Firstly, a very quick reminder about tonight's reading. The piece will be 'Bringing home the stars' and a copy of the text is now available as an ebook. The reading begins within Second Life at 9:00pm BST. Details available in a previous post on this blog.
Other changes today (it's been a busy day) have been the uploading of a new short story to the portfolio section. This is called 'The walls have ears'. I wrote it a while ago, but it is now presented here for you to read. Incidentally, if you cannot find the link for the inventory of the entire portfolio's contents, there is a link here which also appears hidden away at the bottom of the portfolio page.
The Biography page has been updated, with a new link to 'Bringing home the stars' as well as the updated details of the cover of 'Countdown to Extinction' as well as a sneak preview of the new cover for 'Homo Superior'.
I've also found time to do some more work on my new short story. Other things including a practice run of the reading have stolen time from it, but I managed approximately another 1,000 words.
Enjoy tonight's reading! See you there.
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Saturday, 20 September 2008
Reading of my work.
Yay! A notice has come through about the reading I'm doing tomorrow:
Group Notice From: Harriet Gausman
SUNDAY: 1:00 PM SLT
Jenny would like to premiere her sci-fi/horror short story, 'Bringing Home the Stars'. It's a little like the film 'Event Horizon', to give you an idea of what she was aiming for with the story.
PLEASE SUPPORT JENNIFER AS THIS IS HER FIRST LIVE READING AND WE ARE ALL HERE TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER AT MILK WOOD.
GATHERING HELD AT THE ROOST, MILK WOOD MARKET
I'm reliably informed that 1:00pm SLT is equal to 9:00pm BST (8:00pm GMT). See you there!
Group Notice From: Harriet Gausman
SUNDAY: 1:00 PM SLT
Jenny would like to premiere her sci-fi/horror short story, 'Bringing Home the Stars'. It's a little like the film 'Event Horizon', to give you an idea of what she was aiming for with the story.
PLEASE SUPPORT JENNIFER AS THIS IS HER FIRST LIVE READING AND WE ARE ALL HERE TO SUPPORT EACH OTHER AT MILK WOOD.
GATHERING HELD AT THE ROOST, MILK WOOD MARKET
I'm reliably informed that 1:00pm SLT is equal to 9:00pm BST (8:00pm GMT). See you there!
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Back in the saddle.
It's been a while since I sat down and wrote something completely new from scratch, rather than working on old things and - increasingly these days it has seemed - editing books that were written a while ago. So it is something that I'm relieved to be doing to be writing something completely new.
I'm not entirely sure yet whether it is a book or a short story. My feelings were originally that it was going to be something no longer than around 10,000 words. However, things change, and already this new piece has grown to 1,750 words just in its opening bit. So I'm wondering now whether it is actually destined to be a novella instead. Perhaps even a full-blown novel?
When I begin writing things, it can be very hard to know how long it will become. I usually have the basic idea and a few of the plot twists, but I find as I write, many other things suggest themselves. A handful of my books were intended to be books, but the rest actually grew out of short stories which when I started them I never knew that they would become so long. In fact, my longest book - 'Orb of Arawaan' - started life as a short story that remained that way for quite a few years before I finally settled down to finish it. It then grew and grew and ended up in excess of 140,000 words. So you just never can tell.
This piece is called 'The long summer of war' and is an idea I had back in my very creative period earlier on this year when I was churning out short stories at the rate of one or more every week. I had this idea, born out of a dream, where xenophobic islanders have to welcome outsiders during wartime who they see as trying to usurp their jobs and their way of life. The piece centres on the difficulties faced by those moving in, as well as the hostility of the islanders. Thrown in for good measure is the relationship between the outsiders and one of the islanders who overcomes the peer pressure to be xenophobic to grow to get on with the newcomers. Or something like that.
At the moment time seems to be very much at a premium though, and I just don't have the time that I would have liked to devote to this. So I'll do what I can when I can and have no firm completion date set. Anyway, I firmly believe that no fiction writer can set themselves a firm deadline and ever really expect to meet it unless they give themselves a stupidly long time (four years to write a book is not a real deadline!).
I'm also wanting to get another short story on the portfolio section of the site. I have a few in reserve that were written a while ago that have finished doing the magazine thing. I have in mind to put up some time this month one called 'The walls have ears' that I'm sure I've mentioned before. Next month's will probably be the short but sweet 'Spending a Penny'. I give no guarentee though that I will make this a regular monthly thing. I'm not actually a big fan of writing short stories, so you are more likely to see me end up tolling away on another long book manuscript.
