Great advice for writers

I was browsing the blog of Xchyler publishing and saw this image in a selection of sage sayings from their various writers. It left me absolutely helpless with laughter for several minutes, much to the irritation of my partner and the confusion of one of my cats .

Pre-BristolCon musings

I have upset my cats. They do not approve of me pacing backwards and forwards, practising my reading for BristolCon.

I forgot how challenging readings can be. Trying to find a self-contained, exciting, interesting excerpt of about a thousand worlds is trickier than it sounds, and you really have to practise reading it. It has to be almost automatic, or you dont get a chance to look up at the audience who have (hopefully) gifted you with their time.

So, please feel free to drop by the Doubletree Hotel, this Saturday at 16.45 in room 2, where I shall regale you with a thousand words of Warrior Stone: Underland

Now, if only I had time to prep something for the open mic session.....

Blog Neglect: Stamp it out - TODAY!

Blog, Oh Blog, how have I neglected thee?

I plead the usual defence - stuff happened. Hardly an excuse, because surely I should have been blogging about it. Shouldn't I?

Anyhow, a big part of the stuff has been working with Fox Spirit to get 'Warrior Stone:Underland' ready to launch in the new year. Edits are nearing completion, and we have confirmed the talented Linzi Goldstone as cover artist.

The other BIG THING is that Aphrodite's Dawn is going to be relaunched over Christmas; new cover art, new edit, and available as a paperback. All though Metaphoric Media. Should be available from the week before Christmas.

And the last element of the excuse (apart from a new day job) is that I am currently editing or rewriting THREE books; 'Amunet' (Steampunk Urban Fantasy), 'Maverick' (SF), and 'Warrior Stone: White Magic'. I am hoping 'Maverick' will be published some time around May/June, and 'Amunet' has yet to find a home.

I have a feeling 2014 is going to be a very busy year!

A sudden dramatic pause...

Things at Harkess Hall have suddenly gone quiet. No more frantic scrabbling noises coming from the upstairs office. No more swearing, and heartfelt pleas to the Gods of Editing. Silence descends, eerie and pregnant, broken only by the soft whisper of pages of loose A4 being turned.

The Edit has finished

'Amunet' is released to the beta readers. I sit in my deep leather chair, trying not to bite my fingernails so deeply that I wont be able to work when the reviews come back. A tense time.

The Writer & Artists Yearbook sits before me, unopened, taunting me. Should I tempt fate by starting to list all those prospective agents and publishers to whom my latest work should be submitted. winnowing through the lists to pluck out those most likely to be interested in something YA; Steampunky with hints of Urban Fantasy? I push it resolutely away; after the edits, after Christmas.

Patience.

I got Interviewed

The nice people at Making Connections asked me some interesting questions, and I tried to do them justice with the answers. You can have a look at the interview here. I talk about how my characters work for me, how I balance my writing against my day job, and other stuff.

While I'm throwing links around, my facebook page is feeling lonely and neglected. Drop by and show some love with a 'Like' :)

Want to be a reviewer?

I recently found out that Goodreads they have a program where members can get free copies of books just for doing a review on them. Seems a great idea to me. There's an index for different genres.

Of course, I signed up for this straight away, so if anybody is interested in reviewing my SF story 'Aphrodite's Dawn' click here. If you might be interested in a different story, or different genre, you can still use this link and work your way up the menus to something that tickles your fancy. Lots to chose from, nothing to lose but your inhibitions.

Go on, give it a try :)

First Draft Finished

Just finished the first draft of my current YA project 'Amunet'. 82000 words. W00t!

Its a hell of a feeling when you get to the end. Even though you know you still have to edit it, probably more than once (who am I kidding, way more than once), its still a buzz to get to the end of a first draft. For me, that's when it become real, when it becomes a book. It's whole. There's no more worries about 'can I/will I finish it'. Its there and all you can do now is make it better.

But now to put it away for a bit, and let it stew for a while. I have two books currently in Schroedinger Submission status which I may need to query, two short stories ditto, and there's been a submissions call for an anthology I would really like to get into.

