In fine Company or The madatory rejection letter explaination blog

Back again after only two weeks....I'm really starting to apply myself to this blog writing caper, but I don't expect it to ever become daily - I just don't know if I could commit to that.


So, anyway...

The title of this episode is In fine Company or The mandatory rejection letter explanation blog and probably explains itself. Yes, for those who haven't guessed, I just received ejection letter/email for Jack Be Nimble from one of the major Australian publishing houses. I'll admit that it's not the first one from an agent/publisher and I don't expect it to be the last one that I'll ever get either.

While I'd be a liar if I said it was just water off a ducks back, in all honesty, it comes close.
For better or worse, when I started writing a few years ago (and still to date), every Australian writer/editor/lecturer/publisher/agent I have encountered has felt the fervent need to bemoan the difficulty to get an agent/get published/make a living. I can't remember how many time I've been told the number of manuscripts written each year verses the number that are actually published and that the average income for an Australian writer is $15k or less. These dire warnings no doubt tell the truth, and are issued with good intent I'm sure, but to me, they always conjure up the image of a 18th century black-cloaked figure, walking the streets, crying 'Bring Out Your Dead! Bring out your Dead!'

Fortunately, instead of being overwhelmed by this deluge of negativity, like a lot of writers before me, I've taken it as a challenge and picked out the important facts. Little gems such as:- Stephen King's Carrie was rejected 30 times before being accepted, Jodi Picoult had 100 rejections by agents and has gone on to write 16 best selling novels, J. K. Rowling was rejected by 12 publishers before Bloomsbury took a chance, and Mathew Reilly was rejected by every major publishing house in Sydney before self-publishing his first novel Contest.

What did I learn? Obviously, rejection letters are par for the course, and if internationally renowned writers like the ones above have received them, then I'd have to be stupid (or a God of writing!) to believe it's not going to happen to me.

So, what are the positives that I can take, and what advice can I give, from this rejection letter?

Firstly, that I did the right thing in paying for a copy editor and manuscript assessment. The publisher I sent the manuscript to does not take unsolicited manuscripts unless they come through an agent or have been assessed by a recognised manuscript assessor. This is what got me a foot in the door. Think about it...after all, you've got to spend money to make money.

Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, even though the email I received was on a form template, it did include that it was a 'well-written' manuscript. Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but the email was sent from an actual person with a 'reply-able' contact, and I'm choosing to believe that this publishing house wouldn't advice every aspiring writer that their manuscript was 'well-written'. I admit that I may be grasping at straws, but whatever gets you through the day, know what I mean?

Thirdly, while I may not be kicking my heels up in the Med, with the ink drying on a ten book deal, the rejection letter reminds me of the most important point.

It means that I'm still in the game. I'm still playing, and although I might not have won today, may not have even managed a draw, tomorrow is another day...

Which is all logical, and easier to say then believe, but despite these points there's one other reason that I can't take this rejection, or any other, too much to heart.

It's simple. I'm a writer. That's what I am and no rejection letter will ever change that.

Cheers

When it rains, it pours

Back so soon? Yes, I know but there you go - when it rains, it pours...


Just thought I'd update things a bit. No book deal or publishing credits to share (and I've given up on the sponsorship thing) but that's not to say things haven't been rolling along...I feel a bit like one of those steam engines building pressure and gaining traction...I may not be moving yet but once I get going it will to full steam ahead.

At the moment my dry period of ideas and inspiration (I refuse to call it a drought) while I have been reading and reasearching, has broken like a dam...or a drought..I'm mixing my metaphores a bit so I'm not sure which it is but it doesn't matter. The ideas are coming thick and fast, and while they may not all be good or even great ideas, there are some real gems. Some are longer, like Dying Civilization (working title only) and Audrey and Jane, a story my wife particularly wants to read after hearing the pitch. Then there is a selection of short stories some that are still ideas, some I have started. Amongst the ones I've started writing are Only a day away (a story with tulips but not about tulips), Reason to Live (no tulips, but I think will turn out to be a hell of a story) and All in your head (which I hope will have a sort of Twilight Zone feel)...

