BOOKERS WORLD - JULY 2010

CHILLAX

Noel Farrell

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Don Booker is a ctional character created in the Summer of 2009 by Irish writer, Noel Farrell. The character was created to show a side of Irish society under enormous pressure due to thepolitical, social and economical mess in Ireland. These are month on month musings from that time which featured on the blog, The Writing Life & Other Absurdities The blog character deals with social issues relevant to Ireland in realtime as seen through Don Booker's eyes.

July, 2010

www.fbooker.blogspot.com

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Time
July 4, 2010

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It's been a quiet week on the writing front. I sent off another couple of submissions and received no rejections. I've been researching who I submit to and they all differ greatly. Each submission guideline seems to be different. Some even allow for a longer query letter by inviting you to mention where you see your writing career going. Trying to learn about the publishing world is tough. There are so many takes on writing and publishing and it's a mine eld at times. It's with that in mind that I also explore self-publishing avenues and there are some interesting ways to go which I will share if I eventually end up going that route. I don't nd to many reads that tell us of rst time writers and their avenues into publication on the net. Perhaps I'm not delving deep enough. I think the best people to learn from are the people who have done it. People who once sent out their rst book submissions and all that went with that. They mean a lot more to me than what I can learn in an a-z of how to get there. I guess every one's route is different. I'm looking forward to beginning work on my anthology short story and get back to doing some writing in that format. Still not decided fully on my direction but I've narrowed it down to a couple so I'll decide this week. Will be good to do it. I won't go into all that's been happening elsewhere but will over on my lm-making blog in the coming days. Time seemed so aplenty, now it seems to slip seamlessly by. Strange days.

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Summer Holidays
July 8, 2012

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C the airport I shuddered at the thought of days spent from

trapped in trafc on the M50 after a days slog in the city. I always liked Dublin, but so much of life is held up because it's so hard to get around. I guess one can count themselves lucky it's not Shanghai. Speaking of holidays, the Dil dissolved for the Summer recess, a three month break from debate, forward thinking suspended, nothing resolved. They're back at the end of September. Nice work if you can get it! They reconvene to decide on ways of stripping us of more without causing a social revolution. Maybe they deserve the respite before tackling that one. There's a chance, it's tiny, but a chance all the same if rely on Ireland's people to get us out of this mess. Let's cut the red tape for the common man for a change. Time to honour our forefathers and benet all of society instead of a few who wrangle with the lives of millions for their own benet. The game's nearly up. People are wising up. It's going to take a radical changing in the thinking of the policy makers to grasp it. Throw the topics open to the people. Across the board. Majority rules. Everyone must have their say like in a census. Change the direction of all that's failed us. How? Well you are not going to do it eating well and suppin' pints with your crew at the tax payers expense and that's for sure. I'm so tired of listening to the same old drivel in the media too. Why are they not out there focusing on the bigger issues at hand? Driving it home day after day until we get answers into how Ireland crumbled? I don't want to be an old man when hearing the answers, and then watch that generation shrug their shoulders only for it all to happen again. Writing. This years holiday. Hmmm!
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Loved ones headed off to the sun today. As I drove back

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Fitzy Faces Ruin

July 12, 2010

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Sean Fitzpatrick, former chairman of Anglo Irish Bank was declared bankrupt by the High Court today with debts in excess of 97 million. The rouge bank which was part of a government bailout in recent times, accounts for a lot of what looked good on paper during the 'boom years' but ultimately will forever be aligned with bring Ireland to her nancial knees.

Fitzpatrick, who was questioned by Gardai earlier this year for alleged bad practices during his tenure at Anglo, tried to come to a private arrangement last week, but the High Court rejected this at today's judgement. With nancial ruin now on the cards and the continuing Garda investigation it's hard to see where Seanie can hide from the glare of the media. How this story of greed gone 'fubar' plays out will be at the forefront of Irish news for the months and years to come. The day of the banking 'supergrass' may not be far away. Then again....

