Freedom From The Mundane

Image: The Mirror

England got a taste of what it’s like to be Scottish yesterday: dramatic failure after a bunch of promises about what might and should have been.
Yes, England failed in the most Scottish of ways; they inflated their own self worth and never saw the juggernaut of reality coming their way. Germany walked over [...]

June 28th, 2010 | Tags: 4-1, beer, bevy, coffee shop, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Editing, England, England fans, Fiction, Football, Germany, manuscript, Poetry, proofing, Reading, rewriting, royalties, soccer, World Cup | Category: Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Publishing and Marketing, Sport, Writing, Writing Process | Leave a comment

Image: British Council

I logged on to the Edinburgh Book Festival website first thing yesterday morning, but my hopes of an early scan of the 2010 events programme was dashed when I found out it was a 12 noon launch. I had to wait. It was tortuous.
Eventually the EBF launch press release was announced and by [...]

June 18th, 2010 | Tags: Amazon, America, authors, book sales, Books, chapbooks, Charlotte Square, Clark's Bar, e-books, Edinburgh Book Festival, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Family, Fringe Fantastic, Gail Galbraith, Kindle, lager, parents, Paul Auster, Photography, pint, Poetry, poets, Poolside Poetry, promotion code, royalties, Silly Poems for Wee People Vol.2, special offer, U.S.A., weekend, writers | Category: Books, Day Job, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Family, Fiction, Photography, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Reading, Sport, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (2)

Image: Kiwi-Wing

My royalty statement for sales of STELLA came in for the last quarter yesterday—nothing—zilch—not a single sale! In the entirety of my writing career this is most definitely a first.
I’m sure it’s not a bad book, though personally I don’t think it’s my best, but is it that bad that sales plummeted to zero [...]

March 31st, 2010 | Tags: Books, Leith, marketing, promotion, rain, royalties, severe weather, sleet, snow, Stella, Weather, Writing | Category: Animals, Books, Edinburgh: the City & the Festivals, Fiction, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (1)

Image: AHI

Suddenly, I am back up to full speed without even noticing. After my recent lay off I decided to concentrate on one project at a time and to clearing my outstanding GDRs from last year. Now, I find I have several projects all running at once—they kind of crept up on me—all these plates [...]

February 11th, 2010 | Tags: chapbooks, Day Job, Editing, Eternal Press, Fiction, GDR's, poems, Poetry, projects, Publishing and Marketing, royalties, sitcom, stageplay, Stella, Writing, writing competitions | Category: Books, Day Job, Fiction, Food, Drink, and Bevvy, Poetry, Publishing and Marketing, Writing, Writing Process | Comments (3)