TAG! I'm it!

My fab friend Gill Hoffs invited me to participate in this fun blogging round robin game of tag!
It's great because it gets me blogging again sooner than I planned and it gets me thinking about my current project in the same way a reader might....well....what exactly makes my current project interesting? lets see!

Gill can be found here. GO! Read!!! She is FAB (honestly):
http://gillhoffs.wordpress.com/

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing


What is the working title of your book?      Harbinger or Death’s Door, can’t decide at this point.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

Sitting on the Museum Street library floor in Warrington Cheshire. I was reading Patrick Ness for the first time and totally immersed in this world he creates, when bam!  a load of WHAT IF questions popped up! Then the character of Rosa just jumped into my head, fully formed with all her gifts and faults, and the fact that she was displaced to this desperate situation.

What genre does your book fall under?    YA sci-fi/dystopian fantasy

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Ohhhh, great question!!   Definitely NOT Kirsten heavy-breather Stewart. Maybe Emmy Rossum (a few years ago) as Rosie, but just bare faced with freckles and her hair plaited all messy. Evan…hmmm maybe Adam Brody, and Finn is definitely Zach Roerig. (Problem is, the fellas I find sexy are too old to be my characters ....Hugh Jackman or Robert Downy Jnr as late teens/ early twenty somethings???)

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

 Orphaned teenagers stranded on a dying planet find a device with the power to renew the earth-but is it from God or science? Add how will they protect themselves from the enemy that stranded them there once they discover the truth? (sorry 2 sentences, go on, rap my knuckles)

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Well, I have a book under consideration with a publisher at the minute so hoping they will want both of them! (are you listening universe?)

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
The first draft is currently 36k but it should be completed at the end of Nanovember! (National Novel Wtiing Month-www.nanowrimo.org/  )

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Arrrgggh no idea. It’s dystopian ,and fantasy so maybe lovers of Divergent or the Hunger Games might like, (or heaven forbid it would ever be that good, Patrick Ness) it but it is very different, and there are definitely no vampires.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Reading Patrick Ness- The Knife of Never Letting Go. I just fell in love with that book & the ones that followed, although mine is very different. It's more about the 'feel' and the idea of being young but still having power when a situation seems desperate or out of your control.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
 It has a teeny tiny teenage girl who can summon volcanoes, grow roses with her tears and who can either make it snow or start fires depending on who’s kissing her.

Oh! And read Patrick Ness- he's amazing. www.goodreads.com/author/show/370361.Patrick_Ness

 

So now it's the turn of my friends to answer these questions! Look out for them some time next week!

 

Zoe Sharp, fabulous crime writer of the Charlie Fox series, at Hardboiled Collective    http://hardboiledcollective.blogspot.co.uk/

Chris Boyle: www.sbphoenix.blogspot.com

Have you ever heard that saying 'Be careful what you wish for?'


yeah, well...DON'T listen to it. Wish for things. Big things. Things you really want.


Then work your ass off to get them.


And when, IF and when, things start to look promising, relish every single minute of it, every little baby step towards the realisation of it, every little pat on the back that happens along the journey. Goals aren't just the END result, they are also the accumulation of knowledge, skills and experience that happens along way whilst you are busy chasing that 'thing' you want so much.

I've been fishing and had a nibble. Dropped a little dangling 15k worth of worms someone's way and they have decided to taste test the rest of the bait. It's ever so exciting because at the tender age of over 40 and under 50, it feels utterly delightful to have the small bit of validation that comes with this. Maybe all my scribbling time has not been a total waste, you know??

Well, not a waste at all really, as it's prevented me on many occasions from having to clean house, organise the dead batteries in the kitchen drawer according to size and colour, checking to see which pairs of trousers are too impossibly short for my boys to get away with any more...

so nibble away Mr. Fish. I think my worms are rather tasty little tid-bits, and I hope you do too.


---- ----- ---- ---- !!!!!!! ---- ---- ---- ----


well...here we are again, quickly ticking off days on our calendars until.....NOOOOOO!!!!  Not another year of NaNoWriMo!!!!!!


