11/9/2011 Picking up the pen again..... or rather the keyboard, although I do still write in a notepad when I feel like it and always use pen and paper to scribble down ideas, list characters' traits, etc.
It's been 10 days since I haven't looked at my novel and usually it takes me a good day or two to get back into it. But even though I have been away from it, it has been on my mind all the time and I have been thinking a lot about the next scene I am supposed to write. Therefore, I am hoping to be able to start writing the scene stright away. I am going away again in 5 weeks (a whole week without any computer access!) and therefore will have to maximise my writing time as well as I can. I am eager to get the story moving forward... And yes, I still want to change the design on this page and hope to be doing so in the next few weeks. 22/8/2011 Ideas, ideasMmmh...
I am not even half way through my second novel and I have already have ideas about the third one. It will be set in contemporary London (post Olympics, because I really can't be bothered to write about it!) but will have surrealistic elements. I have lived in London for 11 years and even though I now live about 1h away by train, it will always be my city and I go there as often as I can. London fascinates me and inspires me, but at the same time, it is heady, gigantic, all-encompassing and monstruous. I have included some of my impressions about London in "I Am a Muse". The next six months or so are going to be very important: I will carry on sending "I Am a Muse" to literary agents, although there is apparently "no market" for my novel. Market. Don't you just love this word? "I Am a Muse" will be published in 2012, probably self-published. I need to research self-publishing and make a decision about how to do things. I need to decide whether I will self-publish "I Am a Muse" only in the first instance and then "The Book of Thoth", etc. or whether I go mad and launch a mini publishing company. All I know is that I want them to be proper books with ISBNs and all... It is exciting and scary, all at the same time... "I Am a Muse" will need another proofreading stage and I can already think of one scene to add / a few bits and bobs that need tweaking... And of course, I need to finish off the first draft of "The Book of Thoth" and work on the second and probably third draft... A lot of work then. 15/8/2011 Take me to your agent!So "The Book of Thoth" is slowly taking shape, ever so slowly... My writing pace has been a little stop and start of late, with family visiting, a few necessary changes in the flat, oh and I forget the riots which have been distracting me a little.
I have been doing an average of 1,200 words a day, not too bad I suppose. I can predict quite a lot of work at second draft though. I have submitted "I am a Muse" to a further three literary agents this week. I am working my way through my list, without too much hope, however. I need to start researching self-publishing and make a decision later in the year... I guess that some people who got involved in the looting last weekend might have more chances of getting an agent than I... I predict a steady stream of "expert" books and yet more novels about estates and poor immigrants and disillusioned teens (already a few have appeared on the long list of the Man Booker prize... It's so predictable!). Yawn. Sign of the times... 10/8/2011 Ghosts and lootersYou know what?
It's bloody difficult to sit down and attempt to write a Gothic story set in 1925 rural England when your head is full of the urban warfare of the past few days. Concentration is required, but how easy is it really to abstract from your head facts that genuinely preoccupy you? Or maybe I could introduce a gang of hooded ghosts who raid the kitchen of the manor house in search of some choice morsels? 4/8/2011 The Book of Thoth - work in progressI am really pleased with the progress I've made on "The Book of Thoth" in the past week. A minimum of 1,000 words a day is quite satisfying and a good pace, I think.
I am enjoying watching my characters come to life in front of my eyes, with all their foibles, habits or genius. I've come to visualise them as well as their surroundings. It is quite fun following them around Whitemoor Hall, the estate in which the action takes place. I draw little maps and sketches and keep making lists of names and attributes... 4/8/2011 The Pleasure GardensI love reading Christopher Fowler's posts about London, I always learn something new.
