Why is it such a chore to write a weekly blog? Honestly, I ring the calendar, seek out intelligent ideas to write about but I never get to sit down and write. There is always something more important to write or do.
Right now I am recovering from one lot of delightful WWOOFers and planing on a visit from another group. WWOOFers are Willing Workers On Organic Farms. Usually they are young tourists who want to see more of New Zealand than from a backpackers' hostel. The host feeds and entertains them. They do around four hours work per day.
I am always leery of having strange people staying because I am on my own. Melissa and Mike couldn't have been more considerate and so I am less apprehensive of this group of three arriving on Wednesday. It's the feeding of them that is a struggle. I am still lost to the world of employment. It's very hard feeding myself let alone a group of hungry youngsters. But the work they do is so helpful. There are plenty of small tasks around a smallholding which need two pairs of hands. However, how do I get through to visitors that food is limited and they cannot empty the muesli container all in one go? How do I convince them that my home made bread is very filling as it is made with eggs, butter and milk to be the staff of life in one slice?
The difference between my home grown and home made food and shop bought food is tremendous. It's hard to get WWOOFers, or any visitor, to understand this. Well, we will see. This group don't eat lamb. My home grown meat is all lamb! I have been busy trading lamb for pork, beef and fish. Hopefully that will be enough. I have visions of three enormous hungry young men eating everything I need to store for winter! Ah well. We shall see.
Monday, 11 February 2013
Monday, 21 January 2013
Monday evening and after a long hot day of the worst sort, overcast but darned hot and sticky, I can now relax. This means a quick gallop through the social websites and then on to writing.
There has been an interesting anti-agent thread on one writers' website which had been full of sensible comments and suggestions. Suddenly comments became stroppy. Rude comments about spelling and lack of commas from someone sparked a whole range of prickly comments. I am keeping to my time limit so did not explain about the difference between my British/Commonwealth spelling and punctuation and the American. More comments flew. Mainly males this time with their hackles up. Sweeping generalisations were made about posters' abilities. So sad.
It is amazing that people will do this to themselves on public boards.
There are two rules to remember when leaving comments on websites.
1. Once it's out there it will stay out there.
2. People remember the nasty and avoid it.
In other words if you want to win friends and attract readers always project yourself as someone who listens, cares and shares.
I have a lot of PR to do for Writer's Choice next month and have to work out, with my colleagues in the co-operative, what to say and what they want me to say. I am so glad we stated right at the beginning, when we were forming the group, that we behave in a polite and professional manner at all times to each other. I am grateful that my colleagues don't pack paddies, don't only skite about their writing and not all of our writing, and don't allow ego or writer's arrogance to spoil the democratic process of decision making.
I think, when we expand membership, we will write details of what we call professional behaviour in blood and threaten instant expulsion for any breaches. I really couldn't work with colleagues who constantly hurl rude remarks or take affront.
There has been an interesting anti-agent thread on one writers' website which had been full of sensible comments and suggestions. Suddenly comments became stroppy. Rude comments about spelling and lack of commas from someone sparked a whole range of prickly comments. I am keeping to my time limit so did not explain about the difference between my British/Commonwealth spelling and punctuation and the American. More comments flew. Mainly males this time with their hackles up. Sweeping generalisations were made about posters' abilities. So sad.
It is amazing that people will do this to themselves on public boards.
There are two rules to remember when leaving comments on websites.
1. Once it's out there it will stay out there.
2. People remember the nasty and avoid it.
In other words if you want to win friends and attract readers always project yourself as someone who listens, cares and shares.
I have a lot of PR to do for Writer's Choice next month and have to work out, with my colleagues in the co-operative, what to say and what they want me to say. I am so glad we stated right at the beginning, when we were forming the group, that we behave in a polite and professional manner at all times to each other. I am grateful that my colleagues don't pack paddies, don't only skite about their writing and not all of our writing, and don't allow ego or writer's arrogance to spoil the democratic process of decision making.
I think, when we expand membership, we will write details of what we call professional behaviour in blood and threaten instant expulsion for any breaches. I really couldn't work with colleagues who constantly hurl rude remarks or take affront.
Tuesday, 8 January 2013
January 2013 and a resolution.
Heavens, I keep saying I must blog weekly but then I slip up. Life is too busy to waste time woffling a load of words with little meaning. if I can't blog with sense why blog at all?
