Radio Litopia’s Open House

…starts in 45 minutes. 7pm UK time / 2pm EST.

You may notice every now and then around this blog I mention Radio Litopia.

Apart from being on-air (music, interviews, previous shows) 24 hours a day, we all congregate in the chat room every Sunday at 7pm (UK time) / 2pm (EST) for a fun-filled hour-long Open House.

Agent Pete sets us tasks and we relish in completing them – we’ve not beaten him yet! Whether it’s limericks, collective nouns or the perfect trifecta you’re bound to have fun… we do.

Once we’ve worn our brains down, we then sit back, relax and listen to Agent Pete and Dave Bartram chat to studio and Skype guests of a variety of genres while we, still in the chatroom get to comment, ask questions and, as is often the way, go completely off at a tangent.

So if you’re game (pardon the pun) for an evening of literary mayhem and education click here.

Fellow Litopians include Issy Flamel, Jack Martin, Joseph V Sultana, Julia Kavan, Lae Monie and Sarah Tanburn and you can tweet @Litopia on Twitter.

 

Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode no.5

Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast ‘short stories’ episode number five was released today, Sunday 15th January. Part of a fortnightly series tucked in between monthly hints & tips and red pen critique sessions, I’ve been starting off the first few weeks with the flash fiction that have appeared on this blog as ‘Flash Fiction Fridays’, reading out three per fortnight. Eventually I’ll run out so should you like to submit your own feel free to email me (morgen@morgenbailey.com).

This episode’s stories were ‘The Grey Stones and Leaden Cross‘ (520 words) by Issy Flamel (who also brought us ‘The Ruby Stradivarius‘ back in episode 002),  ‘Loss‘ (314 words) by yours truly, Morgen Bailey :) and a 548-worder entitled ‘That old feeling‘ from regular contributor JD Mader who offered his story ‘Green‘ for the first red pen critique session (I’m looking for more of those by the way).

I wasn’t critiquing the stories in this episode but just simply reading them out and I hope you enjoy this format.

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). Total running time this week was 12 minutes and 30 seconds.

This episode’s contributors were:

When not writing, and being mentioned on The Society of Authors website, Issy Flamel can be found hanging out on Twitter and in the depths of Radio Litopia and WriterLot where you can read equally atmospheric and haunting pieces from the minute-long ‘Cherry Blossom’ to a make-yourself-comfortable 12-minute ‘Gloriana’.

Morgen Bailey, me, is (am) a podcaster, blogger and writer of fiction and articles about writing (a new one’s coming out on Fiona Veitch Smith’s website in the next day or two). My blog is, here, http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com and my eBooks are available on Smashwords.

J D Mader is a teacher and writer / musician based in San Francisco.  He has been fortunate enough to encounter many giving and inspiring people in his life.  He hopes to repay the debt.  And to make enough money with his writing to buy a house. You can help him buy a brick (although I think the eBook is actually cheaper!) by checking out his debut novel ‘Joe Café’ and there will be more soon. He’s done a lot for my blog so probably the easiest way is to read them all is via the ‘Contributors‘ page… just scroll down to the Js (although not too quickly in case there are some other authors you like the sound of ).

Thank you for downloading and / or listening to this short story episode. I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to bringing you another a fortnight. In the meantime, next Monday’s episode will likely be a hints and tips episode as I’ve run out of stories or novel extracts to red pen! So if you’d like to submit yours for consideration (or stories for these episodes) you can email me at morgen@morgenbailey.com. All the links mentioned in these shows are listed on the podcast page of this blog.

 

Blog interview no.185 with literary novelist Ellen Feldman

Welcome to the one hundred and eighty-fifth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. Today’s is with literary novelist Ellen Feldman. 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 Ellen. Please tell us something about yourself and how you came to be a writer.

Ellen: I am a fulltime writer.  All I’ve ever wanted to be was a writer, though for a long time I was too frightened to try, because I thought writers were a breed apart.

Morgen: “too frightened to try” – I love that. What happened next?

Ellen: I worked for a few years in advertising and publishing, then finally got up the courage to start writing.  Lest this sound as if I’m about to say, the rest is history, I’m not.  I spent many years freelancing for publishing houses while I wrote my heart out until I got published.

Morgen: It’s a shame that you felt you needed the courage but you clearly had (have) the passion that so many of us share with you. What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Ellen: I confess to disliking the idea of genres.  I think it buttonholes writers unfairly and discourages readers who might love the book if it didn’t come with a label.

Morgen: Oh me too. That’s why I stick with short stories. Well, not the only reason (it’s also what I love reading) but I can’t stick with one genre, and that’s the joy of eBooking. How much of the marketing do you do for your published works or indeed for yourself as a ‘brand’?

Ellen: I’m not a good marketer, however I happily do whatever my publishers in the UK and the US arrange.  I don’t think of myself as a “brand,” because each of my books is different.

Morgen: You’re very fortunate. I’ve heard of so many writers being pigeon-holed because they write a particular genre and then it’s what’s expected of them, from the industry and readers alike I’d say. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions and do you think they help with a writer’s success?

Ellen: I was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and have won a Guggenheim.  I’m not sure how much they help a writer’s success, but they certainly sent this writer over the moon.

Morgen: I have your latest novel ‘Next to Love’ and it mentions the Orange Prize shortlist on the (gorgeous) cover. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Ellen: I have an agent in the US and another in the UK.  They work together.  I think they’re invaluable professionally and consider them both personal friends.

Morgen: As do I my editor. Are your books available as eBooks?

Ellen: My books are available as e-books, and I think it’s a terrific platform for those who enjoy it.  I don’t care in what form people read my books; I’m just delighted if they read them.

Morgen: Me too. I like to think that most writers write to be read and not just sold. Do you read eBooks?

Ellen: I don’t read on an electronic device myself, simply because I like to turn actual pages, but my husband does and swears by it.

Morgen: A lot of people do, although most authors I’ve spoken to love both formats, although some are still fighting eBooks. I think they’re great for different purposes; paperbacks at home, eBooks away. Did you have any say in the title of your books? How important do you think they are?

Ellen: I have chosen all my titles, with help from my US agent.  I think they’re important, though not necessarily crucial.

Morgen: I love titles but yes, they’re not the only reason I buy a book. Do any of your books have dedications? If so, to whom and (if appropriate) why?

Ellen: They all have dedications to people, either living or dead, whom I want to honor.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Ellen: Show me a writer who hasn’t had rejections, and I’ll show you someone who’s not telling the whole truth.  The only way I know of dealing with a rejection is to keep writing.

Morgen: To literally “write your heart out”. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Ellen: I’m at work on a novel set against the cultural cold war about a marriage and a nation betrayed.

Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Ellen: I write almost every day, but I do so much backing and filling and rewriting that I never know how much I’ve written in any given day.

Morgen: It sounds like you don’t need to search far but a question some authors dread, where do you get your inspiration from?

Ellen: Ah, I wish I knew.  It’s some deep subterranean process that, strangely enough, tends to bubble up when I run my three miles around the Central Park reservoir every morning.

Morgen: Running, walking works for a lot of writers (I have a notebook in every dog-walking jacket). Central Park is featured in so many movies, it’s looks a wonderful place so it’s not surprising that it’s your muse. Do you have a method for creating your characters?

Ellen: I have no method.  I just have to live with them and get to know them better and better as the book goes on.

Morgen: We’ve mentioned your novels mostly so far, do you do any other type of writing?

Ellen: I write either book reviews or magazine pieces on social history when asked to do so.  I recently wrote a short story for BBC4.

Morgen: I know a lot of people listen to the BBC – they’re so supportive of writers. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Ellen: I do an enormous amount of rewriting.  In fact, I probably do more rewriting now than when I started out, because I demand more of myself.  There’s an old Hemingway quote that goes something to the effect:  When you start out, it’s fun for you and hell for the reader.  By the end, it’s hell for you and fun for the reader.

Morgen: Oh dear. I guess I would rather have it that way round though. One of poets says she finds writing tortuous which is a shame, although her writing is superb so I guess she’s there already. How much research do you have to do for your writing? Have you ever received feedback from your readers?

Ellen: I do a great deal of research and love hearing from readers.

Morgen: Let’s hope we have some comments here. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Ellen: Whether I use first or third depends on the demands of the story I’m trying to tell and the characters themselves.  I’ve never tried second person. Finding the person and more important the voice is crucial for me.  Once I start hearing the voice, I know I’m on the way.

Morgen: Oh I love second person. It’s an acquired taste; sadly most editors haven’t acquired it yet. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Ellen: I have a novel I worked on for two-and-a-half years that I doubt will ever be published.

Morgen: Oh dear. Looking on the bright side, it was practice (not sure that helps when you’ve spent so long on it)… What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Ellen: If you don’t have to write, don’t.  It’s often a difficult life with much heartbreak.  But if you have to write, go to it.  When it’s going well, few things are more wonderful.

Morgen: Absolutely. Thank you so much Ellen.

Ellen was recently a guest on internet writing-related show Radio Litopia’s ‘After Dark’ which I’ve been involved in for the past year. I was in the chatroom that evening when we were asked to come up with the titles for the show. Knowing that Ellen’s latest book was called ‘Next to love’ I suggested something like ‘Writing is the next best thing to love’. It was picked (minus ‘Writing is’) and I won a signed copy of Ellen’s book (which is proudly sitting next to me as I type this). I have just started reading it but am already hooked, not surprising when the opening of Chapter 1 is ‘Babe does not take long to learn the dirty little secret of war’. You can listen to Ellen’s episode on Radio Litopia here.

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. You can also find my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords.

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.

 

Radio Litopia is now a Sunday double-bill… starting now!

As I type this online writing radio show Radio Litopia’s Open House is just starting. Whilst I understand that thousands of people listen to the podcast (that’s how I started) the main fun (for me anyway) the chat room is generally attended by a fairly exclusive bunch of people. Quality over quantity? Absolutely, but Agent Pete (who I interviewed yesterday morning by the way) loves to have a crowd. It can get pretty rowdy but one thing’s for sure – you’re going to have some fun.

So… I’m off to join them and if you have a spare hour of two, then come along…

Open House runs 6.30pm to 8pm UK time (1.30pm East Coast time / 10.30pm Pacific time) – fun and games so you need brain power

then

Litopia After Dark 8pm to 9pm – often with some wonderful guests! We’ve had Mark Billingham, Peter James, Ellen Feldman and many more… don’t know who we have tonight but I’ll update this page when I know.

http://www.litopia.com/radio/live-events

when the page opens you’ll hear Agent Pete’s dulcet tones and the rest of us playing games. Put a username (no spaces) where prompted (in the middle of the black square) and Bob’s your father’s brother.

 

Blog interview no.178 with agent & Radio Litopia host Peter Cox

Welcome to the one hundred and seventy-eighth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, short story authors, bloggers, autobiographers, agents and publishers, 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 Peter. Can you please briefly explain the structure of your agency and how many authors you represent.

Peter: Very small number of authors.  I only represent authors I feel passionate about.  The business model is quite different to other agencies – we have a small number of clients and work like mad for them.  Most other agencies have bags of clients and wouldn’t miss one or two if they dropped off the edge of the earth.

Morgen: Knowing you as I do (all will be explained later), I get the impression you’d work like mad regardless. Do you write yourself? If so does this help with deciding which authors to take on?

Peter:  Used to.  Have written or co-written about two dozen books.  I retained and then got rid of three agents before I realized that the quality of service I was looking for in a literary agent didn’t really exist.  Sadly, many authors are quite naive about this and usually think themselves lucky just to have an agent represent them!

Morgen: I think many are although some I’ve spoken to have seen sense and have either secured a good one or are going it alone and managing pretty well. The $64,000 question: out of all the submissions you receive, what makes an author / book stand out for all the right reasons?

Peter: It’s not an entirely logical process.  A confident submission containing effective writing with recognizably commercial potential will do it… very rare, unfortunately.

Morgen: A needle in a slushstack. And then, without naming names, what makes an author / book proposal stand out for all the wrong reasons?

