How Can People Know Me?

My post on calling oneself an "aspiring author" received some positive feedback, which got me onto thinking: when an author drops the "aspiring", how do they get everyone else to look at them as an author, to know about them as an author? From experience, I know it's difficult to get noticed, even just to get people to see you as an author.

Thankfully, there are some options out there.

For me, telling someone who would care was an important step. This meant teachers. I think I only ever mentioned it to two of them, both English teachers, and word must have gotten around that I'd written a book. When I was in fifth year, a teacher I didn't have mentioned - to his class, of people in my year - that I had written a book. Suddenly, I was that guy.

That was before Twitter. It was before Facebook Pages. It was before Google+. I think it was even before I started blogging (if I remember when word got around, correctly.)

Now, things are simpler. What can you do to make yourself known as an author?

1. Set up a Twitter account. In your bio, make sure to mention that you are an author/writer. This worked for me in the early days of Twitter to get followers, because people like following users who are like them. I was a young writer, received a lot of encouragement for that fact, and it was impossible to deny that I was a writer. Follow other writers - and not just the famous ones - and get talking to them.

2. Set up a Facebook Page. This will be one of the easiest places for people to express a 'Liking' for you, if you'll excuse the pun. Having 'Likes' demonstrates your AUTHORity, to yourself and others. Invite your friends and family, and be sure to have a link to your Facebook Page somewhere people can see it.

3. Set up a Google+ Account. You can link this to your other Google accounts. Google+ makes it easy to be shared in others' Circles, and Hangouts allow you to talk directly to other writers.

4. Set up a Blog or Website. From here, you can provide valuable information about yourself and your writing, provide free stories and poetry, and keep people up to date with what's happening in your life. I use my blog, largely, to write about my personal life, though sometimes with posts like this that explore writing. My website has articles that have been researched to provide more informative posts, without so much of an insight into my personal life. It also contains stories and poetry, which help diversify what I share. My Friday Flash stories go up here.

If you publish something, or you want to, the next obvious step is:

5. Set up an Author Central Account, if you use Amazon's KDP. This will be where your books will be linked from, and where Amazon users can find out more about you. You can provide a video (the trailer for Balor Reborn in my case, as of writing this), set up a forum, write your bio, and add an author photo. It helps to use the same photo across a number of different sites.

You also have an optional couple of steps, depending on the sort of person you are:

6. Set up a LinkedIn Account. This is more of a "professional" social network, for connecting with people. The idea is to connect with people you know, and help others find people they might need to connect with for career or work opportunities. You should ensure to fill in your Skills, previous work experience, education, and other useful information that LinkedIn provides space for, as these not only allow people to find you, they help create a CV for you online. You can also be endorsed for Skills, and should endorse co-workers, teachers, clients and those you have hired (such as a graphic designer for your cover) in the appropriate areas.

7. Set up a YouTube Channel. If you can talk to a camera or make videos in some other way, and find it interesting and enjoyable, you have the opportunity to reach more people. You could keep a video blog, read poetry or short stories, upload book trailers, or create informative videos (as some examples). This can be linked to your Google+ and Blogger accounts, and provide links to your other Social Networking sites.

While there is no guarantee that any site will make you known as an author, it will help establish your author identity online. Getting involved in forums is also of benefit to you as a writer so long as you keep up with your writing, and make sure people know you are a writer (by having a link to your website in your signature, for example).

When it comes to "real life" (i.e. anything not online), you have the option of trying for events in a book shop, if you've published something and the shop will stock it (and remember, a shop does not have to stock your book just because it's been published), reading at public events, setting up a reading night (which works well for poetry), or seeking publication in magazines and/or newspapers for articles, poetry or short stories.

It's always beneficial to you as a writer to identify as one. If you don't, no one else will see you in that way. That's counter-productive to everything you could do to get your name out there.

