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Where’s The Off Switch?

A Facebook comment from Danny Gillan (thanks Danny) on the amount of TV he had watched, prompted this piece of nostalgic nonsense.   I don’t watch telly unless there’s a quality football match on (by quality I mean Manchester United v any set of also-rans). Today’s TV is full of crappy reality shows which bear as much resemblance to reality as my novels, American comedies which are as funny as toothache and American detective shows which are basically all alike, followed by their British cloned counterparts.   And when either Strictly or X-Factor come on, it’s time to bring out my riveting DVD of paint drying in the hall.   Last year, Her Indoors coughed up £700+ for a new telly and I can now switch it off in hi-definition widescreen.   As a writer, however, I have dabbled with the square-eyed monster.   About 15 years ago, working with an independent production house, I dramatised one of my unpublished masterpieces for TV, turning it into a five-hour thriller.   After reading the first draft, the producer said, “It’s good but it’s all over the place. Think about the way they put these things together on telly and you’ll see what I mean.”   “Bit difficult,” I replied. “I don’t watch TV.”   “But you must,” he insisted. “How can you hope to write for TV without watching it?”   In a last ditch effort to avoid the inevitable, I asked, “can’t you tell me instead?”   “No,” he said. “I can’t do that. I never watch TV.”   As a footnote, we were eventually invited to a meeting with the commissioning editors with one of the big UK TV stations and we were assured they would go for the idea. A month later, we were rejected and they nicked the idea for an episode of a long-running drama.

The Ideas Factory

People ask, "Where do you get your ideas?"  Not so often on here, but colleagues and followers on other sites pose the question now and then.   They are a cheap commodity. In any given day I can come up with at least a dozen ideas for novels, shorts, articles, even though I only rarely venture into the latter two. My favourites, the ones I work on most consistently, are those with a background in real life.   Many of you may remember Voices from last year. The hero who was hard of hearing and had his broken foot encased in an Aircast Walker. I am hard of hearing and at the time I wrote it, I had my broken foot encased in an Aircast Walker. Although the cause of my deafness and the broken foot, had nothing to do with a terrorist bomb, I can nevertheless convince the reader of the reality because I experienced exactly the same problems as Chris Deacon.   I'm doing it again with Siren. There are differences between Gil Fieldhouse and me. I didn't have a heart attack. I had an episode that had all the hallmarks of a heart attack. But I did go to Tenerife, avoiding a week of the worst winter we've seen for 30 years, and like Gil, I found the climate and stress-free environment to be the best tonic I've had in years. I did dream of an old colleague who wanted to get in touch with me, and a day or two later, I saw her in our local supermarket. However, she is not dead, and she certainly didn't turn up in our bedroom.   I've said before that when I work on these pieces, I like to take ordinary people and drop them into extraordinary, sometimes frightening situations.  Both Voices and Siren fall into this category. There's nothing remarkable about either Chris in Voices or Gil in Siren. Ordinary men with ordinary lives, doing ordinary jobs, but when we meet them something extraordinary is about to happen.   I read a lot of Stephen King, and he works on the same principle. He just gets paid more. His protagonists are often writers; Jack Torrance in The Shining, Jim Gardner in The Tommyknockers, and lately he's switched to artists; Clay Ridell in Cell and Edgar Freemantle in Duma Key. But for all that they follow what we may consider extraordinary professions, they are nevertheless ordinary men leading ordinary lives, suddenly cast into extraordinary, supernatural circumstances. Sometimes they prevail, other times - Jack Torrance, for example - they succumb.   But King didn't start from there. His first success, still one of his best known was Carrie¸ and she was not ordinary. She was telekinetic.   I didn't start form there, either. In my first venture into the supernatural, The Haunting of Melmerby Manor, the heroine, Sceptre Rand, was not ordinary. She communed with the ghost of her dead butler to help her fight evil spirits.   Does this mean that I'll soon be coining it like Stephen King? I can live in hope.   To drag this post kicking and screaming back to where it belongs, if you're having trouble generating ideas, whether for short stories, articles, novels or poetry, here's what I suggest. Get together with a few like minded individuals in the chat room for a brainstorming session. You'll find that as someone puts forward an idea, it will click with you and you may discover ideas branching from it.   As an example, take Siren. It's intended as a ghost story, but from the opening, it doesn't have to be. It could be a romance, a ménage a trois, a whodunit, a piece of erotica, a comedy or domestic melodrama, evne, with sufficient work. a literary examination of la condition humaine.  A brainstorm in the chat room could do wonders for your creativity. It doesn't have to be a public chat, either. There's nothing stopping you settig up a private chat room for the duration. Give it a try.   Voices is still in the editing process, the opening chapter of Siren is still on Arena Book Chapters, and The Haunting of Melmerby Manor is available as an e-book donwload from <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Haunting-Melmerby-Manor-David-Robinson/dp/0980150663">Amazon</a> and as a download and paperback from <a href="http://www.virtualtales.com/Mystery/Crime/Haunting-of-Melmerby-Manor.html">Virtual Tales</a>.

