name of your favourite author) but we'll probably never know, simply because no agent took them seriously enough to find out. (My personal fave is, 'Bear Andrew'.)
There's no point in coming over all sullen and saying this is petty stuff and your naked talent should be enough to guarantee succeess... and if it doesn't it's cos there's something wrong with the industry ... damn philistines and bean counters ... yada yada yada ...
Look, it's just common sense.
Say you're going on a hot date. You're convinced your sparkling wit and humour cannot fail to bowl over the soon-to-be significant other. You're a fantastic catch, of course you are. Except if you don't bother to blow your nose and make sure your clothes are clean and your breath doesn't stink like mouldy kippers, is it likely they will stick around to find out if the other stuff is in place?
Anyway, I'll leave you with that thought. Less than a week to go to Youngest Son's bar mitzvah and it's all systems go. See you on the other side.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
This year, I have mostly been ...
Hard to believe how fast this year has sped past.
During 2010, I ...
Stay safe and warm over the holidays. And keep writing. And reading.
During 2010, I ...
- edited approx 2 full length manuscripts each month, several of them 2nd reads
- continued to act as mentor to a couple of special writers
- attended the Festival of Writing in York
- attended the Getting Published event in London
- acted as a face-to-face Book Doctor to 30 unpublished authors
- wrote short reports on extracts for another 10 authors
- ran 6 full day workshops and one mini-course for Writers' Workshop
- was a judge for the Brit Writers' Awards and attended the gala event
- had a short story published in 33, the anthology with a story set in each of London's boroughs published by Glasshouse Books
- contributed to Hoovering the Roof 2, the 2nd anthology from the East Dulwich Writers' Group, and assisted with the publication
- attended loads of launches and lit related events
- still has a WIP that's very much IP
- the next Festival of Writing on 25th-27th March - book here
- more one day courses - see here
- a new 6 week online course I will be running together with Emma Darwin
- removing the IP from the WIP
Stay safe and warm over the holidays. And keep writing. And reading.
Tuesday, December 07, 2010
Writing: a dangerous addiction?
Dictionary definition of addiction: the condition of being abnormally dependent on some habit, esp compulsive dependency on narcotic drugs.
Right. So let's look at the compulsion some of us have to write and see whether that qualifies us as word junkies.
Stratospheric highs followed by crushing lows? Yep.
Feel like you're only truly alive when you're doing it? 'fraid so.
Feeling bereft when you're not doing it? Uh huh.
Oblivious to the outside world when you're on a high? True.
Impact on members of your family, who are driven crazy by your glazed eyes and distracted air? Can't deny it.
So what kind of person is susceptible to this condition?
I always thought it safe to assume that those most vulnerable are those who have always loved books and reading since early childhood. They know how it feels to enter a different world, to explore new places and meet new people, to hear a story being told - all inside their own head without ever leaving the comfort of their armchair.
It's not such a huge leap to progress from this passive form of being a book junkie, to one who feels irresistably drawn to take the next step: to create worlds of their own and people them with casts drawn from their imagination.
So when I received an MS for editing back in May 2008 and read the covering letter, you can understand why my heart sank - and why, in spite of the dozens of MSes I've edited since, I remember this particular one so well.
'I don't read books,' the author said. 'But my wife does. And she thinks it's good.'
Eh? Run that by me again? That statement begs so many questions, I hardly know where to start. The author was obviously well-educated and highly intelligent.
Did he truly believe that feedback from his own wife (whose only apparent qualification was that she reads books) was sufficient justification for him to have given up his job in order to write? (Yes, you did read that right.)
And why on earth would he choose to write if he never read? Most of us write the kinds of books we would like to read. How could he make that decision? And how could he know what works and what doesn't? What readers want and expect? What the rules are for different genres? As I later said in my report, it's the equivalent of someone who's never swam more than a length of the bath attempting to swim the Channel.
Anyway, I had a job to do. As soon as I began reading it came as no surprise that an enormous amount of work needed to be done in almost every area in order to raise the standard of the MS. In that respect, the author was far from unique. I have edited worse MSes whose authors didn't have the added disadvantage of not being avid readers.
As I continued reading, the reason this author had for writing his book became more clear. He was working through, in a fictional setting, some very personal and painful experiences.
Good on him! It was a testament to his determination to transcend those experiences and turn them into something constructive and meaningful. And blimey, he had written a whole book and that's an achievement in anyone's ... book.
I gave him the usual lecture about managing expectations and the financial realities faced by writers - even those authors considered 'successful'. I pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of his book. I didn't hold back on how much work he needed to do on it.
To be honest, I was pretty convinced he'd written the book he needed to write; the process had been cathartic and healing, but that would be the end of his writing career.
After I sent him the report, he replied to say my comments were spot on, in all but one regard. He was determined to carry on writing. He told me he 'thoroughly loved it' and had already embarked on his next book, although he knew it would most likely be a 'fruitless exercise'.
Sure enough, I received the draft of his second book in December 2009. I can't tell you how delighted I was to have been proved wrong. The author assured me he was reading fiction now. This new MS was a very different book and the progress he had made in every aspect of creative writing was impressive.
We continued to exchange emails. I was reassured that he was realistic. He just wanted to hone his craft and continue to work on this book. He told me he was surprised to find out how much he was loving the writing process.
Yes, that's right. He was hooked. There was to be no going back.
DW and I met in Real Life when he attended a Writers' Workshop course that I ran in September. I could see how much he wanted to stick his tongue out at me and say, 'Told you so.' I honestly wouldn't have minded. There's a fellowship among addicts. He was a welcome addition to the colony.
