Ripping Ozzie Reads

Writing Craft Sunday

2010-06-06T14:12:00.000-07:00

Over at the new ROR blog we run a post every Sunday on Writing Craft. Drop by and say Hi.

Time management for writers

Agents, the ins and outs.

World Building

Dialogue, the Good, the Bad and the Ugly

Pacing or Beware the Sagging Middle

Pitch your Book

Tips for Writing Steam Punk

Synopsis

The Dreaded Synopsis!

2010-05-04T03:58:00.001-07:00

Following on from the Industry Insight post, the new ROR blog now has a post about tackling that tricky thing, the synopsis!

Update on Industry Insight

2010-04-27T13:04:00.000-07:00

Due to popular demand (LOL) the ROR blog is going to do a series of writing craft posts over on the new site. So drop by and put in a request for what you want.

Industry Insight

2010-04-26T03:01:00.000-07:00

Over at the new ROR blog we are doing a thread about the Publishing Industry. The ROR team realised we had over 70 years experience between us, so we've opened the blog to questions.

Drop by and ask away.

A Giveaway for lovers of Children's Books ...

2010-04-21T00:50:00.001-07:00

Over at the new ROR blog, the lovely (award winning) Kate Forsyth has done a post about how she finds the right voice to write for children.

So if write for children, or are just curious, drop by the new ROR blog.

Kate is also giving away two copies of her new book, 'The Wildkin's Curse'.

A Moving Experience!

2010-04-18T02:49:00.000-07:00

ROR is moving to a wordpress site. So we can:

have pages behind the blog
where we can give away award stories
and spread out

Like Albert here, we've packed our bags and shifted across to:

http://ripping-ozzie-reads.com/

This site will be closed down soon.

But don't worry, there's going to be one more post here to let you know when award winning Kate Forsyth will do a post on the new blog ROR site.

She'll be talking about writing for children and young adults and there'll be a give away of her new book. So if you are a children's writer, or you are thinking of writing for children or young adults, then slip over and say Hi!

Dave Freer on moving home and Writing

2010-03-20T19:55:00.000-07:00

Dave Freer has recently relocated to Australia. Originally from South Africa, he writes here about the transplanting of person and culture from a writers perspective.
Take it away, Dave ...

It’s a long, long way from there to here... Kind of trite really. But reality often is, and where I am now both as a writer and in physical geography, is a long way from my origins. Once I was an Ichthyologist and lived in South Africa. Now I am a writer and pleased to be a very new Australian settler, living on a remote island in the Bass strait. ( http://flindersfreer.blogspot.com/ )

What do you mean, you thought they put boat-people on Christmas Island? I’ll have you know that somehow the Australian authorities decided I was a desirable migrant. I chose to go and live on Flinders Island. Really. Would I lie to you?

Heh, seriously, it’s a good place to write (well, there are a lot of distractions like a beautiful sea, which I have to catch our tea in) but it’s quiet and friendly, and comfortingly safe, far from the realities and restless ghosts of the lost dream. I came here to find peace in which to write... I’ve written (or co-authored as the principle writer with Eric Flint and Mercedes Lackey) some 12 sf/fantasy novels and a shed-full of shorts so far. They are quietly and subtly flavoured with the dust of Africa and it’s going to be interesting to see how a transplanted seedling writer does in a new and very different soil. Probably like African boxthorn - (you know, irrepressible and good for nothing) although at the moment it’s still unfamiliar soil and a different landscape, inwardly and outwardly.

That inner landscape -- the hidden shared background that makes it possible to write something which carries a great deal more than just the words -- and the private corners which writers reveal that we readers guiltily enjoy a voyeuristic peek at, is, for an outsider, a lot more tricky to navigate than for born-and-bred Australians. It’s also something that as an incomer I am aware of, that locals may not be: the undertones, the not-quite-spoken attitudes, the subtleties of meaning derived from understanding that background. Hell, even the pronunciation of innocent words can lead a poor foreigner into all sorts of trouble. I’m a rock-climber, and, once-upon-a-time, opened a whole lot of new climbing routes, mostly fingerlocking up vertical cracks. Did you know that South Africans pronounced route = root?

I leave the results of this slight difference to your fevered imagination, because it allowed me to sneak an example of how that shared linguistic landscape shapes things: "once-upon-a-time" told the Western English-speaking reader a great deal more than just the direct meaning of the words. It carries a history - baggage if you like. A simple direct translation into Zulu would not. Likewise that background allows words to carry many more things than just a simple meaning: mood, allusions, implications, sometimes back-history. Some of this is widespread among first language English speakers. I used a lot of this in PYRAMID SCHEME and PYRAMID POWER where I extensively used the common of classical Western mythology we have -even if only via Marvel comics. You all know the baggage of Loki or Thor.

Of course each country has its own. It is something I am working hard at learning here. "It’ll be the Eureka Stockade all over again" means something to most Australians, "It’ll be Blood River all over again" doesn’t. But it’s very important (to me as a writer anyway) to understand that inner landscape. One of my primary goals as a writer is remain accessible and easy to read. Unfortunately, I seem to blunder into writing about some fairly complex subjects. I could either fail at accessibility... or I could let the readers fill in the gaps by using that shared background. So it becomes very important to me know not just what ‘a squatter’ or ‘a bogan’ is but what implications there are in calling a character one. Knowing the baggage carried by a word and using that baggage can subtly make you a much more powerful and effective writer. It’s a difficulty I faced as a South African writing principally for an American market. It doesn’t help that I don’t live there, and that the culture -- while sharing more than most of us are prepared to admit -- has its own shared inner landscape. The reality for those of us who want sell to the international English-speaking market is that one has to at least get a handle on the crude geography of it. The US is the biggest market - and that market (just like anywhere else) is a complicated mixture of xenophilia and xenophobia.

I suppose you could say you just want their money and stuff their background and culture. We all love Americans, or Chinese or Poms or South Africans who do that, don’t we?

Rowena, here. Interesting points, Dave. I read 'Brasyl' which had a strong South American flavour. As readers, have you discovered writers who give their books exotic flavours? Middle East, India, South Africa? I loved the movie, 'District 9'!

KRK Covers!!!

2010-03-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

This is it. I am so excited. The covers for books 2 and 3 have arrived.

First of all a BIG thank you is in order to the team at Solaris for selecting Clint Langley as the artist. I am so impressed with what he's done!

I love the look of all three and I love the way they work as a design when you put the three together.

Would you pick up these books if you saw them on the shelf?

What you can learn from TV series

2010-03-16T22:39:00.001-07:00

A TV series has to grab the viewer and hook them into coming back for more, much like a fantasy book series.

I'm currently watching 'Desperate Romantics' and really enjoying it. This series is about the PreRaphaelite Brotherhood, set in 1860s. A period drama about a group of artists trying to be accepted by the Royal Academy could be rather stuffy, but this is a romp. Having lived as a bohemian artist in Melbourne I can really relate to it.

What I learnt from it as a writer? Don't forget that historical figures were once passionate young people, struggling for recognition. Also, the social restrictions of the time make for great drama.

'Breaking Bad'. Just finished watching series 2. Brilliant. A high school science teacher is diagnosed with lung cancer despite never having smoked. He doesn't have health care, his wife falls pregnant by accident and their 15 year old son has cerebral palsy. So he decides the only way he can make enough money to leave something for his wife and children, is to go into the business of making Crystal Meth. This series raises a lot of moral and ethical issues.

What I leant from it as a writer? Heap the problems on your protagonist. A character can do terrible things and not lose the audience, if their motivation is strong enough. And also, black humour is a wonderful thing.

What TV shows have you been watching and what have you learnt from them?

Heroes and Villains

2010-03-12T01:25:00.000-08:00

LOL cat.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. And it does have something to do with this post, which is about characterisation.

Over at Mad Genius Club they were talking about Evil Overlords. How can we understand them? How can we write them in a believable way. Hence Darth Kitty, here.

I came across an interesting article on Scientific Blogging (I know that is like admitting I read New Scientist for fun. Which I do). Andrea Kuszewkei blogged about the link between the sociopathic personality and the extreme altruistic personality. Addicted to being Good?

She says, 'Personality has consistently shown to be extremely heritable. However, the same genetic material arranged and weighted in a slightly different way, may at times express as vastly different phenotypes: the "extremely good" and the "extremely bad" individual. How is this possible?'

A sociopath is willing to break rules. But then so is an extremely altruistic person. They are convinced they are right, or must do the right thing, even if it is against the rules.

As a writer I found this really interesting. I can see how tendencies pushed a little too far one way do become obsessions. Mal in Firefly said 'A hero is some guy who got a lot of people killed.' (That's quoted off the top of my head). He was talking about war, but it does make you wonder. What convinces someone that they are right, so right that they can send other people to their deaths? Bonaparte marched into Russia with 500,000 men and between the fighting and cold he returned with 20,000. How could a normal person live with that?

As a writer of fantasy books I often create 'hero' characters. To help me with this, I researched great military leaders (Bonaparte included). Iwanted to understand why people followed them and I came to the conclusion that most people are followers.

My favourite hero would have to be Lois McMaster Bujold's Miles Vorksigan. My favourite character in Terry Pratchett's books would have to be Vimes. Neither of them are villains. Conversely, have you read any really believable villains or heroes?

Writing Craft

2010-03-08T03:47:00.000-08:00

I'm currently in the middle of the edits on book two of King Rolen's kin. And now my editor, Jonathan Oliver from Solaris, has posted 10 rules for writing.

I should be taking notes!

10 rules for writing according to Jon

Okay, so apparently the Guardian has been running a 10 rules for writing thingy, and David and Jenni thought it would be interesting/amusing/shocking/inspiring for me to give my take on these, seeing as I'm an editor and I've written one book and that. Anyway, this is going to be messy so bear with me:

JON'S RULES FOR WRITING AND GETTING PUBLISHED (AND MAYBE STAYING PUBLISHED).

One step closer!

2010-03-05T00:37:00.000-08:00

Here's the cover of book one of the Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin. My editor tells me the next cover will be delivered soon, maybe in a week. Clint Langley is the artists and I'm really looking forward to seeing what he does with the next book cover.

Meanwhile, my editor at Solaris has sent me book two 'The Uncrowned King' for editing. I would like nothing more than to immerse myself totally in the book, tidying up the little glitches that he has discovered, but life gets in the way.

!Whinge Warning!

This weekend I have to mark assignments for work (I'm an associate lecturer). I have to take child number 6 to the dentist. And I'm involved in organising a national workshop, for which there was a competition to enter. This is the weekend that I have to prepare the contact emails to the 51 entrants to let them know if they have been selected to be offered a place at the workshop.

I'd be flat out, without the editing of book two. Meanwhile, we've decided to sell our house, so I should be cleaning, sorting and throwing out, and painting the walls where the kids have stratched them, or stuck up posters and pulled off the paint, etc.

Why can't I just run away from life and do nothing but write? Sigh.

Does life get in the way for you? How do you find time to write?

Gender genie for writers ...

2010-03-03T02:56:00.000-08:00

I've done nothing but work and be sensible all day so now it is time for a coffee break and a bit of fun.

The Gender Genie is an interesting site.

'Inspired by an article and a test in The New York Times Magazine, the Gender Genie uses a simplified version of an algorithm developed by Moshe Koppel, Bar-Ilan University in Israel, and Shlomo Argamon, Illinois Institute of Technology, to predict the gender of an author.'

You type in a paragraph of text and see if the program thinks you are male or female.
This is particularly useful for writers. We know if we are male or female but ...

Say you are writing from the view point of a character. You are female and the character is male. Do you have the right tone for the character. Is his inner narrative coming across as male enough? This site will tell you.

I've done it several times with character pieces. A stuffy male academic was interpreted as female. But I think this was a good result because it meant the tone of his inner narrative was in character.

Writing in a different gender ... do you wonder if you have it right?

Publishing Misconceptions

2010-02-23T14:22:00.000-08:00

I run a lot of workshops and I come across a lot of misconceptions about how the publishing industry works.

Over here, Charlie Stross is talking on just this topic.

Here are some of the things that have come up at workshops from the general public. The first one is my own misconception.

1. Once you get a book published it means you have joined the world of the professional author, and editors from other publishing houses will look at all your future books differently. ie. It will be easier to sell your books, because after all you are a published author.

Unfortunately, no. There are a dozen reasons for rejecting your book, that you don't know about, starting with 'we have one slot left and we're going to use someone we've published before' to 'your book is too similar to one we're going to publish next week' to the old 'It's just not what we are looking for'. What are you looking for? 'We'll know it when I see it.'

2. Publishers and their editors are out to steal your book/ideas, so you need to get your book copyrighted before you send it out.

No. If you write a good book, the publisher will want to grow you as a writer, not steal your idea and write it themselves. They aren't writers. They might know writers, but those writers couldn't reproduce your book. Your book is automatically copyrighted when you write it. Posting it back to yourself via registered mail to prove when you wrote it, isn't necessary.

3. Self publishing your book then sending copies of it to celebrities across Australia in the hope that they will love it and promote it.

