El Andalous - Preparing "Space Shapes" for Submission

The Waiting Game

I’ve been spending a lot of my time writing. This is what I came here to do (in addition to swim) and with the virus keeping me at home for longer than usual, it’s the perfect time to get round to it.

I actually have three novels now in various states. The first one I wrote was Time Tells, but has since become my second novel. I gave it to people to critique some years ago now and it needed more changes than I’d anticipated. It’s in pretty good shape now, but still needs work. The second one, which is now my first one (do you follow?), is Space Shapes. And the third one (Phantom Parts) I’ve only just started and am still waiting to see if it will turn into something worth pursuing.

Anyway, my aim when I moved back here was to get Space Shapes off to a literary agent. So, I’ve been polishing the manuscript (there is no end to this!). I was pretty happy with it when I sent it out to my awesome friends for feedback (I don’t want them to have to do too much work). But much as I thought I had a polished manuscript, I also knew there would be a host of unseen errors and improvements to be made. I can trust my friends to help and not to hold back!

It’s always amazing when you get critique. You think you’ve done so well and then you discover all these things that could be so much better. It’s great taking in the feedback and seeing the novel progress to a new level. I don’t think anyone can spot all their own failings / mistakes / typos, so it’s an invaluable step. And each reader brings something different to the table, because all readers read a slightly different book (as in, they bring different backgrounds and interpretations with them). An absolutely huge thanks to all of you.

So, I made the changes. I sometimes find that I need to let some comments “rest” for a little while until they sink in (maybe I’m sulking, maybe I suddenly understand that there is a problem but not quite where they said it was, maybe I just need some temporal distance to see the issue that my reviewer saw). I let it lie a while after taking in the comments, and then I edited it again.

I was trying for a long time to find teenage readers (my audience), but the feedback I got from one parent was that his teenager said that she “wasn’t so desperate during coronavirus that she’d resort to reading a book”. I thought everyone would be reading, but actually many are finding it hard to concentrate. I suspect there’s an underlying stress for everyone these days. Anyway, bottom line is, it was difficult to find a teenage reader.

It was tempting to skip the teenage feedback, since I’d had responses from a ten year old, a twelve year old, and quite a few adults. However, there were some things I wanted specifically teenage feedback on (e.g., appropriateness of the tone of the novel, use of Mother Space, accuracy of school setting) that no adult or younger person could provide. And so I persevered, even though this was taking literally months of searching and trying to call in favours.

Eventually, a colleague of a friend of mine said his daughter (in the US) would read it. She gave it to four other friends and the idea was that they’d set up a Zoom meeting and give me feedback. Perfect! It turned out that only two of them got round to reading it, but that was enough. I’d been dreading a last-minute cancellation. It was great to see them on the video link. I had a whole list of questions ready to shoot at them. I found it all really interesting, but I had a vested interest, of course. Anyway, I got a couple of pieces of excellent feedback, but fortunately nothing major (I was worried they would suggest I remove Mother Space, which would mean the whole novel would fall).

I made the changes and again, the novel took another leap forward. I’d already prepared a blurb, an elevator pitch, comparators, and a synopsis, so once the changes were taken in, I was ready to start submitting to literary agents.

This is likely to be a long journey; many people take years over this and submit to hundreds in the end. But I’ve sent the letter, synopsis and sample material (first three chapters) to six agents. My little toe is finally in the water!

I’ve had a reply from one saying he’s no longer taking Young Adult novels (he was accepting them two months ago, so I wasn’t being a total idiot, I hasten to add). I received an acknowledgement from another agent who happened to have the same name as my main character. At first, I had the weird sensation that my character was sending me an email! And, strangely, I feel more nervous about my character being rejected rather than about me (well, my writing, of course) being rejected. I hope this doesn’t mean that I’m pathologically dissociative!

Meanwhile, I can’t resist just another little edit while I wait for responses (submitting suddenly brings you yet another level of objectivity). The next milestone, if I ever get there, will be for an agent to request to see the entire novel.

El Andalous - Troubles in Paradise

Troublesome Owners!