I have a game plan this year. I can type slightly faster now....35 or 40 wpm as opposed to last years pathetic offering of only 27 words a minute.

And....hold onto your suspenders ladies, I actually have a PLOT, the production of which required one of those 'no children were harmed during...' disclaimers. (my poor neglected kids and it's only going to get worse)

I am a notorious pantser, and I suffered greatly for it last year. so, this year is going to be vastly different.

I have a detailed plot, which, as we speak, I am trying to tailor into a calendared (okay I made that word up but it works) format that tells me day by day which chapter I will write and how it will fit into an already existing 36k worth of MS that is more shapeless  and unorganised than the near to bursting contents of my girdle ('magic knickers' for you younger readers).

I also am researching in preparation.....I need to understand: pioneer preparation, SAS training, creation theories, pandora mythology, a bit of interstellar warcraft and some spaceship capability shite. Oh. and what it might sound like if you were to stick your head in the ocean and hear/understand the sounds of all the living things in it. And that's just for starters.

I'm thinking that December will be yet another writing free zone this year. we'll all need it!

The December Desert

So....am quickly approaching the end of December. All I can say is hallelujah! This year, as a result of torturing my family with my  first (and possibly last) successful  NaNovember, I agreed to NOT TO WRITE  at all during December. And I have stuck to that promise.

Mad you say?
Yep!

But....come November 30th, my nerves  were frazzled, my house was a bombsite, and my husband and children were feeling woefully neglected. This all because I decided, with a part time job and an appalling typing speed of only 27 words a minute, to try my hand at 50k words in one month.

I can happily report that I did it.
I can also report that the resulting manuscript is  the most appalling piece of dreck anyone on planet earth ever produced.

Things I learned doing Nano:
1) a Typing speed of only 27 words a minute is a serious hindrance to someone who wishes to write professionally. Even if I never do Nano again, am gifting myself with a typing course in the New Year to address the weakness.
2) when short on word count and ideas, a gratuitous (and quite possibly thrown out in the edit) sex scene between 2 completely unlikely characters supplies a great giggle, refreshes the writing juices and can account for A LOT of words!
3) online support groups are invaluable but also verrrrry distracting. Especially as I am 100% certain that they all type faster than I do and can afford to blather on FB chat.
4) my family are like delicate orchids and really suffer when they don't receive the requisite amount of TLC. Faster typing and better time management will help this in future.
5) a dirty house is a good excuse and a great distraction...in an ideal world, dishes and laundry would type for me as I cleaned, or possibly clean up themselves. Any inventors out there?
6) Writing that much fries your synapses.

I have graduated from the Crash Test Dummy School of Writing.

I am emerging from the dry boring December desert of no writing, hopefully refreshed and ready to write again. This time, more slowly, choosing every single word for the beauty of it instead of the word count.

I can’t wait.

Get lost

Not far from where I live in northwest England is a small village. Outsiders pay little if any attention to it. Very probably, if you looked close, it wouldn’t seem to offer anything different from other villages nearby. But I love it. I find everything about it charming, fascinating. I spend as much time there as my complicated life will allow. Going there fills a gaping, hungry hole in me. The hole comes back often, so I know it’s roads well.

I’ve learned that it’s nothing like every other village you might drive past.  Twitch the curtains a bit, peel back the wallpaper, dig in the flower beds, and you find Secrets. Stories.  Dramas. If you pay attention, listen to the quiet whispers, ripples and gaps in the conversations, you find that its inhabitants lives are full of riddles and complexities.

There’s the young estate agent so utterly bewitched by a house she’s supposed to sell that she gets rid of potential buyers any way she can. A teenager that can wipe away a person’s memory just by touching their hand. The reclusive 80’s rock star hiding in her barn at a local farm, hoping no one recognises her from her past. The woman trying to escape from her philandering, murderous husband, the local investment banker.  A travelling circus full of arsonists, thieves, conmen and killers. Not a single person in the village is dull. Like you, like me, they all have a story to tell.

