Random Fairy Tale Image

Apologies for the silence on here.

Been doing a lot of reading of some amazing books, going off to the movies, thanks to the guys from GeekSyndicate and tweaking of Djinn and refreshing the emails praying to hear the good news from an agent. 

But I have also been doing some more writing. And looking at comic book scripts.  I am still intrigued.

Also planning to take time off work to write, this will be nearer the end of GT, when I’m ready to push through for that final bit.  

At the moment I am smitten with reading smaller books for younger readers.  In fact, I’m enjoying it so much, I’m thinking of doing a whole month over at MFB dedicated to reading and reviewing books for younger readers. It will be in September, which is still a way away.  I have got a large pile of books exactly for this and it keeps growing.

August will be Short Story Month over at MFB.  All of us and some guests will be reviewing short stories.  And literally, these reviews will be as short or as long as they need to be to convey your love for the short story you are reading.  Any other takers?  It can be any genre for any age group.  I’ve decided on SSM because I looked at my shelves last night and realised that I have so many anthologies that I’ve not read and that I need to do something about it. 

So, how is everyone else doing?

It’s not too bad – but hopefully this coming week may see me work on it some more.

Oh, as to what I’ve been researching? Accessories, darling. Things like this:

I have this thing about science fiction.  I love sci-fi movies.  But I can’t read the books.  Or so I told myself. When I was very young, in my early Tweens, the only thing my brother read was sci-fi, so by default this is what I got to read too.  A LOT of Asimov and my god, I devoured Dune.

But it’s not something I liked or loved.

This past month I’ve read two science fiction novels both from Gollancz and this is a snippet I got back from one of the editors after I sent him the reviews: “PS: You’ll be won over to the SF darkside before you know it.”

It made me grin and feel proud of myself.  I’ve pushed myself into reading a genre that I am really not comfortable with and had the opportunity to grow tremendously as a reader.  It sounds poncy, but it’s not meant to. 

The two novels I’m talking about are:

The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter

The above links lead to each of the reviews I did for sfrevu.com and syfy.co.uk respectively.

In The Dervish House, Ian McDonald creates this intense futuristic world but man, his style of writing, the detail, the immersiveness of it, really got under my skin.  I think it also helped that I read it whilst it was so warm here in London.  The novel takes place over a mere five days but it follows six characters all who live in the titular The Dervish house.  Rich and evocative it blends mysticism and near-future technology with ridiculous ease.

The other book is Stone Spring by Stephen Baxter which isn’t necessarily science fiction, as it takes place a long time ago, but Baxter is known for his sci fi operas.  Stone Spring is a different beast compared to The Dervish House.  We have a primitive people desperately trying to make a go of living during a time when nature seemed intent of destroying the world as a whole.  What makes Stone Spring such a fantastic book in my opinion is how he takes one girl’s decision to try and stop the world from flooding, by building a wall, to change history, giving us an alternate history.  The overall scope of the storytelling is BIG and Mr. Baxter clearly has such an amazing time creating this ancient world, that I felt that I was there, shivering in the cold winter wind.

What have I learned from these two very different books? Don’t be scared to try something new.  I won’t say that I’m now a convert to reading sci-fi books but I will say that I am more open to appreciate them.  These two authors are the guys I will now hold every sci fi book I read up to for comparison because really, they were my first ones.  And ones that made an impact on me as a reader.  I felt inspired.  I wanted to write something similar although quite obviously it’s not something I can do as I don’t know the tropes, the rules, of writing sci fi.  I’m rubbish at future technology but quite adept at current technology. 

But, the mere fact that they made me WANT to write in their play-pen tells me that they are skilled artists and that they’ve succeeded in their jobs: they entertained me and they inspired me.

I must apologise for the previous post which I’ve taken off in order to overhaul as a lot of the links didn’t work.  Damn that RSS feed not linking through to the full articles!

However, I thought I’d share a bit of happy news with you.  The New Shiny Project ™ GT stands at:

6175 / 65000
9.5%

I’m chuffed with that. I’ll be working on it some more this evening as Chapters 2 and 3 were written yesterday and today respectively but for some reason…I can’t leave well enough alone and Chapter 4 calls.  Maybe because this is going to be a big fight scene in which mad skills are showcased, much to our heroine and attackers’ surprise.

