Rome Sweet Rome - the movie based on an Internet comment

People joke that Hollywood is scraping the bottom of the barrel for movie ideas. Then they hear news that an online comment is being turned into the latest big budget blockbuster, and the joke suddenly doesn't seem quite so funny any more.

It's Blackhawk Down meets Spartacus. Maybe.

But that's the inspiration behind upcoming sci-fi extravaganza Rome Sweet Rome – the story of detachment of U.S. Marines thrown thousands of years back in time to face off against the armies of Augustus Ceasar.

The inspiration for this incredible idea was a question on an online forum - Could I destroy the entire Roman Empire during the reign of Augustus if I traveled back in time with a modern U.S. Marine infantry battalion or MEU?

Aspiring author James Erwin, writing under the name Prufrock451, decided to answer that question in the form of several chapters of flash fiction.

His short tale of a marine unit stationed in Afghanistan, getting hurled back in time to the heart of the Roman Empire, won instant fans on the forum Reddit.com.

The post's following popularity drew the attention of Madhouse Entertainment; who nabbed the rights and sold it to Warner Brothers for an undisclosed figure. Rome Sweet Rome will hit our cinema screens soon.

As most aspiring authors probably are, I'm a little envious of Erwin's success! But like with all tales of "overnight success", it's worth pointing out that it was proceeded by a lot of hard work.

James Erwin, from Des Moines, is actually a professional writer (read Declarations of Independence.) Years of writing honed solid storytelling skills - which eventually empowered him to make his interpretation of the forum question so instantly compelling.

For writers, the lesson is a simple one: Your big break could come from seizing the most innocuous opportunity; so make sure to put your writing out there as frequently as you can.

Also, be talented.

Overnight success doesn't happen… well, overnight. You have to plant a lot of seeds (as in, put a lot of writing in the public eye) before something eventually blossoms like it did for Erwin.

You also have to be a good writer.

James Erwin deserves every bit of his success. Good luck!

Demand Media Freelancers Feel the Pinch

In addition to my day job, I write. Incessently. And mostly for money.

We're publishing? Sadly, not any longer...

One great source of income has always been Demand Media. The company behind popular websites like eHow.com and livestrong.com, their modus operendi has always been to create page titles based on popular keywords, then pay freelancers to write the accompanying article.

This type of content flooded search engines. See for yourself - enter "how to" do something and an article from eHow.com invariably pops up as one of the first choices.

Critics called this process "content farming," citing the fact that the how-to articles eHow.com provided were very thin on content; generally written quickly and broadly and paraphrased from superior articles that would then be dislodged by the inferior copy in Google's page rankings.

But for freelance writers, it was an amazing opportunity. You would be paid $15 to write an eHow article; which generally took between twenty minutes and half an hour to punch out. With tens of thousands of article titles up for grabs, it was a very good way to make some quick, consistent pocket money - and Demand Media were consummate professionals to work with; paying what they owed promptly and fairly.

Notice I'm writing all this in the past tense.

Because recently, Google changed their search engine algorithms in order to punish so-called "content farming." For people looking for genuine "how-to" articles on the 'net, it was a boon - as they'd be more likely to find useful information than paraphrased eHow content. However, for the literally thousands of freelancers who earned money from Demand Media, it was a nightmare.

Demand Media went from offering upwards of 20,000 available titles for freelancers to tackle to a fraction of that amount. Today, I logged onto my account and saw I had a choice of three. Only one of them - about agricultural farm machinary - was something I was capable of writing about.

From my point of view, it sucks - I've gone from having an easy source of income which could net me a few hundred dollars a month, to just another empty login address. A lot of other writers share my frustration - but I'm not sure I share their wrath:

"The company has been evasive and dishonest for the last few months, giving no notice of the drastic cut in available work," complained one. "What Demand Mediocre Studios did is absolutely unforgivable," hisses another. "The CEO is a pathological liar and hopefully one day he'll get evicted from his home like so many of us writers are about to experience."

They're idiots.

You see, I agree that the situation sucks, but it's not exactly Demand Media's fault. They had a business model based on a specific set of circumstances - the way Google and other search engines ranked content - and now that's changed, they've been forced to change to adapt to it.

And to their credit, they have. Although it might seem like it to us writers, Demand Media haven't shut up shop. Instead Joanne Bradford, Demand Media's Chief Revenue Officer, explained they were shifting their publishing to "focus on using people who have expertise about the topics they write about."

In short, Google is demanding higher quality content, so Demand Media are changing their game to provide it. More general writers like myself, who have been left out in the cold with this shift, have only ourselves to blame.

Right from the beginning, I always feared Demand Media was too good to be true. The amount of work that was available, the respectable rates of pay you received and the ease of getting published seemed like it was going to turn out to be a scam of some sort.

Instead, it was a great gig for thousands of aspiring writers - and for a number of months, we all did very well out of it. Now, we freelancers need to embrace the same challenge the team at Demand Media did: Accept the new state of affairs, adjust our gameplan to suit and - ideally - thrive in this new environment.

It was fun while it lasted. Thanks, Demand Media - and best of luck to both of us.

Why is Edith Zimmerman getting a hard time for hanging out with Captain America?

There are three reasons why I'm a fan of movie star Chris Evans.

• First, he's playing Captain America this summer – who is one of my favorite superheroes.
• Second, since I got into lifting weights, his is the program I've been following. You can't blame me: the guy got positively ripped to play ol' Cap.
• Third, he shares the name with my redheaded nemesis – the radio presenter everybody in England used to say I looked like. These days, whenever anybody compares me to Chris Evans, I can whip up a picture of the Hollywood hunk and say, with a wink, "Gee, thanks – although I don't see the resemblance myself!"

Anyway. Evans is on my radar, which is why I was interested to read the interview with him in the July edition of GQ magazine.

Chris Evans apparently drinks liter-sized steins of Sam Adams. This makes him awesome.

American Marvel, by Edith Zimmerman, was far from the typical puff piece. Instead, it followed our hapless author as she inadvertently went on a drunken date with the 30-year-old movie star (instead of interviewing him.)

I enjoyed the article. It was fluently written, entertaining and told us a lot more about the movie star than you'd learn in a conventional interview in the lobby of some luxury hotel.

Unfortunately, it seems my appreciation of the article isn't the consensus. On Twitter and beyond, a lot of people are criticizing Zimmerman for what she wrote:

• "bask in the idiocy of Edith Zimmerman and her blog-core writing style" wrote @insuhyoon
• "If this were 1999, Edith Zimmerman would have been fired for this behavior. Astonishing lack of professionalism" wrote @drmabuse
• "Oh geez. Edith Zimmerman's article on Chris Evans for #GQ is an embarrassment" opinions @Samantahhh

Personally, I think they can all go and stick it.

