Nicole R. Murphy's Blog, page 3

Re-configuring my blog

Yesterday, I was pointed to a fabulous blog post by Kaz Delaney http://kazdelaney.wordpress.com/2011/10/06/7-reasons-for-not-blogging/ While it's called 7 reasons for not blogging, what it is is a very concise view of the whys and why nots of blogging and how to deal with some of the issues that arise. I heartily recommend it.

A number one issue for me is coming up with content. Apart from providing some great ideas, Kaz also inspired me to get going with some ideas that I've had but haven't put into play.

So here's the story. As of this week Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be writing days on the blog. Monday and Wednesday are going to feature two part interviews with author mates on their writing habits and processes (which I've been thinking about for MONTHS but never got organised). On Friday, I'll give a run down of how my writing week has gone – the good, the bad and the ugly.

That's the main commitment I'm making – three blog posts a week. Others will happen as I think of them – posts about events in my life, posts promoting upcoming work and so on. Apart from giving me lots of content to write about, I hope it will provide interesting to you, the reader.

Because I'm still getting the questions together for the interviews, this week I'll be spending today answering some questions from newbie writers that have been posed to me over the past couple of months. Wednesday I'll provide a list of websites and blogs that I find particularly valuable and then Friday, you'll hear about my writing journey.

Next week I'll either have the first response to my interview and will be providing you with some interesting information from a successful writer or I'll make myself the sacrificial lamb.

I'll also be posting regularly around the internet and I'll link to those posts via my Twitter and Facebook accounts. There's also my monthly newsletter, for extra info and specials like free stories.

I'm looking forward to seeing how this new system works for me.

Decision rescinded–new one made

So a couple of weeks ago, I said that in the wake of the second Gadda trilogy being put on hold, I was going to move on with a new urban fantasy idea.

After some more thinking, I started to wonder if that was such a good idea. Would it muddy the waters too much to be trying to shop a new urban fantasy series in twelve months or so when I was still wanting things to happen with the gadda books?

Talking to folks at Conflux, it became clearer. Muddying the waters around the gadda books weren't as much a worry as confusing myself would be. I'm a simple girl, and I'm best off doing one thing at a time.

So I've decided to take a distinct step sideways and as far as novel-length works go, my focus is now on romance. I've started planning a new contemporary romance, and I'll play with other ideas as well.

I won't stop writing fantasy, science fiction, paranormal but they'll be shorts. This year, I'm going to finish with five short stories published (my best year ever). I hope to build on that next year, with more experimental and craft-defining works. Hopefully in a year or two, the future of the gadda books will be clear (either they'll have taken off or sunk without trace) and then I'll know what steps to take on that side of the fence.

At this point, I just want to say how lucky I feel that I sat down in May and did a business plan for myself and looked at diversifying my career. If I'd still be set in my mindset that the gadda books were the way, I'd be one distraught little writer about now, not sure what to do. Instead, I'm able to take this calmly and re-jig what I'm doing to suit the current circumstances.

So thanks, RT Convention and my therapists – you helped me a lot!

Conflux 7–Day 4

Onto the last day of Conflux – sadness.

Got to sleep in a little cause I wasn't going to be there until the first panel at 10am. Unfortunately I woke with the con crud starting to impact. I overdosed on garlic tablets, has a shot of Vitamin C via some orange juice and then got to work.

The critics panel was really interesting. I was looking forward to the editors panel but then one of the balls I dropped in the days leading up to the convention bounced and I had to go deal. Then it was time for the Conflux Inc AGM at which I was voted president. I don't get a presidential plane or security or anything but I am technically the boss of the chairs of the upcoming conventions. As one of those chairs is me – well, madness will no doubt ensue.

Then it was my time on the CSFG table. We've done well this convention – sold lots of books, been able to catch up with lots of people. The dealers room at a con is a great option for folks who aren't as confident, or indeed need time out during the con – everyone comes through there eventually, so you get to socialise as well.

At the closing ceremony, Donna and I officially launched Conflux 9, the 2013 Natcon. The guests have been really well recieved and we're looking forward to having a great time with the organising and holding of the convention.

The dead dog party was a great opportunity to sit and have a final chat before I stumbled to the car and came home.

So, overall thoughts – the venue was a good one. I wasnt' sure, but having the big lounge outside the main panel room meant that there the same sort of gathering and chatting that happened at Perth, so that's opportunity to sit around is a good one and something to keep in mind.

The panels seemed extremely well attended and very interesting – the whole program came together brilliantly and was intriguing, so well done to Karen Herkes Ott for that.

