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Monday 5 February 2018

Farewell

The time has come to lay the fictional character of Sacha Hope to rest. I created the alias over six years ago, as a first year student at university. The alias allowed me to write more freely, since everyone at some point in their lives want to avoid judgement (especially from cringe-worthy writing....)

The alias allowed me to explore an untapped part of my character and in part contributed to both my personal and skills development. I think we all strive to leave something behind--especially authors, since we seem to be acutely aware of the fleetingness of time. The eternity of a moment versus the fleetingness of a decade being portrayed not only in writing, but in life all around us. So, it is in such an eternal moment that I close the book on Sacha Hope and embark on a new adventure.


Sunday 26 November 2017

Free Books



Who doesn't love free books? I know, I know...it is treason as a writer to say "free book downloads", an unforgivable crime for participating in such activity, because how will authors survive....(insert eye-roll here).  If you are into writing for the money...good for you...but for the rest of us mere mortals who likes free stuff, I have a great link for free book downloads, courtesy of my very nerdy friend who loves DB Super and all things cool!

 LIBGEN.IO ....thanks Owen.....

libgen.io

Friday 24 November 2017

When Things Go Missing.....




Much to any writer's chagrin documents do not appear to be safe on cloud storage. I hailed the blessings of Dropbox in an earlier post, but seems the celebration was premature. Once more the pain of having lost all writings and musings, no matter how inept, stings sharp and bright in my inky heart.

It would seem my beloved Dropbox has a nasty bug, causing files to be deleted and/or corrupted. What is a word-smith to do in such adversarial conditions?

The first step would be to not solely rely on one form of cloud storage...(an obvious point which I should have foreseen ages ago.) The second step...accept the fact that all the work is lost, perhaps it was so terrible that the digital void did me a favour by deleting it sporadically.

So...if this happened to you...take a breath and start again. See it as an opportunity for a fresh start that is uninfluenced by previous scribblings and that ever-present temptation to simply "fix" that last draft (we all know it ends up in the "rewrites" folder never to be fixed).



Thursday 31 August 2017

Uncommon Origins Anthology

UnCommon Origins presents 22
depictions of moments on the
precipice, beginnings both beautiful
and tragic. Fantastical stories of
Creation, Feral Children, Gods and
Goddesses (both holy and horrific),
and possibilities you never dared
imagine come to life.
Including stories from some of the
most talented Speculative Fiction and
Magical Realism authors around,
UnCommon Origins will revisit the
oldest questions in the universe:
Where did we come from?
and
What comes next?
Featuring:
The Hanging Gardens of Brooklyn by
Rhoads Brazos
Aplanetary by Holly Heisey, Author
Glass Heart by Sacha Hope
Cultural Gleanings by Deanne Charlton
Fringling by J.D. Harpley - Astral
Scribe
Poseidon's Tears by E.L. Johnson
The Curl of Emma Jean by Michele
Tracy Berger
The Price by Samuel Peralta
Growing Simon by Jo West
The Terrible Discovery of Professor
Charles Cooper by Jonathan Cromack
The Last Star by D.L. Orton
My Darlings by P.K. Tyler
The Tombstone Man and the Coming
of the Tigress by Nillu Nasser Stelter
In The Periphery by Erica Ruhe
Exhale by Laxmi Hariharan
Ifrit by Brent Meske
Swim With The Beavers by Robert
Allen Lupton
The Least Child by Daniel Arthur Smith
Consciousness by Zig Zag Claybourne
Her by Rebecca Poole
The Apple by Shebat Legion
Becoming Mage by Melanie Lamaga

Monday 1 February 2016

Should I commit to being a full-time author?



Different people write at different rates. I go through periods where I write for days at a time, purging all writing desires and instinct from my system, then I do not write for months! I'm a very sporadic writer and only write when the mood takes me.
Knowing your writing habits will help you to decide whether or not you should commit to being a full time author. There are authors who treats writing like a full time job, there are those who only write on weekends or in their spare time.
Before you decide to take the plunge and commit pen to hand on a permanent basis, make sure you do your research and you'd be able to survive (physically, emotionally, financially and mentally) the rigors that full time writing demands.

Here are some things to mull over:


