Tips for a successful Children’s Book Launch - fingers crossed!

I threw my first ever book launch for my children’s fantasy book ‘Emily Knight I AM…’ on September 29^th 2012 and it was a HUGE success - this is despite the fact that I have never been to a book launch! I also had a lot of challenges and almost gave up on it but it was definitely worth doing. So I wanted to share some do’s and don’ts with fellow authors.

DO book a venue ASAP.

I called around a lot of libraries and they were surprisingly shocked that I wanted to host my book launch there but unfortunately none of them worked out. Luckily, the youth club I grew up in gave me their very nice dance studio for free, so ask your local area for a community hall as they should usually be free. But beware - free stuff doesn’t always work. I had to cancel my launch for the second time because the person who organised the free space wasn’t available on the day of the launch and had to be present.

DO have food or drinks.

If it wasn’t for my Mum, there would have been nothing! I was being sponsored by Mama’s Cakes - a cupcake company, so I felt that was enough but the Subway platters, crisps, sweets, soft and hot drinks went down very well.

DO make sure your books come in time.

I had to cancel my book launch party, the first time, because my books were delayed. The poor UPS man was delivering to the wrong address all week! On the day of my launch, I sold out the books so it was worth the trouble in the end.

DON’T’ assume everyone you invite will turn up.

They won’t. Over invite and let people bring plus 1’s. Get as many children to come. They’re your target audience, also you will have the mums and dads and they will buy your book. Your next launch, you can be more exclusive!

DON’T assume local media will come.

They probably won’t unless you’re the first author to ever be featured in their paper or you were an ex-prisoner. Be prepared to chase them a lot. I was fortunate enough to have Ape Media at my launch who filmed it for a YouTube show reel and interviewed me but my local press didn’t come even though they said they would.

DO have a DJ

Or some form of entertainment especially if kids are there. I’m a street dancer so I need a good dance at the end of the night. I also had dance performances and one of the groups were kids, which went down very well. So think about what can liven up your party.

DO practice your reading

Pick a section that says something about your main character but doesn’t give too much away but leaves them wanting more. Practice it for a week so that you sound confident. I was so nervous during my reading, I didn’t look at anyone but I had practiced enough so it was very clear and everyone loved it.

DON’T be cheap

Be willing to spend money on your party to make it look more expensive. I didn’t have a big budget at all but my party looked good. I had an amazing celebrity flouriest, who is my friend’s mum, who done a gorgeous flower arrangement that made the room look more expensive so don’t be afraid to ask for favours.

DO have friends hosting

Trust me, it will be so hectic on the night. You will have to talk to so many people, sign books, do interviews etc you can’t possibly stand at a table serving food and selling books. So call in your friends who are great talkers to take over and make you some money.

DON’T be late and dis-organised

Be on time to your event. Don’t make a late entrance. I was almost late because I had a dress malfunction and had to go home and change but I was still on time. Also start your event on time regardless of who’s there. Have a running order for the launch so things run smoothly. Keeps it professional and set your standard.

And lastly, DO have fun! You made it to the launch party after months of planning and even though on the night, you’ll be running around. Enjoy it. Everyone is there to celebrate you and your book, so celebrate too! Good luck!

Follow me on twitter - @emilyknightiam

face book - Emily Knight I AM

www.a-bello.com

www.emilyknightiam.com

Amazon link   - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Emily-Knight-Am/dp/146691730X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345044761&sr=1-1

Brit Writers Blog - How Will I know? by Sarah Gate

Being in love with writing is just the same as being in love with any other hobby – only other people who feel that love can truly understand it.

When I find one of these people, especially if they have been successful in their endeavours to write a novel, I always ask them the same question. It is a question I have never really received a proper answer to, but one that I m desperate to have answered. I need to know if I am wasting my time.

“How do you know if you are a good writer?”

Like most creative people I am immensely private about my work. I have never let anyone read my attempts at writing a novel. Because I am the only one who has read it and I am hopelessly in love with it, I genuinely don’t know whether anyone else would think it was any good.

Dougie Brimson, writer of the Hollywood funded film Green Street, answered the question rationally:

“Whenever I am talking to a budding writer, the first thing I tell them is if you cant take criticism then don’t do it. No matter what happens or how good you are, at some point someone is going to slaughter your work and that can be tough to deal with.

“If you understand that, then I would always advise people to join writing groups. They are fabulous things and most will provide honest and constructive feedback on any work presented to them. Trust me, if they tell you you can write, you can write!”

