C.S. Pacat's Blog, page 4
March 27, 2015
Captive Prince French cover and French release date!
The French cover for Captive Prince is here, and it is amazing! It shares the gorgeous chain motif from the Australian edition, and I love the symbolism of it, and the dark moody colouring. I also love the title, Prince Captif just sounds ridiculously cool, I am so excited for the French edition. Can't wait to see all of the Veretian French nomenclature in a French language setting. Thank you so much everyone at Bragelonne and Milady for all your wonderful work! You are the best!
The French edition of Captive Prince will be released in May 2015, and you can preorder it on Amazon now.
The French edition of Captive Prince will be released in May 2015, and you can preorder it on Amazon now.
March 6, 2015
Calling all Sydney and Melbourne Captive Prince fans!
CALLING ALL SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE CAPTIVE PRINCE FANS!
To celebrate the launch of Captive Prince you are invited to a special Captive Prince fan event, held in Melbourne on April 7th, and Sydney on April 8th.
* Fan Q&A and author talk
* A special sneak-peek reading from the first chapter of Captive Prince book three!
* Book signings, chats, drinks and hanging out
Because I wanted to give something back to fans as a huge thank you for all your support, there will also be gifts and door prizes, and of course you will be able to buy copies of the newly released Captive Prince.
So come along and bring your friends for a night of Captive Prince wonderfulness! To reserve your place, send your RSVP to launchrsvp@au.penguingroup.com - listing city and number attending - and they will send you out your invite with details!
SYDNEY
TIME: April 8th, 6:00PM
PLACE: Old Growler, 218 Williams Street
MELBOURNE
TIME: April 7th, 6:00PM
PLACE: Hasti Bala, 193 Bourke Street
Both venues are friendly, welcoming, and accessible - I wanted to make this a night for the fans, and I can't wait to see you all there!
Note that there will be live Q&As, but if you prefer to submit your questions in advance, just send them along with your RSVP and the host can ask a selection of the questions for you on the night.
Make sure to RSVP as numbers may be limited!
To celebrate the launch of Captive Prince you are invited to a special Captive Prince fan event, held in Melbourne on April 7th, and Sydney on April 8th.
* Fan Q&A and author talk
* A special sneak-peek reading from the first chapter of Captive Prince book three!
* Book signings, chats, drinks and hanging out
Because I wanted to give something back to fans as a huge thank you for all your support, there will also be gifts and door prizes, and of course you will be able to buy copies of the newly released Captive Prince.
So come along and bring your friends for a night of Captive Prince wonderfulness! To reserve your place, send your RSVP to launchrsvp@au.penguingroup.com - listing city and number attending - and they will send you out your invite with details!
SYDNEY
TIME: April 8th, 6:00PM
PLACE: Old Growler, 218 Williams Street
MELBOURNE
TIME: April 7th, 6:00PM
PLACE: Hasti Bala, 193 Bourke Street
Both venues are friendly, welcoming, and accessible - I wanted to make this a night for the fans, and I can't wait to see you all there!
Note that there will be live Q&As, but if you prefer to submit your questions in advance, just send them along with your RSVP and the host can ask a selection of the questions for you on the night.
Make sure to RSVP as numbers may be limited!
January 20, 2015
Prince's Gambit - Australian cover and Australian preorders open!
The Australian cover for Prince's Gambit is here! Once again the Australian cover designer Laura Thomas has done such a gorgeous job - thank you so much Laura! I love the intense, stormy colours and the beautiful sword - and if you look closely at the pommel of the sword, you will see why this is the most delightful cover yet.
You can pre-order the Australian edition of Captive Prince here.
You can pre-order the Australian edition of Captive Prince here.
December 16, 2014
Captive Prince 2 US cover and new title!
The US cover for book 2 . . . and the new title! I hope you love it as much as I do. Thank you to everyone at Penguin for all your wonderful work on the books!
The US edition of Prince's Gambit will be released on July 7th 2015 and you can preorder it on Amazon now.
The US edition of Prince's Gambit will be released on July 7th 2015 and you can preorder it on Amazon now.
December 13, 2014
Writing techniques - a complete list
WRITING TECHNIQUES
A complete list of writing techniques posts.
How to start writing when you have no ideas
Making exposition suspenseful
How to start creating characters
How to create minor characters
ESSAYS ON WRITING
A list of longer essays on writing.
