Freedom From The Mundane - A Writer's Blog

Sunday, April 30, 2006

Stiff As A Board And April's GDR Review

I woke today with a body in agony. I felt as though I had been given a good stiff kicking by a dozen wrestlers wearing size 10 steel toe-capped Doc Martin boots. My ribs, back, stomach, neck, knees, thighs, feet and arms all ached as though bruised and battered. And all because of a two hour skatastic dancing session to the live sound of The Beat and The Specials. It was totally worth it though.

When I managed to pull my strained body out of bed I got ready and took Laura out for the morning. She had her own things she needed to do and later we popped into the aquarium shop to get some supplies. The bulb had gone in the tank so I needed a new one, as did I need some new plants, some slate and a new net.

On the way home we stopped in Leith Links and eat our ice-creams (it was another glorious day) before heading home where Gail had made mince and tatties for dinner. Sublime!

My new book listing is up on the Poetry Super Highway website for the Free-For-All which starts tonight. Well, it will be 8am tomorrow before it starts in the UK but we're all ready to go. I can't wait to see what some of the other 74 e-books are like. There are some poets I discovered after last years Free-For-All and I've kept an eye on their work ever since. It's a great way to network and get ideas. I ended up writing Fringe Fantastic because of it!

GDR Review for April

Fiction
* Complete first re-draft of Stella - WIP, extra 1k written
* Complete second redraft of Hunting Jack - first two chapters done
* Complete new chapter of Hunting Jack - not done
* Write a new short story - not done
* Keep on top of submissions list - done

Poetry
* Write poem for reading at my sister's wedding in July - WIP
* Write and produce a children's poetry e-book for the PSH Great Poetry Free-For-All - done

Non-Fiction
* Complete work on Scotland's Treasure for May column - done
* Write story/article for Being Dad Anthology - not done
* Write four weekly blog entries for TSDR - 1/4 done (Punk journalism)
* Write and submit another step-dad article for Interactive Dad (2 already waiting) - not done

Marketing and Promotion
* Step up marketing and promotion of Fringe Fantastic for Fringe - done
* Keep website up to date - done

Reading and Research
* Release Tall Tales and Short Stories Vol.2 into the wild - really have to do this
* Finish reading friends novel WIP and prepare crit - almost done
* Read from my 'waiting to be read' pile - finish The Black Book by Ian Rankin plus more - not done
* Prepare for Extra HJ research - not done

Other Projects
* Stay on top of editorial work for TSDR - done

Things That Turned Up
Nothing

Successes
Robert Louis Stevenson - Always in Edinburgh, published by The Literary Traveler
Published new e-book on kids poetry, Silly Poems for Wee People Vol.1

Failures
What A Waste rejected by Fringe Magazine 5/4/06
Loaded rejected by Fringe Magazine 5/4/06
The Oasis rejected by Open Wide Magazine 12/4/06

Statistics
Fiction - 1,000
Non-Fiction - 10,800
Poetry - 880

Outstanding Submissions
Fiction
Insidious Reflections 1
Writing Magazine 1
3am Magazine 1
Barcelona Review 1
The Portable Muse 2
One Story 2
Adirondack Review 1
Espresso Fiction 3

Non-Fiction
Interactive Dad 2

Summary
Not the best of months as far as output in the fiction department goes so I'm feeling rather frustrated and tense about it all. The first half of the month ran away from me and a lot of it was down to having so much to do I didn't know where to start. Procrastination of the worst kind, I think.

I feel like I wasted the entire month actually, except when I look at the output from the view of the Poetry Super Highway Great Free-For-All, I do have something substantial to show for it. Part of my GDR was to try out kids poetry, so I did, in the form of an e-book for the PSH project.

It came out well and I am proud of it so really I shouldn't be feeling like this. If I had been able - bothered my arse - to work more on my fiction more I would probably be feeling less annoyed with myself.

May MUST be made to count big style!






For more information about Fringe Fantastic, please go to the website: http://fringefantastic.colingalbraith.co.uk

Colin 2:00 pm

1 Comments:

Actually - I am impressed ! Congrats on your Robert Louis Stevenson success!

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