Today I mostly wrote ... the word count thread. > Likes and Comments

Woot! I managed 1060 on Friday and I'm pretty sure I did over 500 this morning. That may well be it for the holidays, I shall have to see, but I may manage some progress on the eyebombing book as it's non fiction. Also hope to start the stories about my parents thing.

Cheers

MTM

M.T. wrote: "Also hope to start the stories about my parents thing...."

seriously you should. Because you'll lay out the problems in a way that people can relate to. It'll be a warning to those coming up to that stage and a comfort to those living through it to know they're not on their own!

M.T. wrote: "Woot! I managed 1060 on Friday and I'm pretty sure I did over 500 this morning. That may well be it for the holidays, I shall have to see, but I may manage some progress on the eyebombing book as i..."

The parents thing is timely - we're all getting older.

Well I was going to tell the funny stories I know about them. Things like the time someone blew in to see Mum just as we were going out and she dragged me into a cupboard where we hid until our visitor had gone.

I've actually done some query letter and submissions for the first time in ages. Made me feel nostalgic. And nervous.

I'm been submitting more to magazines.

I looked at Fantasycon again this year but it started looking expensive with them wanting dealers to pay membership as well as a table.
Then I saw SASE 2017 Sandbach
http://booksignings.weebly.com/

Saturday 23rd September 2017
so I've booked a table there :-)

Looks good. Too far away for me sadly.

Just picked up a story I was last working on six weeks ago and written another 1091 words. Rather pleased!

Woot! ;-)

M.T. wrote: "Looks good. Too far away for me sadly."

well if there's anybody in the area come and say hello :-)

Most conventions include a membership in the table cost. I thought about Fantasycon, but have made a conscious choice to limit myself to one day only events - or two days if it is in sensible driving range. The cons are great fun, but get very expensive if you do them all. Plus a lot of the time it is the same audience. I bet that by doing Edge-lit and Bristolcon, I get a huge chunk of the Fantasycon audience. At a lot less money.

Yes, and bitter experience showed that Sunday at a con could be totally dead. I sold one book on Sunday at Scarborough and most of the traders around me sold none!

Is there going to be a Sledge Lit this year? I'm tempted by that as a one day event

Yes Sledge lit is on again. I've booked my place already.

The sci fi piece is now at 20K and the next horror at about 8K.

472 today but I've had a few other things on!

As is utterly predictable by now, NaNo fell by the roadside - been over 2 weeks since I had time to write anything. Ah well, there's always next year...

I've had a detailed rejection letter for my sci fi stuff from one of the UK's best known agents. I thought I'd share this part of his email.

Length. The US can be more hidebound, but I have only sold one debut under 100,000 words long in the last decade. I’m looking at 120k as normal for SF – longer for epic fantasy, of course.

So if I glue Swords for a Dead Lady, and Dead Man Riding East together and call them one book I'm getting close!

Swords for a Dead Man Riding East.

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Swords for a Dead Man Riding East."

Dead ladies with swords?

A very different book :-)

Undead Ladies With Swords? Depends whether they are vampires, zombies, werebitches or animated skeletons.

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Undead Ladies With Swords? Depends whether they are vampires, zombies, werebitches or animated skeletons."

I don't do sparkly vampires!

Did I mention sparkles? No, I did not.

Do you get steampunk vampires?

Yes, apparently

Will wrote: "I've had a detailed rejection letter for my sci fi stuff from one of the UK's best known agents. I thought I'd share this part of his email.

Length. The US can be more hidebound, but I have only ..."

I write mainstream. Not that I would submit to an agent, but about half the readers who run into it say it's too long; the other half can't get enough.

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Did I mention sparkles? No, I did not."

I say absolutely no to all vampires. Spaghetti or not ... or even sparkly or not - thank you auto correct.

Length seems arbitrary so I'd say wrote what feels right but what do I know. :-)

Spaghetti vampire would be rather a niche market!

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Spaghetti vampire would be rather a niche market!"

After the way Italian chefs have been attacking Nigella over the way she's improved various Italian dishes, I suspect writing spaghetti vampires would get you into serious issues with them

On the other hand, Spaghetti Westerns did rather well, so if you did Spaghetti Vampires as a film script you might be onto something

Uh-oh I can feel an idea coming on. :-) maybe the spaghetti, itself, becomes the vampire and goes round drowning people in spaghetti sauce.

You think that red stuff is all sauce?

Maybe, after its cooked. Or We we talking black pudding vampires?

Do you two mind? I'm vegetarian

Yeah, but green pudding's not the same, somehow.
Will was going to be a tree surgeon, but he faints at the sight of sap...

:-)

Will wrote: "Do you two mind? I'm vegetarian"

You won't be once you're an undead!

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Will wrote: "Do you two mind? I'm vegetarian"

You won't be once you're an undead!"

And how would you know that?

Kath wrote: "Yeah, but green pudding's not the same, somehow.
Will was going to be a tree surgeon, but he faints at the sight of sap..."

Just a poor sap me, that's right...

Will wrote: "Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Will wrote: "Do you two mind? I'm vegetarian"

You won't be once you're an undead!"

And how would you know that?"

Well how many zombies have you met who stumble around saying "Grainnnnzzzz"

When they scream 'Brraaaiiiinnnsss' I naturally assumed that they meant the locally brewed beer.

That doesn't sound very appetising. Even aside from being beer...

Brains isn't bad but there are better beers in Wales as far as I remember. And a whiskey which I haven't tried but hear is very good!

Is Felin Foel still around (known as Feelin' Foul to those who wanted to take the...)?

859 this morning on the new story - after a planning and time-line session.

Kath wrote: "859 this morning on the new story - after a planning and time-line session."

You are a good role model, Kath. I will try to emulate.

Thank you! Usually I get part way through a story and then realise I should have thought this out!

Spent a few days formatting and reformatting the book because I realised I wanted to change something minor, then that Kindle Previewer 3 isn't in beta any more so thought I should use that for my testing. Had a few glitches before it would work, and also discovered a July update to the Kindle Publishing Guidelines, and had to make a few tweaks to comply with those. At least I understood what they meant which is an improvement on when I tried to read it last summer!

Finally. Finished 24.111 - over 2K scene - and listened to it. I do my fine-tuning that way. Amazing what you catch when the robot voice reads your deathless prose back like a zombie.

Believe it or not, I'm faster than I used to be. This took a week - not months.

I believe the word is 'chuffed.'

Yay!! Well done Alicia!

Well chuffed!

782 today. Pootling along.