Thursday 28 June 2007

Another outing

Decided to send one of the stories that was rejected the other day out again. This time I'm sending it out to an Australian magazine that published another of my stories earlier in the year. They pay well too so that's an added incentive. Here goes!

An irrational hate

Like I said in a previous entry I hate supermarkets. I hate them with a passion. For me there is no such thing as a happy shopping experience in a supermarket.
You...
1.take something from the shelf to put it in the trolley
2. take it out of the trolley and put it on the conveyer belt
3. take it off the conveyer belt and put it in a bag
4. put the bag back in the trolley
5. wheel the trolley to the car
6. take the bag from the trolley and put it in the car
7. drive home
8. take bags from the car and take them to the house
9. take the shopping from the bag and put it away.

I'm sure if I was really clever I could think of a 10th stage but I need to get on with some writing.

How exciting is this???

Having a day off today and it's just going to be so much fun.

Time to get the old boiler serviced again. The engineer's just been and given it an almost clean bill of health apart from a new regulation that's just been brought in about a pipe that needs to have a kink in it!!!! The mind boggles.

Now I'm waiting for the guy to deliver the shopping from the supermarket. I hate supermarkets so I get the shopping delivered usually once a week and usually by the same bloke who is really sweet.

I might take the dog for a walk when the shoppings put away, then this afternoon I've got a pile of ironing that's taller than Mount Everest to do.

Can I cope with life in the fast lane?????

Rejection and stuff

My novel was rejected the other day which was disappointeing after them having had it for so long. The thing to remember though is that it is just one persons opinion and it was the work that they rejected and not me personally. I'll send it to the next agent on the list later this week. Someone who was in one of the anthologies I had a story published in has given me the name of their agent so I'll try them. Maybe a personal recommendation will be the thing to swing it.

I also had a couple of short stories rejected this week too. Bummer!!!!!

Once a week I normally set myself writing tasks but as I'm away next week with the day job I'm only setting myself a couple of things.

1. Finish the assignment for my creative writing course that I've been working on forever. I must post that before Monday.

2. Polish a Christmas article and send it to my chosen magazine. Again I need to post this before I leave on Monday.

3. Prepare to send my novel to the agent that was suggested to me. (I emailed them 2 minutes ago to find out if they wanted the mss by post or email)

4. Look at a couple of other agents that have also been suggested to me in case this one doesn't pan out. It's always good to have a contingency plan.

I rarely achieve everything that I say I will in a week because I over estimate the amount of time I'll be able to write. Life just gets in the way.

Tuesday 26 June 2007

My secret life

My Secret Life
Okay so I write, what's wrong with that? There's nothing wrong with that but I still keep it a secret.
Himself knows that I do it but I don't think that he thinks I 'm serious about it..No that's not true, I think he does realise what I want from writing but I don't think he expects it to happen. Becoming novelists is not the sort of thong that kids from an inner city council estate do. Not from the council estates that we were brought up on anyway. On our estates if you had a job you were practically middle class. So although Himself indulges my dream I don't think he expects anything to come of it.
As for the kids I don't think it enters their heads that I write stories. They probably assume that all the hours I spend on my laptop I'm either shopping or surfing the net for things that interest women of a certain age.
My friends and the people that I work with know that I had a story in a book about a year ago that was sold in aid of a charity but they don't know that I'm serious about it. Only one of my closest friends know about my secret life. She is a Californian artist and her support is invaluable.
My family don't know that I had an erotic story printed in an anthology earlier this year and used a pseudonym in case my mum came across it. The truth is that is she saw my name on the front of a book she was reading she'd just think that it was written by someone with the same name as me. Like I said, writing stories isn't something that people like us do.
Well it is now and they'll realise that when I'm on Richard and Judy and my books are on the best sellers list.

This is me

This is me
I was born in Yorkshire in the 1960's and raised on a less than elegant council estate.
I now live in the North East of England with himself, sons number one and two, and a dog.
For many years I've said that I want to be a writer and in the last 18 months have had minor success in the short story market. I have also written a full length novel that has just been rejected for the third time. (Maybe I should take the hint.)
But today I decided that it was time to get serious.Today I've stopped saying that I want to be a writer and started saying that I'm going to be a writer. That is to say that I am going to earn my living as a writer. I have a day job to pay the bills which I happen to enjoy but it's not what I want to do and I look forward to the day thatI can give it up and earn my living from writing.
That journey begins today and I'd like to invite you to walk the road with me.