Category Archives: General

NaNo So-So

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I’m still plugging away with my ‘new’ idea – I’m definitely getting more written, just in writing  scenes that are quite clear in my head at this point. It’s a bit scatter-gun as I’m jumping forwards and backwards in the chapters of the story, so probably will be a bit inconsistent when I come back and re-read for editing.

Best solutions so far to the dreaded block? A playlist that gets me picturing the scenes like a mini-film in my head (you’ve got to have a montage!) and just jumping from one action / dialogue piece to another 🙂 Let’s see how we go from here.

If you’re interested, here’s the prologue updated a bit…

It wasn’t late – only about six o’clock – but the dark rain clouds hanging over the city had brought an unnatural, early night with them. He liked the darkness, so this was perfect. He was hungry and it had been a long journey. He wouldn’t wait to feed – he never did.

Crouching on the turret of the cathedral clock tower, he watched the figures below in the busy street. The little people scurried here and there, many of them hidden beneath a multi-coloured sea of umbrellas, trying to avoid the unexpected rain. It was the outskirts of the city and there were too many people here in the crowds, but from his position he could see that beyond the train station and bridge their numbers began to dwindle.

There would be a good place to start.

 

*   *   *

Corinne Hawkes sloshed her way quickly down the busy street, through the crowds of people ambling along the pavement. The weather was horrendous, with heavy rain pounding down, so you couldn’t escape getting soaked.

Why would you want to be out in this if you didn’t have to be?

People were crazy, she concluded, as she squeezed herself between a dawdling couple and the steam-filled window of a coffee shop. The air was full of brightness and colour – it wasn’t even December yet, but the Christmas shopping season with all the lights and the street markets was in full swing. Seeing everyone else carefree made her even grumpier that she was on her way to work. The holiday season was no fun, if you weren’t part of it.

She was past the crowds now and able to move faster. The alleyway to the right was unpleasant – filled with stinking bins and fire exits that looked like they’d never been used in the last ten years – but anything that offered a faster way to get out of this weather was a good thing in Corinne’s mind.

At the start of the street, where the people were still close-by, Corinne felt fine. But, as she hurried deeper into the dank, darkness of the alley she felt strange. An odd sensation at the back of her neck, under her hair, prickled on her skin. Corinne shivered and began to move faster, as cold fingers trickled down her spine telling her she was being followed or watched from the shadows. It suddenly dawned on her, how vulnerable she was in the deserted passageway: no one would notice if anything happened down here.

Why are you thinking about stuff like that right now?!

She shook her head, scolding herself for getting wound up. “It’s nothing,” she muttered, sounding convincing. Even so, as she stuffed her hands deep into her coat pocket and found her house keys, she gripped them tightly in her fist, pointing them out through her knuckles. You know, just in case.

She escaped the alleyway, only to be greeted by a fresh blast of wind, which pushed more rain straight into her face. It was a really bad day to have come out without an umbrella.

You’ve been living here for two years now, you should know that Manchester can always guarantee you rain.

Pulling the hood of her jacket tighter against her face, Corinne ignored the zebra crossing further up the street – one hundred metres felt a long way today – and sprinted across the main road instead, dodging the two nearest, slow moving cars.

Up ahead the tram station beckoned: bright green sign and white florescent lights. Wood Green Road station. It was like a beacon, shining through the darkness and calling her in with the promise of shelter.

“Finally,” she muttered and scurried into the station, pausing for a few, drippy minutes at the ticket machine. Her wet fingers stuck to everything as she searched through her purse to find change, but eventually her gluey hands found what she needed and she pushed a few coins into the slot and grabbed her ticket from the tray at the bottom.

NaNo – No no…

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Head Desk Day 13 of NaNoWriMo and I’m really not doing very well… Four weeks ago, when I was finishing RMT I was bubbling over with enthusiasm and ideas for another book: scenes kept springing into my head, one-shots were pretty much writing themselves, cover design was done in a single sitting….

Then 1st November rolls around and pfft – nothing, nada, zilch. I tried the next day and the next – I tried the prologue, and skipped forward to chapter 1, because I wasn’t really feeling good about the writing. I tried jumping ahead to some of the ‘action scenes’ thinking they might spur me on (yeah – I’m not even going to bother letting you see those). By 4th November, I had a grand total of 462 words:

Prologue

“How can there be this much friggin’ rain?”

