Busy doing nothing...

Well, that's not strictly true.  I'm doing plenty, you just can't see it.

With the start of the new scholastic year much has changed in my life.  I now work regular, civilised hours of 10-3 Monday-Friday during term time.  It's a lot more stable and gives me a lot more time with my family.  But ultimately I'm tireder and have less time to write.

That's not to say I haven't been writing, I have.  Just not very much.  I have been busy on other projects however.  I have the wonderful news that Big Red is going to be released by Untreed Reads to coincide with Halloween; perfect!  I've been working on the edit, the blurb and putting together a multifunctional bio.

Said bio will also be deployed in my upcoming appearance with the secret project I can't really tell you about yet... although it will be soon since I am appearing on the 'secret's' website now.  Sorry don't mean to confuse you.

I also got a really nice rejection for another Devil-related story of mine from the publication Something Wicked.   As a writer rejections are par for the course, but it's always nice to hear that even though you didn't make the final cut your story was enjoyed.

What's that?  You want to know about the collaborative projects?  Okay. 

Well Found was rejected by our first publisher of choice as they didn't feel it was sensual enough.  However Jay, my writing partner on that project, has short listed a glut of other publishers who may take a serialised account of the story.  But before we try them we have one other e-publisher to try, who I've already made contact with and are eagerly waiting for me to submit the manuscript.

Ripper is still moving slowly forward.  We've had a break through in the plot recently and although we don't work on it as much as I would like, thanks to real life commitments, when we do write the story it is always so enjoyable and satisfying; my writing partner on this project is the best and has become a very dear, valued friend!   But who knows when our story will be finished.

Those of you who follow The Red Asylum may have seen on our recent Tweet that we are still accepting submissions.  So if you have anything dark and twisted please do pay us a visit.

As for my own writing, well... like I said there hasn't been much.  I'm considering submitting a Christmas piece to Untreed Reads for their Holidays call.  I've got a couple of pieces on my hard drive that I've never done anything with--I might polish those up.

Other than that... Early last year when I was shiny and new at WB an influential (to me) friend was talking to me about writing something from the heart.  Of course this for me would be about my mum.  Yesterday, yes, only yesterday I finally put word to paper.  I wrote a short memoir about life with my mother in just under two hours.  It is the most true and heart felt thing I have ever written and I was delighted as the words simply flowed.  The piece, which I've called My Golden Days is in the Member's Only section of WB and has had some wonderful comments to far.  To write it was immensely enjoyable and also a little therapeutic.  I am filled with ideas for other pieces and hope to share more about life with my wonderful mum very soon.

Oh, and sorry for the huge lapse since last posting.  As you've just read, I've been busy doing nothing.

False hopes

Not much to report at the moment.  Things are busy on WB leaving me fairly quite everywhere else, although regular editing of Soul Reunion continues at a modest pace.

I've had to write a new bio for the 'secret' story due to be released early next year, and I need to grab a friend with a camera and go out and get a new bio shot for it.  Sounds exciting huh?  Wish I could tell you more, but not yet.

However, there has been some excitement!  On Tuesday this week I received an e-mail from an admissions editor.  Can you imagine my delight?!  Apparently they had come accross my manuscript for Soul Reunion while perusing the internet and wanted to publish it in e-book and print format.  It sounded brilliant.  It sounded amazing.  It sounded to good to be true.  It was. 

After taking my news to the trusted and experienced members of Writer's Beat and asking if any of them heard about it, I replied to the e-mail asking for more details, as well as going to the publisher's website and doing some research there too.

My fellow WB members came back with exactly the same conclusions as I had, the killers points of which included:

• The publisher had found my story on Authonomy, where I am a member and my manuscript is available to fellow members to read.
• A consdierable number of Authonomy members had received the same e-mail from the admissions editor in the last week.
• The publisher is a POD publisher, meaning 'print on demand', often referred to as 'papermill publishers'.
• There is very little editorial support offered.
• Some marketing opportunities will be offered by the editor, but the main responsibilty lies with the author.
• Authors only receive 10% of royalities from any sales
• Authors give away any rights to the work, although still retain copyright.  Meaning I couldn't take it to another publisher in the future.
• The publisher deals with everything via e-mail.  No phone calls.

If alarm bells hadn't been ringing before (and they had), they were now.  Suffice to say I won't be taking the matter with them.  Yes, it is disapointing, but the optomistic view is that I am no worse off than before they made contact with me. 

The manuscript, although complete is still being edited and is not quite ready for unveiling yet.   So I am sticking to my original plans.  Edit in my own time, carefully select a number of agents and submit.  Let's do things the proper way.