Guest post: Creating an Indie Chicks charity anthology by Cheryl Shireman

I’m delighted to bring you tonight’s guest blog post, a Monday night extra, on the topic of creating an Indie Chicks charity anthology, by Cheryl Shireman.

Is Your Life Whispering to You?

I believe life whispers to you and provides direction. I call that life force God. You can call it whatever you want, but there is no escaping it. If we are open, and brave enough to say yes, life will take us in directions we never expected, and you will live a life beyond your wildest dreams.

Those whisperings often come in the form of a “crazy” idea or a nudge to move into a certain direction that seems odd or silly or daring. Then there is that moment when you think, Well, that’s weird. Where in the world did that come from?

And then there’s the second moment, when you have to make a choice. You can dismiss the crazy notion, and probably even come up with a dozen reasons why it’s a bad idea. You don’t have the time, the money, or the resources. Besides, who are you to do such a thing? What in the world were you thinking? So, you dismiss the idea. We always have that option – to say No.

But it comes back – that whisper. Sometimes again and again. But if we are practical, and safe, we can squash the notion until it is almost forgotten. Almost.

Such a notion came to me a couple of months ago. I began to think of an anthology composed of women writers. An anthology that would be published before the rapidly approaching holiday season. The title came to me almost immediately – Indie Chicks. It was a crazy notion. I was working with an editor who was editing my first two novels, and was also in the middle of writing a third novel. Working on three books seemed to be a pretty full plate. Adding a fourth was insane.

But the crazy notion kept coming back to me. It simply refused to be dismissed. So I sent out a “feeler” email to another writer, Michelle Muto. She loved the idea. I sent out another email to my writing buddy, J. Carson Black. She loved the idea, too, but couldn’t make the time commitment. She had just signed with Thomas & Mercer and was knee deep in writing. I took it as a sign. I didn’t have the time for the project either. Perhaps after the first of the year, when final edits were done on my own novels. I dismissed it, at least for the present time. I’d think about it again in another couple of months, when the timing made more sense.

A week later I surrendered, started developing a marketing plan for Indie Chicks, and began sending out emails to various indie writers – some I knew, but most were strangers. I contacted a little over thirty women. Every one of them responded with enthusiasm. Most said yes immediately, and those who could not, due to time commitments, wished us well and asked me to let them know when the book when the book was published so they could be part of promoting it.

One of the first writers I contacted was Heather Marie Adkins. Earlier this year, while I was browsing the internet, I came across an interview with Heather. The interviewer (oddly enough, Michelle Muto) asked Heather, When did you decide to become an indie author? Heather’s answer was:  About a month ago. My dad had been trying to talk me into self-publishing for some time, but I was hesitant. One night, I sat down and ran a Google search. I discovered Amanda Hocking, JA Konrath, Victorine Lieski; but it was Cheryl Shireman that convinced me. This is the field to be in. I was shocked (Astonished! Flabbergasted!). I had no idea that I had ever inspired anyone! To be honest, it was a bit humbling. And,okay, yes – it made me cry. So, of course, I had to invite Heather to be a part of the anthology. Heather not only said yes, but she also volunteered to format the project – a task I was dreading.

As Heather and I exchanged emails, I told her about how I had been similarly inspired to become an indie writer by Karen McQuestion. My husband bought me a Kindle for Christmas of 2010. Honestly, the present angered me. I didn’t want a Kindle. I wanted nothing to do with reading a book on an electronic device! I love books; the feel of them, the smell of them. But, very quickly, I started filling up that Kindle with novels.

One day, while looking for a new book on Amazon, I came across a title by Karen McQuestion. I learned that McQuestion had published her novels through Amazon straight to Kindle. Immediately, I began doing research on her and how to publish through Kindle. I had just completed a novel and was ready to submit it through traditional routes. Within 48 hours of first reading about McQuestion, I submitted my novel, Life Is But A Dream: On The Lake. Twenty four hours later, it was published as an eBook on Amazon. Within another couple of weeks it was available as a paperback and through Nook. Did I jump into this venture fearlessly? No! I was scared to death, and I almost talked myself out of it. Almost. The novel went on to sell over 10,000 copies within the first seven months of release.

As I shared that story with Heather, another crazy notion whispered in my ear – Ask Karen McQuestion to write the foreword for Indie Chicks. Of course, I dismissed it. We had exchanged a couple of tweets on Twitter, but other than that, I had never corresponded with McQuestion. It was nonsense to think she would write the foreword. I was embarrassed to even ask her. Surely, she would think I was some sort of nut. But, the idea kept whispering to me and, with great trepidation, I emailed her. She said yes! Kindly, enthusiastically, and whole-heartedly, she said yes. Karen McQuestion had inspired me to try indie publishing. I had inspired Heather Adkins. And now the three of us were participating in Indie Chicks, that crazy whisper I had been unable to dismiss.

The book began to develop, and as it did, a theme began to form. This was to be a book full of personal stories from women. As women, one of our most powerful gifts is our ability to encourage one another. This book became our effort to encourage women across the world. Twenty-five women sharing stories that will make you laugh, inspire you, and maybe even make you cry. We began to dream that these stories would inspire other women to live the life they were meant to live.

From the beginning, I knew I wanted the proceeds of this charity to go to some sort of charity that would benefit other women. While we were in the process of compiling the anthology, the mother of one of the women was diagnosed with breast cancer. Almost immediately upon learning that, Michelle Muto sent me an email. Hey, in light of *****’s mother having an aggressive form of breast cancer, can I nominate The Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer? I mean, one of our own is affected here, and other than heart disease (which took my own mother’s life), I can’t think of anything more worthy than to honor our sister in words and what she’s going through. A daughter’s love knows no bounds for her mother. Trust me. I know it’s a charity that already gets attention on its own. But, that’s not the point, is it? The point is there are 25 ‘sisters’ sticking together and supporting each other for this anthology. I say we put the money where the heart is. We had our inspiration. All proceeds would go to the Susan G. Komen foundation for breast cancer research.

The stories started coming in. Some were light hearted and fun to read. But others were gut-wrenching and inspiring – stories of how women dealt with physical abuse, overwhelming grief, and a host of bad choices. It was clear; these women were not just sharing a story, but a piece of their heart. I felt as if I were no longer “organizing” this anthology, but just getting out of the way so that it could morph and evolve into its truest form.

Fast forward to just a few days before publication. Heather was almost done with the enormous task of formatting a book with twenty-five authors. We were very close to publishing and were on the homestretch. That’s when I received an email. An unlikely email from someone I didn’t really know. Beth Elisa Harris and I were involved in another indie project and Beth sent an email to all of the authors in that project, including me. She attached a journal to that email. For whatever reason, Beth had been inspired to share a journal she wrote a few years ago. She cautioned us to keep her confidence and not share the journal with anyone else. I tend toward privacy and don’t tend to trust easily. This is a HUGE step for me. I’ve only read it once since I wrote it. Intrigued, I opened the journal and began reading. It dealt with her diagnosis, a few years back, with breast cancer! Before I was even one third of the way through the journal, I felt I should ask Beth to include this journal in the Indie Chicks anthology. It was a crazy notion, especially when considering her words about privacy and trust. We didn’t even know each other, how could I ask her to go public with something so personal? I tried to dismiss the notion (are you noticing a pattern here?), but could not. I wrote the email, took a deep breath, and hit send. She answered immediately. Yes. Most definitely, yes.

Indie Chicks: 25 Women 25 Personal Stories, with foreword by Karen McQuestion and afterword by Beth Elise Harris, is now available through Barnes and Noble and Amazon. The book includes personal stories from each of the women, as well as excerpts from our novels. And it began as a whisper. A whisper I did my best to ignore.

What whisper are you ignoring? What crazy notion haunts you? What dream merely awaits your response? I urge you, say Yes. Live the life you were meant to live. Say yes today.

Stories included in Indie Chicks:

Foreword by Karen McQuestion

Knight in Shining Armor by Shea MacLeod

Latchkey Kid by Heather Marie Adkins

Write or Die by Danielle Blanchard

The Phoenix and The Darkness by Lizzy Ford

Never Too Late by Linda Welch

Stepping Into the Light by Donna Fasano

One Fictionista’s Literary Bliss by Katherine Owen

I Burned My Bra For This? by Cheryl Shireman

Mrs. So Got It Wrong Agent by Prue Battten

Holes by Suzanne Tyrpak

Turning Medieval by Sarah Woodbury

A Kinky Adventure in Anglophilia by Anne R. Allen

Writing From a Flour Sack by Dani Amore

Just Me and James Dean by Cheryl Bradshaw

How a Big Yellow Truck Changed My Life by Christine DeMaio-Rice

From 200 Rejections to Amazon Top 200! by Sibel Hodge

Have You Ever Lost a Hat? by Barbara Silkstone

French Fancies! by Mel Comley

Life’s Little Gifts by Melissa Foster

Never Give Up On Your Dream by Christine Kersey

Self-taught Late Bloomer by Carol Davis Luce

Moving to The Middle East by Julia Crane

Paper, Pen, and Chocolate by Talia Jager

The Magic Within and The Little Book That Could by Michelle Muto

Write Out of Grief by Melissa Smith

Afterword by Beth Elisa Harris

Indie Chicks is available for your Kindle on Amazon and your Nook on Barnes and Noble. You may also read it on your computer or most mobile devices by downloading a free reader from those sites.

Stop by our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/IndieChicksAnthology

Follow our Indie Chicks hash tag on Twitter!  #IndieChicksAnthology

Thank you Cheryl, I hope it sells really, really well!

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please” (while quietly bouncing up and down in my seat with joy!).

