When you pick up a book, do you think about the gender of the author?
Continue reading “Are You A Sexist Reader? #IWD2017”
This week I am making a concerted effort to find and protect my writing time, because life has gotten on top of me recently and all I’ve really done is make a couple of Vines. This is day two…
7.56am haul myself out of bed, late again. Tomorrow I will put my phone on the other side of the room so I can’t hit snooze.
7.58am Realise I am going to have to make a decision between coffee and removing the onion smell (if you’re not sure what I’m talking about, read yesterday’s post). Fall to knees screaming ‘noooooo!’ Choose to shower because I work in an open plan office and don’t particularly want everyone in it to spend the day sniffing the air going ‘what is that?’
8.20am wrangle with some hair related angst. When exactly are you too old to do your hair in two plaits? It is a worry. There again, I have the stylistic tendencies of a 9 year old girl in most other respects – I probably shouldn’t fight it.
8.30am read a tweet on my way out of the door claiming that Sarah Waters redrafts things up to 34 times before sending to an agent or publisher. Nobody should live at that speed. Seriously, I’ll be dead by the time I’ve done that many redrafts.
6pm get home. Open post, drink some water, consider going for a jog.
6.40pm head out for a jog. Just call me Haruki Murakami.
8pm congratulate self on not dying. Open up my shiny new copy of Mslexia for some ‘sit down and write’ inspiration.
8.15pm my brother comes round for a visit (and to collect a phone charger. Multitasking). We catch up over some minstrels.
9.25pm brother heads home. I sit and finish drafting an application for a mentoring project. This involves 20 minutes of editing fiction! Result!
10.55pm write a blog post about how incredibly well I’m doing. 20 minutes in one day! With momentum like this, who needs writing retreats…
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“How do you feel, now that it’s nearly over?”
Fraudulent, I think, but I don’t say that. I smile sheepishly and go with something vague like “oh, I haven’t really got that far yet… Ask me in January.”
Eagle-eyed readers might have noticed that it’s January now, so I suppose I’ll have a go at answering that question from the perspective of four days hindsight.
I still feel a little bit fraudulent.
Continue reading “Time for Reflection”
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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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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.
Continue reading “Got An Agent Yet?”
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Hello Dear Readers.
This is the last day of book six, so naturally I’ve been frantically catching up using my breaks at work and all of this evening to boot. Except of course I haven’t, because I am knackered. I was reading Caitlin Moran’s new book in my break at work (very funny so far), and when I got home I ate some biscuits and watched Hollyoaks. Hollyoaks! Not even the news, or a re-run of Friends, or anything else remotely watchable! I am clearly a feeble wreck of a woman, in need of about sixteen hours of sleep.
To that end, I am about to retire. (To bed, obviously. I can’t retire from work til I’m about 70, or haven’t you been keeping abreast of the strikes? I don’t blame you, it’s something to do with Michael Gove wanting kids to learn history in chronological order. Except that isn’t what it’s about at all. But he does think that.). However, before I go, I feel the urge to sate your insatiable thirst for knowledge about how it’s all going. So, CLICK HERE to read the last of my guest posts for Mslexia Magazine, in which I evaluate the project thus far and cunningly explain it to new readers at the same time.
Thank you, and good night.
12 Books in 12 Months 