So pick a topic and go for it. That's the advice my blogging friend are giving. A new one found for each week, scan the newspapers or keep on blogging about your favourite things, they say. There isn't the time. However the PR work for Writer's Choice has led me to Goodreads.com. This is mainly a place for readers to brag about how many books they've read, discuss what they are currently reading and review and chat.
I've not spent time at Amazon - I have ethical problems dealing with a company which is trying to set itself up without competition - but I have heard the complaints about reviews. Not just about the 'sock puppets' giving themselves lovely reviews and booing and jeering other writers' novels, but about shoddy reviews which are hurtful to sales. Those reviews where either it is all important for the reviewer to be seen airing opinions or the reader shows little or no grasp of what s/he's read.
Many of the reviewers are readers only and not writers. They have no idea what has gone into getting that story onto paper and into book form. I'm still very new to Goodreads so I don't know if they have a suggested format for reviews and comments. But a little polite consideration would go a long way to stopping some of the vapid, mouthy or just plain rude reviews. Some reviewers seem to have found books in genres they hate and then written bad reviews. I dislike intensely the trend for vampire/werewolf novels so I don't read and review them. My dislike is my personal opinion and it should not be shouted across the internet in a review which I have not been asked to do or paid to do it. There is nothing wrong with a review in which the reviewer explains why they didn't like a book, but it had better be good honest criticism backed up with examples from the book and not just someone shouting disparaging comments because they can.
So pick a topic and go for it. That's the advice my blogging friend are giving. A new one found for each week, scan the newspapers or keep on blogging about your favourite things, they say. There isn't the time. However the PR work for Writer's Choice has led me to Goodreads.com. This is mainly a place for readers to brag about how many books they've read, discuss what they are currently reading and review and chat.
I've not spent time at Amazon - I have ethical problems dealing with a company which is trying to set itself up without competition - but I have heard the complaints about reviews. Not just about the 'sock puppets' giving themselves lovely reviews and booing and jeering other writers' novels, but about shoddy reviews which are hurtful to sales. Those reviews where either it is all important for the reviewer to be seen airing opinions or the reader shows little or no grasp of what s/he's read.
Many of the reviewers are readers only and not writers. They have no idea what has gone into getting that story onto paper and into book form. I'm still very new to Goodreads so I don't know if they have a suggested format for reviews and comments. But a little polite consideration would go a long way to stopping some of the vapid, mouthy or just plain rude reviews. Some reviewers seem to have found books in genres they hate and then written bad reviews. I dislike intensely the trend for vampire/werewolf novels so I don't read and review them. My dislike is my personal opinion and it should not be shouted across the internet in a review which I have not been asked to do or paid to do it. There is nothing wrong with a review in which the reviewer explains why they didn't like a book, but it had better be good honest criticism backed up with examples from the book and not just someone shouting disparaging comments because they can.
Monday, 12 November 2012
The Next Big Thing
Rules of the Next Big Thing
***Use this format for your post
***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress)
***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.
Fellow author J.G Berger tagged me for the online game ‘The Next Big Thing’: A blog circle where authors have a chance to discuss their current works in progress/ what they’re currently working on now.
Next Big Thing:
Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:
What is your working title of your book?
‘Aunt Tizzie’s Jubilee’
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The theme is something I often write about: women who suddenly discover that what they thought was true is not, and they have to do something about it, usually by changing their lives.
The idea came, as they so often do, slowly, over time. Several things drifted together in my mind: the old custom of St. Columba’s lambs; how families can pick on, cheat and deceive one member; the character of Tizzie who buzzed around in my head begging, in broad Yorkshire, for her story to be told after I’d been on a visit to old haunts in Yorkshire.
What genre does your book fall under?
It’s set in 1887 so is historical. I didn’t think a contemporary Tizzie would gain reader sympathy, and I wanted readers to see how a woman can be trapped and rendered unable to act for herself by the way her family treat her. Readers know there were far more restrictions on a young woman in Victorian times and would be more tolerant of Tizzie’s struggles. Perhaps then they might take some of that understanding into modern day thinking.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Good heavens. I don’t know many film actors. I’d love the entire Royal Shakespeare Company to act a play version. I love the idea of Yorkshire dialogue enunciated by those well trained voices. I think Sean Bean, who is a Yorkshire man, would make a good villain.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A young woman, cheated out of her marriage and life away from home, learns to fight back when she finally discovers just what her brother and his wife have done.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
If Writer’s Choice Co-operative accept it I will self publish it under their seal of approval. This means it will be edited, have a professional cover design, and be proof read to a high standard so that it can be called quality fiction.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Three years with much interruption.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
There are not many writers who write straight historical novels without Royalty or Famous Persons having starring roles. Of those who do, I can’t think of a novel I’ve read that is similar enough to make a comparison.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I write because I have to, it’s like breathing. No real person or thing inspired me, but Tizzie’s voice in my head and her character popping in to my mind are what made me try to find her story.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Recipes, Tizzie’s daily life on a Yorkshire Dales’ farm, and details of traditional customs.