Plus, I should be chasing up some marketing options for Aphrodite's Dawn, my first publish novel. Time to stir the pot on that again, too, I think

Most of all, I want to do some reading. Proper reading, not 'just before bed' reading. Lunchtime reading.

All good :)

ARIA trailer

My good friend and mentor Geoff Nelder has a new book out. Take a look at the trailer here , then drop over to his blog 

Editing Special Treat

I've recently had a chance to work with a new editor. Don't know if it will come to anything, and for that reason not going to say who, or what the work related to.

What I will say is there will be a raft of writers out there who'll scream 'you must be mad' when I dare whisper that I like editors. You can learn so much from a good editor (if you can be bothered). I admit, as in everything to do with this business, there are good ones and bad ones, but I've yet to meet an editor who wasn't able to add something to what we were working on.

I see editors as being a vital part of what we do as writers. Its part of the process: another pair of eyes to look over the story, the lack of the emotional connection, the market/business awareness, getting the 'house style' into place. I suppose there are writers out there who don't need an editor, but there are many more who don't think they do.

For me, I know the value of a good editor. I'm just starting out and I'll take any help I can get. My first editor, Steve Haynes, made a huge difference to my first novel, Aphrodite's Dawn, and a chap by the name of AJ French who edited/published two of my short stories (under my alter ego) was great too.

Hope I get to work some more with this 'new' person.

Too much information?

Social media is a wonderful thing, but I've recently discovered something I never thought about. I follow several publishers/editors, both on Facebook and Twitter. Its good to keep an eye on what the market is doing and what is being released.
The down side is that I have submissions into at least two of these publishers, so when they happily post 'acceptances today' in a message, who can blame me for catching my breath and clutching my hands to my beating heart in hope, watching the inbox for hours, only to slink away, depressed and disheartened, at the end of the day.
Add to this the 'reading a great manuscript' message. Same hopes, longer fade.
OK, so its nice to know that the people you've entrusted your metaphorical children to are actually working hard, but in the back of your mind there is always that little niggle of hope or doubt. Guess that's why they say one of the first attributes a writer needs to develop is a thick skin :)

...and awaaaaay we go...

So, the battle of the outlines is over and the winner is, as usual, a rank outsider. Out with thoughts of adult SF/Horror, in with a delightful YA morsel (currently titles 'Amunet') with a little of something for everybody and an alternate universe to get things started. Can you imagine where we might be if Henry VIII had been a staunch patron of the sciences and the usurper Elizabeth had never been able to topple Mary and he son from the throne? Roll forward 500 years and see what you get.
Already 5000 words in and going strong. It would be just my luck to sell something that needs editing in about a week, just as I really get my momentum up. Not that I'd be complaining, of course. I'm just sayin'.....

Hammer in one hand, screwdriver in the other

Yes, I'm worldbuilding. Again.

Its one of the unique features of being a writer of speculative fiction. At the very least we usually need to bend what relevent reality exists. Usually we end up starting from scratch. Right now, I'm creating a factory that is ring-mining a gas giant and the culture that would go with it. Hell of a lot of work to add to the process or storytelling, but its part of the fun, part of the act of creation.

Still, I can see why so many of my peers tend to prefer trilogies, or same-world series :)

Looks like this one is going to be a bit of departure from my last four novels; for grown ups, rather than YA, and 'dark SF' (if there is such a genre - if not, I guess I just invented it). Still in planning, though, and a long way to go. Still, it takes my mind off wondering how the two I have out on submission are doing.

The fun just never ends :)

Standing at a crossroads...

After many, many longs months of editing and tweaking, my latest two projects are finally at a point where I can throw them out to the market and see if anybody bites. Both are for the Young Adult market; one SF and one Urban Fantasy/Steampunk.

Of course, having macheted my way through that particular jungle, the next problem is what should I start on next? I just looked at my project folder and I have seven books waiting to be written. OK, two are follow-on's from stuff already completed, but I have Vampires, Brain-sucking Aliens, a Psychic, and a baby factory!