Ben Hatch, author of the best selling book ‘Are We Nearly There Yet’ gave a much more simple and typical answer to the question:

“They probably wouldn’t ever know the answer to that.”

Oh dear. In my opinion – if you have given it a really good go then your writing talent must be correlated in some way to your success. I haven’t had any success yet but, as I said, I haven’t let anyone read my work yet. I am considering it, because if I am a terrible writer I am wasting a lot of time writing at the moment. Still, if the resounding answer was that I should hang up my quill now I think I would be devastated. It may take away from the joy I feel when I write. So for now at least, my writing is for my eyes only. That way I can tell myself I am a fantastic writer and all is well with the world. 

In the meantime, if anyone knows the answer to the question “How do you know if you are a good writer?” please feel free to let me know.

For more information on Dougie Brimson

For more information on Ben Hatch

by Sarah Gate

The Brit Writers Blog

Brit Writers Blog - Why I hate my country by Khushboo Choudhry

Going by the title of this post, you may tend to think I’m not patriotic or not eligible to stay in my country. I’m an Indian girl, I have stayed in India my whole life. There are a million reasons why I love my country but there are a billion reasons why I hate it. If I could change even one of those hateful things about India, the world would be a much better place. This country has been shattered into so many pieces, that I now believe it’s impossible to change anything but I still hold that small hope in my heart.

I start off with the people. The Indians’, men and women. There is something absolutely wrong with how we think about ourselves. We think we are the greatest boon that the earth has been blessed with. It could be a curse. The land is filthy, the water polluted, people have to run around for water. Some places get running water for just an hour in the whole day. There are fights over water, over buckets and god forbid, if you’re late to get that one hour of water, you have to live without it for the whole day.

The political system in the country is the worst kind you would ever see. Everyone thinks he/she is a politician even when they just rule over a block. We have uncrowned and dethroned kings and queens, in their own rights. During elections, there are riots and the minions of these politicians manage to bribe the general public to vote for their parties. This is how we are a democracy. You cannot even call us a democracy because it’s just a plain lie. Everywhere and everyday, there are cases of corruption against these parties. The amount of black money that has gone out of the country is more than what the public has earned in 4 years. This is how we Indians call this piece of land the greatest country in the world. We abuse America saying ‘how do they call themselves the greatest country, they don’t have morals and eat beef’. We don’t have morals either, we find it okay to kill humans in the name of religion, we find it okay to kill a handicapped dog on the street citing the reason, ‘it will die anyway’, we find it okay to eat meat when our own religion forbids us to eat, and we say the Americans are stupid. If you go on the internet, type in Indian political corruption scams, you will know the extent of the situation. The amount of money that has gone out and keeps going out is unbelievable. Since the government cannot bring back all that money (they don’t have the plain guts to conduct official enquiries on government officials who fish out the money), the public has to pay it back in taxes. Some of us cannot even afford to pay taxes, but we grit our teeth and pay up. This is how we are supposed to be a superpower. We call the Chinese copycats. Even if they are, atleast they copy correctly. We are so full of ourselves, we cannot copy nicely. If there had to be a Rolex copy from China, you would never know the difference between the real watch and the fake one. If the copy was from India, it wouldn’t even look good and it would cost a 100/-, which is 1.2$. That’s all. Everyone used to say India will take over China in this global race, we’re still stuck where we started from and China is way ahead.

One of the main problems for this humongous, existential ego is our education system. First of all, we don’t encourage women to be educated in this country because it will mean they will start taking over jobs from men. There are problems between genders, between religions, everywhere is a problem. Our education system forces us to stop asking questions. This is from my own personal experience when I was thrown out of my biology class for asking questions. We are expected to sit in a room, lean back and forth, memorize everything in the books and then vomit it out. None of the schools in India is even on the top 200 list of universities. They best ones we have start off from 400. Whatever the teachers say, listen to them and never use your own creativity. It’s stifling living in this country. Parents are no better. Every parent wants their child to be a doctor or an engineer, get married and have kids. This is the ultimate dream of every parent in India. I wanted to be a writer but I never got through school because my parents said, study to be a doctor. I still refused and ended up doing the second choice I had. Now if you’re not a doctor, but you’re a scientist, the society thinks you were not good enough to be a doctor and did not get selected. Nobody stops to think, maybe he/she had some dreams. No. If you’re not what we expect you to be, you’re just not that good. Now the new trend is to do an MBA. So as soon as you graduate out of college, start preparing for your MBA. There are a million small MBA colleges like that. But what do we do? We are just the mere citizens of this country.

