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| Image: Priceless Writers |
Just like I did last week, I decided not to go up town yesterday. By 10am it was way too hot to even consider leaving the sanctuary of the house, so I decided to get an early start on my tasks. I figured, get the crap stuff out the way and I can enjoy more of the day. So I did, and that’s how it happened.
Mind you, my tasks were made a touch more difficult due to the state of the place. There’s a big event coming up in my wife’s photography life and the preparation for it means much of the house is in turmoil. There are boxes, folders, paper, photography equipment and to-do lists everywhere. It’s a sight to behold.
The event also means I have some work to do on her website. Not a small job so I knew I would have to build in some website development time to my day and coming week. After my weekly house clean and spot of gardening to keep on top of things, I gave about three hours to it. The work will have to be spread, though—it’s too much like my day job at the moment; too techy.
I’m delighted the latest issue of the Ranfurly Review is out, published yesterday morning early doors. After all my pondering over its future and how I was going to keep managing it, I’m actually quite proud with how it turned out. I think there may have been something subliminally creative going on when I selected the final contributions I did. The front cover’s a good ‘un, too.
I made some very good progress with GATECRASH yesterday. I’m well into the second part of the story and approaching the “middle sag” but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of that in the prose. Once I’ve been through this initial familiarisation and re-draft of the manuscript, including completing the book (it has no ending!), I’ll print it off and leave it for a short time before going back for the real re-write. In between I’ll complete GREENER IS THE GRASH and get it out there. It’s so close I can smell its feet.
I also spent a fair amount of time gathering together all the market lists I have into one central list. I stripped out the vital information I need: name, URL, fiction and/or poetry, word count, paying, etc., and ran through each one to check them out. A LOT got ditched through either not being active any more or website statements like “we reserve the right not to notify authors of a rejection.” Nice. Don’t expect to receive my hard work for consideration then.
I’m pleased with the final list. What surprises me is the amount of markets I classed as being in first choice that I haven’t subbed to for a long time. That kind of proves my method wasn’t working, it was too random.
I downloaded Sonar3, a submission tracking piece of software and checked it out. It looks good so I’m going to trial it for a few weeks alongside my established spreadsheet that I’ve been using for 6 years. You load up all your markets and submissions and it alerts you and tracks your successes etc. It looks like it could be useful and a much quicker way of administering the whole process.
This Wednesday will be the first anniversary of STELLA being published. To celebrate, I’m running a competition where you can win a free signed copy of the book. You’ll have to stay tuned for information. Of course, if you can’t wait until then you could always buy a copy of Stella here. If you just want more information on the book, click here.
Right, that’s all for today. I’m off into town while it’s quiet for some coffee, pastry and a nice long read of the paper. See you on Twitter later on no doubt.
Peace out!
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Freedom from the Mundane 