Stuart G. Yates's Blog, page 10

Adventures in writing 3…a personal journey by Stuart G Yates

The book was rejected.

I knew, deep down, that it would be, but it still hurt. The rejection letter, however, is still one the most uplifting I have ever received. I still have it. In fact, I have all of them, either hard copies or e-mails. And there are quite a few. They only re-enforce my determination to carry on.

And carry on I did.

I remember coming up with a story which I thought was good. This time, I actually sat down and planned it, which was rare for me in those days. Often it was just a case of me sitting down and hammering away at the old Olivetti. Did I mention this was my brother’s typewriter? No, probably not. He was not amused when he discovered that I was putting it to such excessive us.

Well, anyway, this story. I had high hopes for it, and the first draft simply oozed out from underneath the ribbon, a little like a lasagne maker, all smooth and perfect. Good enough to eat! OK, I exaggerate…but only a little! I was so pleased with it that I decided to employ a professional typist to get it ready for publication.

Yes, you read that correctly.

I was actually willing to pay money to have it beautifully collated and prepared.

I went to see this person, who had one of those huge, impressive golf-ball machines. Don’t know if you remember these, but they were the peak of type-writing technology in those days. She showed me copies of university dissertations she had done, and they looked wonderful. So clean, so neat. When I thought back to my ‘Tippex’ covered bits of rag, I felt humbled. This woman was perfect! So, I explained the situation. I was an author (EEK!) and wanted my story word-perfect. I pointed out that, because it was a work of fiction, it may well contain some swearing, perhaps some violence, and a spattering of…sex.

Now, it was at this point that I noted the raising of one eyebrow. She didn’t look up, just held my tatty manuscript in her hands, head down. But that eyebrow should have warned me.

She gave me her rates, which were not excessive, so I asked her to go ahead.

About a fortnight later, she called at my house. She had done the first few pages. They looked…sublime. I had an urge to bow down and kiss her feet. I resisted. Of course, these first few pages did not contain any of the afore mentioned swearing, violence or…sex.

Buoyed up, I thanked her – paid her – and off she went, telling me she would be in touch.

I never heard from her again.

I’m not sure why. I tried phoning her, but no reply. I even went around to her house, but no answer. She was obviously in; the car was in the drive, the curtains open. It could have been a scene from one of my thrillers…a murder mystery perhaps, ‘The disappearance of the stern-secretary’…who knows. Whatever the reason, I never met her again.

I have long suspected it was all that swearing. Or the violence. But surely not the sex? No…surely not!

I still have that story in a box somewhere, along with a lot of others. Perhaps one day I will resurrect them. Time will only tell.

For now, however, time was moving on. I was drifting from one dead-end job (when I could get one) to the next. I decided it was time to get an education, so at 29 years of age, I went back to school. Night school. Two years of that got me into University, and another fours later and I was a qualified teacher.

But the urge to write still persisted. No, wrong word – dominated!

 

You can find details about me and my books on my website (which is about to be revamped) on www.horroronthecosta.com, or on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Just put in a search for Stuart G Yates, or Glenn Stuart if you prefer horror! I hope you like what you see.

 

 

 

The Joys of Writing…a personal journey by Stuart G Yates…

The thing is, writing is lonely.

Not that that makes it a bad option. How many of us long to wander through a world of our own, a world where we decide what happens; whether people live or die, are happy or sad, fulfil dreams, end up broken and defeated, where villains get their comeuppance and heroes are just who we want them to be. Wow, wouldn’t you just love that?

My dream was to write. That was it. Nothing any more complicated than that. Yes, of course I had the occasional thought of living on a South Sea island, of sports cars and beautiful women…Stupid, I know…but my main drive was to write. Later, when I finally did become published, the dream changed into wanting to write a best-seller – but more about that another time.

For now, I was sixteen. School had ended – youpi! I’d scraped together two ‘O’ levels. I wasn’t going to get very far with them, but what did I care. I was free. And I didn’t have a job.

So began my first foray into the world of unemployment. This was to happen to me three more times in my life. One stretch without a job was to meander on for thirteen months! This first stint was for only three. And I hardly thought of writing at all, because my mind was on other things. Especially when I finally did find a job. Girls became very important all of a sudden.

I always thought about writing. A friend and I would meet up every Monday evening and we’d write and record comedy sketches. We wrote songs too. Looking back now, I realise how good that time was, how creative and alive it all seemed. I lost touch with Norman, that good friend of mine, and I wish I hadn’t. We could have achieved something, I’m sure.

The sad fact is, when you’re young, you don’t really care. Ideas come, they go. There is always tomorrow. If only I was wise back then (not that I’m much wiser now, but at least experience has taught me quite a few things, most notably the absolute necessity to floss).  

