This meme has been going around for a while and when I first saw it, I shouted: Pick me! But nobody did, and I forgot all about it. You might ask why I wanted to be picked? Promotion, yes, but also being in a loop with a group of writers whose work and blog posts I like, and many of whom I have got to know in real life to find we were on the same wavelength. That wavelength I think has to do with not giving up, working on one’s craft, being playful, and knowing that being proactive and giving forward beats many of the so-called “expert” PR strategies. Writing isn’t about me; it’s about my take on the world, a take that just might touch you, give you something. By articulating my fears, hopes and dreams, I can see more clearly what I and my work are about. So it’s a win-win, I reckon.
Anyway, back to the meme I’d forgotten about.
When out of the blue, Pat Jourdan emailed me to ask if I wanted to be a loop in that lovely bit of wool going round the world, looping writers together to share their hopes and dreams for their NEXT BIG THING, well, how could I refuse? My first answer was: It’s a book! I must confess that I’m prone to inking before thinking. I was up to my ears in stuff at the time, and still am, and had again soon forgotten.
Pat’s reminder came. Crikey! What do I have to do? Where do I have to post? How? Eight questions! I haven’t got time. But I’d said yes! And it was the inimitable Pat Jourdan who’d picked me. How could I renege? No way!
Pat, whom I met in 2008 in a Youth Hostel room we were sharing in Cork while attending the International Conference on the Short Story in English asked me the following eight questions and you can read my answers here on her blog.
1 Where did the idea come from for the book?
2 What genre is the book?
3 What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a film?4 What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
5 How long did it take to write the first draft of your book?
6 Who or what inspired you to write this book?
7 What else about your book might pique the writer’s interest?
8 Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
I asked several writers to come on board; some were up to way past their ears, others had participated before, and some had their doubts – I can’t fathom why.
So now I’m particularly pleased to be passing the strand of wool on to Adnan Mahmutovic in Sweden, Annie Evett in Australia, and Alan McCluskey in Switzerland. I met Adnan at the Short Story Conference in North Little Rock last year and he contributed a prizewinning story to the charity anthology, New Sun Rising: Stories for Japan, that I co-edited in the final stages with Annie Evett, who I am proud to say will publish my forthcoming collection, Mercury Blobs, through Raging AardvarkPublishing in Australia. Alan is a novel writer and a fellow member of the Geneva Writer’s Group.
Stay tuned for their answers. What a ride it’ll be. There’s nothing like Link Love!*
*Link Love is what Annie calls it. Guess that sums it all up for me.
I though I was the last, too. Sorry I didn’t ask you x I love that you wrote “barf”. Made my day. Nothing like a bit of whale barf to set you up!
loving it up across the miles.. Link love.. yep.. sums it up..
SO sorry I didn’t ask you! I was afraid of bothering people etc. Rushing over to Pat’s now to read your answers. N x