The blog interviews return as normal tomorrow morning with romance author Chris Karlsen – the one hundred and seventy-fourth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me.

 

Blog interview no.173 with multi-genre author Dal Burns

Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-third of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. Today’s is with children’s and sci-fi author, playwright (and more) Dal Burns. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. You can also read Dal’s ‘Writing for radio and theatre’ guest blog posted last night.

Morgen: Hello Dal. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Dal: I’m a 4th-generation entertainer. I’ve been in TV, movies, radio, recording studios, rock band, theatre etc. I’ve done almost every job in the ‘biz, including writing. I’ve written for radio ads, theatre programs, screenplays, radio plays (they were fun!) theatre plays (2 of which were produced and quite successful). I’ve actually been a stunt man in Australia and in the U.S. on top of everything else. I wrote my first short story at seventeen, after a mentor suggested I enter a writing competition. He said that because I was rather well known in my village (in the wilds of Northumberland) as the local storyteller. As I recall, I won the competition. I didn’t pick it up again until I was in my thirties and working with a theatre company.

Morgen: Definitely born to do it. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Dal: I don’t write for any genre. I write what I love. Stories are my genre, if you will. I have always loved stories and when I was living in the Australian bush (in my late teens) I heard stories from Aborigines, carnival workers, jackaroos and the like. Stories I heard while on walkabout with Aborigines or sitting by a campfire in the deep bush with an opal miner or a carnie or a swagman I chanced on in the bush.

Morgen: What an experience. What have you had published to-date? If applicable, can you remember where you saw your first books on the shelves?

Dal:

• Outback! – One-man play that became an audiobook. Suitable for YA to adult
• The Kookaburra and Other Stories – Audiobook of seven stories and a paperback with twenty-three stories. Suitable for 6-11 years, though many adults love the audio version
• The Adventures of Phoo – The story of a boy jester and his robot friend Clunk, on the planet Mars. Suitable for 6-11 years
• Alien Race – Sci-fi novella for YA to adult

My Kookaburra book first appeared at Copperfields book store. I once got a phone call from the lead editor of the Sydney Morning Herald who called to tell me my Kookaburra CD had supplanted the Game Boy as the favourite object for his two sons to fight over!

Morgen: Oh wow! This leads me perfectly on to my next question, have you ever seen a member of the public (whom you don’t know!) reading your book… in any unusual locations?

Dal: My books and audio have turned up in England, Saudi Arabia, China, Australia, Chile and a few other odd locations. I have never seen one in the hands of a stranger, though.

Morgen: Yet. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Dal: Not a lot. Once I have written a piece, I tend to let it go. I am changing that attitude and am working on social and commercial web media to help get my work more into the public eye. YouTube videos will be a part of that, along with the usual blog and Twitter accounts.

Morgen: Trailers are becoming more and more popular. I’m not strictly a novelist so it’ll be interesting to see whether they work for other mediums, I suppose they do. See, I’m hammocking in the learning curve. You mentioned competitions, do you think they help with a writer’s success?

Dal: Not really sure they help unless they are studied by a publisher who is interested in acquisitions.

Morgen: Do you write under a pseudonym? If so why and do you think it makes a difference?

Dal: I don’t use a pen name. I figure if someone wishes to hunt me down for writing a terrible book, they’ll find a way!

Morgen: But hopefully not. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Dal: I don’t have an agent. I believe that agents were once vital to a writer’s career. With the advent of the web and eBooks, that is changing, rapidly.

Morgen: I agree, or at least by going my own way, I hope so. Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?

Dal: Alien Race is purely an eBook. My Kookaburra stories and my Adventures of Phoo will become eBooks next year, when my publishing contract expires and the books are mine, once again. My next two books will also be eBooks, at least at first. I currently own a Kindle and a Nook and I use my iPhone for some, smaller books.

Morgen: I’m hoping, as a short story writer, that that will work to my advantage. What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?

Dal: Gosh, that’s hard. I first started writing radio ads and theatre programs. I had a short (horror) story published by a magazine and I loved it. Anytime someone likes my stories, I get a big thrill.

Morgen: Presumably in amongst these successes you’ve had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Dal: Hundreds. I just figure that if Parlophone records turned down the Beatles because ‘guitar bands’ were on the way out, no-one is perfect and the agent / publisher is probably wrong about me, too.

Morgen: JK Rowling was turned down by over a dozen (14-16 depending on where you read about it). What are you working on at the moment / next?

Dal: Letters from Chile is an (adult) collection of short stories. Releasing as an eBook as soon as I can get it finished.

The Neighbour’s Cat is an illustrated book for young children. Working with Kari Wishingrad (co-author) and SonaJacob (illustrator) on this project, releasing as an eBook and possibly an iPad app., this winter

The Hidden Path is a YA Faerie story that is on my list for next year, as an eBook.

Morgen: It’s encouraging that you write so many different things (as I do) but then that’s the joy of eBooks, it pleases so many more markets than being streamlined into one. Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Dal: I don’t write every day. Some days I wander around the forest around my little town, sometimes with my horse and sometimes alone. I use that time to think and let my mind formulate stories. I think the most I ever wrote in one day was 3,000 words and they were awful.

Morgen: Oh dear.

Dal: With Alien Race, I wrote 2,500 in one day and was delighted with all of them!

Morgen: Oh good – only an average of 50 awful words then. What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it? If so, how do you ‘cure’ it?

Dal: Writer’s block is not something I have experienced. When I am in the right mood, I write. If the ‘feel’ is not there, I do other things.

Morgen: Best plan. A question some authors dread, where do you get your inspiration from?

Dal: My life, principally. I am very well-travelled and adventurous. I recently backpacked through Patagonia, mostly alone. Got a few good stories right there! Last year I bicycled 800 miles through Morocco with a friend. We just biked wherever we felt like going. This year I spent a week in the Nevada desert, driving cattle to the Reno Rodeo. Between the ages of seventeen and twenty I travelled the Australian bush, often alone. I still get inspiration from the bush. I have so much life to draw from that I have no excuse not to be inspired, all the time.

Morgen: Wow, you sound like my friend Caroline, she’s always off somewhere, and my brother’s a big traveller. I’m more of a home bird… a one-room writer. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Dal: I do both. Sometimes a story comes to me fully-fledged, as Alien Race did. With Phoo, it took me six months of hard slog to build the plot and write it up.

Morgen: But rewarding when you got there, hopefully. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Dal: I do not. I most often draw from life and will create my characters from an amalgam of ‘characters’ I have met in life. Naming is fairly easy as I tend to make up a name that ‘suits’ the character I have created. Taking inspiration from life helps make my characters ‘believable’.

Morgen: And that’s what we’re after. Do you write any non-fiction? If so, how do you decide what to write about?

Dal: I write non-fiction in a fiction format. I take real events from my life and the lives of others and mould the events into fiction, using a little ‘poetic license’.

Morgen: Do you write poetry? If so, do you write to form or free verse? What would you say is the difference between a piece of prose and a prose poem? Why do you think poetry is so popular and yet so poorly paid?

Dal: I do write some Hai-Ku, though mostly for myself. To me, a prose poem is just a piece of prose set to a particular cadence. Poetry is not taken seriously in schools and, therefore, the adults don’t take it for the art form it truly is.

Morgen: Isn’t it, it’s a shame. I’m still learning poetry (not sure if I ever will as I don’t write much of it) but it would be nice to ‘get’ it. Do you write short stories? If so, apart from the word count, what do you see as the differences between them and novels and why do you think they’re so difficult to get published?

Dal: I believe that quantity often overshadows quality. If we don’t get 250,000 words, we feel robbed. Unless we get a Hummer or a triple Big Mac, we are not getting value for money. That’s the principle difference as I see it. That and most publishers cannot see past their own noses.

Morgen: Hopefully eBooks will change that. Novel length for eBooks is already been talked about at least. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Dal: Not at the moment. Something comes up, I will jump at it.

Morgen: Who is your first reader – who do you first show your work to?

Dal: I have friends in California and the UK who get to see my work before I send it to market.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Dal: I edit. I hate editing and I edit.

Morgen: I’m not its biggest fan either.

Dal: I want to distil a story to its essence so I write it, leave it to sit a while and then hack at it with a blunt instrument until I remove the useless words.

Morgen: What an image. How much research do you have to do for your writing?

Dal: I do research. Often by going out and living what I want to write about. I tend to read a lot anyway, so I get facts and snippets and tuck them away for future use. I rarely research just for a single book / story.

Morgen: What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write?

Dal: There are times when writing is so easy, it’s not fair. Some days I can’t type fast enough to keep up. Other times, it’s like trying to pass a rather large and spiky kidney stone!

Morgen: I’m embarking on NaNoWriMo tomorrow so I’m hoping it’s the former for me, although this’ll be my fourth time so I know what I’m letting myself in for. Do you write on paper or do you prefer a computer?

Dal: I make notes on paper. I always have a small, spiral pad handy. When actually writing, I use my computer.

Morgen: I’m the same really then I do most edits on paper. Some writers like quiet, others the noise of a coffee shop etc. Do you listen to music or have noise around you when you write or do you need silence?

Dal: I far prefer quiet to write by. Taking notes is different. Whenever the fancy strikes, I can write my notes in any environment. Oftentimes the environment helps me to come up with ideas. An old friend of mine, Charles Schultz (creator of Snoopy) used table napkins to jot down ideas for his strip. He liked the local ice arena café and ate lunch there every day (he built the arena for his daughter to skate in). When we had lunch together, he’d be scribbling away on the napkins. I liked that and have copied it.

