INKWELL Copywriting, Ghostwriting, PR

Ghostwriting project

Last week I took on another ghostwriting project. I am looking forward to it greatly.

For this book I plan to chart the progress of a ghostwriting commission from start to finish to give readers an idea of how a ghostwriter works - at least in Lancashire, UK anyway.

My client (and future author) has given me about 20,000 words of notes to read. There is a mixture of anecdotes, memories and bare facts to sift through so I should be well prepared for our first interview in a couple of weeks' time.

I have a few ideas about which angle the ghostwritten book might take but that won't become clear until I can tease out the client's goal for the book. Why is she writing the book? Why now? Who is it for? Who is likely to be interested in it?

Seems a good time to delve into the world of ghostwriters, what with the new movie Anonymous questioning the authorship of all that drama and poetry purportedly by yer man, W. Shakespeare.

Sláinte - It's Bloomsday

I hope it's a warm June day with the occasional cloud in Dublin - or wherever you are - so you can celebrate Bloomsday in style. 

Pour yourself a glass of Burgundy and nibble on a gorgonzola sandwich of fresh clean bread, with relish of disgust, pungent mustard, the feety savour of green cheese, then open Ulysses just one more time - 'Stately, plump Buck Mulligan came from the stairhead... '

It's also Youth Day in South Africa, so best wishes down there too.

Twitter Countdown to African Brew Ha-Ha

The countdown to publication of my travel book African Brew Ha-Ha starts in a couple of days with daily Tweeted extracts from the book on Twitter.

There will be three different extracts - one for tea drinkers, one for bikers and one for adventure travellers.

To be sure you get them, follow me on Twitter @ACWhelan.

Want a Free Copy of African Brew Ha Ha?

Go to www.abhaha.com then pop your email address in the Get Email Updates box in the top left corner of the blog. There will be a random draw from all the email addresses for a free book giveaway on publication day - April 5 2010. Good luck.

African Brew Ha Ha - The FREE Show

Looking forward to the publication of my travel book African Brew Ha Ha in April 2010, I will be available to give after dinner talks, club guest speaker slots or group presentations. 

The talk is about the 14,000-mile solo motorcycle trip through Africa - Blackburn to Cape Town - in search of the ultimate cup of tea, and is suitable for:

• Travel clubs
• Motorcycle clubs
• Rotary Clubs
• Probus Clubs
• Business networking clubs
• Tea Dances!!
• Any clubs that enjoy a good story well told

I would like as many people as possible to read the book (now that it's taken me 2 years, and all), so I will be available from April 2010 to speak at your club or one that you know.

The talk is FREE but I will expect some expenses if I have to travel.

It's a great story and I've got some terrific pictures to show. You won't be disappointed.

 
 

Gold!

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Rose Tremain's novel The Colour takes the reader to a time, place and culture not much exploited by literature - the 19th Century gold rush in New Zealand.

Tremain creates superbly the harsh environment and the hopes of those with gold fever, who survive on little other than dreams of the big strike. The insularity of the immigrant English family is tightly drawn and the portrait of the heroine, Harriet Blackstone, is intimate and compelling. The characters must come to deal with decisions they have all made in the past, some of which come to devastate their lives.

Some of the descriptions of Maori life are not as tautly realised as they could have been but taken as a whole Tremain's assured novel is never less than engrossing. The book has opened a whole new genre of historical fiction for me - and I've discovered another novelist I didn't know I liked.

The White Tiger has claws

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The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga is an epistolary tale told as a series of letters from our protagonist -  a humble chauffeur - to the Premier of China. It seems an odd way to tell a riveting story of one man's climb from poverty - 'the darkness' - to riches - 'the light' - in modern day India. On the journey the novel uses the deep divides within the society to underline how difficult it is for many to move up from their caste, or social class.

While the reader's initial sympathies are with our hero, we come to realise that he has lost his own morals and clawed his way to the top by committing a terrible act in his bid to become an 'entrepreneur' in the new India.

The sense of place created by Adiga is compelling and while the reader gets a broad brush picture of the society, it is the incidental details that stay with you long after the last page is turned. Highly recommended.

Objects of desire

   
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Time was when we waited anxiously for the new David Bowie album - not only to hear the new tracks but also to gaze at the sleeve design. Aladdin Sane was a defining moment of imagery for many fans. While CD design hasn't exactly gone tits-up, the format does not inspire or provoke the way a 12-inch record did. I know, I know, it's an age thing.

But there is a commodity that, while trying to sell to the masses on the one hand seems simultaneously to keep its artistic integrity intact - book covers.

Here is Book Cover Blog that revels in the precision and originality of the designs that can often turn a collection of 100,000 words into a perfectly formed object of desire. Here's another appreciation site of book covers

Bloomin' Eck - the ultimate copywriter

 
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To mark the 105th Bloomsday on June 16 I hosted a fantastic night of readings, comedy, the inner organs of beasts and fowls and other shenanigans to a select group of the befuddled and bewildered in true Irish style - around the kitchen table.

Bloomsday celebrates the one day in Dublin on which James Joyce's Ulysses is set. It's a fabulous book full of humanity, which aims to record all a man's waking thoughts during an average day. Declan Kiberd calls it an "extended hymn to the dignity of everyday living" and a primer on "how to walk and think at the same time". Each reading reveals another layer of depth and keeps me gripped; the genius Joyce was the ultimate copywriter. It's a book for life; sometimes I think it's the only book you ever really need.

Les Doherty who played Leopold Bloom - and many other parts - was a great success on the night and I would recommend him for his great acting, warmth and professionalism. Contact him at lesdots@hotmail.com