In November, having polished according to his original report and using the new skills he'd picked up at the workshop, he submitted the redraft. More mega improvements. But that meant he'd now moved onto another level. To his disappointment, this report was the longest I'd done for him yet. It's ironic - the better the quality and overall standard, the more there is to say about it. (It doesn't take many words to point out a problem that recurs throughout an MS.)
'That's it,' he said when he received the report. 'I've had enough.'
He hadn't though, of course. As soon as he spotted the validity of the feedback, he could see how it made sense. It didn't make him throw away the crack pipe. Instead it made him excited all over again as he saw how he could make his creation better still.
I know he loves me and hates me in equal measure. I am his dealer, after all. But the addiction is all his. Just to make it clear what to expect now that he's confessed to his compulsion, I can do no better that to quote The Eagles.
'This could be heaven and this could be hell ...'
Right. So let's look at the compulsion some of us have to write and see whether that qualifies us as word junkies.
Stratospheric highs followed by crushing lows? Yep.
Feel like you're only truly alive when you're doing it? 'fraid so.
Feeling bereft when you're not doing it? Uh huh.
Oblivious to the outside world when you're on a high? True.
Impact on members of your family, who are driven crazy by your glazed eyes and distracted air? Can't deny it.
So what kind of person is susceptible to this condition?
I always thought it safe to assume that those most vulnerable are those who have always loved books and reading since early childhood. They know how it feels to enter a different world, to explore new places and meet new people, to hear a story being told - all inside their own head without ever leaving the comfort of their armchair.
It's not such a huge leap to progress from this passive form of being a book junkie, to one who feels irresistably drawn to take the next step: to create worlds of their own and people them with casts drawn from their imagination.
So when I received an MS for editing back in May 2008 and read the covering letter, you can understand why my heart sank - and why, in spite of the dozens of MSes I've edited since, I remember this particular one so well.
'I don't read books,' the author said. 'But my wife does. And she thinks it's good.'
Eh? Run that by me again? That statement begs so many questions, I hardly know where to start. The author was obviously well-educated and highly intelligent.
Did he truly believe that feedback from his own wife (whose only apparent qualification was that she reads books) was sufficient justification for him to have given up his job in order to write? (Yes, you did read that right.)
And why on earth would he choose to write if he never read? Most of us write the kinds of books we would like to read. How could he make that decision? And how could he know what works and what doesn't? What readers want and expect? What the rules are for different genres? As I later said in my report, it's the equivalent of someone who's never swam more than a length of the bath attempting to swim the Channel.
Anyway, I had a job to do. As soon as I began reading it came as no surprise that an enormous amount of work needed to be done in almost every area in order to raise the standard of the MS. In that respect, the author was far from unique. I have edited worse MSes whose authors didn't have the added disadvantage of not being avid readers.
As I continued reading, the reason this author had for writing his book became more clear. He was working through, in a fictional setting, some very personal and painful experiences.
Good on him! It was a testament to his determination to transcend those experiences and turn them into something constructive and meaningful. And blimey, he had written a whole book and that's an achievement in anyone's ... book.
I gave him the usual lecture about managing expectations and the financial realities faced by writers - even those authors considered 'successful'. I pointed out the strengths and weaknesses of his book. I didn't hold back on how much work he needed to do on it.
To be honest, I was pretty convinced he'd written the book he needed to write; the process had been cathartic and healing, but that would be the end of his writing career.
After I sent him the report, he replied to say my comments were spot on, in all but one regard. He was determined to carry on writing. He told me he 'thoroughly loved it' and had already embarked on his next book, although he knew it would most likely be a 'fruitless exercise'.
Sure enough, I received the draft of his second book in December 2009. I can't tell you how delighted I was to have been proved wrong. The author assured me he was reading fiction now. This new MS was a very different book and the progress he had made in every aspect of creative writing was impressive.
We continued to exchange emails. I was reassured that he was realistic. He just wanted to hone his craft and continue to work on this book. He told me he was surprised to find out how much he was loving the writing process.
Yes, that's right. He was hooked. There was to be no going back.
DW and I met in Real Life when he attended a Writers' Workshop course that I ran in September. I could see how much he wanted to stick his tongue out at me and say, 'Told you so.' I honestly wouldn't have minded. There's a fellowship among addicts. He was a welcome addition to the colony.
In November, having polished according to his original report and using the new skills he'd picked up at the workshop, he submitted the redraft. More mega improvements. But that meant he'd now moved onto another level. To his disappointment, this report was the longest I'd done for him yet. It's ironic - the better the quality and overall standard, the more there is to say about it. (It doesn't take many words to point out a problem that recurs throughout an MS.)
'That's it,' he said when he received the report. 'I've had enough.'
He hadn't though, of course. As soon as he spotted the validity of the feedback, he could see how it made sense. It didn't make him throw away the crack pipe. Instead it made him excited all over again as he saw how he could make his creation better still.
I know he loves me and hates me in equal measure. I am his dealer, after all. But the addiction is all his. Just to make it clear what to expect now that he's confessed to his compulsion, I can do no better that to quote The Eagles.
'This could be heaven and this could be hell ...'
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
The Commitments
Less of a post and more of an excuse, I'm afraid.
Too busy to blog? How can this be...?
In the tradition of 'show, don't tell' beloved injunction by creative writing teachers everywhere, here are a few of the things coming up soon.
25th November - Glasshouse Books gig at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace. Emma Darwin and some woman called Debi Alper will be reading from 33, the anthology with a story set in each of London's boroughs. Karen McLeod and Paul Burston will be reading from Boys and Girls.
