Rambles of a Small Thing

A Start - I haz it

2012-06-08T20:34:35Z

Written in red sharpie on the back of a dentists reciept while sitting on the bus, so I'd better type it up while I can still vaguely remember what I've written (legability not being my strong point at the best of times...) Always happens the one time I don't have a notepad.

It's not much, and I might not keep it, but it's an opening.

Here we go :)

A Message

2012-04-12T16:14:24Z

popfiend asked people to pass this on.

http://popfiend.livejournal.com/4492746.html

Much love.

Quick word count.

2012-02-01T11:09:55Z

Making progress on Spark, at least. Caro has fallen into the clutches of Allorise Carey, which is an interesting psychological study into the nasty mind games women sometimes play. And Alloriose is nothing if not nasty....

Word Count :

</table Nearly half way there, maybe... :)

I have written 67,007 of 150,000 words.
I am now 44.67% done!

no frills wordmeter

Sparks of progress

2012-01-12T12:34:26Z

My gosh, I haven't posted a word count for nearly a month! Although Christmas and New Year didn't help much with the actual writing progress. Still, progress is happening, and today I solved... not a major point, but something that had been niggling me. I'm also playing revolving doors with my cast, so at the moment I'm dealing with an Allorise/Carousel pairing, Noble and Kayall, and, shortly, Elvienne and Spark. Chances of getting everyone on the same place by the climax are about 50-1, I think.

Have words :

I have written 61,620 of 150,000 words.
I am now 41.08% done!

no frills wordmeter

Getting on for halfway there, then, unless the word count ends up really far out. It's still a job to tell. Heb said she was really enjoying what she's read so far though, so that's good.
I need to do some domestic things in the next few days (Hoovering - boo!) but I will try and keep up the pace.

Art of Forgetting Review

2011-11-28T18:31:37Z

As LJ keeps insisting on playing dead, I have fallen behind with the crossposting again. Anyone know how to automatically link a Wordpress site to LJ, save me faffing about?

Anyway, on her own Wordpress site Claire Carter has posted the worlds first review of the finished-ish manuscript of Art of Forgetting, which I'm crossposting everywhere because it was good and I badly want some lovely agent to pick it up.

She says :

"...Art of Forgetting is a brilliant tale of discovery and equality, of the evils of humankind and of what is truly the right thing to do. All Rhodri had wanted was to regain his birth-right, to be reunited with his family, to finally know his mother. His journey is a long one and takes him from his home and into a foreign land, and in true Joanne Hall style, to a lot of pain, misery, misunderstanding, death, and finally release.

There is another side to this book that is not immediately apparent but which should be read by everyone, every adult and every child, in the hope that it will teach a little tolerance. Here is a story of racial hatred and sexual intolerance, here is a story of ignorance and misunderstanding. I hope it teaches people to think about their attitude towards that which we do not understand and maybe then we can make our world a better place to live..."

Her blog can be found here : http://clairemcarter.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/book-review-art-of-forgetting-by-joanne-hall/

I confess I hadn't thought of it as a study in racial intolerance (one character expresses surprise that Rhodri's daughter is so "dark" (his words) but beyond that there's not much talk about race.) The sexual intolerance is more explicit. I always say it as a story about inadequate parenting, both on a personal and social level - the army makes a poor substitue parent for the boys that come into it, mirroring Rhodri's lousy upbringing by both sets of guardians. But it's always fascinating to see what other people see in books!

She flies with dragons now...

2011-11-23T10:03:19Z

Waking up to the sad news that Anne McCaffrey, the lady who taught dragons to fly and spaceships to sing, has passed away at the age of 85. She was the first woman to win either a Hugo, or a Nebula award, for short stories “Weyr Search” and “Dragonrider” in 1968 and 1969, and it is for her Dragonriders of Pern stories that she is best loved and will be best remembered.

I never met Anne McCaffrey, but a friend of mine at school pressed a copy of Dragonflight into my hand when I was twelve and told me I would like it. I have to confess I never gave it back, it’s still sitting on my shelf along with a dozen other Pern books, and non-Pern books. It opened my eyes to the fact that yes, girls could be heroes in fantasy, that they had a greater role to play than screaming in the corner while the hero rescued them. I wanted that. And if I couldn’t be a fantasy heroine, I would do the next best thing, and write about them. My Lydia, and I should think a great many contemporary fantasy heroines, owes a great debt to Lessa, Menolly and Moreta.

Thank you, Anne McCaffrey, for taking us riding with dragons, and opening our minds to wider possibilities. The dragons have bowed their heads today.

Live in the Living Room - Talis Kimberley

2011-11-21T10:33:15Z

The Arts Trail Movement is becoming ever more popular in cities in the UK. It’s a chance to wander from house to house, seeing the beautiful things that people create, catching up with your local community, and drinking mug after mug of tea. Bristol boasts at least two annual arts trails, in the north of the city, and in Totterdown, legendary site of the worlds most famous supernatural house share…

http://www.frontroom.org.uk/index.cfm?fuseaction=content.home

Juliet Fleming’s art gallery / front room was one of the host houses for this years Totterdown Arts Trail, featuring ceramics made by the hostess and Sarah Jordan, art by Terry Burke, and textiles by Grace Ingram. And and afternoon of music, brought by BristolCon regular Talis Kimberley and her floating band.

Kicking off in appropriate fashion with “Juliet’s House”, followed by a haunting vocal of ”Gathering Summer In”, and new political track, “The Steps of St Pauls,” which had received its live debut only the previous evening, and went down very well with the audience.

“Drink tea, buy pots!” urged Talis, who had taken the wise strategy of splitting her act into three-song mini-sets so people could browse the pottery and grab a biscuit between numbers.

Highlights of the set included a rousing singalong of eco-anthem “Spoon”, Chantelle Smith’s gypsy dancing to classic oldie “Appleby Fair”, the mystical “Jack Hare”, and the rousing “Common Bunting”, which I think is the only song I’ve ever heard about a washing line.

