Do not disturb unless the Earth catches fire

I've been bad about keeping this blog up for the last few weeks, in part because I've been very busy at the day job; I usually have a few minutes here and there during the day to write a few words or a couple of sentences, but that hasn't been so for the last few weeks.

Also I've been working on the non-day job—writing—and on that front I've been on two works-in-progress. Some of the time I've been writing the first draft of Smoke & Mirrors (that's the working title, anyway), the steampunk-themed sci-fi novel that I've been pounding at for the last three or four months. That one's gone on the back burner for the time being, though, as I'm working on editing Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia, a steampunk action/adventure tale that's set to be published by Xchyler Publishing later this year.

As part of the editing I've been thinking about how to beef up some of the characters. I've pretty much got that wrapped up for the major characters but there are a couple of secondary characters who need a touch of the same treatment. Today I've been concentrating on one specific character, who's the editor-in-chief of a London newspaper. In the first draft there were two words that described this man perfectly: "wishy", and "washy". (It was intentional at the time, but reading it back it didn't come across as very realistic for a person in that position.)

So here I have a character who has no force to him, no real presence, and I've been bouncing ideas around about how to make him more believable. Then it occurred to me that I need a model. And the instant I thought that, I knew precisely who that model would be. In fact there was only one possible choice.

One of my favourite sci-fi movies of all time is The Day The Earth Caught Fire, which was made in 1961 in techni-black-and-white and stars Edward Judd, Leo McKern and Janet Munro. If you get a chance to watch this movie, do, and don't worry about the cack science. Instead watch the characters work—Judd's hard-drinking journalist is just plain marvellous, and McKern is as great as he ever was. This movie should be on every aspiring fiction writer's must-watch list; it's an object lesson in character. Despite its age it's available on DVD (or at least, I had no problem finding it and the last time I looked it was still for sale).

But back to my point, and here's another character to watch: Jeff Jefferson, editor of the Daily Express, played by Arthur Christiansen. He's brilliant, and here's why: Christiansen wasn't really acting. He really was the editor of the Daily Express up until a couple of years before this movie was made. Who better to model a newspaper editor on than someone who did the job for real and showcased how it's done in a movie?

I just dug my copy of the movie out and I'm about to put in my portable DVD player. I'll be watching Christiansen carefully, and taking notes. Don't disturb me for anything less than the Earth catching fire.

(p.s. If you do get a chance to see the movie, watch for Michael Caine in an uncredited bit part as a London bobby.)

A General Update

Smoke & Mirrors: It's coming along little by little. Things have been slow because recently I just don't seem to have been able to find more than a few minutes here and there, so it's just not possible to build up any kind of momentum. Right now the typescript is at about 43,500 words, so it's going to be a while before I get the first draft completed. I'm also thinking about a better—or at least different—title, since there are a number of other books around by that name including one by Neil Gaiman (who is one of my writing heroes, by the way).

An idea: If you follow me on Twitter you might have seen me mention that I had a new story idea that came from something I read on a can of beans. In case you're interested, gentle reader, it was a can of Bush's Original Baked Beans and the label said "Secret Family Recipe". The can was turned so that from where I was standing I could only see the part that said "Secret Family", and it struck me as intriguing. At this stage it's no more than an idea; I've scribbled it in the notebook I keep handy for ideas, and I may explore it further when the time comes. It just goes to show, as many people have said, that sometimes ideas come from the most unlikely places.

The day job: Things are very heavy at the moment. I pretty much finished my work for the quarter on the main project I'm involved in, so I was asked to take on some work from another couple of projects. No real sweat there—but since then we've had a number of problems on the public-facing web servers that it's my job to watch, and troubleshooting the problems means that those other two side projects have had to take a back seat. That means that they're beginning to slip behind. (And in case you're wondering, I write these posts a bit at a time as I get a minute here and there, then usually post them in my lunch break.)

