Amanda Fleet's Blog, page 21

I've finished the first draft!

Phew! This draft of "book 7" (actual working title is "Aeron Returns") is finished! This is the middle book of a fantasy trilogy that I've been working on, on and off, since 2014.

Of course, just because I have a first draft doesn't mean the book is finished. No, I still have work to do on it, but the skeleton is all sorted and most of the muscle and sinew is there. I still need to do more editing before it goes off to beta readers, and another heap of edits, polishes and a proof-read when it comes back from them and the professional editor, but the hardest edit is done.

For me, the writing process runs a bit like this:

Have an idea
Write loads of notes about the idea and come up with a germ of a plot
Plan out the plot
||: Write
Change/tweak the plot :||
  → Come up with a zero draft
Go back through zero draft and sort it all out until I have a decent first draft
Go through it again and sort out all the over-used words and the craply written bits
Send it out to beta readers
Fix the issues they come up with
Send it to a professional editor
Fix the bits they say are wrong
Polish
Proof-read
Publish!!

The zero draft of this book was what I had at the start of September. I was coming back to this book after a long time away from it and I thought it would take me forever to get it from tangled spaghetti to first draft. I always find this is the hardest edit to do, but also the most satisfying one. Just over a month ago, I thought I might never untangle it and whip it all into shape and wrote "Help! Please send chocolate!"

But, these characters have been talking to me and telling me their stories for years now. I see so much of their lives that have nothing to do with the book (and sometimes write them down in a separate file, just to get it out of my head). I spend all day (and sometimes night) with them. Getting their stories to make sense is enormously satisfying! Some characters have had more time in the spotlight, some less. Some have died and some been saved. Things I'd been struggling with dropped into place. It's been a tough few weeks, but, boy have I been enjoying it.

Anyway, next for this is to put it aside for a while, before finding and killing all the crutch words and the bits that are crap. What will I work on while this is 'resting'? Planning the final part of the trilogy, of course!
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Research...

I love doing research for my books. There's always a slight worry that my Google searches look very dodgy, but on the whole, I absolutely love doing the background work for my books. This could be general research (like my scrapbooks - looking for the perfect location for a book, or images of people for characters etc) or it can be more of the nitty-gritty (what is the exact wording of a police caution?).

I've seen a couple of posts recently about writers using mood boards (see here and here for a couple of examples). In essence, the scrapbooks I make are like mood boards, with pictures pasted in and notes scribbled all over them (I wrote here about my scrapbooks). I sometimes keep electronic versions using OneNote, but not as commonly as I have physical versions. I've found that printing things off, either on to A4 printer paper or on to sticker sheets and sticking them into my notebooks works the best for me.



That kind of research all happens near the start of a book. What I've been researching recently has been a combination of of fine details about things (sunrise and sunset times on particular dates; castles in Cumbria; geology of various rocks), and looking for images of long leather coats for men that you could conceal a sword under (that don't look like either the Gestapo coats from 'Allo 'Allo, or something from The Matrix). Today's slightly random search was for "blank autopsy body diagrams". A couple of weeks ago it was "sociopolitical repercussions of Spanish flu" & "what colour boxes are used for paper recycling in Cumbria?"

Every day is a school day...

What's everyone else been up to recently?

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Bloody Scotland 2018

Bloody Scotland just gets bigger and better!! I only made it over to Stirling for one day - the Saturday - but the whole town was buzzing and full of crime writers and crime readers. If you haven't yet been up to Stirling for this festival, what's stopping you? The events are amazing, the venues are brilliant and the atmosphere is incredible. The only downside I can see, is that my To Be Read pile is now even bigger and I will probably have to live until I'm a hundred to ever get through it all!

I was delighted to be able to catch up with some old friends and to make some new ones. It made me realise just how far I've come since I was one of the Crime in the Spotlight speakers, two years ago. Then, I knew almost no one in the huge, welcoming crime-writing family that exists. I made some good friends in the twelve "Spotlighters" and as a consequence of meeting them, have met many more fantastic, warm, helpful, supportive people - writers, book bloggers, friends of friends who neither write nor blog nor have anything to do with crime-writing beyond reading it. All have been absolutely amazing. And none of it would have happened without Bloody Scotland!

Short post (Sorry! Life is ridiculously busy at the moment), but I just wanted to say how brilliant Bloody Scotland is and how grateful I am for the amazing friendships that have spun off from it.

Hopefully see you all there next year!
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Further update on "Who Gives a Crap"

Last week, I reviewed the loo rolls by Who Gives A Crap and said that I'd also bought tissues and kitchen rolls. I was disappointed by the plastic strapping that bound the carton of tissues and carton of kitchen roll together, and also that there was a plastic film in the top of the box of tissues.