Um ... celebrities are probably not going to read your self published book and, even if they loved it, they aren't going to arrange to go on Breakfast Television to talk about it.

Are there any questions that you'd like to ask the ROR team with our shared experience in the publishing world. (Disclaimer -- we don't know everything).

PS. The story about the aspiring writer following the editor into the toilets at a convention and pushing her manuscript under the door is true. Note. This is not the right way to approach an editor, it will not endear them to your book.

Australian Speculative Fiction Carnival

2010-02-14T02:48:00.000-08:00

It's been a busy month!

For a start, we had the Aurealis Awards, the It Affair of the Aus Spec Fic Calendar (and still no news I believe on who is going to try to measure up to the grand, black tie productions brought to us by Fantastic Queensland). The winners are listed here.

Attendees at the AAs included Angela Slatter, Cat Sparks, Karen Miller, Scott Westerfeld, Robbie Matthews, Kaaron Warren, Ben Payne, Paul Haines (I, II), Deborah Biancotti, Donna Maree Hanson and Jason Fischer. Jonathan Strahan, like many of us, had to stay home and follow the excitement via Twitter. Thank goodness for ScottW's fashion tweets.

Elsewhere on the internet:

Justine Larbalestier on Unsung YA and the Most Influential YA of the Decade. Charles Tan interviews Angela Slatter.

Girlie Jones announced the final issue of YA ezine Shiny is available for sale. Talie Helene discusses Women in Horror month. Trent Jamieson has upped stakes to a new blog.

Ticonderoga Publications announced collections by Kaaron Warren and Angela Slatter, to be out by Aussiecon 4. Cat Sparks announces her own collection, The Bride Price, is to be published by Orb Publications, also for Aussiecon 4.

Tansy Rayner Roberts discusses the latest Bloomsbury cover racefail, and links to some of the best posts about Amazon v. Macmillan (I, II). Alan Baxter on the release of the iPad and what it means for e-books. Mondyboy on Amazon, Macmillan, the iPad and e-books. Karen Miller on e-book pricing.

Strange Horizons reviewed A Book of Endings by Deborah Biancotti and Eclipse 3, the Aurealis Award-winning anthology edited by Jonathan Strahan.

Hugo-pimping & promotional freebies from Paul Haines and Twelfth Planet Press. Robert Hoge starts the Homegrown Hugo Nomination campaign to get Australians on the Hugo ballot (I, II). TansyRR discusses "Wives" and some other great candidates for the Hugo ballot. [comment to the carnival with your own recs!]

Nominations are now open for the Tin Ducks, and membership of DudCon will give you voting rights in the Ditmars. HorrorScope discusses the number of Australians on the Bram Stoker longlist. You can also vote for many Australians (or anyone else) in the Locus poll and survey.

Justine Larbalestier on mansplaining and how to avoid derailing discussion with your own privilege. Girlie Jones on How to Suppress Women's Writing and some recent posts about feminism and writing. MonissaW on the strength of our female ancestors, and gender-based colour coding on book covers.

The Egoboo writing-critiquing group on the guidelines they use for critiquing. Deborah Biancotti on what she wanted to achieve with A Book of Endings. Gillian Polack on body language as worldbuilding, and word culture. Rowena Cory Daniells asks, does it have to be a trilogy?

Latest Terra Incognita podcasts include readings from Marianne De Pierres and Matthew Chrulew, and Ben Peek describes making his own recording for the March TISF.

Greteldragon asks what people really want from Swancon, and Danny Oz responds to some of the issues raised with a post and a poll about parenthood and cons. Mynxii proposes a set of core values for the WASFF. Felicity Dowker is upset about criticisms of the Aurealis Awards horror panel, and Martin Livings responds.

In closing, please draw your attention to the Australian SpecFic Snapshot which is happening THIS WEEK. Check in on these blogs every day between the 15th and 22nd of February for a series of interviews with people in the Aussie spec fic scene about what they are doing in this, the year of an Australian Worldcon: Kathryn Linge, Random Alex, Girlie Jones, Rachel the Mechanical Cat, TansyRR and EditorMum. Last time, the team hit 86 interviews - will they break the record?

Next month's carnival will be hosted by Alan Baxter. As ever, if you notice something interesting that has been missed from the last month, please link to it in comments. Thank you and goodnight!

Deep Point of View

2010-02-12T20:13:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, I ran a workshop on Deep Point of View. (POV or VP). The people at the workshop asked me for my notes, so I'm going to put them up here, where they can make copies of them.

But first of all there is basic Point of View. I covered it here, back in 2009. This covers basic VP types, when you would use a VP and why.

Remember to tell the scene from the VP of the person who has the most to lose. This will be the most exciting VP.

CHANGING VP.

The simplest way to change VP is to change when you start a new chapter or scene but, every now and then, you might want to change VP in the middle of scene. Maybe you want to show how the other character misunderstood something, or you want to raise tension and reveal something to the reader, that one of the protagonists doesn't know.

To change VP mid scene you need to signal the change clearly. To do this use the character's name and an emotive verb. Make it clear which VP you are in.

'Annie didn't know whether to laugh or cry.'

As soon as you see a word like knew or sensed, felt, wondered or thought, you know you have to be in that character's VP. These are subjective verbs, they rely on the character's perception.

Then you can either switch straight away to his VP or slip into omniscient to set the scene then into his VP. Like this.

'Annie didn't know whether to laugh or cry. (Third person VP, Hers).
The dust settled on the floor between them. (Omniscient).
Nathan coughed and wiped chalk dust off his shirt, wishing he could think of something wity to say, but he always came up with smart replies later. (His VP).'

Use VP changes sparing for greatest effect. Don't risk losing your reader and throwing them out of the story.

DEEP PV

To write deep VP you need to know your characters. Know their background, know their motivation and their secret fears. If you think you know your characters interview them and let them answer the question in First Person. Here's some sample questions. Your character's responses can be quite revealing. You could come up with questions more suitable to your world if you're writing genre.

What's the most memorable moment from your childhood?
Are you still in touch with your childhood best friend.
What's the most embarrassing moment?
What's your idea of a perfect day?
If you knew you were going to die in 6 months, what would you do?
If you could change one thing about you, what would it be?

Now that you know your characters, you can write from deep in their point of view. Filter what they see through their perception.

They don't just walk into a room, the room has significance. If they have been there before and something terrible happened and now they have to face the person who did this terrible thing again, then you have a powerful scene. Let the character's emotions and back-story colour the way they see the world.

SHOW DON'T TELL

By showing the reader how your characters feel about a place, an event or a person, you filter the story through the character's perception. You make it more powerful.

Use all 5 senses plus intuition.

Have your character observe others and try to work out what they are really thinking. Your character can get this wrong and you can reveal the misunderstanding using a VP change. This can add to the humour of the scene or raise the tension.

DEEP VP COMES FROM:

Creating vivid characters.

With strong motivations.

Using clear VP changes.

Using all the senses, including intuition.

Imbuing places and events with emotional significance.

Filtering the reader's perception of the world through the character's perception so that they feel what the character feels.

Starting our with High Stakes and then Raising the Stakes!

Now that you are aware of VP and Deep VP look at your favourite authors.

How many VPs do they use?

When do they change VP?

Why do they change it and how do they do this?

Do they imbue places and events with significance? How?

Be an informed reader. Set out to observe the writing craft in other authors' work and apply what works for you.

Does it have to be a trilogy?

2010-02-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

One of the writers on the VISION list asked 'Does it have to be a trilogy?' Good question.

How long is a piece of string? A book need to be as long as it needs to be to tell the story. Having said that, single title books are hard to sell. And, from a writer's point of view, they are harder to write. Think of all that work building the world and its different societies, then only using it once in one book.

Besides, readers like to come back to a familiar world. It's like going on a holiday to a destination that is an old favourite. A reader emailed asking if she could buy the sequel to the Last T'En trilogy because ... 'I feel like the characters are my friends. I want to know what happens to them.' This is why fantasy book series run to 10 books or more.

Which brings us back to the question, should you write a trilogy or could it be a duology?

Some stories just work better as a duology. They have a natural conclusion. That raises the question of word length. Rhonda Roberts was saying her Gladiatrix comes in at 160K. The individual books of Nicole Murphy's new series, 'The Dream of Asaerlai' come in at around 110K. The books of Simon Green's Nightside series are very short, around 200 pages printed. But they are tight and eminently readable because each book is self contained. I think he's up to book number 10 now and he keeps going back to the world he created, revisiting characters, making them grow and evolve, bringing in new characters.

I find, if I'm writing away and I get to about 600 pages (150K) and the story still hasn't reached a natural conclusion, I'll look for a place where I can cut it in half and expand it to two books of 100K each. Since this is a first draft, I know I'll be expanding the book as I add flavour and colour to the narrative, so I know it is going to grow.

One of the other writers on the list commented that they hate buying a trilogy when they have to wait for the other books. It means they have to wait years sometimes, and then re-read the earlier books. I can sympathise, having been in the same spot. This is why I'm glad Solaris is bringing out my three King Rolen's Kin books, a month apart. No waiting.

But it does mean that three years of work gets released in 3 months. This is another question that was raised on the VISION list. Should a writer complete the second book of a trilogy before sending out the first and moving on to another project? If I hadn't written all three KRK books, they would be coming out 6 months to a one year apart.

As you might have gathered from the description of my writing practice, my books tend to grow, so I will often have book two written in draft form, while I'm polishing book one. A writer with a great track record can sell on the strength of a proposal. A writer with a track record can sell on the strength of a proposal and three chapters. A new writer can sell on the strength of the first book and the outline of the second.

When you do sell, you'll find yourself writing to a deadline, trying to edit book one, clean up book two and plan book three, all at the same time. And sometimes it is easier to complete book three before cleaning up book two because things will happen in book three that need to be seeded into book two.

So, do you wait until all three books of a trilogy are out, before buying the first one? Does it annoy you when a trilogy's individual books don't have conclusions? What about series that run on for ever without a conclusion? Would you keep reading anyway, because you find the characters fascinating?

congratulations, Rhonda

2010-02-08T21:12:00.000-08:00

Hi Rhonda!

Hope Gladiatrix is selling well for you! Isn't it a great feeling to see your book actually sitting on bookshop shelves. And since Gladiatrix has an excellent cover, hopefully sitting cover face-out!

How difficult was it to add those extra words to bring the novel up to what your publisher wanted? Me, I find it easier to cut words - up to a point, anyway. Whereas adding new stuff in that's as good as the old stuff, AND fits perfectly, AND looks as though it was always meant to be there - that's hard. An extra quarter in length sounds like a whole new sub-plot. Or were there a lot of small areas where you'd pulled in tighter than you really wanted in first version, so it was natural to expand and easy to give characters and episodes the length they'd always really wanted?

(I ask this as a fellow Illawarra inhabitant - which means, by the Illawarrriors' Oath, you have to answer with absolute fearless honesty!)

Cheers
Richard

Update on Book Prize

2010-02-07T17:28:00.000-08:00

Doing give-aways on Blogs is new to us so we're learning as we go along. Tehani jumped in with the right answer to Rhonda's question within 15 minutes of the post going up. Congratulations to Tehani, Rhonda is sending her a signed copy of her book.

To make it fair for everyone else, Rhonda has generously offered another copy of her book and another chance for someone to win it. This time send your answer to me at

rowena@corydaniells.com

All the right answers will go into a draw and Rhonda will send the winner a copy of her book.

So here's the question and this time it is one SF movie buffs will be able to answer.

Q. In which recent SF movie was Britain a police state?

Getting my first book published, Rhonda Roberts

2010-02-05T15:21:00.001-08:00

Rowena, here. For an unpublished writer it is so hard to get your work in front of an editor. The manuscript can be really good, but if you can't get past the 'gate keeper' you'll never sell the book.

Back in 2006 while I was on the Fantastic Queensland committee, I organised a Pitching Opportunity for Spec Fic writers to pitch their books to Stephanie Smith from Harper Collins.

Marianne de Pierres, Louise Cusack and Kim Wilkins kindly agreed to help select the 10 lucky aspiring writers and run a workshop on how to pitch. Rhonda Roberts was one of these writers. Here's her story ...
(Look out for the Give Away question. We have a copy of Gladiatrix for one lucky blog reader).

Getting published seemed like a long shot but I read everything I could find and joined the NSW Writer’s Centre in Sydney. The Centre was invaluable. Nothing like listening to writers, publishers and agents talk about their industry and being able to ask questions.

Inspired I planned my series, honed the first book (for the tenth time), started the second and sent out query packages to publishers and agents.

I had no success until I did one of Terry Dowling’s workshops. He said I had to find a way to get my manuscript past the slush pile - the manuscripts that never make it to the editor’s desk.

So I looked for competitions to enter and came across one with the prize being an opportunity to pitch to a publisher at that year’s National SF Convention. It was organised and judged by Rowena Cory Daniells, Marianne de Pierres, Louise Cusack and Kim Wilkins. To my surprise I won a place with nine others.

Rowena and Kim ran a workshop to prepare us for the pitch, which was wonderful. They reminded us to be extremely concise in our presentation – we only had a few minutes to make an impression.

