The Future is Bright

Image: Unknown

I had the entire day away from the day job yesterday and it was absolute bliss. Not that I used the time to laze about, oh no, I got off my arse and got wired into tying up the last remaining pieces of work I’d set for myself for the month of November.

Silly Poems
So, I was up early and working on SILLY POEMS, getting the illustrations manoeuvred into the manuscript, which is MUCH easier said than done. The final revision of the raw document is going to be massive, but then with around 30 high resolution full page illustrations in it, that’s probably to be expected.

Breakfast in Town
I let my daughter have a bit of a lie in, after the madness of having to sit several exams over the past few days. When she got up, I took her up to town for breakfast. I had my usual while she ticked into her favourite—hot chocolate and pastries—and we had a long chat about life. It all got quite deep really, considering she’s only 14 and I’m a 38 year old wean.

We headed home and she got stuck into the studying, and I, some chores in the house and my GDR round-ups.

Cover Art
I made contact with the artist I want to work with on the cover art for my fiction books. He’s my first choice and his work is simply outstanding. He sent me his requirements, we agreed terms, and everything was set in motion.

I spent a fair chunk of time preparing the information he needed and getting them sent off to him. He got back to me almost straight away saying he should have something together for both covers (SLICK and next year’s summer novella, GREENER IS THE GRASS) by the early part of next week.

Why can’t everyone be that easy to work with?

Living Leith
I made my decision on whether to submit LIVING LEITH to a local publisher here in Leith or whether to go it alone. The decision came down to the question: what do I want to get out of it? The answer is simple: publication of a poetry book that will appeal to the people of Leith, and open avenues to getting out there and promoting it.

The manuscript still needs some edits to it, but I’ve committed to myself (and now publicly) to submit it within the next few days.

Short Fiction
I’ve been trying to find a suitable submission tracker for the Mac but have so far drawn a blank. The only software I could find was the Story Tracker app for the iPhone, which is very good, but not that handy if I can’t import or sync it with my Mac.

I decided to stick with Sonar3, which I have running on my Windows PC for a couple of years now. I still have the Windows machine in my office for some of the work I have to do for my wife’s photography business. If Story Tracker were to develop a Mac version, I’d buy it in an instant.

Newsletter
I put together more of the new-look newsletter. It’s not an all encompassing publication as the previous one was, because I write my poetry now under a pen-name so am able to focus more on my fiction and all that is happening on that side of things.

I’ll hold off sending it out until I have the front cover of SLICK, and then if you’re subscribed, you’ll hopefully see it in your email mailbox within the next week. If you’re not subscribed, there’s a wee box to the right of this page called Feeds & Subscriptions – stick your email in and get ready…

November’s GDR Review
I wrote up and tied off November’s GDR monthly review. It was posted last night to my blog, and as you will see, November was a damn good month. Everything is moving in the right direction now, and I’m feeling more positive about the future than I ever have done before; the future is bright!

December’s work plan will be posted later today, meanwhile click here to read my November Work Review.

That’s all for today except to remind you of the fabulous deal I have running just now, the 3 Ebook Deal—it’s an absolute steal!

The 3 Ebook Deal and Free Poetry
Visit my website at www.colingalbraith.co.uk and either sign up to the mailing list or ‘LIKE’ my Facebook page, 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 failing that, you can go direct to the 3 Ebook Deal web page!

The window to sign up for the 3 Ebook Deal will close on 31st December, 2011 at 23:59 so make sure you get in there today! It only takes a couple of minutes to sign up to qualify for 3 hot thriller novels to be released in 2012!

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!