Kids stuff

I’m going to be a Godfather. I am you know. This Sunday actually, and I must say that it will be a proud moment even though these day the term “Godfather” is little more than a tag, rather than a responsibility.
And as part of my Godfatherdom, I have thought up a unique christening present…

…A few years ago, after returning from our trip around Oz and New Zealand, I wrote a children’s book called A World of Night. It was my first stab at kid’s fiction (even as a child I tried writing adult fiction), and to be honest I don’t think it worked out too badly at all. It was a book packed with adventure, intrigue, colourful characters, more monsters than you could cram into a canteen in Mos Eisley, and was filled with good ol’ fashioned fun and humour. Everyone who read it, including children, loved it, and I suppose - of all the books I’ve written - this has been the most fun.
But ask anyone who has tried publishing kid’s fiction, and they’ll tell you it’s a complete nightmare even getting an agent for it these days, let alone persuading the great and the good to take a gamble on you (your chances of being published apparently diminish further if you are writing children’s books). So after a few disheartening replies to submissions, I bottled it, and put the whole thing on the shelf, thinking it was a great diversion, but perhaps not the direction I should be going…

Last week was the first time in three years that I’ve picked up A World of Night, and I dusted it down and read it again. The reason for this was simple: this is my gift to my goddaughter, Isabella. She’s obviously too young to read at the moment (being only a few months old), but hopefully one day she’ll get that chance, and perhaps by then I might have had a few more books published too! I’m having it bound simply (designing a simple cover – see right) and presented in an antique wooden box for safe-keeping, so that it should survive the rigours of time until her mum or dad can sit down and read it to her. I hope it will be a good christening gift. It will certainly be unique.

But not surprisingly, going back to A World of Night has got me thinking.

Sarah, my wife, has been a strong advocate of the book and has always said A World of Night deserved publication. I think secretly, she prefers A World of Night over The Secret War – and one day I might bow to reason and present it to a publisher - should they let me through the door. So whether or not A World of Night sees publication… who knows? Like most of the books I’ve written, it was created with passion and commitment, with no real idea whether it was commercial or not. But publishing is a funny old game, and it may yet see print – afterall, if you asked me a few years ago whether or not I thought The Secret War would get published, I would have smiled sadly, lamented on the rejections and the dodgy agents, before changing the subject.

Funny how things can change so quickly…

The Burning Sands of (a long) Time

Oh the irony of the title of my new book. Not so much the “Burning” bit, but the “Time” part particularly.

So where am I with the new book, as it’s predecessor - The Secret War - moves swiftly towards its January publication date? Well, I once said the first draft would be finished in July, and now it’s August and it still isn’t done. So what happened?
Well, the delay is partly down to the amendments I made half-way through it. The book is very much the better for them, but it did take a couple of weeks to change, so I lost time there.

But I think the main aggressor is my rampant imagination.

As I mentioned in past blog entries, I have planned this book reasonably well, down to what the characters are doing, their motivations etc, and what the key ingredients and resolutions are in each chapter. What I didn’t plan properly was how many words these chapters would take to deliver.
Take chapters 17 and 18 for example. Originally, this was meant to be one whole chapter, a scene where our protagonists have found themselves arrested by the local militia near the Sinai, and if that weren’t bad enough, the nasty agents of Count Ordrane are in pursuit. It has the potential for being a chaotic and complicated chapter, but through careful planning it hasn’t become so.
Still, a chapter that was meant to be about 9,000 words, has now become two chapters of around 16,000 words in total.
How in the blazes did that happen?
Well, as with most of the chapters in The Burning Sands of Time, and also The Secret War, I usually pack in an “event” that is key to the whole book. And these “events” tend to be spectacular. The event spread over chapters 17 and 18, is basically a three way battle between militia, monks and vampyres and the whole scene set-up (ie the tension, the characters, the motivations, including two newish characters) is word-consuming. Now I’m into the fight properly (a fight that takes place at night by the way, so I’m really going into the scary atmospherics too), the words are being churned out so swiftly that before I know it, only ten minutes of fighting has been described in 2,000 words.

Mental.