Tonight though the 'day' job beckons, so my time at the keyboard is being curtailed, unfortunately. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get some more done. But then it is a busy weekend with family visiting, Zoë's birthday and the reading of 'Bringing home the stars' on Sunday: don't miss it! Details on http://www.jennifer-kirk.com
I'm not entirely sure yet whether it is a book or a short story. My feelings were originally that it was going to be something no longer than around 10,000 words. However, things change, and already this new piece has grown to 1,750 words just in its opening bit. So I'm wondering now whether it is actually destined to be a novella instead. Perhaps even a full-blown novel?
When I begin writing things, it can be very hard to know how long it will become. I usually have the basic idea and a few of the plot twists, but I find as I write, many other things suggest themselves. A handful of my books were intended to be books, but the rest actually grew out of short stories which when I started them I never knew that they would become so long. In fact, my longest book - 'Orb of Arawaan' - started life as a short story that remained that way for quite a few years before I finally settled down to finish it. It then grew and grew and ended up in excess of 140,000 words. So you just never can tell.
This piece is called 'The long summer of war' and is an idea I had back in my very creative period earlier on this year when I was churning out short stories at the rate of one or more every week. I had this idea, born out of a dream, where xenophobic islanders have to welcome outsiders during wartime who they see as trying to usurp their jobs and their way of life. The piece centres on the difficulties faced by those moving in, as well as the hostility of the islanders. Thrown in for good measure is the relationship between the outsiders and one of the islanders who overcomes the peer pressure to be xenophobic to grow to get on with the newcomers. Or something like that.
At the moment time seems to be very much at a premium though, and I just don't have the time that I would have liked to devote to this. So I'll do what I can when I can and have no firm completion date set. Anyway, I firmly believe that no fiction writer can set themselves a firm deadline and ever really expect to meet it unless they give themselves a stupidly long time (four years to write a book is not a real deadline!).
I'm also wanting to get another short story on the portfolio section of the site. I have a few in reserve that were written a while ago that have finished doing the magazine thing. I have in mind to put up some time this month one called 'The walls have ears' that I'm sure I've mentioned before. Next month's will probably be the short but sweet 'Spending a Penny'. I give no guarentee though that I will make this a regular monthly thing. I'm not actually a big fan of writing short stories, so you are more likely to see me end up tolling away on another long book manuscript.
Tonight though the 'day' job beckons, so my time at the keyboard is being curtailed, unfortunately. Tomorrow, hopefully, I'll get some more done. But then it is a busy weekend with family visiting, Zoë's birthday and the reading of 'Bringing home the stars' on Sunday: don't miss it! Details on http://www.jennifer-kirk.com
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Of revision and new editions.
The last couple of weeks have been busy on the writing front, although that may not have been entirely apparent from my bloggings. It has not so much been new material, as revisiting older stuff and finally getting around to editing out errors and anything else I wasn't quite happy with.
The most obvious result of this work will be seen as the new edition of 'Countdown to Extinction' whose edit was, quite frankly, long overdue. The book was originally written a few years ago - I actually forget when exactly. It is book two of the Syndicates trilogy, though in a curious manner which I may have mentioned before, the third book was written first, followed by the first then the second. They were published in order though. The third book, 'Syndicate Dawn', underwent a major revision before publishing and the original version (which was significantly longer) has never hit the bookstands. The first two though were published with only little tampering by my editor of the time who was hired after a curious encounter in Henley.
I've never been entirely happy with the text of these two books, and after undertaking a major revision of book three before its first publication I resolved that maybe it was time to revisit old ground. Some of the feedback received for 'Countdown to Extinction' had revolved around the errors in it. Grammer was an issue, to be truthful.
Writing is like any other activity. It gets better with practice, especially if you are a professional author. By the time my sixth book was accepted for publication, the first few were looking a little amateur in my eyes by comparison. 'Daytrippers', being very short, got the first makeover though outwardly there was no change to the cover. 'Countdown to Extinction' has conversely taken a lot of work. One section that I was never happy with was cut from near the beginning of the book, and several other sections have had rewrites. I've also done a comprehensive overhaul of all the text making sure that spelling and - more importantly based on feedback - grammer was one hundred percent. Now, English is not an entirely rigid language, but sometimes there are just better and clearer ways of saying the same thing. I also have slightly better understanding of the uses of a semi-colon; they're more than just one half of a winking smilie face!
