tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86979090143039611652024-03-21T13:28:43.879-07:00Sandra Murphy$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-85530896935192574582012-05-10T11:33:00.001-07:002012-05-10T11:33:35.539-07:00Published...I have finally completed three years of study. <br />
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In that time my course has been cut, my child has completed high school, I have met a fantastic artsy dude who's going to see me into my old age, I have a predicted first to come from my graft, AND... I'm published!<br />
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So several big events make the whole thing insane, and it's easy to lose sight of the original grand plan amongst final presentations (who opts to spend 20 minutes talking about the language of romance in Lord of the Rings? - evidently me), the last rushed meetings with student friends with whom the final months have been barely spent, and the all important final year dissertation.<br />
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The first thought I had about ending my course was, 'That's it, I'm done... I'm free!' then very quickly I realised the final events which have made up the past few weeks have been crazy and I've had barely a moment to take stock or mental photo of this next step. <br />
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So what exactly was my grand plan? Honestly, I really didn't have one, and I really didn't think I would make it to the end. I thought the dream I've had for years was yet another of the dozens of unrealised ones that make a thirty-something little more than a jaded big kid. Oscar speeches and testimonials aside. There are a whole collection of people who facilitated my progress.<br />
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There are of course the amazing lecturers, the in-house politics between these hen-pecked academics and management and our fabulous new UK higher education cutbacks which either bring out the worst or the best in us. I am going to put the 2000 word letter of complaint I composed when my course was discontinued down to a newly found language. <br />
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But that's also because I wasn't just speaking for myself. There are the students who we learn from and that really is the priceless part. Not just about who they are and what they know, but about what they bring out in us. They brought out something bigger in my grand plan - which was purely to glean back three years doing something for myself after a long stint of single-parenting. Thank you guys. You made part of the writer I am today.<br />
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Together we are all bound in print all thanks to our student editorial team who brought together our multiple voices into an anthology of creative writing called <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ignite-Sandra-Cain/dp/1780882084/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1336671734&sr=8-1">Ignite</a>. Yes we have an ISBN and we aren't afraid to use it... :) And thanks to the help of my lovely <a href="http://www.boywithabeard.co.uk/">David</a> we have a fotos and a crafted weblog of our book-launch in the making.<br />
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There will be a day of book-signing at Waterstones in West Quay, Southampton on the 9th June from 11am onwards, so maybe we'll see you there.
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So consequently, here I sit allowing myself time to take stock. Now while I'm staring at job adverts for receptionists and HR staff, marketing for small companies and pondering my nightmare relapse into cleaning for the sake of getting work, I seem to have a change of heart. Books still whisper academic questions in my ear, and the scent of a horde of hungover 20 yr olds has a poetic nostalgia.<br />
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I'm on the cusp of considering the publication of my full three years of studies - warts and all, angst and glory, with bad punctuation unedited and the joy that really 'getting' a sudden burst of understanding can bring as a guide of sorts, or at least a something so my kid will know I actually did this.<br />
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Thoughts turn to, 'hang on a minute, I'm not done yet!' and perhaps I may have something I can develop and share beyond a collection of rough essays and scatty presentations - maybe learn from some more undeniably avant garde kids.<br />
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You can't see the application form on my desk for postgraduate study, but it's got my name on it and I'm not afraid to use it. Watch this space.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-18657354783698611262012-01-02T08:07:00.000-08:002012-01-02T09:08:43.710-08:00Room to write outside of genderFirst blog in an extremely long time. I'd be more sorry if it was beneficial to be, but this year I have to stop apologising and regretting things, accept I am who I am and do what I do... when I can.<br /> <br />Research has been jarring for months on the novel I am developing for my final year dissertation project. I love literary criticism and breaking it down in itself, I love theory but would love to try it all out and see how it works in fictional practise. Gendered language as a prison of classification, and the reading of the diaries of French Herculine Barbin who was classified as a '19th Century Hermaphrodite' has brought me here to try and create a different ending than suicide. <br /><br />What keeps running through my head is this: what on earth was I thinking and what the heck do I know about the hell that society puts upon people born with intersexed bodies, or who feel the unavoidable, heartbreaking and brave journey through one gendered existence to another? Between changes at home that made even finding the head-space to read even my university reading lists a challenge, proving to people that you are a serious individual researching transgender/ intersex issues for a literary exploration is even more complex.<br /><br />Trying to prove I am genuine to societies and closed help-groups who deal with these issues I would much prefer to understand before I progress, is a real hurdle. I would like to be one of those people who can just pretend, rummage through a few websites and magazines, read a couple of case studies and churn out word-counts, but that just is not me. Arguably, surely understanding the subject as a writer you hope to represent, as broadly as possible is the ideal?<br /><br />What I would love of course is for all the research to flow, my brain to unblock itself, and for every door I knock on to magically open. <br /><br />Life is not like this.<br /><br />Writing is not like this – unless it's inside your book and you want to write it that way, but then how interesting a read would it be with no conflict to halt the narrative or to turn the perceptions of the reader, to alter the character? And more ideas will come from the result of research than I can hope to dredge out of my little mind, in my little writing room. If there's anyone out there who reads this, who may have an introduction they could make I'd be more than grateful. <br /><br />I wont deny that at the moment I am my own biggest adversary. 'Darn you Sandra Murphy', I say with shaking fist! I have to be a bit more patient, but hey, that word has a double meaning. Writing can be a sickness sometimes that makes us grumpy as hell and prone to indulge on available and sometimes wonderful, modes of escapism. I guess the real part has to be a bit of dedication and acceptance that time management is essential for progress. A book, in concept alone, can be anything, but it amounts to nothing until you get yourself in gear.<br /><br />Thus, Sandra has got to get herself in gear. But Sandra is also going to remind herself, here, in third person, that she would like very much to timetable in, with as little boring planning as possible, very frequent periods of rather wonderful escapism. After all, isn't that also a source of writing? Final thought: outside of gender, how the heck do I refer to myself in third person? Part of the reason for the research.