Removing the unwanted bits

October 29th. 2016 I have now more or less broken the back of my first draft. I still have about 10,000 words to go before reaching my initial target of 80,000. When I have finished the re-write, I expect to raise this figure by about ten percent. If I was still under contract to my last publisher, now defunct, I would have been asked to trim the word count by a considerable margin. As an Indie writer, I can do as I please, although I have to remember that more words does not necessarily make it a better story. I find myself thinking of scenes I have written that day and realising that my timing is out, or that I just don’t like what I’ve written. It’s a gut feeling always, one I expect most writers have. We are approaching the ‘holiday’ season according to the promoters who are trying to persuade us indie writers that now is the time to get out there and promote. No doubt there are statistics to back all this up — Thanksgiving and Christmas come to mind. For the promoters, it’s a golden opportunity to increase their profits as we succumb to the temptation and spend our money on promotions, the majority of which will stare bleakly into the abyss and do nothing for our book sales. But I have given in to one, and that is a Cross Promotion activity that will probably reach more potential readers than a direct advert. More bang for the buck as they say. If it works, I will let you know through these pages; just don’t hold your breath though. On the domestic front, I successfully took a Rainbow Shark out of my aquarium and gave it back to the local garden centre where they accept fish that are no longer wanted. I had it for two weeks, and it would not leave my other fish alone. Sharks are territorial, which is not really helpful for the other residents in the tank. I replaced it with a couple of Mollies. The shark was only a wee one, nothing like Jaws! Interesting article in today’s paper about the Man Booker prize winner, Ralph Beatty and his book, Sellout. Apparently he uses the word “nigger” about two hundred times (I can’t confirm that). When my romance, Past Imperfect, was with my publisher, my editor asked me to remove the word because it would be deemed offensive in today’s ‘climate’. I had used the word once! Perhaps if I had insisted on leaving it in, I might have generated some controversy and sold more books. Yesterday we took our Cockapoo puppy, Tuppence, to be spayed. It seemed such a shame for a young one like that (she’s nine months old), but it was recommended by the vet. We did a lot of soul searching over this. Now we have a very docile little girl who needs some TLC. She’s eating OK and doing the business etc. but she should be back to her sock chasing, ball playing, love other dogs mode fairly soon. Wish me and Pat luck!

A Patchy Week (Apache?)

October 22nd. 2016 Looking at my diary for the previous seven days, it’s blank. Anyone would think I don’t do anything. I’ve managed to add about two thousand words to my WIP, but have had to interrupt the flow because of hospital appointments, a flu jab, and a trip to Specsavers. We also made a pointless journey to a garden centre to buy something they didn’t stock. We didn’t know that until we arrived. So, stayed there, had lunch and drove home. Sometimes the week is more or less pre-ordained and your plans fit together seamlessly. Other times there’s a kind of haphazard, flying by the seat of your pants period over which there is little or no control. I received the hardback copy of A Dangerous Game from Ingram Spark. I was very pleased with the result. It cost nothing because of an offer from Ingram, but it has encouraged me to have my next book published in hardback too. I looked at my Amazon rankings today (I do it every day), and saw a gradual rise over the last four weeks: nothing dramatic of course, but on September 22nd. I was at 177,000. Today I have moved up to 80,000. To some people, that might look quite poor, but any struggling writer reading this will understand that the rise is always pleasing to see, and means my books are still selling. There are highs and lows during that period of course, but a rise is a rise. The planned #lovetoread CHINDI party on the 18th. November looks like it could be a great evening. There are some splendid raffle prizes being donated, including a bumper book hamper from Random House. All proceeds will go to Dislexia Action, a worthwhile charity. You can read more about this on our website at www.chindi-authors.co.uk The six minute video of me reading an extract from my latest book, A Dangerous Game, has now been uploaded to my YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_pFFfhAKiw) and is also on my website www.michaelparkerbooks.com Thanks to Dan Jones, one of the CHINDI authors, for taking the time to record us all. And who says men can’t multitask? At the moment I’m listening to SKY Sports Soccer Saturday and writing this blog. This morning, nothing to do with multi-tasking, I watched the Australian Speedway Grand Prix. It was the last one of the season which saw the American rider, Greg Hancock, crowned world champion for the fourth time. The Aussie rider, Chris Holder won the Grand Prix, which was great stuff — an Aussie winning the GP in his own country. Next up for me? There are several things on the calendar, but hopefully I will make some solid progress on my WIP. Wish me luck!