It's Me Again

You may have been wondering where I've been for the last week. On the other hand you may have been saying "thank god, for a bit of peace and quiet."   I've been busy writing. In the space of this last seven days I have finished two books which have been loitering on my hard drive for the last year or two.   I'm in the final stages of proofing DW's Guide to Holidays, which will go out as an ebook on Smashwords in the near future. Voices is the other one, and it has already gone off to a publisher.   At 118,000 words, Voices is not the longest piece I've written, but it's one of the best, even if I do say so myself. A psychohorror/thriller/sci-fi, it started life, like most of my works tend to, as a consequence of issues in my own life. I'm very deaf, and at the time, I had a broken ankle. How do you get from that to a full length novel?  Well isn't that what we're all about as writers?   It's what I love about writing full length fiction. Take any trivial event in any day of the week, ask yourself "what if ..." and take it from there. The Haunting of Melmerby Manor (plug plug) came about after my wife and I stayed in a seaside hotel which was ten times spookier than Norman's place in Psycho. Every time I left our room and walked to the lift, I kept expecting to see the Grey Lady wielding a machete.   That same hotel gets an oblique mention DW's Guide to Holidays, which hilarious (in my opinion) set of grumbles should be available within a week or two. Watch our for the plugs on this and other sites.   I'm thinking of following it up with DW's Guide to Arthritis, DW's Guide to Marriage, DW's Guide to Movies, DW's Guide to DIY and DW's Guide to Sex (but according to Her Indoors that last one's likely to be more of a pamphlet than a book.)   And talking of health, that's also been on my mind this last week. I'm now getting nerve spasms in my leg, and they're not the pleasant ones like when my knee twitches and I kick some brat up the backside. This feels like someone has stabbed me with a pair of blunt scissors. It's all down to Angie's gramophone. They nicked a nerve when they drilled a hole in my leg. Either that, or Carol has made a voodoo doll of me ... again.   And I've had to take the dog to the vets. He has a bad chest. I think he's been smoking my ciggies when I wasn't looking. Cheeky sod. Why can't he buy his own?   There's no justice. I've just turned 60 and stopped paying for my prescriptions. Now I have to pay for the dog's.

