Legendary Authors

Such a Star

Not satisfied with the front cover of Writers’ News, I am now a star on the cover of this fake magazine.

Couldn’t resist it when I saw a similar cover on a friend’s myspace page. After being interviewed by the BBC the other night, it seems the fame has gone to my head.

Trying not to be too arrogant but when you’re a genius it’s difficult, isn’t it Tom?

All this is work avoidance, I know. I’ve got so much else on that I’ve been keeping a list and things drop off the bottom on a regular basis.

Going through some manic stuff but just about hanging on by my cuticles. Eventually it’ll all even out, but then when July comes around and Richard&Judy come knocking, I’ll be up and zooming again.

On Cloud Nine!

I found my cloud's silver lining today after learning my poem Cumulus had won first prize in the writelink international Spring Fever photo poetry competition.
In a way, this seems the wrong place to blog about it, when Legend Press doesn't publish poetry. But then poetry (reading, competitions, putting together a collection)  is actually one of the biggest things that gets in the way of my short story writing and novel that's all there in spirit but still barely started in written form!
Today was actually an unusually good day for me (in fact a personal best!) as I also managed (don't ask me how!) to clinch third prize and a highly commended. The news is definitely a welcome boost from the cliched writers' block (or inability to find time to think let alone write!) that I've been suffering from lately.
Anyone who's interested can check out my first and third prize winning poems at http://www.writelink.co.uk/springfever/html/winningpoems.html. Meanwhile, I guess I'd better not waste the morale boost and float down from cloud nine to get on with some serious writing!

Sarah James - poet and Remarkable Everyday short story writer

C L Raven here. Just found a very disturbing comment on one of our blogs. We've pasted it in - here goes.

Ive got to say that i am quite sickened by your whole setup. I've never known sociaphobics who go around wearing their underwear in the garden or hold a book launch at waterstones. Ive been a struggling writer for years and have sometimes had 3 or 4 part time jobs just to make end meet. from Zed.

Have to say, this comment has left us shaking and reaching straight for our Propranolol - an anti panic attack tablet prescribed to us when we were 15 by a child Psychiatrist. It's brought back all the sickening, heart thudding, hand shaking feelings of terror and self hatred that bullying left us with every day. This idiot clearly knows nothing about socialphobia. News flash Zed, we're not wearing underwear, we're wearing skirts and basques. Basques are perfectly acceptable items of clothing - not underwear. Do girls showing their ankle offend you too, Zed? We would love to be able to work 3 or 4 jobs, but seeing as we're socialphobic, we can barely leave the house. We walk the dogs and go to the supermarket at quiet times, that's all we can manage.  We've been housebound for 10 years. We're 25, does this seem like fun to you? We have no friends. Being reclusive is no joy. It's hard, it's depressing and sometimes the only reason we can face getting out of bed is because we have animals who depend on us. Again Zed, does this seem like we're having a laugh? We could only go to the book launch doped up on our panic pills with our clinical psychologist and our entire family by our sides. Attending events like this is called THERAPY. We won't get better if we don't leave the house, but we're too scared to leave the house. It's a catch 22. Result is usually depression. It took our psychologist a whole month of giving us pep talks through our sessions and e mails & we almost didn't turn up. but being published is all we've ever wanted & we weren't about to miss our own book launch. It's known as cognitive behavioural therapy - changing your behaviour to help change your thoughts.  You cannot get rid of a phobia without confronting it. Read any psychology text book & it'll tell you that. It's taken us 5 years of therapy to come as far as we have. Would Zed prefer it if we didn't get better? What are we supposed to do Zed? Stay away from the world just because you find it sickening? What we want to know is what this Zed finds so sickening? The fact that daily fear keeps us housebound leaving us with nothing to do but write  or the fact that we're now published and he isn't? Jealousy's such an ugly emotion. We write to escape the pure torture that is our lives. Without writing we might not even be here. It kept us going, it helped to banish depression, it helped us to escape the self hatred and suicidal thoughts we used to have. And finally we've had something published. If Zed finds this sickening, that's his problem. We will NOT apologise for who we are and what we have overcome to get this far. For years people have tried to intimidate us into changing. They broke us but we came back fighting and we will not be broken again.

C L Raven, very distraught and currently in tears.

Novel - Progress

It’s amazing what you can do with a bit of cut&paste isn’t it? Hope Tom doesn’t mind me using the logo – well he’s in the London Book Fair so might not even notice. Anyhoo.

The topic of today’s discussion is how long a process seems to take, and our perceptions of this. Writer friends, and especially those who are published, are envious of me having such a fast turnaround publisher. Two of my friends Susie Day and Sarah Mussi both have books coming out this month, the deals for which were struck some time back in the dark ages (or at least in 2005 or 2006, practically antediluvian!). So I know enough to be very grateful to Tom and Emma, and now Lucy too, for all the hard work put into getting my novel into print and on the shelves.

However, at the same time, friends, colleagues, family and generally people who don’t know much about the publishing industry, keep saying things like, ‘When’s this book coming out, then? Why is it taking so long?’ This does not help. I can talk about Eight Days and enthuse over my latest event, act like a rock star etc. But what they want to hear about is Silence. And at the moment that’s all I’ve got: Silence.

Not that I’m complaining of course. I’ve known of publishers much less communicative than Legend. But I get into occasional nail-biting fits when people ask me to give them an update and all I can say is the same thing as the last time they asked me two weeks ago. A watched kettle is worth two in the bush.

