Category Archives: Monkey Miscellany

26 August 2011

A Cage of One’s Own

By thefallenmonkey

Ya know, I usually play up the whole monkey thing because I think I’m so terribly clever and no one will ever get sick of it (shyeah right, you’re thinking), but, honestly, my flat really is starting to feel like a zoo right now.

Within one week of returning from two weeks in Singapore with my husband and in-laws, I already hosted two separate visitors and received news that another was scheduled to arrive, well, as of yesterday and staying for two weeks. Apparently so much poop flies around in here that my husband’s ears must’ve gotten clogged, because for the second time we have a scheduling conflict thanks to our stellar communication with each other. The first time was last fall when we double-booked my parents and a couple friends of ours—six adults in a wee flat of one bathroom + two beds + one punctured aerobed screamed nightmare to me, so I took my parents to the Cotswolds for most of the overlap while my husband hosted our friends. Problem solved.

Well, it turns out that I’m fleeing to the countryside yet again during my father-in-law’s present visit. Something about telling my husband, “If your father hasn’t decided on his dates yet, late August is out because I’m going on a writer’s retreat in the wake of our insane spring and summer,” got lost in translation, so he’d emailed his dad that late August still worked great. Great.

So here he is, and here I am packing up to leave on Sunday for five nights in Cornwall.

Could I have canceled? Sure.
Was there a chance in hell I was going to? No sir.
Do I feel a little bad about that? Of course!

But maybe this is a good time to mention that we’ve hosted over thirty (30) different people in less than three years since moving to London. And hosting is particularly problematic for those like me who work from home. And whose office is also the guest bedroom. In all fairness, though, this guest is super easy and independent, and we’ve given him the master bedroom so I can access my computer.

Nonetheless, after doing a little more basic math for this year alone, I estimate 30% of 2011 will have been spent hosting, traveling, and visiting home. Which leaves a lot of everyday life to be crammed into that remaining 70%. Which leaves not a lot of time for a reclusive writing life. (And I don’t even have kids!! How do you writers with children do it all??!!)

So I’m going, to a cage aaall to myself. No work, no hosting, undoubtedly a little hiking, but primarily writing. Selfishness has never tasted so delicious. See you in a week or so.

And how about you? How have you made a point to prioritize your writing, to give yourself some space to think, imagine, and create?

10 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany

5 August 2011

15 Hours in the Sky…

By thefallenmonkey

…with a connection in Helsinki delivered my husband and me to Singapore a few weeks ago, then onward to Bali. At the request of my esteemed blogging colleague Milo James Fowler, I’ll share a few pix here:

Starting with Singapore, as a city-state, it’s very contemporary with endless shopping malls…

…yet was not without some colonial or cultural architecture:

Fortunately, I wasn’t trafficking any illegal substances so wasn’t put to death (as threatened on my departure card at Immigration) and could live to see Ubud, Bali, where I wish we’d had more time. I’ll let the pictures explain why:

(that first photo above was at our rented villa—inSANE serenity. I would love to just sit there for months and write.)

Whereas Singapore didn’t really make us feel we’d traveled that far or to anything exotic (and charged a hell of a lot for booze, valuing cost of living over cost of indulgence), Bali compensated with its cultural richness…

…and MONKEYS!!! Here I am greeting one of my brethren (wearing my most challenging human costume to date—my cover was almost blown when a little monkey leapt onto my back and nearly pulled my dress down); the others consult with their critique group:

*sigh* How I envy their freedom in the Monkey Forest as I’m caged back up.

But I’ve missed my blog buddies, so I’m glad to be back and catching up with all y’all. More of my yammerings to follow soon…

14 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany

17 July 2011

Blog Neglect

By thefallenmonkey

It’s happening again. Right now. As I type.

Well, not as badly right now as I’m technically tending to my blog by typing in it, but pretty badly nonetheless considering the worthless content I’m proceeding to dump here…

…just to say…

…that I’m traveling again so probably not going to give my blog nor any of yours proper attention until August. My sincerest apologies.

As penance, while I could do without a caning here in Singapore, how about next week I let the monkeys in Bali pelt me with their poop. Fair enough?

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany

27 June 2011

Self-Promotion: A Spreadsheet to Spread Your Sh*t ;)

By thefallenmonkey

Okay, so the weather is too warm and pretty in London to concentrate at the computer very long today. These days need to be seized, as my skin cells have been deprived of Vitamin D for too long, I say. I could practically hear my legs shreak, “It burns!” the second they were freed from perpetual cover…right before they gave a satisfied “Ahhh” as they gulped the fresh air down.

