What Can I Do for You Wednesday?

As part of my continuing week of If I Never anniversary celebrations, and in an attempt to repay at least a little of the help and encouragement I’ve received from everyone over the past year, I am declaring today What Can I Do for You Wednesday? (#WhatCanIDoForYouWednesday) As the title suggests, this is a day dedicated to your projects. Post a link to something you want promoting – within reason, naturally! – in the comments section of this post, or send it to me through Twitter, and I will promote it across my various social networks.

Two sample chapters of If I Never can be read here.

To buy your copy of If I Never, please click here.

Also, UK Kindle users can now buy If I Never here. (US Kindle users here.)

© 2010 Gary William Murning

One Year of If I Never – Elaine Pettigrew’s Guest Blog.

Today I’d like to introduce you to Elaine Pettigrew. Elaine has now become one of my faithful Twitter posse – helping me spread the word and generally being a good mate. Elaine is from Scotland, is eligible and likes to take short breaks to exotic places. She is currently visiting Leeds.

Over to you, Elaine…

It must have been about February last year when I heard of this new all singing, all dancing social networking site called Twitter. Of course I signed up immediately, being the inquisitive (some might say, nosy) type. Fairly soon after that I made the acquaintance of one Mr Gary William Murning. I honestly can’t remember how it came about, but I’d hazard a guess that I saw an RT [retweet] pop up in my time line! But enough about that, and let’s get down to why I’m writing this blog.

A year ago, Gary’s debut novel, If I Never, hit the shelves and the airwaves, and as I’ve always enjoyed a good read and as the hubbub surrounding the launch kicked into full gear, I was looking forward to the delivery of said book.

Then it arrived, and the doubts kicked in.

What if it was awful? What if it was boring? What if the pre-publication excerpts were the best bits… Suffice to say there were quite a few ‘what ifs’ in my head. I cannot continue reading a book if I’m not totally gripped by the first few pages, and I’m not good at BSing to hide my true feelings, so I hope you can understand my feelings of trepidation. Thankfully, though I need not have worried one little bit, because as soon as I delved in I was immediately captured and drawn into the story of Price and George , and I found I really cared about the characters (yes, all the characters) and what happened to them.

In the unlikely event that there is one person who has not yet read If I Never, I don’t want to write about the ins and outs of the story; that journey is best made in your own head, and apart from that that there are other more qualified people to do so.

I’d also like to thank Gary for sharing the whole process with us. Of course I know that books just don’t appear on the shelves fully formed in their shiny new jackets, but seeing it from the author’s point of view has been fascinating, and being involved in even the teensiest way by sending the odd RT every now and again has been a pleasure and a privilege, and I look forward to doing it all again for the next one!

I also want to on the VIP guest list for the movie premier of If I Never…

Two sample chapters of If I Never can be read here.

To buy your copy of If I Never, please click here.

Also, UK Kindle users can now buy If I Never here. (US Kindle users here.)

© 2010 Gary William Murning

One Year of If I Never – A Few Thoughts from Gary Davison.

Not long after If I Never was published, I was lucky enough to “meet” fellow Legend Press/Paperbooks author, Gary Davison (that’s him on the right). Gary writes fast paced, fairly short humorous novels that are perfect for killing a few hours. They don’t demand too much of the reader but, nevertheless, have a certain character-depth that I like. Also, he’s a decent bloke and a shameless self-promoter – so, naturally, we got on like a house on fire.

I recently asked Gary for a few of his memories of If I Never and, after asking me to remind him who I was, this is what he said:

Let me add a few memories of my ‘If I Never’ experience.

George. He comes straight out of trap one. A character that stayed with me for days after. If I remember rightly, he was a bit of a git, but made compulsive reading. More so than Price, because you weren’t sure what nasty thing he might do next.

And style. My mate Gazza Murning is a literary writer. But he doesn’t shy away from a sprinkling of filth now and again. Maybe not filth [GWM: no, filth about covers it… so to speak!], but he gets down and dirty when he needs to which adds that extra dimension to his novel.

Great memories, great book. Has a year really passed since I read this? Christ, it is a-flying, sir!

My only question: does this milestone mean another GWM novel is close to coming out?

In reply to that final question… all I can say at this stage is “watch this space”.

So, a big thanks to the gentleman I habitually refer to as “the other Gary” for dropping by. Don’t forget to visit his website and see what he really looks like.

Two sample chapters of If I Never can be read here.

To buy your copy of If I Never, please click here.

Also, UK Kindle users can now buy If I Never here. (US Kindle users here.)

© 2010 Gary William Murning

One Year Ago Today.

This time last year I was, as I am now, sitting before my computer – chatting with friends and potential readers on Twitter – watching my newly published debut novel, If I Never, sellout on Amazon.co.uk and The Book Depository. At one stage The Book Depository actually appeared to collapse under the pressure, the site down for a considerable time. (This probably had nothing to do with me; nevertheless, I claimed responsibility, naturally!)

