Tuesday 23 November 2010

The Complete Guide to the Rise and Rise of Steampunk (apparently)

Here's my five point plan to how NOT to have a productive writing day...

1) Pick up the latest copy of SciFiNow.
2) Get excited that there’s an article on steampunk contained within.
3) Read the aforementioned article* which doesn’t mention Pax Britannia even once – the series you’ve laboured over, nay put heart and soul into, for the last four years, having written over half a million words for, which has 8 novels out (6 by you) 1 omnibus and several more books to come - and yet which does feature the covers of other books that have come out in the wake of the success of Pax Britannia.4) Post a blog in which you have your own personal rant about the situation.
5) Enter the doldrums and achieve nothing for the rest of day, despairing that you’re never going to make a success of your writing and then, as a consequence, write nothing all day as the deadline for your latest steampunk epic looms ever closer.


Or, as an alternative, you could try this rather more productive alternative...

1) Pick up the latest copy of SciFiNow.
2) Get excited that there’s an article on steampunk contained within.
3) Read the aforementioned article, ignoring the numerous covers of other books (some of which have been less well received than your own steampunk series and others which bear uncanny similarities and yet which came out some years after your own books featuring similar subjects and themes), and, on the whole, enjoy it.
4) Post a cathartic blog about the general situation.
5) Be inspired to kick some butt and start taking names and show them the world that you really have got what it takes to make a success of this writing lark.

I'll let you decide which approach I followed today...

* The aforementioned article goes by the rather bold sub-title of 'The complete guide to the rise and rise of steampunk' and yet doesn't even feature one book cover image from the ever-growing Pax Britannia series. So what definition of 'complete' is the editor/writer using here exactly?

1 comment:

Jared said...

Applause!

Glaring gaps. Shameful, really.