Tuesday 29 October 2013

NanoWrimo and Angry Robot - open submissions

Hi Guys

Just a quick update -

I have signed up for Nanowrimo - not sure if will hit the 50,000 words and still unsure as to what I will put on the actual site of what i finish as I hope to enter Richard and Judy competition and won't be able to put it on Nanowrimo as it will disqualify me for the Richard and Judy competition.

Also there is and open door submission session at Angry Robot publishing until the end of the year.  If you are unpublished and have a finished novel of the sci fi, fantasy and horror genre then get it sent in - see link below

http://angryrobotbooks.com/opendoor

good luck guys

neil

Monday 28 October 2013

CWG Meeting - 28/10/2013

Hi guys

Hope all is well - went to the fortnightly Cleckheaton Writers Group tonight for the first time in nearly 2 months!
Was a good meet - we discussed what we had been writing on - Karen has now finished her final edit of Thorde and also sent in her entry to the Richard and Judy search for Bestseller 2014 competition.
Dawn has started working on a sequel to her YA novel.
Pauline had been too busy to write although has written down ideas and I am still doing the writers challenge from June and deciding what to enter for Richard and Judy competition.
Karen read a few chapters from her NanoWrimo novel which she has started early and was a funny tale taken from real life events.
For me the meeting was marred with the fact that I might not be able to go to as many meets as before especially in winter months when weather bad because Arriva buses in their wisdom have changed their bus times and now the latest bus past Cleckheaton library is 18:50pm when before it was 19:40pm.

That means when the meet starts at 18:00 I will only have just under 50 minutes in the meeting.
Luckily tonight the weather was good as I walked home with clear sky and the stars out twinkling - was very nice walk and was quite mild.  After I got in it chucked it down - lucky eh?

Anyway will try to go as much as possible - will keep you informed.

Neil

Monday 21 October 2013

Crime Thriller Book Club - again

Hi Guys

Just a quick blog to mention the above - over the last 4 to 6 weeks I have been watching the Crime Thriller Book Club on ITV3 every Monday night at 9pm.
It's been a mix of book reviews, t.v. series guides and interviews with actors and actresses from t.v. crime thrillers as well as popular crime authors.
Presented by Bradley Walsh it has been quite informative especially if you enjoy your crime books and drama.  Although Bradley has grown on me presenting the show I wasn't sure about him at the beginning.

Anyway tonight was the last episode - was enjoyable with a bluffers guide to Midsomer Murders which is based on 5 novels by Caroline Graham.

There was also an interview with Martina Cole - one of my ex-girlfriends favorite authors and what I based one of my short stories on.
I learned that Martina has sold over 15 million books worldwide.
She has been a book fanatic since she was small and wrote her first book at fourteen.  She also wrote an historical novel at eighteen.  She used to write alot as she had no money for anything else and had children.

Dangerous Lady was her breakthrough novel which she wrote at twenty one but put into a cupboard till she was thirty and got it out read it with a few glasses of wine and decided to send it off - the rest as they say is history.
She writes a book a year and plays the same era of music to match the era she is writing about.

Martina admits to killing characters she dosen't intend to.  Also her books are the most stolen in shops which she finds funny.
Her 20th novel "Revenge" is out soon - in time for xmas I bet.

Well guys hope you like my brief post and hope to blog soon.

Neil

Wednesday 16 October 2013

A Quicky

Just a quick update guys

Still slowly finishing the CWG story challenge but also deciding on what to write for the Richard and Judy novel comp which has a closing date of 1st of Jan 2014.  Time is marching on quickly.
As I've said to my fellow CWG member Karen I keep getting distracted by the evil of the internet.

If anyone has any tips on discipline whilst writing that will be greatly appreciated.

Will post soon on any updates.

Neil

Thursday 10 October 2013

Richard and Judy - Search for Bestseller 2014

Hi Guys

A quick post to give you an update.

I'm still writing the CWG challenge story but hope to have this finished for Saturday, Sunday the latest.

Although now I am going to enter the above competition.  Winner gets a £50,000 publishing deal and the closing date is 1st January 2014.
You can send in any genre of story up to 10,000 words although I'm not sure whether to send Wormhole Effect as Richard and Judy Book club hasn't had many sci-fi or fantasy novels.  It's normally crime or thrillers or romance or women's historical saga's.
So any ideas on what I can send in will be greatly appreciated.

Below is the internet link to the competition:

http://richardandjudy.whsmith.co.uk/search-for-a-bestseller/