Gone - but hopefully not forgotten!

Hi all,

I'm taking a six week break from blogging, twitter, facebook and all on line communications - shock, horror, oh no, but alas, oh yes.

It isn't because I don't care, or I don't have a million different things which I would like to share, but because other than the Day Job, and Family, I will be breathing, eating and probably even sleeping EDITING.

When I return, I could be a different person, who knows what's going to happen over the next while, but rest assured in the words of The Terminator - I Will Be Back!

Twitter Made Him Do It!

Although it seems like an eternity since I started to get involved with Social Media, in reality, it is only 10 months.  The jury is still out on many aspects of SM, but undoubtedly, there have been some success stories.  Today, I would like to share one of those success stories with you. 

Very soon after I began to use Twitter, and other forms of Social Media, I hooked up with writer and musician, Derek Flynn.  A couple of weeks ago, he released his debut album, 'Do You Dream At All?', and here is his story:-

Musician and writer Derek Flynn

A year ago, Derek Flynn, writer and musician, was sitting in his study working on his second novel. Having played with original bands for years – and coming close but never quite getting the elusive record deal – he had put his music away in his bottom drawer to concentrate on his writing.

Someone advised him that if he was serious about being a writer, he needed to get on Facebook and Twitter, and start a blog, and he did. At first, it was intended to be a blog about writing but he soon realised there were any number of other blogs out there about writing. Wondering how he could put his own slant on it, he decided to start posting some of his original songs. He called the blog “Rant, with Occasional Music” and started posting a song every Monday on what he called “New Music Monday”.

In November 2011, Derek got involved in the #TwitterXmasSingle organised by Brenda Drumm. This was the first Christmas Charity Single organised and marketed solely through Twitter and other social media. Derek was one of the soloists on the song “Winter Song”. Organised, recorded and released in the space of two weeks, “Winter Song” reached No.1 in the iTunes chart on the day of release and No. 8 in the Irish charts overall. It was because of this – and the feedback and encouragement he received from people who listened to his music online – that Derek started to think about recording his own album and marketing it solely through Twitter and other social media.

Fast forward nine months and Derek now has over 4,000 followers on Twitter and his blog has had over 20,000 hits. 

Derek set up a studio in his house and recorded all of the songs on the album there. “Do You Dream At All?” is entirely self-produced and self-released. The marketing budget is a laptop, a twitter account and a Facebook page. In tandem with these recessionary times, this is DIY music-making.

Derek’s music ranges from a hard-edged guitar sound to acoustic songs that are often intense but always melodic, and are matched by lyrics which marry intensity with honest emotion. A Waterford native, Derek is a musician and a veteran of not only the Irish music scene, but also the US, having spent five years living and performing in New York. His influences run the gamut from The Pixies and Nirvana to Jeff Buckley and Bruce Springsteen, and this eclecticism can be heard in the wide range of songs on his debut CD.

Derek released the album in his hometown of Waterford as part of the Waterford Writer’s Weekend and was featured on RTE Radio One’s “Arena” programme performing the title track.

“Do You Dream At All?” was released on April 2^nd and is available as a physical CD and download on CD Baby, and as a download on iTunes and Amazon.

You can Listen to samples and Buy the CD HERE:

Website: http://www.derekflynnmusic.com/

Blog: http://derekflynn.wordpress.com/

Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/derekf03

And for a final treat!!!!

UTube link to the live video of the song '

All That's Left' is now available:-

HERE

Crime Scene - The Boy in the Attic - Crimes against our Children

New Post for www.writing.ie Crime Scene

Writing about crime, fictional or real-life, carries with it a responsibility. A responsibility which is inherent in all good writing, the search to write a truth. Violent crimes are emotive and disturbing, especially when the innocent victim is a young adult, or a child. We ask ourselves why and how this can happen? But the questions multiply again, when the person, or persons, who committed the crime, are little more than children themselves.  To read more click...... HERE