Peter: There are an infinite number of way not to succeed!  I could talk to you all day and night about this.  Let’s just move on.

Morgen: I’d be happy to (I’m of the ‘talk for England’ ilk) but perhaps it’s wise to keep going… Do you represent particular genres or it all dependent upon the author and their writing? What would you suggest an author do with a cross-genre piece of writing?

Peter: I’ve become very familiar with the YA genre in recent years, but will actively consider any genre.

Morgen: Ooh great… and Pete’s address is… er, OK back to the interview… Is there a genre that you haven’t represented and would like to?

Peter: Crime.

Morgen: I had three agents say the same thing to me at Winchester in July. In fact Judith Murdoch (who was supposed to be scary but was lovely… OK, a little scary) looked at me and said “you’re a crime writer, you need to write crime”. She must have seen my dark side. Is there a genre that sells better than others or that you represent but can’t get enough of?

Peter: More innovative YA would be nice!

Morgen: OK innovative YA authors reading this… that’s your cue! How can an author submit to you?

Peter: The usual ways, but mostly my advice is to join Litopia and go through the houses there first.  That submission you think is ready to go probably isn’t and could be improved a lot by this process.

Morgen: I found that with submitting mine, having returned to them sometime later I saw they had more holes than Emmental (one of my favourite cheeses). Can you suggest some do’s and don’t’s when submitting to you.

Peter: Don’t come round in person!  If you ignore that, then please don’t come round wearing a nuclear & biological warfare protection suit (Noddy suit) as someone did a few years ago. Opening the door to that is genuinely terrifying.  But basically, if you come round in person, we will assume you’re a crazy person and call security, so don’t.

Morgen: (OK, noted) Who was the first author you represented / the first book published?

Peter: Michelle Paver’s first book, Without Charity. Still in print, selling nicely!

Morgen: I have her ‘Spirit Walker’, ‘Soul Eater’, and ‘Fever Hill’ but like SO many of my other books they’re in the ‘to be read’ pile. Maybe after Christmas when I’m a lady of pleasure. Do you advocate writing competitions, do you think they help with a writer’s success?

Peter: They do help with status a little bit, and certainly can help with a writer’s confidence, so yes.  But make sure they’re genuine competitions, not traps for the gullible.

Morgen: Absolutely, if the ‘prize’ is you buying an anthology you’re in you may want to think twice (or if it costs £10 to enter but the prize money is £25). Have any of your authors won or been shortlisted in any competitions?

Peter: Yep, Michelle won the Guardian prize last year, and is chair of the judges this year.

Morgen: Ah yes, I heard that podcast… yay! What do you feel about an author writing under a pseudonym? Do you think they make a difference to their profile? And would you recommend an author writing under different names for different genres?

Peter: The only people this really matters to are publishers. So sometimes it’s a good idea.

Morgen: Great answer (says she you uses one). I ask this question of the authors and publishers I interview and feel it’s just as relevant but apologies for asking: do you think an agent is vital to an author’s success?

Peter: No, not at all.  I succeeded in selling several millions books in spite of my then agent, not because of him.

Morgen: Several m… <coughs> wow!

Peter: These days, agents have to prove they can add real value.

Morgen: They do and although I think most authors, deep down (some deeper than others) would love one, a lot of the authors I’ve come across are feeling that they’d have more say than perhaps a few years ago which can only be a good thing for us authors. As you mentioned earlier, you take on a tiny percentage of the authors who contact you, do you have any tips on an author securing an agent?

Peter: I’m writing a book about this at the moment – check on Litopia for an update.

Morgen: Ooh great. Now for, in theory, a simple question: what’s your opinion of eBooks, do your authors’ books sell in that format and do you read them?

Peter: I’ve just written a column for the Bookseller about this.  It’ll be on Litopia soon.  Basically, I’ve been an e-booker for some thirteen years now, so I’m not exactly new to them.

Morgen: I interviewed crime novelist Stephen Booth recently and apparently he was one of the early ones too… and I went to see Peter James talk at one of my (sort of) local libraries and so was he. I’m so late to this party.

Peter: They’re great for some things, awful for others. By themselves, they will not save publishing, as many currently think.  There is a lot of unreality about e-books at the moment.

Morgen: A lot of talk on LinkedIn (and elsewhere) is about the amount of bad (free and otherwise) eBooks out there but I maintain that good reviews will highlight the class from the crud. Whilst a lot of people say (and worry) that eBooks are going to kill pBooks (as paperbacks are now being called) a lot of the authors I’ve interviewed say either that they don’t read them or do but pBooks (or hBooks ) are still the mainstay of their fiction (and non-fiction presumably) fodder. Going off at a tangent for a minute (feel free to reign me back in as I do tend to wander), poetry and short stories are, in my opinion anyway, the two most hard done by genres… what do you see as the future for them? Do you think the eBook revolution will help given that eBooks seem to be getting shorter?

Peter: Yes, definitely.  Also, it’s about creative marketing.  Publishers need to get with the plan on this, there’s lots of potential here.

Morgen: Yay, another correct answer (as a short story author). Apart from your authors’ books, what do you like to read? Any authors (including those you’ve represented) that you’d like to recommend?

Peter: Impossible question!

Morgen: OK, that’s another “let’s move on” question then. Is there a plot that’s written about too often?

Peter: Most thrillers I see are variations on an end-of-the-world theme involving nuclear weapons or bioterrorism. I’m bored with bombs and bacteria.

Morgen: I’m not because I don’t read them. Give me a murder any day. Do you have to do a lot of editing to the books your (represented) authors send you or is the writing usually more or less fully-formed?

Peter: I do what is necessary to support each author individually.

Morgen: Does it matter to you what point of view your authors’ books are written in? What’s your opinion of second person?

Peter: Second would be a bit weird for the whole manuscript, although a talented author could do it.

Morgen: I have Jay McInerney’s ‘Bright Lights, Big City’ which I’ve picked up / put down loads of times. I adore second person but even I struggle with that… I like dark but that’s just… well, grubby. But it’s second person so I kind of let it off.

Peter: If you notice point of view, it’s probably not working.

Morgen: Oh, not thought of it but yes, it makes sense. Have you had any surprising feedback about any of your authors’ published works?

Peter: There are hundreds, possibly thousands, of people who have had their lives touched by my authors’ works… that’s one of the most satisfying things about this job.  I love seeing readers’ feedback.

Morgen: I’ve just had my first review for one of my shorts on Smashwords and although it was middling (3/5: apparently not enough detail – someone else (on You Write On) said that it had too much!) I really don’t mind as it’s still lovely knowing that people are out there reading what I’ve written. Now what was I saying about wandering off? Is there book you’ve represented that particularly sticks in your head for any reason?

Peter: They are all my darlings.

Morgen: Very diplomatic… and of course the only answer I should have expected. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Peter: Keep breathing.

Morgen: I plan (hope) to. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Peter: Great promise.  You have to believe.

Morgen: Absolutely. What do you think the future holds for an agent / your agency?

Peter: We will take over the world.  I cannot see for the life of me why any author would want to be represented by any other agency.  Our way of doing things is certainly the future of agenting.

Morgen: Please don’t blame me if your slushpile increases after this. Are there any writing-related websites and / or books that you could recommend?

Peter: Litopia has taken ten years or more of my life, and has been a labour of love offered to writers everywhere.  It’s all there, take advantage of it – www.litopia.com.

Morgen: Please do folks, I can’t stress how brilliant it is (and join us in the chatroom 6.30pm – 9pm every Sunday night UK time… Peter James was last week’s guest and Mark Billingham a few weeks before that (and Ellen Feldman and…) Given that more emphasis these days is put on the author to market their published works or indeed themselves as a ‘brand’, how involved are you generally with your authors post-publication?

Peter: Far more than any other agency.  We’ve been running fan communities for our authors’ readers for over seven years now!

Morgen: Wow. I must admit that however much I rave about Litopia (I do, believe me) I’m the world’s worst (OK, well maybe Northamptonshire’s worst) at going on the site outside of Sunday evenings (note for the New Year). Apart from your website, how do you market yourselves? Are your authors involved in marketing for you / themselves?

Peter: Only indirectly.  An acknowledgement in each book is nice.

Morgen: You’re UK-based, do you find this a help or hindrance with letting people know about your authors and their books?

Peter: I was commuting to New York a week a month for a long time, and I know that scene very well.  London / NY is really the axis of English-language publishing.

Morgen: You have @Litopia and @AgentPete Twitter profiles, what do you think of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and more business-related such as LinkedIn? Do you think they’re invaluable or too time-consuming?

Peter: Maybe, but be pragmatic. Your readers really don’t care about your trips to the supermarket.  Each author / readership is different and requires careful strategic thinking.

Morgen: Absolutely. Sometimes I think my output is too writing-related but then I look at some of the others… I know you from Radio Litopia, which I only discovered via an iTunes podcast search autumn 2010, when and how did Litopia come about? Was there a particular motivation to start something so involving for free, presumably it’s evolved a great deal since the ‘early days’?

Peter: Writing is a very solitary business, and I wanted to construct a friendly community where writers could come together, through the magic of the internet, for some good company and mutual support.  It’s been very satisfying to see it mature.

Morgen: I bet. I’ve only been involved for a year and it’s the highlight of my weekend. You have author guests on Sunday evening’s (8pm UK time) Litopia After Dark, is there an author you’ve not had on the show yet that you’d love to be involved?

Peter: Stephen King.

Morgen: Well, Stephen if you’re reading this… You have regular sidekicks (Dave, Donna, Ali…) how did you get to know them?

Peter: All through Litopia. It’s an open door – people suggest themselves, and we take it from there.

Morgen: And it’s great for anyone in the chatroom to ring in during Open House (6.30pm Sundays)… I have a few times so got to hear myself on the podcast later. Oh, I’ve just Tweeted and Facebooked that I’m posting this tomorrow and Joseph V Sultana says “hi”… oh and Lae Monie wants to know where. Whilst most of the programme is writing-related, conversations often go off-track, is there a topic that’s not yet been discussed that you’d love to talk about?

Peter: Politics are discouraged inside Litopia itself, but not on Radio Litopia. That’s because the potential for personal bad feeling is much higher inside a forum. On the air, it’s only me and a few others who might take offence.  I guess some listeners might, too!  But they can always make their views known through the chatroom.  I’d like to see more writers becoming more political, small “p”.  Writing is the lifeblood of our culture, and believe me, it’s under attack right now. Writers need to hang together and use their not inconsiderable talents to defend our culture. The dark ages are never far away.

Morgen: Discussing politics without ‘painkillers’ (a regularly chatroomer who seems to have gone awol) doesn’t seem quite the same although I have noticed recently that jack martin has taken up the mantle. Then of course there’s always the crazily-clever issiel. Litopia programmes are recorded and released as podcasts, as well as other podcast episodes such as Donna’s ‘The Debriefer’, what impact do these have on spreading Litopia’s existence and that of your agency? Do authors submit their books to you because of Litopia?

Peter: Rather the opposite, really.  I think many people used to join Litopia in order to find me there… now, they join because it’s a great place for them to be.

Morgen: Absolutely. The majority (albeit a slim one; 65%?) of Litopia’s listeners are from the US, do you think this is just because it’s a large country? Other than geography, do you find a difference between the listeners?

Peter: I think it’s just because the (English-speaking) net is very US-focused. But we also need to do more promotion inside the UK.

Morgen: I mentioned the second (panel) show After Dark earlier, but Open House precedes it. Open House is more chatroom-involved with writing-related games and puzzles (and as I said sometimes members of the chatroom Skyping or phoning in); do you have a favourite game? Is there anything memorable that’s happened during one of these shows (and/or After Dark)?

Peter: We try to make something memorable happen each week on LAD.  Author interviews can be awfully dull.

Morgen: Present company excepted hopefully.

Peter: I try to both challenge and our guests and to give them a safe space to reveal the private people they are: getting under the surface of a writers is not always very easy, it’s as if they decide to reveal so much in their books, but not to go any further. We do push things quite a bit.  No-one has walked out yet!