Maybe I need to stop having ideas faster than I can write them :) Still, I'm not complaining. Cant think of anything worse than coming to the end of a project and not having any ideas for what to do next :)

Don't ask if you don't want to know...

Most writers brave enough to give their work to somebody else and ask for comments have a vague idea of what's coming back. The depth of the comments and feedback will always depend on the experience of the person you asked to dissect your precious child and, intellectually at least, you are prepared to get back comments and suggestions that feel as though somebody has ripped out several of your internal organs.

Then you read them again the next day, and the pain is (usually) less, and you see which comments you agree with, which ones you don't, and you send back a nice note to the friend who ripped out you heart, thanking them for their help and maybe asking for a clarification or two. Sometimes they are painful, but they are necessary and we learn to take them in the spirit they are intended.

Then there are the writers who ask you for comments, but who are really looking for a mutual back-patting society, where everyody tells them how talented they are and that they are bound to sell this one because its so ground break/innovative/etc/etc. Its often branded as 'being supportive'. I guess it has its place. But then, people can be supportive and honest.

A quick aside, here, to establish my bona fides. I am an active member of the BSFA's 'Orbit' community of mutual critiquers, and I am the co-ordinator for Orbit-4. So I'm used to being on both ends of crits, on a regular basis.

I had a situation recently where somebody was asking for people to look at a published book and comment. I thought that was a bit odd. You normally ask that sort of question before publication. Now, to make this easier to write, I'm going to say this person was a lady, but she may not have been, in the sense of preserving anonymity.

So I read the free bit from the Amazon page, and while I was there had a look at the comments. The sample looked as though it had not had the benefit of a professional editor, the publisher was not one I had ever heard of, and the eleven 5* reviews all consisting of two words, like 'good read' and 'excellent book'. I pointed out how fake that looked (in the kindest way), asked about the editor, and made a few fairly gentle comments about things I saw as potential issues with the book.

Not a word back, not even a thank you. And I guess that's OK if you think what some authors have vented into the cybersphere when they've had negative comments made. Still, its made me think twice now about extending a 'helping hand' in the future. I guess the moral is be sure what you ask for is what you really want. And even if what you get back isn't what you expected, at least say thanks.

What is urban fantasy?

OK, this may sound a bit of an odd one, but I have been struggling with this for a while. See, my definition of urban fantasy is, in a nutshell, Harry Dresden. It's fantasy, in a mundane urban environment, usually where the general populace don't have a clue of what is lurking in the shadows around them. Simon R Green's 'Nightside' books come broadly into this catagory, as do Tim Waggoner's Matt Richter series.

But then along comes the 'new' Urban Fantasy: Buffy! Kim Harrison! A plethora of hard hitting 'girls with attitude and the moves to make it stick'. Mandatory love triangle, usually involving at least one paranormal. The cynic in me says its a highjack job - paranormal romance looking to get respectable by including some rough and tumble :) I'm mostly kidding. Mostly.

I read an interesting blog today. The long and diverse history of urban fantasy, by Carrie Vaughn. She nails the hijack down to around 2007. Dresden started around 2000, Nightside around 2003. I dont know enough about Waggoner's work to say if Richter is his only Urban Fantasy, but that was around 2009, so it sounds about right. Anyhow, her article is well worth looking over.

I've no problem with a genre evolving. Heck, I really like Kim Harrison's work (and love the pun titles), and Buffy works on so many levels for me its unreal. I also love the 'Demon Trappers' trilogy by Jana Oliver. But at the same time, there is a sense of Urban Fantasy as a label being refined down, and excluding much of what it once was in favour of marketing it to an ever more specific slice of readers. That I am not in favour of . Genres are already too specialised, and the boundaries between them are already to high.

The positive side of rejections

We all get them -writers and rejections, I mean. OK, probably not Steven King, but you get my point.

Thing is, they aren't always a bad thing. Maybe that doesn't make sense. Allow me to expand.

I think creators - so that's artists, writers, etc - need three things to keep them going, rather like a fire. A fire needs fuel, oxidizer and ignition. Creative types need inspiration, dedication and - probably most importantly - appreciation.