I have No Choice

Bit of an eclectic post this.   First off, they say that English is one of the hardest languages in the world to master ... especially when you're full of ale trying to ask the bus driver for a ticket to Oswaldthwistle.   But if you think that's tough, try printing it out when it's not your native language. If you want a bit of a laugh, try this site, but be warned, you could be on there for hours.   <a href="http://www.engrish.com/">www.engrish.com</a>   Now to the main thrust of my post.   I've worn hearing aids for about 4 years now, and they're not as efficient as they used to be. It's fine when all I want to do is ignore the Memsahib, but when I ordered a pint of mild and a scotch egg and the barman asked me for £55, I knew it was time to get something done about them. (He wanted £3.55.)    Off to audiology I tootled. Can't have the bullhorns on the blink if it's going to cost me money.   I always take a book with me whenever I go to hospitals, doctors, anywhere where I'm likely to have to wait, today was no exception. I took Stephen King's Night Shift a collection of short spooky tales.   Reading the foreword, Mr King detailed how people would ask, "why do you choose to write this horror trash?"  His response: "What makes you think I have a choice?"   He summed up in so few words what's been going through my mind over the last few weeks.   I've had a look at bloglancing: not for me, I've tried nine ways from Sunday to write short fact and fiction: not for me. I've tried all levels of fiction from ribald comedy to plotless linguistic pyrotechnics on la condition humaine: not for me. I've dabbled with how-to books: not for me. I've had a bash at erotica: not for me (I'd rather be doing it than writing about it.) I even tried romantic fiction once: definitely not for me. Poetry: not for me. As you're probably aware, I'm currently writing a biography and that's not really for me, but a deal is a deal and I can't let Nikki down.   I can knock out the odd shorts packed with sledgehammer humour, like my blog posts, and I can kick out the occasional spot on middle aged health, but in both cases, I can only do it as long as it's personal and allows my idiosyncratic brain to leap here there and everywhere.   I always return to sci-fi and/or horror, often with a vein of humour. They are for me, and thanks to Stephen King, I know why. I have no choice. And like Mr King, I don't write to please anyone other than me, because if I don't like it, I'll have no enthusiasm for it, and that will show through, which in turn means readers won't like it either.   Does this mean I'm doomed to writing unpublished works and truck driving for the rest of my life? No. Chances are I'm gonna lose my licence to drive trucks before much longer. But the bizarre worlds and creatures trying to find a way out of my equally bizarre mind will continue to appear here and on other sites in the hope that one day they'll make it to the bookshelves in Waterstones.  (But given their efforts with 100 Stories for Haiti, I'm not sure I want my work there.)   Destined, therefore, to writing this stuff forever, I joined a Facebook group called Music to write by (or something like that). Silence, even when you're as mutt and Jeff as me, is deafening, so I usually need some background music to work with.   I like 60s and 70 stuff, but Abba can be quite distracting when you're trying to work. I can't help thinking about the blonde with the bazookas. So I listen to either classical music or preferably, electronic. Those who read the early draft of Voices, may have spotted my love of Jean Michel Jarre's Oxygene.   One of my favourites combines the two genres.  It's Mussorgsky's Pictures At An Exhibition, which I have by the BBC Philharmonic, but this one is an electronic version first put out in 1975, by Isao Tomita. It's abstract enough to let me carry on working, but has the kind of structure I like in music.   If you want a sample, try this link <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZYUl-ar5BE&playnext_from=TL&videos=6S1dIe6qbfc">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZYUl-ar5BE&playnext_from=TL&videos=6S1dIe6qbfc</a>  The Great Gate of Kiev is the finale of this suite and signifies the artist's ascent into heaven. I find it a moving piece, but this You Tube clip has been married to some staggering images. Listen to it through headphones for the best effect.   Oh, by the way, the lugplugs needed adjusting to take account of my deteriorating hearing. Now I can't pretend to ignore her anymore.

Changes

Morning all, and I hope that wherever you are, mother nature shows her support by varying the weather to suit your mood. It's raining like hell here. A big change from yesterday's sweltering heat, but I'm fine with it because it matches the big changes in my approach to life, writing, etc.   I'll detail the changes in a moment but let me update you on my health problems.   Yesterday, I was at the hospital to see the general surgery bods and surprise, surprise there is no trace of arthritis in my hips (only my knees, which we knew about) and there is no trace of a hernia. So what's causing the pain? No one knows but they've thrown me back to cardiac team on the basis that it only began after the angiogram, ergo that must have triggered it so they can put it right.   In the meantime I'm up a certain creek without any means of forward propulsion. I cannot walk far, I cannot climb at all, and the pain is distracting, all of which means I cannot work until other work is found that may suit my increasing level of disability. Unkind souls always said I was a trucking nutter (I think that's what they said, but with my iffy hearing, you never know) when I was comparatively fit. Sat behind the wheel of a 30-40 tonne truck while less than 50% fit would see me as some kind of doomsday machine.   The hardest part of all this has been coming to terms with it. I can deal with the pain, but it's much harder dealing with the boredom and financial problems that not working brings. So what is need is a change of approach and attitude.   The first step in this change is dropping the Timehopper serial. It was never what you call particularly popular, and it was hard work for very little return. The episodes are all still on my hard drive, and I may tackle it again one day in the future, but it will probably be as a novel.   Next is concentration on Spookies, my fictional team of ghost hunters, which I mentioned last week. Writing novels, of course, is a long and arduous process, so in between times, I'm working on a raft of e-books, all non-fiction, dealing with many and varied subjects (details to follow after the World Cup, provided I have actually written some of them by then.)   Finally I'm looking at affiliate work (bloglancing as it's known in these parts) in one or two "better" areas, to which end I'll be setting up a couple of websites and blogs (details to follow as and when I'm over the shock of Rio Ferdinand's knee and the comparison between what he'll get for his to what I got for mine.)   All this does not mean that I have lost my thermonuclear sense of humour or my apocalyptic cynicism, so the worst of my blog posts will still appear here on occasion.   Stay tuned, the worst is yet to come.