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Completion Steps
July 20, 2010

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Sometimes it's great to just do a little aimless writing. Though it may not be to everyone's taste all of the time due to my meandering, there is a certain kindness to myself when I write, and not have to worry that every last detail with all that is writing is perfect when I nish. It's getting close on one year since I began writing this blog. Its denitely had more ups than downs in the in-between. Late last week, I sat down for a chat with a friend who has being helpful with bringing the book to a conclusion through its many re-drafts. We were glad when we nally could put the words, The End, at the bottom of the last page. Early indications are that it won't be picked up by anyone anytime soon but that was never an issue. I promised myself when I began, I'd publish it some time and I aim to remain true to that. If I have to go down the road of self-publishing in the weeks ahead it was time to focus on delivering a draft that in fact was not the nal one, but one that needed a copy-edit and a nal proof. I attempted to source someone who may have experience with this area, but it's a hard nd when one can't pay. I searched around and found a program on-line which you can run a document through and it will advise there after. It's quite intensive, but the nal choice is left with you. It takes me through everything which I then have to address in the manuscript. Today was a 12 hour day and I got through twenty pages. My bad! I think most writers would like the benet of a team around them as they go through a writing process. I think all writers aspire to be all they can be in the writing of a story and constant improvement is always on the agenda. The art form. Teasing all that you have to offer inside to come out. To make it all it can be for any readers pleasure - if they deem words worthy enough. It's a test for me to do this copy edit and then a nal proof. It's slow and mind numbing sometimes when you try to process 'the rules' and implement them as best you can without losing the soul you wrote the story with. Attempting to keep the voice it was wrote with, and not lose it to the scientic involved. Will I be damned if I use fragmentary sentences or if i miss a comma somewhere?I've read books where their was little or no punctuation. James Frey for instance. It worked for him in the rst instance. It was about the writing and what he laid bare, be it slightly souped-up in areas.

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It's going to be a long week. I just want to get to a stage where I have a manuscript I'd be happy enough to send to the printer. Little changes - but most necessary. Painful to do due to my inexperience of going over something with a ne tooth comb. CSI, no problem, nal stages of a book, hmm! Sacrilegious almost, isn't it? I'll reward myself in a few weeks when I get to write the rst draft of a story I'm working on. 10,000 words is not as daunting as 100,000. I plan to use the rest of the year to write that and esh out the story for my second book, a complete break away from the world of Don Booker. Testing the waters with something completely different as well as a whole lot darker. Time to get out of Ireland for a time too....if only in my head....and that's why I love to do it. Writing lets you wander in any place you want and with anyone you wish to journey with. If it's good enough it will nd it's audience someday. No point being lazy. As an old friend of mine used to say, 'Where there's a will, there's an 18 hour day.'

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Angels & Demons

July 21, 2010

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It's been a weary old week so far. I don't think I have ever forced myself to do something I would rather not do, but that event happened this week. I downloaded some copy-editing software and began the tedious task of going through my manuscript and attempting to perfect it to a standard that tests the writer and tests the person even more. Punctuation, grammar, rules, and my cardinal sin, my use of generic words over and over again. For the rst time in a long time, I feel tired and with that comes the constant questioning of whether it was worth all the effort after all. It's been torrential with the rain since I began copy editing, so perhaps in that lies my reason for a little bit of negativity. When I began writing the character of Don Booker, I was siding with my own mindset of a year ago. I needed a happyish ending to adhere to a coming-of-age tale I set out to write. When I balked at certain stages of character development, I was forced into looking into some of the areas of my own life, and with that grew the character and hell, I may have even come a bit of the way myself. Though I based the book around a central character, the story was an opportunity to study some facets of Irish society today. I covered a broad range of subject matter which are all relevant to our contemporary society. Alzheimer's, civic partnerships, alcoholism, suicide and even a little gangsterism were explored. Sounds so bleak, you'll just have to trust me when I say it's not all the way so. Soon I'll seek a few opinions from avid readers. Put my neck on the critic's block and hope they will be honest. Is it worthy of a listing on Amazon? I honestly thought the book was actually nished weeks ago. I have to admit this week I felt a little like George W, when he went on his little sortie on to an aircraft carrier to announce the Iraq war was won and dusted. For the book isnt nished until I have it polished off to the best standard I can muster from within. Parts of that I dislike, but if life is about little tests of the person along the way then they have to be done. Using my hot keys to identify certain generic words is now like a little game. New words come out, better description, so much learned should one move on to the second book. Sometime next week I'll have a book I'd be happy to print. That's been a test in itself. It's almost as if you're married to a lap-top. Married or not I'm drawing a line under Bookers World pretty soon. It will continue on it's cycle looking for a stop and I'll just have to decide when to go solo. The only question then will be when? That's another little scary bit. The wet season is here and that can only mean one thing. Sunshine's on the way.

