The main reason for me jumping back on the blog, is to shout about the York Literature Festival. This event just gets better every year and there is some amazing events on over the next month. It starts in March and will include writing workshops, talks from authors (well-known and upcoming), literary walks around York and much more. There really is something for everyone. AND Dr David Starkey will be holding one of the events, to speak about York's place in History. It really does look brilliant.
So get across to the site now and see you there.
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Monday Night (27th Oct) - Waterstones, York - 7pm Laura Ellen Joyce will be launching her new book The Luminol Reels at York Waterstones on Monday night at 7pm, AND the event is free. If you haven't read Laura's work before, what you need to know is she writers novels that circle around violent crimes and don't hold back. Laura is a writer and academic with research interests in experimental literature, gender and sexuality, psychoanalysis and ecocriticsm. This leads to really interesting fiction, with plenty to get your teeth into. I recently read her first novel The Museum of Atheism and loved it. It's a great read and would be a fantastic book club choice, as it offers so much to explore and discuss. I'm sure hearing about this new novel from the author herself will be quite an event. Make sure you get to it. The Luminol Reels "A fierce and deadly little fantasia that bites its way deep into your brain."—Brian Evenson It's official (and slightly mad) this moths Words From a Bench project is live in both Rowntree Park and Reykjavik, Iceland. The project is a avenue for new and emerging writers to get their short stories and poetry into the heart of the cities. I have now been published by the great folks who run the Rowntree's project (Cath Mortimer, blogger and Karen Green, editor) four times and am ecstatic that my writing will now be extending to Iceland. Lets hope for a spike in international book sales!?! :p You can find out more about the project at my project page and from the pages linked above. Please go take a look at the writing. I am joined by some amazing authors, including:
Ben: Ha, you certainly have. It is very interesting that, for writers, sometimes the hardest part is working out where to place yourself in the market. I think we’ll come back to that, but first you mention on your website (http://www.christopherbruntauthor.com) that the book started as a short story, where did the idea spring from and who are your influences?
Chris: My influences? Shakespeare, Bulgakov, Dostoevsky, Bernard Cornwell, Vonnegut, Gogol, Chekov, and lots more…the last book I read was totally different from these, it was Dark Places by Gillian Flynn, and I absolutely loved it. Ben: Yes, I’ve heard a lot of good things about Gillian Flynn, though I haven’t read anything of hers as yet. One for the reading pile I think. There are a lot of classic writers in your list of influences. One of the things I love about this book is the classic narrative style, it’s very traditional. Is this a style you use a lot and why did you choose it for this novel? Chris: For me, that sort of traditionalist voice provides so much artistic license than something trying to adhere to a particularly overt or contemporary style. The reason being, that it allows you to be completely neutral and to unravel a story in a very detailed and linear way, as you might expect in bygone novels. But it also allows for elements of surrealism and satire, which you can exacerbate against the backdrop of a very serious and formal tone. I think with Ralph and the Purple Fly I’ve opted for this classical style, set in a modern and contemporary world, while woven into these very surreal and satirical moments, because all those things together help to reinforce some of the dystopian conflict that I wanted to create with the mad scientist character and his bizarre adventurers. As a result, there are several different interpretations created out of these elements, which, aside from making the reader laugh, cry and generally be entertained, also forces them to think. Like you said, everything is held together by a recognisable and very traditional voice, which, without giving too much away, belongs to a narrator whose sanity is questionable and could be seen as totally unreliable but who is still someone you want to believe in. It goes without saying, that this was my intention and what I hoped to create, but now it’s down to you and the reader to see if it works. But yeah, I really enjoyed using this sort of traditional or classical narrative style because it did help to open up so many more creative possibilities. Ben: That’s a perfect description and I do love the style. It certainly does everything you’ve mentioned there. The book allows a lot to be perceived by the reader, which I think is great. It would be a great book for anyone in a book club; there’s lots of great room for discussion. Chris, like myself, you self-published your book with CreateSpace and KDP. How did you find that process and how has the response been so far?
