I'm at the bit in Deep Embrace when Perse finally meets the baddies Nyx and Erebus the God and Goddess of Darkness/Nightime. I've been building up to it for a long time. The battle scene will take place in almost total darkness which should be interesting, difficult, but hopefully fun to write. I write so many battle scenes in my stories its always an effort to think of new and exciting ways to write them. A battle scene in the dark should not be as hard as the one I did earlier on in Deep Embrace between Perse and several large, hard to describe, violent sea monters! Ah that was fun! No, really, it was. A bit difficult, yeah, but mostly a fun challenge.
I have this awesome idea about how to describe Nyx and Erebus. Since they are the God and Goddess of Darkness (I do not mean evil I literally mean darkness. They are the God and Goddess of night) I am going to make them an attractive black couple with beautiful long silver hair and glowing silver eyes. If they are exposed to any light stronger than a candle flame or moonlight they turn to stone so they will be appearing to Perse in the dark. I'm going to make them glow though. Now that is going to be cool. They will have a silver aura surrouding them which will look alot like moonlight. They are going to be beautiful, mystical, and creepy.
A part of me has been worrying that some people might take offence that I will be writing two characters from Greek mythology that are traditionally protrayed as white as two black people. The reason I am doing it is because I like for the phsyical appearance of my characters to be symbolitic. I want people to be able to look at them and know straight away what sort of God or Goddess they are. For example: Perse is a mermaid so she has blue hair and a blue tail to represent the sea and gold eyes to represent the rising sun, which is Helios, her soul mate. Helios has red hair (fire) and blue eyes (the ocean) which is supposed to represent Perse.
Another reason I am making Nyx and Erebus black is because I love writing about black characters in fantasy novels with brightly coloured hair and eyes. The main character in my last book, Echo, had black skin and green eyes and green hair. I thought she was beautiful and exotic and I'm crossing my fingers like mad that she will be chosen to go on the front cover of Echoes in the Wind.
When I think of what Nyx and Erebus will look like in my book I think to myself 'Wow, they are going to be so pretty, so eerily beautiful' they are black because their skin represents the colour of the night sky and their silver hair and silver eyes represents the moonlight and the stars. I know I will probably offend some people, maybe, but that's not going to stop me from writing them the way that I want. I know that I will never please every single person who reads my book. That's okay. I accept that. I just hope people do not jump to the wrong conclusions about me and think that I made Nyx and Erebus black because I think that black skin = darkness/evil. Not at all! :-)
Monday, June 13, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Borders bookstores shutting in Australia
I read online today that the rest of the Borders stores left in Australia will be shutting including the one in Perth!! I cannot believe that every single Borders store in the country is going to be shutting down. It was shocking when they closed half of the stores. I really don't know how to feel about this. The company has gone bankrupt, and not surprisingly, considering the prices they charge for their books. I went into one not long ago to look at books for how to use an exercise ball. They had one for about $40 I took one look at it and left. Sorry. Too much. I could get the same book on Amazon for probably less than $20. Sad, but true. If you over price things people will not buy your stuff!!
I feel really sad about my state's one and ONLY Border's store closing. I like living in Perth, but it is so small, so boring, sometimes it feels like I am living in a lonely little backwater somewhere. The Borders in the city was one of my favourite places to browse and shop. It was one of the best stores in the mall. I don't know what the hell they will replace it with but it will leave a big gaping hole in the shops there. We used to have two Angus and Robinson's, one Dymocks and Border's there, now there is only the Dymocks store left. I'm sure they're jumping up and down happily right about now. "Huzzah! No more Borders! Huzzah!" something to that effect. When Borders first opened a few years back I wondered how the other bookstores in town would survive. They did, though, and like I said, Dymocks must be laughing now. I hope they do not close. That would mean having no bookstores in the city at all!! Is that what society is heading towards though? Maybe.
In addition to their sky high prices, Borders went down because people are buying things online and getting ebooks. Is the print industry slowly dying? Will the book end up going the way of the cassette player? Will it become so out dated, so hippyish, so old fashioned, that the only place people will be able to buy books in the future will be from tiny, quirky little shops or antique stores? Possibly.