On Tension (written as a guest post on annacowan.com)
.
A complete list of writing techniques posts.
How to start writing when you have no ideas
Making exposition suspenseful
How to start creating characters
How to create minor characters
ESSAYS ON WRITING
A list of longer essays on writing.
On Tension (written as a guest post on annacowan.com)
.
Writing techniques #4 - A simple technique for creating minor characters
I find character creation one to be of the hardest parts of writing and I don't have a very visual mind, so one of the worst moments in writing for me is when I need to introduce a minor character or write a crowd scene, and I realise I have to stop and make this huge effort of imagination to think up some character and give them individuated characteristics, even though they're only going to be in the book for one scene.
I use this technique to help with that moment, but of course this technique can also be used to create more major characters as well.
A simple technique for creating minor or background characters
Find an image bank of pictures of people. This could be: a book of photographic portraits, a street fashion blog, a book of portrait paintings, or some other reference.
Set aside some dedicated time, and go through your image bank. For each character, write a sentence or two describing them. Try to make your sentence as individuated as possible, and focus on unique or identifying characteristics.
If anything else occurs to you about the image that is purely your invention, an idea about the character's feelings or life or background, you can include that too.
If there are images that you are particularly drawn to, spend a little more time with them, they might end up being visual references for characters with a larger role in your work.
Keep your written mini-bios in one place, like a dedicated journal or a single electronic file. You now have a written "character bank" that you can draw on whenever you need to during the course of your novel. Any time you need a description, you have one. Voila!
---------> Next fortnight: A technique for solving all of the problems that are preventing you from writing (no really).
I use this technique to help with that moment, but of course this technique can also be used to create more major characters as well.
A simple technique for creating minor or background characters
Find an image bank of pictures of people. This could be: a book of photographic portraits, a street fashion blog, a book of portrait paintings, or some other reference.
Set aside some dedicated time, and go through your image bank. For each character, write a sentence or two describing them. Try to make your sentence as individuated as possible, and focus on unique or identifying characteristics.
If anything else occurs to you about the image that is purely your invention, an idea about the character's feelings or life or background, you can include that too.
If there are images that you are particularly drawn to, spend a little more time with them, they might end up being visual references for characters with a larger role in your work.
Keep your written mini-bios in one place, like a dedicated journal or a single electronic file. You now have a written "character bank" that you can draw on whenever you need to during the course of your novel. Any time you need a description, you have one. Voila!
---------> Next fortnight: A technique for solving all of the problems that are preventing you from writing (no really).
Writing techniques #3 - A technique for how to start creating characters
Some people find it easy to generate original characters. I know these people exist, because my friend Anna Cowan is one, she has the magical (to me) ability to spontaneously generate unique, dynamic characters that feel instantly alive on the page.
If you're one of these people, this technique is probably not going to be very useful to you. But if you're like me and your imagination doesn't attach to new characters instinctively, this technique might help to start redirecting the tributaries of your imagination towards character creation.
Similar to the How to start writing a book when you have no ideas technique, this is a technique to use at the very beginning of character creation, when you don't feel inspired, and you just don't know what kind of character you want to write about.
This technique can appear to be a bit derivative, as it uses pre-existing characters as a springboard. However, the purpose of the technique is not to copy existing characters, but rather to use existing characters as a way to explore your own likes, to unlock the things that excite you when it comes to characters and character interactions.
You can do this technique alone with pen and paper, but it is also a fun technique to do with a brainstorming partner or friend.
A technique for how to start creating characters
Write a list of your favourite characters – the characters that you have loved, that have inspired you or fascinated you, that you have come back to multiple times throughout your life.
Here's a section of my list. I mined my childhood/adolescence because that was the time that my love FLAMED THE BRIGHTEST so there are some pretty embarrassing entries on here.
Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Griffith (Berserk)
Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica)
Lymond (Lymond Chronicles)
Catwoman (DC universe)
Diarmuid (Summer Tree)
Ilyria (Angel: The Series)
Lestat (Interview with the Vampire)
Lois Lane (Smallville, Lois & Clark)
Draco Malfoy* (Harry Potter)
* But really fanon!Draco
Baringa (Silver Brumby series)
Aeon Flux (animated series)
Loki (Marvel movie-verse)
Wonder Woman (DC comic verse)
Vanyel (Magic's Pawn)
Mikasa (Attack on Titan)
Fenris (Dragon Age 2)
Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
Akira (Hikaru no Go)
Touga (Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
Once you have your list, think about what draws you to each character. For each character, write a short paragraph describing what quality or dynamic it is that resonates with you most powerfully. Follow the lines of thought that excite you, write down the "key words" that you respond to, traits or dynamics that are most alive to you.