Anyway, for a change of pace, I will not be doing the usual 'history of Sean Greenhill as a debt collector' interlude (never fear, dear readers it shall return) but in it's place we will have a special guest segment I like to call 'My Family Tree/ I heard it through the grapevine' or 'Is it in the Genes?'

I imagine that most writers/painters/musicians have reached some point where they ask themselves 'Do I really have IT or am I just kidding myself?' I hope they do anyway, otherwise it's just me. Luckily for me, I've been able to look to my cousin, Craig Greenhill. Craig is a photographer with The Daily Telegraph in Sydney, Aust and has won numerous awards, including two Walkley awards for his stunning images. (and yes, actually, I took all of the images in my photography page).

Recently, I was also able to confirm that I am related (distantly admittedly - first cousin twice removed) to Harold Greenhill, the renowned Australian painter, who won the Sulman Prize in 1950 and 1956.

One of Harold's daughters, Annette Kay - who became Annette Kay Blackwood, Baroness Dufferin and Clayeboye - is the mother of the illustrator and special effects artist, Freya Blackwood. Freya's special effects work can be seen in The Lord of the Rings trilogy and she has won this years Kate Greenaway Medal for her illustrations in the children's book Harry & Hopper.

So, what does this show, apart from the fact that I can name drop too? It means that if it's in the genes, then I just might have a hope. Who knows, it might even be a head start? Of course, if you don't believe, it doesn't mean anything...but still, it helps.

Cheers

Nothing but time

October already? Like Alice's rabbit - I'm Late! I'm Late!

Okay the (few) highlights first...

My story Ease of the Midnight Visit - a ghost story that's more thought provoking than scary - was published in Short and Twisted 2010 (Celapene Press, AUS) in June and, I think, that copies are still available for purchase at Celepane Press. My story is the last in the book and I'm taking this as 'saving the best for last'. Submissions are now open for Short and Twisted 2011 and I'm going to see if I can't go for two years in a row. We'll see...

Long Live the King! has had another outing, this time in Twisted Tongue (UK) Issue16. For some reason I really like the main charcter of this story, Vince Card/Charlie King, to such a degree that I have continued it beyond the orginal 2500 words or so, and it's now out to about 9000 words. Could it possibly be a novella or novel I hear you ask. I'm hoping so and have done a mountain of research on the D.E.A. and  the mafia, including wading through Selwyn Raab's 800 page Five Families. Fascinating but I wouldn't try to read it again. So much detail, it did my head in.

I've also knocked out a couple of good short stories, Everett - featuring a character so annoying that I can't help loving him, and Live to Ride - a story I will admit was directly inspired by the recent reposts in the media of the  'Lemontree Passage Ghost'. I also have written a story called A Friend Like Bob to see how far I could take what was essentially a one line joke. 1500 words, apparently. Don't expect to see it published - ever.

I've also kept myself busy reading about 20 - 30 real crime novels as research. They are fascinating but stightly horrifing, not just what some people are capable of doing to other people, but in the fact that chance and dumb luck seem to solve more crime than any amount of so called 'traditional policing'. I constantlly wonder how anyone is ever caught at all.

Anyway...I won't leave it as long next time...promise

What's that? My lesson from the past?

Back in the 80's, more than twenty years ago, I worked in property finance, when it was still like the wild west, and slick cowboys rode into town and rode out just as fast, some with their ill gotten gains, some with their tails between their legs.

I was introduced to one on those cowboys once, we'll call him 'Sneaky Pete' to avoid any law suits. Sneaky Pete was a wheeler and dealer, a man with a smile on his face all the time. But Sneaky Pete wore a black hat and I was warned. 'Don't be fooled and don't get to close. He's bad business.'

Later on, in the nineties, I saw 'Sneaky Pete' again. He was spruiking his latest idea, and quiet respected people were being photographed with him, but then it all feel through and Sneaky Pete disappeared again.