I feel like I am standing at a crossroads. Do I take the traditional publishing route with my next novel and attempt to get my book in a brick and mortar store like Borders? or do I continue to plod down the road of e-books and see if success awaits me down the path? The risk factors are about the same, to be honest. People say that the chances of success are higher if an author is published by a big house like Penguin or something. That's not really true. I could get published by one of them and still not earn a dime. Frankly, part of me is wondering if it would be wise to stick with ebooks, because what if I get a book pubilshed and then in ten, twenty years time, there are no more bookstores? What then? My book will vanish. Now, if it were an ebook....
I feel really sad about my state's one and ONLY Border's store closing. I like living in Perth, but it is so small, so boring, sometimes it feels like I am living in a lonely little backwater somewhere. The Borders in the city was one of my favourite places to browse and shop. It was one of the best stores in the mall. I don't know what the hell they will replace it with but it will leave a big gaping hole in the shops there. We used to have two Angus and Robinson's, one Dymocks and Border's there, now there is only the Dymocks store left. I'm sure they're jumping up and down happily right about now. "Huzzah! No more Borders! Huzzah!" something to that effect. When Borders first opened a few years back I wondered how the other bookstores in town would survive. They did, though, and like I said, Dymocks must be laughing now. I hope they do not close. That would mean having no bookstores in the city at all!! Is that what society is heading towards though? Maybe.
In addition to their sky high prices, Borders went down because people are buying things online and getting ebooks. Is the print industry slowly dying? Will the book end up going the way of the cassette player? Will it become so out dated, so hippyish, so old fashioned, that the only place people will be able to buy books in the future will be from tiny, quirky little shops or antique stores? Possibly.
I feel like I am standing at a crossroads. Do I take the traditional publishing route with my next novel and attempt to get my book in a brick and mortar store like Borders? or do I continue to plod down the road of e-books and see if success awaits me down the path? The risk factors are about the same, to be honest. People say that the chances of success are higher if an author is published by a big house like Penguin or something. That's not really true. I could get published by one of them and still not earn a dime. Frankly, part of me is wondering if it would be wise to stick with ebooks, because what if I get a book pubilshed and then in ten, twenty years time, there are no more bookstores? What then? My book will vanish. Now, if it were an ebook....
Deep Embrace is 1 year old this month
I started writing Deep Embrace one year ago this month. Ah, god, that also means its been one year since I left my last job. How time flies, eh? I can't believe it's been a year. Isn't it funny how time can pass so slowly in some jobs but in others it goes by so quickly it's as if you slept the whole time?
As for my writing, my speed has improved over the past year, and at the same time has pretty much remained the same. It took me over a year to write Echoes in the Wind and that little puppy ended up under 100 pages once it was completely finished. Deep Embrace, on the other hand, is almost 45,000 words long and nearly 130 pages. So I have written a longer peice in the same amount of time, which is good, but I still have not breeched 200 pages or finished the damn thing. I will soon though!
I think I will be finished on the rough draft of Deep Embrace in 3 months which will be perfect timing because that will be around the time I will be assigned an editor for Echoes in the Wind and it will be very close to my wedding.
What are my goals for next year? I would like to make an effort to improve my writing speed some more. I have a daily goal of over 200 words. I usually do between 400 and 500 words a day, sometimes more, but never less than 200. I force myself to meet that tiny goal even if it means writing until my fingers bleed and pulling out large tuffs of my hair. I know it doesn't sound like a very large goal but writing, for me, is like mental torture sometimes. It's like giving birth every day. Try it sometime. As someone famous once said 'Writing is easy. Just open a vein.' DAMN STRAIGHT!!
I know that In Your Footsteps will probably take me another year, maybe even a little longer, but if I can I would like to be past 42,000 thousand words in half the time it took me with Deep Embrace, so that would probably mean upping my daily word limit by another 200 words. A pain in the ass but not impossible.
The dream would be able to finish a proper sized novel in less than 12 months. Finishing one in 6 months would be awesome. Some writers are able to do one in a month, a week, or even a few days, but they are insane. Insane, I say!! I try to be a pleasurable task masker to my brain. I encourage it to write by whispering sweet nothings to it and promising rewards, like playing Wii when I get home, if I can just meet my daily word goal. I do not want to push myself so hard to finish something (like a novel in a month) that writing no longer becomes fun.