I myself had a great con. The launch of Winds of Change went brilliantly well – having the scientists there chat about the science behind some of the stories went really brilliantly well.  There were a few balls that got dropped, but they were able to be picked up again. So I feel very happy about it, and excited about the two upcoming conventions.

Conflux 7–Day 3

Day three began early, with the Sara Douglass retrospective. There were a dozen or so of us in the room and we talked about the impact that Sara had on our lives. I read a bit of Battleaxe and now I'm all fired up to read the trilogy again. It was particularly nice to hear from her publisher Stephanie Smith and Jack Dann about Sara the person as well as the writer I so admired.

Then I went and had coffee with Stephanie, who is also MY publisher (I feel quite honoured to be part of the legacy that Sara started). We discussed where my books are at the moment and where to go next and my options. We're very lucky, us Australian Voyager authors, to have such a wonderfully open and interested editor like Stephanie that we can talk so openly with.

At midday, we did the launch for Mary Victoria and Simon Haynes. Thanks to Dymocks Tuggeranong for coming to sell Mary's books. Mary and Simon were both absent, so I printed out photos of them, stuck them on boxes and they sat on the table to watch over proceedings. I'll try to get some pics later. It went wonderfully well – Gillian did a sterling job of reading when her voice was giving way and Dev showed why Simon is one of the best humour writers around.

Then it was my turn to sit on the CSFG table. I got to catch up with some folks that came by the table, and some folks that manned it with me. Nice chat with Leife, one of the newer members of the CSFG, and also Elizabeth who I hadn't really seen since we launched Winds of Change, which she edited.

That reminds me – need to take another box of Winds of Change to the con today. Has been selling very nicely.

Late afternoon brought my last two panels of the convention – first was the What path to take panel? I was quite open and honest about the pros and cons of being published by a major publisher – it's not all sunshine and roses as some people would like to think. On the other hand, at the moment if what you want is a career as a writer that supports your lifestyle, then traditional publishing (particularly in the US) is still the most viable option.

Was interesting to hear Alan talk about how he self-published, but he wouldn't recommend it to others. Cat was quite opposed to self-publishing. A shame we didn't have Patty Jansen on the panel, because she would have offered another POV on that, but she had another panel to do at the time.

This was immediately followed by the Paranormal Romance panel, and it was fabulous that we didn't have to spend an extended amount of time on 'what is PR?'. Instead, we had some really interesting discussions first on what led us to write PR, then into the moral compass of PR and why it resonates with readers. Crisetta had an interesting perspective that in the case particularly of YA PR, the otherness of the character allowed the reader to explore relationships and what they involved more objectively and that's why it's so popular. That had a lot of us thinking for some time.

Then it was the Voyager dinner. I forgot to mention in my list of pros of being published by a big company the occasional opportunities to be wined and dined on the corporate credit card. We ate at the Italian restaurant across the street (I had a dish that was actually baked pasta – that is, the pasta was wrapped around the filling and then baked so the outside was like pastry but the inside like pasta – very nice). It was a fabulous meal of lots of chatter and laughter and catching up with people. I got to have a wonderful chat with Janeen Webb and again with Stephanie, as well as laugh with a whole lot of others.

Went back to the con, stayed for a bit longer, back home and in bed a little after midnight. I've woken this morning a little coughy and congested – I really don't want to get to con crud after finally getting well again. I'll be back home by dinner tonight and I'll have a quiet night and spend tomorrow on the couch and hopefully that will tide my body and mind over so on Wednesday, I can start to resume some sort of normality.

Today – AGM for Conflux Inc at 12pm and at the closing ceremony, the official launch of Conflux 9, the 2013 Natcon. Including guest reveal. Going to be exciting!

Conflux 7–Day 2

Started with a bang. My houseguest, Jo Anderton, and I joined Duncan Lay, Erica Hayes and Natalie Costa Bir on a panel at 10am on Starting the Journey. We had an interesting discussion about developing your skills, what's more important commercial implications or the idea and how do you know a manuscript is ready to submit?

This was followed by Natalie Costa Bir's Guest of Honour speech. Natalie had been a little nervous about it but she as able to parlay that into a great speech, talking about first where her love of fantasy arose, then her love of publishing and how she got into the role of editing. It was particularly interesting to hear her talk about her role as digital editor and what was going on in getting the backlist turned into ebooks.

Then it was my first stint on the CSFG table. I had a great natter with one of our new members, Rik, who was initially involved in theatre but now writes narrative for computer games – very interesting. We talked a lot about success and depression and working out what you do and different ways to achieve it.

