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12 Books in 12 Months

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NaNoWriMo: Where Did It All Go Wrong

This weekend I started a journal documenting my last-ditch attempts to catch up with NaNo.  This is how it went:

Saturday November 26, 13.40.  I am sitting in our kitchen/living room listening to the hum of the washing machine and the wind outside.  The enormous evergreen in the garden next door waves frantically at me and I wonder how much damage it would do if the wind was strong enough to knock it down – it’s as tall as this three story tenement building.

I should not be thinking about the tree, of course.  I should be catching up on my NaNoWriMo story, which sits at 35, 962 words after a week of work, hanging around an industrial estate in Dundee, applications for funding and writing jobs, and last night an unexpected trip to everyone’s favourite grotty rock club in the cowgate.  As I sat in this very same seat at 4am, scarfing down chunion crisps from the garage, my book was the last thing on my mind.

Time to Write or Die.

Continue reading “NaNoWriMo: Where Did It All Go Wrong” →

2

The Sphere (November’s Pictonaut Challenge)

We are now into the third month of Glempy’s Pictonaut Challenge, and what a month it is.  I don’t know what this is a picture of, and I don’t darn well even care, but I wrote a short story about it anyway.  I look forward to reading your one.

Continue reading “The Sphere (November’s Pictonaut Challenge)” →

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Interview: Angry Robot Books

Jhonen Vasquez (http://www.questionsleep.com/)

Some publishers think technological changes in the way we read may herald the end of books.  Lee Harris, editor of “SF, F and WTF?!” publishers Angry Robot Books (home to books by Dan Abnett, Andy Remic, Chuck Wendig and a host of others – my title tip is The World House by Guy Adams) says not.  In this interview he explains why…

How and when did Angry Robot Books get started?
Angry Robot was founded by Marc Gascoigne in the summer of 2008 as part of HarperCollins. We published our first titles in the UK and Australia in July 2009 and in the US and Canada in September 2010.

What is the robot so upset about?
He’s not upset. He’s angry. Big difference. Pray you never find out why…

Continue reading “Interview: Angry Robot Books” →

4

NaNoWriMo – What Am I Doing?!

I wrote this post last week and thought I’d scheduled it for Sunday, but apparently not.  It’s still relevant, although the word count has changed a bit.  It’s about NaNo in the context of having been writing books all year.

An extract from some email correspondence with my dear Marmee on the subject of NaNoWriMo last week:

Me, Edinburgh, Monday afternoon

I’ve passed 21k so should get to the 23.5 tonight I think, although I’m still not feeling very inspired so it’s basically all attempts to explore the characters to see who is worth hanging it off…  At the moment I’m feeling it’s the least inspired thing I’ve done all year.  But maybe when I come back to it I will see something there.

Marmee, Blairgowrie, Monday Evening

Maybe the whole thing of 12 in 12 means you are more matter of fact and less impressed by your own writing than you have been in the past?  Most of us are struggling to get anything down, which I suspect is a barrier you have broken through.

Continue reading “NaNoWriMo – What Am I Doing?!” →

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Interview: Weaponizer

Image by mojokingbee (http://mojokingbee.deviantart.com/)

This week’s guest post is an interview with the editor of online magazine Weaponizer (and general polymath) Bram E. Gieben, also known on the internet as Texture. 

He spoke to me about SF, online publishing and making a terrible discovery about Grant Morrison…

Can you describe Weaponizer for anyone that hasn’t come across it before?

Weaponizer publishes fiction online in several forms – flash fiction (stories under a thousand words), short stories (1000 – 8000 words), serial fiction (ongoing stories of novel or novella length), and webcomics. We also publish nonfiction articles and essays on everything from film to music to the occult.

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Wednesday Story

I don’t have a guest post for you today, so instead you shall have another story.  This one was written for Emily Dodd, who said “You know those dog multi-leads? Well a man used to come into my bedroom with wolves on a multi-lead or sometimes… sharks. The sharks swam in air. Thankfully it hasn’t happened for 20 years or so, he’s probably working in Disney land (:” Enjoy.

image via http://www.seejanefly.com/

Once Upon A Time, there was a little boy called Bartholomew Benjamin Crannington-Hill, a name he had inherited from Irish-American parents along with a small leather suitcase and a pair of green and white striped pyjamas.  Unfortunately those were the only things he had to remember them by, for Mr and Mrs Crannington-Hill tragically died at sea when their son was only a baby.

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