Morgen: I really like the new mini-quizzes you give the authors… and loved the episode (with Ellen?) where you’d asked one of the ladies 5 questions then chatted and then went to the other author… Theresa? (maybe the other way round)… assumed she’d be getting the same questions but then you floored her by asking completely different ones… maybe it’s that us author have thick skins from all our rejections. I love both shows and now they’re back-to-back on a Sunday it’s just great. Open House is perhaps the more frivolous of the two because of the games and then we get to be serious for an hour with LAD.

Peter: The chatroom on Open House is simply a place of genius. I’m both awestruck and usually doubled up with hysteria… they are very funny, very creative people. It’s the high spot of my weekend.

Morgen: Me too, and I love creating the things you throw at us. And I’m still on a high from winning Ellen’s book by the way (a tip when entering title comps folks, feature the name of the author’s book!)… thank you for going with Ellen’s choice. There’s much more to the Litopia website than the radio arm, such as the colony, guest bloggers, given that you only have so much ‘spare’ time, how involved in that are you? Do you have a moderating overseer, as you have with Jamie and the @Litopia Twitter profile?

Peter: We’ve just taken on our first Community Manager.  This is a huge leap for us, and obviously one that has costs attached to it. It’s a big experiment, I hope we can make it work. The Colony is so extensive now that I simply can’t continue to subsidize it myself – we have to find a way to make it break even.

Morgen: There is a donation button on the site folks (I found it easily and it’s in dollars so not at all painful ). Are you involved in anything else writing-related?

Peter: Litopia is enough!  But I do give talks at conferences and things like that.

Morgen: Oh yes, I remember you mentioned on one of the Open Houses that you were due to be a panellist talking about the state of publishing. I’d love to have been there. What do you do when you’re not working?

Peter: I go to the theatre quite a lot, maybe twice a week. We home-educated our kids, which also takes time, although mostly over now. I’d like to encourage more parents to do that, if they can.

Morgen: We have a lovely old theatre in Northampton called The Royal, small, dark, red velvet, it’s great. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Peter: This is the best job I’ve ever had.  Working in publishing is a real privilege.

Morgen: That’s how I feel sitting at the other end of the table. Is there anything you’d like to ask me?

Peter: Who did that caricature of you – it’s great!

Morgen: Oh thanks. It was a local guy actually called Adrian Teal. He’s easily Googleable. He’s very prolific in a variety of magazines (many political and celebrity caricatures) and I walk past his studio on my way to / from work so called in one day with some photos. Thank you so much AgentPete ’til Open House on Sunday.

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.

 

Blog interview no.129 with author Sarah Tanburn

Welcome to the one hundred and twenty-ninth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, directors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. And today’s is with speculative historical author (who dabbles in horror and non-fiction) Sarah Tanburn. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate Sarah further. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/blog-interviews.

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

Sarah: I wrote a lot as a youngster, mostly bad poetry, though I wrote an excruciating novel and tried to make a screenplay of the Ruritania novels.

Morgen: The first thing I read out in the very first creative writing workshop was a poem. When Sally and the rest of the room had finished critiquing it, it had more holes in it than Lancashire (Beatles fans will get this ) but I’m still very fond of it. Sorry, you were saying…

Sarah: Then life got in the way, and I stopped writing, except non-fiction for my work.  In 2003 my life changed dramatically;  I moved onto our boat, Roaring Girl, and I started working for myself.

Morgen: Ah ha ‘Roaring Girl’, I see now where your Litopia ID comes from.

Sarah: The changes also undammed all that creativity and one night I found myself on the marina breakwater imagining a woman standing inside a space ship as it descended to the surface of a planet.  Immediately, I knew this was the start of a novel, and an amazing new adventure.

Morgen: What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Sarah: Mostly I write speculative and historical fiction, though I dabble in some horror and even non-genre, literary work.   I have two main projects in hand.  The first is a speculative fiction novel, The Melkjeven Commitment, of which the first chapter is posted on my writing blog.   The other is series of short stories, all in the first person, about women who went to sea under sail.  That collection has the working title Women of the Wind.  One of those stories, The Ocean is my Lover, can be downloaded from Ether Books if you use an ipad or iphone.

Morgen: Ooh I love short stories but sadly I have neither an iPad or iPhone. What have you had published to-date?

Sarah: I’ve had a couple of short stories published on line.  I love Ether Books, who are re-creating the short story for the ebook world, publishing tales which can be read easily on screen and in a short time.  I’m also really grateful to my pal Laura Wilkinson as she started a fab site at www.hagsharlotsheroines.com, and accepted work from me including book reviews, an essay on the value of science fiction, and some stories. The recently published River of Stones, edited by Fiona Robyn, and available from Amazon, has a piece from me in it.  Fiona has promoted the idea of small stones, short writing that is the record or product of an intense moment of paying attention.  Find out more at http://ariverofstones.blogspot.com.   The magazine, Snapshots of History: Stories from the Past has accepted one of my stories Blessed are the Peacemakers for publication this December, and I’m chuffed to bits about that.

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

Sarah: I need to improve!  I started my writing blog late in 2010, and have really struggled to keep it consistent, which I know is the absolute requirement for blogging.

Morgen: There’s no doubt that having content makes all the difference and it’s thanks to you guys that I can put so much up… and I’d say (but then I’m a tad biased) it’s all good stuff too; quantity and quality… I’m very grateful.

Sarah: I am self-employed, and most years I spend four to six months travelling, but of course the last three months of 2010 were lean times for everyone.  I did loads of business marketing so 2011 has been frantic, which is great for the finances, but rubbish for both the writing and the travelling.  I prioritised actual story telling over blogging for a while.

Morgen: I should do but then I’ve written for a few years now so have plenty to edit and get out into the ether (keeping Rachel, my editor, in a job for a few months at least).

Sarah: Now life is calming down a little and I’m beginning to re-establish a routine which makes a bit more writing and marketing time. This interview is a big jump for me, to publicise myself as a writer.

Morgen: Oh great… I hope you get some lovely comments.

Sarah: I do have the writing blog and when we’re cruising, I keep a sailing blog, which a surprising number of people read.  (I should say that my main audience for that is our mothers, so nothing really bad ever happens, or I only write it up once it’s reached humorous anecdote stage.)  I’m on Facebook (though I have to accept you as a friend to see my details), and Twitter (#workthewind) and Linked In.  I use LI mostly for my work life, though I notice you, Morgen, refer to writing groups there, so maybe I need to explore it a little more.

Morgen: Oh yes they’re great. I belong to 11 writing-related groups (Book Marketing, Books & Writers, Creative Designers & Writers, Creative Writing Source, Fiction Writers Guild, NaNo, Published Authors Network, Write It Down, Writer’s Bureau, Writer’s Café, and Writers) and was declined from another group (no, don’t ask again). I won’t say which one here but it’s probably the only one I don’t belong to… and I fit both descriptions of it so not sure why; maybe they Googled ‘MorgAn Bailey’ and I thought I was a porn star.

Sarah: I am pretty protective of my ‘brand’ which is one advantage of having a really rare name.  In some ways, that’s an inhibition, but I try to see it as a real benefit in slowly sidling into the world of having a writing identity to bring to the market.

Morgen: I’d say so. It’s about people remembering you… there are only three or four MorgEn Baileys as far as I know so as long as people remember that… Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions and do you think they help with a writer’s success?

Sarah: I won a competition on the hagsharlotsheroines site, which was a great boost early on.  A section of The Melkjeven Commitment was one of the 100 shortlisted debut novels from the Writers & Artists Yearbook in 2007, something I find very consoling when I need to keep the faith.

Morgen: Oh wow. The W&AY is the guru of guru guides in the UK. Well, done <pats Sarah on her back>

Sarah: I’m sure competitions help with both profile and confidence, as well as credits.  I keep missing the announcements though, and need to get better at making sure they arrive in the inbox.

Morgen: I can add you to my mailing list for my fortnightly handouts although I do end up putting the information on http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/useful-info.

Sarah: Competitions have word limits (of course), and sometimes I don’t have anything that’s the right genre and length that’s ready at the right time.  If I planned better, I would be more effective at writing to the requirement, which would help.  Again, this is about making time not only to write, but to market.

Morgen: Indeed. And there’s always http://www.jbwb.co.uk and http://duotrope.com for market info. Do you write under a pseudonym?

Sarah: No. I see having a rare name as an advantage, so I want to use that.

Morgen: What Sarah? Oh, Tanburn. Yes, you’re right. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Sarah: I’d love to have an agent.  So few publishers now accept unsolicited submissions, so it’s vital to have someone fighting your corner.  I’m delighted to be published electronically, which is the obvious alternative strategy. I can be a bit of a geek, but I would still love to have a real, paper based book (or indeed more than one) out there on the shelves, and that seems impossible without either publishing (paying for, marketing, distributing) yourself or finding an agent, or at least not in the current state of the industry.

Morgen: I’m going the eBook route (with Rachel in my corner… I ought to go and check on her actually, feed her a little something from time to time ) but if an agent or published wanted my book. I had an email from a ‘publisher’ called ‘Just Fiction! Edition’ wanting to publish my book that’s on Authonomy. For some reason I didn’t get excited which is just as well as it turned out to be carefully selected spam. Talking of eBooks, are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?

Sarah: My stories are, but not the book.  I do read ebooks, and I love my Kindle.  I travel a great deal and since I bought it in March, I’ve used it a lot.  Many people seem to see a Kindle as supplanting paper books, but that’s nonsense.  What they are is an addition, an alternative format.  I still read paper too; my next Woman of the Wind is Noah’s daughter-in-law, Adataneses.  I found a wonderful book about Jewish seafaring in ancient times which is full of helpful ideas and would never be available electronically. We are living in an extraordinarily exciting time for publishing, comparable to the invention of the press.  That led, amongst other things, to the availability of sacred texts (the Bible) for everyone, to translation and increased literacy, and hence the Reformation and the Enlightenment.  New formats and media, making the world of creativity and exploration more accessible, seem to me to be in principle a good thing.  It creates huge challenges for writers, readers and (most of all) for distributors such as bookshops and libraries.  We should explore those challenges and invent the new models, rather than stick our heads in the sand and hope it all goes away.

Morgen: I’m exploring. What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?

Sarah: You could say editing my school magazine was first foray into publication.  Acceptances are great.  I’m a thrill seeker.

Morgen: I could, yes. I’m clearly not, as I’m rubbish at submitting so not so many acceptances (but not a huge amount of rejections either; 29 Speaking of which, have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Sarah: Many, like (I believe) most writers.  Not all rejections are the same.  I prefer ones which tell me a little about why this piece wasn’t accepted, because that helps me to improve.  I’m a bit peeved with agents whose websites say they’re open to new proposals, but whose refusals say they’re not reading at the moment.  Please save me the time and postage. I try to remain professional and open to the lessons from any rejection, and move on to the next story and the next opportunity.

Morgen: Good plan. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Sarah: I am writing the collection of stories, Women of the Wind.  Four are just about done, and there are three or four more to come.  They’re not that short, coming in at between 6,000 and 10,000 words, so seven or eight will be a book, even if I get more of them published individually.   I’ve had some publisher interest in the idea, but they need to be written first. Then I’m going back to The Melkjeven Commitment, particularly in the light of crits from Litopia, to do the fourteenth rewrite and then start submitting it again.

Morgen: Litopia crit… great. Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Sarah: I don’t manage every day, because the need to earn a living gets in the way.

Morgen: I know, how annoying is that?

Sarah: But if I can live like a writer, which happens sometimes, I’ll write about 2000 words most days.  Of course, 1,999 of them may not survive overnight.

Morgen: What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it? If so, how do you ‘cure’ it?

Sarah: I don’t really suffer from it.  When I’m feeling stuck with a story or situation, I find it can be very helpful to write about something else completely.  I’ll find a prompt and get one with it.  That can be really simple;  I’m writing this on a train and we’re delayed next to a huge yard full of bricks.  Wow!  Who knew there were so many thousands of bricks in the Fens?  I could easily write something set in that strange, dusty, red place.

