AmazonClicks.com launched this project in September and already have writers from across the USA, Europe, India and Australasia.

We are still welcoming writers who wish to take part in the unique project to collaboratively write a Novel in one year starting January 2009.

Royalties from the finished book will be shared equally by the writing team and given the huge scale and international scope, major interest is expected when it is released.

Full details about the project including how to apply are available at www.AmazonClicks.com.

If you've got what it takes to work in collaboration, take a look and see how it will be accomplished!

Pete

Well, it has taken a little while but I now have pictures I feel I can actually use on my blog (thank you Yitz Wolf for the wonderful B&W pics!) so now I can reveal all.

I couldn't even begin to think about planning my book launch party until I knew I had enough books in the country to be able to sell them - it is interesting that I had to think of the launch as part-celebration, part mass-marketing opportunity, which was quite strange, pulling in two directions......

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This is my first book, I'd appreciate some objective reviews as I'm trying to get published.

TREKKING THE PATH

Michael Smith © 2008

Synopsis

This is the true story of a spiritual journey combined with a very real adventure across the Great Himalayas. A journey on foot that began in Dharamsala, Northern India, home of His Holiness Fourteenth Dalai Lama, as well as that of the author. The journey took the form of a 21 day trek across the Kashmir Valley and into the remote area of Zanskar, traversing nine passes all above 4000 metres and ending in the city of Leh, Ladakh. I undertook this journey accompanied by my girlfriend, two guides and several pack horses. The story describes the hardship of high altitude trekking and makes parallels with Buddhist philosophy, describing both the scenery and the mental and physical difficulties experienced over the duration of the trek. Experiences are also drawn from my earlier visits to India that provide the basic background that leads to this particular journey.
I retired from a successful business in the U.K in March 2006 to live in Dharamsala and study Buddhist philosophy. With hardly any trekking experience, and with some reluctance, I decided to undertake one of the most difficult and physically demanding treks in India. The story begins with a chance meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama and interlaces experiences of Buddhist philosophy, a three month long meditation retreat along with the physical and mental demands of high altitude trekking in one of the most scenic and remote areas of the world. It is a unique journey of discovery and adventure including, exhaustion in a snow storm at 18,000 ft, meeting a wild Yak that literally rescued me and showed our party the way down from a high altitude pass through a snow storm, how we encountered a snow leopard, climbed a remote glacier and swam in a freezing high altitude lake.
Learning about Buddhist philosophy is one thing, applying it to every day life and especially the hardships of trekking is a completely different ball-game; this is the story of that ball-game.

Talking about Nathan Bransford's Worst Advice a friend - a published children's writer who lives in Europe and who's also an experienced bookseller - said this:

"I know certain people locally, who are writing children's books. Some of these people have got 4 blogs and websites each. But they don't have the published work to back it up. They put masses and masses of effort into networking and publicity but they treat the book itself as secondary. One of them had a bullet-pointed to-do list for the year which went something like: 'Approach agent. Get agent. Approach publisher. Get publisher. Get book translated. Sell European rights.' I've read her book and it needs an awful lot of work before she's close enough to send it out. These are also people who 'don't have time' to read children's books. I find this terribly depressing. It's as if they think they deserve publication just because they're so determined to get it - not because they've taken the time to make the actual book good, or because they've bothered to find out what they don't know about the publishing process (such as if you get an agent, they'll sell the rights for you) and fill in the gaps in the knowledge. Maybe they've had some bad advice in their time - I don't know."

I suspect they have had some bad advice, but I also suspect it's a cultural thing, which stems from the combination of the Protestant work ethic - that hard work is always rewarded - and the conviction that you don't get anywhere unless you set yourself a goal and then work towards it.


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Ah, you can always tell when Christmas (arrggh! The "C" word, so soon - many apologies indeed ...) is nearly upon us when we hear tell of the first of the Christmas hunk calendars - so here's to the lovely Toronto firefolk (see full post for links) who are A1 cute and also supporting a good cause, so get buying, people! I'm planning one for me and one for Mother ...

And my eyebrows were further raised today by the realisation that the good people at Macmillan Publishers paid a visit or two to my website yesterday. Well, goodness me indeed. It's not often I can put myself in the same sentence as a mainstream publisher, you know (well, never, actually ...) so I cannot pass on the opportunity to do so now. As you can see. And this year is turning out to be a record year, as I think from memory that Penguin visited in the summer. Gosh indeedy. I'm hoping I can make it into a bumper season and catch a third. Votes on Harper Collins anyone? What a triumvirate that would be! Mind you, as they're probably only popping in for lessons in how not to be (a) a proper author, or (b) a viable option, then perhaps I don't need to get my best dress out just yet ...




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As you can see from my fancy new blog logos, I am delighted to announce my Virtual Book Tour, part of Salt Publishing's new Cyclone programme.

The "Walking the White Road: flash, fiction and science" tour will kick off on October 28th on the Keeper of the Snails blog, and then wend it's away around the world, from the UK to the US, Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand, ending up at Thoughts from Botswana at the end of December. Much more than I could ever have done in person, without being exhausted and bankrupt! The idea is that each tour date will cover a different aspect - of writing, of my stories, of the writing life, of the fusion of science and art, etc...

Click on the image above to go to my Cyclone tour page for details of all the blogs and tour dates. More information on tour topics and the participating blogs very soon.

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Woke up this morning with a strange kind of shooting pain in my right shoulder and the usual (well, usual since the op) numbness in my left. All very odd. It’s as if my shoulders have decided that, rather than share the burden between them, they’re each going to go for opposite ends of the pain spectrum. So today I am distinctly lop-sided – hmm, so, once again, there’s no change there.

Had a lovely time on the way to work – I’d got bored with Radio Two (didn’t like the song – I’m never bored with Terry W!!) and switched to Classic FM. Still bored – I hate the morning presenter. So I went over to my usual third choice of Radio Three. It was piano music, which I’m not a particular fan of (I’m a big orchestra kind of girl, you know …), but I kept it on as it was relatively pleasant. A few minutes went by and I found that (whilst paying due attention to the road conditions of course!…), I was listening with great attention, and that in fact the piece I’d assessed as “relatively pleasant” was actually totally charming, beautifully understated and curiously gripping ...


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The writing group last night was all about words. All about writing. Not about proofing anthologies or stressing about printers or money. And it was brilliant. As brilliant as putting out anthologies of the group's work is (and that is brilliant) you can't beat what it's there for - and that's for writers to get together and share their work, and help others with their own.

I am looking forward to the reading night we'll be doing next month though, I must admit.

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Dear Kitty,

I love you. I thought you were mine alone.
But now I hear something about you being nominated in the Manchester Blog Awards

I’m stunned. Who are these people? What do they know of your witty fonts or your enchanting hypertext links or the way your hair curls over your polo neck just so?

I don’t want to share you. I can’t. I won't. Not after what happened with my last girlfriend.

So I’m afraid it has come to this: give them up or the dog gets it.

Your No 1 Fan



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There are generally three levels of block encountered by writers and other creatives.

All are relatively easily curable - permanently.

The first type of block you may encounter is where your creative juices temporarily dry up. It can happen on one of your book writing sessions or when you just have to get that sales proposal out or that blog written.
You can sometimes just run out of ideas. Your Creative Muse has left you.

Don't fret, it happens to all writers.

Just take a break, make a cup of tea or ideally go for a walk. Don't think about what you are writing, just pay attention to where your consciousness lies. Is it in the front of your head? If so move it back to the centre - to your third eye. Remember to use your dream-time too. These are techniques explained more in the workshop and home study course.

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