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.

Finding Time

Finding time to write is one of the hardest things at the moment - work, as always, takes up a lot of time, plus sorting quarter of an acre of garden, sorting out number one son with his new house in Birmingham as he starts his second year at University, and so it goes on. Oh, and I am now making all my own bread at home. "Well thebrought stuff just hasn't got the flavour, and all the additives they put in it to keep it fresh - I could go on, but after doing all the research I would say bake your own, it doesn't take as long as you think its going to.

So, new regime needed, early nights followed by early mornings to try and get some writing done then, while I am reasonably fresh as trying to write at night after working all day and them making tea etc - well, it's not my best work.

I went to a Story Telling group at a pub in Wolverhampton last week, the Newhampton it was called, the group meet on the 1st Monday of every month and it was really interesting. The first half was just people getting up and telling a story, with a time limit of about 10 mins and then after the break there was a chap called Mike Hardy from welsh Wales and he was a brilliant story teller - the story's weren't that interesting, it was just the way he told them that made them special. I am going to have a go, if I can pluck up the courage, I have been practising at home, and ... well, I will tell you more about after I have been again next month.

Have you been on youwriteon.com yet?

I have found a wonderful website funded by The Arts Council called youwriteon.com where you review other peoples work to gain credits, then upload your work and assign credits to it to get people to read it and review it.

You hope that they give you some constructive criticism, but some people just write a few lines without giving any real guidance. After reading what people say about mine, I now try really hard to tell other what I liked, what I didn't like and how in my humble opinion would try to do things differently.
It;'s hard, because what do I know? I am not a published writer, and then it's the same for others, what do they know, they are not writers either - they are just like me. So when you learn the rules to the game it becomes easier - you look for the themes and don't take each individual crit to heart, after all, we don't all like the same things - I mean I get asked to review everything from chick lit to historical romance - all stuff I would never choose to read, but I tell them what I think and give it my best shot.

Anyway, each review gets marked and the best 5 each month get a professional review and the best scoring for the whole year gets a publishing contract -so you never know, there is always more than one way of skinning the proverbial cat.

If you haven't had a look then click on the link, even if you are only a reader, you don't have to upload anything, just read the first chapters of all these new workds and tell them what you think 0 it's very addictive !!

Marketing my book

Ok, so I'm not published yet (yet!) but when the time arrives I will need to market the book(s) and therefore I need as much of an edge/inside information as possible. So when I saw a one day event (called Shelf Secrets) organised by Mark Thornton of Mostly Books in Abingdon - well, it was a no brainer, I had to go.

Best decision I have made this year and if you are writer and need a bit of insider know how then my advice is - what are you waiting for? Sign up! I found it enlightening.

It was not just because of the comfortable, familiar surroundings of the bookshop (I love being surrounded by books) but the easy way in which Mark ran the day and the interaction with the amazing people that I met who were also on the course, so thank you Angela, Alison, Siobhan and Patrick. All were already published, or in the midst of a publishing deal and it was great to listen and learn from them as much as it was to be guided through the process by Mark.

I have a lot of admiration for what Mark, and his wife Nicki, have done in just one year of trading - the way they have diversified and the hard work they must put in to constantly market their own business. I wish them all the luck.

I have a constant thirst for knowledge - knowledge is King as far as I am concerned - and this day out has helped to fill some gawping holes in my knowledge of the industry.