Update

Had some good feedback on the novel, halfway through reading it (AGAIN!!) and finding even more typos and things to alter.

But I'm really enjoying this read through, as it's been so long since I worked on the novel, everything is fresh. Some pages have put a smile on my face, and I'm glad to spend this much time honing this piece of art. Like a samurai sword, it wil be worked and reworked until it is ready.

It will all be worth it in the end!!!!


P.S. Ren and Stimpy FTW. Watchinf old episodes on Youtube. I used to (and still do) love this show!

BOOYAH!

I’ve been away for a short while due to a lot of things happening in the real world. I’ve just finished a bunch of fairly important exams (to enable me to practice law in Australia). So there was a lot of studying to do and not much time for anything else!

On the up side, I now have my life back, summer is starting in Australia, and I finished proofing and editing The Spirit Broker last night. There will always be words to swap around, erase or paraphrase, and there will always be more AND less to say on virtually every page. But for now, I am done with it.

The next stage now is writing up a 2-3 page synopsis and sending out query and covering letters to agents, sample chapters, and when requested the whole manuscript. I bought the Artists and Writers Handbook last year and have already highlighted and tabbed the contact pages of agents & publishers who look like they accept this kind of stuff. So I’ll be targeting them all over the next few weeks. I just need to take my time and get things written and presented properly.

Other than the above, here are some things I have found interesting recently:

• Australian Senator Nick Xenophon not only has a badass name, but he is also a real life badass. Really impressed with him taking the decision to use his parliamentary privilege to publically name a Catholic priest accused of sexual abuse many years ago. "Innocent until proven guilty", yes. But where the safety of young and vulnerable people is at a serious risk, I’m all for erring on the side of caution. Well done Senator.

• I popped into court yesterday to have a quick look at a Supreme Court case in which a former $3,000 a night “high-class” escort is suing the estate of a deceased billionaire. This is because he allegedly promised her gifts and trust funds up to a worth of $10m. Managed to see her get cross examined by one of the country’s best barristers. Very cool.

• Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Played the original a decade ago, and this is just as awesome. Check it out!

More to come soon as I get back online and start the next phase of being a writer-who-is-trying-to-become-a-published-author!!!!

P.S. the next novel is in the works too. Here’s a hint of things to come:

I'm still alive!

Updates coming soon!

Congressman Squidward?

So, US Congressman Anthony Weiner has finally decided to resign after weeks of pressure piled onto him by his fellow democrats and the US media took its toll. His resignation will be a breath of fresh air for President Obama, as the scandal would have surely been a platform for Republic forerunners during the run up to the next Presidential Elections.

However, all that seriousness to one side; I (along with other keen observers on teH inteRnetz) recently saw the startling resemblance that Weiner has to Squidward from the SpongeBob Squarepants cartoons. It is literally him!

Take a look:



UPDATE: all the “red-penning” of the MS is done now. Just on the netbook putting the final changes in, should be done in a few weeks (touch wood).

mlmarshall.com

My website has been revamped and is looking pretty slick (if I may say so myself!).

Mark over at Design Animals constructed the site and new logo and Hexadrive (T Zhang) provided the below artwork:



My father has popped into the country and is leaving in a few days, and as a result I haven't done much editing (family should come before most things, and especially as I haven't seen him for a year I've got a decent excuse!)

Once he's gone I'll get to work on the last 80 pages of what I feel/hope/pray is the final edit. Here's a sneak peak at what the manuscript looks like at the moment:





OK, off to bed.

Website Launch is iminent

Final read through is almost done. But I'm having some downtime with visiting family which is nice.

My website is finished and just having some final adjustments done to the DNS and URL settings.

The site will hopefully be a useful platform for the next stage of this process, which will be the agent/publisher hunt and getting people to read the book.

More updates coming soon!

My views on self-publishing

I'm still learning about the "phenomenon" of self-publishing, but wanted to say a few things about it regardless.

I was just reading Nathan Bransford's blog post regarding self-published millionaire author Amanda Hocking (who is now published via a traditional house). I'd never heard of her until ten minutes ago, but clearly a lot of people have, most likely tweens; as her books seem to be based on teen romance/fantasy.

Anyway, Amanda has obviously done very well for herself through the self-publishing of her first nine novels, as she has made over $2million from ebook sales alone.

As will be argued, this kind of success is most likely to be the exception and not the rule. I am sure there are many self-published authors out there who have also priced their books at 99c and are making zilch.

But here is the interesting part: people clearly like Amanda's writing, her words strike a chord within them; even though Amanda's words were not what the many agents and publishers she approached (before she began to do it herself) wanted or deemed fit to publish.

Just 5-10 years ago, someone in Amanda's position would have had very few options after the usual rejections from agents and publishers:

1) brush yourself off and start/continue with your next novel in the hope it may be "the one".
2) become dissuaded and abandon all hope of success/publication.

But times have changed, and there is another option available for the unpublished writer: self-publish your work online.

Now, in 2011 we see that in the UK alone annual ebook sales have reached £180m, a 20% rise from the previous year. Despite libraries and bookstores closing down at frightening rates, people are still reading, and they are reading a lot. But the standard medium for the delivery of the words they read is changing; adapting with the ever advancing technology at our disposal.

I have highlighted words for the simple reason that I believe that words are the only thing which matter in all of this. I do believe ebooks will eventually outsell (not eradicate however) the traditional paperback and hardback. Just as online news has decimated the printed-press industry, the same will happen within the next 5-10 years to paper books. The e-media age is upon us.

Similarly, one could look at the demise of the vinyl record caused by the arrival of the now virtually extinct compact disc. And the same about the dominance of mp3s over the CD. The e-media age prevailed yet again, and both vinyl and CD's (along with minidiscs and tape cassettes) are virtually dinosaurs; extinct, rare or dying out.

