Sara Jayne Townsend's Blog, page 53

The Madness of Writers

(Cross-posted from the WriteClub blog)

I think it might have been Freud who said all writers are mad. Sometimes I wonder if he had a point with that one.

A recent advertising campaign trying raise awareness of, and dispel the stigma attached to, mental illness stated that one in four people have a mental illness of some kind or other. Amongst writers, I think that figure must be much higher.

All the people I've met who've been formally diagnosed with a degree of some mental disorder or other have – without exception – been writers. And there are many more of us who, although outwardly sane, have those weird little habits that might seem odd to other people.

I have to include myself here. I know I have a touch of OCD – otherwise why would I indulge in those little rituals that are so much a part of my daily routine I barely give them a second thought? I have to check three times that the hair straighteners are unplugged before I leave the house, otherwise I worry all day that I've left them on and they'll set the house on fire. Before I go to bed I check my bag to make sure my mobile phone, season travel ticket and wallet are there, and I put it by the coat rack ready for work in the morning. Before I leave the house the next morning I check again, in case one of these essential items has miraculously disappeared overnight, even though logically I know no one's been near my bag and everything is still in there.

I can't leave my keys lying around on a counter. When I get home I hang them up in the key cabinet. On the correct peg. I can't leave books all higgedly piggedly on a shelf. They have to be categorised. By genre, then author. And if it's a series, the books have to be stacked in chronological order – book 1 of the series first.

And then there are the occasions when I fall into a deep dark hole of depression, for no apparent reason, and wallow there in misery for a while, before eventually crawling out of my own accord. I don't think this could officially be classed as clinical depression. I don't entertain suicidal thoughts, or stay in bed for days at a time. I get up and I go about my usual routine. I just do it feeling rather miserable for a while. Then one day I'll wake up and everything is hunky dory again.

Many writers I speak to confess to having similar feelings. Which in a weird way is reassuring, and fuels my theory that you have to be just a little bit mad to be a writer.

It could, of course, be that you have to be a little bit mad to be human – and that we are all full of these little foibles and peculiarities, and they are not unique to writers.

What do you think?

Coming Soon – DEATH SCENE

My forthcoming amateur sleuth novel, DEATH SCENE, is now listed on Lyrical Press's "Coming Soon" pages.  For some reason this makes me absurdly excited – somehow I don't quite believe it's going to happen until I see my novel listed there.

I have to admit I've been cyber-stalking Lyrical's website for months, waiting for DEATH SCENE to appear there.  And now it is, I am more than just an author with a book out.  Having two books on my Lyrical Press web page makes it all feel more official, somehow.

I've also got a release date – 4 July – although I have been forewarned that these can and do change due to changes in scheduled.

Still, this is all very exciting.  DEATH SCENE is officially "coming soon".  Yay!

Time to start planning the promotion…

Guest Blogging Again: Gerrie Ferris-Finger

I'm guest blogging again today, this time on the blog of writer Gerrie Ferris-Finger. I'm talking about what keeps drawing me back to crime fiction. Check it out here.

Archetypal Fears

(Cross-posted from the WriteClub blog)





What do you see when you look at this picture? Do you see cute toys? Or do these dolls give you the creeps?

I've always been very fond of dolls, to the surprise of my friends, as I am very un-girly in most other aspects. As a child, I had dozens of dolls. They all had names, and personality traits, and family backgrounds. Dolls, to me, have always been characters. I am still fascinated by dolls, and those in the picture above represent part of my collection.

However, a lot of people get creeped out by dolls. I think I understand why. They are a parody of humanity, with cold hard skin and unblinking eyes. They are lifeless objects that make a mockery of life. And they are an archetypal fear. Why else would they be the subject of so many horror stories?

My collection of dolls used to occupy shelves in the dining room (or 'roleplaying' room, more accurately, as we play D&D in there more often than we dine there). But some of our roleplaying friends do get creeped out by dolls, and they objected to spending hours at a time in the same room as the dolls.

Fortunately for me hubby is not in the least bothered by dolls, because they now live in the bedroom. Alongside the shelf with all my Star Wars action figures. Bizarre as it may be, this rather sums me up.

Dolls may not bother me, but there are other archetypal fears that do. But maybe that's a topic for a future post.

Sales Figures

I get the impression that in the publishing world, discussing the amounts of royalties a writer receives is Not Done – it's a big a breach of etiquette as discussing someone's salary.

In some ways, though, it's hard to get an accurate view of what "normal" sales are for a new and lowly author. In a world where the unenlightened hear the worlds "published author", think of JK Rowlings and assume you're making a killing from your writing, the reality of modest sales can be very depressing.

So, in this spirit, I have decided to declare my sales figures here. In 2010, I sold a total of 73 copies of SUFFER THE CHILDREN. Twenty-four of those were bought in April – the month the e-book was released – by people that know me. A further 26 were copies of the e-book on CD – mostly bought by people who know me, but a few were bought by people who did not, at the London Film & Comic Con in July.

So, that means a maximum of 23 copies were bought by people who might have come across one of my guest posts, or found my blog, and decided they liked the sound of my e-book.

Lyrical Press have recently released sales figures for their top-selling e-books of 2010 – no titles, just genres. The e-books that are selling into the four digits are all erotica. The top-selling e-book, selling more than 9000 copies in 2010, is a BDSM erotica e-book.

If this is your genre, then kudos to you – you're on to a winner. My paltry 73 sales look rather pathetic in comparison.

Notoriety as an author does not happen overnight – the e-book's been out for less than a year. And nobody has the power to wave a magic wand and turn me into a best-selling author immediately. It's sometimes very discouraging to keep on hammering at the promotion when tangible results are not evident. But the only solution seems to be to keep at it. Without it, some of those extra 23 sales last year might not have happened. Maybe this is the way it has to be. I am at the bottom of a very long ladder. One tiny step at a time is the way to go.

