NaNoWriMo - and its Day 4!

I have jumped in guns blazing. After falling behind my target on Friday, I have now caught up and I am actually about two thousand words ahead at 17483 words.

It remains a tough target that I set for myself, and I need to be spending more hours each day writing that what I have available.

We had our first write-in yesterday and that helped a lot for me to get caught up, so that I could spend today to get ahead.

So its a short post today - like many more to come this month - but the words are flowing, and that is exactly what I need in November.

My Alternate Life: November = NaNoWriMo

According to my time zone, my challenge kicks off in little under three hours. I won't be awake until then, since I have to work tomorrow. But I can hardly contain my excitement, and not only for the reason that you might think. I decided not to aim for the 50k words - instead I set my own challenge target of writing a complete novel.
And in case you didn't know, in the fantasy genre that equates to 120k words. Yip, your eyes are not deceiving you. One hundred and twenty thousand words in thirty days. That comes to 4000 each day. It is a real challenge, given work and all the other things that add up to requiring time each day. But I am going to give it my best shot.
According to the word counter you will see here on my blog, I have to reach the 50k target for NaNoWriMo on 13 November.
So why did I post that target here? Foolish? Perhaps, but then it will be more of a motivator I guess as it is now visible to anyone who reads this blog.
Will I make it? I don't know. Last year I easily managed more than 60k, so I know I can do 50k. Yes, 120k is a long way to go, and I have every intention of getting there. One word at a time!

NaNoWriMo - and so the fun begins!

The Pretoria Region had its launch party this afternoon, and as usual we had lots to eat (thanks everyone), lots to laugh about (we have a funny ML) and loads to look forward to. 

The Speech (with such a scary shirt, we had to listen to our ML!)

The group has grown and it was exciting to meet new people who are taking up the challenge for the first time, as well as seeing the more experienced Wrimos too. Here are some of the evidence :D

The Thinkers aka the Pretoria Wrimos

The Plot Bunnies (Warning - they can be dangerous!)

Our colourful goodie bags

 

Today's Lesson: There is nothing new, only new tools

Dear Reader,

Since you have followed my journey through the history of the Kamasutra, you have no doubt reached similar conclusions: that history keep on repeating itself, we only use different tools to do it with.

People often think that authors that publish their own books is something new - as you have seen with the Kamasutra and many other books during the course of my journey - this is not the case. In those days, submissions and query letters were not the way to get published. You approached a publisher, paid your dues, and there you go.

Marketing was especially difficult for the Kamasutra and other books of disreputable standing (:o) with the legislation of the time. So social media marketing was born - yes, back then! They used snail mail (or should I rather call it horse mail) to market their books. Today we have email and Facebook and Twitter and blogs, and ... you got the message. The point - marketing took place via a social network, and that is exactly what we indie authors are doing today. We are linked in social networks across the globe to spread the word - by e-mouth?

Word of mouth is an exceptionally powerful tool. Readers like a book, they say so! With reviews and star ratings, thus telling others in the network what they thought. You know what they say, good news travel fast, but bad news travel at the speed of light! So write good, and many will know about it. Write bad, and the whole world will never buy your books.

The next lesson? Sex sells. And boy, did it sell! The Kamasutra sold hundreds of thousands of copies in its first two printings, and who knows how many are being sold today - in whatever format the book is available. You only have to look at advertising, in any media, and you know what I mean. 'nough said.

The last lesson? And perhaps not the least. The history of the Kamasutra brought social awareness of sex education and the use of contraceptives, that to this day remain an ongoing battle in many parts of the world.

And with that my friend, I wish you a good weekend.

Happy reading,

And then we saw the light - Kamasutra part 7

Since its publication in 1883, the Kamasutra lived under the blanket of pornography mostly due to the laws of the time. Even in Europe its French translation hardly had a better reputation. (Because of the clandestine way the Kamasutra was published, Burton and Arbuthnot could not claim any copyright protection, thus a myriad of illegal copies saw the light in record time) But despite the underground way of distribution, word of the English Kamasutra made its way back to India. Before too long the Sanskrit edition was published as India rediscovered its own history. This was the first time that Vatsyayana’s original sutras were published.

A German by the name of Richard Schmidt, published his own version of the Kamasutra in 1897. Only his translation was not in German, but Latin. By doing this, he not only attempted to protect the publication, but now it entered the realm of the scholar. Although it would never reach the heights of the orignal English translation, it managed to cut its own niche in the academic world as the gold standard.

Still its notoriety did not lessen, even as it became more well-known. Even as more sex manuals or erotic books were published, the Kamasutra, along with other publications stayed in the shadows because of the obscenity legislation. When it crossed the Atlantic in 1920, then being published by a few American publishers, it became available to a wider market. It did not signify acceptance, as one publisher was sentenced to a jail term of ninety days, because he dared to mail a copy through the US Postal system.

Tolerance towards the publication, although indirectly, came with an amendment to the US Tariff Act in 1930, when books considered classics, or of literary or scientific importance were allowed to be imported. Not finding a main stream publisher kept the Kamasutra on the limited edition, and exclusive distribution lists for a long time. It might have been considered a classic by many, it was still classified as a dangerous publication.

The breakthrough came in the wake of a court case where a US Federal Judge ruled a book not obscene and actually stated that “the sincerity and purpose of an author as expressed in the manner in which a book is written and in which his theme and ideas are developed had a great deal to do with whether it is of literary and intellectual merit”. The book that was awarded that judgement was DH Lawrence’s Lady Chatterly’s Lover. This also signified open season for the publishing houses in the UK when publishing house, Penguin, also won a not guilty verdict for the publication of the DH Lawrence novel under the amended Obscene Publications Act.

It was now more widely read, and amazingly enough, by many scholars as well. Another new English translation was published in 1961 in India, and it was imported with vigour into the UK despite efforts to limit the numbers. The only other version available was the 1883 edition, and it was only in 1987 when another English translation - done by a German Sanskritist Klaus Mylius saw the light. This was not the last translation, as others were also published with each author, like Burton and Arbuthnot, inserting their own commentaries on the text.

The Kamasutra was now fully Westernised and yet continue as only a sex manual, the other sutras from Vatsyayana conveniently disregarded in the face of our Western culture’s obsession with sex. (Linzé’s note - I refrained from using the strong language in the book, although in my opinion, it explained the situation in much clearer terms.)