Corinne Smith was muttering to herself as ran for the shelter of the tram station platform. Her feet squelched inside soggy boots as she stomped down the stairs, annoyed that no one had thought to enclose them to protect passengers from the elements. Twenty seconds later, she stepped into a dark, damp recess on the platform and out of the storm.

She shook her head, which made ringlets of wet hair stick to her face and the inside of her hooded coat. I hate being damp.

(Note: Insert major action scene to draw in reader and bump off this lovely lady in a pretty gruesome fashion).

The creature pulled himself up into a tree, his long finger nails sinking into the wet bark. It was an easy climb for him up to a low branch, which gave a good view of the platform and his recent handiwork. He didn’t miss being human, not one bit, but that didn’t stop him being fascinated by them.

hapter 1

“Beth! Psst – Beth!”

I turned in the direction of the voice. As did half of the people on the tables surrounding me – they obviously didn’t appreciate being interrupted either. My fellow students looked at the whispering girl and then glared around the library workspace until they identified the other guilty party. Perfect, it was me.

Please don’t come over, please don’t come over…

“Hey!” Kerry greeted me, at full, normal ‘non-library’ volume, as she plopped into the chair opposite.

“Hey,” I whispered back, closing my books and piling them together as quickly and quietly as possible.

“Are you finished?” Kerry continued, still on full volume.

“I am now!” I hissed back, getting out of my seat and grabbing the book tower I’d just made. There was no point trying to continue working and I was eager to get away from the death-stares we were receiving from the people studying around us.

With my books in my arms, I hurried through the library stacks, passing dozens of bookcases with shelves crammed full of every type of book and document you could imagine. Kerry trotted along behind, close at my heels until we passed through the glass doors into the main library entrance hall.

As soon as we moved into the hall, we broke out of the bubble of silence that existed inside the main library and re-entered the normal world,

“Who the hell says psst, anyway? You sounded like a character from a bad spy film or something.”

“Whatever – I stand by my method of extraction.” Kerry shrugged. “I had to get you out of there: you were turning into one of those brainiac zombies who devours books and craves silence.”

I nodded, in mock-agreement. “Yeah – those guys are crazy. You’d think they were there to learn or something, who’d want to do that when you’re a student?”

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So, for the last nine days I’ve been stuck – I really like this story (the one in my head, not the one I’ve managed to get down on paper), but my mojo has definitely gone. I’ve 17 days left in November – and I actually think I could still complete the challenge – but I don’t think it will be with this book: there’s too much planning and prep to put into it, to write something I’m not sure I’m ready to write.

Maybe if I want a break from Ambrosia but can’t get into gear on this piece, I should try something else… ?

Your thoughts (and any additional word count you can offer!) would be gratefully received!

 

Horrorfest is coming…Join Us

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After the success of our Indie Month at Aside from Writing in May, I really wanted to do another ‘feature month’ on the blog – and here it is!

We’ll be hosting our first ‘horror fest’ in October on the run up to Halloween. As this is the first time we’ve done it we’re looking for horror authors, or just creative types with spooky short stories up their sleeves, to take part. We’d also love to feature some reviews by bloggers of any ghost / horror books they’ve read and would like to share with us.

Our own group of authors who run the blog will be testing their skills writing in the genre and posting them for you to scream (or laugh) at. We’d really love to feature more short stories from the creepy side of life, so if you’ve got one you’d like to showcase – get in touch! We also have a range of other features to offer authors – if you would like to take part, with an interview, guest post or ‘book of the day’ feature, please contact us at bonniesyorkie at gmail dot com

(You know what to do with the email address, put the right symbols in to keep the spammers from our door!)

 

 

 

Just Finished…Letters from the Ledge

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“Long time, no read, eh?”

