October, 2024October was a productive month in that I can honestly say that I have finally converted all my out-of-print fantasy series – Andrakis, Ashuak Chronicles, Dreaming in Amber – into digital print-on-demand on Amazon. Basically, if you want copies of any of the books – Guardians, Kingmaker, Dragonlords, Blood, Pasion, Freedom, The Amber Legacy, A Solitary Journey, Prisoner of Fate or The Demon Horsemen – I can provide them. Just so that you know
This entry, I thought you might be interested in a hypothetical – How much does it cost to write a book? There is no real comparison with salaried or waged employment, but here’s a breakdown based on my experiences. Careful, it’s lengthy. Conceptualising a novel is not easy to quantify. While I can tell you that a recent project was developed from an idea to a draft within two months, another novel that I am drafting for NaNoWriMo in November is a concept now more than twenty years old. However, as a good friend and I recently did, a concept could technically be the product of a day’s think-tank workshop, bouncing various ideas around and teasing out potential plots and characters and scenarios, so we will use this as the basis for costing the writing of a novel. Let’s say I am paid a casual rate at $80/hr, which is a current approximation for a mid-range copywriter (source), and we spend an eight hour day on conceptualising the novel, making the initial cost or investment $640. Most of my novels are around the 100,000 word mark, some up to 140,000 words. A current unpublished manuscript of mine is 120,000 words, so I will use that manuscript for this hypothetical. While I can generally type at about 90 words per minute, I’ve timed and know that it generally takes me around 30 minutes to create a page of a fiction piece (300 words). This is because the creative writing process is a complex mixture of thinking, typing, reading, revising, editing and altering, and not a simple copy or fast typing exercise. On average, I complete maybe ten words a minute in draft format. A novel draft of 120,000 words, based on that rate of production, requires at least 200 hours of constant typing. On the copywriter’s wage, the draft has cost $16,000 to produce, representing almost five weeks of fulltime working. As a reference, a novel I did complete and have published, of similar length, took close to three months to complete in first full draft when I took long service leave, so pumping out a novel in five weeks, while doable, is not close to the time generally required. Once the draft is created, it requires editing, and editing is not a simple or one-off process. Editors refer to at least four phases that I can attest to as a writer/editor:
While much of the above also occurs during the creative writing process, when the draft is completed all of the above have to be done at least once each before a manuscript is considered ready for submission to anyone. Good editors currently charge around $60-$120 per 1000 words, so I’ll suggest the rate for this hypothetical will be $60 per 1000 words. For the hypothetical project, the time involved will be around 120 hours so the cost of editing the draft into a suitable manuscript will be $7,200. Note: when I showed this to a few people they were shocked at what it can cost to have a book edited, and a couple of writers said they could never complete their project if that was a cost they were facing. Creating the novel from concept to manuscript nominally costs $23,840 as a paid exercise, assuming there are no interruptions or major rewrites involved in the process. We can factor in a variety of additional costs, like home office equipment (depreciation), utility services and so on. It is likely the full cost of writing a manuscript is around $25,000 of equivalent wages through time and equipment. After that, the writer has to attract interest from an agent, and the agent has to interest a publisher. Those already connected in the industry can go directly to people and businesses that will, if they like the work, publish and market their novel. The costs involved in establishing contacts can range from $0 through email and voice contact through to attending conventions and fairs which involve registration, travel and accommodation costs. For this exercise, let’s say I attend a convention in Adelaide and one in Canberra where I endeavour to make myself known to prospective agents and publishers. The Adelaide event costs only time, say 3 days at 5 hours a day, which is 15 hours at my lower wage rate of $60 or $900. Canberra, however, involves similar time, plus air flights, taxi or public transport, meals and accommodation. I’ll fly in on the opening morning and leave the final evening, I won’t attend social events, even though I know they are great places to meet people in the industry, and I will eat sparingly. The last time I ever did such an event, it required an outlay of $300 flights, $300 accommodation and about $150 food and drinks. Altogether, the Canberra event, plus wage time, requires $1650 of time and money. So, I’ve power-written my novel over a five-week period, power-edited it over another two weeks, and by some miracle coincided attendance at two conventions in the same month. I’ve needed, between time and actual costs, an income of around $30,000 in that month to sustain the entire project from start to publisher acceptance. Of course, let’s be realistic and use my personal example of the process for The Last Wizard taking three months from start to ready manuscript, so that comes back to a mere $10,000 a month income required to sustain the project. And another miracle happens. A publisher buys the rights and pays an advance of maybe $10,000 with a deal of 10% on future sales of the book. The book hits the Australian market and over a two year period sells, say, 10,000 copies – a very minor success. The price is set at $25, so the book generates $250,000 revenue and the writer receives $25,000 less the $10,000 advance, that is, $15,000 over the two years. The publisher might invest in sending the writer to some public events and interviews to build profile, and the writer might also pick up workshop gigs to bolster income from the book. And they might not. The other miracle is the instant blockbuster where the writer reaps a significant fortune from a series. Think Harry Potter and big crime series. This is the equivalent of a lottery win in the industry with probably less odds. There are instances in the industry where people have achieved this otherwise almost impossible task of pumping out a novel in a month and being immediately traditionally published, but these individuals are generally professional writers with significantly successful track records who write entirely for their living, or, more recently, people who employ a combination of ghost writers, editors and even AI to write the book. For the vast majority of writers, however, the hypothetical could actually represent many years of time and effort, not a single month (or three months in my case). As this is a hypothetical, let’s say I fail to attract publisher attention. I turn to self-publishing. More costs accrue. I’ll need to choose a self-publishing platform. Some charge for the process. I pick Amazon because it is initially free to publish. They provide templates for interior and cover design. I prepare a manuscript layout. It’s relatively easy, although I do have to carefully check page and chapter breaks and also adjust/edit text to avoid leaving a single or a few words on a whole page at the end of chapters. This process might take between 1-10 hours, depending on the state of my manuscript. This will also include checking the font size and type, and line spacing, for readability and ensuring the styles are consistent throughout. On average, this takes me 5 hours, so we add more editing cost, approximately $400. Then there’s cover design. During COVID, I paid a $1000 for original artwork for a front cover piece. It is possible to have a cover design done via external providers for as cheap as $40. If you have the skills to create art, design and lettering, and use a template layout, you could design a book cover for free. You can implement AI programs. For the hypothetical, I’ll suggest a combination of purchasing cheap art and doing the full design by myself, which can take a day to work out layout. The cover in this hypothetical is valued at around $1000 of layout design and purchasing cheap art. The hypothetical book is now valued in labour and purchases around $26,000-$27,000 from concept to uploading on Amazon (or an equivalent). All the easy part of a book creation is completed. The hard part starts once the book is ready/ available. The writer who self-publishes also must budget for marketing, stock and mailing. I receive offers to market my existing books through social media and across reader forums for as low as $80 from certain companies. I had an individual offer to do a similar task for $30. I decide to market this way and invest the $80. I might also create a blog on my web site, record a podcast, and create a promotional video and upload it to a variety of social media sites. These tasks take me, say, an hour for the blog, an hour to record and edit a podcast, and similar time for my video. This assumes I already have the software and equipment available to do these things (which I have). That’s another $250-$300 time investment. To assist my buyers who want to buy direct, I stock, say, 20 copies of my book that I buy from the publisher at author price (for the hypothetical, it’s $10 a copy), so I invest another $200. To break even on a single, simple novel project, I have to recoup a minimum of $25,000-$30,000. Through traditional publishing, I’d need the publisher to sell at least 10,000 copies to break even. Self-publishing, where the profit margin for me is significantly greater, I’d have to sell at least 3000 copies of the book. It’s lucky I don’t do this as a paid wage to myself. I could not afford to be a writer. There are plenty of flaws in the hypothetical above, but its point is to demonstrate that the ‘art’ of writing is neither cheap, nor simple, and is rarely financially rewarding for the majority of us. Yes, we write because we love to write and we desperately want to share our ideas and stories with readers, but that doesn’t justify people demeaning our work in relation to paid salaries and wages. There are reasons why writers in the past needed wealthy benefactors, or wealthy partners, or were/are good friends with people in publishing, or own their publishing companies. And if you think my observations are scary, read this article on Linkedin (if you have an account, sorry): https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-much-does-cost-write-book-what-do-you-have-lose-chandler-bolt-xmxdc/ Something to think about.
