I Should Be Writing

NaNoWriMo 2020: Day Twenty-Two

Peter Germany Books, Horror, Horror Writer, Life, Nanowrimo, Writing , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Good morning folks, how are we all doing on this brisk autumn morning?

I was going to blog last night, and write but I fell asleep. So I got a mighty 295 words written and I am now below the projected total I should be at. I was thinking about how to hit my words on days when I had an afternoon/evening shift as I was overlaying each morning due to poor sleep the night before. But now I’ve actually looked at my rota’s for the next two weeks I’ve got all morning shifts (they could change but we’ll see), so I should be able to get home, grab a bit of lunch and then get cracking.

Today I am aiming for a nice 2k day, maybe more if I can get my arse into gear. Then continue the 2k a day through the rest of the week. I need 1900 a day to hit target, so I really need to pull my finger out and get those words down. I can do this. I just need to be disciplined and sit in the chair and write until the target is hit. I keep telling myself I want to be more professional with this, to treat it like a career. So, I need to properly put the time in and not have the TV on in the background.

So, my arse is in the chair. I’ve got bits and pieces around the house to do as well, but I’m going to work that into my targets for the day. Write a 1000 words, go take the rubbish out.

Today’s featured piece of my published work is Pumpkin Attack in the Beneath The Leaves anthology that was written to celebrate the birth of the one and only Em Dehaney. When I got invited to submit I knew what I wanted to write about these antagonists but I knew I couldn’t just write a story from their point of view. I wanted to go a route I haven’t gone before and that’s where the protagonists came into it. Writing about teenagers I found tough, especially a teenage girl, because I’m not a teenage girl but I thought about someone who is finding their confidence and overcoming shyness, while still keeping to what they were comfortable with. I also wanted to write something about a parent who was themselves growing as a person, while still being who they are. So it was very tough, and a lot of the depth of the story I wasn’t really planning and it evolved as I was writing it.

Right, thats enough procrastination! Armand, if your reading this please yell at me because I’ve fallen behind when I’ve had no real reason to have done.

Rock on, folks! 😀

My Podcast Library

Peter Germany Podcasts, Writing , , , , , , , , , , ,

I was recently talking with a few of the members of the writing group that I’m in and someone asked what podcasts we all listen too and I listed a couple before I realised that I don’t think I can list all of the ones I listed to in a Facebook comment. So I thought I’d put together a list as a blog post, so here it is in no particular order:

I Should Be Writing and Ditch Diggers:   I Should Be Writing is Mur Lafferty’s podcast that she has been doing for many years and deals with some of the everyday writer problems and some of the emotional elements to the writing process. Ditch Diggers is Mur Lafferty’s Podcast with Matt Wallace. Here they discuss more the business side of writing. Both of these podcasts also have frequent interviews with other writers.

The Dead Robots Society: This podcast is a roundtable discussion show that deals with pretty much every aspect of the writing process. From outlining and world building to sales numbers. Justin R. Macumber created this podcast and Terry Mixon, Paul E. Cooley and Scott Roche make up the regular team. I came into the show when it was approaching its hundredth episode mark and I went back and listened to all of the previous episodes.

The Roundtable Podcast: This podcast by Dave Robison (who has an amazing voice) is generally a roundtable discussion where Robison and guest hosts brainstorm a story idea by a (brave) writer. There are also episodes where they spend (a loose) twenty minutes with a writer to get to know them. This is a fantastic podcast that I’ve found can really get the creative juices going.

The Newbie Writers Podcast: This podcast by Damien Boath and Catherine Bramkamp. This is an interview show where Boath and Bramkamp interview writers. This show is a lot of fun, and very engaging.

Authorcast: This is primarily a discussion between David Wood and Alan Baxter. They discuss pretty much everything to do with writing. Wood also runs a small press, which gives another insight to the writing and publishing process.

Shipping & Handling Podcast: This podcast is a little different as its two literary agents, Bridget Smith and Jennifer Udden, discussing the publishing world. This is quickly becoming one of my must listen to podcasts. It’s informative and very entertaining. I’m finding it very easy to listen to.

The Creative Penn Podcast: This is quite a new podcast for me and I’m enjoying it and learning from it. It’s general publishing talk and interviews with writers.

Armcast: This podcast by Armand Rosamilia is a writing podcast but one that focusses on the people Rosamilia has met through writing horror. So some episodes with have interviews with writers while others will have interviews with film producers. Rosamilia has just started a new podcast with Mark Tufo but I haven’t listened to that one yet. If it’s anything like Armcast it’ll be a lot of fun.

