…and now the end is near, and so I face, the final curtain… Or something like that.
Well, I’ve managed a year under the mentoring scheme (Or should that be that the mentoring scheme has managed a year with me?) and I’ve had the final session returned to me by Miranda. I thought this was an opportune moment to look at what happens next: Find an agent. Get a multi-million pound publishing deal. See the book published. Tour the United States on a Harley to promote “Bloodie Bones”. Attend The Booker prize awards and look shocked and yet grateful when they announce my name. Sit on the couch with Richard and Judy to discuss what my life was like “back in the day” when I was a struggling writing trying to hold down a job and write a book…
Erm. No.
So the last stage of the mentoring scheme is that the whole book will be read by a different reader from TLC who will provide a full editorial assessment of Bloodie Bones. I’ve started discussions with TLC as I’m looking for a reader who has some familiarity with the genre - I think that’s a plus, don’t you? That said, I’m not holding my breath on that so at the same time, through Writing East Midlands (and if you’ve been paying attention you’ll remember that they sponsored me on the mentoring scheme) I’ve been in contact with a published horror author and we’ve agreed a fee for him (now that narrows it down, eh!) to read through Bloodie Bones and give me feedback.
At the same time I now have half an eye (oh well, let’s be honest, I may even be committing a whole eye to this, but just the one, mind you…) on what happens next. I’m hoping to go on a one day course called “Selling your first novel” (it seems relevant!) and when I have finished the next (last?) draft of Bloodie Bones I will start to research agents and publishers.
You remember that list of “writing tasks” I set out in my last post? Well I’m going to try to make some inroads into those (I made the mistake of putting them on my phone as a “to do list” so now they haunt me every day as I watch the deadlines roll past). I’m starting to think about the next “large” piece I’m going to write and because it’s set at this time of year but I won’t be able to put pen to paper on that project for another six+ weeks I’ve been taken photographs of the place where it’s going to be set: all skeletal trees and moody shadows now but the spring buds will have ruined the atmosphere by May.
And lastly. I’ve been looking at my online profile. From now on all my “adult” oriented horror fiction will be published under the name Richard Farren Barber and I’ve been redesigning my website to reflect the mean and indeed moody nature of the work.
So that’s where I am. On the cusp of another great leap into the unknown
