Dane Cobain's Blog, page 8

On Quitting Smoking

It’s been over two weeks since I last smoked tobacco and I’m feeling pretty good about it. I haven’t been using any nicotine replacements and so I’m no longer physically addicted, and right now I can’t imagine that I’ll go back to smoking. I’m pretty proud of the fact that I’m not smoking. Here’s why.

I’ve been getting into Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) tests recently and learning more about the different character types. The way I see it, stuff like astrology is based on random factors like when you’re born, whereas MBTI types are based on the way that you think and act. For me, it’s not far off those conversations you have with friends about which Friends or Star Wars character you’d be.

The reason I mentioned that is because my type is INTJ, and I think that I quit smoking for a very INTJ reason. Two of the big stereotypical INTJs are Elon Musk and Batman, which kind of makes sense. INTJs are “architects”, fond of “relentless intellectualism and chess-like manouvering”.

According to 16personalities.com, “Architect personalities tend to believe that with effort, intelligence and consideration, nothing is impossible, while at the same time they believe that people are too lazy, short-sighted or self-serving to actually achieve those fantastic results. Yet that cynical view of reality is unlikely to stop an interested Architect from achieving a result they believe to be relevant.”

I quit smoking because I don’t want to die, which isn’t necessarily an INTJ trait. But what is very INTJ is the reason why I don’t want to die. It’s not so I can spend more time with friends and family before I shuffle off this mortal coil and end up in nothingness. No, it’s so I can write a couple more books to leave behind as my legacy, even if no one reads them.

The way I see it, that’s what I live for in the first place. On top of that, those final years of life are when you should theoretically be at your best. After all, you’ve had a lifetime to get good at what you do, and it’s not the same as something like singing or playing sports where your body grows too old to keep up with you. As long as your mind is still sharp, those last five years that you’d otherwise lose to tobacco could be your best yet.

Still, if it works it works, and this seems to be working for me. Now that the initial cravings are out of the way, it’s just a case of sticking to it. And every time I’m tempted to go to the shop to buy tobacco, I think about all the books that it will stop me from writing. It’s pretty easy from there on in.

What I’m Currently Working On

Hi, folks! Today, I thought I’d take some time to share a few quick updates about where I am with stuff and what I’m currently working on. It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these and I actually find these crazy helpful to focus myself, so bear with me. There’s a lot to go through. Let’s go.

Netflix and Kill: This is the second book in the Leipfold series and the follow-up to Driven. I know a bunch of you guys are keen to read more and the good news is that it’s back with my editor for the third and final pass of editing. I’m hoping to have it out towards the end of summer.

Jailed and Other Stories: This is my working title for a book of short stories that acts as a sort of prequel to the Leipfold books and which investigates the detective’s past. I’ve finished the first draft of it and my own initial read through, so now I just need to wait until we’ve finished editing Netflix and Kill so we can start to edit this one.

Meat: A horror novel set on a factory farm. I’m still writing the first draft on this one but it’s pushing 105,000 words and I’d estimate it’s somewhere between 80 and 90% complete. I’m hoping to finish the first draft before I turn 29 in June. Before then, if possible.

Wycombe Sound: This isn’t a book, but it is quite exciting. I’ll be appearing on Wycombe Sound, the local radio station (which you can also listen to online), once a month to talk about books and stuff. The next date is Thursday 17th May and I’ll be on Planet Clare at 9 PM. Be sure to tune in!

BookTube: I’ve talked a lot about this over the last few months, but I just wanted to give you a little update to let you know that I’m still posting a video a day and loving it. My channel’s been growing a lot this year, which is super exciting, but what’s even more exciting is that I can see people watching my videos and then going to pick up the books that I recommended. That happens with SocialBookshelves.com too, but the results are less visible, less tangible. Be sure to subscribe to my channel if you want to stay up-to-date.

Memoirs: My next major project will be my memoirs, or at least what I guess will be the first part of them if I live long enough. But I’ve hatched plans and sketched out the outline of a book which is basically about my life to date but told through the books I’ve read, the authors I’ve met and the adventures I’ve been on. There’s actually a surprising amount to talk about.

Leipfold Book #4: I haven’t started writing this one yet, but I have finished planning it out and it even has the tentative title of Boys in Blue. I will be working on it at some point, probably towards the end of the year, but there’s no major rush on it as even if I had it written right now, it’d still have to go into the queue of stuff that I have for my editor.