Anyway, just popping in to share with you a nugget that crossed my path a few days ago—it might be the daily recommended dose of Vitamin D that your promotion efforts need, where “D” is for “Domino.” Say wha’? Okay. A friend alerted me to Seth Godin, marketing guru, and a new venture he’s undertaken called The Domino Project. I’m still exploring what all this is about (it’s sponsored by Amazon.com), but it’s clearly in response to the rapidly changing landscape of publishing in light of e-publishing, self-publishing, and social media that places great responsibility on authors to self-promote. As every writing seminar I attend says time and time again, even the traditionally published must take on this burden, so it seems Seth is a proponent of authors marketing themselves as if they’re self-published regardless.

And so, author Jenny Blake has shared with The Domino Project a spreadsheet she’s developed “as a way of organizing the hundreds of things an author thinks about on the road to book launch.” Comprised of 15 different tabs, it’s nothing to sneeze at and certainly worth reviewing to get in the mindset of what it takes to successfully promote your book. This kick-ass resource can be found at the link below:

“A Spreadsheet for the Self-Published“

Happy perusing, and keep your smelling salts nearby—it’s a tad overwhelming but a good dose of reality when it comes to the business of publishing and building your presence in the market, step by step. The domino effect can only happen after you’ve already laid your pieces down one at a time, so take it in stride…

9 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany

10 May 2011

Write or Get off the Pot(tery), Monkey!

By thefallenmonkey


Greetings, all! I managed to fall out of my tree again, having traveled 4 out of 6 recent weekends and hosting a close friend all last week right after the excitement of the royal wedding, and now I’m prepping for a 2-week trip to the States (split between Chicago and New York) as of this coming Monday. On top of this, I’ve had both my editing assignments fall back in my lap, so have been trying to sort those simultaneously.

I did manage to revise and submit my manuscript in time for a fiction contest in the midst of all this, but otherwise still feel the need to sit down with it properly and tend to its story arc before more serious querying. I’ll have to share with you the feedback I’d received at the writing festival, but what remains now is my own personal criticism of my protagonist’s development. Once my days extend to 36 hours apiece, I just might get to revisit that at some point…

Anyway, today’s post is sponsored by Eda Pottery. 🙂 I mentioned before that I was going to write vignettes for each pottery piece my sister-in-law Marlena creates for her new brand, as inspired by that particular item. Well, I’m pleased to announce that she’s already started displaying pieces for sale at her Eda Pottery website and on Etsy.com. I’ve also started posting my vignettes here on the blog, which you can find at:

thefallenmonkey.com/human-persona/eda

I’ve written a dozen so far, just little bite-sized bits with the corresponding pottery photos and links to Etsy if anyone’s interested in purchasing! My friend Joanna who was just visiting me is also a writer and good friends with Eda’s mastermind, so she may join me in writing for the brand as Marlena continues crafting her pretty pots. 

In any case, as you’ll see if you check out that link, I’ve added “Primate Portfolio” to my main menu as another way of throwing my fictional poop around. If you hover your cursor over its categories, Eda and fanfic titles will appear; otherwise, they’re also linked to their applicable category pages. When I’m feeling confident enough, I’ll perhaps post a chapter of my manuscript…it has a little ways to go yet…

All right then. Off to edit someone’s else’s manuscript. Hope you’re all well and am looking forward to swinging back into your blog trees, too!

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany, Short Story

28 March 2011

The Second Coming: If at First You Don’t Succeed, Write and Write Again

By thefallenmonkey

Image from etsy.com

I’ve got lots and lots of material to share and will do so in the coming days (or weeks, more realistically, given the bat-shit craziness of my sheh-jule these days…). And what I’m noticing right now is that my writing life is experiencing a rebirth of sorts that has me coming back for SECONDS…

To start, while the jury is still out on the POV issue plaguing my first editing project (see “POV for Vendetta“), I’ve been assigned my SECOND PROJECT, which is already presenting issues of its own. In this case, the author is safely applying 3rd person limited across different characters by only shifting POV in new sections and/or chapters. However, its story arc is sagging in the middle due to a repeating element that flattens it out through lack of variety. In future posts, I’ll speak to both my editorial comments on this specific manuscript as well as pacing a story in general.