It doesn't have to be much, but its the lack of appreciation that grinds me down. And no, I'm not talking about screaming hoards of fans besieging stores at book launches (though I cant say it wouldn't be nice). Appreciation is just a little something that lets you know that somebody out there values what you are doing in some way. It can be a tiny thing, like someone dropping you an email with a nice comment, or someone on GoodReads giving you a healthy number of stars. And the more personal it is, the better. Getting a story accepted is right up their near the top.

So how can a rejection score on the appreciation side? Its how its delivered. Lots of publishers only send regular, impersonal rejections. I can understand why; they don't have a lot of time and being too honest could kick off a firestorm. So 'form' rejections are an expectedly crushing disappointment, but we live with them.

Personal rejections are rare and treasured. You find out more about why your work didn't fit, and you know that the editor or publisher thought highly enough of you to take the time to send you a personal message. Its appreciation, and between peers.

I got one this weekend. One of the three best rejections I've ever had, and it couldn't have come at a better time. For various reasons I've been feeling a little down and demotivated for most of this year, but right now I feel my mojo has returned and I am kicking serious ass on a couple of projects I haven't felt able to tackle.

Always look for the silver lining, I say :)

...but I don't read kids books

I was having a chat with a colleague in my day job and had somehow managed to casually drop into the conversation that I had published my first book - as authors do. The initial response was all interest and 'wow' until we got to the 'what's it about' bit. As soon as I mentioned it was 'YA' said person flinched away and said 'I don't read kids books'.

Now I was quite surprised by the instant rejection. I thought about marshalling arguments based on Potter, but the moment passed. The surprise didn't go away, though. I mean, I wonder how many people think of YA as 'kids books'? Someone should do a survey.

See, I disagree with that. OK, maybe I'm biased, but I haven't read a YA book yet that wouldn't appeal to an adult who read the same genre. Anyone who likes Jim Butcher's work would probably like The Demon Trappers trilogy by Jana Oliver Its interesting to see that some of the books I read ages ago as 'adult' have now been re-branded (or cross-branded) as YA. David Eddings 'Belgariad' springs to mine.

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this, and if you are one of the 'I don't read kids books' try one and see. Preferably mine, of course.

First 5* Review for Aphrodite's Dawn

I haven't read any SF for decades. There was a time when I read as many books in the genre as possible, often up to six books a week. Then I got older and discovered the gory joys of horror novels. Recently, a friend recommended this book by a new author and I decided to give it a go. I was delighted, the narrative gripped me from the first page, always a good sign. The writing, characters and settings are excellent and the story keeps up the tension throughout. A thoroughly good SF tale that is enjoyable from start to finish. I may not go back to reading SF, but I will keep reading work by R.B. Harkess..."

Well thank you kindly, Demonica

A milestone, sort of

I just reached the halfway point in my current project; rewriting a 100,000 word story.

The story, code name TAVOG, started out as an adult SF/Fantasy  mashup and I fought with it from the minute I finished the first draft. It didn't want to be edited. It was like pulling teeth without anaesthetic for me. Who can guess what it was like for the story.

Anyhow, a very competent editor associated with a major genre publisher cast an eye over it, came up with a couple of very good points, then pulled the pin out of the grenade and dropped it on the table. "This would probably work well as YA" sez he, over his shoulder as he heads for the hills.

So that's the project. Rewrite 100000 words into a YA story. Easy? No. The original story was written from three different points of view, two of which were very much 'grown-up'. Now there may be a YA novel out there somewhere that fits that model, but I've not seen one. Ripping out two points of view and rearranging the story cost me (so far) 22,000 words, one awesome character, and a lot of skull sweat.

Having said that, what's coming out of the process is really exiting, and I'm sure its going to be a much better book when its completed. Never let them convince you writers don't need editors :)

Young Adult Book Theatre

I just joined Young Adult Book theatre. Is a great site, showcasing some of the best new YA material from some innovative small press and indie writers. There are games, too, and load of other interesting bit. Worth a look

http://yabooktheater.weebly.com/