Sarwat Chadda's Blog, page 8

Ode to the Chainsaw

It's a statement weapon. It says 'Hey, I'm loud, noisy,brutal and when this is over, there'll be blood on the carpet and dismembered limbs in the kitchen'. It reminds us that quantity has a quality of its own.Suitable for most social ocassions. Be it zombies or lost teens, the chainsaw is the answer.It's not subtle, true, but it announces itself. You know when somebody starts up a chainsaw.We're half-way through the Chainsaw Gang's 12 Deaths of Christmas and while I'm disappointed we're not heading for that Xmas No.1 slot in the charts, in all other aspects the tour has been a success!Thank you for joining it, one and all. Below is the full list of the bloggers who've been involved. Each has posed us a curious question (who would you be in yoru favourite horror movie? What's the spookiest place you've ever visited? Books for Xmas and so on) and we've all given them our answers, which range widly! Plus there has been singing.Mon 6th My Favourite BooksTues 7th Enchanted BooksWeds 8th Narratively SpeakingThurs 9th Wondrous ReadsFri 10th BookZoneSat 11th and Sun 12th Book GazingMon 13th BookZoneTues 14th Wondrous ReadsWeds 15th Narratively SpeakingThurs 16th Enchanted BooksFri 17th My Favourite Books Remember, each comment entered gets a chance to win the Chainsaw Library, a signed copy from each member of the Chainsaw Gang. That would be your 2011 reading list sorted in one go, wouldn't it? Alas, only UK residents, this time.

My Vampire Romance

Been there, done that. Now even the most casual reader of my blog will know my apprehension over vampires. They may even think I have some garlic-like aversion to the bloodsuckers.That couldn't be further from the truth!"No, Sarwat! Tell me it's not true! You've not gone all Team Edward on us! Is that a poster of RPatz up beside the bed? Oh woe is us! Who will deliver the throat-ripping, blood drenched fiends we crave now Sarwat's started drawing little hearts in his elegant note book and calling himself 'Sarwat, the lost Cullen'.Fear not, my companions of slaughter, I have not fallen to the dark side.Well, not yet though there are those moments when Jacob takes of his teeshirt (like every five minutes but frankly with abs like those, who wouldn't want to expose them to the world constantly although you've have to hack through a thick forest of chest hair to see anything like that on me not that I have had abs like those since, well ever, though there was a period in my late teens when I was doing karate a lot, before I had my teeth knocked out but that's another story where was I? Oh yes, anyway there was that time when I did have the vaguest outline of a six-pack but all too briefly. Sigh.) Which brings me somewhat shambolically to Anne Rice, the godmother of vampires. Oh, gish, where to begin? We had the gloriously ammoral Lestat, melancholic Loius, the petite but lethal Claudia and then we had Akasha, Queen of the Damned.Oh, yes, now that's what I call a vampire.Hmmm.Interview with a Vampire. The Vampire Lestat and the Queen of the Damned were the first three and the best vampire books I've ever read. After those, all others are, well, anaemic. It started a love affair with the blood-sucking fiends that, truth be told, has never ended. It amazes me how it's gone on and on, we never tire of them, we love them in all their angsty palid beauty (and none were as angst-ridden as Louis, I tell you).Gloriously violent, devestatingly glamorous and painfully beautiful, the vampires of Anne Rice novels were the very pinnacle of the genre. If you're looking for the 'real thing', dash over to Amazon and order them now.BTW, am I the only one that enjoyed the movies? I thought Queen ofthe Damned was great, I even bought the soundtrack. Check out the music videos on the dvd special features. Lestat is a vampire's vampire.

So Darren, why don't your vampires sparkle?

