Just a quickie to say I’ve put a link in on the left to Richard Charkin’s Blog. Who is Richard Charkin you might ask? Well he happens to be the Chief Executive of Macmillan Publishers and has a pretty entertaining blog here.
Particularly funny is the letter from one aspiring writer who submitted a MSS to Macmillan New Writing.
Classic
Friday, June 30, 2006
Planning ahead further and further and further…
I was surprised to read recently that JK Rowling was lambasted for having “the gall” to write the final chapter of the final HP book even before the first one was published. I ask you, what the hell is wrong with that?
I think it shows common sense to plan that far. I’ve been on a few writers’ sites who talk about going with the flow and writing with no real end in sight (it’s natural plotting, apparently) and then a few months later they complain that they’ve written themselves into a dead end and need a couple of months to re-plot the book. With multiple characters and subplots squirming out of my imagination, I thought it always handy to plan ahead and know what kind of story you’re aiming for.
Indeed, even while I write the follow-up to The Secret War, I have every chapter mapped out for the third book, The Fortress of Black Glass . In fact, the rough plans for this and The Burning Sands of Time were mapped out long before Macmillan entered my life and snapped up the rights to The Secret War. Is it arrogance that guided me to write all these notes down, believing that one day I would be published? If any critic asked me that (honestly believing it themselves) I think I would just smile sweetly and tell them they obviously have never written simply for their own enjoyment.
You see, what motivates me to plan far ahead is the whole fun idea of “world building”. We’re not just talking fantasy books here, like writing reams and reams of notes on “The Shire” or “Majipoor”, but the everyday “world” my characters live in. By building this world and letting my characters truly live, the idea of planning their exploits for as far as I can see, is appealing. In the short term it feels as though you’ve achieved something with your days (indeed, you’ve mapped out the story of one book and possibly more), but in the long term you avoid those horrid revelations where you have written yourself into a rather big and deep hole where daylight seems oh so far away.
Of course planning doesn’t always mean you navigate the obstacles with all the panache of a rally driver. Sometimes you get a little stuck even with planning, but all it takes is a few minor amendments to a couple of pages and you’re away again.
Yes PLANNING PAYS, PEOPLE!
So in the spirit of all this planning, I’ve started planning the launch-do for The Secret War in January. The launch takes place in good ol’ Sheffield after the book is published on January 5th 2007. And I think I’m going down the whole “big do” track with about 200 people attending. After all, you only get published for the first time once, so why not make a big fuss about it? Yep, it’ll cost me a few pennies, yep it will mean more planning, and yep it will mean being a bit insufferable over Christmas as I count down the days to publishing day, (my wife Sarah, bless her, will no doubt rein me in when I need it the most) - but bugger it, I’ve been waiting for most my life to get this far (and that’s “waiting” not “planning” by the way – hell if I’d been planning this, I would have been published years ago and currently living in a nice house in the Peak District) - and if I can’t shout about it, what’s the point in celebrating such an event?
So once again, and altogether…
PLANNING PAYS!!
(Note to self: I guess I’ll also need to “plan” that Friday off work too, as I envisage an extremely unpleasant hangover the morning after the launch-do).
THIS PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SECRET ORDER OF SAINT SALLIAN*: “Making the world a better place by freeing us from daemons and vampyres”
*Any donations to the cause can be made here.
I think it shows common sense to plan that far. I’ve been on a few writers’ sites who talk about going with the flow and writing with no real end in sight (it’s natural plotting, apparently) and then a few months later they complain that they’ve written themselves into a dead end and need a couple of months to re-plot the book. With multiple characters and subplots squirming out of my imagination, I thought it always handy to plan ahead and know what kind of story you’re aiming for.
Indeed, even while I write the follow-up to The Secret War, I have every chapter mapped out for the third book, The Fortress of Black Glass . In fact, the rough plans for this and The Burning Sands of Time were mapped out long before Macmillan entered my life and snapped up the rights to The Secret War. Is it arrogance that guided me to write all these notes down, believing that one day I would be published? If any critic asked me that (honestly believing it themselves) I think I would just smile sweetly and tell them they obviously have never written simply for their own enjoyment.
You see, what motivates me to plan far ahead is the whole fun idea of “world building”. We’re not just talking fantasy books here, like writing reams and reams of notes on “The Shire” or “Majipoor”, but the everyday “world” my characters live in. By building this world and letting my characters truly live, the idea of planning their exploits for as far as I can see, is appealing. In the short term it feels as though you’ve achieved something with your days (indeed, you’ve mapped out the story of one book and possibly more), but in the long term you avoid those horrid revelations where you have written yourself into a rather big and deep hole where daylight seems oh so far away.
