Jason Fischer's Blog, page 20
October 13, 2011
Confessions of a Pantser
So, I'm officially a little over half-way through my writing sabbatical. How's it all going? Very, very well indeed!
Have stayed on target thus far, and with this head down and bum-up approach I've just reached the 75% complete mark. So, I'm slightly ahead of the game which is nice. This should allow me ample time at the end to work on revisions, quietly hunt out beta-readers, and just generally knock the cobwebs out of this story.
In writing parlance you may have heard of two types of writers, outliners and pantsers (ie flying by the seat of your pants). Definitely a 100% pantser here. Apart from my zombie novellas (which were planned and researched to the hilt) I approach longer projects with a very fluid outlook. I know the beginning, some of the middle and maybe the end, but the rest is a horrid mess, one I wade into with gusto.
And I'm glad of this.
The first reason being that my process (your mileage may vary of course) runs on the very best of fuzzy logic. Once I hit that sweet spot where words flow and hours vanish, my mind quite happily skips away from the ordained path. Sometimes it just doesn't work, but other times my subconscious brings me the real story, what I actually need to be telling. With a loose enough outline, I can make the most of these sporadic outbursts from my opium-addled muse, who flutters in occasionally, leaves feathers and shit everywhere, and sometimes comes up with the goods.
So a few well-justified lateral arabesques as they occur to me, constant revision and editing to make sure the continuity is up to scratch, and this is basically how I write my first and second drafts simultaneously. If this were a building, I would have most of the framework up, but boy oh boy, the rest is a dog's breakfast. I've got wires and shit everywhere, the plumbing is visible, and the builders have left cigarette butts and dirty magazines all over the place. It's an embarassment. But if I step back a little, and imagine how it's going to end up, well I'm sure glad the architects agreed to that 11th hour amendment. The place just wouldn't look the same without that command tower and the revolving gazebo, and just because I didn't think of these things when I first conceived of the house, doesn't mean they don't belong.
But yes. Flying by the seat of my pants means that a driving element of this story just sort of slid in by accident, because it needed to be there all along. This has completely affected the relationships between a group of antagonists, one of the POV characters, and has forced a complete revamp of the setting itself, all for the better. Some great epic moments have arisen from the arrival of this particular gizmo, and I've managed to import some much needed gravitas and actual fantasy into something that could have ended up as a bad Mad Max knock-off with token wizards. Nope, my half-arsery has steered me through these troubled waters, and instinct saves the day!
So Book 3 of 4 is done and dusted, and it's time to bring this bad boy home. See you on the other side!
Your pal,
The Fisch.
September 14, 2011
Two Months in the Word-Mines
So, a bit over 2 months into this writing hiatus, and things are going quite well. There's only one embargoed project left to be revealed, which will hopefully be happening a bit later this year, and After the World's "Army Corpse" is completely edited and out of my hands. Excellent stuff!
The complete removal of internet from the house is my sole secret to any success at this mad enterprise – yes, I've been locking the damn modem in the damn car 
thus do words appear. Once the good Mrs Fisch hid it from me with my blessing, which turns out to be exactly what the talented Vandermeers do.
Best of all, my novel "Papa Lucy and the Boneman" is tearing along, like a demon horse with a coffee enema and rocketskates. If I can stick to the schedule, the first draft will be finished very soon, and I should have the second draft done by the end of October. My process involves writing 1st/2nd drafts concurrently, ie each writing session involves revision and tinkering, prior to any new words appearing, which seems to work for me (your mileage may vary, of course). Luckily, I haven't spotted any major structural woes so far, which I'll save for draft #3 after October.
So what's in this opus? Once more, readers get to step into the world of Lanyard Everett, last of the jesusmen, scumbag and deeply troubled individual. I've shown glimpses of his world in my Aurealis Magazine stories, but this time around I get to play with the history of the place, the backstory, and some other awesome POV characters just to give this place a bit of depth and resonance. I'm trying for the flavour of Jack Vance, the structure is a bit Hyperionish, if you mix in a bit of Mad Max, Terry Dowling's Rynocceros, and some of Sean Williams' Books of the Change. I've spotted a lot of these influences creeping into the nascent draft, but I hope to give it my own unique twist, the insanity that I only just had the room to touch on in the short stories.
