So, yes, it was pretty incredible.
What happened was this:
Back in 2007 I found myself waiting in line for coffee at a gallery in Liverpool next to Joel Rickett, when he worked at the Bookseller, (no, I'd never met him before) and he mentioned something about a blog that was being turned into a book.
What happened was this:
Back in 2007 I found myself waiting in line for coffee at a gallery in Liverpool next to Joel Rickett, when he worked at the Bookseller, (no, I'd never met him before) and he mentioned something about a blog that was being turned into a book.
I said: 'What's a blog?' Didn't quite find out, ordered some biscuits, and that was it.
When I went home I looked up 'blog' on the Internet.
'Ha,' I said to myself, 'I've no freaking idea what this blogging business is, but I'm going to do it anyway.'
'Ha,' I said to myself, 'I've no freaking idea what this blogging business is, but I'm going to do it anyway.'
Let me be honest here: I was/am freaking rubbish at this lark. People would send me badges to put on my blog and I'd reply. 'I don't know what to do, help.'
But, I blogged anyway and sent the link to some family and friends and then before I knew it, I had a small but appreciative audience. I won an award at Manchester Literature Festival (I don't know how!) but couldn't attend the ceremony that night because my boyfriend had left me and I was sprawled on the sitting room floor eating steak and microchips.
Early December 2007 --- and I was well and truly on my arse! It was a few weeks before Christmas and I was broke, weepy, freshly dumped, and about to be made redundant. So I emailed an agent with an idea, ten minutes later he called, a few days later I'd written a proposal, within a fortnight the book was sold to Penguin.
It was that fast.
And yes, it did change my life. I moved off the council estate, stopped having an open relationship with an eco warrior, ditched the lovers... and took the very sensible step of moving into a quasi-single parent communal household in London ( a city where the only people I knew, I'd already had sex with), experimented with celibacy (boring), and took a job with a medical publishing house where on my second day I vomited in the shower just thinking about the day ahead, complete with faeces.
Things you might ask:
And yes, it did change my life. I moved off the council estate, stopped having an open relationship with an eco warrior, ditched the lovers... and took the very sensible step of moving into a quasi-single parent communal household in London ( a city where the only people I knew, I'd already had sex with), experimented with celibacy (boring), and took a job with a medical publishing house where on my second day I vomited in the shower just thinking about the day ahead, complete with faeces.
Things you might ask:
- "Why aren't you one of those bloggers who leaves messages everywhere and interacts with the community at LARGE?" I am bubbly, cheery, and loud (on a Saturday night at 11pm) but also really, really shy...shhh!
- "Can you look at my work and help me get published?" I'd love to, but having tried it for others, I don't think it works that way. It's a bit like romance: you need to find connections with agents, publishers etc. that suit you. I will write more on my blog about it though.
- "Eh? What happened to you? There you were blogging, disappeared, and now you're back again... party pooper." To be honest, I was bit sad about something and didn't want to blub on the page when I was promoting my book, because a radio station would probably ask me to comment on it.
- "So what's this one about?" The boy is taller, I'm older, and I'm still hanging by the door waiting for him to come home when I should actually be getting a life.
To conclude:
You can do it, whatever that may be, if you really want it. Now click on the Bristol Stool Chart and ....ew....
