Freedom From The Mundane » Submissions

July Plan Of Work

colingalbraith — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 07:00:50 +0000

Image: Go Springboard

As mentioned previously, this is my final monthly plan of work for my writing year. When this set of GDRs began in January 2009 I was still running from January to December but came to realise how important the Edinburgh Book Festival was in my writing life; it’s a month of recharging, re-evaluating, planning and giving over to new ideas.

So it made sense to move to an August to July work plan, thus, I am about to complete an 18-month plan of work. My final review of those 18 months will be published at the end of the month (there’s still a lot of work to get through) but this final set of monthly GDRs are designed not only to wrap up what I planned but also with a view to helping shape what’s to come.

The biggest question I’ll face in the next month is: where do I want to go next?

Fiction
* Polish and complete final draft of GREENER IS THE GRASS
* Write one new short/flash story
* Catch up on short/flash story backlog
* Re-submit any rejected/recalled short stories
* Submit to selected fiction/poetry competitions

Poetry
* Write at least one poem per week
* Catch up on backlog

Editing
* Stay on top of RR submissions
* Layout RR issue 12

Freelance
* Expect site update requests from photography client
* Keep all my websites updated and relevant

Reading & Learning
* The Grave Tattoo by Val McDermid (48%) – finish by July 17th
* The Kenneth William Diaries by Russell Davies (38%)

Holiday Reading
* Paul Auster
* Ian Rankin
* AN Other
* AN Other

Annual
Complete 2009/10 Annual GDR Review

Peace and out!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * SPECIAL OFFERS * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Available until 30th June only: buy any of my poetry books from my website or the Books page on this blog, and qualify for free ground shipping up to the value of £25 if you enter FREEGROUND305 when checking out. Available through Lulu.com only.

Gail Galbraith Photography is offering portrait shoots for £25 (knocked down from £40) if you book before 31st August 2010 and you use the word “Leith” in your query. For that you get a 1 hour session in her new studio in Leith, 1 free 8×6 print, an online gallery to show off to friends and family and where images can be purchase direct from, and all images from the shoot on a free low-resolution CD. (Subject to max of 4 people per session; each additional person is £5 each). You can contact Gail at gail@gailgalbraith.co.uk and view her website at: www.gailgalbraith.co.uk

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * SPECIAL OFFERS * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Reasons To Be Cheerful Part 2

colingalbraith — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 08:37:32 +0000

Image: David Goehring

I’ve decided what I’ll submit to the Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature Trust’s programme for reading slots at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival. I wanted it to be something punchy, engaging and would prove a good advert.

I had two stories immediately in mind. I was cut between LETTING GO, a sad story about two old men gone fishing, one of whom is struggling to get over his wife’s death. It’s good and fits the length requirements but it’s possibly that little bit too sad and slow moving. My other idea was A POINT OF VIEW, the sharply emotional story of a guy being sacked from a job he never really liked anyway. It’s fast paced, intense and engaging from the start. Above all it reads well aloud and is solidly in my own voice.

I went with the latter and spent the last two nights polishing it up. I’m going to give it some vocal try outs this weekend just to be sure.

I’ve also been working on GREENER IS THE GRASS, moving through the manuscript while remembering some of the tips I picked up from Stephen King’s On Writing. Nothing complicated, just things I never used to look out for specifically, like adverbs, themes and concentrating more on what the readers sees. It’s getting there.

I’ve had no more submissions back but I do have some ideas for new markets. New Writing Scotland has opened for subs to their next anthology. They should expect something from me very soon.

The sun has finally given in to cloud over the past couple of days but it’s still as warm as a brothel’s boiler room. Scotland in June and several days of sunshine means we are already talking about droughts and possibly hosepipe bans. Meanwhile, in the highlands, there is still snow lying on the ground. What a contradictory place we live.

Speaking of the sun, I think I forgot to mention we booked our family holiday last week. We’re flying off to the Algarve in a few weeks for some relaxation of intense proportions. The whole family needs this; it needs to be a good one.

I’ve got a busy weekend coming up: Edinburgh Book Festival tickets go on sale at 9am tomorrow, so tonight I’ll be finalising the events, workshops and debates I want to attend. I also have to start getting some new clothes in for going away—I’ll need a bunch of new thongs and vest tops, maybe some new hats and definitely lots of sun cream.

