Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Talking Art
Important Announcement
The new Madness single artwork is now ready and a release date has been set for October 31st 2005. Girl, Why Don't You, the original song by Prince Buster, one of Madness' biggest influences, can be pre-ordered from 101cd.com.
MESSAGE ENDS
Today started off quite pleasant. The wind and rain last night that battered most of the east coast had gone and I walked to work in a calm, cool breeze. By lunchtime, the heavens had opened again and rain was falling horizontally due to the resumption of the gale-force winds. I half expected a blizzard by dinner time but it never transpired.
I collected Laura from her latest after-school activity - choir singing. One by one all these wee kids trouped out the school gates singing like mini-soprano's to popular tunes I can never remember the name of. What with this and her tap dancing, she's not the quietest of kids.
It looks like KIC has been abandoned by its editor. An auto-response to the email I sent revealed the date for the re-start has now been pushed back to November 1st! I would have thought an email to warn the authors would have been polite and a mail-out to the bloody subscribers a necessity.
It's become a total sham and I'm only going public with it now because my contract has been broken so many times by the editor it would be impossible for me to be dropped anyway.
I am gutted for my active subscribers who have paid good money to be left with no product. It borders on fraud. I am gutted for the other KIC authors who have dedicated large amounts of time not just to writing the serials, but to promoting and marketing them, as well as the company itself.
I can't have anything to do with it any more. I am going to insist KIC refund all my subscribers and then I will provide them with the serial for free. It is nothing short of shambolic the way this whole situation has been handled and I think for the case of my writing career I should disassociate myself with KeepitComing.net for the greater good.
The vote for the Festival book title has now closed. Thanks to everyone who took part and I'm pleased to announce the title is the one I would have picked anyway if you all hadn't voted for it. The Festival book will be called:
I headed down to The Waterline bar on Leith's Shore to meet Sarah Swanson, the official photographer for Fringe Fantastic. It was our first meeting and it went well. We talked about the project at length and about writing and photography in general, but being a Glaswegian at heart, a lot of our discussion revolved around the old Edinburgh/Glasgow divide.
Sarah read over the first draft of Fringe Fantastic to get a feel for it and has already started to come up with some ideas about how to go about it (including the use of make-up!). The weekend of the 8th/9th October has been pencilled in for a photo shoot so fingers crossed it isn't chucking it down with rain when the day comes.
We got on really well which is good as I wouldn't want to work with someone who I didn't like, and I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures that come out of this. Sarah also agreed to do me some author portraits but I've no clue what my image is. Need to think about that one.
I had only expected to be out for a couple of hours and then intended go back home to do some more writing, but by quarter past eleven we were several pints into the meeting when we realised we'd better make it the last one.
One thing I came to realise is how quick this month has passed. I'll already be putting together the GDR Round Up for September in the next couple of days but it feels like only a week has passed since the August one.
Hopefully I can squeeze the most out of the next couple of days before I do.
The new Madness single artwork is now ready and a release date has been set for October 31st 2005. Girl, Why Don't You, the original song by Prince Buster, one of Madness' biggest influences, can be pre-ordered from 101cd.com.
MESSAGE ENDS
Today started off quite pleasant. The wind and rain last night that battered most of the east coast had gone and I walked to work in a calm, cool breeze. By lunchtime, the heavens had opened again and rain was falling horizontally due to the resumption of the gale-force winds. I half expected a blizzard by dinner time but it never transpired.
I collected Laura from her latest after-school activity - choir singing. One by one all these wee kids trouped out the school gates singing like mini-soprano's to popular tunes I can never remember the name of. What with this and her tap dancing, she's not the quietest of kids.
It looks like KIC has been abandoned by its editor. An auto-response to the email I sent revealed the date for the re-start has now been pushed back to November 1st! I would have thought an email to warn the authors would have been polite and a mail-out to the bloody subscribers a necessity.
It's become a total sham and I'm only going public with it now because my contract has been broken so many times by the editor it would be impossible for me to be dropped anyway.
I am gutted for my active subscribers who have paid good money to be left with no product. It borders on fraud. I am gutted for the other KIC authors who have dedicated large amounts of time not just to writing the serials, but to promoting and marketing them, as well as the company itself.
I can't have anything to do with it any more. I am going to insist KIC refund all my subscribers and then I will provide them with the serial for free. It is nothing short of shambolic the way this whole situation has been handled and I think for the case of my writing career I should disassociate myself with KeepitComing.net for the greater good.
The vote for the Festival book title has now closed. Thanks to everyone who took part and I'm pleased to announce the title is the one I would have picked anyway if you all hadn't voted for it. The Festival book will be called:
I headed down to The Waterline bar on Leith's Shore to meet Sarah Swanson, the official photographer for Fringe Fantastic. It was our first meeting and it went well. We talked about the project at length and about writing and photography in general, but being a Glaswegian at heart, a lot of our discussion revolved around the old Edinburgh/Glasgow divide.
Sarah read over the first draft of Fringe Fantastic to get a feel for it and has already started to come up with some ideas about how to go about it (including the use of make-up!). The weekend of the 8th/9th October has been pencilled in for a photo shoot so fingers crossed it isn't chucking it down with rain when the day comes.
We got on really well which is good as I wouldn't want to work with someone who I didn't like, and I'm looking forward to seeing the pictures that come out of this. Sarah also agreed to do me some author portraits but I've no clue what my image is. Need to think about that one.
I had only expected to be out for a couple of hours and then intended go back home to do some more writing, but by quarter past eleven we were several pints into the meeting when we realised we'd better make it the last one.
One thing I came to realise is how quick this month has passed. I'll already be putting together the GDR Round Up for September in the next couple of days but it feels like only a week has passed since the August one.
Hopefully I can squeeze the most out of the next couple of days before I do.
Colin 11:31 am
2 Comments:
I agree, Colin. September has passed far too fast, and each time a swift wind blows yellow leaves from the tree I feel like climbing a ladder and re-attaching each leaf, one by one. Soon it will be cold. Minus 35 - 50 with the windchill, and I will have to scrape my car *shudder*.
My KIC contract is up in October anyhow. I'm advertising on Google right now, and although any exposure is good exposure, I'm thinking maybe I can run my serial subscriptions on my own and keep Mending Resolute going. I've just overhauled my site, after all.
I like your idea of sending your subscribers the serial no charge.
Last night I was thinking about the day I went to Callendar and camped off the side of the road. I miss the Scottish green those large downpours create. It's kinda brown here in Canada! hehe
My KIC contract is up in October anyhow. I'm advertising on Google right now, and although any exposure is good exposure, I'm thinking maybe I can run my serial subscriptions on my own and keep Mending Resolute going. I've just overhauled my site, after all.
I like your idea of sending your subscribers the serial no charge.
Last night I was thinking about the day I went to Callendar and camped off the side of the road. I miss the Scottish green those large downpours create. It's kinda brown here in Canada! hehe
Leigh Clements, The Mystery Maiden, Shot In The Dark Mysteries.com, at Thursday, September 29, 2005 5:42:00 pm
That really sucks about KIC. They really had something there. I wonder why it has had such problems?
Sounds like you've got lots of projects to keep you busy. Best of luck with them!
Sounds like you've got lots of projects to keep you busy. Best of luck with them!