Since then, it’s been an exciting and illuminating year – something I’ll probably write more about over the coming days. As mentioned in my previous post, however, this week is intended as a mini-celebration. A few people have provided guest posts about their “If I Never experience” and I plan on revisiting some of the highlights.

To get things rolling, though, I’d like to hand you over to Tom Chalmers – my publisher (I still get a huge kick out of saying that.) Tom kindly agreed to say a little about If I Never and how Legend Press came to publish it.

It was Emma Howard at Legend Press that first alerted me to Gary’s work, encouraging me to read his novel. Then, much to my shame, time rushed on without a chance to do so. On finally seeing the manuscript in front of me and picking it up, I could immediately see what Emma had found – a fast-paced, stylish and well-written story, and, maybe most importantly, attempting something different, looking for a new and original angle at a story.

And that book was IF I NEVER, which we were delighted to publish a year ago. It has been a fantastic year and great to see the support the book has received, and the fanbase Gary has built. We are delighted to have Gary as a Legend Press author and hope he finds the success he deserves as a writer.

Thanks for the opportunity, Tom! It has been and continues to be a pleasure and privilege working with you and the rest of the Legend Press team. 

Two sample chapters of If I Never can be read here.

To buy your copy of If I Never, please click here.

Also, UK Kindle users can now buy If I Never here. (US Kindle users here.)

© 2010 Gary William Murning

One Year of If I Never.

On the 29th of this month I’ll be celebrating the one-year anniversary of the publication of my debut novel, If I Never – maybe not a huge event in the lives of most out there, but something I feel the need to mark in some way.

Consequently, I’m planning on hopefully getting a few people together over the space of about a week or so to write short guest blogs on their experiences of the novel. These don’t have to be great literary masterpieces (though, naturally, it would be great if they were!), can be either long or short, can include photographs or YouTube videos – whatever you feel most comfortable with.

So, if you’re interested in perhaps contributing something, please let me know – either here, through Twitter or Facebook.

From my perspective, it’s certainly been a fascinating year. I’ve learned a great deal about the marketing/promotional side of writing, been lucky enough to meet and work with some fantastic people (the Legend Press team among them), ended up in hospital, got out (blessedly!) and recuperated quickly enough to get on and finish my then work in progress, had a great many laughs – oh, and even managed to sell a few books along the way!

Perhaps the most surprising element of the whole experience, however, has been the reader reaction. I’m a realist. I completely understand that not everyone is going to get or enjoy what I do. I therefore expected a number of negative comments – especially given the rather uncompromising nature of If I Never. The response, however, has been overwhelmingly positive. The Amazon reviews alone are more than I ever could have hoped for.

So, yes, it’s been an exceptional year – with hopefully many more to come! If you’ve played some part in that, either by buying the book, chatting online or visiting this website, thanks! I, as ever, truly appreciate it.

And don’t forget: if you can bring a friend of four along to the “celebration” – introduce them to the book in some way – please do!

Two sample chapters of If I Never can be read here.

To buy your copy of If I Never, please click here.

Also, UK Kindle users can now buy If I Never here. (US Kindle users here.)

© 2010 Gary William Murning

Twitter Book Launch.

Only 77 days until the publication of If I Never and I am, naturally, starting to get rather excited. Pre-orders seem to be going fairly well, the final edits should hopefully be complete this week and (fingers crossed) I should have some cover art to show you within the next week or two.

I’m also starting to plan the launch — or one aspect of it, at least, since my publisher may have something additional in mind.

Given the number of friends I have online, some situated as far afield as Australia, others quite literally just down the road, it occurred to me that it would be a shame not to include them — to include you — in “the big event”. I’m therefore planning, if I get enough interest, an Internet launch. The event will largely be held on Twitter but will inevitably spill over on to Facebook and, hopefully, my website. The launch date will be 29th of August and all will be welcome… especially if you have/are planning on buying the book 🙂 As far as I know, it will be the first Twitter book launch — so it will be quite a historic event, for me, if no one else!

If you are interested in attending/will be attending, RSVP here so I can easily judge how much interest there is. If you have any additional ideas that might make it go with even more of a swing, please shout up.

© 2009 Gary Murning

A World Outside the Novel.

Sometimes it’s hard to remember that there are other things I need to do as well as working on As Morning Shows the Day — like post here, for example, or, generally, look up from my computer screen every once in a while and notice the world outside my window, the world outside the novel.

Such symptoms are always a good sign, of course. I’m 12,000 words in and everything is pretty much as last reported. Having everything outlined in such detail, I’m not constantly worrying about how to fit it all together, what I need to do next etc. All I have to concentrate on is keeping it going the way it is now. And I think I can manage that.

