Yesterday was the most perfect day. It should be Autumn but in fact it felt like early summer. Warm enough for rolled up jeans and short-sleeves. It would have been the hardest thing in the world to sit in the house with the laptop, reading through the track changes suggested by the editor. So of course I didn’t do it.
I’ve not been able to get into the vampire in literature thing. Not in any way. Whilst I enjoyed the splendour of the Masked Ball in Van Helsing, much of the rest of dracule-infested life left me for dead, if you’ll pardon the pun!
I have just finished reading the Pillowbook of Sei Shonagon. The book dates from 1000 years ago when the art of writing – calligraphy – and the art of writing – poetry and story – were desired skills, like playing an instrument, painting or embroidery were in western culture. Not only that, the art of both sorts of writing was considered a required accomlishment. Sei Shonagon was a part of the imperial court: a witty, intuitive woman with a sharp eye and an ability to translate her observations into simple words that charm and beguile. The Pillowbook is a journal and I realised it is the sort of journal I would like to write; as if I am picking up a brush and painting a picture of my day.
Today on writer unboxed (http://writerunboxed.com/2010/05/10/are-you-really-going-to-post-that/) the discussion ranged over the issue of what to post and not post on blogs, on the assumption that one wishes to be seen as a credible, polite author with a ‘clean’ profile. The comments were wide, ranging from old adages to actual experiences.
There is no doubt that the publishing industry is changing. The best agent blogs in the business are constantly indicating this. Writers forums too are saying the same thing: the industry is tightening up, its developing to become fully competitive in a digital age. Its squaring up to fight e-books, POD, self-publishing and whatever else will be thrown at it as technology leaps ahead with the speed of light.
Recently Rachelle Gardner (http://cba-ramblings.blogspot.com) talked about writing and being a writer. She said: “It’s a lifestyle. It permeates your life, even if your life is already full with a career and a family and whatever else you do. Authors need to educate themselves about publishing (by reading agent blogs, following Twitter, reading books about the industry) because today, it requires that kind of savvy. It also helps if you network with other writers, because it puts you in touch with others going through the same frustrations, people who understand what every little victory means in a way that a non-writer simply can’t. There’s so much to learn about writing great books and crafting effective queries and marketing yourself via the Internet.”
And I reflected on how much my own life is dominated by writing. Firstly it is something I think on constantly. Whether I am in the bath, cooking meals, doing housewifely things, I am thinking about the next stage in the WIP (The Shifu Cloth). 
The only time I don’t think about it is when I am walking the dogs (I am very much in the moment then), when I am gardening (ditto) or generally in the outdoors. Husband and self have a farm and when we are busy with stock, fencing or whatever, my mind is a long way from the WIP, which is just as well as accidents do happen.
The promotion of current publications has, as Rachelle also says, taken masses of my time. Facebook, Twitter, blogging. A blog event recently swallowed me whole!
Then there is reading. I love to read. I enjoy detailed historical fiction, even though I am a fantasy writer. I read a number of books on the craft of writing but I don’t read as much as I would like. At the close of a day I am tired, any spare moment is used to sculpt and create my own work and when I crawl into bed, I can barely read two lines let alone two chapters.
When I do have time in the ‘office’, I do any number of things. Perhaps I read what I have written. Perhaps I edit a manuscript that is in the process of assessment in London (A Thousand Glass Flowers). Perhaps I note down more in my file on the world of Eirie, the fantasy world I have created.
Perhaps I add to my character files. The best days are the days I just write free-form. Letting the WIP move on toward a conclusion. Inevitably the week is over and being a writer HAS dominated my life. I think it, breathe it. Gad, I even sweat it . . . so much sweating. Hoping, praying, waiting . . . so much waiting!
Rachelle finished her blog by saying . . . ‘the fact is, the way to succeed as an author is to make it part of your daily life, part of who you are. It really does take that kind of mindset.’ Well I have certainly made it a part of my daily life. But success is a whole other issue and perhaps success is a relative term anyway.
This is the first chapter of my W.I.P. It is unedited and raw and I offer it up for any comment. It takes place in the secretive Han province in the fantasy world of Eirie. Prue Batten © 2010
Chapter One
I am trying so hard to motivate self to click on my writing file and begin to re-read as much as I have written of The Shifu Cloth. The trouble is that I have a velvety voice in my ear right now. He’s telling me the story of Venetia and I am hard-put to think that reading my own un-edited prose would be better.
The idea of holding a blog event would have sounded quite odd to me twelve months ago. 
That long ago I was only just coming to terms with Facebook and LinkedIn, followed by the dreaded 140 characters of Twitter. But on the lookout for ways in which to reach a readership, I came across ‘how to make a book-trailer’ on Nathan Bransford’s blog. Of course I couldn’t on my own, because technology and I don’t speak in the same language and so my brother (who runs a production house) did it to my brief. After that I felt ‘challenge’ biting at my heels and on reading all my favourite historical fiction blogs, came across the amaaaaazzzing vvb32 who seems to run brilliant events on a weekly basis.
Absolutely knackered after the Ball! My age is showing and thus you shall have to forgive me and allow me to sleep, rest and re-gird my loins for further blogs in the future. I shall return anon.