At mine the publisher was very kind but non-committal and especially interested to know how far I was along with the rest of the series.

Later she sent me an encouraging email… She liked my work but it wasn’t the right length so I could resubmit when I’d expanded the draft by a quarter.

I resubmitted and while I was waiting worked on the second book. When the call came I expected the worst – but instead HarperCollins bought the first three books in my Timestalker series. The first one, Gladiatrix, came out in May 2009.

Rhonda's bio:

I have a Ph.D and worked as an academic specialising in the sociology of knowledge. I trained in Aikido in Japan and now Tai Chi near my home in the Illawara.

And Rhonda is a fan of SF Comedy so the Give Away question is:

In what SF comedy series does the Big Giant Head appear and who played him?

Sighted in Public

2010-02-02T16:57:00.000-08:00

For any of you Hobart readers (viewers?), I'm doing a public reading at the Republic Bar in North Hobart this Sunday 7 February. The event runs from 3-5pm, with two featured readers and an open mike. I'll be reading from Siren Beat, and copies of the book Siren Beat/Roadkill will also be available for sale.

Public appearances are one of those weird things that you have to learn to do as a writer once you get published - unless you fancy being a hermit author, which only works for very few of us. I used to get terrified before standing up before a crowd, until I learned from experience that I could generally manage quite well, far better than I ever thought I would.

So now I tend to go to these things criminally underprepared, trusting in my ability to talk confidently and sound vaguely intelligent. I'm sure I will come a cropper with this technique sooner or later...

Anyway, the important task between now and Sunday is figuring out which bits to read, what to talk about, and hopefully which scenes are smutty enough to be interesting to potential book buyers, but not SO smutty that I blush, drop the microphone and have to run away very fast.

There may be tentacles. Watch this space, and I will report back on how it went.

Cheers,
Tansy

Some useful industry links for Spec Fic Writers

2010-01-28T23:47:00.000-08:00

Cover and blurb for the first book of my new fantasy series, King Rolen's Kin. Cover art by Clint Langley. Kudos to Clint for making the character look suitably brooding and menacing. Clint is working on book two right now. Can't wait to see the cover!

Meanwhile, I had an email today from a writer who has been mentored by the lovely Louise Cusack. Bernadette, (Hi there!), was asking about the Speculative Fiction writing scene in Australia. So I thought I'd post some useful links here, where it is easy for people to find them.

Aurealis Awards

It's a good idea to keep up with what is winning awards and being shortlisted.

Locus

This is full of professional industry news.

ASIF

Lots of info on Australian Speculative Fiction.

Australian Horror Writers Association

Amazingly, this is for writers of horror.

Australian Spec Fic News

Again, slanted towards Aussie genre writer. When anthologies open for submissions you can hear about it here.

World SF Convention, Melbourne 2010

Australia hasn't had a World SF Con since 1999, before that it was 1985, and 1975. Don't miss this one.

Australian Writers and Market Place

You can subscribe online to this and keep up with the markets, for short stories and books. Agents, manuscript appraisers, festivals and more.

Ralan

This site has info on all sorts of international markets with response times.

Predators and Editors

If you want to know if an agent, publisher, manuscript appraiser etc are legitimate, this is the site for you.

Who is going to the World SF Con in Melbourne in September? I've already paid my membership.

Feasting on Spec Fic TV Shows

2010-01-25T01:03:00.001-08:00

This holiday I've been watching Dark Angel. It came out in 2000 and I never heard of it until now. They only made two seasons. My favourite so far is the episode where Bruno returns. Very droll.

It took Buffy two seasons to hit its stride. I only have the first season of Dark Angel, but I can't see why it didn't take off.

Then I remember that Fire Fly was cancelled part way through its first season and all I can do is shake my head.

Meanwhile, Charlaine Harris, the author the the Southern Vampire Series that is True Blood, is coming to Australia in September. See here for info, scroll down to the bottom. I really enjoyed the TV show, especially the slutty brother. Again, very droll!

Here's a pic for True Blood fans.

Aurealis Awards, here I come ...

2010-01-21T23:07:00.000-08:00

This is me with Jack Dann at the Aurealis Awards last year (January 1009).

I had to present one of the categories, which I've done before, butI'm always a little nervous because I don't want to get anything wrong. One year I opened the winner's envelope and it was two people as joint winners. The way it was laid out I couldn't tell which first name went with which last name and I have a terrible moment, where I had to madly scramble to remember the five short listed authors and put the names together.

Last year Richard won an award. When he'd asked me to give his acceptance speech, he told me he was 99% sure he wouldn't win, so I wasn't mentally prepared but I bumbled through. Richard's speech won a few laughs.

This time Tansy has asked me to do her acceptance speech if she wins in the fantasy short story section, so I'm prepared. Siren Beat from Twelfth Planet Press.

The Aurealis Awards are a chance for everyone in the Spec Fic world to put on their glad rags, quaff champagne and mingle. Kudos to the Fantastic Queensland team for the great job they've done organising the award these last five years. And congratulations to all the short listed authors and their editors.

Trent won't blow his own trumpet, so I will!

2010-01-14T11:45:00.000-08:00

Back in March at our 2009 ROR, we were all on tenterhooks. It was the weekend that the editor was taking Trent's book, Death Most Definite, to the acquisitions meeting. Well, as you can see from the cover, they bought the book and a further two. So we are all terribly pleased and proud.

The cover is up on the Orbit site, here's the link.

Trent's series is a dark urban fantasy with a difference, set in Brisbane. It's quirky, funny and yet poignant, and it will carry you away. Go Trent!

Aurealis Awards coming up!

2010-01-11T14:35:00.000-08:00

The AAs, as they are known for short, are Australia's Spec Fic Awards and this year I'll be going to cheer for fellow RORer, Tansy Rayner Roberts. I wouldn't miss the chance to wear a little black dress and drink champagne while catching up with everyone in the Spec fic world from across Australia!

The ROR team will be cheering for our Tansy. Her 'Siren Beat, published by Twelth Planet Press is a finalist in the Best Fantasy Short Story section.

Tansy also has a shorlisting in the YA short story section with her Shiny #5 story, 'Like Us'.

Peter M Ball must be tap dacing on the ceiling with three shortlistings in two sections. And Sean Williams (ever the bridesmaid never the bride) is shortlisted twice for the 20th (?) time. Maybe this year he'll win.

But, as Sean will tell you, it is just a buzz to be shortlisted. The Aurealis Awards were established in 1995 and they are peer judged. Having served 5 years as a volunteer, I know it is a big job that requires dedication from the volunteers who read the entries and agonise over the shortlisting, and from those who coordinate the process and the gala ceremony.

Best of luck to everyone whose work has been shortlisted and many thanks to the AA team. See you there on the 23rd of January. Tickets available from the Judith Wright Centre Boxoffice and Pulp Fiction Books, Brisbane.

Pulp Fiction

Shop 28 Anzac Square Arcade, 267 Edward St
Phone: 3236 2750
Email: pulpfiction@compuserve.com

Writers get excited about Covers!

2010-01-04T13:15:00.000-08:00

And can you blame us?

Here is the cover (without text) for Book One of King Rolen's Kin. Many thanks to Clint Langley, who has worked on various comic strips such as Judge Dredd, Darkblade and Sinister Dexter as well as games such as Games Workshop, White Wolf and Urban Mamoth, plus he's done covers for Warhammer, Black Library and Battletech, and collectible cards for WoW, Sabretooth Games and many more. This is one busy guy so I'm delighted he's had the time to do the covers for my trilogy.

Here's what SOLARIS have to say about the cover.

I'm looking forward to what Clint does with the covers of books two and three.

Book covers are terribly important.

Look at the furore over the cover of Justine Larbalestier's book Liar, back in June 2009. The reaction caused the publishers to re-release the book with a new cover. In this case the cover illustration was a direct contradiction of the main character's appearance as described in the book and because the character was black and the girl they used on the cover was white, you can imagine the reaction.

It certainly didn't hurt the book, since it aroused a lot of reaction and got people talking about the book.

Over at Femmes Fatales, Kris Neri talks about her experience with her first book cover and the reaction of readers to other covers in her book shop.

Since there are so many books out there competing for the readers' attention, covers are important and writers invest so much in their books, naturally they get emotionally involved with the book covers.

There's a discussion thread at SF Chronicles on the topic of book covers. I even did a survey of the VISION list (dedicated writers and readers of the genre) and put together a post at Mad Genius Club about why they buy books. How important is the cover? What about reviews?

I must confess, that I have bought books simply because I loved the cover, but then I have a background as an illustrator.

When you walk into a book store, are you searching for a specific author or title? Do you browse and pick up books with interesting covers? Do you do all your book buying online? Do you read on Kindle and if so, do the covers matter?

The getting of an Agent

2009-12-30T02:38:00.001-08:00

Love' em of hate 'em, a good agent can do a lot for your writing career. Many publishers say they only accept agented submissions. But how do attract an agent's attention and what can they do for you?

Over at the Mad Genius Club -- Writers Division, there's been a couple of posts about agents. Click here for Amanda Green's post, full of useful links to agents and sites about agents. And click here for Dave Freer's post on agents on why we need them.

Over at here Writer Beware Blogs Victoria Strauss is talking about dodgy agents.

Agent inBox is something a bit different.

'How does it work for agents? According to AgentInbox's FAQ for agents, agents create a profile listing their interests and submission preferences. They can then check their submissions online, sort them by various categories including genre, and "[r]eject unsuitable submissions with a single click, and contact the gems directly." ' Victoria Strauss comments on this idea here.

With evolving technology the publishing industry is going to change. Just how is anyone's guess. Here Victoria Strauss does a post about the perils of searching for a publisher using the internet.

And here is her post on 'Learning the Ropes'.

With the internet, you can do your research while sitting at home.

Here's my agent story. I applied for a grant to go to the World SF Con in Glasgow in 2005. My Australian agent had just retired and left me orphaned. Thanks to Arts Qld, I got the grant, flew to the UK.

Before I left I approached John Jarrold, offering to meet him at the World Con. (I thought I made me sound committed, coming all the way from Australia). I sent him the first 3 chapters of the trilogy he has since sold to Solaris. (King Rolen's Kin, due out in July 2010).

The day before I was due to meet him, I slipped into a panel where he was speaking. (Later he told me he recognised me, because he'd been to my web page to research me). At that panel he said he had been approached by over 500 hopeful writers and had taken on 13. My heart sank when I heard that. The next day when we had our meeting I was convinced he wouldn't offer to represent me. When he said he would, I felt like I'd been mentally derailed, in a very nice way. For the rest of the convention I was bobbing on air!

My story makes it sound easy, but I did approach a dozen or more agents before I went to the World Con and John Jarrold was the only one who offered to read my work. So there is an element of timing involved. Your work has to be good, it has to be marketable and the agent has to be looking to acquire authors.

So put yourself out there. The worst people can say is No. Does anyone else have an inspiring story to share?

Avatar ...

2009-12-27T00:48:00.000-08:00

Ok, I've seen James Cameron's Avatar in 3D. I wasn't particularly fussed about seeing it in 3D but my husband said it would be worth it and I'm glad I did. There were no gratuitous objects looming out of the screen.

A boy of about 6 was seated a couple of rows in front of us. When the floating powder puffs floated out of the screen he tried to catch them. It was delightful.

I thought the film was visually rich. And it should be for the price. Over at TheWrap they said:

'Speculation over the film’s costs and profitability started with a Nov. 8 story by the New York Times that claimed “when global marketing expenses are added, ‘Avatar’ may cost its various backers $500 million." The piece added up all production costs, New Zealand tax credits, Cameron’s efforts and marketing to put the “Titanic” director’s decade-long effort at close to a Hollywood heart stopping sum.'

But ...

'The budget for “Avatar,” a Fox spokesperson bluntly told TheWrap this week, “is $237 million, with $150 million for promotion, end of story.”'

What ever the cost of the movie, the most interesting thing to me was that this much money was spent on a film in which the main characters were not white American protestants. The backers felt the viewing public was sophisticated enough to identify with aliens, who follow their own Gaian religion. True, the aliens were a variation on the ideal noble savage, but considering how insular and safe the hollywood studios are backing Avatar was a brave move.

Here is George Dvorksy's take on the film. I felt the plot which was pretty basic and I did not feel that the blue aliens had 'won' at the end. Humans are just too bloody minded.

What did you think of Avatar?

Creativity, can it be harnessed?

2009-12-22T13:13:00.000-08:00

Over here are IEET (Institute for Emerging Ethics and Technologies) Andrea Krusewski is talking about Creativity, something that is very close to a writer's heart. She says:

'Too often, we are given mixed messages from society about what behaviors are expected and valued. Creativity is supposed to be a good thing, something we aspire to achieve. However, those who are the most creative are often faced with the worst treatment and the most rejection for their ideas. To put it simply, people in positions of authority and management generally like and value those who follow rules. It is much easier to maintain order when everyone is following the rules. Breaking rules = bad. Right? But in order to be truly creative, you must break rules. That is what creativity entails. So do we want order, or do we want creativity? Can we have both?'