I contacted WGAC about it and this was their reply:

We use what's called oxo-biodegradable plastic on the top of our tissue boxes in order to keep them secure and dry. This oxo-bio plastic breaks down much faster and will degrade in the presence of oxygen and sunlight (depending on the local conditions, 12-24 months vs 1000 years for regular plastic!). You can even test it out in your yard! We know it's not the ultimate solution, however it's something that is slightly better when having to go a limited plastic route.

As for the strappings.... urgh!!
We avoid using plastic wherever we can, but when shipping multiple parcels we strap them together so that 1) we (and the customer) are only charged 1 shipping fee for the package, and 2) there's no risk of the packages becoming separated in transit and the driver having to make two deliveries to the same address for the one order (also not good from an environmental perspective).
We're researching more sustainable strapping materials-- and we *have* tested paper strapping, but it hasn't been strong enough, and just breaks in transit. We need something that works with commercial strapping machines so the options are limited, but it's a priority of ours that we are continuously searching for a solution.

Some suggestions: There may be dedicated recycling centres you can find that will take them off your hands or you can work your magic in upcycling them into something unique (heaps of ideas on Pinterest)!

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Update on "Who Gives a Crap"

Who Gives A Crap loo rollsA few weeks ago, I said that I'd bought some recycled paper loo rolls from the company Who Gives A Crap, but that I hadn't yet tried them. Well, now we have tried them, and I've bought some tissues and kitchen roll from them too, so it's time for an update.

We went for the bog-standard (pun intended) loo rolls made of recycled paper. There is a luxury option made with bamboo which is probably softer. I had had reservations about the use of bamboo, knowing that processing it to make fibres for clothes isn't great, ecologically, but after a long discussion with them via email, it would seem that processing the plant to make 'paper' is far less environmentally damaging and that there is little waste or chemical use. We may go for the luxury version in the future, but to be honest, the standard paper version is fine.

Each roll comes wrapped in paper to protect it, which has lower waste impact than if the rolls were bundled together, as the paper used for wrapping can be thinner than if multiple rolls were wrapped together. The paper is quite pretty (and they currently have a version that you can colour in yourself if you want) and I will probably use it to decorate plain notebooks or do origami or something. Or just recycle it. They look fairly pretty stacked on the cistern, anyway!

The loo paper itself is made of three very thin layers, but the fact there are three of them makes it strong. There are 400 sheets per roll, so each roll does last longer than a normal roll. I did the maths on it all and the price per square metre was pretty much the same as the loo rolls we had been buying from the supermarket, but they were wrapped in plastic and those companies didn't donate half their profits to charities supporting water sanitation.

What's it like to use?
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Help! Please send chocolate!

[Or... "Why I wish I'd realised I was a plotter not a pantser, before I wrote draft zero of this book"!]

How my plot feels at the moment....I should have known I was a plotter. I've been logical and methodical all my life! But, when I wrote the zero draft of The Trilogy (a few years ago now!) I wrote the story that was in my head. Which was okay as far as it went, but over the years it's changed, and the characters have evolved and some sub-plots have strengthened (and some vanished). And it now feels like I have this amazing picture in my head but just a pile of jigsaw pieces on the table.

Actually, I literally have my plot in pieces on the table, because my dining room table is currently covered in index cards. I have one for each scene and have been trying to get them in order. I have some that will go (that relate to sub-plots that have gone, or which are just not needed any more) and I have quite a lot missing (but I'll do the cards for them once I'm sure they're staying). And yes, of course they are colour-coded for the different sub-plots.

Guest post by Jack Dowd

Jack DowdThis week on the blog, I have a guest post by Jack Dowd to share with you. Jack's debut novel Empty Nights will be released in September.

Empty Nights
Henry Andrews, enduring his final year in Norcrest Academy, discovers that his childhood crush and fellow sixth form student Yasmin Rivers is pregnant. Henry agrees to help Yasmin hide her secret while also dealing with his parent’s divorce, revising for his A Level exams, suffering his own mental health issues and preparing for the void in his life that comes after sixth form. When tragedy strikes, nothing will be the same again.

Jack Dowd
I started writing as a hobby in 2005 while bored in the back row of a classroom. This hobby grew over the years and in 2013 I enrolled as a student on the Creative Writing Degree course at London South Bank University. During this time, my play Captured was performed at the Chelsea Theatre to positive reviews and I was the assistant producer on a radio play called The Minister’s Secret. In 2015 I created jackdowd’swritingblog, my official writing website and I graduated with a 2:1. Since leaving university I have found publication with an Indie publishing company called Mommashark press and my debut novel Empty Nights is due for release in September.

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Who Gives a Crap?

As loyal readers will know (bless you, both of you), I'm trying to reduce my "footprint" on the world. I will no longer buy any clothes with non-biodegradable fibres in them, I've recycled most of my clothes that contained non-biodegradable fibres and I'm trying as hard as I can to reduce how much plastic I buy (including the microplastic in tea-bags... glad to say, 8 months on, I'm still using loose tea and composting all the used leaves).