For example:
Faith – I love that she should have been the Slayer, a champion of good, but her role was displaced by Buffy. She never had a chance to be the "good" one because that role was already taken. It is powerful to me that she had a chance to be good, but no one let her be, so she instead became bad. I like that she is redeemable, but she resists redemption – that tension of the possibility of redemption that is denied, again and again. I love a character you are trying to reach who fell away, who is unreachable. I also love that she "should" have been one thing, but instead became another. She carries the ghost of what she should have been within her.
When you do this, you will notice some patterns that start to emerge, some key words or characteristics that are repeated. For example, I find that I am obsessed with characters who "should" have been one thing, but are moulded by circumstances into another thing (Griffith, Faith, Loki, Fenris, Lymond), and who wear their damage as strength even when it alienates them from the people around them (Starbuck, Sarah Connor, Mikasa). I notice that I have a lot characters on my list who are obsessed with living up to a perfect older brother (Loki, Baringa, Lymond, Diarmuid). I notice that I like characters who are one half of a pair who embody powerfully opposite qualities (Loki (Thor), Lestat (Louis), Aeon Flux (Trevor Goodchild), Starbuck (Apollo), Akira (Hikaru), Draco (Harry)).
I also gain a lot of repeated "key words" of things that I like or that fire my imagination, such as "extreme competence", "bamf", "antihero", "inner pain seen by no one!", "aristocratic little shit", "not nice", "frigid", and so on.
Once you have your list, you can use it as a jumping off point to start thinking about original characters. You can do this by, for example, choosing an item on the list, and writing down the implied questions that it raises about an original character. For example, one of the items on my list is "extreme competence" so some implied questions might be "What is the character extremely competent at?" and then "Are there any areas where they are not competent?" "How does their competence affect them and those around them?" and so on. When you start writing answers to the questions, make sure that you are choosing answers that are as exciting to you as the original qualities themselves.
And that's it! Let your answers guide you to new characters - you have now mapped out an imaginative space that is exciting to you and you can use it to start creating some new characters of your own.
-------->Writing technique #4: A technique for creating minor characters
If you're one of these people, this technique is probably not going to be very useful to you. But if you're like me and your imagination doesn't attach to new characters instinctively, this technique might help to start redirecting the tributaries of your imagination towards character creation.
Similar to the How to start writing a book when you have no ideas technique, this is a technique to use at the very beginning of character creation, when you don't feel inspired, and you just don't know what kind of character you want to write about.
This technique can appear to be a bit derivative, as it uses pre-existing characters as a springboard. However, the purpose of the technique is not to copy existing characters, but rather to use existing characters as a way to explore your own likes, to unlock the things that excite you when it comes to characters and character interactions.
You can do this technique alone with pen and paper, but it is also a fun technique to do with a brainstorming partner or friend.
A technique for how to start creating characters
Write a list of your favourite characters – the characters that you have loved, that have inspired you or fascinated you, that you have come back to multiple times throughout your life.
Here's a section of my list. I mined my childhood/adolescence because that was the time that my love FLAMED THE BRIGHTEST so there are some pretty embarrassing entries on here.
Faith (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)
Griffith (Berserk)
Starbuck (Battlestar Galactica)
Lymond (Lymond Chronicles)
Catwoman (DC universe)
Diarmuid (Summer Tree)
Ilyria (Angel: The Series)
Lestat (Interview with the Vampire)
Lois Lane (Smallville, Lois & Clark)
Draco Malfoy* (Harry Potter)
* But really fanon!Draco
Baringa (Silver Brumby series)
Aeon Flux (animated series)
Loki (Marvel movie-verse)
Wonder Woman (DC comic verse)
Vanyel (Magic's Pawn)
Mikasa (Attack on Titan)
Fenris (Dragon Age 2)
Utena (Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
Akira (Hikaru no Go)
Touga (Shoujo Kakumei Utena)
Once you have your list, think about what draws you to each character. For each character, write a short paragraph describing what quality or dynamic it is that resonates with you most powerfully. Follow the lines of thought that excite you, write down the "key words" that you respond to, traits or dynamics that are most alive to you.