26th November - members of the East Dulwich Writers' Group will be appearing as part of the Peckham Literary Festival at Review Bookshop in Bellenden Road.
9th December - the writers' group will be launching Hoovering the Roof 2, their second anthology of short stories, poems and novel extracts by writers both published and yet-to-be and a couple of winners of some very prestigious competitions. Initial launch event at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace.Other events to be arranged.
Various dates - running workshops and (new for 2011) online courses for Writers' Workshop.
25-27 March - the 2nd Festival of Writing in York. I'm down to run a mini course on Developing Your Voice with Emma Darwin, a workshop on Breaking the Rules and 5 Book Doctor sessions. Can it possibly be as good as last year? All the signs are that it will be even better.
All the time - critiquing, mentoring, school stuff, parenting, daughtering (?), arranging Little Guy's bar mitzvah in January ...
Oh, yes. We're here again.
And once again, there are 200+ people on the invitation list.
And once again, I'm going to be doing all the catering myself.
When it was First Born's turn in 2008, regular readers here may remember the high drama when FB went down with measles the week before.
Dare I hope this one will be less traumatic? Please?
Oh - and meanwhile my own poor WIP lies abandoned and whimpering in the corner, pleading for attention.
Hang on in there, baby. I'll be back soon as ...
Too busy to blog? How can this be...?
In the tradition of 'show, don't tell' beloved injunction by creative writing teachers everywhere, here are a few of the things coming up soon.
25th November - Glasshouse Books gig at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace. Emma Darwin and some woman called Debi Alper will be reading from 33, the anthology with a story set in each of London's boroughs. Karen McLeod and Paul Burston will be reading from Boys and Girls.
26th November - members of the East Dulwich Writers' Group will be appearing as part of the Peckham Literary Festival at Review Bookshop in Bellenden Road.
9th December - the writers' group will be launching Hoovering the Roof 2, their second anthology of short stories, poems and novel extracts by writers both published and yet-to-be and a couple of winners of some very prestigious competitions. Initial launch event at Bookseller Crow on the Hill in Crystal Palace.Other events to be arranged.
Various dates - running workshops and (new for 2011) online courses for Writers' Workshop.
25-27 March - the 2nd Festival of Writing in York. I'm down to run a mini course on Developing Your Voice with Emma Darwin, a workshop on Breaking the Rules and 5 Book Doctor sessions. Can it possibly be as good as last year? All the signs are that it will be even better.
All the time - critiquing, mentoring, school stuff, parenting, daughtering (?), arranging Little Guy's bar mitzvah in January ...
Oh, yes. We're here again.
And once again, there are 200+ people on the invitation list.
And once again, I'm going to be doing all the catering myself.
When it was First Born's turn in 2008, regular readers here may remember the high drama when FB went down with measles the week before.
Dare I hope this one will be less traumatic? Please?
Oh - and meanwhile my own poor WIP lies abandoned and whimpering in the corner, pleading for attention.
Hang on in there, baby. I'll be back soon as ...
Thursday, October 28, 2010
So Sue Me ...
The only possible good way to be sued is to invite a Sue to your blog, so that's what I've done.
Today, I'm delighted to welcome Sue Guiney here as part of her virtual tour to promote her latest novel, A Clash of Innocents.
There are three good reasons to read this book:
1) It's a wonderful book and you'll know there are delights in store as soon as you look at the sumptuous cover and turn to the first page.
2) It's the first novel from new kids on the block, Ward Wood Publishing, and anyone brave enough to launch a company in today's climate deserves respect and support.
3) It's a wonderful book - and you can't say that too often.
Set in present day Cambodia, Sue conveys with remarkable compassion and empathy the pain of a country struggling to come to terms with a bitter past and the damage wrought on its youngest citizens, as well as the inner landscape of those who care for them. For ten years, Deborah, an overweight 60 year old American, self-confessed earth mother, has run the Khmer Home for Blessed Children, where she is the much-loved only parent to forty children, from toddlers to teens. But Deborah is carrying her own damage too. She's managed to cope with it pretty well until the arrival of a new volunteer, a young American woman called Amanda, who is clearly hiding some terrible secret from her own past.
With rich and luscious prose, Sue evokes the sights, sounds and smells of a country that will be unfamiliar to most readers and is virtually unexplored in contemporary English fiction. Her characters reach out from the page and into your heart, their narratives mirroring that of the country in which they play out their lives.
I'm always telling writers they need to show, not tell, so in the spirit of that authorial tradition I've asked Sue to do a virtual reading here, so you can see for yourself the wit, warmth and wisdom she brings to the written word.
**********************************************************************************
Today, I'm delighted to welcome Sue Guiney here as part of her virtual tour to promote her latest novel, A Clash of Innocents.
There are three good reasons to read this book:
1) It's a wonderful book and you'll know there are delights in store as soon as you look at the sumptuous cover and turn to the first page.
2) It's the first novel from new kids on the block, Ward Wood Publishing, and anyone brave enough to launch a company in today's climate deserves respect and support.
3) It's a wonderful book - and you can't say that too often.
Set in present day Cambodia, Sue conveys with remarkable compassion and empathy the pain of a country struggling to come to terms with a bitter past and the damage wrought on its youngest citizens, as well as the inner landscape of those who care for them. For ten years, Deborah, an overweight 60 year old American, self-confessed earth mother, has run the Khmer Home for Blessed Children, where she is the much-loved only parent to forty children, from toddlers to teens. But Deborah is carrying her own damage too. She's managed to cope with it pretty well until the arrival of a new volunteer, a young American woman called Amanda, who is clearly hiding some terrible secret from her own past.