That sounds about right 🙂 I’ve spent the free time I’ve had in the last few months pushing through completing The Rainbow Maker’s Tale to get the ARC version completed. I’m currently doing the final edits, small re-writes in scenes which aren’t quite working, before the final proof reads get done and it goes for release. This has been a long time coming – over a year on from the intended release date. I think last year I spent more time reading, blogging and marketing, instead of writing, which is really what you need to do if you want to finish a book 😉 At the start of this year I decided 2013 would be about the writing – and so far, I’ve stuck to that promise reasonably well.

I’ve not read a huge amount so far this year, mainly when I was on holiday and so allowed myself some ‘free’ time. I’ve been away again, and with some long journeys and a bit of relaxation time, I found some time to read. And, so here’s my first review in a l-o-n-g time 🙂

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Letters from the Ledge   Still reeling from the suicide of his best friend Tess, seventeen-year old Brendan struggles to overcome addiction and identity issues. Walking the ledge outside his Manhattan apartment has become its own sort of drug, as he stands night after night with his arms outstretched, ready to fly away. Sarah can see him from her window, and begins journaling about a boy on a ledge. Paige and Nate, a young couple in another building, can see both teens from their fire escape. None of them know the others are watching, but a strong desire for freedom resides in each of them, and as their lives begin to intertwine, that desire will be tested. Anyone can jump, but not everyone can fly… Sharp, humorous, and deeply layered, this chronicle of a suicidal teen’s survival explores the reality of addiction and other tough issues, but does so easily, through the use of multiple perspectives, intelligent dialogue and authentic characters. Equal parts romance, contemporary drama, and coming of age, this highly engaging and intensely beautiful novel challenges our cultural perceptions in the battle for balance.

Rating: 4* 

This was an unexpectedly enjoyable read. I have to admit that the blurb didn’t really bowl me over, and so this book has wallowed on my kindle for a fair while. I just began reading it on a whim, deciding to clear off some of the oldest books on my TBR list…I was quickly sucked in.

I really enjoyed the multiple perspectives that the third-person narrator moves through. It delivers the story in a nicely balanced way, drawing together the different elements. Each was well defined, and noticeably different from the others, and so made them realistic. I also found the dialogue pace-y and well-written.

The plot is not as ‘heavy’ as the blurb suggested to me – yes, it covers some difficult areas, like drugs/drink, self-harm, violence and grief – however, each difficult element was integrated with the characters in believable ways. The examination of relationships: parental, friends, boyf/girlf and business were all intricately woven between the various character perspectives and action of the book.

Overall, I enjoyed it, found it well-written and quick to read, when I sat down with it (reading the last half in a couple of days). NB. Given some of the subject matter, I would recommend for ages 16 and up.

More Covers…

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Following on from a previous post about covers and gender, I had another look at some of mine. I suppose the main ‘target audience’ for Hope’s Daughter is female, young adult, and so the cover was geared towards my taste and ideas, and more than likely a more ‘feminine’ style. (Any blokes who can offer insight as to whether it is girly or not, in their opinion, would be appreciated).

I don’t think it’s overly ‘girly’ – but the focus on the Earth and female eye are quite pretty, and the plain white background (in my head reminiscent of the white world she lives in) possibly leans away from darker, masculine elements you tend to find in covers elsewhere. One thing I did want to do in designing the cover was down-play the sci-fi setting, as it is not a sci-fi book in the traditional genre sense, just set in space.

The Rainbow Maker’s Tale, although told from a male perspective, is primarily aimed at the same audience. The cover is a direct reflection of the first – to reinforce that it is a different side to the same story/timeframe – is this girly? Or are both books on the borderline, gender-neutral? I’m feeling all confused, tbh.

As a bit of an experiment, I played around with the covers – not major changes as I didn’t want it to take too much time. But, I started with the idea that Balik’s story comes first, and how it might be different…any thoughts?

RMT - Cover - 5RMT - Male Test

Songs to Live By

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We all have them: songs from real life, songs from films… They stay with us for a long time and often the significance of them doesn’t change. But, do you use them much for books, either in writing them or reading them?

I’ve noticed more and more writers revealing their ‘playlists’ from when they were writing certain books and although I use them a little, wasn’t sure it was worth bothering people with a snapshot into my cheesy music collection to show how the Greatest Hits of Haddaway has inspired my creative endeavours.

