Jaque Thay's Blog, page 3

Beware an April fool

At the start of April I had high hopes – business had picked up after the quiet post-Christmas period, I was going to complete Screnzy for the second year running and I had plans in place to attend the Edinburgh lit festival in August. Unfortunately work picked up so much that I've had to drop Screnzy entirely (although it certainly isn't unlucky as far as my bank balance goes). Also, despite best laid plans, falling short of a miracle I shall not be performing signings or running workshops at the lit festival. It's too expensive for me to justify the travel and accomodation without a sponsor and the person I met in London unfortunately felt their money could be better used elsewhere by bringing people who already had a connection to Edinburgh to the festival. While I could afford to go still, I don't have the financial safety net that a sponsor would provide so if everything goes wrong… well, it would be difficult to pay rent afterwards.

On the other hand, April has been but the calm before the storm when compared to May. I'm already booked for two weekends away – one to Bristol for the annual Small Press Expo where I'm appearing as a guest of Deadstar Publishing, the other is my holiday; a weekend in London with some friends. In addition to that I've already provisionally accepted several pieces of work to be completed throughout May, as well as a number of books to read for the purpose of reviewing them. Books that can look forward to include Marc vun Kannon's St. Martin's Moon, Karly Kirkpatrick's Bloody Little Secrets and D. M. Anderson's Killer Cows. In addition to all those, I have dates to finalise for my book signings between June and September. All that before I think about work for a follow up to Twictions or any of my other ongoing writing projects. Yes, I was an April fool, and soon I will suffer from May madness.

Immortal by Gene Doucette

It can safely be said that immortality is a topic that many authors have written about over the years; just from the books on my shelf I can name Portrait of Dorian Grey, Dracula and Heinlein's Cat who walks through walls as works that deal with the idea of immortality; the consequences and benefits of it, how it affects those with the gift (or curse) and those around them. Immortal, by Gene Doucette, is the latest of such works to pass my desk – and it holds up surprisingly well. Narrated by Adam, the immortal of the title, the book jumps back and fore across millennia exploring his life through the ages and how it has affected the man he is today. This isn't just a book about history though – indeed, there are large parts of his past that Adam has forgotten – instead it looks at what a man will do for love, and the tipping point at which he becomes a hero.

Born sometime around the birth of humanity (he isn't exactly sure when) Adam has spent most of his life avoiding conflict and drinking. From time to time he also searches for the enigmatic Eve – a woman who might be an immortal too. Along the way he's had encounters with demons, dragons – and boy, did we get the myths wrong with those, effrits and pixies. Oh, and vampires too. You see there's no such thing as magic, but a lot of the so called mythical creatures (or underspecies) as Doucette refers to them are real. Not just real, they're faced with the same problems we are: how to get by in a world that increasingly tracks who you are, where you are, and where you've been.

From the utterly innocent pixies to a vampire prostitute, Adam has met everyone through the long long years of his life – except for Jesus. Right town, right period… but somehow still missed him. It's the irony and humour throughout the book that made this such a winner for me. It's easy to pen a novel that retells historical fact but more difficult to weave that narrative into a compelling story. Adam is a character that you cannot help but feel for because he is the absolute embodiment of the man who has been there, done that, and lived to get the T-Shirt. As a result I'd recommend it to anyone who likes their fantasy with plenty of wry self-references. 

To find out more about Gene, check out his website or follow him on Twitter. Meanwhile you can find Immortal on Amazon, Smashwords and many other sites.

A noteworthy project

I try my best to do good in life; I'm an atheist so I'm not compelled to by religious beliefs, instead I help others because I feel it is the right thing to do. In the past I've organised and attended events for Oxfam's Bookfest – something I intend to do again this year – but my current charitable goal is to help publicise The Note Project. This international effort encourages us all to make the world a better place by saying thank you.

Everybody receives help on a daily basis – whether it be from a neighbour collecting a parcel for you or your boss allowing you to slip away five minutes early to pick up the kids from school. How often do we thank these people though? How often do we truly tell them how much we appreciate what they've done for us? What about your teachers, your employers, your friends and family? The people who've taken chances on you, or who've got you out from a tight spot? When was the last time you told them how much their efforts meant to you? That response is the core value behind the Note Project. It wants us to be thankful, and it wants us to feel valued for the help that we have given others.

To take part is simple; visit their website and pledge to send a note of appreciation, a thank you to someone for their actions. We would love to reach a goal of a million notes. More if we could! Doing that would show that there is room in the world for people who do good deeds. The Note Project goes further than that though: they have also pledged to fulfil a 12×12x12 donation; to fund 12 literary projects in 12 countries over the next 12 months. I'm not asking you to give money, but if you value literacy worldwide join me by spreading goodwill and informing others about the possibilities it raises.

