And now comes the good news. Today, (5th April, 2011), Inspired Quill was registered with Companies House as a Social Enterprise.

It’s Official!

Inspired Quill is now a Publishing House. This means that we will very soon be opening the doors for the first manuscripts to be published ready for the formal ‘grand opening’ in September. The I.Q. Team ask that you all keep a look out for that information when it is placed on the site. (Which, coincidentally, is moving to a brand new dedicated server within the next few days).

And for those of you who perhaps look upon this venture with a more critical eye (that is, “How is a Publishing House meant to be a Social Enterprise? Why would anyone decide to publish with you instead of Del Ray, Penguin or Random House?”) take a look at our new and shiny Mission Statement.

Inspired Quill is a unique publishing house focusing on indelible quality in upcoming publications from start to finish. We strive to showcase new writing talent and set a new standard in economically friendly, people-oriented publishing by providing a reliable platform for up-and-coming authors. Inspired Quill allows them to both publish their work and hone personal skills such as marketing and web commerce, with the added ability to gain knowledge of the ‘behind-the-scenes’ element of publishing. Inspired Quill also offers a way to achieve otherwise unobtainable work experience in the publishing sector for the next generation of editors and agents.

Vision Statement: The future development of Inspired Quill will seek to include both creative and nonfiction workshops to promote writing and literacy in disadvantaged schools and local community centres.

I have to confess that I was going to write up a brand new featured article today, but then I was reminded by my friends that it was my birthday today (I genuinely forgot), so I decided to sit down last night and film this…which is probably why I look so tired. I was a little surprised at how long it also took me to edit, although I do have the suspicion that it’s mostly because I need some better software and a better camera. But I think I did alright, all in all.

N.B. Yes, I also hate my voice. My apologies.

So, I’d better get on with what’s been happening ‘backstage’ as it were, since I’ve only just been keeping up with updates just recently.

Today was my first recording of a radio show segment, which is all very exciting. Along with some other Postgraduates at the University of Leicester, I sat around a table and talked about Poetry for half an hour, which will then go on to be played on the Poetry Show o Santa Cruz (California) radio. Stemming from that, I’m hoping to do a series of podcasts here on Inspired-Quill. After all, as nice as reading is, audio items will give us something different to work on and digest. Variety is, after all, the spice of life.

Remember in the last BtS I mentioned gaining a place on a business course? Well thanks to having done a bit of networking, last week I sat down with a website designer and went through a number of enhancements for the site. These include a better community system, a nicely laid out advertising page for independent bookshops, as well as a searchable database for said bookshops. There are a few more things in the works, but they’re all very ‘hush hush’ at the moment. What I can say at this stage however, is that in a week, I will be giving an information pitch (presentation) to a number of rather important business people…I should really get on with my business plan to show that I.Q. can become a sustainable Social Enterprise.

I must admit, I do miss the days where I could just sit down in front of my laptop for an hour or so and do some regular writing for Inspired-Quill. It seems all I’m doing these days is business planning, although I hope the light at the end of the tunnel is just starting to glimmer faintly in the distance. Only being able to update once every now and then is also beginning to irk me somewhat. I severely dislike being unprofessional in the sense of reliability. That’s why I’ve been through my diary today and set aside actual time for update purposes. (That and the fact that I will be showing Peter how to use this WordPress template to help with updates at some point. Huzzah!)

Well, that’s it for now. I’m rather looking forward to my first foray into video blogging in a couple of weeks.

Regards;

~ Sara

But fear not, I do have some purely good news!

After having thought about it for a while, I finally applied for a social entrepreneur grant from the locally based ‘Enterprise Inc.’ On Monday (29th  November) I sat in front of a panel and gave a presentation, outlining my plans for Inspired-Quill and arguing my case for a placement on the business development program. The day after, I got an email telling me that I was on the program, and that they were all excited with the project.

WOOOHOOOO! -Ahem-

So what does this mean for the future of Inspired-Quill? Well, it means that I will finally have access to both the money and the expertise to start developing the site in the more community-based direction I’ve been itching for. It also means that I will have a much better skill-set under my belt when it comes to making the running of I.Q. a lot smoother and more efficient. For those of you who are perhaps feeling a little anxious about this, I can wholeheartedly tell you all now that I am not, nor will ever be, a corporate sell-out. I’ve got to be realistic about things, but at the same time I’m hardly going to go against my principles and plaster advertisements every which way across the site and such like.

If anything, this should be yet another testament to the permanence of Inspired-Quill. We’re certainly not going anywhere any time soon! It also means that I want ideas! Yes, dear reader, since YOU are the user of this site, I want to know your opinions and desires for I.Q.

