Wrote a novella. Myth of Orpheus, but Eurydice is a guy, and it's set in something like Japan, and maybe it gets a happy ending? Anyway, that takes the "what next" question off the table for a short time, until I ask it again. I'm getting it read and edited by our dear friend Bev right now, and it will hopefully emerge from the smoke without too many holes below the waterline. But we'll see. I think it's pretty strong: not necessarily narratively, though that's not bad, but emotionally. I put a lot of feeling into it. I don't do that often.
Ever?
Often, we'll say often.
It's a nice little piece of work, 27000 words, took a week to write, will take a couple months to clean up and get ready. I'm happy I did it.
Now, what next?
Thursday, October 18, 2012
CAUTION: Work in Progress
Work in Progress Challenge
R.K. MacPherson hit me with the WIP Challenge, and after I assured him I was, in fact, his huckleberry, there was nothing for it but to make good on my boast.
1. What is the title of your Work In Progress?
Which one? Oh, fine, I'll pick just one: Marginalia.
2. Where did the idea for the WIP come from?
I had just put down The Hunger Games (yes, you may all gasp and flutter at me now - it was even my second attempt to read the thing) and I thought about what made good Dystopian writing. Eventually those thoughts coalesced into the core of the idea for Marginalia.
3. What genre would your WIP fall under?
Dystopian Young Adult. If that's not a genre, it should be.
4. Which actors would you choose to play characters in a movie rendition?
Good question. I don't really know a lot of young actresses. I can vaguely envision the main character being portrayed by a teenage Kate Beckinsale, but that train has sailed, alas. There's a role for an older man that I would want to be played by Steve Buscemi. Eeeevil.
5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of your WIP?
When Alethea Three finds a beautiful, mesmerizing and utterly forbidden story hand-written in the margins of an official copy of HISTORY OF THE STATE, she is consumed with the need to find its author, even if it means she may never be more than a lowly subcitizen in her dystopic, totalitarian nation of a future not so improbably different from our own.
6. Is your WIP published or represented?
Still working on it, but I have no plans to shop it around either to agents or publishers. What for? I have all the tools I need to sell it on Amazon, CreateSpace, and similar venues of the future.
7. How long did it take you to write?
No idea. It's not done, after all. I did have to take several breaks when other, time-sensitive projects arose. At this point it would be hard to estimate.
8. What other WIP’s in your genre would you compare it to?
I'll sigh and admit some inspiration from The Hunger Games, but then I'll amend that and say it actually reminds me more of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, a comparison I think much more apt overall.
9. Which authors inspired you to write this WIP?
Suzanne Collins merits a positive mention here, and not a backhanded compliment either. She deserves her success, even if I didn't find her work to my particular taste. I will also tip my hat to Eric Arthur Blair - better known as George Orwell - for showing me the way.
10. Tell us anything else that might pique our interest about this WIP.
Like Shakespeare's Hamlet, this is really a story within a story. By using the story written in the margins to contrast with Alethea's own story, I find a great deal of subtle commentary can be woven in through symbolism and careful choice of pacing. As a narrative device it works wonderfully.
11. Finally: Tag three other Authors and ask them to complete the above interview.
* Scott Roche
* John Ward
* Brooke Johnson
R.K. MacPherson hit me with the WIP Challenge, and after I assured him I was, in fact, his huckleberry, there was nothing for it but to make good on my boast.
1. What is the title of your Work In Progress?
Which one? Oh, fine, I'll pick just one: Marginalia.
2. Where did the idea for the WIP come from?
I had just put down The Hunger Games (yes, you may all gasp and flutter at me now - it was even my second attempt to read the thing) and I thought about what made good Dystopian writing. Eventually those thoughts coalesced into the core of the idea for Marginalia.
3. What genre would your WIP fall under?
Dystopian Young Adult. If that's not a genre, it should be.
4. Which actors would you choose to play characters in a movie rendition?
Good question. I don't really know a lot of young actresses. I can vaguely envision the main character being portrayed by a teenage Kate Beckinsale, but that train has sailed, alas. There's a role for an older man that I would want to be played by Steve Buscemi. Eeeevil.
5. What is a one-sentence synopsis of your WIP?
When Alethea Three finds a beautiful, mesmerizing and utterly forbidden story hand-written in the margins of an official copy of HISTORY OF THE STATE, she is consumed with the need to find its author, even if it means she may never be more than a lowly subcitizen in her dystopic, totalitarian nation of a future not so improbably different from our own.
6. Is your WIP published or represented?
Still working on it, but I have no plans to shop it around either to agents or publishers. What for? I have all the tools I need to sell it on Amazon, CreateSpace, and similar venues of the future.
7. How long did it take you to write?
No idea. It's not done, after all. I did have to take several breaks when other, time-sensitive projects arose. At this point it would be hard to estimate.
8. What other WIP’s in your genre would you compare it to?
I'll sigh and admit some inspiration from The Hunger Games, but then I'll amend that and say it actually reminds me more of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, a comparison I think much more apt overall.
9. Which authors inspired you to write this WIP?
Suzanne Collins merits a positive mention here, and not a backhanded compliment either. She deserves her success, even if I didn't find her work to my particular taste. I will also tip my hat to Eric Arthur Blair - better known as George Orwell - for showing me the way.
10. Tell us anything else that might pique our interest about this WIP.
Like Shakespeare's Hamlet, this is really a story within a story. By using the story written in the margins to contrast with Alethea's own story, I find a great deal of subtle commentary can be woven in through symbolism and careful choice of pacing. As a narrative device it works wonderfully.