Aside from being a wildly entertaining writer, Edith Zimmerman is also pretty darn cute.

It's pretty obvious that 99% of this criticism is fueled by jealousy and the rest by a startlingly unrealistic expectation of what modern journalism is supposed to be.

[How come its always the least successful writers who have the most dictatorial opinion about how articles 'should' be written? - Editorial Bear]

You get the impression that most of these critics feel they'd have written a far better piece on Evans if they'd been given the opportunity to interview him (neatly ignoring the fact that Edith Zimmerman no doubt worked her ass off to be "given" that opportunity in the first place.)

But they'd be dead wrong. Zimmerman's two objectives were to write a profile of Chris Evans that didn't just repeat the same old trite we can read anywhere, and to do so in an entertaining style. She achieved both of these with aplomb - and I'm confident none of her critics could have come close.

Where else would you have been able to read about drinking beer, bumming smokes and crashing out in the house of a Hollywood A-lister? How many other interviews include being introduced to the subject's mother, or crawling out of their living room window?

As the Captain America blockbuster hits mega screens across America, you'll find no shortage of interviews with Chris Evans – many written by jealous hacks like the ones criticizing the GQ article. However, I guarantee that none of those articles will ever be as revealing as Edith Zimmerman's alcohol-fueled adventures playing Captain America's squiffy sidekick.

You go, girl. I'll be looking forward to reading more from you soon.

Five Rules Of Reaping The Rewards Of Social Media For Your Small Business

If you frequent Twitter, you'll be aware of the ubiquitous presence of dozens of self-proclaimed 'social media gurus' - promising to unlock the secrets of Twitter, Facebook and other shiny social media portals for your business; for a fee.

I don't mind saying that I consider 90% of these 'gurus' to be total, unequivocal hacks. I can say that with a certain amount of authority, too - much of my work focuses on social media and I've got more experience, better results and a larger dollar value riding on my work than half of these 'gurus' - and I certainly don't consider myself to be an expert on the subject.

I just know how to take a company's social media presence to a certain level, which happens to be a level above what many 'gurus' would take it to.

In fact, in all the time I've been working in digital marketing, I've only met one person I would consider a 'social media guru' - and compared to the trite service offered by many of the self-publicists on Twitter, the results he produces are nothing short of witchcraft.

Anyway. Given my proclamation that I know more about social media marketing than most of the hacks out there, an exciting new digital Advertising Agency (one of the few that actually deliver value for money) asked me to write about the five rules of reaping the rewards of social media for your small business.

1. Don't be afraid NOT to spend money: Like with the early days of the Internet, the beauty of many social media outlets at the moment is that they're free. You can design a company page for your business on Facebook without spending a penny - and even get an exclusive Facebook URL for it if 25 of your employees, family or friends 'like' your page. The social media hacks want you to pay for their services - but often you can get equal or better results for free.
   
2. Give value for that 'no money': Much social media is 'free' - but that doesn't mean you need to deliver what you paid for it. If you start promoting your company on Facebook or Twitter, don't just create an account and sit back resting on your laurels - make sure you give something to those who 'like' or 'follow' your new account. I'll explain what I mean next.
3. Be an active player: Too many businesses create a 'page' for their business, and then never do anything with it. Your social media productivity should represent the real-life productivity of your business - so post relevant, interesting material on your Facebook or Twitter accounts at least three times a week, and court 'likes', retweets, comments and posts in response by picking topics and raising questions that will cultivate discussion and reaction.
4. Don't be too active a player: Less is more - nothing gets people unliking a page, or unfollowing a Twitter account more than incessant posts that add nothing of value. As a company, you should aim to post no less than once or twice a week, but no more than once or twice a day.
5. Measure your results: Whether it's the amount of comments, 'likes', retweets or responses you get, actively quantify the results of your social media campaign - and then strive to improve upon them. Those are the standards to which these so-called 'social media gurus' are expected to be held; so hold yourself as accountable as one of these 'experts' and you'll soon discover that you are one.

The Writing Afterlife

On June 3rd, 2006, I wrote the first post on a website that would later evolve into Militant Ginger.

Back then, I was mostly blogging about writing - and boasting about how I was putting together what was sure to be a series of best-selling adventure stories about Eddy Newbolt!

(Still working on that - or not, as the case may be.)

My first ever post read:

After finding his fascinating blog about writing on the net, Exeter based writer Ian Hocking was kind enough to check out Adventure Eddy, and even had a few kind words to say about it. Read here.

Four years, three thousand miles and an extended sabbatical for Adventure Eddy later, I discovered this post on Ian's blog. In it, he basically announces his 'retirement' from writing.

"Fifteen years is a fair crack of the whip. As of now, I am no longer a writer of fiction."

Why? Because he feels he's not going to get anywhere with it.

Ian's written some cracking books - most notably Déjà Vu, a "clever and satisfying" sci-fi thriller which The Guardian said was written with "quiet skill" - but hasn't hit the big time like he'd once hoped he might.

As a result, he's become aware that the time and effort he's invested in writing has meant he's missed out on opportunities and experiences elsewhere:

"Many sacrifices have been made by me and the people who love me in order that I have the time and space to write. There is a cost to this; they deserve the benefit of seeing that the cost was not wasted and, as far as I can see, this is not going to happen."

I feel ashamed that I didn't read this post when he first wrote it. It's deeply touching and speaks to the very core of a writer's identity.

It makes me especially sad because Ian was one of the people who first inspired me to start blogging - something that's helped give a focus and identity to my life and career over the past four years.

I'm hardly Stephen King - but I am a writer these days. In fact, I can use that term to describe myself with a blithe confidence that I couldn't when Ian first took a few moments to write about my literary ambitions.

Okay, I tend to write articles now. And blog posts. And corporate tweets and Facebook messages, and radio ads, and website copy. I get paid to write a gazillion different things (none of which, admittedly, have anything to do with a redheaded rogue solving crimes.)

But I write. Every day. I get paid to do it and I do it (I like to think) very well.

I am a writer - and Ian Hocking's brief, encouraging words were stones in the path that helped me reach that stage (a path hewn from the encouragement and support of all sorts of other people, most significantly my parents, family and wife.)

That in itself proves that Ian is a undeniably a great writer - because words are normally just ink on a page (or pixels on a screen.) It takes real talent to make them inspirational.

So I'm sorry you're not writing any more, Ian. Something tells me it's our loss.

New Column: Devil's Advocate

I feel incredibly privileged to have had online sexuality magazine SexIs publish a number of my articles over the past couple of years (my favorite being Sherlock & Watson: The original Ambiguously Gay Duo?)

But now, I'm feeling even more privileged - because SexIs have gone one step further and actually given me my own monthly column!

Given their demanding editorial standards, plus the astonishing repertoire of high-profile contributors they have (figures like Sinclair Sexsmith and Nina Hartley) this is a huge honor and I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity.

