Dan Smith's Blog, page 6

Skin Like a Rhino

Y’know that thing people say to unpublished writers who want to be published?  That old chestnut about needing to have a thick skin? Well, there’s a lot of truth in it. When you’re sending stuff away to agents and publishers and the ‘we like it but don’t LOVE it’ letters are coming back, having a thick skin really does help.

What they don’t tell you, though, is that your skin has to get a whole lot thicker. Even after publication. In fact, you need rhino skin.

I sent some new writing to my agent the other day and when she called me and finished telling me how much work I need to do on it, I put the phone down with a sigh. It can always be better, see? It doesn’t matter who you are or what you write, it can always be better. It occurred to me that everyone involved in the publication process is there to tell the writer what’s wrong with their book and what they can do to improve it.

Part of an agent’s job is to find fault with the work. Then, of course, the editor is there to help reshape what the author has done – tell them what’s wrong with it, in other words. The copyeditor’s turn comes next; they get to pick out all the grammatical and continuity errors. They might even suggest a change or two. After that, the proof reader gets to pick out more mistakes. Then, of course, after the book is finally published, the writer has to face the wrath of the reviewer – which, these days, means anyone who reads the book. And sometimes people who don’t.

So, yeah. Thick. Skin. Required.

But then there are those moments . . . the moment your agent tells you it’s good. Or when your editor steps away from doing their job of scrutinising your writing and tells you it works. Best of all though, is when a letter drops through the post box, or an email pings into your inbox and it’s from a happy reader who enjoyed your book so much they took the time to write to you. And that . . . well, it doesn’t get much better than that.

Well, next year’s going to be a busy one, and I’m very much looking forward to it. I have my rhino skin all prepped and I have a good line up of publications. There will be two new books in the UK next year, a couple in the US, and there might even be a little surprise, but I can’t tell you about that or I’d almost certainly have to kill you; my lips are sealed. You’ll just have to wait and see.

I hope you all have a great Christmas and a fantastic New Year.

That’s all.

Almost Famous . . .

As Seen On Blue Peter!

That moment of letting go.

Both books are now written, edited and copyedited, so it’s all out of my hands from here.

My editor at Chicken House joked about having double homework (or double detention) because I had to read through two copyedited manuscripts, and it does feel a bit like that. At this stage I have read both books more times than I can remember, and I know what word comes next in each sentence, but it has to be right, doesn’t it? And that’s where the moment of letting go comes in – that moment when I press send on the email and the manuscript zips off to my editor, ready to be typeset in STONE!!

No more changes. That’s it. Done.

It’s difficult not to panic just a little bit . . .

On The Blue Peter Judges’ Desk!

THE DARKEST HEART is currently set for a July 2014 publication and MY BROTHER’S SECRET is set for a May 2014 publication.

Seems like ages, doesn’t it?

 

Oh, how about this, though? My children were watching Blue Peter last Thursday and spotted someone reading My Friend The Enemy!

Here are a couple of screen grabs of the book in close-up and there on the judges’ table. Sadly, no front cover publicity but, y’know, it was there on the telly ‘n’ stuff.

Almost famous.

 

That’s all.

Related articles

Blue Peter Book Awards 2014 shortlist announced (telegraph.co.uk)
Blue Peter Book Awards Shortlist: Can Sir Tony Robinson Pick Up His Second Win? (contactmusic.com)

Red Wine and Pringles

So, I was asked if I would go along to an academic reading group and pick a topic to discuss. Usually they do theories, and have what I’m guessing are rather clever conversations about very academic-y things. These are the kind of people who read academic journals ‘n’ stuff, so I wondered if I might be a little bit out of my depth. As it was, though, the lady who invited me suggested I bring something slightly different to the table – y’know, maybe talk about my own books, compare them to others and find some common ground that might be worth discussing.

An actual ‘rich and colourful tapestry’

So that’s what I did. I spent some time thinking about it and prepared a little presentation using Powerpoint (oh yeah, I have many skills). My idea was to talk about using setting as a character in a novel. My hope was that it would spark a discussion about whether or not setting can be a character.

Thing is, though, only two people turned up.

This is always the fear – that no one will come.  I once did an event when only one person turned up so, I suppose, I managed to double my audience this time around. And, on the plus side, the two people who did come along were very nice and it was great to talk to them.

Oh, and the red wine and Pringles went a lot further. Which was nice.