I've also taken the opportunity to ask the wonderful cover artist who did 'The Atlantic Connection' to do a new cover for it. Perhaps now it will look significantly more like a sci-fi novel and less like a biology or gardening textbook. The original image was picked very quickly, by the way, when it became apparent that the artwork I wanted from the start would be prohibitively expensive to have scanned; it was a large oil painting. Royalties and copyright wasn't an issue, but you try scanning at high resolution a painting that measures nearly eight square feet!
The reading I'm doing on Sunday can now be done in the knowledge that at least if people were to feel motivated enough to buy copies of my work off the back of it, I would feel less embaressed about some of my earlier works. There is also a plan ultimately to release 'Bringing home the Stars' as the title piece in an anthology between myself and another up and coming author. It would contain a variety of short stories not available in print at the present time. I am also wondering whether to include a few of the short stories that subsequently became expanded to form the basis of some of my other work. Sometimes it might be nice to see where books came from, ideas-wise.
Some might wonder how I can have such free reign to fiddle with my books after they are published. Well, that is the beauty of Print On Demand (POD) that is rapidly taking over in the publishing World for all but the bigger selling books. The system means that books are held electronically until an order is placed, then printed on a digital press one at a time. The end result is slightly more expensive than a mass printed book, though in looks is indistinguishable from it. The advantage is that some poor sap at my publishers doesn't have to justify a warehouse filled with thousands of copies of my book.
POD should not be confused with vanity press. It isn't. It is a different way of printing a book made possible by the advances in computer and printing technology. A vanity press simply takes an author's money to publish books. I, thankfully, receive royalties back from my publisher and it didn't cost me anything. That's the wonders of proper publishing for you. Of course, the ultimate vanity press is paying another author to write your book for you. I have little time for Katie Price (aka Jordon) who I believe did just this. It is sickening that just because she is a celebrity the book World fauns over her, when in a move of ultimate hypocrisy, they usually look down their nose at vanity authors.
The most obvious result of this work will be seen as the new edition of 'Countdown to Extinction' whose edit was, quite frankly, long overdue. The book was originally written a few years ago - I actually forget when exactly. It is book two of the Syndicates trilogy, though in a curious manner which I may have mentioned before, the third book was written first, followed by the first then the second. They were published in order though. The third book, 'Syndicate Dawn', underwent a major revision before publishing and the original version (which was significantly longer) has never hit the bookstands. The first two though were published with only little tampering by my editor of the time who was hired after a curious encounter in Henley.
I've never been entirely happy with the text of these two books, and after undertaking a major revision of book three before its first publication I resolved that maybe it was time to revisit old ground. Some of the feedback received for 'Countdown to Extinction' had revolved around the errors in it. Grammer was an issue, to be truthful.
Writing is like any other activity. It gets better with practice, especially if you are a professional author. By the time my sixth book was accepted for publication, the first few were looking a little amateur in my eyes by comparison. 'Daytrippers', being very short, got the first makeover though outwardly there was no change to the cover. 'Countdown to Extinction' has conversely taken a lot of work. One section that I was never happy with was cut from near the beginning of the book, and several other sections have had rewrites. I've also done a comprehensive overhaul of all the text making sure that spelling and - more importantly based on feedback - grammer was one hundred percent. Now, English is not an entirely rigid language, but sometimes there are just better and clearer ways of saying the same thing. I also have slightly better understanding of the uses of a semi-colon; they're more than just one half of a winking smilie face!
I've also taken the opportunity to ask the wonderful cover artist who did 'The Atlantic Connection' to do a new cover for it. Perhaps now it will look significantly more like a sci-fi novel and less like a biology or gardening textbook. The original image was picked very quickly, by the way, when it became apparent that the artwork I wanted from the start would be prohibitively expensive to have scanned; it was a large oil painting. Royalties and copyright wasn't an issue, but you try scanning at high resolution a painting that measures nearly eight square feet!
The reading I'm doing on Sunday can now be done in the knowledge that at least if people were to feel motivated enough to buy copies of my work off the back of it, I would feel less embaressed about some of my earlier works. There is also a plan ultimately to release 'Bringing home the Stars' as the title piece in an anthology between myself and another up and coming author. It would contain a variety of short stories not available in print at the present time. I am also wondering whether to include a few of the short stories that subsequently became expanded to form the basis of some of my other work. Sometimes it might be nice to see where books came from, ideas-wise.