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September, 2024Wow! September already over. I began this two-year journey with the aims of writing new work and also ensuring my old works were available online or on request through print-on-demand. The former aim is currently led to one published novel, Girlie, an anthology of my early life poetry titled Rearview Mirror, and ten unpublished novel manuscripts awaiting further editing and publication. I’m very happy with that outcome over a twenty-two month period. The second aim resulted in republication of the Andrakis trilogy (30th year edition), the Ashuak Chronicles trilogy (20th year edition), and finally, as of this coming week, all four books in the Dreaming in Amber series. Phew! Republishing the Dreaming in Amber books was an interesting process, primarily because I no longer have possession of the last edited manuscript copies that HarperCollins used for publication. I spent significant time across September editing the manuscripts I do have, and they needed important adjustments that included:
My readers do know that all of my fantasy books are set in the same physical world, in different regions of that world, and they share the same background history regarding the Genesis Stones, amber, dragons, Elvenaar/Aelendyell and Dragonlord cultures. However, they represent different times in the world’s history, across at least two thousand years from the falling meteors that are the Genesis Stones through to the release of the Demon Horsemen in the Dreaming in Amber books. Across that time, human culture developed from basic medieval in the Andrakis books to emerging industrial era technology in Dreaming in Amber. Two fantasy series remain in unpublished format that are additions to the world above. The first, working series title Dragon Kin Chronicles, deals with the dragons who were portalled away from Ashua by Alwyn and the Alfyn, far to the west of Andrakis and Ranu Ka Shehaala. Their story is set around a similar time to the Dreaming in Amber series (ie three hundred years after the Ashuak events) and the Domovinan human culture affected by the dragons is an emerging industrial technology in line with similar developments in Ranu Ka Shehaala (there are trade and espionage exchanges between the nations influencing human technological growth). Ultimately, the story explores how and why humans and dragons eventually co-exist, which sets the scene for the second unpublished fantasy series, The Last Wizard Saga, originally heralded by my 1995 novel, The Last Wizard. Set a further five centuries ahead in time, humans having undergone a medieval Dark Ages period post-destruction of emerging human technologies by the Demon Horsemen and Dragon Kin, the novels look at a world in which dragons and wizards are outlawed (the outcome of the Dragon Kin Chronicles having proven problematic), but one of each survives, and a new world order commences. Basically, I linked the tales across seventeen books, and core elements are echoed, with the amber/Genesis Stone magic source underpinning them all. It’s been and continues to be a fun journey for me, and hopefully readers. In conversations with my daughters, we also redesigned the cover for Girlie, the historical biographical novel. The original cover was to publish the story mainly for family, using a photo of my Mum and a background of the tapestry she wove while recuperating from TB, but the new design incorporates her favourite peacock green colour, and art deco design and lettering more akin to the era in which the story is set. Consider the pictorial comparison in the changes. The third image is a hardback edition with the black background. So, September has been busy. What I planned to spread across three months, I condensed into one. I’m about to edit two works by friends early October as a break from my own creativity, and then I’ll return to working on the existing unpublished work. As I flagged in the last post, November is booked out again for a NaNoWriMo project. 2024 is racing along. The AFL Grand Final is done, Bathurst is looming, bursts of Spring sunshine cause house renovation and repair jobs to blossom, and writing is never ending.
August, 2024So many people recall variations on this piece of doggerel, and I think I first heard it recited by American comedian Jimmy Durante when I was a child watching old black and white movies on a 32 inch TV, but attributions claiming its origins arise from disparate sources. Since August ends winter here in Australia and heralds spring, this crazy piece is inevitably recited in our family. August brought a range of exciting writing events and projects to the fore, culminating in a writing workshop for Writers SA titled The Story Arc, during which I guided fourteen keen and engaged participants through a six-hour intensive focussing on building the story arc in their current projects. Participant feedback was very positive, and I enjoyed the energy and connection with writers.