But what about getting recognised? Follow this simple advice, and you'll be on your way:

1. Post often. People need to remember who you are.

2. Post something worth reading. If people enjoy it (for its entertainment value or its educational value), then they'll be more likely to (a) come back and (b) share it.

3. Interact with others. This can be difficult to do, especially if you're a busy person (as I tend to be while lectures are on in college), you should make sure to do a couple of things: respond to comments from others, set up something like Paper.li to share others' links, and make an effort to check in on sites at least once per week.

If you want, you can also:

4. Set up a newsletter on your website. This means you can have direct access to people's email addresses. You do have to write it, though, and having something to say could be difficult. Right now, I don't use mine as much as I should.

5. Set up auto-tweets if you can always sign in. Be careful about this, though. Many people don't like to see auto-tweets coming in all the time, because they don't get to know the person. I've tested them while I was in work one weekend, sharing quotes from authors about writing and life. The important thing is to check in when you're actually around to talk to people, and remember #3: respond to people's replies. I know I received a couple, because the quotes were amazing. You don't have to tweet quotes, but links aren't favourable. Try poetry or (very) short stories, instead, if you want to provide something interesting for people while you're away. (Social Oomph is useful and free for setting up auto-tweets.)

If/when you become a published author - either by having a book published by someone else, or by publishing yourself - make sure people know where to get it. However, don't saturate social media with links to your book. It's always beneficial to write free material in the same area you publish in, too, if you're trying to get others to notice your book, and to use promotions on whichever site you're using to publish.

In every case - every social network - you should have a bio that tells people who you are. Be informative, semi-formal, but aim to be funny or quirky, too. People like something that will make them smile. It's more difficult to do that on Twitter, but with other sites you have more space to talk about yourself and your writing.

Remember: get to know other writers, other readers, and demonstrate a real interest in what people have to say. Let them know who you are, what you're up to, and what you're feeling, and be consistent about it. Respect the people you connect with online. And never forget to show that you're a writer.

The Bank Holiday Weekend

In Ireland, there's a certain air of excitement for some people when it comes to the bank holiday weekend. I think for most it's the day off and the extra chance to drink. I remained entirely sober this weekend (the weekend includes Mondays on these occasions, if you don't know already) but that didn't stop me having a good time. For once. Only that I had the time off work did I actually enjoy myself.

There's been some excitement for me over the past three days. To begin with, I got my 50K written by Saturday. That ended a massive writing spree that left me exhausted, but the weekend had only just begun. So I did the only thing I knew how to do: I started a new project. My novel isn't finished, of course, and I will return to writing it shortly, but I had some stuff to do.

Badge for my website!

Sunday saw the rise of my website. There's a fanciful link to it in the sidebar. I've written quite a bit of content for it already, but that's for the grand launch in a few weeks' time. But that story's already been told.

Today, I set up more sites to link to the blog. My official Facebook page was first to show up to the world. I was reluctant to set one up, because I thought it might seem pretentious, but Rebecca Woodhead set me straight. It's now there - and linked to in the sidebar - and thanks to the support from Rebecca, it's gotten over 25 likes already! It doesn't look like much, but I'm delighted. I'll be using it to ask daily questions (or at least only one question a day) and to link people to the articles and other content I post on my website.

To follow up on that, I set up a LinkedIn profile. This one terrified me. While a website was a handy way of spreading content that wasn't all just me-me-me, and a Facebook profile was something I was used to from experience, a LinkedIn profile is so much more. It's the professional side of my website, but in social network form. If you don't know already, it's where professionals go to meet and exchange contacts and connections and it's all extremely terrifying when you don't feel as if you belong. I'll see where it takes me.

The real fun of the BHW is something I'm not even sure I can tell people about yet. It's extremely geeky and exciting, and so far only four people know about it - two of them being my parents! Hopefully I can make that announcement soon. When I can, it'll be on my Google+ account, Twitter and Facebook, with an update in my positions on LinkedIn. Blimey, I feel so professional with all of this going on, now! I'm geeking out!

