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12 Books in 12 Months

writing books and blogging about it

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Tech Fail

I have just spent what feels like several days trying to work out how to make a button to link this blog to the Facebook Page.  After all, ‘likes’ means prizes.  By which I suppose I mean statistics.

During this difficult time I discovered that I could not use a WP plugin because I have a .com account as opposed to a .org – there is an article explaining that here if you’re interested.  I also re-discovered a fact that you probably already know, namely that Facebook is impossibly annoying.  It flatly refused to let me use the inbuilt share tool as the 12 Books page, which means that this post may or may not automatically appear on my personal profile, which is not the plan I had.

To cut a long story short, I used the widgets menu to make my own share button – click on the picture at the top of the side bar (currently a cowboy hat) and it will take you to visit Mr Zuckerberg.  I am conscious that people don’t want to be spammed into next Christmas, so I don’t really update the FB more than a few times a week.  This means that if you do choose to ‘like’ me, your stalkerfeed will not be taken over by 12 Books updates.

In other news, the tale of Victor McGlynn is taking shape in my mind, but writing has yet to commence.  It will do later on today, once I’ve attended to a few other chores.  And I think it might be quite good.

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March

In MARCH I will be writing a Western.

I’d like the main protagonist to be an older gent, based on a lovely chap who used to come into the library and take out 12 westerns at a time, even though he’d read them all hundreds of times already.

Maybe he sees his day to day life in a slightly schemey bit of a Scottish town as a Western? Maybe he goes back in time to the Wild West, either in reality or in a dream?  Could it be a sort of western style set up in the future, like Firefly/Serenity?

I don’t want to spend too much time researching the actual history of the wild west, I just want it to be a fun, colourful, ripping read!

It has been suggested that I call my old gent Victor McGlynn, and that ‘The Shootist‘ and ‘Once Upon a Time in the West‘ would be good films to watch.  And I’ve been told to listen to Ennio Morricone during the writing process to get me in the mood.  I’ve also got a copy of Salty’s Gold to read – let’s hope it lives up to the blurb.

(Old Salty Parker rose into town every week with his little poke of gold dust and left it at the bank. He was the last of the miners at Willard’s Creek and the source of his gold was a mystery that many folk wanted to solve…)

But I need a bit more to go on.  What other western movies should I watch for inspiration? Where should my story be set – the actual wild west or somewhere totally different? Who are the other characters?  Is it a revenge saga?  Who needs avenging?  How?  When?  Are there horses?  Or bandits?  Or ponchos?

As ever, you can leave a comment below, through twitter, or on facebook.  Or you can send me a good old fashioned email – ali.george85@yahoo.com

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Still Here!

Hello.

I haven’t updated in ages, for two reasons.  First of all I wasn’t writing anything for days at a time and I was too embarrassed to tell you.  Well, I was writing loads actually – there was an article about libraries, one about trying to make it as a freelance journo, and one about what it’s like trying to get into theatre directing; as well as assorted posts on my other blogs – but it none of these were my murder mystery novel.

Then last weekend, I wrote so much my hands nearly exploded.  That meant I didn’t really have time to blog, although there was some very mundane tweeting about how many words I had got down.  Between Saturday and Monday I did 23,722 words in order to catch up with my word count target.  Re-reading and editing that lot is going to be interesting…

Anyway, now that chicken sitting duties are over I have gone back to work four days a week, which I hope will help to get me into some semblance of a writing routine.  Assuming I get some suggestions for March’s Western – thus far it has been suggested that the protagonist be called Victor McGlynn, which I rather like, but other characters / plot devices / etc are still wide open.  Feel free to leave a comment below or on the facebook page if you’ve got any further ideas!

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Get Involved!

If, for whatever reason, you can’t leave comments on the Get Involved page of the blog, help is at hand!  I have made a photo album on the facebook page so you can leave thoughts on different genres there.  It’s not actually in chronological order, but you’re intelligent people and I’m sure you’ll figure it out.

I’ve done this because March – the first month where I’m really throwing this out to the general public – is fast approaching.  I’ve had some suggestions, but the novel is far from planned!