It's also a bit daunting - as opinionating about sex might not result in articles and posts I'd necessarily want my parents reading! But since I'm Copy Editor of Jacques magazine already, I think the cat's already out of the bag when it comes to the more 'grown up' writing that I do.

But while I had the opportunity to write under a pseudonym, I eventually decided to write as 'Roland Hulme' instead. I felt that using my real name and identity would ultimately force me to take an accountability for what I write that anonymous writers don't have to - and make me back up my opinions with solid facts rather than just wishful thinking.

(Or, at least, I will attempt to. Only time will tell whether or not I'll succeed!)

SexIs asked me to come on board to serve as a foil for political correctness, dogmatic opinion and what is occasionally a rather narrow minded, overly 'politically correct' attitude towards sex writing. That being said, they've made it very clear that giving me a forum to offer my opinions doesn't necessarily mean they'll agree with them!

In fact, I'm sure that my tenure as columnist will end up ruffling a few feathers - and result in a few people criticizing SexIs for giving me this forum in the first place.

To those detractors, all I can do is quote the eminent Benjamin Franklin - who wrote:

"if all Printers were determin'd not to print any thing till they were sure it would offend no body, there would be very little printed."

Franklin essentially invented the kind of debate that magazines like SexIs thrive on to this day - opinionating, debating and discussing with enthusiasm, controversy and occasionally even animosity.

He believed that giving both sides of a debate the opportunity to state their case was important, because he had faith that:

"when Truth and Error have fair Play, the former is always an overmatch for the latter."

I can't promise that I'll always be right in what I write - but I'll certainly challenge of lot of complacency, and hopefully stir some thoughtful debate along the way. I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunity. Thanks, SexIs!

Adventures in Copywriting #423

One of the secrets to writing anything is to read it out loud.

How the words appear in your head are very different to how they sound when somebody's reading them out loud - so it's a lazy writer indeed who doesn't check his 'readability' by saying it loud and proud before he submits a manuscript.

Sometimes, however, reading something out loud just isn't possible. Not without getting some funny stares, anyway.

In these circumstances, a trick many writers use is to read their work in their head - in somebody else's voice.

Yes, that's right. Imagine somebody else is reading your work and it's easier to spot fluffy verbiage and stray punctuation. It's almost as effective as reading what you wrote out loud yourself.

Sitting in a cubicle in a busy office, I'm often reduced to 'reading' my work in my head. And when I do? It's almost always Morgan Freeman's voice I use to narrate things.

Do you think I need to start paying him royalties?

Petite Anglaise

Although blogs are a great way to make friends online and keep your parents and friends up-to-date with your adventures, it's fairly obvious that the most dedicated (i.e. self important) of us bloggers are sometimes out there just to make a name for ourselves.

Which is why the success of bloggers-turned-authors like Belle Du Jour can be both frustrating, yet strangely affirming.

The latest blog-into-book is the blog of 35 year old expat Petite Anglaise.

Catherine Sanderson, under the nom de souris Petite Anglaise, started her blog in 2004, inspired by the likes of Belle Du Jour (which leads me to suspect that she harboured a certain self-publicist streak right from the very beginning!)

It started off as the amusing anecdotes of a British woman living and working in France, dutiful wife to 'Mr Frog' and loving mother to the bilingual baby 'Tadpole.'

But within a year of starting her blog, Sanderson shifted the focus of her writing away from the amusing expat experience (like her recommendations for working with FFs (French Females) to a more introspective and personal journal. This chronicled the breakdown of her marriage and her relationship with a new man she met in the comments section of her blog.

Her blogging continued it's surprising twists and turns when her boss uncovered Sanderson's candid chronicles - and swiftly gave her the boot (not the first time a blogger has been canned for their online antics.)

Taking her employer to court for wrongful dismissal, Catherine Sanderson picked up a £30,000 settlement, as well as a tornado of media interest promoting her story (and her blog) in British and French national newspapers. It even earned her a place on Richard and Judy's well-worn pastel sofa.

And just like that, Sanderson earned the happy-ending all blogger's secretly fantasise about. The media whirlwind inspired Michael Joseph (an imprint of Penguin) to publish her blog. We'll finally see the adventures of Petite Anglaise hit the bookshelves this June.


Bookish Blogging

Seeing the success of a blogger like Petite Anglaise can inspire conflicting emotions amongst us 'undiscovered' bloggers.

In some ways, it's incredibly exciting to see a fellow blogger make 'the big time' through their online exploits. But it's also rather frustrating to see somebody else succeed when your blog still languishes in relative obscurity.

However, skirting the emotional issues, it's clear to see why Catherine Sanderson's blog succeeded where others (such as mine) would fail.

Writing a publishable blog

Sanderson's blog makes for compelling reading - it's as simple as that.

My blog is pretty unpublishable, because it contains a few snippets of my boring life (painting the nursery and cooing at shiny red cars) in amongst reviews, editorials and completely unqualified opinionating about topics I have no authority to blog about (Kosovo, for example.)

Petite Anglaise has been a focused Bridget-Jones-esque journal from day one - and her romantic misadventures make the desire to find out 'what happens next' totally addictive. Catherine Sanderson expertly writes a real-life, expat soap-opera and we want to know more about her life - even if we disapprove of it.

And it is sometimes difficult to sympathise with Sanderson. Having just settled into my forth year of marriage, I find it rather uncomfortable the way a wife and mother like Petite Anglaise so swiftly dropped her spouse for an Internet beau - although I took no satisfaction in reading about her getting similarly dumped just over a year later.

It's also easy to be cynical about the way she embraced the media firestorm following her dismissal.

Catherine Sanderson made perfect headline fodder, but the beautiful young blond settled into her new role of 'celebrity blogger' disturbingly easily (similar observations have been levelled towards the most famous blogger/author Belle du Jour, who many people think is just the fictional alter-ego of some frustrated London hack.)

But leaving aside my petty prejudices, I can see the immediate appeal of an attractive, intelligent expatriate sharing her romantic misadventures in a blog-turned-book.

Whether you approve or disapprove of the choices she's made, Catherine Sanderson has one hell of a story to tell and if her blog is any indication of her writing skills, it's going to make for entertaining reading when it hits the bookstores.

Petite Anglaise by Catherine Sanderson is available on June 17th from Amazon.com and bookstores.

How the Grinch stole Writing

"A family member who doesn’t know about this blog gave me a self-published Harry Potter knockoff by a local writer. There’s a quote from a rejection letter on the back cover." Sean Lindsay. 101 Reasons to Stop Writing.

Proof that ever silver lining has a cloud, witty and amusing blog 101 Reasons to Stop Writing is based around a pretty cynical concept.

