A mini-update

I'm not quite back yet, but, in the manner of opening the windows in a guest room before Great Aunt Doris’ imminent arrival; I've given the blog a bit of an airing.

There have been a few changes.

I've decided it’s time to say goodbye to my Novice Novelist title. I love the playful alliteration, but have also been thinking about the message I'm sending into the universe with that title, and the message I'm sending to myself. I know – a bit hippy-dippy – but I believe the tags we give to ourselves are important, and it’s important to listen to what we are truly saying. It’s so easy to be subconsciously negative, and this creates barriers to our heart’s desire without us even realising. I don’t want to be a novice novelist – I want to be a novelist. I’ll always continue to learn and grow, as that’s what humans do, but it’s time for a bit of positive energy.

I've also added an About section with a list of published work to date, amongst some other bits. Once my scanner stops doing its best impression of a breeze block with buttons, and starts remembering its mission in life, then I’ll upload the articles; it’ll be nice to have them all in the one spot. I’ll also add some details of my illustration adventures. The Grand Plan for 2014 definitely involves getting some art back in my life again.

My 9-5 work is still very busy, and I'm still searching for that elusive work / life balance, as ever. As for the novel – the rewrite / editing continues – mostly I'm really happy with how it’s progressing; sometimes I want to throw the keyboard out of the window and jump up and down on its cruel blank innards…and then make a necklace out of them – that will teach you, keyboard! Don’t mess with a writer who is also into steam-punk jewellery.

Well, I think that’s it for now. Great Aunt Doris should be very comfortable here in the interim. She is very fond of Steely Grey colour schemes and is partial to Courier font (and a courier or two, so I've heard, in the Tales of her Exciting Youth Vol One).

I hope your writing, or art, is going really well, and look forward to catching up with you all soon.

J x

A bookmark

I feel silenced every time I think of this blog. There are so many things I want to say that my fingers get stuck with the enormity of it all and I can’t form the words. I don’t feel very witty anymore; I worry that the folk who came here to be entertained may yawn instead and this time there's no rabbit waiting in the hat to pull out as a surprise.

I need to make some changes with my life and as of yet can’t find the gumption to do it. (Who stocks gumption? I need to order some pronto.) I have to take control of the wheel, but instead I laze backwards and let the ship steer where it may, into that choppy sea, onto those rocks, adrift under the sun. I’m still chipping away at my story, still excited by what I’m writing, but I feel a constant underlying weariness to my days, which is probably to do with lack of decision-making. And yet there are so many things I am plotting behind the scenes – create a website, do this, sell that, make this, write that – maybe thinking of these things at once has caused me to press all the keys on a mental typewriter and create a jam.

The other stumbling block is the rise of Hugely Busy with the 9-5 job and the enormous length of time I spend squashed into random smelly armpits while commuting on the tube. I’ve had my job for four years now and completely notice the difference in outside work creativity – when I started I had a lot more evening energy to write, draw, and blog. Now my best writing time is always at the weekend, and the longer I spend there, finding those words, the less I can devote to words here. I tweet as that’s easy, but blogging is more of a commitment, for me, anyway.

So think of this blog as my online bookmark. It's closed for now but will open again one day soon, and I’ll find my place again.
J x

Winners

Start the triumphant fanfare! I have finally picked the five winners from my give away of Wendy Wallace’s debut novel, The Painted Bridge. Thank you to all who entered, as well as thanks to those who also tweeted about the giveaway and so gained two entries in the magic handbag.  Since I am a little overdue with the announcement (hangs head in all-kinds of bloggy shame), let’s do something a little special for the reveal…

A movie!

...
...
...
...
...
...

Big congratulations to those who won – Maggie May, Snafu, Elizabeth Varadan, Old Kitty, Johanna Garth. Please email me – jayneferstATyahoo.com (replace the AT with @) – and send me your address so the book can be mailed out to you. I’ve also popped over to your blogs to let you know, so hopefully I’ll be hearing from you soon.

If you didn’t win then here’s the Amazon link for The Painted Bridge.