The Real Monsters: This is the project that I’m currently planning, and it’s basically a cross between Spinal Tap and Lord of the Rings. That’s all I’m going to tell you about it right now because it’s still early days and I haven’t even finished fleshing out the characters, much less the plot. But I’m excited about it. I even have some grand plans for cool stuff like 3D printed figurines. Watch this space.

So there we have it: those are the primary projects that I’m currently working on. I’m super excited to share them all with you too, but of course I also need to put in a bunch of work to get it all done, and so I’d better head off and get started. I’ll see you soon.

Should You Go to London Book Fair?

On the run up to this year’s London Book Fair, I realised that a lot of people have been asking me whether I think it’s worth going to it. After all, tickets are around £50 and then you have to factor in travel costs and potential missed revenue.

For me, it’s really a question of what you’re hoping to get from it. I go along because I get value from it in a range of different ways. I can promote my book blog, my freelance work and my books depending upon who I’m talking to, and I can also wander around and meet up with friends who work in the industry. I also like to be kept up-to-date with what’s going on.

If you’re an aspiring author and you go to London Book Fair because you want to find an agent or a publisher, you’re probably going to be disappointed. But if you go along to learn from some of the speaker sessions or to scout out the landscape then you’re going to be happy.

Ultimately, it’s all about setting your expectations. Decide beforehand what you’re hoping to get out of it and then speak to some people who’ve attended in the past and ask them whether your expectations are realistic. They’ll also be able to give you a good idea of whether it’s worth you even going in the first place.

If you want my opinion, I say give it a go sometime. It’s so big you need to see it to believe it, and yet it’s also small and almost close knit. I’m glad that I went last year and I’m glad that I went this year, but I also appreciate it’s not for everyone. You need to be the one to make the call.

In Defence of Negative Reviews

Today, I wanted to take a few moments to talk about something that I’ve seen a lot of people talking about online over the last couple of weeks. It seems to be one of the big topics in the BookTube community at the moment, but it’s really a topic that’s relevant to the wider industry as a whole.

Basically, I keep seeing people saying that if your goal is to become a writer, you should never write a negative review. The idea is that by doing so, you’re closing doors on the publishing industry and alienating people who might want to work with you. They say that if you’re not going to say something nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all.

This is a discussion that hit home with me because I’m both an author and a reviewer, and so I’m exactly the kind of person that this advice is supposed to target. The problem as I see it as that I’d rather be known for my honesty and my integrity and never published than to self-censor myself to make friends.

For a start, as an author myself, I respect reviewers who offer constructive criticism, and at the same time I also know you can’t please everyone. Then there’s the fact that even when you love an author, you don’t love all of their books the same. I find it hard to believe that Stephen King isn’t going to work with me because I gave a couple of his books mediocre reviews after enjoying the vast majority. I find it hard to believe that Stephen King gives a damn about what I think.

But let’s assume for the sake of argument that you do end up not being published because you gave a negative review to a book by one of their authors. Or perhaps the editor involved doesn’t want to work with you. My question is why you’d want to work with a company that blacklisted you for having an opinion or with an editor who worked on a book you didn’t like.

Personally, I think that occasional negative reviews are just a part of life. Like I said, you can’t love everything. I always try to be constructive with my criticism, but even then there are occasional books that I think are technically good but which I just didn’t connect with. Seriously, you can’t love everything, it just doesn’t work like that.

I even write honest reviews when I’m sent a book by a publisher or when I read a book that a friend wrote, which is apparently something of a rarity. I don’t accept paid reviews because I think that makes it hard to stay impartial, but I won’t hesitate to leave a bad review of a book I was sent if I didn’t enjoy it. It’s a little awkward, I guess, if you don’t enjoy a book that a friend wrote, but I’d rather tell them that than to lie to them – and to everyone else as well.

It seems to me that the bookish presence on blogs, YouTube and Instagram is facing a problem which will need to resolve itself one way or another in the next five years or so. When I started blogging, I simply started writing about the books I was already reading, and maybe I took a free book or two every now and then if I was interested. But these days, it’s easy to feel as though every review you see is sponsored, either through a free book or through direct payment. People are blogging purely for the freebies.

That could cause a problem, because it dilutes the integrity of the reviewers who are reading and reviewing what they want – and with honest opinions. I’m proud of the fact that I say it as I see it, but not every reviewer is like that. They’d rather only post positive reviews, even if they don’t actually believe what they’re saying. If it helps them to get published, good for them. But I’d rather do things my way.