***Use this format for your post
***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress)
***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.
Fellow author J.G Berger tagged me for the online game ‘The Next Big Thing’: A blog circle where authors have a chance to discuss their current works in progress/ what they’re currently working on now.
Next Big Thing:
Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:
What is your working title of your book?
‘Aunt Tizzie’s Jubilee’
Where did the idea come from for the book?
The theme is something I often write about: women who suddenly discover that what they thought was true is not, and they have to do something about it, usually by changing their lives.
The idea came, as they so often do, slowly, over time. Several things drifted together in my mind: the old custom of St. Columba’s lambs; how families can pick on, cheat and deceive one member; the character of Tizzie who buzzed around in my head begging, in broad Yorkshire, for her story to be told after I’d been on a visit to old haunts in Yorkshire.
What genre does your book fall under?
It’s set in 1887 so is historical. I didn’t think a contemporary Tizzie would gain reader sympathy, and I wanted readers to see how a woman can be trapped and rendered unable to act for herself by the way her family treat her. Readers know there were far more restrictions on a young woman in Victorian times and would be more tolerant of Tizzie’s struggles. Perhaps then they might take some of that understanding into modern day thinking.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Good heavens. I don’t know many film actors. I’d love the entire Royal Shakespeare Company to act a play version. I love the idea of Yorkshire dialogue enunciated by those well trained voices. I think Sean Bean, who is a Yorkshire man, would make a good villain.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A young woman, cheated out of her marriage and life away from home, learns to fight back when she finally discovers just what her brother and his wife have done.
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
If Writer’s Choice Co-operative accept it I will self publish it under their seal of approval. This means it will be edited, have a professional cover design, and be proof read to a high standard so that it can be called quality fiction.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Three years with much interruption.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
There are not many writers who write straight historical novels without Royalty or Famous Persons having starring roles. Of those who do, I can’t think of a novel I’ve read that is similar enough to make a comparison.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I write because I have to, it’s like breathing. No real person or thing inspired me, but Tizzie’s voice in my head and her character popping in to my mind are what made me try to find her story.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Recipes, Tizzie’s daily life on a Yorkshire Dales’ farm, and details of traditional customs.
Tuesday, 16 October 2012
The Launch.
Well, we've done it. We're off. The books are published - epublished - and available. We are Writer's Choice and now we need readers' words to sell our books.
The great experiment has provoked a great deal of comment in New Zealand since I've had PR articles in writers' magazines, online and in newspapers and on the radio.
Several people asked me I didn't wait for a 'real' publisher. Indeed there are people who said I should wait however long it takes. Having had cancer and coming very close to death I know how short life can be and how little time I have left. I know my work is publishable and marketable. My short stories have all been print published. My novel has been assessed and critiqued and agent/editor checked. It was short listed in three unpublished/first novel competitions. What more can I do?
Learn to write a selling query letter, someone else suggested. But why? Why do I have to beg an agent to take me on? Why do I have to wait on their whims and moods before I can reach a publisher?
Go with a Small Press, another person told me. But the marketing work is as much as if I had self published, and the ones I liked had long waiting lists.
Writer's Choice will support us in our ups and downs. We'll learn and perhaps, it seems to me, we'll do better financially. This, for one who is an overqualified, out of work, near starving and frustrated with the lack of employment person, is important. The government unemployment allowance is not even a bare minimum and any boost to near nothing will be gratefully welcomed.
The great experiment has provoked a great deal of comment in New Zealand since I've had PR articles in writers' magazines, online and in newspapers and on the radio.
Several people asked me I didn't wait for a 'real' publisher. Indeed there are people who said I should wait however long it takes. Having had cancer and coming very close to death I know how short life can be and how little time I have left. I know my work is publishable and marketable. My short stories have all been print published. My novel has been assessed and critiqued and agent/editor checked. It was short listed in three unpublished/first novel competitions. What more can I do?
Learn to write a selling query letter, someone else suggested. But why? Why do I have to beg an agent to take me on? Why do I have to wait on their whims and moods before I can reach a publisher?
Go with a Small Press, another person told me. But the marketing work is as much as if I had self published, and the ones I liked had long waiting lists.
