Novel Writing Winter — weird clothes for weird work!

The French have shown us in S.E. England great generosity, by sending their snow and icy winds our way. Just to look on the positive side of things, this is better than one of the reactors in their nuclear power stations going into meltdown and dosing us with radiation.

This is not the time to think about looking fashionable, unless you have enough money at your disposal to jack up the central heating or to buy all your gear from a designer ski shop and wear it indoors. Poor, environmentally conscious, not-yet-famous writers (note the positive thinking here) must make do with what some snoots might regard as anti-fashion statements. I like to see it as setting a trend, just as I hope to set a trend with my weird novel.

Writer's Cold Weather GearWinter Survival Gear for Writers 

cotton vest top

T-shirt

double-knit three-quarter length, long-sleeved jumper

shorter double-knit tank top

leggings

jeans

plus essential footwear to set off the outfit (omitted from photo at the photographer’s discretion)

brown Birkenstock unisex sandals worn with black socks

With two weeks to go of Novel Writing Winter (NWW) 2013, there is no way I’m going to have finished my project. I will probably reach the 20K mark — words, not earnings. This is not a problem, as I think in the past I’ve slammed out novels too fast for their own good. Also, having removed my genre-shackles and ventured down the route of speculative fiction, its taking time to acclimatize to my newfound liberty.

To describe my novel in one sentence: Eulogy To The Last Man is a minimalist yet epic paradox about a family tree littered with anomalies spanning the 31st century.

It’s a useful exercise to think of a one or two-sentence to describe your work, as it will come in useful as a hook when pitching it to publishers or agents, or in writing your own blurb for self-publishing.

Does anyone else feel like writing a pitch for their novel and posting it as a comment here?

Also, who’s willing to describe an outfit they enjoy wearing for writing, even if it’s their birthday suit?

The Illuminating Blogger Award

Many thanks to fellow UK writer, Vikki Thompson, at The View Outside, who has just nominated me for the Illuminating Blogger Award 🙂

The rules of the award

  1. Thank the person who has nominated you for the award.
  2. Share with your fellow bloggers a random fact about yourself.
  3. Nominate five other bloggers for the award.

That random thing 

I’m in the habit of wanting to learn vocal music that verges on being too difficult for me, and then getting really cross/stressed with myself when I don’t master a piece in five minutes. Various statement of anguish float out of my practice room, such as “this is far too difficult”, “I’m not up to this”, “I’ll have to sit this out in the concert”, “my voice isn’t as it used to be,” and “someone else will have to sing this”. Normally, I end up mastering the piece and wondering what all the fuss was about. Occasionally, I sort-of learn it, but not quite, so the singing of it in concert feels most precarious, which is okay when it’s a solo piece because I can bluff, but too much of a responsibility when part-singing.

My five nominees for the award

jaycee68

Lead.Learn.Live.

Teacher as Transformer

The Why About This

Anansi the Poet

The Song of the Depressive Bear (Who Hates Picnics)

WakehurstBear

If you go down to the woods today
You’re sure of a big surprise.
If you go down to the woods today
You’ll find one bear in disguise.

The rudest bear that ever there was,
shuns good company, because
Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

CHORUS:

Fasting time for Teddy Bear,
The mouldy old recluse is having a grouchy time today.
Watch him, catch him unaware,
And see him starving on his own today.
See him glumly stick about.
He hates to play and shout,
but be weighed down by his cares.
At six o’clock his grandchildren come
To take him home to bed,
because he’s a sad old teddy bear.

If you go down to the woods today,
You’d better not go alone.
There’s one cross bear in the woods today,
So safer to stay at home.

The rudest bear that ever there was,
shuns good company, because
Today’s the day the teddy bears have their picnic.

REPEAT CHORUS:

This old bear that’s hidden out,
Is sure of hunger today.
There’s only bark and beetles to eat,
and miserable thoughts to play.

Inside a tree where nobody sees,
He hides his bulk without any please,
‘Cause that’s the way to avoid a teddy bear picnic.

REPEAT CHORUS: