Keep plodding along

Hi there

Well I know I have to keep working to pay the bills, but it does tend to interfere with the writing - I try to get up early and write when I'm fresh, but when it's dark outside and the warm bed beckons, that plan goes out the window. So then I try to write at night, but by the time I have made the tea, fed the women in my life and then washed up etc I'm creamed, so I am not writing at my best - so I wait until the weekend and promise myself some quality time at the PC, but there are always so many jobs to do around the house.

Eeeeek !! I just want to write - but I am destined to write little and often and try to remember where the heck I was in the plot. Ho hum - keep plodding along.

I made the best seller chart !!

Hi folks - Happy and prosperous New Year to you all.

Brilliant news for my new year - I made the Youwriteon.com best seller chart for 'I hate baked beans' which of course has now changed title to 'Space Ace and the mysterious Black Craw' - so that's a great bonus.

I am still waiting to hear if I have won the Times/Chicken House competition, not long to go now until there is some news.

I have also sent the ms off to 18 US agents - just because I love to wait for the postman to see what he brings.

Then, I launched 'Space Ace and the Roaming Romans,' onto the YWO website and have been having some amazing reviews for that - so fingers crossed it will get me out there and some lucky publisher will pick it and realise they can make a fortune out of selling my books.

So, I had better get it finished, hadn't I. I am about four fifths done, I am just trying to ties all the loose plot lines together at the end - its great fun, it's just time I am short of, the day job keeps getting in the way!

I'll let you know when it's done.

New title and updated website

Hi folks - well, I haven't been having much luck with getting 'baked beans' published in the UK, so... USA here I come, and with a new name for the book:

Out goes 'I hate baked beans' and lets say a big welcome to 'Space Ace and the Mystery of the Black Craw.'

I have also updated my website accordingly - so go and have a look at iansanday.com, if you haven't already.

And, no, I haven't finished the 2nd book yet, it's harder than you think because I have had a bit of a layoff as I have been concentrating on other projects and to be quite frank with you, I have forgotten where I have got to. It's funny, because when I go back I just find the characters in mid action where I had left them - a bit mean really to have them hanging around waiting for me to come back and tell them how it all finishes.

I can just imagine them like on a film set as they are waiting around in their foldaway chairs with STAR written on the back, tapping their feet saying: "come on Ian, get on with it.... "

Nearly finished book 2

OK, so nearly finished means work still in progress on first draft - I am at a bit of writers block at the moment just getting the ending right. I know where I want to be, I just have to write it and the trouble is there are so many ends that need tying up and so many subplots and twists I don't want to over complicate the issue. Still, it's good fun trying.

I have been Christmas shopping and got myself a CD of bagpipe music. I love the sound of the pipes and it reminds me so much of my holiday in the summer touring Scotland - so lets hope it gives me some inspiration to crack on and get finished.
I have now drawn up a list of agents in the US to send ' I hate baked beans' to, so watch out America, here I come !

Time to send it off

Well, it's all wrapped in bubble wrap and ready to send off - that is my entry into The Times/Chicken House Children's Story competition, so wish me luck. I have sweated tears over this story over the last few weeks, editing it over and over again to get it right - with lots of help from my long suffering editor - Anne Buhrmann. (Thanks Anne)

Also, lots of help from the youwriteon.com website community. So, a bit of a rest and then on with the next project - well, two actually. First of all to complete the next Eddie and John novel, and also to get going on my teen / adult novel called 'Spellcaster's Apprentice,'

I've also been toying with the idea of sending the work off to the USA, well, no British Agent / Publisher will take a punt on me, so what have I got to loose? And then there is also the self publish route - it's looking more and more likely. After all my names not Blunket is it? Oh yes, he bombed, someone took a punt on him, paid him loads and got stuck with a warehouse full of pulp - serves you right, I would have let you have mu book for a fraction of the advance and it would have made you at least twice the return on your investment - your loss Mr Publisher !!

Getting there

I'm still busily working on getting the manuscript ready to go off to Anne Buhrmann, my Editor, to look it over once last time before I send it off the the Chicken House / Times competition - but the deadline is looming. It has to be in by 17th November and the clock is ticking.

Better news with the Youwriteon website - I have taken off a really bad review, I have re written some major parts and the book is now back in the top 10. It was at 7 yesterday, but has now dropped down to 8 - I just need a couple of good reviews and hopefully I can climb back into the top 5 by the end of the month, enter the Best Seller pages and get a crit from one of the professionals - I'll let you know how I get on.

In the mean time, I am still actively researching the Self Publishing route and all other main stream opportunities, so all is not lost.

Competiton Time

Well now, I have just found out that there is a competition for new children's writers run by the publisher 'Chicken House' and The Times newspaper - so I am busily trying to get the re write done and dusted in time to meet the November deadline.

I have also received some great suggestions from the members of the youwriteon community as to what I might be doing wrong and how I might improve - things that when they get pointed out I think - 'yeah, they're right. I always had a niggling feeling that bit was all wrong.'
So thanks folks - lets just hope it all works and something comes of it.