So saying, I have two more guest blog posts lined up this month. I better go and get on with them.

Geek Heaven

Further proof, if it was needed, that I am a geeky girl. I am getting very excited by this website. Hubby discovered this site when he was looking to buy me Christmas presents last year – he got me the Sunnydale High School T-shirt.

There are so many wonderfully geeky things on this website, I can't choose my favourite. I do rather like the T-virus T-shirt. Of course, all Resident Evil fans know how quickly the T-virus spreads. You put this shirt in your drawer, and before you know it, all your T-shirts will be turning into zombies and going off on a murderous rampage…



I also like the "+20 shirt of smiting". That would come in handy on the underground, when I can't get a seat.

If none of this makes any sense to you, you're not a geek. I, on the other hand, want to buy everything on the "ThinkGeek" website. And this comes after a week of wandering around clothes shops on Oxford Street looking at dresses, and failing to find anything I was inspired to buy.

Again, I repeat the mantra: Say it clear, and say it loud. I am a geek, and I am proud.

Guest Post on Carolyn Arnold's Blog

Today I am the featured blogger on fellow AbsoluteWriter Carolyn Arnold's "Welcome Mat Wednesdays" spot, where I talk about being a writer with a day job. Hop on over to Carolyn's blog here to take a look-see.

The Advantage of Lazy Cats

I encountered an upsetting sight on my way to the sports centre for my Sunday morning swim this morning. There was a dead cat lying by the road. I actually recognised the cat – I have seen it dashing across that road quite often. I guess it used up all of its nine lives doing so.

My lazy cats

When I got home I sought out my cats, to find them curled up asleep on the bed – which is where they had been when I left them. I took this picture of them. I guess there's an advantage to having fat lazy cats who sleep all day and show little inclination to venture outside – they are less likely to get run over.

I don't know who the unfortunate cat belongs to, but some family's going to be very upset when they find out what happened to their pet. Urban roads are hazardous places for family pets. I am quite glad my cats prefer the indoors.

Review of "Mistress of the Art of Death"

I was gutted to hear about the death of Diana Norman, British writer and journalist, and wife of Barry Norman (also a well-known British journalist, and face of the BBC's Film Review programme for most of the 80s and 90s).



Writing as Ariana Franklin, Diana Norman was the author of the "Mistress of the Art of Death" series, and it seems a fitting tribute to talk about these on my blog today.

The first book is set in 12th-century England. The bodies of several murdered children have been discovered in Cambridge. The Jews are blamed, and are being persecuted by the locals. This troubles the King, Henry II, who is rather fond of the Jews, mostly because they pay him a lot in taxes. He calls for the King of Sicily, a land advanced in forensic medicine, to send him a "master of the art of death", someone who can study the children's bodies to determine what happened to them. The King of Sicily sends his best forensic expert, but the "master" is a "mistress" – a woman doctor from the Salerno School of Medicine, one of the few such schools enlightened enough in those days to admit female students.

Adelia is skilled at what she does, but she finds England a primitive, unenlightened place, where women with unusual skills are persecuted as witches. In the interests of her own safety, she and her travelling companion,the Arab Mansur, concoct a plan: he will pretend to be the doctor, and claim to not speak English, so when he allegedly studies the patient she will translate for him, thus requiring her presence at the scene without arousing suspicion.

The author's descriptions make medieval England come alive, and Henry II, who appears as a character, seems impressively accurate – an arrogant man, clearly accustomed to giving orders and having them obeyed, yet more comfortable hunting than politicking, and for all his flaws he comes across as something of an egalitarian – respecting people skillled in their craft, regardless of race, creed or gender. So it comes to pass that Adelia impresses him with her ability to 'speak' to corpses and when she covers the true murderer of the children, Henry decides she must remain in England so that he can call on her again in the future.

I am fond of strong female characters, and although the unenlightened age of medieval England did not exactly encourage independent-minded women, Adelia comes across as a realistic and appealing character, doing her best to find a place in this strange and primitive land where she doesn't belong.

I have read the first three books in this series. I have been looking forward to reading the fourth, and now sadly final, tale of Adelia's adventures.

Early Mornings

(Cross-posted from the WriteClub blog).

Those who have been following my blog a while will be aware that in order to be disciplined about getting some writing in before work, I get up early a couple of mornings a week. This time of year it's still dark, and cold, at 6:30 when I leave the house. As I glance at the darkened windows of the homes I pass on the way to the station, I feel slightly envious that everyone else is still in bed. The train is quite busy, though, so clearly I'm not the only person awake at that time of day.

My destination is Starbucks on Regent Street, and I usually get there just after 7:30am. When it's cold out, my destination is all the more welcoming. It's warm and bright. The staff are friendly, and they know me there now. They know what I usually order. They know I'm working on a book – they sometimes ask how it's going.

I set up at a table downstairs – the same table every time, partly because I'm a creature of habit and partly because there's a power point there I can plug my NetBook into. It's quiet at that time of day, and the place is empty. I take off my coat, boot up the NetBook, and get started on the WIP over my soya latte and ginger muffin. There's free wifi too, so often, while I'm trying to get my brain into gear I'll check emails or take a peek at Facebook.

When I leave the coffee shop to go to work, about an hour later, I have to bundle up once more to face the winter air. But it's daylight by that time, there's a long queue at the counter and the streets are packed with commuters.

As I greet the day, I feel a sense of accomplishment. My working day is just beginning, but I've already got my daily word count in. Those early starts are worth the effort.