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-40808530360364945392011-04-10T23:27:00.000-07:002011-04-11T03:26:55.376-07:00IntentionIt's been a while, so I thought, 'anything, Sandra'.<br /><br />I've been reading so many academic things that writing fiction is not given half as much time as I had intended when I started my undergraduate studies. But here's the kick. I've come to the conclusion that all that research, all the getting my head around philosophy and lit theory - when I look back at my past work in the creative writing arena - opens so many more doors for a work to have, yes, reader appeal (by knowing my way around the craft better), but also substance. Maybe it's an age thing, but I hope not. I think part of the big joy for me with books is that it can have it all and if it doesn't then why the hell not?<br /><br />Intention is a big question for any writer. Why screw about with crazy punctuation, why make characters do ridiculous things we wouldn't? Why take liberties with characters and make them suffer or happy if not for some reason more than just a narrative arc? Make those arcs work by giving them a backbone and a purpose for existence - that's my thoughts anyway. I think this is the difference between the possibility of earning with one publication, or building a reputation and if I am momentarily practical, a great tool for promoting the quality of future work. There. Part way to plugging a second work because the first had so much going for it.<br /><br />Ethics and responsibility are one thing, but ethics as a creative notion, to intend for something to be written a certain way, at least arms your self-confidence.<br /><br />I have just finished reading Katherine Dunn's 'Geek Love', about an American freak show family and the crazy ends to which the characters go through pains to be those unique individuals struggling for an existence in a world where the 'norms' worship their differences. I can well imagine that some of the events - and they are gruesome, but darkly beautiful - will turn some readers away, but intention is what it's all about. Narrative devices. Perfecting the critique of a social system and values made traditional but through acts which would challenge this ideal.<br /><br />I don't know about anyone else, but the idea of writing something, now seeing with different eyes all that a work of fiction can be, and be specifically, if given intention, floats my boat bigtime. Can it hurt to look at how society works in social structures, viewpoints, or moral codes.. the list goes on. <br /><br />Arming myself with at least some intention allows me to not only support my plot and more in the editing process (helping me to keep an eye on what is really necessary) but it also helps to troubleshoot weak characters, events, my use of language in and outside of dialogue. <br /><br />If I choose some words over others, If I refer to specific themes in my work am I all about the reader and worrying if they will get it? Am I all about me and my exclusive peers - in which case financial success in publication is irrelevant? Or do I want to do it all. If I am in mixed company I have to tone down my Scots and this is because I WANT to have dialogue, I want to communicate and be a part of something.<br /><br />Getting back to writing, if I take the time to consider - do I really want to use colloquialisms in the greater narrative or do I give it to my characters? Or if not that, then maybe give my character the narrative and let them face the critique.<br /><br />I have to say I love fiction narrated by characters because even if it is not my own dialect it gives me a real flavour of the source of the story. For Geek Love, that American apple-pie family, the universal taint of celebrity, the image of popcorn and candyfloss flavoured by formaldehyde suspensions just gets me. And it all informs my own work. There is no new story - not in essence - but with intention, we can make a damn good argument for why ours is different, and not make the error of slipping into pure imitation.<br /><br />I was working on one novel, now I have three on the go, so it's just as well I love research. Intention will hopefully help me to keep my ideas focused, and not allow my storylines to spill over into each other. Schizophrenia must be kept in check and I know that with writing at least it's there in me! There's a sinking suspicion in me that this post sounds like a speech... if it does, trust me it's meant to be directed internally.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-18792241503977008642011-02-26T08:14:00.000-08:002011-02-26T08:49:16.175-08:00A Critique of Self-Publishing: `Where do I stand?'Since writing this critique there have no doubt been changes. I have not included the latest issues raised by Apple's legal battle for a share of digital books and would advise any person reading this critique to make sure of double-checking any information used before drawing defined conclusions or indeed making any decisions.<br /> <br />I would also <em>wholeheartedly</em> welcome any feedback or correction of any information I have conveyed, as the purpose of this critique was to assess for myself as a prospective author if it is a route suitable for me. I would really love to hear from those for whom the self-publishing process has been lucrative or for whom it has served their particular artistic purpose.<br />_Sandra<br /><br /><strong>Critique of Self Publishing: 'Where do I stand?'</strong><br /><br />Self-publishing was at one time likened to vanity publishing and has been compared by ghostwriter, Andrew Croft to commissioning a one-off or bespoke piece of furniture: the author as 'simply commissioning a book as they might commission a family portrait or a piece of made to measure furniture'. (2004, Ghostwriting, <em>The Writer's and Artist's Yearbook 2011</em>, p149) However, POD (print on demand) and the internet, with the rise of the e-book and international, online marketplace providers, such as Amazons have changed this:<br /><br />'Publishing is going through a sustained period of change and development. Audiences are demanding text, audio and video content all through one medium, and the spread of handheld devices is stimulating the development of new products and business models.' http://www.skillset.org/publishing/careers/<br /><br />Now authors who are unable to acquire representation by a publishing house are turning to using this route as a financially viable way around the traditional, and alternatively as a way in to, publishing houses whose books are closed to conventional submissions. This quote from the website entitled, Skillset goes on to propose the following about the relevance of careers in publishing (therefore suggesting it is a chosen route far aside from being an author):<br /><br />'A range of skills are essential to working in publishing. There is a growing need for a better understanding of the impact on intellectual property rights and market developments. Skills like an ability to work flexibly and respond to change are highly sought after.'(Ibid)<br /><br />I would propose that unless an immeasurable amount of time is available to constantly update and research all of the areas (from basic printing, formatting issues and visual aesthetics, to legal rights, distribution and dealing with finance and accounting) it would be a wasted energy to fool oneself into thinking this could be done successfully and alone. If you have a sound base in navigating around technology and are quick to update your knowledge of recent developments, then there may be some room for an element of achievement. But for the hours possibly spent and the software required to assist in this project you would have to consider why you have chosen to write the book and more than this, what the chief goal in its publication is. Unless you have an outreaching desire to examine the publishing process from A to Z it could be an energy drain and as such, counter productive for an author.