This is a rather brief post just to see how useful and aesthetically pleasing WordPress’s "post by email" feature is. Potentially simpler for phone-based updates.
How do I look?
Blogging.
All posts tagged Blogging.
They do say that the road to hell (which I don’t believe in, of course) is paved with good intentions, and if that were the case then I would certainly be well on my way to having my eyes pricked with knitting needles by Satan for all eternity.
My novel is dominating, at the moment, and no matter how often I promise myself I’ll make a conscious effort at getting back into a regular blogging routine, I just don’t seem to have enough words and energy left over — most days, at least. I strongly suspect that this will not last, however. It’s a fairly huge project (my early estimates suggest somewhere between 150,000 words and 200,000) and it’s extremely important, as I’m sure you can imagine, to get the early chapters well and truly nailed down so that I can be completely sure of whether the novel is going to go the way I want it to. Once this stage is out the way, though, I’ll probably settle back into a more balanced routine.
In the meantime, however, I’m lining up a few guest bloggers to help keep Gary William Murning Online active and entertaining. If you’re interested in contributing something, please feel free to drop me a line — but bear in mind the themes of my website. If you’re a Christian blogger, for example, it’s pretty unlikely that I’ll use anything that relates to your Christianity. That doesn’t mean that I won’t be interested in anything else you may be prepared to offer. All I want is to keep it relevant to my particular interests/obsessions.
And, of course, I will still be contributing myself. I have a lot planned for this site and mine will never be just an editorial presence. Apart from anything else, I’m too opinionated for that 
Finally, I think it’s fairly likely that I will be posting samples of As Morning Shows the Day some time during the next few weeks. So remember to keep checking back (add me to your feedreader, if you haven’t already, or follow me on Twitter or by email, AOL etc, so as not to miss the announcement.)
I’m having a little trouble producing interesting posts at the moment — caught up in my work (which I am thoroughly enjoying) — and I don’t want to write about just any old thing that springs to mind. So, for the time being, I may only be writing a blog post three or four times a week, rather than every day. The beginning of a project is always one of the most demanding stages, so this will pass pretty soon, I’m sure.
In the meantime, if you’re missing your daily fix of Gary William Murning Online, I post regularly on Twitter (see the sidebar to the right of this.) It’s not always insightful stuff but it will at least keep you up to speed on what I’m doing.
If this page is quiet for a few days, however, please keep dropping back. It will only be a temporary break.
You may have noticed that I’ve been especially quiet of late — even allowing for the holiday period. There are a couple of reasons for this, one — the obvious one — being that I haven’t exactly been in the mood for blogging, my satirical faculties a little desensitised by the sheer banality of Christmas!
The second reason, however, is that I have — as this post may have foretold — been somewhat busy.
Gripped by a renewed sense of purpose, unexpectedly comfortable with my abandonment of Tomorrow Will Come, I have found and pursued a new direction… a new literary direction that is actually an old direction rethought. I have finally settled on what I think (hope!) is the right novel.
There have been so many false starts over the past six months or so, but this feels much more comfortable. So comfortable, in fact, that I’ve managed outline fourteen chapters in about a week or so. At this rate, the whole novels should be outlined within a fortnight (I’m not over-outlining, but nor am I prepared to fly by the seat of my pants as I attempted with Tomorrow Will Come… I’ve found a middle ground that feels about right for what I need.)
At this stage I really don’t want to tempt fate by sharing anything more about it, other than to say that it’s called As Morning Shows the Day. At the same time, however, I’m excited about returning to the kind of writing I know I’m best at… so the temptation to rabbit on about it is pretty strong.
But I won’t… I won’t, I won’t, I won’t.
Or maybe I will. Just not yet.
As I mentioned the other day, I’ve been spending a fair bit of time over at the Authonomy website. For those of you who don’t already know, this is a writers’ social network site set up by HarperCollins. Effectively a peer-review, critiquing site it has the added attraction of making one’s work available to the editors of HarperCollins’s various imprints. As well as considering the top ranked work, they also use the tagging system etc to find titles lower down the ranking that might fit on their lists. Just how successful this will be, I can’t yet say, but if you don’t try you’ll never know, right?