I always offer a ‘burning questions’ option where participants can pop specific questions on Post-it notes to be addressed during the workshop and the question that resonated was ‘Why do writers always suffer imposter syndrome?’ If the term is not familiar, it simply means that writers feel they cannot be considered themselves as writers and what they are really doing is being imposters. We discussed this as a group and an agreed definition, verified by similar online forums, is that a writer is an artist who creates through using words, and an author is a writer who publishes work for public consumption. Then there is the whole conversation as to what constitutes an author: novelists, poets, scriptwriters, journalists, copywriters, traditional publishing, self-publishing, ‘vanity’ publishing and so on. However, what sat at the base of the discussion is that so many writers feel like imposters because of a combination of self-perception and perceptions of observers. As participants expressed, the value of being a writer seems to be equated with questions like: ‘Oh, you’re a writer? How many books have you published?’ or ‘How much do you earn through writing, then?’ or ‘A writer? Literature or genre stuff?’ and a crowd favourite: ‘Really? Yeah, I’ve always wanted to write a book, too.’ The questions, in themselves, are not unreasonable, but for writers who are diligently developing a project, who cannot seem to attract an agent or a publisher’s interest, who fully intend to self-publish because their work is never intended to be a best-selling blockbuster, who are passionate about creating with words, the questions cause self-doubt and being unable to produce a published work or a manuscript to prove that writing is taking place then leads to guilt that what we are doing is simply wasting time. No economic value equals no value in what we are doing. Anyway, we rallied from the question and agreed that, like so many artists, we are all writers because we are passionate about our art, we commit ourselves to creating and crafting, we have intention to complete our projects irrespective of whether the ultimate goal is to be published or not, and we enjoy what we are doing. We all not only have stories to tell, but we are actively involved in writing them. We ARE writers. For myself and my projects, progress continues, and some changes are in place. The initial bad news – both Science Fiction novels were rejected by their first publisher offers (positive feedback, but not what the publisher would normally publish). No big deal and not unexpected. They will now go to the next possibilities. The Dragon Kin fantasy book three is moving very slowly. The core aim of book three is to move towards resolution for the Dragon Queen, Shadrael, her Alfyn nemeses, and the humans caught in the conflict. I know how the story will end (roughly), but the plotting leading to it still challenges me regarding detail. I will chip away at this project. Several readers contacted me in recent weeks asking how they can obtain the now out-of-print Dreaming in Amber novels and that has prompted me to begin editing the existing manuscripts, design covers and prepare them for release through Amazon (and other sources). This was to begin in 2025, but I have decided to start the process this month and work through one book at a time, releasing one a month, hopefully from October-December/January. Once they are done, my 1992-2008 backlist will be available from me and from Amazon. Thank you to the readers who bought Girlie and have since given me very positive feedback. I have started drafting the companion novel, Bill, which will be a project in 2025, and in a similar vein it will tell the story of my father’s youth, leading up to marrying Eileen. With scant details, it will require as much research as Girlie did, and most likely a lot more speculative content. I’m looking forward to it. The four The Last Wizard fantasy novels will begin to be offered to overseas agents this month. For NanoWriMo, the project will be to totally focus on the men’s novel, now with the working title Comes the Moment. I’m hoping to punch out most of that novel in the four weeks of November. Into September we dive, full of energy and creativity and joy. Spring has sprung indeed! July, 2024Posting a little late, because of a number of life events throughout July and into August – birthdays, trips, house movings, sport finals, illnesses – the stuff of life. I was going to appraise the current fantasy project, but that has slowed over July and the third book is only at 10,000 words so far. More agent and publisher approaches have been made, but no responses so far. So, I’ll take a moment to reflect on my writing business since quitting education at the end of 2022. In the early 1990s, I was lucky to break into publishing and had minor success with the Andrakis fantasy series, enough to consider taking on a writing career full time, but I was well aware of the risks because we had a young family and substantial mortgage, so the change was never financially viable. When I embarked on full time writing, I told family and friends it was likely to be a costly and no-to-low income proposition for at least three years and, being an artistic pursuit, even possibly never any real income. I’ve watched writing colleagues over many years take the same leap, some from full time work and some for whom writing was a large enough income stream to make it their core work. Some have been successful in maintaining a good annual income, either through consistent contracts with publishers, very capable marketing and grafting skills, or a hybrid writing and teaching writing business. A very tiny few are making more income than the average good job. Most, however, are not making much at all. The latest Australian Society of Authors through Macquarie University survey (2022) shows that, on average, Australian authors earn just over $18,000 per annum. Poets earn the lowest average: education authors the highest average. Like any small business, you need starting finance and a solid business plan, a potential market for your product and a marketing plan. I began with $10,000 in the kitty at the end of 2022, a total of twelve writing projects to complete, plans to approach agents and publishers, a small fan base, an existing global book market, and an intention to learn how to effectively market my work.
By the end of July 2024, the kitty is empty. The expenditure was spread across buying cover illustrations for five books, repairing the computer, buying author book copies to on-sell and use for promotion, website and domain costs, attending workshops in person and online, paying for promotional ads on social media, various stationary and printing goods and a new printer, and a bottle of good whiskey. Okay, maybe the whiskey can be considered unnecessary. Maybe. Of the planned writing projects, one novel was completed and published, one poetry anthology completed and published, two manuscripts are currently on offer to publishers, seven manuscripts are completed and awaiting cleaning up and submissions, eight previously self-published books have been re-edited, rebadged and re-published, and three project manuscripts are partially written. I’ve also retrieved the rights to all my work and will most likely self-publish the Dreaming in Amber quatrology early in 2025, if I can sort out cover art issues. For the statisticians among you, the original twelve projects rapidly became twenty-six projects. I get restless. Agent and publisher approaches so far have been unsuccessful, but that’s a mere drop in the ocean as far as how many I have yet to pursue – and I can always fall back to self-publishing. The industry has dramatically changed since I was last involved way back in 2009 – self-publishing has boomed astronomically, bookshop chains have collapsed, publishers seem less interested in small publishing runs for lesser-known authors, the number of people publishing world-wide is phenomenal, the artificial and bogus and plagiarism industry is rife, social media and entrepreneurial marketing is everywhere and is almost everything: it is a different environment. But it has many opportunities too. A friend suggested it’s time to pause the writing and really get on with the marketing and I think they’re right, except that marketing means spending money. I’m happy to share that the writing business so far generated just over $2,000 in the same period as I spent $10,000. So that’s only a $8,000 loss so far. I know businesses that have lost considerably more – umm, maybe that’s not comforting. Nevertheless, now I have to learn to be an entrepreneur and a salesperson. New skills. Moving forward, I have two more writing projects to complete before the close of 2024, and I will begin the marketing training to put the aggressive part of my new business into operation from the beginning of 2025. I’m sincerely glad that I jumped into this part of my life. I will not leave the questions unanswered. I won’t have regrets that I didn’t have a crack at doing what I love. That makes me very happy. I have a roof over my head, food on the table, family and friends, and I live in a peaceful place. And I’m writing. Nice. Very nice indeed. June, 2024An amazing month – lots happening. here's a quick summary... June began with me completing the first full draft of the manuscript with the working title A Day in His Life. At 38,000 words, it is a novella. I will return to it in a month or so to explore expansion, but where it sits at the moment is certainly enough for the story being told. I can add more back story and perhaps one or two more incidents during the character’s day, but I don’t want to artificially inflate what is meant to represent a single day. For now, that project must simmer.
The second is titled First Drafts which is delivered in eight fortnightly sessions, each ninety minutes, consisting of, say, thirty minutes of me front-loading on specific topics like story and chapter openings, character and setting creation and so on, and then a workshop atmosphere for the remainder of each session during which the participants can discuss and share and begin exploring those specific elements in their own projects.
Two new manuscripts have been offered to publishers, so I await responses on their first outings in the big world.
And, towards the close of June, I’ve embarked on creating the third manuscript in the Dragon Kin series. The Dragon Kin fantasy novels have been a slow work in progress since I drafted the first book, Storm, in 2021, and the second, War, last year. All titles are working titles only, and the new book is titled Revenge, for now. I’ll appraise you of the general content of that series next blog. July will be busy with other matters, but let’s see where it takes us. May, 2024May has been productive and busy. The month opened with a decision to gather a host of poems I wrote many years ago, some as early as the 1970s and university years. I wrote poems prolifically from around age eight, most of them Australian bush-themed and some naively political. A handful were published in school magazines. They were modelled heavily on the rhythmic and rhyming patterns of Australian bush ballads. At university I was introduced to the Liverpool Poets and US Beat poetry, and I modified my style accordingly. And then later came Bruce Dawe and similar poets whose subject matter was contemporary politics and suburban life. There was a point in my life when I dreamt that I would be a poet and Keats-like I would live a brief but inspirational life, and die tragically, leaving wise words behind for the ages. I was nineteen.
