Who Is Roland Clarke?

August 19, 2013 by Roland Clarke

INDIE BLOG PARTY Post 1: Introducing Myself

For this first post in the Indie Block Party, I will try to introduce myself to those readers joining this Grand Tour.

Although I started writing stories when I was a kid and tried to get short stories published in my late teens-early twenties, I have to be honest and say that I never saw myself as any sort of writer until I was much older.

I flirted with journalism in my early twenties but drifted into equestrian photography, then fruit & veg selling, then the TV & film industry. So I was forty when I returned to journalism and my equestrian articles got regularly published in various magazines. When after ten amazing years I had to retire due to ill health, multiple sclerosis, I turned my remaining energy to finishing my first novel, an equestrian mystery called ‘Spiral of Hooves’ – first in the Chasseur series.

Horses have remained a theme, especially as I have just outlined Book 2 in the Chasseur series, ‘Tortuous Terrain’. In other WIPs there are horses but in secondary or minor roles. There’s even one who can fold time & space…

All my current writing tends to be mysteries but in some cases with a touch of fantasy or supernatural. My reading covers crime and fantasy as does my TV and film viewing. Not surprising then that I try to combine them.

My spare time is spent playing Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games – from Lord of the Rings Online to current favourite Age of Conan Unchained.

My blog ‘Writing Wings’ is somewhat erratic, appearing when MS doesn’t bog me down with pain and exhaustion. I have to be inspired to write or I get very depressed with what I produce. The blogs aim is to track my experiences as a struggling fledgling writer. Hopefully there are a few gems in the blogs although I don’t profess to be an authority – those can be found on the Links page.

For other facts and dreams see About Me where there are links to Interviews by other writers.

For other Indie Block blogs visit: http://felwetzig.com/indie-block-party/

SIXTY ~ THE MAGIC NUMBER

August 7, 2013 by Roland Clarke

Sixty seems like an achievement and part of me wishes it was counted in books rather than years. Yet I am thankful that there have been that many years.

Another milestone decade has crept up on me and I sit here wondering where all those years went. What have I achieved? Were the years wasted or worthwhile?

On the work front, pre-Multiple Sclerosis, I had a failed photography business, an organic fruit & veg wholesale business that seemed to turn to compost – but was decades ahead of its time – and a TV & Film company that lost way too much money. On the plus side I had equestrian articles and photos published, and the two equestrian competitions that I kick-started are both thriving even though I have had to retire through ill-health.

What happens next? Not retirement exactly, since some scribbling of sorts has continued, even if I’ve reached six-zero. Hopefully there is time yet to finish what I’ve started, but curiosity asks the question: Do writers die clutching a pen or a keyboard… or a mouse?

Of course I’ve already been in my 60th year for a while – if you want to be technical. Some people were claiming I was in my 50^th year when I turned 49. Great!

After six decades what am I thinking about? Am I planning a great announcement? Perhaps, although what has really changed, is I am still learning to write. But it doesn’t help having a body that is in need of a retro-fit or something. MS does have aspects that warrant it being called the MonSter.

What do I want for my birthday? A new body? Maybe more time to get things done. But in practical terms I’ve decided that my life is pretty good as it is. I’ve found my soul mate and inspiration – and she is the most precious part of my world now. We have a great home with two adorable cats, even when they interrupt our play or scratch the new furniture.

And the launch of my first book, ‘Spiral of Hooves’ grows nearer every day. First of sixty perhaps. It would be nice to envisage a row of leather bound books on a dark wood shelf in a paneled library. But the reality is more likely to be an e-reader with at most a dozen titles. However, there are only seven titles in the pipeline, including ‘Spiral of Hooves’, and although first drafts only take a month or three, the editing process takes ages = months stretching to years. Better get revising then.

Perhaps I need to re-evaluate my progress at the end of the next decade. Seems like a plan – along with the bookshelf.

Antique Books (Photo credit: Robert Benner Sr.)

Life is simpler on the back roads (countryclassphotography.wordpress.com)
Innovative Multiple Sclerosis Treatments May Be On The Way, Thanks To New Nerve Cell Findings (medicaldaily.com)
Top 10 Myths About Multiple Sclerosis (abcnews.go.com)
8 Fulfilling Careers For Retirees (businessinsider.com)
Study: Later retirement may help prevent dementia (jsonline.com)
Ten Bad Reasons to Avoid Retirement (humor.gunaxin.com)

Beyond the Monotony

May 1, 2013 by Roland Clarke

A foggy evening 01 (Photo credit: AnneCN)

What would you do after three months of editing?

Variety is the spice of life they say, but how do you achieve it? Stop editing and write? Switch projects? What happens if you have five draft novels all needing editing and two new plots pounding at your mind?

Most sensible writers seem to blend the editing and writing successfully, judging by their Blogs and their Facebook posts. But living with MS makes that hard. If I work at the revision then I no longer have the energy to do anything more than chill out. Which is why it has just taken me three months to complete the third revision of my 97k novel Wyrm Bait. Yesterday I sent it off to my editor for detailed analysis; also sent it to four beta readers for their thoughts.

Some time ago, I would have switched into writing mode and produced another draft novel, which is why there are so many lurking around, waiting to be edited. Heading the queue is that blast from my past, my first novel Spiral of Hooves. It’s been with the editors for the US ebook publishers – one English, one American – and is due back any day.