<br /><br />Having started to maintain a blog and Twitter site for myself, I have difficulty in seeing how it would be possible for an author to be able to do all of this and deal with a globally widening market that's boundaries go beyond the geographical, nor have I the finances to afford a solicitor to deal with any problems which may arise. Consider Dan Brown and JK Rowling's legal battles on intellectual ownership of the basis of their respective works.<br /><br />If taking, for example, the Harry Potter series, now available in dozens of languages, not only would translation issues have to be dealt with, but also the legal ramifications of transatlantic business and trade rights, even the move into film and marketing. This is of course speculation on an author's work having Rowling's worldwide success, which even for her did not happen overnight. It still begs the question of how much one person, as an author, would desperately want to take on all the roles, given they have faith that their work is absolutely worth the effort, then surely there would be an agent or publisher keen to back this up. But with a market struggling in the internet boom and the recent years of financial hardship in the UK it is possible to see why some may look to another option, and more so, how the process can be enabled with varying gradients of assistance in the process.<br /><br />The very presence of publishing platforms (who offer packages of services that range from the very basic to as much as guaranteeing space on marketplace shelves for a set period of time) is proof that the industry is tightening its belt. Authors are even using blogs as a way of platforming their own works without agent assistance, but I would be truly concerned about the validity of my moral rights as the owner of the literature. My knowledge of internet issues, malware and other digital copyright complications would be hampered by my lack of experience and I would be much more at ease to know someone would be responsible and therefore answerable for the loss of work, rights, and possible commercial gain.<br /><br />Chapter 5 (pp79-81) of Getting Published: a guide for lecturers and researchers on 'Book Publishing' was relatively useful in answering the questions which need to be asked of the author, and whose answers seem to be concurrent in most of the sources researched for this critique: Should I go for the most prestigious? Opt for a better chance with a smaller, lesser known organization? Is there a hierarchy within the publishing world? What criteria should come first? If it's about maximizing the readership of my work I should I aim thus, for the publishing house with the best marketing, sales and promotion 'machine'? (Wellington, Jerry, 2003) As an author, would I want an agent who is more visible to me or to the publishing industry? I have a feeling the latter becomes more relevant once I have been accepted for representation, but confusingly, unless I know, how will I know? I would propose that unless a middle ground platform can be found in one of the sites now in circulation that can offset a share of the author's burdens, surely the real aim for the writer is to do exactly that; write.<br /><br />Yet platform publishing is becoming more valued with the acknowledgement by houses such as Penguin Publishing Group, where traditional publishers have created their own platform companies to maintain a competitive edge. Industry players such as Penguin's AuthorHouse and HarperCollins platform site Authonomy.com reveal how the market has evolved, suggesting that the process of self publishing can be lucrative towards a final destination as kind of CV for a published work.<br /><br />'"Vanity publishers just acted as printers, they didn't even assign ISBN numbers. The old, dark side of vanity publishing has been superseded by reputable businesses." AuthorHouse also offers a "Borders Package", from 849 [pounds sterling], which ensures that three copies of the author's finished work have guaranteed shelf space in one of the chain's five participating stores for 10 weeks.'*1<br />(Wood, Felicity, April 10, 2009, Down from the ivory tower: has self-publishing come of age?self-publishing.)<br /><br />These technological developments have possibly enabled new authors whose books have been lost in the hard slush pile to yet, find their way into having their work managed by large industry players by first putting the product out there for people to either approve or reject via platform peer review by other applicants. But there are limits by making this move. As noted during a search for publishers and agents for submission of synopsis' it is worth remembering that they do not always offer the same full benefits to those who come via the unconventional routes and who are not already on their books.*2<br /><br />But it could also be argued that with professional new technology accessible at home, and with the know-how and right training (such as a course in editing/graphics/creative writing) a product could be brought almost entirely up to the point of printing at one keyboard with the right Word programmes:<br /><br />'Publishing no longer has to happen in lengthy stages; the maker can 'come back' to their text instantaneously to cut, paste and generally fiddle (rather than waiting days or even weeks for proofs).'<br />(Fusco, Maria. Feb 2007, Publish and Be Damned. PublishBeDamned)<br /><br />Alternatively there are authors, previously published, who have gone aside from the traditional in support of self publishing for the e-market, bypassing the print process entirely via e-publishing:<br /><br />'...one small deal that had the publishing industry paying attention was J.A. Konrath's decision to do his next book, Shaken, with Amazon's publishing arm, AmazonEncore.... making [Konrath a] 70% return on the list price of his forthcoming e-book--$2.10 off a $2.99 Kindle edition... Konrath, a midlist crime novelist [who was] published by Hyperion in paperback for years, is an active self-promoter who's repeatedly spoken of the financial success he's had self-publishing his backlist [sic] as Kindle editions.<br />(Deahl, Rachel. May 24 2010, Agents weigh the growth of alternate publishing options)<br /><br />As Deahl continues, the point of this for Konrath was the following:<br /><br />'[In a 'big corporate publishing']environment in which overall print sales are falling week by week [Konrath] ... saw there was an opportunity to create low-priced content [to] bypass the system." While self-publishing has been around for years, this agent noted, "what's new here is the means."' (Deahl, Rachel)<br /><br />The means, for Konrath, has meant self publishing has allowed him to offset falling sales, by switching to e publishing, reducing his overheads and maximizing his profit.<br /><br />Indeed the rise in authors swapping to self publishing with the invention of ebooks and POD, has in some cases encouraged agents and publishers to sit up and get more involved. Again, the reiteration of publishing houses and agents moving into the middle sphere between full representation and the latter end of vanity publishing can give encouragement for new authors to have some hope in the possibility of being represented and offset the management workload after the initial event:<br /><br />'AmazonEncore, [is] "somewhere in between the big houses and the lonely road of self-publishing." The company...offers e-book publication and distribution as well as POD, with a focus on the e-book frontlist. [It creates] "an enormous transition point" ... forcing agents to do more editing, going with outside PR, telling authors they need to take hold of their own marketing... will mean that more agencies, and others, will jump into the publishing fray.' (Deahl, Rachel, 2004)<br /><br />It could be read from this that as represented authors are forced to do more of their own marketing they see a benefit in going solo. Another author who moved to self publishing, published in spite of his publishers advice, to receipt of unfortunately negative criticism:<br /><br />'After becoming disillusioned with mainstream publishers, the three-times Booker shortlisted Timothy Mo created his own Paddleless Press imprint to bring out a novel called Brownout on Breadfruit Boulevard (1995). [It] was more widely seen as a maladroit effort, littered with solecisms... reviewers pointed out that mainstream publishers might have saved the author [from himself].'