I am also developing a new novel, currently 40,000 words, based on the concept of a day in a character’s life – think Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich as the model. The character and his nature are requiring significant background research, but the project is taking solid shape. What will be difficult to market and may not be palatable to most readers are the type of character and some of the necessary language in the tale. So be it. I need to tell the story. The same need drove me to write Joy Ride back in the 1990s, a story of a teenager who rebels against norms and doesn’t apologise for doing so. Still struggling to find an agent, so I’m going to try direct approaches to publishers. April, 2024
On the writing front, Girlie has sold a handful of copies to family and friends – exactly what the book was intended to do, so I’m satisfied. On reflection, I forgot that the book was a twelve year project, started back in 2012 when I began formally interviewing Mum. People often ask, ‘How long does it take to write a book?’, and my answer used to be ‘About twelve to eighteen months’, but now it is always ‘As long as it takes’ as I learned is the case with several projects in the past twelve months.
While I keep querying agents in the hope of selling my fantasy and science fiction projects, I embarked on a different tale which feels like it has the potential to be a novella rather than a full length novel and I may adapt to a stage play. Working title A Day in His Life, it focuses on one day in the life of an older man whose world is confined to a boarding house, prison experiences and pension income, a situation created by many childhood and young adult traumas. I can’t divulge much more except that it is gritty, realistic writing and unlikely to attract a huge reading audience because the central character is not necessarily appealing, but it’s a story I want to tell that is in the vein of Solzhenitsyn’s One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (only shorter, contemporary Australian and unforgiving). Anyway, I’m 25,000 words in and committed to finishing it. The other project based around eight men on a houseboat is in idle phase at the moment, but I will renew attention to it soon. So, a fragmented blog entry – more a catch-up than anything. Hope everyone is well. March, 2024
February, 2024February began with the joy of touching base with readers of the Andrakis series who have supported me by buying copies of the 30th anniversary edition available either by directly contacting me or via Amazon at Tony Shillitoe Guardians. We are self-publishing Girlie and the book will be launched on Mum’s birthday on Amazon – March 24th. The book blurb is:
The cover design is a photograph of Mum when she was recuperating in the tuberculosis ward at Daw Park Repatriation Hospital. The background is the tapestry she wove while recuperating.
If you are in Australia and want a copy, you can pre-order directly with me. Send me an email at [email protected] with your name and post address and I will organise a copy and invoice with payment details. The book price, with postage included, will be $30. Of course, if you’re in Adelaide and want to pick up a copy directly from me, it’s $25 and a coffee or beer or whiskey at a place of your choosing. Email me to organise collection. It normally takes about two weeks for me to order and receive copies to on-sell. In other news, I have been working directly with a very good friend on a book project that encompasses stories shared by retired members of an organisation (all hush-hush for now). Still legal hoops and writing necessities to go through and it is most likely a self-publish work when finished, but it is an interesting historical document. I have edited the two science fiction novels and now I will start seeking an agent who can represent me to publishers with these projects. I’ve been approaching agents for the fantasy projects – so far, no success. Early days, though – I will always persist. Apparently, in the existing market, it’s not uncommon to have to make several hundred such approaches! Finally, I’m working on the next project – a novel about eight men who spend a long weekend on a houseboat. I’ll let you ponder that one. January 2024Before we know it, 2024 is in full swing and the first month is done! I hope you had a break over the Christmas/New Year period, or at least an opportunity to refresh. For me, January has been a month of cover design and republication.
I’ve just published a new edition – the 30th anniversary edition – of the original Andrakis trilogy on Amazon, replete with the original titles – Guardians, Kingmaker, Dragonlords – and a unified series of covers! Thirty years ago – actually more, because the new edition was a little late - Guardians and Kingmaker hit the shelves in 1992 and Dragonlords in 1993, and I am always indebted to the Pan Macmillan Australia team for the chance to become a published writer. The creation of this new edition is the last time I will revisit the Andrakis series. A cover design debacle with the original Dragonlords meant that, while Guardians and Kingmaker sold well, Dragonlords sales lagged, and for many years I had letters and, later, emails from readers asking me when I was releasing the third book or telling me that they could not get hold of book three. It was a very important lesson in publishing – that covers of series need to be identifiably linked. Robert Stephenson at Altair did a reprint edition of the series in 2006 with the books renamed under their original draft titles – The Waking Dragon, Maker of Kings, Dragonlord War – and this series was replicated on Amazon in 2015 with cover art provided from Kirsi Salonen designed to unify the series more effectively. That sorta worked – but there were a range of issues with that set of publications, too. So, this 30th anniversary edition finally has, I believe, a unified set of covers to identify the books as a single series. It’s been a strange, at times frustrating, journey. I enjoy learning how to do cover designs. My early attempts were embarrassing, clumsy, and unprofessional. My latest efforts are improving (I think). The Andrakis trilogy covers represent a compromise and a conglomeration. I wanted to pay homage to the original Guardians cover art by Mike Worral that I’ve always loved for its blend of dragon fire and lightning, and so I created a stormy lightning background using Gencraft AI and this is designed to unify the book covers. I then encapsulated Kirsi’s original art in common border frames on the front covers to draw the originals into the Altair versions. The titles and author text were the most difficult, mainly because I did not want the art obscured by the lettering. I could have (maybe should have) made the titles much more prominent, but in the end I chose the smaller text to give the art the respect it deserves. And so, into February. My focus this month is on editing and preparing two scifi novels for marketing. I’m chasing agents because I would like my new work to go through conventional publishing, so if you know someone who would be keen to take on my work definitely let me know. I am settling into this new life of full time writing and enjoying the freedom to be creative. December 22, 2023So, the final blog for 2023, and it will be a summary/observation of a first year of full time writing. Fair warning so you can choose to read on or bail. The Numbers Let’s get the dry info out of the way – the year’s statistics.