Morgen: Fens… Cambridge / Norfolk? I spent my birthday morning last month on a Norfolk beach (a 3-hour drive from me, so worth it… on the warmest day in August!)… and took loads of photos for potential eBook covers. Where do you get your inspiration from?

Sarah: Anywhere really.  I do subscribe to Nature and Science, and they’re great sources.  On this train, we’ve just been told the delay is due to cows on the line.  There’s inspiration right there.  I once got delayed on the Nairobi / Mombasa train (in Kenya) by elephants on the line.  That’s even better. I enjoy sometimes just taking two or three words and writing something that incorporates them.  Whale.  Daisy.  Crane.  Go.

Morgen: You’re on a train doing this? Wow, I think that’s got to be a first.

Sarah: Children’s story about a whale called ‘Daisy’ talking to a crane with a sore throat. A crane called… Albert. How did I do?

Morgen: Lovely… I’m constantly amazed what we come up with in our Monday night sessions from one word, a sentence beginning, keywords etc. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Sarah: A bit of both.  In my work life, I write a lot of reports and policy documents, and it’s essential to structure such work, making sure complicated, technical material is accessible by the intended audience and fit for purpose.  When I got back to creative writing, I started out thinking I must escape that straitjacket, and just wrote whatever came.  Over time, I’ve found that’s terribly wasteful, both of my amazing prose and my scarce time.  Now, I will start with an idea of the character or the story which is a bit more than a seized image but less than a bunch of index cards detailing each chapter.  I can begin writing with that.  For historical fiction, it can be relatively straightforward.  Take Adataneses:  there’s going to be a flood and a rainbow and she’s going to survive.  The important part then is character:  who is this woman and how does she experience surviving the end of the world?

Plot becomes more important the longer the work.  A full-scale novel needs to be plotted, to have the rhythm and internal structure that comes from real attention to the order and pace of events.  I also find an awareness of plot helps enormously when editing and self-critting, to make sure the architecture of the piece is right.

Morgen: It sounds like you have this writing thing sussed. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable?

Sarah: Characters tend to appear but may mutate enormously as I discover more about them, and their role in the story.  This can include gender, though some people stubbornly refuse to change.  I love the naming of characters, and work hard to associate names with the backstory, even if the backstory never ends up in the final piece.  The climatologist in The Melkjeven Commitment, who is a minor player in the novel, is called Jyoshi.  It’s derived from the Swahili for weather, and reflects his Muslim heritage as well as his profession. Detail and motivation make characters believable, I find.  At a workshop once I was given an exercise which asked us to describe the five things the character always carried with them, and five rituals or actions they undertook every day.  That’s great; even thinking about how a person cleans her teeth can tell you so much about them, how they operate in their environment and why.

Morgen: Ooh, five things (noted). Do you write any non-fiction, if so, how do you decide what to write about?

Sarah: I write tons of non-fiction, on many topics of public policy, but I don’t think that’s what you meant.  On the blogs, I write what comes up.  The sailblog is easy enough, because it’s based on what’s happening.  On the writing blog it’s a mixture of (relevant) events and readings or musings that spark me off.

Morgen: And poetry, 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?

Sarah: I don’t write poetry.  Some of my work might fall into the prose poem category, but that always feels a little pretentious to me.  I think poetry has two attractions to many writers.  It’s relatively short, so you can concentrate on it and hone it in your head.  And of course it’s easier in many ways to perform.  There’s a symbiosis between writer’s cafes and other such events and the growth of poetry, which is not so effective for even very short prose.

Morgen: I love short stuff but poetry? Sorry, don’t get it. I leave that to the poets (I have a few great ones in my group – that sounds vague but two do nothing else but others do a bit of allsorts). Talking critique, who is your first reader – who do you first show your work to?

Sarah: Usually my writing group in Ipswich.  I would like to find at least one good online writing group, which I could fit in with travelling and working, but haven’t succeeded so far.

Morgen: Oh dear… come to Northampton. Do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Sarah: I edit and edit and edit.  I often line edit the last section of the previous session’s writing before I start the next days work.  I edit and review at least once (often many times) before I submit a piece to anyone.  I re-do in the light of feedback.  I often review a piece if I’m resubmitting.  So my challenge is not losing that first excitement and pace.

Morgen: How much research do you have to do for your writing? Have you ever received feedback from your readers?

Sarah: Both historical and speculative fiction need a lot of research.  What meat did the Vikings have in Greenland?  How heavy is the largest squid known in the oceans of Earth?  I am a magpie for all sorts of facts, and am lucky enough to have a pretty good memory and reasonable filing system.  Feedback suggests I can overweight fiction with the research, and I am still learning to stand back from all the information. There’s a wonderful comment by Hemingway, in his interview for the Paris Review, where he tells us to leave out what we know.  He says: I’ve seen the marlin mate and know about that. So I leave that out…. All the stories I know from the fishing village I leave out. But the knowledge is what makes the underwater part of the iceberg. (The whole interview is at http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4825/the-art-of-fiction-no-21-ernest-hemingway.)   I remind myself of this comment all the time.

Morgen: Another noted, thanks for that. What is your creative process like? What happens before sitting down to write?

Sarah: I aim to enable three stages, which often overlap, and cycle around each other for a while.  The first is essentially noticing things, and jotting them down.  Bits of notes, ideas, images, flashes of inspiration.  Another stage often happens in bed at night, or during a long stint at the helm of a boat, or on a long walk.  That’s dreamlike, episodic, and very visual.  This stage is very important to me, and may be why a common piece of feedback for me is that my writing is quite film-like, though I’m not very knowledgeable about film at all.  These are the most creative, lucky stages. Then there’s conscious planning and preparation.  What research I need to answer a question.  Have I checked the timeline, for example making sure I’ve allowed long enough for my characters to get from A to B? Ideally a lot of this has happened before I start writing.  When it has, then the story will be written fast, and (I believe) better.  I will capture that excitement and voice, without sacrificing consistency and accuracy.    Because my life is a bit fragmented, with lots of other adventures and deadlines happening, the whole iterative cycle doesn’t happen often enough, which creates more re-writing and editing.

Morgen: Yep, very thorough. Do you write on paper or do you prefer a computer?

Sarah: I write with what I have.  I like to write at a computer because it’s easier to edit but drafts, particularly of sticky scenes, are often handwritten first. When we’re cruising, we live off the grid and generate our own power (solar and wind) and that means I write a lot more in long hand and edit on paper before moving to a computer.  When I’m living ashore, I write earlier drafts on the screen, because I can.

Morgen: 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?

Sarah: I like to start in relative quiet, but once I get going, you can drop the dustbin by my ears and I won’t notice.  I find the spoken word very distracting, particularly my favourite Radio 4, so that must be turned off (to my partner’s annoyance.)

Morgen: I love that ‘dustbin’ reference. What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Sarah: That depends on the story, the character, the tense.  I’ve never tried second person, and I often find it very annoying to read.

Morgen: Longer passages certainly can. I ought to post one of my second person pieces. I love writing it, really love writing it so would urge every writer to at least have a go. Some people do hate it. Do you use prologues / epilogues? What do you think of the use of them?

Sarah: I have used them, but (so far) have always done away with them in the end.  I suspect they are often a darling the author just cannot bear to kill.

Morgen: Ah yes, ‘’kill your darlings’ (or in the States I think it’s ‘slaughter your babies’). Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Sarah: Loads.  Some of them I will never want to publish.

Morgen: I have at least one of those; a very therapeutic piece. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Sarah: Favourite is the creation of something from nothing, the discovery of the new, the feeling that one is building the narrative, mining the story from the morass of possibilities.  Least favourite?  That has to be not getting paid for it.  If I earned enough money at it, I could do it more.

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

Sarah: I realised I would have to kill a favourite character so that the main character would end up where she needed to be.  I wept for days, and I was astonished at the emotion I had invested.

Morgen: Ah… JK Rowling was going to kill off a particular character but he / she didn’t want to be killed so she killed another… it’s funny how that works. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Sarah: Keep going.

Morgen: Absolutely. What do you like to read?

Sarah: I’ll read anything.  (Bleach bottles.  Twitter.)  I recommend that writers read, especially in their chosen genre or field.  I enjoy history, speculative fiction, literary fiction, some biography.  I loved Sarah Maitland’s Silence, which I’ve just finished, and Stella Duffy’s Theodora.  Chris Moore’s Fool (which I bought after he appeared on Litopia After Dark) makes me LOL in public. For writers, I always recommend Francine Prose’s Reading Like a Writer, and the Paris Review interviews.   I regularly refer to various grammar texts, including Strunk & White’s Elements of Style and Lynne Truss’s Eats Shoots and Leaves.

Morgen: Great choices, thank you. I have loads of Stella’s books – I met her at Oundle Lit Fest last year… she’s great. What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

Sarah: I sail, spending (most years) between four and six months a year cruising in the Mediterranean.  We’ve just completed the layout of our garden, so I’m enjoying the planting.  I do have to work, too.  If anyone wants to know about my work providing strategic support around cultural, environmental and regeneration services, my biz site is at http://www.workthewind.com.

Morgen: My garden is a work in progress but one of my Monday nighters is a HUGE help (and an expert) so we swap expertise on Mondays. I’ve bought her a short story course… which is, ooh about an hour after this comes out. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful and would recommend?

Sarah: So many, so little time.  I’ve really cut back to create time for my own writing.  The most important for me is www.litopia.com, which I’ve found a great source of friendship, support and bracing criticism.

Morgen: I need to go on it more often. I’m the ultimate Litopia Literary Tart; I show up on a Friday and Sunday night, get what I want out of it and go back into the night.

Sarah: I find I use Wikipedia a lot.  Of course you have to check the authority of what you find, but it’s a fabulous resource for any writer.  I subscribe to Mslexia and love the resources on www.mslexia.co.uk.  There’s a lot of good stuff on the blog at www.bubblecow.co.uk.

Morgen: Ah yes, BubbleCow – I have a cuppa (cherry cordial, actually, it was lovely) the other day with short story author (tutor, columnist etc) Helen Hunt – who’s course it is today actually – and she mentioned them. She also recommended them in her interview so I must check them out. There are loads of good blogs and ezines out there, so it’s really difficult to single out a few.  People need to explore the web and find the voices they like. In which country are you based and do you find this a help or hindrance with letting people know about your work?

Sarah: I’m in the UK, unless I’m cruising or visiting my partner’s family in NZ.  So far, travelling so much has not been a problem.  Maybe it would be if I needed to do a bookshop tour in the UK, or walk the red carpet at a Hollywood premier.  I’ll worry about that when it happens.

Morgen: I like the fact you use ‘when’. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how invaluable do you find them?

Sarah: These days, I only regularly go to Litopia.  Even there I’ve been quiet the last few months, though I try really hard to get to their radio shows at broadcast time on Fridays and Sundays, because I love the interaction of the chatroom.

Morgen: Isn’t it great! Where can we find out about you and your work?

Sarah: Visit my blog at http://www.sarahtanburn.wordpress.com.  If you want to get in touch, my email is sarah.tanburn@workthewind.com.  If you want to be friends on Facebook, look me up, but mention you are a writer, and how you heard about me.

Morgen: Ah WordPress, good taste. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Sarah: A writer?  This writer, or JK Rowling?  There isn’t a single answer.   The foreseeable future will need us to recognise a changing market both in distribution and readers’ expectations.  For all writers, the future involves long, solitary hours chuckling or weeping or staring out of the windows.

Morgen: But more control over I lives and that really appeals to me. Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Sarah: Boring but important: look after your workstation. I’m having physio for bad pain after a long writing bout to strict deadlines. Less boring and just as important: giving good crits and feedback helps me to self-edit.  I hope that works for you too.

Morgen: I get sciatica so definitely important. Is there a question you’d like to ask me?

Sarah: How do you manage the formidable discipline that your blog and site represent?  Awesome!

Morgen: Thank you. 20+ years as a secretary helps with the organisational side, short nights help with the ‘getting it all done’ but I try and keep on top of it as I go along. Thank you Sarah.