Imagine my surprise when I turned on the news this week and saw 'Sneaky Pete', slightly older, rounder and with grey hair, telling the media that he couldn't talk about the current case invovling hundreds of thousands of dollars that shouldn't have gone missing.

The lesson. A leopard never changes it's spots.

Cheers

Long Live The King!

No, no...I'm not talking about me, I'm not that egotistical...yet

Let me explain...

At the end of last year I set myself a goal of getting one publication credit per month for 2010. Reach for the stars, I've been told, and even if you don't make it, you'll still have a hell of a trip. In some ways, my target is a little ambitious, but then again if I really am a storyteller of any worth, I should be able to do it. Let's consider it a sort of litmus test...

So, to this end, in January I had Cruisin' published in House of Horror Issue 8. This is a bit of a fudge because I actually knew about it last year, but I'll take every free hit I can get.

As announced in my last blog, Ease of the Midnight Visit was accepted for publication in Short and Twisted 2010 for June publication. Not exactly a 'Feb publishing credit' in the true sense, but I refer to my 'free-hit-rule' again and have the score as 2 - 0 in my favour.

And yesterday, I was advised that my new American crime short story, Long Live The King!, has been accepted by the US ezine, Sex and Murder. It's described as 'a magazine of extreme horror, dark fiction and splatterpunk', so another departure from the Horror, Romance, etc, genres I've been published in, and yet it isn't really. It's crime, gritty and real, (vaguely reminiscent of the 'American/Pulp Fiction/Gangster' mode) and I really like the main character. Could there be a follow up/longer story  to be written from it? I hear you ask.

We'll see...anything's possible.

Haven't got a publication date for it yet, but when I know, so will you.

So, I make that three publication credits so far (2 KO's and 1 on a points count). Maybe a publishing credit per month was a little rigid...Maybe I should go for twelve (or more) for the year...never let it be said that I'm not prepared to move the goal posts in the middle of the game...

And, as usual, something from the past...

Twenty years as a debt collector taught me a lot of things...one of the most important is that if you lead an argument, you'll win the argument. Think about it...if you're answering the questions, if you're on the back foot, you've already lost. Try leading next time...you'll be surprised.

Gotta run...haven't written anything in a while...been 'researching'...

Cheers

Summer down under

   

I know, I know...another two months without an update. I put the blame on Australia's habit of closing down some time in early December and not reopening for business until January...or maybe February, it all depends on how relaxed we feel.

So, it's a New Year...I'd like to say I've done nothing and be proud of it, but yet again, that would be a lie.

Regarding the novel, Jack be Nimble, I've finally run through all the options as far as 'legitimate' agents are concerned and will shortly be assaulting the portals of the Publishing houses...or at least the ones that are still interested in aspiring authors. We'll see...

In the meantime, I've been tinkering with another two novel length stories; The Cabin, a thriller, set in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and The Girl Who Could Smell Poision, a crime thriller based around Boston (USA). They are, obviously, aimed at a US audience, and once I get the first draft of one or the other completed, I'll be trying to sell them directly to US publishers...bigger market, more opportunity...

I have also completed, and submitted, several short stories including Art for Art's Sake and Behind Every Successful Man as well as One for the Money, all horror pieces and have another four or five 'works in progress'. Another story, Ease of the Midnight Visit (not horror?!), has just been accepted by Short and Twisted 2010 (Celapene Press, Aus) which will be out in June.

Anyway, I've got a sore throat from all this talking, so we'll take a short break, but I promise that it won't be two months this time..

I did, however, say I would give some history as we go along...today's lesson...don't throw away or give up on those old stories that you did ages ago...Ease of the Midnight Visit is actually eight years old...written back when I was still a debt collector and not the suave, confident and debonair writer you see before you today...hell, I hadn't even done a grammar or editing course then...what was I thinking?

So, stick to it and believe in yourself...

Cheers