If you like folky, literate songs, thought-provoking but with a generous dash of humour, Talis, and possibly some of her band, will be playing at Kingcombe Winter Fair, Dorchester, on December 4th.

http://www.talis.net/

~~~

This blog was originally posted at http://hierath.wordpress.com/ , along with a post about creating soundtarcks for novels and taking inspiration from music, which I'm not going to re-post here because it's got lots of videos in it, but if you're interested, come on over to the Other Blog!

It's back, baby!

2011-11-12T09:46:14Z

Haven't been able to get into LJ for a few days thanks to another stupid DDOS attack. Sorry if I missed anything!

Another one of those non-crossposted posts.

2011-11-10T10:40:37Z

Only one more after this, I think. Thios is a writing-related one, the other one is kinda personal.

Crossposted from the Wordpress blog - there are pictures on there :)

****

“Hmmm,” said my lovely beta, reading “Art of Forgetting” for what must be the fifty-sixth time, “the second half feels like a different book. I don’t know if that’s a good or bad thing….”

And at first, as is my wont, I thought “Oh god, I’ve screwed up, ruined my tendons, wasted a year of my life and it’s not working!” But then I thought about it, and it dawned on me that the reason the second half feels like a different book is that, well, it’s a different book. Obvious when you think about it.

I should start by saying that Art of Forgetting is an absolute MONSTER. 198,600 words at the end of the latest edit (down from 207,000, pop-pickers!) Colin used to call it my behemoth – “how’s your behemoth getting on?” he would ask me, and I’d groan. This was before I’d even finished writing it.

As a comparison, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” is 198,227, Joe Abercrombie’s “The Blade Itself” is 190,000, which doesn’t look that hefty on my bookshelf – the version of “Deathly Hallows” I have is 607 pages, and it doesn’t look THAT thick compared to some of the other books I own. But I’m a fantasy fan. I like my books chunky!

An interesting post on word counts can be found here : http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/03/on-word-counts-and-novel-length.html

- so you can see the length quoted for the Abercrombie book is going to be pretty accurate!

But going back to what LB said about being two different books, yes. In a way it is. Because when Rhodri meets Nasira, that’s when everything in his life changes irrevocably. There’s no going back to his previous life, even if he wants to. Meeting her forces him to abandon everything he has known, everything he has been, for the past ten years. And because AoF is entirely Rhodri’s story, there has to be a divide there, between the angry, frightened boy, and the man he will become; leader, husband, father. So there is a natural split.

I think I might divide the book into two volumes that can be sold (at the discretion of the publisher I don’t yet have! ) as one volume or two depending on how they think it will go. It can be split, it does fall open like two halves of a neatly sliced apple. But the fantasy fan in me wants to see a hefty 600+ page volume, not two thinner books.

Which do you prefer, thin books or thick ones? And would splitting a large book into a duology put you off reading it?

Continuing the crossposting madness - The BristolCon Report

2011-11-07T18:13:39Z

Once again, belatedly crossposted from thw Wordpress blog - http://hierath.wordpress.com/ - a report on the fun that was Bristolcon. Enjoy :)

****

Still completely exhausted after the weekends fun, so please forgive any typing / grammatical errors.

Yes, last Saturday was BristolCon ’11, the culmination of a year of hard work, delicate negotiation, and meetings in pubs. Which meant waking up at 5.30 am mumbling something about tables in the dealers room. As you do.

Arrived at the hotel still rubbing sleep out of my eyes, trying to locate scissors/sellotape/keys/my bearings, but soon woke up when people began to arrive. And arrive they did, over two hundred of them, waving their geek flag proudly and ready to have a good time. unfortunately they ALL arrived at ten to ten and the reception desk was swamped, which meant the first two panels of the day were quite sparsely attended – a shame as they were both interesting and well received. I was on an early panel discussing self-publishing, chaired very capably by Justina Robson and featuring M D Lachlan, Alex Keller, Gareth L Powell, and Dolly Garland on her first ever panel (she performed very well, no hint of nerves!) I had met all the panelists except Mark before, but he turned out to be an affable chap with a great store of anecdotes about publishing. The panel disagreed about whether everyone who wanted to should write a book, but we all agreed that, whether traditionally or self-published, it’s vital not to skip the essential step between a finished first draft and a final draft – proper and extensive editing is the key!

The second panel I was on was about cover art. I think I might have been there to make up the numbers – I’m interested in cover art but I can’t draw stick people, and I was in the company of Jim Burns, cover artist extraordinaire (Seriously, when we announced Jim as Guest of Honour there was SO much excitement from local artists), Steve Upham who not only writes but publishes, Dolly (again, hard-working girl had done a panel in between too), Jaine Fenn – who confessed she can’t draw either, and Officially the Nicest Man on the Planet, Paul Cornell. Jim and Steve talked about the process they go through when a cover is commissioned, and we talked about trends in cover design, and what makes a good and bad cover. Dolly and I agreed that, as lovers of maps and pointy metal, the original covers for Joe Abercrombie’s First Law Trilogy were striking examples of really good modern covers, and we touched on the disturbing practice of “whiting up” books which have non-white protagonists, and how it can alienate even very young readers.

Then I had a couple of hours off, and got to race around the dealers room and chat to a few people, including Terry Martin from Murky Depths and Dave and Ben from Solaris, who were experimenting with selling ebooks at a convention for the first time (apparently it was a great success, so take your flash drive next time you go to a con, because I think that’s going to be much more common in the future).

Jaine Fenn and I shared a second panel in the afternoon, in the other programme room, which was slightly more stuffy and, thankfully, crowded (I did spot a good friend of mine and committee member, who shall remain nameless, nodding off in the front row. I’m going to assume it was because it was warm, not because she was bored ) This was a possibly slightly controversial panel inspired by Neil Gaiman’s famous “George RR Martin is not your bitch” blog post – apparently there’s a song as well? My knowledge of internet novelty SF songs begins and ends with “Fuck Me Ray Bradbury”.

