Author: susanjeaton

I’ve been struggling with the opening of my WIP. I am totally committed to the story but can’t get the opening chapter right.

Then …

…I opened FB this morning and was confronted by Freytag’s Pyramid. If there is a god of sci-fi writers she was obviously listening to me.

I was so busy trying to think of a good hook I forgot the basics. Get the set piece right as the rugby coaches say. So today’s task is to start again, write an exposition and see how it all fits together.

I might be some time.

In the mean time you can read my latest book, The Ceres Illusion, ready for pre-order, out on October 25^th.

What the bloody hell has happened to time.  It seems to have a mind of its own all of a sudden.  I go out in the garden, pull a few weeds, chat to the neighbours and bugger me if the morning hasn’t gone and morphed into afternoon.

I’ve still got Christmas decorations waiting to be put away when I can find a minute and what do I see in the local supermarket?  Christmas decorations, tubs of chocolate mixed up with grinning pumpkins and witchy masks.

I can understand seeing stuff-for-making-things in shops.  You need to get organised early if you’re going to make you own cards, cakes and pressies.  You will need to start early because when you get home with your bags of makings don’t think you’ll have a nice sit down with a cup of really hot tea. Christmas will have been and gone by the time you get up.

They say this sort of thing happens as you get older. Remember the summer holidays when you were young? They went on for ever. School became so remote you forgot it even existed until you were reminded by your mum the first week in September.  Now the shops have the children going back to school the day they finish for the holidays.

I blame commercialism for this speed up in time.  Boxing Day sees the displays of Easter eggs; Easter Monday sees beachwear and sun cream; July sees back to school and Halloween.  You are shoved from one event to another without time to draw breath. You have the impression of time moving much more quickly than it ever used to.

A bit on the busy side this week. The proof copy of The Ceres Illusion has arrived so I’m now bleary-eyed with going through it with a fine-toothed comb.

Fortunately there hasn’t been much in the way of editing.

The covers for the paperback edition and the hard back have both arrived. Looking good.

Just waiting for a publication date now.

It may look to some that I’ve had a month off. Been away perhaps? No such luck.

Back in June my daughter sold her house. She’s not bought another one so guess who’s storing all her stuff? My house looks like Auntie Wainwright’s shop in Last of the Summer Wine.

By the end of July we’d both had enough of snagging clothes, stubbing toes and spending an hour looking for something that should have taken a couple of minutes.

‘Let’s clear the gym and use that to our advantage,’ my daughter decides. That might sound posh – us having a gym. It not a gym it’s a shed and it was full of stuff we’d stored that might come in handy even if we never use it. It had been built to house my son’s gym stuff, treadmill, weight bench etc when he was playing rugby and training hence the name ‘Gym’ to differentiate it from the numerous shed’s we have scattered about the garden.

Anyway son is married with a shed of his own now and we need the space. It’s been on my list of things to do for a couple of years but it’s a daunting task on your own plus we needed good weather in order to empty it and sort what could be sold, donated or scrapped.

It proved to be a daunting task for the two of us but we’re lucky with our neighbours. One of them popped round for a looksee and the next thing we know his son is on the doorstep.

‘Dad says you need some help.’ Bless.

We now have a splendid Workshop (it’ll take a while to stop calling it the Gym) with a place for everything, a workbench for fettling and a kettle for brewing… 

… plus a nearly empty back bedroom which is another story.

A strange thing happened today.

I said ‘Good morning’ to Alexa as usual and she answered me in German.

Why? I hadn’t asked her to.

She then proceeded to continue in German telling me something I might have been interested in if I knew more German than ‘Wo ist das Klosett?’ and ‘Könnte ich bitte einen Weißwein haben?’ Probably not in that order.

I haven’t a clue other than I had been reading a story about quantum physics the night before. (in The Mammoth Book of Best New SF 16)

Had I been reading a story – or was I caught up in the experiment?

Was I now in an alternative universe where Germany had won the war and we all had to speak the language?

Would I meet the Man in the High Castle? (Amazon has a German edition).

Could I zip in and out at will? Thus meaning I could avoid unpleasant tasks like editing and jumping through the hoops needed for the publication of my novella? (Exciting times though.)

Were there other worlds waiting to be explored once I’d got my act together and worked out to hitchhike through the multiverse?

Had I had too much Weißwein?

No, unfortunately – though I do enjoy a decent German white.

Instead I discovered it was something to do with Harlan Corben. He probably has a German translation of one or more of his books out.

It’s alright for some.

I seem to be on a lucky streak at the moment – not that it extends to the lottery, but you can’t have everything. Besides I’ve had my three lovely happenings plus one extra.

I entered a story in the Reedsy Prompts competition in which my protagonist had to go through a rite of passage. I was shortlisted! Although I was pleased about this it is the comments that have boosted my confidence. Forgive me for bragging (I could have put more) but it’s so good that things are at last looking up.

Extremely well written piece. Deserves to be shortlisted.

Loved this Susan … I appreciated the tone, social commentary, the introspection. A good read …

It was Madeley Carnival on Saturday, and I was lucky enough to have a table. The weather was atrocious, but the mood was great. It was lovely to meet up with existing friends and to make new ones. I was given ideas for stories which I’m working on ready for the next event. On top of all that I sold loads of books.

The picture is by Lisa of lpb photography

I was invited to Hanley ComicCon on Sunday. I worked in the Hanley area for many, many years so was looking forward to seeing if there was anyone there I knew. It took a minute to recognise Peter. He had a hat on. Psychologists say it works as a disguise. They’re right. Either that or I’m going senile.

My friend Paula came for a chat, bought a book and fetched me some lunch. Brilliant. These are her pictures by the way. I sold loads of books and was able to chat with some really nice people.

The plus one of the three lovely things that have happened – a woman DM’d me because she was so pleased with the book her partner had bought for her. That really was the cherry on the cake.

It’s been a funny sort of week. The sort of week that is so completely out of routine I would do anything (?) for a quiet boring few days to get back on track.

It might sound pedantic but if I can follow a routine I can get so much more done.

I’ve just got home after lunch with my son to celebrate his birthday so I hope this makes sense.

Don’t ask me how old he is now it just makes me feel ancient.

The week started in Liverpool, well, Aintree. I had a table at the Liverpool Comic Con. It was the first time I had been to this event, but I shall be going again. The organisation was excellent, and I had a lovely day.

There were some famous names to draw the crowds (mainly actors from Star Wars) and it was well attended but unfortunatley, few seemed to want a book.

I had some nice chats with some lovely people though – I might watch some Star Wars films even if it’s only to say ‘when I was chatting to him the other day…’

I know I’d planned to finish the dystopian novella (as yet untitled) I’ve been picking at off and on. I was determined that I would concentrate on it.

I would,

• finish it as a first draft,
• take it to the writing group to have it critically assessed,
• find a Beta reader,
• polish it,
• submit it.

Guess what?

I’ve come up with an idea for a sequel to The Ceres Illusion, my soon to be published YA sci-fi adventure.

I do have a number of WsIP at the same time and dip into the one I fancy on the day.

E.g. do I want to be in dystopian Stoke-on-Trent or does the planet with dragons take my fancy?

But I do like to have the main one that I try and work on most days and bring it to completion by the end of the year otherwise I just have a computer full of half-finished stories that never get anywhere.