This cartoon was used in her blog and I just had to include it.

When asked, teachers say they value creativity, but they prefer children who conform, because creative types disrupt the classroom. Well, of course they do, they are always questioning and looking at new ways to do do things.

And we all know how little society values creativity. Who are the lowest paid people? Writers, musicians and artists. But where would Hollywood be without the writers of the scripts for the TV shows and movies?

She adds, 'Personally, I would rather don the riot gear, face the firestorm of resistance from society, and stay true to my creative and purposeful selective rule-breaking behaviors. While we need more people who are willing to face the firestorm and stand up for their creative ideas, the real change needs to come from society itself. Society needs to have flexibility and tolerance in situations where breaking rules is necessary and provides a clear social benefit, instead of treating the passionate innovators of the world as common criminals.'

But how to you change society's attitude towards creativity? Over here at MGC I did a post saying there are two types of people in the world -- those who fear change and those who look for new experiences. The post was done tongue in cheek, but the underlying question was real. If the majority of people fear change and difference, and only look for things which reinforce their world view, then how can society evolve? As writers of Speculative Fiction we actively seek out new experiences and welcome new ideas. I find trying out a new idea gives my mind a mental work out.

Andrea also wrote an article at Scientific Blogging 'We perform best when no one tells us what to do'. Which is something writers can relate to.We often say it is the times when we are staring off into space, that we do our best work. In this article she looks at how companies can encourage creativity in their employees. Google and Atlassian have 'free work times'. This is an interesting concept. Employees are basically free to work on what ever interests them.

A while ago, I read an article in New Scientist about how Necessity isn't really the Mother of Invention. People invent things when they 'play' with ideas. Often it takes time for those inventions to be applied in a practical sense. Time spent 'playing' is something modern children don't get now days. With structured play, after school care, music lessons and tutoring they don't wander down to the creek and build a cubby in the bush, then lie there and day dream, like my generation used to.

Like most writers, I have family and work which I wouldn't trade for anything, but they take up mental space in my head. I often feel as if my brain is crowded with things that require my attention. Yet, it is the 'free work time', when my mind makes the leaps that help connect the dots of my story plots. And these leaps often come when I'm doing other things, driving the kids around, cleaning the house, mowing the yard. It is as if the physical actions leave the brain time to chug along on the background, seeking associations.

How do you harness your creativity?

Input must exceed output. Not a problem when so much information demands out attention. I can find out anything I need to know on the internet and a whole pile of things I didn't want to know.

Time alone, or at least mental space to let ideas brew. This is much harder to find.

Do you have any tips for harnessing creativity?

Writers unite and Embrace your inner Eccentric!

2009-12-17T14:48:00.000-08:00

(Photo by Rochelle)

The truth is out. Over here, at Mad Genius Club -- Writers Division, Kate reveals what we've all long suspected. Writers are odd.

I think it is time we all embraced our inner eccentric.

My confession is that I can only take so much of being social, then I have to go away from people and be by myself. In fact, when my children were small, to be alone was the greatest luxury I could imagine. Now days I have time alone but I have so many responsibilities that, time without things pulling me in a dozen directions is the greatest of luxuries. I find conventions enjoyable, but exhausting. (Glutton for punishment, I've put myself down for Aussie Con 4).

Some days, the thought of running away to become a monk and living in a cell where someone shoves a plate of thin gruel under the door, looks very enticing.

Did you grow up watching other people trying to learn 'the rules' that everyone else seemed to know instinctively?

Do you watch the mass hysteria associated with football and car races with bemusement?

Do you watch the adulation of celebrities and wonder why no one else can see the Emperor's new clothes are worthless?

OK, confess, what are your secret eccentricities?

Primal Emotions

2009-12-13T11:16:00.000-08:00

Over at the Mad Genius Club-Writers' Division, I did a post the other week about favourite movies and everyone started quoting The Princess Bride.

Not only is is fun and cool, with terrifically quirky characters, but the dialogue is so good, people can quote it from memory. That is an achievement, any writer would envy. It has even crept into the everyday. If I ask my husband to take out the rubbish, he says 'As you wish.'

What made The Princess Bride so memorable, apart from all of the above?

Well, as Fezzik the Giant and Inigo Montoya tell the Miracle Man, he must help them because Westley is motivated by 'True Love'. A primal emotion.

What drove Inigo to train with the sword every day from the age of 11? Revenge. He had to avenge his father's murder. A primal emotion.

What makes a book or movie memorable its ability to reach into us and make an emotional connection. What do we all share? Primal emotions.

There's a little caveman (or woman) in all of us.

As a writer, if you can tap into that primal emotion, you will connect with your readers. That is why Romance is the biggest selling genre, outselling all other popular fiction fiction paperback genres combined. (Quoting from Romance Writers of Australia).

For The Princess Bride fans here is one of my favourite scenes and possibly the best revenge scene ever written.

Memorable quotes from The Princess Bride

Inigo Montoya: Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
[Inigo advances on Rugen, but stumbles into the table with sudden pain. Rugen attacks, but Inigo parries and rises to his feet again]
Inigo Montoya: Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
[Rugen attacks again, Inigo parries more fiercely, gaining strength]
Inigo Montoya: Hello! My name is Inigo Montoya! You killed my father! Prepare to die!
Count Rugen: Stop saying that!
[Rugen attacks, twice. Inigo avoids and wounds Rugen in both shoulders, the same spots where he wounded Inigo. Inigo attacks, bellowing:]
Inigo Montoya: HELLO! MY NAME IS INIGO MONTOYA! YOU KILLED MY FATHER! PREPARE TO DIE!
[Inigo corners Count Rugen, knocks his sword aside, and slashes his cheek, giving him a scar just like Inigo's]
Inigo Montoya: Offer me money.
Count Rugen: Yes!
Inigo Montoya: Power, too, promise me that.
[He slashes his other cheek]
Count Rugen: All that I have and more. Please...
Inigo Montoya: Offer me anything I ask for.
Count Rugen: Anything you want...
[Rugen knocks Inigo's sword aside and lunges. But Inigo traps his arm and aims his sword at Rugen's stomach]
Inigo Montoya: I want my father back, you son of a bitch!
[He runs Count Rugen through and shoves him back against the table. Rugen falls to the floor, dead]

Whew. I feel better just having read that. And I'm a pacificist!

Okay, what scene from books or movies have been so memorable, that you can still recall them today and maybe quote a line or two?

Don't beat yourself up, Grasshopper.

2009-12-04T13:23:00.000-08:00

Jessica Faust, over at the BookEnds Literary Agency is talking about the writing process. Here.

She starts with ...

Not too long ago a client was going through some revisions with her editor and called me for a pep talk. She was confident that she could get the revisions done and even felt good about how she planned to do them. What upset her was that the editor had to point out these things in the first place. She really felt it was all so obvious, something she should have seen before even sending in the material, and she was feeling a little down on herself about the entire thing.

Jessica goes on to say everyone has a different writing process and there is no wrong or right way to write. This is very true.

I think the interesting point is that, as adults, we don't like to 'get it wrong'. As children we attempt things and sometimes we fail. But since we are children, the grownups encourage us. As a child, it is acceptable to make mistakes.

As adults it gets harder to accept that we can still make mistakes. Writing is such in intimate, individual process, of course we will get too close to see the mistakes. Being receptive to constructive criticism is invaluable .

That's where having a writing group whose judgment we trust is the an important step in the polishing process. Then comes the editor, who will bring a fresh set of eyes to the manuscript. Then the copy editor, looking for those errors that creep in. I once read a book where the main character's eyes changed colour halfway through, and not because of a magical event or some other plot device.

Even with all the people on a movie set, continuity mistakes creep in. Here's a site devoted to mistakes in movies. You could spend hours going through it.

We would all like to hand in the perfect manuscript. It's a matter of professional pride. But, if you did hand in your book and the editors made no changes, you'd have to wonder if they didn't really care enough to give it that final polish. And besides, none of us are perfect.

My daughter is a perfectionist. She was six, when I was driving her to her first ballet lesson and she was nervous. She confessed she didn't really want to go. I finally wormed the reason out of her. She didn't know anything about ballet so she didn't want to go and look silly in front of girls who did know. I told her, you are going to ballet lessons so you can learn. You can't expect to know everything before you start. That made her laugh and she was OK afterwards.

Writing is in intimate process. I keep saying this. For all the flash cards, research and plotting you might do, there is still that leap of faith, when the words pour out of you. What is actually seen on the page is only the tip of the ice-berg, where your book is concerned. Have you revealed too little of the ice-berg, or too much? It is next to impossible to tell.

So don't tie yourself in knots, trying to get it perfect.

Find a group of writing friends you can trust and be open to constructive criticism.

And yes, I was a fan of the 1970s Kung Fu show. But I couldn't find a good photo of little Grasshopper.

Do you have a 'Swedish Writing Fairy' like Tansy, who reads your manuscript and gives feedback? Do you have a group, like ROR, who are as passionate about the craft as writing as you are?

Baaad Sex in books -- Short list.

2009-12-02T14:35:00.000-08:00

Baaad Sex, even when it's bad it's good. Or is it?

Over at the Guardian UK, the shortlist for bad sex scenes has been announced. To quote:-

'The story of the seduction of a lesbian by an ageing stage actor, which includes an eye-watering scene with a green dildo, has won Philip Roth the dubious honour of a place on the shortlist for the Literary Review's bad sex in fiction award.'

And here, is where you can read some of the excerpts. We all need to smile and shake our heads at least once a day.

There's no denying sex sells, but do we have too much sex? Has it become trivialized? When pre-teen girls are wearing make up and high heels, when the media saturates us with sexual images and reality encourages promiscuity, where is the magic and wonder of intimacy?

With the success of the Dark Urban Fantasy, there is a lot of sensual writing appearing in the book stores. Obviously, it is answering a need. Yet the Twilight books are incredibly popular and are strangely un-erotic. They are all about yearning. Are young women tired of being treated as sexual objects? Do they crave passion ... from a safe distance. Edward can't get hot and heavy with Bella, without killing her.

In a book, you need to apply the same rule to a sex scene as to any scene. It should advance the plot or reveal something about the characters or, hopefully, do both.

When was the last time you read a book that depicted sex/passion/love in a powerful and moving way?

Unfair!

2009-12-01T01:40:00.000-08:00

Glenda, I hate you! How can you write 50,000 words in a month as normal everyday practice? And 2,000 words per day! I NEVER get up to 2,000 words a day. Well, OK, maybe once or twice, but only near the end of a novel where it's almost spinning itself out.

I've just been feeling very pleased with myself for completing the first 30,000 words of LIBERATOR (sequel to WORLDSHAKER) in TWO months. For me, that's really really good - testimony to the fact that it's flowing along without a hiccup. But compared to you, I'm on permanent hiccups!

I'm still waiting for that invention of an electronic device that scans pictures and story in my brain and converts them instantly into perfect words on the page. Will the intending inventor please hurry up and invent it?

Cheers
Richard

Guest Post: Glenda Larke and NaNoWriMo

2009-11-30T22:45:00.000-08:00

Hey all, when I found out that Voyager author Glenda Larke was tackling NaNoWriMo this year, I asked her on to the ROR blog to discuss her experiences. One of the most common myths about NaNoWriMo is that it's not possibly to produce publishable books at that kind of writing rate (50,000 words in a month).

Thanks for joining us, Glenda! We'd love to hear about other NaNo experiences in the comments.

A WRITER’S EXPERIENCE WITH NANOWRIMO

from Glenda Larke

To tell the truth, before this year the whole idea of writing a novel in a month seemed rather ridiculous. I never needed an incentive to write, completing 50,000 words in a month was easy and for me, that number or words was nowhere near a complete novel anyway. My shortest published book is 120,000 and the longest 183,000 words.

Why I decided to do NaNoWriMo

I am getting older and things change. You know those stories about folk over 60 who start looking for their car keys, only to realise they haven’t watered the indoor plants so they go into the kitchen to get the water, where the cat is asking to be fed…and so on until at the end of the day, they still haven’t looked for the car keys? Well, I found that was happening with my writing. I was getting too easily distracted. I’d start writing, then remember an email I had to answer, a blog I wanted to read, a phone call I had to make, a bill that had to be paid…and somehow another day passed and the book was not getting written, or at least not getting written fast enough.

So I decided to try NaNoWriMo to keep me focused. I set a personal goal of 2,000 words a day in the hope that I would get 60,000 words done. Every time I have paced myself with another writer in the past, it seems to have worked, so I had high hopes.

Why would it work for me?

I can’t imagine why it should work, as I am not a particularly competitive person. I suppose it’s the idea that someone else out there is actively interested in seeing me succeed. With NaNoWriMo there are a whole stack of folk out there watching – all those writing buddies for a start, plus the readers watching my word count on my personal blog. What a blast of an incentive. I think it must be a matter of personal pride. You know, “Waaah! If I fail, everyone will know!”