I feel extremely lucky to be here. Even though I’m not massively wealthy, I have the privilege of living somewhere that’s sunny (we actually have a heatwave just now – apparently 40 degrees on Saturday!), I can walk along the promenade by the beach, sit on my swinging chair on my balcony, be living in a compound where there are no instances of coronavirus.

But there’s no such thing as paradise! As everywhere, there are people flouting regulations, rising anxiety, frustration at regulations (in particular, not being allowed to swim in the sea). There are several issues in El Andalous (and there are always issues, because it’s human nature never to be completely happy, always to find something that could maybe be [even] better).

Firstly, a lot of us have been complaining about seeing new people coming into El Andalous when short-term lets are banned. Each new person poses a new threat of coronavirus. We all get quite antsy about this. Emails have been sent to the resort management, people have argued with our manager. It seems that a lot of owners who are usually based in Cairo or Hurghada, or elsewhere, have moved into Sahl Hasheesh as a safe haven. Thus, we cannot stop these new people from coming.

Secondly, there are a lot more children about now and the parents don’t seem to have much control over them. I’m on the pool side, but if you’re on the sea view side, there’s a green area just below. Despite curfew, around twenty people are gathering at night, mostly children, and the children are running and screaming until past midnight. This is despite the fact that there’s curfew from 9pm. Again, emails have been sent off to the resort management, but nothing’s changed (so far). On my side (pool side), I’ve heard children screaming on the balconies at midnight on occasion. Having said that, it seems to have stopped now. The first time, I got out of bed and gave a quiet shout (if that makes sense) of “be quiet!” and indeed, the child was immediately brought inside. It’s hard to know what to do, because sometimes shouting at someone to be quiet is more noisy and annoying than the original noise (this is what I’ve found in the past). So that’s what I mean by a “quiet shout”.

Thirdly: All mosques have been closed for Ramadan (and even before then). So what happens? The locals open up one of the disused shops and use it as a pop-up mosque. Crowds gather in there for their prayers. The rest of us worry that one of them will get coronavirus and before we know it, the whole resort will be infected.

Fourthly, when I first arrived in Sahl Hasheesh, more than six years ago now, a major issue was that new flats had been built on the roof of our building. This was particularly annoying for those who had bought the top floor flats (and paid more for them) for, in part, the privilege of not having an upstairs neighbor. But there was nothing we could do. The owners of the new flats were the people who built the entire building and still own it (don’t ask me how!). Anyway, these owners have now also decided to come to Sahl Hasheesh to live while the pandemic is on and they’ve brought their children with them. The children are playing on the roof in the early hours of the morning, throwing things down onto the balconies below (not just rubbish, but big things like parts of a grill that could cause serious damage if they hit someone). Again, lots of complaints have been made, but actually there’s nothing we can do.

Nevertheless, I still feel fortunate and blessed to be here. If I hadn’t left work, I’d have been “stranded” in Switzerland, where lockdown has been greater and the spread of the disease worse (so far). It’s a joy to feel the sun on my skin, see the many blues of the sea, and to enjoy the shade and breeze of my fan on my balcony.

El Andalous - Internet Issues

Beaches are Still Closed

Well, I’m here, so you can safely guess that I got my internet working. It was, however, not without some problem.

I went into Senzo Mall again on the day my visa was due to expire to ask if they could extend the use of my current internet even though I had no visa. This wasn’t so easy to explain (my fault, I should speak Arabic). They seemed quite happy at first until they asked for my passport and saw that my visa had expired. They requested I go and get a new visa first. I explained that I couldn’t because the visa office wasn’t open. I’m not sure what part they didn’t understand, but they showed me my last visa renewal and asked how had I obtained that visa if the visa office was closed. I tried to communicate that the previous visa was before coronavirus and now the visa office was no longer open. There was a lot of discussion.

They said they would have to phone head office, which they did, and then they told me to come back in 20 minutes, when they’d heard back from head office. Okay, not a problem. I didn’t need any shopping, so I went to see if the coffee shop was open for takeaway coffees, but it wasn’t. However, I’d noticed that the ice cream shop was open, so I took a milkshake instead. I was thirsty and hot, so that was probably better anyway, if fattening. It was very sweet!