11. Finally: Tag three other Authors and ask them to complete the above interview.
* Scott Roche
* John Ward
* Brooke Johnson
Friday, October 12, 2012
Free Books Are Next to Godliness
Julia Knox has a secret.
What if you had the power to disbelieve the supernatural away - reducing werewolves to embarrassingly hirsute guys, vampires into skinny goth kids, and ghosts into sheets with holes poked into them?
What if your father, the famous "Hard Knox" Harry - of similar fame to Mythbusters - had recently died, leaving you his Debunking business, a mountain of debt... and a supernatural enemy intent on destroying you by inches?
What if you came up against a power your disbelief couldn't dispel - and it followed you home?
Find out! Disbelief is now FREE for three days only. Go get yourself a great read while the getting is good!
Download Disbelief from Amazon.
What if you had the power to disbelieve the supernatural away - reducing werewolves to embarrassingly hirsute guys, vampires into skinny goth kids, and ghosts into sheets with holes poked into them?
What if your father, the famous "Hard Knox" Harry - of similar fame to Mythbusters - had recently died, leaving you his Debunking business, a mountain of debt... and a supernatural enemy intent on destroying you by inches?
What if you came up against a power your disbelief couldn't dispel - and it followed you home?
Find out! Disbelief is now FREE for three days only. Go get yourself a great read while the getting is good!
Download Disbelief from Amazon.
Ain't gonna be no crumpets and tea
Ain't gonna be no crumpets and tea, coz.
Writin' ain't easy. Ain't gonna get no easier neither. Always gonna be hard. Always gonna be a struggle. Live that. Breathe it. Write it down, then go back and write it down better. You do that, you get better, you figure things out, you try new genres and new POVs and your protagonist makes Job look like he had it easy. You write novels, sell a few, people give 'em five star reviews and interview you like you know what you doin'.
And you still gonna feel like you writin' on the ragged edge of disaster. Every day, every word.
Don't be afraid to feel that - it means you're doin' it right. If you feel safe, if you feel comfortable then you ain't pushin' and you ain't bleedin' the words out onto the page. Look at your forearm and see where you stuck that pen in, over an' over an' over, until all those words bled out and made a picture that moved somebody to tears, or rage, or lust. Words so sharp and pointed they cut through the dead wood and got down to the real thing, the pick fence or the gutter or the highrise or wherever we live, and made us feel.
Once you got that feelin' - once you know you writin' on the ragged edge of disaster, that's when you know you livin' the Author Life.
Word.
Writin' ain't easy. Ain't gonna get no easier neither. Always gonna be hard. Always gonna be a struggle. Live that. Breathe it. Write it down, then go back and write it down better. You do that, you get better, you figure things out, you try new genres and new POVs and your protagonist makes Job look like he had it easy. You write novels, sell a few, people give 'em five star reviews and interview you like you know what you doin'.
And you still gonna feel like you writin' on the ragged edge of disaster. Every day, every word.
Don't be afraid to feel that - it means you're doin' it right. If you feel safe, if you feel comfortable then you ain't pushin' and you ain't bleedin' the words out onto the page. Look at your forearm and see where you stuck that pen in, over an' over an' over, until all those words bled out and made a picture that moved somebody to tears, or rage, or lust. Words so sharp and pointed they cut through the dead wood and got down to the real thing, the pick fence or the gutter or the highrise or wherever we live, and made us feel.
Once you got that feelin' - once you know you writin' on the ragged edge of disaster, that's when you know you livin' the Author Life.
Word.
Thursday, October 11, 2012
An even better idea
AUTHOR LIFE. It ain't all fast keys and fly writer groupies, coz.
Check this out. You got a great idea for a book, I mean War and Peace great, you feel me? You work that idea, work it hard, write your characters and get all their voices down solid, know their motives and tragedies and whatever. Then you work the plot over, polishing it until it shines like Patrick Stewart's shiny bald head. Dat plot arc be lookin' like a population graph, all exponential curves shootin' up to the sky. You got dramatic tension comin' out yo ears. This book gonna sell like it was hotcakes on fire and you can't wait to get that sucka done and onna shelf. You be workin' it all day and dreamin' it all night.
Just one problem. All the while you be workin' like a dog on this book, yo head be the thing on fire - tellin' you all about an even better idea for another story. That's what it means to live the Author Life, yo.
More straight tales later. I gotta get to typin. 'Cause writin' ain't easy, and nobody chooses the Author Life - the Author Life chooses them.
Word.
Check this out. You got a great idea for a book, I mean War and Peace great, you feel me? You work that idea, work it hard, write your characters and get all their voices down solid, know their motives and tragedies and whatever. Then you work the plot over, polishing it until it shines like Patrick Stewart's shiny bald head. Dat plot arc be lookin' like a population graph, all exponential curves shootin' up to the sky. You got dramatic tension comin' out yo ears. This book gonna sell like it was hotcakes on fire and you can't wait to get that sucka done and onna shelf. You be workin' it all day and dreamin' it all night.
Just one problem. All the while you be workin' like a dog on this book, yo head be the thing on fire - tellin' you all about an even better idea for another story. That's what it means to live the Author Life, yo.
More straight tales later. I gotta get to typin. 'Cause writin' ain't easy, and nobody chooses the Author Life - the Author Life chooses them.
Word.
Wednesday, October 10, 2012
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