Monday, December 29, 2008

I need....

Have been debating the wisdom of posting unpublished (Unpublishable?) work on the sister blog to this one. I have a serious catalogue of work; two completed novels of over 100,000 words, innumerable short stories and several screenplays but the problem as always is getting it read. All my submissions seem to be languishing in various publishers 'slush piles'. No one critiques work unless you pay them, and you can't trust relatives / friends to read your output because they will always try not to hurt your feelings.

What with all the lack of response it's pretty hard not to want to pack it all in. Perhaps there's a service for those wanting to rid themselves of the writing compulsion. Get this damnable aspirational monkey off my back. On second thoughts, no. Without that derangement I wouldn't be me, and that's not going to happen without double electroshock and a prefrontal lobotomy.

There's only one thing for it; a letter writing campaign. I'll start with this one;
Dear Santa,

For my extra special Christmas present I would like to engage the services of a really first class agent. Please. I've been
ever so good.

It's worth a try.

Monday, October 06, 2008

Autumn

Fall has begun, the Maple and Birch are turning, and the time has come around to restart hawking my 130,000 word manuscript around the publishers. Not a prospect I care to face, but an unsold manuscript is just so much wasted time. So sell I must.

While the long wait for publisher replies continues, the realities of life intrude, and a day job must be found. To this end I have enlisted on a month long programme which I hope will help me land a full time job in this new land. Have spent the past week simply on establishing what kind of career I am truly suited for. Four separate personality assessments have been completed; Myers-Briggs and three others. The supreme irony is that they all said more or less the same thing, I'm a Computer Technician who has an aptitude for Technical Writing. Which is more or less how I used to make gainful employment in the UK before the ageism kicked in and younger and much cheaper people got hired way ahead of me. Ended up scraping the bottom of the barrel fixing Printers and working cheap. Financially, it was getting pretty desperate. I can only shudder when I think of those times.

Now after a massive leap of faith, both Angie and I are enjoying life here in Canada. We have made our mark locally and hope to continue to do so.

The new Museum is up and running, and as soon as David the Curator comes back from a three week lecture tour in Alaska of all places, I'm sure we'll be getting phone calls to help out with further reconditioning and cataloguing artefacts. Angie has acted as an informal educational consultant for the new schoolroom exhibit, and I think my next project will be on the Coal mine or First Nations displays.

The Diver hanging up in the rafters is my latest contribution, and seems to work quite well, although if I'm asked to do another 300 shelf liners I might be tempted to demur.

Pleased to say I have just bagged a new project for the Tetra Society to adapt a controller for a clients mechanised bed, and am told by my Red Cross friends that they want to hire me, although I have to wait for another five days for the vacancy to be pushed my way. Apparently my application has needed to be okayed at National level because I only have a temporary and limited Work Permit at present, such are the complications that immigration throws into your lap. Am thoroughly delighted that Angie has been hired as a Teacher on Call for a local Private School. When all the work permit hoops are finally jumped through we can both take on things that previously were forbidden to us. I will be legally able to take on all the occasional paid jobs that keep getting nudged my way, and Angie can do some freelance home schooling work which one lady has been determinedly chasing her to do.

Summer has been pretty busy. My Mother came over for two weeks and we took her to see where my cousin lives on Saltsping Island, introduced her to some of Angie's old family friends over here and showed her around Victoria. Got a letter a week after she had returned to England to the effect that had she known about Canada forty plus years ago, I would already be a Canadian Citizen. I'm just pleased that she approves of our move. God bless you Mum. Two weeks after Mum's visit Angie went back to the UK to see Jo and Laura established in University, returning via Air Canada and Harbour Air in the Rain. Verdict; England is an interesting place to visit, but you wouldn't like to live there. She was glad to get back to British Columbia.

Went fly fishing with one of my visiting Brothers in Law and caught not a sausage, nor a fish for that matter. Saw hundreds of the things, but they just weren't biting for some reason. By Ian's intent expression you can see the frustration with which he was viewing the situation. Poor guy, he was so determined, but after we'd both lost a couple of lures each, at five we reluctantly called it a day. I'm more of a sea fisherman myself, and like a boat kicking under my feet and the taste of salt spray on my lips.

