Natalie Allan

Since I began decorating our home over a month ago, I’ve sneaked in three small novel writing sessions where I can to work on Draft 4 of Village of Vampires. I’ve been working so damn hard, I’ve been too tired by the end of it to get any real hard labour in on my novel. It’s a shame, my schedule has gone right out the window.

Before I started decorating, I was already two months behind schedule for finding a literary agent and seeking publication for Village of Vampires. Where am I now? at least four months behind, if not five or six. I so badly want to sit down and breeze through this draft, but I can’t because my home comes first. Don’t get me wrong, I want my home to come first — and my husband. I want to have nice decorations, clean walls and new floors. But the niggling dream of getting this book published never leaves the back of my mind. I’m becoming irritable because I want to work on it so badly.

Poetry

Since I haven’t been able to work on my novel, I’ve needed to keep that writing part of my brain open and still firing so I’m not rusty when I come back to it at a later date. So, I’ve been picking up the old fashioned pen and paper and catching a short poem here and there in between painting walls. So far, I have twelve good quality edited poems to show for it and I’m really happy with them. Who knows, one day I might even publish a small book or pamphlet of my poetry.

Paintings

I’ve also worked on a painting to hang in my fresh-painted lounge (when I have time to put it up). It’s very simple and I haven’t painted in over two years, but I’m very happy with the outcome. Here it is, I called it “Autumn Breeze”:

Autumn Breeze, acrylic on canvas, 27 Feb 2010

Autumn Breeze, corner tree detail. Metallic bronze and copper paints in the leaf detail makes them look as though they are highlighted by the sun.

Autumn Breeze, middle tree detail. Metallic bronze and copper paints in the leaf detail makes them look as though they are highlighted by the sun.

Autumn Breeze, distant trees. No metallic paints were used on these to create depth in the composition.

Autumn Breeze, cloud detail.

Autumn Breeze, cloud detail.

Autumn Breeze, sun painted with metallic gold paint to make it appear as if it is glowing off the canvass. This looks awesome when daylight catches it.

Autumn Breeze, grasses and my signature.

Puppies

On Sunday, a new addition joined our family. Her name is Saffron (call name “Saffie)  and she’s a four month old Papillon crossed with a Jack Russel Terrier. She’s very adorable and gets on really well with our two year ol Springer Spaniel, Rosie. Here’s a couple of pictures:

Saffie and Rosie

Saffron ("Saffie")

Crashing Computers And Screamworks

I’d been waiting for my copy of Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice by my favourite band HIM since the middle of January. When it finally arrived from Amazon after all the trouble I had with the bank cancelling the order from Warner records, I was looking forward to bunging the thing in my computer and just listening to it.

No such luck. When I booted my computer to listen to the damn thing on Saturday after receiving it in the mail, my computer refused to come on. It was dead. As in forever. So I had to go to the trouble of setting up a new PC. I decided not to put Windows back on it and have instead gone back to Ubuntu Linux. I’ve never had a problem with Linux, it just works like it’s meant to.

Recovering my data from said dead PC took all of Saturday and I didn’t get to hear my album until Sunday. It’s absolutely amazing. I love the album and all it’s songs. The bonus CD, Baudelaire in Braille is equally as amazing. I can’t stop listening to it.

I ordered it from Amazon because of the bank rejected the transaction from Warner Records. I received an email today from Warner to say the CD and Saint Scream print has now been shipped and Warner have started to take the money again for the order from the bank. So it looks like I’ll end up with two copies of the CD. I’m giving the CD to a friend of mine in Finland. I love her very much and she deserves to have my copy. So I’ve promised her she can have it for free if and when the damn things arrive!

I’m just glad I get my Saint Scream print

Village of Vampires

I’m back in the saddle of the 4th draft, knocking out about 1000 carefully thought out words a day. I’ve finished my beta reading with only one ongoing manuscript hitting my mailbox so I have ample time now to go about my usual writerly days. I’m still two months behind schedule, but I’ll have to see how I go.

