 Hello! I’ve been away for far too long. Three months is a long time. What happened? Well, I’d love to tell you I’ve been negotiating a book deal, meeting with film producers regarding a few spec scripts, engaging with theatre companies who are about to stage a few of my plays, and taking on an Assistant Editor’s role at a new literary fiction magazine alongside two other very talented individuals.
Unfortunately, I can’t tell you any of that because it’s pure made up fantasy. Hmmm, ok, most of it is fantasy, but not all of it. One of those statements is true. More in just a few paragraphs. So where have I really been? December is dead easy to cover off. I decided to take some time out and chill. I needed to recharge my batteries and that’s exactly what I did. Lots of Xmas merriment and New Year cheer. January & February are not so easy to explain. I lost my mojo. My muse left me for some other writer. I struggled to write and when I did the results weren’t great. I can’t refer to this as writer’s block. I’ve made my views clear on that here. There wasn’t one particular reason for this malaise. There were several factors all contributing to a perfect storm. I guess these things happen. It’s called Life! Thankfully I managed to figure out what my issues were, and slowly but surely my muse returned. So, I’m back. I’ve given the website a new theme. I was tired of the old one. This one’s a bit more vibrant. I’ll be introducing a couple of new pages over the next few weeks. I could tell you about them now but I won’t. In terms of my writing I delivered the first version of Acid House to the Saints & Sinner’s Editors. The reaction was mixed. One wasn’t too keen, and one made comparisons to Tennessee Williams. Obviously – I mean it goes without saying – the comparison to TW was of course the most astute and reliable interpretation of my work. Yeah – even I’m laughing as I type. I’ve recently delivered the next version which has been sent to all of the Saints & Sinner’s contributors. So far it’s looking good. I’ve had four reviews. Two of which were good, and two of which were glowing. Acid House had some challenges. At the centre of the story is a troubled marital relationship, so I was stepping into territory that has been covered countless times before. The difficulty was adding something different to the mix, introducing my own spin, and making it relevant to 2014. I hope I’ve achieved that, but only time will tell. More updates to come when the final version is delivered. My next writing project is Dancers. I hope to have that finished in a month’s time. I’ll do a blog entry on Dancers because it’s had an interesting development tied into Acid House. And last but not least I have to talk about Firewords. I’m only going to be brief because it needs its own blog entry. Firewords is a new literary journal publishing the best new fiction / poetry from new and exciting writers. For about a month now I’ve been reading stories and marking them as Accepted / Rejected / Needs Re-write / 2nd Opinion needed / Etc. It’s been a complete eye opener to be on the other side of the fence. I’ll be doing several articles regarding Firewords. The first couple will be about the magazine, and the associated Kickstarter campaign linked to Firewords. Articles after this will focus on a lot of the common mistakes author’s make when submitting to Firewords. That’s it. More blog entries will be arriving soon. Told you I was back! Take care, Mike
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