Wife and daughter are heading to Glasgow for the day tomorrow and won’t be back until late. Cue much unbroken writing during the day for me, with some spells out playing with Pippin in the garden. Tomorrow night I’m planning an Indian take out; something hot like Madras, along with a good film and some really cold beer.

Shalom!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * SPECIAL OFFER * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Available until 30th June only: buy any of my poetry books from my website or the Books page on this blog, and qualify for free ground shipping up to the value of £25 if you enter FREEGROUND305 when checking out. Available through Lulu.com only.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * SPECIAL OFFER * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

And So, The Peeling…

colingalbraith — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 09:53:51 +0000

Image: Kellogs

Get this. Yesterday I mentioned one of my short stories was rejected on Tuesday after 3 days and that I’d sent the piece straight back out. That same piece was returned to me YESTERDAY—1 day on submission!!! Obviously it’s already back out there but come on! It’s a good story, people! It’s called WHISKY SNATCHING—doesn’t that whet everyone’s literary appetite? I feel sorry for it being abused in such a way and I’ll be keeping an eye on those markets concerned for the future.

My sister sent me Marian Keyes’ latest newsletter, her first for quite a while. It seems she’s been having a terrible time this year, which is a shame because she’s a great author and I’d been hoping to catch her at this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival. I doubt that will happen how. You can read Marian’s newsletter here.

Speaking of the Edinburgh Book Festival, the programme gets announced today at 12 noon. I’ll be online then checking it out and will grab myself a hard copy for analysis. Let my August planning commence!

Also in the news, David Murray has announced that Rangers FC are no longer for sale because he “has been unable to find a deal that benefits the club itself, its shareholders and its fans”.

What he really means, and what Celtic FC would also mean if they had to try and sell up to survive, is that nobody wants to own companies rotten to the core. Bigotry, it seems, just isn’t paying off as much as it used to. £30 million in debt tells its own story. God bless St Mirren.

I was so tired after work last night I accidentally fell asleep for an hour on the couch. I was so tired, in fact, I lost my appetite and could only stomach a toasted bap and cup of tea for dinner. I never wrote/rewrote anything—I just couldn’t drum up the energy and went to bed early, but then, as you might expect would happen after my foolish slip into sleepiness earlier on, I couldn’t get to sleep when I needed to. It was so hot last night that I just couldn’t nod off and was still sitting up wide awake at 1am.

When I woke up this morning my skin had started peeling off my head. Despite days and nights lathering after-sun cream on my head to try and stave off the drying out, yesterday I had several twitchy moments as the scalp itching started. I remained in hope, but alas, when I looked in the mirror shortly after 6am there it was, peely wally skin falling off my head like feather light snow flakes. Typical. My head looks like The Cornflake Man.

If you’re an e-book fan, then you might be interested to know that my book, STELLA, is now available to purchase from Kindle. Click here to buy a copy of STELLA, the Kindle Edition, priced $5.29.

Gail Galbraith Photography is offering portrait shoots for £25 (knocked down from £40) if you book before 31st August 2019 and you use the word “Leith” in your query. For that you get a 1 hour session in her new studio in Leith, 1 free 8×6 print, an online gallery to show off to friends and family and where images can be purchase direct from, and all images from the shoot on a free low-resolution CD. (Subject to max of 4 people per session; each additional person is £5 each). You can contact Gail at gail@gailgalbraith.co.uk and view her website at: www.gailgalbraith.co.uk

That’s all for me just now. Peace out!

National Crime Fiction Week

colingalbraith — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 09:51:06 +0000

Image: Alan Cleaver

I was rather disappointed to see not a single Scot among the shortlist of best young crime writers from the CWA’s inaugural National Crime Fiction Week awards. All the finalists were English or Welsh, which I hope isn’t an indication that “tartan noir” is on the droop. Mind you, if it is, that leaves the way wide open for me (he says with an evil smirk) although probably not in the “young” category.

Some of my readers might like to know that although STELLA was a paranormal suspense novella, as will be its successor, BACCARA BURNING, my full length novels and the one other novella I have on the go are all crime related. GATECRASH, SLICK, GREENER IS THE GRASS and even BLOOD TIES (an unfinished Lennox novel) are all crime, the latter a true piece of crime fiction in that it is a detective story. The rest revolve around the criminals as opposed to the coppers chasing them, which is an angle that comes quite naturally to me I find. Except for Lennox; he’s an enigma.