I query agents when I get round to it, when the books complete. No personal pressure…

Once upon a time, I used to wish for more emails. The urge to connect was there, the need to chat with my friends via this free medium was at the forefront of my mind. I would check my email several times a day, only to find my inbox empty and my junk folder full. I felt forlorn, rejected, lonely.

Now, however, rarely a day passes where my inbox is sparse or devoid completely of communication. The emails pour in morning, noon and night. I reply to them, giving necessary details, friendly advice and ongoing chatter. For everyone I respond to, five more appear. The little number that tells me how many emails I have goes up and up, the amount of flags meaning I’ve marked that said email as important or is something I need work on increases. As do the beta reads.

I’ve been a good girl lately, ignoring my own urges to write and complete my book so I can I read through the books others have already written. I’m true to the writer, keeping my eye critical and my advice devoid of personal opinion or changes I’d make if it were my work. I create reports on what worked, what didn’t, why the plot doesn’t arc or why characters seem flat. I read, I advise, I line edit, I send the work back to it’s owner.

Then I begin again, working from early morning like I did today until I go to bed at night. I eye my own novel, still incomplete and deserving my attention. But these other people need my help, how can I say no to them or tell them my work is more important? I can’t turn my back on a friend, and yet, I turn my back on my own novel every day. The emails come in with chapters and sometimes whole manuscripts attached, and I work tirelessly on them until I’ve fulfilled my promise to the writer, my friend.

The hours pass, and by nightfall I have little energy for my own work. It’s been several days since I worked on my fourth draft, the urge to write is practically tearing my brain to pieces. But the emails are there and they won’t go away. I don’t want them to go away because I know I’m doing some good helping the friends these things belong to.

A few more days and I hope I’ll have cleared out the beta reads in my inbox. The other emails that require simple replies to a non-writing friend will have to wait. My novel needs me, and I have to get back to it before all these beta reads get published and my own work is still sat on the shelf collecting dust.

In the face of this, I have to say I can’t take on any new beta reads for the foreseeable future. I have my own novel to consider, as well three full manuscripts I’m reading through for friends. Aside from this, I do partial betas for trusted close friends who occasionally email me a chapter they may be struggling with or an idea that doesn’t settle right. I would love to help you get your book published as others are doing for me, but if I take too much on I’m going to melt. I have to work on what projects I have open first.

I’m now two months behind schedule for querying agents on my novel. I was meant to begin querying mid-March, but it doesn’t look as though I’ll get there until May or maybe June. By all means, when I finally get to this stage I may be able to offer to beta read, but not until I’m finished chewing everything I have in my mouth, swallowed, and digested.

With all this said, it’s back to the manuscripts if I ever want to jump back into my own work.

Village of Vampires

I begun the 4th draft of Village tonight, and thus far the word count stands at 709. Not bad, a nice gentle start to the revisions.

Village of Vampires

Finally, I know what’s missing from Village (apart from a better title). I’ve been thinking these last few weeks since I handed the project over to my Beta Readers on January 10th that this novel was “missing something” or needed an “extra layer” not in the plot, but in the prose. You know that magic thing that makes the main character stand out beyond a shadow of a doubt? That “it” factor?

Well, I don’t know exactly what that “it” is, every reader sees the main character’s “it” differently depending on what book they’re reading, but I now know that I have to give this “it” thing to my main character. Everything else is there: the plot is multi-layered with sub-plots and a beginning, middle and end; the world is vivid and there’s no unanswered questions; and the cast of characters are unique and individual.

Once I’ve added this “it” into my main character’s personality and traits, I know this book won’t be “missing” anything or incomplete. Once I’ve given “it” to her, this book will be publishable (after a line edit or two).

So, time frame to complete this round of edits? To hell with a time frame, I’m going to give my protagonist the “it” she deserves, no matter how long it takes. Work begins ASAP.

Here it is then, the ticker-tape to completion:

It all started with that Friday Feeling…

After my husband’s incredibly long weekend last week, we were looking forward to having a simple and relaxing two days spent together with a visitation from the parental units. No such luck.