I've been a sponsor since I first heard about this initiative, spreading messages about it over Facebook and Twitter and now I'm cementing that relationship with a blog post, so, thank you Note Project for allowing me to get involved. Together we'll reach the goal of a million thank yous. Together we can change the world.

Interesting week coming up…

Allegedly there is a chinese curse that "wishes you to live in interesting times". I feel that might be applied to me at present. Next week I will spend Monday in London, then hopefully Tuesday and Wednesday will be spent arranging a trip to Edinburgh. The reason for this?

On Monday Vintage books are hosting an open day to mark their 21st anniversary and they've arranged for 30 guests to come, meet with a panel of publishing industry experts and learn the secrets of how Random House and their numerous imprints get things done. On the same day I'll be meeting with a promoter for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Now, nothing is confirmed until we've met, but there's the chance that I will be performing one or more book signings at the festival.

Oh, as an afterthought, I'll be spending Thursday and Friday selecting stories. I'll tell you more about that on May 22nd!

TweetDeck down…

I've been using Twitter for almost a year, and for most of that time I've avoided the website (fantastic idea… horrible implementation) and have used TweetDeck to manage my Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn feeds at once. I loved TweetDeck because it was easy to use, intuitive and came with a lot more features than the Twitter website provides for. Unfortunately I suffered a power cut a few days ago and since then TweetDeck won't work for me. It loads, I can post updates from it… but I can't see any of the columns I used to watch.

I've tried reinstalling it, rebooting the computer, rebooting the program, but none of them have helped. For a day or two I tried going back to Twitter's own website – afterall, that should be everything I need, right? Wrong. With a cluttered display, no ability to easily access multiple feeds at once, having to click from tab to tab to see whether someone has replied to me rather than broadcast to the world it's very cumbersome. Not to mention the lack of features (embedded video, link shortening, running in the background) that TweetDeck did. So, on the suggestion of @RobMay I've tried Seesmic. Once I've had the chance to thoroughly test it I'll write a comparative report but initial gut feeling is not positive…

A Wylie reader will want Jennifer's new story

Today I'm going to look at Jennifer Wylie's story Banished, which is the first in the Tales of Ever series published by Echelon Press imprint Quake. Quake caters for the young adult audience who want to read but "Don't want to read THAT!" In other words, Quake publishes easy to understand, accessible sagas of linked novellas aimed at audiences bored of Twilight clones and dumbed-down formulaic YA money spinners.

As the opening section of Mischa Rathburn's adventures in the land of Ever and an exploration of her coming to terms with possessing pyrokinetic powers Banished fares well. Despite the large amount of exposition to be handled Wylie keeps the story moving constantly so that there is never time to grow bored of the plot. Concisely written, the ebook stands at 50 pages – plenty of time to establish characters, introduce key concepts and even to fit in some action with carniverous plants. These pages are used well; although slow starting the plot builds over time as Mischa adapts to her surroundings and learns what is necessary for survival, not just on Earth but in Ever too.

At times Wylie's choice of language can seem a little basic – I know Banished is written for the still developing minds of young adults but it wouldn't hurt to challenge their reading abilities a little bit with some more complex sentence structure once in a while. On the other hand, this clarity and simplicity of writing works to the story's advantage as the language used does feel natural for the age of the protagonist.

Throughout the story there is recurring evidence that being different does not make you wrong or dangerous – people can be fearful of those that are different from themselves, but it is not the differences that should define us. Mischa is feared because she has powers that most women do not – but she does not want to harm others and tries her hardest to avoid doing so.

In all I enjoyed Banished – there was enough of a story to keep me interested throughout and the cliffhanger is sufficient to make me want to read the second part, Fire Girl, which is now available. If you would like to learn more about Jennifer Wylie then take a look at her website. Meanwhile you can purchase Banished from Smashwords and Amazon now.

Boycott: the developing Dorchester situation

Over the past 18 months there have been rumours within the publishing industry that all was not well with Dorchester/Leisure Publishing. Reports emerged that the SFWA among other groups had put them on probabtionary status pending review or improvement and a few days ago Brian Keene announced that after the situation deteriorated further he and other Dorchester authors were calling for a boycott.

As a freelance editor and proofreader (and recently published indie author) I'm well aware of how difficult it can be to make a living in this industry at the best of times. When your publishing house - an entity you should be able to trust completely - starts deceiving you and denying you access to funds that are rightfully yours that's even worse. I support this boycott wholeheartedly.

The three key tenets of Keane's boycott are as follows:

If you follow Dorchester on twitter, unfollow them.
If you are a fan on Facebook, unlike.
Don't buy their products, no matter how good a deal they seem to be.