Anyway, the panel was very skillfully moderated by horror/sf author Wayne Simmons, and included that nice Paul Cornell chap again, Jaine Fenn, me, and Anne Lyle, who I had spoken to on Twitter but not previously met. Anne later did a reading from her forthcoming novel which will be published by Angry Robot in March and it sounds great, can’t wait to get my hands on it!

I’m digressing. Wayne kicked the panel off by asking the audience what they wanted to discuss, which was a nice touch. We talked about rejection, how you can’t take it personally and how, if you want to get anywhere in this writing business, the first thing you need to do is grow the hide of a rhino. Anne made Jane and I exceedingly jealous with the thin state of her rejection file. And we discussed readers expectations; how not every fantasy writer will go on the be JK Rowling, how writing is not all sitting around swigging gin while your minions peel you grapes, how a close relative of Paul’s thought that when you’re writing comics, they arrive already drawn and all you have to do is fit the words in the speech bubbles (the mind doth boggle!), and how unfair it is that whenever poor GRRM goes online to say “Yay, the Jets scored!” fifty people jump on him and go “wrargh! Why aren’t you writing?” To my mind, the price he has to pay for success seems a little too high.

I was also lucky enough to be present at the launch of Aeon Press’s Transtories, edited by the late Colin Harvey. Transtories was always meant to be launched at BristolCon, and the launch became a tribute to Colin and his skill as an editor. Tomas L Martin, Priya Sharma, Sharon Reamer and Rob Rowntree all read extracts from their excellent contributions to the anthology, and I would have read too, but we were sadly pressed for time so I gave up my slot. I hadn’t read the story since before Colin died, and I would have liked the chance, but I did get to hear Gareth L Powell read from The Recollection again, which is always fun.

I did get to do one reading though, a piece from The Feline Queen, which people seemed to enjoy, and I sold a few copies. One of the highlights of the day was being caught up with in the art room by Kathleen who had been looking for me so I could sign a copy, because I do love signing books and chatting to readers.

After that, with people drifting towards the exit, it was time to start tidying up. Talis Kimberly had brought her band and they played in the bar, and I managed to catch a lot more of her set than I did last year, before settling back with a coke and watching other people do the quiz. I couldn’t join in the quiz, because I wrote it, but it was entertaining to hear people cursing and see them sinking their heads into their hands – yes, it was BASTARD hard! I think at one point I actually heard crying

Of course, there had to be a winner, and this year the prizes went to the two geekiest men in the room, Paul Cornell and Tim, the manager of Forbidden Planet in Bristol, making up for the FP team’s humiliating defeat last year – well done guys!

I wish I could have seen more panels. Mike Shevdon’s archery panel and the Battle of the Books seem to have been two real highlights, and I missed the Guest of Honour talks too, but that’s one of the prices you pay for running a convention. I did get to catch up with some of my favourite people, and meet some new people who I hope will also become friends, and I’m intending to go to FantasyCon next year so I can enjoy a con I’m not involved in running, and hopefully see these people again!

If you couldn’t get to Bristolcon, we are hoping to put up podcasts of some of the panels on the website over the next few weeks, so you can at least hear what you missed. And if it sounds appealing, why not come along next year?

www.bristolcon.org

Crossposting From The Other Blog - Spark Extract

2011-11-07T11:59:34Z

I've posted a few things on the Other Blog that I haven't crossposted here cos, well, I'm old and sometimes I forget. In an attempt at procrastination...I mean, for your edification and delight, I'm going to post the posts I missed here, starting with the most recent one. Enjoy!

*****

To celebrate reaching the first one hundred pages (approximately 25%, if it doesn’t run amok like “Art of Forgetting” did) of the first draft of “Spark and Carousel”, I’ve decided to give my blog readers a treat. At least, I hope it’s a treat, bearing in mind that it’s a first draft and therefore, by nature, quite rough and ready.

This is the first publicly posted extract from the first draft of “Spark and Carousel”, which may not end up in the final draft in any recognisable form, but that’s novels for you.

In this extract, Spark has fallen in with the Nobility, a criminal gang who live in the tunnels below the Telesian Quarter of Cape Carey, and is learning how to be a cut-purse.

I hope you enjoy it.

Warning – contains NSFW language.

***

Auster was tall and thin, with large white teeth that overlapped his lower lip, like a coney. His skin, as white as his teeth, was generously dusted with freckles. He winked, and beckoned Spark back a few steps.

“When she does her stuff,” he said, in a low voice, “we get in, do what we must, and get out. What me, and do as I do. If you think you can’t hack it, fall back. If you fuck up, yell and run. I’ll meet you by the bridge. If you get caught, someone will come for you. Noble never leaves a man behind. Have you got all that?”

Spark nodded. “I think so.”

“Don’t look so sick. You’ll be fine! Here she comes now, so just follow my lead.”

A ripple ran through the crowd, a collective sigh at anticipation rewarded at last. Auster drifted back to the fringes, slipping the knife from his belt. Spark drew his own blade, but his hand was shaking, and he had to clamp his hand around the hilt to steady his grip. Were they going to stab someone, then?

The circus-master was making an introduction, in jubilant tones, but Spark couldn’t hear the words over the blood buzz in his ears. The crowd roared, and stamped impatiently, and Auster seized the moment to dart in.

Spark saw the flash of his blade. It was over in a moment, the slash, the victim’s purse slipping from belt to hand to bag in one silky movement, and Auster moved on as if nothing had happened. His target didn’t even twitch.

Auster winked as he passed. Your turn, he mouthed.

The tremble in his hand was back again. Spark bit his lip, forcing his will down his arm, stilling that giveaway quiver. The crowd, almost a single entity, had its back to him, hooting and stamping at something he couldn’t see.

Auster nudged him, and pointed. A heavy man, naked rolls of fat spilling over his belt. And on the belt, bouncing with his every movement, his money-purse was loosely, carelessly tied. It was a moment’s work to lift it, slash the strings, and press it back into Auster’s outstretched hand. Spark felt sure the rapid thumping of his heart would raise the alert, but all the fat man did was stretch up on his tiptoes to try and see over the heads of the crowd.

