Owner: Freedom from the Mundane URL:http://freedomfromthemundane.blogspot.com Join Date: Mon, 21 Aug 2006 05:43:48 -0500 Rating:1 Site Description: Colin Galbraith is an upcoming Scottish writer. This his writing journal in which he dives head on into subjects which influence his writing. It is where he records his experiences in the world of publishing. It is where he gives away free stuff like poet Site statistics:Click here
First Draft Of 'Slick' Complete 2006-12-07 22:42:00 Dentist Day today, so even though I've caught up with my sleep I was up a bit later than normal so I could spend a full half hour scrubbing my molars clean. I provided the packed waiting room with some entertainment upon my arrival, however. After I gave my name I went to sit down, but due to the lack of seating in the reception area, I had to squeeze into a double-seater next to an old woman.I sat down and my left elbow crashed off their tall standing glass cabinet causing it to rock back and hit the wall. As it rocked forward again, the sudden intake of air into everyone's lungs caused a mini vacuum to occur, as we all waited to see if the cabinet was going to tip over and smash. It never, thankfully, and I managed to stabilise it once the shock had passed.Two old woman, including the one next to me, fought hard to stifle their laughter, and I was glad the dentist called me shortly after so I could hide my blushes in another room. Other than that I got on fine, but need to go back Read more:Draft
, First
, Slick
Nutty UK 2006-12-07 12:18:00
Tonight Madness kick off their UK tour at London's legendary, Brixton Academy.
The sound check took place on stage last night, which you can view by
clicking here
.
It's a new song - woooo!
The full list of UK dates are:
Thursday 7th DecemberLondon, Brixton Academy **SOLD OUT**
Sunday 10th DecemberDublin, The Point
Tickets
Tuesday 12th DecemberGlasgow, SECC Hall 4
Tickets (Extra capacity available)
Wednesday 13th DecemberManchester, MEN Arena
Tickets (Extra capacity available)
Thursday 14th DecemberNewcastle, Telewest Arena
Tickets (Extra capacity available)
Saturday 16th DecemberBirmingham, NEC **SOLD OUT**
Sunday 17th DecemberBournemouth, BIC **SOLD OUT**
Tuesday 19th DecemberBrighton, Brighton Centre **SOLD OUT**
Wed 20thLondon, Wembley Arena
Tickets
Read more:Nutty
Come On Eileen! 2006-12-06 22:57:00 I felt absolutely shattered today. Really, really tired. A major sleep is required to catch up on all my early mornings stints.
Got the
Hunting Jack
synopsis down from eighteen pages to seven. It needs to be about four or five for the submission and as it gets tighter, the harder it gets. I'm still not sure if I'll submit it. I need to do some more research I think. I need more information not so much about the publisher I'm going to submit to, but about the whole e-book versus trad-book thing. "Go with my gut," said Devon in yesterday's post, but my gut feeling is clouded. It's weird.
Did some more work on
Slick
, adding in a couple of new scenes and researching another. I finally realised why the ending is so crap. It's because it's NOT the ending and another chapter is required to finish it off. Once I realised it was an, "of course it is!" moment. It all suddenly made sense, and so I'll start work on that tomorrow.
The plans are almost finalised for this years Madness UK Read more:Eileen
Gests Only, No Celebrities 2006-12-05 22:28:00 The gale force winds have died down at last. Could hardly sleep last night for the noise and as for my poor wee bunnies, well, they must be scared shitless out in it. You'd never know mind you judging by their average output of daily poop.
Took a new, quicker route to work just to break things up a bit seeing since I slept in by an hour (yes - 6.30am is a wasted morning these days).
Can anyone tell me what is important about this man?
Why should he be making a "special stage appearance" at last night's Royal Variety Performance? Two weeks ago his reputation in the UK was as the freak who married Mannelli. Now, because he spent two weeks scratching his bollocks in the jungle for a reality TV programme, he's suddenly everyone's favourite person and that qualifies him to be making special appearances for The Prince of Wales! Am I the only one who doesn't get this shit? Or am I the only one that sees reality TV for what it is - patronising, dumbed down, unimaginative television.
B Read more:Celebrities
Eating Italian 2006-12-04 21:54:00 I was about to get a nice and early night last when I discovered a programme on one of the cable channels just starting. The History of Punk just couldn't be avoided and I ended up watching it to the end, some ninety minutes later. As a result, I only got five hours sleep and woke up today requiring a fair amount of coffee in me before I could get my eyes open without the use of matchsticks.