Morgen: I grew up with the Peanuts strip… so funny. Let’s hope some of his napkin magic rubs off. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Dal: First person is fine. Third I use a lot. I once wrote a short horror story in the second-person and just scared the living daylights out of the magazine editor. I wanted to drag the reader into the story and second person worked a treat on that one.

Morgen: Doesn’t it, it’s great for dark (I love it). Do you use prologues / epilogues? What do you think of the use of them?

Dal: Don’t use them. I may, if I need them. Just depends on what I need to drive the story along.

Morgen: Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Dal: Absolutely. Some of them are junk but I like them, anyway. Some are scraps of stories I just cannot find the wherewithal to finish.

Morgen: Practice pieces then maybe. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Dal: Favourite is coming up with a new story, a new character to become friends with.  Least favourite is actually typing out the story.

Morgen: If anything, what has been your biggest surprise about writing?

Dal: That adults love my kids’ stories.

Morgen: Oh I’m a real child (I still love the Peanuts humour). What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Dal: Get out and live. Go out and get into scrapes and adventures. Scare yourself half to death by doing things like parachuting, or Ropes Courses or backpacking alone in the wilderness. Go and hang out in seedy bars and dangerous street corners and listen to other people’s conversations. Experience every possible emotion to its fullest. Get some scars, emotional and physical. Fall in love with the (totally) wrong person and get a broken heart. Then write about it all.

Morgen: I’d say most of us have done some of those. What do you like to read?

Dal: I love sci-fi, funny books, biographies, Stephen King, Brian Greene and anyone who strikes my fancy at that moment.

Morgen: Stephen King’s a popular choice in these interviews. Is there a quote or phrase you like.

Dal: Yes, there is. A very long time ago, a friend said to me, “Burns, you have this unique inability to understand that some things are impossible.” I’ve never found out whether this was intended as a compliment or an admonishment. I have always taken it as a maxim to live by.

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing?

Dal: I run on the wooded trails around my home. I ride my Peruvian Paso horse. I read a lot. I do some gardening and I potter around my home and truck, fixing things that get broken. I learn about new technology. I help out with the local Theatre group, on stage and behind the scenes. I look to get into adventures and to learn new skills.

Morgen: Wow, what a life. Northampton’s a little lacking on that score. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful and would recommend?

Dal: My favourite book on writing is Stephen King’s book, On Writing. Other than that, every book I read helps me to be a better writer.

Morgen: A popular choice. In which country are you based and do you find this a help or hindrance with letting people know about your work?

Dal: I live in California, high up on a mountain, overlooking the Napa Valley wine-growing region. I’m pretty remote but the web is increasing my ability to reach people.

Morgen: Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how invaluable do you find them?

Dal: I have a Facebook page, a Twitter feed, a Google+ account, a blog site, a web site or two and I am a member of LinkedIn. I believe they will all help me as I learn how to use them effectively. They are the future, IMHO, LOL ;->.

Morgen: I agree, especially for those (like me) going solo (well, solo with an editor) and most interviewees have said that. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Dal: http://dramaworksinc.com, http://dburnsinc.com (older site, needs work), http://dalburnswrites.com (blog), Twitter – @dalburns, Facebook – Dal Burns, iTunes, Amazon.com, AmazonMP3, Rhapsody, CD Baby, Napster etc, under ‘Dal Burns’. I have books, audio, songs and even some ringtones (for the iPhone). I also lead the ongoing children’s writing competition ‘Write Across America‘.

Morgen: My goodness, you have time to write? What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Dal: A lot of hard work. We will have to be our own writer, editor, agent, publisher and marketer. Still, we’ll get paid more than the average 5c a word for all our work!

Morgen: Let’s hope so. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Dal: Yes. That inspiration and hard work can really come from the least expected sources. ‘Alien Race’ is a great example. I was having a drink with a friend one evening and we were talking about writing. She is not a writer and she was picking my brains about it all. She gave me a funny look and said “I’ll bet you $100 you can’t write me a story of over 20,000 words, in two weeks, if I give you the last line you must use for the story.” I took the bet. She continued, “The last sentence of the story is to be…” and she told me what it would be (Can’t give that away, though). I wrote Alien Race in ten days and won the bet.

Morgen: And you’re clearly very proud of the result. Thank you Dal.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays.

 

Podcast: Bailey’s Writing Tips ep 042 – back to basics

Episode 42 of the Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast was released today Monday 31st October 2011.

Having spent episode 41 talking about NaNoWriMo I thought it would be an opportune time to cover the basics of writing and talk about ‘show don’t tell’, repetition (not to do it!), dialogue fundamentals and much more.

The episode concluded with a 314-word first-person short story called ‘Lost’ which I will be posting on my Flash Fiction Fridays page on Friday 18th November.

The podcast is available via iTunes, Google’s Feedburner, Podbean (when it catches up), Podcasters (which takes even longer) or Podcast Alley (which doesn’t list the episodes but will let you subscribe).

Details of the other episodes (interviews, reviews, red pen sessions etc.) can be found here.

 

Guest post: Writing for Radio and Theatre by Dal Burns

I’m delighted to bring you this guest blog post, today on the topic of writing for radio and theatre, by Dal Burns.

‘Writing for Radio and Theatre’

I began writing for radio while working for a local Theatre group.  I had worked my way into writing articles in the play programs and they were happy with what I was producing. After listening to the radio ads produced by the local station, I knew I could do better and sat down to write.  I found it takes real discipline to write an ad that can be narrated in either twenty-nine or fifty-nine seconds. A lot depends on the narrator and the speed at which they normally speak in an ad. I timed my own narrations at different speeds and it soon became clear what words were easy to speak at speed and which ones caused me to require the Heimlich maneuver.

Most ads are poorly-written. Trying to generate excitement by using buzz-words and an excited tone of voice is so tired, so I decided to use the best medium for getting out a message. A little touch of humor and the use of subtle picture words is where I headed. Funnily enough (no pun intended) that worked.

Here’s my formula. Don’t preach. Use a little humor and seek for the picture words that will get your point across. It takes quite a bit of banging on doors to get work at local stations but it’s worthwhile as once you are in the door, the different style you employ helps the station to sell more ads. A writer who can generate good ad copy is worth a lot.

Once known at the local stations, I tried my hand at radio plays. This type of play relies on a combination of sound effects and picture words.  I always had my plays broadcast or recorded in front of a live audience. This brings an ambiance and life to the play that is simply not possible in a regular studio recording.

One great technique in a comic play is to have the actors break character once in a while and speak to the other actors. One of my favorites is to have one actor ‘steal’ another actor’s line. This generally leads to a short argument, before the engineer breaks in and gets the show back on track.

The long history behind radio plays makes them an ideal resource for research. As most people have never heard a radio play, it’s easy enough to take the basic idea behind an old play and bring it up to date with new words and ideas. Case in point would be the old Richard Diamond series from the 1940’s. Diamond was one hard-boiled and whip-smart private eye.

This was too much to resist, so I took Richard and married him to a 1950’s style of British comedy and suddenly he was a major goofball with a very cool-dude voice. From there, it was simple to write a script that highlighted Diamond’s strengths and weaknesses. Several examples were:

“Hi, I’m Richard Diamond, private eye but my best friends call me diamond dick, swinging detective…I wonder why?” and “I was sitting in my office the other day when a man came through the door (crashing sound). I wish he’d opened the door first!” Speaking of his secretary, “Now there’s a gal who carries a pair of 38’s, and a gun, wherever she goes.”

Corny as all get out and yet the studio audience howled with laughter and the local critics loved the show.

Theatre plays are another animal entirely. Theatre is the actor’s medium, much more so than the writer’s. Once the curtain goes up, it’s the actor’s play. They are in control of the process of bringing your words to life.

It’s said there are only three types of play:

• American: Man gets girl. Man loses girl and spends the rest of the play getting her back
• French: Man gets girl and spends the rest of the play trying to get away from her
• Russian: Two people, who neither want nor get each other, spend two hours complaining about it

Forget about them. As the writer, you have three tasks:

• A plot line that is coherent
• An emotional dilemma for each actor that is slowly revealed during the play
• A sharply defined resolution to the play

I’m adding two more essential elements:

• The picture words
• Blocking

The plot’s the easy part. Movies and books can provide the framework of a play. Plays, though, require a great deal of emotion in the plot, to keep the limited action on stage from becoming dull and static.

Emotional dilemmas are vital. The dilemma each actor is given will enable them to make a rich and interesting character. It really is the actor’s food and drink on the stage. It drives the words they speak and movements they make. The script is designed to make the actor’s dilemma more and more difficult to hide as the plot progresses. The plot must force the actor to reveal their hidden dilemma slowly and with much resistance.

The resolution is not really about the plot. It’s about allowing the actors to resolve their emotional dilemmas. That’s the payoff for the audience. It’s their emotional release. All audience members have dilemmas. To present them with the same dilemma on stage and then provide a resolution is cathartic for an audience member and it sells tickets!

Picture words. Your script must contain words that evoke pictures in the actor’s mind as that is how the actor relays the emotion and plot of the play. Without them, the actor is lifeless. If you don’t see pictures when you write the words, the actor won’t be able to communicate those words to the audience. It’s that simple.

Blocking. Forget about it. Don’t write a single word of blocking into your play. It shackles the director and the actors. Let dialog drive action on the stage. Make them get up, sit down or pace the stage because the words they speak force them to. Not because you block the play for them.

This is great, thank you Dal!

Dal is a fourth-generation entertainer first put on stage at age eight, by his father. He has been involved in TV, movies, radio, recording studios, rock band, theatre etc. He has written for radio ads, theatre programs, screenplays and radio plays (he says they were fun!) theatre plays (two of which were produced and quite successful). Dal wrote his first story at seventeen, after a mentor suggested he enter a writing competition. He said the suggestion was made because he was rather well known in his village (in the wilds of Northumberland) as the local storyteller. After that he didn’t write again until in his thirties, when working with a theatre company.

