Blog - "One More For Disbelief"

Hello readers. I'm glad you're there.

Today I have spent the vast majority of the day sitting in my public library, where I can focus on work away from my laptop. It's not been pleasant. I'm not saying anything bad about the library, more the work itself, since today I've been looking for literary agents.

It's not been going well.

I thought I'd struck gold with the Association of Author Representatives, but no, they're all based in New York. It took me longer than I'd like to admit to realise that.

Disbelief has now been a work in progress for two years, and I've hit a roadblock so firm that I literally can not seem to get over it anymore. I've sent my work out to so many places, but the replies have all been so very similar. Disbelief is classified entirely as 'music'. People don't want to represent an author that writes about music.

There's so much more to it. The music is a vessel, a back drop even, but people don't want to listen to that.

It's hit me fairly hard today that I might not be able to find a market for my work. It's not the best feeling in the world, and I certainly didn't think that Disbelief was likely to let me down. Chances are it's not the fault of Disbelief, but the fault of myself in my method of representation.

Not sure how I can overcome this one, to be honest.

Blog - "The Annoyance Of Being Idle"

Greetings from the mad world of my internal monologue.

Since my entry on New Year's Day, I have intentionally been having what I have been told are 'days off'. Now, being a writer, I find myself relaxing by writing, so I habitually never stop working. I usually have one day off a year, and that's my birthday on July the seventh. This year, people have managed to convince me to spend the time between new years day and my two year anniversary on January the ninth doing nothing.

I'd just like to know if you have any idea how incredibly dull and boring it is to do nothing for days? Days! I haven't written a thing for over a week. That doesn't just feel strange, it feels downright wrong. It's like I've been genetically strangled and held for ransom by that part of me that actually seems to enjoy sleep and video games.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with sleep and video games. A Wii turned up in our household recently, much to my surprise, and I've been setting up the internet for the people I live with and going through all of the virtual console games that I want. It's a surprising amount, and is a stark reminder of how large a gamer that I used to be, but since becoming a writer I have found it something of a colossal waste of time. My thumbs are about as efficient as they could possibly be at this point, and sleep is all about recharging, right? I have this annoying habit of sleeping either four hours, and thus getting nothing out of it, or sleeping for thirteen hours, which is just enough to make the rest of the day useless. Over the last week, those two things are the two things that I've had to do. I miss writing.

So now, having exhausted the possibilities of FIFA and been utterly infuriated by good old Majora's Mask, and slept for more time than I've been awake, I've reached the point where I don't really want to do that anymore. I don't want to sleep, but I am aware that I'm eventually going to have to. I just want to write. Maybe this did do me some good. I'm back.

By Sunday I have two interviews to type up, hopefully one for each Monday to follow tomorrow, and I'm also writing up an in-depth review of a recent orchestral Tim Minchin show, which should turn up soon enough. I'm also re-writing a piece of Disbelief at this point in time, since I've decided to change one of the character relationships for the finale. It's kind of shaping up to be a fairly empty month, so I've also started planning out Theory In Practice. We should be good to go with that for when February rolls around.

I wouldn't want to not submit. I'd end up a lot less well enough, and likely struggling with the bills if that happened. You don't earn much freelance, after all.

Still, living the dream. I'm always grateful for that.

Blog - "Mental Streaming 2011"

A happy new year to you all. Welcome back to Mental-Streaming; a journey through the strange and often catastrophic mind of myself: Tom Colohue.

My plan for this year involves a lot of writing; it's true. It also involves a lot of gaming, drinking and having sex, but we all know that only the writing is guaranteed. I'm determined to have Disbelief published and on the bookshelves before this year is out. That's not all though: my Doctor Who novel, The Collapse Of Redmoor,  is slowly moving forwards as well, though it's hardly all that high on my list of priorities. Teraburst, my graphic novel, written and drawn with my dear friend Ricky, is also picking up pace. A couple of the conceptual character designs are now available, should anybody be interested.

Those are the novels, but, of course, that's far from the only thing going for me.

I'm working on a new music theory series for Ultimate-Guitar called 'Theory In Practice', which will be half theoretical explanation followed by a practical application to further the reader's understanding. In addition to that, the UG Story is still happily ongoing on its own little path, with my guest writers currently reaching their second installment of the four that they're working on, while I'm mostly done at this point.

Outside of Ultimate-Guitar, I'm also working on a series on Marketing Methods for DottedMusic, as well as other works directly relative to that website. Sam Agini has also invited me to do more collaborations with him, which I'm sorely tempted to take up.

These are the works that I have planned for now, though god knows how many other little pieces will occupy my time. I'm also considering giving Rock Stars a second run, as I'm quite happy with how that went, even if it was nowhere near as popular as Disbelief.

January 9th, only eight days away now, will mark my two year anniversary of being a professional writer. By this time next year, I will be published. That's my resolution, and I am nothing if not resolved.

Happy new year people. Welcome back.