This weekend sees the return of the SFX Weekender and I’m currently getting ready for it.
Last year’s event proved a lot of fun. Despite being hosted in a holiday camp that looked like it was made to hold prisoners of war, there was a good crowd there and whilst I attended very few panels (I was nearly permanently in the bar) it was quite a laugh.
Even so, I hadn’t planned to go this year. January is the worst time financially and a tumultuous year this year means I’ve cut back on pre-booking cons. But a friend won tickets and so a posse of us will be heading up to the new Prestatyn venue via Cambridge on Thursday. Seems like a lot of people are going as well, so it will be good catch up, especially since Eastercon currently looks unlikely for me this year.
Because I’m on a very strict budget, I’ve been shopping to get a few bits of food (soup and pot noodles) today and doubt I will be drinking very much at all. But I’m looking forward to the event and look forward to seeing some of you there.
I wrote one of my first novels when I was aged 8. It was called “Where the Wind Blows” and involved anthropomorphised animals on a bus. The bus went through the countryside picking up more characters. I abandoned it after about 30 hand-written pages as I had about the same number of characters and no idea of what they were doing.
Things have been pretty quiet on the blog mainly because I’ve been knuckling down and working. There’s nothing sexy or exciting about the vomit draft other than seeing the story come together, and that’s not something I can really share without ruining the book.
There’s more to being a writer than just writing these days. If you want to do it in some professional capacity (large or small) there’s a lot of business; whether that be promotion, dealing with agents and publishers, or just following the market. And then there’s that business of being able to take a look at your work objectively.
So whilst the first draft work on Gods of the Old Frontier continues, I’m also starting to edit Refugee.
A couple of years ago my extended family decided that instead of token presents, it would be a lot more fun to make things for each other. It proved to be a great success. It didn’t matter how well the final product turned out, the time and effort put into it was greatly appreciated by all.
Gods continues to be an interesting process. If you’re not aware, this is the first book I’ve attempted to write where I’m discovering the story as I go. It’s a western fantasy with helicopters and spirit animals. There’s part of me that felt as if the ideas needed to ‘cook’ for another couple of years, but I have to say that the results so far have been interesting.
I have no problems with negative reviews. I’m interested in people’s opinions and if someone didn’t like something, it’s interesting to hear why. There are a few people whose positive reviews are enough to make me buy books, and there are some people whose negative reviews have convinced me likewise.
China Mieville is 11 days older than me. 11 days more in which he’s managed to write numerous successful novels, win loads of awards and become the poster boy of genre fiction. Even if I didn’t sleep in the next two weeks I’d never be able to beat that. If there was a scorecard labelled “Genre writer career”, he’d be miles ahead of me on points.