Thursday, May 24, 2012

My Writing Week: Issue 21, Year 5.


Hi all,

It’s good to hear that writers I have interacted with online are having success in the publishing world.  Anthony J Langford has just had his excellent novella, The Bottomless River, published. I reviewed it in my last blog post.

I am currently a third of the way into Karen Tyrrell’s memoir Me and Her, which she recently published. It tells of her battle with bipolar and is an engrossing tale. Karen was gracious enough to allow me to interview her for an article I wrote for Divine last year.

And David Kitson has found an agent for his excellent self-published ebook Turing Evolved. I have previously posted a review of Turing Evolved on this blog.

The quality of their stories/writing tell me that it is ridiculously hard to find a traditional publisher these days. But their determination and a changing publishing industry show that there are new ways to succeed.

New Divine Article.

Divine posted a new article of mine about people with disabilities donating blood. Part personal account, part news story, I found the blood service is doing their best to make donating blood accessible for everyone. But there are still barriers to some people, including myself.

Divine has put up two of my articles in May. I now have twenty articles on the site.

Suzane Collins Dominating Book Sales in Australia.

Suzane Collins is the author of the Hunger Games young adult series. I am a bit behind in my newspaper reading, but I have noted that for the last two weeks of March and first week of April she had seven titles in the top ten book sellers in Australia. I haven’t noticed a domination like that since Stephanie Meyers. Just shows what a movie version of a young adult novel series can do for sales.

My Writing.  

You would think that with winter here and no need for me to spend hours watering, weeding, digging up veggies, picking fruit and battling fruit fly and Mexican beetles, that I would be writing more. But no, I have recently discovered an outstanding ability to procrastinate. For some reason I want to check my email multiple times per day and I need to Google every lost friend/acquaintance that comes to mind. I just seem to want to play around on my computer, anything but write. And it’s a shame, because when I do write, I enjoy writing Jack Logan, Astronaut. I am currently near the end of chapter 44 having written a grand total of 88,300 words.
      

3 comments:

Anthony J. Langford said...

Thanks again for the kind words Graham. Yes it is very hard to find a traditional outlet for writers, especially now. What can we do but keep on trying. Well, we could give up but that's not much of an option.

Your book sounds good. The writer's constant companion...procrastination.. I also check my email way too many times a day. I think it's about establishing some sort of routine, even if nothing happens... eventually it will.

Congrats on reaching 88K.

Karen Tyrrell said...

Hi Graham,
Thanks so much for reading & mentioning Me and Her: A Memoir of Madness.
Thanks too for tag "Engrossing Tale".
Look forward to your review and feedback when you're finished reading.
Many Thanks,
Karen :)

Graham Clements said...

Hi Karen,

I've nearly finished reading your very good book. I have a much better idea of what bi-polar is now. Interestingly, your memoir has supplemented a novel I have been reading at the same time, Jonathon Frazen's Freedom, where I reckon the main character has bi-polar and there was a reference to users of lithium being overweight.

I see you tried to get write your comment a few times. Comments don't go up automatically on s post of mine over a week old: I have to moderate them. This allows me to know that someone has commented on an older blog post, because I rarely go back and look. I was hoping blogger informed the commentator that the comment had to be moderated. Oh well.

Graham.