Thursday, March 17, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Multiples
Another lovely writing day.
I spent a good four hours rewriting my 7,000-word short story The Spletter Messenger, the ending in particular. I've read through this story too many times now. I'm going to shelf it for a few days and continue on with my new YA fantasy novel. I'm plotting for 50,000 words. My science-fantasy novel, Ophiuchi and the Weather God is still with Angry Robot. I submitted it a week ago, haven't heard back from them yet.
The Spletter Messenger is the Ophiuchi universe. It's about a stranded spell letter messenger in the shielded city of Vancouver, Canada. Months before the story kicks off, we learn that he was mugged by a motley crew of drugged-up zombies on Halloween. They stole his strandpack, with his time-traveling strand of angel hair, and left him literally stranded in West Vancouver. We're introduced to the half-leprechaun character, Patrick Rowan, in the forested coastal mountains. He's quarreling with the spletter. It's defective, suffered radiation poisoning in the luminiferous ether. He climbs the mountain trail every evening, to spot where he popped into the world, and waits for a rescue team.
They don't come come for him.
Months later, he finds himself walking around the strange city like a fish out of water. Most people have replicants, even the lower-class, though less fashionable and damaged. There are Zip-a-Dee pods everywhere, rent-by-the-minute vehicles. And most everyone appears to be submersed in their Synesthete capsules, the city cluttered with capsule hotels. Only the dirt poor walk the earth, and they remind him of lepers.
It's during one of his long morning walks around the Seawall that he crosses path with Ophiuchi, heir to the multinational corporation Suzuki Air, a deceptively innocent-looking Japanese teenage girl complete with school uniform and pouty lips. She's a force to be reckoned with, he soon finds. And it wasn't as though they'd met by chance either. She'd tracked him down.
It's a fine story, I think.
I went back and listened to several podcasts from Writing Excuses. I love listening to Brandon Sanderson et al between writing sessions. He's a true inspiration, and one hell of a prolific writer. I listening to Season 2, Episodes 26-29.
Then I reread my favorite chapters from Ophiuchi. I actually like the book. It's going to be heart-wrenching once a critical reader rips into it. But it'll be good for the book. It's always for the greater good of the writing.
I was walking to buy a used desk chair the other day, which I'm sitting on now, and quite comfortably at that, when the teen novel dropped into my head. The way it came to me was similar to my other books, during long walks and long hot showers. I was kind of encouraged by the advice Brandon Sanderson gave to his friend Dan Wells. To paraphrase, Brandon basically told him to stop talking about the book and get writing it. So I grabbed my chair and headed back to my dormitory room at Hanshin University campus, a seminary school. I know, crazy, but affordable.
I need to get saving. I'm missing out on my writing life here. I have to get back to Kingston, Ontario, soon. I'm missing all the book conventions, the cons, like the Hugo Awards in Montreal last year, Anticipation. Missing that one hurt real bad. But I exchanged words with William Gibson and Neal Stephenson a few years back, so I'm content enough. And I ran into Douglas Coupland at a used bookstore in West Vancouver years back as well. Spider Robinson at Indigo Books was a fun time. I wanted desperately to tag along with his crew afterward. I'd love to meet Brandon Sanderson, John Scalzi, and Charles Stross, just to name three.
Anyway, back to the writing of my new teen science-fantasy novel. Well, it's not so much as my first as it is my first one written in first-person. Years ago I thought about following the footsteps at Darren Shan and pumping as many short 50,000-word novels as I could. But I got lost in long third-person epics for like four years instead.
The book is going to be a blend of Stephen King's The Talisman and . . .
It's basically about a teenager who lives simultaneously in two parallel worlds. It's in the Ophiuchi universe because it took me the better part of twenty years to develop its magic system etc. Anyway, on the morning of his sixteenth birthday, he awakes in Hell, or Inferno. He's a demon. When he sleeps there, he wakes up back home in Purgatorio. Twelve hour intervals. But this is where it gets interesting. It's not a static universe, or parallel universes. His lives begin multiplying, from twelve-hour sleep cycles to eight, then six, then four, then two, then . . . each of the new cycles coming with a new life. During this time he meets another multiple, a female, and they embark across multiple worlds and lives to bring an end to it before they lose their sanity. But not all there multiples get along, some fall in love, out of love, some grow to hate one another, some hate the sight of one another from moment they lay eyes on one another . . A world full of multiples, but ONE multiplier, the antagonist . . . the Devil.