They moved away, Auster offering Spark a toothy grin, flicking the blade of his dagger to indicate another victim. Motioning Spark to stay back, he moved in. The target pushed forward into the crowd, and Auster pushed with him.

Spark, alone, scrambled up onto a nearby bench. He wanted to see if he could keep an eye on the tall man, and he was bursting to get a good look at what everyone else could see. He wasn’t short, but wherever he stood a taller man seemed to be right in front of him.

He balanced on the bench and watched the girl climbing the pole. She wore a costume of iridescent feathers and lace, and as she stood on the tiny plinth at the top of the pole, arms stretched to the sky, one long, bare leg stretched elegantly behind her, the crowd sighed as one, surging forward.

As she straightened, Spark’s breath caught. This vision, this glittering bird with the long, shapely legs and the tiny waist, standing on a tiny plinth high above the crowd with her fingertips stretched to the sky, was Carousel.

He wanted to call to her, but his heart was in his throat, choking off his words. She stepped out onto the wire with a light, springing step, blowing kisses to the crowd. Far above their heads, Carousel danced on air, feathers fluttering in the breeze, making it look easy. While below…

“Hsst!” At the hiss from the level of his knees, Spark was reminded why he was here. Auster glared at him. “Get down!” he whispered furiously. “Do you want everyone to notice you?”

Shamed, Spark scrambled down from the bench. Auster gave him a light shove. “Come on kid, do your job and we can get out of here.”

“Sorry, yes.” Spark rubbed his eyes, trying not to look up.

“A couple more and we’ll have a good haul. Over there.” Auster pointed and stood back, arms folded. It was clear Spark would have to work alone.

He tried to focus on his target, a tall, thin man in an embroidered, long-sleeved surcoat that almost smelled of money. He must be a merchant, his purse as fat as a kindling woman’s belly, hanging over his hip beside his dagger. A tricky lift, but Auster must think it worth the risk. He was staring up, open-mouthed at Carousel dancing on the wire high above him.

Spark wriggled through the crowd until he came up against the merchant’s side. The man smelled of musky Telesian perfume, and his oiled hair was slicked back from his forehead towards his collar. His hands hung limp at his side, and his fingers were heavy with gold and gems. The coins in his purse clinked faintly as Spark brushed against it, and he held his breath, wondering if the merchant would notice.

The music – Spark had not heard the music before, but Carousel must have been dancing to it the whole time – the drums and lyre reached a thrumming crescendo. The crowd surged forward. Something was happening on the wire above. Distracted, Spark made a clumsy lunge for his target’s purse, slashed at it with his blade, trying to watch Carousel as she cartwheeled, impossibly, high above his head, across the square, a glittering pinwheel of girl and feathers.

“Hey! You little shit!”

The purse was in his hand. Spark stared at it dumbly, at the shallow, bleeding slash in his victim’s leg. A hand clamped down on the back of his neck and he stared cross-eyed at the blade that had appeared under his nose. The merchant scowled down at him. “What the fuck are you doing? Give back my coin, you little bastard!”

“Let go of me!” Spark could feel the heat, the panic, rising through his chest. Quicker this time, heightened by fear, by adrenaline. “Get off! You don’t know what’s going to happen!”

The merchant shook him until his teeth rattled. “Oh, I know what’s going to happen. You’re going to give back my coin, and then I’m going to hand you over to the City Watch!” He seized Spark’s arm with his knife hand and twisted it savagely.

“That hurts!” An eruption of fire, rushing along his arm, thrusting the merchant away from him. The man cursed, stumbling back, clutching at his hand.

“Here!”

“Don’t push!”

“What’s wrong with you?”

He regained his balance. “That little thief just tried to magic me!” He pointed a smouldering hand at Spark. “Get him!”

At the mention of magic, there was a sinister stir through the crowd. No one was watching Carousel any more. Spark looked around desperately for Auster and Mule, but they had vanished. He was on his own.

There seemed only one thing to do, and that was brazen it out.

He made a few vaguely mystic passes, aided by the sparks trailing from his fingertips. “Yes, stay back! I am the last of the ancient order of Flame Wielders, and I can burn you all with a gesture!”

The nearest men backed off. “He doesn’t look all that,” someone muttered.

“He hasn’t even got green eyes!” the enraged merchant insisted. “He’s no bloody mage! Let’s get him!”

“Get back!” He waved his hands again. No sparks. Nothing. “I’m warning you…”

“Get the thief!”

“Smash his head in!”

“Come on!” Spark felt a fierce yank at his collar. “Run!”

In her skimpy costume, Carousel was all legs. They were all Spark could see as she dragged him by the hand through the crowded streets, hurdling the pavements and scrambling over low walls. “Where did Auster say to meet?” she panted over her shoulder as they fled.

“Horse Fair Bridge. Do you know where that is?”

“I know where everywhere is. It’s not far, come on!”

Another alley, another wall, higher than before. Carousel sat astride it, long, bare leg hanging down, knees grazed by the rough stone. She hitched her costume up to better cover her breasts, and leaned down, extending a hand to him. “We’re near the Horse Fair now, and I don’t think anyone’s chasing us. Though stars know what the Trader district is going to make of these stupid clothes!”

“I think your clothes are fine,” muttered Spark, as Carousel dropped down the far side of the wall. If she heard him, she didn’t respond.

Carousel needn’t have worried. Everything was for sale in the Trader district, and she could have been bought and sold five times before they reached a stall selling cloaks. She elbowed Spark in the ribs. “I’ll distract him,” she nodded at the stallholder, a tall, angular Telesian with a drooping mustache. “You steal a cloak. Meet you at the end of the street!”

“Carousel, I think I’ve had enough stealing –” but she wasn’t listening, making subtle adjustments to her costume, her stance, that all at once made it more revealing while not exposing any extra flesh. She strolled towards the stallholder and struck up a conversation, asking him about fabrics, running long fingers along the hems and stitching, drawing him towards the far side of the stall. Spark waited until his back was turned, grabbed a cloak, and stuffed in under his arm, scooping up trailing fabric and ducking out of sight before the Telesian could turn around and catch him in the act. Moving like a crab, he scuttled away from the stall, heart racing, limbs tingling with adrenaline. It was as good as cutting purses, the risk, the thrill. He could see why Auster wore such a broad grin, he felt his own mouth stretching as he scampered towards the spot Carousel had indicated.

