Liz Williams's Blog, page 16

UPDATE - Chen novels - e-editions

I have been in the process of re-formatting the Chen backlist, as the rights for these novels have now reverted from Night Shade Books to myself, and the following will be available from this weekend (just in time for some holiday reading, hopefully):

The Snake Agent
Demon and the City
Precious Dragon
The Shadow Pavilion

The Banquet of the Lords of Night - this is my first short story collection, also published originally in hardback by Night Shade - will also be available soon in e-format and I'll let you know as soon as this happens.

Iron Khan is, of course, still available from the good folk at Morrigan Press in e-format.

All of these will be $10 each. If you sign up for all 4, I will also send you free the short stories which were originally published in the limited editions of these novels. If you want to purchase the short stories as a standalone buy, then those will be $10 as well. Paypal details are below.

There will also be a surprise e-gift for everyone who makes a purchase, and this also applies to existing short story subscribers. It will be Chen-related.










Chen novels
The Snake Agent $10.00 USD
The Demon and the City $10.00 USD
Precious Dragon $10.00 USD
The Shadow Pavilion $10.00 USD
Chen short stories $10.00 USD
All 4 novels incl short stories $40.00 USD

Update: The Hundred Stories Project

WE WILL DEFINITELY BE RUNNING THE HUNDRED STORIES PROJECT! I will be starting this on January 1st, 2012, and you will all receive your first 7 stories at the end of that week.

First of all, a huge thank you from Trevor and myself to all those of you who have contributed via the campaign page or via my LJ link. We're now up to the region of $1K. The campaign is still running and IndieGogo tell me that they have fixed the issue with the paypal link - I've included my own paypal below in case any contributors have further problems. Just to clarify, there's no minimum contribution for this - you can donate a single buck if you choose!


These are all wonderful legends. But what about the real stories behind Glastonbury, behind Avalon?

In 2006, my partner, Trevor, was diagnosed with throat cancer at an advanced stage. With the help of both modern and alternative treatment, he beat the disease, but it spurred him to return to university and to study. In 2010, he was awarded his BA in History and Classics. Now, he's studying at the University of Winchester, starting a Masters degree which will result in a community archaeology project in Glastonbury - involving local people, involving everyone who is interested in the stories behind this ancient land.

Involving you.

Community is no longer just the people you live alongside - it's global, and it extends both into the past and the future. In order to get this project started, and to fund Trevor's research, I'm starting the Hundred Stories Project. From January 1st, 2012, I'll be writing a story a day, about the people who have lived in and around Glastonbury from Neolithic times. You'll get 7 stories at the end of each week, plus the extra. They'll be short stories, a page for each person, and when the project is finished I'll be binding the stories for display.

Why is this important?

Glastonbury is a focus for many different spiritualities. People come here to find healing, to learn more about how our ancestors thought and worked. In a materialistic modern age, it's a place where magic still happens - and much of that magic comes from the stories and legends of the area. Community archaeology gives us an understanding of our own lives. It gives people from other parts of the world a place of their own in our community. It honours the dead. It means that people are not forgotten, that their stories get told - not just from the power of the human imagination, but from what we can learn from history and archaeology.


What We Need & What You Get

To get this project off the ground, we need $8000 - around £5000 in British currency. This will fund the first stage of the research and enable Trevor to bring members of the community on board, as well as setting up a team to start to look into potential archaeological sites. One possibility is to revisit the area around the Sweet Track, the 6000 year old causeway built across the Somerset Levels.

This platform gives you the option of contributing however little or as much as you want - if you click on the 'contribute now' button, it will give you the option of your own amount.

For your contribution, you'll get the Hundred Stories, from winter to spring of 2012. You'll get regular updates from Trevor on how the community project is progressing. If you can make it to Glastonbury, we'll give you a tour around the hidden places of Avalon: the places visitors don't usually get to see. You'll also get a copy of the archaeological report when it's done and an ongoing involvement in the community project

Other Ways You Can Help

Tell people about the Hundred Stories Project. If you have friends who are interested in history, archaeology, spirituality and stories, let them know!
The campaign is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Avalon-Rising?a=293522&i=addr

Chen novels - e-editions

I have been in the process of re-formatting the Chen backlist, as the rights for these novels have now reverted from Night Shade Books to myself, and the following will be available from the end of next week (just in time for some holiday reading, hopefully):

The Snake Agent
Demon and the City
Precious Dragon
The Shadow Pavilion

The Banquet of the Lords of Night - this is my first short story collection, also published originally in hardback by Night Shade - will also be available soon in e-format and I'll let you know as soon as this happens.