Today's News

Okay, strange day so far... I woke up unnaturally early, not upset, but not happy, just very, very tired. Last night was a bit like hell, but I got through it. A not-too-brief phone call set me straight. As a result of falling into a state of half-sleep, though, I 'woke' after ten. Just in time for a fry, I might add. I came down as it was about to be dished up, hungry (very hungry) and gasping for a cuppa.

If the waking up early wasn't odd enough... I walked nearly ten kilometres today. Without staying anywhere too long. It wasn't like going to college, where I spend a couple of hours sitting down. I was on my feet the whole time, listening to The Doors and Glee, in that order, once the former had run out of songs on my iPod. This is a rare occurence for me; not only was I out of the house, I was actually walking somewhere. I had to get birthday presents, and lodge a cheque. Party tonight. I may be dead tomorrow. But in the good way.

Now, onto the news! First and foremost - very sad story about Mandela's great-grandaughter. May she rest in peace. What's worse is that it coincides with the start of the World Cup in South Africa; I didn't see the opening ceremony (or the match that's being played as I write) - can someone tell me whether or not there was a minute's silence for her at some stage?

Moving on, Galway City have discovered the age-old invention of fire. The city hall was in a blaze this morning, before the workers arrived. Thankfully, no one was injured. However, the people of Galway have now been educated in the very tentative ways of release of energy. They are currently blaming the fire on water.

There is evidence to suggest that the bankers and every successful business-person was, and probably is still, a liar as a child. This discovery explains how the world is so troubled; the once successful Greeks lied for so long that everyone believed them. Now they owe a lot of money. Well done Greece on your continued success in drama. We only hope next time you won't use the world as your stage. However, if you wish to follow the example of Greece, just don't mess everything up. Play it cool - lie and cheat your way to the top, but don't get caught without any money.

Lisa Sills, celebrated blogger for the Literary Den, today revealed how the media have distorted our images of the people we call celebrities. Miley Cyrus is now considered something of a whore and a poor role model for six year old children - I would imagine that the eleven year age gap has something to do with that, too. Earlier, too, Britney Spears's mental issues were newsworthy enough to exploit. Sure, it'd be rude not to. And throughout Lisa's life, as one of Ireland's quadruplets, she's been in the news, only because she was born. With the release of pictures from her eighteenth birthday, one can only assume that the Irish media is hiding a few morons amongst its midst who insist on invading the privacy of someone who didn't ask for fame, and never even actively persued it. Well done Ireland; I forgot there was nothing more important happening in the world that we should focus on, rather than pestering a family for all of their lives.

In the world of Twitter, the World Cup is now trending, and eating up the servers. As a result, uninterested parties like myself are suffering decreased usage of the site. Thank you, Internet, for becoming less of a safe haven from football, and more of a nuisance. I really like to be treated like a second-hand citizen because I don't like football.

On a more personal note, I am a "shit stirrer". That is to say, I am intentionally winding someone up. Someone who'll remain nameless, simply because I don't want to start a witch hunt, has a habit of posting pictures of celebrities who he believes look like him. In response to questions as to why there are so many men and so few women, I explained "These are the ones on his list. The only celebs he's allowed to ever cheat on his partner with at any stage in his life." This story is still in development. Anyone who sees the funny side of my comment, noting that the person in question likes women, let me know.

This has been Paul Carroll, telling you the news that isn't all that important to everyone.

Twitter's New Meme

Internet memes are funny little buggers; they can vary from how long they last, to what they can do. For example, Kristina Horner's forehead was a meme for a while. It was a pointless, insulting meme (note: a meme - pronounced meem... I know - is something that lots of people use/discuss on the Internet) and it amounted to nothing. The Brotherhood 2.0 project that exists around the lives of John and Hank Green began other memes, like 'world suck', 'the puff', 'the Katherine' and the famous 'Don't Forget to be Awesome'. And on Twitter...

