Category Archives: Sanity Juxtaposed

Sanity Juxtaposed available now!

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This is a bit of an experiment. It’s an experiment I need your help with.

Emerging writers like myself are always looking for chances to build an audience, build a name, get read, get support and it seems to me that with big publishers treading slowly into the vast ocean of digital publishing that is presents an opportunity for writers like me to jump in first in a sense and catch them out.

My collection, Sanity Juxtaposed, was released last week as an eBook in a range of formats on Smashwords.com. A few of my peers have released books or collections via Smashwords with some success. This is part of my curiosity in experimenting with the format.

Sanity Juxtaposed is a collection of writing from me spanning from 2004 to 2009. It includes some of my first short stories and poetry, a whole heap of flash fiction as well as selected blog posts. I like to think of it as my demo tape or EP, similar to the CDs emerging bands might sell at their local pub gigs to raise a bit of money and their profile.

A printed copy of the book will be available in the coming months once I get around to formatting it. I might even buy a few in bulk so I can sell face-to-face at events and such.

The eBook is $5 in the spirit of supporting an emerging writer and making a purchase that means something. I don’t want to just sell it for cheap and people just buy it without much thought.

But until November, you can get it for $2.50 if you use the coupon code ‘VJ35M.’

I’d appreciate people spreading the word about this on Twitter and Facebook as well as perhaps giving a review. I’m also happy to provide interviews if you contact me at benjaminsolah@benjaminsolah.com

Sanity Juxtaposed Cover

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I am very close to releasing the eBook version of my collection, Sanity Juxtaposed. For those who don’t know what this collection is, it’s all my writing from 2004 to 2009 so includes my very first short story McSean as well as other early work, flash fiction that was published on this blog and a few selected blog posts.

It’s meant to be a sample of my work that documents the progression my writing has made, as well as showcasing some of my later work, and provides a way for people to support my writing.

A huge thank you goes to Kat Cheung for the excellent cover art.

Digital Publishing: Smashwords v Scribd

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With work on Sanity Juxtaposed almost over, after the proofreading and those changes are made, I’ll be left to format it into the various media types in order to publish it into the wider world. The eBook is due out by the end of the month and then the POD version through lulu.com some time after that.

Sony Reader

You'll be able to read Sanity Juxtaposed on things like the Sony Reader with either Smashwords or Scribd.

For the eBook, the original plan was to publish it via Smashwords as it could then be available in multiple formats and it’s generally easy to work with in terms of selling it and all that.

The problem has been that the requirements for formatting a document to meet their standards have been, quite frankly, a pain in the arse. And the task of turning the final copy into something to go on Smashwords is looking quite tedious. It would also require the final eBook version to be stripped down to something quite basic and nothing more than plain text.

But now looking at what format to go with when publishing the digital version of The Red Pen, Scribd.com is beginning to look more appealing for both. Scribd works well for the zine because it maintains the visual structure and won’t require so much work. And I can still charge for it if I choose.

So doing this for Sanity Juxtaposed as well would be quite simple and then it wouldn’t require completely different formatting between the print and digital versions.

I’m now at a loss as to what to do and am considering abandoning Smashwords all together in favour of Scribd.

Have you had experience with either or both? What are your thoughts? Or are there any better alternatives?

Project Update: Sanity Juxtaposed

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I don’t usually update my blog that much anymore with news and thoughts regarding how my writing is going or how certain projects are coming along. There’s the writing goals posts and I did do some ‘writing project updates’ type posts a while ago but the general day to day commenting of what I’m working on and how I’m going has largely been taken on by my Twitter account. If you’re into that sort of stuff, you can follow me there.

But I used to do a lot more of it. Whilst compiling pieces and such for my collection Sanity Juxtaposed, I noticed a lot of my writing posts were in the form of updates, how many words I’ve written, how I feel about the story etc. which was useful for me but I’m not sure they were particularly interesting.

Anyway, I’ve been doing a lot of work on Sanity Juxtaposed, getting together all the shorts, poetry and flash fiction up until 2009 and also including a selection of blog posts that either have some life in them or give an indication of what this blog is about.

These pieces, the introduction and the short intros to the sections are all done and compiled into one master document that is currently being proof read and tweaked. As I said in my goals post this month, I hope to have the eBook out by the end of the month and we’re looking mighty close.

I just want to make sure there are no errors, typos or major blunders in it (unlike last time in 2005) and that it’s a decent quality despite the fact I’ve included some of my first short stories!