Spanners & Works In Progress

I had one of those days yesterday.   I set out in the morning with grand plans for the day. I had my usual chores to deal with including feeding the dog and then taking him for a walk ... well I say walk, it's more of a limp really. There's currently a debate on which of us is the more clapped out. When we got back there were the pots to wash and the mail to get through. Don't you get sick of shredding bills?   After that it was back to the computer and deal with the emails before tackling the day's planned work. First a birthday boo for my eldest lad who's 40 on Saturday, then back on the podcasting learning curve.   Right then the first spanner arrived to jam up the works. About three months ago I submitted a couple of pieces to a new publisher. One was rejected last week. The second rejection arrived yesterday just as I was getting down to some serious keyboard/microphone graft. In a fit of pique, I dumped the email and wiped the publisher from my bookmarks. I spared the dog his usual kick up the arse because he's not well   Concentration now shot by irritation, I calmed myself down with several cigarettes and an hour playing games on Facebook.   By the time Her Indoors got home from work, I was in a better frame of mind, and that's when the second spanner arrived.   It was from the same publisher. Not only had I submitted the two rejected pieces, but I'd also put a proposition to them on a planned series of novels. I won't go into anymore detail than that for the same reason that I will not name the publisher. Everything is under wraps for the moment.   They want to see a synopsis and the first three chapters of the opening novel.   All right, it's not a done deal, but am I so stupid that I'm gonna say no?   Trouble is it buggered up my plans for the afternoon. I spent the remainder of yesterday reading and proofing the first three chapters, adjusting the layout, writing a synopsis, and it all went off this morning.   As spanners in the works go, gimme the second one anytime.

Boaring

If you can't be bothered reading this, you can listen to it, <a href="http://audioboo.fm/boos/154719-boaring">here</a>   I know the title is spelled wrong. It's supposed to sound like Homer Simpson saying it.   I love writing. I love watching a novel take shape, emerge from my mind and appear word by word, page by page on the screen. But there are times when it is ... boaring.   Right now I'm on the final read through of a manuscript which is due at the publishers today. I'm at that stage where I have written this thing, read it, corrected it, read it again, polished and revised it, read it again and again, changed wording here and there, read it again, cut this, added that, read it again. I've read it so many times that I could almost recite the entire 110,000 words. And it's ... boaring.   But it has to be done.   One of the most vital elements in any work, written, spoken or visual, is continuity. If you make a change on page 10, how does it affect events on page 233? If you decide that a character's name resembles too closely that of a famous person, so you change it, did you catch all instances of the original? You cannot submit a manuscript with Fred Bloggs cast as an electrician on page 13 and have someone bell him for his plumbing skills halfway through the book.   So you read and read and read again until you have it just about perfect.   Boaring.   When the parcel arrives, you open it with feverish hands and take out the contents. It produces a wonderful feeling to see your name on the front cover. I remember when I unpacked my copies of The Haunting of Melmerby Manor. I forgot all the hours slaving over a hot word processor, the trials and terrors, the highs and lows, the success and frustrations that went into it. All I knew was this exhilaration at reading those magical words ... by David Robinson.   The present project doesn't have a front cover yet. By David Robinson is written in Times New Roman on the title sheet, and I wrote it.  That exhilaration is months away.   For now it's just ...boaring.