I went to get lunch, intending to bring it back to the table to eat. Only Gillian (who hasn't been well, poor thing) needed some sit down time so she took over my second hour. Thus I got to go have a social lunch, and then attend Kim Westwood's GoH speech.

Kim's was fascinating, talking about her own experiences of feeling an outsider and searching for identity against the constraints that society puts on the word and how that's being played out and analysed through her writing. Later that day, I got a copy of Kim's new book The Courier's New Bicycle and I'm really looking forward to exploring a book that I've now heard the author talk quite extensively about.

After Kim was my presentation on Conflux 9. A small but enthusiastic group listened to the plans Donna and I already had and made some suggestions of their own. It was nice to have some folks support our point of view that yes Conflux is a more literary based convention but there's room for all manner of flavours of convention and in fact Conflux's is preferred.

Then was the launch of Five Historical Feasts, the Conflux cookbook. It's a lovely looking book, with design by Andrew McKiernan and illustrations by Kathleen Jennings. Gillian's done an incredible job in compiling it. I myself am delighted to have my second-last short story publication as part of the cookbook – it's nice to be involved in this book in a creative manner after all the VERY creative testing I did for it (particularly of the alcohol).

After that – mass book signing. Got to chat to a few people, particularly Kim Westwood, and Emma Wearmouth actually bought her copy of Dream of Asarlai all the way from Melbourne for me to sign – was a very exciting moment when she trooped up to the table with the trilogy.

Everyone started to decamp at this point for their preparations for the last original Conflux banquet. Jo and I weren't attending the banquet, but ended up have a lovely dinner with Stephanie Smith and her husband Jim, Anna Tambour and Duncan Lay. The conversation was free-flowing and included some waxing lyrical by Stephanie and myself over Sara Douglass.

Back at the con, Jo and I sat by ourselves for a while, until some others drifted back from the banquet, declaring it a great success! We'd loved to have stayed until the party returned fully to the con hotel, but we were both dragging after a poor night's sleep the night before and so hoofed it back home.

So today begins on a sombre but wonderful note as we remember the life and career of Sara Douglass. I'm taking my copy of Battleaxe and at some point, hopefully someone (maybe even me) will read the opening – the first Sara Douglass words that were published by Voyager and the beginning of a new era for Australian speculative fiction.

I've got another two panels today – one on choosing your career path and the various options open and the other on paranormal romance. There's also the launch of Mary Victoria and Simon Haynes' books at lunchtime. And tonight – THE DISCO!

Think I might actually costume up for that…

Conflux 7–Day one

The last time I ran around like that on the first day of a convention was when I was chair! Luckily, all the rushing round resulted in some fabulous events and moments.

The day started stressfully – we didn't know exactly where the boxes of Winds of Change were, or if we'd get them in time for the launch. I set off for the con, biting my nails but as I drove out of Queanbeyan, I saw a TNT truck driving in. Was it them? A text ten minutes later confirmed that yes, it was. Alleluia!

Got to the con hotel, unloaded the car and set up the CSFG table. So far, only half the dealers room is set up, but it's a very colourful half. The rest should get done today.

Then it was time for my workshop. It was a version of the editing workshop that I've put in to do next year for ACT Writer's Centre. I had a great group of participants – very enthusiastic and there was lots of discussion. The points I raised seemed to resonate with lots of them and I got some great feedback after so I'm very happy.

Then it was time for rushing. I came back home and took a breath, then loaded the car with more boxes (Winds of Change!) and was on my way. First stop – Civic Library, where I've got a display of the process of how an idea turns into a book that will be there for a few weeks. check it out – for those who know the library, it's in the cabinet near The Hub.

Then it was over to Costco, to grab food for the launch and back to the convention. Copies of the anthology finally delivered, it was time to grab a drink with friend and my house guest Jo Anderton.

A bit more helping, making sure things were running smoothly. I missed most of the Angry Robot hour but was there for the opening ceremony, helping with the AV (including playing my trailer for the cookbook launch). Then more running around, setting the room up for the launch of Winds of Change.

It went brilliantly! The anthology was sponsored by CSIRO, so we invited three scientists to come and speak on some of the aspects of one of the stories in the anthology. The talks were fantastic, entertaining and informative. It made it a very different event to the usual launch, which was wonderful. There was author readings as well, a heart-felt talk from the editor Elizabeth Fitzgerald and then time for the signing.

I'm really proud of my story in Winds of Change – it really shows how far I've come as a short story writer.

After cleaning up (thanks to Robin and Shauna Shortt for your help) it was time for the erotica panel. We had a really interesting discussion about erotica versus pornography and about the process of writing erotic scenes. Then we read. All four of us (myself, Jane Virgo, Tracey O'Hara and Erica Hayes) had very different approaches and it was great to get a feel for how varied erotica and erotic writing can be.

