A New Chapter or Six

What happened to Katie Melua? You never hear of her these days yet as I’m trawling the web for suitable tracks to accompany the new book-venture, I’m having to stop myself from lumping her entire collection into my soundtrack. Take a listen to this as you read:

　
Where were we the last time we left off - I promise if I had anything of any interest I’d do more regular updates but alas, my life continues to coast along. Actually, I don’t know if I’d like it if my life became manic. For one, I don’t know how my writing would cope. When I moved to Norwich almost a year ago to the day, it took me a good fortnight to find my writing rhythm again. I think it’s something to do with feeling settled - plus I kept getting distracted by the big ass spiders that inhabited my new bedroom (I have now moved from there and have two cats so spiders are no longer a problem).
Anyway, I digress. Oh yes, last time I was telling you about my holiday in Malta (go there those of you who haven’t, go there again those of you who have) and telling you the continuing saga of At Long Odds and Keeping The Peace.

Just to keep you up to date, nothing exciting has happened on the book front. Keeping The Peace is with some publishers but they’ve been very quiet in the two months they’ve had it. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Sorry, I’m a pessimist (leads to less disappointment when things go wrong), it’s probably a bad thing. In the meantime, I’ve started Keeping The Peace’s sequel and am six chapters in. This book has been a bit of a wake-up call. I presumed that when Keeping The Peace turned out to be relatively easy to write in comparison to At Long Odds, it was because At Long Odds was the first proper (note: proper - not the three books I wrote as a fanciful teenager) book that I’d written and therefore still learning the ropes. I assumed that the ropes had now been learned when Keeping The Peace flowed like Victoria Falls onto my screen. Great, I thought! Book number 3 will be even easier!
Cue squealing brakes. Not so.
This book - I haven’t even been able to settle on a title yet and that’s usually the first thing that comes - is like having to drag Dominic West up a hill to a remote cottage. Exhausting and painful, yet each time you look at him or think of what’s to follow when you eventually reach the cottage, it makes you carry on. I shall be very disappointed if I reach that metaphorical cottage with my metaphorical Dominic West and find my only reward is metaphorical tea. So even though I’m only six chapters in I’m already praying the end will have enough oomph to leave the reader with that warm fuzzy feeling inside.

I started this book at the beginning of August, thinking don’t be too ambitious with the amount of work you can get done. Keep it manageable so I set myself the target of 7,000 words a week (I read somewhere someone saying it’s best to have weekly targets rather than daily targets - that way you’re not under so much pressure). I kept to that target for approximately 24 hours as I discovered just how uneasy this book was going to be. Nevertheless, I still have the end of the year as my overall target to have the first draft finished and I’m only a little behind (maybe 10,000 words behind but I’ve convinced myself not to panic).

Also having just read Amanda Hocking’s blog here, I am in awe of this woman. Yes, it’s all tremendous that she’s made so much money, blah-dee-blah, but her work ethic is incredible! I think some of her books have taken her two or three weeks to write (once all the planning and prep has been done). There is no way I could hammer out even half a book in that time, so hats off to you, Amanda.

Another thing about Amanda’s blog (I haven’t read any of her books but if her blog is anything to go by then they’re guaranteed to be hilarious) is that I now really understand how much hard work it is to self-publish. It certainly is not the easy way out. I’m under no delusions - I don’t reckon on becoming the new indie-pub sensation - but I still look at At Long Odds with great fondness and read the reviews it has received on fictionpress and it makes me yearn to self-publish it now that the traditional route has turned it down.

Plus, even though there is no evidence to show that book trailers do anything to increase sales, I really want to make a book trailer for it. But a proper trailer that doesn’t just comprise of stills. I want there to be actors. I’ve got the music (check out Miika’s music here, he is a genius) , soon I’ll have access to camera equipment and studios/editing suites when I start my film production degree. All I really need is someone to do hero Julien Larocque justice. He might be modelled on Billy Crudup’s character in the film adaptation of Charlotte Gray but when I think about it, Johnny Depp would be the perfect man to fill that role. Well, if he shaved off his goatee and cut his hair. So Johnny, if you’re reading this give us a shout if you’re prepared to do these things (for free I might add, I’m doing this on a student’s budget).

Billy Crudup

Johnny Depp

See the similarity? Plus, I have the feeling Johnny might do a better French accent than Billy (I loved you in Charlotte Gray, Billy - hell, you inspired me to write a book, but the accent slipped a few too many times).

In two weeks’ time, it’ll be Freshers Week at university. And according to Facebook everyone has only one thing on their agenda: to get completely sloshed. Let me put this in perspective for you: I’m going to see a Neil Diamond tribute concert with my mum this weekend and a walk on the beach. I’m only 30 yet I feel Freshers Week is going to make me feel twice that. I will let you know how it goes down. Take care.