Happy 1st Birthday Blog

I can’t believe that it’s October already and it made me realise that it’s over a year ago since I started my blog. I set myself a personal challenge to blog once a week or so and I’m chuffed that I’ve achieved my goal and reached a milestone.

Since starting the blog, I’ve racked up 51 posts and 27k words! I’ve often questioned whether it’s worth the time and effort but I’ve had lots of positive feedback from family and friends and I enjoy writing the posts, regardless of the number of hits.

Before I began blogging, I wasn’t even on Facebook, never mind Twitter. What a difference a year makes! I’ve really got to grips with social media now and despite my initial fear of the unknown, I feel part of a small group of like-minded aspiring writers who’ve offered me support and advice during the ups and downs of my writing journey and life in general. I’ve gained a great group of virtual friends through blogging and Twitter and I’ve even met up with the lovely Anne Glennie in person.

There are hunners and hunners and hunners of blogs out there written by writers all trying to break through but I’ve found a few gems worth following.  One of my favourite blogs, On the Literary Sofa is written by Isabel Costello’s and she also celebrated the first birthday of her blog recently.

Zadie’s latest novel is described as depicting the modern urban zone.

Isabel ran an anniversary competition with the first prize of a literary lunch with her in London. I didn’t win this prize but I hope to one day meet up with Isabel to talk books and put the world to rights.I never win anything except an argument so I was delighted to win one of the runner-up prizes of a copy of Zadie Smith’s new novel, NW.  Sandy the postie delivered it this morning and I can’t wait to see if it lives up to Isabel’s review as being, “definitely worth reading for the realistic depiction of London in all its aspects, not just of place but situation and dialogue, which Smith does brilliantly from pretentious dinner parties to confrontations between strangers in kids’ playgrounds.

If you’re an avid reader or looking to share your writing aspirations and have a laugh along the way, as Dermot would say in the X Factor finals, “In no particular order…”, up there with Anne and Isabel, the others who make up my top ten writing bloggers  are Wendy Storer, Cath Bore, Louise Walters, Teresa Stenson, Kristin Celms, Anne Stormont, Anita Chapman and Josephine Corcoran. Enjoy checking out these interesting and entertaining blogs- you won’t be disappointed and you don’t need to be a writer to enjoy the book chat etc! Do you know any great blogs for writers that I’m missing out on? What would be in your top ten?

P.S. I’ve just noticed that all of my favourite bloggers are women. I’ve not got a conscious gender bias but maybe it’s simply that I can relate more to these ladies who’re busy juggling family and work commitments alongside their writing aspirations. But if anyone knows of a male blogger who’s worth following, please let me know.

What’s in a Name?

Everything, especially if you’re naming a baby. Wendy Storer uses the baby analogy in her excellent blog post, ‘10 Reasons why writing a book is exactly like bringing up a child’, so the title of your novel is important. Often I’ve heard of writers having very little control over the title of their novel and I’ve experienced this for the first time.

My WIP was believe it or not, originally called, ‘Shades of Grey’. The main character is called Graeme Hunter and he’s forced to confront the truth that there is no such thing as pure good or evil, there’s lots of shades of grey when deciding on the best course of action. The title seemed inspired a year ago when I first started writing it but unless you’ve been living under a stone in recent months, I don’t need to explain why it’s not such a great idea now.

The most effective book title was something that was discussed when I recently made my annual pilgrimage to the Edinburgh Book Festival. With limited time and money, I normally choose an event based on my love of the writer’s work, but this year, I took a risk (I know, life on the edge, eh?) and went along to see Kerry Hudson and Lisa O’Donnell, both debut novelists and I haven’t yet read either of their books. My gamble paid off. These writers were really inspiring and very engaging.  Both their novels are set predominantly in Scotland; both take place on council estates; and both are narrated by fierce teenage girls in difficult situations, just my cuppa tea!

Lisa and Kerry were asked to discuss the intriguing titles of their books. Kerry’s novel must have one of the longest titles I’ve come across, ‘Tony Hoggan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma’ (THBMAIFBHSMM) and one that I can’t wait to read.

Kerry explained that the title came from a line in the novel and was one of many suggested titles but seemed the most appropriate to sum up the sense of her gritty, semi-autobiographical tale of being born into a matriarchal family of Aberdeen fishwives and living in a series of caravans, B&Bs and council estates.

Lisa’s novel also has an interesting title, ‘The Death of Bees’, which has nothing to with nature’s ecosystem but shares the common theme of the underdog with THBMAIFBHSMM. This novel is a chilling tale of two abandoned sisters who bury their negligent parents in the back garden of their Glaswegian home but is full of dark humour. Lisa explained that her book had several potential titles, including The Council Estate Cookbook (complete with recipes at the beginning of each chapter), The Dole Cheque Kid and Echoes of Small Fires before ending up as The Death of Bees. So now I’ve got another striking title to be added to be my TBR pile!

What’s your favourite book title? The Goodreads website lists the most eye-catching or distinctive book titles voted by their members. Number one is, ‘Pride and Prejudice and Zombies’  by Seth Grahame-Smith. Which book title would you vote for?