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Post by williemeikle on Jun 27, 2009 17:49:08 GMT
Which leads me onto, author blurbs, do you think there too much back scratching going on. I've read many a book with glowing blurbs, and by jings they've been awful I know what you mean... especially where the blurbs are by people with books out from the same publishing company and it's all just too obvious. I haven't actively solicited blurbs for my books for a long time... I tend to ask the publisher to use quotes from reviews instead. For me at least, they feel more real and less like prostitution. But ask me again when a publisher wants to have a Stephen King blurb on my book... I might decide that my principles are a bit more flexible
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Post by Jim on Jul 2, 2009 7:01:04 GMT
Should an author write for himself or the fans? You hear so many stores of fans outrage when an author refuses to write another story based on one of there characters or set in one of their worlds.
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Post by williemeikle on Jul 2, 2009 17:08:37 GMT
Should an author write for himself or the fans? You hear so many stores of fans outrage when an author refuses to write another story based on one of there characters or set in one of their worlds. I've always written for myself, just telling myself stories I want to hear. There was a recent kerfuffle over George R R Martin fans complaining that he wasn't working fast enough on the next book in his series. Neil Gaiman had this to say: ___________________________________________________ It's unrealistic of you to think George is "letting you down".
Look, this may not be palatable, Gareth, and I keep trying to come up with a better way to put it, but the simplicity of things, at least from my perspective is this:
George R.R. Martin is not your bitch.
This is a useful thing to know, perhaps a useful thing to point out when you find yourself thinking that possibly George is, indeed, your bitch, and should be out there typing what you want to read right now.
People are not machines. Writers and artists aren't machines.
You're complaining about George doing other things than writing the books you want to read as if your buying the first book in the series was a contract with him: that you would pay over your ten dollars, and George for his part would spend every waking hour until the series was done, writing the rest of the books for you.
No such contract existed. You were paying your ten dollars for the book you were reading, and I assume that you enjoyed it because you want to know what happens next.
When you see other people complaining that George R.R. Martin has been spotted doing something other than writing the book they are waiting for, explain to them, more politely than I did the first time, the simple and unanswerable truth: George R. R. Martin is not working for you.____________________________________________________
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Post by ian on Jul 3, 2009 9:03:17 GMT
What is a typical day like for you as a writer?
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Post by williemeikle on Jul 3, 2009 14:47:23 GMT
What is a typical day like for you as a writer? It's changed in the past 18 months since I gave up the full-time day job. I'm now semi-retired. My writing day has become much more relaxed as I no longer have to cram my writing into a late-night rush. I start with coffee, then a walk along the shore (in summer). Then I get all the boring shit out of the way... shopping /housework/ cooking etc. My wife gets something to keep her occupied and I sit in my favourite chair and write, with bouts of pissing about on the net in between. I usually do about 4 hours in this stint, taking me up to late afternoon. After eating, I piss about some more on the net and play with ideas or edit what I did earlier until about 8:30 most nights, then we dig out a DVD and relax till bedtime.
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Post by Jim on Jul 3, 2009 15:09:36 GMT
Ever thought about expanding your short story, When the Stars are Right?
Thought your short story was everything, Event Horizon should have been
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Post by williemeikle on Jul 3, 2009 16:08:20 GMT
Ever thought about expanding your short story, When the Stars are Right? Thought your short story was everything, Event Horizon should have been I did actually... I think it's a great basic pulp idea, using energy from supernatural beings to power space-flight. The story is the right length as it is, but I think there's plenty of scope for having that as a prologue and having mayhem happen once they head for the stars. And now you've started me thinking about it... bastard! I'm supposed to be in the sewers of Manhattan killing crabs today!
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Post by Jim on Jul 3, 2009 16:15:48 GMT
yes, yes and thrice yes.
I thought it was an excellent piece of writing, very atmospheric, and really left me wanting to see what happened next
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Post by Jim on Jul 3, 2009 19:17:03 GMT
Watching the news about the search for the last victim of the Moors Murders I was wondering, how far should horror distance itself from real events? Would you for instance set a story based around the Saddleworth Moor area?
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Post by williemeikle on Jul 3, 2009 20:34:52 GMT
Watching the news about the search for the last victim of the Moors Murders I was wondering, how far should horror distance itself from real events? Would you for instance set a story based around the Saddleworth Moor area? I wouldn't feel comfortable. For me, it's too recent history. Besides, serial killers aren't my thing. I can see me doing a story about murderers getting their come-uppance in a supernatural revenge scenario, but I wouldn't set it around a real-life murderer. Especially in the Moors Murders case the wounds are still raw for the families concerned, and it wouldn't feel right for me to reopen them or be thought to be belittling their grief.
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Post by williemeikle on Jul 5, 2009 20:31:25 GMT
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