Definitely every time I started to drop below 2,000 words a day, I felt guilty and resolved to do better. When I didn’t write for three days in a row, I received messages of encouragement. I’d look at my online writing buddies – many of them with young families and/or fulltime jobs and I’d wonder how they could achieve more words a day than me. Yep, shame worked too…

Does it make things easy?

Nope. Easier, yes. Things still happened to distract me: visitors at weekends, some questions from the proofreader about the book coming out in March, a request from my agent that involved two days work on an earlier trilogy about to be published in German. Painters came to paint the outside of the house. The kitchen sink started leaking. The thunderstorms this monsoon season are daily occurrences, and necessitated unplugging the computer. I had a dental emergency. There was a long meeting I had to attend about some work I am doing in the non-fantasy world that ended up taking one whole day.

But I wasted less time on other things because of NaNoWriMo.

What didn’t work for me about NaNoWriMo?

The philosophy behind NaNoWriMo is that you just write and forget about revising. The aim is to get those words down on paper. That doesn’t work well for me. I can’t start cold each morning. I have to get back into the atmosphere of the story, to pick up the flow, which means reading what I wrote the day before. Alas, there is no way I can do that unless I correct the most egregious mistakes too. And so an hour or two of the writing day is used up, sometimes longer. If I didn’t do this, I’d spend that hour trying to get myself back into the mood of the story anyway. So I ignored the NaNoWriMo advice.

I am also a person who has to go back and insert stuff when I realise that something is missing in the plot a few chapters back. I disobeyed the advice not to do this too. If it works for me, why not? Probably not advisable for non-writers trying something new, though. The biggest “rule” I disobeyed, I guess, was the fact that I wasn’t beginning a novel at all. I already had 62,000 words written and now have another 55,000 to do. NaNoWriMo covered the middle.

So, was it a success for me?

Absolutely. Maybe not as big a success as I'd hoped – my final total was 53,220 words – but it kept my fingers pretty much glued to the keyboard for one whole month. And Stormlord’s Exile, Book 3 of the Watergivers, now stands at over 115,000 words.

One of the best things, I haven’t even mentioned – that was turning up to two of the NaNoWriMo writer get-togethers at a local Kuala Lumpur coffee shop. I met new people, including two school-age teenagers (who both succeeded in reaching 50,000!), made new friends and was inspired by their enthusiasm. Malaysians wrote over 2.5 million words, for an average success of 28,966 thousand words, the latter figure pretty much average for most groups around the world.

Will I do it again?

Sure – if I am at the first-draft stage of a novel when November rolls around. See you there? Oh, and right now, if you want to race me over the next 55,000 words, come over to my blog Tropic Temper and let me know.

---------

Glenda Larke
http://glendalarke.blogspot.com
Coming September 2009 (Australia) March 2010 (UK/US): THE LAST STORMLORD
March 2010 (Australia) STORMLORD RISING

Glenda Larke is the author of:
The Isles of Glory trilogy:
Book 1: The Aware
Book 2: Gilfeather
Book 3: The Tainted
The Mirage Makers trilogy:
Book 1: Heart of the Mirage
Book 2: The Shadow of Tyr
Book 3: Song of the Shiver Barrens
and writing as Glenda Noramly: Havenstar
http://glendalarke.com

Years of Wine and Roses

2009-11-27T15:34:00.000-08:00

Things are going well for the RORees. Why, you ask? Well, it is a combination of things.

For me, it has been hard work and persistence.

My fantasy trilogy King Rolen's Kin (Book one The Bastard Son was critiqued at a ROR back in 2003), will be released in July, August, September. The month apart release plan is a good idea for readers. They get to read the books a month apart, no waiting. Not so good from a writer's point of view. It takes me about a year to write a 100K book. To see them all launched off in three months, leaves me wondering how I will get another three books ready in time when the next contract comes up.

But I have been writing solidly since the Last T'En series came out. I have the first book of three other series with my agent and am 120 pages into the first book of a fourth series. That's five series I have been writing concurrently, while waiting to see what gets picked up. So, yes, selling is nice, but the work has to be there, ready to go. I just wish I knew what series SOLARIS is going to buy next!

Marianne has a new YA Dark Urban Fantasy, Burn Bright, coming out. This is one the ultra cool kids will love, all about partying and saving the world Then there's the second book of her Tara Sharp series. More fun and frolics with the girl who can read body language. And, for the more cerebral readers, there's another Sentients of Orion book coming out. So Marianne has been writing consistently and trying out different genres.

Richard is sweeping all before him with Worldshaker, a YA steampunk book. Rollicking good fun on a quasi Victorian world where monstrous ... no I mustn't, read it and see. Worldshaker cover froms out from Simon and Schuster, (with this front cover for the hardback), in the US in May, 2010, then in the UK in June, France and Germany.

Tansy has her Chicklit mystery coming out with Pulp Fiction Press. Cafe La Femme is set in Hobart and promises to be a delightful read. Her Dark Urban Fantasy, Siren Beat, has just been released. Again set in Hobart, but a very different Hobart from the one we know, where the preternatural is kept at bay only by daring and dedication. And, drum roll, Please .... books one and two of her exciting Creature Court trilogy will be coming out in 2010. Pardon my gushing fan girl moment. This is w whole new take on Dark Urban Fantasy and I really enjoyed it.

Margo is taking a rest from trotting around the world after the success of Tender Morsels.

Dirk is masterfully minding three children while working on a top secret project which has an expression of interest from a publisher.

Maxine is deep in a new project, an historical time slip novel that is in the exciting halfway-through-first-draft stage, being written (kind of) concurrently with another space opera. "Concurrently" is hard when you're working full time as well as writing--it tends to turn into three months on one project, then a couple of months on the other, as each gets bogged/comes off the boil a bit. Her YA fantasy set in medieval Japan is under consideration by a publisher, and there's a children's fantasy out there as well.

And Trent has the first book of his Death Works series, Death Most Definite, a quirky Dark Urban Fantasy due out in 2010. This is one the fans of Jim Butcher and Simon R Green will like. And this is another refreshingly different take on the Dark Urban Fantasy genre.

All of us have families, work and commitments. But writing is what spins our wheels so, somehow, we fit it in. We're always working on new books, spreading our selves across genres. If one thing doesn't get picked up, something else will. The publishing industry is in a state of flux, more so than ever before. All we writers can do is grab the tiger by the tale and hang on. (Deliberate pun there!).

Book Trailers continued

2009-11-24T22:19:00.001-08:00

Joffre Street Productions made this trailer for me in 2007 for the launch of Dark Space.

I personally love the idea of them - in the end it all comes down to the quality of the product. As I mentioned in the comments section, Random House have done a beautiful trailer for the release of one of their new books, Fallen. The Fallen book trailer will be shown in cinemas preceding Twilight screenings. Not sure if this is the exact video for the cinemas - I saw a different version, but you get the idea:

Book Trailers, do we need them?

2009-11-24T12:49:00.001-08:00

Who looks at book trailers? Who even knew they existed? Here's an article about book trailers. If you scroll down you'll see the trailer for 'Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters'. Honestly, I'd go see this if it were a movie!

Here's a site where they have book trailer awards, The New CoveyTrailer Awards. There's more trailers here than you ever knew existed.

I have a confession to make. I'm a book trailer addict. It all started when my husband and I made a book trailer for the last book of my T'En trilogy, back in 2002. At the time there weren't any around (that we knew about) and the publishers couldn't see a use for it.

Currently, my partner and I are planning a book trailer for my new series, King Rolen's Kin. Apart from it being heaps of fun, we hope to capture the flavour of the book and intrigue the reader.

Do you watch book trailers? Have you ever bought a book on the strength of the book trailer?

Big Boys Play Bad

2009-11-22T14:18:00.000-08:00

Harlequin, the major romance publisher has announced a new imprint,a vanity press line, writers they reject will be referred to approach them. If you want to know more take a look here.

Romance Writers of America have removed Harlequin from their recognised publisher's list. Mystery Writers of America are up in arms. and this is the response from Science Fiction Writers of America. Here's the link.

Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA) statement:

In November, 2009, Harlequin Enterprises, Ltd. announced the launch of a new imprint, Harlequin Horizons, for aspiring romance authors. Under normal circumstances, the addition of a new imprint by a major house would be cause for celebration in the professional writing community. Unfortunately, these are not normal circumstances. Harlequin Horizons is a joint venture with Author Solutions, and it is a vanity/subsidy press that relies upon payments and income from aspiring writers to earn profit, rather than sales of books to actual readers.

The Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, Inc. (SFWA) finds it extremely disappointing that Harlequin has chosen to launch an imprint whose sole purpose appears to be the enrichment of the corporate coffers at the expense of aspiring writers. According to their website, “Now with Harlequin Horizons, more writers have the opportunity to enter the market, hone their skills and achieve the goals that burn in their hearts.”

SFWA calls on Harlequin to openly acknowledge that Harlequin Horizon titles will not be distributed to brick-and-mortar bookstores, thus ensuring that the titles will not be breaking into the real fiction market. SFWA also asks that Harlequin acknowledge that the imprint does not represent a genuine opportunity for aspiring authors to hone their skills, as no editor will be vetting or working on the manuscripts. Further, SFWA believes that work published with Harlequin Horizons may injure writing careers by associating authors’ names with small sales levels reflected by the imprint’s lack of distribution, as well as its emphasis upon income received from writers and not readers. SFWA supports the fundamental principle that writers should be paid for their work, and even those who aspire to professional status and payment ought not to be charged for the privilege of having those aspirations.

Until such time as Harlequin changes course, and returns to a model of legitimately working with authors instead of charging authors for publishing services, SFWA has no choice but to be absolutely clear that NO titles from ANY Harlequin imprint will be counted as qualifying for membership in SFWA. Further, Harlequin should be on notice that while the rules of our annual Nebula Award do not expressly prohibit self-published titles from winning, it is highly unlikely that our membership would ever nominate or vote for a work that was published in this manner.

Already the world’s largest romance publisher, Harlequin should know better than anyone else in the industry the importance of treating authors professionally and with the respect due the craft; Harlequin should have the internal fortitude to resist the lure of easy money taken from aspiring authors who want only to see their work professionally published and may be tempted to believe that this is a legitimate avenue towards those goals.

SFWA does not believe that changing the name of the imprint, or in some other way attempting to disguise the relationship to Harlequin, changes the intention, and calls on Harlequin to do the right thing by immediately discontinuing this imprint and returning to doing business as an advance and royalty paying publisher.

For the Board of Directors,
Russell Davis
President
SFWA, Inc.

It is worrying when mainstream publishers link with self-publishing services. See a post on it here.

There is an old saying, money should flow from the publisher to the author, not the other way around. Writers beware.

Kylie Chan talks about Cultural Differences

2009-11-19T12:02:00.001-08:00

Kylie Chan writes contemporary fantasy books, based on Chinese mythology. Here she talks about how cultural differences can get in the way of relationships. Go here to find out about her books.

I have to admit I was surprised when the subcontractor recommended to install our air conditioning system at the house turned out to be Chinese. Most Chinese, when they come to Australia, will grab citizenship as quickly as they can and then rush out and do something so difficult it is almost unattainable in China and Hong Kong – they’ll gain a University education in the subject of their choice.

A couple of close friends of mine, who I helped through the whole process of emigrating from Hong Kong to Australia, did this. When they arrived here, they were psychiatric nurses, both of them. ‘You have to be crazy to be a psych nurse,’ they often joked. The minute they could get citizenship, they took it, and went to University. He’s now a lawyer and she’s a dentist, careers completely unavailable to them in Hong Kong’s elitist higher education system.

So when the middle-aged Chinese air conditioning guy turned up with his team of burly young white Australian fitters, I enjoyed some conversations with him about my experiences being married to a Chinese for so many years and living in Hong Kong. We talked about places in Hong Kong, about the restaurants, and it turned out we’d lived not far from each other when we were both there.

It took a couple of days for him to finish the job, he fitted the whole house. On the afternoon of the second day, when he was nearly done, he came to me, slightly embarrassed and unsure. It was obvious he was going to ask me something and wasn’t sure of the reaction.

‘It’s my son’s girlfriend,’ he said. ‘Could you talk to her please? She calls me and my wife by our…’ He took a deep breath to share this awful news. ‘She calls us by our first names!’

‘This is Australia,’ I said. ‘You have to get used to the more casual way we do things here.’

‘But he’s talking about marrying her! How can we possibly have a daughter in law that calls us by our first names? She doesn’t show the right respect!’

… And I understood exactly what his problem was. Children in Chinese society are taught from a very early age to give all their elders a family title to indicate their respect. When they meet their relative, they “call” them, they’ll loudly say ‘Ah Poh’ (paternal grandmother) or ‘Ah Goong’ (paternal grandfather) or even ‘Lau Jeck’ (Maternal aunt who is older than my mother – yes the titles do go down to that sort of detail.) [1] The relative will then say ‘good boy/girl’ – maybe hand the child a sweet - and the conversation will continue as normal. All junior family members will “call” senior family members like this.

