Simone Clare Bailey's Blog (65)

Oh well, it's Boxing Day evening here in Oz (9.48pm AEDST).  Christmas is over for another year.  Still got to think of promotional ideas for my work.  Perhaps a pictorial in some tawdry magazine, with copies of my novel 'Abernethy' placed strategically over those erogenous zones (memo to the art department: please get your airbrushing equipment oiled and ready).  I've entered 'Abernethy' in the Young Adult section of the Western Australian Premiers Book Award, but won't know anything until…

It's hard to get any writing done when it's school holidays.  My kids are driving me mad.  I'm going to Heaven when I die, because I did my time in Hell today: taking them to the supermarket two days before Christmas.  I have to do a couple of hours' paid work in the morning, and they will be at the local day care centre.  I'll leave them there for a few hours, number one because they really like it, and number two: I'll do some writing.  I'll also prepare the dessert I'm planning for…

Well, the summer school holidays are here (I'm in Australia), and already my 9 and 6 year old sons have driven each other crazy, and by flow-on effect, me as well.  Won't have as much time to write my third novel over the hols, but am still plugging like crazy 'Abernethy', which is young adult - coming of age with a touch of the supernatural.  The supernatural aspect is the titular character, who is a beagle and can speak to certain people, and one of those people is my 14 year old…

I've always written, but sometimes I wished I had tackled it REALLY seriously when I had less encumbrances, to wit, mortgage and rugrats. I've not long watched 'Hot Tub Time Machine', which you are probably aware is about four guys going back to 1986 via a hot tub, and they have the chance to change certain events that caused their lives to suck somewhat in present day. If I went back to 1986, I'd concentrate more on my writing. I tried to remember what stands out most for me regarding 1986.…

Haven't been doing too much work on my third novel lately (which features some glam rock) but have been busy spruiking my second one. One of my new Facebook friends has told me he can't put it down (although he did put it down momentarily to type his comment!), so that's made me happy. This FB friend is someone I 'friended' through a group about music that I like. I will accept friend requests from people in this group because I know we have lots in common. Yet I will not accept friend…

Okay, today I completed an online application for the Western Australian Premier's Book Award, and I'll have to send five copies of 'Abernethy' to the judging panel. They don't return the books. What a rort! Be great if 'Abernethy' got an award, but I won't even know until June 2011.

Just watched a new Australian television series about a criminal barrister in Sydney. I worked in that very industry in that very city for a long time before my tree change. Not sure whether it's…

Dear Blog-Browser,

I've copied and pasted into this a review of my novel 'Abernethy'. The review is by Phillip Ellis of Australian Reader.Com, and you can check them out at http://www.australianreader.com

I'm pretty stoked with the review. 'Stoked' is an Australian colloquialism for delight and elation. Hell, I damn near had an orgasm when I read it!

I've been doing my 'book tour thing-o'. There was…

When I was about sixteen, there was a song out that was very popular: 'Centrefold' by the J Geils Band. I'd hear it on the radio, and my shoulders would twitch in time with the upbeat melody and oh-so-catchy hook. However, the narrator of that song really is a hypocritical, self-delusional, passive/aggressive turd with a galloping Madonna/Whore complex, don't you reckon? No? Well, I'll explain the reasons for my admittedly unqualified diagnosis.

He's in the newsagents and…

Well, started my official 'book tour' today. I drove to two different stores, two hours away from where I live (I nearly ran over a dog on the way - man, was I pissed off and upset!). The first store had set up not only my lastest novel, 'Abernethy', but also my first novel, 'Calumny while reading Irvine Welsh'. I sat at the table expectantly, and waited and waited and waited. Finally somebody came over. It was not a purveyor of fine fiction, like I had hoped. It was an aging Jesus-freak who…

Well, 'Abernethy' was successfully launched last Friday night. It was a good night, although it went a tad too quickly for my liking. I was stressed to the nth power in the week leading up to it because my husband suffered a fall with a sub-arachnoid bleed, most likely trauma from the fall. He's doing well, now. Oddly, just prior to the launch of my first novel, 'Calumny while reading Irvine Welsh' last year, he had a small heart attack(and he had only just turned 43 at the time, and he is…