With all my short fiction now out I was amazed to receive a rejection from a top end magazine so quickly after they received it. Three days for a magazine that claims to receive thousands of submissions each month, and can so only use half of 1% in any given year? I think not. I suspect this one is closed off and the piece wasn’t even read. The good thing about it was the speed I turned the submission around and got it back out to another suitable market (by suitable I mean the kind of fiction it publishes) within minutes.

While I was in the software that I use for managing my submissions, I accidentally submitted a few more poems to some magazines. I’ve got a fair few out to competitions and poetry rags just now, such is the ease of the whole process I can simply fire them out when they are ready or when I see a magazine that speaks to me; I simply add it into the software and fire off the sub.

I began work on the final draft of GREENER IS THE GRASS. It’s very exciting. I reckon it won’t take too long to work through the printed manuscript, collecting errors, typos and making notes as I go. In the first chapter alone I’ve taken out several large chunks; a bunch of unnecessary sentences that were harder to spot on the screen but somehow jump out more easily from the page. And I’ve got a couple of markets in mind for this one already so the quicker the better.

This Thursday will see the publication of this year’s Edinburgh Book Festival programme. With Catherine Lockerbie gone and the new guy in, I hope the festival doesn’t lose any of its appeal. It wouldn’t be the same without that special something, that wee bit of magic that makes August in Charlotte Square such a special time. And I certainly hope they don’t change the format too much, not too quickly anyway.

If you’re an e-book fan, then you might be interested to know that my book, STELLA, is now available to purchase from Kindle. Click here to buy a copy of STELLA, the Kindle Edition, priced $5.29.

Gail Galbraith Photography is offering portrait shoots for £25 (knocked down from £40) if you book before 31st August 2014 and you use the word “Leith” in your query. For that you get a 1 hour session in her new studio in Leith, 1 free 8×6 print, an online gallery to show off to friends and family and where images can be purchase direct from, and all images from the shoot on a free low-resolution CD. (Subject to max of 4 people per session; each additional person is £5 each). You can contact Gail at gail@gailgalbraith.co.uk and view her website at: www.gailgalbraith.co.uk

That’s all for me just now. Peace out!

Creative Suspicions

colingalbraith — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 08:04:16 +0000

Image: Green Office

I had a surprise day off work yesterday when I had to call in for some time so I could look after a sick family member. My doctor’s duties were called on until mid-afternoon, which meant I missed all of the warm sun that had been afforded Edinburgh. By the time I had some time to myself the sun was gone, it was cooler outside and so, I thought, was the best part of the day with it.

Determined not to waste the afternoon, in between checking up on my patient and making sure she wanted for nothing, I got to work on other things. Task one was to rewrite PAINT, a short story I wrote a while back but which I was never completely happy with the ending. This time I got it right and I found myself off to a flyer.

Next up, I finished sorting all my markets into their new categories. This took a little longer than I thought it might but not quite so long as I feared. Strange, eh?

Time out to help the bed-bound invalid then I spent what was left of the afternoon and the evening working on GATECRASH. And that was where the second high of the day came from, for I completed the second draft, which included the writing of the final chapter.

There came an awesome feeling from this. Not only is it a great feeling to always complete a major piece of work and to be able to see it clearly in one’s mind’s eye, but it takes my GDR possibilities to new levels of expectation. I now have one full novel settling down in my mind waiting for the day I print it off to proof it, and two novellas—BACCARA BURNING and GREENER IS THE GRASS—that are both in the final throes of proofing.

My mind was buzzing with the story of GATECRASH when I finished and not even a plate of mince and tatties could empty all the story noise in my head. So I watched some of the Italy versus Paraguay World Cup match and then stuck a DVD on: Protégé, a Chinese film with some pathetically dubbed voice overs but which was actually a good film by story and by the way it was filmed.

To today then and it’s back to the office. The sun is shining this morning once again and this time I know I will definitely miss it through the day job. My head is turning over some short fiction ideas, which if I can get them down on paper and clear my thoughts I will prove to myself what I am beginning to suspect: that I’m moving into a creatively rich time in my year.

Tonight I will make a start on the printed manuscript of GREENER IS THE GRASS. It’s the one nearest completion and the one that needs the least work.