I was installing some new software the other day and thinking about those little status boxes you get when the bar creeps along steadily, then suddenly lurches forward, and freezes just two points from the end. I like this metaphor. It’s like a life in the arts in general. I interviewed Al Start recently for Velvet Magazine, and I asked her whether her music career had progressed steadily or if it had come in fits and starts. She replied that it was one of those things that when you’re in the middle of it, you feel like you’re going nowhere, but in retrospect you can see a pattern of growth. This is true of many of us.

I’ve got plenty of work to distract me from the purgatory between finishing the book and seeing it on the shelves. My podcast Casting Pods is very demanding, my various blogs and social networks take some maintenance, my part in the campaign to stop Amazon.com monopolising the POD market, and there’s always daytime TV. Got to do some research for when Tom gets me on Richard&Judy.

So to get back to my novel. Things are progressing nicely, thank-you. I’m at T-104 days to publication date. I will soon have a cover. I will soon have an edited manuscript from which to take teaser extracts. But at the moment all I’ve got is that status box. And even that’s fake.

Down in a Donga

I have written myself into a hole - one of those hidden ones I couldn’t see coming as I galloped after the characters in my next novel, satisfactory chapters flying out behind me. Suddenly, ker-rash, I’m ‘ass’ over er, keyboard, into one these chasms. And is this one big - the size of the African sub-continent and as empty as the Kalahari desert. The worse thing is, this unseating is of my own making.

Why, oh why, can’t I sit down and write a plan – map a route for myself so I can avoid these 'groot gat's (big holes, but ruder) and brick walls? Other writers do. John Irving, for instance. Apparently he works backwards; begins with the end, then maps a plan back to the beginning.

Mind you, if that were me, I wouldn’t begin at all. Why would I sit through the whole, lonely process of writing a novel, if I knew what was going to happen to my characters?  (I’m being slightly disingenuous. I admit there are other rewards – wordsmithying for one; conjuring up some of my favourite sights, sounds and smells, is another. But these pleasures could be indulged in by writing a poem or a short story.)

The thing about alottaplot is, there are sooo many possibilities. But as soon as a writer decides on one, other options become limited. Do I want that for my characters? No, I want surprises - it keeps them on their toes. But which surprises? 

Sighhh. I’m going round in circles and am still in the donga.*

Think I’ll go to the London Book Fair and bother Tom. Anyone want to come and play?

(*Nguni for ‘gully’.) 

Any L.As @ the LBF on Monday?

Just wondering if any of you Legendary Authors will be visiting the London Book Fair on Monday 14 April?

If so, let me know. I'd love to meet up.

Candi

Photos from Foyle's

I had a great time at Foyle’s on Saturday. Here is a selection of photos, more photos and video coming soon!

Casting Pods Show 14 Cardiff Book Launch for Eight Hours

Eight Hours short story collection was recently released and this show is a compilation of the recordings I made at the Cardiff book launch in Waterstone’s, The Hayes, Cardiff. I met the lovely writing twins, Cathryn and Lindsey. The podcast includes an interview with the twins and our speeches and celebrations at the launch. How exciting!

Writing, publishing, books, fiction, Cardiff, short stories, interviews

http://www.castingpods.co.uk/Show_14.html

Tomorrow morning I'm off on the bus to London with my partner and our son, so they can see me in action at Foyle's. Hope to see you all there! I'll be multimedia recording then as well so anyone who misses it will be able to see it on the blog before too long.

8 HOURS ~ Huckleberry's Launch Event

Hilary, Kevin, & Emma, fresh (or relieved!) after reading extracts of our stories at Huckleberry's Bookshop's ArtsNightThree evening in Blandford Forum, Dorset, last Monday. Thanks to all who came along to support us, and to the fine poets, David Caddy & Hannah Silva who also performed samples of their work.

Eating our words

We're having our cake & eating it too. Decided to toast the publication of 8 Hours, by making shortbread cakes. Has anyone thought of a tastier way to celebrate? Yes, we know the icing's pink, not orange, but being vegan only allows for a small range of food colourant and orange's not one of them.

Some good news - we just got an e mail from America - they liked our retelling of Snow White and it's been shortlisted. In our version, Snow White's an undercover cop, the 7 dwarves are drug barons and the wicked queen is a rival cop - McQueen. The chosen story will be made into a book with 2 halves - 1 half will have the chosen story & the other will be written by a graphic artist, who will choose to tell the story from another character's POV. He will also do the artwork for both stories. How cool would that be? We don't mind if our's isn't chosen - we're just thrilled to be shortlisted. We could go to America, meet up with Wentworth Miller, (Michael Schofield in Prison Break), bring him back to our beautiful, cold, rainy Wales & ask him to star in a film version of one of our books. How could he refuse no budget, a home made video, being made to help look after our animals and marrying one of us? It's a dream offer.The other one will have to content themselves with Johnny Messner. We know this seems far fetched but in our opinion, people take themselves way too seriously.The world is full of pompous, self important, arrogant people. What's wrong with having fun? We're young, we have the rest of our lives to grow up boring. So here's to growing old disgracefully, outrageous schemes and Wentworth Miller.

We're coming Wentworth, there's nowhere left for you to hide.

C L Raven, butterfly net in hand.