With rich and luscious prose, Sue evokes the sights, sounds and smells of a country that will be unfamiliar to most readers and is virtually unexplored in contemporary English fiction. Her characters reach out from the page and into your heart, their narratives mirroring that of the country in which they play out their lives.
I'm always telling writers they need to show, not tell, so in the spirit of that authorial tradition I've asked Sue to do a virtual reading here, so you can see for yourself the wit, warmth and wisdom she brings to the written word.
**********************************************************************************
May
It didn’t really take ten hours to get to Kep. Now that we were nearly two-thirds of the way through this first decade of a new century, a road had been created to parallel the Mekong and connect the capital with the southernmost portion of the country. Notice I said ‘created’ and not ‘paved.’ Although tarmac was occasionally in evidence, just enough to make us feel as if the land beneath our borrowed wheels was under our control, more often than not the road turned again to dirt, slowing our progress as if to remind us that this was, indeed, Cambodia we were crossing and nowhere else on earth. But given that it was May and the entire country was aching for rain, all that dirt had turned to dust. We kept the car windows closed for as long as we could, but eventually we had to open them. There is only so much that the air conditioner in a twelve year-old Toyota can do. We hardly cared, though. Sam and I were happy to inch along, in and out of tiny nameless village after tiny nameless village, smelling the sweet scent of ripe mangoes and bananas baking in the afternoon sun.
It had been a while since we had ventured into this part of the country. Whenever we were able to get away I tried to take us somewhere new. For all its faults, I do love Cambodia and I want my kids to love it, too, but not for its new luxury hotels and gilded palaces; not for its sharp-eyed entrepreneurs and go-getting hustlers; not even for the tradition of its monks or the beauty of its art. I want them to love their country as it is in its heart, where the need to recreate life with each new season is accepted and respected, where generations hold each other’s hands and turn towards tomorrow, where hope refuses to die and laughter is used like fertilizer to keep their spirits growing. Some years we ventured north towards Siem Reap and the ancient temples of Angkor. Two years ago I took a group of boys to Tonle Sap Lake where pigs live in water and alligators are raised like sheep. But Dr Reith had said to head for ‘the coolness of the sea’, so we headed towards Kep and the Gulf of Thailand. Sam hadn’t been there since she was little and her excitement was growing with each kilometer. How much had changed, I wondered?
Not much. One benefit of going slowly is that you can take your time to see what is outside your window and beyond the dust clouds. The countryside is so harsh and so beautiful. Fields of rice paddies stretch for miles studded with the bony frames of oxen, white against dirt brown. Distant hills are clouded with haze like oases, mirages in a sun-parched expanse. Your eyes water as you stare and you can almost remember that in just one month or two all of this will be flooded by the rising waters of the monsoon season. Trees will then look like bushes; those distant mountains like outcrops. This scenery has lasted forever, will last forever, ebbing and flowing with time and the seasons, green turning to brown and back to green again, earth becoming water becoming earth, reminding us that of all the constants in this world, the most reliable constant is change.
The roads are never empty. Far from it. Roads here are not just ways of getting from one place to another. They are places in themselves. People live beside them. Animals walk in them. On their edges makeshift shops sell everything from lotus flowers to transmission fluid. There are no curbs, no sharp delineations between spaces to move and spaces to stop. Everything is everywhere. Motos pull up beside oxcarts beside bicycles-built-for-five beside open-backed trucks carrying thirty workers to the fields beside air-conditioned buses filled with American tourists beside Mercedes with government license plates and rolledup windows beside horses pulling trailers full of construction equipment beside barefoot children walking walking walking. Like the earth that transforms to water, here the past merges with the future leaving you with nothing else to do but work if you can in the mornings, rest as you must in the hottest part of the afternoon, and sleep as best you are able at night.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
Dear Mr Marr ...
Sigh ... there's nothing new about blog bashing. (See here for a post on this blog from 2006 on the subject.)
Andrew Marr is the latest to voice his negative thoughts on bloggers recently at Cheltenham Literary Festival, provoking the inevitable cyber backlash.
It's all too, too tedious, darling, so I'm not going to bother to enter the fray as such. I just thought I'd deconstruct his comment and see if it applies to me.
socially inadequate, (quite possibly)
pimpled, (thankfully not)
single, (nope)
slightly seedy, (no again - I'm very seedy, as anyone who knows me in Real Life can attest)
bald, (nope)
cauliflower-nosed (yuck, no. My nose is definitely a potato)
young (Yes! Yes! Oh, all right then, no)
men (nope)
sitting (yep - definitely guilty on this one)
in their (and this)
mother's (but not this)
basements (or this)
So that leaves me with sitting and in their as the only parts of his comment that apply to this particular blogger.
See here for some of the other bloggers who break Marr's mould.
Or just take a stroll through my blogroll.
Andrew Marr is the latest to voice his negative thoughts on bloggers recently at Cheltenham Literary Festival, provoking the inevitable cyber backlash.
It's all too, too tedious, darling, so I'm not going to bother to enter the fray as such. I just thought I'd deconstruct his comment and see if it applies to me.
socially inadequate, (quite possibly)
pimpled, (thankfully not)
single, (nope)
slightly seedy, (no again - I'm very seedy, as anyone who knows me in Real Life can attest)
bald, (nope)
cauliflower-nosed (yuck, no. My nose is definitely a potato)
young (Yes! Yes! Oh, all right then, no)
men (nope)
sitting (yep - definitely guilty on this one)
in their (and this)
mother's (but not this)
basements (or this)
So that leaves me with sitting and in their as the only parts of his comment that apply to this particular blogger.
See here for some of the other bloggers who break Marr's mould.