Not that it’s something I tend to dwell on, but I know quite a lot of people who have thought about what they might have played at their funeral. I’m sincerely hoping that my pal who wanted Chris Rea ‘Road to Hell’ was joking – I’m 99% sure they were.

Top Ten Funeral Songs

I’m sure most of you could guess that ‘My Way’ would be on the top ten list – although I wonder if that’s how people really think they’ve done it, or more that it presents what they would like people to take away about them…? Is it just a rumour that Frank Sinatra had ‘My Way’ played at his funeral? For him, it would make sense, just like ‘Over the Rainbow’ being sung at Judy Garland’s. In any case, I don’t see many people looking to have ‘Barbie Girl’ by Aqua as their swan song, no matter how much pink they’ve worn or plastic they’ve had put into themselves.

I have been to a funerals where Always Look on the Bright Side of Life and Don’t Worry, Be Happy, have been the last tunes played – it definitely worked for those lovely individuals and getting people to smile, at your funeral, is surely an achievement. 

There are some beautiful, moving songs that although I love them, I probably would not want to have featured as ‘my last request’ (even if God is a DJ). So, although I’m not fully decided, I kind of lean towards the mellow, with a slightly upbeat message. 

I suppose it is a bit ‘My Way-ish’ when you look at the lyrics – but in my head it works.

Anyway – let’s move away from the depressing stuff! Book playlists – do they interest you? Do you do them for yourself, to inspire you to write, or even for books you’ve read? I occasionally take part in ‘Song on Sunday’ meme from Confessions of a Bookaholic blog and find that certain songs that are around at the time I’m reading remind me of characters or the book itself. You can take a look at some of my old ones and see if you agree.

For myself, I never used to make playlists, although I had certain music pieces that I would listen to and – a bit like a movie trailer – would see the whole book plot played out from start to end. The plot for Hope’s Daughter played out to this piece, The Final Fight, taken from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Radio Sunnydale album.

I’m sure you can guess that the ‘movie trailer’ had lots of exciting chase sequences, falling off cliffs and stolen glances, in my head at least. After opening on the space station and external images of Earth, the images moved on, building through some nice boy-girl stuff with Cassie and Balik (for about the first minute). Then the secrets start to come out, questions linger until with a sudden change, you’re into the fast-paced cliff-dropping, life-and-death, chase/fight stuff. If I was a real director, and didn’t have to rely on making book trailers with stock footage, this is what Hope’s Daughter would actually look like on You Tube. *wishful sigh* I don’t see me getting props, budget, actors and costumes for that do you? Unless I raid some kind of sci-fi convention, and I’m not they’d be up for it, if it wasn’t canon. Oh well – at least the music helped me write the book and visualise the overall plot.

Have things changed? They have a little, I suppose. I find that I do now consciously build more of a playlist when I’m in the early planning stages of the books – either to get my head into a world of images and emotions generated by the songs, or the characters, if the songs remind me of them and their experiences. I can then dip back into them – not necessarily as I’m writing, but when I get stuck – to remind myself of where we’re supposed to be going. I’m easily distracted, what can I say? Ooh look – a puppy!

In the future I might post the playlists on here to go with the books as they come out – it will be interesting to see whether people agree with me, or simply question my terrible, albeit random, music choices 🙂

Cover Thoughts

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I’ve just come across this interesting article from the Huffington Post, about gender bias on book covers. If I’m honest, it was probably only something I noticed on the more obvious books like romance novels and chick-lit, rather than every book I pick up. Take a look at the article and see what you think of their cover re-dos of some famous books.

Huffington Post – Gender-Biased Covers

For traditional books, I could see this making sense – do you remember when the Harry Potter books launched the ‘adult’ covers (around book five), for those people who didn’t want to be seen reading a child’s book? I have a oddly mixed collection of HP, because I just went for the covers I liked the look of best.

Half-Blood Prince - Kid Cover

Maybe it is a reflection of the story content, that I tend to have the ‘adult’ covers for the later books, when everything got a lot darker and difficult. In contrast with the brightly coloured early covers of the first few books, where the main focus was the excitement of this new magic world Harry fell into. Perhaps the beauty of that series is that you read some parts as a kidult and others as an adult…?

