Down in the Dumps and Over the Moon…

Posted on 25/06/2024 by Mary Marken

…over and over again. I progress towards publication at the end of August and an autumn launch oscillating between these two moods. Thanks again to all of you who have supported me in small and big ways. I could not do this without your support.

So, since my last blog, I’ve signed off the manuscript and the cover with Troubador and these are in production as I write. There was a final twist with the cover.

At the very last moment, I had the notion to run it past my brother Mal at Imagine Media Productions. He has the equipment and the experienced eye to better assess what was being approved. He immediately got the ingenuity in Bill Allerton‘s design and could also see how it could be enhanced using the Photo Shop files Bill had sent to me. He started with an enlargement and a cut and crop of the base photograph. This photo of millworkers is on my website. And here is an image of the final cover.

BELFAST SONG COVER

I was also delighted to finally message Margaret Ward on Facebook. (You have to remember I’m very new to the possibilities on FB). In 1981, she gave a talk, The Irish Women’s Workers Union, to the Irish Labour History Society Annual Conference. Thirty or so years later, I took myself to Belfast for a week as part of the early stages of research into what was to become Belfast Song. Sitting in the central library in Royal Avenue, I read a paper by Margaret in which she mentioned that when James Connolly worked in Belfast as a trade union organiser, he was involved in helping women millworkers in a dispute with their employer. That reference inspired my imagination to create the opening chapters of my novel.

If you would like to read more about the women who helped shape Ireland, you might want to check out Margaret Ward’s book Unmanageable Revolutionaries: women and Irish Nationalism 1880-1890, an expanded and updated version of which has been published by Arlen House.

My final piece of big news is that I heard yesterday from Pauline Kersten, the Education Centre Manager at Conway Education Centre, that I could launch Belfast Song at the education centre from 1-3pm on 20/9/24.

I am dazed with delight to have as a venue such a supportive education centre located in the historic building of Conway Mill, which was a flax spinning mill like the one in which the women at the centre of Belfast Song worked.

And that would not have happened except that my sister-in-law, Siobhan Marken, volunteered to visit possible venues in and around the Falls Rd on my behalf, discovered that Conway Mill had appointed an Education Centre Manager, that they held book launches at the centre and provided all contact details. As I said at the beginning, I couldn’t do this without all the support I’ve been given.

Watch this space for the continuing story of publishing Belfast Song.

The First Wave is Over

Posted on 08/05/2024 by Mary Marken

Phew! The first wave of intense publishing activity has ebbed – and I’m still standing. Thanks to all of you for your support this far.

The big news is that we’ve got a book cover designed and agreed. I’ll post it on the website as soon as I have image to share. For now, I can tell you that it uses as its base the photograph of the millworkers that’s already on my website.

Thanks to Bill Allerton at Cybermouse for his ingenious design which he generously gifted to me and to the Troubador in-house designer who tweaked that and set it is as a book cover ready to go. The design is for front, spine and back and the cover will be in a matt laminate finish.

Can you get a sense of how delighted I am with it?

The other news is that I sent the the first proofread manuscript back to Troubador on Monday by special delivery to arrive midday Tuesday – and I’ve just been emailed the corrected version this morning. I know I mentioned it in last blog, but I want to say a big thanks to Jan Vallance and Denis Green for proofreading the manuscript in a tight space of time. I couldn’t have done it without you!

And I could not have done it if Denis hadn’t been willing to take the manuscript with us on a week’s holiday to Pembrokeshire to continue the proofread. The photographs above are of Bosherston Lakes and the water lilies growing underwater all set to bloom across the lakes in June. So we did have time for good outings as well as work.

There was a final little drama on Monday afternoon. Denis and I were double checking some of the pages on the kitchen table. I had just made and set down a mug of tea carefully at my corner. I reached over to take the page from Denis – and knocked over the mug. A flurry of activity ensued to whisk the pages off the table on to a dry worktop and mop and dry them using towels and then hairdryer. Thankfully, although stained at the edges, all proof marks were clear.

Embarrassed though I was to include a clump of such pages within the otherwise pristine manuscript, my overwhelming feeling was to get the blooming thing posted and out of my hair. Right then I just needed shot of it!

Blue-sky thinking vs real-time action

Posted on 03/04/2024 by Mary Marken

At 4pm on Thursday 28th March, I picked up an email from Jessica, Production Controller at Troubador, with the complete typeset proofs of Belfast Song attached for proofreading.

I was expecting this. Shortly after I had signed on the dotted line on 19th February, she had sent me an outline of Approximate Production Timescales that would result in publication at the end of August.

However, back then, as I imagined the proofs arriving either side of Easter Sunday, you could say I was in blue-sky thinking. That is, thinking that is not grounded in immediate reality. In my mind’s eye the proofs arrive on a spacious day where there is nothing to distract me from the task in hand. I settle to co-ordinate how my two buddies and I can send off a corrected manuscript to Troubador within the two-week deadline.

Switch now to the reality of 4pm on the day before the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. I have just about recovered from arriving back a few days earlier from a five day trip to Ireland via Shannon airport. Believe me, there is no easy or quick way to get from Sheffield to the West of Ireland. The immediate choice is to take the train to Edinburgh or Gatwick airport to then fly to Shannon. My husband Denis and I are in the throes of ascertaining which days family members are visiting during Easter week. We are sorting who is doing what: shopping, cooking, bed-making … you get the idea. Denis has agreed to be a proof-reader and meantime the other proof-reader, my writing buddy Jan, has her own plans to manage. I’ve an unexpected deadline to do with last minute arrangements for a mid-April conference that I’m helping to organise. That’s before I even think of day to day domestics such as walking the dog.