I then invited Sarah to include an extract of her writing and this is… Fragment (from the secret diary of my pen)

Lines of black trail, inescapable, inevitable.  My twitching, scraping life spells out the darkness: filling up, spilling over.  Once gone, excreted, vomited, I care little.  An occasional tweak, sharp lines, curlicues in comers, a jabbed addition, no more.  Moving is the point.

It’s always black.  I’m bored with black but return to its simple elegance after brief flirtations with blue, purple, green or even, once, red.  Black is less distracting and more efficient.  It doesn’t catch the eye but fills it, embeds itself, immoveable. 

Blue is transmutable, fluid, malleable, slippery.  I don’t like blue; it is effete.

Green now:  I liked green once.  It appeared, smug, in official margins in an authoritative way, offering ambitious opportunities to cover suspiciously empty space.  But fashions change and now it is too often the colour of scrawly, loopy swoops inappropriate to my aspirations. 

Purple, despite its venerable legacies, suffers from the same image failure, and is difficult to find.  I may take a respite weekend, but I do not need long-term care during a violet-hunt.

Red.  Ah!  I hanker for red, the alarming splash across the sombre remains, the touch of it warming my cold trail long left behind.  I love red.

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.

 

Blog interview no.100 with (me, myself and I) multi-genre writer Morgen Bailey

Welcome to the one hundredth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, directors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. Back in interview no. 43, Winn Smith asked who was going to interview me (Teresa Morrow and Who Hub already have and Winn will be later this month) but I thought seeing as the centennial interview falls on my birthday (no presents please ) I’d interview myself. As you do. I normally say that if you like what you read, please do go and investigate the author further but if you feel you know enough already from my blog or website then don’t feel obliged… unless you’d really like to. A list of my fellow interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found at http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/blog-interviews.

Morgen: Hello Morgen. Firstly happy birthday.

Morgen: Thank you. I’m having a lovely day so far. Just back from 24 hours at Norfolk and had a wonderful time watching the dog eating waves. Before we begin, I’d just like to say what a pleasure it is being here.

Morgen: Ah, that’s nice, you can come again. OK, so… you know how these interviews start…

Morgen: I do. I need to tell you something about myself and how I came to be a writer.

Morgen: That’s it.

Morgen: I’ll warn you now that I do tend to waffle.

Morgen: That’s OK. I’ve got a long blog home page.

Morgen: So just tell me if I’m…

Morgen: You are… your first answer please?

Morgen: Oh yes (what a hard taskmistress, is she like this with everyone?). I’m a… 44-year old (today, hoorah!) single white female (that was a brilliant film, one whose follow-up was decidedly dodgy as they often are).

Morgen: (coughs)

Morgen: Sorry yes… I did warn you. I live in Northampton, England in a 1930s house with my Jack Russell / Cairn (and a bit of everything else) dog.

Morgen: He’s very cute.

Morgen: Thank you. He has big brown eyes and he’s not afraid to use them.

Morgen: And you came to be a writer how?

Morgen: Sorry. I’ll try to behave from now on.

Morgen: Please do.

Morgen: This talking to myself is feeling weirdly easy.

Morgen: You were saying?

Morgen: Sorry. Yes. Short and sweet: moved counties c. 15 years ago. Didn’t know anyone. I worked as a temp in the day, went to evening college, brushed up on the languages, then computer skills then September 2005 I looked for something else in the University prospectus and there was creative writing – a Monday night critique workshop with Sally Spedding…

Morgen: Who I interviewed recently on my podcast.

Morgen: You did. Special episode 32. That was fun.

Morgen: And what genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Morgen: Now there’s a question.

Morgen: Uh oh.

Morgen: A bit of everything.

Morgen: That wasn’t so painful. Dare I ask if you’d like to elaborate… just a little?

Morgen: Sure. Four and a bit novels (lad lit, general, chick lit, sort of lad lit and part of a dark one) and lots of short stories, monologues being my favourite.

Morgen: So humour and crime?

Morgen: The last one is sort of crime. I’ll have to come back to you on that one.

Morgen: OK.

Morgen: And I have written poetry but…

Morgen: but?

Morgen: The poets reading this are going to shout at me…

Morgen: I’m sure they won’t.

Morgen: I don’t ‘get’ poetry.

Morgen: Ah.

Morgen: I’ve written some. There’s an autobiographical poem on my blog’s ‘About me’ page. The first piece I read out at Sally’s workshop was a humorous piece of a family’s evening told through the eyes of a six-month-old boy. I’m still fond of it and should do something with it.

Morgen: Ahhh…

Morgen: But it got shot down in flames.

Morgen: Oh dear.

Morgen: I nearly didn’t go back to the group.

Morgen: Oh no.

Morgen: But I thought “I’ll write something better”.

Morgen: And you did?

Morgen: I did. Can’t remember what now but it must have gone down well as I kept going back and it’s what led me here.

Morgen: What have you had published to-date?

Morgen: Apart from a writing workbook which is ready to roll, I’m working on rejigging the novels (into novellas and possibly an anthology for the chick lit, picking out the best half a dozen or so characters) as eBooks…

Morgen: there were more characters than that then?

Morgen: Yes. Izzy met one a day (for a month) with another dozen at mid-month speed dating event.

Morgen: Ouch, that’s a lot for one novel.

Morgen: It is but I’m fond of them all (some are very peculiar) and will use them all at some stage, but just split them out into other things… but to answer your question…

Morgen: If you wouldn’t mind…

Morgen: I’ve been published in Woman’s Weekly and NAWG Link magazine but I’m rubbish at submitting which is a fairly major part of getting things published, isn’t it?

Morgen: It does help.

Morgen: But recently fellow interviewees Nathan Weaver (LINK) published a self-contained (soon to be the beginning of a) dark story I wrote for http://storyaday.org back in May 2011 called ‘The Threadbare Girl’ (which I’m going to include in one or two of the eBook anthologies – one for the Story A Day and probably the full thing in another) and Tia Bach (http://depressioncookies.blogspot.com/2011/07/guest-post-morgen-bailey-talks.html) published an article I wrote for her on my NaNoWriMo experience. Neal James has another short story (a dark second person) appearing on his blog in January 2012 which will be exciting (for me anyway).  I’ve got a short story going into October’s Link and I’ve been asked to write another couple of articles so it’s all going swimmingly.

Morgen: You mentioned NaNoWriMo, the 50,000+ words every November. How many times have you done that?

Morgen: Three: 2008, 2009 and 2010. And I plan to keep doing it even though I’m concentrating on short stories.

Morgen: Did you ‘win’ each time?

Morgen: I did. I scraped through in 2008 (53,000) and 2010 (51,000) but flew past the finish in 2009 (117,540).

Morgen: Wow, that’s some typing.

Morgen: Thank you. I’m fortunate. I’ve been a secretary since I left school so I can type quickly. Like anything it’s just practice. Give me a blank template of a keyboard though and it would take me ages to write in each letter.

Morgen: That’s funny.

Morgen: I know. I only learned recently that the letters were jumbled up because the typists were too quick for the original machines so it’s was the best way of slowing them down… not sure how long for or who decided on the order of the letters but hey ho.

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

Morgen: All of it but I’m enjoying it. I’m on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn and of course this blog helps get my name known. I was chuffed when I’d been quiet on LinkedIn for a while, but still had the thread emails coming in, then commented on something and someone, I think it was KS Brooks (hi Kat), said that people had been wondering what had happened to me, which was lovely and it really is like a family, like Litopia is. Linton (who’s done an interview for me which will go up early October) did a disappearing act too and the same thing happened with him. Even if it doesn’t get any books sold (when they finally come out… note to self: get editing!), it’s so rewarding to be a part of that… Facebook’s the same; there’s Sue Welfare’s (hi Sue) weekly beginnings competition (which I contribute towards when I can – and has actually started off some pieces that I definitely want to continue; the latest being to continue ‘Just as dawn’ and I love sentence beginnings)…

Morgen: You’re waffling.

Morgen: Sorry. I think I’m done on that one.

Morgen: Great. Have you won or been shortlisted in any competitions and do you think they help with a writer’s success?

Morgen: I have. I had a spate of sending stuff out to competitions (Writing magazines and Writers’ News mostly). I’ve won a couple of local ones, was shortlisted once in Writing Magazine and a couple of times at Verulam Get Writing competition (Geoffrey Guiver won this year’s… hello Geoffrey!) so they’re on the CV.

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

Morgen: I do, and I love it. It’s like someone being called a middle name because they prefer it to their first name. I had this conversation with my mum a while back and she said I could have picked one of my middle names; I have two. Elizabeth is the one I’d have gone with if I’d found out, or thought about it, earlier… or a variation probably Libby but it was too late by then but now I prefer Morgen (despite it often being spelt with an ‘a’ instead of an ‘e’). I don’t think anyone knows about the Libby thing, not even my brother (hi Martin) and not sure how my friends would react now… guess I’ll find out when they read this. But no, never been keen on my first name. Which, is Alison by the way. Ali as in Ali McBeal has been a suggestion but I’ve never warmed to it (despite liking the TV series) and ‘Al’ always seemed too butch so it’s been plain ‘Alison’ until Morgen came along, and it’s what I am online so it’s easier.

Although I’m biased I can understand why the likes of Ruth Rendell (Barbara Vine) and Joanna Trollope (Caroline Harvey) as it distinguishes their different genres. I picked a name that could be male or female, really because I write a variety of genres and went with Morgen as that was the name of a dog I used to have, plus it means ‘morning’ in German (I am a morning person) and my family has been friends with a German family since I was an early teen. The middle daughter (hello Heike – thank you for the lovely necklaces et al) and I are planning on going to Edinburgh book festival next year (for the first time) and I asked on Facebook if anyone else is going and I think we’re going to end up hiring JK Rowling’s castle. My cute dog mentioned earlier by the way is the Bailey of the ensemble.

Morgen: Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Morgen: I’ve tried the agent route, admittedly only to about a dozen; seven or eight via email (all but one replied with a ‘no’) and I’ve had four agent pitches; a 3-minute with HarperCollins’ Scott Pack (not an agent, he was great, very supportive) at Verulam Feb 2011 and three (very interesting) at July 2011 Winchester. I don’t think I’d do it again until I had something really meaty to offer them; on reflection the writing I was presenting to them wasn’t really me, or my best work if I’m honest but definitely an experience, and one I would recommend any writer doing if they’re at all interested in getting an agent, which I think deep down, most would be as it’s the best way to reach the big boys (publishers)… and girls of course.

Morgen: Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?

Morgen: Can you ask me again in 6 months? This is a one-off? Oh, OK. Yes, they will be; eBooks only most likely. At the moment they’re either with, or back from, my editor Rachel or myself so the process has been fine, if not a little slow (me getting them to her although it’s ticking along nicely at the moment – I’ve had something back from her, the workbook, which needs only minor tweaking and she has the Story A Day anthology so I’m hoping to get something else to her before that comes back; I’d rather it were that way round).

I have an eReader but use it rarely as I never go anywhere. I have a Mac Air so that tends to go where I go but I tend not to get past emails, the internet etc. One day I’ll make the most of the eReader because I can see how brilliant they are, it’s just that I don’t travel much (at all) – I didn’t take it to Norfolk as I knew I wouldn’t get time; I took Matt Hilton’s ‘Cut and run’ but that remained unread (this weekend for sure Matt!) – I did go through four writing magazines picking nuggets for my writing group’s handouts, which ultimately end up on here.

I can read a book or magazine (usually a writing-related one as I just mentioned, I subscribe to the UK ones – Writing Magazine, Writers’ News, Mslexia, New Writer, Writer’s Forum… and Take a Break’s Fiction Feast, and I buy Woman’s Weekly fiction specials… which I keep meaning to subscribe to – so it keeps me busy, in fact I’m about 7 months behind with those so they’ve taken over the book reading; sorry Matt & Trisha Ashley (they’re my two ‘on the go’s at the moment)). Yes, I can read or edit as I walk (writing’s not so easy but I can do it) so I do that when I’m walking the dog or to / from work. Other than that it’s just out at the cinema or meeting friends (I joined http://meetup.com a little while ago; it’s great!).