I'm going to plot the book as a ten-book series . . . after posting this on my new writing blog. I may very well delete this little brainstorming session later down the road, but probably not. The world is full of good novel ideas. Ideas are cheap. Writing them is a whole other story.
I spent a good four hours rewriting my 7,000-word short story The Spletter Messenger, the ending in particular. I've read through this story too many times now. I'm going to shelf it for a few days and continue on with my new YA fantasy novel. I'm plotting for 50,000 words. My science-fantasy novel, Ophiuchi and the Weather God is still with Angry Robot. I submitted it a week ago, haven't heard back from them yet.
The Spletter Messenger is the Ophiuchi universe. It's about a stranded spell letter messenger in the shielded city of Vancouver, Canada. Months before the story kicks off, we learn that he was mugged by a motley crew of drugged-up zombies on Halloween. They stole his strandpack, with his time-traveling strand of angel hair, and left him literally stranded in West Vancouver. We're introduced to the half-leprechaun character, Patrick Rowan, in the forested coastal mountains. He's quarreling with the spletter. It's defective, suffered radiation poisoning in the luminiferous ether. He climbs the mountain trail every evening, to spot where he popped into the world, and waits for a rescue team.
They don't come come for him.
Months later, he finds himself walking around the strange city like a fish out of water. Most people have replicants, even the lower-class, though less fashionable and damaged. There are Zip-a-Dee pods everywhere, rent-by-the-minute vehicles. And most everyone appears to be submersed in their Synesthete capsules, the city cluttered with capsule hotels. Only the dirt poor walk the earth, and they remind him of lepers.
It's during one of his long morning walks around the Seawall that he crosses path with Ophiuchi, heir to the multinational corporation Suzuki Air, a deceptively innocent-looking Japanese teenage girl complete with school uniform and pouty lips. She's a force to be reckoned with, he soon finds. And it wasn't as though they'd met by chance either. She'd tracked him down.
It's a fine story, I think.
I went back and listened to several podcasts from Writing Excuses. I love listening to Brandon Sanderson et al between writing sessions. He's a true inspiration, and one hell of a prolific writer. I listening to Season 2, Episodes 26-29.
Then I reread my favorite chapters from Ophiuchi. I actually like the book. It's going to be heart-wrenching once a critical reader rips into it. But it'll be good for the book. It's always for the greater good of the writing.
I was walking to buy a used desk chair the other day, which I'm sitting on now, and quite comfortably at that, when the teen novel dropped into my head. The way it came to me was similar to my other books, during long walks and long hot showers. I was kind of encouraged by the advice Brandon Sanderson gave to his friend Dan Wells. To paraphrase, Brandon basically told him to stop talking about the book and get writing it. So I grabbed my chair and headed back to my dormitory room at Hanshin University campus, a seminary school. I know, crazy, but affordable.
I need to get saving. I'm missing out on my writing life here. I have to get back to Kingston, Ontario, soon. I'm missing all the book conventions, the cons, like the Hugo Awards in Montreal last year, Anticipation. Missing that one hurt real bad. But I exchanged words with William Gibson and Neal Stephenson a few years back, so I'm content enough. And I ran into Douglas Coupland at a used bookstore in West Vancouver years back as well. Spider Robinson at Indigo Books was a fun time. I wanted desperately to tag along with his crew afterward. I'd love to meet Brandon Sanderson, John Scalzi, and Charles Stross, just to name three.
Anyway, back to the writing of my new teen science-fantasy novel. Well, it's not so much as my first as it is my first one written in first-person. Years ago I thought about following the footsteps at Darren Shan and pumping as many short 50,000-word novels as I could. But I got lost in long third-person epics for like four years instead.
The book is going to be a blend of Stephen King's The Talisman and . . .
It's basically about a teenager who lives simultaneously in two parallel worlds. It's in the Ophiuchi universe because it took me the better part of twenty years to develop its magic system etc. Anyway, on the morning of his sixteenth birthday, he awakes in Hell, or Inferno. He's a demon. When he sleeps there, he wakes up back home in Purgatorio. Twelve hour intervals. But this is where it gets interesting. It's not a static universe, or parallel universes. His lives begin multiplying, from twelve-hour sleep cycles to eight, then six, then four, then two, then . . . each of the new cycles coming with a new life. During this time he meets another multiple, a female, and they embark across multiple worlds and lives to bring an end to it before they lose their sanity. But not all there multiples get along, some fall in love, out of love, some grow to hate one another, some hate the sight of one another from moment they lay eyes on one another . . A world full of multiples, but ONE multiplier, the antagonist . . . the Devil.
