Beating a retreat with a dog-eaten manuscript

Ah yes - 'tis nearly December and we are preparing for the annual pilgrimage to Mallorca.  This will be the 15th consecutive year that Dave will have worked at the International School - Queen's College in Genova near Palma.

It is also going to mark the 10th anniversary of the first draft of "the dog book", a manuscript that has been revised more times that I can remember without yet reaching publication.  It shall be accompanying us on the journey again and hopefully this time it will emerge as a beautiful butterfly.

Why is is that some books just don't seem to ever be finished?

It began as an autobiography but the character of "Sandy", the naughty Labrador Retriever, rather took over.  It evolved into episodes told by the canine protagonist where he is forever duping his humans in his eternal quest for food.  We paid for a professional edit way back in 2007 (I think) but the work needed just didn't appeal and so it lay in a dusty cupboard until 2011.

2011 saw a brief and hasty re-edit of early episodes in an attempt to release a canine ebook to tie in with the release of the music album and "Poo on your Shoe" video.  It even had photos of a neighbour's dog to stand in for Sandy (thanks to Lewis, Sue and the wonderful Hugo).  Dave was just not happy to send it out there so back to the cupboard it went.

In the course of its evolution, we have lent many people sample chapters and received favourable feedback.  One of these fans sadly will never read the final book as she passed away this year, still only in her twenties (stupid cancer!).  I feel it would be appropriate to dedicate it to her when it is completed.

Anyway, tally-ho to the retreat we go!

Publications that don't fit standard Genres

If your book does not fit into any of the marketing pigeonholes for age range and genre, you are even more likely to have your manuscript rejected by publishers.  The Itinerant Poet's latest creation will definitely fall in this gap so we are not even considering submission of the manuscript.

When a writer has a eureka moment and the muse is riding high, I don't believe it is possible to deny the creative urge: a book is begging to be born.  The decision needs to be made to commit hundreds of hours work to its production - it is not for the faint-hearted.  So, why should it matter that no one will publish it?

There has been much coverage in the media of the extent of mental illness in adolescents and adults.  Often the sufferers go undiagnosed and untreated because they feel the condition to be a social stigma.  There are obviously too many other related issues to consider in this post but the topic came up in conversation between the Itinerant Poet and myself about what we might be able to do to help children avoid sliding down the slippery slope.  What could we do to help children manage their lives so that they learned how to be happier and more content?  A book is born!

Further inspiration came in the form of a post by the Canadian blog Collective Evolution entitled Ten simple things that you can do today to make you happier backed by science.  The post was obviously aimed at adults but made us think that we could use it as a basis for a self-help publication for children, in the more palatable form of fiction, that could act to prevent the slide to begin with.  So we did.


The finished product needs one more edit and a few illustrations but it looks good.  I just can't decide which cover to go for.  However, there is only one way to offer it to the world...self-publishing!

The Big Warm Shed

Once again, the above book was created in the warm seclusion of Son Antem near Llucmajor in Mallorca.  Our annual pilgrimage extended to four weeks in November and December.  The lack of responsibilities and every day chores freed up the creative juices.  The first draft was completed on the final day.

Further editing has been done in the rather cooler climes of Cheshire.  For economic reasons, the Itinerant Poet does not switch the heating on when he keeps to his early morning rising as per the Central European Time Zone.  Hence he has been at the dining table from about 6am each chilly morning.  He definitely finds it more difficult writing back in the home environment.  In our new house, there is no studio to escape to so the small hours are the only quiet times of isolation when he can shut out the rest of the world...and the household.

Home Education and the Teenage Years

Home-educated or not, there is no doubt that the teenage years can be very challenging - both for the teenagers and their parents.  The children are emergent adults and wish to take more responsibility for themselves, it is just not always in the direction parents may wish.  At what point do you stop trying to guide them according to your experiences and let them make their own mistakes?  I don't believe there is any REAL text book for being a parent, you just have to fly by love, instinct and your own upbringing.