*does wild chopping motions a la Jet Li*

From Marek Hlavaty's Portfolio

*head in hands*  

Okay.  Decision is made.   

The next WIP will be called GT and it is a straight urban fantasy with no romace whatsoever.  Well, there could be a glimmer, a flingernail clipping of a possible romance but that is all.  My heroine has to focus or she’ll end up in a hobgoblin’s soup pot!  And that is not the way this story goes…or wait, maybe it does?  

Having decided that…I’m overcome by a flurry of emotions.  Again relief but mostly excitement.  Because it feels like the right choice.  Now come those thoughts about word-count, character development, story arc, secondary characters and secondary plots, research and action scenes and I have this need…this need for a new moleskine.  

I had to put that in, didn’t I? Pretty new shiny moleskine for a new shiny project.  

Find Mark Hlavaty’s fantastic website here – some of these pics really just make you want to write the story.

It has begun, Highlander

…is that I’ve now submitted two queries.

I have sent CURSE OF THE DJINN off into the wide world am will wait a reasonable amount of time – 8pm tonight, at least – to send out more if I’ve not had any offers of acceptance/representation.

No, I’m kidding, actually.  I know better than that.  I’ll make it 7am tomorrow morning instead!

Today in Real Life Job things were utterly fraught but I managed to get some alone time to make sure the queries were acceptable and matched who I wanted to send it out to.  But it is the weirdest thing: I experienced a frisson of excitement as I pushed that “send” button, but more than anything else there was this big sense of relief.  That it was done.  That now it was up to someone else to perhaps like it as much as I do.   And to tell me so so that perhaps the next step can be taken.  It’s all a bit dizzying.  There are a LOT of steps!

Tonight I’ll be celebrating by going home hopefully on time, without any travel woes, and then rustling up something delicious for dinner.  Maybe Pizza Express?  Always a favourite in the De Jager household.

But tonight Mark and I get to do the FOR / AGAINST brainstorming session about my next WIP.  Which of the 3 will it be?  Graphic novel, YA with buttkicking teen and a horde of fae or humorous dragon story?

I’ll hopefully have decided by the weekend because whatever I’m writing, as I will need to get my chapters out to Sarah and Sharon (The Triptych Sisters) on Monday for critique.  See?  No rest for those of us WHO WRITE WRONGS.

In a few days time I will be giving myself permission to start working on something brand new.  For real.  No games.  To the finish. 

Everything else I’ve been working on since finishing Djinn last year was good fun and some of these projects have managed to really get under my skin but none of them stuck, as at the back of my mind I knew I had to revise Djinn and polish it.

Later this week, I’ll be sitting down to evaluate these projects to decide which one to go ahead with.  For real.  And to hopefully complete it during the course of Summer.

I have had some pretty crazy notions recently about various shiny projects. 

I have got one partly written which I now think will suit a graphic novel more.  So I’ve been researching how to write graphic novels, the script, the format etc.  And the more I read the more interested I find myself in the process.  This one has fae creatures, wild adventures through the UK, a big family and a heroine who likes butterfly knives… 

I have a YA I am deeply keen to write too. I’ve had my critique group have sight of the opening and they were genuinely enthusiastic about it – after tearing it apart, of course.  It has monsters and hunting and a girl with a big sword.  Oh.  It also has royalty.  

I also have a something for a younger audience – maybe 7 – 9 or so, which I love as it so silly and over the top.  My only concern is, will I be able to pull it off?  What am I saying!  The only way to know would be to write it, right? It has a frail boy named Andy, dragons and adventures and gold.  Oh, and shopping in Hatton Gardens.

So, three potential projects.  All of which I am very excited about.  But which one will it be?  There can be…only one! (cue dramatic music from Queen’s Highlander album) <- yes, I am that old.

That’s all.

Nothing to see here.

*whistles*

(well, okay, maybe just a tiny bit of news…the end is nearing for Djinn…or is that the beginning?)

To be honest, I really didn’t notice / realise this!

Oh, I lie.  I maybe did, vaguely, at the back of my mind.  Last year we were incredibly social, making sure we had people around every couple of weekends. 

This year…not so much. 

