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1月30日 *blerk* I dun caughtta coldNumber two daughter had kindly passed her cold and chest infection on to me. Still, I do feel nice and toasty despite the weather.
Second rejection came in yesterday:
"Many thanks for sending us this proposal, which I read with interest. I considered it carefully but I’m afraid on balance it just doesn’t quite grab my imagination in the way that it must for me to offer to represent it."
I have to say I've been very impressed with the timely responses and gentle let-downs. Far from being disheartened, I'm really enjoying the process - even if the end result is a no. It's certainly making me want to spend more time on my latest book.
That's if I'm still upright by the end of the day.
I know I've promised to post extracts from the latest story, and have singularly failed to do so, but I'm very much intending to get something posted next week.
Cold permitting, of course. 1月28日 Corpses. So many corpses...Jinkies - time flies. I've recovered from the realisation that I'm actually an old bastard by accepting that, yes, I really am and old bastard.
There's also some please to be had in knowing I managed to scare one of my peers from the good old days with the realisation that we're both into our third decade of work...
Speaking of which, I'm am snowed under at the moment - and there's no sign of improvement. I have next week to catch-up before heading of on a hike then flying off to the
I'll be hiking along the north coast of Cornwall and getting battered by Atlantic winds. Hopefully the volumnous bags of wine both myself and my hiking buddy Chris take with us should provide a sufficient anchor. Otherwise watch out for my demise in the regional news.
Yesterday was spent dragging the kids around London. My eldest insisted I take pictures of her with every single bloody corpse in the British Museum then tried to dive into a fountain at Trafalger Square. This is exactly the kind of behaviour I anticipated. While there was nothing I could about the desecration of neolithic and Egyptian graves, I managed, at least, to prevent a soaking.
The less said about the youngest the better. Needless to say she shouts and screams like a tormented wino who's just spilled his Crucial Brew if she has to spend more than 15 minutes in her buggy.
1月24日 Another submission of the wheezy kid in schoolAnother day, another submission. I’ve put that book out to another agent and, as much as I want to put my feet up, I’m focusing on the new book at the moment.
I don’t think I’m going to spend too much time pimping the previous effort. Although a number of people have read and, indeed, enjoyed it, that’s a bit like having your mum tell you you’re really good at football – when the evidence suggests you’ll always be the last one picked.
So I’ll keep the submission work in the background for the time being. You never know, I might strike it lucky. Or that book really is the wheezy kid with the short leg who’ll only ever play in goal.
I’ve also pushed a short story out to a US publications that specialises in pulp. It’s a piece I wrote a while back that I’ve always liked. I developed it into half a novel as, even though it was great fun to write, commercially it didn’t stand a chance.
The dates for my next head-on encounter are set. So I’ll be staggering across cliff-tops on the north-Cornwall coast during February. Surprisingly, I don’t need any new gear. Which is a blessing as I’ve never been so poor in my life. Having a family is a bit like living with a group of muggers who constantly threaten you with emotional lady-feelings instead of knives. Or something like that anyway. 1月23日 21 Years TodaySo there I was, feeling pretty old and worthless, when I decided to have a poke round t'internet to find out just what it was I used to get up to when I were a sprog. After all, this week marks my debut in the world of press and publishing.
Low and behold, here's a piece I wrote for Commdore User 21 years ago.
Twenty-one years! I feel even older now.
This is a rotten piece of editorial that smacks of deadline-day. The giveaway is that I don't actually start talking about the game until half-way through the review.
Back then our equivalent of CTRL-x and CTRL-v was a literal cut and and paste. The designer received a type-set bromide of the text, sliced it to pieces with a scalpel and glued it to a board. While we journos sat at typerwriters smoking and waiting for the pub to open. This was back when licensing laws were rubbish and pubs closed in the afternoon.
*sigh*
Twenty-one bloody years in media. All I have to show for it is a lack of GCSEs. I started writing for mags at 15 and, as that paid and homework didn't, I sort of neglected to do any coursework.
And that's not to mention infrequent appearences in magazines. Such as this bit of nastiness from C&VG back in 1987.
1月21日 Rejected in a heartbeat"I am very intesrested in your work, but just didn't feel warm enough towards this."
So says the rejection letter I received on Saturday. A commendably fast turn-around when I was expecting the usual 6-8 weeks. This means that my manuscript either landed in the hands of a very diligent assistant or they hated it from line one. Either way, just having the physical proof that I've bothered to get of my lazy arse and do something is a real spur. I managed to knock out 400 words on the train on the way in. Despite number two daughter ensuring I had less than four hours sleep... 1月15日 The rejection slip triggerJust a quick update to say I've bunged a novel in the direction of a well-known literary agency. I'll publish a scan of the rejection slip when it arrives in 6-8 weeks. Into the wildernessI (almost) have my pass stamped for my first hike of the year. Hopefully I should be hitting the wilds somewhere in Britain around the 10th of February for a few nights of getting battered by the elements in some remote glen. I have full confidence in my gear and experience, but given the current weather conditions perhaps one of these might be advisable...
Making the planning sweeter is that I'm injury-free at the moment. The last eight-weeks have seen one back injury, a shoulder strain and two sprained fingers - all now healed. Not a bad count considering the amount of booze I put away over Christmas. A brief touch of norovirus also put paid to my festive weight gain, so things are really looking good.
I wish I could say the same about my latest book. My total contribution to the world of bad literature in the last week is two words 'Chapter Three'. Not exactly the stuff publishing contracts are made of.
My youngest is currently settling in at nursery - which means she'll soon have lots of nice new friends and I'll be even poorer. Still, she's cute and the bank's understanding (at the moment). She's also used Christmas to expand her vocabulary, so at eleven months she has, amongst other words:
Mama
Dada
Cat
Bye-bye
Good girl
Thank you (well, 'oo', but she knows what she means)
Hello ('lo)
For some reason she still calls her sister Ga instead of Josie. Which reminds me, if this blog is still around in ten years here's a message for prospective boyfriends looking to date my eldest:
She eats her bogies and really, really enjoys them.
Told you I'd get you back, Josie. 1月7日 Not dead yetReally. I'm not dead yet. I just look like it. In short I'm writing like an infinite number of monkeys. Well, not quite infinite, more like a small cadre. Still, in an infinite universe there should be enough time to start making sense. I've also rediscovered the joys of playing guitar. Loudly. With distortion. The one possession I've managed to hold on to (read, not hock) all these my custom built start with Floyd Rose trem and a disturbingly sweet humbucker. It plays as sweet as ever, which is nice considering the abuse I've put it through over the last fifteen years. Fifteen? Make that sixteen It was my birthday on new year's day. Another tick towards midnight on the life clock. If that doesn't inspire me to get a move on with writing, nothing will. |
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