***

All lousy spelling and grammar is first-draft clunkiness, please forgive it. Comments and criticisms most welcome!

Squeeeee!

2011-10-21T08:52:15Z

BristolCon is TOMORROW!

That is all :)

More blogging later, maybe, when I have a spare five minutes...

Write Spectacular!

2011-10-20T09:01:06Z

(Crossposted from t'other blog)

Tonight I will be appearing with Gareth L Powell, Juliet McKenna ( jemck )and Cheryl Morgan on a panel discussing Speculative Fiction (Fantasy, SF and Horror, although none of us are horror writers) – why we write it, and, the big question, HOW we write it (sometimes I’m hazy on both these points – brain turns on, words come out…).

The fun kicks off at 6pm at St Marks Baptist Church, Easton, Bristol. Tickets are a mere £5 and can be obtained from www.unputdownable.org , though I’m sure there will be more on the door. Unputdownable is the website of the first Bristol Festival of Literature, and the more people go to events like this one, the more chance they have of putting on a similar event next year. So please come, it’s a sunny day and we’re all friendly people!

Appearances, interviews, Slackness

2011-10-13T08:30:05Z

Sorry everyone, I've been really slack at commenting/updating for the last week or so. It's just over a week til BristolCon, and I'm still working on that big edit, so things have taken a slide. Normal service will be resumed shortly.

In the meantime, jana_denardo has been interviewed by Bill Jones Jr on his blog, check it out here :
http://thisblogblank.wordpress.com/2011/10/12/439/

She has some cool stuff to say about character building :)

And a week today I will be appearing at St Marks Baptist Church, Easton as part of the inaugural Bristol Literary Festival, on a panel with Juliet McKenna, Gareth L Powell, and Cheryl Morgan, talking about writing Speculative fiction, which I'm really looking forward to, because I love doing panels :)

Details (yoinked from the email)

Next Thursday 20th, 6 - 7pm & 7.30 - 9.00pm, St Mark's Road Baptist Church, Easton. with Jamaican cafe.
Write Spectacular! and The National Academy of Writing.
Calling all writers, pro and aspiring, this is your 'conference' event. From 6 - 7pm we are focussing on Fantasy and Sci-Fi writing practice with Juliet McKenna (Write Fantastic) and Gareth Powell (The Recollection) with Joanne Hall (Hierath) and Cheryl Morgan (Four Hugo Awards!). From 7.30 onwards we join the National Academy of Writing with its director Richard Beard (Lazarus is Dead) and novelist Pete Salmon (The Coffee Story) to dig into the question of how to be a better writer, what lifestyle and career issues it raises and how to craft our work accordingly. Two pieces of pre-submitted writing will be looked at as examples - given an encouraging treatment, with recommendations for taking them further. Submit these NOW to contact@unputdownable.org and they will be forwarded to Richard Beard in advance.
Tickets £5 each event. Book online, by phone or on the door (if on the door, please reserve places by emailing us on: boxoffice@unputdownable.org - to help our stress levels!) Car parking around St Mark's Road. (I live here, I love it!)

There's a lot going on at the Lit Fest, Chris and I are going to see Jasper fforde on Tuesday, there's a mass-author signing in Forbidden Planet on Friday, and Saturday is BristolCon. Which is where I came in , and where I will leave you... :)

Book Review - A Tangle of Magicks

2011-10-02T12:47:30Z

A TANGLE OF MAGICKS by STEPHANIE BURGIS

PB, 290 pages, Templar Publishing

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tangle-Magicks-Unladylike-Adventures-Stephenson/dp/1848774702/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1317395415&sr=8-1

“A Tangle of Magicks” is the middle book of a proposed trilogy starring the most unladylike Kat Stephenson, who the reader first met, age twelve, hacking off her hair and running away to be a highwayman, in “A Most Improper Magick” – the American title, “Kat, Incorrigible” sums up our heroine very well!

Some time has passed since the most improper magical events of the previous book, and “Tangle” opens with the dramatic wedding of Kat’s eldest sister Elissa, previously a calming force on wild little Kat and manipulative middle sister Angeline. With Elissa out of the way, the family decamp to fashionable Regency-era bath to find a suitable suitor for the reluctant Angeline. But ancient magic stirs beneath the Roman Baths, and soon the two sisters and their affable brother Charles find themselves entangled in the thick of it.

Although the Kat stories are set in the England of Jane Austen’s time, at the very core of this family is the idea of families, and how the people you love the most can be the same people who get on your nerves more than anyone, and you don’t have to have any familiarity with the period to identify with that! Kat and her siblings drive each other round the twist, and this book, while missing the dynamic that the largely absent Elissa previously lent to the family unit, benefits from bringing Charles to the forefront, while his sisters war around him. But really it’s all about Kat, her latent magic, her fierce love for her irritating family. In “Tangle”, she pits herself against some truly malevolent villains and still managed to emerge, if not with dignity intact, then at least on top.

It will be interesting to see how the various tangled threads of magic that run through Kat’s life are knit together in the final book of the trilogy. One to look forward to!

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Reposted from t'other blog - http://hierath.wordpress.com/

****
In other news, I've edited (re-edited) the first ten chapters of Hierath, which are still throwing up a few surprises. Spark has been a bit neglected this week, but plans for BristolCon are going well, less than three weeks to go and we have 151 sign-ups!

Forthcoming Appearances

2011-09-27T08:11:16Z

October is always a busy month, it seems. The convention season is winding down, and Christmas is coming up. And the hard-working writer must venture out from behind her desk once more…

I have two events and a publication coming up in the next month, which I’m very much looking forward to. On October 20th I will be appearing on a “Write Spectacular!” panel at Bristol Literary Festival with Gareth L Powell and Juliet McKenna, with Cheryl Morgan keeping us all in line. We will be talking about writing Fantasy and SF at St Marks in Easton – tickets are £5 and are available from :

http://unputdownable.org/

The whole Lit Fest programme has something for everyone, and the website is worth an extensive browse.

The day after, Gareth and Juliet are taking part in a multi-author signing at Forbidden Planet in Bristol, and I’m filling cars with boxes and yelling at people, because it’s the day before BristolCon. If anyone wants to bring stress-relieving chocolate to St Marks it would be very welcome.

