Search

12 Books in 12 Months

writing books and blogging about it

Open Search

Happy Saturday

Morning all.  You’re looking nice today.  Have you done something different with your hair?  I imagine by this stage mine wants to get up and crawl off my head.  I don’t normally go this long without a shower, but when camping there’s not a lot else for it.  Still, The National were good weren’t they?  Probably.

Anyway, it’s Saturday, and you’re probably hanging around in your pyjamas thinking about making eggy bread but not quite getting round to it.  Why not relax further with a bit of:

– Hyperbole and a Half (brilliant cartoons drawn apparently in MS Paint by Allie Brosh, who is some kind of comedy genius)

– A foray into research on the Romance genre.  Includes hilarious quotes.  Well, I thought they were hilarious… April’s Genre

0

Mad Props To Other Bloggers

Tis the second day of my brief Suffolk sojourn and I hope you are bearing up OK.  Today’s reading material for all y’all is as follows:

– Joel Stickley’s How to Write Badly Well – very short snippets that do pretty much what it says on the tin.  He’s in the literary tent at Latitude too, doncha know.  (I’m probably there too, with any luck..)

– A post bemoaning the volume of admin around promoting a project such as this, complete with list of people you should high five when next you see them; The Social Network

I hope these fill the gaping void left by my absense.  If not, perhaps consider buying a pet.

0

The Author Goes On Holiday

This is just a note to say I am going to be at Latitude Festival for a few days, so if anyone has any desperate need to read about the pros and cons of writing 12 books in 12 months you’ll have to content yourself with re-reading the blog from scratch.

I’m quite excited about taking a break and recharging my batteries, even if the forecast does seem to be monsoons as far as the eye can see.  And at least if I come back with trench foot it might make for some good storytelling.  Frinstance in October I could write about infected limbs becoming sentient.

Or not.

Anyway I wouldn’t want to leave you completely in the lurch, so I am scheduling daily posts linking you to one site I like and one random 12 books blog entry I thought was fun.  I hope that is acceptable.  If not I will deal with your ire on Tuesday.

Today’s links are:

– Chuck Wendig’s Terrible Minds blog, which is very funny.

– An excerpt from the very first book.. ‘Caligula in Love’

0

Banana Me Beautiful

Emily in action

Last night I went to a book launch, the first I’ve ever attended (although hopefully not the last, or this blog is a smidge redundant).

The book was Banana Me Beautiful, the author is Renaissance woman* Emily Dodd, and you can buy it off the internet for a fiver, most of which goes towards supporting mental health charities.  It’s only available in eBook format just now, with the paperback version coming out in about six months, and it contains art and poetry.

Now, until a few years ago I was the sort of person – along with an awful lot of The Great British Public – who claimed I was ‘not that into poetry’.

Continue reading “Banana Me Beautiful” →

9

Online Literary Festival This Weekend

I discovered last night via the 12books twitterfeed that this weekend sees the launch of an online literary festival of children’s books and authors.  It’s been put together by the folks at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure and yes, the thing that caught my eye was the fact they abbreviate that to ABBA…  I don’t know that it’s been particularly well documented on this blog, but me and Abba (the popular beat combo) have history.

Continue reading “Online Literary Festival This Weekend” →

2

Meanwhile, the writer…

Meanwhile, the writer was determined to get to a reasonably high word count irrespective of what that meant for the quality of the story.  She typed like the wind, except for the long gaps in which she was checking her phone, or making cups of tea, or yawning. 

Sometimes she would go off on a tangent about how she was looking forward to having crumpets for tea when she ought to have been describing Amelia’s hat collection (which was vast, expensive and unexpected; not least because Amelia never wore hats, not even at weddings or funerals).

And when she ought to have been making subtle hints about the whereabouts of Chris’ mother, she was actually looking up forums about digital photography in the hope someone would be able to enlighten her on the best way to take a self portrait to go with one of several articles she was writing on the side. 

Continue reading “Meanwhile, the writer…” →

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