When I arrived in China with my husband, I was expected to do this and it was extremely difficult for me. Back home, if I waltzed into my parents’ house, and loudly said, ‘Mother!’ my mother would say, ‘What?’ I expected to call these people and have them grimace at me and say, ‘What do you want?’ After a while I became accustomed to it and it was something of a circus when the whole clan was in the house – my husband would stand next to me and prompt me with the family titles, and I would parrot them, one after the other. Everybody thought this was delightful.

So when the air conditioning guy asked me if I would talk to his daughter, I reluctantly accepted. I honestly thought that he and his wife should accept that things are done differently here. I was amused that he complained about her being too ‘liberated’ because she was a professional woman, when it’s quite normal for women in Hong Kong to own their own companies without being considered ‘liberated’. Maybe ‘liberation’ is more to do with a strong attitude.

He asked her to call me, and she did. I explained the whole ‘family title’ thing to her and she tried to understand.

‘So I just need to give them these family titles, and they won’t hate me any more?’ she said.

‘If you fold your hands in front of your lap, bow slightly, and call each of them by their family titles when you greet them, they will absolutely love you forever,’ I said.

‘It’s just so strange,’ she said. ‘My boyfriend never mentioned any of this, he doesn’t even seem to realize that they have a problem with it.’

‘If you ask him about it, he probably doesn’t.’

Two days later, the air conditioning guy called me. ‘Thank you!’ he said, full of delight. ‘She is so wonderful! My wife thinks she is marvellous, she wants to give her some gold!’ (This is symbolic of being accepted into the family as the daughter-in-law – the bride’s family, and the bride, are given solid 24K gold jewellery as payment for buying her. Really.) ‘You have changed her from being a rude problem to being a good daughter-in-law. We cannot thank you enough!’

Sometimes, I guess it’s the small things that make all the difference.

[1] All care but no responsibility. I think these are close to correct but they may be wildly inaccurate, it’s been more than 20 years since I did this myself.

Do you have favourite books which explore cultural differences? I've just been reading the Liaden books by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

Stop the world, I want to get off.

2009-11-09T13:16:00.000-08:00

Last post I said I was trying to do a Mini Nano -- write 25K in a month. I'll probably get it done, but ...

But I feel like I'm juggling a hundred balls in the air and only just managing to catch them. Woops, there goes one.

There's the writing -- a new book, completely new, lots of research. It's an alternative history set in Australia. Don't want to say anything more about it but it excites me and that makes me glad to wake up in the morning.

But there are so many other things in my life ...

There's my family. I love them madly. Want to do the best by them. I just wish I had all the answers. Sometimes you have to let people go and do things, for them to find out if it works.

There's work -- a new job. I'm getting the hang of it now, enjoying the challenge, enjoying the other lecturers, enjoying the students. (and enjoying the regular money!).

There's volunteer work -- I'm setting up a national workshop for developing writers, for Romance Writers of Australia. I love the challenge and the people I'm working with are great.

Then there's the unexpected. A drunk ran into the back of my daughter's car. She wasn't hurt, but it meant sorting out insurance. The car got written off. Now we have to help her get a new car.

All of these things get in the way of the pure joy of writing. The photo I chose for this post reminds me of being a child and having the time to simply look at things and see how remarkable they are. There was an empty block of long grass on the way home from school. I was always looking for magic in the real world. I used to think the way that grass looked in the sun was magical. Now, I have to stop and make myself notice things.

I tell myself, this is just a high traffic time of life. In the next couple of years half of my six children will move out. One day it will just be my husband and I, pottering around.

Until that day, keep juggling ...

Is anyone else feeling as if they'd like the world to slow down?

NaNoWriMo Week One

2009-11-07T00:51:00.000-08:00

12173 / 50000

So I've been Nanoing for a week now. I've managed to "rock the minimum" every day, which is quite a feat though mostly accomplished by fear (if I get behind I'm so never catching up). Towards the end of the week I've managed to eke out a 300-500 word lead, only just.

Word count posts are fascinating, aren't they?

Our local gang of reprobates/writers have put together a mighty schedule of near-daily meet ups, the idea being that we can all make one or two a week. So far I've managed to make one public session at the fish & chippery at the docks (at which the baby mostly behaved, hanging sleepily in her little pouch), one domestic session which is a minute's drive from my place, and another domestic session in my own house. I may not do nearly as well next week - am even considering blowing off my own hosting duties in order to shout 'hooray' at my daughter's athletic's carnival.

I was going to head out for writing purposes today but decided against it because the day was so hot, and some **** broke the left-hand mirror off my car last night when it was parked out the front. I'm still a new driver and couldn't quite get up the nerve to tackle the Derwent Bridge without being able to see out that particular mirror.

So I stayed home and did word wars with Kaia (in Sweden) and Hannah (in US) instead. For those unfamiliar with the technique, word wars can be done in person or online, and consists of shouting GO! at each other and writing like a maniac for 15 minutes then comparing wordcounts. The downside of doing this with Hannah is that she actually is a maniac and is perfectly capable of getting 800-1000 words in a war every single time. It's both demoralising and inspiring - you can't help trying to keep up, however impossible.

But hey. I've managed to write 12,000 words of a new novel in a week. I don't kid myself this would be possible at any other time of year. NANOWRIMO ROCKS.

If wordcounts really do fascinate you, you can keep track of my daily progress over at tansyrr.com - otherwise I'll see you back here next week, hopefully in one piece and with at least 24,000 words under my belt!

How is everyone else's Nano going? Post your wordcount below!

Mini Nano

2009-11-02T13:35:00.000-08:00

Where would writers be without chocolate and coffee?

This month is Nano November -- write 50,000 words in a month. Tansy has taken up the challenge with a new born and a preschooler. She's inspired me.

But I'm not so brave. I've decided to to a mini-nano. I'm aiming for 25,000 words in a month. My excuses?

All 6 children (plus an extra) still at home. (Will they never leave? Perhaps my husband and I should run away from home?).

Started new job, teaching at Qantm College. (Have discovered the joys of marking assignments. And you thought it was hard to write them!).

Volunteered to be on the Romance Writers of Australia Management Committee, then suggested I organise an EnVision type workshop for them. Am currently collected quotes for accommodation and finalising figures. (Why do I do this to myself? My problem is that I like a challenge).

Can't think of any other excuses.

I'm actually looking forward to immersing myself in my latest book project.

Twas the Night Before Nano...

2009-10-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

I Nano. Do you Nano too?

November 1 is the beginning of NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). All around the world, tens of thousands (is it still only tens?) of people are gearing up to spend the next 30 days writing 50,000 words. That's 1667 words a day, every day.

The first time I heard about Nano, I thought it was insane. Later I was intrigued, but thought it was impractical. Then I grew impressed by people who had the bottle to do it.

Then I accidentally talked a friend of mine into doing it. Which meant I had to do it too. And, apparently, so did everyone we knew. Last November was a wild ride.

The most awesome thing about Nano is the sense of community. If you have people close by also participating, you can do write-ins, getting together at cafes or each other's places to write in company. Because you have to get so much done, you have to be strict - only small amounts of talking, using earbuds to shut out the world, you are here to WORK.

As someone who writes all year around, usually without other people across the table from me, it's just lovely.

If you don't have locals in your vicinity who are crazy and wonderful enough to join you, then there are online communities and forums. You'd be amazed at how inspiring it is to have someone there on IM shouting go! and then comparing word counts after 15 minutes of furious typing.

Last year I wasn't able to do 'proper' Nano, which means starting a new book fresh on 1 November (it still counts if you hit 50K and haven't finished the book yet, though the purest Nano experience is to be finished at 50) so I didn't register my "win". I started writing a few weeks early, and hit 69,000 on the 30th - just what I needed for my first draft of a pre-contracted novel. It later took another 6 weeks to polish that novel to submission level quality.

I thought that my book contracts and commitments to the Creature Court Trilogy meant that I would be too busy editing/revising to manage Nano this year, which made me unbelievably sad. But I've managed to get enough ahead of myself on drafting book 2, and finishing up edits for book 1, that I can justify taking November to draft the first 50K of book 3 before I go back and revise book 2. I'm delighted to be able to do this, because to be honest I have no idea what's going to happen in book 3, and it would be nice to find some of it out before I take another pass on book 2.

That, and NaNoWriMo is the most fun ever. For the next month I get to have writing open days at my house, hang out with friends, and drill 50,000 words into my laptop with a baby strapped to my chest. I'm bouncing even thinking about it.

If you're interested in knowing more, or signing up, you need to check out www.nanowrimo.org - if the site doesn't load, that's cos the servers have melted. Don't panic, it happens a lot at this time of year. Nano is... kinda popular. Kinda.

My in person group are writing for the second year running, and the other planned projects include a historical murder mystery, an Egyptian fantasy, a category romance, at least two novels based on life experiences from this year, and one classic No Plot, No Problem, which means she has no idea what she is going to write until she starts scribbling on November 1st.

Are you Nanoing this year? Would you ever consider it?

Love,
Tansy

VICAR OF MORBING VYLE as free download

2009-10-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Edwina!

I'm very interested to hear your experience of turning a short story into a novel. I was going to be on a panel for that topic at Conflux, except that the panel got cancelled. Not because I've ever turned a short story into a novel in the past, but because I'm planning to do so. In fact, I've written the first 12k words, but it's a huge project and will take many years - and in the meanwhile, it's more urgent to write LIBERATOR, the sequel to WORLDSHAKER. But what I seemed to find in the writing and planning is that the novel keeps leaving the short story further and further behind. I hope this is a good thing(?)

I've been letting people know that my famous/notorious cult novel, THE VICAR OF MORBING VYLE, is now available as a free download. From responses since the day before yesterday (when it went up), a lot of people have been wanting to get hold of this book for a very long time (it was published in 1993 and has been out of print for probably 10 years.) It's bizarre, comic-macabre, gothic fantasy ... or something like that.

Cheers
Richard

Edwina Harvey talks about the Road to Publication for her YA Novel, The Whales's Tale.

2009-10-24T16:39:00.000-07:00

Edwina with the cover artist, Elle Clarke.

My book, The Whale's Tale, started life as a short story called Restitution which was awarded an Honorary Mention (equal place 3rd) in the 1997 Mary Grant Bruce Awards for Children's Literature offered annually by the Victorian FAW. (Fellowship of Australian Writers.)

It was the second time I had placed in this prestigious award, having received another Honorary Mention for a story about dragons some years earlier.

To some degree, "Restitution" was influenced by my years working in a law library (at the University of NSW.) I've been interested in dolphins and whales for much longer than that, and saw the story as a way to address the injustice of continuing to hunt an endangered species to extinction by setting the story in a future where humans have discovered they can communicate with dolphins and whales, and where cetaceans have become dominant players in Earth politics and space travel.

While writing "Restitution", I had to keep a tight rein on the word count, and realised it wanted to be a much longer piece. When it did well in the MGB's I decided to "give the pony its head" and see what the story's "natural length" was.

I ended up with a novel-sized manuscript that then went through so many rewrites that I've lost count! Along the way the storyline shifted dramatically from a stodgy, serious piece to a more entertaining work that young readers will hopefully enjoy visiting.

I think turning points for the manuscript were getting a beta reader to tell me what was wrong with it. He was ruthless. I didn't like hearing a lot of what he had to say, but I didn't turn away from it either, I just absorbed it, and applied some of it. Deciding to invest in myself and my writing by paying a professional editor to edit my work was what bridged the gap between getting complimentary reject slips (nice, but they were still reject slips!)to getting an offer of publication.

So there it is, enter competitions, listen to your Beta readers and never give up, never surrender. Do you have a brave Beta reader, who gives you fearless feedback on your manuscript?

Edwina supports the Speculative Fiction genre by editing the Australian Bullsheet, an E-newsletter about the Australian fan and professional scene.

Gushing Fan Girl Moment!

2009-10-14T13:17:00.000-07:00

I've discovered the covers of Brent Week's new books and I'm having a Gushing Fan Girl moment. They combine both Character and Style!

This is how the three books work together.

If my publisher produced covers like these for my new series, I'd consider myself seriously lucky!

The artists are Calvin Chu and Peter Cotton. The original art was done by Calvin Chu and Peter Cotton did the design. I've googled them and can't find a dedicated web page.

Covers for Rowena

2009-10-14T01:47:00.000-07:00

Jeez, Rowena, you must be super special - not just asked about a particular cover, but even what KIND of cover you want. I looked at your 3 examples, and I couldn't decide at all. They all look good to me, even the traditional fantasy. I'm not generally mad on the traditional illustration, but your example looks good. My only contribution is that the symbolic type of cover doesn't exactly suggest 'rollicking'.

Cheers
Richard

Realt-time Facebook Whodunnits

2009-10-13T21:06:00.000-07:00

I've been a little tardy in posting here, but am popping in to say hello to the ROR blog readers and mention my Facebook Whodunnits. The protagonist in my new crime series, Tara Sharp, now has her own facebook page from where she is telling/living a real time crime story. You can follow the postings there or read a summary of them at www.tarasharp.com.

Tara seems to be posting on Facebook more than I am. Soon she'll be more real... than ...

The Cover Dilemma.

2009-10-13T18:42:00.001-07:00

Since we're talking about covers I thought I'd poll readers.