Amos, my dog, had found what the Bears do in the woods and much to my disgust rolled in it like it was body lotion. I scolded him thoroughly and towelled him down as best I could before consigning my disgraced mutt to the back of the Van with all the windows open. Angie has mooted getting another dog, possibly a Beagle in a couple of years, so Amos can have regular company while we are increasingly not at home.

Regarding communication with our hyperextended family, what with one time zone and another, we have nothing but good to say about Skype. This morning we were talking to Jo on a Skype call and it's a wonderful thing for setting your mind at rest. You get to see the body language, and the microphone picked up Jo's conversation with friends in the corridor when they dropped by. I have a feeling she's enjoying Manchester University a lot, especially if the kissing noises I heard were anything to go by when a dashing young male caller knocked on her door while we were talking. In the short time she's been there, she's fallen in with a terrific crowd by the sound of things, and I'm truly pleased for her. Voice over IP connections allow this kind of detail, and to do it for free, well, a big virtual clap on the shoulders for all the guys who make it possible. Thank you.

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Ouch

Have elected to stop volunteer work for the next three or four weeks. I worked hard yesterday, fixing up a 70 pound diving display dummy for Nanaimo museum yesterday before my old knee injury tripped out. Served me right for electing to carry the thing down a gravel slope hundred and fifty metres from the old premises to the new place. My knee can go months, years, without playing up, then a mis-step or a slip takes me all the way back to square one. All this despite two bouts of surgery on the offending limb. Rather like snakes and ladders.

While I was sitting in the staff room, trying to coax the offending bits back into place, which is a particularly painful process, one of the staff came in and made a sarky comment at me like I was malingering. The phrase used was; "Well, I'll leave you to your suffering." What was specifically offensive about it was the tone in which this was delivered. In candour, there is a distinct impression that the person in question has 'issues' with my presence as a volunteer at the Museum.

This being the case, I think a short leave of absence is called for. There is the MSS to sell, Tetra work to do, and a family event to deal with. Ars longa, vita brevis being the case. That and my knee needs rest to heal properly.

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Name check


Well, another little bit of local recognition. Tonight is the gala opening of the brand spanking new Nanaimo Museum.

A lot of hard work has gone into getting everything where it is, and tonight the local dignitaries come round to make speeches and have a look at the result of all the sheer graft put in by the volunteers and staff. Angie and I have been pitching in where we can, and I am mightily pleased to see several of the items I've helped restore on display. Am also dead chuffed to see both our names up on the dedication board just inside the museum door, as well as the Powers Cameragraph I worked on in its brand new home.

It's not quite the same buzz as seeing your hard wrought phrases in print and on sale in a bookshop, but it's getting there.

Tonight I shall be donning my best and only Marks and Spencers travel suit, best shirt and shades. I shall sip a spritzer or Ginger ale in a champagne glass because I'm driving, and maybe do a bit of hob-nobbing, or its Canadian equivalent.

Now all I have to do is translate this into a bit of publicity for the Tetra Society. Get my guys some new projects for Fall, raise some public awareness and money for my pet cause.

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Social networking+

Got an e-mail from someone about their brand new, whizzy social networking web site, and would I like to sign up? As it was free, and to stop them pestering me, I signed up for a free account. Not that I'm interested in Facebook et al. I do all my networking face to face.

Why? Because on social networking sites, no-one can taste the beer.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

What I do when not writing

Well, there's the day job, and then there's restoring stuff like this for the new Nanaimo Museum. The top picture is of a 1909 hand cranked and much modified Powers Cameragraph No 5. The filaments in the hand blown Edison manufactured lamp look sound, and the lenses are in the main intact. Having spent some fourteen or so hours on this machine, I think with the addition of some electric cable and replacement reel mechanism, it would function perfectly.

As for the Columbia wind up gramophone. After a little spit and polish it worked perfectly, and in the photo is playing an old 78 record of 'It's a long way to Tipparary'
I love old technology like this when it works first time round. What else is good? Oh yes, Angie passed her BC driving test first time. The sun is shining. Wonderful.

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Big month

What with one thing and another, early July 2008 has been quite intense. The best news of all is that I passed my British Columbia class five driving test first time. Written exam was Tuesday, the actual driving test this morning.

The test centre is a far cry from the miserable, dour experience of an English Driving test as I recall them. The staff smile. They chat, they banter, they celebrate your good news and commiserate with your bad.