I was especially pleased to see this post here this morning: VAUXHALL In my first novel, "I Am a Muse", one of the main character has a club night called "The Pleasure Gardens", inspired by the 18th and 19th Century pleasure gardens and their extravagant setting. Here's a short extract taken from the chapter in which Constance Blackwell walks around the club. "It was almost midnight and the place was buzzing. The second band of the night had finished their set and the light had gone down a notch in the main room in order to show off the large illuminated fountain at the centre of the ‘square’. Like a beautiful deluxe beehive coerced into action by an overflow of honey, The Gardens were inhabited by a thriving crowd constantly on the move. The punters were throwing deconstructed shadows onto the walls as they walked past each other, circled around each other, studied and greeted each other. All of them had made a real effort to fit the non-dress code in one way or the other and this made for a striking ensemble of people who all somehow looked like they had escaped from some film set or stepped out of a time machine. Everybody looked bold and interesting in their own way. In the ‘Banquet and Tea’ area, people were sitting on benches, chatting, flirting and drinking cocktails or tea. The music in there was muted, ethereal and light so as not to prevent people from hearing each other. Some had already succumbed to the cakes and were tucking in, some others were picking at the fruits laid out on the enormous fruit bowls by the long banquet tables while carrying on their conversations. Later, there would be some poetry readings. The clubbers among the crowd were dancing the night away to sexy electro in the ‘ballroom’, seemingly oblivious to the extravagantly coiffed metal characters sculpted by the guest artist of the night. Rebecca Duval’s pieces were silent and immobile yet elegant creatures dressed in Marie-Antoinette inspired costumes. Her creations were scattered within the venue like indulgent sentinels looking on as the crowd grew bigger, more colourful, more daring while time was suspended in an undefined era." "I Am a Muse" 29/7/2011 Making up for lost time...Target today: 2,000 words.
I am NOT going to bed until I've written that amount! (Sometimes you've got to nudge yourself...). Funny how life can divert you from your aim... 27/7/2011 SjonI am just passing by my website as I have been neglecting it lately. The website and my fiction writing... But that's life, isn't it?
I am resuming writing today at last! In the meantime, I would like to introduce one of the authors who was speaking at the Shorelines festival and who is the one who has made the biggest impression on me. Sjon is a real original, a passionate person who has been writing since forever. He is also a poet and has been one of Bjork's oldest collaborators (and he has written the lyrics to some of my favourite songs ever!). Hearing him speak about his latest book, "From the Mouth of the Whale" (which I intend to read as soon as I can get my hands on one, as they had sold out at the festival and I was unable to buy one copy then) was captivating. I managed to buy "The Blue Fox" though and got it signed! Sjon has also written the lyrics of Lars Von Triers'"Dancer in the Dark", a deeply moving movie in which Bjork had the main role and was simply stupendous. I can't stand musicals, but somehow, thanks to the talent of the people involved, it worked for me. I felt a connection with his ideas, with his influences and way of thinking. As someone who's always wanted to be a writer, Sjon stands as the embodiment of success: a long, successful, meaningful career spent writing and being involved in literature and the arts. Moreover, Sjon is a youthful, warm, friendly man whom I wouldn't mind spending a few hours with in a cafe. Or have as a neighbour. I have a passion for Scandinavia and have always associated Iceland with it somehow. Here are incredibly intriguing countries full of legends and stories, whose relationship with Nature is miles away from ours. I crave the bleak empty spaces and the long never ending night of the Scandinavian winter. Their world view is closer to mine than the terribly consumerist society that surrounds me. I wish I could speak Icelandic so I could read Sjon's oeuvre as he has written it... Anyhow, here's a link to Sjon's wikipedia page: Sjon Here's Sjon's page on Bjork's website: Sjon Page A fascinating interview with Sjon on Fabulous Iceland: Sjon interview And here's a link to a lengthy review of "From the Mouth of the Whale": From the Mouth of the Whale 22/7/2011 A grammar lessonSome stuff drives me nuts.
People can't spell anymore, and don't have one iota of grammatical knowledge in them, which makes them write paragraphs full of mistakes. Nowadays, there are mistakes in every newspapers, magazines, websites and shops. I think I am going to start advertising my services as English proofreader for businesses, I'm sure I'd make loads of money... People should really try and make an effort, though: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-14130854 The reason it drives me crazy is that I am actually what you'd call a foreigner, one of those creatures reviled in some quarters. I'll always remember when I was a teacher in East Ham, and I was asked to teach a weekly class in English language in addition to my normal French lessons. The kids kept saying that I couldn't teach them English because they were English (well, barely 20% of the class, actually) and I was only a foreigner (ha!). Imagine their faces when they realised they didn't know anything about their own language and I did. It didn't make them study any harder, though. So: It's a beautiful day. It is a beautiful day = IT = subject, IS = verb The bird is beautiful. Its feathers are blue. ITS = possessive = the bird's feathers. There's a house at the bottom of the road = There is a house at the bottom of the road. The dogs are brown. Their fur is brown = possessive, the dogs' fur or the fur of the dogs. and finally: PLURAL is not "apostrophe s". The possessive is "apostrophe s". You say "I love books" and NOT "I love book's". FF's S. There. 20/7/2011 Earning ...No book writing for a bit, I need to EARN.
So I am translating. It is not fun because it doesn't make much sense in either language... Corporate educational speak, ouch! |
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