Are You Using Google Alerts?

Do you use Google Alerts at all? They can be pretty useful for writers. I've had some set up for a while now and thought I'd mention them in case you hadn't come across them.

So what are they? Google Alerts are simply searches that you define once and which Google then runs on your behalf, emailing you with any results. So, to keep an eye out for any mention of your name, you just set up an alert specifying that as a search term and Google will tell you when it finds something new containing it. Obviously, the less common the search term, the more likely the results will be relevant. So far as I can make out, I'm the only Simon Kewin on the planet. If my name was John Smith it might not work quite so well. But you could always set up searches for the names of stories/books you've written.

The service is free and pretty configurable. You can specify how often you get emailed, what is searched and so forth. Highly recommended. The page to set them up is here.

Here are some of the things you could use the system to keep tabs on. I'm sure you can think of others :

• Reviews of stories/books you've written
• Articles on favourite writers
• Mentions of agents or publishers you're considering approaching
• Announcements of new short story competitions
• Articles on some period or location you're researching

And so on. If you find yourself making the same searches again and again, why not just set up an Alert instead and let Google do it for you?

Flash Fiction : Light Years (38/100)

... novae, ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.

Get Wasted

"Where Danger, Passion and Chance Collide ..."

I received a copy of Nicola Morgan's Wasted today, which I won just recently in one of the competitions on her Talk About Wasted blog. I haven't delved into the book much yet, but a quick dip has me hooked already. Thanks Nicola! This more than makes up for the bitter disappointment of the Hallowe'en chocolates I won in one of her flash fiction competitions getting lost in the post ...

There's a good chance you're familiar with Nicola's legendary Help! I Need a Publisher blog already. If not, I can't recommend it highly enough. The Talk About Wasted blog is wonderful too, but in a different way : it's a bloody fantastic piece of marketing/platform building/reader involvement. An object-lesson in how to go about building up a buzz for a new book. The amount of work that has gone into it is just staggering.

One day I hope to be in the same position myself. When I am I'll be sure to refer to Nicola's blog as a shining example of how it should be done ...

Flash Fiction Friday : Death Magic

She hurled a death spell at him. He smiled. ‘Ah. Didn’t I mention the undead thing?’ She screamed as he lunged, his bared teeth sharp.







Flash Fiction Friday is a weekly post of a work of fiction small enough to appear on Twitter etc.

A Story A Day In May update #4

I'm away on the Isle of Man at the end of May so this is my final check-in for Story A Day in May. But I have managed to complete the challenge : 31 stories created in May. It's been a lot of fun, although fitting the new stuff in and around the ongoing novel writing has been tricky at times. Couldn't have managed it without the very short form that is Twitter fiction! Other people doing the challenge have written longer pieces, which is deeply impressive.

Anyway, here's the list of my ten final stories, bringing me up to 31 for the month.

1.  Seeing Stars - Twitter Fiction
2.  Final Day - Twitter Fiction
3.  A Zombie Walked into a Bar - Twitter Fiction
4.  Lightning Rod - Twitter Fiction
5.  Change - Twitter Fiction
6.  Up In Smoke - Twitter Fiction
7.  One Man Band - Twitter Fiction
8.  A Door He Didn't Recognize - Flash Fiction
9.  A Change of Direction Late in Life  - Twitter Fiction
10. Heart Condition - Twitter Fiction

As I said before, I'll continue to come up with 140-character fiction pieces I think : they're fun to write, you can work them out in your head while (supposedly) doing other things (working, parenting ...) and they're very immediate. There's something very addictive about trying to create a complete, satisfying story in such a short space. I'd recommend giving them a go.

Meanwhile, some of these may well be posted on my regular Friday Flash Fiction slot soon ...

Extinction Events published by PicFic

Gosh, I seem to be on a roll at the moment. Another Twitter fiction work of mine has been published today : Extinction Events over at PicFic. This is an interesting magazine : they post a weekly pictorial prompt and then seek submissions relating to it.

Well worth checking out.

A Sorcerous Mist to be published in Mirror Dance

I've just heard that A Sorcerous Mist, a fantasy short story, is to be published by Mirror Dance magazine. Actually, as the story is 11,500 words long, it's technically a novelette in SFWA terms, which sounds more impressive.

I'm particularly delighted that this story is being published as it's close to my heart - based, as it is, on various Celtic myths and folk-tales from the Isle of Man, where I was born and raised. I did make a whole lot of it up, though.

Mirror Dance is a glorious, sumptuous magazine, full of pre-Raphaelite artwork (which I love), so I'm delighted to have been accepted there. My piece is scheduled for the Summer 2010 issue; I'll let you know when it's out.