Two hours after getting up I reached the end of
Slick
. The final chapter starts well, but ends crap. I need a better finale so I decided to leave it alone and come back to it. I also decided to go back to the start and go through each chapter (of which there are forty) and update my chapter tracker. I've found this is a good way of highlighting all the main links and making sure the important details are correctly written. It's just a once over really, but the notes I took I'll work on this week. So I'm not shouting that I have completed the first version of the manuscript. Not quite yet. On Read more:Italian
Progression 2006-12-03 21:14:00 Opened our calendar's and had bacon sandwiches for breakfast this morning while watching Spongebob Squarepants and our weekly dose of Narnia. I know, I'm such a big kid. But Christmas means I can go over the top just as much as the wee ones. Doesn't it?Did a bit of tidying up before my folks popped in for a wee visit. I got my Christmas present early from them since it is some I've been after for quite a while. A new 17-inch flat-screen monitor for my PC. It looks awesome in the room, makes my desk look much more tidy, allows me to have better arm and wrist posture while I write, and means I am not straining my eyes with the monitor being so close to me.Wrote another four pages of Slick after dinner. It turned out to be the penultimate chapter. One more to go that I shall complete tomorrow. I won't consider the first draft to be finished though as there are some sections that have to be added in, not so much as fillers, but that are needed for the story to be complete. So although Read more:Progression
Decisions, Decisions 2006-12-01 23:54:00 I went to bed with a problem last night, which I was hoping to resolve before falling asleep but it never happened. Lennox had just walked in to a house in Leith and found a body shortly after hearing a violent argument while out in the street. This person was shot through the chest and now appears to be pan bread (dead). The problem is, of the three people who were in the room arguing, two had a gun and so it could be any of them who copped it!
Ronnie Glover (protagonist), Lesley Fenwick (Ronnie's girlfriend - who had a gun), and John Fenwick (divorced husband of Lesley Fenwick who can't let go - also had a gun and was holding them hostage). There's a lot more to it than that, but if I told you it would ruin the whole story should you ever come to read it.
But the body has to be one of them. Killing any one of them would add a new dimension to the story, and any one of them would provide their own share of excitement and alter the end of the book in many ways. Do I kill my main cha Read more:Decisions
Nutty UK 2006-12-08 08:16:00 Madness at the Brixton Academy
Last Night's Review
(Edited from Jonathon Young at the
Madness Information Service
)
A Tornado struck NW10 in London Today. It's front page news here. And I cant help but think that it was Madness just warming up! A great mix of tunes; some familiar, some new, and some old favourites returning to the set.
Chrissy Boy was on top form and thanked the band for letting him return in a moment of genuine emotion that left Suggs waiting for the joke. The whole band seemed alive to have him back and it made the gig something special. He trashed the guitar on his back at one point and it reminded me of why he was missed, a bit of his wild rock improvisation for a few seconds in songs really adds something.
Some great new visual back drops too, including Thommo dancing in a pink tu-tu!
A few slips up but no one cared, and so much sounded so great. Grey day was dedicated to Dave Robinson who was in the house.
Set List
1. One Step Beyond2. Girl3. My Girl4. Read more:Nutty
Nutty UK - Brixton 2006-12-08 08:16:00 Madness at the Brixton
Academy
Last Night's Review
(Edited from Jonathon Young at the
Madness Information Service
)
A Tornado struck NW10 in London Today. It's front page news here. And I cant help but think that it was Madness just warming up! A great mix of tunes; some familiar, some new, and some old favourites returning to the set.
Chrissy Boy was on top form and thanked the band for letting him return in a moment of genuine emotion that left Suggs waiting for the joke. The whole band seemed alive to have him back and it made the gig something special. He trashed the guitar on his back at one point and it reminded me of why he was missed, a bit of his wild rock improvisation for a few seconds in songs really adds something.
Some great new visual back drops too, including Thommo dancing in a pink tu-tu!
A few slips up but no one cared, and so much sounded so great. Grey day was dedicated to Dave Robinson who was in the house.