I suppose, as Sally said in a previous comment, you have to let your characters free, sometimes to add that fresh perspective - and when it comes to action scenes I believe in that method totally. I can always come back to the second draft and trim a few parts here and there, as I did with the final draft of The Secret War. But boy, it takes a while to get the whole scene out! And this is just a minor scene too! I’ve still got six more event scenes, including three revelation scenes and a huge battle scene that makes anything in The Secret War look like a scuffle.

And here was I thinking I was writing a book around 110,000 words in length, when this is looking more like 150,000 words.

A big difference, isn’t it?

So after the euphoria of finally having my first book printed and in my hands, writing a follow-up book certainly does bring you back to earth - or in my case “sand” - with a resounding bump.

The first edition

I had a little surprise last week… The folks at Macmillan New Writing have already printed The Secret War (I wasn’t expecting a copy until October/November), so I am now a proud owner of a first edition (hardback) of my first novel!
I was tempted to write something like “hurrah!” or “cool!” or “amazing!” but one word does not truly do justice to the feeling of holding your first printed novel in your hands…

Looking down at the book, there is something surreal about it all. Just like some of you who are reading this, I too harboured desires to become published at a young age, and at times I was self-deluded to think I was good enough to be in print (down to the arrogance of youth). A few knock backs from big-hitting publishers put that arrogance in check straight away.
Later came the pendulum effect of experience where I sometimes thought I was good enough to be in print before swinging back to self-doubt: would I ever see my name on the front cover of a book? About five years ago, everything was telling me “no”. If you believed the Press, they would tell you less people were reading books, and if you believed the agents, they’d tell you out of thousands of manuscripts they read each year, they only took on 2-3 new writers.

I guess that was when I stopped believing in getting my book published, and wrote simply for the joy of it.

But looking now at the book in my hands, I realise I was wrong to have stopped believing and I should have fought on. Luckily, Macmillan discovered me only a year after I stopped submitting work to agents, and I suppose if I hadn’t entered that writing competition in 2004, I would still be unpublished without any hope of being so.

Luck and perseverance is everything. Talent is there too, but it isn’t worth a damn without the latter. And all that hard work, the emotional turmoil, the countless hours working on not just this book, but the other books that preceded The Secret War, have been worth it…
Just to see it now in print…
To hold your own creation bound in your hands…



Anyway, gushing over with, there is apparently a big warehouse somewhere in the South of England where my books will be stored (I imagine it will be something like the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark, full of dusty boxes, supernatural relics and perhaps an Ark or two?!). All those pristine hardback copies all ready to fly onto the bookshelves, and hopeful fly off them with equal haste!
Being published for the first time is all about stages, and now that I have some something tangible in my hands, I’m one step closer to realising that ambition as a published writer. The next stage will be the book launch and then seeing the book on the shelves of the local Waterstones or WHSmiths.

And then – perhaps then – it will really sink in. If you are there when that happens, you might find me sitting in a corner of a bookshop somewhere laughing uncontrollably, the occasional tear rolling down my cheek. But don’t worry about it, and approach me if you must, just don’t expect me to remove that big fat grin on my face!

These are a few of my favourite words…

After reading through the final draft of my book, my sister pointed out I had a favourite word that kept cropping up time and time again. That word was “gingerly”. Thankfully, the editors at Macmillan New Writing spotted this too and took many occurrences out, but it just goes to show how wedded writers can be to certain words – favouritism if you like – so thank the Lord for a thesaurus, and a mindful editor.

I suppose words are sometimes like your best pair of jeans, or shirt, or trainers. You keep wearing them because they look good and feel good. But wear them too much and they become tatty, diluted, and sometimes boring even without you knowing it.
I always remember a review of Battlefield Earth - that John Travolta debacle from the infamous L Ron Hubbard book - discussing the dire scriptwriting where the word “leverage” was so over-used, the reviewer had begun to count the instances and joked it was almost into three figures. Indeed, I hear there was even a drinking-game based on this (whenever the word “leverage” was uttered you had to down your drink – I know it’s not very imaginative, but you have to be pretty drunk to sit through that entire film).

However, I don’t know about you, but I prefer “gingerly” to “leverage”, don’t you?