Ultimately, it’s always going to be an uphill climb when you self-publish because you’re essentially doing all the work that the publisher and their marketing experts would usually do, not to mention avoiding the stigma of ‘vanity press’. But if you can put yourself out there and convince people that you’re not just another person with a laptop and internet connection who’s published their book, then you’ll do well. It’s a huge learning curve and if you’re proud of the finished product then you can be proud of the fact that your work is accessible to everyone and will always be out there for people to read. It doesn't matter if you've published in a traditional way or self-published. What I would say to anyone considering this route, is that if your book is good enough to be read then it doesn't matter how it finds its way to the readers. The trick for self-published writers like us is to always try to put yourself out there and you have to find a happy medium between writing and marketing. Ben: You mentioned earlier that the idea of genre and trying to place yourself can be tricky. How did you find that process and do you have any hints for the writers out there? Chris: It depends really, if your aim is to make money and you don’t know where to begin then I would suggest picking and sticking to a genre first and foremost. I would advise that you read everything you can in your chosen area and try to find something unique that you can write about. For me it was very different, I started with something unique and then wrote the story without worrying about genre or the commercial aspects, my only concern was being true to the original idea and the novel as a whole and I didn't want to compromise to confine the piece to a particular convention. I felt the story was strong enough without worrying about that sort of thing. Ben: So tell us a bit more about you. What drew you to writing? Chris: Once upon a time…it all began when my dad introduced me to Bernard Cornwell when I was about fourteen; it was his King Arthur trilogy; and, when he bought me my first Dostoevsky novel. Since then all I’ve ever wanted to do is write. I think it probably has something to do with a need to be creative and to recreate my own version of things, stories, people and ideas. I love the idea of writing something and then having someone read and reimagine it to the point where it sticks with them forever. As I say, it’s very much a romantic notion but I haven’t been able to shrug it off so far. Ben: That’s a great answer and one worth writing for, definitely. I've actually just finished reading the King Arthur trilogy myself. It’s a great set of books. So, if the folks reading want to find more stuff by you, is there more out there yet? Chris: Besides Ralph and the Purple Fly I have some short stories published online. I wrote these stories for a project called Writers in the Park and they vary drastically in content and style. I really would urge people to take a quick look at these, along with the work of other contributing writing, because it’s a great project with lots of interesting writers involved. The most recent addition even features stories written by Icelandic writers! Links to these can be found on my website. Ben: Well I’m chuffed you’ve mentioned that, especially as I’m one of the writers involved :] The readers of my site will be very used to hearing about the Writers in the Park project. Anything else you can tell us about? Chris: I wrote a couple of reviews and articles for an online magazine, run out of York St John University, called Neutral Magazine, which again you can access via my website. I really enjoy reviewing work by other writers so I recently started a blog dedicated to reviews, which you can read and subscribe to via my website. Basically, everything I have done so far is accessible via my website. I’m also on Twitter too so feel free to follow me at @CJBWriter. Ben: What’s the next project on the cards? Chris: I’ve recently gone back to a project I started about four years ago. I’ve written a lot of different things since then but at the time when I began working on this project and initially came up with the idea, I was too inexperienced and lacking in the tools to pull it off. It’s a two part series called The Lost Family. In its simplest form the series is about a family who become totally disconnected morally, physically and emotionally from one another. This is due not only to their personalities but also to the actions of the father in the family, Elliot Rosen. All the characters in the story find themselves gravitating towards the guy who, to cut a long story short, has suspended himself in a type of unconscious comatose state. The drama results from Elliot’s decision to do this, his actions are the catalyst and then the narrative goes on to follow each of the other family members who have to pick up the pieces. As you’ve probably guessed, similar to Ralph and the Purple Fly, there are certain some surrealist themes involved, though it’s very much a character driven story. It’s set in the 1930s so inevitably it’s influenced by some of the historical events of the time. Ben: Chris, that sounds really interesting. I especially liked the character driven elements of Ralph and Purple Fly, so I think this will be really strong. I’m really looking forward to reading it. Congrats again Chris and best of luck with promotion and with the upcoming Lost Family. You can grab your copy of Ralph and the Purple Fly here and if you want to know more about Chris have a look at some of the links below. Find Out More
Ralph and the Purple Fly by Christopher Brunt My rating: 5 of 5 stars An excellent and rather mad account of a purple fly, a headless dog and the maddening state of endless ambition. I found myself completely gripped by the final two chapters, slowing my reading pace hugely in an effort to cling to ever word and not miss a thing. You will certainly have to be in the mood for something oddly intriguing to enjoy this; and do not mistake it for sci-fi, because that is far from what it is. The style hangs somewhere between a Franz Kafka modernist tale and something written by H G Wells. There really is a traditional element to this rather mad book, which you may want to cling to like a life raft!?! :] While this is not a genre I would generally read I would highly suggest giving this a go. It a great read. View all my reviews I'll be contacting the author this week to see if he'd like to come and do an author Q&A with me. Fingers crossed he'll join us. Keep an eye out for updates.