The reason is mainly because both Mark and I are keen to get our respective books done.  Me, for the end of June and then hopefully to continue with the New Shiny whilst Djinn is out on submission.  Mark is working on his epic fantasy novel with zombies and wargh! and bloodhsed.  He’s just over halfway through that and is hoping to be done by the end of the year…then revision starts.

So priorities for both of us changed dramatically over the past few months. 

For me it was the realisation that I really wasted last year, the remainder of last year, after finishing Djinn, by doing very little and thinking about it a lot. 

Or was it really wasted?

I spent the  the year puttering or noodling around with Djinn but never really wanting to revise it in full.  I was scared of it.  Of the next step.

Instead I read a lot and I wrote a lot of other things.  I joined SCBWI and I also joined two critique groups.  I kept up to date with what was going on in the market and I reviewed over a hundred books.  I went to writers events and publishers events.  I networked and met new authors and established authors.  I spoke with a lot of editors and agents and publicity people.  And I listened and I paid attention.  I felt a bit spy-like.

And looking back now, I realised how much I’ve learned in this past few months.  By reading practically everything that’s come my way I have been subjected to a variety of styles and stories.  By listening closely to writers, tutors and other people in the industry I have an informed opinion about what is currently going on in the market. 

And now I’m thinking that whilst I’m revising Djinn for the third time to completion, that that time I spent maybe wasn’t a waste but it was an opportunity for me to learn and realise that I needed to learn.  On one hand it sounds like an excuse – can I ever forget Meg Rossoff shouting: WRITE THE BOOK! – but to be honest, I wasn’t ready.  But more importantly, Djinn wasn’t ready. I was hungry for it to be done but not hungry enough.  Now I am.  I’m hungry and I’m hoping that it will find an audience.  If not, I’m happy to put it in the bottom draw because most times, the first one is not good enough, no matter how much you want it to be. 

Then I’ll work on the New Shiny and disappear into a cave where friends won’t be able to find me.

And I think, after our recent bbq at home, with non-writerly friends, when we explained to them what was going on, they actually GOT where we were coming from and understood.  And made lovely noises of encouragement.  It was actually really cool to see the interest spark in their eyes when I told them about Djinn.  I’ve not told them about it before.  And then a big compliment came when one of them said: hurry up and get published so we can read it, dammit!

The confidence and the enthusiam really made me smile and I love them for it because they totally understood what both Mark and I needed to hear right then – excited noises and compliments.  And that, afterall, is what friends do.

I’m a sensible (on occasion) adult woman in her 30′s yet I have this burning desire to succumb to the fangirliest thing of all time.  To write fan fiction – not even online, but for myself.  Of Hellboy and the BPRD in particular. 

I can see the raised eyebrows and the shocked expressions.

I know.  I don’t know why.  I just DO. 

There is something about this character that Mike Mignola created that really appeals to me.  Maybe it’s Hellboy’s struggle to be seen as the good guy by the rest of the world?  Obviously the first thing everyone sees is this big red brute, with a big-ass gun and sawn off horns.  He looks like the bad guy, but he isn’t.  He’s on our side and he’s good at beating up baddies.  But does our perception of him colour his actions and his desire to be seen as the good guy in the end?  Deeply interesting questions about identity and perceived identity are thrown up here and I love how the stories make that play out, giving a depth of character to something that could easily have become a parody.

Hellboy has “come out” to the mainstream market through the movies by His Royal Highness Guilermo del Toro.  Which I both love and am jealous of as sometimes I like being a secret fan of something that few people know about.  This jealousy usually pertains to new bands / singer-songwriters (see Seth Lakeman and Susy Thomas) and not necessarily writers and movies though.

But I digress.  For me, a dream come true would be able to work on anything remotely to do with Hellboy or the BPRD series.  If it is writing a short story in a anthology like Odd Jobs / Odder Jobs, both edited by the incomparable Christopher Golden or even one day even writing a Hellboy novel like Mr. Chadbourn or  Tim Lebbon did.  Or even, the heaven’s be kissed, being invited by Mike “The Creator” Mignola himself to take Hellboy or any of the characters for a spin in a mini-adventure…well, a girl can dream!

In the meantime, I’ll read the graphic novels, watch the movies and stroke my copies of the various Hellboy novelisations I have oh, and watch the animated films.  What?  What do you mean it’s overkill?  It’s not overkill, baby, it’s true love.  My name is Liz, afterall!