The Projects The Last Wizard series – Tamesan, Chasse, Jaysin, Harmi – Fantasy novels The original The Last Wizard was published by Pan Macmillan way back in 1995. It was successful and made its way into schools, and was a finalist in the inaugural Aurealis Awards, losing out to Garth Nix’s Sabriel. While it was written as a stand-alone at the time, I had pencilled ideas for a series. That never saw light of day for many personal reasons at the time. This year, however, I completed three novels – Chasse, Jaysin, Harmi - each one focussed on a sibling in the family, the last one told from the dragon’s point of view, each draft of around 90,000 words taking just over a month each to complete. The series is now ready for 2024 submissions. The Dragonkin series – Storm, War, Revenge – Fantasy novels Dragonkin was started way back in 2007 as a follow on from the Dreaming in Amber and Ashuak Chronicles published by HarperCollins, but was never developed beyond half a first book draft. Conceived as a development on the fate of the dragons that were tricked into following the Alfyn through a portal in the Amber books, this year I finished drafts of book one – Storm – and book two – War. Book three – Revenge – is yet to be drafted and so this series is a 2024 project. Girlie – Historical Romance novel Girlie has gone through four years of development, and one submission and rejection, but the manuscript is ready for 2024 submissions. Bill – Historical novel A second historical novel focussed on a young male in the 1930s and 1940s is underway. It’s in fledgling form. It follows the experiences of a boy growing up on a remote farm whose mother dies when he is 11 through to his joining the RAAF in 1944. Lots to do. All We Have – Science Fiction novel Pre-Covid and post-ISIS, in 2017-18 I drafted a novel in diary entry form titles All We Have of a young man who finds himself in world torn apart by a pandemic and the rising up of ‘terrorist’ organisations during the pandemic. Apart from the apocalyptic elements described, the twist is the pandemic virus adapts rapidly to control its hosts – zombie apocalypse. While the first draft is finished, I think it needs significant editing in light of the world’s recent/current experiences and maybe with regard to characters. To be edited in 2024. Rebound – Science Fiction novel I undertook NaNoWriMo last month and completed a 56,000 word draft based on corporate control of the world and the attempt to introduce cyborg players into international basketball. The organisation, Independent Freedom, uses assassins to disrupt corporate efforts to monopolise business and push the citizens deeper into poverty. The corporates use assassins to take out IF operatives. Caught in the mix is a basketball club targeted as an experimental ground for the cyborg athletes. I’m hoping to finish final edit of Rebound and get it ready for 2024 submissions. We Need to Talk about Teaching – Education guide I’ve wanted to publish a guide to the daily aspects of teaching no one talks about until you’re on the job – yard duties, reliefs, parent relationships, PD etc – and I wanted to tell it interspersed with hundreds of teacher comments I’ve collected over a long time. This work is now in first rough draft, but it needs a significant edit., even though I thought I could get it done this year. Now it’s in the 2024 list of ‘To be continued…’ Self-discipline Those closest to me know that until this year, writing was slotted in around everything else – education work, family, sport. A fantasy novel commonly took a year to draft into reasonable shape. Between 1990 and 2008, I managed to have 11 fantasy novels and 2 teenage novels published with Pan MacMillan and HarperCollins, and several short stories, articles and scripts. Contracts from publishers certainly helped with self-discipline over that eighteen-year publishing period. This year, unencumbered by full time work, it has been incredibly liberating to re-evaluate life and writing, and the victor and victim simultaneously has been self-discipline. I have had to establish a writing and reading and editing routine during what would normally be the working week. Simultaneously, I have also been challenged to ‘relax’, slow down’, enjoy retirement’. Balancing those two forces is a challenge. It’s nice to have the challenge. Some days I manage to do one or the other, some days both. Occasionally, neither.
Nibbles – okay, let’s leave that topic. Loneliness does inspire nibbling. I have to be very conscious of getting up and moving about because there are days when I am so focussed on what I’m writing that several hours can pass before I realise I better move.
Another thing I’ve done is set myself a daily word count of around 3000 words – basically, if I hit it, I can make choices to do other things that day (or keep writing), It’s not strict – I cheat. But it gives the writing ‘job’ parameters against which I can measure productivity. Did I just write that? The last comment on self-discipline concerns money. I’ve made none from writing this year. At times, I’ve defaulted to looking on Seek for possible jobs that will bring in money. I’ve contemplated at least doing relief teaching, anything to justify my existence. And that’s when my responsible brain kicks in and says, ‘You have chosen to be a writer. You didn’t choose to make money. You chose to create. Creativity is never a guarantee of income. Lots of famous writers died penniless (and lots more unknowns). Why should you expect anything different from your art? Be an artist. Stop being tied to monetisation.’ So, yes, the hardest discipline is to accept that I am no longer a part of capitalist productivity. At best, I’m a creative, relying on someone else to house, clothe and feed me. I have nightmares… Goals Has this year been productively successful in writing? Mostly, yes. I’m pleased with the output. It’s good to have completed drafts of seven projects that have been languishing on the computer in notes for up to twenty years. It’s also good to have two fresh projects drafted. The focus this year was always going to be purely on writing, not on seeking agents or publishers. To that end, it has been successful. But now, the truly difficult and scary part of my choice to leave safe employment and be a fulltime writer begins for 2024 – securing a literary agent and publishing the books. Those are part of the 2024 goals, along with developing and completing several more projects that have languished for lack of time in the past. If you’ve followed my ramblings this year, thank you. Have a safe holiday period (if you have one) and see you in 2024! October 29, 2023Yes, I went to ground for almost three months. I meant to write my blogs, but… Life. So what has transpired? Apart from the inevitable wars all over the world, and bureaucracies justifying their existence while wealth-hungry people keep jacking up prices and gouging to become millionaires and billionaires at the expense of billions of poor people, life has continued to evolve. Seen some fascinating movies – Poor Things, Living, finally saw Tar, Barbie, Asteroid City, Oppenheimer and some lame ones I won’t list – read books and played volleyball. Did lots of house-related things. You don’t need to know all this. Writing-wise, in summary the three months have been a productive period and that’s partly why the blog was consigned to the sidelines. A target was to complete a draft of the second fantasy novel, War, in the Clan Chronicles by December. It was around 60,000 words beginning of August. Well, the first draft is now done, sitting at 120,000 words. I’ve set it aside with the first draft novel and the plan is to read and first edit the two books beginning in November. After that, I dusted off a scifi project not previously mentioned which I first initiated way back in 1998. Over the years, I revisited the concept, pencilled out ideas, even worked with local artist Tim Ide on the idea of making the work into a graphic novel, until it was pushed aside for fantasy projects with HarperCollins. Anyway, I’ve been plotting and drafting the novel version and it has expanded to 15,000 words with a target of maybe 60,000 when done??? I’ll focus the next blog on it. The teacher guide project described in my last blog in July is close to finished at first draft, around 50,000 words, which is plenty long enough. Like the Clan Chronicles, it is now a November edit task. I’m hoping it will be in full first draft by the end of December.
So, back to blogs again.