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The Chillax position

July 25, 2010

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It's OK, you're safe. I'm not starting columns on new sexual positions. It's Sunday, I'm lying on my bed with the laptop on my folded leg, and watching a spot of golf. I think, this week anyway, I've earned it. If memory serves me correct I started this blog in the second week of August last year. A few weeks before it's rst birthday, I nished to the best of my capabilities, Bookers World. It nished up at 90,000 words, which is a long way short of the original rst draft, which went over 200,000. I did enjoy that re-writing process and all the edits in between. Someone once said that writing was re-writing. Up to now I didn't listen to that. This time I did. You only ever get to write one rst book and when I made the commitment to write it, I promised myself I'd test myself to the best of my ability. Over the course of the past two weeks the book went through a major and intense copy-edit, work that was slow and tedious. The nal two proofreads after that, were the slowest I have ever read in my life. From a personal prospective there is little more I can do it. If I ever do get an invite to read the entire manuscript, then I can honestly say I'm handing over the best I got inside me at the present time. I'm drawing the line under it now and although continuing submissions will be still sent out over the coming 4 weeks, if an offer to read the entire manuscript does not materialize, I'll stick with the numbers game and use that particular hit count to make an informed decision that maybe the invite will not come. It's a tough marketplace, no doubt about it. I'm going to start the rst draft of my short story by mid-week. My body aches somewhat after the past fortnight. A tired writer It's important to have that support, especially when you consider it a job, but it brings in no money as yet. The economic times suck, but without it I may be still be one of those dreamers still waiting on the right time to do stuff from the Bucker List. I'm pretty sure many, many novels have started over the centuries and many were not completed. This was my third effort over the years. Third time lucky. I feel like doing a little celebrating, but I doubt that is going to amount to much more than some decent sleep over the coming days and nights. A big dirty cigar and a bottle of vodka... if only. It's been worth the effort, if for no other reason than to maybe show the kids someday that if they put to their mind to doing something, it can be done. If for no other reason than just proving you can do it for yourself. That may sound like a cheap cop-out to failure for some, to me, it's the one thing that carried this project through many long days and nights.

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Of course one can't rest on laurels. Looking forward to drafting the short this week. Today though, it's the chillax position. Here's to staying the course. For once.

Bookers World

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Thats Another Story

July 27, 2010

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Bit of a brain freeze over the last few days. Spent yesterday doing up a round of submissions, and today trying to get back into a script I've been writing. It's not working out at all so i took a break and stuck on the news. As I watched, I drew a character from my mind. Name Dan X. I mean no disrespect to anyone, but he lives deep off the beaten track somewhere in the woodlands of Arkansan. As i watched the news a little longer, and revelations came out concerning leaked documents making their way on to the Internet, via whistle blower's website, Wiki-Leaks, I delved a little deeper. As Dan debates within his mind what are the principal differences between a whistle blower and a rat, a dashing gent sits writing furiously a Pulitzer Prize winning article, debating the need for the Internet to be shut down until control measures are put in place. Right on-cue, the ruling C.o.E (Council of Earth) close it down. A billion computers draw their nal breath. It is perfect storm for Universal Petroleum, who continue to pump explosive material into a leaking well, before igniting it, and sparking a Super-quake. UP pay the price for failure and the sole survivor's are Dan X and Marko Zukkerfendenburger III, a geeky twenty-something. He has one-eye (literally) on ruling the world via a new application, which electronically gives you a new being. You must now wear a little chip insert just behind the socket of the right eye, where Muzzy (as he now likes to be called) can draw up your info should the need arise. As the new society adjust to this controlled nirvana, Dan X is given sole charge of writing history. He begins in a bar in Castlebar. Year Zero. Enter Bruce Campbell, famed celebrity freelance hunter of serial killers... but that's another story. Click for Image Source
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The Blog Capsule

