So what have I learnt in the last nine days?
Speeches
Last weekend was a first for me for two reasons. Primarily, it was my first turn as Best Man, but it was also the first time I’ve had to deliver a speech to a hall full of strangers. I discount my own wedding as I pretty much knew everyone there, but at this wedding I knew perhaps a dozen people out of a couple of hundred. A little daunting, especially as I had to follow two phenomenal speeches by the groom and from a courageous young lady called Jasmin (15) who had the entire congregation searching for something to mop their eyes with.
So how do you follow two soulful speeches like that? Well you start with a plug for your own book, that’s how.
Yes - shameful isn’t it?
In my defence, the groom started it all by plugging my book during his speech, I just carried it on for comic effect. I was bloody nervous though, cooking in my morning suit and necking several glasses of wine to steady myself.
I need not have worried. The audience loved my speech, laughing at the right parts, including where I plugged the book (note to all: visual gags during speeches really do work!), and applauding me at the end. I’m not sure what felt better, the pride from doing a good job, or the relief that it was all over!!
Some wise person later told me that it was good experience for any future readings of my own book, and I won’t argue with that. I mean, won’t it be easier to read from a book that has taken me years to write, than reading from a speech it’s only taken me days to complete?
Answers on a postcard please!
Fantastique
While I was struggling with my speech, it appears others here were struggling with the term “fantastique”. I don’t know why though. I thought it was a perfectly good term, and yes it’s a little pretentious but then the world would certainly be a drab place without just a little pretension.
Anyway, I’ll probably not use the term too much, and if I do, I promise to use only within quotation marks.
FEAR
This blog had a surprise visit from John Gilbert, the erstwhile editor of FEAR magazine this week. Please click here to have a look… And just to reiterate, if you’re interested in all things weird and wonderful (and a little terrifying) and have yet to buy a copy of the magazine trawl e-bay; it is well worth sampling some FEAR if you can find it.
Suckered
I fell for a classic marketing ploy last Monday. I was weak, I tell you! Weak! Weak! WEAK!
The marketing ploy in question was a poster campaign for Matthew Reilly’s book Seven Ancient Wonders. It looked pretty exciting, had plenty of pretty pictures, and more importantly struck a chord with the whole “abseiling into some Egyptian crypt” thing - like it was straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark (one of my all time favourite films). Yes, I was suckered in alright, and god knows when I’ll get round to reading it.
I’ll add it to the pile, shall I…?
Things to do
I’ve got lots of things to do now. I’ve got the written detail for my website to start (which is a bigger task than I thought), more promotional materials to design (including the bookmarks which should look pretty good – the business cards have really gone down well!) and I’ll be plugging the book at every opportunity at the British Fantasy Society Convention in Nottingham in September.
On the writing side of things, I’m almost done on The Burning Sands of Time. Despite being several weeks over my own self-imposed deadline, I should finish the final draft in September and then I start on the promotion work proper, as well as drafting the inaugural stories in my serialised/anthologised, yet “unnamed”, apocalypse story that will be published on my website at the beginning of next year.
All other projects have now been shelved for late 2007/2008, including the TV and film scripts, and my third book Smith.
And then there’s the blog – which is on-going, and on-going and on-going. I’m just glad there are people out there who are reading this. Sometimes writing a blog entry is as difficult as drafting a chapter (this entry, for example, has been re-written four times already!) – but just like Best Mans’ speeches, I reckon it’s all worth it though!
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