• I'm travelling up by my ownself
• I'm staying in a hotel on my own
• I'll be attending talks and talking to people, on my own

esssjay

Paranormal - is where vampires, ghosts, werewolves aren't part of "real" society and your hero/heroine has to fight / discover / become / fall in love with/ kill (etc) any / all of these beings.

But, is this right? What do you think? Any imput would be very welcome.

Everyone I know online – published and unpublished authors – are abuzz about NaNoWriMo ‘09.  Who will opt in, who will opt out?  Will I do it, will you do it?

I won my first completion from them last year I’m very proud to say but to be honest, what I completed was utterly vile drivel and got itself cut to shreds and is lying in tatters on a spare hard drive somewhere at home.  Some parts of the writing I’m astoundingly proud of, some parts…not so much. 

Nano is taking place, obviously, over November.  The timing works quite well as it’s invariably colder and darker and it gives you a chance to snuggle in with your computer or laptop to BIC (butt in chair) and write. 

My friend Karen Mahoney – soon to be published by Flux in the States – has decided to slightly restructure the original nanowrimo idea, putting a new spin on it, one with a more maneagable word count. 

• Nanowrimo = 50,000 words
• Kaznowrimo = 30,000 words

Kaznowrimo works out to 1,000 words a day.  So that’s not too bad.  But then, Nanwrimo works out to 1,666 words a day.  Which to be fair, is still not too bad.  But looking at those two figures…the one that looks possible is 1,000 words.  It’s a long chatty email to a friend.  It can be done.

So, this year I won’t be doing Nanowrimo but I will be doing Kaznowrimo.  Not just to support Kaz in this, because I will be doing that too, but also because it will allow me to play around with an idea for a contemporary (supernatural/urban fantasy) young adult novel that’s been bugging me for a little while now.  I am planning to revise even more on Djinn (shows bleeding stubby fingers) but it will also allow me a chance to get rid of my pent-up frustration about not writing-writing, you know?  I get to figure out where this new story wants to go.  I have the opportunity and luxury to do this as I don’t have deadlines to work to, except the ones I’ve set for myself.  It’s also a way to channel creativity, to work on something else apart from Djinn which has been my life for 7 solid months, thus far.

I also wanted to mention something else that I’ve dicovered.  It’s a group called Million Monkeys.  They are on Facebook but what you need to know is: they are London based.  Mondays and Wednesday nights they meet up at the Royal Festival Hall on the South Bank.  A whole group of writers – they sit down at their little tables and they write from 6 – 9 pm. After nine you can either pack up and go or you can hang around for a chat and a drink.  I’ve not been myself, but I’m thinking I may very well join them this coming Monday – it’s “enforced” writing with no excuses.  I will drag my revisions for Djinn with me, plug myself into my music and continue with the revisions. 

Then tomorrow – Saturday – will be my first ever SCBWI British Isles and I am genuinely looking forward to that.  It sounds very interesting and I am hoping to not be picked on by the tutor for sending in possibly the most dull chapter from Djinn as an example of what I felt I struggled with.  But we see.  I shall report back!   

PS: my word counter here says that I’ve writter 577 words in this blog post.  Not bad eh?  Half my Kaznowrimo done!

Mirrored from Curse of the Djinn.

Advice, that is.

I got stuck in this “yeah-yeah-I-know” attitude about a lot of things when it comes to writing.  And I don’t mean just whilst I was writing Djinn.

I have received some simply amazing feedback from friends about the ms – not all good, I have to add, but genuinely amazing because the feedback made me think.  It made me think about Nicholas’s life thus far, how to introduce him as a solid character without relying on too much narrative because face it: it’s dull.  Action is where it’s at, baby!

So – are you ready for advice?  Can you take it?

I joined the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCWBI UK) last week and it so happened to coincide with the London Social and I tagged along.

Apart from having met a tranche of brand new potential friends and courageous writers from all walks of life, the one lady, Miriam Halahmy looked at me with this wise expression when I was talking about revising Djinn etc and she said: I have one book that I use “Self-editing for Writers” and it’s brilliant.  It’s all you’ll need.

So, bearing that in mind (see Liz take advice, see Liz learn from the advice, see Liz be eternally grateful for advice) I bought a copy from Amazon and went through the first couple of pages today with a new moleskine entitled “Workbook – General”. 