I'm going to plot the book as a ten-book series . . . after posting this on my new writing blog. I may very well delete this little brainstorming session later down the road, but probably not. The world is full of good novel ideas. Ideas are cheap. Writing them is a whole other story.
Friday, March 11, 2011
En Route
I'm seriously considering going the self-publishing route again. I self-published two science-fantasy novels with Lulu five years ago, but didn't know what the hell I was doing. It's going to be different this time around.
1) I'm going to commision Claudia McKinney for some cover art. I found her through Amanda Hocking. McKinney's portfolio is hauntingly familiar, see my characters throughout her works. I'd also like to commission some rough black and white sketches for the chapter headings, perhaps as many as 30. The book is broken down into three acts: Purgatorio, Paradisio, and Inferno. I may very well buy three black and white sketches for each of the acts.
That said, I'm also interested in Vincent Chong, but doubt whether I can afford his services. He works with traditional publishing houses, but that's okay. I can always daydream about it. I contacted Vincent a while back, made an enquiry. He responded within a day or two. I discovered Vincent through John Scalzi's Whatever.
2) Find a reasonably-priced graphic artist to incorporate McKinney's artwork and produce a professional traditional publisher-quality layout, front, back, and spine.
3) Decide whether to pay to have it copyedited and edited. I'm in contact with a few freelance editors, looking at a couple of thousand dollars for 80,000-word science-fantasy novel. I don't have that kind of money.
4) Find someone else to do the interior design. I'm in contact with a few freelance graphic designers, looking at another grand.
5) Research book blogs and contact reviewers with published ARCs. Hopefully, someone will take time out of their busy reading schedules to read through the book. With any luck, word of mouth.
6) Publish Ophiuchi as an ebook through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and as a paperback through Lulu, though I'm also considering self-publishing through Lightning Source. The good thing about Lightning Source is that you can chose your publisher name. I'd like to publish my books under Or Books. I like the sound of it, sounds alternative.
But, of course, all this is contingent on being passed over by Angry Robot in the next few weeks.
1) I'm going to commision Claudia McKinney for some cover art. I found her through Amanda Hocking. McKinney's portfolio is hauntingly familiar, see my characters throughout her works. I'd also like to commission some rough black and white sketches for the chapter headings, perhaps as many as 30. The book is broken down into three acts: Purgatorio, Paradisio, and Inferno. I may very well buy three black and white sketches for each of the acts.
That said, I'm also interested in Vincent Chong, but doubt whether I can afford his services. He works with traditional publishing houses, but that's okay. I can always daydream about it. I contacted Vincent a while back, made an enquiry. He responded within a day or two. I discovered Vincent through John Scalzi's Whatever.
2) Find a reasonably-priced graphic artist to incorporate McKinney's artwork and produce a professional traditional publisher-quality layout, front, back, and spine.
3) Decide whether to pay to have it copyedited and edited. I'm in contact with a few freelance editors, looking at a couple of thousand dollars for 80,000-word science-fantasy novel. I don't have that kind of money.
4) Find someone else to do the interior design. I'm in contact with a few freelance graphic designers, looking at another grand.
5) Research book blogs and contact reviewers with published ARCs. Hopefully, someone will take time out of their busy reading schedules to read through the book. With any luck, word of mouth.
6) Publish Ophiuchi as an ebook through Amazon and Barnes & Noble, and as a paperback through Lulu, though I'm also considering self-publishing through Lightning Source. The good thing about Lightning Source is that you can chose your publisher name. I'd like to publish my books under Or Books. I like the sound of it, sounds alternative.
But, of course, all this is contingent on being passed over by Angry Robot in the next few weeks.
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Angry Robot
Earlier in the week I submitted a science-fantasy novel to Angry Robot's Open Door Month. I haven't heard back from them yet. With any luck they'll request the full manuscript.
But it's not like I'm expecting to land a publishing contract with a traditional publisher. Because I'm not. I've been following writing blogs long enough to know how rare such publishing deals are. To be honest, I'm not even sure whether the book is publishable or not. It's 75,000 words, on the low end of science-fantasy novels, but tight. At least I think it is. It'd be nice to know where I stand with the editorial team at Angry Robot.
Wings don't fail me now . . .
But it's not like I'm expecting to land a publishing contract with a traditional publisher. Because I'm not. I've been following writing blogs long enough to know how rare such publishing deals are. To be honest, I'm not even sure whether the book is publishable or not. It's 75,000 words, on the low end of science-fantasy novels, but tight. At least I think it is. It'd be nice to know where I stand with the editorial team at Angry Robot.
Wings don't fail me now . . .
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)