Other related Crime Scene posts for March 2012

Why are we so interested in Crime? HERE

The explosion of Irish Crime Fiction/New Crime Scene Book Club HERE

Getting inside the Killer Head, with Frances de Plino HERE

Mel Sherrat talks about her novel, 'Taunting the Dead' HERE

Letters of Note - John Steinbeck

I've decided that before I say goodbye for a whole TWO WEEKS - I should leave you with something interesting to ponder.  A twitter pal of mine, @CarenKennedy, introduced me to a brilliant site called Letters of Note, and it's a site well worth checking out HERE

Below is a Letter written by the great John Steinbeck, and I hope you find it as entertaining and eye opening as I did.

When I return from my holidays, I will be engaged in 3 full weeks of edits, so I might drift in and out here, and read what Mr Steinbeck had to say on the whole process.

During the nine months of 1951 that saw him working on his novel, East of Eden, author John Steinbeck began each day of writing by penning, in his notebook, a brief letter to his editor and good friend, Pascal "Pat" Covici. Early-1952, with the book finished, Steinbeck wrote him a final letter — a dedication to Covici in which he spoke of the frustrations and insecurities faced by an author during such a process. It can be read below.

(Source: Journal of a Novel: The East of Eden Letters; Image: John Steinbeck, via.)

New York
1952

Dear Pat:

I have decided for this, my book, East of Eden, to write dedication, prologue, argument, apology, epilogue and perhaps epitaph all in one.

The dedication is to you with all the admiration and affection that have been distilled from our singularly blessed association of many years. This book is inscribed to you because you have been part of its birth and growth.

As you know, a prologue is written last but placed first to explain the book's shortcomings and to ask the reader to be kind. But a prologue is also a note of farewell from the writer to his book. For years the writer and his book have been together—friends or bitter enemies but very close as only love and fighting can accomplish.

Then suddenly the book is done. It is a kind of death. This is the requiem.

Miguel Cervantes invented the modem novel and with his Don Quixote set a mark high and bright. In his prologue, he said best what writers feel—the gladness and the terror.

"Idling reader," Cervantes wrote, "you may believe me when I tell you that I should have liked this book, which is the child of my brain, to be the fairest, the sprightliest and the cleverest that could be imagined, but I have not been able to contravene the law of nature which would have it that like begets like—"

And so it is with me, Pat. Although some times I have felt that I held fire in my hands and spread a page with shining—I have never lost the weight of clumsiness, of ignorance, of aching inability.

A book is like a man—clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun.

Well—then the book is done. It has no virtue any more. The writer wants to cry out—"Bring it back! Let me rewrite it or better—Let me burn it. Don't let it out in the unfriendly cold in that condition."

As you know better than most, Pat, the book does not go from writer to reader. It goes first to the lions—editors, publishers, critics, copy readers, sales department. It is kicked and slashed and gouged. And its bloodied father stands attorney.

EDITOR

The book is out of balance. The reader expects one thing and you give him something else. You have written two books and stuck them together. The reader will not understand.

WRITER

No, sir. It goes together. I have written about one family and used stories about another family as—well, as counterpoint, as rest, as contrast in pace and color.

EDITOR

The reader won't understand. What you call counterpoint only slows the book.

WRITER

It has to be slowed—else how would you know when it goes fast?

EDITOR

You have stopped the book and gone into discussions of God knows what.

WRITER

Yes, I have. I don't know why. Just wanted to. Perhaps I was wrong.

SALES DEPARTMENT

The book's too long. Costs are up. We'll have to charge five dollars for it. People won't pay $5. They won't buy it.

WRITER

My last book was short. You said then that people won't buy a short book.

PROOFREADER

The chronology is full of holes. The grammar has no relation to English. On page so-and-so you have a man look in the World Almanac for steamship rates. They aren't there. I checked. You've got Chinese New Year wrong. The characters aren't consistent. You describe Liza Hamilton one way and then have her act a different way.

