Liz De Jager

..that I am a big Guilermo del Toro fan. 

Last week I was feeling poor and sorry for myself, having hurt my back and not being able to move well.  This meant of course indulging in doing very little and thankfully, even at work, things were quiet.

However, Twitter is always a buzz with excitement.  I popped in on one day and saw this person having twitpicced a cover of a book they saw.  I enlarged the picture and swooned.

I had to have the book pictured.  I broke my book buying embargo and I will tell you, it was sweet.

But sweeter still was the taking delivery of the books.  I bought two – one for me and for my friend, Sarah Bryars – as I knew I wouldn’t not be able to lend it out to anyone.  Or let anyone else even touch it.

Dust jacket on (left) actual pic of front cover (hardback - no dust jacket)

The book in question is this beauty: 

Don’t be Afraid of the Dark

Blackwood’s Guide to Dangerous Fairies

An original tale from the world of the upcoming film “Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark”.

Guilermo del Toro, Christopher Golden, Troy Nixey (illustrator) 

Here are some photos of the interior of the book.  It is superb.

Back Cover of the Hardback

Front cover of hardback

First page with deets

When I ordered my copies, Amazon did not have any in stock, but Book Depository did.  So, hie yourselves over there and order one!

I initially held out very little hope for this reworking of the Snow White / Briar Rose story that’s currently in production.  But the first pictures have just been released and here they are:

I would strongly assume from these pictures that … Snow White has to go to battle to save her father’s kingdom from the Evil Queen.  Also, heard rumours that there are eight dwarfs, rather than seven, but one dies…and something about copyright.

But wow – going on beautiful photographs and good looking actors, this looks pretty exciting.  And apparently the Prince isn’t quite as noble as he is in the Disney version.  Well, taking into consideration what “true love’s first kiss” really was back in the day…I can only think that he’s maybe a bit of a rogue and a meanie.

These pictures are from ComingSoon.net and if you click this link, you can access the live blog of the above panel from SDCC on there.

I wish I can say that I’ve been a superbly studious girl and that Grimm is edited (on screen) and ready to go to agents.  But it’s not.  It’s about half-way there.  It’s all marked up on physical paper in scary red ink with wild and vivid slashes and crazy explanations like: “fix this, what were you thinking” that of course, when it comes to fixing it, makes zero sense at all.  So the on-screen editing is going slowly, but that is also because as I’m editing the story and characters keep evolving and as far as I can determine by haunting other writers website, this is what happens to them too.  Phew!

So, I’ve been meaning to put a blog post on up here on some of the books I’ve been reading whilst writing Grimm1.  These are only the ones I managed to carry down the stairs, or that were down here already.  I have another stack, probably the same size, that is upstairs that my poor damaged back can’t manage.

I am proud of this collection of titles.  They are a mixture of literary and critical studies on fairy tales, new fairy tales written for new audiences and two gorgeous antique books that I am extremely proud to own and one of them is in Dutch, and was given to me as a gift by my friend Mieneke from the Netherlands.

I also got this crazy bee in my head the other day and wrote up this giant article over at GeekSyndicate about upcoming fairy tale stories in the movies and on TV, as well as some books.  I’ve had some great comments via Twitter about this, which I’m chuffed about.  Of course, the article is already out of date as even more has happened and been commissioned and written since then.  But, this is the link, should you be interested to read it.

And fulfilling my role as enabler and booklover and admirer of many authors, can I just reiterate my love for Catherynne Valente who is such a superb writer.  I read this article by her earlier today and have subsequently run off a copy to put in my geeky folder I have that I use to file important advice and essays I like in.  Oooh, that is a dreadful sentence, but whatever, the idea is there.

No, I am not talking about my lustrous hair here, I am talking about writing conditioning.

Mark made an interesting comment the other day, saying that he was in a coffee shop to grab a quick drink and to maybe get a few minutes worth of writing done during lunch, when he had his iPhone out, checking twitter and his emails (i.e. procrastinating). When unexpectedly his “writing playlist” came on. He then automatically turned off his phone and powered up his laptop and got writing.

I can completely relate because the same thing happens to me. I listen to my ipod during commute and usually it is the usual indie / rock / pop tunes but as soon as any of my writing playlist OST scores come on, my mind immediately heads towards Grimm, its characters, world and writing.

I don’t think this is a bad thing. But it makes me wonder about something else that Keris Stainton recently mentioned on her very excellent blog: Do You Ever Switch Off?