I can understand the principle, Canadians like to be happy while they work because there's no percentage in being a sourpuss. Their business is to check your competence as a driver, not put you in a pressure cooker and send you through the whole bloody business several times because your nerves got in the way of your driving. They go out of their way to ensure you are relaxed and paying attention to the job in hand, which is driving a vehicle on the road. A big thank you to Elizabeth one of the counter clerks, Ken the examiner, and the irrepressible and very much larger than life Kat at the Nanaimo Drivers center.

In addition, the Tetra Society of North America, the disabled charity for whom I am Nanaimo's area co-ordinator undertook and completed their first project recently to help a little girl with a long term degenerative disease of her nervous system. All we did was fit some additional bannisters in her home so she could get up and downstairs more easily, but that's the way things work here. People give of themselves because they want to. I just wish we could find a few more projects for the local volunteers. There's a lot of legwork involved, and being new to Vancouver Island just drives home how personal everything is. Stuff is arranged through contacts, and to be honest, I'm struggling a little at present. However, nil desperandum and I'm putting my other talents to good use for the local Red Cross and the shortly to re-open Nanaimo museum.

The Local branch of the Canadian Red Cross has moved, and all the volunteers put their shoulders to the wheel. I helped out with a bit of computer wiring and some of the decoration, and everyone else has just pitched in and worked wonders.

As for the museum, Dave the curator handed me an ancient piece of movie technology and asked me what I could do with it. The Powers Cameragraph Model 5 was in pretty fair condition for a hundred year old hand cranked projector, so I've cleaned it up as best I can and it goes on display shortly, sponsored by the Shaw, the local cable company. Dave has intimated that he has another piece of kit he wants me to perform the 'laying on of hands', (A very useful talent for the IT support engineer as I once was) on an ancient phonograph.

I really feel like we're beginning to belong here.

Update:
I got an award from my friends at the Red Cross last night! Totally bowled over, chuffed to bits and generally speaking quite pleased with myself.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Head down

I started a MSS in January. Nothing special. Genre fiction. Today I will complete it. Good, believable characters, and the story sprints along nicely from premise to conclusion, all one hundred and twenty thousand words of it with a cracking denoument. That's pretty good as output goes. Five months from a few hundred words and the roughest of outlines to quite a reasonable piece of work. There's even thoughts of a sequel, although I need to revise what I'm doing with the other two major projects first.

It's the longest piece of work I've ever written, and despite some minor niggles, I'm pretty pleased with the first draft. Now all I have to do is sell it. I'll try New York first of all, then take a punt at some of the Toronto publishing houses.

Rejection slips will come thick and fast in the next few months I'm sure, but in this business, the 'Noes' are the price of the 'Yesses', and getting a business to take a long shot with a relative unknown such as me, with only a handful of stories and articles published under my own name is not going to be a simple proposition. I know no-one in publishing. I never managed to go to University, so never made any contacts who might give me a recommendation. All I have is a large pile of unpublished stuff gradually rotting down to compost, or being chewed into nest material for the mice at my Mother's old house back in England.

There is always the self publication route, but then again, you don't get the marketing assistance that way.

Saturday, February 09, 2008

Busy

Kind of lost track on this blog. I'd almost forgotten about it because there was so little time to post, and not much to post about. I've had a little run in with Canadian immigration when I went to apply for a work permit and 'leave to remain'. The guys at the border didn't like the look of the job I've been given, and told me to go away and try again. We went back to get some guidance from our local immigration office in Nanaimo, who have may I say, been absolute diamond, and they are advising us.

I'm taking on a job with a charity called the Tetra Society of North America. The guys at the Red Cross told me about the advert; I applied, and wonder of wonders, was offered the job. The only hang up is that I need a work permit, as this is paid employment. Thereby hangs the tale.

At the moment of writing, I need to persuade my perspective employers to redraft a copy of my offer of employment (Which I drafted for them), fax a copy to the immigration office for formal approval, get my employers to send me a signed and dated copy of the letter which I then take to the border. However, I have been told to let the immigration office people know the time and date of my application so they can phone the guys at the border post and ensure everything gets done properly. If this sounds a bit of a headache it has been.

Never mind. Money is not a problem for the forseeable future. We sold our house and are living frugally but well. Had a terrific Christmas with the kids coming over, although it was a bit crowded for a while. Have started a blog of unpublished short stories, just to see if anyone likes them. Lets face it, my hard drive is crammed with the outpourings of my fevered imagination, and I just want to see what anyone else thinks.