Nicola Vincent-Abnett

Nicola Vincent-Abnett
"Savant" for Solaris, Wild's End, Further Associates of Sherlock Holms, more Wild's End

Thursday 28 February 2013

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Fonder...


Or should it be ‘out of sight, out of mind’.

I like a good proverb as much as the next girl, and, if it comes to, say, the husband being away doing publicity for a week, it’s definitely a case of ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’, but for every proverb, there’s an equal and opposite counter-proverb. When it comes to the blog going missing for, I don’t know, but it must be getting on for a week, at least, then my guess is that it quickly becomes a case of ‘out of sight, out of mind’. That’s when I have to get my finger out and get my shit together, and that’s when I have to have an opinion about something, and share it with all of you... or at least with those of you patient enough to come back after I’ve neglected you for so long.

I don’t blame those of you who move on to pastures new, to more reliable bloggers. You wouldn’t remain loyal to a daily paper that suddenly, out of the blue, didn’t show up on your doormat every day for a week, would you? Of course you wouldn’t; you’d find something to fill that void in your life. I would too.

The truth is, I’ve got a lot to write about, a lot to share, a great many thoughts and opinions swirling around in the old grey matter. The problem is, how to form them into a run of blogs that will form a constructive, coherent whole. I haven’t worked that one out yet.

Proverbs might be the answer.

There are any number of usable titles for what I’d like to do for my March blogs, ‘A Bird in the Hand is Worth Two in the Bush’, or, conversely, ‘A Man’s Reach should Exceed his Grasp’. I could write a blog titled, ‘Better the Devil You Know’, or one called, ‘Familiarity Breeds Contempt’. I could write them both on consecutive days, for crying out loud.

Either way, the next batch of blogs, and I suspect there will be at least a week’s worth, will be about writing, and some of them will be about dealing with failure.

I’ve learned to suck it up, because if you ever want to do anything in this business that’s pretty well the first lesson you’ll have to learn: You can’t be precious about the work, because everyone up and down the line is bound to want to change something in it, and you can’t be precious about the work, because nobody’s ever going to want a decent percentage of what you do.

I hope that I’ll be able to put a positive spin on most of my offerings over the coming days, beginning on Monday, (after some weekend froth and event reporting), but don’t think I won’t have a snark or two along the way, because I wouldn’t be human if I hadn’t felt let down, disappointed, and downright pissed off at times.

Brace yourselves. I’m going in. This is going to be a bit of an exposé. I just hope that by the end of it, we all think that my experiences in publishing include some stories that are worth telling.

3 comments:

  1. Oooh! Can't wait for you to expose yourself .... or I have got the wrong end of the stick? ;)

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    Replies
    1. Oh dear. I might admonish you to be very careful what you wish for.

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  2. Little late to the scene but, as of now I think your book is turning into the Forbidden Fruit, because I want to read this and form my own opinion. I have a feeling many others are forming similar thoughts as well.

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