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Rachel Caldecott-Thornton

Rachel Caldecott-Thornton

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From Lodeve, France
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  • Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Filming glassblowing will be interesting. The set is being built in a glass sided hall hanging over a cliff. It is already more than 30c, next week, during filming, it will reach over 40. Our furnace and glory hole have combined temperatures of nearly 3000 degrees c. I predict cameramen falling like Horse Guards. (FYI no aircon) :)
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    Cianz
    Cianz
    Thanks for the link Rachel. Yes, I've heard some say it's a good way to get out there. You can only do a 5 day free giveaway once every 3 months if you sign exclusively with KDP.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    I'm just skimming the article now (I'll read it properly in a minute) but it seems if you are just starting out it can be a good thing.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    "Note: I would NOT use Select if I only had one book. You might see increased sales but once readers read that title where are they going to go next?" Well, that answers me then.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    I am finally considering self-publishing... I have no idea where to start... I've just looked at the (quite scary) facebook group 20BooksTo50K as well as things like Googling 'How to self publish a book' and I'm more daunted and depressed than before. I'm not even sure I understand all the terms being used. I just don't know where to begin and have no money to begin it.
    View previous comments…
    Carol Rose
    Carol Rose
    As for covers, if you can't make your own, you'll need to pay someone to make one for you. Readers will be put off by amateurish-looking or bad covers.