Writer's Choice will support us in our ups and downs. We'll learn and perhaps, it seems to me, we'll do better financially. This, for one who is an overqualified, out of work, near starving and frustrated with the lack of employment person, is important. The government unemployment allowance is not even a bare minimum and any boost to near nothing will be gratefully welcomed.
Sunday, 23 September 2012
We're off!
We have a deadline for our book launch - October 17th. Thank goodness. Sometimes it seemed we'd never make it.
On that day I will be in the library giving a talk about the Writer's Choice publishing co-operative. In the week running up to Launch Day I will also be interviewed on the local radio and the local TV. I'm angling for the national radio book slots and have approached the national newspapers with articles on me and Writer's Choice.
It's exciting, exasperating and frustrating. My first two books are anthologies, collections of short stories which have already been published in magazines in the UK, Canada, America and Australia. George is our American member of the group and his book is a novel. His book will be launched at the same time. I will talk about his novel at my interviews. He will talk about my anthologies at his interviews. We are a group, more power to our elbows.
It seems to me that either we will surf this new wave of publishing or be swamped. But we'll never know if we don't try. I'd rather aim at the moon and land on a mountain top, than aim at the mountain and get stuck in the foothills!
On that day I will be in the library giving a talk about the Writer's Choice publishing co-operative. In the week running up to Launch Day I will also be interviewed on the local radio and the local TV. I'm angling for the national radio book slots and have approached the national newspapers with articles on me and Writer's Choice.
It's exciting, exasperating and frustrating. My first two books are anthologies, collections of short stories which have already been published in magazines in the UK, Canada, America and Australia. George is our American member of the group and his book is a novel. His book will be launched at the same time. I will talk about his novel at my interviews. He will talk about my anthologies at his interviews. We are a group, more power to our elbows.
It seems to me that either we will surf this new wave of publishing or be swamped. But we'll never know if we don't try. I'd rather aim at the moon and land on a mountain top, than aim at the mountain and get stuck in the foothills!
Friday, 14 September 2012
I missed!
So much for weekly blogging. August blogging got lost. Well, I was blogging but on our Writer's Choice website. October 17th, our launch date draws near and we are all going flat tack trying to be ready and perfect. We can but try.
A long time online writing friend emailed this morning to let me know it was a month now since I was banned (tut!) from the AbsoluteWrite forums and I was missed. Kind soul. And another emailed to say he'd tried to get me reinstated to no avail. Bless him for trying but it was bound to be a waste of time. Two particularly intolerant moderators and the Big Boss have been trying to get rid of me for a while. No way would they have me back especially after the nasty trick they played to get rid of me.
It used to be that one could discuss and swop opinions at the AbsoluteWrite forums. Now you must brown nose or expect trouble. How dare anyone disagree with or have ideas which are different from the inner clique moderators. If you do then expect to be abused. Interesting isn't it that a member can be banned for being rude to a moderator but moderators can be extremely offensive and it's fine? A bit pointless to have a rule which says don't be rude and then allow the board officials to be highly offensive. Really silly.
It seems to me that if the AbsoluteWrite forums have degenerated to the extent that Moderators actually delete and alter one's words to deliberately get one banned then the place isn't worth visiting. I am just sorry that someone I thought of as a writing pal would allow herself to be used to get me banned permanently. PM'd apologies are hardly worth complaining about.
A long time online writing friend emailed this morning to let me know it was a month now since I was banned (tut!) from the AbsoluteWrite forums and I was missed. Kind soul. And another emailed to say he'd tried to get me reinstated to no avail. Bless him for trying but it was bound to be a waste of time. Two particularly intolerant moderators and the Big Boss have been trying to get rid of me for a while. No way would they have me back especially after the nasty trick they played to get rid of me.
It used to be that one could discuss and swop opinions at the AbsoluteWrite forums. Now you must brown nose or expect trouble. How dare anyone disagree with or have ideas which are different from the inner clique moderators. If you do then expect to be abused. Interesting isn't it that a member can be banned for being rude to a moderator but moderators can be extremely offensive and it's fine? A bit pointless to have a rule which says don't be rude and then allow the board officials to be highly offensive. Really silly.
It seems to me that if the AbsoluteWrite forums have degenerated to the extent that Moderators actually delete and alter one's words to deliberately get one banned then the place isn't worth visiting. I am just sorry that someone I thought of as a writing pal would allow herself to be used to get me banned permanently. PM'd apologies are hardly worth complaining about.
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