My Name Is A Number

Some time ago I wrote a ‘Blog’, following pressure from certain quarters, that explained how I set up and wrote a story.

The ‘Blog’ involved several ‘Chapters’ that were spread over four entries during March, 2013.

At the end of the ‘Blog’ I wrote, “Finally, we have to read the story critically and examine whether it is worth pursuing. Not every story that falls out of our heads is going to dominate the literary market. Some might not even make it as far as the waste paper basket.

This one will make it to the bin. No further.”

I was in error.

The story was seen by other eyes and the result was that it was rewritten and passed to the publisher.

Khairul Hisham, of ‘Hishgraphics’, has produced a magnificent cover illustration and now the story is in the hands of the editor for final corrections.

'My Name Is A Number' should be published on 'Amazon' in the next couple of days.

I will confess that the story was inspired, to a certain extent, by the Rolling Stones song ‘2000 Man’, which I commend to you via ‘YouTube’.

So you will see that, whatever you write you should never throw it away.

This is my second lesson in this respect.

Many moons ago I wrote ‘The Hags of Teeb’ as an exercise in exorcising the story from my head. After completing it I threw it, wholesale, into the rubbish bin from whence it was extracted by delicate fingers and scrutinised with an intense scrute and smuggled out to the publisher. It is now a top seller on ‘Amazon’!

[Note: It is being caught up by ‘Rhittach’—watch out behind you, Hags!]

On the other hand, other stories that I wrote have been much admired by me (how arrogant is that?) and yet have failed to pass the ‘first reader test’! One such is ‘South From Alaska’ that appeared in the ‘The Write Stuff’ ‘Blog’ on 23^rd June, 2012. I loved that story only for it to be rejected even after rewriting.

You just can never tell what will make it and what will not.

A friend of mine is a great chef. He is the master at turning plain food into a heavenly delight. He is called Gerry Buxton, a big, down-to-earth fellow who is easy to get on with and has a great sense of humour and no legs.

I asked him, years ago, how he manages to cater for so many different tastes amongst the people who eat his food?

He told me that he did not. He cooked for himself. If he liked it then it was good enough to go out to the guests.

I remembered that.

I write for me. I write to make myself happy.

If you like my stories then I am happy; if you do not like my stories then I am also happy because it shows that you have, at least, read it/them and have cared enough to write a review telling me what it was that you disliked.
[See ‘Amazon’ reviews for ‘Crater’.]

You will never please everyone. Never. The main thing is to please yourself.

Sometimes you will not be pleased but it is always worth keeping your work because somebody might love it!

Never give up. Everything you do is practice. Overnight success comes to very few. Success comes to those who work at it.

See you on ‘Amazon’.