Saturday October 22nd (which is a date that’s BRANDED into my brain) is BristolCon itself. In addition to running around like a loon, I will be doing a couple of panels and a reading.

http://www.bristolcon.org

First panel of the day is about unleashing the inner novel (not a problem, I could use a panel on making the inner novel shut up when I’m meant to be doing other things!) with Justina Robson, M D Lachlan, Gareth L Powell (again!), Alex Keller and Dolly Garland.

Then at noon I’m on a panel about cover art with Paul Cornell, Jim Burns, Jaine Fenn, Dolly Garland again, and Steve Upham. As two of these people are bona fide very talented artists and I can’t draw stick people, I hope I don’t get shown up too much!

In the afternoon I’m on a panel about finding time to write when there are so many fun distractions around – possibly providing a fine example of how NOT to do it – with Wayne Simmons, Paul Cornell, Stephanie Burgis, Jaine Fenn, and Anne Lyle.

And at 5.50 I’m doing a ten minute reading from “The Feline Queen.” Mulling over what I want to read from it, because I’ll have to practise to get over my nerves! After that you will very likely find me in the bar…

Also at BristolCon, Aeon Press will be launching their “Transtories” anthology, edited by the much-missed Colin Harvey, so I will be scrawling my scruffy signature in a few copies of that, and possibly reading from it too. Hoping that contributors including Rob Rowntree and Sharon Reamer will also be reading and/or signing. Launches are always fun, although this one will be tinged with sadness that Colin never got to see it.

After that, I have a Day Off pencilled in for around November time…

Cross-posting on POV

2011-09-19T08:55:28Z

POV is the plague of a lot of new writers, and cornerofmadness has an interesting and helpful take on it on her blog, which is over here :

http://cornerofmadness.livejournal.com/1371010.html?view=19424898#t19424898

It's something that took me a long time to get a handle on, and I still have days where I'm not sure whose head I'm in. Not mine, for sure!

I'm having one of those days where I'm not getting anywhere very fast, for no good reason *sigh*

Book Review - The Recollection

2011-09-17T08:27:44Z

THE RECOLLECTION by GARETH L POWELL

PB, 305 pages, Solaris Books

http://www.solarisbooks.com/titles/title_details/the_recollection

“The Recollection” is Gareth L Powell’s second full length novel, following on from “Silversands” (Pendragon Press) and his acclaimed short story collection “The Last Reef”. And it is from “The Last Reef” that “The Recollection” draws most heavily, particularly from the short story Arches. It’s fascinating to see the genesis of a novel in a short story, and the collection, from Elastic Press, is worth seeking out.

“The Recollection” opens with Ed’s brother Verne falling through a mysterious arch at the bottom of an escalator at a London Underground station, leaving his brother Ed, and his wife (and Ed’s on-off lover) Alice, to solve the mystery of his disappearance. Arches are appearing all over the world, and they lead to other planets, other arches, drawing Ed and Alice through the universe in their quest to find Verne.

Meanwhile, in a distant future, Kat Abdulov and her psychically linked spaceship, Ameline, are in a desperate race with her former lover to a remote planet. But what they find when they get there is shocking, throwing them back together in a most unexpected way. And on a crystal spaceship, a race of aliens search for a way to save humanity from a deadly, relentless foe…

“The Recollection” is an epic story, spanning time and space, cramming ideas into its multi-layered plot. In the hands of writers like Alastair Reynolds or Ian M Banks, it would be the opening to a five-volume epic space saga. But in Powell’s hands, the story whizzes along, barely pausing for breath as it hurls the reader far into the future, and from one end of the galaxy to the other. In a way, it’s almost too fast, the ideas, of the Arches, and of the mysterious Recollection itself, may have benefited from more leisurely examination, and it’s to be hoped there will be spin-offs from some of the ideas not fully explored in the novel.

It’s certainly an exciting major-label debut from a promising author at the start of what will hopefully be a long and fruitful career, with plenty of time to slow down and stare wide-eyed at the fascinating universe Powell has only begun to sketch here.

Why Gay YA is More than OK

2011-09-14T08:37:26Z

The theme that’s developing this week is that of the internet being quietly brilliant and providing a voice for those who often find themselves shouted down. In this case, in defence of two things that are important to me – namely, fiction writing and LGBTQ equality issues.

See this post for details :

http://blogs.publishersweekly.com/blogs/genreville/?p=1519

Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith approached an agent with their YA novel, in which one of the five major viewpoint characters was gay. A representative from a large agency called them to say he would sign them, on the condition that they “make the gay character straight, or else remove his viewpoint and all references to his sexual orientation.”

Luckily, Brown and Smith had the courage and integrity to refuse this nonsensical imposition, but it has highlighted a problem in YA, as the comments on their blog post at Publisher’s Weekly show. It also highlighted the problem of authors being asked to “white up” their YA fiction, or remove references to disabled characters.

All of this is WRONG. And it’s wrong because books change lives. And YA particularly can reach out to teenagers at a vulnerable age and say “Hey, you’re not alone, here’s someone just like you, who is going through the same stuff…” And that can be a tremendous boost to anyone who happens to be going through a hard time. I firmly believe diversity breeds tolerance.

Not all readers of YA fiction are white, straight, able-bodied kids, so why the inclination towards only showing white, straight, able-bodied kids in YA fiction? Sales? I don’t believe that; I believe publishers are limiting their market by excluding teenage readers who don’t fit into that white/straight/able-bodied box. Maybe it’s a fear of offending parents? I hate to suggest it, but parents who object that a protagonist is black, or gay, are probably the kind of parents who burned copies of Harry Potter because it “promotes witchcraft.” In other words, the kind of people who are actively looking for something to complain about.

Earlier in the year, following the death of Joanna Russ, writers came together and drafted the Russ Pledge, to try to address the issues surrounding the lack of visibility of women in Science Fiction. (See http://asknicola.blogspot.com/2011/06/taking-russ-pledge.html for more details). Surely, in order to promote diversity of gender, sexuality, race and ability in YA fiction, it’s time to consider a similar Brown/Smith pledge?