Coming to the gender divide here. This should have been a completely different post, but I’ll try and fit my views here. Women have absolutely no respect. We are supposed to do all the household work, while the men go drink and cheat on us, keep the man’s clothes and breakfast ready before he heads out for work, please the in-laws because you never know when they might burn you to death, give birth to boys and only boys since females have no respect anyway (there are some couples that throw their newborn girl child into trash cans because they wanted a boy). Why do you think the divorce rates are low in India? It’s because even if the woman is unhappy in her marriage, she is supposed to keep quiet and not say anything, because if the divorce happens, the society will give weird looks to the family. If a single mother decides to start dating a new man, she is thought to be an immoral person, if two people are in love, are from different communities and want to get married, the parents will just not allow it. You see, the society here is not bothered about how people are, they are bothered about the caste, religion, family heirlooms, money, the past, political influence and communities. So if none of it is what your parents wanted, forget about ever marrying the person you want. Since the girls are not expected to study, they are married off as soon as they graduate. Well, you have to show a basic qualification that the girl can read and write you know. If she wants to study anymore, it’s not allowed. As soon as she’s 20, talks of marriage start off. You have been born a girl, you have to produce children, preferably boys but if a girl is born, we can throw her out or just make her into a household mule.

This is the reason the whole male gender thinks we’re objects to be had sex with and then make us do their work. It’s called the Great Indian Male Mentality. Any man, who is Indian but has lived out of the country has a very different approach to what born-and-raised-in-India men are. Some men think that just because they have money, they can get away with anything. Rape a girl, pay some money to the cops to shut them up and go on with more rapes. There’s this famous line that these chauvinist men use when they are dealing with the incompetent police of this country, “tu jaanta nahi main kaun hu?”(you don’t know who I am?) He could be anyone, the son of a daily wage labourer, a politician. But they know how to fool the cops by making them believe they are big shots somewhere. My ex-boyfriend had the same thinking.   

The cops are no good either. The women cells in the police stations are incompetent in dealing with rape cases, so the main department has to deal with it. But what do they say? It’s a woman’s fault she got raped. It’s her fault that she wants to wear whatever she likes. These men are so horny, just don’t know how to keep it in their pants. Even a decently dressed woman, a married woman, get raped. What did they do now? It’s absolutely pathetic, the law and order situation here. Nobody gets any work done around this judicial system. If you don’t pay up, your case will remain pending in court for innumerable days. If you pay up, it will still be in the same state. Petitions for justice for high profile cases have to be filed. Those cases also take decades to reach conclusion. There is never any justice. Rape victims should also never expect any justice because you know, it’s your own damn fault you were born a woman. Scientifically speaking, the Y-chromosome is becoming smaller, it was anyway one of the smallest chromosomes. In a thousand years, there might not be any man left on this planet. So why don’t you, Indian men, start being good boys already?

I believe in a country where the citizens are given priority over anything else, where money gets used in the right way, where women can wear short skirts and heels and look beautiful to a random man, not slutty, where men know where women stand, where we get to do what we want and not get bogged down by society, where studying music is given as much importance as rocket science, where we don’t kill each other because of our different gods but listen to what each of us have to say about gods and beliefs, where being handicapped is not a sin, where being poor doesn’t mean you have to be wiped off the face of earth, where the life of a girl is as precious as that of a boy, where every difference is respected and counted as a trait, where we don’t have to worry about stepping out of our homes because we never know if we’ll see our families, where all the uncertainties of life have a certain end to them. A country where we belong, be proud of and love to be born in it. The day even a small percentage of Indians stop complaining about India, is the day I will believe that the things I voiced out may have had an effect on someone, somewhere. 

by Khushboo Choudhry

The Brit Writers Blog

The Best Things in Life are FREE by Emily Pattullo

There is something about the word FREE that makes you feel a little bit special. Those four letters stir a sleeping element that sparks at the sight and flickers with anticipation at a promise of something that might otherwise be unobtainable, or was perhaps previously uninteresting. FREE suggests accessibility, indicates towards the potential. After all, who would dismiss a compliment? Even if there’s not an impressive bargain to be had you’re still left with a feeling of triumph for not having parted with a penny. It’s instant gratification and one in the eye for others who had to pay for theirs, especially if it’s FREE for a limited time only. It means you got in there just in time; you were on the ball, and retail savvy.

And that is why my novel, Ring Around Rosie, is FREE to download for the next five days. Because I want people to feel that way about owning my book; that they saved a few pennies when times were hard, that they’ve earned themselves a treat after a long, unyielding year. It’s nearly Christmas after all: a time for giving.