Of course planning doesn’t always mean you navigate the obstacles with all the panache of a rally driver. Sometimes you get a little stuck even with planning, but all it takes is a few minor amendments to a couple of pages and you’re away again.
Yes PLANNING PAYS, PEOPLE!
So in the spirit of all this planning, I’ve started planning the launch-do for The Secret War in January. The launch takes place in good ol’ Sheffield after the book is published on January 5th 2007. And I think I’m going down the whole “big do” track with about 200 people attending. After all, you only get published for the first time once, so why not make a big fuss about it? Yep, it’ll cost me a few pennies, yep it will mean more planning, and yep it will mean being a bit insufferable over Christmas as I count down the days to publishing day, (my wife Sarah, bless her, will no doubt rein me in when I need it the most) - but bugger it, I’ve been waiting for most my life to get this far (and that’s “waiting” not “planning” by the way – hell if I’d been planning this, I would have been published years ago and currently living in a nice house in the Peak District) - and if I can’t shout about it, what’s the point in celebrating such an event?
So once again, and altogether…
PLANNING PAYS!!
(Note to self: I guess I’ll also need to “plan” that Friday off work too, as I envisage an extremely unpleasant hangover the morning after the launch-do).
THIS PUBLIC SERVICE MESSAGE WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE SECRET ORDER OF SAINT SALLIAN*: “Making the world a better place by freeing us from daemons and vampyres”
*Any donations to the cause can be made here.
Thursday, June 29, 2006
Thank the lord, I have gentle readers!
Thanks to you all for the captions (even the David Brent comment – and no, I won’t be doing THAT dance). I particularly like the idea of keeping pens in my beard. Kinda like The Twits, if they were writers.
I think I’ll keep the caption thing on-going until we all get bored of it, so please keep ‘em coming and keep ‘em (relatively) clean!
:)
I think I’ll keep the caption thing on-going until we all get bored of it, so please keep ‘em coming and keep ‘em (relatively) clean!
:)
Monday, June 26, 2006
Caption time…
I guess now you’ve all had a chance to see my photo on the site. It’s a change from the old photo I was using and I’ve already had a few comments from friends. One person said I looked like a convict, while another said I should have a caption underneath it like “Which bastard spilt my pint?”
So in the spirit of trying to cheer-up “after that hopeless-yet-bloody-lucky display by England at the weekend”, I’ve decided to run a caption competition, or rather I’m open to any captions you think are appropriate.
To be honest I’m not sure about the photo – it’s a bit moody and dark, but then The Secret War is a little like that too, so maybe it’s the right one. Is this the face of someone you wouldn’t want to meet down a darkened alley? Or the face of someone who would tell you a rather unnerving story that would keep you up all night?
I know I’m probably opening myself up here for a lot of stick, but hey, might as well get it over and done with now.
Caption away, good people!
So in the spirit of trying to cheer-up “after that hopeless-yet-bloody-lucky display by England at the weekend”, I’ve decided to run a caption competition, or rather I’m open to any captions you think are appropriate.
To be honest I’m not sure about the photo – it’s a bit moody and dark, but then The Secret War is a little like that too, so maybe it’s the right one. Is this the face of someone you wouldn’t want to meet down a darkened alley? Or the face of someone who would tell you a rather unnerving story that would keep you up all night?
I know I’m probably opening myself up here for a lot of stick, but hey, might as well get it over and done with now.
Caption away, good people!
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Re-discovering FEAR
While foraging through the stacks of books I usually have piled up around the writing-place, I re-discovered a heap of magazines buried under my collection of DVD Reviews and several reference books on Napoleonic Times. Dusting the magazines off, I found them to be major slices of inspiration that hark back to a more “innocent” time of writing.
These magazines were titled “FEAR” and they were my staple diet back in the early 90’s while I was writing my first short stories and novellas as a teenager.