"Most published fiction is bad," website creator Sean Lindsay explains. "Some is so plain awful that you wonder how anyone wrote it, let alone approved it for publication. Don’t tell me it’s never crossed your mind how craptacular the unpublished stuff must be."

It's deliciously tongue-in-cheek with just the right amount of sadism to have you wondering if Lindsay really 'means it' or not (much like my 'Why People with a Peanut Allergy Annoy Me' blog.) The best part, or worst part, is that anybody who's hung around aspiring authors for very long (case in point - my wife) can sympathise with some of his 'anti-writing' arguments.

But he won't dissuade me - or people like me. I recently read a novel my mother wrote called Passions Pursued and it made me realise that modern publishers (and cynics like Sean Lindsay) are missing out on a great deal of writing by lumping all aspiring authors into the same slushpile.

Keep writing - and here's to recognition in 2008.

Nanowrimo Failure

In a kind of literary suicide pact with fellow Nanowrimoer Jodiferous, I have decided to throw in the towel to 2007's Nanowrimo challenge. The spirit was willing, but the imagination was weak.

I flunked. I failed. My Nanowrimo attempt ended like English ambitions in a football World Cup - an embarrassing disappointment.

I think the largest hurdle in my path to 50,000 words was a plan.

I am a stickler for plotting out each of my novels, chapter by chapter. This time around, I had been so wound up with a publishing project that I never even thought about what I intended to write until a few days before the kick off date.

I leapt headfirst into The God Squad - but in less than 10,000 words, the lack of planning led my team of intrepid monster hunters into a gloomy morgue and no off-the-cuff plotting promised to lead them back out again.

Good story. Good idea. It just needed a plot and planning.

So The God Squad lurked in the shadows and I moved onto Plan B.

By this stage, I'd already wasted 12 days of Nanowrimo, so I would have to double my word count to even approach completion. So in the absence of an original idea, I yanked Adventure Eddy out of vacation and threw him into a radio-based adventure I'd been musing about for a while.

One Saturday, I hammered out 10,000 words of that story... And hit a dead end.

It was a nice little story, but needed to be plotted and planned. Adventure Eddy came to a dead end sitting in a studio at WinFM during Mia Saxon's mid-morning show.

[Mia Saxon's back?? And she's a radio presenter?? - Editorial Bear.]

So we'd blown the half way point by now and things were looking grim. Despite having typed a total of 20,000 words in two unrelated stories, I was now left with a word count of zero.

I tried my hand at one last project - something I'd been musing about for a while.

Basically, it was a fictional autobiography of Auric Goldfinger - the bad guy in Ian Fleming's 1959 book Goldfinger.

As much as I love his books, Ian Fleming was a pompous ass - and worse than that, the first three Caucasian bad-guys he invented (Le Chiffre, Hugo Drax and Goldfinger) were all redheads!

Since the popularity of The Moneypenny Diaries (the so called 'real' diaries of Bond's secretary) I figured maybe it was time for a different perspective on Bond's most enduring nemesis. So I started a little story following Goldfinger's arrest and incarceration after his failed attempt to rob Fort Knox.

I claimed his 'death' was staged by the British government so they could interrogate him and reclaim the billions of pounds worth of gold bullion he'd smuggled out of Britain.

It was fun - but difficult. Fleming's incontrovertible 'facts' in Goldfinger made a reinvention of the character kind of difficult and once I'd dug into his back story - which featured an upbringing in war-torn Latvia and a stint spent in Korea - I realised I wouldn't be able to right this story without several history books and - you guessed it - some concrete planning regarding plot.

So my third effort came to naught as well.

A grand total of 20,124 words written - and none of it worth printing on anything other than toilet tissue.

So since I'd made three stabs at Nanowrimo, I figured Goldfinger's mantra was worth observing. To paraphrase - first time is Happenstance. Second is Coincidence. Third time is Enemy Action.

I'd observe the warnings and surrender my Nanowrimo ambitions.

So what's the next step?

Well, I need to get my head together and start thinking about what it is I want to write, what I hope to achieve with my writing and how best to accomplish that. If the least few years have taught me anything, it's that the ability to sit down and write a 50,000 word story is just one of the many talents required to make it in writing.

I need a plan. I need focus. Otherwise I'll be like countless aspiring writers and scribble away, never really spending the valuable time required to find out what it is publishers or readers are looking for.

Watch this space...

Until then, some excepts from my stories:

The God Squad

They pinned the struggling girl to the gurney, straining as the tiny, slim woman threatened to throw them aside with her flailing limbs.

“Damn, she’s strong!” Mike was laughing hysterically. “I thought she was dead a minute ago and now…”

Thump!

The girl’s flailing arm struck him straight in the nose, knocking the grizzled man to the floor. His nose started bleeding profusely.

“Hold her down!” Doctor Lang ordered, but she realized it was useless. The girl who’d lain there like a corpse a few minutes ago was now fighting with horrific strength.

And screaming. All the while screaming and spitting blood.

Radio Daze (featuring Adventure Eddy)

“Hello,” Eddy crammed his muddled paperwork back into it’s folder. “What are you doing here?”

“Dur!” Mia rolled her eyes. “There’s a bloody great fire going on. I’m a reporter. What do you think I’m doing?”

“Oh,” Eddy realized she was holding a microphone and a tiny bit of kit he’d later learn was a minidisk recorder.

Mia ignored him, heading towards the crowd.

“Oh, this is great,” she complained. “I’m never going to get through that lot.”

Eddy stood there dumbly, his papers clutched to his chest.

“Where exactly do you want to go?”

“Where do you think?” Mia wheel around. “Look at those flames! Look at all the action! I need to get over there. I want to chat to the firemen. I want to interview the owner. I want to record the crackling flames on this thing,” she held up the minidisk recorder, “because it’ll make great radio.”

“Well,” Eddy beamed mischievously. “I think I could get you over there.”

Mia Saxon blinked.

“Really?”

“Piece of cake.”

The Goldfinger Chronicles

For twelve weeks now, their routine has been the same.
Captain Northrup enters my cell at nine o’clock.

I am taken to an interrogation room, where I am ‘persuaded’ to release information regarding the whereabouts of my global bullion deposits.

Account numbers. Vault holdings. Anything in order to procure my wealth for their bankrupt little government.

I will tell them nothing.

And until now, their attempts to extract information have been largely unimaginative.
For the first few weeks, it was just talk.

Talk. Questions. Threats.

So much talk that hearing Northrup’s pinched accent bark on could have itself been considered torture.

I told them nothing.

Talk is cheap. Silence is golden.

And gold has always been my obsession

Maybe one of these days, I'll dig one of these stories out and have another crack at it. But until then, it's time to take a break and get my head together.

This Writing Life

Check out Ian Hocking's site, This Writing Life, for a very thoughtful and poignant post on the daunting prospect of starting a new writing project.