From May - June, I ran the Serious Flash Fiction project. The project asked storytellers to tell a story in just 129 characters, using Twitter. Contributors could write, upload picture, or use the video capture, but the main idea was to tell a story and hash-tag #SFFiction. As the hash-tag stole 11 characters from twitters 140 character maximum the challenge to write a flash fiction piece in just 129 characters was born.
So the amazing folks at EveryDayFiction.com accepted and published one of my short stories. It has gone live today and you can see it here: http://www.everydayfiction.com/teddy-by-ben-warden I'm over the moon, as this is the first thing I have managed to have published without any connection to the editing team and in such a mainstream forum. The feedback I had from the team was extensive and really useful, which is something we so rarely get as writers. So again a huge thank you to the folks at Every Day Fiction. If you don't know the site they publish a piece of fiction that is under 1000 words everyday and the quality is great. I would highly recommend adding them to your favourites list, or adding them on Twitter @Everydayfiction So please go take a read and leave some feedback at the bottom of the story. I'd really love to hear your thoughts. Marketing! I hate marketing. I think most writers do. There's something that feels dirty about it and I think it comes from having to parade yourself about and shout how good you are. Most of us are not good at doing this and us 'Brits' might be the worst . What was it that Bill Hicks said 'If anyone here is in Marketing or Advertising... Kill yourself.' But Bill also said something else; I've grabbed the image that goes round and round the internet and put it below. As writers we're creating all the time. We're creating things that allow people to escape; to reflect on their lives; to take stock; to learn something new. And what do we want to do with it? We want to share it! We want a readership. People who can enjoy the story on their own or together. Unfortunately, for a writer, in the middle of creating and sharing is marketing! (Sorry Bill, I know you'll be rolling in your grave.) As a writer you have to get comfortable with marketing and, even harder, you have to understand it. I am personally getting to a stage now where I am comfortable with it (I'm actually slightly fascinated with it), but I don't think I understand it. Not completely. So what am I doing currently? I'm doing all those things they tell you to do: #1: Get your book out there #2: Get on twitter #3: Get on facebook #4: Blog to raise interest #5: Submit to magazines and short story websites #6: Use free promotion to your advantage #7: Beg, barter and call in every favours for reviews (good or bad) ...... The list goes on. Over the last few days I've been thinking about marketing. I've been thinking about it because I'm at the awkward stage where I have a new book getting towards completion; and I have a book out that's sales have ground to halt because I've not been marketing. (I've been writing. I can't do both!!!!) I've not done badly with my first book. I'm happy to say that I have had more than 5000 copies go out, though a lot of that has been free promotion to get the sales. All in all I've sold just over a thousand copies and (thanks to the miracle that is Amazon self-publishing) those copies have gone to about nine or ten different countries. However, sat in front of my computer, I still feel like I'm in a silo. I've had reviews, interest, people are reading my blog but there still isn't the level of interaction I want to have. That level that will make me be able to stand in a party and confidently say 'I'm a writer,' rather than 'I'm the Quality Officer at York St John University,' and then mumble, 'oh yeah, have I mentioned I write books.' So what have I learned in the last few days. Well firstly I ended up at a site that talked about business planning for your book. Not just once it's written, but from the outset to ensure what you want to write is marketable. This still feels a bit like the dangerous and cold world of marketing to me, but the article is worth a read. It also markets two interesting books, one of which I have bought and I'll let you know if it's any good once I've given it a read. I suppose the main thing I got from this article was that you should know your audience. The article talked about doing the analysis to find out who your audience was going to be before you even start writing. This didn't appeal to me too much, but what I did get from it was the reason. If you know the facts (who is the main readership of the genre your writing and how many people read it) you'll be able to better target your