Luke Walker's Blog: https://lukewalkerwriter.wordpress.com, page 21

Going dark

Been quiet round here for a while, hasn't it? Don't worry, though; I'm not dead. I'm just busy with life. Our house has finally sold so we're on the hunt for a new place. Back to renting which isn't the end of the world as some people would see it after owning a house. Things haven't gone as we hoped when we bought (mainly thanks to the global economy) so we'll adjust which has meant a lot of phone calls to letting agents to ask the most important question - "The house I'm calling about...are pets welcome?" Then a lot of viewings and weighing up the good and bad of each place. With that and recently finishing the second draft of Ascent, there hasn't been a lot of time for blogging. So I haven't gone dark in a Jack Bauer sort of way. I've just been busy.

But, on the other hand, I am going dark. Properly dark.

Been thinking for a while of writing a nasty, brutal horror tale. A few ideas came to mind so I've been jotting down notes for one in particular which has had even me thinking I might be going too far (of course, this is all early days stuff so we'll see how it goes); it's also got me thinking about the darkness in a horror story. I consider my first book (now unavailable, sadly) The Red Girl to be one of the darkest things I've written, and that's not down to loads of graphic violence. It's down to the plot, the characters and the setting. It's down to the terrible acts carried out by a certain someone against another someone; it's down to the destruction of everything good in the world for the title character. As horrific as The Red Girl is/was, there's not a great deal of what you might call physical violence. Enough for the story, yes, but not a huge amount. On the other hand, the book I'm outlining now appears to be heading into some very dark territory. Being gross is easy; being frightening is harder. Putting the two together...well, like I say, we'll have to see where this one goes later in the year after the house move and after a final draft of Ascent. 

After I decide just how dark I want to go.

A guest post - Sara Jayne Townsend

They were dying to be famous. And someone was prepared to kill for it…
Actress Shara Summers has settled in London and is “between jobs” when her Canadian ex-boyfriend David sails back into her life, begging to her to fill the backing singer vacancy in the up and coming band he’s about to go on a European tour with.  Short on funds and auditions Shara reluctantly agrees, but tragedy strikes at the opening night party when the band’s charismatic front man Dallas Cleary Anderson falls to his death from a hotel window.  It soon becomes clear that Dallas did not fall, but was pushed.  His arrogant and confrontational manner means there are no shortage of people who wanted him out of the band permanently – but who would resort to murder? 

WHY I WRITE CRIMEBy Sara Jayne Townsend
I describe myself these days as a writer of crime and horror, but I was a horror writer before I was a crime writer.  I discovered Stephen King when I was fourteen, and spent the next few years writing increasingly gruesome short stories.  But I’ve been reading mystery stories all my life, starting when I was very young with Enid Blyton’s Secret Seven, then the Famous Five, and then I discovered Nancy Drew.  By the time I was 12, I had moved onto Agatha Christie.  Then I discovered Sara Paretsky’s independent-minded feminist private eye VI Warshawski in the late 1980s, and ever since then I have loved kick-ass women sleuths.
By the late 1990s I was reading almost exclusively crime, and yet I was still writing horror.  Since I believe that writers should read widely in the genre they write in, I felt that perhaps the universe was giving me a sign that I should give crime writing a try.  Of course I had to write about a female sleuth, but I wasn’t confident about being able to write a police procedural.  You have to really know your stuff when you write in such a genre.  I confess I’m a bit lazy when it comes to research.  So I decided an amateur sleuth would work better for me.  But she would have to be contemporary – historical requires more research.  And besides, I was inspired by VI Warshawski, and she is a character set in the here and now.
And so my amateur sleuth Shara Summers, Canadian actress living in London, came into being.  The first two books are published, I’m working on the third, and I have some plot ideas for further adventures.  But writing is a learning curve, and I’ve learned a great deal in the years I’ve been writing about Shara.
For starters, these books are different from my horror stories and have a completely different set of readers.  Yes, OK, there are a handful of fans out there who just like what I write and will read everything, but on the whole the Shara novels have a different fan base to the horror stories.  A lot of people don’t like horror because they find it too dark and too gruesome.  Although murder is at the heart of the Shara stories, there are no graphic or bloody descriptions of death.  Generally, the Shara stories have a happy ending.  This is not necessarily so when I’m writing horror.  Many of my horror stories end with the protagonist in a decidedly bad place.
But the most significant thing I’ve learned about writing the Shara stories is how important it is to plot first.  I am meticulous about it.  I can’t start writing chapter 1 until I’ve worked out not only who the murderer is, but how Shara learns their identity, and this involves working out what clues she’s going to pick up along the way and exactly when they will appear.  I know a lot of writers swear by ‘pantsing’, claiming they need to start writing about a character without knowing where they are going next, but I couldn’t write a mystery like this.  I need to know ‘whodunnit’ and ‘how’ and ‘why’ before I sit down to write the first draft.
And what I have discovered is that this style of writing really suits me.  I am very much a ‘planner’, not just in my writing but in all aspects of my life.  I like order and structure – chaos makes me nervous.  In my day job I sit at a desk all day, and for every project I have a list of tasks, and as each task is completed I diligently cross it off and move on to the next.  I like the routine of a desk job, coming in at the same time every day.  My writing time is also structured.  Twice a week, on Wednesdays and Fridays, I get up earlier, take the train into London and sit in Starbucks with my NetBook to do some writing before I go to work.  I sit in the same seat, and I order the same thing every time.  When we go on holiday, I work out an itinerary, listing flight times, hotel details and activities for each day, and this goes in the hand luggage with my passport.
I like an ordered, predictable life and I am suited to write mysteries which have a satisfactory and just ending.  Maybe this isn’t to everyone’s taste, but we can’t all be the same.  It doesn’t worry me.  We all have to find our own path in life, and I have found mine.  It’s straight and clear and leads to a satisfying conclusion.

