This week I received £1.81 into my PayPal account for my very short piece Broken Waters, which appeared on the Every Day Fiction site back in November. I know it’s only a token payment, but it’s great for brightening up a dull day.

Finally, a couple of people who are apparently related to me had a go at building a snowman this week.

It seemed at the time as though it was here to stay, but the snow has melted already – who’d have thought. Like Mr Snowman, we should grab life while we can and enjoy it.

My father-in-law was diagnosed with terminal cancer just before Christmas and passed away this afternoon aged 77.

So long, John. You leave a massive hole.

For me, 2010 will be the Year of the Novel. I set out at the beginning of 2009 with the intention of writing a science fiction novel by the end of 2010, and soon realised that I needed to put in some effort towards catching up with contemporary novel-length science fiction, adjusting my way of thinking from short stories to novels, and continuing to develop my general writing skills.

Authors I’ve read in 2009 include Ian M Banks, Alastair Reynolds, Neal Asher, Ken Macleod, William Gibson, Eric Brown and Richard Morgan, among others. I’m still reading science fiction short stories, too, and am working my way through a bunch of anthologies as well as recent issues of Analog and Asimov’s.  The likelihood of finding someone to publish my novel is small and may well depend on me being able to get some short stories published in professional science fiction mags, so although the novel manuscript should be written and polished by the end of 2010, getting it published is likely to be some way off yet.

Oh, and I joined the British Science Fiction Association late in 2009. My first copy of the regular BSFA magazine Vector arrived recently, and as a BSFA member I’m able to nominate for the BSFA Best Novel award (and others, including the Best Short Fiction award).

Of the non-SF novels that I’ve read in 2009, two stand out as being particularly memorable. One is Rape: A Love Story, by Joyce Carol Oates, and the other is The Woman In The Dunes, by Kobo Abe, which I’ve just finished reading (and absolutely loved). Both were new authors to me.

Back in December I took the train up to London for the Ride the Word event at the Cafe Yumchaa in Soho. I’d been wanting to go to a live reading event for some time and missed the Sparks event in Brighton the previous week because I came down with a bug, and the Short Fuse event in Hastings the following weekend because of a family issue. So, it was nice to get to the Ride the Word event, where a bunch of authors who had contributed to the Short Circuit book edited by Vanessa Gebbie read. As well as meeting up with Vanessa, it also gave me an opportunity to say hello to a few people that I’ve ‘met’ online over the last few years, including Tania Hershman, Sarah Salway and Alex Keegan. I also picked up a copy of Balancing on the Edge of the World, by Elizabeth Baines.

Just before Christmas the Goldfish Bowl writing group met up in Canterbury, and Don took the prize for the best short story on the theme of The Origin of Father Christmas. Katherine Spink also brought along a copy of the short anthology that she’s put together containing a varied bunch of stories by group members.

The Critters Bar writing forum kicks off with Flash League III in early January, an all-play-all flash fiction writing competition with weekly rounds and cash prizes for those with the most points at the end.

Whatever you’re up to in 2010, I hope it’s a great year for you.

For me, Christmas time is the best break of the year. Demands are few and everything slows down. It’s a time to recharge the batteries and pause to reflect; a time for coming together, and for thinking about those who are absent through distance or loss.

This Christmas, during the quiet moments, I’ll be doing some prep for my novel so that I can begin writing in the new year. That, for me, is what 2010 is going to be about. By the end of 2010 I plan to have a completed, polished manuscript. As preparation for that, 2009 has been about reading, especially contemporary science fiction, and I’ve probably read more novels this year than at any time in my life. It’s also been about reducing commitments and freeing up time so that I can give the novel my full attention.

My best wishes go out to everyone who knows me, but particularly to those in Critters Bar and the Goldfish Bowl. I don’t anticipate being around as much in 2010, but you can always catch up with me here and I hope some of you will drop by.

A very Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Cheers, Bob

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00p1l9l

Enjoy.

But seriously, coming up with a decent story idea can be hard. I know because I’m still working on the idea for my novel, which I’m due to begin scribbling after Christmas. Coming up with ideas is easy. Coming up with good ideas is hard. Coming up with an idea that’s big enough and bold enough for a decent science fiction novel takes time.

I like to imagine that I’m capable of thinking “outside the box”. You know, that good old saying. But during a recent visit to Bluewater, raiding Waterstone’s for something interesting to read, I came across an example of someone thinking “inside the box” and I couldn’t resist buying it.

The novel in question is The Box Man, by Kobo Abe. I’m a real sucker for the blurb on the back cover, and this one grabbed me by the nuts, dragged me (squealing) over to the counter and slapped my open wallet down in front of the sales assistant:

“In this eerie and evocative masterpiece, the nameless protagonist gives up his identity and the trappings of a normal life to live in a large cardboard box he wears over his head. Wandering the streets of Tokyo and scribbling madly on the interior walls of his box, he describes the world outside as he sees or perhaps imagines it, a tenuous reality that seems to include a mysterious rifleman who is determined to shoot him, a seductive young nurse given to disrobing, and a doctor who wants to become a box man himself.”

It turns out that Abe is ‘the internationally acclaimed author of The Woman In The Dunes‘ and, would you believe it, they had that in stock too. Marvellous. I can’t wait to finish the novel I’m currently reading and get started on these two.

Anyone else read Kobo Abe?

http://www.everydayfiction.com/broken-waters-by-bob-jacobs/

What’s the best writing how-to book you’ve ever read?

What’s that? You don’t believe in them? Move along please. Thank you.

I’ve read a leaning tower of them since I began writing almost six years ago. Some I’ve found really useful, some less so, but all of them have had something to offer.

If you like how-to books, you’ll no doubt have your favourites, as do I. Without doubt this year my favourite has been Make a Scene: Crafting a Powerful Story One Scene at a Time, by Jordan E. Rosenfeld. Once in a while a book comes along that really makes a difference, and this – for me – is one such book.

Rosenfeld breaks the book up into four major sections:

• Architecture of a Scene
• The Core Elements and the Scene
• Scene Types
• Other Scene Considerations

Right from the first chapter I knew I was holding in my hands a book that was going to help me to prepare for writing my novel, and I haven’t been disappointed. It has affected not only my writing, but my reading, too.

More details available here:

http://www.amazon.com/Make-Scene-Crafting-Powerful-Story/dp/1582974799

If you’re like me and you’re making the change from writing short stories to writing a novel, add this to your list of wants for Christmas.

And feel free to share your own recommendations.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8376394.stm