We continue to pursue IGCSE Geography and Physics with our two teenagers.  It is difficult sometimes when the desire to create worlds on Minecraft or trade horses on Howrse outweighs the appeal of text books.  These are the only computer games we allow access to and we try to strike a fair balance between the two.  However, it never happens without a bit of animated discussion!

Recently, I found some solace and re-balancing of my own approach when I stumbled across the video by Logan Laplante - a home-educated 13 year old boy in the U.S.A. - that has accumulated over 4 million views.  It is well worth watching and made me think again about what makes children happy versus what makes adults happy.  There are plenty of areas for consideration and discussion so take a look...

Breathing new life into old manuscripts

December is the most productive time in our year.  We take ourselves off to our retreat on the glorious island of Mallorca and work our socks off for a few weeks!  Only when we are away from the telephone and the mundanity of everyday jobs can our minds be free to create.  What we produce will be finalised following our return and published in appropriate formats.

This year, we have at least four projects to work on.  One of these may be submitted to publishers or agents for consideration which is something we have not bothered doing for years.  However, the idea is extremely sound and is worth a go...or so we think at the moment.

Of the other three, two involve the resurrection of long-dormant manuscripts.  "The Dog Book" will be the main focus.  It has nearly been published under different titles and guises for about ten years.  Each time, the Itinerant Poet has decided it just wasn't quite right.  We even came close on a publishing deal on one occasion but apparently "episodic fiction wasn't in".

The second project is actually one of my own little indulgences.  I am going to epublish the Itinerant Poet's first children's novel.

In the Shadow of J.K. Rowling

We self-published "Leo's Magic Shoes" way back in 1999, long before the advent of digital printing and seamless use of "save as PDF" in Microsoft Word.  Back then, the files were converted for Pagemaker 5 before the local printer scanned in the images for us, produced the cover design and created the plates for the litho run.  The minimum run was 1,000 copies too!  It was not cheap.

Publishers were not interested in the manuscript.  The industry was in a Harry Potter feeding frenzy and a cute little story with mere magic shoes was not enough to sate its hunger especially as it was submitted by someone without a suitable sponsor to encourage anyone to lift it out of their slush pile.  We sold out of the 1,000 copies that same year and printed more.  We have long since sold out of those.

We re-released the book with some revisions, new illustrations and a new title to try to appeal to American publishers but alas to no avail.  We still managed to sell all of those 1,500 copies too.  The book has always been popular with children even though the adults selecting what they should be offered did not think it would be.

Digitally re-mastered

What has inspired me to bring it back?  The Itinerant Poet recently visited one of the first schools at which he worked in the late 90s, in the local village where we lived at the time.  The school bought five copies of the book.  In 2013, they were all still in regular use albeit looking a little dog-eared.  The children at the school today have no idea that the characters within were based upon my two eldest children who used to attend the school (they are now 23 and 21) and yet the appeal of the book endures.  Three of the books were "retired" as the spines had disintegrated but the other two live on...for the moment.  Their eventual demise is what moved me to consider creating a digital version for the digital age (hmm...that sounds a bit corny).  I don't want to see the book die out.

I may produce colour images for the inside pages.  This will involve doctoring the originals that were created in black ink by the artist Kirsty Munro.  I also have to hope that the original scanned TIFF files have not become corrupted or I will have to dig the hand-drawn copies out of the depths of the loft.

I may offer the finished article as a complete freebie on Kindle...

Chocolate Temptations

The original book contained a second, shorter story entitled "Another Quarter Pound of Chocolate Drops, please!"  The temptation to produce this as an additional publication may just prove too much for me!

Stress, Creativity and Balance

I can hardly believe it has been so many months since my last post.  The reason is quite simple: stress and creativity do not mix!  Our family has been in upheaval during the protracted process of a house move - a relocation to a completely different region of the country.  There is a good reason why reports list house moves alongside death and divorce in the stress top three.