I'm in the wonderful position of having an editor ask me for cover suggestions for my new series, King Rolen's Kin, which comes out next year.

Do I want a traditional fantasy cover like this one? You know the sort of cover, a castle in the background, often there are rolling fields and a warrior on a horse.

Or do I want to go with a character cover like this wonderful illustration of one of George RR Martin's characters?

Or do I want something symbolic like the lovely covers of Kate Elliot's Crossroad's series?

I want a cover that says this is a ' Rollicking Fantasy Read', while looking stylish.

Which covers would make you pause and pick up the book?

Love at first Bite...

2009-10-10T00:27:00.000-07:00

Siren Beat/Roadkill is out now! This double publication from Twelfth Planet Press features urban fantasy novelettes by myself (Siren Beat) and World Fantasy Award-winning, Dalek-writing Robert Shearman (Roadkill).

At least, I'm pretty sure mine is urban fantasy. Are the rest of you as confused as I am?

I've been recently reading the truly brilliant Beyond Heaving Bosoms, a snarky reader's guide to romance novels - basically, it is to the romance genre what Diana Wynne Jones' A Tough Guide to Fantasyland is to fantasy. One thing that startled me was how they discussed paranormal romance as if it was... well. Part of the romance genre. I've been thinking of it as part of the fantasy genre, and an inter-changeable term with urban fantasy.

It's quite a controversial issue, as it happens. I can't turn around without seeing someone else in the blogosphere re-defining 'urban fantasy' or 'paranormal romance' and every time they do, I change my mind about what Siren Beat is.

This great post looks at the boundaries between mainstream literature and urban fantasy, in which she defines urban fantasy as being anything fantastical set in 'our' world. By those standards, Siren Beat, a dark adventure story about battling murderous sirens on the docks of Hobart, is definitely urban fantasy.

But maybe it's paranormal romance too. It has... sort of a romance. A fairly unromantic one, though not in comparison to the marvellously awkward failed romance at the centre of Roadkill. It has all those elements that people claim for paranormal romance - a tough chick protagonist, an otherworldly hot male for her to lust after, several other dangerous and lusty magical creatures to fight off, and paranormal action which is given priority over any kind of Happily Ever After.

Of course, if Siren Beat was really a paranormal romance, my protagonist would have more than one love interest! Lust triangles (or um polygons) are a definite feature of the genre. I couldn't quite justify that at novelette length, though...

Some people get quite outraged at the paranormal (AKA 'fangfucker') stories getting to use the urban fantasy label, which previously belonged a more gentle, literary slipstream kind of story without quite so many tight leather garments. Hmm, is anyone else suddenly imagining a cage match between Charles De Lint and Laurell K Hamilton?

Where do you draw the line between Paranormal Romance and Urban Fantasy?

===

To get hold of your own copy of Siren Beat/Roadkill, pick up a copy here for a mere $12/$15 depending on which part of the world you live in.

I'll be posting more about Siren Beat and paranormal romance/urban fantasy over at my own blog all this week.

inky awards

2009-10-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

2009! I love it! It's my favourite year ever!

Just heard that WORLDSHAKER has made the shortlist for the Golden Inky award, i.e. selected as one of the 5 best YA novels by an Aussie author in the year. (The first prize is worth $2,000, but I can hardly hope to be that lucky.)

I forgot to mention some other great news at the Canberra SF/fantasy con last weekend - apparently, Ellen Datlow has blogged about the stories she's selected for her Years Best Horror anthology, and "A Guided Tour in the Kingdom of the Dead" is one of em! Yay and mega-yay! That's the David Hartwell/Tor anthology and now the Datlow anthology - two of the top, if not the top, US anthologies.

This is the cover of the David Hartwell/Tor anthology, above.

Cheers
Richard

PS Must check out Tank Girl. It seems ages since I've been to the movies.

Let's hear it for Girl Heroes!

2009-10-08T00:43:00.000-07:00

My sons love 'Tank Girl'. It's a great movie on so many levels, not the least of which is Tank Girl, herself.

When I was growing up, there weren't many role models for girls. I read Tom Sawyer and thoroughly enjoyed it but I didn't identify with Becky. I identified with Tom, because he was the one having all the fun. Now that every Dark Urban Fantasy has a smart-mouthed female heroine, who knows martial arts the feisty female has almost become a cliche.

They say boys won't identify with girl characters. After doing a quick poll in my house (boys aged 14,17,19 and 23), the answer was ... gender didn't matter, as long as the story was good. Mind you, my sons might not be a representative sample.

When I was a kid, I had a thing about Astro Boy. He was the thinking child's Robot hero because he stood up for the rights of robots. Who were your heroes, male or female, while you were growing up?

starting the sequel to Worldshaker!

2009-10-07T00:13:00.000-07:00

Hi!
Since covers are on show, here's the cover for the US edition of WORLDSHAKER, which came through just a couple of days ago.

Meanwhile, I started on the sequel to WORLDSHAKER just yesterday. Yes, I started on an earlier version a little while ago - but the new plan, now under contract, isn't for the bridging volume of a trilogy but a single super-huge sequel - the conclusion of a duology.

If you're interested in the blood, sweat and tears of starting out on a new novel (you sadist/masochist, you!), I'm keeping a day by day blog as author in residence for a month on the insideadog website, at

http://www.insideadog.com.au/residence/index.php

Not much blood yet, the first two days have gone well. But who knows what lies ahead!

The day I started work on the sequel (which is still titled LIBERATOR) was the day after I got back from the Confluix SF/fantasy convention in Canberra. I had a ball, especially as MC for the event. In the opening ceremony, I was attacked by a 10-foot tall silvery lobster-like alien - photo attached! (this was after I'd fainted and recoverred, of course. The alien really was 10-feet tall, a costume with stilts.

Cheers
Richard

Classic Covers

2009-09-30T00:35:00.000-07:00

Frank Frazetta covers.

Tansy's post about her new cover, reminded me how important cover art is. The artist, Dion Hamill, and I have been chatting about cover artists we admire and it made me realise how these artists have shaped my memories of books. People like Frazetta, Barry Windsor Smith, Boris Valejo and Jeff Jones spring to mind.

Are modern cover artists as iconic? Which recent book covers have struck you as remarkable? I think Marianne de Pierres Parrish books had strong covers. You can't go past a girl in tight leather!

Which covers from the golden age speculative fiction do you remember fondly?

Cover Love

2009-09-24T16:40:00.001-07:00

I have a new book about to be released! Siren Beat, my paranormal urban fantasy novella (sans vampires of werewolves but featuring murderous sirens, a kraken, tentacle smut and a very sexy sea pony) is now available for pre-order over at Twelfth Planet Press as part of an Ace Doubles style publication (back to back, two covers), also featuring "Roadkill" by Robert Shearman, World Fantasy Award winning short story author (as well as "omg he wrote Dalek" Doctor Who tv/audioplay writer).

But what I really want to talk to you about is... isn't my cover AWESOMECAKES?

Hee, getting good cover art has to be one of the top 5 author experiences, up there with The Call and earning out royalties for the first time... there's just nothing like seeing a piece of artwork that has been inspired by your writing. Something you could never have produced yourself, but instantly adds value to your own work.

Especially when it's really good!

Covers are a tricky business. You only have to have been following Justine Larbalestier's blog and lately to understand that. An author rarely has control or final say over the look of their book, and can end up disappointed. Sometimes that disappointment is seriously warranted - as with Justine's story, where the wrong cover seriously misrepresented the book, dragged in very uncomfortable race issues, and simply makes the author, book and publisher look bad.

More often, though, the author has to suck it up. Covers are about selling a book - and the publishers and marketing departments, though they are usually interested in author input, especially in the initial 'inspiration' stages, are rightly more interested in producing a cover that will sell the book than which will conform exactly to the author's (or even the reader's) expectations of how certain characters, places or items should look.

There are many brilliant covers that get stuff wrong. I remember as a young fantasy reader being utterly bewildered by some of the David Eddings covers - they were beautifully painted and yet who was that Amazonian redhead? Couldn't be Ce'Nedra, everyone knew she was the height of a small garden gnome...

While it's nice to have covers that get important character details right, more important is getting a cover that sells the right kind of book - that draws the eye of readers and lets them know what they will be getting.

In the case of this particular cover, Alisa the publisher asked me if I had any particular ideas to give the artist, and I suggested a couple of scenes that might give the right kind of action-y mood. Later, I realised that the one key and iconic thing about my story was tentacles. Nancy Napoleon's paranormal world revolves around threats from the sea rather than the more traditional vampires and werewolves, and one of the main villains is a seductive cecaelia (octopus siren). I pinged Alisa with the request that a tentacle of some kind be involved in the cover.

What the artist, Dion Hamill, ended up producing was the above image from an important piece of Nancy's backstory - her battle with the Kraken. I love the strength of Nancy as depicted here - it's a sexy image but not in a demeaning way. She is fighting underwater, and I like that she has exactly the right look - an athletic, practical and dangerous woman. There is a detail that's very wrong, which is that Nancy's hair is short, whereas the story reveals that she only cut her hair short after her battle with the Kraken. It never occurred to me to even mention this to Alisa and Dion, though, because it's irrelevant - and an image of Nancy with long hair would give the wrong impression to readers about who she is now. It's a tiny compromise of consistency - and one I was perfectly happy to make.

And I do love my tentacle.

Okay, this is definitely a cue for authors and readers alike to chime in with their stories of covers got right and covers got wrong... do you like covers with characters depicted or is this just asking for trouble?

Five things I wish I knew before I got the call!

2009-09-21T15:21:00.000-07:00

With the announcement of her first major sale, Nicole Murphy shares the excitement and the trepidation.

After nine years, more than a dozen novels written and ten drafts of the first novel of this trilogy, I’ve finally achieved my teenage dream and I’m going to be a published novelist. Yay!

My fantasy romance trilogy Balance of Power will be published by HarperCollins under the Voyager imprint here in Australia and New Zealand, with book one Love in Control to hit the shelves in July next year.

The lovely, talented and generous Rowena Cory Daniells asked me to write a piece for you readers of Ripping Ozzie Reads about the experience, and after much thought and consideration, I’ve decided to go with five things I wish I’d known before I got that fateful email on July 3. Oh, and one thing I’m glad I already did do.

1. I wish I’d known about all the extra things I needed to pass acquisitions, such as a synopsis of the trilogy and a biography. Honestly. It was probably stupid of me, but all I had written was the synopsis of the first book. Sure, I knew what happened in the other two books, but I didn’t have it written down in any form that would be suitable for convincing a publisher to take on all three books. Thank goodness I had fabulous friends that were able to read and critique it quickly. As for the biography… If you’re like me and you hate writing about yourself, tackle this one first, get it done and save it somewhere. Then you just need to update it from time to time.

2. I wish I’d known I needed an ABN. Get one, right now. It costs (I think about $127), but it’s easily done on the internet (if you don’t already have an accountant who can do it for you) and it means that you can get paid. An important step, I think. And it means you can sign off on the offer when you get it, instead of having to wait.

3. I wish I’d known how much my life would change. Well yes, I knew, but I didn’t really KNOW. The pressure that comes with working two jobs, and trying to keep on top of things like family, friends, housework (eek!) can be overwhelming. In the first two months of being a professional writer, I had just one full weekend off, and another three full days. Otherwise, I was working the day job, or writing. That takes a toll on you, your family, your relationships, the housework (eek!).

4. I wish someone had told me how emotional the whole thing was. I was intellectually prepared – I had studied the industry, educated myself on the possibilities, knew what would happen. But I wasn’t emotionally prepared, and the fact that suddenly the dream of more than 25 years could be coming true hit me like a Mack truck. I vacillated between terrified, overjoyed, unsure and overconfident for a couple of weeks before I realised I didn’t have time for it and pulled myself together.

5. I wish I’d known this was going to happen. Seriously, I wish someone had contacted me and said “just had a squiz in the crystal ball and you know what? You’re going to sell the trilogy in July”. Cause then I could have PREPARED myself. But the thing is, you don’t know. Whether you approach publishers yourself (like I did) or go through an agent, you’ll never know just when you’ll get the email/phone call saying “Guess what…” So work on getting ready right now.

And the one thing I’m glad I did? Early last year, I left my job in journalism and had to make a decision – find another full-time job, probably in the public service that probably utilised my writing and publishing skills and would probably hinder my fiction as much as journalism did; or to get a part-time job in an industry far removed from writing, so I could focus on my fiction in my spare time.

I chose the later, got a job at a local supermarket, and started to discipline myself to write every day that I could – mostly mornings, either of days I had off or before going in for a late shift. And this habit meant that when I sold the trilogy and was suddenly facing deadlines, I was already working hard on my writing and had organised my time to do it.

Not everyone can take my route and go to work part-time to focus on their writing (thanks to my husband), but it’s important to organise your time and start working as if you are a professional now, cause as I said earlier you really don’t know when you’ll need to and finding time to work is something you don’t want to deal with on top of everything else.

So, that’s what I’ve realised so far. But I’m just taking the first steps into my professional writing career, and no doubt I’ll make many more mistakes with which to enlighten you all. Keep writing, keep learning, keep improving, and this could be you!