Iron Khan is, of course, still available from the good folk at Morrigan Press in e-format.

All of these will be $10 each. If you sign up for all 4, I will also send you free the short stories which were originally published in the limited editions of these novels. If you want to purchase the short stories as a standalone buy, then those will be $10 as well. Paypal details are below.

There will also be a surprise e-gift for everyone who makes a purchase, and this also applies to existing short story subscribers. It will be Chen-related.










Chen novels
The Snake Agent $10.00 USD
The Demon and the City $10.00 USD
Precious Dragon $10.00 USD
The Shadow Pavilion $10.00 USD
Chen short stories $10.00 USD
All 4 novels incl short stories $40.00 USD

Chen novels - e-editions

Just a heads-up, really - I am in the process of getting e-editions sorted out for the Chen backlist, and these should be ready soon, so keep watching the skies, sorry, this LJ.

Someone has just asked me if they can still sign up for the instalment novel, the prequel to Snake Agent. Yes, you can, and I will be sending out the next instalment next week.

Tarot readings

A couple of people have asked me if I am intending to run the Tarot reading offer for next year as well - yes, I am, and with this in view I am running a Christmas Tarot package. As with the spring sale, it is £15 for a year (email me at mevennen(at)hotmail.com for paypal details) - for this you get 4 full Celtic Cross readings every quarter. A number of people bought these as gifts for other people in the spring, hence the Christmas offer!

Creative writing tutoring - repost

Several people booked this service for gifts this year and if anyone would like to do so as a Christmas present for someone else (e.g. a manuscript appraisal) I will offer 10% discount if you sign up before December 30th.


As some of you will know, I have been offering manuscript appraisal services for some time now, but I have recently been joined by historical novelist Maria McCann. I am updating this as Maria has now come on board with the Arvon team, and I'm including details of that below.

Maria McCann's first novel, As Meat Loves Salt, was published to considerable acclaim in 2001 and was an Economist Book of the Year. Described as a 'fat juicy masterpiece', it has never gone out of print. The Wilding (2010) was longlisted for the Orange Prize and was one of eight novels selected for the Richard and Judy Book Club out of a hundred and sixty titles submitted by publishers. She has also published shorter pieces in anthologies and magazines.

Maria has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Glamorgan. For nearly a decade (until December 2010) she ran the Creative Writing courses at Strode College in Somerset, helping writers of all levels of ability to nurture their creative processes and to craft their work. Alongside historical novelists Emma Darwin, Rose Melikan and R N Morris, Maria appears at literary festivals as part of a panel discussing aspects of writing and researching historical fiction; from January 2011 she will be one of three writers (along with poet Daljit Nagra and playwright Nell Leyshon) selected to mentor upcoming talent as part of the Jerwood/Arvon Mentoring Scheme.

I will be dealing with SF, Fantasy and Horror, or any related sub-genres. Maria will be dealing with literary fiction and historical fiction. We will be offering:

- manuscript proposal appraisal (first three chapters and synopsis)
- full manuscript appraisal (novels and short fiction)
- submission package assessment

We can also offer tailor-made packages, depending on your needs and requirements. If you want an assessment of your initial three chapters, to see whether a manuscript is worth continuing, we can look at this. If you have a whole novel, and would like it taken up to the point where you are ready to submit to an agent, we can structure a timetable for you and take you through a chapter-by-chapter assessment. This process is likely to take about a year (unless you're a very quick writer!) and we will suggest that you rewrite if we think it's necessary.

You can start at any point. We are both very thorough – this is aimed at the serious writer who is aiming at a professional career. We start with an appraisal, and if we think your expectations are unrealistic and that you would not benefit at this point from a full appraisal program, we will tell you. However, we are solution-oriented and our criticism will always be constructive!

The aim of this process is to prepare work for publication. Obviously, we cannot guarantee that, although I would note that my last student has just had her first novel published as part of a 3 book-deal. I can put you in touch with former students if you wish. For other genres, including detective fiction, post-colonial fiction or other, let me know if you would like details and I will pass you on to a wider mentoring agency.

If you would like to discuss this with either Maria or myself, please email me at mevennen(at)hotmail(dot)com for further information, including a full breakdown of costs.

