The Bottom Line

An article on Philip Pullman in the Guardian over a letter penned in his capacity as President of the Society of Authors kicked off a cluster of blog posts. Warning of the likelihood that the professional author may become an endangered species; drawing attention to a recent survey indicating that the median income of a professional author in the United Kingdom is £11,000, with less than 12% of writers making a living solely from writing.

Starting at the end!

Not the end of the year post, but the start of the New Year, 365 days to build on whatever has been achieved so far and on day one of the first month a personal milestone. At 1800 GMT on the 1st of January Martyn's Blog hit 12,000 page views, five minutes later 12001 clocked up, and it wasn't me checking the post.

Not many compared to some of the hardened veterans of the Blogsphere, but a good number to play with.

A good start, the best we can hope for and I hope you are having a good one; the hangover not too severe and subsequent exposure to daylight not too much of a strain on the eyeballs or the head. Drink plenty, but reduce the alcohol content unless you really do need the pelt of the whole dog, not just the hair.

Happy New Year

Wishing you all the best

May your storylines never tangle,
your plot holes be marvellously filled,
words pour effortlessly from your fingers and
time flow gently until your deadlines are met!

Happy New year to you all

Martyn

Getting down to business

Further reflections? Clear Water production has eased, the word count has slowed from the furious outpouring during November it is now meandering gently through December. The flow curtailed slightly by the regimen of the day job and feeling mentally knackered after the thirty day gallop of the previous month.

The more relaxed pace has given me chance to catch up on a couple of things, read a few blog posts and have another attempt at proving Iceline for print, (word of caution, if you don't already know this, PDF is good for uploading to print.) I tried it with a doc. file and the dog's breakfast that came back as the printable PDF was disappointing to say the least.

Where have I heard that before?

A lighter touch this time, a bit of fun for the festive season with a glass of something at your elbow to lift the spirit? I love playing with words, twisting their meanings to shift the context of a sentence so when I stumbled on the post at The Passive Voice recently it sent me scurrying through the bookmarks on the computer for a couple of websites I have played with in the past.

Never quite sure about the sincerity of the sites, are they really the humour stations they claim to be; or does the end product find its way into the real world?

Reflections

NaNoWriMo packed away for a another year, chalked up the fourth win with Clear Water, a look at the beginnings of the Grange and its residents and visitors, still very much a work in progress and unlike earlier NaNo novels, this one is strictly off line.

The word count was posted regularly so visitors to cheekyseagull could keep tabs on how the challenge was progressing through November, but the actual writing was behind the scenes. It has meant that things have been quiet here for the last month, and thanks to all who dropped by during that time.

NaNo2015: Clearwater

Clear Water, the provisional title for this year's attempt at NaNoWriMo. by the time you read this the starting gun will have fired and the crack of the shot been drowned in the clatter of keyboards

So what is it all about, not the jaunt through creative mayhem and abandon but the book. The page is booked at NaNoWriMo and the coin is still spinning as to whether or not I do it with constant uploads to smashwords NaNo page or post the word count and keep the suspense to myself until I reach the fifty thousand  mark.