Right, that's it. I have sent my application to Deal or No Deal. Cross fingers for me! I love that show. :o)
I've also started making character biogs for the new book. Having had flu all over christmas and New Year I haven't been able to do anything much other than sit in front of the telly. I haven't even raised a glass the whole of the season. (apart from Beechams) Pah! I'm better now, so cracking on. So much to do and so little time. Only twelve more weeks of classes and the degree is finished. Pretty scary actually. I'll have to find a real job soon. Pah again!
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Monday, 25 October 2010
The Shuttle is launched!
So, here it is, my first journey into the exciting world of blogging! Now, what do I say? I suppose I should start with my reasons for creating this space. I'm in my final year at university and really want to start expanding my creative writing portfolio. I have been published twice in anthologies, but that seems like such a long time ago that I really need to step it up a gear. Therefore, all this morning, I have been putting together a list of websites that accept submissions for SciFi short stories - and if they pay for them so much the better.
Although I have been writing since I was about nine years old, it was mostly horror (although I must admit that my very first attempt at a short story at that age was a terrible tale of astronauts being lost around Jupiter and kidnapped by fluffy aliens!) I still have a copy of it somewhere, badly typed up on an ancient manual typewriter (you remember those?) Anyway, I digress... For the last several years I had been pondering the idea of writing a novel along the lines of The Handmaid's Tale or Children of Men, but I was never sure what category it fell into (you'll be surprised how many SciFi books fall into the General Fiction category). Then, after a fantastic Short Fiction module in which a talk was given by Chris Beckett ('The Turing Test'), I discovered that SciFi doesn't have to be about spaceships and robots, it can be about alternative Earth realities. Perfect! My genre WAS Science Fiction after all! So, I for my final assessment I wrote a 2000wd short story called 'Atrophy'. I got an A grade. Then I thought, why not try and get this published? So, that's what I'm attempting to do. Wish me luck!
Now, after four years of procrastination (washing the dishes suddenly seemed like a preferable activity) I got my backside in gear and started writing the novel... (the first 8000wds will be my dissertation). I was hoping to enter the Terry Pratchett competition but I'll never have it finished in time - maybe next year...
Suddenly I realise that I should probably be doing that instead of this epic. With this blog, have I unwittingly created a new way of procrastinating, I wonder?
Although I have been writing since I was about nine years old, it was mostly horror (although I must admit that my very first attempt at a short story at that age was a terrible tale of astronauts being lost around Jupiter and kidnapped by fluffy aliens!) I still have a copy of it somewhere, badly typed up on an ancient manual typewriter (you remember those?) Anyway, I digress... For the last several years I had been pondering the idea of writing a novel along the lines of The Handmaid's Tale or Children of Men, but I was never sure what category it fell into (you'll be surprised how many SciFi books fall into the General Fiction category). Then, after a fantastic Short Fiction module in which a talk was given by Chris Beckett ('The Turing Test'), I discovered that SciFi doesn't have to be about spaceships and robots, it can be about alternative Earth realities. Perfect! My genre WAS Science Fiction after all! So, I for my final assessment I wrote a 2000wd short story called 'Atrophy'. I got an A grade. Then I thought, why not try and get this published? So, that's what I'm attempting to do. Wish me luck!
Now, after four years of procrastination (washing the dishes suddenly seemed like a preferable activity) I got my backside in gear and started writing the novel... (the first 8000wds will be my dissertation). I was hoping to enter the Terry Pratchett competition but I'll never have it finished in time - maybe next year...
Suddenly I realise that I should probably be doing that instead of this epic. With this blog, have I unwittingly created a new way of procrastinating, I wonder?
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