In the last couple weeks, I have also been mapping out a SECOND MANUSCRIPT of my own! Idea remnants that got left behind as I finished my first manuscript have inspired another story line altogether, so I’m working to apply all I’ve learned from my many, many mistakes on manuscript #1 to what will hopefully be a better planned and executed #2. Outlining the plot from the get-go is a first for me, as I’d nearly written myself into a hole the first time around and didn’t know how to bring it all together (see “Fraying at the End“). So while ms #1 accordingly still needs a lot tender lovin’ care, ms #2 is providing my mind a healthy diversion for a while. Having a second project in the pipeline also keeps me from placing too much pressure on that first one navigating its path to publication. As presenters at my workshop said last weekend, hardly any new author’s “debut” novel is actually the first book they’d written.

Speaking of workshop, I got a SECOND WIND for tackling both the manuscripts I’m writing and editing by attending the Festival of Writing in York this past Saturday and Sunday. In addition to two ten-minute one-to-one meetings with a literary agent and published author (the latter being Charles Darwin’s great-great-granddaughter, no less), I attended several workshops on topics like plotting, pacing, and marketability. It gave me gobs of food for thought, so I’ll share what smattering of notes and resources I can with you.

Finally, while I admittedly didn’t churn any creativity out during the month of February for Write 1 Sub 1, I feel I’ve gotten a SECOND CHANCE this month thanks to my sister-in-law, as fate would have it. This ridiculously talented lady is a graphic designer by day and painter, photographer, and potter by night. Her latest endeavor is to create a website for her lovely pottery, and instead of presenting each with an ordinary catalog-type description, she’s opted to pair them with short stories inspired by their design and function. So guess who’s the lucky gal who gets to write these?! I’ve written five short-short pieces so far with five to go (as far as I know), so hopefully these will be appearing online by mid-April. While I still aim to write stories for submission to literary publications in subsequent months, I’m hoping this gig at least covers me for March.

All right, time to shut my yapper. Just a preview of more posts to come after I take a SECOND to catch my breath… 😉

What’s on your writing agenda these days? Any writing firsts or seconds to celebrate this month?

22 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany, Musings on Editing, Novel, Short Story

10 March 2011

Monkey Can’t See, Monkey Can’t Do…

By thefallenmonkey

Sing it with me, folks:

“I wear my sunglasses at night
so eyes can, so eyes can
not burst in flames from the computer screen…”

What, that’s not how the song goes?

It would seem after throwing myself into the workload last mentioned in my State of Zoo-nion Address (and continuing to do so over the following week with manuscript revision and query research, day to night, day after day) that I have not only been successful in meeting my deadlines, but in royally straining my eyes as well. Am having a persisting vision issue with my right eye involving what I think is somehow an afterimage of my pupil (???)—and rendering it virtually impossible to accurately align any of my targets with my fecal matter. So, the computer monitor and I have parted ways for a while, as much as we can. Other than to write daily blog posts for work and check email, I’ve relegated my eyes to the paper-printed word. And when I do work at the computer, I dim the monitor all the way down and wear my sunglasses.

As I am now. You’d think it makes me look cool, but not so much.

Anyway, for all my best intentions to finally see an eye doctor today, I’ve been thwarted with a typical case of sinusitis as we start to kiss Winter’s arse goodbye and greet Spring’s pollinated delights…so am that much more encouraged to rest by sticking my nose into a good old-fashioned book or bringing pen to paper when feeling the itch to write. That part of it all has been marvelous.

Honestly, I only post this now not because I think my absence is causing you all to stop spinning round your respective axes, but to apologize for any lack of commentary I’ve left on your own blogs. I have snuck a quick peek at many of the ones I regularly follow (and enjoyed them immensely), but haven’t left comments and just want to promise that I’ll do so when my crazy eyes are back up to it. Your camaraderie means much, and I want ya to stick around—or else then I’ll give you the Stink Eye. 😉

In the meantime, happy reading and writing, all! I can’t think of any pursuits more worthy of the strain.

10 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany

21 February 2011

State of the Zoo-nion Address

By thefallenmonkey

Image from cafepress.com

Hello, my fellow Simians.
Today, I’d like to brief you on my current state of affairs, not as your faithful Primate President, but as a Reader, Writer, and Editor.