*Disclaimer – I don’t write YA, but I do read a lot of it, and I have close friends who write it who feel very strongly about this subject. And “Art of Forgetting” featured a bisexual protagonist in a relationship with a person of colour. It might not be YA, but I have an interest in stamping out this kind of nonsense and redressing the balance.

*****

Crossposted from the other Blog - you know that, all the smart stuff happens over there ;) http://hierath.wordpress.com/

Freebies!

2011-09-12T15:01:13Z

Free story!

If you want to read an old one that I dug out of the archive to celebrate "Speak Out with your Geek Out",
or if you want to know more about the project, get thyself over to the Other Blog pronto (because it's too long to post here)

http://hierath.wordpress.com/2011/09/12/speak-out-with-your-geek-out/

Love

Joey

who is tired, has an aching back, and is craving choc ice and waiting for her Boy to get home :)

Reposting - Light is Nothing without Darkness

2011-09-10T12:07:32Z

Reposted from http://hierath.wordpress.com/ - you are welcome to comment there or here :) I'm free and easy like that ;)

* * * *

What makes a good bad guy? And by good I mean bad, and by bad…you get the picture.

I asked this question on Facebook, and a lot of people mentioned “Dexter”, which I confess I haven’t seen. It seems that serial killer Dexter, by all accounts, is an exemplary bad guy. He cares about his family, yet he’s capable, almost simultaneously, of ruthless, chilling acts of torture.

The consensus of the Hivemind (Thank you, Hivemind!) was that, in order to be a really good bad guy, the villain had to be relatable. Readers had no time for Lord Darkevil*, who wants to take over the world and destroy it for the hell of it. They wanted to see back story. What made Dexter, or Lord Darkevil, or Valery Northpoint, the way they are? What circumstance has driven them to evil acts? Never forgetting, of course, that everyone is the hero of their own story (Yes, even Lord Darkevil). Bad guys and gals don’t think of themselves as “bad”. Often, they seem to think of themselves as righteous.

Readers also want a villain they can sympathise with. This can be part of their back story (Dru joins the King’s Third to prove his courage, and is so terrified of being thought weak that he bullies and intimidates the younger boys, and the situation spirals out of control) or it can be a personality trait, such as a love of animals, or charisma (interesting fact : psychopaths are often especially charismatic individuals – think Tom Ripley). There has to be something about them that’s likeable, both for the reader to empathise with, and to make their acts of evil, when they occur, even more shocking in contrast.

Someone who is pure evil for the sake of being evil, or has no discernible motive, is hard to relate to. No matter how much the reader boos and hisses, they also need to care. And a hero is only as good as his antagonist. A strong villain provides a worthy opponent for your protagonist to struggle against.

Characters are people too. Even bad guys, and you need to show them with the same mixture of good and bad traits that everyone has. Writing villains can be a wicked lot of fun. They allow a writer to explore the dark side of human nature, as well as dreaming up horrible tortures for them to inflict on the poor innocent heroes! A well written villain can linger in the readers memory long after the affable hero has ridden off into the sunset…

*Please note – I have no intention of ever naming a character “Lord Darkevil”. Or “Lord Deathbreath” for that matter…

The Shy Scribbler Ventures Forth - Vol 2

2011-09-05T08:05:43Z

Reposted from : http://hierath.wordpress.com/

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I took the day off yesterday and went down to Glastonbury to interact with people who live outside of my head. If you’ve read my previous post, you’ll know I was panicking about meeting people and being sociable. I did nearly leap off the bus at Temple Cloud and scurry home with my tail between my legs, but then I remembered I blew up Temple Cloud in a previous story, and I would feel guilty for crashing a spaceship on such a pretty village, so I’d better keep going.

Glastonbury, if you haven’t been, is a gloriously weird place, even if you don’t subscribe to all that tree-huggin’ hippy stuff. Every other shop is Gothic, or Pagan, or Ye Olde Camelot Bun Shoppe that sells buns with pentagrams on them. It’s a mecca for people who fly outside the mainstream, and it’s also a rather attractive medieval town.

The conference was outside the main High Street, in the Grail Centre, which is now run by Liz Williams and her husband, which is currently hosting a display of beautiful paintings by Anne Sudworth (http://www.annesudworth.co.uk/)

Talks were varied, Liz Williams talked about Dion Fortune, early 20th century novelist and Glastonbury scholar, and her influence on Marion Zimmer Bradley. Guest of Honour Freda Warrington talked about her own work, and about the influence of landscape on her writing, which was a recurring theme. Kari Sperring, who I didn’t get the courage to speak to, talked about the historical evidence for King Arthur (of which there is none), and there were a couple of talks on The Glastonbury Zodicac (not convinced), and the influence of Glastonbury Romance.

And I talked to people, thanks mainly to my friend Cheryl who persuaded me downstairs and introduced me to people, although my brain did that Eddie Izzard thing where the names fly through your head and end up in a heap on the carpet. I had a nice chat with Amal El-Mohtar, author of “The Honey Month” ( http://www.papaveria.com/portfolio/the-honey-month/, ) who was discovered through her blog, and we admired the fancy books on the Papaveria table.

TIPS

Wear something you feel comfortable in. Preferably, don’t wear a dress with buttons that tend to pop open at inopportune moments and provide the good citizens of Glastonbury with an eyeful of sturdy Debenhams bra, unless you check them at regular intervals. (I speak from experience, the button dress was, in retrospect, a Bad Idea…)

When people are introduced to you, try repeating their names in the hope that they will lodge in your head. Only try this if you’re sure you’ve heard their name properly.

Remember, no one is staring at you. It’s not the first day of High School. People will remember you for being friendly, not for falling over the doorstop and dropping your purse.

Things are rarely as awful as you build them up to be in your imagination. Often, they’re a lot better! I had a nice day, met some fascinating people, learned some stuff, squirreled away some book ideas, and didn’t make a total muppet of myself. It’s worth doing again. I can’t promise not to be nervous though!

The Shy Scribbler Ventures forth

2011-09-01T14:11:45Z

Reposted from t'other Blog, but you can also comment here :)

****

Yes, it’s the somewhat delayed post where I talk about being a shy writer.

