Natalie Allan

Just a quick update on the writing projects. Although I haven’t managed to do any more research on becoming my own publisher (as in, open up my own small press to publish my own books (see my recent blogs on “My mission for 2010″: http://blog2.natalieallan.co.uk/?p=120 and http://blog2.natalieallan.co.uk/?p=123)), I have, however, cracked the whip on the writing projects and they seems to be going fairly smoothly.

I now have 50+ poems (half of which are edited and finalised) for my book of collected poems I intend on publishing in 2011 (not bad, to say I only started working on this batch in February), and I need about 150 to 200 more so the book is average paperback size. So far, I’ve been writing 2-3 poems a day, four days a week. I estimate I should have enough poems for my book by the end of September. I’ve already begun the design of the cover and the typesetting of the internal pages. It’s really exciting!

I’m plotting a new novel as well. This one is the backstory for “Village of Vampires”, the novel I already have in 4th draft, and was originally going to be a novella on some of my characters to help refine the nitty-gritty details about them so I could finally finish this draft. And as all the best laid plans go to waste, this book seems to be turning itself into a novel, and there’s so much prize information in there, “Village of Vampires” looks to be its sequel and the new novel needs to be (written) and read first in order for the reader to understand it! It’s an integral part of the world-building also. So once again, “Village of Vampires” has been put on the back burner. But at least this project is remotely relevant to it!

The things we do for our characters…

What are you writing right now?

So, we all remember my mission for 2010, right? The one where I intend to finish the content for my book of collected poems and become my own publisher by setting up my own publishing house under my own name and publish the said book? Well, things are under way on this. I have so far completed:

• Basic research about how to do this and what I need to know and do (more advanced research will come when I cross that bridge);
• Begun organizing and editing my existing poems and putting them into “categories” of how I’d like them to appear in the book;
• Designed the cover of the book (okay, so this was 8 hours and 4 drafts worth of work that didn’t need to be done yet, but I had fun doing it);
• Begun the layout in a typesetting program and begun typesetting the preliminary pages of my paperback.

This is all fun and games. I’m able to write, be creative, and learn something new all at the same time – which are three things I absolutely love to do! Sure, there will come paperwork, and print costing, and business setting-up, and taxes to worry about, a market to find to sell my book to — but who cares about that when I’m on a huge learning curve? And, when I do get to that stage, it’ll be a walk in the park because I’ve already set up and run my own business in the past when I used to make and sell handmade greeting cards, so I already know the anatomy of a Limited Company.

However, while I’m doing all this, my novel, Village of Vampires, has been sat on the shelf — and that’s really bad. I’ve been putting off working on it because I know I have to go through that horrible process of querying literary agents and facing rejection. Then the realisation hit me — if I’m going to become my own publisher, I can publish this book myself, too.

What can I say? Sometimes the most obvious things can sit right under your nose and you don’t notice them.

I now feel a renewed and added enthusiasm for Village of Vampires. I’ve wanted to see that book in print so badly since I began working on the synopsis last October. Now, I can realise that dream without having to go through the pain and torture of the query process and the rejection and heartache that comes with it. And I’ll get to keep 100% of all proceeds from the sales — an added bonus, as always.

All I need to do now, is run these two books side-by-side while researching the business of publishing oneself, and hopefully in a few months, I’ll be able to publish one or the other of these books!

For some strange reason, ever since the clocks changed and Easter weekend holiday threw out my writing routine, I haven’t written a fat lot of anything — whether it be for the 4th draft of my novel (Village of Vampires), poetry, or short stories. Nothing in my life has actually changed since then, and I haven’t changed my daily routine. My writing life just seems to have blown away in the gentle spring breeze.

Time to change that, me thinks!

On average, and before my routine got thrown to pot, I worked on one-page-per-day of my novel, wrote anything up to four poems, and tinkered with short story ideas every day. That’s right, I did all this each day. Now it’s time to get back at it.

If I don’t, that writing part of my brain will cease up and I’ll end up with a bad case of w-r-i-t-e-r-s b-l-o-c-k, and I don’t want that to happen — in fact, this needs to be avoided at all costs.

So what am I going to do about it?

Force myself to write.

Every day.

No excuses. Whatsoever.

I don’t particularly care about how much I write each day, so long as I do something — it’s quality I’m after, not quantity. And even if I don’t jump back in and write the volumes I was doing before my routine oddly changed, at least I’ll be writing something. Which is a much-improvement on the nothingness I’m achieving at the moment.

I also promise to start blogging more as well. I tend to have stopped writing for everything, so I apologise if it’s been a bit quiet around here lately.

So, all I need to do now, is get off the internet and actually work on something.

Something productive…

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…

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:

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.

Village of Vampires

The 3rd draft of Village of Vampires is complete!!!! It now sits in the trusty hands of my beta reader learning all life’s good lessons.

Not only is this a milestone for this novel, it’s another chapter in my hopeful writing career closed and finished off. After this, and when I recieve my beta reader’s advice back, I’ll beging the next chapter and the next draft: line edits and tweaks!

I feel a little out of kilter because I’ve promised myself a writing break for a few days now while I sit and stew about what I’ve learned so far from this book, from the previous chapters of my writing life. To think I began preps for this book in October and began writing it on November 1st is mindblowing. So many changes in so little time. Onwards and upwards!

Back by Popular Demand

The blog interviews are going to reappear here over the next few days, back by popular demand. After I broke the site late last year, a lot of posts were lost. However, I managed to salvage the interviews I did with Nicole Peeler, Gail Carriger and Toni Mcgee Causey.

I’ll also be hosting new interview and guest posts soon, and the book reviews are also returning here! Watch this space…