1. The money ain’t what you think it is 
When you dream of being an author, you probably imagine the million-pound advances commanded by the big hitters. But what does an average author get? The Authors’ Licensing & Collection Society said the average annual income for a professional author in 2013 was just £11,000 – which is £5,000 below the level of income regarded by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation as the minimum required for a socially acceptable standard of living.
2. The isolation and interruptions
To be an author, said Martin Amis, “you have to have a huge appetite for solitude”. But how many of us really do? Like a lot of authors, I find myself resenting my isolation but then snapping like a territorial Doberman the moment anyone dares interrupt it.
3. You’re impossible to please
If you can’t see your book in a shop, you’ll be disappointed they aren’t stocking it. If you can see your book in a shop you’ll be disappointed they aren’t shifting it. Even when my biography of Simon Cowell reached number two in the WH Smith chart and they stuck huge posters of it in their windows, I stood there thinking: “But the sticker on the jacket is covering up my name – and why isn't it number one?”
4. People bother you with their ideas
“Hi Chas, you remember me - we met for two minutes at a party last summer. So, I’ve written a sort of semi-autobiographical novel about a dog called Jessie who is overlooked by this cruel, jealous world. But then she goes travelling for a year and everything changes. It’s sort of a kids’ book, but I like to think it would appeal to all ages, really. I’ve spent the last eight years trying to get it published – to no avail. Anyway, I’ve taken the liberty of attaching the manuscript to this email. Could you take a look and help me find Jessie a home? Best wishes, Jessie.”
5. Everyone’s a writer nowadays
If you’re older than 35 you grew up in an era when wordsmiths were rare creatures, held in awe. But thanks to e-books, blogs and self-publishing, everyone is a ‘writer’ now. You may think you’re a pro, but you’ll end up being lumped in with amateur and part-time writers, meaning you’ll be expected to do ancillary work for free to “get your name out there”.
6. There’s no ‘team’ in ‘I’
As an author, you’re on your own. That means there’s no office underling to delegate or pass the buck to.
7. Reviews
Whether a review is scathing, fawning or lukewarm, you’ll become convinced that the critic didn’t read your book properly. Your family, friends and pet will learn to listen politely as you rail on and on and on about this. (But lucky you for getting a write-up of any kind – nearly all books are ignored.)

8. People say annoying things
When you meet people and they find out you’re an author you face a familiar range of irritating comments and questions. People will mock your vocation:
“But isn’t that more of a hobby? What’s your real job?” They will try and diminish you: “Written a bestseller yet?” If, like me, you have, they’ll simply up the stakes: “Oh… won a Booker prize yet, have we?”
9. You have to sort out your tax
You people with your cosy office jobs have no idea how much us authors crave a monthly payslip, with all the tax and National Insurance already deducted. As my treasured accountant tells me, it is the authors among his client list who are least adept at managing their own affairs. Beware the ides of March? No - beware the slides of January.
10. The dreaded ‘nul points’
You also have no pension or steady income. You never know if your next royalty statement will bring good news, which boosts both your bank account and creative self-esteem, or the fingernail-gnawing ‘nul points’.
11. The truth about book launches
You think your book will be launched at a glittering, star-studded bash, don’t you? Bragg, Rowling and Rushdie will smile fondly as you arrive to fawning applause and flashing cameras. The truth is that most books don’t have launch parties. As for in-store signings, I’ll always remember when the then-manager of my local Waterstones branch approached me on the high street, begging me to come in and buy a book from the household name who was doing a signing session. “It’s so embarrassing,” he whispered, “she’s been sitting there for an hour and no one has even talked to her yet.”

12. Your book will never be the right one
If you write non-fiction books, someone will ask you why you don’t write a “proper book”, like a novel. If you write fiction, someone will ask you why you don’t write a “proper book”, like an academic or history title.
13. You’re inside… yet outside
You are, simultaneously, at the centre of your career and staring in at it from the outside. You write what you want to write and it’s your name printed on the cover of your book. Your publisher may even run an author photo of you touching your chin and looking all highbrow. But on the other hand, you are very much outside the process as well: you don’t go to the sales or marketing meetings, and oodles of significant decisions are made without you.
14. You may go nuts – or die
It’s not always easy completing a book. A novelist friend of mine became so convinced that she was the ghostly heroine of the horror story she was writing that she had a nervous breakdown. French writer HonorĂ© de Balzac needed industrial levels of caffeine to get his writing done. He would neck up to 50 cups of coffee a day and eventually died of caffeine poisoning at the age of 51.



Try Something New

Oft times in the life of a writer the dreaded condition of writer's block will arise in various forms of severity. From a mild "I don't know what happens next in the plot" kind of writers block to a complete "I can't write" author shut down.
It's my opinion that when we get stuck in repetitive patterns our minds are no longer stimulated, thus creativity diminishes. This can lead to writer's block, or perhaps to sub-par writing.
Routine is important, without it we would never get anything done! I'm not dissing routine here. What I am advising though is to go out of your comfort zone once in a while. Switch things up a little. If your usual hangout over weekends is the sofa at home, then take the time to meet some people in a park, club, bar, book launch, movies...the list is endless. Try experiencing new things and new sensations. If you have never been on a roller-coaster, now is the time to try it!
The change in routine and the stimulus of new experiences will definitely spark your creative side that leads to better writing.

Wednesday 27 January 2016

Odd Starts

The best stories starts from the oddest things at times. Today I was frantically searching for the TV remote. My brother noted that we are so used to a remote that we could walk by the TV several times and not change the channel manually. This got me thinking about our dependence on technology...and...
 BAM!
...its a story in the making.

The point of that little drabble is that as writers we need to be aware. Even the most mundane things (like a lost TV remote) can spark a story.

Writers have the dubious task of constantly being aware and "spying" on the world around us. It is a privilege and a skill that needs to be developed, those little nuances leaks through in your work making it much more compelling.

Well, thats my two cents for now.