EDITOR

You make Cathy too black. The reader won't believe her. You make Sam Hamilton too white. The reader won't believe him. No Irishman ever talked like that.

WRITER

My grandfather did.

EDITOR

Who'll believe it?

SECOND EDITOR

No children ever talked like that.

WRITER

(Losing temper as a refuge from despair)

God damn it. This is my book. I'll make the children talk any way I want. My book is about good and evil. Maybe the theme got into the execution. Do you want to publish it or not?

EDITORS

Let's see if we can't fix it up. It won't be much work. You want it to be good, don't you? For instance the ending. The reader won't understand it.

WRITER

Do you?

EDITOR

Yes, but the reader won't.

PROOFREADER

My god, how you do dangle a participle. Turn to page so-and-so.

There you are, Pat. You came in with a box of glory and there you stand with an armful of damp garbage. And from this meeting a new character has emerged. He is called the Reader.

THE READER

He is so stupid you can't trust him with an idea.
He is so clever he will catch you in the least error.
He will not buy short books.
He will not buy long books.
He is part moron, part genius and part ogre.
There is some doubt as to whether he can read.
Well, by God, Pat, he's just like me, no stranger at all. He'll take from my book what he can bring to it. The dull witted will get dullness and the brilliant may find things in my book I didn't know were there.

And just as he is like me, I hope my book is enough like him so that he may find in it interest and recognition and some beauty as one finds in a friend.

Cervantes ends his prologue with a lovely line. I want to use it, Pat, and then I will be done. He says to the reader:

"May God give you health—and may He be not unmindful of me, as well."

John Steinbeck

Wilde's Fire!

Krystal Wade

Anyone who is a regular visitor to this blog will know that I am a firm supporter of Twitter.  At first when I started, hands up, I thought it would be great way to get my profile out there.  After all, the reality of today's world interaction with social mediums means that as a writer, god damn it, you have to.  Without wanting to labour on it too much, I was pleasantly surprised at one aspect of Twitter which I had not expected - I met real, wonderful, talented people.  Well Krystal Wade is one of those people.

I love reading books, and when I visited Krystal's blog, the same thing happened to me as when I read a great book.  I was brought to a new and different world, this time in Virginia and Washington DC.  I got to know tons about her growing up with snakes, living in caravans in the middle of tornadoes, learning to adjust to loads of new and challenging environments.  In essence, I met the person, and one very young, determined, talented lady she is, and all that with raising a young family and climbing to put Christmas lights over rooftops of a very, very tall house! 

This week Krystal launched her first book in a trilogy called Wilde's Fire, so for sure I had to ask her a few questions about it!

Where did your idea for the story come from?

It all started with an image - picture a dense, lush, green forest. Now imagine a young girl, late teens/earlytwenties—ivory skin, dark brown hair, innocent as can be—reaching out to touch something shimmering in said forest. That image FORCED me to write, but it was not exactly what happened.


So tell us about your writing journey?

I couldn't get that image (of Kate) out of my mind. A constant nagging eventually drove me to the computer, and I pounded out the words. Then I realized I didn't know what I was doing, so I put the writing aside and read a ton of books. Finally, last year, it hit me: you can do this. So I did. And I haven't stopped. I didn't start out expecting to be published. I had a story to write. That was all.


But how long have you actually been writing?

Well, depends on how you look at it. In 3rd grade I realized I loved reading and writing. I wrote poems and short stories in spiral bound notebooks until my hands cramped. Then I set it all aside until five years ago, but I didn't know how/what to write. In January of 2011, I sat down and then COULDN'T stop.


Now that you have the bug, what next? 

I'm going to keep writing. Wilde's Fire is the first in a trilogy. I subbed Wilde's Army to my publisher just yesterday, and I'm supposed to be writing the second half of book three, but I swear, since publication, I have no time.


How connected are you to your principle character Kate?

When you read Wilde's Fire, you may notice Kate has a strong connection to nature. She takes in the sights and smells around her. This is because where she grew up, where she and her friends go camping, are all my favorite parts of Virginia. I daydream of one day owning a horse farm like her family does--or at least living near one.


