So after a good six months of working on the MidnightSun Publishing website rather this personal one, I’m back here to write about the perils of not writing. What is happening in my life, is that I can now legitimately call myself a published writer but because I am also a publisher and have published three books in the last six months (my own novel The Hum of Concrete, Zanesh Catkin‘s Pangamonium as well as Zanesh’s The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium as an ebook) I no longer have any time to write.
All my time is spent doing publicity and marketing, which does involve writing but usually nothing longer than a few well thought-out sentences in an email. I miss writing. But, rather than plunging headlong into a new novel, and perhaps tomorrow feeling like I’d overdone it, like when you have eaten a few too many slices of cake, I thought I’d test the waters here. Pretending that I’m writing a letter to a good friend but, hopefully, leaving the worst self pity out of it. I really love being a publisher. It has opened so many doors for me and I suddenly feel like I’m getting a lot more respect from strangers. ‘Oh, so you run a publishing company. That’s interesting…’
Not that it really matters what others think but I never thought I’d own, let alone, run my own business and now I do, which is both exhilarating and slightly overwhelming. Ultimately, it all comes back to words. It’s words that I love and I still work with words every day but now I feel a bit like the laptop rules my world. Because as a recently published writer, and a new publisher, I felt compelled to join Twitter as well as Facebook and keep up with all the writing and publishing news. It has been fun, I have learned a lot, I have met many inspiring people, I have had the opportunity to travel, I have organised readings in book shops and the whisper around town is that MidnightSun throws the best launch parties ever. We play 80s music and let our hair down…
It sounds a like I’m done with publishing, like this is the final letter to a lover you have enjoyed and always will remember fondly, but that isn’t the case at all. I intend to keep publishing. But I also intend to keep writing, because writing is my home. Publishing has kept me away for a while but I know it’s time for me to return.
Because without writing, there is no publishing.
Hope you can find the time to succeed at both publishing and writing. I enjoyed this sample.
Just wanted to write and say that I admire you so much, it’s verging on envy! I’ve just finished my English Literature degree and moved to South Australia, and I find I have no direction. But having just read this; the Zanesh Catkin website; and the MidnightSun Publishing site, you should know that your an inspiration. Thankyou for handing some books over to Stacey at the Mockingbird Lounge for book club otherwise I’d never have found you!! And thankyou for publishing ‘Pangamonium’. It’s the first literary feeling I’ve had for a book since I finished my degree and I can’t wait to read ‘ The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium’! Best of luck with the writing, because I can’t wait to keep reading!
Hi Tiffany,
Thank you so much for your kind words! Great to hear that MidnightSun is getting out there, building a fan base. Stacey at Mockingbird Lounge is amazing and the plan is that Zanesh and I will come in to the book shop next year to talk to the book clubs that have read our books. Hope to catch up with you then. I have forwarded your letter to Zanesh and I’m sure he’ll be as pleased as I am that we have inspired you. Hope you like The Ludic Mode of Pangamonium. And The Hum of Concrete too, if you haven’t already read it.
Best regards,
Anna Solding