Or just take a stroll through my blogroll.
Friday, October 15, 2010
Blog Action Day - water
The topic for this year's Blog Action Day is 'water'. You can find links to support the figures below at the link here.
So here it is: water by numbers.
- Nearly 1 billion people lack access to clean water.
- 40 Billion Hours: African women walk over 40 billion hours each year carrying cisterns weighing up to 18 kilograms to gather water, which is usually still not safe to drink.
- 38,000 Children a Week: every week, nearly 38,000 children under the age of 5 die from unsafe drinking water and unhygienic living conditions.
- Wars Over Water: many scholars attribute the conflict in Darfur at least in part to lack of access to water. A report commissioned by the UN found that in the 21st century, water scarcity will become one of the leading causes of conflict in Africa.
- A Human Right: in July, to address the water crisis, the United Nations declared access to clean water and sanitation a human right over. But we are far from implementing solutions to secure basic access to safe drinking water.
Water over-consumption in industrialized countries:
While the developing world faces a water crisis, those in industrialized countries consume far more than their fair share.
- Food Footprint: it takes 24 litres of water to produce one hamburger. That means it would take over 19.9 billion litres of water to make just one hamburger for every person in Europe.
- Technology Footprint: the shiny new iPhone in your pocket requires half a liter of water to charge. That may not seem like much, but with over 80 million active iPhones in the world, that's 40 million liters to charge those alone.
- Fashion Footprint: that cotton t-shirt you're wearing right now took 1,514 litres of water to produce, and your jeans required an extra 6,813 litres.
- Bottled Water Footprint: the US, Mexico and China lead the world in bottled water consumption, with people in the US drinking an average of 200 bottles of water per person each year. Over 17 million barrels of oil are needed to manufacture those water bottles, 86 percent of which will never be recycled.
Water and the environment:
The disregard for water resources in industrialized countries impacts more than humans – it causes environmental devastation.
- Waste Overflow: Every day, 2 million tons of human waste are disposed of in water sources. This not only negatively impacts the environment but also harms the health of surrounding communities.
- Polluted Oceans: Death and disease caused by polluted coastal waters costs the global economy $12.8 billion a year.
- Uninhabitable Rivers: Today, 40% of America's rivers and 46% of America's lakes are too polluted for fishing, swimming, or aquatic life.
Water solutions:
The good news is that there are great organizations working on solutions and new tools that empower people to do their part to address the water crisis.
- Building Wells: Organizations like Water.org and charity: water are leading the charge in bringing fresh water to communities in the developing world.
- Conservation Starts at Home: The average person uses 465 litres of water per day. Find out how much you use here.
- Keeping Rivers Clean: We can all take small steps to help keep pollution out of our rivers and streams, like correctly disposing of household wastes.
- Drop the Bottle: Communities around the world are taking steps to reduce water bottle waste by eliminating bottled water.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Weaving Words with Rosy
I'm delighted to welcome Rosy Thornton here today to celebrate the launch of her 4th novel, The Tapestry of Love.
Catherine Parkstone, a divorcee with grown up children, decides to make a new start. She moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cevennes mountains to begin working as a seamstress. Living in isolation and dealing with kind-hearted but reserved neighbours, French bureaucracy and extreme weather, Catherine may have internet access but the themes in the book are timeless and universal.
This is a gentle novel, packed with rich sensory detail and a beautiful sense of place.
So back to this blog tour. Rosy has come up with a novel idea. (See what I did there?)
The backdrop to the story includes the mountain landscape, Catherine's tapestries and the local cuisine. Cevenole recipes use local produce in the peasant tradition but can be easily reproduced anywhere else in the world.
Rosy has sent me some of these mouth-watering recipes. If you would like to receive a copy, leave your email address in the comments box and I'll send them out to you.
Enjoy!
PS: DON'T FORGET TO DISGUISE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BY USING 'AT' RATHER THAN '@' ETC TO FOOL THOSE CUNNING SPAMBOTS
Catherine Parkstone, a divorcee with grown up children, decides to make a new start. She moves to a tiny hamlet in the Cevennes mountains to begin working as a seamstress. Living in isolation and dealing with kind-hearted but reserved neighbours, French bureaucracy and extreme weather, Catherine may have internet access but the themes in the book are timeless and universal.
This is a gentle novel, packed with rich sensory detail and a beautiful sense of place.
So back to this blog tour. Rosy has come up with a novel idea. (See what I did there?)
The backdrop to the story includes the mountain landscape, Catherine's tapestries and the local cuisine. Cevenole recipes use local produce in the peasant tradition but can be easily reproduced anywhere else in the world.
Rosy has sent me some of these mouth-watering recipes. If you would like to receive a copy, leave your email address in the comments box and I'll send them out to you.
Enjoy!
PS: DON'T FORGET TO DISGUISE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BY USING 'AT' RATHER THAN '@' ETC TO FOOL THOSE CUNNING SPAMBOTS
Monday, October 04, 2010
Breaking (and entering) news ...
I would love to write a full post about the amazing Getting Published event on Saturday.
I'd like to give you details on how doing 19 back-to-back Book Doctor sessions was intense but very rewarding.
I wish I had the time and space to tell you what an indispensable tool this book by Harry Bingham is - the writer's bible without doubt.
I would include links to Twitter, to Writers' Workshop, to Wordcloud ...
Then I'd say that I hope to see you tonight at the Story of London event at Victoria Library where I'm reading from my short story in 33.
Sadly, I can do none of the above. On Thurs evening we came home to find our home being burgled by 5 guys.
It could have been much worse. Most of the stuff was piled up and ready to go. If we'd been a few mins later ...