…now if I could only get my backside in gear and start to update regularly again…

Okay, so I lied about that last one. It’s probably part of the reason, though, so that’s good enough. When in doubt, manipulate the data.

NaNo has been a November hobby of mine since 2004, and I finally won my first NaNo last year by November 16th. And then didn’t write a single extra thing, because I forgot all about my overachiever goal. However, I have one of those lovely little purple badges that declares me to be a 2009 winner, and now that I’ve won, I’m going to have to win again. I’ve even decided that since participating in NaNo isn’t enough, I’m going to also write articles for IQ tracking my progress. This is as a good NaNo’er should, of course, because we’re all insane. Writers in and of themselves are a special breed of really crazy, but someone willing to participate in NaNo is a special breed. Like the dodo. Or the Nigerian princess you’re related to who needs your bank account information to give you your inheritance. That kind of crazy.

The important thing about participating in NaNo is that you need to write. Whether you type or handwrite your entire novel, or even if you don’t finish the darn thing, just get out there and write. You’ve always talked about how you’re going to write that next great novel, right? What better time than November, when 200,000 others around the globe are doing the exact same thing? The NaNo community is amazing, by the way – we have plenty of ways to distract ourselves and procrastinate, forums where you can ask questions about the next big thing… Hey, even tried-and-true methods to get that word count up (don’t forget to include TSoD – The Shovel of Death). Anachronistic? Doesn’t matter – get the words in, and don’t fret about grammar and verbiage and if you added far too many extra descriptors to that last run-on sentence, because it’s November (or at least almost) and it’s time to put fingers to keyboard and bite back the pain with another gulp of Coke. And hey, that’s another word. And another. And eventually there will be a novel.

If you have yet to come up with what you’d be writing about, don’t worry about that either. Just start writing, and eventually a plot and characters and a whole storyline will come into play, and you can take it and run. Remember that killing characters, while not exactly something that will endear your readers to you, is a great way to get that word count up. Sitting your characters down in front of a mouthwatering smorgasbord of delicacies and fruits and other tasty treats is another great way to reach that elusive thing called ‘word count’.

Make sure that you join your regional forum as well. You have to set a region as your home region in your profile, and then you’ll have access to that regional board. Meet with local NaNovelists, attend online write-ins, and embrace the writing community like never before. Most of us have had our shots, though which shots they were we aren’t exactly inclined to share. Just trust us. We’ll only infect you with further enthusiasm for this month-long event, push and push for you to achieve count, and otherwise convince you that that party isn’t worth going to, but the write-in at the local coffee shop will totally be worth it. After all, you can delve further into your novel, and you’ll have more words, and you’ll come out of the whole stupor come December 1st with an addiction to caffeinated beverages that you’ll never really be able to kick. And then you’ll have to do NaNo again next year, and the year after that, and the year after that… Mwahahaha.

I’m an Austin Penguin. There’s a whole story behind how and why someone who lives in the great state of Texas (everything is bigger, including the insanity, so let’s just leave it at that) could be an arctic-type creature, but I’m not going to delve into it. I’m not only participating in NaNo, I’m also going to be a regular attendee of the online Penguin write-ins (we have our own chat room in case nanowrimo.org goes down), a winner of word wars (come on, you’ve got to try this!), and I’ll be competing alongside the Houston region (wonder twin powers activate!) to kick the Baltimore Crabs to the curb. Their word counts won’t meet ours at all. There’s also that whole plan where I’d really like to actually meet some of the folks in my region, while still writing my novel, so maybe I’ll get myself to some real life write-ins too!

My novel is tentatively set years (hundreds upon hundreds of years in fact) in the past, in a time when the Roman Empire was just beginning to expand. Let’s take the concept of werewolves back to the roots of pagan mythos, and make them true guardians of a future that is being threatened by the expansion of the Roman Empire. Throw in a little bit more of the esoteric, and see what other fun aspects of mayhem and madness can be thrown up for everyone to participate in. After all, since it’s my novel, and since the characters are dynamic enough, who knows what’s going to happen by the time I reach the end?

I don’t have a fully-formed plan for what I’d like to see come of the stories as a whole. I’ve got a really barebones idea as to who my characters are and what makes them tick, but beyond that I’m once again flying by the seat of my pants. That’s the way a lot of people approach their first (and second, third, and other subsequent) NaNo attempts – the seat of your pants is really a fun way to go. The great thing is that you never really know what’s going to happen next because there isn’t a plan that you’ve already set down in stone, and so honestly anything can happen with your novel. You can also go the route of planning things out, having a basic outline for what you’d like to see happen at what points in the novel, along with different conflict areas you would prefer to have brought up, addressed, and solved in order to further your characters.