I’m Going to London Book Fair!

Hi, folks! Dane here and today I have some exciting news. I’m going to London Book Fair!

I went along last year to get a feel for what’s new in the industry and to meet up with a client of mine, and it was so much fun that I knew I’d have to go again. This year, I have a YouTube following to take along with me, and I also want to go and meet up with the Latvian Literature team. After all, they were kind enough to invite me along to Riga and the Baltics are the market focus this year. I want to show my support!

So if you’re going along to London Book Fair, be sure to let me know! I’ll almost certainly be going along on Tuesday March 10th and I might go along on another one of the days depending upon what my workload is like. So if you fancy meeting up, let me know!

In the meantime, thanks as always for reading and be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter for further updates. I’ll also be vlogging about the Book Fair on my YouTube channel so click here to subscribe to that. I’ll see you soon!

I’m Taking Part in WordsOnThePageAThon!

Hi, folks! Dane here, and today I wanted to let you know that I’ll be taking part in WordsOnThePageAthon, a 24-hour writeathon which is arranged by Angela Hart and which takes place on Saturday April 7th. I’m so excited!

You might remember that I took part in a previous installment back in January. On that day, I hit 11,000 words, mostly by working on the rewrites of Netflix and Kill but also by doing some work on Meat. Meat is now at 80,000 words and is towards the start of the final act, so I’m hoping that WordsOnThePageAThon will take me a little bit closer to the finish line. If I make a decent dent in it before then, I might even be able to finish it!

 

 

Of course, no writeathon like this would be complete without inspiration and hangouts throughout the day, so be sure to head over to the WordsOnThePageAthon website to find out more. You can also click here to see what I got up to during the last one.

In the meantime, thanks as always for reading and be sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter for more. I’ll also do a vlog of some kind that will be up on my YouTube channel, so subscribe to that if you want to check that out. I’ll see you soon!

Introducing Latvian Literature Week!

Hi, folks! So as a few of you know, I was recently lucky enough to be invited along to Riga in Latvia on a press trip to get to know more about the Latvian literature scene and to meet the authors, illustrators, poets, animators, translators, literary agents and more who are making it all happen.

Today is the culmination of that trip, the first day of Latvian Literature Week. Every day this week, I’ll be posting videos on my YouTube channel and reviews and articles on SocialBookshelves.com to give you the lowdown on what’s happening in the Baltics and why Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were selected to be this year’s market focus at London Book Fair. By the way, you can snag tickets for that over here if you want to go along and say hello. I’ll be going too, so be sure to let me know when you’re going to be there.

 

 

I’m not going to say too much here because I think the videos and blog posts speak for themselves and it took me the best part of a week to create them all. What I will say is that over on YouTube you can expect my vlog of the trip, a haul, a Latvian book tag, five bookish facts about Latvia, a couple of reviews and more. Meanwhile, on my b0ok blog, I’ll be writing about what happened on each of the different days and reviewing three of the books that I picked up.

So if you’d like to stay up-to-date with what’s happening, be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel and to follow SocialBookshelves.com on Facebook and Twitter for further updates. You can also find out more about Latvian Literature by clicking here to visit their website or by following them on Facebook and Instagram. And of course, if you’d like to support Latvian authors and get to know more about the scene, you can always go ahead and buy a book. I recommend Soviet Milk by Nora Ikstena. Marvellous.

A last minute trip to Latvia!

Hi, folks! I just wanted to post a quick update to let you know about some exciting book news. Basically, there’s been an opportunity for me to join a press trip to Riga in Latvia on a press trip as part of an initiative to raise the profile of Latvian authors in the UK.

Over thirty Latvian authors are being published in the UK in 2018, which is quite the achievement considering that the Latvian speaking and writing population consists of 1.3 million people. They’ll also have a big presence at London Book Fair, which I’ll be going to, and it’s also the Latvian centenary celebrations in 2018.

I’m not going to say a huge amount here because I wrote about it in more detail on my book blog. What I will say is that I’ll be both blogging and vlogging throughout the trip and I’ll also be posting on Instagram, Twitter etc. (and on my book blog’s Instagram and Twitter profiles too). I’ll also be checking in with them at London Book Fair to see how they’re getting along.

I’m super excited to be a part of all this and I can’t wait to share some of the amazing Latvian literature that I’ll be discovering in the next couple of months. Make sure you keep an eye on my blog and my BookTube channel for further info. I’ll see you soon.