Ian has had more than his fair share of ups and downs on the road to publication. His critically acclaimed first novel, Deja Vu, has been dropped and picked up a couple of times now. It seems he's stuck in the maddening limbo of Publication Purgatory. Agents and publishers acknowledge that his book is excellent - it's just they're not willing to take a financial gamble on it.

And that's the big hurdle all us aspiring writers face. Even if we Nanowrimo ourselves into producing a publishable manuscript, getting it in front of an open minded publisher is a far more daunting prospect than writing the damn thing in the first place!

The publishing industry is changing - and not for the better. With increasing competition and tighter margins, publishers and editors want to gamble on investments that will guarantee a return. Having a good idea and a talent with words is no longer enough. You have to be marketable.

That's why Harper Collins, for example, passed on Missy Chase Lapine's cookbook The Sneaky Chef and then, three weeks later, signed a contract with Jessica Seinfeld for her practically-identical cooking concept Deceptively Delicious.

Both were (the same) brilliant book ideas - it's just Jessica Seinfeld had that name (she's the wife of Jerry Seinfeld) and all those showbiz contacts to bring to Harper Collins' marketing offensive. She promised sales. That's why Harper went with her.

Bearing that cutthroat decision in mind, I think aspiring writers like Ian and myself have to look very seriously at the whole package we're trying to get published.

Just like pitching a movie idea or sitcom, aspiring authors need to have a 'sales rap' ready which can convince a publisher that their novel is going to fly off the shelves. You can't just rely on a decent story and good writing skills any more. You have to identify your audience, see what it is that will appeal to them and then tailor your novel towards them.

Those of us who want to 'make it' as writers need to disavow ourselves of the outdated notions of 'the struggling writer,' 'artistic integrity' and the long wait to 'be discovered.' I think the next generation of first time authors aren't going to be the talented wordsmiths of old. They're going to be hungry self publicists who are as much salesman as writer.

And for aspiring writers like Ian and myself? Well, we can either swim with the sharks or fade into obscurity. On the bright side, those brilliant reviews at least mean Ian has a pretty daunting pair of gnashers!

Nanowrimo Day 2

Nobody said it would be easy - but surprisingly, it is - thus far (and long may it continue.)

So far, on day two of Nanowrimo, my horror story is being squeezed onto the page at a nice pace. I'm not quite sure where it's going - in fact the story's already veered dramatically off course - but it's going and that's the main thing.

Last year, Nanowrimo was an enormous focus of mine. I used to scurry home from work to diligently work on Bootleg Boys. This year, I'm not quite so passionate or excited about it, but the discipline Nanowrimo encourages is helping me put a story down on paper that had previously only existed in my head.

If I had been writing this without a deadline, I'd have spent so much more time on description, setting and other important foundations - but digging right into the meat of the story is quite compelling. I wonder if it will be as easy to read as it is to write.

But, of course, that kind of thinking is the kiss of death to a Nanowrimo'er. Don't think. Just write. Make the bloody great mess and tidy it up in December.

All I know is that I've got a very confused NHS doctor, a wounded policeman, a terrified nurse and a mysterious priest holed up in an abandoned Royal Hampshire County Hospital - and there's a very dangerous creature lurking in the shadows.

And I'm only on page 14.

Nanowrimo 2007

Well, it's nearly that time again. Nanowrimo 2007 is creeping up on us and the starting pistol fires on November 1st.

But for those of you who aren't aspiring writers - or not determined to jeopardise job, family, marriage or health to further your fervid writing ambitions - the whole Nanowrimo thing might seem a bit confusing.

What is it? Why does it exist? How does it have the power to send hundreds of thousands of people scurrying into offices, spare bedrooms, studios and cafes to sit scrabbling at a keyboard for hours on end?

Well, I could tell you. But it wouldn't be half as interesting or exciting as letting Jodi tell you.

Jodi is my official 'Nanowrimo Buddy.' Last year, when I signed up to write 'The Bootleg Boys' in less than a month, I scanned through a list of participants who were also writing crime/mystery novels and Jodi jumped out at me (not literally, of course.)

I liked the cut of her jib! And you will too. Over the course of the last year, I've kept up with her border-spanning blog and been witness to her marriage, her pot plants and her struggles with Immigration officers (and she's an American, no less.)

Check out her blog here.

And in the mean time, enjoy her dissection of this Nanowrimo madness!

Jodi! For the uninitiated, what is Nanowrimo all about?

NaNoWriMo stands for National Novel Writing Month. It begins November 1st at 12:01 am and ends on November 30th, 11:59 pm. During this month, participants attempt to write a 50,000 word novel. Since you only have 30 days, it's about quantity, rather than quality. It's a lot more fun that it sounds, trust me.

What have you got planned for Nanowrimo 2007? Romance? Adventure? Science fiction?

Ack! I don't know! I really want to write a mystery, I love them. And I have such a good character in mind. And the BEST SIDEKICK EVER! But I tend to be more character driven, and I think mysteries need to be plot driven. I suppose I am intimated by that. We'll see, I still have 20 days to figure it out.

You managed to ‘win’ Nanowrimo two years running. What was your secret?

Truth is, my stories, and participating in NaNo, was so much more interesting than what was happening in my real life. I had a couple of writing buddies at work, and we would meet at lunch and "write." I recruited people to play along, and had word count competitions.

I also participated more in the local meet ups and writing groups. I was just so excited, there was no way I would let myself fail. I wanted the winners badge on my blog. I wanted to be worthy of the t-shirts. I have so many NaNoWriMo t-shirts, I'm anxiously awaiting 2007's shirt.

You also flunked out last year. Who’s to blame?

Love. Love is to blame. Love and World of Warcraft. Turns out, WoW is crack. I don't play anymore. But then, I only started to play WoW so I could have "dates" with my future husband when he was living on Vancouver Island and I was down in Seattle. Because I was IN LOVE.. I just wasn't in the mood to leave my reality for a fantasy world, LooOOOoove.

When you’re on good form, how do you make sure you get your 1,667 words per day?

Just sit down and do it. When it seems intimidating, I quit thinking about the word count, and start thinking about time. Maybe I will write for 15 minutes straight. See how that goes.
Sometimes getting started is the hardest part. I also write in public. I tap into my inherent shyness and bury myself in my story, and computer, to hide. Coffee houses, libraries, I used to write in a food court of a mall as well.

What ‘aids’ do you use (i.e. coffee, chocolate, drip-feed caffeine?)

Dr. Pepper, from a fountain, not a can or bottle. Also, music. I make playlists for my stories to get me in the right head space.

Do you do any ‘pre-game’ planning, like plot charts or anything like that?

I wish I was organized enough to make plot charts or outlines. (See above concerns about writing a mystery.) My pre-game preparations usually consist of making playlists in iTunes, and having long conversations with my main character. The first year, I had a long Q&A with my main character. Typed it out and everything.