Having. A. Ball.
What else has been happening? Have been loving the extra time with the family, lots of reading time and cuddles with my boy, trips to the park and beach, the luxury of time to do errands and chores. Mostly though, I've been consistently pouring buckets of words into my various projects, and justifying the trust that Arts SA have put into my sometimes shaky time-management skills. Dudes, I'm coming up with the goods
September 10, 2011
After the World – it's back and it's BAD-ASS.
Following the release of novellas "Killable Hours" and my own "Gravesend", Black House Comics have upped the ante. Not only is the After the World saga continuing, it's been expanded from a standalone novella into a full-fledged fiction anthology, available in newsagents around Australia (and online). You'll still find a zombie apocalypse novella in each bimonthly issue of After the World, but now each instalment is accompanied by some fantastic fiction, with a bit of something for everyone.
Issue 3 is headed up by Jason Franks' "Pack Rules", an absolute hum-dinger of a story set in the same shared universe as the first two books. I've had the privilege of already reading this piece, and it knocked my socks off. Bikers scavenging for supplies in a zombie ravaged Melbourne; the residents of an upper-class apartment, holed up and terrified; a pack of feral dogs abandoned, desperate to survive in a world where dead monsters walk.
A whole swag of other fiction can be found in this magazine, including tales of science fiction, horror, and just plain weirdness. My contribution to this issue is the slipstream "A Clockwork Arthur", where the argot of Nadsat meets the downfall of Camelot. To top it all off, look at that cover. Just look at it! Jason Paulos at his finest.
[image error]
(image nicked from http://blackhousecomics.com/articles/after-the-world–anthology—issue-3-out-now.html)
Future issues will include my sequels to "Gravesend", the upcoming "Corpus Christi", and the third instalment "Army Corpse". These two are intended to make Gravesend look like a trip to Disneyland, and hopefully folks get a kick out of seeing the surviving characters from the first book (and the bad things I do to them – oh so bad).
After the World can be found in your local newsagent, or can be ordered online via this link: http://www.blackboox.net/after-the-world-pack-rules-issue-3/
Aspiring writers, here are the submission guidelines for this very cool publication, check it out: http://blackhousecomics.com/submissions-for-after-the-world.html
September 2, 2011
StoryPortals, launched and live
A while ago, I successfully auditioned for a spot in a shared universe, because playing in someone else's backyard is always good fun. Each author got to use the main character of Katya, a capable assassin in a bizarre Byzantian setting, and it was an absolute hoot to write this. The good news is that these stories have just gone live, the even better news is that they are all available for free at the following website:
My story "Dead Letters" is one of the forthcoming pieces, but if you register as a member on the site (free membership) you will get access to these stories as they are released for public viewing. The first handful of Katya stories are now live, and two other serials will also be launched on the site in the near future. Editor Larry Segriff has attracted some seriously good writers to this project, including authors of D&D novels and some of my WotF buddies too. The setting is rich and detailed, much along the lines of the early Forgotten Realms, and as far as characters go Katya is seriously, seriously cool.
Katya, Lady Assassin
(image nicked from here: http://storyportals.com/series/katya-lady-assassin)
August 30, 2011
Seth In Space
Seth J Rowanwood, my rather awesome illustrator from Writers of the Future (who took out the Golden Award in the sister contest, for his illustration of "The House of Nameless") was lucky enough to have one of his book covers packed onto the last ever space shuttle launch and sent up to the International Space Station (just the cover, book itself was over the strict payload limit). That's right – the squeezings of his brain got flown into space. I don't care where you're from, that's damn cool
Few people get to cross that one off the ole bucket list. Well done Seth!