Dal has written four books and is working on a fifth, which is an illustrated children’s book, with co-author Kari Wishingrad and illustrators Sona & Jacob. That book will be released this year with the title “The Neighbor’s Cat”. He is also working on three new books; another children’s illustrated book, a YA story about an alternate universe and a YA story about two horses. Although Dal has never visited an alternate universe, he thinks he owns Bella, a Peruvian Paso mare. Bella knows better. Dal’s websites include http://dalburnswrites.com and http://dramaworksinc.com. He can also be found on Twitter and Facebook and leading the ongoing children’s writing competition ‘Write Across America‘. You can also read Dal’s interview with me here.

If you would like to write a writing-related guest post for my blog then feel free to email me with an outline of what you would like to write about. If it’s writing-related then it’s highly likely I’d email back and say “yes please” (while quietly bouncing up and down in my seat with joy!).

 

Blog interview no.172 with writer Anne R Allen

Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. Today’s is with mystery author Anne R Allen. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello Anne. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Anne: I grew up in an academic household—both my parents were university professors of literature—so I was always surrounded by books. I pretty much wrote from the time I could hold a crayon. I used to name all the characters in my coloring books and make up stories about them. I wrote my first mystery novel when I was seven.

Morgen: Wow, you’ve got a good memory. I can’t remember much about my childhood (ooh, is that a violin I hear in the distance?). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Anne: I keep coming back to mysteries. I’ve written women’s fiction, literary fiction, and romance, but somehow a dead body always appears and suddenly I’m back in whodunit-land.

Morgen: <laughs> What have you had published to-date?

Anne: I had my first book published as a serial in a California entertainment weekly—a comic mystery called COMING UP FOR AIR that ran thirty weeks—and that was exciting, but the biggest thrill came when a UK publisher accepted two of my chick lit mysteries: FOOD OF LOVE and THE BEST REVENGE and I went over to England to edit and promote them.

Morgen: Oh yay! That was dedication, it’s a long haul… but then I’m not a fan of flying. Can you remember where you saw your first books on the shelves?

Anne: Seeing FOOD OF LOVE on the shelf of the W. H. Smith bookshop in Gainsborough, Lincs for the first time was one of the great moments of my life.

This September FOOD OF LOVE was finally launched in the US (in a new, improved form) by Popcorn Press, a small publisher in Wisconsin. They’re going to publish THE BEST REVENGE in November.

I’ve also signed with UK publisher Mark Williams international Digital Publishing for three more books, THE GATSBY GAME, GHOSTWRITERS IN THE SKY, and SHERWOOD, LTD. MWiDP is handling the ebooks and Popcorn Press will publish the paper versions.

THE GATSBY GAME debuted on October 4th and GHOSTWRITERS IN THE SKY today October 30th. SHERWOOD LTD is due in mid-November.

Morgen: Wow that’s good going. Do send me the link for Sherwood Limited when you have it and I’ll add it to the links below. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Anne: I do a lot of the marketing (and yes, it’s exhausting to be launching five books in such a short amount of time. I’m a tad frazzled). I have a popular blog, which is why both of these publishers approached me: I had a ready-made “platform.”

Morgen: “a popular blog”… I like the sound of that.

Anne: Almost all my mysteries are about writing in some aspect, so my writing-blog readers will (hopefully) be interested.

Morgen: I love stories about writing… and crime (and humour) is my favourite genre… I just wish I had more time to read. I know, make time Morgen! Do you have an agent?

Anne: I’ve had four agents, but none of them could get me a book deal. But I don’t think it was their fault. My writing doesn’t fit into a neat category, and it’s funny. Humor is subjective, so it’s harder to sell, especially in the US. Americans don’t seem to like verbal humor as much as Brits. (As you’ve probably gathered I’m a confirmed Anglophile)

Morgen: I have, no complaints from me. And see earlier reference to my two favourite genres…

Anne: A couple of agents tried to sell my books as Chick Lit, but they’re pretty dark for that genre: more like Dorothy Parker-meets-Agatha Christie than Sophie Kinsella or Janet Evanovich. But once Chick Lit was pronounced toxic by New York publishers, I suddenly became “too chick-litty.”

Morgen: I had that at this July’s Winchester Writers’ Conference; three one-to-ones with agents and they all said chick-lit is past it and they want more crime (and historical). Do you think agents are vital to an author’s success?

Anne: Absolutely. I think having a good agent on your side is the best way to a solid career. I’m still hoping. Many agents are now saying: “go indie and get some sales, and then we’ll talk.”

Morgen: There’s hope for me yet then. Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process?

Anne: Yes. All five of these books will be first launched as ebooks. It’s a great way to do it, because if we get negative feedback, we can fix things before the paper version comes out.

Morgen: I love that about it, although I’m hoping that between Rachel and I we’ve spotted them all. Do you read eBooks?

Anne: This is embarrassing—I don’t have a Kindle yet.

Morgen: That’s OK, nor have I. I have a non-Kindle eReader but I’ve used it twice since I bought it (nearly a year ago) but mostly because I never travel and have so many books at home I still want to read. Most people still prefer reading a portable tree and I think while I still have books in my ‘to read’ pile I will too.

Anne: I’m kind of holding out for an iPad, but I’ll have to get some kind of e-reader soon. Reading on the computer feels like work.

Morgen: And not great for the eyes. I was debating earlier this year (just after the iPad v2 came out) between an iPad and Mac Air but went for the latter as I wanted to use it to do podcast audio interviews (which I’ve since wound down in favour of these blog ones but hey, I still love it)… plus I like having a proper keyboard. What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?

Anne: My first acceptance was that serial for the entertainment weekly, and it was exciting, but mostly it was scary. I hadn’t even written the thing—just four sample chapters. I wrote an installment a week, incorporating things that happened in local news into the story. Yes, it was an insane thing to do. I honestly don’t know how I pulled it off.

The acceptance of FOOD OF LOVE in 2003 was one of the biggest thrills of my life, because it came with an invitation to live and work for the publisher in England. I was already half in love with one of the editors, who had an adorable Hugh Grant persona online. It was the start of an incredible adventure—which I’ve incorporated into the story of SHERWOOD, LTD.

Morgen: Oh great! Sherwood… mmm, Nottingham by any chance? Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Anne: Ha! I’ve had thousands. Literally. They all hurt—some more than others. You know how it is: you develop soul-calluses after a while.

Morgen: Now there’s an image.

Anne: Last summer I decided to empty my old file drawer full of paper rejection letters from the pre-electronic days. I had a huge bonfire and told myself I was letting go of the rejection, so some positive energy could come into my life. And you know what? I got an acceptance from Popcorn Press only a week later.  (And yes, to answer the previous question—it was an immense thrill.)

Morgen: If I burned my rejection letters I wouldn’t even warm a snail – but that’s not because I’m necessarily brilliant but that I don’t send much out. I have about 28 rejections (for short stories and novels) in case anyone reading this was wondering. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Anne: I’ve got a new mystery series in the works that will incorporate the characters from GHOSTWRITERS IN THE SKY, SHERWOOD, LTD and THE BEST REVENGE with some new characters. I’m going to set it in my own home town of San Luis Obispo, CA—which Oprah Winfrey recently called “the happiest town on earth.” The new book is about suddenly-homeless former billionaires. The working title is NO PLACE LIKE HOME.

Morgen: Ouch… sounds fun though, and I remember you said your work has humour. Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Anne: OMG. I’ve been writing 14 hour days practically non-stop since July. Mostly blogging and promotion and endless editing. If anybody asks you if you want to edit and promote five books in three months—just run. My life is insane.

Morgen: I have 5 eBooks going up shortly but not novels (a workbook, anthology and three free shorts) so probably not as much work as you’re having. What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it? If so, how do you ‘cure’ it?

Anne: I think writer’s block can be a mechanism that protects the brain, so if you’ve been writing long hours every day the way I have, or you’re doing NaNoWriMo, and you suddenly can’t write another word, it can be your brain sending you a warning. Scientists have recently found out that creative writing and depression use exactly the same part of the brain, so any writer with a history of depression needs to take off every so often and do something entirely different or you could be in for a bad time. When I’m blocked, which luckily doesn’t happen often, I go out and listen to music or go dancing. Or I garden or walk on the beach—anything to clear the brain and get back into my body.

Morgen: Ah, the beach… I’m so land-locked here (c.3 hours) and we get seagulls… I think they come here to taunt me. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Anne: Probably. I have one book I worked on for ten years. I’m still in love with the title: THE ASHTRAYS OF AVALON. It’s some of my very best, most literary writing. But the plot never came together. I’ve published bits of it in anthologies, but it doesn’t hold together as a novel.

Morgen: I have one of those… ah, yes, the aforementioned chick-lit. Part of the rejections for those I reckon was the fact I had too many incidental characters (over 40!) so they’re being split up into a cameo-based anthology. I love almost all of them (some not even their mothers would love) which will hopefully be ready sometime in the New Year. What do you like to read?

Anne: My tastes are pretty eclectic. My favourite writer right now is probably Marian Keyes. I can get lost in one of her novels and know I’m going to be entertained by wonderful, quirky characters and charming wit. I also love the comic “Spellman” mysteries of Lisa Lutz.

Morgen: I have Marian’s ‘Under the duvet’ and ‘Further under the duvet’ anthologies… in my 300+ reading pile. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Anne: Read my blog, Anne R. Allen’s Blog http://annerallen.blogspot.com, which I now share with NYT bestselling author Ruth Harris, who used to work as an editor at some of the big New York publishers like Bantam and Dell. She blogs once a month with a lot of insider info. We try to entertain as well as let other writers benefit from our mistakes.