Duncan's Dream. This is, in short, perhaps the worst of all, because it encourages spam. Entrepreneur and Dragon's Den star Duncan Bannatyne began this (someone else named it) on his Twitter account, and since then, lots of his followers have responded positively to it. It involves following all of Duncan's followers, with them following you back, so that you also end up with over 90,000 followers.

The problem? Not everyone wants in on this. I don't, for one. I don't care that people want more followers if the only reason they follow me is to achieve that goal. Duncan's Dream is a joke! What he may want may not be what everyone else wants. If I wanted more followers, I'd follow Bannatyne myself and join in on this little treasure hunt of obscurity and attention-seeking. Actually, scratch that - I do want more followers, but not because of Bannatyne. I want to be followed for the express purpose that people want to follow me, not because people me to follow them. If someone likes what I have to say, or simply that I'm a writer, or they know me or someone recommends that they follow me, then fine, I'm happy with that. That's how I'd like for people to decide to follow me.

Want to know something funny? Bannatyne wants his followers to follow each other, but he doesn't do the same thing. He follows less than 120 people. So... hypocrite much? He can contribute to their followings if he follows them, too. But will he? Probably not. Go on Bannatyne - if you really care that people follow your dream, follow all of your followers. All of them. Even the ones that keep following you every day. All the new ones, all the old ones. That's fair, right?

Twitter is so full of spam... now thousands of people are involved in it. Naturally, I express my distaste for Duncan's Dream, because it's getting me followers I don't want. Will I delete them? No. I want them to perhaps see that I disapprove of why they're following me.

This has been a bitter writer, on his way to Facebook where strangers can't bother me. My friends on Twitter don't bother me, of course. They're pretty amazing. Conversation with strangers on Twitter is also fun, if it's not an argument. But spam? Never!

Twitter

Twitter's like a playground; there are games and there are fights, there are weird discussions and there are boring ones.

Twitter's like an assylum for the mentally ill; every day, over two million people talk to themselves, feeling an urge to tell the world (or whoever's listening) that they are there, and they are busy!

Twitter's like Hollywood; there are celebrities, there are creations, there are good deeds done and lots of pretentious attitudes about everyone else (side note: people on Twitter are both the celebrities and the people observing them, and pretentious attitudes, creations, good and bad deeds are all done by both sides of the coin of fame) and you're not likely to know everyone who has some interest in what you have to say.

That pretty much summarises my experience with Twitter in the 51 and a half weeks I've been there. I've see the fights first hand, and I'm not at liberty to discuss them. They're sort of a You-Had-To-Be-There thing, because even though they're broadcast publicly, they're private intimate things. But I've see the games too - they call them "hashtags." Things are tagged with, can you guess, the hash sign (# for those who don't know...). Generally the hashtags are used to get things trending and to identify similar tweets (that's Twitter lingo for what other social networking sites call "Status Updates."). Other times, they're used to spread jokes (for example: #threewordsaftersex)

As to the assylum reference... well, we're all guilty of that on Twitter. Especially me. I spent about an hour yesterday tweeting in the third person, just for the fun of it.

And Hollywood... well, I've seen friends gain a celebrity status (okay, one in particular), but I've also experienced something similar to the celebrity thing... I don't know most of my followers. It's kind of weird. I would have thought they would reply a lot more to the things I say, but no. Just out of the blue, on Writer Wednesday of course, a couple of people I don't know have me down as a recommendation. I don't know where that came from (but I appreciate it!).

Twitter's like a billboard for the masses; something can be advertised on it, and people can ignore it if they want.

Yeah, this comes back to Poetry Against Cancer. I'm sorry to say (if it annoys you that is... otherwise I'm not sorry), but I won't be stopping with the posts about this book for a long time. I want it to sell, and so I have no choice but to talk about it to remind you, again, that it's for a good cause, and we could do with every say.