Download for FREE here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B009T5W4TC/ref=tag_dpp_yt_edpp_rt#tags

www.emilypattullo.com

The Brit Writers Blog

10 WAYS TO LEARN A NEW LANGUAGE By Rumki Chowdhury

If you've read my previous blog entries, you're probably familiar with the fact that I'm learning Swedish in Stockholm, Sweden! Learning a new language definitely has its perks, and its challenges. I've decided to try out various different tactics that have made me nearly-fluent in just two months. Not to mention, the program I'm in is 'riktig snabbt' or 'really fast' in Swedish. And I like it that way! 

I just took my daughter to the Swedish doctor recently and she was so shocked at how quickly I had learned to speak the language. Note that I said, I'm ALMOST fluent, not quite there yet, and learning new words and grammatical technique every few minutes.

1. GO SWEDISH: Before I applied for the Swedish course, I watched 'Go Swedish,' a Youtube Channel that starts from scratch, teaching from the names of the months, how to count and say the alphabet. I'm a visual person so I need to see how words are spelled before I attempt to pronounce them. Go Swedish has black screens with just words on them and a lady's voice in the background. I'm sure you can find any similar language channel on Youtube.

2. SUBTITLES: You can probably find films and TV Programs in your language that have subtitles in the language which you desire to learn. Swedish TV contains a lot of American and British programs with subtitles. Another visual aid for myself!

3. FILMS/PROGRAMS: I watch Swedish shows like the detective series inspired by Henning Mankell's crime fiction, 'Wallander.' Not to mention, I also saw 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' in Swedish, after I read it. I love foreign films, even if they don't have subtitles. It's incredible what you can interpret/understand by from facial expressions and body language.

4.READ, READ, READ: I try to read Swedish newspapers every day. And yes, they're free! Ah, I love the fact that I can read not just one (like the METRO in London), but many newspapers for free! I read it all even if I don't understand what is written. Sometimes, I can understand what I'm reading by just understanding some of the words written and figuring out the context. Plus, this also helps me practice my pronunciation. 

5. BOOKS: I borrow and read children's books to my baby and novels for myself, in Swedish! I read out loud to my husband, who already knows Swedish and can help me improve my pronunciation. No matter what, I have a feeling I'm always going to sound American. 

6. APPS: I've downloaded a 'lexicon' or English-Swedish dictionary for free on my Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S. You can download similar apps on any 'smart' phone and you don't need internet to use it outside of the home. I now can quickly type in any word I need to know while reading the newspaper on my commute to class every weekday. 

7. COURSE: Of course, I cannot go on about learning a language without mentioning the obvious. Perhaps some can learn a language long-distance or just sitting at home. But going to a course has its benefits, especially with developing a social life and learning the knitty-gritty of grammar and structure. 

8. WRITE-AND-COMPARE: I find it helpful to write as much Swedish as I can and when I learn a new word, I'm always comparing it to English. Word association helps a lot!

9. OUT-AND-ABOUT: When I go out, I try to speak Swedish in the shops or in the elevator. When I get into an elevator and there's someone in there, I break the silence with a Swedish comment about the weather, which is almost always, 'Det är mycket kallt ut,' which means, 'It's really cold out!' Some find it helpful to get right into work and practice Swedish with their colleagues or customers.

10. RADIO: Sometimes Swedish people speak so fast, I cannot catch a word of what they're saying. For example, once I saw this old man come out of the elevator in our building and I said, 'Hej, hur mår du?' which means 'Hey, how are you?' And he said something along the lines of, 'blah blah blah ladiladiladida...sjalv?' All I understood was '...Yourself?' Listening skills are just as important as reading and writing. Radio helps. There's even easy radio stations like 'Klartext' which is easy Swedish news radio for beginners.

Happy New Language Learning!

By Rumki Chowdhry

The Brit Writers Blog

NaNoWriMo: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly by Emma Petfield

I have only participated in National Novel Writing Month once (which was 2 years ago now) and I did thoroughly enjoy taking the time to do so. There was a feeling of elation as I hit 50,000 words that cannot be compared to any other achievement.

For those unaware, NaNoWriMo is a challenge set to people, who may or may not consider themselves to be writers, to write a novel in 30 day. For the purpose of the challenge, a novel is distinguished as 50,000 words, which works out at around 1667 words a day.