More info here:
August 22, 2011
The resurrection of "Tusk" – ANNOUNCING TERRA MAGAZINE
Sometimes, the best anecdotes involve those things that didn't quite work out. In writing circles, we've all got that project that crashed and burned, the one that got away, the thing that for whatever reason lost its mojo, usually after a lot of effort, time, and heartache.
One of my favourite failure anecdotes was to talk about Tusk. This was a novel I wrote in 2004, the product of the Colin Thiele Literature Scholarship that I received from the SA Youth Arts Board. I was fortunate enough to be mentored by local fantasy author Tony Shillitoe, and over the course of 18 months or so I wrote this novel to the best of my abilities.
The tagline for Tusk is this: telepathic elephants enslave mankind. Planet of the Elephants, or as Tony called it "Gladiator in Grey". So I spent a large chunk of time/money writing this book, sent it to one place, got a rejection, buried it in a drawer and it physically pained me to look at this MS forever afterwards. Again, we're talking the journeyman stage of my career, where the sting of rejection is a brutal thing.
This was 2005 me. 2011 me is much older, much wiser, and much more ruthless. Especially when it comes to editing. So, after many years of fermenting, Tusk has once more seen the light of day, and has been polished to within an inch of its life. Even better than that, it's already found a really awesome home.
Which brings me to the next part of this announcement. Black Glass Press have teamed up with the folks at Black House Comics to come up with a new regular anthology comic, called Terra Magazine. There are some brilliant (nay, award-winning) folks from comic circles involved with this project, and there's a bit of everything in this book. It's a bit like 2000AD, in that there are ongoing serial stories, you will soon find it on the shelves in your local newsagent, and there's never a dull moment.
This book has got samurai, detectives, freaks in space, sorcery, yakuza, and cyborg lunatics. Terra Magazine is also the new home for Tusk, which will now be released as a serial story, illustrated prose much like Gaiman's original stardust. It's the only non-comic instalment, and will appear in each issue.
There's some more info about Terra Magazine here:
http://www.terramagazine.com.au/
and a press release here:
http://www.blackglasspress.com/component/content/article/58-terra-magazine.html
August 9, 2011
On Writing Full-Time, and Finding A Rhythm
So since July 4th I've been a full-time writer, and shall be until the end of the year. Putting my money where my mouth is, I've cashed in all my long service leave, and taken the rest of the year off from my job to work on a number of projects. Chief amongst these is the novel "Papa Lucy and the Boneman", which has landed me a Project Grant from the good folks at Arts SA. So, I'm basically a scruffy house-bound bum until 2012, supported by you, the tax-payer :-)
In many ways I've been well-behaved, and have treated this chance at doing my dream job as, well, a job. I've steered clear of blogs and blogging (though admittedly I continue to dabble in the short sugar-hit aspects of social networking). I'm working through a list of goals, in order of time sensitivity, and putting down solid word-counts on a regular basis (average word-count is 1500-3000 words/day). So far, so good!
The List is as follows:
After the World: Army Corpse (1st draft now completed)
Embargoed Project
Papa Lucy and the Boneman (novel)
Embargoed Project
Both of the embargoed projects are super-cool, and rest assured I'll be dishing out some more details when I can. Here's some hints for the wise, *cough* elephants *cough* computer game *cough hack wheeze* So this writing full-time thing is going very well, and if I keep this momentum, I'll have no trouble meeting these goals, with oodles of time to polish everything up, and work on a few other bits and pieces that need doing, such as the story fragments kicking around on the backburner, the composition of new pieces for my upcoming collection (Everything is a Graveyard, from Ticonderoga Publications), and whatever else needs doing.