So, no, to cut a short story long (as Martin and I used to say my dad did) after all that I have an eReader but don’t really use it. Audiobooks are also a big love of mine and can be listened to in conjunction with pretty much anything else so that’s a time-saving bonus.

Morgen: What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?

Morgen: The Woman’s Weekly story and yes, absolutely, it’s great. Paid or unpaid it’s still exciting to see my writing (fiction or articles) out there and especially so when I get feedback. Elaine Saunders left me a message on my Facebook page earlier this week to say she was jogging at the gym to my podcast – I don’t think I’ve ever helped anyone lose weight before, other than letting my Mexican neighbour use my cross-trainer which she does more than me.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Morgen: I have. I’ve had 27 or 29, I can’t remember. I catalogue them (have I said already that I’m a nerd?) but I’m pretty sure it’s not quite up-to-date.

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

Morgen: Mostly the blog interviews, it takes a fair amount of work but I’ve got this week off so have been able to catch up a little. While Rachel has the anthology I want to crack on with the next book as I need to keep my momentum going.

Morgen: Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Morgen: If you count a line or two then yes. Mostly it’s during the two writing groups so I guess the beginnings of a dozen pieces a month. I’m happy with most of them so I guess it’s quality over quantity. I’m very good with deadlines though so get writing for NaNo and StoryADay but then they were both before the blog interviews but I need to not let them standing in the way so find a way of doing both – I will, I just do. The most in a day was during NaNoWriMo, just under 10,000 words.

Morgen: What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it? If so, how do you ‘cure’ it?

Morgen: Sort of. I get stuck sometimes but then I either come back to it later, sleep on it, or if it’s near my writing group night I’ll run it past them.

Morgen: A question some authors dread (I guess because it’s sometimes impossible to answer?), where do you get your inspiration from?

Morgen: Everywhere and anywhere; patterns on the pavement after a patch of rain, newspaper clippings (I have literally hundreds of those – one of my Verulam shortlists, a monologue called ‘Feeding the Father’, was inspired by one of those), snatched conversations (I’m a devil for pretending to turn my iPod volume up / down when I’m actually pausing it as an argument walks by), an odd (or not so odd) word anywhere – I can look around my room and start with something, I’m lucky in that respect.

Morgen: Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Morgen: A bit of both. Like most of my interviewees have said, I’ve had a nugget and gone with it, seeing what comes out.

Morgen: Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names?

Morgen: It depends what I’m writing. If it’s from a picture (which we use in our Monday night writing group) then I’ll just look at it and see what I think the person’s name is, otherwise I’ll either pick a name from the air or it’ll just come to me as I write the piece, sometimes I change them if it doesn’t suit. I do have baby name books which really I should perhaps refer to more often as I want to call all my characters Elliot (the men anyway, unless it’s a surname). Not sure where that desire comes from other than being the surname of a school friend Natasha and we did get in contact again on Friends Reunited a while back.

Morgen: What do you think makes them believable?

Morgen: They have to be realistic and a reader as to empathise with them. Unless you’re making someone plastic for a reason (perhaps as an antagonist) readers get bored with perfection. And some flaws can be fun – there are plenty of those in my chick-lit novel.

Morgen: If you write non-fiction, how do you decide what to write about?

Morgen: The only non-fiction writing I do is writing-related so I’m either given an idea (Steve Bowkett of the NAWG Link magazine has either asked me to do something or leaves it to me… I say that as if I’m in there all the time – only two issues so far (April 2011 and August 2011) with the short story (twist on a fairy tale which they’d asked for in the August edition) coming out in October.

Morgen: If you write poetry, 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?

Morgen: Ha ha ha ha… sorry. I have written poetry but it’s not my strength. At all. Really it isn’t. Oh no. It’s not me.

Morgen: OK.

Morgen: Although there was…

Morgen: You mentioned short stories earlier, 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?

Morgen: You do have to be much, much tighter in a short story; every word literally does have to count, and it’s easy to forget that but you literally have to look that closely when editing it. If you can lose a word, do it (for instance do you need ‘completely’ before ‘dead’?). In novels everything still has to be relevant – narrative drive; move the story forward or tell us something about that character. If we don’t need to know what Sam had toast for breakfast (yes, guilty of that in novel one) then take it out.

Morgen: Are you involved in anything else writing-related other than actual writing or marketing of your writing?

Morgen: I run two writing groups; every Monday, one critique, the other writing workshop and I love them both. I’m lucky and have a great bunch of people, some of whom (three) come to both sessions. I belong to two others locally and release a podcast every Monday morning (although I think it’ll be later in the day this week as my brother’s visiting from Switzerland… hoorah!). Then there’s Litopia every Friday and Sunday nights. And I go to lit fests, talks etc. Live and breathe, and it’s always a pleasure never a chore, as Hugh Laurie said to Joely Richardson in Maybe Baby (if you’ve never seen it, do, it’s hilarious… especially Rowen Atkinson and Dawn French.

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

Morgen: Generally my writing group. The critique sessions though are only fortnightly (the workshop’s the other Mondays) so there’s only so much I can read out in the time. I have the wonderful aforementioned editor Rachel (hi Rachel) who I knew already but she’s just setting up her manuscript services company (the website for which I shall be no doubt be touting fairly heavily when it’s live although I’m not her only client so there’s a headstart there already). She really is the key to me being happy about the content my eBooks before I launch them, although we both know I have the final say (the great thing about self-pub) but she’s the vital second opinion which everyone needs regardless of how good their writing is.

Morgen: Before it goes to Rachel, do you do a lot of editing or do you find that as time goes on your writing is more fully-formed?

Morgen: I use to, but yes. The more I write the more know where I’m waffling as I go along…

Morgen: now there’s a surprise

Morgen: …so I curb it.

Morgen: How much research do you have to do for your writing? Have you ever received feedback from your readers?

Morgen: Research is my least favourite aspect of writing although the internet does make it much easier. I don’t really have much out there at the moment. I had some great comments from The Threadbare Girl and can’t wait to get my eBooks out there as I just love knowing that people read what I create – assuming that someone will. And of course hoping that they’ll like it. The other great thing about eBooks is that if someone spots a mistake it can easily be tweaked and resubmitted, no waiting for a second edition / reprint.

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

Morgen: I usually grab a cup of tea. I’m a dreadful snacker so have to either get something like a sandwich before start writing or I’ll be scrabbling around for sweets or crisps because I’m too busy to get something proper (if a sandwich counts as proper). I’m usually eating something pretty bad when I’m on Litopia as I’m usually rushing around just before it (especially if it’s a Sunday night and I’m getting the headset configured and Skype set up – Litopia’s on tonight by the way – it’s great… Dorothy Koomson was one of the guests last Friday; My Best Friend’s Girl is one of my favourite books and I’ve just bought ‘The Woman He Loved Before’) and as food always gets mentioned I’m found out pretty quickly (I’m too honest I guess) and the other chatroomers tell me off.

Morgen: Do you write on paper or do you prefer a computer?

Morgen: A computer if I have it handy but otherwise it’s paper which is fine because I then edit as I type it up (when I get round to typing it up, she says conscious of the stack of notes in a tray to her right). I prefer to edit on paper and yes, I use a red pen.

Morgen: 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?

Morgen: I like classical music. I’m typing this while I listen to my iPod’s Top Rated (not sure why as I have iTunes on the computer but it’s still running from when I took the dog, who’s currently on my lap, exhausted from his beach escapades) and I can type something like this with words going on, probably easier as I know the songs but prefer classical because of the lack of words if I’m trying to create fictional ones. Silence for me is too… silent, but I struggle to concentrate in a coffee shop, fine for checking emails though.

Morgen: What point of view do you find most to your liking: first person or third person? Have you ever tried second person?

Morgen: This is the question I was looking forward to as I LOVE LOVE LOVE second person. Normally I use a mixture, I suppose mostly third person, but my heart always beats a little faster when I write second. For anyone not reading this I’d say please do give it a go (let me know if you need help) or take a look at my sentence starts page on this blog (http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/sentence-starts).

Morgen: The page that you love touting. Do you use prologues / epilogues? What do you think of the use of them?

Morgen: I wasn’t keen until I used one at the beginning of novel two. It was originally Chapter 1. It’s not gone to Rachel yet so the jury is still out.

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

Morgen: LOADS. Well, that’s not true. I have loads of stories to go through which may make the grade, now I’m older (no sniggers please) and wiser (ditto). Novel 5 was very self-indulgent and about a real life person so if that did go ahead I’d have to change nearly all of it. I really like the story actually so I may.

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

Morgen: Easy. Never knowing what’s going to come out. You know it’s come from your sub-conscious but it surprises you all the time. Least favourite is not having enough time. My life is 90% writing-related (with 10% thinking about writing) so I can’t complain but an extra couple of hours here and there would be good.

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

Morgen: How much it can take over. I hadn’t a clue what to do when I left school and still hadn’t until I started writing… and writing… and writing… and now I can think of little else (sorry dog, house etc). And how the characters can take over – I love that.

Morgen: What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Morgen: As the great marketing men at Nike say ‘Just do it’. It’s all about practice. The more you write (play the piano) the better you’ll get (play a concerto). And go to courses (I still do – hi Helen!), talks and literature events (the latter is how I met Rachel). Meet other writers. Join a writing group – they’ll point out what works and doesn’t, often something that never occurs to me. And read. Read a lot. I don’t read enough, although I’m getting better. And listen to writing-related podcasts. If you want to write, live and breathe it. Not to the extent of your family not remembering what you look like (hey JVS!) but I only have my dog who I feed and walk twice / three times a day so he’ll never forget.

Morgen: What do you like to read?

Morgen: Short stories mainly – I like the fact that I can read them in one go – and two extremes; the darker the better or humour… pretty much what I like to write. I love Roald Dahl and Kate Atkinson… and of course all the works by every interviewee I’ve ever or writer I’ve ever had associations with and will have in the future.

Morgen: What do you do when you’re not writing? Any hobbies or party tricks?

Morgen: Is there anything other than writing? Oh, actually writing. Everything else. I’m forever thinking, jotting things down but at the moment the only times I write are during my fortnightly Monday night workshops (and I’m thrilled with some of the things I’ve come up with then) and monthly Northampton Literature Group workshops (which I’ve been leading recently ) but I’ve been editing stuff for Rachel so that sort of counts, doesn’t it?

Morgen: Mmm…

Morgen: I do have a couple of party tricks.

Morgen: Oh yes?

Morgen: I can bark like a seal (do they bark?) and can flip about a dozen coins from the back of my right elbow (is that called something? I know the back of the knee doesn’t have a name), although I’m rusty at both of them.

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

Morgen: Websites: http://duotrope.com and http://jbwb.co.uk for market information and then specifically http://womagwriter.blogspot.com (I’m hoping to have Kathy for an interview in the not too distant future, I think she’d be really interesting) for short story info. Sorry if I’ve missed anyone out that I shouldn’t have done. Books: this is where I should say Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’ and I have it but not read it yet (it got as far as my bedside table when it was first mentioned in these interviews). I have shelves full of ‘how to’ books that I’ve not read, shamefully. I would recommend Sue Moorcroft’s ‘Love Writing’ and Adrian Magson’s new ‘Write On!’ but I am slightly biased because I know them both and Adrian listed my website in the back of his (but they are great books). And if you write short stories then Della Galton’s ‘How to write short stories’ because she’s a major short story goddess (that’s a major goddess not a goddess of major short stories).

Morgen: Yes, I think we got that. In which country are you based and do you find this a help or hindrance with letting people know about your work?

Morgen: The UK. England. Northamptonshire. The rose of the shires… or is that Yorkshire. We have roses on our county signposts. As you can tell I’m not from round there ’ere parts. Been here 15 years, Bucks before that. As you can see I’ve not travelled much (this is the… flat above my dad’s shop… then there was… then… then the house I rented when I moved up here, then my first house… and here… oh no, there was Richard’s… so seventh house in 44 years; that’s not all that much is it?