To remind you, I’d like the main protagonist to be an older gent, based on a lovely chap who used to come into the library and take out 12 westerns at a time, even though he’d read them all hundreds of times already.

Maybe he sees his day to day life in a slightly schemey bit of town as a Western? Maybe he goes back in time, either in reality or in a dream?  Maybe he goes forward in time, to a Serenity style futuristic space western?

You may have gathered by this point that I don’t want to spend too much time researching the actual history of the wild west, I just want it to be a fun, colourful, ripping read!

So, what’s my old gent called? What western movies should I watch for inspiration? Where is it set? Who are the other characters?  He must have a dead or estranged wife/child in his past somewhere, right?  Or maybe that’s too traditional.  In which case, what is his motivation?

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How Twitter Helps

The @12books12months twitterfeed is a terrifying and time consuming place.  I follow authors, agents, publishers and book bloggers from all over the world and am constantly bombarded with links to articles about writing, publishing and blogging.  Interesting, but overwhelming.

This evening I’ve read a few that stood out, so I thought I would link them.

10 Ways to Tell You Have Author Potential is fairly self explanatory title.  I seem to tick some, but not all of the boxes.

How to Become A Better Writer is one of many posts that appear almost daily on this theme, and covers the bases as well as any.

The Influence of Anxiety is the most interesting of the three, because rather than give hints and tips on what we ought to be doing it focuses on what a lot of authors actually do, including taking ages over one tiny bit of writing, procrastinating, and comparing oneself to everyone else and coming up short (easier than ever before thanks to twitter, facebook and blogging).

Meanwhile, another #WIP

April 28th

Festival of Floralia begins today.  We’re having more games in the Circus Maximus to celebrate, at which the people will be showered with beans.  My idea.  It’ll be really funny to watch, but also they won’t mind, because they’re being given free food.  Brilliant.

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Publicity

At the present time I am sitting in bed (I live in the coldest flat known to man, as is the wont of recent graduates with no disposable income, dependents or things to burn) and attempting to publicise this here project in the book loving world of the internet.  Creating and adding people on the twitter account led to me surfing through 8 million billion book bloggers, which took a large chunk out of my day but was hopefully worth it from a networking standpoint.  Facebook, on the other hand, has been making me want to throw things.  Hard.  At other, softer, living things.

My problem is one-fold.

WHAT THE BLOODY HELL HAS HAPPENED TO GROUPS?!

Time was, back in 2005, you made a group, invited thirty or forty people you knew in real life to join it, that was you.   Then it got a bit more widespread, and I made and joined a ridiculous number of joke pages just for fun.  Who wouldn’t want to echo the sentiment “Disney Gave Me Unrealistic Expectations About Love”, or admit to being one of those, “People Who Don’t Sleep Enough Because They Stay Up Late For No Reason”, or become an officer of “Tom Baker – The Ultimate Man“.  People joined these groups, made a couple of jokes, added a picture or two, then left or stayed at their leisure.

Even as late as about 24 hours ago groups seemed comparatively straightforward.  You could have separate tabs across the top for sections with ‘information’, ‘wall’, etc.  Now, you’ve just got one page for everything.  It’s a sprawling mass of stuff, with no way of highlighting the salient points – ie what 12 Books in 12 Months is and how people can participate.

To add insult to injury, when you attempt to invite people it adds them automatically without asking their permission.  I’d be annoyed if I was just randomly put in a group without my say-so, and I suspect it means people are less likely to look at it because it’s not something they’ve been asked or invited to do.  This upsets me, as 12 books in 12 months is one of the best terrible ideas I’ve ever had, and I want people to take a minute to look at it.

My question now is, should I make a ‘page’ instead? Then people can just ‘like’ it and be on their merry way… but are there other publicity benefits?

Meanwhile, in the world of Caligula research, I’ve just found a TV show made by the History Channel called ‘Ancients Behaving Badly‘, whose first episode is about the man himself.  And I’ve ordered a second hand copy of I, Claudius by Robert Graves online for a bargainous £2.70 so that I may keep it forever and perhaps even read it.

What a productive day.

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