{"id":738,"date":"2012-08-13T15:48:48","date_gmt":"2012-08-13T15:48:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/?p=738"},"modified":"2012-08-13T16:03:58","modified_gmt":"2012-08-13T16:03:58","slug":"2012-half-time-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/2012\/08\/2012-half-time-report\/","title":{"rendered":"2012 \u2013 half-time report"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I started this year with a long list of shit I needed to get done, some personal, some professional.<\/p>\n

The personal stuff has gone damn well, thanks for asking \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

On the professional front, I needed to get my hand back in to writing after a year off. I picked four projects and worked through them, finding my feet again. The first was the Target Hitler<\/em> novella<\/a>; the second was a short story for another Pandemonium anthology<\/a>; the third is an audiobook script, which is nearly finished. I also got the Farscape re-watch<\/a> blog running over at tor.com, which has been, and remains, a pleasure.<\/p>\n

There have been disappointments this year too, with one book turned down by a publisher, and an audio play falling through after a lot of effort due to unforeseen circumstances. But that\u2019s all grist to the mill \u2013 there\u2019s been far more positive than negative so far in 2012.<\/p>\n

The plan was to work through all this in six months \u2013 in fact it took seven \u2013 and then devote the second half of the year to bashing out the first draft of a new novel. I have three novels at the same level of development \u2013 three chapters and a synopsis. So I had to choose which one to pursue and then just sit down and get down to it.<\/p>\n

This is a change for me, in that I have no commission. My five and a half books have so far all been write-for-hire, and have been commissioned with a set delivery date and fee. This book, the first that I will retain ownership of, will be written on spec, then sent around agents. Assuming I secure an agent, the book will then do the rounds of publishers in hope of a home.<\/p>\n

This feels dangerously reckless to someone as accustomed as I am to only putting in the effort when it\u2019s a done deal. I have mouths to feed, and I can\u2019t help a tiny nagging feeling that it\u2019s indulgent to take a risk on putting energy into a book that might not even find a publisher when I could be pursuing more write-for-hire work that offers a guaranteed pay cheque.<\/p>\n

But I have the luxury of a 9-5 job, and if I ever want to reach a wider audience I need to take this leap into the unknown.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile the launch of School\u2019s Out Forever<\/em><\/a> is imminent. I\u2019ll be doing a reading, Q&A and signing at Forbidden Planet in London on Friday September 7th<\/a>. I think the amazing cover alone will help it reach a much wider audience.<\/p>\n

And the film of School\u2019s Out<\/em> is progressing healthily through the development process. Right now there are discussions about locations and casting going on, and there\u2019s a good chance it could film next year. I\u2019ll keep you updated.<\/p>\n

The best way to keep up to date with new developments is to follow me on Twitter<\/a> or Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I started this year with a long list of shit I needed to get done, some personal, some professional. The personal stuff has gone damn well, thanks for asking \ud83d\ude42 On the professional front, I needed to get my hand back in to writing after a year off. I picked four projects and worked through […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,5,17,24,22,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abaddon-books","category-audio-drama","category-farscape","category-film","category-housekeeping","category-schools-out"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":741,"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738\/revisions\/741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scottkandrews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}