More time? Less money!

It's been a while since the last time I added to this blog and quite a bit has happened. Unfortunately none of it has added to the time I have spent writing or editing in fact it has all been a big distraction. I won't bore you the detail but the brunt of some of it is my job has been disestablished, which is to say I have been made redundant for the fourth time.

A time for reconsideration of my career. I have been in the print industry for 35 years and in the production of plastic cards for 15 and quite frankly I'm sick of it. Running clapped out presses has disadvantaged me for any advance in the trade. I'm not au fais with the newer machinery with everything computerised so I probably need to leave the industry and take up a new profession. However I am somewhat long in the tooth yet still need to be earning a decent wage. Changing waged employment won't do too much to help me sustain one as my newness in any other job would count against me.

So should I become self-employed? That is the question.....

Aah book writing, its a long a torturous process. I actually found the writing to be the easy part but now I'm polishing, whittling and editing. As suggested I gave the first 30 pages to my wife for a perusal. Being a journalist and used to truncating paragraphs into pithy statements she had one word to describe my efforts, wordy. So snip, snip, snip, lose a word here , a phrase here. Reword this and change that but I must say such re-working has made it a better read.

As I have been looking for a Literary Agent its been apparent the manuscript has need of more polishing. I seem to have a penchant for prepositions. I think that is symptomatic of my upbringing and my need to split infinitives.

The more I read about getting published the more doubts arise. Does the world need another book about Napoleon. Well its not actually about the Emperor himself but about one of his long suffering infantrymen. Its like a French version of Sharpe told in my own style based on extensive research (at least the first two volumes are).

Back to more polishing...

Polishing

Having checked out the web sites of several real literary agents I can see my work needs plenty of editing, polishing and rewriting. I have also asked my wife to read it with a harsh critique. I hope I can take it.

I am re-reading my book for the 4th time and I'm becoming quite ruthless with my editing. Its amazing how many prepositions I used in the first writing.

The imminent publication has now been delayed while I trawl through the internet finding a publisher who will hopefully publish my book(s).

I'm re-reading volume one for the umpteenth time trying to make it more appealing for the people in acquisitions. Not too much tweaking but a couple of errors found. Also some plot aberrations have been corrected. Hopefully I won't worry it to death like a terrier.

A mistake?

I think I got caught up in the moment and the possibilities of being published caused me not to be as cautious as I should have been. My enthusiasm overrode my natural reticence and the publisher who I thought would bring my dreams to reality seemed dubious. In fact they appeared prominently on the 'Writer Beware' website. Fortunately I signed no contracts or agreements but I did send my e-manuscript....eeek. Bit a worry but so far so good. Email sent to curtail further action, lets hope they take notice.

Maybe I should publish it myself. I know exactly how to go about getting it printed and really its a matter of distribution.

Time to Start

Well even though I have had this blog for a while now it has never been important enough to share anything with the general population, but now that I have submitted my manuscript of my first novel the publisher suggested I start a blog. Well here it is.

My novel has been many years in the fermenting and because it is an historic there was a lot of research to be done before pen was put to paper. The original was hand written in note form then written in more of a narrative form later and then copy typed and then rewritten on the computer.

I don't know if this is the best way to write but it works for me and the way I think.

The novel, Following the Emperor's Footsteps, is about Gabriel St Jean a young Breton farmboy who runs away to join the army of Napoleon as he prepares for the invasion of Britain. The invasion was postponed and the army marches east to fight with the armies of Austria and Russia at Austerlitz. In the march and the battles fought the young boy becomes a man and a soldier.