<br />(Anon, Doing it yourself becomes respectable, Feb 14, 2003)<br /><br />While this is the case for some known authors of hard copy books, for others having an established handle on a market via web media might make it a progressive choice for those whose beginnings are in the web based arena. The younger market, well versed and literate in traversing the internet, used to making decisions at the touch of a button, could be seen to be easily canvassed from this direction, removing the need for traditional advertising and marketing:<br /><br />'More commonly known as the blogger Klazart on the gaming website... Bhala used his 8,000 loyal subscribers to push his novel Lesser Sins to the top of Authonomy's charts. Bhala posted a tutorial video on YouTube instructing his fans on how to vote for his novel and his digital self-marketing efforts have helped him get into the website's top five.'<br />(Wood, Felicity, April 10, 2009 Self-publishing Successes)<br /><br />This form of voting can be notable for it's rise in utilisation, if the many authors self-promoting via such things as Twitter is taken into account. With the rise of such things as the Publish and Be Damned self-publishing fair mentioned in Fusco's article below, it becomes evident that this route is becoming far more mainstream than it may have at one time:<br /><br />'A good place to.. measure... such current trends was the Publish and Be Damned self-publishing fair held in London last year. In its third year, the fair was a showcase and marketplace for predominantly UK-based self-publishers of all shapes and sizes.'<br /><br />I believe in some ways it would be easier and possibly more forgiveable to make mistakes as a first time author, learn from them and hopefully move onto better things and more viable opportunities by way of the notion of a first novel as a CV. But for someone already established the move can either make or spectacularly break them, depending on the strength of their following. For the person experienced and easily adaptable to manoeuvring in an electronic arena, there is still the issue of legal and foreign representation. For others, the willingness to market themselves with little experience of whatever the result might be, work once in print, is not easily retractable and leaves the author open to future criticism. <br /><br />There is certainly no argument that whatever the standpoint, there is much more flexible scope for the mode of production now than ever before, and that by having a choice, opens up a dialogue to see the validity of the self-publishing process. An author has more freedom to be realistic about picking and choosing how much or how little of their own representation they are willing to do or pay someone else to do for them. For the very driven, self marketer there is no doubt that the self-publishing process offers a valid route into circulation.<br /><br />notes:<br /><br />*1 Since the writing of this critique, the unfortunate situation with Borders has had a ripple effect on such things. AuthorHouse is offering alternative modes of marketing via some of the major online providers of digital books, but as a lover of hard copies, my personal choice, if there was one, would be to go with a company that can offer shelf space.<br /><br />*2 Indeed a thing to note about slush piles is the works, genres and markets a publisher is already meeting their quota for. Anyone who has enquired about a reputable publishing house's editorial guidelines may well find that while they handle a specific theme it does not necessarily mean (however amazing your manuscript is) that they will want to have multiples of one theme. If you were an author under contract, would you be happy for your publisher to take on other works that may challenge the desirability of your own novel?<br /><br />Full text: 2749 words<br /><br /><em>Critique of Self Publishing 'Where do I stand?'</em> Copyright © Sandra Murphy, <br />25/01/2011. All rights reserved.<br /><br />This work was produced as part of undergraduate studies at Southampton Solent University, UK<br /><br /><strong>Bibliography and further reading:</strong><br /><br />A&C Black (2010) <em>The Writers and Artists Yearbook (2011)</em> A&C Black: London<br /><br />Al-Ubaydli, Mohammad. <em>Publishing: the publishing process</em>. (careers). <br />Student BMJ 11 (Nov 2003): 412(2). Academic OneFile.Gale.<br />[accessed 4/11/2010]<br /><br />Anon, Doing it yourself becomes respectable. (Opinion)." <em>The Bookseller </em>(Feb 14, 2003): 20(1). Academic OneFile.Gale. Southampton Solent University. <br />[accessed 4 Nov. 2010]<br /><br />Berinstein, Paula. <em>Self-publishing and the book trade</em>, Part 2: distribution, Searcher 15.4 (April 2007): 14(4). Academic OneFile.Gale. <br />[accessed 4/11/2010]<br /><br />Bigsby, Christopher (2000) <em>Writers In Conversation</em>, Volume One,<br />EAS Publishing: Norwich.<br /><br />Bigsby, Christopher (2001) <em>Writers In Conversation</em>, Volume Two, <br />EAS Publishing: Norwich.<br /><br />Deahl, Rachel. Agents weigh the growth of alternate publishing options. <em>Publishers Weekly</em> 257.21 (May 24, 2010): 7(2). Academic OneFile. Gale. [accessed 4/11/2010 ]<br /><br />Fusco, Maria. Publish and Be Damned. <em>PublishBeDamned Art Monthly </em>303 <br />(Feb 2007): 34(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. Southampton Solent University. <br />[accessed 4/11/2010]<br /><br />Murray, Victoria Christopher. Flying solo: after success with big publishing houses, some authors see advantages in self-publishing. <em>Black Issues Book Review </em>7.5(Sept-Oct 2005):(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. Southampton Solent University. [accessed 4/11/2010] <br /><br /><em>Skillset: The sector skills council for creative media</em>, Online: http://www.skillset.org/publishing/careers/[accessed 5/11/2010]<br /><br /><em>The Publishers Association </em>(online) http://www.publishers.org.uk/ <br />[accessed 5/11/2010]<br /><br />Wellington, Jerry (2003), <em>Getting Published: a guide for lecturers and researchers</em>. Routledge Study Guides, London: RoutledgeFalmer <br /><br />Wood, Felicity. Self-publishing successes. <em>The Bookseller </em>5377 (April 10, 2009): 24(1). Academic OneFile. Gale. Southampton Solent University. <br />[accessed 4 Nov. 2010]<br /><br />Wood, Felicity. "Down from the ivory tower: has self-publishing come of age? Self- publishing." <em>The Bookseller </em>5377 (April 10, 2009): 23(2). Academic OneFile. Gale. [accessed 4/11/2010]$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-25145130826594171622011-02-16T15:23:00.000-08:002011-02-20T13:29:58.586-08:00Crazy Talk with protagonist, plus added thoughts of the wonderful Chris Cleave in a #bookclub chatJust a small update concerning the development of my first novel.<br /><br />I spent an hour with a pad, biro, a mug of coffee and with an imaginary interviewee on Monday afternoon.<br /><br />Thinking on my protagonist's hopes, dreams, fears (and envies - I shall put this evening's #litchat discussion on Twitter re envy down to a wild coincidence)I figured the nuttiest and probably most direct way to figure out why she ends up doing the things she does was to ask her.<br /><br />Okay, I know, it sounds bonkers and , yes, if I had been speaking aloud there may have been several undergraduates calling for student support. Try it. I dare you.<br /><br />I asked author of 'Incendiary', Chris Cleave (again on Twitter - #bookclub) about his process of characterisation and he embraced the idea that getting to know the depths of your characters make the best way in, and sometimes beyond, the project in hand.<br /><br />Quote: <em>Sometimes I will be halfway through a draft and I will decide, as a character gets bigger, that a particular element of their back story is more relevant to the theme I'm exploring than the front story I was planning to tell. In some ways that's frustrating because I end up throwing a lot of good work away. But it is all part of the process of novel writing, which is about using story to explore a theme. The theme is a dark forest and my story is a dim torch. Sometimes my torch beam will reveal a part of the forest, and sometimes it will reveal a brighter torch just lying there and waiting to be used.