Also, I try to clean my desk before November 1st. I think I might buy a new desk chair this year.

Husband: Help or Hindrance?

Well, I've never had a husband before, so we'll have to see. He is planning to participate as well, this year. If anything, I think the biggest hindrance for both of us is this tiny apartment. Since I am not working right now, I have all day while he is at work, but he never gets a moment to himself. There is no quiet place to hide in this place. Yes, I think it is I who will be the biggest hindrance in this scenario.

And possibly Guitar Hero III, which comes out for the PS3 at the end of October.

What the hell is a ‘plot bunny?’

I don't know, is that anything like a plot ninja/pirate? It's a tool NaNoers use when they're completely stuck. If you can't think of a single thing to write, put a ninja, or pirate, in the scene, that's bound to shake things up, right? Can't really ignore a ninja.

Once Nanowrimo’s finished, what are you going to do with your masterpiece?

The two times I won, I didn't actually finish the story, just the word count. I put the stories aside and got caught up in the holiday season. I looked through them, much much later, wasn't interested in pursuing them. My win in 2004 was so so so bad. There wasn't anything in it to pursue. This time, I am going to try to finish the story in 50k, so the bare bones are there. Maybe keep going, and fill things in after the month is over. I've got nothing but time, until my visa is approved, so it would be a shame not to finish it completely.

Thanks, Jodi! And good luck with Nanowrimo 2007!

There's still plenty of time for YOU to sign up to this exciting, infuriating, crazy madness. Head over to their website and sign up today. The more the merrier!

Bootlegged

Well, somehow or other, I managed to finish The Bootleg Boys.

It was the story I started during last year's Nanowrimo and I'd only got a few more thousand words needed to wrap it up - so I do so. In the end, however, it was like squeezing blood from a stone.

The 'hard' part, which is the climax of the bootlegging plot, actually came quite easily. The words flowed and I even came up with a neat little flourish I hadn't seen coming. But then the 'easy' bits? The wrap up chapters that deal with the inevitable aftermath of Eddy's exploits?

Every single word was a struggle.

But I kept on plugging along until I finished the story.

But instead of the triumphant little buzz I get when I finished writing something, I felt a bit flat. Like it wasn't right. I was unsatisfied with the way things wrapped up.

The only answer to this, of course, is to go back and reread the whole thing and see if the ending 'works' or not. But at the moment, with my head swimming with the characters and adventures I've just written about, I'm a little too invested.

It's very frustrating.

Tempus Fugit

"To fill the hour - that is happiness." Ralph Waldo Emerson

It's a horrible feeling when you realise your limitations.

Youth is filled with ambition. To be rich. To be famous. To achieve amazing things. Sooner or later, though, youth is somewhat tempered by experience.

We realise that dreams of glory might be beyond our grasp. For every person who is famous - known and loved by many - there are thousands who are famous only to those who already know and love them.

We can't all be film stars or singers or presidents and prime ministers.

We can't even all be best selling novelists!

Sooner or later, you get to a point in life in which you realise that jumping for the stars has left you slightly winded - and still no closer to reaching them.

Like a dog chasing it's tail, ambition can fill you momentarily with energy and purpose - but ultimately it doesn't lead you anywhere.

This is something I've grown acutely aware of - especially when it comes to Adventure Eddy.

I've been writing adventure stories for well over a decade now. As I grow older - and the stories grow richer and better written - I realise that Adventure Eddy's exploits may never hit the bookshelves of Waterstones like I once envisaged they would.

There's the horrific possibility that my writing legacy might be confined to marketing copy and pompous articles on the Internet. I'll never be a bestselling writer!

So what is there to do?

What is a writer if nobody reads what he has written?

Well, I've been very lucky. Friends of mine - and friends of friends of mine - have chosen to read Adventure Eddy. For all the book's current limitations, it's incredibly empowering to know you've shared this make-believe world with somebody.

The question is: Is it worth writing these stories if they'll never be published?

Part of me thinks that it is.

People have hobbies, don't they? They paint, or draw, or do jigsaws and crosswords. Maybe I should consider writing more like that. Something rewarding and worthwhile for it's own reasons - for what it means to me - rather than for what I hope it will achieve.

With the wonders of things like Lulu, it's entirely possible for me to fill a bookshelf with beautifully printed copies of Adventure Eddy's exploits. Even if nobody ever reads them, they'll be there, preserved for as long as the paper lasts and the glue keeps the pages bound.

Maybe I could print a copy and leave it on a bench or a bus, after signing it up to Bookcrossings. With the wonders of the Internet, people who find and read an abandoned book can 'report' picking it up and let the original owner know where it's gone and who's enjoyed it.

Ultimately, isn't it as rewarding for one person to read your book and enjoy it as a hundred? Or a million?

I've very little basis for comparison!

What I do have is a dozen stories tangled up inside my head. I have now come to accept that I might never make my fortune as a novelist - but I would still like to commit these stories to paper. The very act of writing and expressing emotions and memories is rewarding in and of itself. It's like therapy - or more accurately like medieval 'bleeding.' Pouring the thoughts out of your head before they turn stagnant!

I should do it. I should just write for the hell of it. So no crosswords for me. No sudoku. No more sitting in front of whatever crap it is on TV (although I'll make exceptions for The Colbert Report, House and Dr Who.) Just as Tina has her cross stitch and father has his painting, I will embrace my passion without the limitations of ambition.

At least I know I can write. I mean, that's what I do for a living. I get paid for my ability with words. So if my writing career has never taken off, it's not because I'm a bad writer.

And maybe, if I write only for myself instead of trying to appeal to an audience, my books will be interesting - or at least more personal.

It's quite liberating, really.

Here are some stories I want to write:

Bootleg Boys - the Adventure Eddy story about bootlegged beer is nearly finished! I want to write the rest of it so badly!

God Squad - it's like 'Torchwood' - except instead of aliens, my high-tech troubleshooting team deal with 'extra-Biblical cryptozoological entities' like unicorns, vampires and dragons. Oh, and most of them are heavily armed priests. It's basically fantasy/horror/sci-fi comedy for the Di Vinci Code generation.

The Price of Freedom - based on a 'Movies' plot I wrote, it's the story of a British national arrested for 'terrorism' by a corrupt sheriff in the middle of Pennsylvania. The embassy troubleshooter known as 'British Bulldog' must take charge of this 'captive' and get to the bottom of the trumped-up charges. It's basically a western set east of the Mississippi with an interesting take on the whole War on Terror thing.

Kidd Rockson - a crime novel. When a promising African-American student is gunned down by the county police for packing a gun, most people dismiss it as an unfortunate gang-related incident. But even though the cops have been exonerated, the student's girlfriend claims his death was murder. The only man desperate enough to believe her is down-on-his luck private detective Kidd Rockson.