Talk,Talk and a Rainbow Shark

October 15th. 2016 Last Monday, one of our CHINDI authors spent an afternoon in Chichester doing video interviews for each of our members. These were short, five minute interviews which will go on our You tube channel, and subsequently on to our own websites and that of CHINDI. It was simply a video of us reading an extract from our latest book and a description of what the book is about. Five minutes? Gosh, we writers need a load more time than that because we want to talk about ourselves and our writing, don’t we? But thanks to Dan Jones who spent his afternoon doing this; we really do appreciate you, Dan. On Tuesday I dropped the price of my latest thriller, A Dangerous Game (ASIN:B01AKCLP60). Why did I do that? Believe it or not, I can’t remember. There was a note in my diary to drop the price. Obviously it was because of an upcoming promotion. Trouble is, I can’t remember who the promotion is with! It will be a free one of course, because no money has been taken out of my bank. Must be my age; how on earth can I miss something like that. Now I have to keep the price low for a week or so, just to make sure I don’t default on the mysterious promotion. Wednesday I was in Brighton doing a book talk for the Royal Sussex Hospital radio. I agreed to be there before ten o’clock, and left home early enough. I arrived in Brighton at 9.30 and spent about twenty five minutes looking for a parking space. I walked into the studio at two minutes past ten. Phew! As much as I am happy to do this kind of thing, there is no feedback from the event. Rosemary Alex, who runs the book talk, told me that the average stay in hospital is about four days, so there’s no follow up from patients who have listened. It’s an unquantifiable event, but nevertheless it’s done in good faith. Hopefully someone would have enjoyed me talking about myself and my books. My WIP is gathering momentum. My word count has reached 65,000, which puts me 15,000 short of my target. But I have a feeling I will go beyond that, simply because this is the first draft, and I’m expecting to put some meat on the bones when I do the rewrite. I find myself now going over the story in my head, writing scenes that fit in nicely and getting quite excited to think I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. I have conjured up a nice little twist to the story which I’m itching to write in, but I’m forcing myself to hold back. It’s the kind of twist that will have the reader thinking … well, I can’t say what they might think, but I know what I would say. Our CHINDI group is now promoting the #lovetoread party in Chichester on Friday 18th. November. This is in aid of Dyslexia Action, and will be an entertaining evening which will include a local band. There will be all manner of things available including fine wines, hand-crafted chocolate, raffle prizes and, of course, the opportunity to buy our signed books. All proceeds to the dyslexia charity. I bought more fish for the aquarium this week including a Rainbow Shark. No, not Jaws, but a cute little shark that I’m told might grow quite big and start eating the little fish. Hopefully my little fish will have grown bigger by then and be able to defend themselves. Wish me luck!

