10/8/2013 631?I am only able to check the amount of "unique visitors" per day on this site, as I would need to upgrade yet again (i.e pay more money) to see precise stats and what people have been typing into search engines to end up on the Miss Gish website. It's been going quite well over the past few months, the numbers increasing steadily. But yesterday, it broke the record: 631 people seem to have visited the Miss Gish website. 631?? Really? Wow.
If every single one of those people bought one of my books, I'd be over the moon. Unfortunately, it's definitely not the case! Anyway, I try and post regularly so for those people who read this: thank you for passing by and do come again! Something else that's interesting... I have just typed in "I Am a Muse" in the Amazon search engine. The only person who sells the book on there should be Bluetones, as the shop is owned by an acquaintance and he has agreed to sell the book in his online shop, but he sends the orders to me and I am the one who posts them to the customer. Today, two more sellers seem to have the book in stock, and sell it at quite a high price; only they don't: I am the only one who has got copies - The British Library and five other deposit libraries have a copy each, but that's it. A few people have bought the book but they don't have online bookshops. So what I'd like to know is this: how is it possible that those people sell my book when all the copies that exist are here, patiently waiting in their boxes in my office to be sold? Mystery! Maybe I should try and buy one of my own books to see what happens? 8/8/2013 Another day in WhitstableLast weekend, we spent a wonderful day in trendy and thriving Whitstable. It was not our first time in the town (see my previous blog about it) nor was it our last! We are usually there in January for some reason, and it was great to see the town in the full swing of summer. It was transformed - although I do have a thing for seaside resorts in the winter; My favourite seasons for everything are autumn and winter! They really seem to be doing the right things there, and I think Southend Council, who seems to have a total lack of imagination and creativity, should send a few spies to analyse what the small Kent town is doing right. Southend deserves so much better. There are a few clues as to how in the following paragraphs. Their high street is full of a great variety of independent shops (i.e opportunities for local businesses). It is positively thriving. The week-long Oyster festival had just come to an end, but it didn't feel like it: there was music, stalls, and the excellent Whitstable Harbour Village was open. I really think Southend should consider doing its own seafront village: spaces available for small local businesses (most of them creative people: artisans, artists, small entrepreneurs... a flexible approach mixing fishermen's huts and cheaper stalls - we could have little colourful beach huts and stalls. The village is open every weekend and Bank Holidays from March to Christmas. With the amount of creatives in the area, this type of setting would be ideal on the seafront, which is full of cafes and places to eat but where there is nothing to see, really. I am sure visitors would love to have things to look at, browse and purchase, and us local creatives and small businesses who cannot afford to rent a shop would have a place to showcase and sell our work. Who will take on the challenge? The Tudor Tea Rooms are located in an absolutely gorgeous 17th Century building... It is lovely in there! Unfortunately, I am still struggling to find some time to write... So the first draft of The Book of Thoth has stalled again, but Matt ArtPix has been working on the cover! And I think he is now VERY close to nailing it... This is my favourite design so far, so expect the final artwork to look quite a lot like this one!
We will also be working on some postcards for the autumn to promote I Am a Muse and The Book of Thoth. 1/8/2013 The Right Place - draft synopsisCatherine (Kat) Moorhouse is a quiet, mature fourteen year-old girl interested in history and nature. She was only a baby when her mother, a musicologist from New Zealand, died in a car crash on a research trip. She has lived with her widowed journalist father in New York, Edinburgh and London.
After a vicious bullying campaign that has left her seriously shaken and heart-broken, Kat is relieved when her father decides to move to Dorset for an indefinite period of time. The young girl soon feels at ease in her new environment and falls in love with the county’s ancestral landscape. She is particularly drawn to St Catherine’s chapel in Abbotsbury, with which she shares her name. One evening, on Chapel Hill, she meets a mysterious woman, also called Catherine, who works as a “life assistant” to a local elderly aristocrat, Ronald Sinclair. The origins of Lord Sinclair’s family are rather dubious and are the stuff of legend in the area. As her relationship with Catherine develops, Kat finds herself at the same time fascinated and repulsed by her new friend and understands that nothing is what it seems in this idyllic part of England… I have also copied the synopsis on The Right Place page. 10/7/2013 A little bit of promo...This Saturday is Village Green, the arts and music festival organised by Metal Southend.