Frack. 

Where was this book all my life?  How did I miss it?  Clear, concise, to the point.  Within the first few pages I knew this was the book I need when looking critically at my own work, be it Djinn, Enigma (pretty name, isn’t it?) or For the Thrill. 

Packed chockablock full of advice and intelligent advice and a no nonsense way of writing, I am sitting on my chair here at work, with a stupid feeling of elation in my little heart.

But then I also strongly believe that books and advice come to you when you’re ready for them.  A bit chaos theory, I know, but it’s something I’ve thought about in the past.

That’s why this blog is entitled: can you take it?  It’s also the whole thing of being a little bit blind as some things “never” apply to you…until it does.  Will you be clever enough to pick it up and make work of it?

Mirrored from Curse of the Djinn.

I am currently doing a lot of homework whilst my friend looks over Djinn.

Every day I visit all my RSS feeds, I’ve subscribed to Publishers Marketplace (definitely worth it for $20 a month) and I look at querytracker.com and compile lists of agents to approach once Djinn is ready to go out to into the wide world on its query quest.

I am thinking of looking at both US and UK agents.  It makes sense to me at least.  It gives Djinn a bigger chance…no, I am lying.  It gives ME, Djinn’s creator, a better chance to hopefully get an agent who will care enough about Djinn (and me) to get us a publishing deal.

One of the blog posts I stumbled across is one on the newly discovered The Big Bad Book Blog where they talk about Seven Guidelines on Genre and Market Trends.  In this article you will find a lot of sobering information.  For instance, what grabbed my attention is this:

Choose one genre. You have a dozen ideas in as many genres? That’s wonderful. Now choose one. Yes, just one. You may not decide which one it is until after writing a couple of books and getting a feel for your style and strengths and even interests. But it is very rare to successfully cross genres, and then only once you’ve established yourself in one. When you query agents or publishers, choose your best writing. Be honest.

This little paragraph then links to this excellent article by the always eloquent and always forthright agent Rachelle Gardner’s blog.  In this article she gives the reason why you need to look at staying in one genre:

This is a marketing issue, first and foremost. If you want to publish books, attract a loyal readership, and have long-term success as an author, then you’ll need to pick a genre, do it well, and keep doing it over and over. Simple as that. All the arguing in the world and all the talent in the world is not going to change this reality.

There are a tranche of comments below this article and all of them make valid points, such as what about writing heroic or traditional fantasy as Mike Swordbrandisher whilst also writing paranormal romance or urban fantasy novels as Talulah Honeysuckle?  How do you pull this off?

But back to the genre writing: it’s something I keep wondering myself.  I love so many genres and have written short stories in a variety of them.  I love middle grade and YA novels and I like writing for them, but what I’ve come to realise is that people see these two groups as GENRES.  And they are not.  Middle Grade and YA = target audience.  And THAT is where your specialising comes into play.  I think.

Within these target audiences, you find your genres.  For instance, as Sarah Prineas so eloquenty said in 140 letters on Twitter a few moments ago: ”genre” is “paranormal romance” or “urban fantasy” or “thriller” or “horror” whilst the ”target audience” is “readers of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, thriller or horror.”

Clear?

So what about writing under two different names for two different genres? TIME.  Baby, time’s gotta be on your side.  Can you steadily and seriously maintain a writing schedule that will enable having two books being published a year, maybe even more – to support your different personas?  Think about it – unless you have a tardis, or amazing managerial skills, then no – chances are that everything you do will suck.  Because you won’t have time honing and perfecting and specialising.  Think about it.  Think carefully.  As much as I would like to wear a variety of hats like the Mad Hatter I won’t be able to.  I would love to write an epic fantasy series – I love reading these and they are still a staple diet.  Or even urban fantasy – man, since the first time I picked up a copy of Charles de Lint’s Moonheart, my little heart beat a tattoo for stories where myths and legends stalked modern cities.  Or maybe I can do paranormal romance – say what you will, the market is huge, the authors’ talents are wide and varied and it is fun reading.  I love kick-butt heroines , magic, creatures that go bump in the night and impossibly complicated relationships. 