Morgen: The perfect combination I’d say… no wonder it’s popular. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Anne: Yes—Thank you so very much for hosting me!

Morgen: You’re so welcome. I really enjoyed chatting with you, especially having had snippets of conversation around the electronic ether. Is there a question you’d like to ask me?

Anne: Yes—As I’m writing this, you’ve just posted your 162^nd author interview. Do you find we all start to sound the same?

Morgen: Surprisingly not actually. Back in June when I started with a few questions and thought I’d have to vary them to get different answers. To save time I put them in a document and asked the author to pick the ones he or she wanted to answer. As time went on I added a few… then a few more and now there are 47 (I’m not nerdy enough to know off by heart – I checked )… which is a ridiculous number (even I hadn’t realised there were that many) and I’m surprised how different the answers all are. Of course there are some that overlap (for instance Stephen King’s ‘On writing’ being the most popular writing aid) but apart from a hardy few who I know read most of them, most visitors pop by every now and then (I’m very fortunate to have an average of 150-200 a day over the site) so I think there’s enough variety to keep them interested (I read everything, and I am but then I would say that, wouldn’t I? ). Is there an excerpt of your writing you’d like to include?

Anne: How about some of my favourite lines?

Morgen: Great! Fire away.

Anne: From THE GATSBY GAME:

“Punch had the kind of pansexual magnetism that comes from good bone structure and an unquestioning sense of one’s own self worth.”

From FOOD OF LOVE:

“Amaretto isn’t chocolate, but if you close your eyes and think of chocolate-covered cherries, it can be quite satisfying. Especially by the tumblerful.”

“Hollywood celebrity isn’t the celebrity of power. It’s the celebrity of the victim: the virgin about to be tossed into the volcano, the garlanded lamb being led to the altar of a blood-hungry primitive god.”

From GHOSTWRITERS IN THE SKY:

“The man took off his helmet. His look was something between cave person and aging rock star entering rehab. His eyebrows might have done damage in their own right. I edged away, scanning the garden for a nice rock or weapon-sized garden gnome.

Morgen: ‘chocolate-covered cherries’… yum (why do I always spot the food?). Thank you Anne.

Anne R. Allen is the author of five comic mysteries debuting in 2011 with two publishers: Popcorn Press and Mark Williams international Digital Publishing. She is also working on a self-help guide for writers with PAY IT FORWARD author Catherine Ryan Hyde. Anne is a graduate of Bryn Mawr College and spent twenty-five years in the theater—acting and directing—before taking up fiction writing. She is the former artistic director of the Patio Playhouse in Escondido, CA and now lives on the Central Coast of California.

You can find out more about Anne and her writing from: Her blog, Anne’s author pages at Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com, MWiDP. US readers can also order Anne’s books in paper from Popcorn Press. Ghostwriters in the Sky is now available from Amazon.co.uk.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays.

 

Author Spotlight no.27 – Rachel Cochrane

To complement my daily blog interviews I recently started a series of Author Spotlights and today’s, the twenty-seventh, is of scriptwriter and spoken word director, editor (and more) Rachel Cochrane.

After many years of scriptwriting full-time and several shortlists, Rachel decided to bypass the cumbersome commissioning process and take advantage of the advent of digital media.  After being selected for the Creative GLEAM scheme at Durham University Business School and a DigitalCity Fellowship at the Institute of Digital Innovation, she has now set up a spoken word entertainment website listenupnorth.com, recording her own dramas and inviting other writers to submit their quality work for you to enjoy.  Rachel is about to launch the pilot episode of her webdrama Celia, the deliberations of a middle-class, middle-aged woman which bears no resemblance to her own life – honest.  Catch the trailer http://listenupnorth.com/drama-page/338.

And now from the author herself:

After almost 7 years of near solitary writing, I decided to set up listenupnorth.com, a spoken word entertainment website.  I had a vague plan of how it might work but I was charting new territory.  Really it was a case of putting my toe in the water to see what might develop.

I wanted to produce the radio plays that I had written as audio dramas and put them out to an audience on the web.  This needed a several-pronged approach:

• Gathering actors
• Directing
• Arranging recording and editing
• Legal considerations
• Developing a website to house the productions

Having no experience of recording and editing, I contacted a local studio and arranged to record a short pilot drama.  They were used to recording music rather than drama and so arranged to do the pilot free of charge.  The drama was called Couple and needed 3 actors: a narrator and 2 actors that make up the couple, figures in a sculpture of the same name sited on a breakwater off the Northumberland coast.  Most of my dramas have a village setting because that is the environment with which I am familiar.  However I hope that the themes of my stories are universal and something with which most people can identify.

Through our local am dram I was able to enlist the help of willing actors keen for a new experience.  We rehearsed in my sitting room, it was the first time that I had directed and being tuned into voice was the key, as there would obviously be no visual clues.  Because actors did not have to learn lines, we could concentrate on performance.  The actors were very supportive and I learnt that being open to suggestions does not mean you lose artistic freedom or ownership of your work but that collaboration makes it greatly enhanced.

Waking up on the morning of the recording is always a tense affair; it’s not until I get to the studio, the actors are positioned behind the microphones and I start ticking off items on my schedules that I can start to relax.  Depending on length and complexity of script, it can take anything from a few hours to one and a half days to record.  I usually attend sessions with the recording technician at the later stages of editing.  It takes around four times longer to edit than record.  Sound effects are also added in, purchased with a royalty free licence as my website is potentially commercial.  The actors also sign performers’ contracts to ensure that I own the recording that we make and I can put it out on a website and use parts of it for publicity.  Similarly, for any writers’ work I use, a contributor’s contract is also required.

The finished work is then uploaded with great excitement to my specially developed spoken word entertainment website listenupnorth.com and publicised through social and traditional media to take it out to an audience.

Radio/audio Plays produced so far: Couple, Village Notes, Tilting at Windmills (monologue), Any Other Business, Oranges and Lemons, A Grand Old Lady (monologue) and Dolly’s House.

There is no greater joy for a writer than hearing their words come to life and I am indebted to my generous and talented friends for helping me realise this dream.

You can find more about Rachel and her work via the links above and you can also find her on Twitter and Facebook. You can also email her at enquiries@listenupnorth.com.

The blog interviews will return as normal tomorrow with mystery novelist Anne R Allen – the one hundred and seventy-second of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further. And I enjoy hearing from readers of my blog; do either leave a comment on the relevant interview (the interviewees love to hear from you too!) and / or email me. You can also read / download my eBooks here.

 

Are you ready for NaNoWriMo?

Am I ready for NaNoWriMo? Um… probably as ready as I was last year and 2009 which is “no, not really” and certainly not as ready as 2008 when I’d plotted to almost every last detail but then I started writing and quickly learned (it was my first piece over c.3000 words) that once the characters take over the writer takes a back seat and enjoys the ride.

So this year I have a few character sketches and a vague idea of what they may be doing for the next 30 days but that’s about it, and I can’t wait!

Hitchhiker’s Guide author Douglas Adams is quoted as saying “I love deadlines… the sound as they woosh by” (or something like that) and I love deadlines for a different reason… because it gets me writing. This year will be more of a challenge for me because I only started this blog at the end of March this year and it eats up a lot of my time. Whilst my blog will still keep going during November (at full speed, I’m pleased to say) I will have to find new pockets of time to fit in my 1,667 words a day, but being me, I just know I will. Something will have to give; the scant-already social life… slightly shorter dog walks (sorry hound)… the Red Cross volunteering (I’m my local shop’s ‘book lady’) or some of my equally-scant hours of sleep, and my answering of emails will probably be slower, but I know that come 1st December I’ll look at my 50,000+ words and say, with a smile, “I did that”.

If you’ve considered NaNoWriMo, it’s not too late to take part… even mid-November isn’t too late if you’re a fast typer. The only aim is to write at least 50,000 words and if you do it you ‘win’. What exactly do you win? Nothing materialistic except for the words you’ve created.  I’ve done it three times, how hard can it be? Yes, OK, it’s pretty tough but 2009 I wrote 117,540 so it can be very rewarding… and heaps of fun too. I’m registered as Morgen Bailey so feel free to find me and ‘buddy’ me (especially as the NaNo system seems to have lost the ones I did have ).

The aim of NaNoWriMo is for quantity over quality and whilst we all want a great book at the end of it, you can’t edit a blank page and given that we have to write almost 1,700 words a day there’s no time to edit as you go along. If I get stuck or know I want to add something later I put ‘MORE HERE’ and go back if there’s time at the end but I know I’ll be going through the whole thing three or four times afterwards anyway (times that by 117,540 words and you’ll know that writing my 2009 chick lit was where the hard work started).

Originated in San Francisco USA 13 years ago, they’re a non-profit organisation which relies on donations and the sales of goodies from their shop (I bought a t-shirt) and with hundreds of thousands of people participating it’s a community event for the usually-solitary life that a writer can have. Whilst you can join the online forums, meet in person with members of your local region (mine’s Milton Keynes, there isn’t a Northampton one) you can equally just sit and write your little heart out. I will probably aim for two of the three (you can guess which two) but I know that my little heart will be beating a little faster come the early hours of November 1st.

Morgen with an ‘e’

 

Blog interview no.171 with author Tony Thorne MBE

Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. Today’s is with Tony Thorne MBE, an “elderly young writer of speculative fiction”. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello Tony. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Tony: I am an Englishman, born 85 years ago in London and technically educated there.  However, I now live in Austria; but in the winter, in the warmer Canary Island of Tenerife. I originally qualified as a Chartered Design Engineer and subsequently created a well-known British company specialising in Applied Physics products.  For developments in the field of low temperature (cryo)surgery instruments, and very high temperature (carbon fibre) processing furnaces, the Queen awarded me an MBE.