Social stuff: I've been using Twitter for a while now (something like sixteen months, I think) and haven't really had the urge (or time, to be honest) to use anything else, although I did create an author page on Goodreads. Recently I was persuaded to set up on Facebook and Google+, and also to make some proper use of the Goodreads author page that I'd hardly used. So I have. None of them is very active just yet—most of the Facebook stuff comes from my tweets, I haven't really done anything with Google+, and my Goodreads updates are limited to saying how far I've got reading this or that book. Also, I'm probably not going to accept many friend requests over and above the ones I already have but still, if you're interested by all means look me up and follow me if you like.

That's all I have time for today, except to say Happy Valentine's Day! to all my readers but especially to my wife Kate (kiss, kiss).

A Quick Update

I spent most of my time in the office today reading a truly awful technical document - the thing's 364 pages long and is really, really boring. Luckily for me I was able to skip to the sections I really need to be able to do the work that's related to it. Tomorrow I should be able to put the damned thing to one side and get on with the real work. I hope.

Right now, though, it's 10pm and I've done a bit of work on one of my 'scripts, and now I'm taking a few minutes to write a few sentences here about how that's coming along.

I have two typescripts on the go right now. One is the "completed" one that is with a publisher. I'm sure that it'll need quite a lot of editing before it's in a suitable shape and ready to be published, and I have a pretty good idea of some of the things wrong with it that'll need to be fixed, so I'm planning to make a start and get a little ahead of the game. That way, when I do get the full list of changes that are needed I'll have at least made a dent.

The other 'script is of course the current work-in-progress, tentatively titled Smoke & Mirrors. It's a bit more than 40% complete (based on my estimated final word count), which technically means that I'm quite a bit behind my self-imposed schedule and highly unlikely to meet my self-imposed deadline for a first draft. Ah, well. What with one thing and another I haven't been able to spend as much time on it as I usually would, so things have slipped. I have in fact started to get some decent work in on it over the last couple of days, though, and I'm getting back into my routine. Here's hoping I can keep up the momentum.

I was in a bit of a quandary about which one I should be concentrating on. I simply can't neglect the editing work; it's far too important, and no doubt I'll be working to a deadline. But on the other hand I don't want Smoke & Mirrors lying fallow for an extended time either, for fear that I'll lose the thread with it.

So I've made a decision: at least until I have to focus on the editing exclusively, I'll be splitting my writing time 50-50 between the two. (And even when I switch to editing, I should still be able to find some time each day to work on Smoke for a bit, so I don't let it drift too far off the beam.)

It's getting late, and I do have to get up for work so I'd better get on. I want to spend just a few minutes on Smoke (I'm about three hundred words into the scene I'm currently writing) but then I really have to call it a day.

Until next time...

Learning to Write

Every book that I've written has taught me something valuable about my writing, and it's usually a lesson learned after I've finished the 'script to a point where I consider it "complete". (Quote marks required; is a book ever truly finished? I don't think so. There's always something that you could do to make it better but if you insist on holding back for perfection you'd never finish a book. There comes a point where you have to say that it's good enough, and move on.)

Pavonis taught me that I need to work harder on endings and pacing (and self-publishing it taught me that there is a whole lot more to self-publishing than many people think, and also that I'm terrible when it comes to marketing - but that's another story). The Artemisia Chronicle taught me the importance of reviewing and refining storyboards before beginning the actual writing. Gunn & Bohemia has taught me... well, let me go into this one a bit more.

As my regular readers (Sid and Doris Bonkers of Ealing) will be aware, I submitted Gunn & Bohemia to Xchyler Publishing late last year and that resulted in a contract offer (woohoo! Still can't think about that without my pulse going up).

However, it's resulted in much, much more for me. As part of the process I had to assess the 'script as objectively as possible, putting myself as far as possible into the boots of The Reader. It's difficult, looking at your own work like that, but I did find several deficiencies that I really hadn't seen up to that point. Lesson 1: in future I'll be adding a self-assessment like this to my process and applying it to every new 'script I write, probably right after finishing the first draft.