    And of course, editing. There are already enough self-pubbed books out there that read like a five-year-old wrote them. Pay a good editor so there are no glaring mistakes in it. They're easy to miss because we're too close to our own work.
    Carol Rose
    Carol Rose
    Self publishing seems a daunting task at first, but tens of thousands of authors do it all the time, so there's no reason you can't as well. But bear in mind without some type of marketing, the book isn't going to sell.
    Carol Rose
    Carol Rose
    You're competing with a lot of books already out there by marketing savvy authors who spend big bucks to get the word out. I'd strongly suggest you also research the marketing side of this. Good luck.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    I've finally impressed my son. I told him about the time I served tea to the then Prince Akihito during my time working for a Japanese company based in the Swiss Centre in London in the early 80s.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Feeling mighty sorry for myself. According to the physiotherapist who looked at my new x-rays, Lumbar decompression surgery is the only treatment. He also didn't hold up much hope for my neck, and my doctor tut-tutted when she looked at xrays of my hands and recommended a surgeon.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Wondering how much detail for medical procedures is acceptable in YA fiction. Thinking lobotomies here.
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    Barbara
    Barbara
    No idea. What sort of biology stuff do they lean at school at that age; how much detail? I learnt all sorts aged 14 plus (anatomy, physiology) but that was back in Switzers, no idea how the UK compares. How much can be seen on TV? I suspect YA have seen all sorts. But like I said, I have no idea. It might depend on how you handle it.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Trying very hard to concentrate on finishing WIP... trying very hard to avoid thinking about re-writing (completely) my last book... trying very hard to get some sleep... But Brexit worries are stopping everything!
    KateESal
    KateESal
    Ach, know the feeling. Watching it all with mingled horror and wonder from Spain... It's really interfering with my creativity (that and the broken wrist!)
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    When Unbound rejects you, can you really sink any lower?
    Barbara
    Barbara
    They're a crowd funder, am I right? Maybe they're looking for stuff with mass-appeal for an adult readership. After all it'll be the adults who will be parting with £ for funding it. Did they give you a reason? ... Either way, dust yourself off (you CAN write!!!), and move on. Maybe a new novel tickles your imagination?
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Is anyone else suffering from writer's block because of worries about the state of the world?
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    Robinne Weiss
    Robinne Weiss
    For me, writing is a good escape from it. Sometimes, though, I find myself sucked into reading news for too long, ignoring my writing to depress myself with one more article ... I try to save news reading for after writing.
    Carol Rose
    Carol Rose
    The messed-up state of the world is such a constant that my answer also is no. If I suffer from writer's block at all (still not sure I've actually ever been blocked, more like simply not motivated for the moment), it's due to other things in my day-to-day life. The closer I am to whatever is going on, the more that takes precedence over things like writing. :)
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    When my mum and brother were terminally ill I wrote like anything - couldn't stop. It was the only way to block the pain and my sense of powerlessness. The powerless in the face of the inevitable (nature/god), just has to be lived through, but the powerlessness in the face of mankind's stupidity and foolishness is not. Different emotional reaction and one that is blocking me.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    My husband's theory about why my M/S hasn't found an agent yet is because in my 'world' telepathic communication between species is the norm. He thinks, if only the main protagonist has this power, agents might like it more. Sounds clichéd to me.
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    Quillwitch
    Quillwitch
    Makes sense when you think of it, because then, where is the challenge if everyone has it? And you have to understand that childrenś and YA books thrive on clichés.
    Leonora
    Leonora
    But my sense was that your novel is a political allegory, so to change that might spoil it. Unless you can do it in a way to bring more cowbell to your idea?
    Leonora
    Leonora
    But my sense was that your novel is a political allegory, so to change that might spoil it. Unless you can do it in a way to bring more cowbell to your idea?
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    I finally have the house to myself... so I can write undisturbed... and I can't think of a thing I want to write! It all seems pointless and I'm feeling talentless and sorry for myself... I know this feeling is temporary and all writers suffer from this self doubt dis-ease from time to time... but it feels HORRID!
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    No creative writing (since a flurry after Pete's input the other day), but I have produced a 10cm high pile of photocopies & original documents to support my application for French residency. (Just mine, 3 more to go) that's nearly one ream of paper = 6% of a tree.
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    E G Logan
    E G Logan
    I do sympathise. I spent an hour this morning sitting on a grey plastic chair in the comune trying to progress my residenza with the local police... Then trying to avoid explaining Brexit to them. (Explaining to an Italian bureaucrat how Britain can't organise itself out of the mess?)
    Sounds like you got the same advice I did. And fortunately I do have utility bills going back to 2000.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    I still have my old Italian residency papers - sadly expired - but overall I found the Italian bureaucracy easier to deal with than the French. Good luck with Brexit. Let's hope we can all get back to being creative, positive people again.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    My charming daughter said, "Maybe you are not meant to be a writer. Maybe you are meant to be a taxidermist or something." Ha, bloody ha!
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Received another email from a producer friend in Hollywood. She's asked to see re-write, determined to help me... (she already like the last version and had suggested similar changes to @AgentPete's) so fingers crossed... she's proposing to talk to contacts at Penguin, & Orion films about it (not the constellation). Now all I need is an agent! Having said that... NOTHING may come of it, but one can but dream.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Another reason for backing off writing for a while has been a series of odd symptoms with my right eye. So yes I'm getting Glaucoma, and yes I have Posterior Vitreous Detachment. Not painful, and nothing to be done about it. But I have been freaking out for a couple of months and I have a terrible incapacitating fear of 'opthalmos' (as they call them here in France). I suppose it could have been a worse diagnosis :(
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    My entry for the Flash Club is the first thing I've written for ages. I have been feeling crushed by life, desperate about our lack of financial security and the latest near misses with agents, (of the "Sorry, it's very good, but just not for us at the moment" variety). But thanks to Litopia, I might just claw my way back out of the pit.
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    Barbara
    Barbara
    Glad you started writing again. Maybe it's time to continue with your new novel? You never know where it will lead you. Keep going, Girl!
    Robinne Weiss
    Robinne Weiss
    You're in good company, Rachel. I'm in a similar funk, feeling like this is never going to go anywhere and I really need to think more concretely about how I'm going to make money now...*sigh* I have no solutions, but I do know that if we hang in there long enough, the pendulum will swing the other way, and we'll find our feet.
    Rachel Caldecott-Thornton
    Today I was befriended by an Afghani refugee in Paris (we have the lady, Danika, who I wrote my short story about, in common). He said I was "glorious". When I said, "no, you're very sweet, but I'm not glorious", he answered "You are really and perfectly glorious, because you are mother." My first reaction was to think he must miss his mum so much, and secondly... I wish my kids would see me that way!
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    Robinne Weiss
    Robinne Weiss
    How lovely! And you are glorious because you are a mum ... even more so if your kids don't see you that way. It's a thankless job, and one we pour our entire selves into and do every minute of every day to the best of our ability--that's pretty awesome. So go ahead and feel glorious today!
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