Some might wonder how I can have such free reign to fiddle with my books after they are published. Well, that is the beauty of Print On Demand (POD) that is rapidly taking over in the publishing World for all but the bigger selling books. The system means that books are held electronically until an order is placed, then printed on a digital press one at a time. The end result is slightly more expensive than a mass printed book, though in looks is indistinguishable from it. The advantage is that some poor sap at my publishers doesn't have to justify a warehouse filled with thousands of copies of my book.
POD should not be confused with vanity press. It isn't. It is a different way of printing a book made possible by the advances in computer and printing technology. A vanity press simply takes an author's money to publish books. I, thankfully, receive royalties back from my publisher and it didn't cost me anything. That's the wonders of proper publishing for you. Of course, the ultimate vanity press is paying another author to write your book for you. I have little time for Katie Price (aka Jordon) who I believe did just this. It is sickening that just because she is a celebrity the book World fauns over her, when in a move of ultimate hypocrisy, they usually look down their nose at vanity authors.
Monday, 15 September 2008
New revision finally done for 'Countdown to Extinction'
I have just completed the new revision of 'Countdown to Extinction'. It's been a long time in the pipeline because of other work and writing commitments, but I've finally been through and made all the corrections and edits that I wanted. I suppose it comes with the territory that writing is like anything else: the more you do it and practice, the better you get. I look back now on my earlier stuff and see all the flaws. Hopefully the revised edition of 'Countdown to Extinction' goes some way to making it a much better book. It isn't as extensive an edit job as Terry Pratchett did for the second edition of 'The Carpet People' but at least I can be happier with it now.
The next job will be the cover. Zoë is handling this, and as long as all is ready for the start of the weekend then all will be on time. That way it all should be ready in time to tie in with the reading I'm doing on Sunday of 'Bringing Home the Stars' (see earlier post). It also gets another job that has been on my to-do list for too long. What's next underneath in the pile?
The next job will be the cover. Zoë is handling this, and as long as all is ready for the start of the weekend then all will be on time. That way it all should be ready in time to tie in with the reading I'm doing on Sunday of 'Bringing Home the Stars' (see earlier post). It also gets another job that has been on my to-do list for too long. What's next underneath in the pile?
Of time and next Sunday.
Gosh! I seem to have had a lot to moan about of late. So I thought that maybe it was time to say something about positive stuff.
As you well know, there is an upcoming book reading on Sunday the 21st of September (see previous post about it for details). I've decided I ought to combine the run up to this with trying to finish off the revision of 'Countdown to Extinction'. I've talked about the plans before. They involve a revision of the text as well as an all-new cover. The original cover artwork I never liked. It looked too much, in my opinion, like a biology textbook. So the same talented artist who did the cover to 'The Atlantic Connection' is going to also have a go.
I've been very impressed by some of her CG style artwork, which in some ways has a similar quality to the partial CG look of some of the covers to the Gollancz SF Masterworks series. We've talked a little about what to have, and she has a couple of ideas. We'll see what comes together before the weekend; it's scary how fast time goes.
I still need to do a few practice read-throughs for 'Bringing Home the Stars' for Sunday. I want to be ever so familiar with the text so that I'm not prone to stumbling or losing my place. I also want to check that it sounds right when read aloud and that there are no points where I find flaws in the text that don't read well. It did go through extensive editing though, so hopefully at least this aspect won't be a problem.
There is a plan to put together a book of short stories from both myself and Zoë Robinson under the over arcing title of 'Bringing Home the Stars'. Whether anything comes of this idea, mooted some weeks ago, remains to be seen. I need to complete the next short story that I have been working on though to have enough material for my half. Again, it is all about time. I don't know where time goes, but it seems to dribble away like water in a seive. Or some other such metaphor like that.
Today is the last day of the holidays, and it seems that already there is so much to take up my time. I need to be able to cut back down to three or four days on the 'day' job, but at the moment it seems I am feeling obliged to work every hour there is. Oh bring back the first half of this year when I seemed so productive on my writing!