Moving onto Other News, I’ve been tagged by both Carole Anne Carr and J.B. Chicoine to take part in the blog meme ‘the Next Big Thing’. Thank you, ladies – it’s lovely to be tagged and I’m delighted that you want to know more about my novel-in-almost-finished-progress. So this will be the next blog post coming up – hopefully this week.

Until then... Happy writing all!

Jx

*sails off humming Aida*

It’s never The End online

When you finish a good book, do you rush to the Internet to find out more?

I always do. It’s an extra delicacy that’s impossible to resist. As soon as I close the book, or release the kindle to its stand-by picture of crudely rendered pencils, I’m at the computer, googling. (Not goggling, Victorian time-travellers, although I do a fair amount of that online as well – usually in bafflement at obscure websites on subjects such as milk-bottle collecting).

Why am I googling? What do I want to know at this stage? Just... more, if possible – more about the story, about the characters, about the author.  I like to read other people’s riffs on ideas or themes, and I like to read interviews with the author to find out what inspired them to write that particular story.

Sometimes I’m curious about what the authors look like.

You know how dogs sometimes resemble their owners? I want to see if the author looks like their genre – e.g. whether they are suitably detective-like for crime fiction.

 (I’m thinking a no-nonsense hairstyle, some sort of beige raincoat, a look of noir in their eyes.)

Actually, let’s follow that cliché tangent...

• Historical: A vague impression of dust, free-range hair, a monocle, a defiant cardigan
• Romance: A Very Interesting necklace (if a lady), a Very Interesting cravat (if a man), a secret yearning to walk by a stream in a meadow (both)
• Horror: A quiet unassuming air, with quiet unassuming hair. If they are distracted in conversation assume they are thinking of ways to horribly kill and maim.
• Comedy: Hair that can comfortably host its own stand-up show, a jaunty outfit, oversized accessories
• Sci-fi: Like a blinky-eyed mole, recently emerged from its secret Mole Lair
• Supernatural: Black clothes, cross or skull silver jewellery, tattoo of name in Wingdings font* on arm
• Thriller: Super-fit, hair swept back as if just stepped off speed-boat, aviator sunglasses, loves Bond.

This is probably why my novel makes slow progress. You’ve got to love a tangent or two (sung to the tune of ‘You’ve got to pick a pocket or two’ from Oliver!)

In this novel, one thing counts

On the page, ideas must mount

I’m afraid these don’t grow on trees

You’ve got to love a tangent or two

What else am I googling? (Besides lyrics to parody.) After I finish a book, I like to read reviews to see what everyone else thinks – and, to all authors who worry about reviews – this is the only time I read them, after I’ve finished the book. A bad review on Amazon would never put me off your book as I’d never see it first. I can understand why authors worry, after all, I’d be gutted to see a miserable review of my own book, but from a reader’s point of view, it wouldn’t inform my choice at all. Does anyone actually go to Amazon to browse reviews to decide what to read? (There’s a lot of 'to’s' in that there sentence.)

I find this sort of googling adds another layer to the story. It’s like wringing as much pleasure as possible out of a sponge.**

I once wrote about a character that couldn’t bear to watch films as she didn’t like to think there was an ending. The character was an over-wrought imaginative teenager, and it was surely only a coincidence that at the time I was also an over-wrought imaginative teenager. Sometimes I feel like that about good stories. They fill my mind so much that I need to google every last drop out of them and only then can I let them rest in peace. Before the Internet I’m not quite sure what I did. Quite possibly I never actually paused between books but hastily picked up the next to consume, and so stayed continually giddy drunk on stories, rather than go through the hang over feel of an ending. Now I like to pause and reflect a little. And, of course, google the hell out of it.

What about you?


*Is there an actual point to Wingdings? There are three versions on my copy of Word (and a bastard child – webdings) so someone out there must know.

**I’ve never passed by a sponge and thought let’s wring it for a bit of a giggle. I’ve never even looked at a sponge and thought of it as an entertainment source, to be honest.