This is the state of mind in which I open the email. I am in touch with the necessity of real-time actions. Let’s call it overwhelmed to the point of panic by what I need to do asap.

On reading the email, I am aghast to discover that the task involves using a set of conventional proofreading marks that I have never seen before. I realise I have to choose: I either print out the proofs (all 344 pages) returning only those pages that need amending by post, or I mark the amendments on the PDF proof and send the complete PDF file to Troubador online.

Somehow, I find the presence of mind to actually open the PDF … oh my goodness … it is so exciting to see Belfast Song laid out in book format. I can imagine it on a shelf in a book shop or being launched to real audiences in Belfast and Sheffield. Another instance of blue-sky thinking?

By this time my ‘manager head’ is screwed on firmly: this manuscript has been redrafted five times with feedback from various writing buddies throughout. This included a proof read of the 5th draft. And then, over three years later, I did a 6th proofread before sending the manuscript to Troubador. So, although there will still be corrections, I trust they will be few by now. Troubador allows a total of nine weeks to include up to three proof reads before the author signs off the manuscript. So I reckon that any slippage on this first round timescale will be offset by speed of dealing with subsequent rounds.

I trust that this estimate is grounded in experience of real-time action.

Mary

History in the making

Posted on 26/02/2024 by Mary Marken

Northern Ireland made national and international headlines this month. On 3rd February, it reopened after a two year suspension and duly appointed Michelle O’Neill as the First Minister. She became the first nationalist and the first republican to be the First Minister since the creation of Northern Ireland in 1920. You may wonder what this has to do with my novel Belfast Song?

Well, the novel is set in 1911-1919. In 1912, Herbert Asquith’s Liberal government depended on the support of the Irish Parliamentary Party to stay in power and promised home rule for Ireland. The conflict that ensued between unionists and nationalists in the north of Ireland over that proposal and the consequences of that is central to the novel. It was the defeat of the nationalists in that struggle which led to the creation of Northern Ireland by the Government of Ireland Act of 1920. The first election in May 1921 returned 40 Unionists, 6 Nationalists and 6 Sinn Fein (republicans). The photo below shows the first sitting of the parliament in Belfast City Hall on 7 June. Only the Unionists were present as both nationalist and republican opposition refused to take their seats. Construction of Stormont did not commence until 1928.

The first sitting of the parliament in Belfast City Hall on 7 June 1921

Back to the business of publishing the novel: My website went live on 18th January. Thanks to Dave McClelland for working with me to create it. I supplied the text and he did all else with ease and efficiency. I also want to thank my friend, Avril Lyons who is a painter and photographer. She generously offered to take my photos for the website. This also seems a good point to welcome those of you who have visited the website and signed up to receive occasional emails. Thank you for your interest.

AND I sent my final draft of Belfast Song to Troubador – on 19th February so that it can be published by the end of August 24. That was a big day in this girl’s life!

I could have sent it in earlier. It had already benefited from ongoing feedback from my writing group and others throughout the writing process. I’d redrafted it five times. However I still wanted to comb through the manuscript one more time by way of a copy edit and proofread. At least that was my rationale. However I think the other motive was trepidation at the thought of sending it out to make its way in the world, after years of nursing it in relative privacy. My feelings were akin to all those times I waved my son off – primary school, secondary school, university and finally to his own home.

Whatever my motivation, it was just as well I did that sixth run through. It took an hour or more to work through each of the twenty-one chapters with the result that the version I sent is free of yet another layer of errors in grammar and clumsiness in text. Nevertheless, I anticipate that the proofreaders at Troubador will still find another layer that I’ve missed.

That’s it for today. I will write again soon and will let you know what has happened with Troubador since 19th February. I just need a little time to take it all in. Thanks for your continuing interest. Remember you can post questions or comments on the website. I’d love to hear from you.

Mary.

Welcome

Posted on 12/12/2023 by Mary Marken

Welcome to my website and my blog.

Thank you for taking the time to have a look. Between now and the publication of Belfast Song, I will be blogging on the journey to publication as it happens. Publishing a first novel is a BIG step. In my case, even more so, as I will be self-publishing.

Self-publishing is rapidly expanding as a viable alternative to the traditional approach. Writers & Artists Year Book 2024 has a section entitled Self-publishing and indie authors whereas the 2021 year book included only a few entries within their listing of publishers. It is also becoming more complex. I hope my blog will be helpful to any writers who are considering this as a possible route.

It does mean more involvement in every stage of the process and in particular, in promotion and publicity. So, by way of establishing a base camp for the expedition to publication, I’ve invested in a website well in advance of the intended publication date of September 24. That’s been a learning curve in itself.

In my next blog, I’ll write more about why I chose this route.

The other two themes on which I intend blogging is on the writing of Belfast Song and also, on anything literary that catches my attention and spurs me to write a few paragraphs.

Thank you for reading this far. If you continue to dip in, I look forward to any comments or questions you would like to share with me.

Mary