If you’re an e-book fan, then you might be interested to know that my book, STELLA, is now available to purchase from Kindle. Click here to buy a copy of STELLA, the Kindle Edition, priced $5.29.

That’s all for me just now. Peace out!

Rewriting And Turning Over

colingalbraith — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 07:54:49 +0000

Image: 123rf.com

I spent most of yesterday lathering after-sun cream on my pink forehead and the back of my neck. I was positively glowing as I walked around Edinburgh in the morning and stopped for a coffee and pastry to read the paper. No wonder people were looking at me and tourists were confused.

My neck is worst because it constantly rubs against my shirt and it wasn’t the sort of weather for walking around topless. It rained most of the day.

So after checking in on the work going on at Gail’s photographic studio (I wasn’t needed) I got on with my own work back in my office. First up was to turn out the remaining fiction on my list that needed to go to market. Everything is now out including work to some new magazines and a bunch of carefully selected (and at times reworked) poems.

I rewrote some of my short fiction (quite a lot of it, actually) before turning it back out. One of my favourite but as yet unpublished stories (although it got to the short list of a very prestigious magazine once), was refurbished and sent out proudly into the world again. I think it’s perhaps the best work of short fiction I’ve written and I simply WILL get DAFFODILS published eventually.

I had to laugh when heard BBC commentators talking prior to the Germany versus Australia World Cup match last night. Despite only managing to scrape a 1-1 draw against the USA, and despite a passionless performance that included a fumbled and embarrassing goalkeeping manoeuvre, they were actually Discussing Germany as England’s Round 2 opponents!

Come on guys! Being positive and supportive is one thing but being disrespectful to the nations the viewers had tuned in to watch by talking about England is another. Further to that, what kind of arrogant assumption gives the BBC the right to assume England will even BE in the Second Round? Even further than that, you’re broadcasting to more then London!!

If you’re an e-book fan then you might be interested to know that my book, STELLA, is now available to purchase from Kindle. Click here to buy a copy of STELLA, the Kindle Edition, priced $5.29.

That’s all for me just now. Peace out!

Itching

colingalbraith — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 07:38:38 +0000

Image: Randy

A most enjoyable and somewhat extended Sunday morning in Edinburgh yesterday, complete with a call out from my work while I was on the bus heading into town. It was a call to discuss a situation, which meant I had to log on later in the afternoon and take care of some work, but it was no big shakes and it all worked out well in the end.

I popped into Curry’s while on walkabout and bought a couple of necessities, stopping outside the store to watch the first stanchion to hold the overhead tram cables being put into place by a massive crane. On first glance it’s going to look ridiculously unsightly as it runs the length of Princes Street, but hey, that’s progress for you!

I bought a paper and headed into Costa in the Waverley Centre to down a large cappuccino for an hour, before heading back and stopping into Gail’s studio to admire the new door being put into place. I’ll be down helping to paint the interior later tonight; further progress of a rather more exciting nature than trams, let me tell you.

Back home and after lunch I gave my office a quick tidy and it was back to work. I decided to kick things off with the more technical side of things: the photography website updates. I’d been trying to solve the small matter of a layout problem in the coding by changing things around, but then it hit me I should try introducing new code. I did and it worked. There are still some design flaws, which I need to talk to Gail about, but ultimately I think it’s going to take me less time to complete than first envisaged.

I also set about inserting my list of submissions into Sonar3—there are only half a dozen so that didn’t take me long! At the moment my list is alphabetical, which is no good at all because some of my markets, although all in the same class, are still more preferable than others. Things like response times, if they’ve previously liked my work or if I simply like the kind of work they publish, all of these things boost a magazines profile and desirability in my mind. I’m going to order them as such in each section so my favourites go first.

I made a curry for dinner. My family don’t like them hot and spicy so it had to be a bland korma with basmati rice and naan bread. After serving up their plates I added a dash of Scotch Bonnet into the pan, gave it a good stir and served my own plate. Roasty toasty!!

The evening didn’t go quite as planned so no work got done but I did manage to get some time on GATECRASH later on in the evening. I feel like I need to get my submissions back out urgently first, though. Now I’m organised on that front I feel like I have this irritable itch all the time until I do. I just want to get everything moving again!