Set List
1. One Step Beyond2. Girl3. My Girl4. Read more:Nutty
Habit 2006-12-08 08:19:00 A strange thing happened this morning. I bounced out of bed at 5am, got showered, dressed and made my coffee. I sat down and turned on the laptop at half past the hour and went immediately to my WIP folder. I double-clicked the Slick sub-folder and was about to open the manuscript when -"Hold on Chas!" I said to myself. "Don't you remember?"And I hadn't. It's not so much that I'd forgotten I had finished the first draft, it was just pure habit that I went through the routine and sat down to work on the manuscript, such as it has been a major part of my life these past five, heavy, consuming weeks.Strangely, but not unexpectedly, I stared into the void. The deep, dark chasm where novel WIP's don't exist, where no major life consuming pieces of work survive, and where no writer wishes to find themselves. There is nothing but emptiness and blacker than black dark.So! Onto other things, then. One of my GDR's for this month is to plan a new children's book. I really enjoyed doing Si Read more:Habit
A Tremble 2006-12-11 23:23:00 First day in our new office situated in the West End of Edinburgh. I was first to arrive. I flicked on the lights to an open plan chicken pen. With the lights on it makes it very bright and noisy - not how I like it at all - and it is impossible to concentrate.
The coffee machine is 10 years old and churns out tar, plus I now have to sit opposite the boss and one old guy who does nothing but moan about the work he has to do all day.
By 9.30am the men's loos smelt like a cow shed and sheets of sleet had begun to fall outside. In other words it was a thoroughly miserable start to the week.
Sheets of sleet and snow fell in between strong gusts of Arctic winds today, making it altogether very cold and unpleasant. My feet are suffering most, what with the shitty state my shoes are in.
Not to worry, for tomorrow the Nutty Boys return north to Glasgow. The excitment grows like a far off earthquake, and Scotland awaits!
I can't write any more. I'm too excited.
A Decision 2006-12-10 23:00:00 Early to rise again, which was probably a bad move given I was so bloody tired and was heading out in the evening. I ended up going back to bed during the afternoon to get some badly needed kip, then in the evening headed out with Gail and her pal to see the Bootleg Beatles at the Usher Hall.We had a quick drink in a pub on Lothian Road beforehand, then made our way into the seat-less venue. We went to see the Bootleg Beatles last year, but I didn't think they were as good this time round. I think it maybe had something to do with the repetitive banter on stage - all the same as last year - and the introduction of some really slow and unknown (to me) ballads to the set, in favour of some of the more popular songs.Still, it was a good night out and they are a fabulous cover band, looking and sounding just like the real article (from what I can tell not having been born till the 70's). The aficionados who were around for The Beatles have been going to see this Bootleg band for two deca
Mini Recovery 2006-12-13 21:41:00 It was 1am before we got home last night after a long and tiring day. Thus, this morning, I was shattered. I went in to work later than normal and staggered bleary eyed through the day. I got home early'ish too and got my gear ready for tomorrow.
And that's it. Newcastle awaits my arrival. Madness are in Manchester tonight, and tomorrow the North East will see the arrival of the Nutty Tour.
Sorry for the short post. I have not the energy. I am keeping it all for tomorrow. :-) Read more:Recovery
2007 Is Here 2007-01-05 14:34:00 Hello, good day and welcome.I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and that the 2007 will bring you and your family good luck, laughter and fun.I had big plans for my first post since the Christmas and New Year holidays, but alas, I left my notes elsewhere and so had to re-write all this from scratch. In these well prepared notes I had my summary of my December GDR, my 2006 GDR Review and of course, my 2007 GDR Plans. I'll post all of these later tonight under separate headings.My holidays were heavy going in the respect that I was busy, but content in my activity, hence why I never posted. There was nothing sinister going on, I just wanted to make it the best Christmas me and my family have had.The lead up to Christmas Eve was exciting as we enjoyed a house full of Chrimbo cheer, watched films, ate well and went out for walks in the nearby woods (walkway) and the Links. Christmas Day was spent as usual over at the in-laws. This year it proved to be quite roudy and entertaining, so
December GDR Review 2007-01-05 20:14:00
Fiction
* Finish writing Slick (est. 20k) - complete.* Finish edits for Wide Awake - ditched. Cant get it to work. Will come back to it later.* Write some new fiction - nothing done.* Get back on top of submissions list - done.* Follow up on three outstanding Stella submissions - done - 3 outstanding* Follow up on four outstanding Hunting Jack submissions - all in. Nothing more on this just now* Find a new market for Hunting Jack - considered an e-publisher. Major decision whether to go ahead with submission. Eventually decided NOT to e-submit. Will wait however long it takes.