A quick catch-up in the bar, and then it was time for Jo and I to come home. Didn't have the best night's sleep – brain was still too wired – so will be interesting to see how I go today.

Lots still to look forward to.

So, it’s been a while = Conflux

Well, you didn't want to hear about my mammoth four-day spring clean, did you? (My house looks AWESOME!)

So right now, the world is nearly all about Conflux. I say nearly all because I've got a short story draft that I want to do this week, and there's a talk I'm giving at a local school to the staff this afternoon, and I've got a display going into Civic Library on Friday, and there's the launch of Winds of Change on Friday and after a bit of a mix-up with the printer everything is now on track except I need to organise the catering…

But apart from that, it's all about Conflux, and not just this Conflux. There's work happening on the 2013 con as well. But here's what I've got going on over this coming weekend.

FRIDAY.

10am – Workshop on editing. People are actually coming to it, which is exciting. I am prepared for it, which is exciting. Now, it's nerves time.

7pm – Launch of Winds of Change from CSFG publishing – I'm not actually performing or anything, but the trailer will be shown and I'll be signing my story

10pm – Erotica panel – I, along with Erica Hayes, Tracey O'Hara and Jane Virgo, will be talking about the art of writing erotica before reading something raunchy.

SATURDAY

10am – Starting the Journey panel – Joanne Anderton, Duncan Lay, Natalie Costa Bir, Erica Hayes and myself will be talking about things to consider if you wish to be a published author and have a career.

2.30pm – Conflux 9 presentation – an opportunity to discuss plans for Conflux 9 (2013 Natcon) and start collecting ideas of what people want to see.

3.30pm – Launch of Conflux cookbook – not officially doing anything, but I have a story in it and the trailer I did will probably be shown, so I'll be there

4.30pm – Mass book signing – I'll scribble on anything

SUNDAY

12pm – Book launch for Mary Victoria and Simon Haynes – I'm mcing this.

4.30pm – What path should you take panel – Alan Baxter, Natalie Costa Bir, Cat Sparks and myself will be talking about the various options available in pursuing a writing career, what the pros and cons of them are and what you should consider in making decisions

5.30pm – Paranormal Romance panel – Erica Hayes, Tracey O'Hara, Keri Arthur, Crisetta Macleod and myself will be discussing the great and glorious genre that is PR.

7.30pm – Disco – I will be dancing. Oh my wordy goodness yes.

In between, I'll be manning the Conflux/CSFG table and catching up with folks and on the Tuesday, I will be lying on my couch and attempting to recover.

Hmmm, I look at that list and I say to myself – no wonder I'm feeling a bit stressed this morning.

First decision made

There's still lots to consider about the future of the gadda books and so on. Lots to look forward to as well – there's still deals that can be made with Dream of Asarlai (translation, UK and US rights…)

However, I have made one decision about my next move – I'm gonna start something new.

There's lots of stuff that's half-done that I could work on – Battle for Odana, for example. And that's going to happen. But right now, I'm craving doing something completely new. I've pretty much focussed on the gadda since 2007 (there's been periods here and there where I worked on other things – Odana being the main one but overall, I've been gadda all the way). I love my gadda, but now I've been given the opportunity to put them on the backburner for a while – I'm very excited.

So what will I be working on? It's an urban fantasy idea that's been playing in my head for a month or two now. It's much darker in tone than the gadda books and also there isn't going to be a focus on romance, although undoubtedly there will still be the sexy times :)

I don't want to go into details of it, but basically it features two races of supernaturals who must work together to protect humanity and the world from demon incursions. They are very, VERY different – don't understand each other, don't really like each other but must trust each other in order to work together. Australia has become the new front in this centuries long war and the unique environment is causing them extra problems.

So that's my focus for the next few months – doing the world-building, research and plotting to develop it and see if worth writing. It's going to challenge me and that of course is something that I enjoy as well.

Today is the beginning of a new phase of the journey.

A weekend of thinking about a new direction

Regular readers of my blog will know that I've been waiting, waiting, waiting for news about the new gadda trilogy – People of the Star. Yesterday, the news came.

My editor at HarperCollins has decided not to take the trilogy to acquisitions because at the moment, it would get knocked back – the sales of the first trilogy aren't good enough. It's possible that in twelve months or so, if the first trilogy takes off in the meantime, that it will be worth trying to get the company to publish PotS.

But for now, PotS is dead in the water at HC. It's disappointing news – I was so enjoying picturing myself having six books out within a few years and having a storming start to my writing career.