Kicked The Tyres, Can't Light The Fires

It's six o'clock on a wet August morning. This is the fourth washout summer in a row.   As a younger man, I used to find inspiration in miserable weather like this. Possibly because back then I liked to be out and about and the rain kept me in with nothing to do but roam the landscapes of my imagination.   Not so these days. The imagination is still there. My head is chock full of tales, overflowing with cliffhanger scenes, packed with sparkling dialogue. But the rain seems to dull my desire to put pen to paper ... or fingers to keyboard.   Greg's home from his holiday. Pretty soon he'll be firing up the main engines on Big Bad Media and it won't be long before we're steaming ahead under the thrust of pre-publication warp drive. If you're listening, buddy, Voices still needs another read through from my end, plus whatever input you may have.   Beyond Voices, there are other projects bubbling away under the surface, each one trying to fight its way out of my consciousness and onto the screen. And much of the work, particularly on Voices, needs to be done in the next couple of weeks.   But I'm in the doldrums. I'm finding it hard to muster the energy. My get up and go has got up and gone.   You see? Even my gags are old and stale.   When you work for an employer, finding the spark of motivation is easy. He says, "Do it or you're fired," and you do it. When you work alone, at home, tucked away in that corner designated your "office" there is no one to threaten you, other than the missus, and threats from her are easy to ignore. She never means them anymore than I mean it when I threaten to cut her off at the credit cards.   It's all in there somewhere. Deep down, beneath the indolence and ennui, the fires are stoked and they need only to be lit.   But every time I strike the match, the rain puts it out.   If, like me, you can't be bothered, then maybe you'd prefer to listen to this post. You can do so <a href="http://audioboo.fm/boos/162067-anyone-got-a-light">here</a>

Don Booker Big Bad Media & Me

Today appears to be the big day for announcements, so I'll make my announcement up front.   I'm fed up!!!   Having got that out of the way, here are the other announcements.   I mentioned yesterday that I'd done an interview with Irish author, Don Booker. Well that's up an available on his blog at <a href="http://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/08/author-in-zone-david-robinson.html">http://fbooker.blogspot.com/2010/08/author-in-zone-david-robinson.html</a>   It rambles a bit, but so do I ... mind, it is me talking so ... well you get the picture.   I'm about the eighth author Don has interviewed and some of these people have really interesting points of view on the writing life and publishing process.   The one piece of advice I can give you is make a cup of tea in advance. My interview is so riveting, you won't have time while you're reading it. It's true. My dog couldn't take his eyes off the screen. Mind you, I was working my way though a pork pie at the time, which may have influenced the dog.   Check out Don's blog. He's a man with something to say.   The second announcement concerns Big Bad Media. I keep prattling about them and people going to the site then coming back and saying, "there's nothing there other than this video of a bloke's head exploding."   In response to this I say, "What do you expect for free."   Greg McQueen, the multimedia wizard behind BBM wanted me to star in that role, but I declined. I need my head during the football season to work out my bets. The missus, always one to takes everyone's side but mine, did point out that having my head explode would a) allow her to draw on my insurance, which would solve her financial troubles and b) save me the need to shave again.   I still declined. I don't mind shaving and her financial problems boil down to spending money instead of hoarding it in the Oxo tin under the floorboards.  (Damn, now I've given away the secret, I'll have to find a different tin and a new hiding place.)   Back to the plot.   There is other news on the Big Bad Media site now. It is officially up and running. Visit and you'll find overviews of the three launch titles and the various formats in which they are to be published, and there's even a short bio of people like me and the other talented authors they're working with.   You'll find the latest news at <a href="http://www.bigbadmedia.com/2010/08/28/making-a-splash/">http://www.bigbadmedia.com/2010/08/28/making-a-splash/</a> where you will also find links to the various other sites pages.   Have a read. You'll be glad you did.

