Monthly Archives: July 2011

July 30, 2011 · 11:21 am

Royal Wedding #2

Today in Edinburgh (my place of residence since June 2008) there is a totally exciting royal wedding.  That horse riding royal one is marrying a rugby player (who may also ride horses, I don’t really know).

According to my sources (Twitter) a group of people from the Highlands have been camping near Canongate Kirk since 2pm yesterday in order to catch a glimpse of the happy couple.  The wedding is at 3pm today.  For my part, I am sitting in the flat listening to Andrew Collins and Josie Long on BBC Radio 6 Music, eating cold pizza and trying to work out a realistic word count target that I can reach before midnight tomorrow.  When the bell tolls 3, meanwhile, I’ll likely be on my way to Perthshire.  Different strokes for different folks.

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July 29, 2011 · 11:30 am

A Reading

Yesterday was the busiest I’ve ever had on the 12 books blog, which is lovely, so I hope people liked it enough to come back.  If you are visiting for the first time and would like to know what on earth is going on, you can read a quick overview on IdeasTap or a slightly longer evaluation of the journey so far on Mslexia.

Meanwhile here is a reading from book seven, which you may remember is aimed at kids and is about a grumpy wizard called Snooky Jim, a slightly batty cat lady called Amelia Trousers, and a young lad called Chris who is well brung up and usually eats his greens.  I wrote this yesterday and have just done one take, so it’s literally just me reading off a bit of paper.  But it’s pretty short, so that’s a bonus…  And anyway if you don’t like it you can’t be mean cause it’s my birthday, so there.

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July 28, 2011 · 10:00 am

Getting Published

So you know how I spent yesterday banging on about how I don’t have any immediate publication plans, on account of nothing being  polished enough for human consumption? 

Well, last night I got an email saying a book I submitted a short story to, Beyond the Horizon, has now been printed and can be purchased from Amazon by discerning readers as of NOW.  Well, Monday past actually.  Sorry if that was misleading in any way, but in my defense short stories take a bit less re-writing than novels.

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July 27, 2011 · 10:30 am

Got An Agent Yet?

As regular readers are hopefully aware, I am trying to write a book every month with a vague future aim of publication and possible literary stardom.

One question I am asked on an occasional basis (by two people, but they have asked multiple times so I deem it pertinent) is “HAVE YOU GOT AN AGENT YET?”

The answer to this is no, and I can tell you for why.

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July 25, 2011 · 8:30 pm

Sci-Fi Suggestions

I have to go back to work tomorrow, after a full 12 days off.  That’s 12 whole days where I have not written a word of any of my 12 books. How apt.

There may come a time (I’m guessing Sunday) that I feel guilty as hell for such negligence, but right now I’m confident it was The Right Thing To Do – for my sanity and for the sake of the project. Plus:

LOOK HOW MANY BOOKS I READ IN THAT TIME!!

Admittedly four are aimed at young children, which I am not, and are very short.  Also I actually started One Good Turn quite some time ago, so technically only read half of it during the 12 day period… but the thought of having had the time to read six books makes me happy.

Now I must get back into the habit of writing them.

You may remember that the fast approaching month of August is dedicated to sci-fi, for which I have a concept that is actually rather dark, but potentially a bit good.  As ever I have yet to name any of the characters, and if you have any suggestions for classics of the genre I should have a look at please leave a comment (either containing a title or cliff notes on the text) below.

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July 22, 2011 · 1:35 pm

Keep Short Stories on Radio 4

Those of you who are on Twitter may already have heard about the campaign to stop Radio 4 from culling their short story output from 3 per week to just 1.  It was brought to my attention by Susie Maguire, an author who tweets (very fittingly in this instance!) as @wrathofgod and has been getting people to sign a petition, here.  There are 3746 names on there at the time of writing, including lots of authors and actors and culturally important types.  And me…

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