I ordered the limited edition version of Screamworks: Love in Theory and Practice on the day it went up for pre-order, with all the excitement of a pig-headed child. I wanted the limited edition screen print that came with the double CD. However, on Friday I had an email from Warner records saying the bank refused to give authorisation on my debit card. The money was there, I’d shopped online with it before, there was no reason why that transaction shouldn’t have gone through.

Annoyed, I was forced to order the special edition without the screen print from Amazon instead. That night, we were tentatively awaiting the arrival of our groceries from Asda, due between 7 and 9 P.M. At 9:15, when the shopping didn’t arrive, I checked the website to see what the hell had happened to my food and loo roll, only to find the order had been cancelled.

Annoyed again, I called Asda to see where my goods were, only to be told the bank had refused authorisation on the debit card again. Even more annoyed, I called the bank at 9:30 P.M. to see why they wouldn’t allow me to spend my money. Emphasis on the *my money*, not the bank’s. I was told they had seen a suspicious transaction on the card resulting in the card having a temporary block on it. When I asked what this transaction might be, they told me it was an overseas transaction for the said CD that didn’t go through, and they couldn’t understand why the debit for Amazon had been allowed. After much begging and promising I was the owner of the card, they lifted the block and I rescheduled the groceries for the next available slot, which was today, Sunday.

So, in essence, the bank saw a transaction between myself and a large company such as Warner suspicious. WTF? Can’t I buy from America if I want?

Saturday Stupor…

Saturday, things continued in much the same pattern. the parental units called to say they were down with flu and couldn’t make their regular Saturday visit, so we went into the city for a spot of retail therapy. Not to spend much because we don’t have much. My husband needed a new pair of shoes, and I wanted to buy a book of collected works of Charles Baudelaire as well as the dog’s three monthly fleas treatment.

We started at Pets At Home for the flea drops for the simple fact they have a free car park for up to 2 hours. The flea treatment by Frontline is veterinary grade and kills fleas like a nuclear bomb and prevents them from ever coming back (so long as you use the damned stuff regular as clockwork). The dog doesn’t have fleas, but prevention is always good.

In the pet store, I asked for the veterinary grade stuff and was asked a million questions as to why I wanted to buy it. Er, it’s flea treatment, it kills fleas, right? The woman then said she couldn’t sell it me because there was no one qualified to hand out veterinary grade medicines. After much cajoling, I felt like leaping across the counter and yelling “Just gimme the goddamn drugs already” into her overly round face. She told me I’d have to wait several days before this oh-so-qualified checkout operative would be in store. I decided to leave it and buy it online from the Medic Animal online veterinary store. this was the first shopping faux pass.

We then trawled the shops for my husband’s shoes. When it comes to shopping, we have a conflict of interest. He likes cheap and cheerful, I like high-quality will-last-forever-and-fuck-the-price kind of shoes. We finally were able to find a pair in Marks and Spencer that both covertly aided his dodgy ankle and would last a long time in the field of onsite technical support. And we got both at the bargain price of £30 while still being able to proudly carry a bag from a reputable shop. Payless shoes? Go fuck yourself!

After this, we went into Waterstones to grab the tome of Baudelaire. Non such happened. What kind of bookstore must it be if it doesn’t carry at least 1 copy of Baudelaire’s collected works? Faux pass number 2. I did, however, come out with a compendium of H.P. Lovecraft’s work. Bingo!

After this, we drove back to our small town for lunch only to find the local Subway has closed down. Faux pass number 3. We ended up going home and ordering in a pizza after spending much time queuing in the warehouse for a new dog bed and a can of air freshener.

The dog loves the new bed and hasn’t left it since we gave it her yesterday afternoon:

When we got home, I ended up ordering the Baudelaire book from Amazon as well as the flea treatment from Medic Animal.Why didn’t I just shop online to begin with?

That night was also a bad night. We noticed our elderly rat, Suse, the only remaining rat from the original Linux Rat pack, was not well. She was very elder and doddery at the best of times, but last night her time came and she passed onto wherever it is all good pets go when they depart. I’d bred Suse myself, so she lived and died in my home. She was 3 years old and the best rat a person could ever wish to own:

She will be sadly missed.