It was originally intended to be for amongst friends and family and for my own records but it’s developed into a bit of a demo book or sample of my work that hopefully people will want to buy to get a taste of my writing as well as to support me with a little bit of cash and a little bit of encouragement in the form of actually caring about my work enough to want to read some of it, in print.

Hopefully we will have the final copy of the cover by the end of the week so I can unveil it here and get you all excited because the art is spectacular.

Writing Projects: Late April Update

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FoldersI intend to keep people updated on the status of my projects, though it might not be as regular as my writing goals posts that I post at the beginning of each month.

Capital Comes Dripping – the short story collection

I continue to work steadily on the pieces for this project and it’s at the forefront of my mind more than the other projects. As per my goals at the beginning of the month, I’ve finished Chapter Three of All Fascists are Zombies! – as well as submitting Evicted and My Boss Sucks out yesterday and today.

I’ve also begun work on the rewrite of An Abused Mind according the research I’ve done on homophobia and gay hate crimes. The story is so radically different that it could be considered a first draft.

Barbarism – the novel

I still haven’t touched this but last week another writer/editor asked about dystopian fiction from emerging writers and after some discussion, he wanted to read my first draft. It’s a 53,000 word first draft, which is unfinished and a NaNoWriMo first draft at that so it’s a bit of a gamble but perhaps someone reading it might spur me on to finish it.

The Red Pen – the zine

The Red Pen zine is my new project that I announced last week. My aim was to announce it and get discussion between contributors going which I can say has been a success. Now it’s time to get people moving on their pieces, as well as a piece of my own.

Sanity Juxtaposed – the unpublished collection

After some discussion here on this blog, I’ve decided to take the earlier work, my first short stories and poems, and section off that section of the collection into an ‘earlier work’ section with a little introduction.

Other than that, I’ve done nothing. I need to find a nice chunk of time to go through this blog and the old blog and pick out some pieces to include.

***

There might be some overlap between this post and when I report on April’s writing goals at the start of the month, but thinking about these updates and going through each project is really helping to focus.

Another thing I think I need to do is prioritise projects and work out which ones deserve more attention.

Sanity Juxtaposed: What to include and what to leave out

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I’m starting to doubt myself and the pieces I was planning on including in Sanity Juxtaposed so this post is basically a call out for advice and thoughts on what to include and what effects including certain works might have.

You see, I started copyediting some older pieces, like some of the first short stories I wrote, and of course they’re no where near the kind of writing I produce now. That’s a good feeling. It’s shown I’ve improved.

And whilst these aren’t my best work, I still want to include them, have people read them and when compared to the other pieces, it does show how my writing has changed. But I’m not sure if this is selling myself short or shooting myself in the foot.

Sanity Juxtaposed is meant to be a collection of all my unpublished work. I see it as a kind of demo tape or EP. If you go see unknown bands play in your city, you know some of them sell a single or an EP to give people a taste that’s not quite their first album. It’s kind of like that.

But I don’t want people to read those first few shorts and take that as what I write like. I don’t want this collection to then turn people off anything else I write in the future.

I think part of this can be resolved by way of an introduction in the book but I’m still concerned about whether or not to include mainly the pieces I wrote between 2004 and 2005 before I started the blog.

Writing: What Projects Am I Working On?

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FoldersI’ve been sick the past couple of days, wasting time at home, and when I’m at home I tend to do less blogging, which is weird. Anyway, yesterday, in my boredom I managed to get moving on my novella again, All Fascists are Zombies!

I was partly inspired by Jeff Sparrow’s blog post comparing writing to work. Beginning to write again after a break hurts, especially those first few paragraphs, but I think I’ve pushed through it now.

So, thought it might be useful for myself (and maybe you too) if I updated everyone on the status of my projects.

Barbarism – The 2009 NaNoWriMo novel

I haven’t touched this since the first few days of December. It’s worrying that I’ve forgotten it. Coming back to it will become harder and harder the more I leave it. But I need to push myself to get some words down for it.

Sanity Juxtaposed – The Collection of Unpublished work from 2004 to 2009

A few weeks ago perhaps, I found someone to do my cover art for this minor project and after seeing the WIP of that last week, I feel like I need to give it more attention and upgrade it to a major project. I’m keeping details of this under-wraps because it’s just too exciting ;)

I’m thinking of SJ like a band’s demo tape or EP and plan to sell it that way. The pieces being in chronological order will hopefully give the reader some impression of my progress as a writer over the years and a taste of my style. Hopefully the first few pieces aren’t sabotaging people’s willingness to give me a go though.