Earlier in life I also wrote and sold some science-fiction and humorous stories, was an active SF Fan, and a spare time lecturer for the British Interplanetary Society.  Since then I’ve written and published poetry, plus papers and articles for several technical publications, and held a few patents.  After many subsequent business adventures, including the development of AI computer software for business applications, and animated computer graphics set to music.  The last time I retired was in 2003 when I started writing again, and I now have a completed novel on file and over 100 short stories published in various collections.

Morgen: Wow, that’s some going. You mentioned SF and short stories, what genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Tony: I write mostly quirky speculative stories, tall tales in the categories SF, Fantasy and Macabre. However, I have also written a couple of detective stories, some satire, a performance poetry collection, and a “How to…” book.

Morgen: Something for everyone pretty much. Apart from the 100 shorts, what have you had published to-date?

Tony: Nineteen books so far, but over half of them myself now. The revolution has arrived..!

Morgen: Wow. I hope I’m as sprightly when I’m an octogenarian. Have you ever seen a member of the public (whom you don’t know!) reading your book… in any unusual locations?

Tony: Back in 1954 I went into a bookshop and saw there someone reading THE BRITISH SCIENCE FICTION MAGAZINE, which contained my first published story, TIMELY ENCOUNTER. I can still recall the thrill of that moment. Then there was this unusual incident back in 2007 when I was at the EUROCON in Copenhagen (see photos).

Morgen: I’d have been so tempted to say “I’m in there!” I did tell the cashier when I bought the magazine that I had a story in it but he was very non-plussed… burst my bubble I can tell you… but then I showed my family and that made up for it. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Tony: Most of it nowadays, with my website and posters, although I do also have four independent publishers pushing things for me.

Morgen: Apart from your publishing success, have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions and do you think they help?

Tony: Yes, they are very useful for promotional work. e.g.  I came third in the American Mid-Atlantic Horror Professionals contest in 2005 with my macabre tale, SHAPESHIFT.  I came first in the New York ‘Best Read on the Beach’ Contest in 2009, with the first volume of my TENERIFE TALL TALES trilogy.

Morgen: Yay! Do you write under a pseudonym? Do you think it makes a difference?

Tony: No, I use my own name, shortening the Anthony to Tony.  I guess if your name happened to be something like Cuthbert Catastrophe you’d need one.

Morgen: Oh I don’t know, that would make people remember you – maybe you could use it for your humour writing. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Tony: Harry Harrison, that legendary American writer, who wrote the introduction to my first TENERIFE TALES volume, insisted I should find one, essential he said … but I’m still looking, when I get the time.

Morgen: It sounds like you’re doing pretty well already. Are your books available as eBooks?

Tony: Yes they are, all of them now.

Morgen: What is your experience of that process?

Tony: Fascinating, I’m sure it will be the main way to go in future.

Morgen: I do hope so because that’s where I’m headed. Do you read eBooks?:

Tony: Yes I do, and I am the proud owner of a Kindle.

Morgen: My mum’s just turned 80 and she doesn’t have a mobile or computer but then she has time for her gardening etc. What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?

Tony: The first full-length book I had accepted, was my satirical semi-autobiography, How to be a Top Executive, back in the 70’s, which was exhilarating.  Then in 2005 an American Indie Publisher took the first volume of my TENERIFE TALES, SF and Fantasy items.  Recently, the publishers, BooksToGoNow, accepted two of my longer stories and that was nice..!

Morgen: Have you had any rejections?

Tony: Often..!  It often happens with short stories, nowadays. It’s saturation time… more writers than readers.

Morgen: Doing these interviews has made me realise how many but I’m sure we just have to keep going… as long as we  love it. How do you deal with the rejections you receive?

Tony: I read the item again to try and see why, then shrug, make any improvements and try again elsewhere.

Morgen: ‘Shrug’, I like that. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Tony: Editing some of my earlier items, and thinking about a sequel to my novel.

Morgen: Oh great, sequels are SO popular. Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Tony: Most days I write something, from perhaps as few as 300 to around 3000 words max.

Morgen: 300 words a day is over 100,000 words a year; a healthy novel or two novellas… two NaNoWriMo novels in fact. What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it? If so, how do you ‘cure’ it?

Tony: Yes, I have experienced it… but I just wait till it goes away.  It always does.

Morgen: It does for me too. A question some authors dread, where do you get your inspiration from?

Tony: No problem.  I read all the scientific news, and then speculate..!  I start a sentence and the rest comes.  I add in things I recall from my long experience of life and there you are..!

Morgen: Sentence starts are one of the exercises we do in our Monday night workshops and whilst they’re one of the easiest for me, one of the other writers (hi, Denny) loathes them… she literally groans when I say “right, we’re going to do Denny’s favourite now.” Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Tony: Interesting question, I rarely plot up front. Ideas really do evolve and run away with me.  I often get my characters into a real mess, before seeing how to rescue them…or otherwise if it’s a macabre tale.

Morgen: Ooh I’m all in favour of macabre. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Tony: No method, and I don’t worry about their names very much. The things I get them to say are the most important thing to me.

Morgen: Good plan. Dialogue is so important; the fine line between too realistic (er, um, ah) and nothing but complete sentences. Do you write non-fiction? If so, how do you decide what to write about?

Tony: A particular experience will often get me going with a short item.  Like a recent adventurous train trip I had from Vienna to Zürich… or back in the army, (yes, the army) when as a duty boat coxswain, I got shipwrecked once… and taken for a ghost!

Morgen: Oh wow… my brother lives in Zürich, wonderful city. Do you write poetry? If so, do you write to form or free verse?

Tony: Both..!

Morgen: What would you say is the difference between a piece of prose and a prose poem?

Tony: A prose poem must flow and chime… without any rhyme..!

Morgen: Why do you think poetry is so popular and yet so poorly paid?

Tony: Nowadays perhaps everyone thinks they can do it… so they don’t need to buy it.

Morgen: You mentioned earlier that you write short stories, apart from the word count, what do you see as the differences between them and novels and why do you think they’re so difficult to get published?

Tony: That’s another fascinating, but difficult, question.  Good short stories are not easy to write, and there’s more money for the publisher in a big fat novel.  As to collections, they are harder to promote, you can’t have a coherent synopsis for a start.

Morgen: True. I like reading novels when I have time (especially if it’s an author I’m interviewing and I happen to already have their book) but short stories / novellas are where my heart lies. Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Tony: I write an end of the week diary which I eMail to my relatives in different countries.  There’s always something happening to comment upon, and it might make a very long book one day.

Morgen: Blogs have been turned into book… as long as you think someone will be interested, why not? Who is your first reader – who do you first show your work to?

Tony: It depends on what it is. An editor, when I use one.

Morgen: Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Tony: Now I do, and I have definitely improved my writing over the years… but I still make mistakes when an idea runs away with me.

Morgen: I love it when they do. How much research do you have to do for your writing? Have you ever received feedback from your readers?

Tony: There’s always something to research, and the Internet makes it easy nowadays.  Yes, I often have feedback, mostly good I’m glad to say; and not only from friends and relatives.

Morgen: Yay. What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write?

Tony: No idea really… nothing special. I just get on with it… when I can.

Morgen: I know that feeling. Do you write on paper or do you prefer a computer?

Tony: I use a lightweight, Neo keyboard, Word-processor and then download the work later to my desktop computer.

Morgen: Then most of us are lightweights. Some writers like quiet, others the noise of a coffee shop etc. Do you listen to music or have noise around you when you write or do you need silence?

Tony: I become oblivious to my surroundings, but the telephone occasionally is a pest.

Morgen: That’s perhaps why some writers write early / late, when people think they’re asleep (I’m in the ‘early’ camp). What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Tony: Mostly third person, but often first. I would never use second, I just do not like it.

Morgen: A lot of people don’t. I love it but then I’m strange. Do you use prologues / epilogues? What do you think of the use of them?

Tony: Yes, definitely in my longer items, but only where I believe they will work to enhance the story.

Morgen: Absolutely right. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Tony: Yes I do.  Especially some tales I wrote when a lot younger for example.  I like to look after them.

Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Tony: An acceptance… obviously is the best.  Some of the promotional side is a chore of course, and I do resent the time it takes, especially eMails and tatty forum chat. Far more time taken than the actual writing nowadays.

Morgen: Sadly so for most of us I think. If anything, what has been your biggest surprise about writing?

Tony: To be sincerely told by editors, and some critics, that I’m good at it.  I’ve had some wonderful accolades.

Morgen: You have. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Tony: Never give up… whatever.

Morgen: That’s my philosophy. What do you like to read?

Tony: Science Fiction every time. Harry Harrison, Stephen Baxter, Larry Niven, and most of the earlier writers.  I have a large collection of their work.

Morgen: I dated a chap for 4+ years in my (our) 20s and he was an avid Pournelle, Niven, HH reader – if I pointed to a book he could tell me the characters’ names, setting, plot; that’s more than I can do with some of my own writing. Is there a word, phrase or quote you like?

Tony: Yes, one of my own, from my HOW TO book… “In this life there are only a few ways of doing something right, but millions of ways of making mistakes.  This is why things go wrong most of the time.”

Morgen: But hopefully we learn from them. What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

Tony: I read a lot, watch television news, or a good film… and I like going to the theatre when I can.  I still tell jokes at parties or give them a comedy, performance poetry, routine.

Morgen: You do come across as a funny chap (in the nicest possible sense!). Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you find useful and would recommend?

