I’m happy to announce that my short story, Jetsam, has been accepted by Dark Fiction Magazine for a future issue. They’ve audio-fied a number of great stories in the past so I’m honoured that Jetsam will be joining the ranks. I’m genuinely excited about an audio version of Jetsam and can’t wait to hear what they do with it.
In the meantime, be sure to check out some of the past issues.
There comes a time when a project needs to go from brainstorming and planning to the actual writing. I’m more than a little scared because ideas for books normally swim in my head for years, growing and mutating. However, this project, which has the working title of “Fool’s Gold”, didn’t exist a little over a month ago.
As regular readers know, in my spare time I’m an avid Geocacher. Whilst day job changes and moving have really hit my numbers this year, things are settling down and I hope to hit the big 10,000th find sometime in the near future.
In the meantime though, I’ve penned a piece about the sport / hobby / madness for Andy Remic’s Ultimate Adventure magazine. So if you’ve ever wanted to know more about it, now’s the perfect time. Best of all, the magazine is a free download from the Ultimate Adveture Magazine Website and besides dodgy pictures of me finding geocaches up the top of telegraph poles and under waterfalls, the magazine features other articles, various interviews, pieces of fiction and kit reviews. Be sure to check it out!
There’s been a big kerfuddle in the press lately over Star Wars – The Old Republic, the new MMO from EA and Bioware. It appears that some… well, let’s face it, homophobes …have got all bent out of shape because there are now *shock* *horror* homosexuals in the Star Wars universe… and they are kissing and everything!
Hooray, I say! It’s about time.
It feels slightly pretentious saying this (OK, so it feels massively pretentious!), but I think it’s important that creators let this be known about the worlds they create. Maybe (and most likely) our works will die with us unpublished, or maybe they will still be read in five hundred years time spanning various different media, reinvented and reinterpreted. Whichever it is, I think it’s equally important to be clear to save any arguments, as well as make a statement surrounding diversity.
I wanted to write a little bit about the brainstorming work I’m currently doing on my next project.
It’s swords and sorcery which is a little different to the epic stuff I normally tend to write. At least that’s what it’s starting out as, because especially at this stage, everything can and will change.
I’m going into this with just a little bit of fear. You see, I’m trying to keep a big picture view. I must have at least 20 book ideas right now and I’ve begun to see a little of the style of storytelling I have. It’s fast-paced with loads of character and action and with a clash of sub-genres in a way that isn’t just New Weird. I want to make sure that in writing a swords and sorcery book that I don’t effectively cockblock myself commercially from writing those other novels.
Not sure if something is wrong with me or if I’m coming down with something but I’m falling out of love with Epic Fantasy. For years, I would say my subgenre of choice was the Epic. I love the whole ‘bigness’ of it all – vast casts, vast worldbuilding and story with such massive consequence. I want it bigger with greater consequences. I want it to take my breath away.
But lately nearly every epic fantasy I’ve read, just fails to deliver for me. The only exception has been Steven Erikson’s Malazan books. I can’t put my finger on just one problem with the others but it’s as if the orchestra is too big for the conductor.
I’ve thought about books I’ve truly loved over the last few years, not just at the time but ones that have stayed with me and proved to be just as excellent during a second read through. And most of them have been swords and sorcery rather than straight up epic fantasy. Lies of Locke Lamorra is a true masterpiece and my favourite debut last year (and a book I just would not shut up about) was Douglas Hulick’s Among Thieves.
True, in this sub-genre blending world that’s not exactly a huge shift, but for me it’s a significant one. I don’t know what impact this will have on my own writing, but my current project that I’m plotting is definitely more a swords and sorcery story than an epic fantasy one. I doubt I’ll totally drop the epic elements as I continue to flesh out ideas so it’ll be interesting to see how this one turns out.
George R R Martin talks about two archetypes for writers: Gardeners and Architects. The architect will plan and plot their story, knowing what happens to who from beginning to end before ever writing a single word. The gardener however will go in blind, knowing only the barest of details and discover the story as the write.
In truth, most writers sit somewhere between these two polar opposites. But the approaches are so vastly different that people usually identify with one extreme or the other.
I’ve always thought myself a gardener, although one that does a lot of thinking. I will have a good idea of the milestones of the story and the overall arcs of both character and story, but anything inbetween is up for grabs.
I rarely shill stuff I’m working on but I made a promise to myself a couple of months ago that I would put up an extract of my completed novel, The Four Realms, before Eastercon. So in typical leave-it-to-the-last-minute style, here it is. If you like what you read, retweeting or sharing links on FB would be much appreciated. The book is finished, polished and currently seeking representation and publication. I’ll save you the hard pitch but needless to say I have a pitch, synopsis and sample chapters for any professional who is interested. Whilst I’m not expecting a book deal to come of this, you’ve got to put yourself out there don’t you?
I spent an awful lot of time plotting last night. It’s weird, because over the course of the weekend this novel idea has become less about religious cults and more about banking and economic warfare. I figured that we’ve spent enough time in fantasy dealing with dormant gods and hidden prophecy and it would be good to take it in a different direction. Banking is incredibly relevant right now, and that nearly put me off (because what is relevant today is dated tomorrow) but I figure the plot is a bit timeless and I’m going to work hard to stop it becoming too allegorical.
So it looks like I am going to Eastercon.
For a long time it didn’t look likely. First it was severe lack of funds, and then when I started the new job which has an out of hours element it was very likely I might be on call that weekend. And then there was the small point of moving house around then.
But these conventions are one of the few chances to catch up with friends, not just the ones I chat with regularly, but the ones who I rarely get chance to have more than a few real words with. I hoped that I might be able to make one day but it seems all the stars have mysteriously aligned and Easter is the one free weekend I have for literally months.
So having been paid (and whipped into action by friends), I went and booked myself in for the whole weekend. If you want to blame anyone, blame Anne Lyle for letting me know that the convention was close to capacity. And you can blame her by buying her book that comes out next week!
It’s probably not wise to go to a convention a week after moving, but hey-ho! And after a couple of months where real life has had to take priority over the writing (oh, how I can’t wait to settle in and have time to get some serious writing again) going to a proper event is just what I need to motivate me.
Hope to see some of you there in the bar!
