Reviewing Other Stories

I think I mentioned that I wanted to review more stories. Well here's my review for the story Non-Compliance: The Sector by Paige Daniels.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R322CYB95AL6C1/ref=cm_sw_r_fa_asr_IKIRF.18Y7KMT

Fun and Learning

Fun

Well I was trying to find a new creative outlet last week and the idea to make a children's picture book seemed like the best option. It has been a lot of fun. Mainly because at times I'm a big kid and writing a little story that is simple and fun was something I really enjoyed.

Learning

Once the story part was done it was time to realise how inadequate my drawing skills are for a picture book. 80% of the work is the drawings and I'm not good enough to even attempt it. After a little frustration at this I decided using word and clipart would have to do for now. At the very least I wanted to come up with a mock picture book that would have some pictures to help express the story.
So I got to work. Although another thing I must point out is my inability to use technology. This caused some technical issues but after phoning my Mum she managed to help me find what I needed in word to make the pictures and writing work together. Thanks Mum!
It was all done within 24 hours and I turned it into a PDF to beta test it using my phone and showing it to my Nieces and Nephew. This helped and when reading it I saw what needed to be changed. I still need to make those changes but will do that over the next couple of days.

Doing this was really good fun and even educational. It's always nice to do something a bit different and maybe I'll write some more in the future.

  

The Importance of Every Review

On this journey I’ve found that one of the hardest things to get is feedback and reviews. I’ve been fortunate to have very supportive friends and family who have given feedback in the past (and continue to help with feedback- thank you everyone). However branching out and finding reviewers outside this circle can be quite difficult. It’s something I wish I could do more of. Not because I think my opinion has that much value, but because I’ve discovered the review of just one person can make your day. That said I wouldn’t do it just to be nice, but to be constructive and objective about peoples work. Then if the work was good I could tell them so and that simple thing can bring confidence and motivation. It can make such a big difference. If my eyes weren’t so rubbish and caused me pain if I read or watch screens too much then I would try to review so many stories. I am going to try and review a few pieces on Amazon but it may take me months to read them.

As for me a lot of my work is being edited and improved at this point in time so I haven’t had a chance to get  much feedback. However with my short story being published in the Steampunk Anthology I have been very fortunate to receive one piece of nice feedback. On Monday the Anthology got a review and the reviewer said out of the 10 short stories mine was her favourite. It took me totally by surprise as the other writers are talented and more experienced than me. It’s strange how it’s just one persons opinion but to me it means so much. It’s cliché but I write because I love creating new stories, but the end goal is to share these stories with the world and when someone enjoys one of my stories it makes all the hard work worthwhile. Keeping that in mind I would ask that when you read any story you track down the place you can comment and review it and do so. You just don't know what impact it could have on the person who has written it.

As always thanks for reading and here’s the link to the review and where you can find the Anthology.

http://hierath.wordpress.com/2013/03/25/book-review-strange-tales-from-the-scriptorian-vaults-by-sammy-hk-smith-ed/

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Tales-Scriptorian-Vaults-ebook/dp/B009Z2FN38/ref=pd_sim_kinc_1

Confession Time So I Can Move On

Well guess it’s time I told the truth about what I mentioned in the previous post and why I was feeling down...

I tried an agent hunt for about the 1,004th time and got another full house of rejections. As always it has become another learning experience so nothing is ever wasted. I was just so excited to have finished a redraft of Empiphany and thought why not give it a try. I didn’t want to tell anyone and really hoped I got an agent so I could surprise everyone with some good news. However when that didn’t happen I got a bit down (understatement – I can become very low when I feel that disappointed, but it's just part of who I am and have learned how to move beyond it quickly). It didn’t take too long to get over the slump and I’m pretty focused and upbeat right now. It’s amazing how it’s my own expectations and over reaching that leads to me getting frustrated and disappointed. Now it’s time to completely move on and embrace the one very small step at a time attitude. The glacier way of thinking must be applied and one day a beautiful landscape will emerge.

As for what’s going on at the moment I’ll add another update/post to talk about that. And as a sort of footnote, and for the sake of keeping the details of this history, I’ve put information on the submissions below. Some of the more recent submissions haven't replied yet but I'm not expecting good news so moving on.  