So far, I’ve only uploaded the complete manuscript of Children of the Resolution to the site (saving my other work for a later date) but the first couple of comments I’ve had have been… well, to be honest (and utterly immodest), as good as I would have expected. The feedback I’ve had elsewhere, and my own gut instinct, suggests it’s a pretty good read — but it’s always good to have confirmation of that, especially on a website where it might be “seen”.
Another attractive feature to the website is the Authonomy blog which features, amongst other things, blogs by editors at HarperCollins. Whilst reading through this blog, I came across this article entitled What We Want — written by “Rob”, an editor on “HarperFiction’s hugely successful mass market list”.
I don’t know how many times I’ve said to myself and those close to me, upon receiving the latest rejection, “What the fuck do these people want?” Over the years I’ve written in just about every genre imaginable. Horror. Crime. Family saga. Literary. Fantasy. The list goes on. I start, and by the time I’m finished, it promptly goes out of fashion! (That’s a slight exaggeration, but you know what I mean.) Trying to second-guess the market is, by and large, impossible. So this piece struck me as actually rather useful.
This comment in particular made me feel a whole lot better, given some of the blog posts I’ve written recently:
“‘Celebrity’ literature is losing sales and perhaps people are looking for something with more depth, some real meaning now that the spendthrift culture of before looks increasingly foolish. Novels of inspiration, of triumph, novels that celebrate and examine life.”
This really does lift a writer’s spirits. The knowledge that there are editors out there who are looking for the new Martin Amis or Irvine Welsh, rather than the next Katie Price or Jade Goody, makes writing that little bit easier. It also helps that publishers are finally taking a rather more proactive approach to finding new talent. Whether it works or not, time will tell.
But at least they’re trying. Hats off to them for that.
As I’ve just been explaining to a friend, “things” are starting to get away from me a little. Tomorrow Will Come and It Will Be Just Like Today is drawing me in and I’m finding it difficult to concentrate for too long on other matters. Consequently, I’m behind on emails, blog-reading and the more sociable aspects of this Worldwide InterWebNet-thing we all love and, to a degree, depend upon.
I’m also concerned that my blog posts of late might not have been quite up to my usual (admittedly quite pitiful!) standard. I like to post something every day. It’s demanding, especially on top of working on the novel, but I have received so much support, appreciation and encouragement through Gary William Murning Online that I at least want to try to continue delivering the things people seem to enjoy.
I’d therefore like to apologise for not being quite as on the ball in these areas as I usually am and also offer you the chance to suggest topics you might like me to cover over the coming weeks. I can’t promise to do them all, but I’ll certainly give it my best shot. (Think of it as an early Christmas present… the socks that you’re elderly aunt gives you, perhaps )
Fire away!
As the keener-eyed amongst you may have already spotted, I’ve been “fiddling” with the look of my blog. Nothing huge and earthshattering, but a few relatively minor alterations that I’ve been meaning to do for some time, now (for “some time” see “bloody ages”.) I’m not sure if it’s quite finished, yet, but I think toning down all that black has in itself been rather successful. It lifts the body of the blog (you know, the important bit) a little, I think — projects it at the reader. Especially when the page is scrolled and the background remains static.
What do you think? A hit or a miss?
In other news, I haven’t really done all that much this weekend. I got the outline moving again yesterday — back in the swing of it — but decided to take today off. I figured I’d recharge ready for the hopefully highly productive week ahead.
Finally, I’d like to finish with something that both amused and saddened me. Firstly, it amused me because the whole bizarre idea of monks kicking the… of monks resorting to fisticuffs is one that appeals to the well-nourished atheistic adolescent in me. It also typifies the religious sensibility perfectly, however, and so gradually the smile faded somewhat and I found myself shaking my head. If this is the way the divisiveness of religion makes them behave, so be it. They make their choices like everyone else. The only issue I have with this is that we have to live in the same world as zealous idiots such as these.