Sunday Screams…

Today has carried on in the same vein.When the groceries finally arrive, most of the items had been substituted for the “closest possible match” because the originally ordered items were “temporarily out of stock”. Why the hell didn’t Asda say they were out of stock when I ordered them.

So now, after much agonising with the delivery driver, I’m stuck with 4 boxes of Starbucks Tassimo coffee maker filters when I ordered 4 bags of ground coffee, spicy burgers for the husband when I ordered regular quarter-pounders, and 2kg of teeny tiny potatoes when I ordered the good fist sized ones.

Needless to say, we ended up driving to Morrisons in our little town to buy the items we actually wanted, resulting in us spending even more money.

I’m well and truly ready for this weekend, this month, to be over and to start afresh on February 1st.

Beta Reading

After my epic fail on the productivity side of things last week, this week has started with a fruitfully.

On Sunday, I offered to do an emergency beta read for  friend of mine of twitter when she came to the end of her wits with her manuscript for her book. I began beta reading for her yesterday and managed to pass through the first 40 pages in two sittings. I estimate it will take me another week to complete this beta for her, seeing as her manuscript is very clean so far.

Helsinki Vampires Synopsis

On par with my super-productivity, I managed to write the outline for 11 chapters of Helsinki Vampires, the second book in my series, yesterday. I anticipate there are about eight more chapters to outline, perhaps ten, so I should be done with the outlining on that book this week.

The Dissapearing Husband

Okay, so he didn’t really disappear. There was no magic involved and I new exactly where he was.

On Friday he was asked to go to Cannock to help with a server install, and worked a couple of hours over. When the job wasn’t completed (because servers like to fuck up just to get the better of their admins), he was asked to go in and complete the job on Saturday. So he went in, worked 9am until about 6pm, but was unable to finish the job so had to go back in on Sunday.

Oh yeah, this server really hated its masters.

On Sunday, he arrived back in at 9am, worked off his socks with his colleague, and all seemed to be well. He called me at 10pm that night to tell me they were having major technical difficulties and would be probably be working on it through the night. By now, he’d been working for 13 hours.

I next heard from him at 8am on Monday morning. They were still there, working hard and the server was still refusing yield to their geekerly powers. Current hours worked: 23.

He finally arrived home a little after 5pm yesterday, after working all day Sunday, through the night, and all day Monday. Needless to say he was pooped. He’d worked 32 hours straight.

He crashed for five hours, I woke him up to feed him, then he went straight to bed to sleep the night away. And he was still up in time for work this morning. Now that’s dedication.

Now how can I apply that sort of dedication to my writing…?

This week has been mostly boring…

This week, one way or another, has led me to messing around and generally procrastinating, which has taken all my focus off the synopsis for book two.

Time wasting ventures…

Earlier this week I checked the stats on the website to find the bandwidth had gone through the roof. Someone had been hotlinking images and I wasn’t impressed. It took me a whole day to trace the hotlinkers and put a text file in the directory to disable hotlinking via those people. That was a gargantuan waste of time.

Husband passes his finals…

My husband took his last final on Wednesday for part one of his CCNA course and passed with flying colours. He’ll be starting part two on the 10th February, and after that there’ll be two more parts to take him to the end of 2011. He works hard. On Wednesdays, he works 08:30 til 5:00 at his IT geek job, then does college from 5:30 til 9:00. It’s a really long day for him.

Visitations…

My sister and Harvey came around on Thurday and we had a trip to the warehouse to buy curtains and drinks cannisters. I swear to God that child has grown a good six inches since Christmas. He never stops talking, either. He’s learnt a tonne of new words.