As for my writing, my speed has improved over the past year, and at the same time has pretty much remained the same. It took me over a year to write Echoes in the Wind and that little puppy ended up under 100 pages once it was completely finished. Deep Embrace, on the other hand, is almost 45,000 words long and nearly 130 pages. So I have written a longer peice in the same amount of time, which is good, but I still have not breeched 200 pages or finished the damn thing. I will soon though!
I think I will be finished on the rough draft of Deep Embrace in 3 months which will be perfect timing because that will be around the time I will be assigned an editor for Echoes in the Wind and it will be very close to my wedding.
What are my goals for next year? I would like to make an effort to improve my writing speed some more. I have a daily goal of over 200 words. I usually do between 400 and 500 words a day, sometimes more, but never less than 200. I force myself to meet that tiny goal even if it means writing until my fingers bleed and pulling out large tuffs of my hair. I know it doesn't sound like a very large goal but writing, for me, is like mental torture sometimes. It's like giving birth every day. Try it sometime. As someone famous once said 'Writing is easy. Just open a vein.' DAMN STRAIGHT!!
I know that In Your Footsteps will probably take me another year, maybe even a little longer, but if I can I would like to be past 42,000 thousand words in half the time it took me with Deep Embrace, so that would probably mean upping my daily word limit by another 200 words. A pain in the ass but not impossible.
The dream would be able to finish a proper sized novel in less than 12 months. Finishing one in 6 months would be awesome. Some writers are able to do one in a month, a week, or even a few days, but they are insane. Insane, I say!! I try to be a pleasurable task masker to my brain. I encourage it to write by whispering sweet nothings to it and promising rewards, like playing Wii when I get home, if I can just meet my daily word goal. I do not want to push myself so hard to finish something (like a novel in a month) that writing no longer becomes fun.
Tuesday, May 31, 2011
In Your Footsteps will be a novel
I've decided that my next project In Your Footsteps will be a novel. I have not written a novel since I finished my 1,000 page plus tome Atlantis Reborn in 2008.
I took a break from writing novels to experiment with shorter fiction and to see if I could improve my writing and get something small published. I think I am a much better writer now than I was in 2008.
I've learnt alot about plotting and characters and I think I have the skills now to write a well plotted, nicely worded novel between 75,000 and 100,000 words long. That is the goldilock's zone people. The perfect sized novel. Atlantis Reborn was too long to get published and while it did have potential (or so I thought at the time) the plot was in shambles, going in two many directions at once, and the characters shit. I tried to do too much at once basically. I had an epic fantasy on my hands. I poured my heart and soul into it for about five years, rewrote it about seven times, but in the end I just had to move onto something else because my passion for the story had fizzled out and I knew in my heart that it was not my best work. I knew I could do better.
I think I will be able to make In Your Footsteps a nice little novel. I do not want it to be huge, but I do not want it to be too short either, so somewhere between 300 and 400 pages long. Deep Embrace is almost a novel. It's about 120 pages long at the moment and has just passed the halfway mark. I am hoping the final draft will be above 40 thousand words which makes it a fantastic little ebook but too short to be sent to a traditional publisher by just a tad. So frustrating!
As flawed as Atlantis was, I actually got a request from a New York agent for it. I'll never forget the rejection I got a few days later though. It said 'I am really disappointed. I was really excited about the idea for your story but your writing let me down. I will have to pass.' SO FRIGGING CLOSE!!!
As rejections go, it was not that bad, the agent had seen potential in my query, which is a good thing, but said my writing needed improving. This was years ago by the way. I have not queried agents since about 2006/2007 maybe. I know I have improved in my writing since then. When I look back at my old stuff it is so bad I have to fight the urge to slap a hand against my forehead and shout 'Ah, ye Gods, it is terrible!' Thank Goddness I had the intelligence to banish Atlantis Reborn so it would never see the light of day again.
Since it takes me about a year to write a project, I should be able to begin writing In Your Footsteps towards the end of this year or early next year, which means it should be done late 2012 or early 2013.
I took a break from writing novels to experiment with shorter fiction and to see if I could improve my writing and get something small published. I think I am a much better writer now than I was in 2008.