At times, if I’m distracted or too busy, I find it hard to go there. I can tell if it’s been too long between visits. I feel antsy, unfulfilled.

The odd thing is, when I do finally get there, it could be anytime, day or night. I might be physically pushing a trolley down the aisle at ASDA, watching a film with my husband, walking to school to collect the kids. But I’m not, really. I’m in my little village, visiting the rock star as she struggles with the opportunity to revive her career. A career that several years before ended in tragedy, bad press and dead bodies.

I’m walking through the gardens with the estate agent, smelling the roses, spying the koi in the pond, watching the play of sunlight and shadows in the pines.

Wherever I am physically, you can be sure of one thing.  Eighty per cent of the time, mentally I’m there. Wandering the streets, having a chat. Sharing a few tears. Cheering triumphs, large or small. Starting fights, stirring up trouble.

I’ve christened my little village Get Lost, I’m Writing. No one else goes there without an invite. And I really need to get back to it, coz the inhabitants are getting restless. They have things to say, places to go, scores to settle. And they can’t do it unless I get moving.

So, Get Lost, I’m Writing.

piffle and ramble

Well... I am doing exactly that THING.which.I.would.NEVER. do (as I feel it marks me with a certain taint of 'up my own proverbial'-ness)

but nonetheless, here it is. A BLOG. Apparently, as I am under the probably mistaken impression that I may want to be a published writer someday (and a princess, an astronaut, the next Madonna, nobel prize winner in physics...scratch the last entry)...it is de rigueur, as I must have mega saturated web presence and be contactable in multiple formats....pfffft. uber pffft. (the luddite in me scoffs, and has had to write this 2x as came off screen and neglected to save my work...)

I add keeping a blog to a universe sized list of THINGS I AM ALREADY NOT GETTING DONE due to the fact that I am mind numbingly busy with the following noble pursuits:

1. attempting to build loving relationship skills with husband and children that do not include Banshee level screaming or murder.
2. trying to keep house manageable, if not spotless whilst doing things that really matter to me (see #1 and pile on: writing, running lovely writers group, reading, attending church, writing, seeing mates, working, breathing, parents association, sleeping, eating copious amounts of hummus and chocolate but not together.)
2. practicing to be a little bit better as a person everyday (epic FAIL, as my 13 yr old would say)

As a result, BLOG keeping falls into the catagory of Things That Keep Me From Writing a Bestseller, along with scrabble on Facebook, ebay, unsolicited marketing phonecalls & a manic, attention seeking Border Collie that is only still alive as we are not in Thailand and I cannot feed him to kids when low on groceries.

Add to that, dear cyber stalkers, the fact that all of the above things are mostly boring to me and will therefore be completely boring to spectators. Which, need I point out the obvious, will make for one mega yawn inducing blog.


So Todays Point of Interest: READ NEIL GAIMAN. (am sending mind control vibes to all and sundry.) DO IT NOW!

After having loved his kids books (yes, I buy irreverent and subversive books for my kids at every opportunity), I have discovered his adult novels (stop thinking naughty thoughts) and have been devouring them at an unhealthy rate. I have to restrain myself from licking the pages as I am desperate to involve yet another sense in the experience. Have realised that at my current rate of consumption I will have exhausted his entire back catalog by end of summer and will have to resort to drastic measures.
In last 2 months I have read Neverwhere, The Graveyard Book, and Anansi Boys. Nearly cried upon reaching the end of Graveyard & Neverwhere because I couldn't stand it that the story was actually over.

Maybe I even will go so far as to go all Kathy Bates ALA Misery and kidnap him so he will write more for me.

Add his lovely turn of phrase and quirky story lines to the fact that he has gorgeous curly hair, and it's a done deal.
Anyways, my weakness for curly hair aside, READ his stuff, it is FAB.

Thus endeth my first Blog entry. It involved no injury or loss of blood, and I'm not asleep yet. hmmm. mission accomplished.