Andrew Toynbee's Blog, page 9
October 25, 2013
So tough...
Reblogged from Adventures and Musings of a Hedgewitch:
The fact that Scotty survived where others fell has always left me wondering... until now.
October 17, 2013
Published for a year…
On October 17th, 2012, I clicked a button marked ‘Upload’ and sat back, nervously awaiting the delivery of a stream of electronic information to Amazon KDP. Twelve hours later, ‘A Construct of Angels’ was live and I realised that I had finally achieved my dream – to complete a novel and put it up for sale.
Thirty-seven years ago, I could never have dreamed that in this future age of flying cars, silver jumpsuits and daily trips to the Moon, my book would exist only as data and that it would be held in storage in a distant country. Readers would only have to tap it with their finger if they wanted to select, pay for and read it.
Cool.
I am still working to make the paperback version a reality, but with the recent bout of editing that I have subjected the poor thing to, that particular realisation has been delayed yet again. Configuring an electronic (Word-based) template with paragraphs, page breaks, chapters and the odd image isn’t as straightforward as it ought to be. *frowns* It’s now back with my new editor, Tara, after receiving some swathing cuts, including the complete removal of two characters.
In some ways, I hardly seem to have moved on at all. I am still editing and I really need to put A Construct of Angels to bed and pick up the sequel. But it will haunt me if my first book isn’t the best it can possibly be. Only when that’s sorted, can I let it go…
However, as I mentioned in a previous post, One Year On, a great deal has changed for me in the last twelve months (plus I now have 300 followers - who’d have thought?) and I still can’t quite believe how much has been crammed into such a short space of time. I can only wonder what the next twelve months will bring, although I can’t imagine them being as crazy as the last twelve. The learning curve, I feel, is no longer as steep as it has been and for that, I am grateful. 
Regular readers will know that my job sends me all around the UK. Well, by sheer chance, this week happens to have landed me back at the exact same desk from where I uploaded my book, one year ago. I am experiencing an eerie sense of deja vu – again.
It’s another reminder of what’s changed. If I could borrow Sandra Bullock’s time-travelling postbox (The Lake House), I would send my past self a message that says ‘hang on to your hat.’
Not that I wear a hat. I’m not Terry Pratchett.
Anyway, until Tara has finished looking over my new edits, I’m hoping to press on with the ‘A Vengeance of Angels.’ I’d really liked to have completed it, one year on, but life has a peculiar way of rearranging even the best-laid plans of mice and authors.
.
October 16, 2013
10 Reasons you should start building your future now
Reblogged from Wiseslacker.com:
These days you can't do anything without money. We all need money, but what happens when you don't build your future for yourself?
While employed you can get hit by a car and get crippled and who will help you then?
10 Reasons you should start building your future now:
If you get seriously sick employer will replace you and that's it.
If ever there was a good reason to write novels, this is it...
October 10, 2013
Inspiration can be in the oddest of places
Reblogged from Kellie Doherty: Have Pen, Will Pen:
A Funny
Ah yes... writers have a skewed viewpoint of the world... but in a good way.
October 9, 2013
The Crazed Antics of Cheating Authors
Reblogged from Amazon Alert: Your Guide to Unethical Authors:
For several weeks, Zon Alert bloggers have tracked the crazed antics of the cheating authors we’ve identified as they attempted to deny any wrongdoing. If we didn’t have full understanding of how these authors operated before, we sure do now. These authors have been working overtime to cover their tracks, to try to discredit Zon Alert and The Fiverr Report.
Wow... I had no idea all this was going on. Anyone else heard of this??
October 8, 2013
#Warnings for #self-published #authors
Reblogged from On Getting Published, Good Books, and Living Goddesses:
Here's a cautionary post from the fine folks at ALLi. Click for the link.
Take a few moments to read this note from ALLi...
October 7, 2013
A must read if you want your Gravatar to work for you!
Reblogged from mybrandofgenius:
Are you lost in the cyberspace of the blogosphere? Most everybody knows what a Gravatar is, right? It’s that little image you inserted that tells people who you are. However, if you “like” something on my page, but you have not commented, I have no way to check out your site to see who you are. (BTW, if I have a lot of likes/comments on something, the notifications box has probably scrolled you away before I had time to check you out, especially if I wasn't sitting by the computer.) We might could become good friends and have a nifty online relationship…if I can find you.
Is your Gravatar web-ready?
‘Angels Week’ – no writing, but several locations visited.
September’s Angels week was, due to various reasons, deferred until the first week of October. The headline says it all. I didn’t get any writing done, but I did manage to spend a productive day in York where I visited one of the proposed locations for ‘Vengeance of Angels.’
The location in question was York St. Mary’s – a former church, now an Arts centre.
Whilst the artwork that was on display was beyond me, the ladies who were at St. Mary’s on the day were very helpful, allowing me to examine the interior of the building and also to take photographs for my notes – something that’s normally prohibited.
I was also able to ascertain whether it would be practical for my characters to spend the night in St. Mary’s. This is essential to the later part of the story, because there is something very, very special about this building, something that makes it a suitable hiding place.