One of the GREAT things about the writing business is hanging out with your heroes. I'd like to take a small step back in time. Mind the kerb.You know when you decide to do something new and there's the old saying If you want to build a better mouse trap, see how the original one works'. Or something. The point is there's no point in reinventing the wheel. Jeez, that was a crap sentence, but you know what I mean?So, I want to be a writer. How best to go about it?
I'm not talking just about writing words and sentences (like, duh) but making it into a career.Here are the vague steps I followed:1. Decide I want a career, not a hobby that pays. That means acting like you want to (say) retrain as a teacher, or accountant, or astronaut. That means study, putting in the hours and using your time efficiently (especially as writing is probably the most inefficient job possible. I don't know anything that generates so much discarded effort, except perhaps being president). Way, way too many people want their books on shelves,and frankly there's not enough room as it is. Not only are you competing against everyone writing now, but pretty much everyone who's written ever. That's over 2,000 years worth of writing from the best in history. Imagine wanting to be an interior decorator but having Michealangelo to compete with. Somehow your neat, pastel-coloured ceiling doesn't look quite so amazing, does it? That's what writing can feel like. Actually, I always feel a bit depressed when I think about it like that. Moving swiftly on...2. Whose career do you want? Now it's nice to think "J.K Rowling's", and okay, yes, we all think that briefly, but in my choice I prefered those that have had a few more ups and downs, and still made it. It's character building and will offer greater inspiration in the long run. I picked Clive Cussler, Bernard Cornwell and Darren Shan. Cool heroes with historical mysteries, action and horror. These are the three aspects that appealed to me and helped me to decide the route to follow.3. Why Darren? Firstly, his success is down to HARD WORK. Yes, he's amazingly talented but we can't all have that level of talent. But we can reproduce his effort. The guy churns out great books like some book-churning-out machine. He does tours, school visits, blogs in great depth and clearly has a mad passion for his job. I saw him do a presentation to a couple of hundred kids and decided that was how I was going to do it. Get them involved. Acting out scenes. Whip up a frenzy. His fans are mental for his stuff. Now that's the sort of enthusiasm you want for your writing, isn't it? He doesn't sit on his butt when counting the money and tapping away. He gets out and about even now when, surely, his success would mean he doesn't need to do it anymore.So it was a rare honour to finally meet him at Orlando. We had a bit of a chat and talked about my favourite book of his (The Thin Executioner) and how he was in Oman during the Gulf War when he was researching it. That Middle-Eastern atmosphere is the best thing about it and shows you how much stories are improved by real experience.So, yes, if you are planning to crack the author mystery, you could do a lot worse than check out Darren.

Christmas singalong

Obviously I've way too much time on my hands but I've decided to branch out into music-writing. I'm not talking about a nine-hour opera or even a West-End type musical with dancing and cabaret (though that would be fun, wouldn't it?) but something Christmasy. If it's good enough for Cliff Richard* then it's good enough for me.It's something I've been working on with my fellow Chainsaw Gangsters and some of the wise and beautiful of the blogging world. I'd like to present:
The 12 Deaths of Christmas Blog Tour and Sing-a-long!Starting on Monday, and over the next 12 days, we'll be releasing a verse a day, which a major brainstorming of the members of the Chainsaw Gang. The idea is that each blogger asked whatever they wanted, and we gave them the answers as best we could. It'll be a chance to delve into the twisted minds of Alex Bell, Alex Gordon Smith, David Gatward, Sam Enthoven, Me (obviously), Steve Feasey, Jon Mayhew, Stephen Deas and Sarah Silverwood. The questions range widely from writing techniques to personal hygiene habits!It kicks off tomorrow at My Favourite Books and will then be infesting the blogsphere like the bubonic plague!Tues is at the talented Mr Ripley.Wedsneday will be Narratively Speaking.Thurs at Wondrous ReadsFriday at BookZone.Saturday is BookGazing.Then I'll update you with the others as we get closer.Need I mention there will be prizes? Well, there will be!

Me and my library

This is buzzing around the blogosphere and there are far wiser and more erudite writers explaining why the closure of 250 libraries in the UK is a BAD IDEA. All I can do is give my perspective on this and leave the politicians the opportunity to do the right thing. For once!
As you know, I'm into my history. While most of it does involve swordfighting and gladiators, sometimes it does stray into the big ideas of civilization.
You know what? Libraries define civilization. Not reality tv, not banks, not the bread and circuses.
Proof?
The great library of Alexandria. It pushed Eygpt to the centre of the world and it's loss is still being felt today, 2000 years later. There were scientists and thinkers operating out of its walls who invented the steam engine. Imagine where we'd be now if the industrial revolution had happened in the first century AD rather than the 18th? That's were science, philosophy and cultures met, learnt from one another and made the world a wiser, more tolerant place. You get rid of libraries, you get rid of wisdom, you might as well just chuck thsoe books on a bon-fire. Like they did in Germany in the 1930s. And we know that turned out well.
"Oh yes, Sarwat, but it's all electronic now. Paper is passe. Wouldn't it be so much easier if people could download it. Problem solved."
Sorry, but that's the arguement of someone who's never been in a library in like the last ten years. Last time I looked our library had classes for pensioners (like teaching them how to use the computer and surf), story-telling groups for toddlers, language classes, author meetings, writing classes, book groups and the opportunity to do something else than spend the day inside your house ALONE. It's a chance for people to get out, meet, exchange ideas, learn something from others. Someone mentioned wanting to create the 'Big Society'. Oh yes, it was the Prime Minister. Well, the first brick in building that society is the library.
I didn't have a lot of books in the house. Not everyone can afford it because books are a luxury item and if you're not so well off you want food on the table first. The library was where I learnt about the world. I read about Ceasar crossing the Rubicon, the battle of Hattin, the witchtrials. I learnt that Afghanistan has been more trouble than it's worth for over two millenia. Even Alexander the Great thought it best just to get on the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Frankly, if one or two politicans had visited their own libraries before commiting to war, a lot of lives would have been saved. It opened the world to me and made me realise how marvellous it all is. We are retreating into parochial mindsets already, shutting down libraries will only speed that process up and all our news and knowledge will become the unfiltered rants of the loud and empty voices.
The library has been the mark of a civilization. Always has, always will be. Those that tear them down will be judged badly by history.

