21/2/2012 I Am a Muse - publication date update 1I will be aiming at an end of April 2012 publication date for I Am a Muse.
If my brain allows me to understand the ins and outs of Lulu.com (their tutorial seemed clear enough...), then by the first week of May, I would have self-published my first book... Fingers crossed... 18/2/2012 Lulu.com tips and other writing thingsI have been "MULTITASKING" recently, trying to get stuff done.
Freelance work has been intense over the past three months, but it's getting better this week, and therefore, I have been able to free a section of my brain (and my timetable) for my personal projects. I have started writing again on The Book of Thoth, which is getting bigger and bigger everyday (I have always been one to over-write - my school essays were always the longest - and dare I say it, the best! ha ha - but music journalism had taught me about rather drastic word counts, as in how to write an album review in, like, 90 words? But now, I've succumbed to temptation and I've been letting myself go again!). I can't even start to imagine how much of the first draft I'm going to have to cut if I want to get down to a reasonable length! Oh well, that's something to worry about when the aforementioned first draft is completed, which won't be in the near future... I have started on the fourth draft/third draft revision of I Am a Muse, and I am enjoying it immensely. Not that much to change so far, only a few mistakes here and there, and I might need to rearrange the numbering of the chapters. There are far too many of them. I have started writing down some ideas for the cover, acknowledgements, spine, back cover blurb, etc. I would like to go for a block-colour cover without image or artwork and I definitely wish to avoid a cover that screams: WOMEN'S BOOK ENCLOSED! At the moment, my favourite choice is a RED cover to reflect the nickname of one of my main characters: the Crimson Lady. Something bold! Outlandish! Simple. I have just stumbled on this very handy little blog offering tips about how to publish on Lulu (which is the self-publishing site I'm going to use for I Am a Muse) and it's given me a few ideas about how to proceed... You will find the tips HERE. I am going to sound like an old-fashioned cow, but I have decided to forgo e-books at the moment as I have read quite a few alarming stories about files getting stolen, copyright issues, etc. I have a love of the physical book and will stick to physical books in the first instance. Now to put them into practice myself! 17/2/2012 Writing life: exerciseI always start my freelance and/or writing day with a one hour work out, without fail.
It stimulates the brain! 15/2/2012 Great little writing blogI stumbled across this lovely little blog earlier called BO'S CAFE LIFE.
It's about "the writing life through the eyes of Bo, an aspiring novelist", and it's quite good fun! 31/1/2012 Back to the books...This week, I will be going back to my books, at last.
I will be starting re-reading the third draft of I Am a Muse, which will lead to a fourth draft. This is needed before I start the self-publishing process. Then I will get back to The Book of Thoth. I am aiming at finishing the first draft over the summer, and then hopefully will have completed the book by next December, ready for self-publishing too. Then I will get started on the third book, Anti, in January 2013. 27/1/2012 Tracy Chevalier at the NPGTracy Chevalier's talk at the National Portrait Gallery was rather fascinating. The author explained how she found inspiration in visual works of art for most of her novels: the French tapestries for the Lady and the Unicorn, William Blake's work - Blake appears as a character in my personal favourite Burning Bright - I took my copy of the book to get signed by Tracy!, Vermeer's Girl with the Pearl Earring, the haunting splendour of the vaults in Highgate Cemetery for Fallen Angels, American quilts for her work in progress...
Of course, she talked about Imagined Lives and explained the process she went through to write her two very short stories for the exhibition. Tracy Chevalier speaks well about her working methods and has a burning passion for art and writing. I could have sat there for hours, just listening to her. I have read all her books, and all of them are different, but written with the same attention to detail and love for her craft. I myself am a very visual writer, as you can see from the images in The Book of Thoth section of this website. My first novel, I Am a Muse, is about a painter and his muse, and every detail of the book is still vivid in my mind. Most scenes start as a movie in my head and find their way - not always easily - to the page. Hearing an experienced writer like Ms Chevalier talk about the difficulties of transcribing the images in your head into words on the page felt really familiar to me. Writing is such a fascinating craft, a slow burning, all-encompassing one... And I am still just an apprentice, even though I have been writing since the age of 5... It was a real privilege to be there. 24/1/2012 Imagined LivesThis Thursday, I will be going to the National Portrait Gallery to attend a talk by author Tracy Chevalier. I have read all of Chevalier's books and I have loved all of them.
She will be speaking about the small exhibition that's on at the Gallery at the moment, Imagined Lives, which consists of "fourteen portraits of people whose identities are uncertain." Authors such as Julian Fellowes, Terry Pratchett and Joanna Trollope have written short texts describing the (imagined) lives of the sitters. That's something I really enjoy as a writer: putting together imagined lives, creating people out of scratch, giving them an appearance, an experience, a personality... I have all of them in my head, as well as all the settings, places, objects... I am a very visual writer and always work from images, even drawing my characters on paper! I cannot wait to get back to The Book of Thoth. My characters have been waiting for me to pick up the pen again (well, the keyboard most of the time) and have been left sitting around a big dinner table in 1925 for the past three months! Bet you they hate each other by now... Hang on, most of them do already! 12/1/2012 Argh!I just cannot believe it!
Just when I had scheduled some nice writing days, it has all collapsed because I have too much (paid) work. Oh, to be a full-time writer! Two days ago, I managed to spend around one hour and a half reading through the last few pages of The Book of Thoth I wrote back in November, and I found it quite entertaining... I was actually rather pleased with myself, which is a pretty rare occurrence. So I have been stopped in my tracks and it feels... aargh! So what I am going to do if I find 30 minutes somewhere is that I will post some new extracts on The Book of Thoth page to change things around a little. I know I am incredibly lucky I have had two years during which I have been able to write so much, but when everything grinds to a halt just when it was getting really fun, it feels incredibly frustrating. So yeah, in a way, I am frustrated (the creative juices are not flowing, so it's not surprising, is it?). Or maybe disappointed (just an excuse to post random picture of cute kitten...) I am hoping to go back to writing in February... Wishful thinking? 9/12/2011 The Silver Jam Tea ClubTomorrow, Saturday 10th December, I will be in Upminster helping Matt ArtPix. Yes, it's yet another Xmas Vintage and handmade fair!
Londoners can even come and see us, as the venue is not far from the Upminster Tube station on the District line! Vintage clothes, vinyl records, lovely gift ideas, cakes, tea, music... And all this for free! 10am-4.30pm For more details, see Matt's blog here: SILVER JAM TEA CLUB Yesterday, I managed to spend a few hours on The Book of Thoth, and re-reading the last few paragraphs I wrote before my "working break", I felt quite satisfied with the way the story is shaping up - but it needs quite a lot of work at second draft! I will try and get back to the book in the next few weeks, which will not be that easy as it is still incredible busy on the freelance side, plus there are quite a lot of exciting theatre plays and gigs to go to! :-) 9/11/2011 Back on track!3,400 words in two days...
The Book of Thoth is back on track... I hope I can keep it up for the next two weeks because afterwards I will have too much work to spend much time on it until Xmas... Things are really kicking off now in my story and I really need the help of my First World War specialist! But sometimes I really wonder why I have made this book so complicated... |
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