One thing this assessment made plain was something that I already sort-of knew but hadn't really acknowledged to myself, and that is that my character building is weak. So at this point I'd like to thank Penny Freeman for making an excellent suggestion that has become Lesson 2: be your characters. By that I mean that you have to get to know them, understand the way they act and think and speak. Penny suggested writing diaries in first person from the point of view of each major character. After a while of doing that you find the characters, grow them, learn everything about them. Once you've reached that point you can speak for them - you have their voices.

(I should say that I've had a lot going on at home over the last couple of weeks and haven't been able to spend as much time on writing as I'd like to have done. Things are getting back to normal now and I'm getting back into my old routine.)

Actually having written the diary for one of my protagonists I took a slightly different tack for the others. It occurred to me that I don't want to know so much how they'd write about themselves; I needed to know how they talk, their mannerisms, what they look like. And so I changed this a bit. Instead of writing a diary, I considered myself to be transcribing a video diary in which they speak in their normal voices, run fingers through hair, pace about, avert their eyes (or not) at embarrassing admissions (note: put those actions in the transcript!). It seems to be working, at least for me. I really feel that I'm getting to know my characters - what they'll do in a given situation, how they choose their words when they speak, the painful secrets that they don't like to think about but that affect the way they behave.

For all 'scripts that I create in future this is going to be an official step in my process, probably after I've got the story fixed in mind but before I turn that into a scene-by-scene storyboard.

Talking about my process I'm thinking of writing up a blog post all about it, in detail. It might be useful to other writers, and it would certainly give me a handy reference. For now, though, I'm out of time and I have (paying) work to be getting on with. Better get to it. Later on I'll get back to some writing - at the moment I'm splitting my time between those character-building exercises and continuing work on Smoke & Mirrors; working on that one keeps me sharp. Until next time...

One more picture...

For the lovely people at Rainbow Bridge, who were so kind and caring today. And ready with a box of tissues when they were needed. Thank you.

Ginger

This isn't a typical blog post, but then this isn't a typical subject for me to be writing about.

Ginger, our 14-year old tomcat, was born around Easter 1998. His mother, Shadow, had been a stray that Kate had found some time before, hiding under a lamp post in Houston late one night when she'd been driving back home from Galveston. Shadow had just one litter of kittens, and there was something different about little Ginger that made us keep him.

He's had his adventures over the years.

When he was only a few months old he chased a German Shepherd up the road for daring to encroach on his turf.

One time we saw him slinking into the yard trying to creep up on a bird, then he looked up and saw about fifty birds perched on the fence, all looking at him. He slunk back again, pretty quick.

One evening a few years ago we heard a terrible noise from the garage and when we got in there we found feathers. Ginger was hiding behind a box. A few minutes later I saw one of the biggest owls I've ever seen perched on a power line nearby, and I'm fairly sure I know what happened; that owl had tried to grab Ginger and, thankfully, Ginger had either run for it or fought back, and from the feathers I'm fairly sure there was a fight. (He was no lightweight, by the way - he topped fifteen pounds at one time.)

Over the New Year Ginger stopped eating properly. We had visitors for the holiday and at first I put it down to him simply being out of sorts, not being used to having a house full of people. He'd done similar things in the past, so I didn't worry at first.

When he still hadn't eaten normally for three straight days we knew that it wasn't as simple as that. I took him to the vet and they took some blood. At this point I was thinking that he probably had nothing more than a bug.

It wasn't anything so nice. The vet diagnosed kidney disease, and said it was quite serious. He sent me home with a bag of medications - antibiotics, stuff to encourage his appetite, special food, and said to make an appointment for another blood test.

The second test showed marked improvement but the vet warned me that Ginger's kidneys would never fully recover. He suggested preparing ourselves for the worst. In the meantime, make another blood test appointment.

The third blood tests were done the day before yesterday and the news was bad - he was basically back to square one. I was given the choice of hospitalisation, which would get him feeling better but would give him a few more weeks at most. The other option was the hard one.