July 31, 2023Over 300,000 people currently work as teachers in Australia, about a half/half split between Primary and Secondary schooling levels, with over 70% being female. When I began the career way back in 1978, I quickly realised that very little of what I thought I knew about teaching and what was shared with me at university was correct or useful. Educational theories and history and pedagogical practices and curriculum maps and technologies certainly provided a little of the necessary knowledge and skills teachers need, but the reality gap between academia and day-to-day workplaces was – and still is – huge. By my fifth year of teaching, I was mapping a potential guide for people who were contemplating teaching as a career or were in the early years wondering what just happened. I began collecting comments and observations made by colleagues and storing them – conversations on yard duties, behaviour management, administrative paperwork, reliefs, union membership, and so on. The comments I collected are like: “I was born branded as a teacher. Mum is a Principal. Dad teaches Tech. My grandmothers on both sides were teachers, and my father’s father worked as an accountant for an education company. I’ve never known a world outside teaching. We’re a bit like professional military families – actually, a lot like them.” (AK, Economics Teacher, 12th year in profession) “Every morning, I coach myself to be positive when I walk into the school grounds. I smile, I greet people, I exude positivity because I know the impact it has on everyone else.” (JN, Year 5 teacher, 4th year in profession) “If I have to do one more session on Mandatory Notification I will scream. I get it. I know what to do after four sessions. Really. Stop wasting my time. The sessions are so boring.” (CB, Food Technologies teacher, 22nd year in profession) “I learned a lot of tech stuff during uni, but I was surprised at how many of my colleagues still struggle with tech at work. It’s embarrassing. I’m helping people with basic stuff and the kids know it.” (FS, Middle School teacher, 7th year in profession)
This year, as a side-task to other writing projects, I’ve finally pulled together a full draft of the teacher guide, and it currently sits around 42,000 words. I’m allowing myself a target of 50,000 words – long enough to cover quite a few topics; short enough to be readable. I’d like to make it a relaxed reading, one that non-teachers can read to understand the demands and joys of the profession. It doesn’t include leadership – it really is aimed at classroom teaching as a profession. Neither does it cover what courses generally cover: pedagogies, behaviour management practices, curriculum design, professional growth. If anything, for would-be teachers it’s a warts-and-all view.
I am wrestling with the method for the teacher observations. I want to provide anonymity for the hundreds of colleagues whose comments I’ve curated and anonymity for myself because some observations may not be what those colleagues want appearing in print, but I do want to give a sense of the commentators’ experience, so in the draft I’ve used fake initials, but actual experience in level of school and years in the profession. I know this won’t suit academic rigor or standards and it’s not meant to – the purpose is to share real comments in the context of the topic: nothing more. I have nothing I want to prove as irrefutable evidence. And that brings me to developing the overall tone again – a conversation in essence. The current working title is a wee derivative – We Need To Talk About Teaching – but it I want a title that sets the tone from the outset: that chat we should have about the profession that makes it clearer to you what you really need to have to be successful and happy being a teacher. I’ll continue to explore possible titles as the draft is shared with beta-reader colleagues. July 24, 2023
Today and tomorrow I will sift through potential publishers of historical fiction who might be interested in this tale. At the same time, I have to pull together:
Okay, I’ve done this in the past, and there’s plenty of current examples and guides online to help out, but, frankly, I’m terrified. But it has to be done. My other next challenge is to find an agent or agency willing to take me on. I started this whole career without an agent way back in 1990, when it was still possible to approach the major publishers without an agent in Australia, and I continued solo until 2000. Those who know me also know that Robert Stephenson acted as my agent from 2000-2012 while I was writing during that period. Unfortunately, Robert’s passing late 2019 put paid to our plans to revive the business relationship. Finding the right agent for my new work will be interesting. Over the weekend, several friends and acquaintances asked how I am travelling in the role of full time writer. The answer is simple: loving it. Oh, must put the washing on the line. July 3, 2023
Three projects are looking for publishers…
Girlie Historical Romance Fiction novel: 126,000 words Status – writing finished After completing the edit of this novel in January, Wakefield Press had a look but, despite very positive feedback on the writing and research, aren’t convinced it’s a saleable product for them. I’m now researching/deciding to whom next to send the proposal. The Last Wizard series – Tamesan’s Song, Chasse’s Song, Jaysin’s Song, Harmi’s Song Fantasy novels: approx. 400,000 words Status – writing finished Completed in June, the series is four novels totalling around 400,000 words. A proposal is currently sitting with HarperCollins Voyager. Fingers crossed. In My Father’s Shadow Young Adult novel: 61,000 words Status – writing finished The proposal and manuscript are currently with Wakefield Press for consideration. Fingers crossed again. Three projects are currently occupying my writing regime… The Clan Chronicles – Storm, War, Resolution (working titles) Fantasy novels: target length approx. 360,000 words The draft of Storm is completed, and I am halfway through a draft of War. Lots to do here. I’m hoping to have the draft of War completed before December. All We Have Apocalyptic Science Fiction: currently 114,000 words Status – undergoing significant edit/rewrite Originally completed in 2020, this project is now about to undergo a radical edit/rewrite in light of the COVID experiences and additional research I’ve made that changes aspects of the ‘science’ and culture of the story. I am contemplating working with an artist to add internal illustrations on behalf of the ‘narrator’ of the diary entries. I’d really like to complete this project and be sending out proposal before the end of this year. I have marked it as a potential self-publish project… We Need to Talk About Teaching (draft working title) Practical Guide: target length 45,000 words: Status – rough and incomplete draft This is in very rough draft phase and incomplete, although I’ve already drafted 25000 words of content. This project is targeted for completion by September. Additional random creative activities… Poetry anthology – no title yet; very rough draft Apart from the major projects listed above, and I’m crafting poems for a personal anthology I hope will be done by December – some are ‘old’ poems I wrote, some new ones from this year. This project will definitely be self-published. Uz Erhaag Role Play Game Scenarios: currently 50,000 words Status – scenarios developing As a former D&D DM and player for many years, I’m designing my variation on a fantasy role-play game, complete with mechanics and guides. I’m hoping to start a fortnightly or monthly game with six volunteer players in August. The Blog 50,000 words so far Status – weekly, sometimes fortnightly That’s where I am at with this foray into full time writing. Lots finished, lots in process, lots of additional projects sitting in the wings to develop further, and no sales or publications yet. But it’s underway and productive and fun. June 26, 2023Writers are readers. I firmly believe it’s essential for people to read and read widely (I know, persistent prejudice of a former English teacher), because writers open the world and in places where most of us never choose or have to journey. Writers take us to real worlds, fantasy worlds, potential worlds. They immerse us in love, war, creation, despair, hope, joy, fear, abomination, spirituality, aspirations, grief, loss. They allow us to see life through many different eyes and from vastly different perspectives. I was asked last week what I read, especially as I write in specific genres. It’s expected I read fantasy since I write fantasy, but I rarely do nowadays, and for two reasons. I don’t want to copy other fantasy writers, and I don’t want my stories to be influenced by what others are writing while I’m writing my stories. When I read fantasy it’s always between projects and never during.
My love for reading was fostered in three places. As a pre-schooler, my grandfather used to read newspaper articles to me. At home, my parents had a very tiny book collection that included Readers Digest condensed novels and I read these avidly. At school, there was the SRA Reading library and I devoured it, and the school library itself was a haven on wet days and days when relationships with other kids were not as joyous as I hoped. And I won books as school prizes, all of which I still have.
