You, me, and the story

Book reviews

2011-11-26T10:53:00.000Z

You can find a couple more of my book reviews up at Bookmunch:

http://bookmunch.wordpress.com/2011/10/26/%E2%80%98one-hell-of-a-read%E2%80%99-the-devil-all-the-time-by-donald-ray-pollock/

http://bookmunch.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/reminiscent-of-the-scandinavian-legends-of-old-heaven-and-hell-by-jon-kalman-stefansson/

These are two of my favourite books of 2011 and well worth a read if you're looking for something a bit different.

It's been a while...

2011-11-25T10:15:00.000Z

But I haven't forgotten you. I haven't written recently because my new job has taken over my every waking moment and there hasn't been much movement on the publishing front. And because this is a blog about my attempts to get published, I haven't had anything to say.

There are a few updates I can now tell you about. I had the results of my creative writing MA and discovered I received a distinction for my dissertation. Which is also my novel. There were a few victory laps around the lounge that evening followed by large quantities of wine. The next morning I received a query from an agent asking me to submit my first few chapters. I contacted the agency way back in July/August so it was a lovely surprise to see they were interested as I thought my query had disappeared into oblivion.

And in the last week I've had an email from an agent who has read one of my short stories and asked to see the novel. I've sent it on to her and I'm still waiting to hear back from a publisher who received my amended novel a month and more ago.

It feels like there's some movement now after spending so long waiting. I realise that there will be rejections, probably lots and lots of rejections to come, but feedback is what I need now. I've worked on this book from a literary perspective, not a commercial one, and it will be interesting to see what the people who work in the industry make of it. I foresee a lot of editing in 2012. I'm learning that publishing is a process that takes time, a long time. I think what we have to do as writers is somehow convince an agent or publisher that our novels are worth six months/a year/18 months of their lives to develop, edit, publish, promote and sell. It's tough to do.

I'm not sure I want to hear back from them. Right now the future is full of potential and opportunities and I don't want to have them closed off. So I'm enjoying this bit as much as I can until the decisions come in, bad or good.

Apart from that, I've planned out my next two novels. I also attempted NaNoWriMo with the best intentions in the world and managed 994 words. FAIL. Oh well, there's always next year.

Submitting

2011-09-14T13:30:00.001+01:00

I'm impatient. I can't help it. I know the securing-an-agent-and-maybe-getting-published-one-day process takes time, and that I have to wait but still, c'mon. I haven't heard anything recently, negative or positive so last night I decided to prepare my novel for another submission, this time to Tindal Street Press in Birmingham. Now this isn't a decision to be taken lightly, as putting together a submission takes a good couple of hours' work. For a single submission.

First, you have to research the publisher to make sure they would be interested in your type of novel and that they accept unsolicited material, then you have to pinpoint an editor (I wasn't sure in this case who would be best to send to, publishers are a bit different to agents.) or someone to direct it to. Then you have to read the publisher's guidelines and trust me, this is very important, as each one requires different things. For example, Tindal Street Press requests you list any rejections or interest in your novel in the opening letter ,while others don't. I've included my recent responses and also a recommendation about my work from a former lecturer, but I couldn't send this off to other publishers and agents, as this is on their list of don'ts. I'm learning that it's all about the details.

So, two hours of my evening was spent on re-reading the three chapters (I'm paranoid), writing my cover letter, which again has to be tailored to the person you're writing to, making sure the synopsis was OK, and then getting my flatmate to go through and check everything again for you. Like I said, it's all in the details and sometimes she spots things I miss.

It's carefully chucked into an envelope with a SAE and I've just sent it off.

That'll keep me going for a week.

National Short Story Award

2011-09-12T16:37:00.000+01:00

A big congratulations goes out to my former lecturer, MJ Hyland, who has been shortlisted for The BBC National Short Story Award. It's such a big event for writers, well actually everyone in the UK writing world, and it's a great read. You can listen to it here. She's very passionate about writing and stories, and certainly made me up my game during my MA.

Also good luck to Jon McGregor, KJ Orr, DW Wilson and Alison MacLeod. Strong writers, all of them. I don't envy the judges.

Damned by Chuck Palahniuk

2011-09-12T08:57:00.000+01:00

My review of Damned by Chuck Palahniuk is out on Bookmunch today. It's a bit 'meh'.

Genus Review

2011-09-09T08:24:00.000+01:00

My review of Genus by Jonathan Trigell can found at Bookmunch.