For anyone who hasn't yet read Wilde's Fire, will you give us a little introduction?

Katriona Wilde has never wondered what it would feel like to have everything she’s ever known and loved ripped away, but she is about to find out.

When she inadvertently leads her sister and best friend through a portal into a world she’s dreamed of for six years, she finds herself faced with more than just the frightening creatures in front of her.

Kate’s forced to accept a new truth: her entire life has been a lie, and those closest to her have betrayed her. What’s worse, she has no control over her new future, and it’s full of magic and horrors from which nightmares are made.

Will Kate discover and learn to control who she really is in time to save the ones she loves, or will all be lost?


Krystal, how can people get a copy of Wilde's Fire?

You can pick up Wilde's Fire from https://www.nobleyoungadult.com/Books/402/Wilde's-Fire-Book-One-Darkness-Falls for $1.99.

They sell books in multiple formats, which you can choose from My Library after you check out.

Amazon and B&N will carry my novel, but not for another 7-10 days, and not for $1.99 either!


And finally, let's end with the novel's great tag line and trailer!

“There is no pain in this death, only peace,knowing I am going to die with the one I love the most.”

Trailer: http://youtu.be/oo1d4aZQFQY

Thanks Krystal - Wishing you great success!

Other Links:-

Krystal’s blog: http://krystalwade.blogspot.com

Krystal’s website: http://www.krystal-wade.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/KrystalWade

New Crime Scene Book Club!

There has been an explosion in Irish Crime fiction recently, and it’s a phenomenon which is still gaining pace.

I attended a talk at NUI Maynooth a couple of weeks back discussing this very topic, and it would seem that not only has there been an upsurge in successful Irish Crime Writers/Writing, but the variety of prose within the genre has also been remarkable.

With Irish Crime Writing featuring so highly on the international scene, I got an idea which I hope you will be able to help me with.

Every month or so, I’m going to feature 6 crime novels as part of the New Crime Scene Book Club @writing.ie. They will be a mix of Irish and International writers, male & female, debut authors, and well established names, and also novels published only in digital format.

The idea is that you get a flavour of what’s happening within the Crime Scene Genre, and are given an opportunity to offer your feedback on the material currently available.

So why not pick just one title from the link below, read it, and then over the next month let me know what you think of it.

You can send your comments/reviews via the comment option at the Crime Scene site, or here at www.phillips-louise.com ,you can also email me at phillips.louisem0@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or even via Twitter @LouiseMPhillips -Sounds easy? Well most of the best things are!

The link to the main post @writing.ie Crime Scene Book Club, with books listed can be found HERE

HAPPY READING!!!!

Launch of Riptide

One of the great things about Twitter and blogging is all the fantastic people you can connect with.  I guess writing is a lonely path in many ways, after all the only way your words will get written is by going off on your own and writing them. 

Perhaps this is why writers who meet on line are so supportive of each other.  We have all travelled a similar path, have failed and failed better, and have kept on going because by and large we have no choice.  At some point in all our writing journeys, we realise that we are writers, and that writing is something we will hopefully always do.

 

Anyhow, one of the fantastic people I've been lucky enough to meet is a writer called Debbi Mack. This week she launches her novel Riptide and it sounds like a real page turner! I will post all Debbi's details below, so feel free to join the Riptide Launch Party on Facebook during the book launch week from March 12 to March 17, 2012, and/or comment with this post.

All details on the launch are posted here.

Author Bio:

A former attorney, Debbi Mack has also worked as a journalist, reference librarian, and freelance writer/researcher.

Debbi Mack has published two other novels in the Sam McRae mystery series: the New York Times ebook bestseller Identity Crisis (on Amazon UK) and the sequel Least Wanted (on Amazon UK). She’s also published Five Uneasy Pieces (on Amazon UK), a short story collection that includes her Derringer Award–nominated story “The Right to Remain Silent.”