Poetry
* Publish Poolside Poetry - still to finalise book cover and font - down to 12 fonts and 6 covers. Not going to happen in December
. Looking at possible Feb 07 release.* Write more poetry - develop idea for children's book for next year - ideas/planning WIP (to include fiction also)
Non-Fiction
* Complete work on Scotland's Treasure for January column - Done - Blockheads gig review. Christmas/NY in E
2006 GDR Round-Up 2007-01-06 21:36:00
WRITING GDR's FOR 2006
What project(s) did I leave unfinished last year that I need to finish for my own peace of mind?
A Friend To Die For - 40% complete -Started doing catch-up in June but got caught in other things. Slick for NaNoWriMo took over totally in November - 70k in one month.Stella - Completed in May. Sent out on submission after several re-writes and beta reading. The band, Yello, declined to be involed. Several publishers still waiting.Working with Websites - 65% complete - No work done to date. Found it hard to get motivated enough with this and too much other work I considered priority. Technical writing isn't creative - it's technical and requitres a different frame of mind.
What creative goals do I want to achieve over the next year?
* Complete Stella and A Friend to Die For - Stella completed in May. A Friend to Die For scheduled for June but never got touched.* Complete drafting and development of Hunting Jack - Complete. Used it to get back on the rail
Jinx Boy 2007-01-07 13:19:00 Some stuff I meant to mention in Friday's post.I only just noticed that Anne Wicking & Loman Austen left a message on the Dec 16th post about the length of time it took to publish my first book. Assuming you mean Fringe Fantastic (as it was my first in paperback), it took about a month to write the first draft, a further two months of redrafting, during which time I was doing cover shoots, learning about design and layout and managing the publication process more or less myself (with a little help from some good friends), it took about 4 months to complete. A third of a year.My latest book has taken much longer despite me being supposedly more experienced and knowledgeable. This took a month to do the first draft, which was completed in mid-August. I'm STILL re-drafting this one and am STILL working on the cover and font designs though. I reckon it will be February before this one hits the shelves, so that would be a total time taken to about seven (7) months to complete.I suppose it
Resurrection 2007-01-09 14:03:00 I published the first of this year's columns in The Scruffy Dog Review Blog today. Pop over and have a read. I'm going to use this resurrected column for Scottish Literary news and comment.I did the school run this morning so I was on time for once. I've been struggling to get up early, mainly I think because I've been working on my GDR's and not had enough on my mind fictionally. I need a novel to work on, which is handy, because an idea has been brewing these past few days in my mind.It's funny how this one has formed. It started with the location, then a plot idea formed, and then a character. It needs to be plotted more seriously, but I'm not ready for that yet. The idea has still to take full hold in my head first so it can mature and drum up passion in my heart. It's not ready to be outed.I worked on the synopsis and wrote down more serious ideas for my kids book. I'm going to take this idea much further than the e-book of last year. Which reminds me, in the spring I am Read more:Resurrection
2007 GDR Plan 2007-01-08 14:41:00 It's the first day back for most people, so we are supposedly "back to normal" in here. I feel dreadful about the entire thing. In my career with The Company, so far spanning over 8 years, there has been highs and lows. The general trend however, has seen morale and satisfaction slowly drop to where it is now - gutter level. I don't think I have ever felt so disillusioned, low in morale and depressed about working here.Everything from the type of office we have to work in, the work we are being handed down, the state of the coffee machine, the location of the building, the management - everything - is ---- I can't seem to find a word suitable enough. Perhaps these words when put together will suffice: awful, abominable, alarming, appalling, atrocious, bad, deplorable, depressing, dire, disgusting, distressing, dreadful, fearful, frightful, ghastly, grody, gross, gruesome, grungy, harrowing, hideous, horrendous, horrible, horrific, horrifying, nasty, offensive, raunchy, repulsive, sh
Jinx Boy 2007-01-07 13:19:00 Some stuff I meant to mention in Friday's post.I only just noticed that Anne Wicking & Loman Austen left a message on the Dec 16th post about the length of time it took to publish my first book. Assuming you mean Fringe Fantastic (as it was my first in paperback), it took about a month to write the first draft, a further two months of redrafting, during which time I was doing cover shoots, learning about design and layout and managing the publication process more or less myself (with a little help from some good friends), it took about 4 months to complete. A third of a year.My latest book has taken much longer despite me being supposedly more experienced and knowledgeable. This took a month to do the first draft, which was completed in mid-August. I'm STILL re-drafting this one and am STILL working on the cover and font designs though. I reckon it will be February before this one hits the shelves, so that would be a total time taken to about seven (7) months to complete.I suppose it
National Disgrace 2007-01-11 14:18:00 15 YEAR OLD FOUND SELLING SEX IN LEITH
(Headline from today's Evening News)
As the Dad of a nine-year old this sends shivers up my spine. Because not only does it raise questions about the debate of whether prostitution should be legalised and the part drugs and homelessness has to play in all this, but it also begs the question of whether these men are aware they are now child abusers as well as sex abusers.