I went back, but head office hadn’t got back to them yet. So, another thirty minutes wait / wandering round the shopping mall. I went back yet again, but still no news from head office. I told them that my bus back was leaving in fifteen minutes. Somehow, they got through. Head office said I could have an extension of one month. Fine, go ahead.

However, it turned out that they couldn’t extend my visa on the system. It was something to do with the system itself. I’m not sure what. Time was running out. In the end, they said that all they could do was have me purchase an extra month’s internet. I didn’t really want to do that, as I still had three months left on my old package, but they were insistent and my time was running out. They ended up giving me 55GB for one month – I really only wanted 20GB. I did ask if another, smaller (and cheaper) package was available, but he started to look it up on his system to find out and I didn’t have the time for that. By now, the bus was waiting for me.

To their credit (and they were only doing their job, but I was under time pressure!), they put it through really quickly (compared with normal), and agreed to do some paperwork without me being present; I’d just have to wait for an hour before I could use it. I paid in cash rather than by card, because my card had malfunctioned in the ice cream shop and I didn’t want to risk wasting any more time.

I ran for the bus, hoping that they had indeed waited for me (they had). I’d usually wash my hands straight after touching cash, but I didn’t have time, so I did it as soon as I sat down in the bus. I had already washed them several times within the Mall (they have dispenser with hand sanitiser).

Anyway, all’s well that ends well. I have internet, and that’s the main thing! Although, I should probably add the caveat that I’ve had two mornings in the last week where there’s been no internet in Hurghada. It seems to depend on which provider you use. But it’s come back on again by the afternoon each time, insha’hllah!

El Andalous - Visa Issues

Fingers Crossed That I will Still be on my Laptop!

Of the many things that are shut down in Egypt during the pandemic, one is the passport office, where you go to get your visa extended / renewed. In fact, most of the government offices are closed, although they’ve recently re-opened the vehicle licensing centre (I heard on FaceBook that it was mobbed on the first day).

Foreigners have been assured that there will be no fines for not having a valid visa during this period and no fines if you leave by plane. However, the visa is quite an important document over here. Well, it’s an important document anyway, but your internet and phone connection is dependent on you having a current visa. They copy your visa each time you purchase internet, and your internet is automatically stopped once the date of your visa has expired.

Unfortunately, the internet companies don’t seem to have been as lenient as the government. Some people are reporting that they are only able to get internet for one month at a time, so you have to keep on traveling into town to renew it. It also means that you pay considerably more for your internet, because you can’t get the cheaper (when worked out per gigabyte, since you pay per number of gigabytes you want) six month package, or even a three month package come to that.

My visa expires on Tuesday 5th May. I went into Senzo on Sunday(3rd May) to see if they could change my visa expiry date on their system (ie, lie about my visa expiry given that I can’t get it renewed). If they could do this, I wouldn’t need to be stuck without internet until I can next get to the Mall. My actual package is valid until August (but I’ll probably have used all my allowance up before then).

Unfortunately, the guy on the desk informed me that they can only change my visa expiry date on their system after the visa has actually expired. Thus, I have to wait first for them to cut my internet. This is very annoying. I rather suspect that the guy was new and didn’t know how to make the required change. I’ve seen them change it before when they put the wrong date in the system. So, now I have to get the bus back on Tuesday and see if I can get a different guy. Otherwise, I’ll have to see if I can get a lift into Senzo on Wednesday, once my internet has been completely cut off. Such a lot of effort and stress!

I wouldn’t even have had this issue if the Visa office had given me a year’s visa as I originally requested, but hey ho, I have to go with the flow.

It’s exactly the same for your phone, so I’ll have to try to remember to ask about my phone on Tuesday as well. These days, the internet is more necessary than ever, so it seems daft that it should have all become so much more difficult (it was always a hassle to start with, but now it’s got worse!), when the government has been fairly clear and organized (and fair) about it.

Fingers crossed that I have internet and can write my blog next week!