Her short stories have appeared in various anthologies and publications, including Shaken: Stories for Japan (on Amazon UK), an anthology created to benefit Japanese tsunami relief efforts. She is currently working on a young adult novel, planning Sam’s next adventure, and generally mulling over other projects.

You can find her online at her website. She also has five blogs, including My Life on the Midlist,The Book Grrl and Random and Sundry Things. You can find her on Facebookand Twitter.
Plot summary:

Stephanie Ann “Sam” McRae’s stay in Ocean City for the annual Maryland bar association convention turns into a busman's holiday when her best friend Jamila is arrested for a murder she didn’t commit. All signs point to a frame, but Jamila’s local counsel must plea bargain, placing a permanent stain on the ambitious attorney’s spotless record, unless Sam and the private investigator on the case find evidence to clear her.

Sam has her work cut out for her, given that the victim is the stepson of a local wealthy entrepreneur and poultry producer and no one will talk to her, including the investigator hired on the case. Meanwhile, Jamila herself appears to be holding out on Sam.

With the clock ticking down to the convention and preliminary hearing, Sam must uncover secrets, lies, and fraud to find the real killer. At what cost will that knowledge come for Sam?

Did You Ever Think about Writing for Television?

Do you regularly spot news items and think someone should make a TV series out of it? Do your fingers itch to write storylines for programmes you love? Yes? Well read on!

Although television is a visual medium, it’s still based on the written word and all programmes start out as a single idea first spelt out on paper. But because writers rarely make programmes, they must sell their ideas to the people that do. One way is to write a Treatment – essentially a written pitch summarising an idea into a few pages – with a dynamite script to complete the submission package.

Still interested?

In an introductory course run by Caren Kennedy, participants learn where the potential openings are in television and what writers must do in order to break in. By the end of the course, those who take advantage of all assignments will have created a polished Treatment showcasing their own idea for a series, complete with logline, synopsis, outlines for episodes and a query letter designed to grab the attention of programme makers.

Writing TV Treatments  online course - 8 weeks (4 modules) Caren Kennedy gives one-to-one mentoring and instruction on how to begin writing for television and develop ideas into storylines. Cost - €120.00

Caren Kennedy  works as an editor, proofreader, writing tutor and researcher.  She is the creator of a television series currently in pre-production with Warner Bros TV, co-author of Fake Alibis (BenBella Books, 2009), guest blogger for  www.writing.ie, and writing consultant with The Inkwell Group.

For more information visit: www.carenkennedywrites.com or send Caren an email direct to: carenkennedywrites@gmail.com

Feedback

Maura Byrne:  http://www.maura-byrne.com/

Caren Kennedy’s ‘Writing TV Treatments’ course is instructive, informative and extremely interesting.  Each module, delivered in easy-to-learn units, taught me how to flesh out my idea for a TV series, pump it up and transform it into a robust pitch.  But more than this, I learned how to summarise ideas for impact, research target markets, and stay motivated during the writing process. In short, this course is an excellent one which I would highly recommend to anyone wishing to further their writing career.

Michelle Moloney King:  www.TeacherMoloneyKing.com

This writing course is for anyone who wants to write. It is not limited to budding or established screenwriters. We covered ideas sourcing, research, visual writing skills, plot and character development, plus where and how to send submissions to television production companies. As I am a primary school teacher who uses lesson plans on a daily basis, nothing pleased me more than to find that Caren’s lessons were laid out in a comprehensive and detailed manner.  Her feedback was honest, succinct and got to the heart of any problems.  My writing and articulation of ideas has improved beyond imagining and I was amazed by this. Since the day I first started getting feedback from Caren, my blog has almost doubled its readership following. 

Why are we interested in Crime?

Guess what?  I'm the new Crime Scene Blogger for http://www.writing.ie/ and today is my first post on Crime Scene. I hope you'll  all enjoy our explorations about Crime writing and Crime reading there, and will help me build the site into something really interesting and worthwhile by giving as much feedback as possible through your comments. 

