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Engagement and supporting indie authors

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This week, I have had a week off work. Not that it has changed my surroundings much because in this old-new working from home world, I am still at home, just not at my ‘office’ desk.

It has been productive. My plan was to get some good editing of my work in progress novel done, and sitting here at just after 10.30am on a Sunday morning, I can say that I achieved that.

In particular, I tackled a really knotty plot issue that had been bothering me for a long time. I had the epiphany a short while ago and the wise part of past me (I do have one) wrote it all down in my notebook that I keep here on my writing desk, ready for the day when I would need to refer to it. I also tagged it with sticky notes on which I’d written

PLOT RESOLUTION

Future me patted past me on the back for not thinking ‘oh, I’ll remember that’ because you know what, future me never does!

Present me (OK, I’ll stop now) is feeling satisfied, but I know that I still have a lot of work to do. I’m about two thirds of the way through my editing, so the bulk of that stage (words wise) is done. The next hill or mountain that I’ve started to tackle is engagement. Engagement with the writing community on Twitter for a start. I’ve had an account on there for a few years but wasn’t really that clear on how to make it work. Over the past few days, because I’ve had the time, I’ve worked it out a little bit more and got involved in a few conversations and gained followers. I shall stick with it. Instagram is less of an issue because that is the one thing that I’ve stuck with over the past few months, as you know. I think it’s going to involve some hard work to gain a decent following in the Twitter-verse, but I shall stick with it.

The future of my book is at stake.

Well, the future of my book being read by lots of people, that is. It’s not a pandemic after all (or is it?).

Talking of books – I bought and have started reading a novel that was recently published by a fellow author I have met through Instagram, City of Immortal Shadows by T.J. Swackhammer.

It. Is. Really. Good.

Take a look at her website, get a feel for the world of Emaldin and if dark, foreboding and endlessly strange is up your dystopian alley, do buy a copy.

Well that’s me for the week. See you on Halloween!

A word that starts with ‘m’ – SoCS Oct 24/2020

freyathewriter 4 Comments

Here’s this week’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday, courtesy of the lovely Linda. Please do take part, it’s fun to write and also fun to read the contributions from everyone else.

This week the prompt is a word that starts with ‘m’. Here’s my contribution. And you’re welcome to a slice of the programme that is constantly running in the back of my mind as I get on with the more mundane parts of my day…

My word that starts with ‘m’ is ‘manipulated’. No, it’s not about me, not now, at any rate. I have been manipulated before, but I’m older, wiser and stronger because of it, so there is that. That ain’t happening again, no siree (I don’t talk like that, it just seemed appropriate).

Words such as ‘manipulated’ are the themes running through my work in progress novel, Anti-Virus’, which is, and isn’t, about a pandemic (it’s kind of a Schrödinger’s pandemic, if you will).

Dystopian fiction, like many other types of fiction, requires an antagonist or two, or three to balance your protagonist’s journey through the pages. In my novel’s case, this involves a particular person, an organ of state and an industry. It’s one thing to determine if a particular character would act a certain way, but quite another to ask myself if an organ of state or an industry would do so. Or is it?

The simple answer to whether a person or indeed a non-natural entity would do anything to get their way is actually a question –

ARE THE STAKES HIGH ENOUGH?

The answer to that question might not be so easy…!

Oh the joys of writing a novel. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

A word you have to look up – SoCS Oct 17/2020

freyathewriter 2 Comments

It’s been a very long while. I’ve been away from my blog, away from the social media circus but am dipping my toe in. I’m focusing on my work in progress novel (editing stage!), but feel the need to exercise my literary, wordy brain a little differently. What better way than a bit of Stream of Consciousness Saturday, courtesy of the lovely Linda?

This week the prompt is, as you can tell from the title, a word you have to look up. Here’s my contribution. And you’re welcome to the tiny insight into my workaday world…

*****

This is so dull, but it’s the word that came to mind, so here it is.

Cedent, or, is it cedant? Believe me, if it wasn’t for my job, I doubt this word would ever cause me any trouble, because I would never use it!

A cedent (or cedant) is ‘a party in an insurance contract who passes the financial obligation for certain potential losses to the insurer. In return for bearing a particular risk of loss, the cedent pays an insurance premium’ (thank you, Investopedia). Of course we all have some familiarity with this as insurance is something that is part of every day (adult) life, it’s just that most of us don’t think in insurance language on a day to day basis.

As it happens, neither spelling is incorrect. I am also pretty decent at spelling (autocorrect in texting notwithstanding!). This causes its own problems because then you have to commit to spelling it consistently every time you use it. I suffer with this. I may write an email or a document and use the word consistently throughout, but then the next time I write this infuriating word, I have to check how I wrote it last time. And then colleagues may spell it differently to me and then we have to have the discussion as to which one should be adopted as the company style. Believe me, the fun is never ending…