My copies of it arrived today, by the way. I have twenty-five copies of it with me right now as I write this. And they look amazing! I mean, I knew they would, but I was still delighted with how well they came out. Rachel did a fantastic job on design work, and I'm not the only one to say it. Now, if you wish to buy it, you can click on the link (the name is hightlighted above - it's a link to buy it, like all the links of books I post, though most go to Amazon.com)

Thanks for your time. Let me know what you think of the book if you buy it! (And please, buy it! I don't ask for much, and it's not too expensive!)

Weekend War, Part 2

I lost, I think. Eileen updated me on her weekend, and she seems to have trumped mine. Unless a thousand people suddenly vote for me in the Shorty Awards or become fans of the fundraising page for Our Lady's Children's Hosptial, Crumlin, then my weekend is officially worse than hers.

However, it wasn't bad. Pretty good in fact, as far as my weekends normally go. Last night, as I mentioned, was Ciarán's birthday get-together, a lads night, a time when people who hadn't seen each other in a good long while got to just hang out. It was great! We laughed, a lot. And talked, a lot. And loudly, on both accounts. Ciarán liked his present (which I can now reveal to be two books - Obama's Blackberry and The Average American Male - and the latest Mighty Boosh Live DVD, which is the show we all went to see when it came to Dublin!). It was definitely a good night. And there was pizza. Delicious pizza.

I slept in. That's always fun. Actually, it's more accurate to say I had a lie-in, because I wasn't actually going anywhere. I didn't send my letter to America, or buy books, but I can do those things tomorrow.

I cleaned my room. I know that might not sound like a good thing, but now my dad will stop bothering me about it. Win!

I also got to watch Heroes, after an amazing Sunday Roast dinner. The episode was less exciting than the first two (which aired last Saturday), but it was essential in terms of character introduction, development, and power demonstration, and it furthered the plot, continued story arks, and brought about a whole new level of suspense. Fantastic!

Had a relaxing day, overall. Nothing too strenuous. I did, however, give a possible candidate more info on the Sooper Sekrit Project my followers on Twitter have been hearing about so much. Nice guy, lives in America.

Might as well tell all readers here - the project, details remaining secret for now, requires one person to work on it with me who likes to read and is comfortable talking to a camera. Specific types of books are in mind, so if you're applying for this sooper fun project, please bare don't feel bad if you get turned away for reading something else. It's just not the type of books I'm going for with this, at least not this year.

Nice finish to the weekend - seeing the follower numbers for the Poetry Against Cancer Facebook page (the fundraising page already mentioned) with 680 followers! That's over 400 followers since Monday. How cool is that? Take that World Suck!

Shorty Awards

Well, it's that time of the year when the Shorty Awards pop in and dominate the tweeting boards. I'm nominated in two categories, though I really just need Literature to get picked up and sent to the Official Categories. So really what I'm asking is for votes, I suppose.

It doesn't take long; all you need is a Twitter account!

In return, I'll be tweeting a sentence or two of The Magical Emporium of Magical Things for every nomination. Every ten will see a poem being posted here, and at 100, something special will happen. I don't expect to get to 100, but I think I'll let the suspense tell the story. Also, every day a new chapter of Geneticide will be posted at: http://geneticidebook.blogspot.com until the end of the book. (the competition will be over by then, of course).

Now, for your reading pleasure (I hope), here's today's instalment of The Magical Emporium of Magical Things.

There existed, in the world, a time after the dying festival of Christmas when all manner of sheets, cloths, rags and other such things were held out of windows on poles and ropes; this time was known as the Sails. No one could quite remember the origin of the Sails, only knowing that so long as they were up, the prices were subsequently down. This pleased all the Hugh Mans, and every other person too, and during times of Economic Downturn (the term coined by Acting Directors to encourage people to buy home produce) people were able to save the money they apparently didn't have in the first place.