Sorry, I’m making excuses for myself. The fact is, in my writing I sometimes slip into bad habits – but then I’m not alone in this; many writers do. And in the first draft of The Burning Sands of Time, I’ve slipped into using favourite words again, such as “determination”, “sacrifice” and “growling” (though I love the latter – it does exactly what it says on the tin!). As my writing matures (hey, I’m still only 31, quite young in this game apparently) I know overuse of words will become a thing of the past, as will clichéd phrases like the last one ;-) .

Until then, please forgive my “determination”, my “sacrifice”, and my “growling”.

Afterall, these are only just a few of my favourite words…


Tell it like it is

Grumpy Old Bookman has a great piece on blogs today - well worth a look if only to explode a few myths about blogging to anyone reading this who is new to all this ku-phumphery!


...Dang, done it again - another favourite word (and it's made up as well).

A colourful and swift return

Well I’m back to blogging, with only nine days absence, which isn’t too bad. I’ve updated my internet connections and all the other khu-phumphry so this blog should be bigger and better than before – it should also have more photos etc to add a splash of colour.

So what have I learnt in the last nine days?

Speeches

Last weekend was a first for me for two reasons. Primarily, it was my first turn as Best Man, but it was also the first time I’ve had to deliver a speech to a hall full of strangers. I discount my own wedding as I pretty much knew everyone there, but at this wedding I knew perhaps a dozen people out of a couple of hundred. A little daunting, especially as I had to follow two phenomenal speeches by the groom and from a courageous young lady called Jasmin (15) who had the entire congregation searching for something to mop their eyes with.
So how do you follow two soulful speeches like that? Well you start with a plug for your own book, that’s how.
Yes - shameful isn’t it?
In my defence, the groom started it all by plugging my book during his speech, I just carried it on for comic effect. I was bloody nervous though, cooking in my morning suit and necking several glasses of wine to steady myself.
I need not have worried. The audience loved my speech, laughing at the right parts, including where I plugged the book (note to all: visual gags during speeches really do work!), and applauding me at the end. I’m not sure what felt better, the pride from doing a good job, or the relief that it was all over!!

Some wise person later told me that it was good experience for any future readings of my own book, and I won’t argue with that. I mean, won’t it be easier to read from a book that has taken me years to write, than reading from a speech it’s only taken me days to complete?

Answers on a postcard please!

Fantastique

While I was struggling with my speech, it appears others here were struggling with the term “fantastique”. I don’t know why though. I thought it was a perfectly good term, and yes it’s a little pretentious but then the world would certainly be a drab place without just a little pretension.
Anyway, I’ll probably not use the term too much, and if I do, I promise to use only within quotation marks.

FEAR

This blog had a surprise visit from John Gilbert, the erstwhile editor of FEAR magazine this week. Please click here to have a look… And just to reiterate, if you’re interested in all things weird and wonderful (and a little terrifying) and have yet to buy a copy of the magazine trawl e-bay; it is well worth sampling some FEAR if you can find it.

Suckered

I fell for a classic marketing ploy last Monday. I was weak, I tell you! Weak! Weak! WEAK!
The marketing ploy in question was a poster campaign for Matthew Reilly’s book Seven Ancient Wonders. It looked pretty exciting, had plenty of pretty pictures, and more importantly struck a chord with the whole “abseiling into some Egyptian crypt” thing - like it was straight out of Raiders of the Lost Ark (one of my all time favourite films). Yes, I was suckered in alright, and god knows when I’ll get round to reading it.
I’ll add it to the pile, shall I…?

Things to do

I’ve got lots of things to do now. I’ve got the written detail for my website to start (which is a bigger task than I thought), more promotional materials to design (including the bookmarks which should look pretty good – the business cards have really gone down well!) and I’ll be plugging the book at every opportunity at the British Fantasy Society Convention in Nottingham in September.


On the writing side of things, I’m almost done on The Burning Sands of Time. Despite being several weeks over my own self-imposed deadline, I should finish the final draft in September and then I start on the promotion work proper, as well as drafting the inaugural stories in my serialised/anthologised, yet “unnamed”, apocalypse story that will be published on my website at the beginning of next year.