I'd heard about Who Gives A Crap toilet paper in a number of places and have decided to give it a go. Their toilet paper is made from 100% recycled paper. They also have a 'luxury' brand that's made from bamboo, but for me, there are still some issues with bamboo processing - the plant itself needs little water or fertiliser and is pretty sound, ecologically, but processing it to make fibres is less so.

Their toilet paper comes wrapped in paper and then boxed, with free delivery to your door. The boxes are hilarious. In huge letters on the side were: "You've got a lovely bum" and "Wiping Away Poverty". I'm not quite sure what the delivery woman thought of it all!



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Interview with Sandra Ireland #LoveBooksTour #BoneDeep

I'm delighted to welcome Sandra Ireland, author of  Beneath the Skin and Bone Deep to the blog today. I first interviewed Sandra last year (you can read my interview with her here) and am grateful to her for taking the time to answer more questions from me. I reviewed Bone Deep , her second novel here.

Your new book, Bone Deep has just been released. Tell me a little about it?
Bone Deep poses the question, what happens when you fall in love with the wrong person? The consequences threaten to be far-reaching and potentially deadly. Bone Deep is a contemporary novel of sibling rivalry, love, betrayal and murder. This is the story of two women: Mac, who is bent on keeping the secrets of the past from her only son, and the enigmatic Lucie, whose past is something of a closed book. Their story is underpinned by the creaking presence of an abandoned water mill, and haunted by the local legend of two long-dead sisters, themselves rivals in love, and ready to point an accusing finger from the pages of history.

What inspired you to write it?
I worked at Barry Mill, Angus, for several years. It’s a National Trust for Scotland property, one of the last working watermills in Scotland. I grew to love the whole process of milling, and the landscape around the mill. I always had some quirky folktales up my sleeve to entertain visitors. I found myself drawn to the mill as a setting for a novel, and the ancient Border Ballad of The Cruel Sister seemed to fit. In the ballad, the jealous older sister shoves the younger one into the mill pond. As I’m not a historical novelist, I wanted to make this a very modern story. It looks at contemporary relationships, but the past is never far away. I was very fortunate to receive support from Creative Scotland who saw the potential of the project.
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Review of Bone Deep by Sandra Ireland #LoveBooksTour @22_Ireland @PolygonBooks

In today's post, I'm delighted to share my review of Bone Deep by Sandra Ireland with you.

My thanks to Polygon for giving me an advance copy of the book. My views are my own and in no way influenced by the gift of the copy.


Bone DeepWhat happens when you fall in love with the wrong person? The consequences threaten to be far-reaching and potentially deadly. Bone Deep is a contemporary novel of sibling rivalry, love, betrayal and murder. This is the story of two women: Mac, who is bent on keeping the secrets of the past from her only son, and the enigmatic Lucie, whose past is something of a closed book. Their story is underpinned by the creaking presence of an abandoned water mill, and haunted by the local legend of two long-dead sisters, themselves rivals in love, and ready to point an accusing finger from the pages of history.

Extract:Mac I put down my pen and sag against the back of the chair. I’ve been sitting here since 6 a.m., and now that the words are finally flowing I can’t let them go. Things have been a bit stuck of late, ideas bobbing around like fish, and me grown too slow to catch them. But this morning things feel different, as though Lucie’s arrival has brought a gust of fresh air, stirring up the leaves of my imagination.

I’d asked her about her family a couple of times, but her replies have been rather muted. I gather she has a sister, but there’d been no warmth to her description. I’d nodded knowingly at the time. Sibling rivalry. You get that with sisters. Best not to dwell on it. It had reminded me of something though, this sister thing. What was it now?

That evening I’d gone through all the dusty old volumes on my bookshelves, not quite sure what I was looking for. I stretch my arms out in front of me, flex my fingers and rotate my neck. Something cracks, and my insides shrink accordingly. I’m getting paranoid, waiting for the next little blip, holding my health up to the light like a badly stitched seam. I’m getting frayed.

Somewhere in the house, a key grates in a lock. The front door opens, and a ghastly echo carries along the passages. The hall always has that empty-house ring to it, regardless of how many bits and bobs I pad it out with. The sound of footsteps carries towards me. That will be Arthur. My heart sinks and immediately I go into guilty mode. I am a bad mother. A can’t-be-bothered mother. My eyes drop automatically, going to the photograph on the desk. My own mother, wartime drab but happy in a floral tea dress she’d knocked up from remnants. We have bad mother genes, I suspect. There is a coldness in us. I remember Mother feeding a poorly dog tinned salmon while we kids scoffed bread and dripping. The thing is, I fear I’m heading for the ultimate fail. The leaving-your-child fail.


Review:It takes a good book to have me unable to do anything else for the entire day because I just can't stop reading, but that's exactly what happened with me with this book! I started it one Sunday morning, intending to read for an hour or so as it was a sunny day and I could sit out and relax with a book - a rare event for me. From the opening chapter, I was hooked and just wanting to know more about these characters and I finished the book the same afternoon!
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