In The Magical Emporium of Magical Things, the world's first magic shop not burned down by the acient peolple all knwon as Chris Tea Ans, the Sails were being raised by a clever trick knwon as Man Power. This ancient magic was no long knwon to the world, after it discovered that magic and machines did in fact work well together, and laziness was rather fun indeed. The owner of the Emporium, one Rich Dave, observed (his second favourite pasttime, next to exploding objects of varying size, value and sentimental importance) the clever system of levers, wheels and ropes, all turned and pulled by a single crank, wind the Sails into place. With some difficultly, the one and only Sails Assistant in the Emporium, Middle Class Rodney, would the crank, panting and sweating, perhaps for dramatic effect. Finally he locked the device into place.

Geneticide has already been uploaded, so if you're still up for a read, check out the above link! Also... the voting link! http://shortyawards.com/writeranonymous Vote Literature! ^_^

Take care!

Back to Vlogging

Well, I've finally gotten up the courage to vlog while my family were in the house. Well, my parents were, but that's the same thing. My twin already knows I vlog, though he hasn't seen any of the videos, but my older brother is still ignorant of this fact and I'd like it stay that way.

Anyway, my new video Welcome to 2010! is now live and available to view. Please enjoy, and if you'd like something to be done in a video, don't be afraid to ask (although painful/stupid things that might get me caught by my family are out of the question.

If my plans go ahead, my Sooper Sekrit project will be announced within the next week or so. Also, I'll be annoying publishers soon to see if I can do something else on my YouTube channel that will certainly help spice things up a bit. (By the way, my YouTube channel can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/writeranonymous )

Now, until next time (like maybe tomorrow), good bye! (Also, sorry this blog increased World Suck)

Slightly addicted

I've found I have a few addictions on the Internet. One of them is obvious - the whole of the Internet. As a writer, I'm constantly looking for ways to distract myself, and being on a laptop with a Wi-Fi connection is the best way to do it.

The second one is Twitter. I'm one of those people who can just refresh a page a hundred times over, even at Christmas when I knew no one was online. I'm just weird that way, I suppose.

The third is the cringe-worthy Cafe World on Facebook. Seriously, I can't get enough of it for some reason. I think it might be a power thing - I've hired my friends, I own them as staff, they have to do what I want them to. (subsequently, no they don't... they're supposed to, but then they walk the entire way around the cafe for no apparent reason, with dirty plates and starving customers everywhere!)

The fourth... this! I've found that since I got into the swing of blogging, I just can't seem to stop. I was almost screaming when I couldn't think of anything to say, then I realised I'd blogged five of the seven days of the year previously, so I may as well go for six of the eight! I actually love doing, even if no one's reading. (you are reading this, though, right?)

Fifth... I think it might be that Bubble Towers game on Kongregate.com. I don't know why... I just like it.

Sixth, though this isn't really in any order, is YouTube. I love watching videos, especially new and interesting ones, and listening to music over and over again on it (like my friend Luke's original piano piece!). Then there's the making of videos! I know I'm not really that good at it, but I still like it, especially when people leave comments (and when they subscribe!) I'm just hoping that my Sooper Sekrit project goes ahead (I've contacted a well known YouTuber about it to see if she wants to do it with me - I've emailed her a few times before, but we're not friends as yet; we might be if she says yes and we communicate over the project).

Seventh... I don't know that there is one. Emails I suppose. I love emails. I love checking emails. And then receiving them from actual people, not just spam mail or Twitter updates. Actual email, even if it's just from my cousin Rachel (she's a legend, by the way). And actually, I like receiving actual mail too. Like when I used to be on Twitter for hours on end hunting down free books from publishers in the summer. I've got loads of them now! I loved getting the envelopes in the post and opening it up to see what book it was. I was like a kid on Christmas morning, only it happened again and again and again, and each time it was something different, something I could say, "Oh yeah!" to because I'd forgotten I was going to receive it.

So there you have it, my seven Internet addictions. Some are clearly more substantial than others, but they can't all be good, can they?

Tweetwall - Lying to the World

Slander? I think not!