Are you prepared for your major sale?

GenCon

2009-09-19T03:13:00.000-07:00

One of the nice things about being a writer is going to conventions and catching up with readers and other writers.

Here I am with Karen Miller, Kylie Chan and Marianne de Pierres at GenCon in Brisbane. We're wearing necklaces made by Belinda, who surprised us all with these lovely hand made gifts!

Here's Belinda with Marianne.

Along with with South Australian writer, David Conyers, we've talked about old spec fic TV shows and what we learnt from them. Go 'Blake's 7'.

We've discussed the 'Path to Publication' and revealed what we wish we could tell ourselves, if we could go back in time.

And we've discussed how to meet deadlines, and tap into creativity.

And tomorrow, Marianne and Kylie will be doing a reading. For anyone who is interested, GenCon is being held in Brisbane at the Convention Centre at South Bank.

What's your favourite things about Conventions?

Career Planning for Writers

2009-09-16T23:21:00.000-07:00

This lovely picture is from Burn Bright, Marianne's new blog to promote her YA Dark Urban Fantasy .

Which brings us to Career Planning.

When I was first published I emailed Lois McMaster Bujold, who I'd recently met to tell her about the sale. And she said, 'Think about what you are going to do next.' At that point I was so amazed to have sold my trilogy, I couldn't think past getting it finished and handed in.

But she gave me excellent advice.

Do you stick with one publisher? Do you need an agent? Do you need a separate agent for over seas sales? Do you stick to one genre? What about writing for different age groups, as Marianne has done with her new series, Burn Bright? Do you write under a pseudonym, as Marianne as done with her new humorous, contemporary series, the Tara Sharp books.

And you thought getting published was hard? All you had to do was learn how to write a good book. Now you have to plan your writing career.

Do you stick with one publisher? It would depend on your publisher. Some publishers grow their authors. Sometimes an imprint can be cancelled and the writer will find themselves 'orphaned'. You need to discuss this with your agent.

Do you need an agent? I would say yes. They know the editors, they're up to date with what the different publishers are doing. And they can do the negotiating on the contract.

Do you need an overseas agent? Some literary agencies have offices in the US and the UK. If you have an Australian based agent, they will often have contacts with agents in other countries.

Do you stick to one genre and age group? That's up to you and what you want to write. Some authors write so fast they produce more books than their publisher can use and they produce books in other genres because the stories demand to be written.

If you do write across other genres, your agent may suggest you do this under a different name. This is where having an agent is great becaue they're on your side, helping you grow your writing career.

I find myself getting ideas for stories across the genres. In fact, I have so many ideas, the problem is finding the time to write, not the idea to write!

Are you tempted to write across genres, or to even combine genres?

The Secret Life of Writers

2009-09-10T22:59:00.000-07:00

The Secret Life of Writers or
What Writers don't tell their Families.

I have six children in their teens and early twenties who are all still living at home, (one has their partner living with us), so ours is a very busy house. From the moment I get up in the morning and take child number 6 to the train station at 6.30 am, until the last one gets in from UNI or work at around 9pm, I don't stop.

But while I'm doing the shopping, driving kids places and cooking, I'm writing.

So here is an insight into ... the Secret Life of Writers.

1. Everything is grist for the mill.

No matter how awful or wonderful the moment is, a writer will map it in their mind, so they can find it again and re-experience it to write about it.

2. Those long comfortable shared silences, aren't really silent.

While you're sitting there after dinner, sipping a wine or watching a sunset, your writing partner is really miles away, inside their latest book, wrestling with plot intricacies.

3. A writer is never bored (see 2.).

4. When your partner says they love you, they mean it. But ...

They wish everyone would leave them alone sometimes, completely alone, because time alone in their heads is a luxury. And they need it to feed the creative crucible.

As a writer I often feel like I'm living on two planes, one is the every day and the other is as vast as my imagination. As a creative person, a writer, artist or musician what goes on in your mental world that you don't share with your family?

Feeding the Creative Crucible

2009-09-02T22:23:00.000-07:00

Creativity and writers ... People used to ask Harlan Ellison where he got his ideas from. He'd say from a little post office in Poughkeepsie (I'm paraphrasing because I read the quote 25 years ago and I have no idea how to spell the place).

But seriously, where do writers get their ideas from? The short answer is everywhere. Ideas aren't the problem. It's finding time to write. And it is finding time to let the ideas percolate in that creative crucible.

I googled creativity and found lots of sites to help generate creativity in the workplace, which is a little different from what we writers do. Here's a site with a post by Jeffrey Baumgartner on 10 steps to boost creativity. I liked numbers 9 & 10.

Stimulate your mind by reading as many books as possible. I'm sure every writer would agree with that one. And exercise your brain. One of his tips on how to exercise your brain was to argue with people. I'm sure he meant debate. I find if I don't get enough brain exercise I start getting edgy and go out looking for mental stimulation.

As a parent of six children, who are all teenagers and early twenty-somethings and who all live at home, I've spent the last 25 years on the run from one thing to another hosing down bush fires.

A lot of people talk about what music they like to listen to while writing. For me the greatest luxury is quiet 'alone' time. That's why I chose the image above. It doesn't have to be a beautiful place, although that helps. It doesn't have to be a seat on the beach, or even a walk along the beach. It just has to be time I spend alone in my head without constant interruptions. Mowing the yard is good. While the mower is going, it's too noisy for my kids to talk to me. And the repetition of walking up and down lets my mind slide away into the realms of free association, which is where I think writers find their creativity.

Where and how do you tap into your creativity?

Ooh-la-la!

2009-08-31T02:49:00.000-07:00

Hi!

Just had to post again! Another international offer for WORLDSHAKER came in today - this time from a French publisher, Helium. I love this overseas sales thing. Like having a new novel written over and over again, without the trouble of actually writing it. Great way to make money too!

Cheers
Richard

MY VERY FLUKEY FIRST SALE

2009-08-29T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hi!

They say, the 3 things you need as a writer are talent, persistence and luck (at least, that's what I say in www.writingtips.com.au). I had the hugest slice of luck in making my first sale to a mainstream publisher - I've never heard of any other author making the jump in this way.

I'd had my novel. THE VICAR OF MORBING VYLE, published by a small press, and the first miracle was that it actually got reviewed in the Australian and the Sydney Morning Herald. (Can't think that would ever happen nowadays.) Glowingly reviewed too - so I wrote to the reviewers just to say thanks. Van Ikin, the SMH reviewer, wrote back to say, 'really liked the Vicar, if you have another MS ready to go, send it to me and I'll see if I can recommend it to a mainstream publisher.' THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN!!!!!! Reviewers are normally so swamped with books that they have to read, the very last thing they'd ever do is offer to take on more reading. As I've come to learn, Van is a very special and wonderful person!

So I quickly finished off the MS I was writing, sent it to Van, he recommended it to Pan Macmillan, they liked it and the rest is history. It came out as THE DARK EDGE in 1997.

Except that history doesn't always follow a perfect path. Making that first sale can feel like climbing Mt Everest, but it's only the start. You have to keep getting published (I managed that) and you have to work your way up to a reputation. After 15 books, I finally seem to have hit the jackpot with WORLDSHAKER. It hasn't been easy - but I did get off to the luckiest, flukiest start!

Cheers
Richard

The Road to Publication

2009-08-28T22:44:00.000-07:00

Marianne, Belinda and Rowena at the book signing table, at the Logan North Library.

Trent, Marianne, myself, Louise Cusack, Kylie Chan and Andrew Warrilow were on a panel today about the Road to Publication and what happens after. Thanks to everyone who came along and caught up with us.

The panel topic ties in with our recent posts on First Sales. Having been on these kind of panels before, I noticed there are recurring questions. So I thought I'd answer them over several posts.

How do I polish the craft of writing? Which leads to ... How do I know when my book is ready to send out?

Join a writing group that is specific to your genre. For instance Vision writers. Either on-line or in person (which is better), you can learn to critique in a supportive environment. Critiquing other people's work is really useful to help hone your analytical skills.

Attend as many workshops as you can, to polish your craft and meet other writers. See the QLD Wrtiers Centre workshop program, or the writers centre in your state.

Read books on writing. I always recommend Ursula K Le Guin's 'Steering the Craft of Writing' specifically for its chapter on Point of View. Many beginning writers have trouble with this.

Read widely in the genre, as well as doing your research. Read the books that are being short listed for awards. Aurealis Award, Australia. The Hugos and the Nebulas in the US.

And,when you finish your first book, put it away for a while and write another. You'll learn so much, you'll be glad you didn't send your first book out before you could rework it.

Then have your book assessed by a manuscript assessor who knows your genre. Ask your writing friends if they've used an assessor they can recommend. Take a look at the Australian Writers Market Place, produced by the QLD Writers Centre. You'll find, ms assessors, agents, competitions and publishers.

Next time I'll look at How do I know which publisher to send my book to? and How do I get my book in front of a publisher or agent?

First Book Sale (Tansy)

2009-08-27T22:12:00.000-07:00

I've always felt vaguely apologetic about my first book sale story, mainly because it doesn't correspond to the 'right' way to do it.

That is, you start out with a few short story sales, work your way up to pro status that way, submit novels, get an agent, finally sell a novel... basically, earning your place in the hierarchy of writerliness.

What I have learned since is that there is no 'right' way to go about building a writing career. No one's path is predictable.

I started writing novels when I was thirteen, and by the time I started university, I had completed three or four manuscripts. I'd also read a huge amount of fantasy fiction in that time, and had just hit the point of becoming a complete cynic about the genre. I looked at my first book, the epic fantasy I had so lovingly crafted (as part of a projected 12 book series, GAK) and cringed. On my first day of university, at seventeen years old, I started scribbling a new story in my notebook - a comedy of errors, making fun of the fantasy cliches instead of buying into them. I wrote flat out for six months, then my social life kicked in and I let the whole thing lapse for nearly a year.

At nineteen, I picked it up again, and kept working on it. After a few months I found the guidelines to a competition for unpublished SF/Fantasy manuscripts, The George Turner Prize, and that gave me the incentive to get it finished. I almost didn't post it, but my honey made me, despite the fact that he had never read it. (we had been together a year and half at that point, and had a deal he would read nothing of mine until it was published)

A few months later, I got the phone call that I had won the competition. I remember feeling like my legs had been cut from under me. I wasn't twenty yet, and I was going to be published.

Thus continued the most frantic year of my life, and I say this as someone who has since completed a PhD and had two children...

I received the news in March. I had to complete copy edits in April, over a fortnight which was also full of personal disaster in my real life. In May, the shortlist was published - and suddenly everyone knew I was up for this prize, and couldn't stop asking me about it (I was sworn to secrecy - only my honey and mother knew about it). In June I attended my first convention, knowing that in a few months I would be a professionally published author, but not being able to say a word.

In July, I was flown to Sydney to attend Phancon (run by the one and only Karen Miller, in her own life-before-pro-publication). I attended a dinner at which the prizewinner was to be announced... and only realised too late that none of the other shortlistees had been told what was going on! Awkward... Along with meeting my editor for the first time, and being introduced to all manner of Famous Authors, the highlight of the trip was being presented with a black and white ARC of my very own book, Splashdance Silver in the flesh.

Another month later (at the ripe age of 20, though the publicity liked to emphasise I was 19 at the point of sale), I really was a published author, with my book in real bookshelves and everything. I was also working flat out on the sequel, having signed contracts for a three book series. All this and I hadn't finished my BA yet...

Within a year, the sequel was published, and within another year both books were remaindered, and the publishers let me know they weren't interested in publishing the third book I had written for the trilogy.

In retrospect...

*I should have signed with an agent before signing the contract with the publisher. Just because I had 'made the sale' independently did not mean I didn't need someone in my corner. I was put off the idea because of the secrecy agreement, which was not good.

*I should have done a lot more in the way of publicity and promotion for the first book on my own - it never occurred to me that this was something I would need to do, or even how to go about it.

oh, and...

*Chances are very likely that if Splashdance Silver had been published five years or even ten years later, as the YA book it really was, the publishing environment would have been a lot more welcoming to a girly frothy magic comedy on the fantasy shelves. At the time, it seemed, it was far too different to anything else being published, certainly within Australia. But, hey. These things only make sense in retrospect, sometimes a decade later...

I wouldn't trade my early publication for anything, though it didn't turn out the way I hoped. In many ways, I was too young and inexperienced to capitalise properly on a debut novel sale. On the other hand, early publication opened many doors to me - I was teaching creative writing within a couple of years, and continued to do so for most of my 20's. At Worldcon 1999 I was welcomed as a peer to many writers who have formed an important part of my life for over a decade. I was invited to join ROR, which has made a huge difference to my development as a writer. Oh, and I was able to support myself on my writing for a couple of years, before the wonders of postgrad scholarships kicked in. Thanks to that and the financial support of my honey, I managed to get through a very lengthy period as a university student without the distraction of a 'real' job.

Also, that early publication gave me confidence that, having done it once, I could do it again. Which, as it turned out, was 100% true.