All in all, though, it was a very productive and relaxing weekend where it needed to be. Today will be busy again (I’m painting tonight) then tomorrow I’m off to see Supergrass at the Glasgow Barrowlands. It’s the fairwell tour and by all accounts it promises to be a cracking show.

Until tomorrow—peace out!

Submission Tracking Revolution

colingalbraith — Sun, 06 Jun 2010 08:22:18 +0000

Image: Priceless Writers

Just like I did last week, I decided not to go up town yesterday. By 10am it was way too hot to even consider leaving the sanctuary of the house, so I decided to get an early start on my tasks. I figured, get the crap stuff out the way and I can enjoy more of the day. So I did, and that’s how it happened.

Mind you, my tasks were made a touch more difficult due to the state of the place. There’s a big event coming up in my wife’s photography life and the preparation for it means much of the house is in turmoil. There are boxes, folders, paper, photography equipment and to-do lists everywhere. It’s a sight to behold.

The event also means I have some work to do on her website. Not a small job so I knew I would have to build in some website development time to my day and coming week. After my weekly house clean and spot of gardening to keep on top of things, I gave about three hours to it. The work will have to be spread, though—it’s too much like my day job at the moment; too techy.

I’m delighted the latest issue of the Ranfurly Review is out, published yesterday morning early doors. After all my pondering over its future and how I was going to keep managing it, I’m actually quite proud with how it turned out. I think there may have been something subliminally creative going on when I selected the final contributions I did. The front cover’s a good ‘un, too.

I made some very good progress with GATECRASH yesterday. I’m well into the second part of the story and approaching the “middle sag” but there doesn’t seem to be any sign of that in the prose. Once I’ve been through this initial familiarisation and re-draft of the manuscript, including completing the book (it has no ending!), I’ll print it off and leave it for a short time before going back for the real re-write. In between I’ll complete GREENER IS THE GRASH and get it out there. It’s so close I can smell its feet.

I also spent a fair amount of time gathering together all the market lists I have into one central list. I stripped out the vital information I need: name, URL, fiction and/or poetry, word count, paying, etc., and ran through each one to check them out. A LOT got ditched through either not being active any more or website statements like “we reserve the right not to notify authors of a rejection.” Nice. Don’t expect to receive my hard work for consideration then.

I’m pleased with the final list. What surprises me is the amount of markets I classed as being in first choice that I haven’t subbed to for a long time. That kind of proves my method wasn’t working, it was too random.

I downloaded Sonar3, a submission tracking piece of software and checked it out. It looks good so I’m going to trial it for a few weeks alongside my established spreadsheet that I’ve been using for 6 years. You load up all your markets and submissions and it alerts you and tracks your successes etc. It looks like it could be useful and a much quicker way of administering the whole process.

This Wednesday will be the first anniversary of STELLA being published. To celebrate, I’m running a competition where you can win a free signed copy of the book. You’ll have to stay tuned for information. Of course, if you can’t wait until then you could always buy a copy of Stella here. If you just want more information on the book, click here.

Right, that’s all for today. I’m off into town while it’s quiet for some coffee, pastry and a nice long read of the paper. See you on Twitter later on no doubt.

Peace out!

In The Groove

colingalbraith — Thu, 20 May 2010 10:15:44 +0000

Image: Dave Bleasdale

It was one of those days where the more small items I managed to tick off my GDR list, the more of the bigger ones followed on thereafter. By the end of play late in the evening, I had achieved rather a lot of juicy work.

I got right back on track with Ranfurly Review submissions. I hate sending out rejections and I try to make them informal as I can but this backfired when I was met with a slew of confused responses as to the terminology I’d used. As if rejections aren’t bad enough, I had to do the damn things twice!

That done, I can now start piecing together which acceptances will go into which issue. I think I may be looking ahead quite far now but I’ll have to allocate all the contributions first to get a clearer picture.

I made a few outstanding website updates for one client and I also have some major work coming up for my main client (my wife) who is moving forward with her photography business as if there is no tomorrow. It’s good fun, though, because her site has quite a specific feel and tone she wishes to achieve, which makes it interesting to work on.

I’m in the middle of doing a correspondence interview for a PhD student at Edinburgh Uni. I finished it last night but I’m trying to make it as thorough as I possibly can so I’ve taken a bit of time over it. Hope he doesn’t mind.