Half-Blood Prince - Adult Cover

But, that was before the advent of the e-reader – I could be reading anything, feminine cover or not, inside my little black-cased Kindle these days. Will this make a difference in the future? Will covers continue to matter, or do they mean less  now that you can sample the chapters, and judge a book by that, rather than its cover?

It gets you thinking about your own book covers then – are they feminine, masculine or neither? It’s difficult to tell sometimes – especially if you are perhaps writing from a specific character point of view that you feel will appeal more to one group of readers than another, you perhaps ‘angle’ in that direction.

Any thoughts?

Changes

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“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Frederick Douglass

Thanks for the advice Fred. I appreciate it – I really do – I just wish there was a little more progress, a little less struggle. Any advice on how to get that?

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During most of 2011 I was probably doing very little writing: I was having a very busy period at work as I recall and just got down to writing now and then when I had the chance. Once in a while I was probably sitting down with my dog-earred print out of Hope’s Daughter version 3, jotting in notes and re-reading for errors, but no significant work. It was only in September and October last year that I really got the chance to work on the book, finish it off and get it out there.

How has 2012 been different?

Because I released Hope’s Daughter at the start of the year, I found myself in a whole new world of blogs and readers, Goodreads and reviewers. It’s been a busy time 🙂

This year I’ve not just had to find time to write the next book and plan the others, I’ve been out and about trying to promote the first book; I discovered the wonderful world of book blogs, which have re-awoken the reader in me, and also meant that I’ve read a lot more than I have done in years. (Yep, pretty much watch nil TV these days, unless it’s out of the corner of my eye around a laptop or kindle). For the two blogs I started this year I’ve reviewed quite a lot, written content from an author perspective, as well as reader; run an author event in May and provided regular guest features on writing and books to (hopefully) inspire people a little. I’m also a mod for a group on Goodreads (a hermit one admittedly, who is probably very poor at getting stuff done, but I promise to be better!)

For my own writing, I’ve nearly finished the second book and am halfway through the third; I’ve designed the covers for the rest of the series so that they all work together, and made book trailers to go with most of them. There’s also ideas for two other stand-alone books that have popped into my head, which I definitely want to tackle after Ambrosia is finished.

What might 2013 hold?

I hope a little more writing of my books and a bit less elsewhere if I’m honest. Admittedly, trying to manage a couple of blogs, be good at social media (which I’m not very), keep up on Goodreads, read several books a week AND actually do any productive writing was probably a bit too much…but that’s how I get – I discover new things and want to do everything, see everything and get involved (think puppy and new tennis ball and that’s about right).

I’m hoping that Santa might have some time management skills and perspective in a little gift bag for me this year – I probably don’t need to do everything…and maybe the most important bit is to actually just get writing and let the other bits fall into place…?

Anyone, out there got this figured out better than me? 🙂 Happy holidays!!

Sliding Doors…

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It’s interesting how life works sometimes and how random conversations or observations become bigger things…

Last week I was microwaving my lunch at work (as you do) and a woman from another office came into the kitchen. She had one of those fancy Kindle covers with a light, which I’d been wondering about buying and so we began chatting about that. Unsurprisingly, I asked “what are you reading?” and she began telling me about how she was writing a book (post-apocolypse, sci-fi-ish) and doing some mood reading for that by tackling Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’.

I’d only popped in to grab a quick five-minute lunch before heading back to the desk, but have now found myself with a real life writing buddy, which is really great as most of my writing friends are available only via email or Goodreads!

We chatted about our writing and general book stuff, and afterwards it got me thinking about the other little random moments that happen to you or that you read, which then end up in your writing…

In Hope’s Daughter and The Rainbow Maker’s Tale, Park 42 is the place they go to escape from life – to talk about things they don’t understand and try and find answers…Anyone who’s read ‘The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy’ will know that ’42’ is the answer to life, the universe and everything. Likewise, Park 17, very randomly is the name of a local industrial estate. When we were at high school, we’d sit on the grassland inside Park 17 (now more industrial units) and do the usual stuff that teenagers do: talk about rubbish with your friends; lie and watch the sun in the sky, because it’s the holidays and you’ve got forever to do nothing; and generally avoid doing anything productive.