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| Image: Eternal Press |
Something struck me last night as I was walking through Edinburgh after the day job. Well actually, two things struck me, and I’ll tell you about them both here.
I should explain that the route of my walk took me from Lothian Road along West Port and down into the Grassmarket area. This is also the route that is core to part of the story in BACCARA BURNING, and so having been writing about it so intensely over the past few days, it felt kinda weird.
However, I realised I’d got the geography wrong. I had the characters entering the Grassmarket from the Lothian Road end, but writing about it as if they were coming in from the Cowgate end. A close shave but it was easily fixed.
The other thing to strike me came as I was thinking through my strategic career plan for the next twelve months.
I started work on the first chapter of HUNTING JACK the night before last, a novel that is going to take me longer then the rest to get it to where it needs to be for publication. This is purely because it was written in 2004 and I’ve improved drastically as a writer since then. It’s also because I want to make it more edgy.
Yet I have a novel already sitting on my desk, fully complete, and written to a high standard that only needs a polish up in order to put my mind at rest. It’s been out on submission to a couple of publishers last year, so why am I not doing this one first?
Thus we have the giant U-turn! HUNTING JACK will be worked on but it will come later. In the meantime, SLICK is now to get the full polish up and will be the first book to be released.
I’ve got a lot of work to get through over the next few months but I also need to keep the marketing cycle turning over, and this way I’ll make it easier on myself to space out the releases and keep the interest up. There’s also those who have so far signed up for the 3 Free Ebooks Deal on my website to think about—I’ve got to keep the deal alive by getting it out there.
Leith Poetry
I decided to mess things up even further with LIVING LEITH by writing a further three poems. They’re all good though, and add to the manuscript rather than take away.
The manuscript is now fully laid out, minus all the bells and whistles. There’s still some editing to do on a few of the poems, and I’ll need to look closely at the order of them. It’s getting closer to the point I’ll have to decide whether to submit to the local publisher or stay with Smashing Press.
Compass Freelance
I took down Compass Freelance, removed the emails and cancelled the auto renewal. All that remains under my ownership is the name: http://www.compassfreelance.co.uk along with a bunch of others I seem to have collected over the years, such as fringefantastic.co.uk and magicstargifts.co.uk. More slimming down—can’t do any harm.
Day Job
The day job is dire at the moment. The whole company has plummeted into a sea of wallowing despair yet again, all brought on my waves of redundancy, outsourcing, and cost cutting beyond belief.
Yesterday was the final straw: we’re losing half of our canteen services. Such a shame because the people that work in there do a sterling job and the food has always been top notch. Now they’ve seen their shifts cut back and the food they’ve been charged with offering move from wonderful meals to grab and go sandwiches To add insult to injury, the prices have rocketed.
Therefore, I’ve left the clutches of the staff canteen. It was a good couple of years but I’m not paying the prices they are asking for inferior goods when I can get better outside for the same or less. It was good while it lasted, but now I’ve ventured back outside for my lunch to utilise the services of the local indie sandwich shops. I fear I’m not the only one driven to it.
That’s all for today except to remind you of all the offers that I currently have running just now…
The 3 Ebook Deal and Free Poetry
Don’t forget to visit my revamped website at www.colingalbraith.co.uk and either sign up to the mailing list or ‘Like’ my Facebook page [www.tinyurl.com/colinonfacebook], as it will mean you’ll be entitled to a free copy of each of my next three novels. Alternatively, just scan the QR code to the right or text 3BOOKS to 88802 or go to the 3 Ebook Deal web page!
You’ll also find some great deals over at my poetry place www.chasstramash.com: all poetry ebooks are available for free download, 86p on the Kindle, and £3 (25% off!) for print copies.
Peace and out!
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About Colin Galbraith
Keen runner, thriller author, Madness fan, Mets fan, St Mirren fan/owner, rabbit tamer, outstanding fake faller. Loves cannolis & espressos. #LFGM
Freedom from the Mundane
A Giant U-Turn
Something struck me last night as I was walking through Edinburgh after the day job. Well actually, two things struck me, and I’ll tell you about them both here.