</em> <br />_Chris Cleave<br /><br />Very cool for me to get a response to a question as I loved his earlier novel 'The Other Hand' which left me desolate and moved at the same time.<br /><br />So back to my interview with my protagonist. What I did was open my pad, left justify my protagonist Anna's dialogue and right justify my own. I left closed bracketed centred script for body language, surroundings and interventions (a rowdy tour of prospective students took up several minutes) for the time I spent doing this. I found a quiet area with a comfy seat and just let go. Already I know exactly the parts which are more about me than her, and that's a good thing as I can now work on honing the intentional from accidental.<br /><br />I wonder if anyone else has different ways in which they access their characters? I might be keen to apply different techniques to secondary ones.<br /><br />Anyway, moving on. A really big thank you to Draven Ames for a cool 'Hard Write' award on his blog. Not sure it's deserved, but it's boosted my rubbish week. Rubbish week totally down to the financial bugbear that being a student is. Really think I should research finding some article work or something. Let me know if anyone hears of any. I love research (sad academic in the embryonic stage)so even if anyone wants some done for their own back stories and can't access specialised information... I have ways ;)<br /><br />I shall be back very soon with my undergrad critique of self publishing, which I hope will be picked apart and critiqued in its turn by discerning reads. Bizarre that it references a Borders package which may or may not exist any longer. I just need to check that the quotes I have accessed are okay for me to blog, as I can't afford to be paying royalties!!$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-73065164382517267782011-01-27T03:12:00.000-08:002011-01-27T03:25:26.202-08:00A good day.Just bought myself a book online and I'm very excited.<br /><br />My uni friends mumbled about having nothing highly contemporary to look at, so I'm gonna bring this in, Marc! <br /><br />A, B & E by Marc Nash. You can find a link via twitter or through Amazon, so if you like the VERY experimental then go check it out.<br /><br />On the academic front Walter Benjamin and I are spending a day or two in each others company (in that imagined space between author and audience). I have no comment yet, but hopefully some time soon I will feel smart enough to blog about this. Maybe if my essay does well that'll be something to post! ['Yawn...' say my follow friends} <br /><br />'Mwahahahaha.' My response.<br /><br />Had a great night of writing, managed to link two major plot points much more easily than I first imagined. It's all in the details. George Eliot worked that way - though I'm definitely no Georg Eliot. My character, Anna has laid the bed for her own fall. I'm mean, but what can I say? She's a student. She gets it.<br /><br />Anyway, Sandra takes her first dip into Cuban Salsa this evening. I shall perhaps tell you how it went, providing I succeed!!!$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-17188854171901973572011-01-24T14:02:00.000-08:002011-02-20T13:28:13.665-08:00Kafka, coffee, and a short story review.Eeps it's been a while.<br /><br />I've been totally caught up in essays and overdosing on coffee to keep me awake, but having just been buzzed by a Twitter buddy I'm reminded about why this undergraduate course I'm on is opening fun doors. Being on the editorial team for our university fiction magazine is bringing heaps of reading fun my way. I'm also reading Goethe, Camus and Kafka at the moment[Can anyone PLEASE! tell me there's more significance to Gregor's father imbedding an apple into his mutated body than Nabokov would argue], so it's been fun to break away from the philosophically absurd, existentialist mood I have been falling into to review a short story... Ah the irony. <br /><br /><strong>The Nothingness by Draven Ames</strong><br /><br />A moment in time and only one afternoon creates the framework for this 'story of the month' (for online SNM Magazine), in which the protagonist, John's visit to his deceased father's house reveals horrors that go beyond the boundaries of family issues.<br /><br />'This is the story of a girl named Imagination' … a really clever opening sentence that drew me to read on. Some very philosophical thoughts conveyed with, in places, some truly poetic dialogue. Before the end of this visceral horror short, I was completely reading metaphors alluding to notions about cultural disillusionment, oil controversy and the crumbling of the family unit. As for 'Meaning without substance' says the Nothingness to John, she certainly makes herself visible.<br /><br />I'm really lucky to have read an earlier draft and was really enthused by Draven's keenness to take on feedback and his ability to really go with it. I do, however think that he can do more with this storyline. It's obvious his mind works in the novel framework for the depth of what he is trying to communicate through this short. I almost want him to get John to take Imagination's mad sister out of the attic with him and wreak her on the West! Maybe we could do with a little shake up.<br /><br />Draven Ames is a published author from Oregon, USA, with a completed novel to his list of achievements. An ex-paratrooper and real family man, he's a young writer – in my opinion, with real potential. All the best of luck to him as he recommences education and refines his craft. I know there's even more quality to come. <br /><br />If you get a chance pop by the SNM online magazine (snmhorrormag.com)and check this out. Draven really welcomes your comments and feedback.<br /><br />Find him on Twitter as Draven_Ames or find his webpage at http://dravenames.blogspot.com$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-82887189481224674342010-12-30T13:51:00.000-08:002010-12-30T14:23:21.359-08:00Amis, essays and a classy novella by Susan HillHappy Christmas, holidays, non-Christmas before I forget!<br /><br />My essay on the requirements for writing for children is now complete - whoo! Now I have another one on the relationship between an author and his agent: I have decided there's so much back story on the Martin Amis and Andrew Wylie union that I can surely piece two thousand words together with some coherence.<br /><br />I have collated as many interviews and news stories to file as I could find, have earmarked some great paragraphs to help shape the aspects I need to focus upon: the mutual needs/ requirements/ ambitions of both I hope are what is intended... of course if there's anyone out there who could pass on some insight I would love it.<br /><br />Just have to say that I love software for writing. Saving myself so much paper. Pasting quotes with reference details is so much easier: copy... paste... reference... bliss! OCD alert in being able to hilight what quotes I've used and for what. I know - it's very sad, but it's saving me so much time.<br /><br />Just managed to squeeze a classy little read in between theory and 21st century literature criticism reading. Let me introduce the world to Susan Hill's The Small Hand (published by Profile books).<br /><br />There's just enough darkness to be a super ghost story, but I repeat 'classy' because it simply just is. Doesn't need jazz or guts or heartpounding pace, because it's slow, creeping... just beyond the eye - or should I say grasp. <br /><br />Andrew Snow is an anitquarian bookseller/finder who stumbles upon and old neglected house which he then leaves with the gnawing presence of a hungry small hand catching at his own. I'm saying nothing more. It's the journey from there on in that's enjoyable.<br /><br />Beautiful jacket over a petite little hardback, this novella needs to be enjoyed with a glass of something stylish, or be read in a country garden at dusk. What can I say apart from that I am a sucker for the refined.