For example:
Faith – I love that she should have been the Slayer, a champion of good, but her role was displaced by Buffy. She never had a chance to be the "good" one because that role was already taken. It is powerful to me that she had a chance to be good, but no one let her be, so she instead became bad. I like that she is redeemable, but she resists redemption – that tension of the possibility of redemption that is denied, again and again. I love a character you are trying to reach who fell away, who is unreachable. I also love that she "should" have been one thing, but instead became another. She carries the ghost of what she should have been within her.
When you do this, you will notice some patterns that start to emerge, some key words or characteristics that are repeated. For example, I find that I am obsessed with characters who "should" have been one thing, but are moulded by circumstances into another thing (Griffith, Faith, Loki, Fenris, Lymond), and who wear their damage as strength even when it alienates them from the people around them (Starbuck, Sarah Connor, Mikasa). I notice that I have a lot characters on my list who are obsessed with living up to a perfect older brother (Loki, Baringa, Lymond, Diarmuid). I notice that I like characters who are one half of a pair who embody powerfully opposite qualities (Loki (Thor), Lestat (Louis), Aeon Flux (Trevor Goodchild), Starbuck (Apollo), Akira (Hikaru), Draco (Harry)).
I also gain a lot of repeated "key words" of things that I like or that fire my imagination, such as "extreme competence", "bamf", "antihero", "inner pain seen by no one!", "aristocratic little shit", "not nice", "frigid", and so on.
Once you have your list, you can use it as a jumping off point to start thinking about original characters. You can do this by, for example, choosing an item on the list, and writing down the implied questions that it raises about an original character. For example, one of the items on my list is "extreme competence" so some implied questions might be "What is the character extremely competent at?" and then "Are there any areas where they are not competent?" "How does their competence affect them and those around them?" and so on. When you start writing answers to the questions, make sure that you are choosing answers that are as exciting to you as the original qualities themselves.
And that's it! Let your answers guide you to new characters - you have now mapped out an imaginative space that is exciting to you and you can use it to start creating some new characters of your own.
-------->Writing technique #4: A technique for creating minor characters
December 12, 2014
C. S. PACAT CONTACT INFORMATION
Rights and contract enquiries
Emily Sylvan Kim
esk@prospectagency.com
Media and event enquiries
Heidi McCourt
Heidi.McCourt@au.penguingroup.com
Snail Mail
C.S. Pacat
P.O. Box 503
Carlton North 3054
VIC AUSTRALIA
P.O. Box checked fortnightly.
You can also contact me directly on Twitter @cspacat.
November 29, 2014
Captive Prince German cover and release date!
The German cover for Captive Prince is here, and it is completely gorgeous! I love it - probably the most id-tastic cover so far, and I really appreciate both its originality, and the way it also subtly references the original covers. The chained wrist and the grip are full of symbolic power, and the sword in the word "Prinz" is just freaking cool. I also really like the title: Der Verschollene Prince means The Lost Prince in German. Thank you so much everyone at Heyne Random House for all your wonderful work!
The German edition of Captive Prince will be released on the 15 June 2015, and you can preorder it on Amazon now.
The German edition of Captive Prince will be released on the 15 June 2015, and you can preorder it on Amazon now.
October 20, 2014
Captive Prince Australian cover and book two release date!
So excited to share the Penguin Australia cover for Captive Prince! I love it! The chain is gorgeous - it has such an amazing tactile quality, as if I could just reach into the cover and pick it up. I've seen the concepts for the other books in the series too and can't wait to share them - they look great together. Thank you to the amazing, amazing designer, and everyone at Penguin Australia who worked on the cover.
I also love the Game of Thrones flavour! And the giant PACAT fills me with secret delight considering how that name came about.
The Australian editions are looking set to release on approximately the same dates as the US editions. As you all know book one will be released in April 2015, and I can now announce that book two will be released in July 2015.
I also love the Game of Thrones flavour! And the giant PACAT fills me with secret delight considering how that name came about.
The Australian editions are looking set to release on approximately the same dates as the US editions. As you all know book one will be released in April 2015, and I can now announce that book two will be released in July 2015.