I hated that job. Truly. I wished the weeks away and when I had finally had enough – after spending too many bitterly cold mornings stood on the platform of Exchange Street Station, Liverpool selling newspapers to the groggy-eyed passengers – I decided to put in my resignations…and write.

Sounds bold, doesn’t it. Here he was, the courageous young writer, cast out into the world, to sink or swim by his own efforts. Or short-sighted and idiotic. I’ll leave you to pass the final judgement on that.

So, I took to writing. I’d hole myself up in my room, armed with an Olivetti typewriter, sheets of carbon-paper and about a ten-gallon pot of correction fluid. Paper I found anywhere, even buying it sometimes.

In those days, of course, the writing process was very different. Before the advent of the word processor, it was a case of bashing away on the typewriter keys, stopping every so often to un-jam them as my imagination sped me along. Then, correcting and editing with pencil, followed by more furious typing well into the night. Every so often Dad would appear with a cup of tea, asking me how my ‘memoirs’ were coming on. My memoirs? I was nineteen, with not much of a life to write about at all, but I had stories. Stories in abundance.

I got a job, with the local council. It actually paid good money and it gave me the opportunity to meet lots of people. And the experiences mounted. There’s nothing quite like sitting in the front seat of security van, handing over five hundred pounds of collected rent, whilst watching a car with a house-brick marching with grim determination straight towards you – it focuses the mind, turns the bowels to liquid.

Yes, experiences multiplied. So did the stories. In Nineteen Seventy-Nine, after working every free minute, I finally had a novel ready for submission.

It was fifty-thousand words long and I was very proud of it.

At my local library, I hunted down the Writers and Artists Yearbook, and found a well-known, reputable publisher (yes, in those days publishers actually accepted unsolicited submissions, unbelievable as that may sound now!). I packed my book in a stout manila envelope , included the return postage, a hand-written introductory letter, and posted it off. My new baby, thrown out into the cruel world. Alone. I told you this writing business was a lonely one.

Then I had to wait.

For three months I waited, chewing my fingernails, waiting for the postman every day, the stress building. Dreams of that South Sea island became ever-more dominant in my poor, addled brain. Three months.

Things have certainly changed all right.

 

The joys…

I remember it well, that very first time I actually sat down with the clear intention of writing a story. Not just a scribble, or something the teacher had directed me to do, but an honest attempt to create something of my own.

Nan had always been a reader. Agatha Christie mainly, and she loved them. I remember giving her a old ‘whodunit’ by C.S.Forester (of Hornblower fame) and she devoured it in a day. I’d been struggling to get through the first page. I was 12 however, so I suppose that has some bearing on my bafflement over the writer’s unique writing style. Well, I decided to write her a whodunit of my own. I went to my room, armed with paper and pen, and worked out all the false trails, clues, all of that…and I produced twelve pages. One for each of my years. Not that that was a conscious act, it was simply the extent of my imagination in those days.

I bashed it out on my older brother’s Olivetti typewriter, draw a cover in coloured pencils, and stapled it all together. I’d even written a little blurb on the back, put the copyright inside the front cover. Even then I knew about those things. Looking back, I’m amazed I didn’t take the literary world by storm!

She read it, and as she read I could see her as she pulled on her Senior Service (she smoked about 40-50 of these lethal things every day. She was 85 when she died. Makes you want to run away to a Buddhist monastery and rediscover the meaning of life, doesn’t it!). She chewed at her bottom lips, made little sounds from the back of her throat, frowned and scratched her head.

She hated it. I could tell.

Finally, she came to the last page and sat back, studying the small, insignificant leaflet in her hand. I’d slaved over it for…well, at least an hour. Maybe two. That’s a long time when you’re 12. I couldn’t believe it had all been for nothing.

She turned and looked at me. “Stuart,” she said, then lit another cigarette, blew out a long stream of smoke. I sat cross-legged, eager eyes glued to her. “That was wonderful.”

I blinked. What had she just said? Wonderful? Did she mean it, was it true? I reached forward and gripped her knee. “Nan…you liked it?”

“Yes, of course I did. And I couldn’t work out who it was either.” She smiled and handed back the story.

I’ve still got it. 43 years later. By now it is yellowed, torn, the spin covered in layers of cracked, brittle Sellotape, but it’s there, it exists. My first outing in the world of writing.

It wasn’t to be my last.

Here’s Nan and me when I was about 10. Happy, carefree days…those Blue-Remembered Hills…

You can find out a little more about me on the glenn Stuart author papge on Amazon, or the Stuart G Yates spotlight on Smashwords. I have 11 books published, with 2 more out in October, 2012. I am currently writing another adult thriller. You can see me on Facebook.

 

 

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