December 2006 - Posts
I hope my readers enjoyed Christmas. We had a traditional Christmas day ourselves (four hours on the M25). The holiday brought the first of the invitations to 2007 literary festivals. These usually consist of a few days listening to talks by writers and others in exchange for large sums of money. The prospectus I received said that I could be excited, alerted, moved, consoled, feel less alone and be morally improved and inspired if I booked a place and sent off a cheque. As I had already experienced at least some of these on the M25 I decided I'd be better off staying at home with a good book.
I have decided to be more proactive, so I fired off my children's book 'Circuit Breaker' to a publisher. My submission was a package consisting of the following. a) Humble letter to editor. b) Proposal including marketing plan and CV. c) Three page synopsis. d) First three chapters of book e) Stamped addressed envelope for arrogant and ill considered rejection letter following cursory glance at manuscript.
Or maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.
Naturally my Christmas Reading will be Ulysses. With only 300 pages to go things are looking good. I have, however, had one or two rests from the great task. To strike a blow against the Patron Saint of Shopkeepers, whom most of us now worship, I bought a copy of St Augustine's 'Confessions' from my favourite bookshop (Oxfam). The man was mad. Totally barking. But that's mediaeval mysticism for you. It was a lot less readible than Ulysses so I gave up.
I have just finished 'The Vanished Library' by Luciano Canfora. The story of the rise and tragic fall of the ancient world's greatest library in Alexandria. Of special interest to me as I was involved in the international campaign to build a new library there after a gap of 1400 years. A timescale which, as we know, Wembly Stadium is aiming at.
There has been mild rejoicing as the story which I reluctantly wrote a couple of weeks ago has been accepted by an Indian magazine. The rejoicing is mild because I didn't check the GBP/Rupee exchange rate before I fired it off to India and the editor wants more stories, so I must write them. Shock horror.
I was reminded a few days ago about the good old 'Books We Recommend' ploy used in major bookshops.The recommendations are, of course, paid for by the publishers. The same applies to the positioning of books in window displays. The nearer we get to Christmas the higher the price charged for the best spots.
The choice of which books show full covers on a shelf, rather than just the spines, may well be the decision of the staff. Proactive authors have been known to rearrange their own books to sit cover out on shelves and good luck to them.
The removal of 3 for 2 stickers from books and putting them onto ones own is, however, considered unsporting. Particularly as it may cause embarrassing confusion at the check out.
There I was wondering how to cope with an underperforming England cricket team and an Australian wife when an idea for a story dropped from nowhere into my head. As usual I told it to push off and drop into another head somewhere else, but it wasn't to be. Two days later it was still there and I had to write it down. Being a first draft it was badly written, so I had to write three more drafts to make it a bit better. It is now sitting in a drawer and will be re-read in a couple of weeks time. That way I will have forgotten it enough to have a fresh look and decide if it is worth sending to a magazine. Or maybe to the England cricket team to give them something to pass the time on the third day of the next test.
My reader may have wondered what has happened with Ulsses. I am now on page 637 and staggering through the Oxen of the Sun chapter, written in the style of Mandeville, Swift, Sterne, Dickens and occasionally in pidgen English. This is said to be the most difficult chapter of all. But now I'm on a roll with only 400 pages to go.