Good News and July and August Consolidated Comments

Good news

..... passed writing 900,000 draft words today.
..... final proof of Ywnwab! has gone to printers.

..... cover and festival details in Wales in September are on web site under Book Tab.

..... some redecorations on colours on web site.

July and August News and Diary consolidated below with a new section five listing You Tube web links to entertain - music, Rita Hayworth dancing and a jet engine.

I shall have to tell Henry and Henrietta about living in the Elizabethan Trimefrayme being so much better, with all these bright colours and warmth, than the water colours in the cooler Calorium Trimefrayme.

Best wishes to you all - Alexander

July and August 2013 Consolidated Comments

1)   Writing

a) Ywnwab! The small 90 page book recording the background behind the Allrighters and 30 other stories and poems has gone for printing to be available by 15th September 2013. See cover within Books Tab

b)  50,000 more draft words written to a total of over 900,000 by end of August.

c)  Sevhend? restructuring well advanced.

d)  Three short stories a total of 6,600 words entered for competitions.

e)  We are considering a change of strategy. Rather than completing 1,000,000 words by Christmas 2013 Allrighters are to make a concentrated drive to complete final drafts of Cross Family Saga of over 500,000 words in nine long books – Sevhend?, Gemini in five books, Look!, Kutopia and Anatomy. Over 450,000 words already written on these.

2)    Reading – see Alexander’s 4 and 5 star reviews on Amazon.

a) Unravelled self published by Mary Tod. A marriage under strain through WW1 and WW2. (http://awriterofhistory.com)

b)  Search by Geoff Dyer. A surreal journey.

c)  Shell self published by Tony Riches. A frightening holiday kidnap in Kenya.

d) Why Bipolar? The Demystification of Bipolar Affective Disorder - self published by Declan Henry. A landmark contribution to a better understanding of this area of mental illness including many stories from those diagnosed with the disorder.

e) Zoo Time by Howard Jacobson. Comic comments on writing to be put on our bookshelf along side Stephen King’s On Writing and John Braine’s similar book.

f) Weird Things Customers Say in Bookshops Jen Campbell. Great as laughter medicine.

g) Love of a kind by Felix Dennis - A book of new poems written under threat of death. Florence would have loved to have used the Eric Gill illustrations in her books. 

3)   Other

a) We knew someone else must have written something similar to the Allrighters' million words. Answer to DT Saturday big crossword clue one across – English author noted for his million-word-long cycle of 12 novels. A Dance to the Music of Time which includes Casanova’s Chinese Restaurant and Books Do Furnish a Room.

b)  Another follow up book of short stories to Ywnwab! is being assembled. If you would like to become an Allrighters' guest writer and make a 1,500 word contribution to the next book please send details of how you started writing - c 300 words and a self contained story or extract from a longer book of - c 1,200 words for consideration. The Allrighters will make the final, non negotiable decision, on what to include as they are paying the costs of production and publication. We like others contributions to add variety and reality to our fantasy. Contact - alexander@allrighters.co.uk

c)  Our current reading includes a draft page turner written by a member of our local writer's group. We are over half way through the whole book waiting ... biting our nails (if we did) for the author to complete the next 10k of self editing. Just what will happen next and how on earth will the book end?

d)  In the spirit of Stephen King's advice about reading a lot the Allrighters are also quite happy to read any of your draft fiction writing ( short stories, longer books normally up to 100,000 words - in 10,000 word chunks per week) and make comments from a potential reader's perspective. There is an element of copy editing included from a fresh pair of eyes. We were told it's better to get comments from as many general readers as you can before you go into print. We cannot do a 100% edit as we do not have a first class English degree from Cambridge or an MA in Creative Writing, but then neither do most of readers of fiction books. As Bill C might have said on the subject ‘It's the story that counts,’ leaving off the demeaning word.

e) Quotation of the month: - ‘Too much bad writing has been written about good writing.’ Nicholas Heiney 2006 - The Silence at the Song's End. - 2007. (permission given)

4)   Web sites found this month:-

a) Mary K Tod - http://awriterofhistory.com - Found via Mick Rooney's web site and a book marketing plan contribution written by Mary Tod the site's author. See Unravelled above. In the site archive there are some interesting interviews with authors writing historical fiction. Browsing the site has raised thoughts in our minds about whether good fiction can be written with WW1 and WW2 as a background without a really good story as War Horse, Birdsong and Never Forget. For the awful detail a factual book written by someone who was actually there, whether embellished or not, will we think hold more credibility and interest. Most of those who were there at the front, including my father, said nothing. Richard Holmes, John Keegan, Anthony Beevor and Andrew Roberts war and history writers who have written and talked a lot, never took part in active service killing people, as far as we can see ( please someone correct us if we are wrong)   We know Winston Churchill did both! 

b)  Tony Riches - http://tonyriches.blogspot.co.uk. A wealth of  information for writers. 

5) Some You Tube clips - to entertain

a) One from the past -  Rita Hayworth and Fred Astaire dancing to the Bee Gees Staying Alive   

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz3CPzdCDws

b) Izhak Perlman & Bruno Canino - Rag Time - Scott Joplin 

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2Byk5qPOCc and another

c) Alla Nikitskaya plays Debussy's Golliwogg's cake walk 

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYnt3_TxVoQ 

f) Rolls Royce RB211 engine 
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM7ksfRVF70

 And finally our own landmark date:-

23 July 2013

Allrighters' web site goes live!

Thanks to good work by Peter Richards of Brush House.

A big welcome to our viewers.