Good News Everybody...

Long Time No Speak...

2006-03-27T11:40:00.000Z

So, it has been an incredibly busy few weeks.

Firstly, an agency emailed me, after having had my manuscript since November 2005, to ask me to send the balance. It is the best news I have had since becoming a writer, and I am filled with a touch of guarded optimism. In the days after receiving the email, I worked so hard at improving the manuscript that I nearly collapsed.

But I didn't.

On the Monday morning I posted it off to the agent in a nicely wrapped box, and then had a bit of a sit down.

After that, I dragged out an old manuscript that I started earlier in the year, and sat down to alter it from first person to third person. Now if you're not a writer, you probably haven't changed a manuscript from first person to third person, but I can assure you that it is a big job. Thirty thousand words have taken me two and a half weeks of nine hours ish a day, and a whole hell-full of wristache.

The lessson to be learned is, get the perspective right first time round.

In good news - the story itself is excellent, even if some of the writing leaves a lot to be desired. That can be sorted in the edit, though, and so all in all - writing is fantastic at the minute.

Fan-smegging-tastic.

Au Revoir.

A Frustrating Few Weeks...

2006-02-22T16:17:00.000Z

Well it has been a frustrating few weeks.

Work on writing has been slow and hard. Not that I haven't got any work done, but just that I feel I haven't been able to work any full weeks for a number of months now.

Nonetheless, I have managed to finish a very good short story during this period. It is based upon a section of a chapter from a novel I was writing recently, and I am very, very happy with both the idea and the writing. Oh, not to mention the fact that it is the first thing I have completed since I finished my first novel last year. That's good.

Also. Another slice of good news during these turbulent months is that I have had two things published. One short story I got published on a website, and another, (and far more importantly - I have to say,) I am scheduled to have published in May by an internet based printed magazine. I won't get any payment, but seeing as the most I could get for a short story is token, I am no too bothered. You see, it is way more important that I am now a:

PUBLISHED AUTHOR.

Excellent.

Anyway.
Other than this lovely success, I am well into planning my next novel. It is set to be a strange mixture of Mark Twain and Walter Moers. Set written in the 19th century, and yet not. Not quite sure how much I am going to enjoy writing it, but I like the ideas I have in my head, and would be happy if I could just finish it.

Difficult second album indeed.

Au Revoir.

So THIS What A Week Off Feels Like...

2006-01-31T09:51:00.000Z

So THIS is what a week off feels like eh?

Pretty relaxing in a wish I was getting some work done kind of way. Been trying to read, doing a little tiny bit of work, playing some computer games and generally relaxing and trying to get my feet up.

Got the idea for my new novel circling around my head. It will be a good one - an epic in many senses - but there are still one or two plot problems. They're the kind of niggling plot problems that throw the whole story out but are only really tiny things. Oh well, better keep thinking then Dan.

For the first time in a few months, I haven't really got many packages out with agents. I normally like to keep about five in circulation - but as we speak I only have two - and one of them is an email submission. There is no particular reason why this is, other than the fact that I want to concentrate on leads now instead of blind sending - but it does feel as though on my week off, I am doing, nothing, getting nowhere, with nothing out in the system.

But there you go. I guess I'll just have to deal with it.

Girlfriend's orders.

Au Revoir.

Slow On The Updating Front...

2006-01-24T09:31:00.000Z

I have been a tad slow on the updating front of late. I think it is because I have been very busy, (as usual,) and because I've been having a hard time writing of late.

It's not that I thought my writing was bad, more that I just wasn't happy with it. It was too similar to things I have done before. But I have got over that now - and anything I don't like, I am going to work very hard to iron out in the edit. This is going to be 100% perfect.

In other news, I have been thinking very seriously about doing a Masters degree in Creative Writing. It is something that I think could really help to further my writing career, and give me a whole host of contacts that I would have otherwise never got.

I emailed a particulary kind agent to ask her advice on the matter, and she replied very quickly saying that while she thinks it is worth doing, it does NOT look that much better in the eyes of the agent.

As she said herself, everything is in the text. I suppose that makes absolute sense really, but it didn't put me off the idea, and I am gathering information as we speak.

Otherwise, it is write, write, write. I am on the sixth chapter of my new novel, at about 32,000 words, (and they're nearly all good words,) - so I am getting a little more excited about that now.

And that is where I am headed...

Au revoir.

Some Nice News At Last...

2006-01-13T19:59:00.000Z

Hello.

Just recently I received a letter from an agency, and it was very nice. Quite simply the best letter I have got so far. He said I have talent and imagination, and that he likes my style. But most importantly, he seemed to say that he would be interested in the next thing I wrote. Which means I actually have an agent 'sort of tiny bit' interested in what I'm doing.

Nice.