Up-ish

Surprising what a difference a can make, innit?   Yesterday I was down and out, today I'm not on top of the world, but I'm better than halfway up.   What's changed? Very little. I got a couple of crits out of the way, had a natter with my union man about getting back to work (as a devout workaholic, I also hold down a full time job, but I haven't been able to work after a cardiac wobble at the beginning of the year). I made some inroads on a non-fiction book, How To Write Horror and I took the evening off to watch an episode of the Beeb's "Sherlock" which I'd recorded when the series ran a few weeks ago.   It's an interesting experiment and oddly enough, I think it works. I'm a purist at heart. I have a full set of Conan-Doyle's original tales, and normally I would consider a 21st century Holmes to be blasphemy of the highest order, but the program is put together well, with tight dialogue and fast-moving action sequences, without losing Conan-Doyle's fine attention to detail and deductive logic. The timing is right, too. The original Watson returned to England after being wounded in the Anglo-Afghan war. This doctor Watson has returned to England after being wounded in the current Afghanistan campaign.   It's rare that I watch TV. In fact if the TV people relied on me for their viewing figures and income, they'd have shut down years ago (hurrah!) The very thought of watching television is enough to have me ranting at the rafters. And yet I watched a couple of hours of telly last night. No wonder the sun's shining this morning.   The holliers are getting closer too. A fortnight Friday I shall climb on back of giant albatross (Traffic, Hole In My Shoe 1967) and fly a couple of thousand miles south for a fortnight in balmier climes (Me, this blog, 2010.)   The packing is almost done. All we really have to do is balance the two cases and two pieces of hand luggage to ensure we come within the 40kg (joint) limit. It means juggling camera lenses here, netbooks there, sunscreen in one bag, shampoo in another, mp3 player in my pocket, mobile phone in the wife's handbag. It's organised chaos but we always get there.   It reminds me of my writing process. I always set up individual folders for each project. Having a scout round the hard drive yesterday, I noticed that Voices, one novel 110,000 words long, files 334kb, has numerous folders and an all up size of 34mb. Everything is in there, from the earliest draft to the final version. And that doesn't count the audio version running to 2.5 gigabytes.   And hopefully by the time I get back from Tenerife, on October 1st, that single file will be on the countdown to launch on an unsuspecting reading public.   One side-effect of this unexpected optimism is a reduction in my pain levels. It's probably psychological. There is no magic cure for my crumbling frame, so it's unlikely to have simply "gone away" but for the moment it appears to be sleeping.   Ah, the joys of looking forward.   If you want to save wear and tear on your eyes reading, this, you can listen to it <a href="http://audioboo.fm/boos/174861-up-ish">here</a>

Novel Blogging

I've started yet another new blog, but it's a bit more serious this time (which is highly unusual for me.)   I'm working on a new project entitled Channels. It's a psycho thriller with horror overtones. As is the custom for me, it places ordinary people in extraordinary situations.   I may post the odd snippet of the book on the blog, but my main concern is blogging the production from typing Chapter One, which I did on November 6th, to etching in those final words The End, planned for January 5th. About two months.   Target wordage is 120,000.   Many of you may ask, "How can you write 120,000 words in 60 days?" It's easy. Remember how Jack Nicholson did it in The Shining? My prose is slightly more varied than repeating, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy," ad nauseum, ad infinitum.   The target completion is for the first draft only, and equates to 2,000 words per day, which is not difficult when your life is as sad as mine.   The blog should chart the highs and lows of getting the work down, then editing, revising, polishing until it's ready for submission in the latter half of next year, when it will go to my appointed editor. Even held at gunpoint, I could not disclose that editor's identity to you, but she's a well-known lady on this site (hello Mo.)   If all goes according to plan, Channels should be available in time for Santa's visit next year. But if all goes according to plan, I shall eat my Y-fronts, to paraphrase Bart Simpson.   If you want to keep tabs on the process of writing and editing a full length novel, you can do so at <a href="http://dawr.wordpress.com/">http://dawr.wordpress.com/</a>   You can subscribe by email so that you get to know when new posts appear. You can also pick up the new posts on facebook and Twitter. And can also comment. As ever, I welcome constructive criticism.   Thank you all in advance for your indulgence.

