Happy Australia day to all my fellow Aussies out there, and to those that aren’t, commiserations.
Needless to say, what with meeting family and friends for BBQ, backyard cricket and what not, my day is going to pretty much non existent in terms of writing.
Time magazine has an interesting article on publishing that can be viewed here at their website. It looks at some of the challenges facing modern publishing, such as bad and out dated business models, and the new wave of self-publishing and other sources of stories that can be found.
While we would all dream to emulate their first example, of an author who in twelve months went from selling her book from the boot of her car to having a half-million dollar contract, I think most of us are more destined for what is mentioned later in the article, to be part of the great content that is available on the ‘net.
The following part I did find interesting;
And what will that fiction look like? Like fan fiction, it will be ravenously referential and intertextual in ways that will strain copyright law to the breaking point. Novels will get longer–electronic books aren’t bound by physical constraints–and they’ll be patchable and updatable, like software. We’ll see more novels doled out episodically, on the model of TV series or, for that matter, the serial novels of the 19th century. We can expect a literary culture of pleasure and immediate gratification. Reading on a screen speeds you up: you don’t linger on the language; you just click through. We’ll see less modernist-style difficulty and more romance-novel-style sentiment and high-speed-narrative throughput. Novels will compete to hook you in the first paragraph and then hang on for dear life.
Given Cara’s Choice is written in a serial format, it is good to see that my idea for it has been, hopefully, agreed with.
I heard a writer’s joke the other day – can’t recall exactly where, otherwise I’d credit it – but it went something like this.
Person 1: What do you do?
Person 2: I’m a writer.
Person 1: Oh, have you sold anything?
Person 2: My couch, my car, my flat-screen TV.
Amusing but at the same time rather insightful. There are very few writers out there who wouldn’t like to be published, to make a living from it, but the vast majority of us never will. We write because we love to write. We’d write more if we could, but certain things keep getting in the way – ie, the need to earn a crust. If we could do that by writing, we would. In the meantime we can dream, and writers most certainly dream, otherwise they wouldn’t write. For every successful author (no matter how bad their books) there are ten of thousands wanting to follow in their footsteps.
Sort of like actors in a way. Many want to be up there on the big screen, living the life luxurious, but most will remain stuck as waiters and maybe make a bit scene in the odd B-grade movie.
Still, if we do not try, we can’t know if we can succeed.
What we need to do is get more people reading more books – the more they buy, the more demand and hopefully the more chances of getting found. Of course, that may just be that aforementioned dreaming.
The 11th Doctor has been announced and the new Doctor is…Matt Smith.
At 26 he is the youngest Doctor to appear in the 46 years Doctor Who has been running.
I will reserve my judgment, but so far he just doesn’t look like the Doctor. He looks a bit…metro. We will have to wait until 2010 to see how he goes though.
Some great news to come out of the New Years Honours lists, with Terry Pratchett now Sir Terry Pratchett, having been knighted for services to literature.
Pratchett is best know for his Discworld series, of which there have been 36 books since 1983 – a phenomenal rate of writing.
He is also one of my favourite authors, in my top three without question.
Sadly he has recently been diagnosed with a very rare form of early onset Alzheimers., but he says he still has a couple of books in him.
Well, I’m back, as Sam states at the end of the Lord of the Rings. It was a bit of an adventure, except for, eg, ringwraiths, magic rings, elves and what not.
Would like to get back into the writing, given the complete lack of it this last week, but the next 2-3 days promise to be still just as busy.
It wasn’t a complete loss writing wise. Though I got nothing done on Winter Wolves, something odd did happen. It is a bit over three hours driving to my parents, though this time it took slightly longer. There I was, driving along, mulling over things and unbidden a short story popped into my mind. It was an non-serious Sci-Fi with a fair bit of dry sarcasm tossed in, not my staple fare. I still have no idea where it came from. The drive took a bit longer than normal as I stopped a few times to make notes – I had a couple of notebooks with me just in case. All up made around three and a half pages of A4 notes. Just need some time to sit down and write it up properly.
There were some other thoughts that came during the drive, but they will require a seperate post me thinks.
That time of year is now upon us again, and as such I shall be disappearing for a few days to visit the family as normal. Ergo, no new posts until I return. There will be when I get back though.
Merry Christmas all, and have a safe and festive time.
Hard to believe but Christmas is just around the corner and I have yet to start shopping.
This year, given current circumstances I am going to have to be cheap without seeming cheap. Not always an easy path to walk.
I have in previous years been a little extravagant, especially the first year I was working. Made mum cry that year.
One thought I did come up with was due to reading J.R.R.Tolkien’s Christmas Letters, a series of letters he wrote and illustrated for his children that came from Father Christmas. Not something I could do, least no the illustrations.
But it did give me an idea. I have a niece, two and a half, and a nephew, one and a bit, with a third on the way. I had an idea to write some children’s stories for them, The Adventures of Emma and Goch. though it is a bit late to do so this year. Maybe next year. By the way, Goch isn’t his real name – it was what his sister called him when she was first learning to speak. I, for some obscure reason, came out as Ert. I shall have to use that in the stories I think – the eccentric Uncle Ert.
I’ve updated the website, slowly adding more information.
The Winter Wolves page will feature more information on that work in progress now that the rough draft is done. Currently it features a brief synopsis and a list and short descriptions of some of the main characters. More will be added over time, including extracts as they are fleshed out and polished up.
The page on Sharael has two new subpages;
Early History has a very brief recounting of the most ancient days of Sharael, events so far back in time that they are accounted as myths.
Aesvar deals with a rough history of the region west of the Sea that the Maedari call Aesvar, the lands in which they live.
These will be further expanded on, and further pages added to give more of an insight into the world of Sharael.
As I mentioned in an earlier post I have a habit of starting new projects before completing old ones and am always coming up with new ideas.
As it turns out I am not alone in this. Jen Haley, in her post here mentions that similar happens to her, and in the comments others say the same.
It is reassuring to find out that this happens to others as well.
Mist and Shadows 