Meantime, I've got to write an answer to one of the following interview questions for them :

Where do you get the ideas for your stories?
What inspires you to write and keep writing?
What do you think is the most important part of a fantasy story?
What do you think is the attraction of the fantasy genre?
What advice do you have for other fantasy writers?

Hmm. Good questions all. Which one would you go for?

Flash Fiction : Light Years (37/100)

... unknown ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.

Twitter Fiction Story Published

Thaumatrope, the genre Twitter fiction magazine, have just published a story of mine called Angels. You can read it on their web site or by following them on Twitter.

This is technically a pro sale as they pay the equivalent of 5¢/word, although since it's Twitter fiction, the sale is below the SFWA professional market minimum of $50. Still. I was pleased.

Flash Fiction Friday : Voyage's End

‘Earth?’ Static hissed back at him. Where were they? He’d only been gone 20 years. ‘Voidship 3 to Earth.’ Hss. He shouted now. ‘Earth!’







Flash Fiction Friday is a weekly post of a work of fiction small enough to appear on Twitter etc.

A Story A Day in May update #3

Still very much enjoying Story A Day in May, as previously reported. Here's this week's tally should you be interested :

1. First Dance - Twitter fiction
2. The Voyage Home - Twitter fiction
3. Their Song - Twitter fiction
4. Shoes - Twitter fiction
5. Dan Quixote - short story
6. Known to the Defendant - Twitter fiction
7. She Walked into the Water - Flash fiction

As is pretty obvious, a lot of this is Twitter fiction. Partly that's because they're so short, of course. Still, it's surprising how long they can take. I've agonized over Shoes for bloody hours. But it's great to be able to produce a completed artefact there and then - a real antidote to the novel writing process that can go on for years ...

So, I'm planning to make a regular post of a work of Twitter fiction every week. Yes folks, Flash Fiction Friday starts this week. Stay tuned!

eReading on the Android Phone

So I've recently acquired an Android mobile 'phone (an HTC Legend). It's sort of like an iPhone but without having to sign up to the Apple cult. I like it a lot; it does all sorts of clever and amazing things, not least of which is its ability to let me talk to people who are far away ...

But that's all by-the-by - I mention it here because I've been using it for reading and writing and I thought you might be interested in my experiences.

For now, reading. I've never had an eReader before so I was intrigued to know how well it worked, especially as the screen is so small. In fact it's great. Not as good as an old-fashioned paperback, but very, very good. The small screen-size is only a bit of a pain. But it's wonderful to be able to read something when I'm stuck somewhere with my 'phone and no book. I've been reading Kafka's The Metamorphosis waiting to meet the school bus and The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam sitting in a traffic jam. Wonderful; I'm completely sold on it.

The software I've been using is Aldiko, which works very well, although it needs a better selection of books. There are several alternatives available or coming soon. It did have my eBook though - sitting in a cafe I wondered if I could download The Armageddon Machine and read it there and then. A few clicks and it was on my screen. Magical. I didn't read it though - I already know what happens ...

So, I'll stick to paper books for most of my reading, I'm sure. But I can see myself reading more and more electronically too.

As an aside : poetry, I find, works especially well on the smaller screen, because of its typography. On paper, poems tend not to use the full width of the page anyway.

As an aside to the aside : have you read The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam? If not, you should. I thought they were going to be heavy going as I don't read too much 12th century Persian poetry. But they're not difficult at all. They're witty, beautiful and engaging. Their basic message is this : live for the moment! Drink! Have fun! I enjoyed them a lot.

Flash Fiction : Light Years (36/100)

... countless ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.

A Story A Day In May update #2

Day 14 of Story A Day in May. Simon is still finding it very rewarding.

Yes, my commitment to write some sort of story every day this month continues. This is all, I hasten to add, over and above my normal novel writing activities. What I like about it is the incentive it provides to get down a story - any story - each day. It's a chance to fly off at a tangent and be creative, see what comes to mind, go somewhere new. Sometimes that can get lost if you're working on Chapter X of a novel. I think, after May is over, I'll continue to do something similar, even if it's just to brainstorm a few ideas each day.

Anyway, here's this week's tally :

1. Judgement Day - Flash Fiction
2. Quadruplets - Twitter Fiction
3. Lucky Numbers - Short Story
4. The Rebellion - Short Story
5. iRobot - Twitter Fiction
6. Rescued - Flash Fiction
7. The Last Shot of the War - Flash Fiction

Some of them are still pretty rough : ideas I may run with later on. A couple I've polished up and may well submit to magazines. But, to give you a taste, here's Quadruplets. Again, being Twitter fiction, it's 140 characters long (actually slightly fewer in this case) :

‘Is there a heartbeat?’ Lines swirled on the ultrasound screen. The nurse pressed the cold sensor to her belly. ‘Actually, I can see four.’