And as much as I love these established adult genres, I still think – and hope that – my talent lies writing for the younger folk as a target audience.  Because the cool thing about writing books for younger folk here in the UK at least, is that their bookshelves are not catergorised into different genres – age yes, genre no.  Not yet.  You have all the above fantastic genres (maybe not quite that much paranormal romance) lobbed into one massive kids’ section and you can go wild and read anything your little heart desires.  And that’s magic because like Forest said: you never know what you’re gonna get. 

 About the picture used: I stumbled across this picture by this vastly talented artist called Aly Fell – this is the blog it came from.  Please do not take any of the art, without linking back to the blog.  This is Aly’s main site - I am green with envy!

Mirrored from Curse of the Djinn.

Wow – it’s been busy, I’ve been off-line and it’s been hard. 

BUT, this means that CURSE OF THE DJINN got itself polished up and shiny and handed over to my good friend Jamie Ambrose for a reading and no doubt, a lot of editing.

How grateful am I?  Let me count the ways: no, rather not – we’d be here all day.

But needless to say, apart from it being utterly and terrifyingly scary, having someone apart from Mark or myself read DJINN is this elementally huge step.   Having a good friend like Jamie read it, someone whose opinion I value highly, someone whom I admire as a person and as a a writer, singer/songwriter and artist, is hugely flattering and also nervewrecking.

Because I can’t string too many sentences together today, due to ANXIETY, I will be pootling off to work on some new project ideas.

Mirrored from Curse of the Djinn.

Here be dragons!

Writing is such an interesting way to self-discovery.  I don’t mean to sound all high-brow and deep, but as I’m sitting toying with the revisions for Djinn and thinking about what the future may hold, I feel like I’ve crossed over a self-imposed limitation.  And it feels liberating and amazing. 

But onto more things linked to the title of this post: discovery.  Revising Djinn has led me to realise many things, chiefly that it is a lot of work.  Personally, I thought that writing it was where all the hard grafting was – sniggers – boy, if ONLY I had known.  *narrows eyes at other writerly types who nod sagely at this point*

But, having said how much hard grafting it is, it is also very much an eye opening experience.  I’ve realised that a) the book moves forward quite rapidly and does not drag its feet as I had initially feared and b) that Nicholas needs more verbal screen time.  He is in danger of becoming a bit angsty and internal…and as much as I love other people writing intense internal dialogue for their characters, it does not suit Nicholas or Djinn, at present and c) the rapport between Jenny and Nicholas is really good but I am worried about potential luuuurve interest, which is not the direction I want this to go in at all.  Not in this their first book, at least!

A further discovery is how much research I had uncovered for Djinn and how much I had lived and breathed it for such a long time.  The germ for Djinn struck me back in 2007 and I created a folder dedicated to that alone and crammed every bit of research I could find into it for months.  But it sat in the back of my head and stewed.  In the meantime I did other Stuff.  Then this year it all came pouring out in one fell swoop.  Is that odd? I hope that it is.  I can’t afford to ruminate that long over new storylines!  Not if I want any type of writing career.

I’ve got a deadline for the revising and amendments which is Friday, 28th August, which is when I will be printing it off and handed it over to my personal hero(ine) Jamie, for more checking.  She is kick-ass and I know she won’t pull punches.  I’ve already asked / warned her and by all accounts, she has her red pen ready!  Jamie will be the first person, apart from me, who would have read Djinn in its entirety.  Needless to say I am excited but terrified (in a good way) at the same time.

Right – enough jibba jabba from me.  Off to ruminate on plotslines and character creation.

Mirrored from Curse of the Djinn.

This past week turned out to be a genuine holiday! 

I thought it was going to be a bit of a waste of my time and although I struggled with our pointless neighbours’ dog barking incessantly for hours on end during the course of every day - I kid you not – I ended up listening to a lot of music, really loudly and also reading.  A lot.  Four books in 3 days.  Impressive, no? 

During the week, I picked up my printed copy of CURSE OF THE DJINN to revise and after the first twenty pages I realised my heart wasn’t in it.  I set it aside and went for a long walk instead.

I’ve not gone back to it yet.  It’s sitting on our small coffee table in the lounge, neatly packaged in its elastic bands, keeping it from falling everywhere.  I still feel proud but am now officially terrified of it.  This new week will be revising week.  Wish me luck.

This week will be writing reviews week. 

