No 1 - August 2018
Okay. I think it’s time AliceMae gave a little more. Part of the reason for inactivity on my site is the constant grapple with technology. I’ve decided you either have it or you don’t – and I definitely don’t.
I often think that if I’d be born fifty years earlier I could have avoided all this, and in an ideal world some fantastic, caring literary agent would have cushioned me from the stresses of marketing and putting myself ‘out there’. My books would have flown onto shelves without me even hearing the beat of their wings.
I do realise, however, that for this to have happened my grandmother would have had to be my mother, and that would have caused untold complications!!
It has to be said that I’ve never had much empathy with machines. I think they’re very useful, and I expect them to work. If they don’t – well therein lies the rub. I’ve never thrown a laptop through a window because, let’s face it, that would be childish. And then there’s the cost.
But oh! The frustration when things don’t work. And having absolutely no understanding of how to make them work I have to rely on the availability and ability of others – right away. I think you can guess the rest.
So, my ambition is to be a writer in a serene universe, remote from the pesky problems of modern life. But I can’t have that, can I? And so I’ve decided to try and put myself ‘out there’ a bit more, but would like a glass wall to shelter behind.
As far as the writing is concerned, I have some new strategies. At the top of my list is to get my novel ‘The Riven Soul’ published. Selecting the right agent I think will be crucial. It falls into the genre of literary fiction, and although this in itself might give it less appeal that commercial fiction, it does deal with contemporary themes such as the use of power and influence to abuse without responsibility. It encompasses a murder, family breakdown, and an unexplained psychic link that bridges generations. So quite a lot to go on really.
Second on my list (my list, but I do have to mention the help I have from my long suffering husband who catches my laptop before it reaches the glass) is a plan to self-publish a volume of creepy short stories. Self-publishing seems to have become much more interesting and accepted now. It was something I had avoided because I wanted my writing to stand up to scrutiny. But in the modern world things change so rapidly. So we’re going to give it a go.
And then there are competitions. I’m going to try and enter as many as I can.
I’ll keep you posted!