The Itinerant Poet has been unable to write a single line.  The school Summer break meant that there were no school workshops and normally we would have been travelling and writing at the same time.  However, now we are beginning to settle in our new location, the levels of anxiety are diminishing and the resumption of school visits is restoring balance.  He has not found his new "shed" yet but we will wait and see.  Meeting colourful characters living on canal boats on the nearby waterway are proving to him that inspirational fellow eccentrics are always out there...somewhere!

Furthermore, we have booked our annual pilgrimage to the wonderful island of Mallorca for our Winter of creative output (unlike Chopin and George Sand).

 Ideas are beginning to sprout from tiny kernels deep inside the mind and now we have two major projects to complete in the four week period of our stay.

Much like writer's block, I think the best course of action in the face of stress is to let time pass and think upon the fact that life does come back into balance, although it may not be quite the same as it was before.  I try to avoid using cliches but I take a few deep breaths and trot out the occasional one to myself as its mundanity seems to have a calming effect upon me: "It's all part of life's rich pattern."

Fighting on the Home Education Front

Another couple of successes on the IGCSE front mean that our two teenagers are piling up a stack of useful qualifications.  The nearly 16 year old is now looking to her future in the world of further education and employment.  The past year and a bit has allowed her to develop her enduring passion for animals, in particular horses.  You can imagine the conversations we have had regarding aims matching abilities but in the end, the decision is hers - guided by us (hopefully).

She may take an early gap year from 16-17 if the recent changes to UK law allow.  She intends to work and the job will involve elements of training so I am hoping that will suffice - more research needed though.

I am really keen that our children are indeed passionate about what they choose to do so that they can be happy when they are doing it.  I don't mean walking around with a smile on their face every day but that they have a sense of contentment in their chosen path.  It is looking increasingly like 'A' levels are going to be necessary for our daughter to achieve the entrance requirements for the undergraduate course in "Veterinary Physiotherapy".  This also means that she will be going to an educational establishment for the first time in her life.

The balance in her life is changing - I hope we can support her through the inevitable stresses through to a new state of equilibrium and help her to retain her evident creativity.

The Importance of a Writer's Retreat

Where is your shed?

In order to self-publish anything what do you need first of all?

• you need to write some material
• you need to be in the right frame of mind to create that material
• you need as few other responsibilities as possible to distract you from your creative task

Finding your own retreat in which to accomplish this feat is a a challenge in itself.  Some writers have sheds, others have lofts, 19th Century poets had garrets in Parisian suburbs. My Itinerant Poet's favourite haunts are cafes and hotel lobbies with the occasional wild rural setting if the former are not available.

Our current, and oft visited retreat is in Mallorca.  While the UK is a frozen wasteland, we enjoy milder temperatures of 15 degrees Centigrade and the most amazing light.  The warmth seems to awake the creative juices.  We never have "just a holiday". 

The backlog of poetry to be edited and re-typed is considerable and has been demanding attention for at least a year.  The book of school poems awaits my illustrations.  We both work every day for at least five hours on these projects in addition to the deluge of emails requesting workshop bookings.

Here, there are no phone calls, no door bells, no DIY jobs looking at you.  The villa is cleaned everyday by smiling housekeepers.  Emails can be dealt with in due course.  In short, there is freedom to think and create.  Here is where we produce 90% of our creative output and it is essential to our business.

Home-ed Shed

The children's home education runs more smoothly here.  Without the domestic distractions and commitments, as parents we can dedicate more time to giving them intensive tuition.  They progress faster than at home in the Winter.

The benign climate is a contributory factor.  Nature walks reveal hoopoes, red-legged partridge, feral cats and the occasional wild Mediterranean tortoise.  The on-site spa pool, floodlit tennis and scope for uninterrupted rollerblading add to the attractions.

We are currently preparing for IGCSE English Language in June 2013.  It is actually quite interesting to analyse passages from the Edexcel Anthology because it forces me to carefully consider everything I write, from brief emails to blog posts.