NaNoWriMo is a good way to break the barriers of writer’s block, not having time or not being focused enough and I learnt from it that if I really focus on something that I could actually write a novel if I wanted to. And I do want to.

On the other hand, I do find that NaNoWriMo can give people a sense of false hope, insofar as they believe having written a novel in 30 days they are publishable. This is highly unlikely. I’ll be the first to admit that even though NaNoWriMo was a milestone for me and I’m proud to have completed it, I wouldn’t dare show anyone the novel that I’d written.

I chose to go over my novel a few months ago to see if it was something that I could pick back up, because I loved the idea and did think that I could produce some good work with it, if I started from scratch and really worked through the plot. What I didn’t realise was that I had walked into a 17 year old mind with a somewhat dubious grip of complex grammar and even the odd spelling mistake (even though I’m an English student, I’m far from excellent and I’ll never be a grammarian). It was quite an experience.

What I can say is that, looking back on my NaNoWriMo novel has helped me to realise how far I have progressed as a writer in that period of time and that I now have the ability to go over my work and edit it to a degree that makes me happy. I also wonder if 21 year old me will go back to the novel again and wonder what on earth the present me was writing, but I’ll have to wait to find out.

I do advise that you try out NaNoWriMo, they run a ‘camp’ all year round if you can’t participate in November. I think it is a useful for understanding yourself as a writer. It helps you find out what makes you tick and motivates you to keep going, because having the motivation to write can be just as important as the words themselves.

by Emma Petfield

The Brit Writers Blog

A Brit Writers interview with Akmal Saleem

Who is Akmal Saleem and what inspired you to set up Brand786?

Akmal Saleem is a young businessman who has a passion for marketing in an ethical and moral fashion.  Leading the line in interactive media and marketing, I set up Brand786 with the mind set of delivering a service which has underlining values, cutting though the ruthlessness and bringing transparency to its customers and empowering them to build solid businesses on sound marketing strategies and innovative campaigns.

What is Brand786?

Brand786 is an interactive media &marketing agency. In essence we are a full service agency that delivers premium creative strategies and integrated campaigns, alongside delivering world class website design & development, creative design & communication, and also creative motion & mobile.

Why did you decide to become a sponsor of Brit Writers’ Awards 2012?

Brit Writers  share certain values with Brand786 which we regard highly. The organisation and its objectives have characteristics which are engaging and forward thinking. Literature and writing is a creative art that deserves recognition and reward and by sponsoring the awards we feel we are doing our part in this cause. Brand786 feels a sense of pride supporting these types of organisations and feels that other organisations outside the marketing & publishing world should follow suit.

How can Brand786 support writers?

Brand786 is currently developing a partner project with Brit Writers which will significantly help writers in their careers and hobbies and will generally enhance this particular creative art. Beyond this, Brand786 can help writers with ebook creative design and personal brand building of writers looking to land that big book deal, with the use of interactive media and marketing.

How important are initiatives such as Brit Writers?

They are imperative. Projects like Brit Writers help break barriers and give people the confidence to be more, the buzz that Brit Writers Awards is creating is great to see and for normal people who otherwise would lead very ordinary lives it is a chance for them to be all that they can be, with no boundaries.

What’s next for Brand786?

The next thing for brand786 is to keep building upon our success and to deliver impactful, heart hitting marketing above and below the line, in a manner that will meet client objectives and be appreciated at the same time industry-wide.

by Akmal Saleem

The Brit Writers Blog

Don’t Feel Shy - The Container is Never Too Full by Bhavna Khemlani

There is no one perfect book and no one perfect writing pattern. In fact, from the past decades up till now, there have been many perfect books and various fantastic writing styles by leading writers. The emerging writers have no doubt a unique skill that does draw attention captivating people from different age groups. Therefore, the whole point here is does knowledge ever end. Is the container ever too full or even over flowing? The answer is obvious – Nah!

I guess every since we were born learning something new has always been a motivation to progress in something. Learning will never end and one’s memory chip is always welcoming new things. Look at technology. It was an unexpected visitor that has conquered our way of learning. It is always important to participate. Participating in different writers group or attending a reading enables one to broaden the creativity in penning down the most difficult thing. A writer should always meet other writers and hear them share their work to awaken any hidden difficulty a writer is facing. In turn, a writer could share his or her work only to make his or her writing piece appealing and ready for success.