In the old days, I’m sure it was easy. You say behind your typewriter, hammered it until your fingers were nothing but calloused stumps, and sent the fruit of your labour to a publisher, or, if we’re really going back in time, newspapers, who quite possibly printed it. The ideal profession for those of us who prefer dealing with our imaginary friends to dealing with *gulp* fellow human beings. Because writing full-time isn’t the ideal job for people who like to be surrounded by other people all day. It’s mind-numbing, buttock-increasing, occasionally fabulous, bloody hard work, and there isn’t a lot of human interaction. And when human interaction does occur, it’s generally along the lines of - ”What? Are you bringing tea? Can you kindly bugger off for another twenty minutes while I work out how to untie Penelope from the railway line, please?”

Not the profession for the social butterfly. then…

(‘Scuse me, have to go bite the postman now…)

Where was I? Oh yes. If you’re shy, this kind of solitude can be very nice. But eventually, if you’re like… ooh, every writer I know, you’re going to want to publish something. More than one thing. And people may like it and you may end up with fans, which is just about the most mind-blowing thing there is. And then someone will say to you – “We’re having a conference next weekend. Would you like to give a talk?”

That sound you hear is either the scream of brakes, or the scream of the terrified writer burrowing under a pile of manuscript pages and shouting “No! I don’t wanna!” Which is exactly what I did a few years ago when I was first asked, before I gritted my teeth and sent off a polite email saying of course, I would love to, and would there be a chance to sell my books? And tea. Don’t forget the tea…

Because, unlike Ye Olden Days, if you want to be a professional writer, you can’t do it on your own. You have to go out there, meet people, smile politely and make speeches even though you’d rather crawl under the desk and gibber quietly to yourself. And it gets easier (or so I’m told). It’s quite possible that the smiling, confident chap who’s just given a brilliant talk or is sat signing a pile of books is, as a fellow writer, just as much of a social recluse as you. It’s possible he’s very nearly as nervous. It’s very likely he would welcome a smile, an extended hand, an offer of a pint. He could be an agent looking for just what you’ve written, or an author building an anthology, or just a genuinely nice guy you run into at conventions. If you don’t talk to him, you’ll never know.

TIPS

SMILE (my favourite is the kind of glazed-racoon grin that has people backing away slowly) If you act like you’re having a good time, you may find that you are.

If it’s the kind of event where people wear name badges, brilliant. If not, introduce yourself – “Hi, I’m Doreen from Bristol, pleased to meet you” will probably do it. If the person you talk to dives under the nearest table – congrats, you’ve found another Shy Scribbler. You could sit under the table together and comment on people’s footwear as they pass.

If you can, check who’s going the night before. There may be someone there whose books you like. And nothing (maybe apart from “Can I buy you a pint?”) breaks the ice at author’s gatherings quicker than, “I liked your last book!” Trust me, as an author that’s up there with, “Hey, you won the lottery!” and “I’m from Hollywood, Sam Worthington wants to play Fred in the adaptation of your book….”

Having said all this, I’m off to an academic fantasy writers conference on Saturday and I’ve met very few of the people who are going to be there, and yes, I’m incredibly nervous. Like, throwing-up nervous. Throwing up and hoping that no one who’s going is reading this or they might not want to shake my hand nervous. But I’m going because a) I want to go, b) I can get there (it’s in Glastonbury, which is easy to get to from here), and c) because I NEED to get out there and meet people and not feel sick with fear at the thought, if I’m going to achieve anything in this writing business. So here goes. Hoping I don’t make a complete twit of myself

I will report on how it goes, on the state of people’s footwear, whether I find a friend, and whether I pick up any more tips, this coming Sunday. Wish me luck, and stay tuned for part Two!

Book Review - Skaldenland

2011-08-31T10:21:08Z

SKALDENLAND by JAMES MORTIMORE

HB, 375 pages, Obverse Books

http://obversebooks.co.uk/shop/skaldenland/

“Skaldenland”, eight years in the writing, is James Mortimore’s first original novel, after an apprenticeship (as Jim Mortimore) writing tie-ins for Cracker and Doctor Who. It tells the story of Chad and Brun, brother and sister, whose summer holiday is dramatically interrupted when they find an old, dusty music player in a mysterious junk shop. The Symphonion can play without song discs, but it also has the power to turn summer into winder, and to waken long-dead Norse warriors. And it is taking Brun away from Chad. How can he save her from the Symphonion’s dangerous song, when he isn’t sure how to save himself?

The novel has a surprising and endearing retro feel. It is reminiscent of British children’s fiction from an earlier era, such as “The Box of Delights” or, particularly, Alan Garner’s “The Owl Service”, which has a similar take on Celtic, rather than Nordic, myth. Partly this feel is due to Mortimore’s dramatic use of language, which is places reads more like poetry, and partly due to the strange maturity of Chad and Brun. The whole story seems slightly askew in time, modern yet old-fashioned. It’s a mix that could have been hard to pull off, but it works well here.

The language may be a little too rich for younger readers, and some scenes, notably one featuring walking scarecrows, are unsettling. The brother/sister/lover relationship between Chad/Baldur and Brun/Freya, occasionally skims a little too close to incestuous, with little of the usual quarrelling and sniping that characterises sibling relationships. But the story is sweeping, and epic in tone, scope and ambition.

Let’s hope it doesn’t take another eight years for Mortimore to produce a follow-up.

***
Reposted from http://hierath.wordpress.com/

Bank Holiday Comes Six Times a Year

2011-08-29T09:49:53Z

... and I should not be awake at six am realising that Carousel's trousers had magically turned into a skirt three pages later. Fi diddly dee, a writers wake-up for me!

I was intending to fix that, and then I got distracted by the 6 Music Breakfast Britpop Special. Marion! Gene! Longpigs! My Life Story! Errrr , Kula Shaker (you can't have everything. I turned it back down for that one) All the stuff I used to listen to at college and dance to down ye Olde Indie Disco, which in our case was the Kandi Klub. There may have been dancing... and singing. We have new neighbours. I should go down and apologise.

Which reminded me of this little bit of Divine Comedy brilliance :

"She makes my heart beat the same way / as at the start of Blue Monday..."

Neil Hannon is a genius :)