A few people have asked me about what's happened between signing with Tickety Boo and the book coming out. Has it been frantically busy? What goes on behind the scenes? What can we expect? It's an odd time - busy in flurries and then quieter, building times. For me, I had a few things I wanted to achieve before book one came out: 1. Finish book three. It was a draft, with a very unfinished ending when I signed. For me, for confidence, I wanted to be sure I could produce the trilogy I had promised. So I spent last summer finishing the draft of it, and getting it betaed. I also did a tidy up of book one, ready for editing. It had been a wee while since I'd looked at it, and I was glad of the chance to look at it. 2. Build up my blog. I wanted to give something back, to be open about processes and thoughts and fill some of the vacuum of information out there. I also wanted somewhere to out musings and to promote a wee bit in. As it happens, I don't promote in it - it...
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I was nominated for an award. Wooo! Go me, and all that there (I think lots of people have been nominated, but that’s neither here nor there), and I was nominated by Millymollymo here at: http://www.millymollymo.com/writing-inspiring-and-other-stuff/ Who is a tremendous writer, with a great blog that I’ve just spent half an hour reading instead of doing this, and a terrific support to so many of us out there. Some people just have the lot…. One of the things I was asked to do was talk about three inspiring things this week (hence why I’m blogging after promising I wouldn’t). I have to be honest, this is a challenge because, frankly, I’ve spent most of this week with a flu and haven’t been my usual sparkling inspired self. In fact, for inspiration it was something of a nadir. But! The cloud has lifted (ish – read for that, I’ve just had a snooze) and thoughts have occurred. Hurray! I doubt any of this will be new or startling but here goes: Inspriring thing ...
This will be my last blog here for a wee while - I'm going on a mini blog tour for Abendau's Heir coming out and will be popping up through March in lots of places. And, hopefully, lots of people will be popping in here with some thoughts and what not. (And if anyone fancies an exchange, give me a wee shout!) One of the things I've been musing on - sparked, as so often, by the sffchronicles.com community - is our motivation to write and how the vehicle we use to publish with should be matched to that. It dovetails nicely with the concept of motivation in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs - that we aim and espouse self-actualization, the peak of the pyramid, and that one person's self-actualization is another person's hell. So, I have to ask myself - what would be my self-actualization? In my case, for writing, some of the lower tiers of the pyramid have to be considered. Most noteably security needs - I want to write, I also want to be reasonably sure I'll pay...
So, here I go again, agent hunting. It's been about eighteen months since I was last in the querying trenches and about four years since I first subbed and realised I needed to write a few more of my million words to get there. I have an earlier blog here, outlining the process of getting my agent. I'm not going to go into the hows and whys I'm seeking a new one. Suffice to say, it was amicable and fair, and that's the way things sometimes go. But I wanted to stop at this stage and think. A rare activity for me. Last time I sought an agent, I took a lot out of myself. I made it matter too much. I would have doubled backwards to get one, done anything to the book. So much of my validation as a writer was tied up in someone saying I could write. A professional someone, who knew these things. During those eighteen months, I've learned a lot about writing. I've had a publishing contract and worked on edits with Teresa Edgerton, and learned more in a few senten...