First of all, in the wake of my whining two weeks ago (“Hedging an Investment in Myself“), I was delivered from my woes. Unbeknownst to me at the time, but I was sitting on a Christmas gift that I was about to crack open and rediscover inside it my love of reading. My new muse is Kate Morton, whose The Forgotten Garden I just finished over the weekend and whose debut novel, The House at Riverton, I purchased the same day. Her stuff might not be everyone’s bag, but this book was like a more accessible Possession meets The Secret Garden—a family mystery spanning generations and set largely on a Cornish estate with a maze and hidden garden—which suits my literary gothic fancies just fine. Her skill in structuring a story and incorporating detail (that richly fleshes out her settings and characters without seeming superfluous) is not only providing me new writing guidance within a genre and style that appeals to me, but has also at long last delivered me into a storyworld I can submerge myself in. I’ve read many books that I’ve enjoyed recently, but it’s been ages since I absolutely got lost in the atmosphere of one and didn’t want it to end. I came out of it feeling very satisfied as a reader and inspired as a writer.

Which brings me to the next talking point of my address here. The writing. Because (contrary to the bratty little rants I might have now and then) I do take constructive criticism to heart, I’ve lost myself in my own story again to overhaul its beginning. Whole sections have been hacked and the remaining ones rearranged, so the manuscript is looking a bit Frankenstein’s Creature-ish until I go back through and stitch up some of those fleshy seams and smooth it out. I’m now starting my novel with what was originally the third chapter as it involves a more critical turning point for the protagonist and gets on with the main story more quickly at not much sacrifice of backstory (which is just reinserted other places). I’ve heard this advice given to newbie writers countless times, and I’ll be damned if I’m not surprised it finally came my turn to follow it. Not as great a sense of loss as I thought it would be, though I’m being extra cautious not to throw any babies out with the bath-water.

And wouldn’t it figure my mother tells me over Skype last night that the lil’ stinker found an old copy of my manuscript on her computer, has been reading it, and loves the beginning just as it was. Doh! I might have to comfort her more through this revision than myself :).

In any case, I’m up against a March 1st deadline for both polishing my first chapter for feedback at an upcoming writing festival and completing my developmental edit, so I’m concerned I won’t have a new February story to submit for Write1Sub1…yeesh, time to crank. But never fear; the zoo is not yet in a state of crisis, merely raised to an alert level of **Yellow**.

How are YOUR current projects going, everyone?

18 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany

10 February 2011

Hedging an Investment in Myself

By thefallenmonkey

“Fiction submissions should have no discernible genre. While the fiction editor enjoys writing that plays with form & conventions, and is eagerly awaiting writing that sparkles with surprise, it is widely known that each time a vampire story is written, somewhere an orphan dies.  Shame on you.”
– Ampersand Review Submission Guidelines, as quoted from Ampersand Books’ website

This, my aspiring author friends, this is the ray of sunlight I’ve been waiting to see in perusing the publishing world online to find who to query next. Hands-down the best submission requirement I’ve yet to find—bravo to them for lauding originality when everyone else seems to want the next Stephanie Meyer…

[Disclaimer: I’m in a mood, so this post may sound cynical or overly rationalizing in the way diva amateur writers do so well. Would I be saying any of it if I had an offer for publication and thousands of blog followers clamoring for their signed copies? Yeah, probably not. Fickle monkey.]

The fact is, reading used to be a joy. Writing used to be a joy. And then I entered the literary cyberworld. Suddenly, I was blogging, and stalking my WordPress dashboard to see how many hits I got, hooking the Monkey up with its own Twitter account and Facebook page, straying from my simple, original purpose of just writing for writing’s sake to instead wax philosophical and egotistical on my writer’s journey toward publication (as I’m totally doing now!), becoming paranoid that I’m not blogging as often as others or commenting enough on other blogs to link back to mine to grow an audience for my writing, then reading about authors obsessed with Amazon rankings, authors dissing reviewers, reviewers dissing authors, agents dissing queries, publishers dissing anything straying from formulaic conventions that feed their bottom line, and AAARRGGHH! I JUST WANT TO WRITE. I want to write what I want to read. And I want to read what I want again without comparing the author’s writing to mine or wondering how she worded her query letter and synopsis to land an agent and publisher, or what social media efforts she undertakes to get the story out there.

It’s exhausting. Am I alone in thinking this? And am I alienating myself from your support by letting my defenses down for a bit and starting to stitch up a white flag of surrender? I promise I won’t be waving that flag, but at present I’m feeling quite annoyed and really rather bored by this commercial racket.