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-19672607388036467742010-12-18T07:15:00.001-08:002010-12-18T07:22:30.386-08:00Non progress.I am officially brain dead. Reader response theory. Shiver! I am trying to keep myself down to the bare bones of what writing for children could philosophically allow. Trying to argue about why one person can (and another cannot) write for children is a contentious statement.<br />In the west we all got a right to a voice - is just if anyone will listen. No?<br /><br />Brain: 'I ache!'<br /><br />I have no time to blog.Slowly becoming assimilated into the twitterborg. I need my lit buddies. I need the endless rows of books at hand and the coffee shop. Feeling very out of it and the bug doesn't help. Being out of my university routine makes me feel like a space cadet.<br /><br />Sandra: 'I'm sorry - which planet is this again?'$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-295733347842481172010-12-12T06:09:00.000-08:002010-12-12T06:22:56.551-08:00Short story break-outSeems that I am not destined to write short stories. Guess that's why I'm studying 'Writing the Novel' as part of my course.<br /><br />All I've done with 'Mulled Chrsitmas' is springboard into yet another long plot! My daughter read this last night and wants more, so Im knocked out. <br /><br />Have already started working the back story into some kind of order. There are several scenes, and feelings that circulate that I need to put down sometime soon. There's also a binary time strand combination beginning to form, so that's not hugely helpful when I have a novel to kind of finish for workshopping in January. <br /><br />I'm definately on the road to Insanity (that place just West of Momentarily Confused). I even thought I had blogged this already and then logged on to find, nope - not here! In writing the plots for fiction I seem to be losing grasp of my own.<br /><br />By the time I've graduated I will have enough ideas to keep me going for a good few years.<br /><br />The magazine is finally launched. Hooray. And yes, Draven Ames, we are happy to accept an overseas submission for consideration. I'm still trying to get the notion to my team that being online in some capacity could be helpful - even if it's just podcasts audio versions for people with sight impairments. Fingers crossed. We even have someone wanting to represent us which is kind of cool. Someone just starting out, so it's something we'll have to debate as a magazine.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-75623442769226963732010-12-06T13:54:00.000-08:002010-12-07T10:23:01.839-08:00feedback for the short storyI'm in happy phase, after a very stressful day with logistic hell of magazine editorials.<br />Had great feedback from uni friends about this first fiction piece... just some very useful suggestions about tightening up the relevance of the closing para.<br /><br />I'm so glad that my narrator is not loveable and that is accepted by the feedback given, so it's all looking positive. <br /><br />I shall re-examine the ending and beginning to find the coherence needed to make both sections work together.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-26759545109804795722010-12-05T02:04:00.000-08:002010-12-06T14:02:24.841-08:00Okay I'm going to try something new: the editing process of first to final draft - short story form is definately much easier in a blog.<br /><br />This is the first draft of a short story designed to fit into an anthology of stories for older children/YA. The existing collection is based loosely around Christmas, but loving how they barely leave a warm, fuzzy Christmas feeling, I thought I would also use this opportunity to have a go at a different kind of narrative to my normal style. Any feedback/ criticism/ amendment suggestions welcome...<br /><br />I sometimes used to wonder about the nature of wild things, you know? When I was small, maybe five or six, I imagined that just like a puppy, everything could be tamed. I really believed that there was a good side to everything. Like the Christian and the Lion, in the bible story – I heard about that in RE this one time. How wrong can you be? It would be laughable if it wasn't so bloody heartbreaking.<br /> If you're wondering what brought me to this particular topic of conversation you only have to go as far as the local graveyard and ask my brother. Ask him why he did those things to that cat and what good it brought him. My brother, the bad egg, born like Jesus on Christmas morning – except for we all know that Jesus was born some time in October. He'll be a kid forever, my brother. Born on Christmas morning, died the same day ten years later.<br /> The graveyard is quite a familiar place for us these past five years. Every Christmas the day starts with breakfast, church, the graveyard – before anything else, always the graveyard. It's a bit snowy there today, so I don't imagine we'll stay as long. <br /> It's not like when someone is old and it's their time, and their family's kind of faded away into old age themselves, so that the grave gets taken on by some local retired dude who pulls at the brambles and trims the weeds. Nicky's grave is very tidy, and there's a pot plant of poinsettia waiting on the hall table, for me to lug all the way to church and that. <br /> I suppose I should probably hunt out some gloves or I'll get cold hands. Church always makes me cold. This year is definitely the last time they can make me go. I get the shivers. The eyes of the saints in the stained glass windows piercing me. They can see it. I know they can. I shouldn't be there – but then why am I telling you? You just want to know what I'm getting for Christmas. Lol. I keep getting told off for using that word, but who cares, so I'll use it. Laugh my ass off! LMAO. <br /> Laugh. My. Ass. Off! An exclamation marks always adds dramatic tension, but my English teacher argues this point.<br /> Oh and BTW, WTF but have you seen how early the Christmas ad's are coming on the TV? They almost beat Halloween. I mean, for god's sake. I get less peace every year. Less time not thinking about it. About it. About the bad egg. Rotten eggs have the worst smell ever. Last Christmas I cracked one open and it had 2 rotting chicks inside – there wasn't enough room for both of them, so they both died. Can't tell you how cheery and upbeat that made me feel. Still that was last Christmas and I should probably move on.<br /> So anyway, good morning and Happy Christmas and all that stuff. Just got back from the grave and as you can imagine I had a whale of a time..<br /> The grave was frosted up, there was a bit of bird crap pretty much glued on to the angel's nose which made her look like she had purple snot, but I tried to pick at it as best I could. 'Stop it,' Mum moaned. So I just shrugged and carried on staring at it the whole time we're stood there, getting cold feet from the snow-covered grave, like death creeping up and grabbing my toes. Here's a question: How far away from a grave can you stand while still looking like you are visiting one and not another? An accident, it says on his grave, but was it? Really? If he hadn't been jabbing at that cat with a stick it wouldn't have gotten out of control.<br /> I could relay the story to you in third person but it will always be from my point of view. Omniscient. It's a truly ancient, annoyingly persistent word. I've tried breaking it down into text talk but it just won't go. What really gets to me is the present I have to leave for him every year.<br /> 'He's your brother,' Mum would wheedle, if I ever made an objection. But the worst part of it is, knowing that whatever I unwrap for him, I'll be unwrapping for myself later. She's under some crazy messed-up illusion that he bloody ascends the grave for her bit of Christmas cake. Seriously I feel like Santa. Maybe the crumbs get stuck in his throat, but he doesn't have to worry because the sherry would wash it all down. It used to be lager, before Dad couldn't take Nicky's absence. <br /> Before he missed him too much.<br /> I suppose you probably want to know a bit more about all of this. It's pretty much straight forward. You've probably guessed already. I feel responsible for my brother, sometimes because I have to and sometimes because I just damn well do. It's his face I see in the mirror every morning. It's his grave I look at every time I have to go to the churchyard. How is it, he could do stuff without me, but I am not allowed to do stuff without him?