Nano-ing has begun!!

Today is the first day of Nanowrimo and I am excited to have successfully woken myself up at 6am to write 1700 words of my crazy Nano novel. It was easy because I have written part of this story before. It's about a woman who used to be a spy for the interstellar agency before she started having black-outs, then after a particularly bad one, she wakes up on the operating table to discover she is giving birth to a child she never knew she was carrying. She breaks free, with the child, killing anyone who gets in her way and then escapes the station on board a sentient ship named Val. Together, they search for somewhere to hide from the Agency and keep the baby safe, not knowing that he is an asset the Agency will go to any lengths to retrieve.
Anyway, I have no idea what this will morph into through Nano-ness, so I'll keep you posted.

Ruined, Youtube Trailers and a wonderful program called Q10

I just finished reading a book by a New Zealand author called 'Ruined: a ghost story'. I loved the tone and the setting (in New Orleans) and I also rather enjoyed its Youtube trailer of all things. I am quite keen on the idea of creating YouTube trailers for my own books - it seems like fun and would give a very visual synopsis. I liked the way you found out about the author's inspirations for the story and it made me want to read it (even though I had just finished reading it and writing the review).

As for Q10 - my friend Rochelle introduced me to the wee beastie and I like it because it is so simple. It is a word processor without any bells and whistles. It is full screen so you can't get distracted, it counts your words down the bottom, you can set a timer and just relax into writing. I sense it is going to be perfect for Nano.

On matters of the supernatural, pop culture and one particularly adorable steam punk novel

I have just finished reading Blameless, the third novel in a series by Gail Carriger about Werewolves, Vampires and Soulless ones set in a rather exciting version of Steampunk Victorian England. Not only has Carriger brilliantly designed and thought out the mechanics of these supernatural beings, she has created a thrilling plot filled to the brim with wit, fun technology and all the ingredients of a yummy romance. There is the requisite insufferable hero (big, brawny and adorable), Alexia, the sharp-tongued heroine (unfazed and full of dignity) and heaps of utterly unique and lovable minor characters (the flamboyant vampire with a heart of gold, the air-headed best friend with a penchant for rather terrible hats and the forthright inventor(ess?) who insists on dressing like a man).

It was the humor and the details which first drew me to the book. I loved Alexia's matter-of-fact view of the world. Her 'souless' state makes her entirely devoid of creativity and prone to being circumspect about life. In a world where most females of her class are rather silly, her practical approach is wonderfully refreshing, even as it scadalizes most of her contemporaries.

DO check out Gail's blog (it is just as wonderful as her heroine)

Professional editing for self-published books

I really want to put my story up on Smashwords, but I am aware that I am not my own best editor. I have had a lot of my amazing friends look through previous versions of my book, but I will need another 'final' edit before this version is ready to go. I think it might be time to offer payment (there are only so many favours one can ask after all!!) My mum was a technical writer until recently, so maybe she'll let me work out a contract with her :P Being that I don't have much money... maybe we can do a 'half of whatever I earn on this book' sort of deal? It would be fun having mum as my agent / editor (since she kinda does that stuff anyway). We'll see what she says =P

Smashwords looks awesome

So I contacted Kobo Books about self-publishing and Stephen was hugely helpful. He suggested I check out Smashwords and / or Authorsolutions if I wanted to go through a digital aggregator that already has a pre-existing contract with them. I was thrilled by what Smashwords had to offer and the spirit in which it was provided. Reading their style guide and marketing guide made me feel like Mark Coker (the creater) really had us authors in mind and wanted to make it as easy as possible to get ourselves out there (while not setting up any false expectations). I know that self-publishing is going to be a lot of work, but for once it feels like fun work. I am looking forward to setting everything up and hopefully the Silver Hawk will be available in eBook a lot sooner than I had expected. Perhaps in time for Tehnuka to have something to read down on the ice this Christmas!

And now for a little story

I was thinking that I have not been doing anything about my book for the last couple of days and I imagined myself coming up against a wall, so here is a story about the wall...