Lessons in writing, Internal Conflict

This has come up on several of my talks so I'll pick it up here. It's all part of characte creation. So are you sitting comfortably? Good, I won't be long.
Okay, we all know drama is CONFLICT, right? Simply put all stories are about opposing forces trying to get or do something. You want a good guy, you want a bad guy.
Or do you?
You've two types of conflcit, Internal and External. External is when the hero is out fighting some villain. He doesn't worry about the righteousness of his cause, he knows he's the good guy and it's as simple as that. Most war films and most Bond movies are all about external conflict. See the guy in the Nazi uniform? BAD GUY. You can bomb him, shoot him, do all sorts of violent and socially unacceptable things to him and no-one will mind. Seriously. Ditto anyone with a kaftan, turban and AK-47, KKK hood, Soviet uniform (for those of us who grew up watching 1980's action movies) or gang colours and generally people with a poor grasp of English or (ironically) a very good grasp of English (why are the bad guys always from English public schools*?). These are all codes for 'we're not engaging in any moral conflict issues here, so move along'.
Try and avoid these sort of stories. They are exciting, sure, but simple storytelling. They suit the visual medium better than the literary one, mainly because explosions don't work so well on paper, or Kindle for that matter.
Internal Conflict. That should be your mantra. The ONE THING books do better than any other medium is explore the inner mind of the characters. So give them something worth exploring. Doubts, self-criticism, confusion and moral dilemmas. After all, the entire canon of Russian literarture and most of YA romance is built on this! It works because it's what the medium does best.
There endeth the lesson.
(*Oh, for the Americans reading this, first, let me say 'Hi!' then explain what we in England call public schools you would call VERY EXPENSIVE private schools where the child needs to be entered more or less the moment they're concieved for any chance of getting in, unless they happen to own a country or small European principality, which sort of trumps everything).

The themes in Dark Goddess, love's legacy

As those of you who read Devil's Kiss will know, Billi suffered the loss of a loved one. I wanted to make sure such an event had deep resonance within Dark Goddess and looked at how Billi would cope.
It made me think hope any of us will cope. Sooner or later, we all suffer the loss of someone we loved. There are no easy answers to why they went, whether it was fair or all part of some divine plan. We try and make sense of their lives and how they touched and made us who we are today. What legacy does the loved one leave behind?
Is it in our nature to take love for granted? That we expect it from those around us who we share our lives?Only to realise what it meant when it's gone?
Billi has a poor role-model in Arthur. A man who could not cope with the loss of his wife so retreated from the world, built tall walls to keep the pain outside, but alas, left his daughter outside those walls too.
Billi has the legacy from him and the one she loved. I think I've made it clear who I believe is the greater hero. Arthur is strong, fierce and undefeatable. But the other was in touch with the world around him, more than he wanted perhaps, but was the greater hero because of it. What's been the best aspect of Dark Goddess is seeing how these two legacies play out in Billi's soul.
Such legacies are subtle at times. We do things unconciously, act on ideas and attitudes absorbed into our hearts from those hearts that once envolved and embraced us. Love wounds us most terribly, but they are the only wounds worth having.