Recently, during 5^th – 9^th November 2012, the first ever summit of Asia Pacific Writers & Translators Association in collaboration with The S.E.A Write Award, and the Chulalongkorn University was held in Bangkok, Thailand. Now, if one hears that how should one feel? I was thrilled and simply looking forward to attend it because not much writers gathering occur in Bangkok. There was no contemplation and simply action was needed. I went with an aspiring soul and the entire conference of discussions, panel meetings, and readings (at the Asia Pacific Writers gathering and Bangkok Women’s Writers Group) turned out to be a bonanza. The chain of networking, embracing new ideas, learning more about publishing, editing, translating, and of course how to speak up for enhancement was acknowledged in every way.

These delegates had something common with one another and that was to progress. The budding keenness to unify various writers together making a change was recognized. I participated in a Non-Fiction and Fiction workshop conducted by Matthew Condon. Other members from different backgrounds like me were also available to share and speak about their doubts, new work, creative ideas, difficulties, or even just to listen made the workshop worthwhile. At the end, we all took a jar of classy information back. The constructive ideas and willingness to help does happen if one participates in book clubs, readings, book fairs, meetings, or even a literary fair as this enables the universal talent for writing on any genre possible. Any writer does not feel discouraged and of course there is no bad writing on this planet. It is just that what one writes has a different target audience.

Hence, don’t feel shy and your writing style is amazing. It just needs to be spoken about so you can progress and improve the creative literacy with better terminology. All your so called scribbles are waiting to be shared. So start now at your nearest place!

By Bhavna Khemlani

'About the perfect book' by Cristina A Schumacher

I caught myself wondering what a perfect book - the physical thing we hold in our hands while we read - would look like. I imagined what magic traits it would need to have to hold us helplessly captive in the story it contains, if such traits could be made visible. And this is what occurred to me: with yellowish pages and dirty bottom right corners from being leafed through over and over – after all, it would have been read countless times - the perfect book would not have a single word printed on it. It would be all blank, with the story it tells getting told as it is read. 

The lines – the words, spaces between words, punctuation and identation – would appear as the story developed. With every new line, each reader would have something added to the story that would be told exclusively to them. And there would be something about this book that would make it universal, cozy. Perhaps the fact it's old, perhaps its smell (the smell of second hand bookshops and libraries), or its weight (it's heavy, the story it tells is always long, almost endless). Something about it would make it familiar, because the perfect story at a time sends us back to paths we have all walked in one way or another and shows us a new way of walking those same paths. It's about familiarity and novelty fused together. 

The most attractive stories stay because they interweave with our own – familiar, internal -  story. So the blank old book would be a pocket one we've kept with ourselves for long enough we could even recall how this dot on the cover or that stain on the summary page came to be. The lines get written and read anew. And since good stories are subtle, with the unexpected keeping our attention via carefully strategized intent that counts on the reader's mental acts to be actualized, so the old blank book would be fragile. The reader would handle it with extreme care. They would want to read it to the end, so they could leave it in good blank condition on the shelf again and take their story lines with them, inside their hearts.

by Cristina A Schumacher

The Brit Writers Blog

Brit Writers Blog - 'Fill your Paper..... ' by Danica Worthy

'Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart' ~William Wordsworth

Our hearts are all the same, when I sit down to write I think of all the different people that will gaze, and reflect upon the words I put to paper. I realized I struggled the most when I didn't let the words come straight from my heart. 

I believe to reach beyond barriers we must be authentic, write what you know what you have seen, and what you've learned along the way. Writing, and reading are a transportation devices that will take you to different worlds, it allows you to visualize the many different aspects of life ( how inviting is that). For  as long as I been reading and writing I've noticed that with every page turned, or words written I have been to every content on the map and beyond.

Through writing I've learned that our differences makes us similar, I've learned that we've all have been inspired by writers that have came before us and have left us a blue print to build our own legacies upon. We all have been blessed with stories to tell whether they are our own life story or our imagination opened up like a beautiful flower. Our duty as writers are to put the words from our hearts, and mind on paper and watch as it form new inspiration for the generations to come. I cherish every word that I read, and each connection I make allows me to feel like a universal ambassador.

The beauty of language, and written words, are it's ability to engage us all in some form. Write your hearts words, and open your soul to receive the gifts of the worlds love through literacy. I am writing with you, and I'm writing for you all.

by Danica Worthy

The Brit Writers Blog

Dïn Rose | I´m Not Alone - MUSIC VIDEO CLIP

Just What Do You Write, Anyway? by Jude Austin

Well, it's been a while, but I'm back.  That's the good news.  The bad news is that so is Cy.

Cy: That has to be the longest lunch break I ever took.  What aspects of character creation are you going to make me laugh at today?

None.

Cy: Huh?