All other projects have now been shelved for late 2007/2008, including the TV and film scripts, and my third book Smith.


And then there’s the blog – which is on-going, and on-going and on-going. I’m just glad there are people out there who are reading this. Sometimes writing a blog entry is as difficult as drafting a chapter (this entry, for example, has been re-written four times already!) – but just like Best Mans’ speeches, I reckon it’s all worth it though!

A choice of sticky endings

If you’ve followed the life of this blog (and also my book, which is a bit of a giveaway!) you'll know by now that my imagination is firmly entrenched in the world of the fantastique.
After a chat with a mate not so long ago, it was suggested that one of the best exercises a writer of fantastical literature can perform to strengthen his or her imagination and writing abilities, is to run role-playing games. We’re not talking the sort you perform at business events on how to deal with tricky customers or what to do in an emergency, but the kind where you adopt a completely different personality and go on various weird and wonderful adventures armed with a pencil, some paper and several dice (and of course your imagination) to battle ghouls, solve mysteries and embark on colourful quests.

So I thought about this for a while, and having had some experience of role-playing games in my formative years, I thought “why not?”…

…(We now interrupt this blog for a brief flashback…)

When I was a teenager I used to be an avid gamer, playing all manner of fantasy board games, but gave that up once I discovered girls. I guess it’s that age-old story of trying to impress someone of the opposite-sex in your teenage years and willing to give up something others see as a little “uncool”. Which is perhaps why when I was 17 years old my obsession with the fantastique found itself a new direction in writing books rather than gaming. It was way “cooler” to write horror stories to terrorise your friends and girlfriend, than it was to mess about with little lead figures and many-sided dice.

Not that I’m complaining – the redirecting of my imaginative energies nearly paid off when my first book, The Forever Chain almost found a publisher with HarperCollins when I was 18, but just stumbled at the final hurdle :-(.

I always considered The Forever Chain to be the first book I ever wrote, but I recently "re"discovered this isn’t so. Along with all the board-games I played as a kid, I also had a very healthy stack of “Fighting Fantasy” and “Choose Your Own Adventure books” (anyone remember these?). During a recent “excavation” in my mum’s attic I discovered a box of these very worn and age-stained books, and it sparked a fair few memories of when I used to rampage zealously through each book, choosing my own path, fighting untold bizarre creatures and often coming to an extremely sticky end (for the life of me, I only remember completing a few of these books – most of the time I would just die!). But that didn’t stop me from buying dozens of gaming books, and when I ran out of those, I then wrote some of my own.

So I must have been about ten years old when I wrote my first book – a fifty page opus about a “Golden Idol” as I recall. It followed a quest (as most of these books did) to find a rare and expensive idol (that looked like a deformed monkey with diamonds for eyes – yes, it looked weird), and you had to fight past zombies, serpents, goblins, a witch with fire for hair and some odd creatures with random names. The book was vividly illustrated and coloured (by me), and the monsters and traps were all lovingly created; a homage to the Fighting Fantasy books I enjoyed so much.

And yes, there were many, many sticky endings..!

(transmission resumes…)


Ah, such innocent days. But I’m becoming side-tracked (as memories often do), so let’s get back to the rationale of playing games again, shall we?

I’ve just tracked down a copy of an RPG called “Call of Cthulhu” based on the stories by HP Lovecraft. I’ve never played this before, but being a 19th century horror fantasy game it should be right up my street. It should give my imagination a thorough workout and make me think on my feet, i.e. describing a scene immediately and effectively without having the luxury of drafting or re-writing, to an audience who will give me instantaneous feedback and be critical if I’m not telling them everything they want to know in the atmospheric detail they expect.

Whether or not I’ll get a chance to play it is all down to having enough time to learn the basic rules and gather a group of people together, who are either drunk enough, or have that same weird imagination as I have. But we’ll see.

Afterall, I’ve always loved telling horror stories around the campfire, but wouldn’t it be great if my audience could choose what happens next?

Even it means choosing their own extremely sticky end?!!!!



PS: This will be the last blog entry for a week or so (due to work and family related things) – so please forgive my absence, and just talk amongst yourselves for a while, and I’ll drop in when I can.

Take care

x