Spread the word and help achieve justice for Brian Keene and countless other authors. You can read more about Brian's actions on his blog.

Daps 2011

One of the first books I ever worked on was a small production called Daps. Back then I didn't edit for money – I was still a student. Daps is a creative writing anthology published annually by students at the University of Glamorgan. It showcases the best writing talent each year and many contributors have gone on to be highly successful authors. Just a few of the notable figures to have had works appear in Daps include Trevor Byrne, Rachel Tresize and Maria Donovan (who wrote the back-cover review for my book, Twictions). Daps is a chance for students to learn about the publishing industry first hand – while lecturers will assist if asked, students are wholly responsible for sourcing submissions, weeding out the weakest pieces, then editing, typesetting and producing the book each year.

With a history now spanning eleven years, the most recent edition (released March 22nd 2011) has a lot to live up to. The first thing I noticed when I picked up this year's copy at the launch party on Tuesday was how slim it was. In recent years there has been a trend towards including as much as possible in order to showcase the widest range of talent. The editors this year have trimmed the book back to more managable 82 pages. In doing so the editorial team were able to reduce the printing cost and thus the retail cost this year is only £3 – down from last year's £5. Of the 16 pieces represented in the anthology, "Self-Analysis" by David Langdon was my favourite, closely followed by Alexander Breathnach's "Boxes". Langdon's introspective tale managed to cram an astounding number of surprising twists into such a short piece while Breathnach's work was highly reminsicent of sci-fi classics revolving around the ethics of cloning. Both of these authors have the potential to be big names in a few years. Another highly powerful piece was Charmaine Hanratty's non-fiction retelling of the harrowing abuse she underwent in 1970s South Africa. With "Timol Heights" Hanratty elegently conveys her own defiance against unjust laws and gives a glimpse into Apartheid not usually encountered.

Make no mistake, this is a student production – there are editorial mistakes, misplaced apostrophes and the occaisional typo but don't forget either that these anthologies are produced to enable volunteers to learn about the processes involved in book publication. Daps is a opportunity for all involved to develop skills and showcase excellent writing. It is not a professional level publication and should not be judged as such.

For anybody interested in catching new writers at the very beginning of their careers I would advise purchasing a copy – you never know, one of this years authors may be the next Dan Rhodes or Ross Raisin!

Enjoying a night of Comic Relief

Yesterday I attended a charity party organised by fellow writer Patrick Montgomery. The Big Red Hootenanny, as the event has been dubbed, featured comedians, musicians and lots of raffles. Held upstairs in O'Neils near Cardiff Central Station (funny, I didn't even know there was an upstairs before last night) things kicked off at 6.30pm and quickly went from there. Compered by Steve Mellor (who interspersed the night with his own brand of musical comedy) the night went well and was for a good cause – all the proceeds raised will be donated to Comic Relief.

There were a variety of acts ranging from Drew Davies (of Stiffs fame) to Verity Smith who treated us to a stand-up show based around the theme of stand-up comedy. Also present were winner of the Welsh Unsigned Stand Up Award, Taylor Glenn, and musician JD Kelly.  Glenn riffed on about the Welsh and our sense of dark humour, referring back to some of Mellor's more… interesting tunes along with other, less child-friendly topics. She did face some heckling from elements in the crowd but managed to keep them on her side right to the end of her side-splitting set. Next up came Joe (JD) Kelly – a man whom I've had the pleasure of working with before on the Supermarket Matters recording sessions. His renditions of  Wicked Game amongst others had everyone joining in and singing along.

We were treated to even more music after that when Steve Mellor and Verity returned to the stage to perform their Comic Relief themetune Red on the Inside. Despite a few giggles and hiccups (they couldn't quite remember the words!) it went well, and of course, it was all for charity so a few mistakes were overlooked.

Throughout the evening donations were taken and raffle tickets sold; the draw for the prizes started around 10pm and continued, with a few after each act, until midnight. Prizes included a copy of Phil Jupitus's book, Ana Catris' Subo's cat (you can read my review of that here), Deadstar Publishing's Rising Stars, food vouchers, original artwork and more. For my part I won a cinematic poster of "The Forbidden Kingdom".

In all, I think a lot of fun was had all round, and around (I'll amend the total once I know the final figure) £500 was raised for Comic Relief. Sales from Steve and Verity's Red on the Inside will continue to boost this figure for a while though.

If you want to hear it then you should look to their website, iTunes or Amazon. You can, of course, also donate directly to Comic Relief.

A comment on my lack of comments.

Oops. I messed up. When I updated the code to bring this blog's appearance in line with the rest of my site I overlooked something: comments. I forgot to include the required technobabble and squiggly lines  to let you guys respond to my posts. I'm looking to rectify by the end of this week, workload permitting.

Sorry!