I worked through a few more chapters of GATECRASH—got to keep that ball rolling at all times. It really is the edgiest story I’ve worked on and I think it might need a fair amount of rework. It’s very exciting, though, and by far the best fun I’ve had on a manuscript for quite a while.

Speaking of manuscripts, I’m going to print off BACCARA and GREENER later on so I can work on them; the latter almost ready for sending out, the former I don’t want to hang around with because I want to get it to the publisher after a reasonable time. I’m taking King’s advice to the letter and just doing it with the aim of seeing the full picture and picking up the smaller errors too. His book really has got me charged up both in my approach to my writing and reading also.

I’ve been invited to an album launch next week in the Usher Hall of all places. It’s through my freelance writing capacity so I’m hoping to be able to pitch it to a few venues that might be interested.

My darling wife is going away for a few days on a Hen weekend. Originally the 15-strong group were meant to go to Spain but Globespan folded leaving them fighting for their money back. A trip to England was the upshot and she leaves tomorrow, so last night we had a special family meal at the big table: sweet and sour chicken for the Galbraiths, because tonight she will be far too busy eat what with all the last minute packing she will no doubt be doing.

When my wife is gone it will mean a lot more silliness and carrying on in the house than normal. I intend to do quite a lot around the home while she’s away and there will be a DVD and Pizza night on one of the evenings. I will also get some good writing time if I play my cards right but the rest of the time I will just be my normal idiotic self.

Have a great Thursday—the weekend is getting closer. Peace, out!

The Scruffy Dog Review – SPRING ISSUE OUT NOW!!

The Publishing Cycle

colingalbraith — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:24:18 +0000

Image: Franklin Regional Middle School

The advent of yet more school holidays has seen me working my day job mornings from home this week. Honestly, the amount of holidays kids in Edinburgh get leads me to conclude why a large percentage of Edinburgh University’s intake comes from outside the city. There seems to be more of an accent on taking regular breaks instead of actual concentrated learning.

The day job is overwhelmingly busy at the moment but I seem to be working through it without feeling the pressure as much as the earlier part of the year. I think those couple of weeks I took off for myself really helped in this respect, as I was able to partially let go and unwind somewhat. It turns my mind to our summer holiday (still waiting to be booked) and the thought of a poolside under the sun with no Blackberry within a few hundred miles really does appeal.

I am thoroughly enjoying Val McDermid’s The Grave Tattoo at the moment. Last night I read almost a third of the entire 543-page novel. It’s gripping, thick with atmosphere and because it is based in the Lake District I can relate directly to the locations (and weather).

The latest issue of The Scruffy Dog Review came out overnight. You’ll find some choice poetry and fiction, the first in my series of great Scottish authors and, of course, the latest in Devon Ellington’s fascinating series on writing workshops, conferences and groups.

I proofed my acceptance for the anthology and it’s ready to send off—will do that later today. I had to double check because the proof they sent me contained a typo, but on checking my entry the mistake wasn’t there. Worrying.

Did a fair chunk of work on Ranfurly Review submissions. I’m going to set aside set days in each cycle for dealing with these I think: once per month for sending out the acceptances and rejections and two days per quarter to get the site ready and the issue laid out. Otherwise I’m getting into a fankle.

Right, off to get ready for the day and get to work.

The Scruffy Dog Review – SPRING ISSUE OUT NOW!!

It’s True, I’m On Holiday

colingalbraith — Tue, 30 Mar 2010 09:57:56 +0000

Image: Nattu

It was around 11am yesterday when the feeling of being on holiday really kicked in. It was Monday morning and I was able to get up when I wanted and ease into the day; no stresses of getting to work and getting into gear for the day ahead.

I took everything just as slow as I wanted; I lay in until around 11 then got up to make fresh coffee and have yoghurt for brunch. Very healthy, I hear you say, but it’s what I wanted—so I had it.

After showering and getting ready (in a spotless office—an absolute pleasure for a change) I got down to some writing. First up the blog, then I wrote out the first draft of the press release for Friday’s book release. SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2 is now pending in a big way.

I designed three new web banners for the new book, too. The first went up yesterday morning and number two is at the bottom of this post.

I took care of a few short story submissions and chased some long-term outstanding ones. I’ve had a few nibbles and one I would consider to have “come off the line” recently, so I’m really hoping to sell one or two of them soon. It’s been a while since I had any short fiction accepted for publication so I think it’s about time.