And, most importantly, even though they utterly trashed our home, no one was physically hurt.
The point I'm getting to here is that my biggest panic was that my laptop was missing. It's ancient and the letters have rubbed off the keys, but it's worth more to me personally than all the other stuff put together.
I found it on the balcony the following morning. The hard drive was lying separately and the cable and charger were gone. I'm trying to sort all this out, while still needing to carry on with my usual essential workload. Meanwhile, I can't get an internet connection on it, so can't get into Outlook to access my emails.
If you need to contact me electronically, you will have to do it via comments here or via Facebook for the ttime being.
Normal service will be ... etc ... etc
I'd like to give you details on how doing 19 back-to-back Book Doctor sessions was intense but very rewarding.
I wish I had the time and space to tell you what an indispensable tool this book by Harry Bingham is - the writer's bible without doubt.
I would include links to Twitter, to Writers' Workshop, to Wordcloud ...
Then I'd say that I hope to see you tonight at the Story of London event at Victoria Library where I'm reading from my short story in 33.
Sadly, I can do none of the above. On Thurs evening we came home to find our home being burgled by 5 guys.
It could have been much worse. Most of the stuff was piled up and ready to go. If we'd been a few mins later ...
And, most importantly, even though they utterly trashed our home, no one was physically hurt.
The point I'm getting to here is that my biggest panic was that my laptop was missing. It's ancient and the letters have rubbed off the keys, but it's worth more to me personally than all the other stuff put together.
I found it on the balcony the following morning. The hard drive was lying separately and the cable and charger were gone. I'm trying to sort all this out, while still needing to carry on with my usual essential workload. Meanwhile, I can't get an internet connection on it, so can't get into Outlook to access my emails.
If you need to contact me electronically, you will have to do it via comments here or via Facebook for the ttime being.
Normal service will be ... etc ... etc
Thursday, September 30, 2010
With friends like these ...
It's 9 months since I finally gave in and joined Facebook. Time for an assessment.
Apart from the occasional confusion between FB (First Born) and FB (Facebook), I have to confess I'm really enjoying it. I love the immediacy. A blog post can take hours to compose, especially if it includes links, photos etc. In contrast, I can type up a wall post in seconds. As a way of letting people know what's happening day by day (and sometimes minute by minute) there's no comparison. OTOH, posts are often shallow - do I really need to tell the world that I've just dropped a tub of marge?
As I work from home, I think of these as the kinds of quickie conversations I'd have round the kettle or water cooler or on fag breaks if I worked in an office. I can pop into my home page and see an instant snapshot of other people's recent posts. They make me feel connected to the world Out There and make me smile - or commiserate - or fume. Whatever the reaction, they're contact with other human beings and that can't be a bad thing, no?
Blogging has suffered in terms of quantity. Having FB as the place for daily updates means I inevitably publish fewer posts here. But that's good because it is actually less of a distraction from my own writing as I don't have to devote the hours and effort it takes to compose frequent blog posts. Page views haven't suffered as much as I anticipated when I realised I was posting less. In fact, as I usually link to posts on my FB wall, if anything I have more readers on the day a post is published.
I now have over 2000 friends. There's a large number of people who are family and Real Life friends. There's another swathe consisting of people I have never met in RL but consider them as genuine virtual friends, whom I've 'met' through blogging or forums. That still leaves an awful lot of people I have only the flimsiest of connections with. The vast majority have come to me as requests via mutual links. I check them briefly and if they have a lit connection or look like the kinds of people who would like my books, I add them.
So 9 months after I came on board as a blushing virgin, it's time for an audit. FB etiquette is very different, but I have my own take on it now which I feel comfortable with. I've started to delete people who I don't know but who use my wall to post their own poems or links to videos etc. Because they're on my wall, they appear personal, but they're not of course. They've sent the same thing to hundreds and maybe even thousands of others, and by so doing they shunt my own posts down the page.
Just because we may not know each other in Real Life, we have to remember that an FB contact is a human being, not a virtual creation or roving bot. The same rules of mutual respect apply in both worlds IMO. If you came round to my home, I would invite you in. We'd chat. I'd put the kettle on and rifle through the cupboards in search of biscuits.
But while I'm in the kitchen, I don't expect you to push all the pictures on my living room wall out of the way behind the settee and replace them with your own pictures. That's just rude. So anyone who does that, or the FB equivalent, can expect to be dropped from my friend's list. Fair enough?
Right, I'm off ... to link to this post on FB of course. If you're not there already, I'm here. Wanna be my friend?
Apart from the occasional confusion between FB (First Born) and FB (Facebook), I have to confess I'm really enjoying it. I love the immediacy. A blog post can take hours to compose, especially if it includes links, photos etc. In contrast, I can type up a wall post in seconds. As a way of letting people know what's happening day by day (and sometimes minute by minute) there's no comparison. OTOH, posts are often shallow - do I really need to tell the world that I've just dropped a tub of marge?
As I work from home, I think of these as the kinds of quickie conversations I'd have round the kettle or water cooler or on fag breaks if I worked in an office. I can pop into my home page and see an instant snapshot of other people's recent posts. They make me feel connected to the world Out There and make me smile - or commiserate - or fume. Whatever the reaction, they're contact with other human beings and that can't be a bad thing, no?
Blogging has suffered in terms of quantity. Having FB as the place for daily updates means I inevitably publish fewer posts here. But that's good because it is actually less of a distraction from my own writing as I don't have to devote the hours and effort it takes to compose frequent blog posts. Page views haven't suffered as much as I anticipated when I realised I was posting less. In fact, as I usually link to posts on my FB wall, if anything I have more readers on the day a post is published.
