I have been giving some consideration to whether planet earth might be spinning a little faster these last few months. It seems 2012 is flying by. It's June, the jubilee is over and summer is upon us, at least in name. Before we know it the Olympics will be history, Netherlands will be Euro 2012 champions, the nights will be drawing in and Santa Claus's smug red face will be staring at us from shop windows. So lets take a deep breath, slow it all down and revel in the month that was May 2012, from a Potter perspective.The month started with the hiring of my very own writing assistant, who I'm pleased to say spends a lot of time sprawled across my lap. Bella the little black kitten has shown an amazing capacity for knowledge and technology despite weighing less than a kilo. She started her own blog here a couple of weeks ago. I understand more posts are being prepared.In April Wordwatchers member Abbie Todd finished the first draft of her second book, so the Wordwatchers collective proof read it during May. This YA novel was wonderfully imaginative with a mesmerising first person narrative of a young girl negotiating adolescence, loss, love, a young mother and a troubled past.
Fellow indie author Jo Price's second Kate Linton mystery was published by Aston Bay Press at the end of May, with the Kindle version created by yours truly. Recreating the look and feel of a paperback printed book on a Kindle is something I enjoy immensely and find the process very cathartic. Of course I also got to read Eeeny Meeny Miny Moe before everyone else. It's entertaining and complex, mixing classic whodunnit themes with the modern detective genre. I'd love to hear what you think of the story and my kindle formatting if you do get to read it.As an Indie author I'm always looking to share information and collaborate. It was to this end I signed up to the Alliance of Independent Authors (Alli) back in April. Alli launched its website during May and I wrote for them a post on writing craft, which detailed the critical difference between writing the book you want and writing for yourself. This should appear on the website sometime during June.In trying to add interesting and entertaining content to my blog I wrote about my experiences this year of the much discussed Kindle pricing. This became the most read post ever on my blog in under 24 hours. I additionally plundered the questions from several Guardian interviews of commercial authors. I arranged these into a pseudo interview with me, that I hope was informative and amusing. I got a lot of positive feedback from the interview which I was very pleased about. It was great fun to do.Wordwatchers as a writing group hold two short story competitions a year, with the first one due in July. As I want to spend all of June making headway with my current book, I decided to write the short story in May. I did and I love it. The theme was to base the story on a song title or lyric. As I didn't want to take my mindset outside of my current book I made the short story a possible epilogue for the book, in an event that may or may not appear in it. Once the short story event is done I'll post it here and make it available for download in ebook formats and as a podcast.
Back in April I entered Chasing Innocence into three International Independent Publishing competitions. These cover the whole scope of non-fiction and fiction genres. The first - the Indie Excellence Awards, is very heavily subscribed and judges books on overall quality, not just the page to page. Chasing Innocence was entered to three categories of the Excellence Awards and I'm very proud to say it made the final five in both New Fiction and Thriller fiction. I was hugely thrilled that my UK based book did so well in a US based competition. It gives me the confidence it might compete at the Indie Book of the Year awards which announces its finalists July 1. GulpSo we come to the tricksy topic of the next book. The truth is I'm currently working hard planning Hunting Demons: the second in the Sarah Sawacki series, while writing TMWWRWs: the first of a new three part series. If you can figure the title of TMWWRWs you get my forever admiration. I have struggled mightily writing TMWWRWs for a million different reasons, mostly documented on my Creative Crow blog. Largely it's because my head hasn't been in the right place. Marketing Chasing Innocence has been a steep learning curve, exhausting and time consuming. In reality I have been unproductive because I haven't been focusing. TMWWRWs is a action thriller with a sprinkling of paranormal and romance with a dash of gritty erotica. It's an idea that steadily grew as I closed off the first draft of Chasing Innocence (2009). It has been growing ever since, has some incredible themes if I can make it work, but getting it written has been like getting proper Heinz ketchup onto a plate. However, something wonderful multiplied by three happened this month.
- The first multiplier was realising that the soundtrack for TMWWRWs most certainly is the sound of the book. It has me endlessly daydreaming scenes. It's not however the creative catalyst for writing the book. Any music by Moby is and was my almost constant companion during CI. Hearing the voices of characters in my head is what allows me to progress story. I have been listening to Moby a LOT this last week and I hear the voices.
- The second multiplier was writing the short story I mentioned earlier, which features Marcus Hangiman, the main character of TMWWRWs. It allowed me to see him in this moment at the very end of the book and really centred how I see him now, approaching the half way point of the book.
- The third and final multiplier came from the fact I haven't read a lot of commercial fiction this year, mostly because I've been checking out my Indie rivals. As I aim to write novels that are at least commercially contemporary, I decided I need to start reading more commercial fiction. Someone at work mentioned Neil Gaiman after I explained the plot of TMWWRWs. Then John Hoggard - possibly the biggest Gaiman fan on this earth - recommended I start with American Gods. I did. Incredible. It, along with audio supplied by Moby has really kick-started all those neurons that had been either dormant or focused on everything other than creative writing. Importantly, what needs to happen in TMWWRWs now sits in my mind as a multi-layered, interconnected latticework of ideas and threads. I produced five thousand words in just the last week. Importantly the characters are busy chattering away in my head, it frenetic. It's fantastic.
Finally. I received some great reviews this month for Chasing Innocence in both the UK and US, including one from indie author James Viser and another from the all seeing eye of Wordwatcher's own Abbie Todd. My absolute favourite though was by Stauroylla Papadopou, who read a book that isn't written in her first language and then took the time to write a review in English as well. What she thought comes across so strongly. That someone should invest the time and effort means so much.That's it for now folks. See you here this time next month. In the meantime I can be found on Twitter @johnpottercc and am always scheming on content for my Creative Crow blog. If you haven't already read my almost award winning book, you can download and read a PDF sample or choose your preferred Amazon outlet here.