It seems as if humans are evolving into a species that no longer want to hold physical things. We want the intangible and we want it readily accessible and as cheap as possible. Information (be it audio, text or video) will soon all exist online, held by servers and carried through fibre-optic cables, as opposed to being confined by physical discs or paper.

But as a writer/aspiring author, I am not afraid. For as long as I keep producing words there will always be something to be read. Words are meant to be read, regardless of the format they arrive in, and although I will try the typical agent-->publisher-->physical book route first; my ultimate goal will be to have the words I have spent hundreds of hours writing, read by as many people who deem them readable.


I am a romantic in the sense that I do prefer to read a nice paperback, hopefully untouched by anyone else before me and slightly worn by my own use over time. I also like the feel of books, their weight and texture. I don't make a conscious thought about it whilst I read, but I know I like to actually hold a book.

There is a certain mystic charm within a good printed book that will never be replaced by a Kindle or iPad.

But the following will remain constant regardless of the novel's new format:

The covers will contain pages, the pages will contain paragraphs, the paragraphs will contain sentences, the sentences will contain words and the words (hopefully) will contain enough magic to take you away from wherever you are and straight into the world the author has created.


No matter where we end up, it shouldn’t be forgotten that words are all that matter.

tl;dr :p

Mother's Day and other stuff

Spending the day with my sister and her one year old kid. The best weather for a long walk and some fish and chips!

Currently halfway through reading the 2nd draft of my novel. It's a long read, but fairly enjoyable. Only finding the odd spelling mistake and paragraph restructuring. Should be done within a week with the red pen, then will type in the corrections.

Then the dreaded agent hunt will begin...

Was on a bus today and a woman a few seats ahead of me was reading a book. Its pages were brown and the cover was gnarled and creased.

At first I didn't really care too much what the book was, the main thing was that it had accomplished its duty; it was being read. And it was well read (at least by the looks of it).

I snuck peek at the title anyway as I couldn't resist, it was Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb:

Was not aware who Robin Hobb was, but this looks like a fantasy novel, reading her wikipedia page it looks like she's been very busy. Will probably pick something of hers up soon!


Anyway, seeing the book in that condition really motivated me. I realised that I'd love to have a book of mine in that battered state ten years from now, being read by someone who hopefully digs it.
















On a side note, just saw the first animated show since South Park which made me laugh out loud and smile constantly throughout; Bob's Burgers:



Each character had their moment to shine in the 30 mins show, it was witty, adult and not afraid to push the boundaries. Will keep an eye on it!


Regarding the novel, I spent a few hours on it today. This is definitely the treatment phase; I know where I going with this and it won't take long to make the necessary adjustments. Will soon be time to print of another draft and get the highlighters and red biro out for (hopefully) the last time.

Keep having tonnes of ideas for new books, but don't want to start until this one is done. A bit annoying, but I'm noting them all down on my phone/'Ideas' folder on netbook.

Happenings

It's been an active month for the world.


Japan is blighted by a Tsunami.
Events are heating up in Libya and the rest of the Middle East
Rebecca Black releases her single "Friday".

I've finally spotted a few more changes that need to be made to the plot of the novel. It seems like this thing is never ending but if I'm going to do this, I need to do it properly.

Things are in motion.

Study!

Exams start next week, can't wait to get them out of the way. But still wish I had more time.

Must study.

But first a quick game of MW2 (which is now hacked to shit)...and then bed.

It is 23:46, plenty of time to study tomorrow.

:D

My Setup

Here's a look at my humble desk,



There's my PS3 (love it), HD TV/Dual Monitor, 10.1" eMachines eM250 (140GB harddrive, 8GB SD card, 2GB Ram, Intel Atom, 1.6hz), sitting on a Targus Chill mat, and some random desk stuff. Not the best quality pic, but my Nokia E63's camera is very standard.

Ethics Assignment was handed in today, now for revision and more writing. It's been a hot week in Sydney, yesterday was 42 degrees C!!

Fortunately I walked out into my garden yesterday morning and saw this:




Jumped straight in for a swim!!






:D

Quick ramble

Currently writing a short essay on legal ethics, but am taking a quick break to say this:

The hardest part of writing a story for me is actually sitting down and starting to write for that particular session. There are so many other things one could be doing, and to actually put them to one side and write can sometimes require a teeny bit of effort (for me anyway).

However, the best feeling when I am writing is when everything beyond the screen/page ceases to exist. When I get so enveloped into the prose that nothing else really matters beyond the world I'm creating. It's a good feeling, but it requires a bit of discipline to get there...something which is in fluctuating supply when the weather is 35 degrees and the ocean is 100 metres from my front door :(

OK, enough procrastinating, back to the essay.

P.S. the cyclone came and went, and not many people got hurt which is great.

Good luck Queenslanders

There's a real beast of a storm heading for Northern Queensland; a Category 5 Tropical Cyclone called Yasi.

I did some travelling around Cairns, Port Douglas and Cape Tribulation last year; and the immense beauty took me by surprise. Epic ocean drives, lush rainforests, tropical wildlife, great food and friendly people.








Good luck to all of them.

Progress

I've been torn between continuing with a story I started writing a few years back (but stopped at 15,000 words as I wasn't ready for it) and finishing off my current novel, The Spirit Broker.

I'm not good at working simultaneously on two things, as I just want to finish off the one I'm really feeling. And then I found what was missing in The Spirit Broker...a prologue!

Yep, just a simple chapter before the main story starts has made a great difference. I'm going to get this done and out of the way, it all makes sense now :)

Also, currently working on my website, should be up soon...!