marketing. That seemed sensible. There is no point trying to sell a romance novel to a guy who only reads magazines about cars, so target your time. Then my internet trawling brought me to Cynthia Hartwig's article, Top Five Marketing Jobs for New Authors. This reaffirmed some stuff for me more than anything. Firstly, get all the reviews you can (good or bad). Cynthia also suggest you give away free copies to do this. Basically, the reviews work like the blurb on the back of a book used to. People want a flavour of what the book is and if they'll like it. Like so many other things we used to put all our stock in the professionals, but these days we'd rather ask each other. Just another one of those blurred lines that is opening the publishing world up more and more. The other key thing I got from this is to pay attention to the people you meet. Cynthia makes the good point that someone who knows you (even in passing) is more likely to buy your book than a stranger. She then suggests you should be building an email list and sending out a monthly newsletter, again this is a bit much for me but make up your own mind. Personally I'd debate sending my blog RSS feed, or twitter ID to people who were interested, but I don't want to start sending newsletters; they feel outmoded and annoying to me. Maybe this is why I'm not doing as well as I'd like?! Another tip to come out of this article was to create a audio-book with ACX. This should probably be taken with a pinch of salt, as the article is on the ACX blog. However, there was some interesting figures about the amount of people buying audio-books and the fact that these people are actually an additional market to the conventional readers. Most people buying audio books are not readers looking for another way to engage, they are a different market of people with busy lives that want to enjoy a story while at the gymn, or on the way to work. With that little snippet of knowledge I am debating putting time into getting an audio-book together. To finish off, I came across this pic to the right. This gives some really interesting figures on social media. The two bits of data that grabbed me where that twitter is expanding far more rapidly than facebook. However, facebook is now having a proven affect on peoples purchase behaviour, which twitter isn't. This has brought me to an interesting question, which I am struggling to answer. What am I marketing? Me or my writing? I read these facts in a very simple way. If I want to build a brand identity to sell books I should be on facebook. If I want to connect with people and get my name out there, I should be on twitter. I think the issue for me is that I skip around genres, so trying to build a 'brand identity' is pretty tough. Instead I'm trying to raise people awareness of me as a writer. I'm trying to get my name around, so that people can dip in to my writing where they feel they fit. This might be all of my writing, or they might wait until I write a certain genre. Does that make sense? I'm not sure it does and this maybe where I'm going wrong. I don't think I really know what my 'product' is!! If you look at the facts (in the pic, right) it seems that your more likely to sell books (a product) through building a brand identity on facebook. But you are more likely to connect with more people on twitter and it's a place where people generate content. So where to be and what to do? I struggle with the idea of building a brand identity. Branding a set of books is easy if: a) you have several books to put against your name b) they're all of one genre or series You can build a brand identity around yourself but I really struggle with this, as well. To do it well you have to know the answer to those terrifying questions. Who am I? What's my look? How can I brand my personality? It makes me cringe and I don't feel like I know myself well enough to brand myself like a product. Some people do this really well, and you'll notice it often blends with the genre they work in. For example one person who is really smart with marketing is an artist called Lora Zombie (clue in the name). I've been following Lora for a while, through a number of different platforms. Whether she means to or not, Lora has got herself wrapped up in a way that markets her and her art simultaneously. Take a look at her site and gather some hints. If you can do this your on to a winner. The other thing to do is to just market your writing. One way to do this is through exposure, graphics and video. One person who does this really well is a writer called Adam Booth. Adam's website covers alot of stuff, as he's an artist in a lot of different ways, but watch how he markets his book on twitter. He uses a mix of reviews from