One of the writers who I admire, correspond with and follow avidly is Geoff Nelder. He's written such great books as Exit Persued By A Bee, Escaping Reality and more recently Hot Air. Read the review for the latter and see the video trailer here:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-5fEJ3mvBQ
Personally I thought that the video came over brilliantly and also that this would make a superb film. Consequently I've been dropping less than subtle hints for him to write a screenplay for it. I'm really hoping that he does, even if it's just to shut me up.
Go on Geoff, you know you want to...
Saturday, 18 December 2010
Sunday, 12 December 2010
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.
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.
Wednesday, 1 December 2010
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.
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.
Tuesday, 30 November 2010
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.
Saturday, 6 November 2010
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?
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?
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
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.
Thursday, 14 October 2010
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.
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.
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