Flashing on a Friday

From a wintry Oldham I bid you all an icy good morning.   You all know that I'm a serial blogger. I love blogging. Whether I have my writer's hat on or Flatcap's flat cap, I love venting my irritation on the www at large. You also know I'm a book writer. I don't fiddle with short pieces. By the time I get 500 words in, I can usually see a novel or a full-length NF work.   That still holds. I'm currently challenged to turn out 10 novellas and about the same number of short books by the spring. It's hard work. Two weeks into the plan, I'm 20,000 words into the first novella, not a singe word written of the NF books, and I'll be hard pressed to make it. Fortunately, it's not a formal deadline, so if I miss it, the dog gets a kick up the arse and that's it.   But I need a break from the slog now and then, and last week, thanks to our old mate Trevor Belshaw, I stumbled on fridayflash. Basically, you write a short story, no longer than 1,000 words, post it on your blog, then tweet it on twitter with #fridayflash in front of the url. That same url needs shortening, too. I'll tell you where to do that in a minute.   I haven't written short stories for about 10 years, so it was a refreshing change to have a dabble at them today and last Friday. Obviously the stories were written and polished in advance of the day and simply posted to my blog.   Now here's the interesting bit. I took a total of 14 comments on the tale last Friday (2 of them were mine) and that's on a blog that normally gets one or two comments. I wait to see what happens this week, but the tale went up at 7 a.m. and it's already had two comments, one of which, from my dear friend, Mo, was very encouraging. The blog has also picked up two subscribers since I posted these.   You can judge for yourself by going to: <a href="http://dwrob96.wordpress.com/">http://dwrob96.wordpress.com/</a> The posts are preceded with the heading Friday Flash. Today's is entitled Where's Kate and last weeks is Tis The Season to be Jolly.   As far as I can judge, you can use your Writelink blog for them. I post them on Wordpress because it's acting as a marketing site for my books.   For twitter, the url needs to be shortened and you can do that at: <a href="http://bit.ly/">http://bit.ly/</a>

Would You Want Me As A Guest?

Being old-ish, surly, outspoken, grumpy and notoriously tight-fisted means I don't get invited to dinner very often. Usually, it's only at Christmas and they can't avoid me because they're family. Even so, I always get the impression they're glad to see the back of me for another year.   But in other areas, I make the perfect guest: particularly blogging.   Over the last four weeks, I've guest-posted on blogs for Nick Daws, Lorraine Mace, Maureen Vincent-Northam and today, it's Marit Meredith's turn.   What makes me so popular? Well, they're either hard up or I have something to say. I favour the latter reason. Given the size of their contact base, Nick, Lo, Mo and Marit are hardly hard up for guests.   What's the point?   I get free publicity out of it.   What do you mean that's no incentive????   All right. Try this.   If you blog regularly, by which I mean somewhere other than Writelink, and you have a core of followers, no matter how large or small, it sometimes helps revitalise your readership by taking a different point of view. My post on Marit's blog today is a case in point. Marit's excellent e-zine, The Pages, is a showcase for quality writing, covering various topics. My post argues that independent author/publishers can forego many of the rules in favour of producing work the reader wants to read, not what the publisher wants them to read. Like any blog post it should hopefully spark debate. Some of Marit's followers may spread the word, and because I flag the post on a number of social sites, some of my followers may spread the word. Some of my followers may even begin to follow Marit's blog. And I still get free publicity.   It helps that I've been at this game a long time. Whatever mistakes there are to be made, I've made them. I'm still making them, or if not, I'm inventing new mistakes and making those instead.   I can talk about a wide variety of subjects, including fiction, faction, factual writing, the use of photographs, even poetry, which I confess to dislike, but which I sometimes have to dabble in for the sake of my own works.   And throughout any guest post, while I may refer to my works, I don't put in huge links screaming CHECK IT OUT!!!! Instead, at the end of the post, I put a by-line which refers readers to my blog, and my Amazon and Smashwords forefronts.   There's never any obligation on any site owner to accept the piece I put forward and you all know me. I don't take offence at rejection. Everything else, yes, but not rejection. Any post that a blog owner rejects, goes up on my blog.   So if any of you have blogs other than your Writelink pages and you'd like a guest post, leave a comment or email me and I'll see what I can do.   In the meantime, you can read my guest post on Marit's page at: <a href="http://thepagesandfriends.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-post-by-author-david-robinson.html">http://thepagesandfriends.blogspot.com/2011/09/guest-post-by-author-david-robinson.html</a>

Guest blogging and podcasting

Lo asked me to guest blog and you can read the result <a href="http://thewritersabcchecklist.blogspot.com/">here</a> and if you're brave enough, after Greg McQueen asked me, you can listen to me podcasting about e-books <a href="http://www.divshare.com/folder/741167-fdd">here </a>