<br /> Did you know that in some cultures twins are an evil portend? Such a good phrase that. Maybe we should've been exposed like the two chicks in the frying pan. But one of them would still be alive. Burning. That's totally gross I know, but here I am burning for what we were.<br /> I still see that cat sometimes. It's a lot older now and it's ear and paw are mended. I took responsibility for both of us that day. It seems when he got all the strength I just got all the inability to listen to animals yowl. I still can't get to sleep when Mum's new little Nicholas squeals in his cot. He cries more than she'd like, but with Dad following after Nicky there is only me to share the job and I just put my earphones in and turn up the volume. <br /> Just like Nicky used to do to me. Get louder, so he didn't have to listen. Make more noise to shut out the noise. So, I took a page out of his half of the book that day? So, I turned his own stuff against him? It was just so he'd learn. The lesson was ironically all mine. It's totally ironic that pushing him out into the road left me with it all. Irony, has it something to do with iron – blood?<br /> I really didn't see the car coming, even if I heard it skid across the ice. I pushed him out there and the cat clawed me! <br /> I still have three sickle shaped scars where the cat's claws were left in my palm. It's almost six, six, six. Like a dark mark. I am the anti-not-hero. I am half of the bad egg. Does that make me only half as bad or equally so?<br /><br /> So I'm hoping now you kind of get why church is real kick and why at Christmas rotten turkey smells like soiled nappies, and my wondering about the nature of wild things to always be wild. I look at little Nicholas sometimes and get nervous about that. But then maybe in him is both halves of the egg.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-85590196039523729712010-11-24T14:51:00.000-08:002010-12-06T14:01:29.671-08:00multiple projectsMy baby has just split into parts. An exercise in synopsis writing has just confirmed that a project I thought had been merely for play and an assignment has kind of created itself almost completely unnoticed by me.<br /><br />I now have one experimental thriller and two ladlit projects on the go: The Beach meets Trainspotting, and a Book of Job rewrite based in the music industry. My head's all over the place. It is becoming all too clear, to quote another writer, that writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia...<br /><br />Question: do i split my time evenly, or be indulgent and spoil whichever one happens to share company with me?<br /><br />Plans for a short story on defamiliarisation are also starting to take shape. A dark foreboding and the eerie suggestion of something wicked sits just around the corner, crouching in the shadows and waiting for the right moment to show its face.<br />This isn't one I want to push - the gruesome always reveals itself in due course.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-92128455441107067422010-11-18T15:24:00.000-08:002010-12-13T06:25:43.490-08:00Authorial GestationProgress with my storyline has come rushing through the open sash window of my protagonist's bedroom and sent her old essays flying like a cloud of words. Her ailing bird in its delicate cage has had its decrepit feathers ruffled by the speed of the inspiration rattling its bars.<br /><br />Characterisation was giving me some headaches, mostly on the problematic nature of my head being full of a million and one other things. How to love a murderer? I want her fall from grace to be shocking, but believable. Viewpoint, and how to approach her depiction has consumed me since the last blog.<br /><br />I just didn't want to kick of by misreading her too soon. Reading up on serial killers was getting me down, and then I read <em>The Collector</em>, by J Fowles, remembered <em>In God's Own Country</em> by Ross Raisin, and that's really helped a lot, to see how it can work without being sensational and in this way, more dark for its innocence.<br /><br />And here I am staring across a sea of possibilities, finally understanding that sometimes, you have to let the crap out in order to get at the nuts and bolts - the carcass of the thing. People tell you this all the time and then, wham! it hits you like a bloody great brick in the face. You know it, because you can physically feel it.<br /><br />I have let some mini-metaphors in too because I needed some kind of allowance to play. Lots of little ones embroidered together are fast becoming the dream catcher in which the bigger narrative is growing.<br /><br />After a week in which my laptop was invaded by spyware, then rescued by wonderful tech assistants at Southampton Solent University, the idea that I had almost lost EVERYTHING I have been working on for six months was, in one moment, terrifying.<br /><br />Nothing like a shake up, and a reminder that other people have bigger problems than a laptop going on the blink, to put things in perspective.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-58361647409880960472010-11-05T07:42:00.001-07:002010-12-06T14:13:57.738-08:00Dog Days and cloudsDoes anyone love Florence and the Machine as much as I do right now. Optimism floats around you in a lovely, spatial upbeat kind of way. Just perfect for my protagonist in her aspirational phase. This will be the soundtrack I use for lifting her soul out of darkness.<br /><br />An inspirational conversation with a loved one pulled me out of a mire of depression involving several critiques, two synopsis' and a packet of Cadbury's crunchie biscuits. Draw it all, apply all experience - good and bad. Something has to come out of the crap. When the mental, interior CD is spinning on overtime and won't stop to play the content it's time to press eject and put a fresh one in.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-73084213425501009632010-10-23T16:46:00.000-07:002010-10-23T17:03:36.383-07:00editorialWow, I am totally drained. Have had very little time for conception of the novel because of my part in our editorial team. I really loved the reviewing and searching out Christmas suggestions for reading gifts. It was also great to revisit Thai'd Up (a novel in progress)and be able to be distanced enough to see where it needed reworking - and also where I can take it. Very cool.<br /><br />My PC has decided it doesn't want to play the editorial game. My brain is also saying, 'Art and technology are incompatible in your mental database'. My brain is absolutely right.<br /><br />Having waited all week for someone to submit a proposal of artwork for the front cover of edition one of Solent's <em>Friction</em> magazine of fiction, I have ended up having to hurl something out. Fun for five minutes until I realised how long it has been since I considered Art for graphic design purposes... I remember why I hated typography so much.<br /><br />Having spent time researching academic psychology papers I discovered some amazing treats about the super ego. My antagonist has another dimension now too.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-71451425334126541352010-10-21T14:01:00.000-07:002010-10-21T14:10:34.588-07:00ProfilingSpent a good few hours researching academic literature on psychoanalysis and case studies. I'm saying no more than that here, apart from this; thank god for undergrad access to peer reviewed information. But some of the reading is chilling.<br /><br />My main characters are starting to give themselves another dimension. My protagonist's psyche could be very ambiguous - if I can get my head around how to work the narrative style.<br /><br />Think I have a few books to visit just go give myself some perspective in differing tastes: American Psycho and Perfume... and maybe have a look at Monster.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-49859443215511127682010-10-20T13:06:00.000-07:002010-10-20T13:29:28.160-07:00self doubtI have officially started to form the embryo of a novel. It's seemingly viable! YES! Now that I've used up my allowance of exclamation marks I shall calm down.