My Inspirations, Part 2

Wow. I'm sitting here in my hotel in Disneyworld, suitcase packed and passport at the ready. It's been an amazing five days and it'll take me a looong time before I process even half of it. The NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) conference has exposed me to another side of publishing that is vast and more than inspiring, it's the reason behind what we do.
I've met so many teachers, great librarians and enthusiastic readers from all over and what's clear from each and everyone is the passion they have for writing, for stories and the way they expose the reader to brand new worlds and people. It's all about stepping into another's skin and seeing the world through new eyes. That's pretty damn amazing. Pure magic, actually. There have been so many I'd like to thank for reminding me about all this, but I'd like to mention Margaret, Becky and Claire especially.
I'd like to thank the other authors I've met. Mellisa, Ally, Brent, Cindy, Carrie, Cinda, Holly, Darren, Joy and many more (I'll go into more detail regarding some of the discussions I've had soon). What's great is even the big names 'Oh, I've been No.1 on the NYT and have Hollywood banging at my door' have a huge amount of patience for us novices. There just wasn't enough time to talk to any of them. Ah well.
Lastly, the Disney-Hyperion crew. They've been beyond fantastic and gone well beyond the call of duty on all fronts. Dina, Nellie, LaToya, Molly, and most of all, Catherine, my new and extraordinary editor. They are the most wonderful company anyone could hope to have.
Thank you all!

My Inspirations, Part One

Dark Goddess was, strangely, the first story about Billi SanGreal, though I didn't know it at the time. The first version of Dark Goddess was written around 1993-4. I'd read about the Russian witch, Baba Yaga, and wanted to use her. Back then she was ancient, she was wicked, but also wise and honest.
After that I started looking out for her. But it was 'Women Who Runs with Wolves' by Clarissa Pinkola Smith that gave me the Baba Yaga I'd been looking for.
Chapter 3 is Vasilisa the Wise. Smith reckons the story is about 3,000 years old (but probably much much older), pre-dating Classical Greek culture and descends from a time before gods. When there was only the goddess and one of her names was Baba Yaga.
Vasilisa goes into the forest and meets Baba Yaga. She serves her and in exchange is given fire, a light radiating from a skull, that she uses to go back home and destroy her step-mother and sisters. It's a classic fairy tale and it's about growing up.
Baba Yaga is the anti-fairy godmother. Vasilisa is the anti-Cinderella. She's not waiting for the prince to save her and Baba Yaga isn't here to sew her ballgowns.
Smith's book delves deep into a handful of fairy tales, exposing the female mythology that underpins many of these 'children's stories'.
I think I've learnt more about story telling from that book than any of the others. Myths are hugely important. Always have been, always will be. The story of Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the wise have survived longer than most because they are so important.
It's about journeying into the dark forest and learning from the frightening things that dwell within, hidden from all but the bravest. It's not about being fashionable, about being pretty. It's certainly not about being 'nice'. It's about doing what must be done, rather than what should be done.
Smith explains it best.
"The Wild Woman is the one who dares, who creates and destroys ... Following her footsteps, we endevour to learn to let be born what must be born, whether all the right people are there or not. Nature does not ask permission."

Packing RIGHT NOW

Passport. Itinerary. Laptop. Transformer (which weighs more that the bloody laptop!). Mobile. Toiletries (shaving foam, razor, toothbrush, toothpaste, dental floss. Real men don't wear perfume. Unless it's Lancome). Camera. Batteries. Sharpies (2No.). Teeshirts (one black, one white). White shirt. Blue shirt. Blue tie. One suit (One and only. Blue and shiny with wear). Trousers (not blue). Jacket (blue). Shoes. Boots. Trainers. Jeans (yep, blue). Underwear (a variety of colours, some blue). Socks. Swimming trunks (blue). Two belts (black and brown. Make sure your shoes are the same colour as you shoes. It's the only fashion tip I know. If it's good enough for Don Draper it's good enough for me). Jumper. Anorak (blue). Another shirt. Another shirt (short sleeves. It is Florida after all). Books to read (Bluebloods, Blood Meridian and Wolf Hall, which, sadly, has no wolves in it at all).
I tell you this, my backpacking days are way, way behind me when I used to travel with half a towel, a toothbrush with the end cut off, a Swiss Army Knife and a packet of anti-malaria pills.
If you're at the NCTE gig this week and rolling into the next, I'll be at the following places:
Friday 19th Autographing Session (with one of my two Sharpies): 1.00-1.30pm, Booth #920.
Saturday 20th: The Middle Mosaic:Writers and Readers together from 4.30pm to 5.30pm. Coronado Springs.
Monday 22nd: ALAN Workshop from 3.45pm till 4.15pm. Coronado Ballroom.
Just look for the guy in blue.