It came down to a matter of quality of life. Ginger didn't seem to be in real pain but the poisons in his blood were making him weak, lethargic and no doubt just generally very sick.

Even though it was logically the best choice, emotionally it was still very difficult for us. He's been with us since he was born; apart from a few days here and there when we've done trips away he's been with us every day. It tore our hearts out to have to let him go, but the alternative was for him to suffer more and more.

And so last night we took him to the veterinary hospital a few miles from here and told them that we'd made the decision to spare him any more suffering.

I stroked Ginger while the vet administered the drugs. He was lying across my knees when his heart stopped.

I think I got maybe four hours sleep last night. I feel emotionally drained. I wrote this at least in part to get some of it out of my system, but to be honest I don't think it's helped.

I am never getting another pet. I don't think I can take this kind of pain again.

First post of 2013. And about time.

Oh, dear, this weekly blog really has taken a bit of a tumble, eh? The last post was more than a month ago. To my regular readers (Sid and Doris Bonkers of Penge), my apologies. Gearing up for Christmas was largely to blame but also, as I recall, I was concentrating my efforts on the storyboard for the book I've been working on.

What's happened since that last post: quite a lot, actually. Christmas, of course, for which son #1 came up from Texas to stay for a while, and son #2 and family came down from where they live which is much closer (about half an hour drive from here). A good time was had by all.

Sometime around New Year I noticed that our cat - a 14-year old tomcat named Ginger - was off his food and didn't seem to be as active as usual. Then a little while after that I saw him staggering. I took him to the vet, who found that he was badly dehydrated and that his electrolytes were all over the place. It turns out that he's developed serious kidney disease, and it must have happened quite suddenly. He's been on medications since, which we've been giving him at home, and he seems to be feeling better but he's still not his old self. From what the vets told us his kidneys will probably improve but they'll never recover completely. In the nicest possible way, they told us to prepare for the worst. That's something I don't like to think about.

On the writing front I've been working on my fourth full-length work, which is a SciFi/steampunk story tentatively titled Smoke & Mirrors. I polished the storyboard a few times, then the first actual words were written on New Year's Day. Just one scene, and only 650 words, but a good start. Writing has been going on apace since then, and the 'script is up to 29,000 words. My thumbnail estimate puts the first draft in the neighbourhood of 105,000, which is more than respectable. I'm hoping to have that first draft completed by the end of February.

As for the earlier books, well, I have some news there too.

First, as has been mentioned, I submitted two 'scripts to Harper Voyager last October when they had an open submission period; a week or so ago I got a rejection email for one of them - but they didn't say which one. I've emailed the question, but so far I've had no reply. (They had more than 4,500 submissions, which I think was probably far more than they expected, so I know they must be busy going through them all. I can wait.) No word yet about the other one that I sent in, either. Given that many people expect them to reject 95% of the submissions, at this moment I'm really just waiting as fast as I can.

In November I finished the second draft (or perhaps it was third, or even fourth) of my steampunk action/adventure story Mr. Gunn & Dr. Bohemia, and after talking it over with Kate I decided to submit to another publisher (the original plan had been to wait to see if HV were interested in one or both of the ones I'd sent them, and if so send the new one to them too). I sent the query, and three weeks later I received an email asking for the full manuscript. I was hyped. Last week, big big news: I was offered a contract. I asked a couple of questions to clarify a couple of points, then sent the signed paperwork in just yesterday. I am now very, very hyped indeed. To the point where I've had trouble thinking about anything else.

So while I'm still working on Smoke & Mirrors at the moment, I expect that in the next handful of days I'll be putting that on the back burner while I work with the publisher to knock the rough edges off Gunn & Bohemia and give it a good polishing.

It's Saturday morning; I have about an hour free, so I'm about to grab a coffee and get back to working on Smoke & Mirrors. So I'd better get to it. And going forward I'll be trying hard to get back to a weekly Wednesday/Thursday schedule for doing these blog posts.

Until next week...