The time I spent preparing for it could, of course, have been better used on my new novel. Ah well, the world is a rich and colourful tapestry, eh?

 

That’s all.

 

Untold Riches!

Whoa! Time seems to be slipping past at quite a speed these past few weeks. I keep meaning to get on here and write something insightful and thought-provoking but, then, why start now, eh?

Well, I could tell you how things are going with My Brother’s Secret – y’know, talk about edits and how well the book is coming along under the expert guidance of the fab people at Chicken House. Or, I could say something about how a title change is in order for my next book for adults, and how the great team at Orion is busy preparing cover images and getting things ready for publication in the spring.

Or maybe I’ll just show you this . . .

A giant pile of letters I received from the fantastic children at Old Bank Junior School.

 

 

Despite what some people might think, publishing a novel does not bring untold riches.

Nor, apparently, does publishing five novels.

Shame.

Being an author is not a financially rewarding occupation and there are times when I (like many authors, I expect) can’t help wondering if I should be doing something else. But when I receive a pile of letters like this, it’s great to know that I might have inspired or entertained someone in some small way.

Or, at least, helped them avoid a maths lesson.

 

Here are a few snippets from those letters.

 

That’s all.

No Country For Old Men

I’m in Orion’s Murder Room today, talking about No Country For Old Men – film and book!

 

http://www.themurderroom.com/blog/dan-smith-on-no-country-for-old-men/

 

A Gold Mine of Crime

Like crime fiction on TV? Well y’know, that whole genre thing can be hard to pin down.

From the urban grizzle of Luther to the bleak and gritty Scandi crime of The Killing, and the sun-drenched bloodletting of Dexter, TV crime fiction has come a long way, but crime isn’t just cops catching criminals, right? There’s more to it than just plain old police procedural. I mean, sometimes we can get our crime fix in unexpected places . . . and I think I might have struck gold, because there’s one show that stands out for me right now. It first aired nine years ago, so I’m a little late to this party, but I recently came into possession of a box set (legitimately, I hasten to add – no crime involved), and I’ve been dragged into the dirty, lawless world of Deadwood.

‘That’s not crime,’ I hear you say, ‘that’s a western series.’

Well . . . take another look.

In just one episode of Deadwood there’s more crime than there is in a whole series of The Killing or The Bridge or The Chunnel, The Tunnel, or whatever they’re calling this round of remake. In fact, Deadwood’s got it all. Racketeering, drug-dealing, gambling, murder, contract killing, brawling, stealing, revenge; you name it, it’s in there. And not only does Deadwood parade this delicious buffet of crime for us, but it does it in the dirty, horse-trampled quagmire of a world that feels different. It takes you somewhere you’ve never been. There are no graffiti-strewn tenement blocks here, no grey inner city clichés. Characters can’t rely on mobile phones, and law bringers can’t fall back on satellite tracking and facial recognition technology. This is back to basics crime where each and every one of the players has to use their own ingenuity to survive the harsh and cruel world in which they live. And you want great characters, right? Well, Deadwood’s got those too. How about Al Swearengen, the ruthless, murderous, foul-mouthed limey? Or there’s Seth Bullock, if you prefer a more noble character – he’s the fearless, uncompromising lawman turned storekeeper, drawn back into keeping the peace.

So don’t tell me Deadwood isn’t crime, jut because it’s set in the 1870s.

You see, sometimes we just have to look in unexpected places – don’t discount something just because it’s not in your usual setting.

 

That’s all

Kill Them!

Yesterday, I blogged over at Author Allsorts – you can go here to read what I have to say about killing off your  characters!

 

 

That’s all!

Energy, Editing and Bottom Coughs

Phew! I’ve spent the past few days visiting schools and talking to young readers, which is always great fun but EXHAUSTING!

Children are always so full of energy and fidgetiness (is that a word? No, I thought not) and there’s always that terrifying thought at the back of my mind that they’re going to get bored and turn on me. Thankfully they didn’t! In fact, they seemed very pleased to be missing lessons – one group was missing maths, which is an added bonus  - and they all listened to me with only the smallest amount of fidgeting. There might have been a few bottom coughs from one group, but I pretended not to notice. I just thanked the gods of writing that I wasn’t sitting next to the perpetrator . . .

So, now I have time for a very quick breather, to complete editing My brother’s Secret, and then it’s back into the fray!

Wish me luck, I may be some time.

 

That’s all.

Weird Reviews and Cat Juggling

I’m one of those writers who reads reviews. Of my books.