The blogpost came as a bit of a shock because I’ve never really thought about it or thought about how much I think about writing. Which is basically all the time. I have created this life for me – apart from my Real Day Job – where I am surrounded by writers and books. I review books, I love and cherish them. I think about other people’s writing. I obsess about my own characters and my own writing. When I read something that gets me in the knees, I make notes about it. I am good friends with some booksellers and we send emails back and forth about pretty books and pretty boys (don’t ask) and things we love and hate. I have a great many blogging friends who are all keen readers and I belong to SCBWI and am forever chatting to my little group of critique partners about writing (it is so hard/i hate it/i love it/it is crap/i’ll never write a thing again / i have a kazillion more ideas etc). It literally is non-stop. And it’s made me realise that I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Writing and reading has become a way of life.  And I couldn’t be happier. 

A quote I found over at Advice To Writers sums up what I feel perfectly:

Pan's Labyrinth

Whilst I’m editing Grimm I am also putting together my own playlist for the the book – songs and music that really inspired me.

Thee is one song, specifically, by a South African band called The Parlatones which I adore.  It is called Dragonflies and Astronauts.

There is a refrain that is pure magic and I think it may sum up Grimm really well:

They tell stories,
They tell stories of leprechauns and dragons, witches, wizards trolls and dungeons,
fantasies and mysteries you proclaim – but the real world is a lot scarier,
and theres always a price to pay

Isn’t it great? Atmospheric and brain-juicy?

On Friday I set off with my friends Maureen Oakeley, Sue Hyams and Paolo Romeo and headed for Dunford House Conference Centre in West Sussex.  The journey was very smooth and we got there with plenty of time to spare.  We got seen to our rooms by some great smiling employees of the conference centre.  We sat around and there was some small talk with other members of SCBWI who were there for the weekend.

After dinner I joined Paolo for a writing session in the main conference room and clocked just over 3k on a new work in progress.

After scaring the living daylights out of myself whilst in my small creaky room reading SJ Bolton’s Blood Harvest I eventually turned in, but only after sending Mark a text message to tell him I’m too scared to turn the lights off!  I could hear him laughing at me all the way from Kent.

Saturday after breakfast there was some more writing and then a session with Candy Gourlay about “Weightwatchers for Writers – how to get rid of exposition and add meaning”.  It was a great session and it genuinely made me think about my writing and how I can cut boring bits and expand on interesting sections instead of skipping ahead. I love that she reiterated something aspiring writers tend to forget: that your writing and your story is not for you but for your readers and to bear them in mind at all times.

Candy touched on the story mountain and the whole three act structure.  She mentioned that teachers will ask you to talk about this if you visit a school.  Personally I’ve never heard about the story mountain, but I do know about the three act structure.   Candy made a great point by showing us the standard story mountain and then pointing at another picture of a range of mountains, explaining that in reality, our stories are more like the jagged mountains before us.   With peaks and valleys, to make sure that our stories remain interesting, unexpected and fun.

It was a great talk.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  After Candy’s talk we had a break for tea and coffee before heading for lunch.  After lunch we got to listen to Tommy Donbavand’s talk.  Tommy chatted to us about Writing for Boys.

Tommy was so great.  He had us laughing and giggling – not just at him but also at ourselves.  A great speaker he immediately set about explaining his own background and how he came to write is super successful series – Scream Street – and how much fun he had doing it.  He showed off the books – there will be thirteen in total – and told us about some ideas he has for upcoming books.  He spoke with such enthusiasm about writing for boys and I loved that he showcased the books he did for Barrington Stoke (a publisher I would one day love to write for) and he also chatted to us about some techniques he uses writing for boys:

-  short chapters

-  short sentences

-  short paragraphs

-  chapters ending on cliffhangers

-  try and keep to a single point of view or two at the most if you must

-  the book must have a solid definable quest

-  resolve the conflict, but allow the reader to perhaps guess the twist before the characters…and then pull the rug from under them

It was such a great inspirational presentation by Tommy, complete with mummy-wrapping and I came away with such a buzz.  I know everyone else was walking on a high when we left the room for coffee and tea.

I stayed behind and got some more writing done.  Saturday evening everyone relaxed after dinner and ended up in the bar chatting.  When I say bar…it’s more like a communal area with chairs and a serving hatch.  But the conversation was lively and we didn’t care.

I eventually sloped off to bed after eleven and crawled into bed to watch Ten Things I Hate About You.

Sunday morning after breakfast we had Janetta Otter Barry from Frances Lincoln in to talk to us about their lists and what they were currently looking for.  It was an interesting presentation as she took us through their various authors, artists and books they currently have and she also had several examples to show us.  I bought a copy of The Snow Leopard by Jackie Morris which I fell in love with.  I’ll be reviewing it on MFB in July.  It is glorious.