I wrote 3000 words on BACCARA BURNING, which took me well into the evening as I didn’t start until later in the day. It started off rough but got smoother the further in I got. The main characters have now become split up and for some reason this seems to have helped in the writing of the book.

I took part in a project being run by Central Station. Check out my entry to their ‘I Became…’ project over at Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CenSta?ref=mf

Devon—the two comments you left yesterday were the 1000th and 1001st comments left on my blog! I feel you should win some sort of prize but I don’t know what I can give you so the adulation and honour will have to be it.

I discovered a radio station that’s well worth a listen. Passion Radio only broadcasts online but it’s very close to the wonderful Atlantic 252 I used to listen to throughout the 90s. It sadly closed down but some of the presenters started a new station called Passion down in Sussex and the similarities are breathtaking. If you like classic dance music—not like the guff you get these days, I’m talking about proper stuff from the early 90s classics—this is the place for you. Click here to see the website and tune in.

The weather got worse as yesterday wore on; drizzle turned to rain and rain into a steady downpour. This morning it’s still pouring and the temperature has dropped to the extent that we’ve been told to expect snow—but at the moment I can’t see it happening it’s so wet.

It causes me a bit of a problem because my plan was to go out this morning to take care of a long-standing task. It’s just so miserable I don’t want to leave the house but I really want to take care of this thing so I’m split minded. I’ll go and shower first then reassess the situation.

Until tomorrow, peace and out!

Moving Ever Closer To The Mac

colingalbraith — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 07:00:15 +0000

Image: Macbitz

After much tinkering with the email client on my PC I can formally announce I am now 100% back in action. But I’m still not happy; not happy with the fact I have to go through this every time I have to reinstall the O/S, which quite frankly shouldn’t need done at all in order to keep the system top-top and running smoothly.

To that end I had some spare time yesterday morning so after popping into the opticians to see if my specs were ready (they weren’t, but I approached them with a deal, which you will find out about in tomorrow’s post hopefully), and after buying some fresh coffee from Tesco, I popped into PC World to see what they had in the way of Macs.

They had the usual array of laptops, which all look terrific quite frankly and I had a wee play with some of them. Not sure about the low keyboard on some of them but as I was toying around the Apple guy came back and started talking to me. “Here we go,” I thought, “more sales patter” but actually the guy was pretty cool.

He wasn’t giving me a hard sell or anything and we started talking about the differences in working with a Mac as opposed to a PC. He used to work in I.T. also, and so our discussion got down to the level you rarely get from sales folk—a good technical understanding and appreciation of how things actually work in the real world. As the conversation went on he suggested an alternative to the Macbook that might suit me more—the Mac Mini.

I admit to not having much exposure to Apple other than their Macbooks and iPods, so it may come as a surprise to read that I had never heard of the Mac Mini. It can be held in your hands and does all a Macbook would do except it’s essentially a desktop replacement. It’s a small silver box. It has sockets and jacks in the back and a front CD/DVD loader and it has a lot of power under the hood. It could be exactly what I’m looking for if I choose to leave the world of the PC behind.

When I got home I started reading up on it. It looks just the job, though I’m not going to invest just yet, it’s definitely the way I would go if/when I do move to a Mac—and on this revelation that could be sooner rather than later. I seem to get the impression that if I do move to a Mac I won’t look back and judging by what I saw/read today I am more convinced that could be just the case.

There’s not much else to write about the weekend although I had an awesome curry with my wife on Saturday night: lamb pathia with all the trimmings. Delish!

On the writing front I worked on two and a bit things. The “bit” was the submission of more poems and stories, and one of the other things was the final proof being sent to the publisher of SILLY POEMS FOR WEE PEOPLE VOL.2. It’s all done now and I await the free proof copy to arrive on my doorstep some time in the next week. The launch date is April 2nd so I have much to do, but I’ve already done the web page for it and started pumping out some promo ideas.

The major thing I’ve been working on is solid writing and developing ideas for BACCARA BURNING. It’s coming on very nicely and I had to make myself stop last night. One of the small bit-part characters looks as though he may have a larger bearing on the outcome of the story than I first realised.

When I left the story late last night I did have a problem though: both the main characters have gotten separated and are in dire straits. My dilemma now is—who the hell saves who?

The life of a writer—always interesting.