Agency                         Date Submitted       Date Rejected

Conville and Walsh     25-11-12                    13-12-12  

Donald Mass               25-11-12                    11-12-12   

Caroline Sheldon        25-11-12                    14-01-13 

MBA                            26-11-12                    24-01-13  

Darley Anderson         26-11-12                    Difficulties with lost email submission. Eventually got in touch with someone. They were very nice about it and re-submitted (4-2-13) but never heard back.  

Corvisiero                 13-2-13                         No reply   

Doncongdon             13-2-13                         25-2-13  

Waxmanleavell        19-2-13                         No reply    

Jvnla                         17-2-13                         No reply   

PSliterary                  19-2-13                         6-3-13

3 years

3 years!!! Seriously!? 3 years!?

I've written this posts three times now and deleted them all. It's simply too hard to share what I really want to at this point. In the future I'll write what I wanted, but not today. All I will say is that these three years have been more challenging than I could have ever imagined. Chasing this dream has taken so much effort for such little payback that it's difficult not to feel very negative, especially when it's your own weaknesses that block the path. I still have hope though and when things move forward I know all the struggles will seem insignificant, but right now the trials of this journey, and the challenges of life, are overwhelming. I do wish I could have written something more positive on this three year mark, but I don't want to lie. I want it to be real and leave the fiction for my stories. The whole truth will be clarified in the future, but I will not give up on this dream. That said it might be time for a change, if only for a little while. It's something that requires more thought. The most important thing that must be mentioned is the greatness of those who have supported me and encouraged me over the three years. I will always be in your debt. Thank you.

P.S
It's always fun looking back over posts (as I just have) and I see how positive I've been at times. I'm sure i'll get that enthusiasm back at some point. Things are just tough at the moment and I've not put into practice a lot of what I've learned over the years. All will be explained when I decide to write more about why it's been difficult right now. Just need to get my patience mindset back and all will be fine.

25

Just a quick post to end the year.

As most people will have guessed by now I like stupid little patterns and coincidences ('there's no such thing as coincidence, just the illusion of coincidence' V for Vendetta). And well... i'm 25, I've been 25 for 25 days, my latest book, Empiphany, has just been re-edited and finished, and has 25 chapters, and it's the 25th of December (Merry Christmas). Prior to this sentence, and excluding the title, I've mentioned 25 5 times and if you haven't guessed by now i'm a complete square, and 5 squared is 25. 25 times 5 is 125 which has 25 in it. Yeh so thought i'd call this post 25.

So what to write to end the year? Well a simple update I guess.

Empiphany took several months to edit and I gave it a final read through this month. It's looking good and i'm very happy with it.

B.O.P is also looking good and it's still in Sammy's hands. She is a very busy lady so when/if things ever quieten down for her we'll be going back to it.

Both books are online for free as a download at www.stevenjguscott.com and although some improvements may be needed the standard is so much better. This is thanks to the recent dramatic edits that can only be described as ripping apart, taking stuff out, putting stuff in, and then stitching it all back together.

The next project will be to give book 2 of the Chronicles of Elementary a complete edit and that will take several months if not more.

I'm sure i'll have something to rant about before then, but that will be next year so goodbye 2012. All endings are really just beginnings.

This Elephant Tastes Awesome!

How do you eat an elephant? The saying goes. The answer: one bite at a time. After more than two months of doing a little bit each day, probably about a chapter every three days, Empiphany's mass edit is finished. It has been ripped apart, stuff has been taken out, stuff has been put in, and it has been stitched back together slowly. After a last attempt to get some of the punctuation right, which took more than three hours, and is still probably wrong; it was finished late on Tuesday 20/11/12.

There is a quote I wrote when the first draft of Empiphany was finished and it captures how I feel about this story:

I wanted it to be something perfect, but something felt wrong, and that's when I knew it was right. I needed something beautiful and repulsive, something accessible and closed, something unique and familiar, something disturbing and innocent, something brilliant and terrible, something intelligent and ignorant, something I both love and hated. For me Empiphnay is this and more, and that's why it's perfect to me.

It has been sent to Starbuck and she’s going to give it a read through and let me know what she thinks. Until that happens the next step in my writing adventures is unknown, there are a few options, but I think I will take a short break and go crazy with some Audiobooks.

Lastly I would like to thank Bear Wills for unknowingly being the motivation for me to complete this. You gave me the date the 24^th and I finished 4 days early :)