Monday, Monday

2011-09-06T20:18:00.004+01:00

Yesterday was a big day for me. It was the deadline to hand-in my dissertation for my MA, 16,000+ words that have been polished to death, soft-bound, and then gently prised out of my hands by the kind admissions staff at the University of Manchester. Luckily I bumped into a friend at the admissions office and we retreated to the nearest cafe to recover from our ordeal. We've spent two years of our lives dedicated to language and literature and stories, and now it's over. It's been hard work, one of the hardest things I've done, but also incredibly rewarding. I'm so glad I did it. Then we rolled to the pub to meet others from our course as they stumbled in, all in various states of shock. I met someone who wrote a literature review that morning.

My friend is being published by the excellent independent publishers Salt Publishing in Manchester and we had a long chat about how she found her agent and publisher. The Museum of Atheism by Laura Ellen Joyce comes out next June, so exciting!

While in the pub, an agent rang me. It was fantastic. I was all over the place with excitement as she told me how much she liked my writing and enjoyed the exert from my novel. I was practically melting into the floor. Unfortunately, it's too literary for her, and not the sort of thing she deals with. It was a little gutting, but we had a great conversation about what I should next and what to do when working with a publisher. There's so much to be aware of that I'd forgotten. Copyright, intellectual property, who owns what, etc. She also suggested I join the Society of Authors, as for a small fee each year they can offer advice on contracts, working with publishers and agents. It was so thoughtful of her to call and great to actually talk to someone in the industry about my novel.

So now I'm wondering what to do next re: agents and publishers. I still have interest from a publishers but it seems finding an agent to represent you is harder. Odd but not unusual. There are writers out there who work directly with publishers.

I also had a job offer for a real, full-time, paid role, which I celebrated with a beer. And then a whiskey. And then suddenly it was 7am. The alcohol may be the reason why I've signed up to take part in this year's NaNoWriMo. This may or may not be a mistake. As mentioned before, I have an idea and a protagonist, and that's it.

Student life is over. My MA is done.

#Amendment to Rejection post

2011-08-20T13:29:00.002+01:00

My mum read the email I received from the publishers, slapped me about the head a couple of times, and told me to read it properly.

It's not a rejection, it's interest in my work and an ask to stay in touch while they finish working on their current project and I finish off mine. I guess I've been looking for the negative for so long that I can't see the good stuff when it comes along, unless it hits me it would seem.

So I have a possibility. Interest. A not-at-this-moment-but-in-the-future email. From a publisher. One who thinks I have created 'a very interesting voice'.

Excuse me while I do my happy dance around the lounge. All I have to do is find an agent now. Anyone want to work with an author who has the attention of a publisher?

WHOOP WHOOP!

Damned

2011-08-17T09:01:00.001+01:00

I have managed to get my sticky paws on a copy of Damned to review for Bookmunch.

Watch this space!

Rejection

2011-08-16T19:15:00.004+01:00

I had a rejection email today. It was surprisingly pleasant for what it was, gave me a tiny bit of feedback and asked me to send through my work again. The Internet had led me to believe that agents are somewhere on par with the devil, toying with people's fate like that, but my rejection was, well, nice. Then I realised what it was that made it so palatable; there was an aspect of hope to those seven lines or so. A side door had been left open for me to siddle my way through to the main show, that is if I can get it together.

That's the problem. I haven't looked at my novel in nearly two months. I can't remember if I'm on draft number five or six, though two months ago it felt as though I knew every bloody word because they had been etched on my BRAIN. Everything I have learned on my MA has been forgotten, swept away with the events of the last few months.

I'm worried. What if I read my novel again and hate it? What if I can't remember anything about it, what I was trying to achieve, what the point of the whole sodding thing is? What if everything I've written is a complete and utter load of tosh?

Then I stopped hyperventilating, put down the paper bag and got it together. I emailed willing readers with the copy for feedback. I've asked my supervisor lots of questions and requested the responses in bullet points. I will fricking nail this novel but I need some help.

If all else fails, I will rewrite this letter and send to the appropriate agents / publishers:

Blah, blah, blah

2011-08-01T11:12:00.001+01:00

I've been writing again, playing with ideas, getting a few things down on paper, looking at it an hour later and ripping out the page. I'm frustrated. A story is brewing, waiting to come out, but I haven't found the main hook yet and it's pissing me off now. It's times like this I miss the safety and camaraderie of the MA. It gave a structure to writing by working alongside people who want to achieve similar things, and the group was helpful when debating storylines. Their input would be really useful about now as I'm trapped in a house filled with Katie Ffordes, Tricia Ashleys and Erica James, good writers in their genre but not the sort of book I enjoy. I attempted read one recently and had to stop after counting thirty five exclamation marks in the first sixty pages. It made me very sad.

So anyways, I have an idea. And the protagonist's name. It's a start.

And another one

2011-07-28T18:50:00.000+01:00

It's been months since I've written or edited anything but in the past couple of days, just before I go to sleep at night, sentences and ideas are popping into my head again. This is good. I was worried that I might have hit a patch of writer's block but it seems to have passed.