I've learnt alot about plotting and characters and I think I have the skills now to write a well plotted, nicely worded novel between 75,000 and 100,000 words long. That is the goldilock's zone people. The perfect sized novel. Atlantis Reborn was too long to get published and while it did have potential (or so I thought at the time) the plot was in shambles, going in two many directions at once, and the characters shit. I tried to do too much at once basically. I had an epic fantasy on my hands. I poured my heart and soul into it for about five years, rewrote it about seven times, but in the end I just had to move onto something else because my passion for the story had fizzled out and I knew in my heart that it was not my best work. I knew I could do better.
I think I will be able to make In Your Footsteps a nice little novel. I do not want it to be huge, but I do not want it to be too short either, so somewhere between 300 and 400 pages long. Deep Embrace is almost a novel. It's about 120 pages long at the moment and has just passed the halfway mark. I am hoping the final draft will be above 40 thousand words which makes it a fantastic little ebook but too short to be sent to a traditional publisher by just a tad. So frustrating!
As flawed as Atlantis was, I actually got a request from a New York agent for it. I'll never forget the rejection I got a few days later though. It said 'I am really disappointed. I was really excited about the idea for your story but your writing let me down. I will have to pass.' SO FRIGGING CLOSE!!!
As rejections go, it was not that bad, the agent had seen potential in my query, which is a good thing, but said my writing needed improving. This was years ago by the way. I have not queried agents since about 2006/2007 maybe. I know I have improved in my writing since then. When I look back at my old stuff it is so bad I have to fight the urge to slap a hand against my forehead and shout 'Ah, ye Gods, it is terrible!' Thank Goddness I had the intelligence to banish Atlantis Reborn so it would never see the light of day again.
Since it takes me about a year to write a project, I should be able to begin writing In Your Footsteps towards the end of this year or early next year, which means it should be done late 2012 or early 2013.
Thursday, May 26, 2011
You can't please everyone
I'm still reading that thread on that message board about how to write dialogue for black people realistically. The poor writer rewrote his passage and posted it again for critique and is still be labelled a racist simply because he stated his character goes to a mostly black high school. How is that racist? Sigh. Writers need to learn to not post thigns for critque to seek approval or praise. I'm really bad at this. Just yesterday I wrote what I thought was an awesome passage and had to fight the urge to post it for critique because I wanted to be showered with praise.
I didn't do it because I thought to myself 'I should be posting my work to get ideas on how to imrpove it not to be told the sun shines out of my ass.' You would think I would have learnt that lesson by now, huh? Everyime I post stuff for critique it always gets ripped to shreds and leaves me questioning if I have any talent at all. Despite being painful, in the end I always find it a good experience, because it forces me to question my writing and my decisions and think about how I can improve as a writer. It's nice to be told "Oh, you're so talented!" but it's also nice to get honest, naked opinions sometimes, even if they can be sometimes a wee bit harsh.
One thing I have learnt as a writer is that you cannot please everyone. There will always be someone who will be insulted by your work, who might find it sexist or racist or god know's what. They will call you names, give you poor reviews, generally make you feel like crap, but it's all part of being a writer. You have to accept that everyone has different opinions. If you try to please everyone you will just end up ripping out all of your hair and screaming like a crazy person.
Always listen to other opinions, no matter how harsh, and try to learn from them. Do not try to please everyone though because it will never happen. There are only three people a writer should aim to please: themself, their agent, and their publisher.
I didn't do it because I thought to myself 'I should be posting my work to get ideas on how to imrpove it not to be told the sun shines out of my ass.' You would think I would have learnt that lesson by now, huh? Everyime I post stuff for critique it always gets ripped to shreds and leaves me questioning if I have any talent at all. Despite being painful, in the end I always find it a good experience, because it forces me to question my writing and my decisions and think about how I can improve as a writer. It's nice to be told "Oh, you're so talented!" but it's also nice to get honest, naked opinions sometimes, even if they can be sometimes a wee bit harsh.
One thing I have learnt as a writer is that you cannot please everyone. There will always be someone who will be insulted by your work, who might find it sexist or racist or god know's what. They will call you names, give you poor reviews, generally make you feel like crap, but it's all part of being a writer. You have to accept that everyone has different opinions. If you try to please everyone you will just end up ripping out all of your hair and screaming like a crazy person.
Always listen to other opinions, no matter how harsh, and try to learn from them. Do not try to please everyone though because it will never happen. There are only three people a writer should aim to please: themself, their agent, and their publisher.
