Rod Tyson's Blog, page 43
December 19, 2014
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February 4, 2013
WIP
A shamelessly irrelevant pic of meon holiday over ChristmasI can't deny that during December and January I've been taking a bit of a sabbatical from writing in order to regain some perspective about the whole thing. In fact there have been times when I've been actively avoiding it because, after my first year as a self pub author, a year which has seen some real highs (the enthusiastic response after the release of The Orphan Stone) and lows (the Kidwell-e festival debacle in Wales) I felt drained and exhausted with the whole thing.
I'll be honest, with life being so hard lately due to the widespread economic hardships that many of us are facing, I'm a bit narked at myself for not writing. That tangible progress is one of the things that helps me feel good about life, the universe and of course, cat food. However, the break over the holidays has provided me with an opportunity to gather new ideas and with the approach of spring it's time to get stuck back in.
It's a bit late for New Year resolutions, but this year I'll do a few things differently, like entering as many writing competitions as possible.
The rise in the number of self-pub writing competitions is an exciting step forward for the industry, though often poorly advertised, they offer authors a more level playing field where the promotional 'white noise' generated by the literary social networking scene isn't such an obstacle to getting the word out about your work.
At least that's the theory - after being shortlisted myself for the Kidwell-e book prize last year and seeing Chris Grey's achievements in the Chicken House literary competition very recently (see below for more on this) it's got to be worth pursuing, right?
Here's a list of a few of the better known literary competitions - If you're an aspiring self pub author, take note. I'll add more throughout the year as I find them -
Times/ Chicken House annual children's fiction competition - http://doublecluck.com/submissions/ - Taking submissions in March 2013.
Amazon Breakthrough contest -
http://www.amazon.com/Breakthrough-Novel-Award-Books/b?ie=UTF8&node=332264011
CHRIS GREY APPEARS IN 'THE TIMES'! -
Recently my friend and fellow fantasy author Chris Grey - interviewed on this blog a few months back here, has been mentioned in The Times newspaper. His novel 'Flight of the Griffin' has been longlisted along with around 20 other authors for the Chicken House annual literary prize! Having anyone you know encountering any form of success is obviously a major inspiration for the rest of us, so huge congratulations Chris and very best of luck!
You can see him here -
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/books/childrensbooks/article3653704.ece
And Chris's blog right here - http://flightofthegriffin.blogspot.co.uk/