Back-ups and crack-ups and why win-blows…

It was my intention to back up my PC on Friday for a re-install. Windows 7 had somehow deactivated itself, parts of the operating system had stopped working, and it was slow and laggy. It took the entire day to back up my 500 GB disk to the slave drive. I tried re-installing yesterday (Saturday) but the thing wouldn’t allow me to un-mirror the drives and convert them back to basic disks and I didn’t want to fuck up any of my data. So I spent all day yesterday trying to bodge the operating system to a working state and re-activate Windows. It seemed to work. I now have a 99% working installation of Windows so it wasn’t an entire waste of time. Windows sucks and blows at the same time.

Exploding speakers…

If I expected to ever blow up a sound system, I thought it would be the amp for my guitar. I play it far too loud. So loud the thing crackles. However, it was not my illustrious death metal rendition of “Ode to Joy” blowing up the amp. In fact, it wasn’t the amp that blew up at all.

I switched the extension socket on for my PC last night and something went BANG! This was promptly followed by the smell of burning and a little bit of smoke. I panicked. I assumed I’d totalled my PC. The PC came on fine, but I didn’t get any sound out of it. When testing the sound card for the problem, I unplugged the speakers sound system, and plugged a set of head phones straight into the back of the PC. Upon getting sound through the headphones, I checked the plug for the speakers and smelt like bonfire night.

Alas, my sound system is no more.

Workaholic…

My husband doesn’t normally work weekends, except this weekend my poor techy-geek was needed for a server install in Cannock. He worked 9:00 til 6:00 yesterday, and went in again at 9:00 this morning and is still there. It’s almost 08:00 PM, and who knows how long that puppy’s gonna take? He has to be there until it’s done. Hence, apart from a short visitation from the parental units yesterday, I’ve spent my weekend all alone and haven’t been able to kill time writing because of the above problems.

Quitting smoking…

Didn’t work. I started again on Thursday, gave up on Friday, and started again today. What can I say other than I needed something to kill the boredom. Want me to appologise or spend further words justifying? Tough crap, I am what I am and what I am needs no excuses.

What I am is bored.

I can’t wait to get back to some productivity…

Helsinki Vampires

The synopsis for Helsinki Vampires, the second book in my series, is 10 chapters into the synopsis stage and it’s coming easily. This time I’m leaving no room for error that could lead me to doing an entire re-write like it did with Village of Vampires. So each chapter is being carefully outlined and each subplot is being taken into consideration. It looks like I have another exciting cast of new characters as well as the old one from book 1 which are sure to be reader’s favorites.

Village of Vampires

Village of Vampires is still being beta read and I’m taking a well deserved break from it. After all, I did write it twice (the re-write was a complete re-write where nothing was copied or pasted from the old manuscript, the only thing that remained was the skeleton idea and the characters).

Main Website

Some more work on the main website will go ahead this week, including the gallery intergration. All exciting stuff.

Query Letters and Book Proposals

I’ve drafted a query letter for Village of Vampires already which I hope hooks a good and trusty agent. The letter has been emailed off to the Query Shark for critique. Hopefully this will get the bones of the letter into a good shape to send it off (if the Shark chooses to critique mine, that is).

I’m also researching the world of book proposals ready for when I begin querying those trusty agents. You can never be prepared enough in this game.

On the Cards

I’m hoping to complete the synopsis for Helsinki Vampires before I get the critiqued manuscript for Village of Vampires back from my beta reader. If I have time before I get book 1 back, I’m hoping to work on the bones of the synopsis for book 3, thus saving me time and energy in future.

I Quit Smoking

This post does exactly what it says on the tin, so to speak. At midnight last night, we both quit smoking in a bid to save more money for home improvements. Well, that and the added health bonuses, of course.

How has the first day been? Good, actually. I was a bit snappy earlier on, but since I’ve increased the strength of the coffee at about eleven am, all seems to be going well. My husband’s been going through food and snacks like they’re going out of fashion. The thing I’ve missed is standing in that one corner of the kitchen every half hour. By God, how much more time I’ve had today, it’s incredible.

Helsinki Vampires

The syopsis for HelsinkiVampires is well under way and I’ve managed to outline eight chapters so far. All seems good. Village of Vampires is still with my beta reader for the time being. I can’t wait to see her thoughts on it.