I am standing on a road paved in gold. It is a long road and most of it stretches away behind me, but ahead there is a wall. It is made of huge, solid gold coloured stones and I have stopped on my journey, looking back with pride at how far I have come. Then I glance furtively at the wall. I know the end of the journey is only a few miles ahead. I could climb the wall or walk around, I have the magic in my veins to disappear the wall completely, but I fear what I might release. What if a vicious beast or torrential river lie on the other side? They would surely eat me alive or sweep me away. For lack of knowledge about the terrain ahead, I wait and wonder. I am too scared to cross. But this is my path and whether I reach the end is in my hands alone. No one can check ahead on my behalf because the path appears differently to all who walk it.

There is a crow perched in the branches of a nearby maple. She speaks with the voice of a woman rich with experience.

"Courage, my dear," she says. "You have made this road too big in your head. It is only your first and when you reach the end there will be many other paths to chose. You will have a hundred grand adventures, so let go your fear and rejoice. The wall is no more substantial than a shower of mist. Go. Walk through. Let us finish this and reach the place of new choices."

I feel the wall and realize it is as she says. The wall is only mist. I walk through to see a wide river and on the other side, a dog chained to a post. He is growling at me.

I wade into the river and it is not as deep as I thought. It rushes around my ankles, pleasantly warm. As I approach the far bank, the dog begins to bark and tries to jump and me, only his chain holding him back. I turn to look him in the eyes and say, 'Sit', but I have never been much good with dogs. I am more of a cat person. I glance over my shoulder and laugh to see my pet cat, long sleek and black, looking thoroughly put out as he daintily crosses the stepping stones which were not there a moment ago. He feigns superiority, but I am glad he has come to my rescue. The dog tries to intimitade Mister Cat, but Mister hisses back at him and the dog shrinks to half his size and runs away to hide in his kennel. I am free to complete my journey with Mister Cat trotting along at my side. Ahead are the crossroads and I am thrilled to be arriving here, where I am allowed to make a new choice and take on a new direction. Some of these roads lead back in time while one has a space ship and suit ready for extraterrestrial exploration. There are yet other hazier paths which I know will be clearer when I return to this place next. For now, I choose to enjoy the cross roads and take my time to choose. I am proud to have this first journey behind me, but I do not need to dwell on it, there are too many new adventures to contemplate.

Methods to our madness

I was reading an interview with an author by the name of Mary E Pearson (yes, the writer of the Adoration of Jenna Fox) and I was fascinated by her method for writing books. Essentially she opens the file on her computer in the morning and doesn't close it again until bed-time. She will come and go and do bits between showering and dishes and such, which seems like something that might actually work for me. It would keep me from doing other distracting things like looking at email or facebook while I am supposed to be working. I am going to give it a go over the next week and see what happens.

*wish me luck*

eBooks, readers and lines on a map

I am an avid reader. I borrow books from the library, spend my birthday money at Borders and rack up embarassing sums on my credit card from buying eBooks (at about $4.99 US each). It makes me incredibly sad, therefore, that all these awesome eBook readers are religiously excluding little old New Zealand. How many thousands of dollars could I spend through the nook or the kindle if only they didn't go 'What, New Zealand? Sorry, no. You live outside the US and therefore must pay the price for your crimes... ... ... ??"
Even the iPhone / iPad bookstore library thingy doesn't want to know us. I know its all a legal copyright protection thing, but doesn't this make the problem worse. I mean if people can't get what they want through legal channels, won't it increase the rates of piracy?
As for me, I am off to put my name on the public library's waiting list... let's hope there's a copy of 'the Adoration of Jenna Fox' available before NCEA exams so that I can tutor my student properly.

Another 'No'

This is the email I got back from TFS (the very next day...)

Dear Beulah

Thank for you sending the extract. Though it shows you're a promising writer, I don't think we would be able to sell this. I'm afraid we can't take the time to go into detail when we say no to manuscripts and any brief comment can be misleading. My feeling is that you just need to keep trying.

