Search terms

I was checking my blog statistics and it's amazing what search terms show up as being pointed to this blog. Lots of ones about writing, of course, quite a few looking specifically for "emerging Writer" or "Emerging writer blog" which is nice. The most popular ones seem to be on the Creative Writing MA and on publishers particularly those accepting unsolicited manuscripts.
The following search terms been used to have find this blog:

• creative writing (courses/teaching) Dublin
  
• stories/short stories/novel/play writing competition 2008
  
• short sunset poems
  
• People's College Parnell Square
  
• Women's magazines that publish short stories
  
• irish publishers fiction
  
• stinging fly
  
• irish literary agents
  
• england poet blog
  
• radio drama format
  
• query letter
  
• synopsis/unsolited manuscripts publishing
  
• ma creative writing (ireland)
  
• submission guidelines
  
• emerging writer
  

and numerous ego-surfers looking for their own names. I won't name them. You know who you are! Either that or you have very persistent virtual stalkers.
yes all of this wisdom is already contained in the archives of this blog.
How can it be? What will the future bring? I hear you cry. Dunno, do I?

The Shoestring Collective

A friend of mine is involved in this fascinating sounding event on Saturday, January 19th, 2008

James Joyce Centre
35 North Great George's Street
Dublin 1

Guests on the night include:

LOUIS STEWART
Louis is Ireland's greatest living jazz guitarist and has played with jazz legends such as Benny Goodman and Dizzie Gillespie. What more need we say! Seriously…

CHIARA BROWNE
Originally from Australia, Chiara has lived and performed in Ireland for a number of years, and she released her critically acclaimed album Night Time in 2006. On January 19th, Chiara will be joined by a very special guest – the award-winning actress, playwright and sister – Sara Browne! Sara is a Sydney-based performer and a founding member of acoustic duo The Ladycakes.

COMEDY FROM MELISSA NOLAN & MELANIE PHILIPS
Melissa and Melanie will be performing material from their comedy show A TOUCH OF KLASS. The show is based on two outlandish Dublin beauty therapists, and has been recently made into a pilot for television and picked up by Midas Production Company. "A TOUCH OF KLASS - If you can't spell it, you haven't got it!"

POETRY FROM COLM KEEGAN
Colm is a poet and short story writer, and he has been short-listed on two separate occasions for the prestigious Sunday Tribune / Hennessy Award.

CIARAN MacAODGHAN (Fiddle)
Ciaran is an award-winning traditional Irish fiddle player. He has toured extensively and is sure to be one of the highlights of January's club.

the iciclethieves
Built around the song writing partnership of Sandra Adams and Colm Cunningham, the iciclethieves will perform new compositions, some relics, and a borrowed gem or two.

LOOKING FOR THE HEART OF SATURDAY NIGHT
A short comic piece written by Stephen Kennedy and performed by Seamus Brennan.

And, as if all that was not enough, we will also throw in an award-winning short film for good measure. You can't say fairer than that!

Tickets available on the night at the James Joyce Centre. Doors open at 7.50pm. Price EUR10. Strictly no admission after 8.25pm. Show ends 11pm.

For further information contact:
Stephen Kennedy 087 4196365 or Sandra Adams 085 111 3740.

Costa Books Awards

Catherine O'Flynn won the Costas for first novel with "What Was Lost" published by small press Tindal Street Press. I haven't read it but have heard good things. It is based around the endless corridors and CCTV world of a city shopping centre. The judges described it as "an extraordinary book". It is, they said: "A formidable novel blending humour and pathos in a cleverly constructed and absorbing mystery." So how come it was rejected by 14 agents?
Shortlisted:

• A Golden Age by Tahmima Anam (John Murray) - set against the backdrop of the Bangladeshi civil war
  
• Gifted by Nikita Lalwani (Viking)- gripping coming-of-age story dealing with cross-cultural issues in modern Britain
  
• Mosquito by Roma Tearne (Harper Press) - A compelling story set in war torn Sri Lanka
  

Simon Sebag Montefiore won the biography category for his exhaustively researched biography of Young Stalin, tracing the early life of the dictator and his development into the monster he became. he became more than a little obsessed in his seven year quest to write this. He's now writing a book on Jerusalem, the place, not the hymn.
Shortlisted:

• Rudolf Nureyev by Julie Kavanagh (Fig Tree)
  
• Agent Zigzag by Ben Macintyre (Bloomsbury) - double - maybe triple - agent Eddie Chapman
  
• Fatty Batter by Michael Simkins (Ebury Press) - cricket, in case you're wondering
  

AL Kennedy won the best novel category for her book Day about a second world war Lancaster tail-gunner, She is working now on a script for a screen version. Shortlisted were

• Skin Lane by Neil Bartlett (Serpent's Tail)
  
• Death of a Murderer by Rupert Thomson (Bloomsbury) - An exquisitely written ghost story
  
• The Road Home by Rose Tremain (Chatto & Windus)- London seen through the eyes of her Eastern European migrant
  