I have all the pieces from 2004 to 2008 but need to gather the 2009 pieces, mostly flash fiction but there’s a decision to be made about what’s going in this, and what good political stuff to keep for my other project, Capital Comes Dripping.

Capital Comes Dripping – The Collection of Marxist Horror

I think this is the project with the most attention at the moment, leaving me able to work on simultaneous parts of it, be it my novella or various short stories.

I’ve also thinking about adding some pages to this blog’s sidebar about ‘Marxist horror’ and what I mean by it in order to conceptualise what I want out of it.

  • All Fascists are Zombies! – the novella – Like I said before, I’ve begun working on AFAZ again and am in the middle of writing a second draft, this time with a nice outline using Scrivener. I’ve become a real fan of rewrites, honing the plot and characters with each draft.
  • My Boss Sucks – short story – I’ve been through so many edits of this. I think it’s time for another rewrite in light of learning more about the main character. I’m struggling to find a market for this piece though that might publish it before it’s added to the collection.
  • The Homophobe – a poem – I’ve submitted this out again after making some changes that really improved the flow. I’ve gotten some promising feedback and the results mean I’ll probably work on some more poetry for the collection too.
  • Evicted – flash fiction piece – I think this needs to be edited and submitted soon in order to get a feeling of what I need to do with it even if it gets rejected.
  • Other short stories – I’ve got a few other shorts and flash pieces in various stages, needing edits, complete rewrites or redrafts. The main ones being one about homophobia and another set in an abattoir, which both are niggling in my head every so often.

I think Capital Comes Dripping is going to be an ongoing project overtime and I plan to submit the various pieces as they’re written in order to give them some miles so to speak. And this will certainly be the main project throughout 2010.

I’ve got a lot on and I think it’s going to be very easy to forget about things so might make these ‘project updates’ semi-regular.

How do you juggle and organise your writing projects? Do you find this kind of update interesting or useful?

Writing update and more on ‘Hadeon.’

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Well, I called up work and now we’ve been told the project is over and there’s no more work for us. So, I’m back looking for work, and really hoping for this IT traineeship.

In the mean time, I thought I should get back to writing. Yesterday, I opened my word processor and spent time staring at it blankly, screaming my frustrations into the NaNo chat room, visiting forums and blogs and reading ‘Straight into Darkness.’ I wanted to write. I felt inspired and creative and my fingers were itching to go. Problem was, I had no idea what to write. My current projects didn’t inspire me, and I thought I good way to get going would be to write one of the prompts I’ve posted on my forum. I couldn’t finish my first attempt at the first one, so I decided to start again…with no ideas.

But, I did get there. Out of nowhere, I think when I gave up looking, an idea struck me and I was away. My keyboard cringed and screamed as I bashed out a thousand words in quick succession, and it felt good. I’m going to try the second one today and see what I come up with. The first one is probably going in ‘Sanity Juxtaposed.’

As with ‘Hadeon,’ Cavan suggested leaving it for a while and when an idea comes for it, not to start writing again, but to write down the idea and wait for more ideas, and more ideas, and finally they should all come together so I can finish the story. I think it’s a good idea, and I might even read through the MS again to gain some perspective because I’ve written this novel over a long period of time with large gaps in between. So, as you can see, ‘Hadeon’ is in therapy, and ironically, this is something the character, Hadeon needs quite badly ;)

writing, ideas, inspiration, writer’s block, flash fiction, novel writing, therapy, planning

Some news…

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Sorry for the lack of posting lately. When I’ve had time to blog, I’ve had nothing to blog, and other times, I’ve busy. But there is some very important news I have to tell you. I got a job!

On Monday, I had an interview and now I’m a stagehand for a major crewing company. I haven’t had my first shift yet, but when I do, I’ll be sure to report it.

And I got my royalties cheque from Lulu today too. So money is ok at the moment, but when I get paid, it’ll be much better :D

job, time, royalties, POD, Lulu

On Sanity Juxtaposed

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Sorry, if my below post made you cringe. I’ve been a little overwhelmed by things.

I’ve been doing some thinking about ‘Sanity Juxtaposed.’ I’ve had thoughts, and my mind has been focused on the novella I’m writing for it, but there really needs to be some work done on what I already have, the stories at the moment need a little tidying up. I’m going to add some flash fiction pieces I wrote for various boards, which run weekly or monthly exercises. They’re too short to be published in some mag, but they were fun to write, and one sold a copy of the original book. When work gets underway further, I’ll start posting around looking for people willing to do cover art, plus I want to get a proof reader, though I don’t want to pick someone I don’t know.

writing, sanity juxtaposed, cover art, proof reading, POD, flash fiction