Without reading, I doubt I could write, not because of a lack of ideas, but because all those writers – thousands of them – taught me the art of writing and I am forever in their debt. June 19, 2023
Okay, I rant, and this could go on for a very long time. The point is, while I might write fantasy novels, the characters and struggles within them are complex reflections of what we see and face every day – the rich doing whatever it takes to stay rich and get richer; the ambitious, greedy, selfish individuals who want to cross the gap between everyone else and the rich to be wealthy and powerful too; the ordinary folk whose only possible hopes of wealth and pleasure reside in alcohol, drugs and gambling, all managed by the rich to get hold of the ordinary folk’s money; the poor – refugees, unemployed, uneducated, disabled, abused – who everyone else ignores or avoids because there’s no ‘value’ in helping them not be poor. Yes, the plots follow specific individuals driven by their own motivations – power, revenge, rebellion, wealth, love etc – but the events play out against backgrounds that we all are familiar with if we choose to peer into them.
I have always been heavily influenced by thinkers and observers like Orwell, Shakespeare, Dickens, Bradbury, Dick (and many, many others), people who give powerful insights into the ‘wrongs’ and ‘facades’ of human society and behaviours, especially selfish greed and misguided individualism. At university, one of my studies was the universal struggle between egoism and altruism, the self and society, the role and rights of me in relation to all of you: the balance between selfish and service, or what do I get if I give? We live that conundrum perpetually. It permeates my writing and drives my characters. Maybe it’s my therapy to explore why humans persist in being greedy. June 5, 2023That moment when you think I have to write a blog – but I have nothing! Writing is like that, sometimes. You set up at the desk, you open the page, your hands rest above the keyboard, and…well, you stare, you ruminate, you type a handful of words and delete them. You stare. Coffee sounds good. Maybe water. Nah. Coffee. The cat needs to come in. Perhaps a few moments on the static bike, or some stretches. Hmmm. Perhaps. No. Stare at the screen. Ruminate again. The spectre rises. You’re not actually a writer. You’ve got nothing. Go away. I am a writer. I am. No, seriously, I am. Screen page shines white.
May 29, 2023
Charged with protecting the Genesis Stone, the Alfyn prevented dragon efforts to locate it. One dragon clan eventually entered a pact with humans in order to find the Stone because humans were seeking it as well, and came close to finding the Stone, but the Alfyn collaborated with a human who generated a one-way portal trap through which the dragons were lured, believing they were teleporting to the Stone’s location.
The Lore back story makes it clear that more than one Genesis Stone fell in ancient times, but the dragons, Alfyn and humans have yet to locate them all. Readers of the earlier series will discern that one stone lies somewhere in the heart of Andrakian forests, and another was located in the Shess forests. That is a summary of the thinking and planning behind the fantasy stories and one of the unifying world factors that keeps my writing focused. Did I think of the Genesis Stone/amber concept when I first started writing? No. It grew across several novels as I came to understand it. Magic is fantasy and in itself is not true, but I, like many fantasy writers, do apply a form of logic to the source of magic to give it potential substance. Why are amber shards from the Genesis Stone able to foster wild magic? Yeah, I don’t know…it’s magic. May 22, 2023
So, here’s the thing. I bet you and I can ‘people watch’ on the street and we would identify a host of stereotypes in everyday life, based on common fashion choices, hairstyles, movement and poise, interactions with others, family origins, gender. When we sit with family and friends and chat, more stereotypes emerge: common topics of interest, points of view, reactions to other people, voice tone and accent, gestures and so on. At work, we witness colleagues’ shared attitudes to the workplace and people, actions and reactions under pressure, drudgery and creativity, planning and chaos, success and failure. In all of the above people watching, we see common traits, shared personalities, physical similarities, and these shape stereotypes in our world views. And this is before we enter the less pleasant environments of gossip and media and prejudices where the stereotypes become vilifications. Stereotypes have been aligned with profiling (consider the definitions) and negative connotations attached to the term. The accusations ‘He looks like that so he must act like this’, ‘She dresses like that so she must be this kind of personality’, ‘They come from there so they will believe these things’ are examples of stereotyping as profiling. At the heart of this conversation, then, is the politicisation of stereotyping. Where vilification and profiling are evident, stereotyping characters should be questioned, examined and determined as acceptable or not acceptable. Not only should the writer’s work be examined but also the motivation behind the critic’s criticism. Politicisation is a two-(or more)-sided action where all parties’ views need to be examined. There are now more than eight billion humans on the planet, so it’s possible that you share similar physical appearance with quite a lot of other people. Note, though, the emphasis is on similarity, not exact duplication. There are so many people on this planet that you do have a small but possible chance of meeting your exact doppleganger, something like a one in one-hundred-and-thirty-five chance, but that’s like the conundrum of anticipating a monkey could write Shakespeare’s plays if left in front of a keyboard long enough. Basically, it has a probability, but it’s so huge it’s likely to never actually happen. For every group of ten thousand people, there’s a chance eleven of them will share similar facial features with people in that group. The chance that you will meet someone with very similar facial features is apparently more like .0011%. A very tiny number? Absolutely. But distil that across eight billion humans and there could be as many as eighty to ninety thousand people who have similar looks to you. https://petapixel.com/2022/09/01/doppelgangers-dont-just-look-alike-they-act-alike-and-share-dna/ For writers, one of many holy grails is to be able to create fresh and interesting characters that engage readers. Some critics expect, and I will say wrongly, the characters to always be unique for the work to be truly good, when, in fact, we, as readers, often engage with characters with whom we feel an affinity – someone who could be us. We also make associations with other characters and have expectations of those characters because they are, basically, stereotypes: the quiet hero, the overt hero, the nasty corporate or scifi/fantasy or murder mystery villain, the grey character whose motives seem caught between doing good and being selfish, the ideal and the flawed lovers, the milk delivery person, the shy introvert.
Writers do give us fresh views of characters by ironically creating what looks like a stereotyped character (and playing into our expectations and even prejudices) but surprising us by having the character not act according to stereotyped expectations: the soft-hearted gang leader, the blond fashion-conscious corporate lawyer, the geek athlete, the trans assassin, the highly inventive factory worker – oh. Wait. Maybe these are yet other forms of stereotype. My point? Writers cannot escape using stereotypes because the world is full of stereotypes. In our own unique ways, we are stereotypes because we all share biological, psychological and experiential features. We are far more alike than different. The cult of unique individuals that seems to be permeating our culture is misguided, not because it argues we are uniquely different but because it denies that we are uniquely similar. We are shaped by our culture, our families and friends, our experiences, and those factors influence how we dress, how we speak, what we think, how we choose to feel, even what we choose to experience and observe. We become alike. We become stereotypical. And writers, as observers and recorders of humanity, reveal our stereotypical selves in ways that we sometimes applaud and appreciate and sometimes in ways we want to deny. Before you dismiss a writer’s work because someone has said the characters are apparently stereotypes, examine why the writer presents the stereotypes. May 15, 2023
May 1, 2023
Over the thirty years, so far, of writing, I’ve been privileged to receive occasional letters and emails from readers providing feedback on my work. Writing is, for very minor writers like myself, a solitary passion, and positive emails and comments affirm we are making human connections through our stories. At least, that is why I write – to connect, to spark imagination, ideas, conversations. It’s not so much that I write FOR, or ABOUT, but TO other people. I write in the hope that readers engage with my characters and their hopes and struggles in personal and ‘bigger picture’ matters, and perhaps reflect on their own hopes and struggles in those moments.