During the month of July, a massive campaign, the very campaign that started the Word Nerd Army, was held to get one Rebecca Woodhead to the first place of the Ms Twitter UK competition. The battles were long and hard, but eventually Rebecca overcame the celebrities in the contest (including Vanessa from the Saturdays and Lily Allen).

She was Ms Twitter by right! She got the most votes, overcame her own disability and fought her way forward with spirit, haiku, six word stories and all manner of literary chatting to earn her throne.

Do Tweetwall care?

No. The top 20 people in the July competition were supposed to be kept on the winners' wall for all of time and placed afterwards into the Continental Competition. So what about Rebecca, Vanessa and Lily? Nope. All gone straight to the next level with no immortal position on the wall.

In other words, Tweetwall are lying to the world. They more or less fixed the results, and attempts to contact them, I'm told, proved futile. They refuse to acknowledge the "no-body" celebrity that is Rebecca Woodhead for her victory. This injustice cannot go on.

Spread the word: Tweetwall are lying!

EDIT: Here's the proof of Rebecca's victory too, straight from her blog. A screen-cap of the page!

Update: Tweetwell have fixed the error. All is right with the world

Just some ideas...

So here we are, blog time!

It's the Easter break from school, a painful time when parents force their sons and daughters to study, just as the Irish weather decides to stop crying. Naturally, I'm going to beat the study blues with some good old fashioned, Literary Den!!

Elizabeth Dyer, AKA Ellie, came up with some rather smashing ideas that I wanted to put past the general readership of this blog... many of you who look at this won't even realise what I'm talking about until it's seven months later and something has happened in the world to give you a reason to look me up.

So here we go! Firstly, there's a "Read Me, Keep Me" day! Now, this all sounds very vague, so here's the details: second hand books with a postet stuck on them (with the aforementioned title) are left all around the city (it will be in Dublin and various other places in the UK and Ireland). People find the books, as you might guess if they're left in public, and they get to keep them, and read them. That way, more people are reading. We're still discussing the details, but it looks to be quite fun. Some artists did this in Dublin City a while back, much to the delight of the people who found the paintings! We'll need second hand books to do this with, so you may end up getting a knock on the door by a member of the "Read Me, Keep Me" team, asking for donations (if you're willing to part with them!!)

Secondly, our mentor programme. Now, I intend on annoying my friend Sam with this as much as humanly possible, but the rest of the public knows nothing about it yet. So, we're going to make a snazzy, and dare I say, sexy website to attract young writers into the group. This will be part of the Den, but an exclusive forum and independant website for the mentor programme. It's bloody excellent!

The group are now also getting ready for The Literary Den Book of New Fiction 2009, which will see the arrival of a large number of Irish writers! Myself and Anthea West were the only Irish writers last year; this time, we're going to have Brendan McLoughlin and Lisa Sills alongside us, and hopefully young Senan Warnock if he can throw something together. We also have a resident of Dublin and native to Bermuda, Jonathon Bell. Woo! In true Irish fashion, we're infesting the book, rather than invading. It's great craic!

So, that's about it for now. I'm still being too lazy to work on the new Campaign document. There's less pressure now, though. Battlefront opted to go for Wrong to Be Different? over our campaign, so we won't be on television. *sigh*

Anyway, if you want to "follow me" on Twitter, you can find me here!

Battlefront is a no go... for now

Well, the Literary Den did not make it onto the Channel 4 TV show, Battlefront. We came second in the public vote and in the judges' room, which I suppose is pretty damn good! The Campaign will continue as before, just without the handy Flip Camera and the associated videos (unless someone wants to make a donation....)

I've not got much else to say... I opted to enjoy my first Monday off since... well the last bank holiday, so I don't have that new file done yet. Maybe tomorrow. Definetely by the weekend.

So, until something new and exciting happens, I'll be off.

But feel free to follow me on Twitter!

I use it for my own life as well as the Den. People need to know the man behind the mask.... in this case, the author behind the Campaign!!