Anyone who’s written more than a really short short story knows that a lot of characters take the story that you’re writing and then run away with it. You have a basic idea as to what you would rather occurs, but then the world and the characters have a tendency to get away from you and tell their own little side stories until you reach the end. That’s okay. Let the novel run away from you, let the story reach its own natural conclusion. That way you’ve achieved two goals – you’ve written your story and you’ve written the story that the characters and the world you’ve built want you to write.

CreateSpace has partnered with the Office of Letters and Light (innocent name for such a devious organization that spawned the word-vomit NaNoWriMo) to offer anyone who ‘wins’ (that is, writes 50,000 words in the space of those 30 days) a proof copy of their novel. Yes, your book can be in print! You can even learn how to sell the real deal through CreateSpace. Just erase the social part of your calendar, block off school and eating periods with extra writing, refuse to sleep until you reach word count, and you too can be the proud owner of your very own novel!

By the way… The word count for this article (including the rather interesting title) is 1570 words. That’s just a few hundred words (okay, 97 to be exact, but who’s counting?) shy of what you’d need to achieve each day in order to complete your first NaNovel. And even if you don’t achieve those elusive 1667 words a day, there’s always playing catch up. You can always catch up – some people have been known to write 10,000 words in a day. You can do it. Even if you have a million other responsibilities, you can still write that novel that’s been poking your brain for years. There honestly is no better time than the present, than the month of November, than NaNoWriMo itself, to write that novel and get it all done and squared away. You owe it to yourself, to the other people reading this article on Inspired Quill, to the rest of the entire city/state/province/country/you name it to get that novel on to some format other than the extra colorful one within your brain.

Or you can just suffer along with me, in spirit, by reading the articles about my own progress towards Win the Second.

NaNoWriMo stands for ‘National Novel Writing Month’, which is described on the official website as; “…a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.” The aim here isn’t to create a masterpiece, but rather to get into the mindset of taking the time to actually write something. The editing comes later.

You might be wondering why the I.Q. team is so excited about this event.

First of all, it’s something to do. (At this point, if you know the insane level of ‘stuff’ which the I.Q. team participates in, you will be laughing until your sides hurt). Personally, November is going to be painful enough without the added effort of actually sitting down to write non-University ‘stuff’, but it will at least allow me to focus my energies on something slightly different. Next, the event all but ties you to a chair, makes you a cup of coffee and stands over you with a baseball bat until you hit your daily word count. That is, it forces you to focus on getting through it by any means necessary.

If you take the time to sign up to the official website online (links to follow at the end of this article), there are also forums where you can get congratulated, consoled or inspired by other people doing their best to accomplish the same task. NaNoWriMo has a fantastic community aspect to it – one of the personal reasons why I’ve always wanted to participate. Finally, I would be doing the event a huge disservice if I didn’t mention the learning curve it offers to amateur writers. It isn’t as if an individual signs up for the event and is then sent on their merry way with nothing more than a smile and a wave. Oh no! Assistance is offered by the NaNoWriMo community, but as well as this, I have found that participants are also a lot more inclined to try and hone their writing skills and search for any other information they might require. This is something which gives people a starting block, as it were, to really develop not only their writing, but also their approach to writing…which is arguably just as important.

Is anyone from I.Q. participating?

Well now you mention it…One of the I.Q. writers, Fiona, will be jumping into the insanity of NaNoWriMo for another year. I however, will be doing something slightly different. I know it’s a ‘Novel’ writing month, but in order to feel at least a little productive, I will instead take it upon myself to write at an article per day for Inspired-Quill during the month of November. Now, that isn’t to say that I.Q. will be updated each and every day, but there’s a chance that there will be three articles instead of two for the duration of the month, as both Fiona and I keep you updated as to our progress as well as offering a few hints and tips along the way. (Probably in an attempt to help you learn from our mistakes!)

If any of you – dear readers – are going to be involved, please don’t hesitate to leave a message or get in touch. We’d love to hear from other NaNoWriMo participants.

