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12 Books in 12 Months

writing books and blogging about it

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February 2013

Weekly Photo Challenge: Home

I found it hard to come up with something for this week’s prompt – hence the lateness (it’s technically last week’s prompt at this point).  The prompt, as you may have gathered from the title of the post, was home.  I’ll stop saying prompt now.

I mused on this for a while, looking at other people’s submissions (houses, family, pets) and felt thoroughly uninspired.  Then my other half put on a CD, and a thought occurred.  Home is somewhere familiar and comforting – somewhere my brain recognises as safe.   I feel this in a number of places, but I can actually create that sense of well being artificially wherever I am – through the power of love music.  Certain songs make me feel at ease, because I associate them with places I feel at home.

And that’s why I photographed a bunch of CDs that have travelled with me from home with my parents to university and three different flats in Edinburgh.  Why on the radiator?  Just because.

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And the best thing about this is, now we can play the super fun game of name all those CDs!

Or not.

2

On Terry Deary’s Sentimental Gush

ghostbusters_library1Yesterday there was an article about Horrible Histories author Terry Deary on the Guardian books page, in which he was quoted as saying that libraries are effectively past it. I disagree with that view, and wanted to address some of his points. You can read the article here if you haven’t seen it yet. His original comments are in the Sunderland Echo.

Continue reading “On Terry Deary’s Sentimental Gush” →

6

Novel In A Weekend

iWrite (© jeffrey james pacres http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjpacres)
© jeffrey james pacres http://www.flickr.com/photos/jjpacres

Not the weekend just past, or the weekend before that, but the weekend before that, I wrote another novel.

Well, that’s not strictly true – it was more of a novella, whose final word count was just over 24k.  But that’s not bad going for less than 30 hours of work.

Continue reading “Novel In A Weekend” →

5

Libraries I Have Known

Today is National Libraries Day 2013, which naturally got me to thinking of libraries I have loved and lost.  It won’t come as any surprise, I suppose, that I wouldn’t be the person I am if it were not for libraries.

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Continue reading “Libraries I Have Known” →

0

Want to work with me?

WANTED: Eccentric Millionaire Patron

Role

The role of the Eccentric Millionaire Patron is to provide me with enough money to pay for rent, bills and food whilst I write daft stories full time.  The job is comparatively hands off and could be done in conjunction with other work if that is the way the EMP rolls.  If not, it would probably suit minor royalty or an aristocrat.

The EMP needs to trust in my ability to produce work when given the opportunity to get on with it uninterrupted, without constantly nipping at me to ask whether I am finished or how it’s going.  Having said that, throwing in the odd arbitrary deadline certainly wouldn’t hurt as I enjoy being challenged.  Not 12 books in 12 months though, that’s already been done.

The job will generally require 2-3 hours input a week.  However, it would be advantageous if the candidate had lots of contacts in the publishing industry to support my efforts at networking, so some evening work may be required when literary events appear.

The Organisation

Ali was established in 1985, and set up the 12 Books in 12 Months project in 2011. Her purpose is to supply high quality stories for or about children and arts journalism, as well as multimedia content for hyperlocal news websites. She is currently completing a major transformational change programme focused on persuading someone to help her write full time, thus maximising her impact through the delivery of more efficient and effective manuscripts and copy.

Qualifications/skills

Essential:

  • More money than sense
  • Contacts in publishing
  • Love of reading (esp. children’s fiction)
  • GSOH

Desirable:

  • Enough imagination to set me the odd writing challenge
  • Proficient in Excel and Outlook*
  • An impressive hat

*you don’t need to be proficient in Microsoft at all, but it is in all job descriptions written in the last 15 years so far be it from me to leave it out.

1

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