I also recently wrote about letting go of the ego that can have so many writers sucking their tongues from the roofs of their mouths and heaving a sulky sigh at the criticism they receive of their work, and I vow to not become one of these…but that being said, I just turned down a generous option to rewrite my manuscript (which lies at the intersection of multiple genres) in a way that would conform better to what readers of one particular genre expect. Even though that could give me a better shot at getting it published with a certain indie publisher (as opposed to potentially no one), I’ve made the decision that I can’t make the story or my writing style something it’s not.

This is not going to be my commercially marketable manuscript; I know that and am at peace with it. And even if it were, do I even have the moxy for self-promotion? Who knows, maybe I’ll churn out a mainstream potboiler next time round to wedge my foot more firmly in the door, but seeing there are still proponents of non-formulaic literature out there gives me enough hope to keep pushing the story I’ve got now in a digestible form still faithful to its original vision (because I am revising, and substantially—don’t think that I don’t take constructive criticism to heart!). I will climb back up my tree and nurture its scraggly branches, dolling it up with an ornament or two and conducting necessary trimming, yes, yet pruning it in a shape still reflecting its natural growth rather than Edward-Scissorhanding it into a poodle.

In short, and in the profound words of Charlie Brown, “This commercial dog is not going to ruin my Christmas.” Metaphorically speaking. 😉

14 Comments | posted in Genres, Monkey Miscellany, Musings on Writing, Novel

31 January 2011

Welcome to the Jungle – a.k.a. Where I Write

By thefallenmonkey

My sister, “Nicki Elson,” invited me to join a blog hop with her fellow authors. While surely a combination of her kindness and shared DNA compelled her to assure I qualified for having one whole big giant short story pending publication (at a date which seems to have been pushed back to infinity and beyond), I am too shy to join their ranks.

And just as I am beneath them, I am not above ripping off their theme anyway ;). I encourage you, though, to check out Nicki’s post, “Where Do You Write?” and meet the other authors-in-crime listed in the blog hop to discover some fun new reads or join in if you’ve got the published goods yourself (or are contracted to).

So then, on to where I write. Well, the zookeeper is being uncooperative and not allowing cameras inside the cage, so while I’d like to share images of my tree branch and vintage typewriter that my trainer sneaks in for me at night, my human alter-ego has been so kind as to provide me hers…she will narrate from here on:

So there it is. Squished into the second bedroom of a typically gargantuan, so-much-space-I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with-it London flat. And in two nights, I’ll be able to officially post a sign above that bed that the great author Nicki Elson was squished in here, too—because my sissy’s coming to London!!! AHHH!!! Psyched.

As we continue the tour, note that the water glass to the left is conveniently interchangeable with a glass of red wine, as such swapping happens with great frequency. The desktop image is a photo from Cabo San Lucas from years ago that helps me escape my grey UK days. Beneath the monitor is a clock depicting the world map, which my parents gave as a reminder of what time it is in Chicago…awww. And beneath the monkeys are books that helped inform my first novel manuscript, along with my brainstorming journal and the Room to Write book of writing prompts that I only occasionally dust off these days now that I’ve found other things to yammer about.

Now about those monkeys. To be honest, when I first created the Fallen Monkey profile, I did not, nor did I ever…actually…own…a sock monkey. Truth. Now *shame*. Thus, my sister gifted me the one on the right a year ago, and me mum delivered its fickle and very green (as in color, not environmentally-conscious—that chimp could care less) mistress. The husband then wooed me with the 2011 sock monkey calendar, which as yet has nowhere to hang as a proper primate ought.

Such as in a tree…Compare/contrast the original view out the window that would inspire me to write, as opposed to after the branch-carnage ensued. At least I still have a perdy church to look at.

And now to give a nod to the second writing space used when I’m motivated to travel as far as the next room…

Netbook-n-me will hang occasionally on the frumpy but oh-so comfy sofa. While any writing done here is usually on my daily London blog for work, I must acknowledge that about 10,000 words of my manuscript were drafted with that wee keyboard in a surreal burst of inspiration whilst reclining here. It’s the one portion I consider to require the least revision, too, so I don’t know what Victorian spirit must’ve been lounging there to whisper it to me :).

So this leaves me ever-so curious—Where do YOU write?!

14 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | posted in Monkey Miscellany