I should explain that the route of my walk took me from Lothian Road along West Port and down into the Grassmarket area. This is also the route that is core to part of the story in BACCARA BURNING, and so having been writing about it so intensely over the past few days, it felt kinda weird.
However, I realised I’d got the geography wrong. I had the characters entering the Grassmarket from the Lothian Road end, but writing about it as if they were coming in from the Cowgate end. A close shave but it was easily fixed.
The other thing to strike me came as I was thinking through my strategic career plan for the next twelve months.
I started work on the first chapter of HUNTING JACK the night before last, a novel that is going to take me longer then the rest to get it to where it needs to be for publication. This is purely because it was written in 2004 and I’ve improved drastically as a writer since then. It’s also because I want to make it more edgy.
Yet I have a novel already sitting on my desk, fully complete, and written to a high standard that only needs a polish up in order to put my mind at rest. It’s been out on submission to a couple of publishers last year, so why am I not doing this one first?
Thus we have the giant U-turn! HUNTING JACK will be worked on but it will come later. In the meantime, SLICK is now to get the full polish up and will be the first book to be released.
I’ve got a lot of work to get through over the next few months but I also need to keep the marketing cycle turning over, and this way I’ll make it easier on myself to space out the releases and keep the interest up. There’s also those who have so far signed up for the 3 Free Ebooks Deal on my website to think about—I’ve got to keep the deal alive by getting it out there.
Leith Poetry
I decided to mess things up even further with LIVING LEITH by writing a further three poems. They’re all good though, and add to the manuscript rather than take away.
The manuscript is now fully laid out, minus all the bells and whistles. There’s still some editing to do on a few of the poems, and I’ll need to look closely at the order of them. It’s getting closer to the point I’ll have to decide whether to submit to the local publisher or stay with Smashing Press.
Compass Freelance
I took down Compass Freelance, removed the emails and cancelled the auto renewal. All that remains under my ownership is the name: http://www.compassfreelance.co.uk along with a bunch of others I seem to have collected over the years, such as fringefantastic.co.uk and magicstargifts.co.uk. More slimming down—can’t do any harm.
Day Job
The day job is dire at the moment. The whole company has plummeted into a sea of wallowing despair yet again, all brought on my waves of redundancy, outsourcing, and cost cutting beyond belief.
Yesterday was the final straw: we’re losing half of our canteen services. Such a shame because the people that work in there do a sterling job and the food has always been top notch. Now they’ve seen their shifts cut back and the food they’ve been charged with offering move from wonderful meals to grab and go sandwiches To add insult to injury, the prices have rocketed.
Therefore, I’ve left the clutches of the staff canteen. It was a good couple of years but I’m not paying the prices they are asking for inferior goods when I can get better outside for the same or less. It was good while it lasted, but now I’ve ventured back outside for my lunch to utilise the services of the local indie sandwich shops. I fear I’m not the only one driven to it.
That’s all for today except to remind you of all the offers that I currently have running just now…
The 3 Ebook Deal and Free Poetry
Don’t forget to visit my revamped website at www.colingalbraith.co.uk and either sign up to the mailing list or ‘Like’ my Facebook page [www.tinyurl.com/colinonfacebook], as it will mean you’ll be entitled to a free copy of each of my next three novels. Alternatively, just scan the QR code to the right or text 3BOOKS to 88802 or go to the 3 Ebook Deal web page!
You’ll also find some great deals over at my poetry place www.chasstramash.com: all poetry ebooks are available for free download, 86p on the Kindle, and £3 (25% off!) for print copies.
Peace and out!
Share this:
Like this:
About Colin Galbraith
Keen runner, thriller author, Madness fan, Mets fan, St Mirren fan/owner, rabbit tamer, outstanding fake faller. Loves cannolis & espressos. #LFGM