For those of you who do not know, or have forgotten what FEAR was, I will remind you… FEAR was a magazine that started way back in 1988 under the editorial guidance of John Gilbert. It was a mainstream magazine, at first dedicated to horror and fantasy, and then latterly also to Science Fiction (even treading the thriller genre when the former grew scarce during the imaginative “famine” of the early 1990’s). It was a marvellous magazine, that mixed high-brow articles on genre pieces, master-classes from some of the best writers and directors around, as well as some dark humour injected at needful intervals. Light entertainment this was not; the magazine was a serious look at all things scary and wonderful. As well as articles, obligatory reviews of books and film, not to mention the usual news items, FEAR was unique in the UK market place by also publishing short stories inside its hallowed pages. These weren’t just stories from established writers such as Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Christopher Fowler or Jonathan Carroll, but also from new writers who were desperate to break into the field – writers who deserved to share their pages with their more experienced and successful colleagues.
I will never forget a story called “Harry’s Black and Decker” by a then unpublished Stephen Harris – concerning a neighbour’s discovery that he could drill holes into the fabric of reality with just your un-average DIY appliance. It was a story that was both poignant and wonderful, blitzing the whole Twilight Zone ethos that pervaded 80’s short stories to provide something that was wholly original and thought-provoking. You didn’t need a twist in the tale here, the quality of the story-telling was enough.
So why am I telling you all this? Well, partly for homage, but also because it was damned inconvenient for FEAR to disappear after 34 issues in 1991 when the publisher that also owned the magazines CRASH and Zzap64, went belly up, taking John Gilbert’s magazine with it. FEAR was conceived at a time when the imaginative genres were looking quite ill; back then there were only a couple of notable films and a dozen or so books to get really excited about - yet I wonder what FEAR would have been like now if it had been allowed to continue - at a time when Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi are looking pretty damned healthy.
FEAR was a newsstand magazine and there is nothing out there to replace it. SFX does not publish fiction and is perhaps aimed more at fandom than any serious debate on the imaginative genres; Interzone is very much a Sci-Fi magazine, and it’s not easy to get hold of small press publications, and even if you can, they do not come regularly enough save for magazines like The Third Alternative (though if anyone can prove otherwise, please tell me! I’m always on the look-out for something that will fill the void that FEAR left).
So if you haven't already experienced FEAR and you spot a copy on e-bay or in some dark, dirty flea-market, don't hesitate to buy it. It's a rare treat and will be worth it.
For now I must be content to only relive those innocent days when I greedily read every single page of FEAR, feeding my imagination like coal into a steam engine – and thus surround myself at the writing-place with 34 slices of inspiration I can only hope will one day be repeated.
These magazines were titled “FEAR” and they were my staple diet back in the early 90’s while I was writing my first short stories and novellas as a teenager.
For those of you who do not know, or have forgotten what FEAR was, I will remind you… FEAR was a magazine that started way back in 1988 under the editorial guidance of John Gilbert. It was a mainstream magazine, at first dedicated to horror and fantasy, and then latterly also to Science Fiction (even treading the thriller genre when the former grew scarce during the imaginative “famine” of the early 1990’s). It was a marvellous magazine, that mixed high-brow articles on genre pieces, master-classes from some of the best writers and directors around, as well as some dark humour injected at needful intervals. Light entertainment this was not; the magazine was a serious look at all things scary and wonderful. As well as articles, obligatory reviews of books and film, not to mention the usual news items, FEAR was unique in the UK market place by also publishing short stories inside its hallowed pages. These weren’t just stories from established writers such as Ramsey Campbell, Brian Lumley, Christopher Fowler or Jonathan Carroll, but also from new writers who were desperate to break into the field – writers who deserved to share their pages with their more experienced and successful colleagues.
I will never forget a story called “Harry’s Black and Decker” by a then unpublished Stephen Harris – concerning a neighbour’s discovery that he could drill holes into the fabric of reality with just your un-average DIY appliance. It was a story that was both poignant and wonderful, blitzing the whole Twilight Zone ethos that pervaded 80’s short stories to provide something that was wholly original and thought-provoking. You didn’t need a twist in the tale here, the quality of the story-telling was enough.
So why am I telling you all this? Well, partly for homage, but also because it was damned inconvenient for FEAR to disappear after 34 issues in 1991 when the publisher that also owned the magazines CRASH and Zzap64, went belly up, taking John Gilbert’s magazine with it. FEAR was conceived at a time when the imaginative genres were looking quite ill; back then there were only a couple of notable films and a dozen or so books to get really excited about - yet I wonder what FEAR would have been like now if it had been allowed to continue - at a time when Horror, Fantasy and Sci-Fi are looking pretty damned healthy.