Writing dialects
I'm the middle of reading a long locked thread on a message board about how to write black characters and to make their dialect and language sound believable. Well, not surprisingly, the thread dived into the racism debate, but it provides good reading. How important is it to for writers to write their characters with dialects? I have never done it. I would find it too hard and would worry that people could understand what they were saying.
If a character is written with a dialect or speaks with slang is that a racist sterotype? I think people throw around the word racist far too easily these days. The world has become too politically correct. I don't think it's racist to write a character, especially a black one, with a dialect or to include slang in their speech. It can be a cliche or a sterotype though and that is something all writer's must avoid.
For example I am Australian. I do not say "G-day, Mate!" or "Crikey!" or call my friends "Mate!" but I know other Australians who do. It does irritate me when I see Australian characters on American television shows who have the cockey accent and say "Mate" and "G-day" every two seconds. It's such a big fat cliche!!
Dialects and slang should be used like other forms of description. Less is more. If you put too much in you risk coming across as racist and being cliched and encouraging sterotypes. If you do it just right though you can make a believable character. In the book I am reading at the moment the main character is from the South in America. The author slips in her accent every so often in bits of dialogue and even has her slip into french a few times. It's really good and believable.
If a character is written with a dialect or speaks with slang is that a racist sterotype? I think people throw around the word racist far too easily these days. The world has become too politically correct. I don't think it's racist to write a character, especially a black one, with a dialect or to include slang in their speech. It can be a cliche or a sterotype though and that is something all writer's must avoid.
For example I am Australian. I do not say "G-day, Mate!" or "Crikey!" or call my friends "Mate!" but I know other Australians who do. It does irritate me when I see Australian characters on American television shows who have the cockey accent and say "Mate" and "G-day" every two seconds. It's such a big fat cliche!!
Dialects and slang should be used like other forms of description. Less is more. If you put too much in you risk coming across as racist and being cliched and encouraging sterotypes. If you do it just right though you can make a believable character. In the book I am reading at the moment the main character is from the South in America. The author slips in her accent every so often in bits of dialogue and even has her slip into french a few times. It's really good and believable.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
Women in romantic fiction
I'm reading a romance book at the moment and it's making my inner feminist growl a little. I've read alot of books by this author and all of them have the same basic cookie cut out characters. The man will usually be an alpha male, protective, honourable, but deadly to his enemies. The woman is usually delicate, but fiesty, and the two engage in a tango where the man tries to tame the woman and get her to settle down for a life of marriage and motherhood.
It's the same in this novel and it's bugging me a little. The hero is constantly thinking 'This woman will take alot of effort to tame' and that she will 'cause him trouble with her independence streak' and that she 'better get used to the idea of marriage and bearing his children' and that he 'needs to remind himself that she is observant and smart' The woman is being painted as someone that needs to be controlled, to be tamed, to be protected, because God Forbid she goes off on her own without a man around or makes her own decisions or doesn't want to get married. God forbid!!!
I'm getting a bit sick of reading romances like these. It seems like every single one I pick up has a broody, protective male in them, who wants nothing more than to throw his wild, untamed woman over his shoulder and take her back to his cave where she will be out of danger and can be bare foot and pregnant. They treat them like children basically. It's annoying!!
The weird thing is these stories are written by women. Are these the type of men women really like to dream about? Burly, tough, controlling alpha men? I don't think I would last too long in a relationship like that.
It's the same in this novel and it's bugging me a little. The hero is constantly thinking 'This woman will take alot of effort to tame' and that she will 'cause him trouble with her independence streak' and that she 'better get used to the idea of marriage and bearing his children' and that he 'needs to remind himself that she is observant and smart' The woman is being painted as someone that needs to be controlled, to be tamed, to be protected, because God Forbid she goes off on her own without a man around or makes her own decisions or doesn't want to get married. God forbid!!!
I'm getting a bit sick of reading romances like these. It seems like every single one I pick up has a broody, protective male in them, who wants nothing more than to throw his wild, untamed woman over his shoulder and take her back to his cave where she will be out of danger and can be bare foot and pregnant. They treat them like children basically. It's annoying!!
The weird thing is these stories are written by women. Are these the type of men women really like to dream about? Burly, tough, controlling alpha men? I don't think I would last too long in a relationship like that.
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