Sara Jayne Townsend is a UK-based writer of crime and horror, and someone tends to die a horrible death in all of her stories.  She was born in Cheshire in 1969, but spent most of the 1980s living in Canada after her family emigrated there.  She now lives in Surrey with two cats and her guitarist husband Chris.  She co-founded the T Party Writers’ Group in 1994, and remains Chair Person.
She decided she was going to be a published novelist when she was 10 years old and finished her first novel a year later.  It took 30 years of submitting, however, to fulfil that dream.
The first two books in her amateur sleuth series about Canadian actress Shara Summers, DEATH SCENE and DEAD COOL, are available as e-books from the MuseitUp book store: http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/our-authors/70-our-authors/authors-t/420-sara-jayne-townsend
You can learn more about Sara and her writing at her website at http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.comand her blog at http://sayssara.wordpress.com.

A review for Die Laughing

A nice review and some very cool comments regarding Die Laughing from UKHorrorScene for a sunny Sunday afternoon.

I particularly like the Quality Street line.

Review

On Spock and on the Discworld

Even if you don't read Fantasy and think Star Trek is watched solely by nerds (a stereotype that, if you believe, reflects badly on you and only you), you'd have been hard pressed to be unaware of the deaths of two people over the last few weeks. Leonard Nimoy and Terry Pratchett. An actor most famous for portraying a half-human, half-alien named Spock, and a writer most famous for a series of fantasy novels set in another world. The Discworld to be precise.

The deaths of both men has seen a huge number of tributes from other actors and writers, from people in the public eye and people on Facebook or Twitter who want to share publicly how important Nimoy and Pratchett were, not to mention how much their work entertained them and had an impact on their lives. It's funny - I'm not a huge SF fan and I've not read every single Discworld book, but I am one of those people who loves great characters and the relationships they have with others. I love the way Spock bounces off Kirk, Bones and all the other Trek characters; I love how you can sit down with those guys and watch them develop over decades. Ditto with the Discworld series. Sam Vimes, Rincewind, Polly and the other members of the Monstrous Regiment, Albert, Granny Weatherwax, Death (obviously) and God knows how many others - they're all people we share our lives with in the same way we share our lives with the crew of the Enterprise even if we don't give a monkey's about SF. Certain pieces of art find their way into our hearts; certain people stay with us even if we don't realise they were setting up home in our houses in the first place.

Leonard Nimoy became Spock, and he always struck me as a man who did so gladly. Terry Pratchett became his own world. The worlds of Trek and Discworld are silly and fun and frightening and serious and angry and worlds where you trust things will work out even if they take a while.

As long as we keep those worlds with us, they don't go away. 

On reviews

Question.