The culture magazine Level 4 has produced a pocket edition of the mag, and in there, you should find a review of I Am a Muse, as well as an ad for Arcane Publishing and one for Matt ArtPix! :-) I am really pleased to have my little book in there. I will post a scan of the article in the review section next week. 1/7/2013 Decisions, decisions...I have just printed off the Arts Council England application form guidelines...
I now have to decide whether or not to apply for funding for The Right Place... It would be for the £15,000 or under grant; I need to spend some time in Dorset to research and write the book, and I currently cannot afford to stay there more than two weeks... It would potentially pay for the cover artwork: I would like local artist Sam Cannon to provide the illustration, as I think it would capture the feel of the area perfectly. It would also pay for the right to print the full lyrics of the PJ Harvey song The Wind at the beginning of the book - if permission is granted, of course! So in the next few days, I will be reading the guidelines very carefully and decide if I feel confident enough to apply for funding... It is a lot of work and therefore I would need to be 100% confident that I can do it as best as I can and give myself a chance... [Image at top of the blog is from HERE] 27/6/2013 Agatha Christie's Greenshaw's FollyI really enjoyed watching "Greenshaw's Folly", the second episode in the new series of Miss Marple.
There were quite a few things I also have in The Book of Thoth: kid exploring the darkened corridors of a big rural house - Whitemoor Hall in the book looks quite similar to the house in the programme - a quiet, secretive gardener, a gardener's cottage in the grounds, a secret laboratory... :-) The episode is still showing for 26 days from today, so watch it, it will give you a good idea of what the setting of my second book will be like! GREENSHAW'S FOLLY This is good timing as I have just started getting back into The Book of Thoth; only two whole months before my first draft deadline!! 25/6/2013 It's alive!I've had a few weird ideas for The Book of Thoth. There's an alchemist, ghosts, "melting portraits", time travelling, Ancient Egyptian gods, that sort of things...
But I didn't even think about having a ROTATING EGYPTIAN STATUE. Proof that reality can be weirder than fiction! 20/6/2013 The Book of Thoth cover ideasI am not working on my books at the moment, and it looks like it won't be before late next week that I will open The Book of Thoth again. No time to blog a lot either, so in the meantime, here are a few very first ideas for The Book of Thoth cover by designer Matt ArtPix. The elements of the book we have here are: 1920s Art Deco, time travel, Ancient Egypt. We've got a few more ideas in store for the whole cover and we hope to have the almost finished artwork ready for the literary festival Shorelines in November.
13/6/2013 quick updateI was supposed to post a nice, colourful blog on here about my wonderful day browsing the super-busy markets in East London last Sunday - I cannot believe that I haven't been to Brick Lane and the Old Truman Brewery for so long! The place has grown so much, it feels as vibrant and exciting as ever. I am so pleased I have set parts of my first novel in the area. I will have to walk around those streets a lot when I research my fourth book, Anti, set both around there and The City.
I might still manage to post something about it in the next few days if I have time, as I really want to link some of the artists and makers we have found there... It's never too late, I guess. I haven't been doing any writing over the past week even though my 31st August deadline for the first draft of The Book of Thoth is now looking far too close for comfort! I have some work to do - one has to pay the bills - and I have three music reviews to write! I am hoping to get started again on the book by the end of next week. A review of I Am a Muse will appear in a special pocket edition of Level 4 Magazine. This is a mini-magazine that will be distributed at the music and arts festival Village Green that takes place in Southend on 13th July... |
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March 2024
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