With very best wishes

Barbara

---

Sigh. There is the inevitable 'why'? Is it my book? My style? The subject? Does this mean publishers won't want it, or just that these people don't want it? Maybe I should just go write a new book! Or, yes I know what you are going to say Tehnuka, I should take it as a sign that this particular agent and I are just not meant to be together =P

Still, it is a weird feeling. I have gone to so much effort, changed everything, revolutionized the flow of the story. It's simpler, more logical, funnier... but it's still a flat line no. I love these characters and the story they have to tell so much, but I'm scared the whole world is going to say no to them. What do I do if that happens? Self Publish? I guess I am catastrophizing. One no is not the whole world. I've just got to keep trying. Faith is hard.

Getting back on the horse - so to speak

Well, I've done it. Sent off my query letter along with the first five thousand words of the Silver Hawk (version 3) to TFS Literary Agency this morning. When I checked the file I had attached, it was corrupted and had replaced all of the quotation marks and apostraphies with Chinese characters :S So I had to go back and fix it and send another copy with my deepest appologies. I think Open Office threw a mini tantrum when I tried to convert it to a .doc file? Anyway, it is all good now and I am going to wait for a reply from TFS before deciding what to do next.
It would be really cool to have an agent in NZ - feels a lot less scary =D

Revised Synopsis of the Silver Hawk

Mikael and his twin sister Maat graduated from college over a thousand years ago and still havn't been promoted from their mission observing human social evolution in a rather dull corner of V-Sector. At their age, their mother was already exploring the universe and making significant contributions to the Great Narain Database. All Mikael needs is one big discovery and he knows the Scientific Advisory Board will sit up and notice him. But when an unidentified alien life-form enters the human princess Juliana moments after her birth, the twins begin an investigation that will change everything they thought to be true about their people and their place in the universe.

Affairs on the planet below, meanwhile, are turbulent. Tyria is ruled by women who worship the Maat. Out in the Desert, a scattering of male magicians worship Mikael and are plotting their return to power. Within Tyria, a secret society known as the Guild hopes to recreate the harmony described in the ancient forbidden scrolls - a time when both Mikael and Maat were worshipped equally and men and women lived in peace.

The princess Juliana is the last of her bloodline, heir to the throne of Tyria. Every one of these factions wants a hand in her future. The Order of Priestesses provide Andrea, a spiritual guardian and surrogate mother for the princess. The Desert builds their army, ready to attack when she is most vulnerable, and the Guild send Tasya, disguised as a handmaiden, to serve the princess and open her mind to the road of peace.

But Tasya is only a child when she arrives in the palace. Alone and haunted by the memory of her mother's murder and her twin brother's abduction by the priestesses, she does her best to fulfill her mission and befriend Juliana, but her mind is never far from her brother's plight. The priestesses think that experimenting the few boys born with magic inside Tyria's borders will aid in the war effort against the Desert Magcians and for Tynan, his telepathic link with Tasya is his only escape from the pain. Tasya promises she will use her influence with the princess to help him escape, somehow, but his time and sanity are wearing thin.

As Tyria barrels towards a three way civil war, both Maat and Mikael are drawn in and find themselves caring enough to begin to question the Board's rules about non-interferance.

The Question of Writer's Block

Without a deadline, it is easy to get caught up in the other 'important' events of one's life and simply avoid your novel because thinking about where you left it last is difficult. I have done this quite a few times in the past, taking such extreme measures as getting extra jobs (so I can work from dawn till dusk and have a legitimate excuse for not writing) or, on in a bad week, watch a whole television series (Babylon 5 is my newest discovery in this regard). The problem is, I have a very personal relationship with my characters and if I do this for too long, I find myself becoming depressed.

Solution?