Peace and out!

Conscience And Art

colingalbraith — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 10:16:08 +0000

Image: Macnolete

I sent off the rest of my submissions on my pending list. Stories that have come back from publications, have been turned around and were ready to go back out. I just never got around to it. I seem to get do this in phases but it’s something I should keep on top of more often. I should really send out more poetry submissions, too.

Speaking of poems I wrote three new ones last night. Two kids poems and one more serious effort. The serious one is quite, how shall I say it, to the bone, so I’m no sure how/if I will ever use it when it’s polished.

A great friend of mine is in a bit of a dilemma over a character. Devon Ellington is facing the predicament of delving too much into one of her characters, a very dark character by all accounts, and the question she is faced with is how much should she let the character overwhelm her for her to be able to write about him/her.

It’s something I think all writers face. In the same way as method acting requires, a writer will very often submerge himself consciously into a character in order to understand him, to figure out his motivations, desires, hates and loves. To work out what he will do next. Other times that submersion comes without it being realised; the writer finds they have become at one with a character without realising it, and so breaking off can cause emotions linked with grieving and sadness.

This is all very fine if the character is a nice chap who works for a charity and feeds ducks on a Saturday, but what if he’s darker than that, what if he’s a prowler, a killer, sexually violent or worse. Becoming that character can cause major problems for the writer. How far do you go to get inside that character’s head? And when you get there, can you handle what you see and feel?

There’s no right or wrong answer, it all comes down to the nature of the writer involved. Sometimes too much is simply too much—did you see the state of De Niro after he played Jake La Motta? But sometimes digging in can reap memorable rewards—De Niro again, The Godfather II.

Good luck Devon with the direction you take on this, and for every other writer out there grappling between their conscience and their art.

Back to writing. I thought I’d check out Meetup.com for any local ghost hunting groups and found one right here in Edinburgh. I signed up and waited for the administrator to let me through, but instead he sent me a bunch of questions about how serious I was and was it just research I wanted to join up for. I told him I was looking for information about Major Thomas Weir and the haunted area around West Bow/Anderson Close and without so much as a remark, he deleted me from the group!

I think these paranormal people have something to hide. Or certainly, this one does. I thought the Freemasons were secretive till I met this bloke! Very odd and inclusive and quite frankly very rude—or at least, the administrator Tony Stebbings is.

One thing I did notice before I was kicked out is that he charges people money to be a member and to go on ghost hunting missions, something anyone can do for free in almost any part of this city. One might call it exploitation of the passionate, others might just call it a scam.

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Exciting Times

colingalbraith — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:52:08 +0000

Image: High Tee

Good day at work yesterday; busy, challenging, and one where some long-term results were finally realised. It’s the biggies that count most. I topped it off with a couple of pints of Guinness in Clark’s afterwards. Sorted.

Not much else done because the results I spoke of didn’t actually happen until between 7.30pm and 9.30pm, so I was pretty tired by that point and needed some rest. It was worth it though.

I posted off my some poetry submissions to an anthology and sent in my entry to the From Festival short story competition. Fingers crossed for both of them.

I’ve got a good weekend planned. Later I’m going to head up town for a coffee and to do some writing, then I’ll be back in time to watch St. Mirren hump Rangers in the 5th round of the Scottish Cup, live on BBC1.

The Six Nations Championship also gets underway today although Scotland don’t play until tomorrow. France at home. Oh dear! It’s all on the BBC again but other than the Scotland game I want to actually get through some serious writing.

I think tonight might be a curry and DVD night with my wife. If she can’t, it will be a curry and DVD night for me instead. She’s very busy with photography just now—weddings and portrait shoots almost every weekend!

Hopefully my new glasses will be available for collection at some point today or tomorrow as well. Exciting times, indeed.

Some music news: If you’re in the States make sure you don’t miss your chance to catch The Specials playing their first U.S. shows in nearly 30 years. Only two dates so far but you won’t be disappointed and tickets are bound to go fast.

April 12: “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon,” New York, NY
April 16: Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, Indio, CA
April 21: Terminal 5, New York, NY

Speaking of British ska, here’s a cool video of Mike Barson from Madness putting the new KORG SV-1 keyboard through its paces while on tour in the UK last year.

Good luck to the Buddies for today!!

The Scruffy Dog Review – Winter Issue OUT NOW!!