We left just before four to drive back home.  I came away, having written 6,200+ words on a new WIP novel and some great new resolutions.  It was a great weekend and I got to meet a great many new talented people.  Thanks to Sue Hyams for arranging this excellent weekend away.  I’m looking forward to next year’s one!

This article about word-count came my way last night via my Twitter feed and I thought I’d share it.  Interesting and also surprising that aspiring writers are still struggling to figure out appropriate word-count what with all the information there is out there about it.

I’ve polished my first four thousand words to be sent off to the Undiscovered Voices challenge.  Final re-read today then off in the post into the land of who knows what!?  It is very exciting and nervewrecking.

Last week I had the chance to meet up with some Headline authors at a blogger event they held at their lovely offices near Warren Street station.  I am a big old fan of the lovely Julie Cohen who has written one of my favourite books of all time: Girl from Mars.  It is full of geeky references and it is a contemporary romance novel.  I lost my heart to it because of its strong writing and characters and I don’t really read that many contemp romances, so I was genuinely invigorated by the author’s fresh voice.  Fact: Julie Cohen is a fantastic writer.  And she is also a fan-girl.  So we got to have a brief chat about Hellboy.  I know, right?  I am a huge fan of Hellboy, as the world knows, and so is Julie.  She has a massive crush on Abe Lincoln, or “FishStick” as one of the other charaters tend to call him.  On the other hand, I am all about Prince Nuada.  And Hellboy and Liz.  But mostly Nuada.

I digress.  What I’m trying to put across is how fantastic Julie is.  Look her up and buy her books.  But even MORE important than that to me is her fantastic blog in which she answers a myriad of publishing and writing questions.  Today’s article: Is your heroine boring? Be sure to check out on the right hand panel links to other articles she’s written about things like character arc and point of view.  This girl is a treasure.  I do <3 her.

I also got – on my kindle – a copy of Writing a Novel in Scrivener by David Hewson.  I do like David Hewson A LOT.  His novels are fantastic escapism and he is incredibly approachable and has a lot of patience answering questions about writing and Scrivener.  In fact, it is because of David and one or two other people, that I converted to Apple for my writing and subsequently became a fan of Scrivener.  The ebook for the kindle is a great resource.  I’m downloading the Kindle app for my iMac so that I can check out some of the diagrams and screen shots out in colour.  Scrivener is a fantastic writing application which I’ve come to use for my scribblings.  I know for a fact that I’m not making use of it to its full capacity and that there are things I can learn from this software to make my writing-life easier.   I’m looking forward to it.

Back in February I bought this:

Due to various reasons, he only arrived this week.  I unboxed him and immediately and irrevocably fell in love.  As a limited edition of 2000, I thought it was pretty cool that I got a pretty low number in the region of the 600′s.  The quality of the statue and the mythology behind the character – Dream of the Endless – combine to make this an incredible item to own.  I immediately felt that I could not own only Dream.  I had to have his sister, Death too.  She’s due to arrive next week, I think.  I am very excited.

I got to meet up with my crit partner Sarah before the Headline event last week and we headed to Foyles where we chatted to the best booksellers in the world – Jenni and Neil – for ages and ages.   Then we dragged Neil off to have lunch with us – it was his lunchtime already, so we didn’t really drag him away – but it was so great to get to chat to him.  Sarah bought me a copy of :

I have become a recent convert to Catherynne M Valente’s writing.  She is a superb storyteller and her The Orphan’s Tales (2 books – for which she won the Mythopoeic Award) draw heavily on fairy tale format and echoes the grace and style in the more lyrical translation of the Arabian Nights stories.  The books are for adults as some of the content is quite mature but there is a whimsicalness about them, an otherness, that really appeals.  She has become a tremendous influence on me.   Oh, and the above book is her first novel for younger readers.  It has wonderful illustrations.  I am a bit in love.  Find her website here. 

And that has basically been my life in a nutshell these past few weeks.  Editing, thinking, doing Real Life work, more editing and dreaming of winning the lottery.  Oh, and research for a new book once Grimm is done.

We went to Paris for a few days last week.  It was gloriously sunny, although, admittedly I should have worn better shoes.  My feet were killing me by the end of the visit.

So here are some random photos.

In the Louvre - statue of a young boy / faun

Also in the Louvre - isn't she wonderful?

Close Up - Detail on some armour

Visit to the graveyard

Deconstructed cello on the artist's grave

The Louvre by night

Paris by night

My wheel lock pistols. Aren't they lovely?