Five Poems

Hi, folks! Okay, so I realised recently that it’s been a while since I shared any of my poetry on here and so I thought it was about time for me to fix that. There’s no theme to any of these poems, mind – they’re just a couple of random ones from my notebook that aren’t too shabby. They won’t necessarily appear in an upcoming collection, but they’re fun in their own little way. I hope you enjoy them!

 

I’m Not Going to be a Rockstar

I’ve come to finally realise

I’m not going to be

a rockstar.

 

I mean,

I can’t sing

without drinking

but when I drink

my chords get clumsy

and I start to drop

my plectrums.

 

Don’t get me wrong,

I love making music

but I don’t think I’ll make

a career of it,

I mean

I’m technically unproficient

and I wouldn’t

make the cut

as a session musician.

 

Still,

at least I have

a backup plan,

I can write

my words

as a session musician.

 

Still,

at least I have

a backup plan,

I can write

my words

with a hangover.

 

I might not be a rockstar

but words make the world move

up and down and round and round

and my head is spinning silently

and I might not be a bestseller

but I can offset the costs

with my royalty checks

if only a little bit.

 

And I can pay my rent

with the work I love.

 

Perfect

You know

you don’t have to be perfect

all of the time

and out of the box,

you know

you can make mistakes

and then shrug your shoulders.

 

Chances are

no one even notices

because you know we are

the primary protagonists

in the stories we tell

about ourselves,

and no one cares

unless you have something

to give to them.

 

Life

can be a vulture

pecking the flesh

off the bones

of its enemies.

 

Still,

Death

can be an asshole

and when you spit

in his face,

you might just

find yourself

running.

 

All I want to know

is when the bar opens.

 

And when the bar

closes.

 

And lowers.

 

Stretch Yourself

Don’t stretch yourself thin,

stretch yourself long

and wide

like a line

of lighthouses,

be the band aid

a mother applies

to her daughter’s knee

when she falls down

climbing trees

or racing on a skateboard

because little girls

are the future,

their potential

full of momentum

and the only people

against equality

are the people who know

it threatens them.

 

Staying Up All Night

Still staying up

all night I see,

it’s the best time

to write

when there’s no one

around you.

 

Sometimes I just need

some tasty vitamins,

or maybe I’m losing

my mind again.

 

It reminds me

of a book I read

by Irvine Welsh

where a man

had a tapeworm

and it thought for him.

 

My stomach

rules my emotions

and tries its best

to derail me,

so this one

is for the soldiers

whose bodies

declare war on them

when their skin swells up

and they hyperventilate.

 

Sometimes

we just need

rest.

 

Rest

is all

we need.

 

Falcon Heavy

Take off and land

the good ship

Falcon Heavy,

launching itself

up up and away

into the atmosphere,

another little piece

of history.

 

Who needs

the work

of David Bowie?

He’s out there

himself

amongst the stars.

 

He’s up high

in the sky

in the light,

a symbol

of the future

just as subtle

as a freight train

at the end of

a tunnel.

 

I think

it might be

beautiful.

On Readathons and Buddy Reads

I’ve been taking part in a lot of readathons and buddy reads of late and they’re really helping me to branch out with my reading and to pick up books that I’ve been putting off for a while.

A buddy read is basically when two or more people read the same book at the same time so that they can discuss it together. A readathon is essentially a challenge to read a set number of books over a short period of time, usually along a certain theme. For example, when I took part in the TimeHopAThon, the challenges were past (a classic), present (a new release) and future (sci-fi) themed.

For the TimeHopAThon, this meant that I finally picked up both Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck and a random Isaac Asimov book that’s been sitting on my shelves gathering dust for three years. For the buddy reads, I picked up George R. R. Martin’s first novel (and discovered it was signed) and Dune by Frank Herbert. When we read Dune, there were several of us who’d owned it for at least five years and never got round to it.

As you can imagine, that makes buddy reads and readathons a pretty powerful tool, both for readers and for authors. It’s a great way to either push yourself out of your comfort zone or to encourage yourself to read the books that you’ve been putting off for too long. That in turn helps to broaden your mind and introduce you to new concepts, and it also helps you to pick up a few bits and bobs that you can apply to your writing.

So go ahead and put yourself out there. Take part in some readathons or some buddy reads and see if it changes the way you approach your reading habits. I know it changed mine.