July 29, 2010

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Sometimes as I read around the net, I stumble across blogs that interest me. As I continue to return to them, they become stale for whatever reason, or I nd the writer of the blog discontinuing with their content. Sometimes it's a constant regurgitation of stale material. There are literally thousands of blogs out there that are just gathering virtual dust. Perhaps it's because the writer feels it's not worth the effort, disillusioned by the lack of readership, they think that their time would be better spent elsewhere. For whatever reason, blogging, though popular, is a tough nut to crack. In the early days of this blog I had ads laid on by Google on my page. I found it a turn-off, so I removed them. I've wrote on many topics, removed some early posts containing extracts from my debut novel, and have tried to keep the blog updated regularly, change it around now and again, and not be afraid to meander from time to time. I'm not a 'Dear Diary' person. Doubt I will ever be. But someday, down life's line, time will be called on whatever life is and I'll move on. My 'writing life diary' will still be here, unless they ban people reading blogs sometime in the future. From a family prospective, I think it will be nice. I wish I had the thoughts and ramblings of family members from yester-year to read over from time to time. Perhaps down the generations others may think the same. As regular readers know Don Booker is a character. I was thinking of changing that and update my blog, but decided that it started as Booker's so it should remain so. Having gone through the test of writing a book, sticking with it through thick and thin, and coming out the other side, I feel I can call myself a writer now. Perhaps share anything I learned along the way with others. So I have changed the Blog title to The Writing Life & Other Absurdities - those that read regularly will understand the absurdity slant. I just want to try keep it fresh and offer an outlet to people who may visit and return again sometime. If dreams do come through one choice at a time then it's good to keep updated with the choices we all have. As for choosing the right one, well, like this blog, only time will tell on this particular commentary through life. Absurd or otherwise.

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Bookers World
July, 2010

This ebook series is a comment on issues facing Ireland, covered in real-time against the backdrop of what is really happening in Ireland at that time. The series cover events as they happen through the eyes of the ctional Don Booker, an unemployed recluse as he attempts to write himself through his personal woes and an Ireland in decline. The novel, Booker's World is separate from this series of ebooks, though both worlds do cross at certain juncture as the months go by. An ebook version of the novel will be available in Spring, 2010. All ebooks in this series may be used for reference and may be distributed freely once adhering to Creative Commons License and crediting the author. Why Free? Subject matter such as suicide, alcoholism, civil liberties, politics, religion, amongst others, depression and Addiction. Continuing negative statistics in the areas of Suicide, Depression & Addiction at a time ofnational austerity means that every single donation counts in the fight against all three.

In this series 5 Days in September Deathly Quotes

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November Nightmares Absurdities Purjurious Times Forgetful Directions

Available @ http://www.scribd.com/don_booker
Novel by Noel Farrell Booker's World

www.fbooker.blogspot.com

Novella Sonny Strange

Contact :jasepub@gmail.com
Noel Farrell 2010

Free Download Here

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This ebook series is a comment on issues facing Ireland, covered in real-time against the backdrop of what is really happening in Ireland at that time. The series cover events as they happen through the eyes of the ctional Don Booker, an unemployed recluse as he attempts to write himself through his personal woes and an Ireland in decline. The novel, Booker's World is separate from this series of ebooks, though both worlds do cross at certain juncture as the months go by. An ebook version of the novel will be available in Spring, 2010.
All ebooks in this series may be used for reference and may be distributed freely once adhering to Creative Commons License and crediting the author. Why Free? Subject matter such as suicide, alcoholism, civil liberties, politics, religion, amongst others, depression and Addiction. Continuing negative statistics in the areas of Suicide, Depression & Addiction at a time ofnational austerity means that every single donation counts in the fight against all three.

In this series 5 Days in September Deathly Quotes November Nightmares Absurdities Purjurious Times Forgetful Directions

Available @ http://www.scribd.com/don_booker
Novel by Noel Farrell Booker's World

www.fbooker.blogspot.com
Novella Sonny Strange Contact :jasepub@gmail.com Noel Farrell 2010

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