Tony: Linkedin is excellent of course, apart from the unnecessary tatty chat waffle.

Morgen: Isn’t it great. I skim through the waffle emails that come in and am selective about what I reply to (some I really can’t resist) or else I’d spend too long getting involved but it’s great to see how passionate they all are. You said at the beginning of this interview that you live in Austria in the summer and Tenerife in the winter, do you find this a help or hindrance with letting people know about your work?

Tony: Both places are too distant from where I could far more efficiently promote my output.  So I use the Internet..!!!

Morgen: Isn’t it great that we can do that – I love being a writer in this era. You mentioned LinkedIn, are you on any other forums or networking sites? If so, how invaluable do you find them?

Tony: Lots of them, and some are very useful, but others take up far too much time.

Morgen: Where can we find out about you and your work?

Tony: On my website… www.tonythorne.com… but if you just enter ‘Tony Thorne MBE’ in any Search engine, quite a lot of stuff will appear.  If you miss off the MBE you’ll get loads about all the other Thornes too..!

Morgen: The same with me and MorgAn Baileys.

Tony: I’m currently offering a free second eBook to anyone who orders their first one from Amazon, and just lets me know via the Contact Me form on my website. They can choose any title that is the same price as their first one..!

Morgen: That’s very generous of you, thank you Tony. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Tony: Not at all sure.  Good, if you are good and never give up, or commit a highly-publicised dastardly crime … otherwise not a lot will happen, because more and more people are doing it..

Morgen: They are which is why we have to network. Apart from it being fun there’s so much competition that we just have to keep our heads above the parapet. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Tony: I hope not..!

Morgen: Is there a question you’d like to ask me?

Tony: What motivates you Morgen to undertake all this, clearly time consuming, admirable interviewing work, for which I for one am most appreciative and grateful?

Morgen: Oh you’re so welcome. I really enjoy it. I started this blog (late March 2011) because I’d heard it was one of the best ways to say “hello, I’m here!” and wanted to put things on it regularly. Whilst I have plenty of content from all the information I give my writing group (which ends up on the ‘Useful info.’ and ‘Links’ pages) I wanted to do more. I was invited to do a Q&A with Who Hub and then with Teresa Morrow (links to those are on my ‘Me / About me’ and ‘Me / My collaborations’ pages) and enjoyed them so much that I thought “I can do this on my blog” and started them mid-June this year… the rest as they say is history. I thought I may get half a dozen people saying “yes” but now have over 170 posted with another 40+ scheduled and over 100 completed questionnaires awaited so I can’t see me running out any time soon… I hope not anyway.

Apart from ‘meeting’ some wonderful people (many of whom I’ve stayed in touch with via email, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter) – and I’m so grateful to each and everyone for taking the time to do this –  it’s also made me realise how many people write, and I’m sure I’ve only scratched the surface; a little scary when my eBooks are going to be ‘competing’ with theirs. Of course as my blog builds so does my readership so it also serves as a marketing tool and there’s little doubt that this will have an effect on my sales but if I only end up selling one, it’ll still all have been worth it because it’s not about the money for me (although if I become Amanda Hocking MkII I won’t complain!) it’s all because I love doing it and that’s all any writer can ask. Well, thank you Tony, I’ve really enjoyed getting to know you.

I then invited Tony to include an extract of his writing and he left me with “a couple of parting poems”…

FRUSTRATION

When your child

asks difficult questions

shows curiosity and interest

in life and all its problems

Isn’t satisfied with your answers

especially the evasive kind

Looks at you

as though you’re mentally deficient

or inadequately educated

Above all

don’t feel frustrated

or display intolerant emotions

and never resort to violence

Just be patient and understanding

You might have

produced a genius

or at the very least

an average child

with a normal healthy intelligence

On the other hand

maybe it’s become apparent

that your parents didn’t

Morgen: I love that.

AVANT GARDE

Let`s cheer for Youth

when it disagrees

with every way

of life it sees

This must be good

for our success

How else would we

ever progress

But it should know

what we forgot

That if we change

the world or not

youth too must age

and come to see

that youth again

will not agree

And it in turn

however clever

we will find these antics

repeat forever

Tony Thorne, a professional Design Engineer, created a research and development company in Kent, specialising in 30000^C graphite furnaces for carbon fibre processing liquefied helium gas pipelines, nuclear protection equipment and low temperature surgery instrumentation. For this he was awarded an MBE by the Queen. Later, he became CEO of an American Company specialising in microbiological analysis instrumentation and computer related products. Based first in Switzerland, and later in Guernsey, he built up a group of related marketing and manufacturing companies and agencies, all over Europe.

Now retired, he writes SF and Macabre fiction and has published twelve collections of stories, including the award winning TENERIFE TALL TALES Trilogy, ROBOTS INCLUDED, MACABRE TALES, and TALL SF TALES FOR TEENAGERS, all now available as ebooks or paperbacks via the Internet and various publishers, including AMAZON, and WH Smith.  His first novel POINTS OF VIEW is awaiting a traditional publisher.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays.

 

Flash Fiction Friday 006: ‘Lorna doomed’ by Phoebe Matthews

Welcome to Flash Fiction Friday and the sixth story in this weekly series: a 999-worder entitled ‘Lorna doomed’ by novelist and short story author Phoebe Matthews.

On the other side of the graveyard from the Mudflat mausoleum is a stretch of ground that could use a little Mudflat magic to keep things under control. Of course, if that were the case, this story wouldn’t exist. Lorna’s lament was first published in the Rotting Tales anthology, PillHill Press 2010, and now is included in the author’s Nine Horoscope-in-Catsup Stories, Wicked Good series of collected short stories, volume 1.

Head aches.

Head killing me.

No. Wait. Can’t kill me. I am already dead.

My coffin smells nice. Someone tucked lavender around me and the scent permeated the satin. The smooth shiny wood smells of polish.

I know exactly where I am and how I got here. Clancy cheated. After he swore he would love me forever if I would go to bed with him, and after practically turning me into a love slave for the past year, I found another girl’s comb and lipstick in his car. So I did the sensible thing.

I went straight to our school’s biggest gossip and I said, “Mary Tiffany, has Clancy cheated on me?”

If he’d given some girl a ride to the library, it wasn’t worth worrying about. So that’s what I hoped she would tell me.

Instead she said, “Lorna, if you don’t know, you’re the only person in school who doesn’t.”

She started to smirk and turn away but then her true nature kicked in. Mary Tiffany is happiest when she’s telling gossip to the person it will hurt most. What she told me was that the rat I called my boyfriend had five other girls who snuck him into their bedrooms whenever he wanted.

“Mary Tiffany, why would they do that?”

“Why do you?” she shot back at me.

“Because he said he’d love me forever.”

“Got it in one.”

What I got that night was my daddy’s gun. I wrote a note with tears all over it and put it in an envelope addressed to Clancy and dropped it in the mail. And next I put the gun in my mouth.

And took it out. Because what kind of mess would a shot through my head make?  I’d need a closed casket. I’d been to funerals and seen faces all made up, with the hair arranged beautifully and those people were mostly old and wrinkly and had thin white hair. I have long eyelashes that Clancy says look sexy when my eyes are closed. And I have thick, naturally curly hair.

Didn’t want to mess it up. So instead, I moved that gun and shot my heart out.

How long have I been dead?  Well, it isn’t like there’s a calendar on the inside of my coffin lid. My head hit the lid a moment ago, which gave me the headache, and went through the satin and the wood and then through damp, sticky stuff. Garden soil is what it feels like.

After digging my way up and out, standing is rather difficult. I grab hold of a tombstone to pull myself up. It is a new stone, shiny clean, with my name carved into it. How nice.

A voice shouts, “All of you!  Follow me!”

When I look around, I see there are a half dozen people standing on nearby graves. They all lurch forward toward a man who is waving his arms. He’s dressed in black and truthfully, I don’t like the look of him. He reminds me of our gym teacher. When he isn’t shouting, he’s blowing on a whistle.

Also, something quite horrible happens. The first follower to pass me bumps into my gravestone and bits of him fall off. Really. His hand falls right out of his sleeve and lands on the ground and then an ear drops beside it. What’s more, his clothes are rotting and hanging in tatters and I can’t even begin to describe his filthy hair.

When I check them out I realize the other shuffling people are in similar condition, missing parts and wearing horrible rags.

My parents often warned me never to go anywhere with a stranger. Good advice, because although the man who is shouting is clean enough, why would I want to be with the others?

Instead I turn and walk the opposite direction. I feel lopsided, as though a heel has broken off one of my shoes. Continuing, I ignore the shouts. A path winds between graves and between two tall brick columns and out to a paved street. Center Street and Sixth. That’s familiar. Clancy lives in this end of town.

Perhaps by now he misses me and is suffering. I hope so.

When I reach his house, I stand beneath his bedroom window and call, “Clancy!  It’s me. Lorna.”

My voice sounds as though I have a sore throat. I can barely pronounce the words.

The window bangs open and Clancy leans out. “Who’s out there?  Who is that?  Oh, I see you, whoever you are. I guess you think that’s funny?  Get your ugly butthead off my lawn.”

The window slams closed.

Ugly butthead?  What does he mean?  He must not recognize me in the dark. I should knock on the door. Stumbling around the house to the front porch, I stand under the porch light and raise my hand to knock.

Something drops off. I glance down. It looks like a finger. No, that’s not possible.

My reflection looks back at me from the glass window of the front door. Clapping my hands over my mouth, I manage not to scream.

My naturally curly hair is a muddy mess and there is a worm inching across my forehead. My best dress has stains. One sleeve is torn almost off.