Decision made, therefore: I have to revise that next, addressing their input = another month or so of editing.

You Want Me To Go Down Where?! (Photo credit: tobym)

Do I scream? It’s a change of setting, characters, plot and of problems to be addressed. But it’s still editing – NOT writing.

But editing is part of the writing process, the experts tell us. I need to learn to love the revision stage. The short cut of editing as I write is a gag on my creative flow. I prefer to plot carefully, write freely, and edit gradually. Except three times five novels = 15 months of editing. But total revision for each novel is far longer, which cuts out the creation. Doesn’t it?

However no new novels won’t work, not if I want to satisfy my urge to create and my potential readers urge for new words. When Spiral of Hooves sells, the readers should want the sequel, but it’s not written.

One source of new material has been NaNoWriMo in November and I have heard rumours of a June challenge as well. Is that the solution? NaNoWriMo has produced two first drafts: The Last Leaf (2011) and Wyrm Blood (2012). One took a month but the other was almost three to first draft completion. Even have two ideas in plotting process; if I can decide which one comes first in the penning order. Probably Tortuous Terrain the sequel to Spiral of Hooves. However Seeking A Knife is more alive in my mind. Decisions, decisions.

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Need more time. Maths not looking good. Something needs to give. But what? Social media? Emails? Gaming? All cut to a minimum and part of my survival plan, whether to maintain contact or to chill and reward myself.

One solution is to blog rather than create new novels. Still writing and far faster, requiring quick editing. Revert to short stories and simplify my inspiration. Even novellas not novels. All ideas to be swept along in the tide of editing. And high tide is approaching. With MS lurking to dash the plans with exhaustion and pain.

So what do you do? What advise can you give the Silver Scribbler?

Rebel NaNoWriMo (talynmarie.wordpress.com)
Is the Change as Good as the Rest? (davidjhiggins.wordpress.com)

Clutter Or Backstory?

January 29, 2013 by Roland Clarke

Almost sixty years of living can produce a lot of baggage, especially if everything is too precious or important to throw away. Can I afford to chuck those vinyl records that filled my ears when I was a teenager? Surely some of my old VHS recordings must contain gems that can’t be trashed? However if I take a lesson from writing, then too much information or backstory can bog the tale down, make the reader close the book after a few pages.

I was on schedule to complete my January writing targets and yesterday I finished the first read-through edit of my NaNoWriMo 2012 novel – Wyrm Blood. I just need to print out a hard copy for the next edit in perhaps the summer. February was scheduled for the next edit of the first ‘Gossamer Steel’ book, Wyrm Bait. But then my past caught up with me.

Pre-2000, life was in a downward spiral in terms of property but belongings kept accumulating as my ex-wife and I moved house/flat. In 2000 when I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and we sold our home, I moved in with my mother shifting the detritus of my life into one room & corridor. When I re-married in 2010 the attempt began to throw the clutter away and thanks to my new wife, much of it was disposed of, or moved into our home IF it could be used. Some remained ready for the final sort out, but annoyingly when you create space like digging in sand it fills up again – mainly with my sister’s junk. On our last visit, it was impossible to get at my stuff, so I gave up.

Then on the 4^th December my mother had a fall and went into hospital, then moved into a ‘healing centre’. Yesterday my brother rings up to say she will be home next week and can I clear my old room of the junk at least, in order that the live-in nurse can use the room. Great warning, especially when I’m in a wheelchair, my mother’s flat is up five steps and there’s no room in the corridor for easy access either. Plus I don’t travel at all well.

‘But you could sit outside and tell someone [my wife] what to throw out, when it’s brought out’.

Great idea when it’s cold, I need a toilet regularly, my wife suffers from asthma and a bad knee and hip, plus I know what I really need to keep – the things that add meaning to my life but not the clutter of my past. In addition the pressure of having to go there, deal with the problems = stress = severe MS attacks that my wife has to cope with, not just me.

English: Main symptoms of Multiple sclerosis. Sources are found in main article: Wikipedia:Multiple sclerosis#Signs and symptoms. Model: Mikael Häggström. To discuss image, please see Template_talk:Häggström diagrams (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

After editing a few draft novels, I’m learning that you only need the backstory elements that add substance to the characters. Clutter isn’t needed, which means differentiating between information that adds to the characters, and facts that are only needed while drafting the characters in the background notes. Hence there are things, which I know are at my mother’s flat and I value as part of me – like the letters that I wrote from Canada as a teenager. But old clothes, VHS tapes and certainly anything that reminds me of my failed marriage are superfluous to moving on, especially if they carry memories of bad decisions.

I’ve always taken this quote to heart: “I turn over a new leaf every day, …But the blots show through.” Keith Waterhouse’s Billy Liar, chapter. 11. But unlike Billy Liar, I’ve moved on so the blots have to go. Yes the clutter is my responsibility but then surely my siblings can understand that having a disabled brother is a responsibility too. Or perhaps I’m expecting too much?

I can list the 4 things I need from the past that’s cluttering up that room: 1. my old writing folders; 2. my Lord of the Rings souvenirs; 3. my old letters; and 4. a black cast iron kitten. There are books in the bookshelves but my brother is not worried about them, only my clutter which has been piled in a jumble with my sister’s clutter. Oh she lives in Singapore. Any more and the precious few become clutter in my new life, not backstory. Friday I will be nodding goodbye to the detritus, I suspect.