Update: The Hundred Stories Project

Many thanks to all those of you who have contributed via the campaign page or via my LJ link. We're now up to the region of $800 and many thanks from both Trevor and myself to everyone for being so generous. We have fixed the issue with the paypal link - I've included my own paypal below in case any contributors have further problems. Just to clarify, there's no minimum contribution for this - you can donate a single buck if you choose!


These are all wonderful legends. But what about the real stories behind Glastonbury, behind Avalon?

In 2006, my partner, Trevor, was diagnosed with throat cancer at an advanced stage. With the help of both modern and alternative treatment, he beat the disease, but it spurred him to return to university and to study. In 2010, he was awarded his BA in History and Classics. Now, he's studying at the University of Winchester, starting a Masters degree which will result in a community archaeology project in Glastonbury - involving local people, involving everyone who is interested in the stories behind this ancient land.

Involving you.

Community is no longer just the people you live alongside - it's global, and it extends both into the past and the future. In order to get this project started, and to fund Trevor's research, I'm starting the Hundred Stories Project. From January 1st, 2012, I'll be writing a story a day, about the people who have lived in and around Glastonbury from Neolithic times. You'll get 7 stories at the end of each week, plus the extra. They'll be short stories, a page for each person, and when the project is finished I'll be binding the stories for display.

Why is this important?

Glastonbury is a focus for many different spiritualities. People come here to find healing, to learn more about how our ancestors thought and worked. In a materialistic modern age, it's a place where magic still happens - and much of that magic comes from the stories and legends of the area. Community archaeology gives us an understanding of our own lives. It gives people from other parts of the world a place of their own in our community. It honours the dead. It means that people are not forgotten, that their stories get told - not just from the power of the human imagination, but from what we can learn from history and archaeology.


What We Need & What You Get

To get this project off the ground, we need $8000 - around £5000 in British currency. This will fund the first stage of the research and enable Trevor to bring members of the community on board, as well as setting up a team to start to look into potential archaeological sites. One possibility is to revisit the area around the Sweet Track, the 6000 year old causeway built across the Somerset Levels.

This platform gives you the option of contributing however little or as much as you want - if you click on the 'contribute now' button, it will give you the option of your own amount.

For your contribution, you'll get the Hundred Stories, from winter to spring of 2012. You'll get regular updates from Trevor on how the community project is progressing. If you can make it to Glastonbury, we'll give you a tour around the hidden places of Avalon: the places visitors don't usually get to see. You'll also get a copy of the archaeological report when it's done and an ongoing involvement in the community project

Other Ways You Can Help

Tell people about the Hundred Stories Project. If you have friends who are interested in history, archaeology, spirituality and stories, let them know!
The campaign is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/Avalon-Rising?a=293522&i=addr

Weekend

I think this is the last time since last winter that we have both had a Saturday at home - this came about because Trevor was invited to go shooting today, but has been unwell. I know we all make jokes about manflu, but he is very rarely under the weather and this ias been a particularly virulent cold/flu/sore throat combination that everyone in Glastonbury has had except me. Yet. So having arranged staff to cover, we left them in place and stayed at home. We did take the dogs briefly to the bird reserve, which was like Piccadilly Circus with twitchers, and in addition to T being ill, Cass has hurt her paw. I have never known such an accident prone animal. So hopalong Cassie and T had a short walk, whilst I took Lily the long way round: she met a squirrel and small fierce white person like a sort of dog firework, so was kept on a lead, which she Does. Not. Want.

Beautiful cold fiery sunset this evening.

Apart from that, I've been writing and cooking, mainly: venison stew with some field blewit mushrooms and ceps, a sponge cake, scones and a vegetable soup.

Various

Some very good news on the short story front, which I will have to mention officially later on, and other good news from elsewhere (ditto - sorry to be so cryptic but all will be revealed in due course). Also, the 'God' project ia at the printer's: it needs a little tweaking but should be good to go soon. Some of the commissioned short fiction is also at (a different) printer. I've had a few days away from writing, but need to get back to it now - long dark nights are not unconducive to this process!

RIP

I was very sad to learn of the death of Chris 'Keris' Croughton. This happened a couple of weeks ago in a road accident, but I have only just come across it. Keris often commented on the posts in this LJ and as well as being a very nice guy, was a staunch supporter of myself and my work. He will be greatly missed.