What you are Working on

yep - and i have been hassled and hassled to write the prague diaries into a book and never have. Got loads more bits and bobs that could easily top 100,000 words.

I've often mentioned things on here which I've finished. Foxy, I liked the collapsing restaurant and Welsh gangsters. That would make me want to read it. (As in a recent review of the Aberysthwth (spelling?) Mon Amour writer's new book which mentioned Wales being at war with Patagonia and Wales having a space programme.)

Yep. Yep.

okay i just Re READ my post and I'm sooo sorry LOL I must be getting tired. I have been going back and forth all day and well its starting to show...thinking much faster than I can type. What I meant to say in the second paragraph is: I am currently working on, what I would like to be, a good mystery novel. It is flowing very well BUT I know i will need to do some research on police procedure..... and so on! :)

Yeah, I'm writing some stories set in Iceland. And I'm currently reading a book called 'The English Dane'. It's a biography of Jorgen Jorgenson who, for a brief period in the early 19th century, was protector / governor of Iceland. The flag under his rule was three cod on a blue background. And he had an army of 6 who all wore green uniforms. He also helped found Tasmania, was a spy for the British government (which meant he walked around Europe, as he gambled all the money the government gave him), was eventually transported to Tasmania (again) where he became a bushranger / policeman, and also helped survey for the first maps. Some of this I will use in my stories. Although the band of 6 soldiers will probably become 6 magicians. I'm also editing Hotel Auschwitz, and writing something called Dark Side of the Moon (which I've been doing on and off for 3 years). And about to get Darts back from the editors to do some (more!) work on it. And I've recently finished Down By Law: Eponymous, which I sent to one agent who liked the bit I sent and asked to read the rest. She has since written back and said, 'Can you confirm page 209 is the last page?' That doesn't sound good. These days everything I do is an accumulation of short stories. I work for the police, but myself have no interest yet in writing that kind of thing. But I do like reading them....

Still struggling with my synopsis... which is really annoying because I've got an idea for my next book and I can't start it until I get the one I've recently finished out of the door. *sigh*

To be honest, I don't know if a good synopsis is that important. The synopsis I sent the agent was less that 200 words and I wrote it in five minutes. I think they look at the writing more. Just write, very briefly, what your book is about. The publisher said of my Darts synopsis that the last line hooked her, but more importantly that the chapters were very funny.

Foxy aka Sexy Patrick what genre is your book Drew you just made me feel so inadequate YIKES :( LOL RadioDenver what genre is your book if you don't mind me prodding a bit?

Thanks for the advice Drew, I am probably going about it all the wrong way and placing too much importance on the synopsis... I'll try what you suggested.

RIG, I find it hard to place my book into a genre, I suppose it could be classed as a romantic comedy, or a comedic thriller, or neither of those... I just don't know. I It's about a guy who runs a computer games development studio that is on the verge of signing a make or break deal with an American publisher, when his childhood imaginary friend reappears in his life one the day his second wife is killed in a car crash. Trinity, the imaginary friend, who appears as either a cowboy, a pirate or a private eye, manipulates and leads Ben, the hero, on a series of misadventures claiming that he is guiding him to his destiny. Ben's 'destiny' eventually turns out to be the American publisher's representative; a blonde Californian woman who also has an imaginary friend that Ben can see and vice versa. And, yes you've guessed it, They fall in love but not before they've been buried in a collapsing restaurant and held hostage by Welsh gangsters... And that is why I'm having trouble with the synopsis. An early version of the first chapter is on here buried among the cherry picked tales.

I'm working on a paranormal/thriller/mystery book. (actually I don't know what genre it is.) about 90% complete. I'm working on another sort-a semi-autobi-fiction thingy book about life in rural America in the 1960's, about 35% complete. I'm working on a novella that I've totally lost interest in about 75% complete. I'm working on about 5 short stories, a few of which are nearly done. I'm working on an article for my next magazine publication. I'm working on characters & research for some other ideas in infant stage. I'm working on a Photography trip I'm supposed to take next week and I need to mow the lawn. I'm also trying to resolve some issues with a major printing press upgrade and make a newspaper every night. But most of this will wait until I've got another round of golf in and visit Maryland. I also agree with Drew.

oo-ah-oo-ah I'm writing songs. I got a 16 track digi multi-track last year and never touched it til now. It scared me. All these led's and buttons, and sliders and stuff - but it's a piece of piss once you start fiddlin. It's more or less the same as analogue but everytihng glows more..heharhehar. It's been a blessing because instead of writing in the control room, I've been chillin in the garden with an acoustic and put alot more time and thought into structure as opposed to relying too much on outboard to rescue me. I got a beautiful little rode nt1-a condensor mic just before xmas plus a "WARM" tube pre-amp. Now I can be anyone I want! :)))))))))))))))))

oo

I'm working on being a nicer human being.

Drew, thanks for the encouragement, it means a lot. Aberystwyth Mon Amour is by Malcom Pryce, I really enjoyed it. He creates an alternative history for Wales where Patagonia is the Welsh Vietnam and the Patagonian vets are ostracised by the general public. Aberystwyth is portrayed as a hot bed of vice and corruption that is ruled over by the Druids who have given up their robes in favour of "sharp Swansea suits". If you like that sort of thing then this book is for you, there's even a 'great flood'. I'm not Welsh, by the way, just an Englishman who happens to live there.