In the meantime, here are a few handy links:

- NaNoWriMo site
- Signup
- Grammar
- Writing tips

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1.) The Legion – Simon Scarrow

The bestselling author of ‘The Centurion’ and ‘The Gladiator’ is back again with yet another action-adventure set in ancient Rome. This novel follows the story of Ajax, a rebel gladiator and his men. The group have been masquerading themselves as Roman soldiers in order to attack merchant trains and villages. Cato and Macro have been set the task of finding Ajax before he gets out of control, but Ajax has other ideas, this novel promises a few twists and turns, as well as pages full of action-packed historical narrative.

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2.) Full Dark, No Stars – Stephen King

In his afterword, King states that, “The stories in this book are harsh.” Well we couldn’t really expect anything less, could we? This is King’s first set of short stories for two years, and the four narratives within this book are set to give their readers that spine-shiver and lump-in-the-throat that his fans have come to expect. In ‘Full Dark, No Stars’, King sets out to examine the human responses and limits to greed, deception and revenge.

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3. Hell’s Corner – David Baldacci

The fifth instalment of the ‘Camel Club’ book series. This time, Stone witnesses an explosion, supposedly conceived by terrorists in an attempt on the lives of both the UK Prime Minister and the US President. Despite an arguably over-used plot, Baldacci’s story uncovers that everything is not always as it seems…and it’s up to Stone and the rest of the Camel Club to figure out exactly what’s going on before it’s too late. The Daily Mail newspaper claims that this book is ‘Brilliant plotting, heart-grabbing action and characters to die for’.

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4. The Life of Herbert Hoover – K. Clements

I saw this book and had to add it to the ‘New Releases’ list. This isn’t something that I would ever buy or read (most likely), but I do find it a point of amusement that this is the sfourth (yes, 4th) instalment of a book series dedicated to giving us reading public all the wonderful details about the man’s life and work. There will be six books in total. Seriously. Six.

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5. The Reckless Bride – Stephanie Laurens

And now here’s one for the chick-lit lovers amongst you. The book cover looks like something from Mills & Boon, but from reading advance-reviews of the novel, it seems to offer slightly more than just a damsel in distress and a handsome, successful man. Indeed, it could be argued that the novel crosses both the romance and action genres. Not sure that it will ever be on my personal reading list, but for those of you wanting something a little different in your romance novels, this is the November book for you.

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6. Wallace & Gromit, Cracking Contraptions Manual – Derek Smith

We’ve all seen those ‘Haynes Manuals’. They cover everything from the USS Enterprise to the old Ford cars…and now, this Haynes Manual gets under the skin of the various vehicles and contraptions created by Wallace and Gromit. This is definitely a book for all the fans…and with a number of great ‘how-to’ instructions and plenty of colour pictures, it’s a book for all-ages.

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7. Against all things Ending – Stephen Donaldson

It’s been over a quarter of a century since Donaldson first took his readers on the journey of Thomas Covenant, and the story continues with this latest novel. Covenant is alive again, through the use of three important artefacts…but his resurrection has consequences. Covenant and his group of friends must now stop the Worm of World’s End from devouring everything and save not only the world, but everything in it as well. Can the protagonist muster the power to accomplish the impossible once more?

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8. Worst Case – James Patterson

Does this man ever get writer’s block? It doesn’t seem so, and he’s back this November with yet another crime/thriller. Whatever the synopsis for this book (it involves a kidnapping, a detective, and some annoying FBI agents), you can be absolutely assured that Patterson’s usual white-knuckle, fast paced style will keep you turning pages until the small hours of the morning. No doubt this book will find its way onto my shelf before too long.

For those of you who are heading back into education, I wholeheartedly sypathise. My University MA starts in earnest tomorrow, and I’m already running around like a twitchy ant. In any case, I thought I would post this as a little bit of a catch-up, since I haven’t done one of these for a while now. What’s new? Well…not an awful lot, really. I’m currently working on some more affiliation links, as well as some merchandise ideas…but unfortunately there are only 24 hours in a day. (Whose idea was that, anyway?)

According to the all-powerful GoogleAds, we currently have £6.36 in the bank account. Yay. Alright, so it isn’t exactly a thousand pounds I can then spend on getting some computer genius to enhance the site…but it shows that when you click on the advertising links next to each article, something actually happens. I’ve decided to save up for a forum as a first goal. I really want a more community-feel on here, and I think a forum is the way forward with this. After that, I can source out a few changes I want with the site itself. Not really with the visual design, but with some of the coding and such.

Apart from those bits and bobs, I’m just managing to get enough time to keep the site ticking over nicely. Part of me wishes I could update three times a week instead of twice, but I don’t have enough writers for that currently. (Hint, hint).