Set aside time to appologize to my characters for ignoring them and, once forgiven, stop trying to tell them what to do and actually listen. Sounds weird I know, but I suppose it is each to their own in the eccentric world of authorship. The truth of the matter is I really love interviewing my characters. I know that the story is working when it is their voices and actions turning up on the page and I am just the hands at the keyboard so to speak.

Here is an example of an interview with my lead human character, a young woman named Tasya:

How do you really feel about Kam?
Tasya rolls her eyes. "It bugs me that everyone keeps asking me that. For starters, he is NOT my cousin. He was adopted by the woman pretending to be my aunt. Even if she really was my aunt, we still wouldn't be related..."

But that's not what I asked. Do you love him?
"No?" She folds her arms and looks away. "Definitely not. I mean maybe I used to like him when he was younger, before he went away. Back then he was sweet, and used to walk around with his head stuck in a book. He could talk about geography and history with the same passion that Mel and I used to fight about necklines on the princess' gowns. Now? His eyes are empty. He has shut down his personality and does everything my 'aunt' tells him to."

And you didn't feel anything when he kissed you?
Tasya blushes a deep crimson. "I... I didn't expect that to happen. Well, I mean of course I could see it coming, but everything happened so quickly. My heart was pounding and all I remember thinking was telling myself not to screw this up - oh and telling Tynan, my twin brother, to stay out of my head."
She takes a deep breath and then sits down on the edge of the couch, her head in her hands. "Why does my heart still race when I think about it? I shouldn't want him to do it again. He belongs to the princess... I don't know that I even like him... but my head is swimming and a part of me wants to be back on the balcony, staring up at his beautiful face and just knowing that he wants to be with me instead."
She sighs and looks up. "Sometimes I think the goddess is testing me."

Are you passing?
"It depends," she says carefully. "If we are judged by our thoughts, then I am surely damned, but if it is actions that count in Maat's eyes, then perhaps I still have a chance."

---

Knowing what characters are thinking in the scenes preceding a 'blocked' area can do a lot for inspiration, and of course it doesn't hurt to develop your rapport with them. I have found some of these conversations incredibly educational in the past, and not just for story development.

Best of luck with whatever you are working on,
B.

Getting a Manuscript Assessor

After nearly eight months of ignoring my novel and generally treating it very badly, I realized I missed my characters. I pulled myself together and decided to implement the changes suggested by my good friend some time ago. When I sat down to do this, however, I realized there was a lot I wanted to change. I opened a blank document and re-wrote my whole book from the beginning.

Then my city had a rather huge earth quake. It was brilliant. No work for a whole two weeks! (Hehe, someone has to look on the upside!). I poured myself into the re-write and acted like a complete hermit, except for emerging one Tuesday to help shovel mud, and twenty four days after that first blank page, I had my new finished draft (I call it Silver Hawk 3.1).

The problem then was who to give it to. All my friends and family have read some draft or other, so I was out of fresh pairs of eyes. Besides that, I also wanted a professional opinion. Was my book worthy of the 'real world' or am I way off the mark?

Thus I contacted Barbara at TFS (http://www.elseware.co.nz/NZAMA/) who put me in touch with Fleur Beale. Best move of my writing career to date! It was relatively expensive (for me on Cinema Attendant Budget) but so totally worth it to get her feedback. I sent it all off in a really big envelope along with a cheque for $500 and recieved back a ten page document outlining the ups and downs of what I had so far as well as specific pencilled comments through the manuscript. Some of the plot problems were easily addressed - I had simply forgotten to include that detail from a previous draft, but others provided a real challenge. My villian was weak and had no decent motivation... I had to acknowledge that this was true, and, in the process of delving deeper into that character's head, I realized I was thinking way too small. This completely revolutionized my ending and made everything about fifty times more exciting.

Conclusion: I am definitely getting Fleur to assess my future novels! (If she will take me back =P)

Now that the new final draft is completed (yes, 'final' is a running joke in my family), I am about to embark on a new round of queries to agents. I sent my first to TFS this morning and I'll keep you apprised along the way.