Manuscript Advice & Proofreading

Well friends, it's a minute or two since I pestered you last and I see no reason why you should get away with it for one minute longer.   My blogger readers (<a href="http://DW96@blogspot.com/">http://DW96@blogspot.com</a>) are already aware of last Friday's events, but for those who don't know, I was rushed into A & E again, this time with breathing difficulties and a fever.   I'm a smoker. I'm no stranger to chest infections. What worried me was the speed with which it came on. I was okay at 9 ‘clock. I felt a bit rough at 10 so I went to bed. By half past midnight, after my wife helped me out of bed, I was waiting for the paramedics.   The problem has kept me off work all week, but fortunately, my employers are patient people. When I spoke to them on Monday morning, they said they had anticipated some residual problems after such a long lay off.   Their patience won't last forever, and because of the COPD, the chances are it will happen again and again and again ... even when I do stop smoking.   Somewhere along the line I'm staring early retirement in the face, which is probably the wisest move except that I'm one of those true, socialist idiots who believed both Labour and Tory muggers - I beg your pardon - governments when they said, "just keep on working and don't worry about your old age. We'll look after you."  I wouldn't trust them to guard a stash of Jelly Babies during a pick ‘n' mix open day.   I have to take steps right now to ensure that I don't suffer too badly when the axe falls.   I write for fun (which is just as well because the amount of money I make is laughable) but I am extensively published and I'm working on one or two deals with BBM which, for the time being, must remain a closely guarded secret. That's why we haven't told the government or any of the Premier League WAGS.   Over and above any skill I may have as a writer, I am also quite adept at editing and proofreading. It truep I p[oofread thish pose be4 I putt it oop.   After judging Novel Beginnings I realised that many writers make the same mistakes in their manuscripts and that someone should be offering to point them out. So why not me?   I've spent the last month or more researching the idea and putting it together and I am now offering two separate services via my website.   First, proofreading. I will check your manuscript and correct errors in spelling, punctuation and grammar.   Second, manuscript advice. In addition to the basic proofreading, I will offer advice on rewording, rewriting, changing word order, changing sentence and paragraph order and highlighting what I perceive as plot weaknesses.   Neither service is particularly cheap, but they are both competitively priced. Because of the minimum charges they are not particularly suited to short pieces. Both services are offered through email only. No hard copy, and I don't offer copywriting or typing services.   There are plenty of fine manuscript advisory and proofreading services out there, but unlike many of them, I'm a one man band. I have my own work to contend with and there are only so many hours in a week, even for a workaholic like me. So if you're interested you need to email me on <a href="mailto:DWrob96@aol.com">Dwrob96@aol.com</a>, with details of the service you require and the size of the project in question. I'll get back to you from there.   My rates are spelled out on my website, at <a href="http://www.dwrob.com/">www.dwrob.com</a> and you'll find links to both services to the right.   Do you need manuscript advice? I'll answer that question with a question. Which of these two sentences is the better?   She was silenced by a surreptitious kick on the shins.   A surreptitious kick on the shins silenced her.   You'll find the answer two thirds of the way down the page at this url. <a href="http://www.dwrob.com/adv.html">http://www.dwrob.com/adv.html</a>   Do you need proofreading?   The following paragraph has a number of errors.  Can you spot them all?   Its christmas a time of year that has it's own specail magic. Knights are drawn in the air is definately colder, but the streets are lit with winter illuminations while Christmas trees and shop windows are festooned with multicoloured décor. Childrens' eyes too light up with the joy of this happy time.   If you get most of them, your proofreading is probably good. If you find less than half, then you may need an independent reader. If you find none at all, then you definitely need a reader.   You'll find the corrected paragraph at <a href="http://www.dwrob.com/prf2.html">http://www.dwrob.com/prf2.html</a>   This is not a hard sell. I'm not trying to flog you a mobile phone or persuade you to change gas/electricity suppliers. Neither am I trying to shore up my wallet out of yours. I am offering a professional service at what I consider a professional price.   And just to prove it, I'll offer Writelink writer members a 20% discount between now and the end of the year. Just quote your Writelink handle and I'll cut you an offer you can't refuse.

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