Ginger Jihad - this one will be fun. It's 2046 and Europe is aflame. Fundamentalist Muslims and the Russian army have painted the map red. Fortress America has long abandoned it's foreign adventures in Europe and the middle east, so only Britain stands and - from the look of the besieged island - not for long. Then American astronauts discover an amazing thing. The perfectly preserved body of 1950's test pilot 'Big Ginger' orbiting the earth. This WWII vet is thawed out by the desperate British government. Can a pip-pip, tally-ho fighter pilot really be Britain's last and only hope?

Captain Albion - the world's first superhero is from England! This mysterious crime-fighter has the tabloids in a storm and Britain swept up in a wave of patriotism. But when the superhero's actions clash with the British government's plans, the Prime Minister sets out to deal with this uncooperative menace. Meanwhile, an ambitious young reporter searches to uncover the 'real' identity of Captain Albion herself. The explosive climax features America's own 'nuclear powered' superhero arriving to confront Britain's finest.

The Wedding Story / Black Dog - two previously finished adventure Eddy stories need to be 'retconned' to match Eddy's slightly altered origins.

Operation Mycroft - whatever DID happen to Adventure Eddy's missing brother? When Mi5 and the CIA start demanding answers, Eddy sets out to find out. A good old fashioned adventure story with car chases, romance, beautiful women, a villainous villain and it's all set in France which is AWESOME.

The Widow of Winchester - Winchester's new mayor is making sweeping changes. Are his twenty-first century ambitions linked to a mysterious gang of 'vampires' who are chasing out his political and financial rivals? Adventure Eddy sets out to prove that there are 'no such things as vampires.'

The Silver Relic - I've already written this one about five times. But this time it'll have one of those things.... oh, what's it called? That's it! A plot! Anyway. It's a story about one of those old Mercedes Benz Silver Arrow racing cars and the murderous lengths unscrupulous people will go to get one. Amazingly, it's (very, very loosely) based on a true story!

The Island Affair - finally - FINALLY - the story about how Adventure Eddy wound up on Tresco and what he did there. Expect high adventure on the high seas, a devious criminal mastermind and a bit with a dog. And unlike Adventure Eddy, there really WILL be a bit with a dog in this one. The dog is called Fido.

Adventure Eddy in New York - Sooner or later, it had to happen. Is Eddy's ambition to 'clean up' the city going to get him killed? Oh, what fun this story will be. Beautiful women. Deadly bad guys. All the sights, sounds, smells of New York city sandwiched in an adventure story. I can't wait!

Yes, as you can see, I have a lot of work ahead of me. SO MANY stories to write. Now I just need to sit my arse down and actually do it.

Well, the winter months are coming up. Now is as good a time to start as any.

And whatever you think of my silly writing ambitions - even you have to admit it's more productive than a jigsaw.

Stormbreaker

While in the superspy mood, we rented Stormbreaker, based on the novel by Anthony Horowitz... And it was the total opposite of Casino Royale.

Big budget, gadget filled and with more special guest stars than you can shake a stick at. Plus it was aimed firmly at the 'teenage' market - so the gadgets included a Nintendo DS with debugging and exploding cartridges.

To say I was disappointed was an understatement.

I've never been a huge fan of Anthony Horowitz anyway. A recent interview with him in The Writer's News had some interesting opinions on writing for teenagers and I didn't agree with them. I think the biggest mistake anybody can make is 'writing FOR teenagers' since teenagers are incredibly sophisticated. I was a terribly immature teenager and yet I was still reading John Wyndem and Ian Fleming, so 'dumbed down' books would have insulted me.

That's J.K. Rowling's secret of success. She wrote stories, not markets, and her books are loved by adults and children alike because the stories are true to themselves, not their intended audience.

Add this 'dumbed down' attitude to a cheap Bond rip off riddled with plot holes and the result is something slightly like a less amusing Spy Kids.

I will say, however, that Alex Pettyfer was an engaging lead and we can expect to see great things from him in the future. And what little we did see of Cornwall - a place I love - was lovely.

Writing

Wow. After a false start, I am up and running with Nanowrimo 2006. A daily target of 1667 words means I'm up to date and can finally shuffle off to bed.

Yesterday was a disaster. I started The Bootleg Boys in what I thought was a fascinating and productive new way, but it didn't work out. So today, I scratched what I wrote and started again. Fortunately, it seems to be working.

What an insane idea! 50,000 words in a month!

In other news, life toddles on. In reality, T and I are both stressed out. The future it sitting there on our shoulders like a big fat vulture. I'm desperate to return to America, but it's only nine months until Tina can apply for a British passport. In some ways, it would be crazy to leave before she gets it.

I'm still loving my job, but a horrible reality is dawning on me. Copywriters aren't rich. They're never rich. And maybe our one-up-one-down in Winchester is all we'll ever be able to afford while I'd doing a job I love.

Nobody else I know likes their job. Am I being crazy doing something I like?

Well, I have 1667 words to write a day, so I don't see what I'm doing wasting them here. Mind you, I have started a new blog at Editiorial Bear to discuss political issues. I post derisive comments targeted at a couple of the more loopy commenters on the interesting PCBS occasionally and am sick of them replying on this blog, so I've started a new one for political opions and comments - I've started with a few words about the De Menezes shooting, which is in the news again. You can find it here.

Adventure Eddy is over...

After more than six months, I've wrapped up posting Adventure Eddy on the blog.

The entire story, pretty much unabridged, is to be found here. That's eighty five chapters and about 120,000 words.

I am only going to be keeping the story up there for a short while longer before I take it down, revamp the blog and have it as an update on my efforts to get Adventure Eddy published.

Claire Anderson, the honey-voiced Power FM presenter, gave favourable reviews, which bouyed me up. It did lead to this conversation with Tina, though.

In the car:

Tina: Have you got a copy of Adventure Eddy around? I'm going to finally read it.
Rols: Yep, Claire gave me the one she was reading back today.
Tina: What did she say about it?
Rols: She said she was surprised Eddy doesn't get the girl in the end.
Tina: He doesn't get the girl in the end?
Rols: No, she actually...
Tina: Why did you just tell me the ending? You've just ruined the whole thing for me!

I hadn't actually given the whole ending way. I mean, there were the series of hotel robberies to worry about. That was kind of the major focus of the story...

Or was it? Claire's comments did make me think. Dad, when he read it, talked about the hotel robberies and the practicalities of Eddy and friends driving 600 miles in five and a half hours (in a twenty year old sports car.) Claire, on the other hand, pointed out that the love interest's eyes changed colour half way through the book and Eddy didn't get the girl in the end.

I never really thought about it, but the subplot romance between Eddy and Kat was a whole second story. It's almost like the book was split into two halves. The cool thing about that was that the boys liked the chase scenes and devious crimes - and the girls liked the unrequited crush and the will-they-won't-they subplot.