I mean, if I don’t read reviews, how do I know what people think of my books? I can’t imagine not reading reviews. Of course, they can sometimes be painful, but we writers know that we can’t please everyone, right? Life would be dull, dull, dull, if we all liked the same things. Even Fifty Shades of Grey got a few bad reviews, and we all know how many people bought THAT book.

Reviews are strange things though, because the Internet allows anyone and everyone to be a critic. Blogging, Amazon, Goodreads, Shelfari – there are so many places for readers to deposit their reviews, and the quality of reviewing varies hugely.

My book’s better than yours – the sock-puppet says so!

Of course, we all know about ‘Sock-Puppet’Gate and the cringing embarrassment at some authors being exposed as writing their own reviews and making up on-line personas to discredit their writing ‘rivals’. Well, I recently read about a spate of so-called ‘bullying’ on Goodreads. There’s even a campaign to try to stop readers from writing vitriolic reviews, some of which even go as far as personally insulting the authors.

I find myself wondering what drives a reader to spend their time doing such a thing?  I understand that the Internet acts as a kind of self-contained bubble in which people sometimes behave in ways they ordinarily wouldn’t – in much the same way as being inside a car disassociates drivers from other drivers – but, really . . . have people got nothing better to do than go out of their way to be unpleasant? I had one such review a few years ago and thought perhaps I had done something to insult the reader – perhaps I’d been round to his house and tortured his kittens during a rare bout of sleep-walking? There were those scratch marks that morning I woke up and . . . no, it couldn’t be, could it?

Anyway, I got over it (the review, I mean, not the torturing of kittens. I can confirm I have never been involved in any such activity; not even Cat Juggling). I really do believe that people should be free to say whether or not they like something but, well, there are ways of saying you don’t like something without being nasty about it, right? (Unless we’re talking about  Cat Juggling, ’cause that’s just plain WRONG).

The awful face of Cat Juggling

There’s another kind of review that baffles me. This is the kind that exposes large amounts of plot detail. In fact, some reviews  consist ONLY of plot details.

RED WINTER has earned itself some great reviews – in blogs and publications for which I have a great deal of respect – but I was bewildered to read one which did a superb job of giving away the plot twist. The whole book rests on something which isn’t revealed to the reader until the end of the book – unless you’ve read this particular review, of course – and it was odd to see the reviewer just lay it all out there for everyone to see. It was actually a positive review, the reader had enjoyed the book, but what on earth must they have been thinking when they gave up all the goodies like that?

It’s just . . . bizarre.

 

So, how about you? Had any weird reviews?

 

That’s all.

‘Back To It’ day

‘Back to it’ day. That’s what today is – the day for getting back to it.

Y’see, I’ve had a few days away from writing since I finished working on the edits for God and The Devil (next year’s book for adult readers), so it was with some trepidation that I began work on editing next year’s book for younger readers . . .

I always feel a touch of the nerves when I come back to a book, or start something new, but the good news is that it’s all shaping up well. The editorial notes are enhancements rather than changes, and as well as being under the expert guidance of my fab agent and the superb team at Chicken House, I have a lovely new editor to help me bring out the best in my next book – Bella Pearson, who worked on The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas – so I am in safe hands.

I’m also riding high on the fact that Red Winter will be published in the United States next year, and that I’ve received some great reviews for Red Winter. If you read my blog, you’ll know it was in The Times on Saturday 27th July, and then in The Sunday Times on 4th August but . . . well, they only went and put it in the ‘Must Reads’ section of The Sunday Times on 11th August as well! They called it a

 

‘ . . . gripping thriller with real depth of character.’

 

Uh-huh, that’s really what they said. It’s the kind of thing I could only dream about when I was a seventeen year old, scribbling angst-ridden stories onto A4 paper with the blunt stub of a well-used pencil. Who’d have thought I’d end up in The Sunday Times, ‘Must Reads’, eh?

Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will encourage a few people to pick up Red Winter and see what it’s all about, but of course, the loudspeakers in Danworld are all now broadcasting the same message . . .

 ‘don’t get smug; you’re gonna have to do even better for the next one.’

 

Quite.

 

So, back to it, then. Back to the world of a young boy living in Germany in the Summer of 1941. I’ve even got a work-in-progress cover and it’s looking fantastic. I’d love to show it to you but, well, you know I can’t. You’ll just have to wait . . .

 

That’s all.