I've put my novel to the side for the moment and have written around thirteen hundred words opening of another story. It may be absolutely shite. In fact, I know it will probably be some of the worse stuff I have ever written, but at least I'm writing again.

Grrr...Argh...

2011-07-26T16:00:00.005+01:00

Tigers are following me. No, I'm not making this up. Point A: am currently reading The Tiger's Wife by Ms Obrecht. Point B: My sister took it upon herself to knit a tiger tea cosy, which looks awesome BTW, and then I'd like to refer to Point C that occurred today.

Readers should know that I foolishly attempted a bit of an epic bike ride, well epic for my unfit self (I've gone soft since moving up North). I had collapsed on a bench at the side of the cycle track, counting stars and thankful that I was wearing factor 30 sunscreen as the sun was belting it down. I was slowly sliding down the bench into the cool shade of the grass when a bloke supervising around six boys (hard to confirm as they kept moving), all of which were on bikes, then preceded to take over the other side of the bench. I may have groaned out loud but this cannot be proved.

I'm ashamed to say I was still in a condition where moving was not an option so I gritted my teeth, determined to stick it out as they slurped on cartons of fruit juice. A boy hovered near me, sucking away, getting closer and closer until he stopped just in front of me. I looked up. Our eyes connected. He had a naughty look and I knew he was thinking of something to say. Something outlandish.

'We cycled fifty miles today,' he said.

'Fifty? Wow, more than me,' I said, hoping he would go away. He looked sticky.

'Yeah, and there were tigers,' he said.

'Tigers?' I said.

'Yeah, they were hiding in the grass waiting for us to stop so they could eat us,' he said.

'I don't think there are wild tigers around here,' I said.

'Yeah there are. They escaped from a zoo and bred and now they live here,' he said.

'Ok...' I said.

'Sorry,' said the man. 'We're reading the Jungle Book at the moment and he's a bit obsessed with Shere Khan.'

The boy nodded his head. I was impressed they were reading the book together. It's such a great way to get kids' imaginations going by reading stories with them and making up elaborate extra plots when the pages are closed. Screw the X-Box, let's go tiger hunting in Salford. What kid would say no to that?

I didn't see any tigers on the way home though and yes, I'm a bit disappointed.

The day I became a teenager once more

2011-07-22T13:00:00.003+01:00

I've been staying with my mum for a while. Due to complete boredom and rain, Mum and I decide to cook a Victoria sponge, the easiest cake of all cakes to make. I’m nosing in her cupboards while she weighs out the flour and sugar, etc.

Me: (Very excited after discovering a row of multicoloured small bottles)

Can we dye the cake blue?

Mum: (Not even looking at me)

No.

Me: (Disappointed but not giving up)

How about yellow?

Mum: No.

Me: Green?

Mum: (deep sigh)

No.

Me: (getting grumpy)

Orange?

Mum: No.

(switches on mixer)

I manage to sneak in about half a bottle of vanilla flavouring while she’s in the fridge getting the eggs so who knows what it’ll taste like. But victory is mine!

Time to do some writing.

How do you know?

2011-07-21T11:56:00.005+01:00

What my main character could look like if my novel (once published) were made into a film. Hint. Hint
.

How do you know when your novel is good enough to be sent out to the world? I've been working on it for at least a year and it's getting to the stage where I almost know it off by heart, every sodding word, but is the order of them good enough? Have I created something that people will want to read, maybe even without cringing? It's great to have such positive feedback from friends and my mentors at Manchester University, but how can I turn this into a pitch?

Wow, that's a lot of questions this morning.

I think the synopsis and a decent pitch are the key to getting the thing read, so I've written about twenty different cover letters and seven different synopses but am really struggling with the one- and two-page plot details. It's a complicated psychological thriller, complicated being a big part of it. Then there's the research into the agents to see who might actually be interested in reading it, so I'm spending hours on each one and trying to target accordingly. Not everyone will want to read what is contained between these pristine white sheets...

This better bloody work.

Help much appreciated! Sigh.

Starting again

2011-07-20T10:06:00.000+01:00

I've decided to start up my blog again after a long break, though I've got a good excuse. I wrote my first novel. But now I've emerged on the other side, I can't believe it's July. This means I have about six weeks left until I have to submit 15,000 beautifully formed, creative words as part of my dissertation in September.

Bugger, one could say.

I've decided to submit the start of my novel, the first three chapters and see what happens next. Willing victims who have read the entire thing have given great feedback and I've been working my arse off to whip it into shape. It's a complicated thing though, I'll give you that, looking at relationships and society.

My mum has promised never to read it.