What to write in 2011?

For those who are asking the same question and waiting for inspiration, you are not alone.

By now I’m supposed to be well into my third Time Travel adventure. As I said previously, I was ready to write: time period coming through, beginning to hear the characters' voices; even wrote a first paragraph ... and then between the floods from Hurricane Nicole and Hurricane Tomas, which kept us on edge for a week and then didn’t really come, (thank God), all ideas became entangled with the desire to write about winds and roaring waters, which was already done in the last Time Travel book, The Ring and the Roaring Water. And you are saying, 'Wasn't that a very long time ago?' Yes, but you would be surprised how time flies when you aren't writing. (And besides I was revising another young adult novel). Anyway, so I was set adrift, without an idea, except that I wanted to make a boy character play a more prominent part than Joseph and Ian had in the two previous Time Travel books. Of course, I have the house in which most of the action will take place - there is always a house ...

My friend, Hazel, who sends me all sorts of brilliant marketing ideas from her Internet browsing, said wouldn’t it be great if I could run a competition about ideas for the next Time Travel adventure, that is, let the readers decide where it should be. The first was in the 1907 earthquake in Kingston, the second, 1951 Hurricane Charlie in Kingston. So that’s an idea. Except we don’t know how to even begin to go about it ... Does anyone have a suggestion as to how this might work?

Actually what I really need is a manager to take my disparate titles (which belong to me, as opposed to those which belong to the Ministry or have a home with a publisher) and
1. Put them on Amazon for a start. People keep saying they don’t see my books on Amazon and where can they get them overseas. Well, actually, I have found that it’s not just that simple to get books onto Amazon. It seems that you need to have an American address.
2. Or turn them into E-books. I attended a very interesting presentation on that and I should look into it further.
3. Investigate print on demand, about which we hear mixed reports, but which might solve some of the other problems, and
4. Generally market them appropriately.

If anyone overseas sees an opportunity here, I’m sure that you’d get quite a few other authors in Jamaica who would be interested in your services.

The point of this is, thinking about business matters gets in the way of writing. However I must remember, 'Respect the gift!'

Another idea: should I write a book about a boy now that I’ve had a sort of epiphany after reading with boys? (described in a previous post). I knew it before, but it's one thing to know something academically, another to experience it.

However, rather encouraging, since I started writing this post (in the new year) an idea has been coming through ... just have to capture it ... and see if its the one ... Will the character say anything? ...


I suppose that if all else fails, I can always check on my other characters from other stories at other times to see if any of them have any other stories they want to tell ...