We walked loads and saw loads.  We took around eight / nine hundred photos.  What did we do before digital? I know, spend a lot of money to have the films developed.

Paris is an incredible city.  So full of pomp and self-importance.  I love the wide boulevards and how it actually feels like you are in a a European capital.  This time around we walked practically everywhere so we have a far better idea of the layout of the city.  I also felt a lot more confident this time around.  We realised that we had managed to see most of what there was to see at the Louvre the last time we were there, so this time round we hit our favourite bits, which were oddly, not the touristy sections.

We also went to the Musee de l’Armee which is truly incredible, even if you aren’t someone who is interested in warfare.  The armour and weapons on display is just incredible.  The things they came up with just blew my mind.  But then, we also spent a lot of time looking at the armour and examining the patterns the armourer designed pre-making these pieces.  It was a great opportunity to just take it in and think about the hours and hours it took to create a single piece.  Phenomenal amounts of detail and skill – a truly lost art.  I don’t think that in this day and age we have artisans who can create such things, by hand.

Our first day there, we met up with Matt who guided us around Pere-Lachaise cemetery.  I have never been anywhere as beautiful and uniquely quieting to the soul in my life.  We saw several people’s graves, including Jim Morrison’s which was truly a let-down.  Dirty and smelly, it had people posing around it drinking beer and smoking.  I can see why they can’t wait to get rid of him from the cemetery as it costs more to clean up his grave and the surrounding area than it’s worth.  We also saw Edith Piaf’s grave, as well as Oscar Wilde’s.  I loved the quiet notes left on Balzac’s grave and the small origami horse.  Looking at the notes people have left behind, you can’t help but well up a little.  It is incredible to think that someone from so long ago still can have impact on us in this modern day and age.

As I said, we took reams of photos and I’ll show more of them in the next few days.

But now, to bed, as tomorrow is work-day.  Boo!

Yes, those are tortoises.

Honore Balzac

UK Cover

I’m currently re-reading Goose Girl on my Kindle as I am currently between books and felt like a comfort read. 

And I forget what a strong story it is and how fantastic a writer Shannon Hale is.  

This paragraph made my heart soar:

“I guess I never really knew what it meant, I just thought it was beautiful.  I remember when my mother overheard my aunt tell me a story like that one, my mother was mad.  But my aunt said, if we don’t tell strange stories, when something strange happens we won’t believe it.”

Pure magic.

Mark and I booked a walking tour with Ian Bevan who led us and a group of around ten other interested people around the alleyways of the City.

Mark works in the City and I work in the West End and we sort of pride ourselves on our knowledge of our adopted City.  Ian Bevan proved today that we knew NOTHING.

The tour started at Cannon Street and we wound our way all around to come out at Monument.

Here are some photos we took during the day.

St Dunstan's in the West

St Dunstan's from the outside

Grasshopper sign in Lombard Street

It genuinely was such a great day.  The weather was gorgeous, we got to learn a tremendous amount about our City and its little alleyways.  We got to listen to Ian who was unfailingly interesting and follow the group around and just “be”.   Usually when we go to town, you just walk from A to B without much looking about.  This time, because we were forced to slow down and take things in, we saw so much.  The wonderful Wren churches, the gorgeous St Dunstan that reminded me of Lothlorien in Lord of the Rings.  What made it even more beautiful was that it was never rebuilt after the bombings in the Second World War.  It made it poignant and eerily beautiful.

We ended the 2 hour walk at the Walrus and Carpenter’s pub just down the road from Monument.  Mark had a well-deserved pint of pale ale and a scrummy looking chicken and leek pie.  I had scamp and chips and a pint of diet coke.  We were smiling, knowing how we had fallen in love all over again with this remarkable city.

I had never been to Leadenhall Market and Ian took pains to point out the section they used in Harry Potter where he goes with Hagrid to Diagon Alley.  It was not remarkable at all.  However, walking through Leadenhall Market and seeing those wonderful dragons on their perches, I just knew that they had to come into play in either my current WIP or have something written for them exclusively.

Similarly, there is this odd building which currently house the Lloyds of London HQ which looks like it is straight out of BladeRunner.

Old dragons and new buildings

We had a great time and towards the end of the month, when we have time off, Mark and I will be heading into the city again to walk around some more and take more photos.  And, if anyone is ever interested in one of these walking tours, do check out Ian’s website here.  The tours are never more than 25 people and at £6 a head, for a two hour personalised tour, I think you are in for a treat.