others (RT'd), graphics, videos, quotes from the book, he re-brands regularly. There's a lot to be learnt here. So this was basically just my ramblings on the awkward world of marketing. I hope you grabbed a few tips from it and if you have any answers for me PLEASE, PLEASE comment. Cheers P.S. If you didn't get anything useful, here's a list of places that take short story submission which might help you. http://www.ambitmagazine.co.uk/ http://www.metazen.ca/ http://www.littlefiction.com/beta/Home.html http://www.everydayfiction.com/ http://www.chester.ac.uk/flash.magazine http://silkroad.pacificu.edu/index.html I've been invited, by fellow writer Adam M Booth, to take part in the 'my writing process blog tour'. This is a great little project where writers nominate each other to respond to four question about their current projects and process. It's a great way for readers and writers to get into the mind of their favourite novelists, glean some tips on the writing process and find out what people are currently writing. So firstly, huge thanks to Adam for inviting me. Go check out his answers from last week and while your there take a look at his novella 'The End'. It's an incredibly gripping and dark zombie horror, written from the zombie's perspective. And its only 77p for kindle. You'd be stupid not to grab it. (Link right). Next week you'll be able to read the responses from Adrian P Fayter, Phil Lickley and N.E.David - So make sure you take a look at there posts next week. Who knows you might just find the big seller of the future, your favourite book of the year or grab a tip that helps you complete your next masterpiece - More on them at the end of my blog. So here goes... What Are You Currently Working On?At the moment I am working on my second novel. Unlike Life Without the title is giving me hell and is not surfacing at the moment, so for now I'll refer to it as Death of the Artist (this may change). It's a story about a young girl, Tillie, who is trying to find the studio of her artistic hero, David Lanzer. David is a successful, but haunted artist. All his works are part of larger series and he is entrenched in his art and his process. (I'm finding this oddly relevant to the interview!? He's not me honest!? :p). Early in the story Tillie finds David's studio and decides to break in, moments later David walks through the door. Now flung together these two obsessive personalities go on a brief, relationship forging, journey. I won't say too much more but it certainly doesn't have Life Without's happy ending. I have also sent off a flurry of short stories to a number of different places recently. One that I am really hoping will pay off is a new entry to the Rowntree's Park, Words From a Bench project. I've been published by the project twice now and this round the successful pieces will go live in a a park in Iceland as well as in York. Very cool! You can read my November and February entries at the wordpress site. How Does Your Work Differ From Others Of Its Genre?I always try to put a little twist on the stories I write to make them individual. Life Without was slightly different to other in the romance genre because it was written from a male perspective. I get a lot of comments about this balance, which readers seem to really notice. I didn't really aim to carry a message through the book but I suppose it balances a genre where males are usually strong characters and females are portrayed as being damaged in some way and world apart from other characters. Death of the Artist (as I'll call it for now) is actually a totally different genre. It is effectively a thriller but it masquerades as a romance for a majority of the story. I think this is what will make it unique when it's finished and (hopefully) make it an interesting and original piece. Why Do You Write What You Do?I write a lot of different thing; different genres and also different formats. I started as a scriptwriter and still enjoy writing for screen, stage and radio, as well as writing short stories and novels. I also write songs, though that's more of a hobby. I have always said that I love storytelling; I find it fascinating that people construct their world through narratives. We tell each other jokes, put a spin on our experience of the day and more and more we constantly convert our lives into stories. New media has a big influence on this and so many of us now create stories through blogs, Facebook posts, tweets, Snapchat pictures, YouTube videos, the list goes on. I write what I do because I have an internal drive to share stories and I feel very privileged when someone takes time away from their lives to immerse themselves in something I have written. It sounds very cliche, but it