22nd Century Genie Published

My latest SF short story, 22nd Century Genie, has just been published in Issue 28 of Jupiter, the UK SF magazine.

As you can see, this issue of Jupiter is subtitled Autonoe, which, as I'm sure you'll be aware, being the superintelligent life-forms you are, is the name of the 28th moon of Jupiter. See what they've done there?

22nd Century Genie is the story of Simms, a Genetic Detective, who makes a living tracking down the genomes of historical figures for rich clients with collections of DNA images. He is employed to find the DNA of The Beatles, but begins to suspect his employer is no mere collector and that something much more sinister is going on. Yet he knows if he completes the job he'll be set up for life and all his problems will be over ...

Jupiter #28 can be purchased here.

Flash Fiction : Light Years (35/100)

... behind ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.

A Story A Day In May update

So how's Story a Day in May going? Good, actually.

I pretty much signed up on a whim because it suddenly seemed like this fanastic idea, then regretted it immediately because it's actually such a crazy one. But I'm enjoying it; it's an invaluable spark to creativity. I'm walking around thinking, Right, what's today's story going to be, huh? Tonight, for example, I happened to be see this Blood Transfusion Service van on the road, laden down with the day's donations. And a whole scene popped into my head of this gang of down-and-out vampires highjacking it, grabbing the little bags of blood and running off with them. Which may become one of the stories soon ...

Anyway, one week in and so far I've come up with seven pieces :

1. Ten Million Years - Twitter fiction
2. A Loop - Twitter fiction
3. I Love You - Twitter fiction
4. The Flying Incredulo - flash fiction
5. She'd Always Loved To Travel - short story
6. Rockpools - Twitter fiction
7. Prince of Lies - Twitter fiction

Yep, Twitter has saved my life! Some of the pieces I like enough to want to take further. But here's I Love You for your delight and entertainment, 140 characters of Twitter fictiony goodness :

‘I love you,’ she said. Ben sighed. ‘Thing is, I need to tell you something. About Zoe.’ There was a pause. She whispered now. ‘I hate you.’

And here's today's - Prince of Lies - which may or may not be topical given the general election here in the UK :

The politician stood before his shadowy master. ‘But you had my soul. This is no victory!’ The demon shrugged. ‘So. Seems we’re both liars.’

Do We Need Submission Tracking Software?

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I wrote some fairly basic software for myself called "Writer's Database". I had just started writing poems and short stories and found I needed something to keep track of what I had written and where I had submitted it to. I wanted to be a professional godammit! I wanted to be able to maintain my own library of interesting markets and record my experiences with them. I wanted to know exactly what work had been sent where and with what result. And so I knocked up the software.

It took maybe a week to do and by the end I had something usable. Limited, but usable. And, in fact, I've been using it almost every day since, to keep a track of all my acceptances (and you know, those occasional rejections). What's more, quite a few other people use it too. It's available for download via my web site and gets a steady trickle of hits. People occasionally email me to ask for this or that feature and I generally explain that I'd love to create something better but don't currently have the time. Very occasionally I bung in an enhancement, but the system is more or less as it was when first written. It does a job.

Every now and then, though, I think to myself that I really should develop something better. A while back I blogged that I'd made a start with a new system to be called Subtract (geddit?) But, to be honest I've put 0.0001 hours of effort into it. The writing comes first! I had great plans for it though. I imagined a centrally maintained list of markets (à la Duotrope) that would automatically synch to your desktop and allow you to easily match up what you've written with places to send it. It could alert you to new markets of interest. It could allow comments and ratings to be aggregated back to the central database so everyone could get a feel for what a market is like. It could have all the bells and whistles and cool stuff that clunky old Writer's Database lacks. Even, ooh, a Blogger widget to automatically list what you're working on and/or what's currently submitted/accepted.

But my question is, is it worth the effort? Does anyone else even use software like this, or do you rely on spreadsheets or scribbled notes or simply trying to remember what's gone where? In short, would a super new system be of interest to anyone or should I stop wasting my time and get that bloody novel finished?

If you have any opinions I'd love to hear them ...

Flash Fiction : Light Years (34/100)

... leave ...








Light Years is a work of flash fiction. In fact it is the slowest piece of flash-fiction ever written. In real-time its one hundred words would take exactly 10,000 years to recount. Because of the limitations of a normal human life-span, it has been specially accelerated to the speed of one word per week. It will therefore take just under two years to tell from start to finish.

For a full history of the transmissions, click here.