I set out to write an old fashioned boy's adventure story, but the romance part appeals to girls. Maybe the book is slightly more complex than I'd first thought!

Anyway. It has inspired me to focus more on the character's relationships in the next story.

Speaking of which, you can find my Nanowrimo blog, The Bootleg Boys, here. That's almost a direct follow up to the story of Adventure Eddy, bridging the gap between the novel and the rest of the Adventure Eddy stories I've written.

In the mean time, I'm finishing up editing Adventure Eddy and will be sending it off to publishers soon.

Nanowrimo - The Countdown Begins

On the first of November, despite mounting commitments, I am going to attempt Nanowrimo - to write a novel in 30 days.

I've got a really solid novel planned out - just haven't had a chance to write it yet - so there shouldn't be any problem. Oh, except for that pesky job, life etc. Tina and I are even considering getting second jobs to get our finances in order for a return to America.

So it looks like a pretty daunting task - but I'm sure it can be done. Why am I so confident? Because my incredibly prolific namesake, Angie Hulme, managed to do just that last year.

Angie describes herself as a 'wannabee writer,' which doesn't seem quite accurate since she's written a huge number of books, including "After the Fairytale" which starts off where the 'happy ending' of Cinderella finishes.

I asked Angie about Nanowrimo and the secrets of her success last year:

So for the uninitiated, what is Nanowrimo all about?

Nanowrimo stands for National Novel Writers Month. The basic challenge is to write a 50k word novel during the 30 days of November. Personally, it's a really big challenge and so much fun to do; socially, you've got this huge group of people who are just as insane as you are trying to do exactly the same thing – so you're never lacking support either online or in person from other Nanoers in your region. Nano as well raises money to do good things – this year the aim is to raise enough to build a library in Vietnam. It's all about having fun, doing something daft you wouldn't normally even think of doing and everyone not doing it thinks is totally insane, not to mention impossible, and going for that sense of achievement of a challenge well met.

This isn't your first year! Tell us about last year and what you wrote.

Indeed, this is my second year! I had so much fun last year I simply had to do it again! Last year I played the bad guy and wrote a story about a fellow who gains a big inheritance form a dead Uncle who suggests he uses it to do something memorable, something to change things – so my until-this-point everyday fellow reveals he's actually secretly missing a few screws, and sets off around the UK persuading other people to break the 10 Commandments! It was so much fun to write – just to turn off the inner editor, write whatever came to mine, not taking any of it seriously; I had myself in fits of giggles a number of times. And to make it even more fun I took on challenges form other people of things to fit into the story somehow. The entire Nottingham region had a challenge to fit ferrets in somewhere, other challenges met included evil bunnies, gnomes in compromising positions and a bucket with a big smile and a little hat...so yeah, it got almost surreal at points! But meeting with the Nottingham group every weekend through the 'ordeal' was so much a part of it as well – it wouldn't have been Nano without that, and the word games on the forums and speed-writing challenges in the chatrooms. It wound up, for me, as just a real fun time and after I finished sleeping after last years, I was immediately looking forward to doing it again! Incidentally – I did my 50k in 22 days last year; plan to try and beat that this time!

What was the secret of your success?

Coffee. Lots and lots of coffee keeping me awake late at night in order to hit my word targets, and plenty more at work the next day simply to keep me awake!
Having a good group around me was also really helpful – every Saturday the Nottingham Nanoers spend a couple of hours or an afternoon together and it's such a laugh and such fun and I would come away feeling refreshed and renewed and often with knowledge of where my story was going next; I think without that group of us I wouldn't have come near finishing. Also understanding friends are handy – non-nanoers who don't mind me asking random questions about nonsensical things or asking them for challenges or ranting about my characters or raving about my word count and generally hearing little from me except random nano nonsense for the month, they're great! I recommend warning them in advance!

This year...well once again I'm playing the baddie! My protagonist is a lady, a police officer, who after being jilted by her husband thinks back and realised that every lover she has ever had has done that in one way or another her whole life. So, again revealing a few missing screws nobody realised weren't there, she setts off tot rack them all down backwards from husband to first boyfriend in order to murder them in strange and interesting ways. So far for challenges, I have the Nottingham theme (seems to be 'the lower half of a man's right leg' - worryingly, none of us had much problem seeing where we could fit this into our stories!) and acrostic paragraphing, though I've not yet decided what word to spell out. And I'm sure there'll be more along the way!

What advice do you have for any budding Nanowrimo'ers (like me?)

First of all – snacks. Buy lots of snacks and easy to eat foods. Also coffee or any other favoured energising drink, plus water/fruit juice for general consumption. Make sure you have plenty – you'll be needing it while writing.

Second – warn all your friends who are likely to notice something amiss during the month – and once warned, you can also make use of them for bouncing plot off, advancing it by asking what they might do, talking to them on the phone to get away from typing for a while,and various other things.

Third – don't promise to do anything with other people; tel them you will if your word count is good, but don't make any promises for November or for the first few days of December when you're likely to be sleeping.

Storywise – have an idea, plot as much as you like, but don't force the story somewhere it doesn't want to go else you risk losing it entirely; be flexible, write whatever comes to mind and if you get stuck, talk to friends and other nanoers. Also if you don't like your main character – kill them and replace them, seriously, this is Nano, you're not trying to write classic literature – entertain yourself, whatever that may take, and you'll get through it.

Get a good headstart during the first week or so, then weeks 2 and 3 can be more relaxed and hopefully you won't spend week 4 in a panic! The daily word count divides into 1667 per day over 30 days – so try setting a daily target of 2000 per day, if you mostly hit that then the odd bad day doesn't matter and it keeps you on course for being able to actually finish your story, not just hit the 50k target!

Don't get disheartened by other people's word counts. You'll find some people ace right through and are i the 100k's while you're still in 20 – it doesn't matter, you're challenging yourself, not competing against them.

Keep it fun, really, there's nothing at stake here, it's meant to be a fun challenge – keep it light, entertain yourself, remember you're not writing a masterpiece, you're just...writing.

Well, you'll be able to read about my attempts to write The Bootleg Boys on Nanowrimo at the Adventure Eddy blog. The current story should be winding up in the next couple of days.

And if you want to find out more about Angie's writing, the best place to start it her website. You can also find After the Fairytale on Amazon.

The National Novel Writing Month

The reason I'm wrapping Eddy up on my Adventure Eddy blog is because I've got a new project for November.

November is National Novel Writing Month. It's a project in which writers pledge to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. You can find out more here: Nanowrimo.

Since I've been having trouble with The Bootleg Boys from the word go (I recently lost the first seven chapters when my laptop misbehaved) I figured it would be a good idea to get the bloody thing written!

Hence, I've signed up for Nanowrimo - and in November I'm going to write a novel!