Below is the opening few lines, you can read more by clicking on the link below, and please, please leave your comments!



Crime Night at Hodges Figgis



Six years ago, when I began writing, I had no idea that one day I would be writing crime fiction.  Perhaps it’s a little bit like how some people believe the writer doesn’t find the story, but rather the story finds them.

I can't speak for other writers, but for me very soon into my writing journey, I realised I had an insatiable desire to delve into the darker side of who we are as human beings.....

Follow the rest of the post HERE

Novelicious/Harper Collins/Simon & Schuster UK Novel Competition

Okay, I know I've been a little absent lately!!!!  Busy writing away like a lonely bird hiding in the attic, the only sound, the tap tap of keys on my laptop, and the odd roar from the family asking who I am again:)

Still, if you've missed me, well I've missed you too.  And just by means of showing you how generous I am to my friends, here's a nice little writing competition for you to go and have a good think about!

Novelicious has teamed up with Avon (HarperCollins) and Books and the City (Simon & Schuster UK) to bring you the chick lit event of the year!

Think you could be the next Jane Green, Marian Keyes or Sophie Kinsella? Believe you have the talent to become Britain's Next Chick Lit Star? Want the chance to win a host of AMAZING prizes? If the answer is yes, then Novelicious Undiscovered is the competition for you...

THE PRIZES
This year there will be two main awards up for grabs:


The People's Choice Award Winner
The top twenty entries as judged by the Novelicious team will be put to a public vote in June. The entrant with the most votes will win the following:
A full manuscript critique with Avon Commissioning Editor Caroline Hogg over tea and cake in their London offices. Your chance to get feedback on your novel and ask any questions you have about publishing.   A £50 voucher for writersgifts.co.uk
An introduction to and entry critique from top UK Literary Agent, Diane Banks of Diane Banks Associates Ltd
A selection of 10 Avon Titles
A Kindle ebook reader (provided by Idealo)


The Books and The City Choice Award Winner 

The Books and The City Choice winner will be chosen from the top twenty entries by the Fiction Editorial department at Simon & Schuster UK. Their choice will win the following:
A full manuscript feedback from the editorial team at Simon & Schuster
Author Mentoring and meeting with Sunday Times Bestselling author of RSVP Helen Warner
 A £50 voucher from writersgifts.co.uk
A Books and the City 10 Book Selection

Runner Up
  The entry with the second highest number of votes will win the following:
A full manuscript critique from the Novelicious Editor
A Hotel Chocolat Bliss Out Bag from hotelchocolat.co.uk
A Books and the City 10 Book Selection

HOW TO ENTER
By entering this competition you are deemed to have read and accepted the full Terms and Conditions

• Please send no more than the first 3000 words of your chick lit novel as a word attachment (name the attachment as the title of your book) to undiscovered@novelicious.com

• Please don’t include your name or any personal details in the attachment

• Email Subject Line should be – Undiscovered – Your Name – The Name Of Your Book

• In the body of your entry email please tell us the following:

1. Your Name
2. Your address (you must be a UK or Ireland resident!)
3. The word count of your entry
4. In order to keep you updated with Undiscovered and general Novelicious updates, we would like to add your email address to our mailing list (don't worry, your email address is for our eyes only.) Please tell us in your email if you do not wish to be added to the Novelicious mailing list.

• Short Stories will not be accepted

• Entrants must not be under contract with a publisher, or signed with an agent at the time of entry

• Entries must not have been previously published digitally or in print

• Closing Date for entries is 3^rd April (see below for the full order of events)

PLEASE READ THE FULL TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF ENTRY HERE

ORDER OF EVENTS

Feb 14th                          Novelicious Undiscovered opens for entries

April 3rd                          Closing date for entries

April 24th                        Top 20 entries are announced

MAY                                 Top 20 entries are showcased on Novelicious.com

June 5th - June 19th     Top 20 are opened to a public vote

June 26th                        The winners of Undiscovered are announced!