Seconds out, round one…
After something of a trial period I’m finding genuine benefits in using Twitter and Facebook. Twitter allows me to share bite-sized pieces of information with friends/readers, let them know when I have a new blog post and generally keep up to speed quite efficiently with the things and people that interest me. Facebook (with which I use an application that allows my Twitter feed to be automatically integrated into my status update there) provides another angle on this — a valuable networking tool.
I’m also on MySpace — and have been for quite a while — but, whilst I still notify friends over there of my blog posts, I do not intend to build my presence there any further. If anything, I would like to encourage the few who still follow me from there to create a Twitter or Facebook account (or receive my blog posts via email, aol etc) and let it wind down. I will keep posting updates there as long as there is a continuing interest, however, if my MySpace friends don’t want to use these options.
For those who are interested and want to ensure that they keep abreast (steady!) of all things Gary William Murning, the appropriate details follow:
Another option, of course, is to add me to your feedreader.
If you prefer some other method that I haven’t thought of (anyone who even considers saying carrier pigeon can leave the room right this minute!), feel free to shout up.
Whilst Gary William Murning Online is very much my place on the internet, I’m always concerned that I provide interesting, varied content — and that, in short, my readers new and old on the whole enjoy what I’m trying to do here. I don’t expect everyone to like everything I do all the time, and general impressions on top of the usual comments are always welcome.
With this in mind, I’ve added a poll in the right-hand sidebar to speed up the process. When you have a sec, make your selection
As Teena in Toronto has kindly reminded me, today is my blog’s first anniversary — its “blogoversary”.
One year ago today I started the WordPress incarnation of Gary William Murning Online with this post and I haven’t really looked back. I liked the feel of WordPress and its flexibility from day one, and unlike the other platforms I’ve used (MySpace and LiveJournal) I can foresee no reason why I will ever up sticks and relocate.
It’s been an interesting year in the blogosphere for me. I’ve met some incredible people — fellow bloggers, new readers, one or two crackpots (I don’t attract anywhere near as many as you might expect!) and even one of Elvis’s old buddies, Marty Lacker (which I still get something of a kick out of) — and gradually developed my blogging “voice”. Given that I’ve blogged just about every day, I’ve made surprisingly few mistakes and have, on the whole, got by without making a complete dick of myself. People seem to like what I do and so I try to keep doing it.
But, of course, it wouldn’t mean a damn thing if people like you didn’t drop by and, on occasion, comment. Sometimes, I’m sure, my posts can seem rather acerbic and satirical — and I possibly come across as being a little intimidating and inflexible. But I’m not, as some of those who have contacted me would probably agree. I’m even quite patient with crackpots… for a while, at least! So never be afraid to comment, even if you don’t agree with me. Healthy debate is always welcome. It’s that that makes this worthwhile.
That and the megabucks some sucker publisher might offer me off the back of it one day!
Finally, I’d like to leave you with a reply to a question I was asked in an interview that I, along with many other bloggers, did for the Pakistani Spectator. I was asked what role bloggers can play in making our world friendlier and less hostile. To which I replied:
“Oh, this is where I believe the real strength of blogging lies! It is true that there are and always will be argumentative people out there in the blogosphere, people who just want to cause trouble. But on the whole, I find that serious bloggers — consciously or otherwise — make a huge contribution to breaking down barriers of nationality, political ethos, religious belief and so on. Great things can come of this if we only remember to treat each other with respect.”
A little “Miss World”, I know — but blogging is a powerful tool. With such freedoms, however, come responsibility. From an initial respect for the individual’s right to express their views (which isn’t the same as having a respect for the views themselves — it’s perfectly acceptable not to respect another person’s view) some of us, at least, can learn things we never otherwise would have.
And if that doesn’t make blogging valuable I really don’t know what does.