When was the last time you read a book or watched a film or bought an album by a new band without someone, anyone, recommending it? It didn't have to be your best friend telling you about a new film starring nobody you've heard of, made on a low budget and with no big studio backing it. It could have been a review you read somewhere. Same with that book - whatever it was. Maybe the cover caught your eye when you were checking your recommends list on Amazon. Maybe the author's name rang a bell but you couldn't remember where from, then you figured what the hell, you'd read the sample online and see if it was worth a bit of cash.

When's the last time you bought a piece of created art without the slightest recommendation coming you way? I bet it's been a while. I'm the same as anyone, at least when it comes to new music or films. (New books come my way all the time in my day job). Couldn't tell you when I last took a chance on an album by a new band without checking the reviews on Amazon or maybe asking a mate what they thought of it. But there's the problem, of course. That new album, book or film won't have any reviews until someone checks it out and posts a comment online or mentions it to a friend. If it doesn't have any public comments or reviews, then it's doubtful anyone else will be interested in giving it a go.

Another couple of questions.

What does a writer owe a reader?

The best story they can tell, obviously. And story encompasses character and plot as much as it encompasses quality writing.

What does a reader owe the writer?


Other than the cost of the book, nothing at all. Not a bean. It's all on the writer. They owe their reader everything with their story. The reader gets it all without having to do a thing other than fork out a few of their hard-earned readies. A pretty good deal for the reader, I'm sure you'll agree.

But.

If that reader wanted to do a favour for the writer, they could do a lot worse than tell their friends about this book or film they enjoyed. Shit, they could tell their mate it was a load of crap. They could say either online. As long as it's an honest comment, it will be a favour to the writer. It's not owed in the least. It's simply helping the writer out because without those truthful reviews or comments, the writer's creation will be forgotten. 
 

Reinventing the wheel and tearing my soul apart

Now that Die Laughing is done with, I've been working for the last few days on what's next. It's going to be a new version (and an expanded version) of a novella I wrote last year entitled Ascent. I've read through it a few times and I like the first draft more than I did this time last year - a bit of time and distance often helps - but it still needs work. I did consider leaving it as a novella after giving it a good clean up; that plan has changed, though. While I always try to write with the idea of what's best for the story, I'm also looking at the business side of writing. I've spoken to a friend in the industry who tells me novellas aren't selling as they have done. Bearing that in mind along with knowing the book can be improved with a lot more meat to its bones, it's time to turn it into a novel.

With all that in mind, I've considered ways of keeping the act of writing fresh - changing my writing habits, maybe writing longhand (which probably wouldn't work since my handwriting is awful) and utilising a different style and point of view to a lot of my stuff. This is all well and good, but it feels a bit like I'm overcomplicating things. I'm not creating great works of art here or reinventing the wheel; I'm trying to entertain people and take them out of their lives for 90k words. I don't want to be the next insert famous author's name; I want to be me. After all, I know what I'm good at and I know anything I write is uniquely mine in the same way another writer's book is theirs and theirs alone. At the same time, I keep thinking of a certain writer whose books, especially the openings, all read in exactly the same way. She's sold roughly a gazillion copies so she must be doing something right. That's not for me, though. I'll write in my voice; I'll shamelessly exploit what I'm good at and I'll keep reminding myself writing the best story possible is what it's all about.

If I don't, Pinhead will tear my soul apart.

A conversation with Jennifer Hillier and me

Inteview time thanks to the excellent writer Jennifer Hillier. This was a lot of fun to do as we had a back and forth thing going on rather than the usual load of questions. Of course, the time difference between the UK and US, Jennifer having a young baby and me being useless without having drunk four cups of coffee meant it took a few days. Anyway, here it is.

A conversation with Luke Walker

Interview time with Jennifer Hillier

Inteview time thanks to the excellent writer Jennifer Hillier. This was a lot of fun to do as we had a back and forth thing going on rather than the usual load of questions. Of course, the time difference between the UK and US, Jennifer having a young baby and me being useless without four cups of coffee in me meant it took a few days. Anyway, here it is.

A conversation with Luke Walker

Another guest post: the power of fiction

One more guest post (with another to follow in a couple of days). I've done this one about the power of fiction for Sara Jayne Townsend. Head over to her site to have a gander.

The power of fiction

A guest post: short horror fiction

I've done a guest post about some of my favourite short horror over on Diane Dooley's site. To be honest, I could have added hundreds more stories, but I had to draw the line somewhere. Anyway, it's this way...

Short horror guest piece