In any case, I’m hoping that the next update will have a few more shiny things in it. (Including a competition perhaps! Watch this space. )

~Sara

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1.) The Good Pub Guide 2011 – A. Aird & F. Stapley

Last year, I walked into a pub for dinner and almost immediately walked out again. It looked alright from the outside, but inside it was dark, retro, and everything came with egg and chips. If only I’d had this guide to steer me clear! The ‘Good Pub Guide’ is now in its 29th year, and offers hints on which pubs are the best for everything from in-house ales, to overnight accommodation. Definitely worth a look if you enjoy trying out new places!

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2.) A Tiny Bit Marvellous – Dawn French

If this novel about a perfectly dysfunctional family by Dawn French is half as funny as her stand-up and as well written as her autobiography, then I think we’re in for a treat…and I don’t even read ‘chick lit’. Described as “the story of a modern family all living in their own separate bubbles lurching towards meltdown,” it’s a book which will have snippets of relevance to our own lives as we ask ourselves ‘who are these odd people who insist on calling themselves my family’?

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3.) Crescendo – Becca Fitzpatrick

If you haven’t already read the New York Times Bestseller ‘Hush, Hush’ I suggest you remedy that before picking up this sequel. It seems as though the emerging genre of ‘paranormal romance’ is something which refuses to stop gathering momentum. Whilst not a bad thing, it does mean that the good books (which includes this title, if this book is anything like its bestselling predecessor) have to be hunted for…in much the same way the book’s heroine has to search for the truth surrounding her father’s murder. (See what I did there?)

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4.) Fifty Years of Coronation Street – Tim Randall

I can hear all of you judging me already…but I don’t care. I’m not even going to go on my usual ‘Coronation Street Vs Eastenders’ rant. This official book celebrating five decades of a much loved British soap includes a bit of everything. Interviews with the actors, snippets of the best scripted moments, and some rather amusing character-profiles. Even if it isn’t your cup of tea, everyone (in the UK at least) is related to someone who would adore this book.

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5.) The Eden Legacy – Will Adams

Written by an ex-history consultant, ‘The Eden Legacy’ allows fact and fiction to mix together in order to create a “fast-moving, finely crafted, intelligent action-adventure”. After realising that two family members are missing from their nature reserve, Rebecca immediately makes her way home to Madagascar. Underwater archaeologist Daniel Knox leaves his current treasure hunt and goes to investigate. As the story unfolds, Knox realises that the seemingly idyllic ‘Eden’ nature reserve holds a few dark secrets of its own.

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6.) And Furthermore (Judi Dench Memoirs) – Judi Dench

Dame Judi Dench. A woman whose career on stage and on screen has spanned fifty successful years (and she has an Oscar and more to prove it). This autobiography not only looks at her career, but also offers a glimpse into her 30-year marriage (how many celebrities can claim that time span?) as well as the other intricacies which make this Dame one of Britain’s best loved and most respected actresses.

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7.) The Reversal – Michael Connelly

And for those of you who cannot go a month without your crime/thriller fix, I offer you ‘The Reversal’. When the defence lawyer Mickey Haller is asked to step outside his comfort zone and prosecute the high-profile case of a convicted child-killer, he takes the case. A set-up soon becomes apparent however, which forces Haller to dig to uncover what really happened in order to stop the killer striking again.

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8.) Crave (Fallen Angels) – J.R. Ward

A far cry from the Sarah Kane play of the same name, this is the second book in the ‘Fallen Angels’ series. The fate of the world rests in the hands of a reluctant would-be saviour and his assembly of fallen angels. One of them, Jim Heron has already helped to redeem a soul…but now his mission takes on a far more dangerous turn as he has to identify and confront a shape-shifting demon. A seemingly gritty, action-packed fantasy, Crave promises a fast-paced adventure.

When you consider how many websites (and blogs especially) tend to fizzle out after a month or two, the achievements gained by this website and its team are phenomenal. Not only are we affiliated with a number of other respected websites, but we’re also the official sponsors of an English Society at a University which is a top 2% worldwide establishment. Yeah, we’re cool like that.

I know that in the past year, my skills as an editor and as a writer have greatly improved, and although I wouldn’t like to speak for my regular writers, I hope that the I.Q. environment has been both pleasant and educational for them as well.

I only regret that I’m unable to offer any shiny competitions to celebrate this birthday properly!

Each time I update this site with a ‘Behind the Screens’ post I’m constantly talking about improvements I hope to implement on the site, so I don’t need to bore you all with plans for the future. What I will say however, is that I’m confident that this time next year, I will be updating with another ‘Happy Birthday’ message and continuing to be incredibly proud of the achievements of this literature community.