I’ve read the following books this past week whilst on holiday:

• Girl from Mars by Julie Cohen – aimed at adults, a lighthearted romance novel from Little Black Dress Books  – such a good read which will easily be overlooked by the more serious literary readers and to be honest, it will be their loss.  Girl from Mars is an excellent read!  Especially if you are a fan of science fiction and fantasy. 
• Hunger Games 1 by Suzanne Collins by Scholastic – YA novel – if you’ve not read it, where have you been?  Under a rock like me?  I read HG1 in one day.  Several sittings, but one day.  The following day I picked up
• Hunger Games 2 – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins  by Scholastic – YA novel – the follow-up to HG1.  Not yet available in the shops, but take my word when I solemnly declare it to be ridiculously good.  And to make sure you buy a copy to read.  
• The Secret of the Pink Carnation by Lauren Willig – a historical drama with a side-step into romance,  set during Napoleonic times, it’s a little bit Dumas, a little bit Scarlet Pimpernel and a little bit James Bond – only in petticoats. 

 This week I’ve got Nekropolis to read, as well as The Reformed Vampire Support Group.  As well as Djinn for revising purposes.

I have an entire bag of research for Book 2 but am terrified of looking at it.  Such hard work, to be honest!  The 300 pages or so I had printed off on a variety of subject needs to narrowed dramatically into something I can work with.  I have a large lever arch folder full of research for Djinn.  I’ve called it ”The Nicholas Bible” purely because everything about Nicholas and the djinn is in there – historial research as well as character “sketches”.  If I lost TNB whilst writing I would be lost. 

So now I’m hesitant to beging book 2 – TPP – as I’ve no idea where it’s going yet – too many ideas and sub-plots, so I need to ruminate more.  Less of the gung-ho and more of the braincells burning, y’know?

Oh, also – rewatched Twilight on Saturday by myself, whilst eating pizza (Mark was off playing Dark Heresy with some friends) and I have to say:  I liked it a lot more the second time around.  I was less critical and less prone to mutter “that’s not how it was in the book”.  I am really looking forward to New Moon.  And did I mention that I am totally Team Jacob?

Mirrored from Curse of the Djinn.

This image is simply gorgeous – I am not sure who the creator is, but I am pretty sure I saw it on DeviantArt, so all credit goes to the artist for the pure evocativeness (new work by me) of this piece.  I love the dreamlike and surreal quality to it.  And of course, the djinni looks pretty hot.  So that matters too.  Not that it has anything to do with MY djinn story.

I am undergoing a bit of a moment in limbo at present.  After all the gearing up, the motivating and the nose to the grindstone, the constant thinking, the no-life-except-writing-of-the-book has caused this giant gap in my current existence now that the first draft is done.

I have tried, with all my heart and soul to leave the ms of djinn aside and not to fiddle with it.  The most extreme I got was only to do spellcheck on it.  Oh, and also making sure that Jenny and Nicholas’ names are spelled correctly throughout, along with everyone else’s names and surnames.

I’ve printed it off too – it is a very satisfying weight and looks really pretty sitting in its plastic slipcase.  And I swear it has become sentient.  Even more so than before.  But I am resisting the call.

However, having said that, I’ve drawn up a synopsis for DJINN and I have to say thanks to Kaz Mahoney who told me off for doing it.  – laughs hysterically -  Yes, I am NOW very much aware of the fact that the synopsis is not yet necessary but having written it was not only an interesting experience but a cathartic one.  I got it ALL out.  The last vestiges of DJINN came tumbling out and it makes sense in my head.  Does that sound a bit, you know, weird?

Something else I’ve been doing is reading.  I’ve thrown myself into some of my books that have been neglected of late.  I am way behind and may have to bypass some to stay ahead of the pack.  I am thinking of doing a whole month of JUST young adult and kids books on My Favourite Books.  I’ve not read many these past few weeks and I need to desperately stock up on some mojo.  Yes, reading YA and kids books = mojo. 

Hubby Mark and I are hoping to find somewhere else to live as at present we have some pretty nasty neighbours.  We also need a bigger house – mainly for our exploding bookshelves. So we have been looking around and will be going to view a house this Sunday.  Hold thumbs it is something nice – it sounds huge, compared to our tiny two up two down Victorian we are living in at present.

Oh, pop by this weekend as I will be blogging about some really good books on writing which I’ve used in the past.