The first challenge with writing full-time was finding the rhythm of things, the sweet spot where I park my arse and unpack a bunch of words from my head. Clocking in a 8am with a cuppa and a smile just doesn't seem to work for me, and I've had to try a few different methods before finding the one that works. The best method, the one that often gets that awesome absentee writer thing (where you vague out and come back hours later with something that you're only partially responsible for) works for me as follows:
Mornings are for chores, correspondence, pottering, research, wool-gathering. An early lunch is held at the computer, going over the previous day's work. Then the rest of the day is given to writing like buggery, until the family are all home, and then there's tea and family time, and then another solid stretch of writing in the evening, through to 10-12 o'clock. And just like that, I'm pulling in 3000 word days, and it doesn't even feel like I'm working. Am truly grateful for the opportunity to work like this, fitting writing in with family and full-time work was a bit of a bugger and this sojourn makes me very happy indeed
Some days the rhythm just doesn't work, or other things come up. The wheels sometimes fall off for a day or two, but everything is mostly ticking along and I'm hopefully justifying the faith that has been put into my mad enterprise.
Will also try and update this blog/website more often while I'm on the public dollar. Speaking of which, when next I swing by I hope to talk about arts patronage, and some of my experiences in the last few years. I figure if I'm going to have an Official Website, I should use it to do Highminded Things.
Cheerio!
Fisch.
May 23, 2011
Aurealis Awards
It must be said, social networks have completely ruined my blogging mojo! Having said that, the weekend just gone was too cool to not be noted down on the ole blog [blows away dust and cobwebs].
I was recently fortunate enough to rate a Finalist spot in this year's Aurealis Awards for the zombie-tastic "After the World: Gravesend". The good Mrs Fisch and I chootled on over to Sydney town, where we gawked at many things like the blissful Adelaide bumpkins that we are. Once we'd had our fill of skyscrapers, bridges and unfriendly rushing Sydney types, we frocked up and caught up with a bunch of Aussie SF people in the hotel, who were grabbing some tucker before the awards themselves kicked off. It was brilliant to catch up with so many folks (and meet some correspondents for the first time) and it felt like no time had passed since the last time we'd all caught up.
The awards themselves have just been handed on from Fantastic Queensland to the new caretakers, SpecFaction. Wow, what a brilliant job you folks did! A great awards ceremony that everyone seemed to enjoy, formal but relaxed, with lots of laughs and even some shoeless award recipients. Looking at you, Slatter! Was a real honour to share the Best Horror Novel category with Kirstyn McDermott and Trent Jamieson, and a great win for Kirstyn and her stunning breakout novel "Madigan Mine" [standing ovation]. Well done!
Was a great year for local genre fiction, and the full list of winners can be found here: http://www.aurealisawards.com/winners2010.pdf
Photos of the night can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42956650@N00/sets/72157626651871717/with/5745776642
May 16, 2011
Debut Collection: EVERYTHING IS A GRAVEYARD, Ticonderoga Publications
In today's exciting news, Ticonderoga Publications have just announced the forthcoming publication of my first short story collection. You cannot wipe the smile from my face! Here's the official press release:
—
Ticonderoga Publications is proud to announce the forthcoming publication of a collection of stories by the writer of the future Jason Fischer.
Adelaide-based Fischer is a Clarion South graduate and recent winner of the Writers of the Future competition.
The collection is titled Everything is a Graveyard, and is scheduled for publication in late 2013.
The exact contents are still to be finalised.
The collection will revolve around Fischer's critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic and zombie-themed work.
Everything is a Graveyard will also include new stories original to the collection.
"Jason Fischer taps into the darker sides of human nature like few other writers," Ticonderoga Editor Russell B Farr said.
"His work blends raw emotion with an honest sense of mortality," Farr added.
The collection is scheduled for publication in October 2013. The collection will be available in limited edition hardcover, ebook and trade editions.
May 12, 2011
The Socially Networked Fisch
Having been a luddite for some time, I've finally dragged myself into the 21st century, kicking and screaming (well, grumbling and shuffling). I…I should have done it sooner. It's really not that scary, and all quite useful and informative. Given that my method of gaining most writer-type news was second hand or via the erstwhile LiveJournal, it's nice to not be out of the loop on things.
I'm now twitting over at Twitter, and my handle is @jasonifischerio
I'm also at Facebook now, but you may have to search for me on that thing, I'm still trying to work it out and don't have a useful link to add here. All going well, this post should port directly to Facebook, my luddite fingers are crossed.
Carry on! [dusts off his semaphore flags]
