Midlist Writer: blogsmith

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Friday, 15 April 2011

Back from Ethiopia

Hello again!

Yes, I've been silent for two months, but I've had an excuse. I was living for two months in Harar in eastern Ethiopia and not only did I have to struggle with a dialup connection (remember those?) but it turns out the Ethiopian government censors Blogspot. Apparently too many dissident Ethiopian expats have blogs, and instead of trying to block each one they just block all of Blogspot! Strangely enough I can get onto Blogger and write posts, but since I couldn't see my end result I decided it wasn't worth the ages it took to load.

Anyway, I had a great time. I've started a series on Harar for Gadling and am working on a book proposal. More on that once it begins to take more shape. Today was my first full day back in Madrid and I spent it playing with my son. I won't have long here, though. On Monday we all head up to Oxford for the Easter break!

Now that I'm back I'll be keeping a more regular schedule with this blog, at least two and preferably three posts a week. So stayed tuned, friends, I haven't forgotten about you!

Saturday, 9 October 2010

I have a reader in Burundi

One of the coolest things about being a writer is that you never know who's going to end up reading your stuff. As I mentioned in my post about what the blogger stats page tells you about your blog, I'm getting readers in all sorts of places. I get a lot of hits from Moldova for some reason, even more than the United Arab Emirates where I actually know somebody. (you still do read this blog, don't you Abha?)

Now I've gained a reader from Burundi. This small East African nation has only 8 million people, a third less than Greater London, but I've still managed attract a reader from there! I wonder who it is? Perhaps one of these students from Burundi's "Back to School" program?

Writing, especially for the Internet, gets you a readership that cuts across class, race, age, and geography. I was just chatting with one reader who is a World War Two veteran, and now I'm wondering about this mystery Burundian. This poses an important question for writers: when your audience is so vast and varied, how do you write to them? I'm thinking that while you do have to have certain parameters of style and subject in order to maintain regular readers, in general you just write the best you can, promote your work, and let your readers pick you.

I wonder what the next country will be to appear on my stats page for the first time. . .

Student photo courtesy the United Nations via flickr. Flag photo courtesy Pumbaa80 via Wikimedia Commons.

Friday, 1 October 2010

My thoughts on my page 99

As I mentioned in my post on What the Blogger Stats Page tells You about your Blog, I like to check out the data relating to Midlist Writer. In my last post I presented page 99 of my novel and asked for input. More than fifty of you read the thing but only one person left a comment. That just goes to show how many lurkers there are on the average blog! I'd really be curious to know what my readers in Colombia and Latvia think of my writing.

Anyway, thanks for the input, Sioux.

This scene shows our young band of Confederate bushwhackers riding through the woods of mid-Missouri after killing a Unionist civilian. They had never killed a civilian before but did it because they were told he was a spy who had gotten a local secessionist hanged. There's more to this, of course, and the ramifications of their actions power the rest of the novel. It's interesting that this page shows Jimmy, one of the two protagonists besides Union Captain Richard Addison, in an entirely passive role. He's usually in charge of the bushwhacker gang but he's so stunned at what they've done that he's momentarily given up trying. He will be given another chance to step back and wash his hands later in the book, and his choice will determine the ending.

So is this a good page? Well, it does have tension, and gives a bit of insight into some of the characters, but I'm not entirely happy with the Southern dialect. That's a tricky thing to get right, especially the Missouri dialect. Plus I have to put it back into the 1860s. It's something I'm still working on.

So. . .if any of you lurkers out there want to post page 99 of your novel on your blog, feel free to put the link in my comments section. I'll be sure to read it and give my two cents' worth.

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The Case of the Purloined Pyramid

The Last Hotel Room

He came to Tangier to die, but life isn’t done with him yet. Tom Miller has lost his job, his wife, and his dreams. Broke and alone, he ends up in a flophouse in Morocco, ready to end it all. But soon he finds himself tangled in a web of danger and duty as he’s pulled into scamming tourists for a crooked cop while trying to help a Syrian refugee boy survive life on the streets. Can a lifelong loser do something good for a change? A portion of my royalties will go to a charity for Syrian refugees.

Warpath into Sonora

Arizona 1846: Nantan, a young Apache warrior, is building a name for himself by leading raids against Mexican ranches to impress his war chief, and the chief’s lovely daughter. But there is one thing he and all other Apaches fear—a ruthless band of Mexican scalp hunters who slaughter entire villages. Nantan and his friends have sworn to fight back, but they are inexperienced, and led by a war chief driven mad with a thirst for revenge. Can they track their tribe’s worst enemy into unknown territory and defeat them?

Radio Hope

In a world shattered by war, pollution and disease. . . A gunslinging mother longs to find a safe refuge for her son. A frustrated revolutionary delivers water to villagers living on a toxic waste dump. The assistant mayor of humanity's last city hopes he will never have to take command. One thing gives them the promise of a better future--Radio Hope, a mysterious station that broadcasts vital information about surviving in a blighted world. But when a mad prophet and his army of fanatics march out of the wildlands on a crusade to purify the land with blood and fire, all three will find their lives intertwining, and changing forever.

Refugees from the Righteous Horde (Toxic World Book 2)

When you only have one shot, you better aim true. In a ravaged world, civilization’s last outpost is reeling after fighting off the fanatical warriors of the Righteous Horde. Sheriff Annette Cruz becomes New City’s long arm of vengeance as she sets off across the wildlands to take out the cult’s leader. All she has is a sniper’s rifle with one bullet and a former cultist with his own agenda. Meanwhile, one of the cult’s escaped slaves makes a discovery that could tear New City apart. . . Refugees from the Righteous Horde continues the Toxic World series started in Radio Hope, an ongoing narrative of humanity’s struggle to rebuild the world it ruined.

The Scavenger

In a world shattered by war, pollution, and disease, a lone scavenger discovers a priceless relic from the Old Times. The problem is, it's stuck in the middle of the worst wasteland he knows--a contaminated city inhabited by insane chem addicts and vengeful villagers. Only his wits, his gun, and an unlikely ally can get him out alive. Set in the Toxic World series introduced in the novel Radio Hope, this 10,000-word story explores more of the dangers and personalities that make up a post-apocalyptic world that's all too possible.

Trench Raiders

September 1914: The British Expeditionary Force has the Germans on the run, or so they think. After a month of bitter fighting, the British are battered, exhausted, and down to half their strength, yet they’ve helped save Paris and are pushing toward Berlin. Then the retreating Germans decide to make a stand. Holding a steep slope beside the River Aisne, the entrenched Germans mow down the advancing British with machine gun fire. Soon the British dig in too, and it looks like the war might grind down into deadly stalemate. Searching through No-Man’s Land in the darkness, Private Timothy Crawford of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry finds a chink in the German armor. But can this lowly private, who spends as much time in the battalion guardhouse as he does on the parade ground, convince his commanding officer to risk everything for a chance to break through?

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