<br /><br />University lecturers are very inspiring characters - full of enthusiasm. I guess that's when you know you have landed in the right place - even if it may be at the wrong time. University cutbacks are slaying us all.<br />However it's panning out nationwide, something is happening for me through a small and wonderful bubble of possibilities. The flash of scenes which catch me at stupid, inopportune moments is a killer. Show don't tell: if you could have seen me desperately pulling my hair out during lectures, you would know. <br /><br />I'm smitten with my protagonist, thank god. I'm kinda smitten with the antagonist too - but you have to love to hate them. Have formulated their monologues (their statements of being for my own reference) and one of these has somehow found it's way into the narrative... thank you, Sara Bailey. The character development excercise really helped.<br /><br />It's a crazy world I'm in, when one minute I'm working on my novel, but then the next I have to look at fiction for young people, ghostwriting, screenwriting... gaads, my heads a mess. At some point the crazy creature within will start to rear her head and everyone will see the bonkers girlie who peers at me from the mirror.<br />Yikes.$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-91536099746868640982010-09-28T15:18:00.000-07:002010-09-28T15:55:00.500-07:00day one of year twoIt's gone eleven and pouring with rain - just to make me feel all warm and fuzzy about standing at a dreary, gum-covered shelter waiting for the crotchety number seven bus to Southampton at the crack of dawn tomorrow. I figure it must be an old bus (I'm sure suspension has been around for several decades). There's a huge spider regarding me and my latest attempt to start my lit-contractions [anyone got gas and air? Will this novel ever happen?] with an air of desperate hunger...<br /><br />Read an article today on how the industry has literally dumped and pulped approximately 77 million books (only about a quarter from the US)purely from the lack of being sold. A product of the market's desire for a speedy turnover and new products to push? Ebooks, the progression of the digital experience, makes for an interesting debate, but surely the contrast between ereading with special effects and reading a beautifully bound book, filled with words and meaning to play with the reader in a quiet persistence, is as stark as that between champagne and a cocktail - both have their merits, both offering something possibly delicious and heady or weak and without fire, but they're so far apart that they can't be seen as the same thing. But just think this - you can't have a champagne cocktail without the champagne. <br /><br />Not sure what that analogy says beyond I prefer champagne to cocktails (though sometimes a cheap cocktail is easier to come by than a glass of something vintage.<br />Either way, an interactive experience full of button clicking and recharging your reader is not the same as contemplating the world being suggested in a novel as being exotic in a way which works for the individual. All hail the book; paper perfect.<br /><br />Moving on, there's this cute little kid who climbs onto the bus, undersized in his uniform, with a post rod stewart hairdo that kicks back to my late seventies/early eighties childhood - I see a protagonist in him; tired and puffy-eyed, unsure of himself in an endearing way that makes me wonder why he doesn't wait at the stop opposite and go to the local school. Is he new? Has he just moved and is close enough to stay at his old school? I wonder what he has for breakfast to wake up his shy hamster eyes.<br />I caught him staring at me and I felt suddenly embarrassed: had I been staring at him? Eeps - I hope not. But I wonder, while I regard the habits of regulars on my route (the hair-twisting rasta, the neo-fascist with the neck tattooes, the sport therapist student with her thermaflask of tea) what spins through his head. What does a kid in an oversized Parka, bus-ing to an out of catchment school, think sitting amongst a horde of weirdos including me in my wonderwoman t-shirt? Probably something like, 'Can't wait to get home and play my Wii.' or 'How do I explain the dog crapped all over my homework and Mum left for work before I got up to help me print it off again.'$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-43048394161936987372010-07-26T00:46:00.000-07:002010-07-26T00:53:09.661-07:00Gasp. Catching a breath...It's been ages since the last post. A ton of things have happened, such as my daughter being duped by some perv bribe artist on MSN - sorry microsoft but your reaction and help was crap.<br /><br />The bike is finished and research into licenses, storage facilities, food hygiene goes from necessity into ......YAWN! Troubles with transport to move the bike have created pauses in which carting the damned thing to the end of my road for a trial run while our village fete was on, showed me that, yes, it has to be the seaside. And the seaside, in small portions, don't want us too near their turf.<br /><br />Have I had time to write a single thing.. yeah erm no. Plain and simple answer. Questions about my calling have concluded I'm pretty much useless at applying myself to anything I dont have absolute power over. Please, goddess of literature inspire me!!!!!!!!<br /><br />Help!$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-24313499379853572592010-04-24T11:53:00.000-07:002010-04-24T12:03:23.517-07:00What have I done!?So there's this ice cream bike - trike - whatever it is and two days ago off I went to walk the route we hope to move our dairy dealing extravaganza around. It's sooooo lonnnnnnnnnnnnggggggggg......augh!<br />I am ashamedly unfit, I think to myself that eve, and so I endeavoured yesterday to reprogramme my crap muscular ability. If biking be the job, then biking be the mode of excercise and you would think it makes sense. <br /><br />Unflattering short leggings, a fully charged Ipod, a beautiful sunny day, a bottle of water and a best buddy. All excellent ingredients for a recipe to success. Why on earth I thought I could do five hours is obviously the same sensible part of my brain that said, 'Yes let's buy an ice-cream bike!' By hour four I wished solely for a high speed vehicle to plough into me and save me. <br /><br />I'm not even gonna talk about how sore my bum is....$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-57978831312340257942010-04-23T00:43:00.000-07:002010-04-23T00:50:50.934-07:00Real life weirdness - a mildly rusted blip between elements of conceptionIt's mad when your life does something weird to you. Like being tango'd. I drive by a bike shop with my boyfriend, stop to check out our great local bike shop and end up putting a deposit on what could be my summer job.<br />I did not think this would be it, but I have peddled my way into the bizarre world of the victoriana, via a deckchair brolly and an ice cream trike...<br />Sleepless moments where I see nothing but rechargeable mobile freezers, bicycle paint and mad sea-side costumes. If this doesn't work I won't need a 99 cone to know I'm the flake! <br /><br />I think there may be ample opportunity to think on a plot based around summer holidays and the dark kitsch of a seaside on the edge of recession... hmm$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8697909014303961165.post-44608813764310758482010-04-20T13:00:00.000-07:002010-04-20T13:06:01.263-07:00Contractions: Birth of a novel, part one (conception)Okay, it's day one of blogging for this girl... anyone got any stabilisers?<br />Conception:<br /><br />I have decided this is the beginning of my project, my tentative steps into the ambitious world of the novelist. My aim is to use this space as a narcissitic diary of my Aristotelian arcs in macro and micro, so I apologise very Britishly if it gets dull.<br /><br />By the time I next post, I shall endeavour to tread into the mirky world of characterisation. Researching teenage protagonists has got me thinking on the gender disabilities allowed our masculine counterparts with new eyes.<br /><br />Wish me luck.....$andra Murphyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05241277932468654747noreply@blogger.com0