Also, am going to go for a creative writing fellowship at a U.K. University. It is for £10,000 and the placement is only for six moths - so that is just short of £2000 pounds for each months, and a real chance to get some writing donw without part time jobs at the weekend.

Sounds like heaven?

Oh yeah.

My lecturer at university has agreed to provide a reference for me, (just what i need,) and the rest is up to me.

Now, story about scientist? Or story about artist?

We'll see.

Au Revoir.

What A Bugger Of A Day...

2006-01-10T18:30:00.000Z

Oh Yes.

What a bugger of a day.

I was all set to go into writing today with a fresh head after a month's worth of 'half weeks' and 'not quite getting as much done as i thought i would.'

AND THEN

WHAM!

I realise that the chapter i spent absolutely ages sorting out last week, had been deleted. And by me. So i had nobody else to blame.

Bugger.

And to top that off, i hadn't kept a copy of it anywhere so i had to start all the work again, (incidently i did get it all done today but i feel like a bit of a zombie now,) and THEN i got two rejections from different agents ON THE SAME DAY!

FOR THE FIRST TIME.

GRAR

anyone who says that being a writer isn't hard is a grade a liar.

capiche?

Weekend News Is Average News...

2006-01-09T09:49:00.000Z

So.

Weekend news is average news. Got the email address from a friend of mine of a creative writing teacher at Nottingham University. Apparently she is a bit blunt and very honest, but her advice is good - so i'm going to send her a polite email - to see if she would be able to take a look at a couple of sample chapters/provide a nice comment.

Also,

late last week i listened to a bbc recording of Kelsey Grammar reading a Mark Twain short story, and i realised that listening to a short story read aloud makes it very easy to critique/take apart structurally. So what I have decided to do is to get hold of a text-to-speech program and then give my first novel one last edit with that to check for very sure that it all reads smoothly.

A good idea, I think.

Finally,

I have used my girlfriend's blog to do a poll. It asks the reader which novel title they think will be best - because i have decided to change the name of my first novel to something more palatable. So far there are two runners, and the one i thought would win seems to be winning handsomely.

So that is a bonus/sadness for the world of interesting.

Ciao.

Dundee Eh...?

2006-01-06T17:33:00.000Z

I have just read about the Dundee International Book Prize. It certainly seems worth a shot. Only 240 people entered the competition last time out, and that gives you a 1 in 240 chance of winning the competition.

Compared to the odds of getting an agent, i don't think they are too bad at all.

In other good news, one of the judges of said contest says that he likes things that have a humanist and comic slant. That is good news indeed because that is exactly what my book does have.

So, I'm going to submit Against Pollution.

Well Well Well...

2006-01-06T13:49:00.000Z

Well well well,

I have just returned from meeting the head of English where I went to university, and he loved the manuscript of my first novel.

He'd already told me this mind, he'd told me that it was very good in an email. But now that I have seen his face, and seen how much he liked it - I am very impressed, (and yes, a little with myself as I'm sure you can tell.)

So that was a boost, and when I put that next to the other favourable comments I have received - I feel that perhaps I am in a strong position after all.

Also today,

I decided to change the tense of my latest novel, at the very least for a trial run. So I have been trawling through the two chapters I have written so far, and am trying to cut and paste them into something that sounds as though it has been convincingly written by one person.

Aha.

Also,

last night I joined a writer's website called,

www.writewords.org.uk

I have to say that the price is a little steep for saying it isn't updated too regularly, but the forum and the nice, neat collection of information is useful as a writer and i would, just about, recommend it.

Yee hah.

Short Stories A Go Go

2006-01-05T15:08:00.000Z

Okay,

so here is the third update on the first day.

Today, I have sent shorts stories to the Bridport Prize, The Stinging Fly, Leaf Books and A&C Black's 'Artist's and Writer's Yearbook' short story competition.

Here's hoping that i get something positive from these sendouts to put down on the writing c.v. eh? The stories I've sent aren't ideally suited to each competition/publication but then again, unless I radically alter my style, they never will be. I just have to count myself lucky for the experience, and keep on writing.

Au Revoir.

Hey Hey kids...

2006-01-05T10:37:00.000Z

And in the first good news on the weblog, I received an email from the nice lady at Pollinger Ltd Agency who had the decency to acknowledge the receipt of my manuscript.

It doesn't take a lot, but that kind of thing means a lot to us writers.

All hail Pollinger Ltd.

Good News Everybody...

2006-01-05T10:33:00.000Z

So here is the beginning of my Weblog.

It is a weblog made for writers, (and myself,) for people who want to get their writing published.
I am one of these people.

I am going to use the weblog to record any rejection letters I get, any nice comments I happen to get, any good writing I think is worthy of note, and any good books that are worthy of note.

I hope that one day another young writer will find the remains of this weblog useful, because I sure as hell couldn't find one that was.

Oh and I guess it will make a nice memory bank for me as well.

Au revoir.