I'm so incredibly easy to please! In an attempt at pushing 'the lung' out to a wider audience earlier this week, I signed up to fuelmyblog. There are some other, possibly more functional blog tools out there, but their widgets look like shit and fuelmyblog doesn't, so it was quite an easy choice.
Anyway, this week a couple of my new blogging pals hit me up with some props (yeah man... I can do lingo) with a mention on their own blog sites, which is the whole point of the exercise. However, it's the first time I've ever been mentioned in the same breath - or list - as my two all time icons of modern literature, Neil Gaiman and John Connolly. Sure... it might be just a list to you but it's a very short list and I'm on it:
John Connolly
Neil Gaiman
Tales from the Zodiac Lung
Well, it made my day anyway. If you're miserable by nature, just lower your expectations to rock bottom and suddenly the whole world becomes a playground again.
Onto serious business: the business of writing. It's time to get the Led out and hook up with an agent, so this week has also been a week of research. The cool thing about agents is they don't have to try really hard and therefore are quite cool by nature - after all, it's we who have to go to them, unless you're some shit-hot property like Katie Price, but then, I really hope, that's something that everybody is in for the money rather than because it's a good thing to do. I might point out here that I don't think there's anything wrong with being in it for the money, so long as you all know that's the deal.
Like when Naomi Campbell put that book out and it sold by the bucket, nobody thought she was Conan Doyle, it's just supermarket book-time, that's all. Serious sales abound, but nobody really cares if she ever puts pen to paper again...
For those of you clomping around in the Grimpen Mire with regards to getting an agent, stick around. I'm not promising any answers bar the tale of what happens. Feel free to post comments or ask questions. Right now, I think I basically have enough good work for a professional to make an informed decision on - I figure if I can at least enter into conversation with somebody who knows what they're talking about, it will fuel me to work harder. Can I possibly work any harder than this? Maybe but it'll be pushing it! The bottom line with an agent though is - I think - the fact that they will only take you on if they think they can make money along with you. It's a win/win situation... or am I just incredibly naive?
Too Hot For Dogs is coming along swimmingly this week. Charlie has supplied me with a fair amount of art, so, knowing what I know and doing what I do in the day, I've mocked up a dummy comic book to place them into to get a feel of what the end result might be like. Even if I do say so myself, it's looking pretty damn slick. I have no intention of self publishing, but I may get a dozen copies made up to get some feedback on it. Still some way to go though... got to re-think my continutity now I have something concrete to work with.
Yesterday, I also dug out my notes on my soon to be brought to life detective series - once I'm done with One Hit anyway. Without spilling the beans and leaving self open to some robbery (well, you never know), the plot is all fathomed but I feel a need to propel Detective Inspector Kang into another league before I continue to the end. Creative types will instantly recognise the 'stumbling in the dark' syndrome along with the 'I can't believe I thought that would be a good idea' syndrome.
For instance, this morning I thought I might give him Tourette's but it's plainly a dumb idea. For a start, they would never have let him in the force never mind make a D.I. Also, you wouldn't be able to tell him apart from any TV detective you could think of. The idea reached the bin long before the idea had even formed fully in my head. It's the drawing board for you Mr Kang!
Actually, it's not. Drawing boards are old hat. I've gotten myself one of those big panes of glass that they use on Waking the Dead. They are, without doubt, brilliant. I can mind map all over it and then stand back and see through all my ideas. If I go around the other side, I can see through them and read them in reverse. What the bloody hell for, I'm not sure. I just like having one but I know that one day I'll clean it off to start a new book and walk into it and either smash it or knock myself out.
Meanwhile, back in real life, we had another story from the after school club at the church today. This week, Jesus got locked in a cupboard with a tiara made of sticks on his head. I'm going to have to go there one week... just to make sure it really is an after school club for seven year olds and not some kind of survivalist cult.
Out.
Clip of the day: Walk Away | Kelly Clarkson (Much under-rated by the rock community. She's got it!)
