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| Sadly there's no date on this picture - any clues? |
For all my talk of notebooks the other day, we are firmly en-meshed in the digital world, are we not?What a strange world it is:
- I have written a 'virtual' book (Tales from a Broken Biro: There Will Be Ink)
on my computer and published it online.
- People can buy it on (and read off) a screen.
- I am promoting it using Twitter to friends I've only met in the ether, and they to their wider networks
- I have already sold (and given away in yesterday's promotion) a total of 100 copies, including more than 20 in America
In the first 48 hours it even reached the top ten Amazon Kindle Bestsellers in the free short story category, alongside (okay, a bit under) names I see every day at work - Carole Matthews and Stephen Leather.
Is any of this real? (Answers on a virtual postcard)
Bearing in mind that is in Norwich and a black and white photograph, I'd have to say 2006?
ReplyDeleteQW
What has Norwich ever done to you?
DeleteIt's a spoof photo. We dont have computers in Norfolk.
ReplyDeleteOr apostrophes, apparently. ;-)
DeleteWell, just the one!
DeleteThere are certainly some wonderful aspects of technology! Congratulations! You can add another American to your list!
ReplyDeleteThank you kindly! Yes, it is all rather marvellous
ReplyDeleteGreat stuff. I've just read your story Sick Days. Gruesomely interesting and bleakly humorous. You've suggested your collection is sort of thrown together? I'd be curious about that. Thinking I ought to get a collection together myself. I've some straight sci fi, some urban fantasy, some historical, and some contemporary stuff. I don't know if they'd sit well in a collection. Is yours similar? Best of luck with the endeavour, bb.
ReplyDeleteThanks Scribbler! I was going to put that one in the collection but decided I may have a more speculative collection eventually. I felt this collection was fairly arbitrary in that it is just most of the stories I've had published except for the really cheesy ones and anything relating to libraries (that'll be the next collection). So this collection is mainly domestic with a speculative/dark edge including a couple of odd indefinable ones and your more traditional ghost, zombie and vampire. I was finding it hard to generalise, which is why it felt random, but reading it again I noticed themes echoing each other and it actually hangs together ok. You may find this with your own work - whatever genre you as a writer will have themes that interest you and recur in your work. So go for it! It's easier than I thought to get it on Kindle.
DeleteThanks very much for the advice. I'd be of the view that if I read two stories in a collection that are utterly alien to each other, that shows the writer has a bit of form. But every review I've read of collections, there's an insistence on some thematic linking - and of course, it's usually justified and intended. Domestic sounds like a great seam, though. I looked into ebooks for a novel I've got, but ideally it requires formatting various sections in order to differentiate them, and my coding experience is non-existent. Most of the short stories I've got wouldn't have that issue. Is it only available on Amazon, bb?
ReplyDeleteI've seen other flash collections where the common denominator is something as simple as the stories all being the same size! But that might only work for David Gaffeny / Nik Perring who write tiny stories!
ReplyDeleteCan't help with the formatting - I kept mine simple and did it through Kindle's own software.
Hello Clare, thank you for dropping in at my blog!
ReplyDeleteThere's a 'how many men does it take' joke in that photo.
Baffling actually because in my memory, computers went from filling up a whole warehouse sized room to about twice the size of an old fashioned typewriter without anything in between. Mind, I was working for the civil service then.
I'm looking forward to reading your book!
Hello! Thanks for visiting! (Hastily sweeps crumbs under settee)
DeleteI suspect the picture is a fake. Although I'm sure the computer terminals I worked on in my first job in a bank in the early eighties (child labour!) was about this size.
Read it! Loved it (especially Parallel Conservatory and The Hunter. And Two swans - so so funny and lyrical.)
DeleteMore please.
Thank you kindly! I'm working on a library-themed collection next - but don't imagine for a moment that it won't also contain zombies, alternate realities and superheroes!
DeleteCongrats - hard work pays off!
ReplyDeleteTis true! If only lozzing around payed off too!
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