Bending down, I pick up the thing that looks like a finger. It is a finger. When I wrap my hand around it, two more of my fingers break away. Now I do scream.

And then I remember where I am. What if Clancy hears me and opens the door?  What if he gets a good look at me?  What if he tells Mary Tiffany? She will tell everyone.

Now that I know he lied, I also know Clancy never ever loved me.

If I return to my grave, no one there will gossip about me. First, none of them know about Clancy, and second, I look a lot better than anyone else I saw tonight at the cemetery.

Wow. I love the head hurting and then backtracking to why it hurts. Thank you Phoebe.

I asked Phoebe what the inspiration behind this story was and she said…

Inspiration for the flash fiction? Hmm. A writer friend mentioned that zombies were the next hot protagonists for romance novels and I tried to get my head around the idea of anyone romancing a zombie. It made my head hurt. The best I could do was a flash fiction story. If I tried to make a novel of Lorna’s sorrows, my head would fall off. Sorry, Lorna.

Now that would be a story!

Phoebe Matthews has a backlist of books published by Avon, Dell, Holt, Putnam, Silhouette and others. Most of her out of print titles are now available again as ebooks. She is currently writing three urban fantasy series: Mudflat, Turning Vampire, and Sunspinners. All are set in the Pacific Northwest where she lives. Her historic Chicago 1890s series occurs in the neighborhood where she spent childhood holidays with her grandparents.

As mentioned earlier, this story features in Phoebe’s ‘Nine Horoscope-in-Catsup Stories, Wicked Good series of collected short stories, volume 1’. Available from the following places: Kindle, Apple iPad, B&N nook.

If you’d like to submit your 1,000-word max. stories for consideration for Flash Fiction Friday take a look here.

 

Blog interview no.170 with poet Melissa Lee-Houghton

Welcome to the one hundred and seventieth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate further.

Morgen: Hello Melissa. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Melissa: I wrote my first poem when I was about seven years old. It was about scuba diving and my teacher stapled it to the wall. When I was a little older I wrote a story about someone dying and won a competition; so I’ve always written, it has always appealed to me. As a teenager, I never had enough discipline to keep a proper journal, but I loved to write letters. I found Sylvia Plath’s collected works in a bookshop with my parents, not knowing who she was and bought the book even though they told me I wouldn’t like it; I loved and treasured it. At college I realised there was a wealth of untapped poetry magazines and writers, more than I could ever wish to read and this excited me. I wanted so much to be a part of it.

Morgen: I’ve had a surprising (to me anyway) number of authors who say they started young… it’s wonderful. Poetry is so popular and yet, like short stories, seems so undervalued by the industry. Do you write to form or free verse? What would you say is the difference between a piece of prose and a prose poem?

Melissa: I write free verse; I need freedom and room to write my way through an idea with as much space for development as possible. The prose poem / prose thing is complex because I often think that some writers don’t see the difference themselves. What is clear in prose is that it need not employ rhythm, sound and metaphor in the same way a poem would; I feel I would personally look for a contained, fully realised idea or theme in a prose poem. A prose poem requires some element of coherence. It needs an element of poetic inquiry.

Morgen: I’ve never been taught to write poetry (and I write it rarely) but I listen to the poets in my writing group and even the prose they write (more so during our writing workshops) I’d say has those features. It’s a real skill. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Melissa: I edit now more than ever. Working on the final edits of A Body Made of You, really taught me a lot about the careful process of editing work for others to read. I edited a poem recently from 1000 words to 1000 characters.

Morgen: Wow, that’s paring, and about… 200 words.

Melissa: It felt really good. When I began writing and submitting work, the most prominent response from editors was that I needed careful, unsparing editing. It has taken thirteen years to realise exactly what that means.

Morgen: Well I’ve been writing for about six years so I’m half-way there. What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it? If so, how do you ‘cure’ it?

Melissa: I think writer’s block is a very common phenomenon. You have to write your way through it by writing whatever comes into your head.

Morgen: You do, like free-writing… hopefully the subconscious will kick in.

Melissa: You have to learn discipline and not get complacent. I don’t believe there is always a spark and a constant flow of ideas, you have to put in a lot of hard work. People will say, you can’t force it, but I don’t see why not. You can still write with energy and conviction without that powerful tool of inspiration; use prompts, get someone else to supply them if you can.

Morgen: That’s what we do in our writing group workshops; sentence starts, one-word prompts, titles, last sentences, random keywords (there are some great ones on http://creativecopychallenge.com).

Melissa: I find that, like the Surrealists, walking around is an excellent way to go about writing something. If I have an inkling of an idea, I nurture it by wandering somewhere familiar. Sometimes I’m so preoccupied with my thoughts I don’t see what’s going on around me, I just feel the rhythm of my footsteps and mentally build on the momentum.

Morgen: Who is your first reader – who do you first show your work to?

Melissa: My husband vets everything. He isn’t a writer, but he makes a fantastic editor and he’s very honest, so I can depend on him for an initial critique. I am so grateful for the many, ‘it’s good, but it’s not good enough’ responses. It’s great when he does really like something his face lights up! It’s wonderful to have that.

Morgen: Isn’t it. I try to get my dog’s face to light with my writing but sadly it still takes the words ‘treat’, ‘park’ and ‘cuddle’ to do that. I get an electronic version from my editor when she particularly likes something I’ve written but again not a substitute. Some writers like quiet, others the noise of a coffee shop etc. Do you listen to music or have noise around you when you write or do you need silence?

Melissa: It varies for me. Sometimes the constraint of having noise and children fluttering about helps me to focus. I generally write in my dining room, though I do have a writing room upstairs. Sometimes, any noise disturbs me and I can become very tetchy! I often listen to a piece of music in headphones over and over until I’m not completely conscious of it and write almost to the rhythm. I can’t do this with just any music. There are a couple of songs and pieces by John Cale that always work for me.

Morgen: As in JJ Cale? I like him, especially Money Talks and Teardrops in my Tequila.

Melissa: If I’m writing from experience, I search my ipod to find a song that reminds me of that time in my life and draw on it for inspiration.

Morgen: What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Melissa: I love having an idea to toy with. I like to brainstorm on paper and the initial buzz of getting into a first draft is exhilarating. I hate having ideas in the middle of the night. I used to get up and stay awake all night, but these days I don’t have the energy.

Morgen: Oh dear. I know that feeling. When I first went to creative writing classes I’d send out morse code messages because I kept waking up and switching my light on and off – the dog must have thought I was mad. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Melissa: My first collection started life as a 108 poem manuscript and was whittled down to thirty poems! A lot of them were good poems, but I had to create a coherent manuscript to present to each of the portrait sitters. But all the original poems will remain lost.

Morgen: Oh dear. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Melissa: I have a chapbook-length collection which I’m hoping to have published next year. It’s been two years in the making and I have yet to finish editing it. If a poem isn’t working I just scrap it. I don’t want to be known for mediocre work and I am really hoping that this collection comes together. Then I will work on my second collection. I want to have a clear idea and plan, which takes time. With A Body Made of You, I had a distinct notion; to write portraits of people whose lives or personalities interested me. I like to have a concept or theme in my work. I think my chapbook manuscript has been so long in the making because I haven’t had that. It seems the poems have found common ground organically. Themes crop up and ideas have settled within them.

Morgen: One of my poets has spent six years on her first pamphlet (and six years on one of the pieces I think!) so two years sounds pretty good going. What do you like to read? Any authors you could recommend?

Melissa: There are plenty of new voices in the poetry jungle. I love Salt’s John McCullough, whose collection, The Frost Fairs was released this year and Clare Pollard’s The Changeling by Bloodaxe books. There are always good poetry pamphlets to introduce you to new authors. I would pick Love’s Loose Ends by David Tait, a Smith / Doorstop pamphlet collection. Penned in the Margins, produce poetry to die for. Their author Michael Egan, was recently commended by the Forward Prize for his first collection, Steak and Stations, which I thoroughly recommend. I also read a lot of novels and recently, Lee Rourke’s The Canal was quite special.

Morgen: Are there any writing-related websites that you find useful and would recommend?

Melissa: The Short Review is a fantastic index of short story writers and collections and a comprehensive guide to short fiction, which I dabble in when the mood takes me. There are loads of excellent blogs out there. I love Peony Moon which showcases poets and their work and gains a good deal of worldwide interest.

Morgen: Ah yes, I’ve heard of The Short Review (note to self: check them out for my short stories ). Where can we find out about you and your work?

Melissa: You can read excerpts from my first collection, ‘A Body Made of You’ here which is available from Penned In The Margins and my personal blog.

Morgen: Thank you Melissa. Good luck with your collection.

Melissa Lee-Houghton was born in Wythenshawe, Manchester in 1982. Her first collection, ‘A Body Made of You’ published by Penned In The Margins, was released earlier this year. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in literary magazines such as Poetry Salzburg, The New Writer, Magma and Tears in the Fence. Her poem, ‘Jim’ was recently included in Starry Rhymes, a chapbook published by Read This Press. She is a regular reviewer for The Short Review.

If you are reading this and you write, in whatever genre, and are thinking “ooh, I’d like to do this” then you can… just email me and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them where appropriate (if necessary to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) and then they get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog / podcast and would like to interview me… let me know. You can sign up to receive these blog posts daily or weekly so you don’t miss anything… and follow me on Twitter where each new posting is automatically announced.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract / short chapter (ideally up to 1000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it / talking about and critiquing it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use the comments or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast, then do email me. They are weekly episodes, usually released Monday mornings UK time, interweaving the recordings between the red pen sessions with the hints & tips episodes. I am now also looking for flash fiction (<1000 words) for Flash Fiction Fridays.