really is just part of who I am. How Does Your Writing Process Work?I am all about structure and research. I don't think any story can just come about. Stories should be understood; characters have to be thought through and everything written should be pushing towards the goal that is the end of the story. It's a bit like a joke; you might embellish it to bring it to life but every word is forging towards that punch line. Stories for me should have that same sense of direction. When I'm writing I'll firstly try and put my idea into a couple of paragraphs. What I'm trying to do at that point is work out a rough map for the beginning, middle and end of my story. I think it's really important to do this because those steps of a story are ingrained in us as a culture and it's amazing how many new writers get it wrong. So I write a paragraph or two, which aim to introduce the characters. Not just say 'this is David' but to tell us who David is. Is he a brat, a rich but lonely entrepreneur, a salesman who is rubbish at his job. Then that paragraph needs to tell me what they want, what is going to get in the way and what ending I am coming to. With that rough shape in mind I then start to flesh out the characters more. Who they are as a whole; what are their quirks; where do they live; where have they come from? I sometimes do little exercises to get these characters concrete in my mind, like writing down their hopes, fears, relationship with others or reading a newspaper article and trying to workout how they would react to what's been written. Finally, before writing, I'll try to write a scene by scene breakdown of the story. I only generally start writing when I have all of this together and feel like I know the characters and the general journey of the story. Sometimes, if an idea is really fresh in my mind, I might just write. With Life Without it all just seemed to come, so I wrote the first five chapters and then I went back to the planning stages. Those five chapters actually became chapter 1,5,6,9 and 12 once I'd really thought it through. My current book, Death of the Artist, all hinges round the idea of obsession, so I've done a lot of psychological research. I read some of Freud's case studies and I tried to identify elements of a obsessive personality. I've then built this into my characters. For example, David has a whole back story about his upbringing that is purely designed to help me write him and understand what he would do in certain scenarios. I have no intention of putting the back-story in the finished book. Writing in this very structured way isn't for everyone but it really helps me write solid characters, which I'm often complimented for. It also helps me start and finish a book, which is a big challenge. A lot of potential writers out there have a great idea but never finish it. To them I say plan it out, stick to your plan and you'll get there. Once you've got a finished article you can play. Take bits out, add now things in, shift things around. I suppose I find the editing process a lot more fun and creative than the original writing process. Making a start on a blank page is a challenge for everyone. So there you are. That is my writing process blog tour. Please feel free to comment and ask any questions. Its great to talk about process with fellow writers, no matter how long they've been doing it or what level they are at. I love to get involved so give me a shout. Next Monday: Adrian P Fayter, Phil Lickley and N.E.David will take their turn. Take a look. Adrian P Fayter, author of the Larry Di Palma series of crime novels. If you think crime books can't have a sense of humour, prepare to be proved very wrong! Phil Lickley, is a 28 year old manager at a Students' Union with a passion for music. Phil enjoy all sorts of writing but mainly writes reviews on musicians/music, gigs and theatre productions. He hopes to finish off a novel and some short stories, one day! N.E.David, is the pen name of York author Nick David. Nick tried his hand at writing at the age of 21 but like so many things in life, it did not work out first time around. Following the death of his father in 2005, he took it up again and has been successful in having a series of short novellas published both in print and online. Besides being a regular contributor to Literary Festivals and open mics in the North East Region, Nick is also a founder member of York Authors and co-presenter of Book Talk on BBC Radio York. His debut novel, Birds of the Nile, is published by Roundfire. |
AuthorBen Warden - Editor of the #SFFiction project and author of 'Life Without', which made the top ten literary fiction e-books on amazon. Categories
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