Foxy, your explanation to RIG above sounds like a good synopsis to me. I'd want to read on. [%sig%]

Thanks Lou, I am going to make a determined effort to finish the synopsis this weekend because I'm feeling much more confident about it. It's amazing what a couple of encouraging comments can do...

Yes Foxy that is a good start for a synopsis!

I am writing something about two country music fans who sit in a pub and don't do anything (it should be riveting), this involves a bit of research but that is mostly an excuse to buy CDs. I'm supposed to be writing a short film script, but I'm not really. I researched that a little bit ages ago. I'm planning a couple of short stories, something about cake and a man who gets eaten by a shark, and something based on Three Men In A Boat so utterly despicable that Jerome K Jerome is already turning in his grave at the very thought of it.

There's a rock band called Cake. Pretty good too.

I'm currently stuck on the opening paragraph of my novel. OK this is my opinion, may be controversial, may be wrong, sorry if it offends anyone but here goes. I really don't think it's a good idea for anyone to say what their book is about in public until they have completed it. There are all kinds of reasons why I think this is a seriously bad idea, but perhaps the biggest reason is I've never heard anyone who's talked about their plans for a book, ever complete such a book. There's something about going public with plans for a book that in my experience just undermines the creative process and brings the project to a clunking halt. I guess we all work in different ways and maybe some people benefit from such premature enunciation, but for me it is the kiss of death. I'd be interested to know if anyone shares this view.

Bullshit...there are many things I've never mentioned and still haven't completed.

Your high school education, perhaps? *sorry. couldn't resist* x

I'm working on maintaining the will to live.

This is the wrong place to be doing that Liana.

How's that high speed internet working out Liana?

I think she may have failed on what she was working on.

That's hard to imagine. Somehow, I picture Liana being able to bend spoons with pure will and thought.

I'm hanging by a thread Flash... I seem to have developed tourettes, and I am struggling to stifle it though. The high speed thing is just great thanks...

Go ahead dear, let'r rip...I love it when women curse.

Don't stifle your impulses, Liana. Very unhealthy. I personally love cursing. I do try to tone it down around the children, though. When my daughter was about two, I was alarmed to hear her walking around muttering, "Oh, dammip. Oh dammip."

you know, i just watched a thing about elvis on the telly... i had no idea that he was 42 when he dies.. he looked at least 60. Priscilla meanwhile, appears to be about 13 years old. Strange how immobile her face is mind you.

Botox works wonders, Liana. I've considered it for the concentration lines I've got between my eyes. But, naaaah.

Is a concentration line anything like a big flappy hunk of skin full of wrinkles?

maybe it's botox... but i've an inkling that her original eyebrows are somewhere around the nape of her neck.

In me it's just a deepish gouge in an otherwise smoothish visage, Radio. No doubt it will get deeper with time and concentration. I try to keep it un-creased, but apparently I have a naturally serious face. You wouldn't believe the number of times panhandlers on the street have told me, "Smile! It's not so bad!", even when I wasn't feeling particularly ratty. Liana, as far as Priscilla's concerned, the words 'plastic' and 'surgery' come to mind. Speaking of which, what the hell happened to Anne Robinson? I didn't even recognise her when I saw an advert for the new quiz show she's cohosting.

How funny, I met with Anne Robinson just this morning. Her network router wasn't working correctly.

Yes, and the man who unplugs my toilet is called 'Radiodenver'. Hmm. How odd.

I'm serious....and I don't unplug toilets.

I never knew there were electric toilets.

you have an electric toilet? must have eaten too many currents. .. sorry that joke was revolting. ... ohm I god I did it again! ... sorry I have no resistance to it! .. watt? not again? .. that's ample electricity jokes now stop it!! .. see? it works i fuse ay stop!

is the electric toilet one of them ones that flushes while you're mid-slash? I watched the elvis thing - he had great skin. That's about all I got out of it. I couldn't help but think, "ah- missi'll be watching this right now," and should imagine he's been dressing up the rest of the evenin. Milton - I don't know about killing off work by publicising it but it's fair cop to say that ideas are pretty best kept under wraps.

>>I've never heard anyone who's talked about their plans for a book, ever complete such a book<< Milton, not sure I can agree with you generally since I can't recall any instance right now of that but I can agree with you personally: Back in the autumn of 2002 I was asked (not on the forums but via email) why I had deleted all my work from ABC. My answer, and I then went on to tell several other people too (cringe), was that I needed to focus on my book. I said I had 30,000 words of diary material... all it needed was expansion, writing up and voila, a standard 105,000 word humorous better-than-Bryson-travelogue. It didn't progress any further... actually, that's not true... I used the start of it (heavily trimmed down) to link into an event the following year which produced a 2000 word short story. Oh, wow. I'm pissed off now. I should have written it, even tho' it probably would have hit the slush piles, given the plethora of shite travel books around at the time but now, I'll never know.