Reaching Out

October 8th. 2016. It’s our son, John’s birthday today. Takes me back to when he was born in a small, cottage hospital in Ely, Cambridgeshire. I had to look after his two brothers, both toddlers. Perhaps I should write a book about the fun we had! A couple of months ago, a local chap contacted me through my website asking for advice about getting a book into print. We met up for a chat in the local pub where I was able to give him the advice he needed. His book is now in print and available on Amazon. It’s called Rising Sun Memories. (ASIN B01LZ90BQY). He writes as Stuart James. The story is a mix of fact and fiction, semi-autobiographical and covers three years during the Japanese occupation of Singapore. I’m sure this book will appeal to fans of war stories, particularly those penned from eye-witness accounts. I’ve downloaded a copy and enjoying what I’ve read so far. Incidentally, it’s well written too. I made some progress on my WIP, although I decided to cut the last 1000 words I penned during the week. I’m sure most writers have this problem when it comes to forcing yourself to cut something you worked on and thought was the right direction; you just don’t want to do it. How does that old saying go? The moving finger having writ, moves on. Nor all you piety or wit can erase but a single word of it. Something like that anyway. Despite piety and wit, I’ve scrapped thousands of words in the past. Last Monday evening at the CHINDI writers meeting, we met up with Jamie Dyer of South Waves radio (www.southwavesradio.co.uk). We’re hoping to strike up an ongoing connection with Jamie. His radio is devoted to the Arts, which includes the written word. Because it’s a local, on-line station, it will be an excellent platform for us as local writers, particularly as it broadcasts 24/7. We covered a lot of ground at the meeting, talking about promotions and what we have all been up to individually. There are so many different avenues and events to explore that you realise you could be out on the streets week in week out, trying to flog your books. Obviously it’s far better to get the readers to come to you, and to that end we have arranged a ‘Love to Read’ party in Chichester where we hope to attract a good gathering of interested book lovers who want to talk to authors about writing, reading, learning and generally getting a real kick or benefit from this type of gathering. Those of you who have looked on my website will know that I published a religious book called A Word in Your Ear (How God changed my retirement plans). I gave one to a neighbour of ours whose husband died recently. He was a retired minister. She came over last week and asked if she could buy two copies to pass on to her friends, one of whom is a visiting minister from USA. I think I’ve sold one since publication (not counting those I ordered for myself), so to be asked for two is something of a bonus. I gave the neighbour the copies; didn’t have the heart to charge her. We added fish to our fish tank this week. A dozen, Neon Tetras, six Guppies (one jumped out, so now we have five) and four Mollies. The tank is like a living picture against the wall. Hopefully I can keep it that way. I finally managed to crack the Ingram Spark problem. It was just my lack of knowledge with PhotoShop, but I got there in the end. Oh, not quite. When I downloaded the eProof, it only had the even page numbers at the bottom of the page. The Word doc was fine, but in converting to the PDF file with Open Office, the page numbers turned out wrong. It’s sorted now, so hopefully I’ll soon be holding the hardback version of my latest novel in my hands. Wish me luck!

Present Tense

October 1st. Christmas is coming and will soon be dominating our thoughts about what presents to buy friends and family. You could do no worse than thinking of buying those you love, or like enough, to make an author’s day and give books as presents. When me and my two brothers were youngsters, we almost always received books in our Christmas stocking. One aunt always made sure of that, and it was because of this that I developed a liking for the children’s classics. An album was always welcome, but I’m not talking of music; I’m talking about the bumper books that were published by the ‘Comic’ houses. Great stuff, great reads. When my book group, CHINDI, have a book sale, the children’s books always sell well, leaving thriller writers like me looking on enviously as the pile next to mine diminishes rapidly. You can find these books on the CHINDI website at www.cindi-authors.co.uk All our books are available through the website’s bookshop, so why not look in on us and have a think about Christmas? My own progress in finishing my latest novel has been hampered for all sorts of reasons, procrastination not being the least of them. I seem to be grinding to a halt, losing a couple of days and picking it up again. Like a lot of writers, I reach a sticking point and wonder how I’m going to get through it. I always manage to find some convincing way to move the story on, and sometimes manage to give the story a significant lift. I reached that point during the week when I had my main character, Marcus Blake, find the Samsung laptop that was essential to lead him to the killers of at least four people, but I had reached this key point too early and needed to delay the revelation. But then, what would I do for the next 20,000 words? After all, I still needed to round off other elements of the story that were essential in the whole jigsaw. I had almost been hoisted ‘by my own petard’. I changed direction, ensured the laptop had been wiped and then sent Marcus off in a different direction. But I left a little teaser, for the reader, which pointed the location of a memory stick on which all the data had been copied. This is like the needle in a haystack: where in the whole of England will Marcus find something as small as the memory stick? It’s great fun being a writer, but it does yer ‘ead in at times! The fish tank is looking good. Couple more days and I’ll be buying some fish. After that, it might get a bit tricky maintaining the right chemical balance and keeping the fish alive. I will be doing the hospital book talk next week. I’m looking forward to it. One of the joys of being a local author is that from time to time people ask you to talk about yourself. Once again I will be promoting the CHINDI group, but only for a wee while; most of the time it will be about me (and my books)! Still battling with my Ingram Spark file. It’s the jacket that’s causing the problem, only because I’m not too sure what I’m doing. I worked on it this morning using PhotoShop, and uploaded. It will be a couple of day before they let me know if I have it right. Fingers crossed. I’ve given up on Facebook ads. for now. The returns I was achieving were doing nothing significant. I reached my budget limit, which meant the ad. was stopped. I’ll go away and lick my wounds, work on my novel and try to have it ready for the New Year. Then maybe I can think about using FB ads. again. Wish me luck!