Today we're going to be talking about genre writing.  The character creation and fictional worlds is going to have to wait for a bit.

Cy: I don't see why.

Yeah, yeah.  Button it, okay?  I only agreed to let you sit in on this article because there was no one else available.  Why are you here, anyway?  I thought you and James were supposed to be rehearsing that scene in Chapter Two.

Cy: Yeah, but Lunar Eclipse are playing tonight and James got two free tickets to the concert.

What, and he didn't invite you?

Cy: I have a ship and seven hundred and fifty people to manage.  I can't just take off and spend three hours listening to music.  Anyway, we decided to take a short break from rehearsing our scenes.  Us fictional characters need time to relax.  It's not easy working in books, you know.

Try writing them someday.  Anyway, getting back to the subject of writing, when you approach an agent or publisher, it's important to know what genre your book is along with its target market, and to let them know as well.

Cy: Well, duh!

You'd be surprised.  A lot of people miss that out, and if an agent has to guess, they often get it wrong.

Cy: Ah.  You mean this is a screw up you made when you first started approaching agents?

Yep.

Cy: Suddenly I'm interested.  Do go on.

I will as soon as you shut up.  As Cy has so brilliantly deduced, back when I first started submitting to agents—

Cy: —in the days when woolly sheep roamed the Earth—

Um...woolly sheep are still roaming the Earth, Cy.  Well, grazing the Earth.

Cy: Are they?  Well, what are those other woolly things with pointy bits that went roaming?

I think you're talking about woolly mammoths.

Cy: Yeah, well, whatever.  I flunked Natural History at school.

Anyway, I sent off a MS to a literary agency, and forgot to mention that it was targeted at an adult (or at least young adult) audience.  End result: it wound up in the children's section, which promptly rejected it.  Given the amount of violence and profanity in there, this was no great surprise.

Getting back to the main topic though, I guess what I write is speculative fiction.

Cy: Specu-huh-na-what-what?

Speculative, Cy.  Means what if.

Cy: I thought all stories were based around a what if concept.  Otherwise, they'd be history books.

Well, yes, to a certain extent that's true.  Speculative fiction is the science fiction and fantasy version of what if, or the alternate reality version.

Cy: You what?

Busy night, was it?  You're not usually this slow.  Anyway, let me give you a few examples based on my own work or work in progress:

Project Tau

What if...there was a future where cloning people for labor, experimentation and/or hazardous work was a reality?  And what if a young college student suddenly found himself mistaken for a clone and ended up trapped in one of the labs?

Cy: You are, I assume, talking about Kata from the first article?

Yep, that's the one.

Sauria

Everyone knows that a huge meteor hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs.  What if...there was a parallel Earth where that meteor never hit?  And what if humans somehow found a way in there?

Cy: In other words, Jurassic Park without the impossible science?

Not quite.  There's every chance the dinosaurs would have evolved a little, and Sauria tells the story of the human invasion from the dinos' point of view.

Cy: That...hmm.  Given how many kids love dinosaurs, that one could actually be pretty cool.

Thanks.  I try.

Cy: So what was the situation behind my story?  I mean, that's the one which is flying around out there now, isn't it?

Oh alright.  Since I doubt I'll get any peace if I don't put yours up, here:

Nemesis: The Journey Home

What if...a bunch of kids/teenagers in the future found themselves all alone on a ship the size of a city and had to build up their own society?  What if...someone very powerful was trying to kill them for reasons as yet unknown?

Cy: Yeah, no kidding; they don't get much more powerful than the Military.

And what if they fled to our time to hide, only when they returned they accidentally brought the pupils and faculty of a twenty first century school back with them?

Cy: And what if I punched Clarice Henderson in the face!

That's not enough of a what if to build a story, Cy; only an encounter.

Cy: I know that.  It's just a nice little dream I had while she was on board and trying to take control of my ship!  James got to slug her, so why didn't I?

Because James is enough of a gentleman to stop at a single slap, that's why.  You would have put her in the mediwing.

Cy: I might not have.  So...I know which genre my stuff falls into, obviously, but does that apply to the other stuff you're writing as well?

Yes; within the realm of speculative fiction, my work can loosely be classed as soft sci-fi.

Cy: Is that like soft—

No.  To illustrate the difference, let's take a hypothetical situation with a couple of characters who just joined us: specifically Hard Sci-Fi Character and Soft Sci-Fi Character.

Cy: If it's sci-fi, shouldn't their names have a lot more apostrophes and hyphens than that?