FEAR was a newsstand magazine and there is nothing out there to replace it. SFX does not publish fiction and is perhaps aimed more at fandom than any serious debate on the imaginative genres; Interzone is very much a Sci-Fi magazine, and it’s not easy to get hold of small press publications, and even if you can, they do not come regularly enough save for magazines like The Third Alternative (though if anyone can prove otherwise, please tell me! I’m always on the look-out for something that will fill the void that FEAR left).
So if you haven't already experienced FEAR and you spot a copy on e-bay or in some dark, dirty flea-market, don't hesitate to buy it. It's a rare treat and will be worth it.
For now I must be content to only relive those innocent days when I greedily read every single page of FEAR, feeding my imagination like coal into a steam engine – and thus surround myself at the writing-place with 34 slices of inspiration I can only hope will one day be repeated.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
An obsessive load of thanks!
So with The Secret War now appearing on Amazon (and I might add, it is also available for pre-order on the WHSmith and Blackwell’s sites too) I’ve been doing the usual sad thing and Googling myself to see where else I could be. Despite it being a little “narcissistic” it’s interesting to see that I’m not only a writer but also a sportsman (a baseball player actually) and I sell guitars. I’m also a character played by Judd Nelson in a Aussie film called Blackwater Trail (the character “Matt Curran” is a writer no less!). There are so many Matt Currans on the net that I wonder if we are all clones, kinda like something from the new Battlestar Galactica series.
But I digress…
Now that I’m on Amazon I can now indulge in what writers could refer to as “Compulsive Am-ranking” – the art of obsessively checking one’s Amazon sales ranking to see if anyone is buying their book. Oddly, I can indulge in that now, even though the book isn’t in print until January 2007, yet there are already copies being pre-ordered!?! Perhaps it is from word of mouth from the few who have read the rare final drafts of the book, or perhaps those who wish to get their mitts on a first edition from a new writer who may or may not make it in this incredibly tough industry. I’m not entirely sure what the ranking equates to in terms of sales (does anyone?), but compared to other writers, I don’t think I’m doing too badly in terms of pre-orders. And I don’t think it’s completely down to friends and family either, as they’re invited to the launch do in January where they are guaranteed a signed copy.
So I wonder who is buying my book?
Well, whoever they are (they could even be reading this blog) I thank you from the depths of my soul for putting your trust in a debut writer, and I hope that six months isn’t too long to wait to discover whether or not that trust is warranted.
But I digress…
Now that I’m on Amazon I can now indulge in what writers could refer to as “Compulsive Am-ranking” – the art of obsessively checking one’s Amazon sales ranking to see if anyone is buying their book. Oddly, I can indulge in that now, even though the book isn’t in print until January 2007, yet there are already copies being pre-ordered!?! Perhaps it is from word of mouth from the few who have read the rare final drafts of the book, or perhaps those who wish to get their mitts on a first edition from a new writer who may or may not make it in this incredibly tough industry. I’m not entirely sure what the ranking equates to in terms of sales (does anyone?), but compared to other writers, I don’t think I’m doing too badly in terms of pre-orders. And I don’t think it’s completely down to friends and family either, as they’re invited to the launch do in January where they are guaranteed a signed copy.
So I wonder who is buying my book?
Well, whoever they are (they could even be reading this blog) I thank you from the depths of my soul for putting your trust in a debut writer, and I hope that six months isn’t too long to wait to discover whether or not that trust is warranted.
Friday, June 16, 2006
Drum roll please…
Well, I’ve been waiting to give you all some news on the book front and I have some. The Secret War can now be officially pre-ordered on Amazon.co.uk and Macmillan New Writing sites (click on the link left for the latter). The Amazon link is here.
It also means I can now show the cover to The Secret War and I even have a photo again (that will appear on the back cover of the book).
What a great way to start a sunny weekend!
Hope you all have a good one, and will report back next week.
It also means I can now show the cover to The Secret War and I even have a photo again (that will appear on the back cover of the book).
What a great way to start a sunny weekend!
Hope you all have a good one, and will report back next week.
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Take a deep breath, hold it, and then smile like an idiot
After a couple of weeks of crumbled resolve, I’ve reached the other side. The last two weeks have been a low of sorts (if you can really call it a low – I mean compared to family tragedies, world poverty, car bombings… I guess calling it a low is pretty damned selfish, so why not call it a “blip”?). I suppose I’m learning all the time, not just about writing but talking about writing, and the last month has taught me that sometimes when you talk to others about your writing too much, their problems sometimes rub off on you, and like a cold you can start to feel it too…
But not now.