I now have over 2000 friends. There's a large number of people who are family and Real Life friends. There's another swathe consisting of people I have never met in RL but consider them as genuine virtual friends, whom I've 'met' through blogging or forums. That still leaves an awful lot of people I have only the flimsiest of connections with. The vast majority have come to me as requests via mutual links. I check them briefly and if they have a lit connection or look like the kinds of people who would like my books, I add them.
So 9 months after I came on board as a blushing virgin, it's time for an audit. FB etiquette is very different, but I have my own take on it now which I feel comfortable with. I've started to delete people who I don't know but who use my wall to post their own poems or links to videos etc. Because they're on my wall, they appear personal, but they're not of course. They've sent the same thing to hundreds and maybe even thousands of others, and by so doing they shunt my own posts down the page.
Just because we may not know each other in Real Life, we have to remember that an FB contact is a human being, not a virtual creation or roving bot. The same rules of mutual respect apply in both worlds IMO. If you came round to my home, I would invite you in. We'd chat. I'd put the kettle on and rifle through the cupboards in search of biscuits.
But while I'm in the kitchen, I don't expect you to push all the pictures on my living room wall out of the way behind the settee and replace them with your own pictures. That's just rude. So anyone who does that, or the FB equivalent, can expect to be dropped from my friend's list. Fair enough?
Right, I'm off ... to link to this post on FB of course. If you're not there already, I'm here. Wanna be my friend?
Friday, September 24, 2010
Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner ...
... that I can't help being excited by appearing in the Story of London Festival, reading from 33, the anthology from Glasshouse Books. See here for a blog post by Bobby Nayyar.
I'll be at Victoria Library from 6.30 pm Monday 4th October.
For further info re this event and others in the Festival, you'll need to check the links.
I'm currently snowed under with work that needs to be done prior to the Getting Published event on 2nd October, so please forgive the brevity of this post.
It's all good, though I do wonder when (or if) I'll ever get a chance to wash my hair ... I'll be the one wearing a hat. Or a wig. Or possibly a paper bag ...
Oh, and I regret to inform you that Jimi Hendrix sadly won't be able to make it. Apart from that, I feel great.
I'll be at Victoria Library from 6.30 pm Monday 4th October.
For further info re this event and others in the Festival, you'll need to check the links.
I'm currently snowed under with work that needs to be done prior to the Getting Published event on 2nd October, so please forgive the brevity of this post.
It's all good, though I do wonder when (or if) I'll ever get a chance to wash my hair ... I'll be the one wearing a hat. Or a wig. Or possibly a paper bag ...
Oh, and I regret to inform you that Jimi Hendrix sadly won't be able to make it. Apart from that, I feel great.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
In an English urban garden ...
It's almost a year since Emma Darwin transformed my life by offering to allow me to use her garden as an allotment. I thought I'd share the highs and lows of a very productive and satisfying few months.
Successes
Broad beans were the first to appear and I was so excited that I forgot they were broad beans and picked the whole pods and steamed them. They were delicious, but the real things, once I'd allowed them to mature, were better still.
Spinach. This has gone on and on for months. I pick it as I need it; sweet young leaves for using raw in salads and iron-rich mature leaves for mixing into risotto, curry or just as a steamed vegetable.
Onions. Very satisfying to watch them grow. Even more satisfying to eat them. I'm planning on planting lots more this time.
Garlic. As above re onions.
Tomatoes. A veritable forest! Sweet and juicy - essence of tomato-ness.
Potatoes. Harvested some and I'm leaving the rest in the ground until needed.
Rocket. Peppery gorgeousness - and self-seeding too. Can't ask for more than that.
Butternut squash. Not ripe yet but I've got my eye on them. Love the way they take over such a vast space - like benevolent squatters.
Apples. I can't lay claim to anything other than collecting them and distributing them far and wide. There are still several carrier bags filled with them sitting in my kitchen. Apple pie, anyone? Crumble? Cake? Juice?
Partial successes
Lettuce. I had one fab crop but word must have gone out to the South London slug and snail community. They nabbed the next plantings as soon as they raised their delicate little green heads.
Purple sprouting broccoli. Only three seedlings survived the invasion of the slimy ones. I've sprayed them with an eco confection and hope they make it to maturity.
Compost. The bin is full and not a particularly pleasant sight (or smell TBH) but it will be worthwhile if it produces enough compost for all the plots.
Failures
Subsequent lettuce and other salad crops (see above).
Having, with great pride and excitement, constructed a fabulous set of interlinked bamboo canes to support the 50+ runner bean seeds I planted, you can imagine my disappointment when the slimies ate the whole lot.
They also scoffed all the pak choi.
Spending time in the garden, sun on my back, pottering, pulling up weeds and tying up tomatoes, has given me enormous amounts of pleasure. It's enabled me to get away from the computer, chill out and get some good honest dirt under my nails.
Emma - you've made a nought-but-a-balcony woman very happy indeed. Thank you!
Successes
Broad beans were the first to appear and I was so excited that I forgot they were broad beans and picked the whole pods and steamed them. They were delicious, but the real things, once I'd allowed them to mature, were better still.
Spinach. This has gone on and on for months. I pick it as I need it; sweet young leaves for using raw in salads and iron-rich mature leaves for mixing into risotto, curry or just as a steamed vegetable.
Onions. Very satisfying to watch them grow. Even more satisfying to eat them. I'm planning on planting lots more this time.
Garlic. As above re onions.
Tomatoes. A veritable forest! Sweet and juicy - essence of tomato-ness.