Ann Kelley won the children's book award with her book The Bower Bird. This is about 12-year-old Gussie, awaiting news of a heart transplant operation. Kelley lost her son Nathan 20 years ago when he was just 24. He died a week after a heart and lung transplant. "Yes it was an emotional experience, but it was a bit like bringing him back to life, which was wonderful," she said.
Shortlisted:

• Crusade by Elizabeth Laird (Macmillan Children's Books) - historical page turner
  
• What I Was by Meg Rosoff (Puffin Books) - set in East Anglia
  
• Blood Red Snow White by Marcus Sedgwick (Orion Children's Books) - set in Russia
  

Jean Sprackland won the poetry category for her third collection, Tilt, which has a strong environmental theme and addresses "a world in free fall". As usual, poetry is the category that sells the least. Buy more Poetry, readers. Poets are poor.
Shortlisted:

• The Speed of Dark by Ian Duhig (Picador) - a reworking of Le Roman de Fauvel, a medieval satire
  
• The Space of Joy by John Fuller (Chatto & Windus) - endless desire for love
  
• Look We Have Coming to Dover! by Daljit Nagra (Faber and Faber) - explores the idealism and reality of a multicultural Britain
  

Each of the category winners receives £5,000. The overall Costas winner is announced next month. (P.S. Used to be the Whitbreads!)

Cost of directory enquiries

OK, nothing to do with writing but...I didn't realise the difference in cost for calling the different directory enquiries from mobiles.

Meteor Bill Pay
Number First/subsequent minute
National Directory Enquiries (11811)* €1.30/ 75c
National Directory Enquiries (11850)* €1.30/ 75c
National Directory Enquiries (11890)* 90c/ 75c
National Directory Enquiries (11888)* 90c/ 75c

* A minimum of one minute will be charged, after which, per second billing will apply.

Vodaphone bill pay
Costs for Vodafone 11850, 11811, and 11890 are the same:

Minimum charge covering the first minute: 79c
Charge for subsequent minutes: 79c

O2 pay monthly

Number Initial /Subsequent per minute charge*
Eircom National 11811 €0.75/ €0.75
Conduit National 11850 €0.75/ €0.75
Numbers Direct 11890 €0.50/ €0.50

Landlines
Conduit 11850 Minimum Charge 89.00 cent
Eircom 11811 Minimum Charge 84.51 cent (first 30 seconds)
Numbers Direct 11890 Minimum Charge 71.00 cent

11811 Eircom limits you to 3 numbers per call.
All 3 text you the number if you call from a mobile.

11890 is the overall winner at current prices.

Reading List for 2008

The Amazon widget at the side is a start of the list of the books under my bed waiting to be read. I've made a start but it's an ever growing phenomenon. New Year's resolution. Stop buying books. Or stop buying books if at all possible. Or stop going into Borders. (love that shop)and stop logging into Amazon. Coming up this year also is a new collection by my favourite living (and possibly also favourite living or dead) poet, Wendy Cope. I might have to break my resolution for that one.

Another nearly pointless blogger quiz

Your Quirk Factor: 55%

You're a pretty quirky person, but you're just normal enough to hide it. Congratulations - you've fooled other people into thinking you're just like them!

How Quirky Are You?

I hide it well!

How to get rejected from the slush pile

Shamelessly reworded from Miss Snark. Advice on how not to write a query letter.

• "I'm nationally known..." and yet not to be found on google.
  
• "I've just finished the first draft..." of anything. If it's not yet polished and publishable, don't send it yet.
  
• Describing your main character as "female protagonist". This is not the Army, nor is it the Police academy. Nor is it an autopsy.
  
• "I'm looking for help marketing my novel". No you're not. You're looking for an agent.
  
• "Querry letter" is an auto-reject. spelling. Punctuation.
  
• "My historical novel is set along in West Cork" -then proceeds to describe North Leitrim. Get your facts right. It's stupid and sloppy and insulting to the reader. I know better. You should too. It's not that hard to google things.
  
• "My books were published to regional acclaim" but you list no publisher and I can't find you on Amazon. Maybe the region was Imaginationovia or Inyourdreamseny. Make sure everything you write in your query letter will survive a google search.
  
• 8pt Times Roman; marbelized puce-colored stationery; right justified margins. Agents and editors get tired and long-sighted and when your query letter is physically hard to read, they'd rather reject it than make the effort.
  
• Including the table of contents, the dedication page, a title page or anything else between the cover letter and the first page.
  

Apparently it is also a no-no to include bribes such as chocolates, feather boas, cash, small children or whatever! Also avoid green ink and coloured paper.

Thought for the Day

A survey commissioned for World Book Day had revealed that accountants spend more time reading for pleasure than any other profession.
Think about that the next time you diss one in a story.
Perhaps your next protagonist should be an accountant? Market share anyone?

Famous Books about Accountants?
Did John Grisham have one?

Not quite so famous books about accountants.

• The Honest Accountant by Peter Milwain
  
• True Lies by Margaret Johnson-Hodge
  
• The Black Brook by Tom Drury
  
• The Passionate Accountant by Sally Goldenbaum
  
• The Art of Drowning by Frances Fyfield
  

Raymond Chandler started as an accountant. I love his witty way with words.
The Irish writer Tommy Frank O'Connor is apparently an accountant.
Any poet-accountant?