Where has Time gone?

Plus: Youtube video about my book title choices

Aug 01, 2024

Chapter 1, the preamble

I’ve been doing this writing thing a while. I can still remember the sci-fantasy poem I wrote when I was five years old. At university in 2013, I turned up with a folder of work that I could rip into and borrow from, so I was already building a multimedia multiverse before I got onto my masters. I broke some uni rules by splitting Stephanie down multiple timelines, writing parts of her book across different, disparate modules.

I won a £500 scholarship at uni for poems about physics and mosquitos, which I wish I’d invested more wisely, but I was 22 and very excited.

I set up my own writing society as well.

Throughout all that time, I’ve been weird. I realised pretty early on that getting an agent would be especially difficult for me for various reasons; primarily, that I don’t think my stories fit in all too well.I pick weird sci-fi subgenres for my categories on book sites, categories not many other authors are in. But I’m not doing this to ‘cheese’ the system by tricking the algorithms into giving me a better chance, I’m there because those strange fringe categories are the only ones which feel comfortable.

I do a lot of the writing stuff alone, and I do feel it sometimes. Staying up until 4am wondering why an amazon ad isn’t working would be fine if it weren’t so pointless, and it is pointless. It’s deeply isolating too, and that’s been getting to me lately. I would much rather be meeting artsy people in the real world, which gave me an idea.

My favourite thing so far are print ads, I think more authors should embrace reality and put adverts in the physical world.

My most recent success was with a goth bar in Liverpool, who now stock my business cards right near where the Jagerbombs ususally arrive.

I think this is perfect. Drunken goths can scan a picture of me flying through space, and within minutes they’ll be here, inside the space I’m weaving between my head and yours, where crabs can snip through time and planets can talk and aliens write horror stories about humans and magical crystals levitate sausages at violent speeds.

I’ve done some online ads, too. Most of you found me through Bookfunnel, but I also do stuff on Instagram. In order to advertise on instagram, you need to have an account on Facebook. That is the reason I have one.

But I can ‘cross-post’ to facebook from instagram, meaning my insta posts go up on facebook, which means every 365 days facebook reminds me of them.

And now we’re onto today, 365 x 2 days away from a convention.

Chapter 2, that slippery creature called TIME

Today, it has been exactly two years since I was at Manchester ComicCon.

Two years since I met David Firth (the creator of Salad Fingers) and swapped a signed WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? for a signed wooden spoon.

Two years since I got the nicest fried chicken I’ve ever had and almost cried because I was so tired it was a spiritual experience for me. Also it was spicy.

Two years since I got sick from the heat and hallucinated, thinking I was a beached whale when my mum dragged me back from oblivion with a spray bottle of water. Yes, I did the whale noises.

Two years since I stood beside a cardboard cutout of myself, sold half the 110 copies of WBTH I bought for the convention, and was told by fellow vendors that I was the most successful author they had seen.

Two years since I raised a potential £874 out of £1200 for THE EARTHLOOP TRILOGY in one weekend, before it slowed down.

I could have injected another £400 into EL myself, pushing it to the £1200 goal in time, but that felt like cheating. I didn’t want to lie to my audience, so I let the project die off, promising them that they’d get updates here. What that means is I’m still paying off a loan I got for the convention, bit by bit.

Here’s the project. Note, the funding is closed. The link is only there for the handful of you who might want to take a look at my very first kickstarter. I think it’s interesting. I had all these massive ideas that I now want to save for future things, like the 3D printed Earthloop action figures.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/realphillipcarter/earthloop-trilogy

The only currently active crowdfunding things I have right now are for a giant Lego statue (another story for another time) and WHO KILLED THE HUMANS? which is my primary project right now.

The grinding halt of Earthloop’s funding was a blessing in disguise. Sure, I had less money, but I had more time. In that time I’ve evolved the stories like a crystal, in a slow, contemplative way that wouldn’t have worked on the original timeline.

Don’t get me wrong, I had plans for finishing the stories long before the kickstarter appeared, but those plans have been dissolved and replaced like a fossil in the months hence.

Lax has had more room to grow.

There’s going to be a prequel novella, too, which I will give to you soon.

It is called

THE TOMBS OF THE TEKEKK.

Anyway, here’s another link, the promo video for EARTHLOOP.

I wasn’t able to embed the video here, as it would make this email too big.

Earthloop trailer

In those two years, this video advert for THE EARTHLOOP TRILOGY has got 17 views. Doesn’t sound like much, but it’s more than my usual book posts on youtube. I find I get a lot more traction if I talk about the concept of writing rather than a book itself.

I will be posting readings of the first pages of stories in WBTH, soon.

Chapter 3, all these spinning plates.

I was once asked by a professor how my plates were spinning. He knew about Stephanie, other books, my writing workshops, an anthology I was making, and the beginnings of my comedy career.

Perhaps he was right, but not for the reasons he thought he was.

I don’t get burnt out when I’m working on stuff. To me, most of the projects overlap. Lax Morales makes a cameo appearance in THE STEPHANIE GLITCH, adding a strange link between that and EARTHLOOP, and similar links appear between my comedy material and my poetry.

I’ve just finished my comedy poetry book, by the way.

Because my body of work is a big thing I am chiselling away at, so sometimes I will finish a book by accident.

Earthloop 1 is basically done, too, but it needs a lot of editing.

And WHO KILLED THE HUMANS is in a similar position. I had an idea for a few more stories, but I am not sure if they are as interesting as the others yet.

So I don’t get burnt out with creative things, as long as they’re free to spin. One issue I’ve had this year is that my trip to America cost a lot more than I thought it would, so I am missing the Edinburgh Fringe. It’s comedic timing, as I have just in the last few months found lots of comedy pals I could have gone with. Guess I can delay another year.

So I’m going next year. In fact that will be my only big project next year.

My goal is to book an entire floor of a little student hotel and bring my own audience. I’ll have a few more books out by then, too.

Chapter 4, why I pick weird titles.

Titling things is fun. I like to sneak jokes into my poetry titles, and references to other titles inside Earthloop, so the chapters can rhyme with each other. Whole books are harder however.

WHO BUILT THE HUMANS? arrived in my mind as a sci-fi rephrasing of that existential question we’ve all thought about at least once: Why are we here?

In this video, I talk about that.

It’s 10 minutes long, and explains why I pick weird titles for books. A title is a filter and a lure. It brings the right people to your book.

That’s another reason I’m self-published, by the way.

Once I pick a title I stick to it. Won’t let an editor budge me.

Though I do wonder what someone might have called WHO BUILT THE HUMANS?

Can you think of an alternate title?