Morgen: Compared to many, probably not. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how invaluable do you find them?

Morgen: I’d love to say here that I’m on Litopia’s all the time but I’ve not been on it (slapped wrists) other than the Friday and Sunday nights (which are great and everyone should swing by, although Sundays are currently on a hiatus).

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

Morgen: Here (my ‘About me’ and ‘My writing’ pages), Nathan’s website (mentioned in the footer of this interview)… erm… my website (http://morgenbailey.com) but that’s similar to this (although not as pretty / professional looking). There are links to everything I’m involved in on that and in the ‘Where to find me’ menu of this blog.

Morgen: A fair amount.

Morgen: Thanks… yes, I’d like to do more but, you know…

Morgen: I do. What do you think the future holds for a writer?

Morgen: I am SO excited by where we’re at right now and I’m so glad that I didn’t try to get loads of work out when I first started. (a) because it was probably dire, although looking back there are some redeemable nuggets and (b) because I can now do what I like, under Rachel’s guidance: my own cover design, price (99p mostly) and content. It’s great… well, I’m hoping it will be when we get there.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Morgen: Um… I think I’ve talked for long enough, don’t you? Is anyone still awake?

Morgen: Hopefully one or two… and maybe one of those will be kind enough to leave a comment.

Morgen: That would be great. I love getting the ‘please approve’ emails from WordPress.

Morgen: Well… OK then to finish. Is there a question you’d like to ask me?

Morgen: Why your nose goes so red in the sun?

Morgen: Good question. I’m not sure why I have a Roman nose but yes, my caricature (which was done by Adrian Teal by the way) is fairly spot on although I think I could be mistaken for an alcoholic and my brother especially knows I never remember that I’ve got booze in the house but he helps me out whenever he visits (which is too rarely, although I’m seeing him this weekend, yay!). I walk the dog two or three times a day, walk to / from work, round car boot sales so I guess it just gets lots of exposure (although I do slap lotion on it but clearly not enough). It doesn’t really bother me, adds to the personality I guess, like the glasses.

Morgen: Which aren’t in your caricature.

Morgen: They’re not – they weren’t in the picture that Adrian had, I’m not sure why. Finally we have some questions from the ‘audience’.

Morgen: Really?

Morgen: We do.

Morgen: Yay, great.

Morgen: JD Mader from the San Francisco Bay Area would like to know whether you have a sentence, character, paragraph, etc that you love that you have never been able to fit into a piece?

Morgen: Oh hey JD (did you wife forgive you for spending your anniversary social networking? ). Sentences don’t spring to mind other than the ones I created for my ‘sentence starts’ (which I touted earlier). Neither does a paragraph but I have lots of short stories that I’ve not done anything with. One of my favourite words is ‘cuddle’ and I don’t get to use that often enough. There is a character I’ve used as the antagonist in novel no. 5 and the whole story revolves around him but I’d have to change it as he’s real and I’ve mentioned real events but I wrote it therapeutically so will probably never see light of day but we shall see…

Morgen: Then we have Sarah Tanburn…

Morgen: Oh hey Sarah! She’s RoaringGirl on Litopia, you know.

Morgen: I do. She’d like to know where you get the confidence to get out there and persuade some big name authors to come on your blog and get interviewed? She thinks you have a lovely way of writing the interviews so they are very personalised and tell us about you without intruding on the main event, so to speak.  How did you evolve that approach?

Morgen: Ah that’s nice. As for the authors I’ve been very lucky; I either know them already (from my former studies, the podcast or they’re friends of friends) or they’ve approached me because of Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or said friends (Adrian Magson in particular has done a lot of recommending for which I’m very grateful) or they’ve read other interviews on the blog and would like to take part (and I’ve been so grateful as it keeps the one a day going). As for the format, well I just slot my reaction in as I read through as if we were sitting together. Having interviewed numerous authors for my audio podcast (either in person or via Skype) I just imagine it’s that. My dad used to say that if a job is worth doing it’s worth doing well (I only later found out that he wasn’t the first person to say so, I was pretty young at the time) and I’ve inherited that (and my poor memory) from him and it’s a format that’s proving popular so absolutely worth spending the time on.

Morgen: Marta from…

Morgen: Oh, one of our readers of Sunny’s interview? I’m hoping she’ll do an interview with me too.

Morgen: Indeed. She has five questions for you…

Morgen: Wow!

Morgen: 1. who was your first and/or favorite english/writing teacher and why?

Morgen: Gosh. I remember Mrs Haines from primary school – she was lovely, although I think she was the one who told me off in my first term (so I would have been 5?) for talking too much.

Morgen: What a surprise.

Morgen: I think my favourite overall there was Mr (Mike) O’Toole because he was passionate and I got to see more of him than anyone as he used to come in my dad’s photographic shop. I discovered an Our Lady’s group on Facebook recently so I’ve been chatting on there although there’s no-one from my year there, or teachers… yet. I liked my secondary English teacher because I liked the subject but I can’t remember her name (sorry about that).

Morgen: 2. if you were a literary character, who would you most likely be?

Morgen: I  love Jeff Lindsay’s Debra Morgan (Dexter’s sister) but only from the TV version not the book (I’ve not read the latter, I have a couple of them) because apparently she’s quite different (presumably not as feisty). And of course I like their surname.

Morgen: 3. what is your favorite genre?

Morgen: oh no, I have to choose one? I’d say dark comedy. That’s cheating isn’t it? OK then dark. I know it’s not a genre but it’s what my writing invariably is.

Morgen: 4. if you were an animal, which animal would you be?  if you were a tree, which tree would you be?

Morgen: Having watched Planet of the Apes today I’d say ‘Caesar’ the chimp because he’s smart and ends up being in charge and if you watch it, for the second part of the questions, I’d pick the tall tree he ends up (although he has a better head for heights). I quite like the oak because it’s old and wise. That’s a great Alan Parsons Project song by the way… Old and wise. A sad one, I’ll warn you.

Morgen: Thanks. 5. what one thing changed your writing and when/how did you have that “ah ha” moment?

Morgen: Wow, these are good questions. This is going to sound really dull but it’s really only practice that’s changed it. I have learned a lot by going to workshops but it’s then implementing what I’ve learned as I go along. I’ve not explained that well. I do plan to do a ‘key ingredients’ to writing blog post which will explain what I’ve learned. “ah ha” moment is just as tricky. I do remember it; a few months ago but it was realising how much I enjoyed writing and that I wanted to do it for the rest of my life, and take it more seriously, I can’t remember what prompted it. Sorry.

Morgen: And then we have Litopia’s Thomas Tyler.

Morgen: Oh hey TT!

Morgen: He’d like to know what keeps you writing?

Morgen: Easiest question of the evening: passion.

Morgen: And then…

Morgen: There’s more?

Morgen: Another from ‘TT’ yes.

Morgen: Oh great.

Morgen: He asks: What desire do you wish you didn’t possess?

Morgen: My desire for tall men? Apart from some foods (Banoffee pie) that’s what springs to mind. I’m 5’10 (well, 5’9¾) and tall men are rarer than million-pound novel deals. OK, maybe not that rare but my heart sinks (to use a cliché) every time I see a tall guy with a little women… it’s a waste. And invariably when I do meet them they say how lovely it is when they meet someone they don’t get neck ache talking to. My life would be complete (pretty much anyway) if I met a 6’4 guy who lived locally (and didn’t mind that I’m so buy) who loved writing, even a speck to the extent I do. But I am so busy that I don’t mind being single… whenever I see a couple arguing it reminds me there are advantages to singledom. There’s no writing-related desire that I wish I didn’t possess because everything’s worth it to me. Even words I don’t use (although I couldn’t think of any for Dan could I, I guess I mean ones that are edited out, aren’t a waste because it’s all practice and they may be turned into something else one day, the joy of copy / cut and paste.

Morgen: Well, thanks Morgen. It’s been… interesting.

Morgen: Thank you. I’ve had fun… a little weird, but fun nonetheless.

Morgen: Have we stopped recording now?

Morgen: It’s not being recorded.

Morgen: Really?

Morgen: No. You know how this works; it’s all typed.

Morgen: Oh.

Morgen: OK?

Morgen: Sure. So I’m free to go?

Morgen: You are.

Morgen: OK, great, because I’ve got a busy evening.

Morgen: You have?

Morgen: Litopia starts in an hour then I’m going out to play pool.

Morgen: Oh.

Morgen: Oh?

Morgen: I’m rubbish at pool… my bowling’s a bit iffy too.

Morgen: Mine too.

Morgen: Well, have a good time.

Morgen: Thanks. Oh there was just one thing… hello?… hello?… are you there? I think she’s hung up…

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 at morgen@morgenbailey.com 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 (http://twitter.com/morgenwriteruk) where each new posting is automatically announced.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day I can’t review books but if you have a short story or self-contained novel extract/short chapter (ideally up to 2000 words) that you’d like critiqued and don’t mind me reading it/talking about it (I send you the transcription afterwards so you can use them or ignore them) on my ‘Bailey’s Writing Tips’ podcast – see http://morgenbailey.wordpress.com/bwt-podcast – then do email me. I plan to do one a fortnight (my shows are usually Mondays) so it’ll be interweaving red pen and hints/tips episodes.

In the meantime, if you have a moment and like quite dark stuff then you can read one of my ditties at Nathan Weaver’s http://www.talesfrombabylon.com/2011/07/rogues-gallery-2-morgen-bailey.html. Thank you.

 

Author interview no.19 with supernatural mystery/horror/scriptwriter Julia Kavan

Welcome to the nineteenth of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, directors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. Today’s is with supernatural mystery/horror/scriptwriter and fellow Litopian Julia Kavan. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate the author further. A list of interviewees (blogged and scheduled) can be found here.

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

Julia: I have always been very quiet and as child found I was far more confident as a writer.  I enjoyed challenging people’s ideas on paper. This changed a little when I was a teenager – and I challenged people with my appearance and attitude, I never could fit in. My experience of life and the way I thought meant I was outside the safe zone in which my peers existed. Most people where I lived didn’t know what to make of me – and they probably still don’t! I calmed down when I was twenty. Marriage and children followed and I finally returned to writing around ten years ago. I have worked as a creative writing tutor for most of those years and, although I have pursued publication on and off during that time, it is in the last couple of years that I have really applied myself.

Morgen: Me too, I dabbled for a while then realised that it was actually (pretty much) all I could think about (OK, all, even during the day job). What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Julia: I usually write horror and supernatural mystery. I also write screenplays – one of which is a fantasy comedy drama. I’ve just started experimenting with other genres – but anything published outside of horror will be under a pen name.

Morgen: Good plan. Once your readers get to know you they expect the same genre from you (which is why Ruth Rendell also writes as Barbara Vine; Joanna Trollope as Caroline Harvey etc.). What have you had published to-date? How much of the marketing do you do?

Julia: My first story to be published is Dreaming, Not Sleeping – an erotic horror short published by Etopia Press and available on Amazon for Kindle. It will also be available as part of an anthology later in the year. I’m still finding my feet when it comes to marketing… getting to know what works and what doesn’t.

Morgen: I think most people are… especially electronically. Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?

Julia: Dreaming, Not Sleeping is only available as an eBook at the moment and any future publishers I approach are likely to be ePublishers. I have a Kindle and love being able to download books at any time. I read a lot of samples – and I love that option of being able to try before you buy.

Morgen: Like hotel shampoo sachets. What was your first acceptance Julia, and is being accepted still a thrill?

Julia: My first acceptance for publication for was a real thrill – I was very tentative about submitting Dreaming, I was unsure of the recept

ion it would get – so I guess I was thrilled and relieved! Each time I submit something new I’m nervous. I have a couple of WIPs almost ready to go – I’m sure I will be just as excited if they make the grade.

Morgen: Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Julia: I’ve had more rejections as a screenwriter – simply because I have approached more production companies than publishers. However, I’ve always had really good feedback and now have two scripts with a production company in London. Of course I’m always disappointed if something is rejected – but you just keep going, taking on board any useful comments.