After several stalled attempts while writing The Burning Sands of Time, I’ve gone back to chapter 5 and looked at the story from that point on. And I can see where the problems are. They are so obvious it’s like looking for a pen that’s right under your nose, or behind your ear. Yep, there were problems, a cluster of small problems, aspects that would turn a great book into a mediocre one. And there’s nothing like discovering this to give your writing ego a boost because now you can remedy them and carry on with the most important task: writing the damned thing!
Add to that everyone who is reading the penultimate draft of The Secret War are captivated by it. I’ve got people who don’t “do” historical, or horror/fantasy books, but who are devouring every chapter and enjoying the ride. Again, it boosts the writing-ego and if I had any flickers of “self-doubt” before, I don’t now.
And so to the writing… I’ve started writing in the evenings to catch up. Tonight I’ll do some writing, probably before the kick-off between England vs Trinidad and Tobago. Depending on the result you will probably then find me slumped over the laptop with a cheerful grin as I re-write chapter 5 (which should be a knock-out compared to the original chapter which gave away too much for just a song). Or I’ll be fuming at England’s poor performance and find me slumped over a few empty beer bottles - still composing revised chapter plans for the rest of the book.
On top of that I’m having a splendid e-mail conversation with Michael Stephen Fuchs (author of The Manuscript – see link left) who is giving me a great insight into what to expect when January 2007 comes along and The Secret War is in print. (I’ll be keeping the details of the conversation to myself before anyone asks – as the whole experience is pretty personal from one writer to the next).
And also to the reading… Everything creative is rubbing off on me, including the books I’m reading. Apart from research books (and I must say, I lurve DK’s Eyewitness Travel Guide to Egypt – so handy and insightful!), I’m finishing reading Conor Corderoy’s Dark Rain and it is pretty special. If you like your sci-fi gritty and satisfying, this is the one to read. After that it’s either Michael’s Manuscript, or something chunky in the form of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time (no I can’t believe I’ve never read these either, before you ask).
Anyway. I’ve broken the silence, and though I can’t promise to write another blog entry soon, I can promise it won’t be as long 'til I breathe out again.
Hope you are all well
Matt
X
But not now.
After several stalled attempts while writing The Burning Sands of Time, I’ve gone back to chapter 5 and looked at the story from that point on. And I can see where the problems are. They are so obvious it’s like looking for a pen that’s right under your nose, or behind your ear. Yep, there were problems, a cluster of small problems, aspects that would turn a great book into a mediocre one. And there’s nothing like discovering this to give your writing ego a boost because now you can remedy them and carry on with the most important task: writing the damned thing!
Add to that everyone who is reading the penultimate draft of The Secret War are captivated by it. I’ve got people who don’t “do” historical, or horror/fantasy books, but who are devouring every chapter and enjoying the ride. Again, it boosts the writing-ego and if I had any flickers of “self-doubt” before, I don’t now.
And so to the writing… I’ve started writing in the evenings to catch up. Tonight I’ll do some writing, probably before the kick-off between England vs Trinidad and Tobago. Depending on the result you will probably then find me slumped over the laptop with a cheerful grin as I re-write chapter 5 (which should be a knock-out compared to the original chapter which gave away too much for just a song). Or I’ll be fuming at England’s poor performance and find me slumped over a few empty beer bottles - still composing revised chapter plans for the rest of the book.
On top of that I’m having a splendid e-mail conversation with Michael Stephen Fuchs (author of The Manuscript – see link left) who is giving me a great insight into what to expect when January 2007 comes along and The Secret War is in print. (I’ll be keeping the details of the conversation to myself before anyone asks – as the whole experience is pretty personal from one writer to the next).
And also to the reading… Everything creative is rubbing off on me, including the books I’m reading. Apart from research books (and I must say, I lurve DK’s Eyewitness Travel Guide to Egypt – so handy and insightful!), I’m finishing reading Conor Corderoy’s Dark Rain and it is pretty special. If you like your sci-fi gritty and satisfying, this is the one to read. After that it’s either Michael’s Manuscript, or something chunky in the form of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time (no I can’t believe I’ve never read these either, before you ask).
Anyway. I’ve broken the silence, and though I can’t promise to write another blog entry soon, I can promise it won’t be as long 'til I breathe out again.
Hope you are all well
Matt
X
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