As you well know, there is an upcoming book reading on Sunday the 21st of September (see previous post about it for details). I've decided I ought to combine the run up to this with trying to finish off the revision of 'Countdown to Extinction'. I've talked about the plans before. They involve a revision of the text as well as an all-new cover. The original cover artwork I never liked. It looked too much, in my opinion, like a biology textbook. So the same talented artist who did the cover to 'The Atlantic Connection' is going to also have a go.
I've been very impressed by some of her CG style artwork, which in some ways has a similar quality to the partial CG look of some of the covers to the Gollancz SF Masterworks series. We've talked a little about what to have, and she has a couple of ideas. We'll see what comes together before the weekend; it's scary how fast time goes.
I still need to do a few practice read-throughs for 'Bringing Home the Stars' for Sunday. I want to be ever so familiar with the text so that I'm not prone to stumbling or losing my place. I also want to check that it sounds right when read aloud and that there are no points where I find flaws in the text that don't read well. It did go through extensive editing though, so hopefully at least this aspect won't be a problem.
There is a plan to put together a book of short stories from both myself and Zoë Robinson under the over arcing title of 'Bringing Home the Stars'. Whether anything comes of this idea, mooted some weeks ago, remains to be seen. I need to complete the next short story that I have been working on though to have enough material for my half. Again, it is all about time. I don't know where time goes, but it seems to dribble away like water in a seive. Or some other such metaphor like that.
Today is the last day of the holidays, and it seems that already there is so much to take up my time. I need to be able to cut back down to three or four days on the 'day' job, but at the moment it seems I am feeling obliged to work every hour there is. Oh bring back the first half of this year when I seemed so productive on my writing!
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Of all the cheek
Inevitably upon the return home from a few days away, there is a mound of mail waiting to be opened. This trip prooved no exception. Strangely, for a change, most of it was for me. Unsurprising, much was junk mail. How do they know I live here? I have made a habit of telling most people and organisations that I live at my parents' house, yet the junk mail follows me around. I can only deduce that the council has sold on my details, contrary to the Data Protection Act, without my consent.
One of the letters was from a literary agent who I had cause to write to. How disappointing to receive in reply a form rejection. Of course, that seems normal these days from such people, but in this case they stooped low enough to be named and shamed for their unprofessionalism.
The Blake Friedman agency appears to use their form letters to attempt to sell books by their clients. Apparently they have a stash of them they are trying to sell. Now how amateur is that? Not to mention galling. What a bunch of unprofessional time wasters. Now, I was offered my first three book deal back in 2002. Whilst I do not have an agent (because they seem a fussy bunch reluctant to do anything other than accept a dead cert licence-to-print-money - and even then only maybe) I do not appreciate the hard sell from an agency trying to sell their own books about "how to pitch to a publisher". Teach my Grandmother how to suck eggs why don't you? I already know, and with six books under my belt, I'm already successful enough in my own little way thankyou-very-much. I might not be bestselling just yet, but at least I'm not a timewaster trying to con young hopefuls into buying tat. Well, at any rate, their form letter prooved amusing.
All those successful authors turned down by a great many short-sighted agents over the years spring to mind. Enid Blyton, Stephen King, Joanne Rowling.... It's a long list that prooves that the publishing World has more than its fair share of visionless people who really ought to know better.
One of the letters was from a literary agent who I had cause to write to. How disappointing to receive in reply a form rejection. Of course, that seems normal these days from such people, but in this case they stooped low enough to be named and shamed for their unprofessionalism.
The Blake Friedman agency appears to use their form letters to attempt to sell books by their clients. Apparently they have a stash of them they are trying to sell. Now how amateur is that? Not to mention galling. What a bunch of unprofessional time wasters. Now, I was offered my first three book deal back in 2002. Whilst I do not have an agent (because they seem a fussy bunch reluctant to do anything other than accept a dead cert licence-to-print-money - and even then only maybe) I do not appreciate the hard sell from an agency trying to sell their own books about "how to pitch to a publisher". Teach my Grandmother how to suck eggs why don't you? I already know, and with six books under my belt, I'm already successful enough in my own little way thankyou-very-much. I might not be bestselling just yet, but at least I'm not a timewaster trying to con young hopefuls into buying tat. Well, at any rate, their form letter prooved amusing.
All those successful authors turned down by a great many short-sighted agents over the years spring to mind. Enid Blyton, Stephen King, Joanne Rowling.... It's a long list that prooves that the publishing World has more than its fair share of visionless people who really ought to know better.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