Today, however, I’m taking some time off. With a long project it’s always wise to pace one’s self. As I’m fond of saying, a novel is a marathon not a sprint.

On an unrelated note, can I just remind everyone that whilst I may not be posting as often here as I usually do, I do post regularly on Twitter. (I’ve just checked my stats and, apparently, I update Twitter on average thirty-four times a day… not in the least bit addicted, then!) It is proving a really handy way of keeping in touch in short, economic bursts. Not simply time wasting fun, though it can be that, too, but a very useful tool. Not a replacement to my blog, of course, merely another way of interacting.

Until next time, keep looking up from the screen!

© 2009 Gary William Murning

To Tweet or Not to Tweet…

Even people I know who’ve never so much as glanced at a computer are suddenly talking about the not-so-new new “fad” (that is actually anything but a “fad”) known as Twitter. It seems that you can’t turn on the television or open a newspaper without stumbling across celebrities or panels of experts expounding on the merits and, more often, the utter nefariousness of this new obsession.

So what is Twitter? (Just in case you’ve been in a coma for the past few weeks.) Well, Twitter is a micro-blogging service — a condensed version of what I’m doing here. Think of it as soundbite broadcasting for and by the people, if you’re feeling grand (and why not?), a way of sharing, in no more than 140 characters, a thought, a witticism, a mental fart. The principal question that drives Twitter is “what are you doing?”, and some people take the answering of that quite literally. Jonathan Ross announcing that he is just going for “a poo” a pretty good example.

Childish and banal, yes? Well, actually, no.

I’ve been using Twitter for a while now — BSF, in fact (that is, Before Stephen Fry helped to popularise it by announcing on television that he’s a Twitter user.) Initially, it was something of a slow burn. It seemed little more than a lot of noise, mostly pointless (at least to me.) And then I started to follow more people, people with similar and diverging interests — my own following growing daily — and the real value started to become more apparent. I found after a short while that one minute I might be using it to talk about Wittgenstein, the next sharing my progress on the outline I was working on or simply enjoying a #Twittercuppa with a few Twitter friends. It became useful very quickly, “useful” defined in a number of ways.

So I was amused (and, yes, it’s such a ridiculous generalisation that I really can’t take it seriously) to read this morning in the Times Online clinical psychologist Oliver James stating that: “Twittering stems from a lack of identity. It’s a constant update of who you are, what you are, where you are. Nobody would Twitter if they had a strong sense of identity.”

Where do they get these people? The very idea that (all) people using Twitter do not have a strong sense of identity is simply quite absurd. Anyone who’s read my blog for any length of time will probably agree that I know exactly who I am. I do not need to define myself by constantly seeking feedback or approval. But even if I did — what about Barack Obama? As someone who used Twitter to get himself into the White House, does he lack identity? Is he perhaps a mass of insecurities in constant need of reassurance, confirmation, perhaps, that, yes, he is still President and worthy of the position? I think not. I think he is, quite simply, a man using a new medium in a way that suits and benefits him.

Celebrities might bicker and bitch on Twitter. Teenagers no doubt use it to flirt in text speak. I’m sure some tragic individual will at some point (if they haven’t already) announce their impending suicide in no more than 140 characters. Like all new technologies — from telephones to Internet chat rooms — Twitter is as diverse as the world we live in and reflects just about every aspect of life imaginable, from the mundane to the quite simply astounding. As another tool, I find it invaluable. One brief message from my phone, no matter where I am, is immediately on Twitter, my website — see the sidebar to your right — and my Facebook page (with the help of some neat applications and widgets.) Friends and those who are interested in my writing always know what I’m up to (within reason… I’ll leave the poo announcements to Jonathan Ross!) and it isn’t a chore. Quick, efficient and vibrant.

And Oliver James will never know. Too wrapped up in his own superficial analyses he’ll simply never take the time to try it.

But I doubt he could ever answer the question “what are you doing?” in 140 characters, anyway, or, at least, not without answering the question with a question.

© 2009 Gary William Murning

Twitter and Facebook.

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:

Twitter.

Facebook.

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.

© 2008 Gary William Murning

Twitter.

For those among you who like to get their updates in the most fashionable way possible, you can now follow me on Twitter.

I’ve had a profile for a short while now but haven’t really been using it… I wasn’t sure that it was really for me. However, having given it a go I think there might be some real benefits in it.

I’ll largely be using it to post notifications of blog updates, but may occasionally use it to harass close friends and associates 😉

So, if you’re at all interested, you can find me at: http://twitter.com/garymurning.

(I’ve just got in from an afternoon on the moors and have a lot to catch up  on, so I will write something more interesting tomorrow! Promise.)

© 2008 Gary William Murning