Dueling expert syndrome

Something I have learned and want to pass on to budding novelists: Once you've done your research and written the book, don't ever, ever, go back for a second opinion. They won't agree. Put two experts and a room and get three opinions (actually about five and a lively ongoing debate in my case).

On the other hand, there is a certain black humour in saying "I just torched a house because it was the only way to make the firefighters happy."

Plants and flat sales and cats - oh my!

Over Worked, Under Paid - Giclee Print
Patterson, Gary
18 in. x 24 in.
Buy at AllPosters.com
Framed   Mounted
(I couldn't find one for busy, but this seemed appropriate)

Part of yesterday was spent retrieving one moggie from a tree. It was her first time climbing one, and typically she got stuck. Even more typically, once the ladder was set up and she knew she could be rescued, she decided this was a good time to explore the rest of the tree.

The property sale proceeds apace, and we are hoping to get it done by the end of the month. If we do, it will make things a lot simpler and get another issue out of the way.

Then there are the plants. Oh dear. Once again, the problem is that I know where to start growing things, but not where to stop. In the flat I was limited to windowsills. Here, thanks to foxes and squirrels, I'm still limited to windowsills, but there are more of them and they are bigger. Unfortunately, between lettuces, cauliflowers, broccoli, onions and carrots (and mustard and cress), all the sunfacing ones are already full. I'm trying to persude the other half that a 4 tier indoor greenhouse to get the rest off the floor would be a good idea. We need an enclosed one because the cats decided to climb the shelves.

I have done somehing wrong with the dwarf beans. I planted six which were supposed to grow 15 inches high. Instead I now have eight plants (was nine until Matilda ate one), and the largest is two feet and still growing.

And the book contract? They've come back and said the changes I requested will not be an issue. The problem is I'm not sure how to proceed next - do they amend the contract and resend it? Is the boilerplate signed with an allowance for agreed changes? Do I sign it with my amendments and return it?

In an IT negotiation the agent would handle it, or the party offering the contract, and you'd swap it back and forth. However, I am not familiar with literary contracts or Canadian law, which leaves me at something of a loss.

While I figure out the next move, I'm now costing the marketing plan. The free components are done, but there are always a few pay channels that are worth going down. The only real issue, as always, is making sure you don't spent more on marketing than you would make from sales.

But before I do anything else, step one is definitely going to be "clear anything else that remains in flat".

It's the waiting that's a killer...

Everything on my life right now seems to depend on waiting. To give you an idea, I am selling a flat and waiting to hear from potential buyers after viewing, waiting to hear interview results, and on top of that I have two novels currently sitting with publishers and agents. So as I checked my email for the third (probably closer to thirtieth) time today, I realised this is getting ridiculous. It's very difficult to work on another novel, when every time the door goes, the phone rings or you even think that someone might have emailed you, you immediately check and *poof* there goes your train of thought.

Since I've now get 42 items on Bukisa and need a break from rewrites, I took some time away from the PC and spent the morning clearing stinging nettles to get the vegetable patch ready for this year. Both because it needed to be done, and because its the furthest away from house and PC I can get without going out. Unfortunately, since I'm waiting on the plants I put in last week to sprout, even gardening now involves waiting!

On the short story front, since a Perfect Set-Up did so well (34 views on Redgage in the first hour) I've starting promoting Escape - Part One.

I just hope I hear something soon on at least one of these fronts as the silence is very hard to bear.

Articles and More

After real life got in the way yesterday, I'm now back to writing articles on Bukisa. Porting my old game reviews is taking longer than I thought - not least because my writing style and voice has changed over the years so instead of a direct port, I am re-writing them. Great for search engine rankings and traffic, but not so good for my schedule!

I've also taken a chance and put one of my short stories up. Originally written for a messageboard writing section I thought I might as well see if anyone liked it. In addition, the first part of "Escape" is up - after all if I can use lulu preview and let people read it for free, I might as well let them read it for free on Bukisa and get paid for the views. If enough people ask I'll put the other two parts up there as well, and leave the e-book version for die-hard fans if I have any. (Let's be honest. The way I'm feeling now "Enough people" would probably be one.)

I am still waiting for any more feedback on the novel, although between the article writing, a few real life complications and gardening work I'm not really thinking about it at the moment.

• A Perfect Set Up - short story on Bukisa

Frustrations of writing

There's an issue with novel #3.

• I have a complete manuscript.
• My writing group loved it.
• An editor said that he was having trouble editing it because he kept reading it.
• A fan club and regular article readers who liked the concept and signed up to be notified if it was published.
• I have a marketing plan, distribution conections, and links to areas the publishers usually cannot access to promote it.
• I even have people asking about the one to follow it.

And after six months I have an ever growing stack of form rejections. Two more this morning.

And I really don't get it. I'd say it was the writing, but if a professional editor I paid to tear it apart says there's nothing wrong with it (losing himself more work in the process) then it probably isn't. The concept is old fashioned, but then so are adventure stories/thrillers themselves, and no agents have checked whether there is a spin on it.

I'm probably not going to send this out again to another agent, and just let the remaining no's trickle in.

So am I giving up? Not a chance. An agent and a large publishing house would be nice, but there are always other options, and I need to take some time to prioritise those.

On the good side, we just shipped a pile of my earlier books off to the US, so at least I've still got distribution over there.