Shoot and shootability

Had a great day yesterday rambling around Glasgow cathedral and the Necropolis having my photo taken. It helped being one of the nicest days we've had this year. Thanks to the nameless guy in the cathedral for letting us take the shots in there.

I have only one submission out in the field, having got all of them back. This has led to a period of introspection, making sure my own marketing is correct. The realisation that I've not written what I thought I had was necessary and pointed. It still took someone else to point this out. This was backed up by my Mum's critique at the weekend. I've written a fantasy novel (or as my Mum put it - lost it when the men came out of the ground). Sure its modern, there's no elves (or wizards!), but yep its a fantasy novel borrowing from other genre's. No harm there but my Mum might be right - I lost it at that point, some perverse part of me told a very different story to what I intended and also managed to keep fooling me long enough to, not so much misdirect, but perhaps aim at harder to reach targets. You've got to try though, if no-one tried man would still be stuck in a hunter-gatherer eden ;-)

Thankfully I know people who will point out the Emperor is naked. Tommorrow night I get the critique from the GSFWC circle members.

Font and Fontability

I have a confession to make dear reader - I'm a font geek. Maybe because the written word is what I do or maybe it is some higher aesthetic calling but the shape of letters is a whole language in and of itself to me. Thus choosing one can be a painful deliberation. Recently I read about the selection process of a font for a downloadable book. So we come to the font for the Enoch's Vault minisite.

I was looking at trying to find something which was like it had been carved into stone, so I guess a classical Roman style, but also something kind of Gothic too. Then I had to consider what would stand out on a shelf from a few feet away. The top three had been narrowed down to La Brit a nice clipped German looking font with some flourishes, Black Chancery a thick solid English-Robin-Hood feeling type and maybe Scythe which has a 1920's art deco meets mediaeval feel. But I have also found Chanticleer Roman which is growing on me for its plain clean almost brutal stone age brand look. I have a nagging feeling I've seen this somewhere else recently though.

I think I'll look around a little longer, need to find a good Enochian font too.

Microsites

I had a look at the Jonathan Strange website the other day and it is a nice, elegant and I think effective sales point. It made me reflect more on using the tools that I have for marketing my own work. The Khaibit site is a good introduction but I think I need to beef it up and I'm putting together ideas in my head for a microsite for Enoch's Vault. I hope to go out and do some 'cover' and 'author' shoots at the weekend. Meantime I'll work on design and a bit of blurb. Otherwise it can carry my opening chapters, synopsis and biography.

Recieved my second agent rejection on Friday. This one was within a week! On the other hand it was a very nice personalised typed letter. Took me two readings to realise it was a rejection. Not suitable for their list though.

I have begun to wonder if I have overemphasised angels in my synopsis to help people understand who the protagonists are. When they don't have wings and well aren't actually angelic as we understand them today I fear this may have me giving false impressions. Meanwhile at the same time while I think it's a thriller or a detective story maybe it is more in some other genre?

Storyville

Have also been musing on the difference between merely writing a short story and it being great (or even good). There's idea and then execution. I have begun to suspect I'm just lazy and don't put enough effort in. The one story where I just Knew it was good is the one I spent the most time thinking about what I was doing rather than just throwing it on to the page. But maybe it is more than that. I used to have great ideas but somehow on the page they were weak and not so mind blowing. For example when I was fourteen I guess I wrote about a computer virus attacking people. But it had no real pizazz to it. I've not written a lot of SF since. I just couldn't hack it.

On a similar note I recently discovered the 23 Nails are some kind of book in some strange other world connected to Lovecraftian based Chaos magick!

Reading List

No news remains good news.

I am pretty certain now my next book will have wizards in it. Both in the past and the present. One of them may be a boy. Actually it did occur to me that what seemed like an original idea might be tainted by outside influences such as Stephenson and Clarke but it was one I'm fairly sure I came up with before either was published.

I'm starting to pull together a reading list which due to potential impending poverty may well have to mean resorting to the library ;-) I'm sure I know someone who did their final year thesis on Primes I just have to remember who...

Dee and Elizabethan Era Europe
The Queen's Conjuror by Benjamin Woolley
The Occult Philosophy in the Elizabethan Age by Frances Yates (typically the one I don't already have)

Prime Numbers
Prime Obsession: Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics by John Derbyshire
The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics by Marcus Du Sautoy
The History of the Theory of Numbers by L.E. Dickson is a three volume extravaganza which I probably wont need

This is just a start, fortunately I have a good knowledge of occult Nazis and the Khabbala, but all suggestions and donations gratefully received.

Notes of Rejection

Well I got my first agent's rejection this week. To be fair they also got back to me within a fortnight (although this time just using my SAE). The thing that disturbed me most was not being rejected but in their form note they tell me that my work "is not something we feel we could successfully represent". Now we're here in a commercial frame to both make money, but this sounds like "we don't think there's a market for your work". Which is a sobering thought. Of course "this is a personal reaction" and for all I know all agency rejections read like this. However if there is no market I've no idea why - not long enough, too parochial, too many angels, not enough wizards...

On the plus side this is just like the first crit of your work, you have to take the knock and pick yourself back up again. The 'great' thing about writing is you have to have some level of ego to create a universe and survive other people trying to tear it down. The crux is whether that's a 'good' ego or a 'bad' one.