Does your name have a lot of apostrophes and hyphens?

Cy: Well...no.

Then neither should anyone else's. 

Cy: Right, right.  What was the name of that planet you invented again?

C'a-hy'ri'n-su'li-'ko.  And I was six at the time, so I was allowed to make amateurish mistakes like that one?

Cy: And you thought it was so cool.  How many apostrophes is that, four?

Five, and I'm not sure I got them in the right places.  I also can't remember if there was a Y in it or not.  Like I say, I was six when I invented that solar system and all the planets in it.

Cy: The others weren't so bad.  Lessee, you had Morl, famous for the white mnerlol trees that grow so fast you can actually see it happening, Katu...I forget what was special about that one.  And that planet that was really one giant diamond.

Segamia, yeah.

Cy: You wouldn't have coordinates for that one, would you?

Forget it; that was part of a collection of solar systems in a separate part of the galaxy.  Anyway, there's nothing on the Nemesis that can harvest diamond.

Cy: There might be.  About eighty five percent of it is still sealed, remember?  There's a whole lot of rooms and stuff on the Nemesis that none of us know about.

Well, there's nothing that can carve a big diamond into smaller diamonds.  Trust me on this.  Now instead of humiliating me, why don't we get on with the article?

Cy: I'm not entirely sure how I'm supposed to do both at the same time, but alright, I'll give it a try.

Good.  Thank you.  Now, let's get back to the difference between hard and soft sci-fi.  So tell me, Hard Sci-Fi Character, how does that time travel technology on your ship work?

Hard Sci-Fi Character: Well, in 2102, scientists discovered a way to harness tachyon particles which, as you know, are the only particles known to travel faster than light.  Upon activation, a chemical is released out of several jets into space that combines with the Hawking particles found only in the Type-Theta radiation discovered in 2152.  The chemical and the Hawking particles mutate to create a kind of super-tachyon particle, which multiply and form covalent bonds with the metal atoms of our ship's hull.  At this point, the ship is carried along with the tachyon particles faster than light, and the end result is that we will travel back in time.  Bit like Superman flying around the Earth that time, remember?  When we arrive at our chosen time, we release another chemical that dissolves the bonds and so we remain in place while the tachyon particles continue on.

Cy: I think my brain just melted.  Hey, why didn't you get me in to do the other one?  The Nemesis can travel in time, you know.

No it can't.  The crew travel in time.  The Nemesis stays right where it was.

Cy: Shouldn't that be when?

Ignoring you.  Alright, Soft Sci-Fi Character, how does the time travel technology on your ship work?

Soft Sci-Fi Character: Push the button.

See the difference?  Hard sci-fi goes into a lot of detail about how something works, while the attitude behind soft sci-fi is more Who cares?  It works, right?  Stop trying to over-analyze and get on with the story.  It's far more about the interpersonal relationships than about demonstrating the author's astonishing grasp of engineering and technological know-how.

Cy: Because some authors don't have engineering and technological know-how.

This is very true.  Hard science bores me stupid; I'd much rather know what everyone's getting up to.

Cy: Do you do any research?

For Nemesis?  A lot.  Since it's set in our own solar system, I had to study maps of the planets with all the named features, along with size, rotational periods, orbits, all sorts.  I also had to study the effects of zero gravity on those suffering it for the first time, along with EVAs and roughly how long a person could survive outside a spaceship without a suit before their head explodes.

Cy: That's an urban myth.  Being out in space without a suit will kill you pretty quickly, but nobody explodes.

Well, I didn't know that at the time, did I?  Anyway, I enjoy studying the solar system.

Cy: Just as well, since you're mostly a sci-fi writer.

Actually, being set in space isn't what makes a sci-fi novel.  As I understand it, for a book to be classed as science fiction, the story has to be dependent on some form of scientific technology that's either not available now, or wasn't available when the book was published.  This doesn't necessarily mean that it has to be set in the future; Star Trek may be sci-fi, but so is The Stepford Wives.

Cy: Are you talking about the original or the remake?

In this case, both. 

Cy: Oh right.  So are we done yet?  I got things to do.

You were the one who insisted on sitting in, Cy.  But yes, I think that about covers it.  For all those still reading, thank you, and I promise faithfully that Cy will not be making an appearance in the next article.

Cy: Hey!  Some of the readers might like me, you know.

Oh...fine!  I promise faithfully that Cy will not be making an appearance in the next article unless people request him.  Happy now?

Cy: I guess...

Good.  See you next time, folks!

by Jude Austin

Brit Writers Blog