SF Squeecast: This one is kind of a ringer to a certain degree as it’s not primarily a writing podcast in my opinion. It’s more of a group of friends sitting round talking about what they like who also happen to be writers. This is a pretty good podcast, the content is fantastic and fun and all of the hosts; Elizabeth Bear, Paul Cornell, Seanan McGuire, Lynne M. Thomas, Michael Damian Thomas and Catherynne M. Valente all seem to have a lot of fun doing this podcast.

All of these podcasts can be found on iTunes, that’s where I get them from, and I hope people check them out.

Mur Lafferty Shout Out

Peter Germany Books, Sci-Fi, Writing , , , , , , , , , , ,

‘Mighty’ Mur Lafferty is I think easily considered the Godmother of the podcasting world. She was one of the first and is still going strong. I’ve listened to a lot of her work and enjoyed it for the most part but it never struck in the way that Scott Sigler or J.C. Hutchins do but her podcast for writers I should Be Writing is essential listening. I Should Be Writing is very helpful to the new writer and Mur Lafferty does not hold anything back. If she is feeling depressed, she talks about it. She is very easy to listen to and does some great interviews.

 

Lets get to Marco And The Red Granny though.

 

Think; Aliens with seven senses, artists, writers and death matches on the moon. You need more? Really? It is worth a listen to the first episode at least. Lafferty is a very strong writer and she creates some amazing characters here.

I listened to this today and absolutely fell in love with it, this is my favourite story by Mur Lafferty and I would love to see more in this universe.

 

The link to Mur Lafferty’s website is below and you can find everything that she produces there. This is an amazing person as well as a writer, please go by and check her out.

You can also find her work on iTunes and at Podiobooks.com

 

http://murverse.com/

Being Professional

Peter Germany Books, Random Thoughts, Short Fiction, Writing , , , , , , , , , ,

I was talking to a friend who was asked to review a book by a writer and when she gave her honest review the writer had a go at her because it was a glowing one.  If you go over to Cinta Garcia’s web page you will see all about this amazing writer who is not nasty of vicious at all.  Cinta is one of the kindest people I know.  I’ve also read the review and its a well written and direct review.  Heres her website, which is new by the way http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fcintascorner.weebly.com%2F&h=3AQHmYSjH

This got me thinking about something that the Mighty Mur Lafferty says on her podcast I Should Be Writing, basically being professional is the best way to be.  Please go and check out her website because she’ll express it better than I can http://www.murverse.com/ She is of the mindset though that trying to be a professional is the best route because its rare that being rude and unprofessional will just get people’s backs up and put them off you and your work.  I think a good analogy is if you buy a car and its nothing but a pain in the backside you tell people about it and rarely buy another car of that make.  Or a rude staff member at a coffee-house or something.  These things annoy us and we are more than likely to talk about a bad experience then we are a good experience.

Mighty Mur puts forward a lot of good points.  Like not trying to get into a discussion with someone who has left a bad review.  I quite like the sound of this piece of advice.  If the reader did not get what you were trying to say in the book its kind of like explaining why a joke is funny.  If it’s a nasty review then surely it’s not even worth the time to post a reply.  I know in the early stages of our careers we’ll reply to almost anything because we’re building our online presence but its easy to get sucked into a heated exchange and I think that I will probably steer clear of the people leaving nasty comments when I have my work out in the world for people to read and talk about.

Mighty Mur also talks about things like not asking for critiques from editors when they reject your work as they have slush piles to read etc.  Seriously if novice writers have not at least checked out Mur’s I Should Be Writing podcast then I’m surprised as I have learnt a lot from it.

Lets not forget our writing too.  When we submit we have to be sure that what we’ve written is not only good but our spelling, grammar and presentation is also correct.  If it’s a paper submission then make sure that there are no coffee stains or handwritten notes on it.  Follow the submission guidelines, I’d imagine doing research on where we’re submitting is a good idea.  I have a list of websites, some of which were recommended to me and some were even searched out for me (thank you Cinta 🙂 ) This is knowing our audience.  Finding the right places to submit and who the editors are has to help our chances of getting noticed, of course our work has to be good at the same time but from what I can make out slush piles are big so we do have to stand out and or find an editor that loves the genre or type of story that we write.  I wouldn’t send my space opera stuff to an editor or agent who hates space opera, that’s just daft.

Being a writer is not just about what we write, it’s about who we are as well.  How we come across to the people in the industry and most importantly to the people who read our work who one day may become fans of ours.