Potatoes. Harvested some and I'm leaving the rest in the ground until needed.
Rocket. Peppery gorgeousness - and self-seeding too. Can't ask for more than that.
Butternut squash. Not ripe yet but I've got my eye on them. Love the way they take over such a vast space - like benevolent squatters.
Apples. I can't lay claim to anything other than collecting them and distributing them far and wide. There are still several carrier bags filled with them sitting in my kitchen. Apple pie, anyone? Crumble? Cake? Juice?
Partial successes
Lettuce. I had one fab crop but word must have gone out to the South London slug and snail community. They nabbed the next plantings as soon as they raised their delicate little green heads.
Purple sprouting broccoli. Only three seedlings survived the invasion of the slimy ones. I've sprayed them with an eco confection and hope they make it to maturity.
Compost. The bin is full and not a particularly pleasant sight (or smell TBH) but it will be worthwhile if it produces enough compost for all the plots.
Failures
Subsequent lettuce and other salad crops (see above).
Having, with great pride and excitement, constructed a fabulous set of interlinked bamboo canes to support the 50+ runner bean seeds I planted, you can imagine my disappointment when the slimies ate the whole lot.
They also scoffed all the pak choi.
Spending time in the garden, sun on my back, pottering, pulling up weeds and tying up tomatoes, has given me enormous amounts of pleasure. It's enabled me to get away from the computer, chill out and get some good honest dirt under my nails.
Emma - you've made a nought-but-a-balcony woman very happy indeed. Thank you!
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Little bitty lit bits
And the winner is ...
In the last post, I invited people to vote in a poll to choose a title for the next East Dulwich Writers' Group anthology. It's strange that the group finds editing relatively simple, but when it comes to something as simple as the back cover blurb, intro or title, the discussions can generate endless debates and some very strong feelings.
That's why the public poll has been so helpful. It came as a surprise to some that the overwhelming reaction was that we should stick with the title of the previous anthology, Hoovering the Roof.
The public has spoken. We have listened. We're now working to a tight deadline in order to publish Hoovering the Roof, The Second in late November.
Novel Spaces
My guest post on Novel Spaces is up today. Click this link if you'd like to see my version of the tools essential for writing.
The Story of London
As part of The Story of London Festival, I will be appearing at an event in Victoria Library in Buckingham Palace Road (hey! I'm at the palace - nearly) with Jemma Wayne and Tom Bromley. We'll all be reading from 33, the anthology published by Glasshouse Books. (I wrote the story set in Croydon.)
Click here to see more Glasshouse events. To celebrate Glasshouse's inclusion in the Festival, they are making a special offer: if you order either 33 East or West before 8th Oct, you will get the accompanying volume free. Simply put the code: Story of London in the special instructions, when purchasing through PayPal. If you'd rather not use PayPal, then please email sales@glasshousebooks.co.uk.
Getting Published
Apparently (and somewhat surprisingly - it looks like a very useful day indeed) there are still a few places available for the Getting Published event on 2nd October at the Royal Overseas League. (Yet another vaguely royal connection? Where's my damn tiara?)
If you've completed a novel or non-fiction MS and want to know how to go about the next steps, this is the event for you. There's a packed and very entertaining programme (including a party afterwards - yay!) and you'll meet publishers and agents as well as getting direct feedback on your opening chapter, synopsis and covering letter from one of the Book Doctors. Click here to see the full programme.
PS: JUST SPOTTED THIS VERY POSITIVE REVIEW OF 33 ON AMAZON.
For short story fans, the final one "How Lucky You Are" by Debi Alper packs a punch making you glad you purchased these books.
In the last post, I invited people to vote in a poll to choose a title for the next East Dulwich Writers' Group anthology. It's strange that the group finds editing relatively simple, but when it comes to something as simple as the back cover blurb, intro or title, the discussions can generate endless debates and some very strong feelings.
That's why the public poll has been so helpful. It came as a surprise to some that the overwhelming reaction was that we should stick with the title of the previous anthology, Hoovering the Roof.
The public has spoken. We have listened. We're now working to a tight deadline in order to publish Hoovering the Roof, The Second in late November.
Novel Spaces
My guest post on Novel Spaces is up today. Click this link if you'd like to see my version of the tools essential for writing.
The Story of London
As part of The Story of London Festival, I will be appearing at an event in Victoria Library in Buckingham Palace Road (hey! I'm at the palace - nearly) with Jemma Wayne and Tom Bromley. We'll all be reading from 33, the anthology published by Glasshouse Books. (I wrote the story set in Croydon.)
Click here to see more Glasshouse events. To celebrate Glasshouse's inclusion in the Festival, they are making a special offer: if you order either 33 East or West before 8th Oct, you will get the accompanying volume free. Simply put the code: Story of London in the special instructions, when purchasing through PayPal. If you'd rather not use PayPal, then please email sales@glasshousebooks.co.uk.
Getting Published
Apparently (and somewhat surprisingly - it looks like a very useful day indeed) there are still a few places available for the Getting Published event on 2nd October at the Royal Overseas League. (Yet another vaguely royal connection? Where's my damn tiara?)
If you've completed a novel or non-fiction MS and want to know how to go about the next steps, this is the event for you. There's a packed and very entertaining programme (including a party afterwards - yay!) and you'll meet publishers and agents as well as getting direct feedback on your opening chapter, synopsis and covering letter from one of the Book Doctors. Click here to see the full programme.
PS: JUST SPOTTED THIS VERY POSITIVE REVIEW OF 33 ON AMAZON.
For short story fans, the final one "How Lucky You Are" by Debi Alper packs a punch making you glad you purchased these books.
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