Last night I let myself sulk – my sister came over, we cracked a bottle of red and toasted my disappointment. Today, it's time to start considering the options so that by Monday, when I get back to work after weeks of being too sick to do so, I'll have a new plan to work on.

So what are my options?

Well, as far as PotS is concerned, there's a few things to think about.

I can just leave it and see if the other gadda trilogy takes off enough to warrant re-pushing it. This is a possibility – UK and US rights are still being worked on and foreign rights are being pushed at Frankfurt. I could also keep up promoting the books in Australia and see if I can't build the sales here too. I can pitch it to other publishers. They may not want to take on the second trilogy in a series, but then I'm not losing anything by trying. I can self-publish. This is my last resort option, but it's definitely something that I would do because I know there are people out there who love the gadda and want to read some more.

The postponement of PotS also affects the novella, Festival of the Star. But it also frees it up to be what it originally was intended to be – a thank you to the people who first fell in love with the Dream of Asarlai trilogy. I was going to use the advance from PotS to pay for professional editing of it – that's now hard to do. But I've got some people reading it and maybe I'll be able to find a cheaper way to ensure it's up to snuff and so I can self-publish it at the end of the year.

But what is there beyond the gadda stories? As my sister said last night, it's quite possible that the gadda books, as much as I love them, AREN'T where my future lies. This may well have been my learning curve and it's the next idea I have, or the one after that kicks it for me. Or maybe it's not even in fantasy that my path to success will be – maybe it's romance.

So here are some more options.

I've got one contemporary romance with a publisher now, and I've got one more plot just about ready to go so I can work on that. There's the scifi romance that I've been working on that I'm reading to start re-writing I've got an idea for a new urban fantasy – no relation to the gadda at all, and not romance based either, so I can start working that up.

There's also my short stories, the workshops I'm developing. One issue with all this is that the income I was hoping to have this year isn't happening, so I need to find other ways to turn my skills into income. Working how to do the workshops online so they can be offered to many others is one idea. Doing some freelance editing is another. Freelance journalism perhaps?

I hope that by the end of Sunday, I'll have worked out the pros and cons of these various ideas and will then have a plan that I can work on Monday morning.

A Tale of Two Trailers

Last week I created two book trailers, and the response to them has been incredible, so I thought I'd share them here with you.

Winds of Change – published by CSFG Publishing

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Five Historical Feasts – published by Eneit Press on behalf of Conflux Inc

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I've been THRILLED by the response – folks actually taking their time to email me and tell me how much they're liking (particularly Winds of Change).

So how did it all come about?

Well, I've been sick for the better part of two weeks now. As I started to get better I started to get bored, although I wasn't well enough to concentrate on writing. So I came up with a brilliant idea – these two books are being launched at Conflux in a few weeks time. I'm involved with both and I enjoy making trailers for my own books – why not do trailers for them?

Both editors said "Go for it", so I did. I did the Winds of Change one first – it was the easiest because I had everything I needed for it (the cookbook required some folks to send me some stuff).

I thought long and hard – coming up with the narrative and writing the script is always the first thing I do in creating a trailer. In this case, the blurb on the back of the anthology made a perfect script. So I found some sound effects, made some others myself and then recorded the soundtrack with myself narrating. I had to do some editing to make the narrating work, but in the end I was really happy with it.

I had a vision of a camera panning across a desolate desert and so mocked up something to give that effect. I decided to make the images all the one colour and went with sepia because of connotations it has for me of age. I sent the first draft to the editor Elizabeth Fitzgerald and she wanted to make the images a little less gloomy so I cut some and put others in their place. The moment I stumbled on the first dandelion image, I realised it was the perfect metaphor and when I found the blown one, I had the beginning and end.

I'm so pleased with this – all my other trailers have just used music as the soundtrack so making my own was a challenge and it came off really well.

Then I turned my attention to the cookbook. I'd recieved the illustrations and some photography that was used in the cookbook. My initial thought was to start with it looking like a typical cooking show and then breaking into it with the truth of really authentic and unique party ideas. I liked the challenge of working with moving pictures – all my trailers have been stills thus far. But I decided that was too light a tone, so went for something a little more serious.

Finding the music was the hard part of this clip – the banquets cover a range of time periods, so I wanted something that felt a bit timeless. I was really pleased with what I eventually found.

The big thing about the trailers is once you have the narrative and the soundtrack, to marry the two using the pictures. I like to follow the rise and fall of the melody and sync developments in the narrative to changes in the score. It takes a bit of fiddling to make it all fit, but it's worth it.

So there you are – the two trailers. I had such a great time doing them and I look forward to doing more.