Well no news is good news; I've still not heard from the original agency. Time to send out another round of submissions, reappraise my cover letters and basically try again. Meantime I'm listening to people complain about how crap the DaVinci Code clones on the bestseller list are. Maybe my market is being spoiled as we speak, maybe people aren't that discriminating and summer is coming.

Bloomsbury

Talking of the Bloomsbury set, the only publisher still taking submissions sent me my first rejection letter today. Apparently the company that publishes books for kids and adults about magicians didn't find Enoch's Vault suitable for their list. Must remember to put more wizards and less freemasonry in next time ;-)

The note was short but nice, and it was a long shot. Surprisingly I got everything back including the small SAE I put in the pack all in a jiffy bag. So at least I have a reusable SAE, not sure about the rest of the submission. While I honestly can't tell if it has been even flicked through it is a bit worn. Should I use jiffy bags too I wonder?

However the most suprising thing of all is that I got a response in under two weeks! I could read a lot into that but I think they just have a highly efficient submissions department.

Back to finding an agent willing to fight for me and lets hope that notices of rejection don't get as dull as those on word count ;-)

First Feedback - Nightmares

The first lot of feedback on the book so far is from my Dutch friend. She is enjoying it but has stopped reading it before bed as it was giving her nightmares.

I was quite sure there was no horror in the novel, so this is somewhat perplexing. That being said she had expected knights and elves and goblins. Normally her taste would tend toward the more literary end of the spectrum; Iris Murdoch and the Bloomsbury set.

Nightmares eh? Oddly I'm pleased.

Stop Press

A good article in the local evening paper The Evening Times about some of the GSFWC alumni who all have books out this year:

http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/lo/features/7017387.html

Time's Arrow

Having been practising Kyudo for some months now Saturday was my first chance to actually shoot an arrow. The comparisons to a (male) orgasm were pronounced. A large build up of internal tension and energy, a release and le petite mort - a moment of no-mind which was more profound than my practise had led me to expect (in fact I'd not expected it at all).

Meantime this Dee/Golems thing is starting to come to me as a mini-Baroque/Cryptonomicon type thing. First part in the past with Dee learning of the power of certain scribed words and the second part taking place in some modern world war as the power of prime numbers in hebrew has led to an escalating maths arms race. I might try it as a short stroy first see if there is something more to base a book on.

Research for the street kids is proving rather difficult. The original article not having any citations and no longer papers seeming existing on the kid's mythology. Will continue to look.

Secret Agent

I have sent my first pack off to an agent after some hurried help from the GSFWC to whom I am as ever grateful. Fingers crossed. Meantime the search goes on for other potentials.

A throw-away conversation about of all things mecha-Nazis has helped resurrect a seed of an idea I had for a war using prime numbers. A bit more flesh on the bones. It does however bleed out some ideas I had for a John-Dee-as-double-o-seven ripping yarn. Maybe I can find a way of forging the two together.

Desperately seeking...

Have finally finished all my final edits, and working on my network of family, friends and writer's circle to give me their feedback. Can think of at least one change I will likely do.

And yet I think my first three chapters will remain after another good edit of chapter 1, so I'm preparing my pack for sending to agents. Having received my Writer's Yearbook this morning I have a bit of reading to do.

The Final Battle

It is done. 67,216 words and two years later. The sense of peace is profound, like the muse has made it into heaven and left with a lingering kiss. Sure there is work to do, word count to be massaged, recent 22,000 word odyssey to be edited, the whole to be revised and polished and stupid stuff changed. But this one is done.

Time to start cooking another.

Great Exultations

Well I reached 65K last night! I'm into the finale, hoping I'm tying together loads of plot strands I didn't even know I'd written until characters started making revelations and twists. I doubt I'll make it to the hallowed 70K but as I said before I'm sure now I can make up any shortfall in revision.

Mere words

I'm sure a running total is not of that much interest (I'm at 62K a herculean task but I'm there) what might be more interesting is that the original ending of my novel is now sooo far gone I would have to write another story to include it. One of the characters surprised me by being someone they were not intended to be and the direction and purpose of the protagonists took on a much clearer aim. It still amazes me when these 'creations' take on their own life.

10% Longer

Made it to 55,000 at the weekend. I'm glad my plot is not going to plan, this is a far more interesting and natural progression. I may make it to 65K before collapsing and then I'm sure I can come up with another 5K through revision. 70,000 is the magic number, 4/5 of the way there!

Lacuna

...and I saw Angels shooting up on Orichalcum in alleyways...

Barista

Now will I regret doing this more than not doing this?

There is a brunette Barista in the Starbucks on Charing Cross, Glasgow, she looks a lot like a healthier PJ Harvey. If you happen to pass by and see her in there, ask her if she'll change her rules on dating customers then point her in my direction.

50,000 Reasons

Finally reached 50,000 words last night, this feels like a significant achievement for me. Its the level the write-a-book-in-a-month people have as their cut-off and I think it is the length typically assigned to the 'novella'. My next aim is for 60,000, but I am beginning to fear either the story or my writing style won't carry me that far.

Completion Pts 1 and 2

The holiday finally brought me round to reading through Enoch's Vault and making some changes. These are all done and essentially that is now finished. Except it still only clocked in at about 45,000 words. So hopefully Part 3 will conclude the story more satisfyingly while exploring a bit more of the ideas planted in the first two parts.