Freedom From The Mundane - A Writer's Blog

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

St. Andrew's Day

HAPPY SAINT ANDREW’S DAY!!!



I‘ve had an early re-subscriber for next month’s batch of Hunting Jack though I've lost one of the five I had at the start which is a shame. I now have four subscribers and I still hope to add to this tally with some careful promotion. I forgot to mention I printed off several hundred A3 and A5 colour fliers at the weekend. All I need now is a small guillotine to cut them up for distribution about town and work.

I always try to make the final issue of a subscription period extra full of suspense and give it a cracking cliff-hanger to help people press the re-subscribe button. It’s a marketing tool I know, but not every issue can have a big dose of drama - I think it would become too heavy for the reader and too much of a burden on me. But some of the ones that I have written are good and there is obviously more to come. Issue 36 ends with a real bolt out of the blue, and while it fits with the story, it also moves it into a new phase – which I am now struggling to connect to for lack of a good location in Glasgow, but I’m working on it.

Over lunch I caught up with reading all my own subscriptions from KIC over the last six weeks. That’s a total of 30 issues because I subscribe to 5 serials from other authors. Keep It Coming really has been wonderful for me – it’s a fantastic medium. As a writer I have learned so much from it and am enjoying the experience more than I thought I would. When it’s all over I do intend to market Hunting Jack for an agent. I am so proud of it (so far anyway). When I printed off the full text so far there were some errors I noticed; missed in the production line of getting issues out. Though not major ones, it’s impossible to get away from the fact that as a novel, this is only a first draft and so will change somewhat to its published state – if it ever happens.

We didn’t really do anything in particular for St. Andrew’s Day. It’s a non-event in Scotland which is a shame, as it should be recognised somehow. The Rabbie Burns celebrations are more part of Scotland’s culture than our own Patron Saint, but I think that’s probably down to it revolving round a set of rules – which involve drinking lots of whisky.

Gail was out for drinks after work so I had to wait until she got home before I could join my mate up in town for a couple myself. He's not usually in town so it was great to catch up on him. We went to Biddy Mulligans on Grassmarket and had a few beers.

It was strange going out at 10:30pm at night. The streets are far quieter than on a weekend at that time and the glow from the street lights reform the look of the city. Being in an empty and darkened Grassmarket is even more spooky, when you look up to see the towering Castle all lit up and standing proudly on it's rock.

Click to enlarge

Colin 10:38 pm

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