I've just heard that my short story "Santa Claws Is Coming" has been accepted for the Screaming Dreams Christmas 2010 Anthology, what brilliant news! The brief was to write a horror story for Christmas and it had to be as macabre as possible. The editor says "It's very weird and unusual, in a good way! It will definitely be in the Christmas issue."

With Uni paused for the festive break I can breath a sigh of relief, play catch up with other projects and add final touches to Uni work. There are two interviews that I have to finish off, plus another short story and I have to rethink my writing hours because there just aren't enough of them. I totally agree with the tutors guidance, that you need set hours to write each day. But I get up at five now and write until gone seven, plus have numerous hours over the weekend. Do I get up at four or squeeze in an hour in the evening? The trouble is that if I do the latter there is always the temptation to do more and you start to infringe on family life, so it looks like a four o'clock start from now on.

I have several short stories and another poem away at the moment, that I am still awaiting answers back on; plus a novel synopsis with a publisher. One can but hope, but hey come on guys it's Christmas :-)

As for now, back to writing. My story's calling me.

Tis Snowing, So It Is

Bex has done nothing but look through the window since it started to snow. If it gets much worse I'll really have to let her in. I think she's still upset that I'm writing a horror story about Santa, some people have no sense of adventure...

As I now changed jobs I no longer have those long hours on the train back and forth from Basingstoke each day - even if I did used to get so engrossed in my work that I often missed my stop. Consequently I am now up at 4 or 5 in the morning, writing. Even so there is still so much to do that I have decided to back out of the BSFA's Orbiter groups for a while, which is a crying shame but in all honesty you have to take a look and ask yourself "What can I cut back on?" I can't allow my work for the MA to suffer, it has to take priority.

Having said that, the aforementioned Santa story is going well; a bit more tweaking and I will send it off for critiquing. There's another short story that I'm working on too, plus several articles that have been asked for. The previous works for Combat (still sad about that) are now on a back burner. Other markets are there for them but I need to focus on given areas at the moment; such as the short fiction, MA and so forth. That's without even thinking about the novel!

I've also heard this week that a nano short story of mine is due to be published shortly in The Write To Fight Anthology, to raise funds for a children's karate team. This is a new venture, something that I hadn't heard about before but I thought that I'd give it a go and look I forward to seeing the publication.

I guess that I'd better go and let Bex in, she's waking up the neighbours.

I heard some sad news recently, that a magazine that I used to write for is no longer publishing. I've been unable to confirm this as yet but if that is indeed the case this is a very sad day, as I have been writing for them on and off since the early 80's. I do hope that they manage to resurface and I would sincerely wish the editor and staff well.

On writing

Chuffed that my poem "A Voice From The Grave" has now been published at www.screamingdreams.com/ezine/halloween2010.pdf - download a copy today!

I'n now looking to find ideas for two short stories and to crack on with my novel, it needs work. Who was it said stories are never finished, they're just abandoned?

Halloween

I've just heard that my poem "A Voice From The Grave" is going to be in Screaming Dreams Halloween issue, which is due out at the end of the month. In addition my short story "A Connoisseur Of The Bizarre" will be in Novembers issue. Delighted.

Inventions From Science Fiction

A published SF novelist friend of mine went to a writing weekend a short time ago. I was extremely surprised when his feedback to me was that he felt he was not treated as an equal, simply because his genre was science fiction. How odd I thought. He felt that he was treated with disdain and that must have been unpleasant, to say the least. So what would one do in that situation? I think that one of the ways that I would have dealt with this by looking at the benefits that SF has given us, not only the hours of pleasurable reading or of watching films but the literal benefits such as inventions. What, say you? Yup, inventions.

There are many that have come from the realms of Science Fiction, the most obvious being the space programs rockets and so forth. Then there are: electronic book readers (The Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy), electronic tags, the hovercraft, mobile phones, robots, electronic hearts (Philip K Dick). What about sliding doors (star trek), Geostationary satellites (Arthur C Clarke), lasers (War Of The Worlds), it was even predicted many years ago that books would be stored in tiny boxes - ergo the memory stick. The list goes on and on.

On top of that one could look at the list of films that have won major awards, beating genres from across the board: Star Wars, 2001 A Space Odessey, Aliens, The Matrix, Blade Runner and The Terminator to name but a few.

So, armed with this I rest my case and tip my hat to the SF writer.

On Writing

So how is the writing going? I was asked this recently by a close family friend who'd heard that writing is a solitary art that can affect relationships. He was right of course, it can indeed be a threat to relationships but if you're aware of this you can combat it quite effectively. Some time back this exact issue was covered by one of our universities tutors, who told us that you need to find a specific time each day to write and stick to it. By doing this family and friends know when you're working and that they need to plan things around these times, as does the writer himself. I've also found that this somehow helps with the flow of the writing, exactly why though I don't know. It's just that I write better, concentrate longer and think clearer during these specific times. I still have those notebooks with me constantly, scribbling away when things occur to me. I just don't develop the ideas at that exact moment in time (although I may muse over them occasionally). This is a huge change from when I used to spend most of the day latched onto my laptop, frowning and hammering away at the keyboard. Instead 3 or 4 hours a day works wonders.

I've always been lucky with non-fiction, finding that editors sometimes like the ideas that tend to leap into my mind. But is it luck or is it the approach? You see I strongly adhere to another piece of advice that I was given many years ago and that was always to check first with your target market before you actually putting anything down on paper. Has another such piece been published recently (in your target or a rival magazine) or would the editor actually interested in publishing this? They can only say yes or no and if it's the latter then simply drop the subject and move on. You haven't wasted anytime writing something that isn't going to be published and can concentrate on something that is, thus building up your hit rate.

I did discover a new hiccup recently. Having come up with an idea to base an article on the financial climates effect on professional martial arts instructors and their schools I ran it past an editor who really liked the idea and suggested someone to interview with regards to this. But after many phone calls and emails the subject declined the interview, saying he believed that it was the wrong time to publish such an article. I still strongly disagree with this and feel that a school owner would appreciate some advice on this subject right now, such as what other markets to look at or classes to run, rather than read this some months down the road when his school might have had to close. However, Editors really know the business and if they agree with the interviewee you really need to sit up and take notice, then think up something else.

It's fiction that I really love but struggle with. It's not the ideas themselves but getting them accepted and published. But we aren't alone. Look at Stephen King who took his first novel Carrie to 17 publishers before it was accepted, or J K Rowling who took Harry Potter to 57 publishers before it was accepted by Bloomsbury with a limited run and she was firmly on the path to becoming the world's first billionaire writer.

So with these odds stacked against us why do we write? Is it love of the written word or the hope of financial success, or maybe the urge to be recognised or maybe even escapism from the mad world around us? For many of us I believe it's the latter. What better escape than to simply lock one's doors on the outside world and lose ourselves in exploring alien landscapes or in the adventures of knights and dragons, perhaps romantic relationships or even childish pranks. The world of the writer may indeed be a lonely one but I personally can think of nothing better than to think up new plots and characters and hope that one day someone else will enjoy our efforts.