Morgen: You do. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Julia: I am finishing a supernatural mystery novel – and experimenting with some new shorts.

Morgen: I love shorts (though not in the trouser sense of the word, my legs are too pale). Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Julia: I try and write every day. I work in a hospital in the mornings, edit and work on internet related bits and pieces in the afternoons and write in the evenings. I would probably write into the early hours – I very often have to make myself go to bed.

Morgen: Bed? Oh yes, that rectangular thing in the other room. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Julia: Sometimes I have a rough idea of where a story is heading – but often find myself going in a different direction. I can also be a bit of a jigsaw puzzle writer. I can be in a particular frame of mind and write scenes which come easily at those times – I then end up with some random passages which are linked into the main story later on in the writing process.

Morgen: Yep, sounds like me. Do you have pieces of work that you think will never see light of day?

Julia: Yes. Good stuff it is too…

Morgen: Maybe you could sneak it out somewhere when no-one’s looking. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Julia: Writing is a solitary affair. I like my own company and enjoy shutting myself away to write, but it can sometimes feel lonely – although I’m never really alone thanks to the community of writers I’ve discovered online. There are often writers I know on Twitter and Facebook – and it’s nice to say hi to someone doing the same as you when you think you are on your own.

Morgen: I love being alone, but yes it’s great having people online, especially when they know what we go through. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Julia: Seek honest feedback – but don’t try to change to suit everybody. Trust in your own voice. Don’t worry too much about the rules.

Morgen: Rules? What are they? What do you like to read?

Julia: Horror – mostly psychological. Aside from that… anything that makes me think or question what I believe I know. If a writer can leave me unsettled or unsure about something I thought I knew about myself they’ve done a good job. I like to be surprised and/or shocked…or maybe even made to fall in love!

Morgen: A good story provokes a reaction and/or makes people think for a while afterwards. Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful and would recommend?

Julia: Stephen King’s Danse Macabre and On Writing.

Morgen: Ah yes, On Writing again. A very popular choice; maybe I should buy some shares. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how valuable do you find them?

Julia: I have been a member of Litopia Writer’s Colony (http://www.litopia.com) for two years – that’s where you are most likely to find me lurking (as Seneca) when I’m writing. It’s a brilliant place to spend time with writers from all sorts of genres – and I don’t think there is a better site to get feedback on your writing.

Morgen: It is isn’t it? I just wish I’d found it months before I did. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Julia: You can read about me, and find excerpts from Dreaming, Not Sleeping and other work on my website (http://www.juliakavan.com), and Twitter (http://twitter.com/Seneca24) is where you’ll find me rambling in the evenings.

Morgen: Thanks Julia, lovely to ‘meet’ you again. As Julia mentioned, we know each other through the online radio station ‘Litopia’ (http://litopia.com); c. 60-90 minute live author panel / chatroom shows every Friday 8pm (UK time) and phone-in / Skype-in / game / chatroom shows every Sunday evening 6.30pm (UK time). We have such fun and it’s writing-related so do come by… and you never know we could be chatting for real on a Sunday night (it doesn’t take much to get me to Skype in… and I was their first video guest last Sunday).

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. And/or 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.

You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively 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 and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

Author interview no.1 with horror / thriller / sci-fi writer Colin Barnes

I’m delighted to bring you the first of my blog interviews with novelists, poets, directors, bloggers, autobiographers and more. I announced the request for interviewees on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn only a couple of days ago and the response has been incredible. Already I have received over 40 replies and so hope to bring you, on average, an interview a day. If you like what you read, please do go and investigate the author further. Kicking off the series is fellow Litopian Colin Barnes.

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

Colin: I’m a misanthrope but have an interest in the psychology of people. Writing for me is a way of exploring how humans work without having to socially interact with them. My writing started when I was about 8, I found it easier to get my points of view across with the written word than with speech. It’s stuck around ever since.

Morgen: What genre do you generally write and have you considered other genres?

Colin: All my work tends to be in the darker genres (horror, thriller, sci-fi), I’ve tried writing lighter-hearted stuff, but it just doesn’t come naturally to me, and there is something very appealing about exploring the darker side of life.

Morgen: Although my longest pieces of work are light (chick- / lad-lit novels) I often write, and probably enjoy most, finding my dark side. What have you had published to-date, and how much of the marketing do you do?

Colin: I have three short stories coming out in an anthology that I’ve co-written with a American author (I can send more details in the summer when it’s released).

Morgen: That sounds great – short stories are my first love, reacquainted thanks to the http://storyaday.org project I undertook in May 2011. Do you have an agent? Do you think they’re vital to an author’s success?

Colin: I don’t have one, but my long-term aim is to have one. I personally think they are very useful, providing a much needed buffer between author and publisher, and (hopefully) provide long-term career advice.

Morgen: It’s said that it’s more difficult to secure an agent than a publisher, but definitely worth persevering. Are your books available as eBooks? If so what was your experience of that process? And do you read eBooks?

Colin: My anthology will be an ebook. I read a lot of ebooks. I read them on my iPhone, and kindle. I like that I can have a vast library of books in such a small space. I still like regular books though, and can see a future for both mediums going forward.

Morgen: That’s what I’ve been hearing. What was your first acceptance and is being accepted still a thrill?

Colin: My first acceptance was for the upcoming anthology, and it was certainly a big thrill. There’s one thing writing and having friends and family like it, but having a completely unrelated third party accept you work gives you a sense of validation that gives you the confidence to carry on.

Morgen: Absolutely. Novelist Jane Davis (http://www.jane-davis.co.uk) and I were talking about this in special episode 25 of my Bailey’s Writing Tips podcast (links in ‘Where to find me’). Have you had any rejections? If so, how do you deal with them?

Colin: Loads and loads. I don’t get down about them. It’s a rite of passage for any writer, it’s just a case of getting enough until you reach the ‘yes.’

Morgen: As the saying goes “A successful writer is one who didn’t give up”. What are you working on at the moment / next?

Colin: I have a number of projects I’m working on. I’ve just completed the first draft of a novel. I’m plotting out another that I will be writing as part of the Clarion Writeathon, and in the meantime I’m also writing a Novella that I’ll be self-publishing as an ebook, and finally, I’m writing a serial on my website. So I’m very busy.

Morgen: I’ve heard good things about Clarion from sources such as the ‘I should be writing’ podcast but very intensive and expensive so the Writeathon (http://www.theclarionfoundation.org/writeathon/wrtn-home.htm) sounds perfect! Do you manage to write every day? What’s the most you’ve written in a day?

Colin: I always get something down each day. I usually aim for around 3k, but sometimes I only get 500 depending on my work load (I’m also studying for an English degree, so that takes up some time too.) I have writing binges on my day off where I get the bulk of my writing done. The most I’ve written in a single day was 12.5k.

Morgen: 500 is still a great achievement. 500 words a day = 3500 a week = 175,000 a year = an epic novel or two healthy 90K-worders. You’ve beaten my best by miles (9,337) which was for http://nanowrimo.org November 2010 (the last day!). What is your opinion of writer’s block? Do you ever suffer from it? If so, how do you ‘cure’ it?

Colin: I don’t believe it exists. It’s simply an excuse not to write. If one is ‘blocked’ it’s because there isn’t a clear path of where to go, or a problem that needs sorting first. If I get this, I simply go back and think of where I’ve gone wrong and restart. Or, if I simply cannot be bothered, I’ll switch to another project. I truly think there is no such thing as writers block (or muses), it’s simply a matter of sitting down and doing the work no matter what.

Morgen: I agree. I’d say if a writer’s stuck, move on (to later in the same piece or something different) and come back to it, by which time, hopefully, you’ll have forgotten why you were stuck in the first place. Do you plot your stories or do you just get an idea and run with it?

Colin:  I’m mostly a plotter for long projects. For short stories I tend to construct the story in my head as a series of scenes, and write a few notes before writing it out in full. For novels and novellas I’m an obsessive plotter – I like to know where I’m going so I can keep up the intensity.

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

Colin:  Hundreds. Some that just aren’t up to scratch. Some that approach subjects that would never be seen as acceptable, and others that are just so personal that if I ever released them I would fear for my personal safety.

Morgen: I like that, and oh, how familiar. What’s your favourite / least favourite aspect of your writing life?

Colin: Most favourite has to be creating something out of nothing, and seeing others enjoy my work. Least favourite? That has to be the often insurmountable obstacles one has to get through to get the work out.

Morgen: Walking the dog, housework, the garden, the ping of emails… What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Colin: Shut up, sit down, and write.

Morgen: Because you can’t edit a blank page. What do you like to read?

Colin: So many things. I like short story anthologies, love old stuff like HP Lovecraft and Clark Ashton Smith. I like anything from Ray Bradbury to Albert Camus. Of course there are the standard favourites such as King and Mieville – I love all sorts.

Morgen: I really liked Albert Camus’ ‘The Outsider’ (‘The Stranger’). Are there any writing-related websites and/or books that you find useful and would recommend?

Colin: Not really, I think there are too many websites and books giving advice (often incorrectly). The only one I could recommend would be Stephen King’s ‘On Writing’.

Morgen: I have it, it’s excellent (and highly recommended). In which country are you based and do you find this a help or hindrance with letting people know about your work?

Colin: I’m in the UK – can’t say it’s been a help or hindrance. I suppose with it being a smaller market might make things harder, but these days it’s a global market so I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s a particular disadvantage.

Morgen: It must help that we speak English. Are you on any forums or networking sites? If so, how invaluable do you find them?

Colin: Litopia and Twitter – both are very important to me. Mostly for camaraderie, but also for the shared critiquing and workshopping of ideas. Also, it was through social networking that I met my publisher for the summer anthology. It’s a great way of belonging to a community without having the real-life social responsibilities (great for a misanthrope).

Morgen: I use them both and love them both, and miss Litopia’s After Dark and Open House (Sundays) when it’s not on. Where can we find out about you and your work?

Colin:  The best place would probably my site: www.colinfbarnes.com and my twitter profile: http://twitter.com/colin_barnes.

Morgen: Is there anything else you’d like to mention?

Colin: Thanks for the opportunity, It’s been fun, I always enjoy reading your website, and hope you keep up the fine work.

Morgen: You’re so welcome (and thank you). It’s been a pleasure to ‘meet’ you.

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. You can also read / download my eBooks and free eShorts at Smashwords, Sony Reader Store, Barnes & Noble, iTunes Bookstore, Kobo and Amazon, with more to follow. I have a new forum and you can follow me on Twitter, friend me on Facebook, like me on Facebook, connect with me on LinkedIn, find me on Tumblr, complete my website’s Contact me page or plain and simple, email me.

Unfortunately, as I post an interview a day (amongst other things) I can’t review books but I have a feature called ‘Short Story Saturdays’ where I review stories of up to 2,500 words. Alternatively 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 and poetry for Post-weekend Poetry.

 

New feature: blog interviews

I’m a member of nine writing-related LinkedIn forums and just a few days ago on one of them I spotted the opportunity of being a guest blog interviewee. I was invited to answer some questions, which I did, and found it fun (as I did with a Who Hub interview a while back). Having also read comments from two other LinkedIn members, both offering the same service, one saying that she was currently closed for submissions (due to numbers received), the other picking up the gauntlet, I then (on Wednesday this week) threw mine into the ring and received 40 acceptances in the first 24 hours (with more coming in all the time… hoorah!).

Now armed with over a dozen completed questionnaires already, I’m planning on releasing one a day on this blog and the first, later today, will be from my fellow Radio Litopia colleague, horror / thriller / sci-fi writer Colin Barnes (www.colinfbarnes.com).

If you write (fiction or non-fiction) and would like to take part then all you need to do is email me at morgen@morgenbailey.com and I’ll send you the questions. You complete them, I tweak them (to reflect the blog ‘clean and light’ rating) where appropriate and then they join the queue to get posted. When that’s done, I email you with the link (which will also automatically appear on my morgenwriteruk Twitter and Facebook pages) so you can share it with your corner of the literary world. And if you have a writing-related blog and would like to interview me… let me know.