In my opinion, legalising the industry can only help. It won't get rid of the problem but at least it might mean it can be controlled, and girls as young as this won't be put in any danger. She's lucky to be alive and probably doesn't even know it.
It's even more horrible to think that the place where this girl was found is about two minutes from my house. The "red light" district was moved a few years ago from the traditional Coburg Street, where police turned a blind eye to prostitution. The local residents forced city authorities to designate a new zone in Salamande Read more:National
Entrepreneurialism 2007-01-12 17:26:00 I've signed up for this:
Inkthinker Query Challenge
, run by author, Kristen King. Here's the blurb (taken from Kristen's site):
12 months + 120 queries = Imminent publishing success.
The plan is for all of us to get out a minimum of 120 queries by the end of 2007. This breaks down to 2-3 queries a week, so don't panic. For the purposes of the challenge, a query is any written document, electronic or hard copy, that you submit to a publisher, editor, or agent to pitch an idea for a writing assignment. Fiction or non-fiction, book or article, it doesn't matter. If you want to query for unpaid assignments, that's fine -- it's up to you. As long as you're querying, I don't care.
I'm going to use this as a driver for my freelance business.
I spent most of my writing day putting together the website for my Freelance business. I used a template but as ever, my own ideas fell into it and it involved a bit of HTML jiggery-pokery. I want to get a new author picture for it and I n
Rock 'n' Roll 2007-01-13 18:48:00 For the first time in almost a week, the torrential rain ceased and the gale force winds died down. The sky was clear and things seemed to be returning to normal weather-wise. This made the dropping of the wean at her dance school all the more easier, in fact we walked all the way there for a change instead of getting the bus.
I popped into WH Smith in Waverly Station to see if there had any copies of
A Pocketful of Fun
, but I couldn't see any. It was mostly novels, crossword and sudoko puzzle books they had stocked for all the commuters. Damn. I'm still waiting for my copy. I checked the contract and it could be another couple of weeks until it arrives on my doorstep. I'm dying to see what the cover is like!
Waterstones next where I cheekily looked into the kids section - just in case - but no. I did though, spend a voucher I had been given a few months ago on something directly related to my GDR's for this year. I bought two books on learning to play the guitar. I can't affor
Lazy Day 2007-01-14 08:51:00 Bit of a lazy day today. Slept till lunchtime though this was one of those occasions where I would rather not have. The house was kept quiet so I could kip - are the rest trying to tell me something?
After brunch I finished off the rabbit hutch, clipping their nails and giving them a quick groom, then I got the guitar out. Amazingly I remembered the A, E and D chords easily and was able to switch a bit quicker than yesterday. I started work on chords C and G, which is a good wee range. That's me finished working through the first book (I did say it was a small one), but these chords are enough to be going on for now.
I intend to do a little each day, even if just for 10 or 15 minutes. Hopefully I can build up enough calluses on my fingers and wrist memory that the repetitive strain will go away. It's a bit like typing for long periods in that you get small focussed strains.
I discovered also, that as well as the exercises in the book, the chords I am learning are also ample for playi
Working Down The List 2007-01-15 09:27:00 Yay! I managed an early start, albeit not quite managing to bounce out of bed like I was doing in November. I got up at 05:45 and was ready to write for 06:30. Nice.
On the way to the bus stop I noticed that all traces of the rain that has been flooding that country of late had been blown dry by the fierce wind. I much prefer rain to wind, it's more soothing. Rain is soft and calming, it sounds nice and provokes a calm feeling in me. Wind is violent, a bully that never gives up and it gets me angry when I can't walk straight for it battering into me.
The first thing I did was make a list of thing that I will do TODAY. I'm finding that more and more, working from my monthly GDR allows me to put things off, and so this way, I know what has to be done before nightfall. Well, since that is at about 4pm at the moment, let's change that till late evening.
And it worked too as I got through a shit load of work:
* I worked through all my outstanding email - been meaning to do this for a we
Recommend Site To A Friend
