Steam trains are amazing!
Thanks to a well thought out birthday present from my Mum and Dad, I spent Saturday 22nd August chuffing up and down the East Somerset Railway going ‘Woo Woo!’ on an old British Rail tank engine. I didn’t get to drive the train, but that’s probably a good thing considering I was pretty hyper. Check out how cool steam trains are and how very much like an excited puppy I am in the video below.
NINE WORLDS
The week before I puffed up and down Somerset going ‘Woo Woo!’, I was attending the Nine Worlds Geekfest conference at the Raddison Blu Edwardian in Heathrow both as a guest and a speaker on two panels at the event. Nine Worlds is a unique conference in the realm of science fiction and fantasy in that it provides a much more welcoming atmosphere than the mainstream conventions like Comic Con do. In short, you don’t have to be a sci-fi or fantasy fan in order to enjoy the conference. Talks and discussions on things like gender bias in fiction, vlogging (video blogging), fan fiction, collaborative writing and more, prove that this is not your average stereotypical ‘geek fest’. It was a conference populated with famous, knowledgeable, funny, intelligent and friendly people all interested in sharing their experiences and having a good time. I was delighted to be a part of it. Many people came up after each panel to thank and congratulate me and the other panellists on how much they enjoyed the discussions and our contribution. I felt like a bit of a rock star for a bit.
A sci-fi fan confusing me with an intelligent question at the end
I would strongly recommend a visit to this event in 2016 not only if you’re interested in science fiction and fantasy, but if you harbour a stereotypical view of what science fiction and fantasy are and what kind of people they attract.
THE EARTH EXPERIMENT
Another milestone for the month (and a large reason as to why I’ve been so quiet online since July) is that I completed the 2nd Draft of a novel I’ve been working on. ‘The Earth Experiment’ has been given to a trusted beta reader to go through with a red pen before I go through it again with my own red pen in a month’s time. I’m particularly proud to have finished this draft as it marked a point in my career where I could look at myself in the mirror for the first time and say that I can write books. I was even prouder when I was gently reminded that I wrote it over a 2 month period whilst working full time on all my other projects and dealing with the usual life stuff we all have to. I’m my biggest critic (like all writers), so I don’t think it’s amazing by any stretch of the imagination. Nevertheless I do think there’s a good story in there and one that I would enjoy reading. And if I would enjoy reading it, there’s a good chance other people will too. It’s terrifying giving something you’ve spent so much effort and time on to someone else and say ‘judge me’, which is essentially what all writers do when we complete a project like this. It’s also what stops most people from finishing a book. So yes, I am proud of myself. It might be total crap. But like a famous writer I met at Nine Worlds said to me last month “Everyone writes crap. You have to write crap to get to the good stuff.”
I’ve written a lot of crap in the past. I’m hoping this latest effort will be closer to being clean of the crap.
Editing and honing are the next steps. My plan is to get it ready for professional scrutiny and to submit it for consideration to agents whilst planning an independent platform release at the same time. A synopsis of the book will be appearing on the site shortly so if you’d like to know more about it please click here.
BLOGGING
I’ve been a bit quiet on the blogging front due to being pretty focused on other work, but I will hopefully be appearing on Sci-Fi London Home of Fantastic Film shortly. An article I was asked to write is currently under review by the editing team there. I hope to be able to share the link to it in my newsletter next month. I should also be appearing on the Huffington Post again so hope to be able to share some more news on that next month as well.
If you have a blog or website you’d like me to write for, you can contact me at my work email below. Links to a lot of my recent work can be found on my homepage.
In the meantime, thanks for reading and feel free to email me at info@iwriteyouread.co.uk message me on facebook at www.facebook.com/mrjohnnya or Tweet me @TheOnlyJohnnyA
I read every email, post and message I receive and love talking with my followers!
Anyone who doesn’t admit to smiling when they see a steam train is a liar.