The email also affirmed why, no matter how minor one’s works might be, it’s important to keep the works alive. For years, I had to reply to readers with the phrase, ‘I’m really sorry, but the books are out of print,’ until the online self-publishing world came into being. My first clumsy attempts to revive novels from the 1990s were frankly embarrassing, but I am getting better at formatting digital text and designing covers, and I can now add self-publishing to my armoury of writing skills – although marketing and distribution remain challenges for this year. The self-publishing revolution in this century is a form of democratic socialist freedom in that it brings a host of positives to anyone who genuinely wants to be a writer but can’t break into the big publishing houses (or smaller ones for that matter). While voices bemoan the ability of hacks creating and publishing books that are terrible, the reality is that so many more amazing stories have found light that would have been denied them in the ‘old world’ publisher-owned market of the C20th. And for the very lucky few, self-publishing is an avenue to the bigger publishing houses if their works prove popular. They ‘get seen’ and acquired. Anyway, if you read a book and it really does resonate with you, please consider dropping an email to the writer, or leaving a comment on the writer’s web site. While the ‘big’ writers are often inundated with fan mail, lesser-known writers really do appreciate being affirmed in what they create. For many of us, it’s the only human communication we have with the people to whom we write. Finally, I’ve found my focus project-wise. I’ll make comments on that project next blog. April 24, 2023
risen to positions of authority and power in Australia, and Humphries did not shy away from mocking them on the public stage.
Do we divorce the artist from their art? Should we? Can we? Humphries cross-played and yet made upsetting transphobic comments on trans culture, meaning some of my community friends consider him a bigot and his comedy empty and his character portrayals hypocritical. True also of JK Rowling, whose social and political comments reveal a personality beset with prejudice. Does that negate her success with the Harry Potter books that shaped an entire generation in the 2000s? Picasso was a confirmed, self-confessed misogynist. Should we stop revering his art? Elvis Presley and under-age girls (way too many rock musicians it might be argued) – so, do we stop adulating his gift to music? In fact, the deeper into artistic talent you delve, the more you find that so many artists were/are relatively terrible people. Despite their amazing artistic talents, shouldn’t we be reviling them? Rare art is universal. Whether the art was being viewed/heard/read in Mongolia, or three thousand years ago in northern Africa, or in Brisbane 2020, the audience can identify with it – seeing familiarity or fresh light in themselves, or others, or places or things or actions. Universal art reflects emotions, thoughts, experiences, ideas humans have always had and most likely always will. The artist, in these cases, reflects humanity and life. This rare art evokes love, peace, fear, comfort – emotions universal to all humans – and even though the artists create the art, their individual personalities are subsumed in the art. The artist, as a unique person, disappears. Most art, however, is contextual, the product of a specific culture and moments in time and place. It reflects the values and beliefs of the artists, and the culture in which they live. The artist, as a unique person, is either deliberately visible or, at the very least, present behind the art. Universal art might garner criticism and opinion about technique and style and impact, but has no intrinsic intention to provoke political or social opinion. The artist can be judged as a ‘good’ or ‘not so good’ artist, because the artist’s personal life is not on display nor considered. The art can be appreciated for itself. Contextual art cannot avoid provocation. Its content, its subject, its intention will be wedded to its context and, beyond discussions of artistic merit, behind the art the artist can be judged as a ‘good’ or ‘not good’ person. The art can still be appreciated for itself, but there is every possibility its value will be affected by the values of the artist who created it. Or not. I was lucky enough to study Art and Aesthetics many years ago and the universal question of what constitutes good and not so good art was unanswerable. Why? We are humans. We make judgements. We choose to believe what we think is right and wrong, and those choices are predicated by a multitude of influences that form our beliefs, our prejudices, our platforms, our desires and so on. When we make judgements about art and the artists who create it, we are really only revealing ourselves and, in some small way, judging ourselves against our perceptions of good, bad and indifferent. The art remains what it is, even after the artist is long dead and possibly forgotten. Barry Humphries is dead. Vale an entertaining larrikin. His individual views of the world cease to be expressed. Dame Edna, along with all of Humphries’ work, will be consigned to historical records, in clips and references. Only his art will remain. Perhaps, hereafter, we can judge his art for itself. As for myself, I’m at a crossroad bouncing between three projects while I wait to see which one wants to dominate. April 17, 2023
Why the rant above? Well, one character in my latest project is being constructed from resources like ‘The Light’ (and another is ‘tainted’ by conspiracist thinking). To create believable characters, writers delve into places, lives and experiences that their readers might not. For one project, for example – currently awaiting my return – I won’t be surprised if the AFP knock on my door because I am delving into sites and information I would morally stay away from under normal circumstances, but to create characters – to understand their motivations, their intentions, their fears and hopes to make them real – I am wandering carefully through a maze unfamiliar to my friends and family.
is for writers to either be directly involved with what they write about or to thoroughly research it. Like many people who came to Ben MacIntyre’s 2010 book or this recent film adaptation, I was pleasantly surprised to learn that Ian Fleming, James Bond’s creator, was a character in the story, and was directly involved with espionage in his career and obviously drew upon his experiences to write.
As I finish off, I’m making quick notes about two people who’ve just been ordering coffees. Be careful if you are anywhere around a writer – you may be written into a story. April 12, 2023
It’s really nice to have a comprehensive reply and I genuinely appreciate the effort the person who read the manuscript undertook because it has helped me shape how to make future approaches with this particular project. I will now prepare the manuscript for another publisher and send it away again.
Oh, and the criticisms? I’m happy with the length – it’s necessary to tell the story. The tale covers nine years and currently runs to 125,000 words. I can try to edit further, and perhaps make adjustments to shorten the manuscript. The central character is based on a real person so I am loathe to manipulate the character’s personality for the sake of creating false agency. It’s an historical setting where people like the central character generally did not have agency to be strong in the contemporary sense – strength for them was more in the form of resilience rather than heroic endeavour. I actually do agree with the editor’s criticism if measuring the work against contemporary presentations of similar characters. Perhaps I’m pitching it in the wrong publishing genre ie historical fiction. And the reading market might be narrow, given the historical context and character’s arc. That’s the risk in telling this particular story, and why I always have this project reserved for a self-published option So, some editing and then onto the next potential publisher it will go. In other developments, I started one of the two new projects and it has rapidly grown to 13,000 words, but it is exceedingly raw and I’m still ‘feeling’ out the style and characters. What I have also done is:
I hope you are all well out there. |
AuthorWriting is my passion. Ideas, opinions, beliefs, experiences expressed through language - through words and images - pervade and create my life. Writing is my voice, my soul, my self. My dream is one day writing will sustain my life... Archives
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