I'm no tech-head, so for me to get a link to an article in the local newspaper about my latest novel posted to both FB and my other blog was quite the achievement. I'm going to try and replicate this feat of cyber-accomplishment again, right here, right now...…

I must need a spin doctor. Tomorrow I'm being interviewed by the local newspaper about my new novel, 'Abernethy' (Zeus Publications, www.zeus-publications.com) and one of the first questions will be, where did you get the idea for the book (which tells of a lonely fourteen-year-old whose Dad is in gaol awaiting the outcome of his appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeal - an appellate court here in Australia - and he meets a beagle with powers of…

I should be in bed, and believe me, it's where I'm going as soon as I post. I'm organising a launch for my new novel, 'Abernethy' (Zeus Publications, www.zeus-publications.com), along with associated author talks, book signings, school appearances; the whole shebang, I suppose. I'm finding Facebook an interesting way of getting the point out there. Some new friends I've made (via common interests) have written on their own walls about the book,…

Haven't posted here for a little while. Got my latest novel back from the printer through the week - my fifteen complimentary author copies, that is. So I drank champagne and waltzed my six year old son around the kitchen as I sang, 'Mack the Knife'. This would have been traumatic for my child as I couldn't hit a note even with the assistance of a trained sniper. Am in the process of organsing the official launch, and have organised a few signings. On Saturday, my husband sat in his shed…

Oh the joys of organising a book launch. It's not as difficult or politically fraught as organising a wedding, say, but it's not without hassles. I'm in the process of organsing the launch of my second novel, and I'm liaising with my local libraries, and the art gallery. The library is being refurbished, so that's out as a venue. However, they are interested in helping me, and have approached the local art gallery. All good. But then I found out tht the curator's assistant has pencilled in…

Is it just me, or does it really SUCK to be a financially strapped author? I think impercuniosity just sucks like an imploding black hole. I have a few hours paid work scheduled for tomorrow (I work casually as a law clerk), because tragically (for me) my writing won't pay my bills. If I did have lots of money, I'd pay my bills on time and get my mortgage paid off. I wouldn't be hoovering Bolivian marching powder up my hooter, that's for sure. Still, it seems people with trust funds like the…

Has been a fiendish few days, and I've finally worked out why. Let's put it this way: I've been shouting at my kids more than usual and craving chocolate. Ladies, you know what I'm getting at. So I've been unwinding by You Tube-ing daggy old music clips. For those of you in the US, who may be not au fait with the term 'daggy', it's an Australian colloquialism referring to things that are uncool, or perhaps cheesy. The noun is 'dag'. A 'dag' is also the dried excrement adhering to the wool…

Today one door opened, and another shut in my face. The open door was an idea by a library in a nearby city to have me attend some local high schools and discuss 'Abernethy' when it's back from the printer. The one that shut was in the form of an email received from a regional newspaper I contacted to ask would they consider doing a review and an interview (to be conducted by telephone). I live in regional New South Wales. The newspaper I contacted was in a nearby region. The person to whom…

I don't know if this has made news in the US, but the Australian Prime Minister's de facto stepdaughter (that's the best way the relationship can be described) has been in the news here because she's decided to pose for a lad's magazine. It would be a bikini shoot. Of course, the hoo-hah is silly because the woman is 31 years old, and can make her own mind up. It won't effect Gillard's governing style.

But it got me thinking (and this can be dangerous). Should I perhaps pose…

Gaaaaaahhh! Just spent ages online, and on the telephone, organsing PR and a possible launch date for 'Abernethy'. It's frustrating, depressing, and yet exciting all at the same time, isn't it? I had to take a breather, so I decided to You Tube some Jim Croce, and I listened to 'I Got A Name'. It's been almost thirty years since his death. At the risk of sounding arty-farty, I feel like that song reached me today. It summed up how I'm feeling at the moment. Especially when he sang, 'Like the…