Alex Laybourne's Blog, page 70
October 14, 2012
The Week Ahead
It has been a while since I made a weekly goal post, but with the arrival of Damon and the whole trying to find a schedule with 4 kids running around did not lead to any real organization of my thoughts, let alone forward planning.
However, the last two weeks have gone very steady with the writing, apart from the weekend just gone, where I didn’t get a single word written. Besides, a couple of thousand on blog posts, but I’m never sure if that should really count. What do you think?
I am currently in-between major projects. My novel, Par for the Course (Par 4: The Course) – I can’t decide on the name layout yet – is done, the first draft at least, and I am going to let it rest until after NaNo. My plan was to edit so of my short stories, I have one collection with Beta readers and two more ready for edits, but then I was struck with inspiration. I’m talking about that, knock you off your feet, it came out of nowhere, wow, kind of inspiration.
Holland does not do Halloween (or bacon, or pop-tarts, can you believe that you cannot buy pop-tarts here!) and so I am penning a short horror story for all my colleagues at work. It will be based around the ‘bugs’ we find in our system and send to the IT to fix. The theory is simple, bugs come to life, blood, guts the standard fare.
I have designed a rough cover already, and my goal is to get the first draft finished by Friday, then to edit over the weekend. I am planning on sending a copy to everybody in the company on October 31st, as my way of keeping Halloween alive in this country. I don’t know how it will be received, or if it will even be read, but I don’t care. I love the story idea, and once it is done, there is actually an anthology open to subs currently that this would fit perfectly in.
Well, that is about it for my plans this week. Okay, I should try to get some short story editing in as well.
So tell me my friends, what are your plans for the week?
Work In Progress Blog Hop.
I was in for a nice surprise this morning when I woke up. I had been tagged by the talented C p Bialois on the Work In Progress blog hop. t was a great start to the day.
Well, the premise is simple, and the rules are explained below. So, without further ado or waffle from me, let us begin…
Rules:
***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (Work In Progress) on your blog.
***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.
What is the working title of your book? Par For the Course, or Par 4: The Course I am tossing and turning between the two options.
Where did the idea come from for the book? The idea came to me a long time ago. The story not so much. My entire Highway to Hell trilogy was spawned from the layout of the book. It is set on a golf course, and as such, each chapter is a hole and equal in length to the par of the hole. That was what came to me first, and I loved the idea of it. The story came much later.
What genre does your book fall under? I would have to say Psychological Horror.
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? Um that’s a tough one. I think Mark Ruffalo and Edward Norton would be nice for the two main characters.
What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book? When a troubled boy becomes a troubled man, a downward spiral is never far behind. No matter how hard he tried to hide who you are, the truth will always out. (Ok, that’s two sentences but hey, I don’t like rules.)
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency? I am not sure. I am thinking about submitting it so small presses. It needs editing still, and there are plenty of tweaks so I have time to mull things over.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? The first draft took me four months exactly. I didn’t realize it until now, but it was four months to the day.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre? I have no idea if I am honest with you. I could not even hazard a guess.
Who or What inspired you to write this book? As I mentioned above, the layout of the book itself came to me, and I couldn’t shake it. The story had to be written, but it took me almost four years before I even got around to it. I started a dozen times, and probably wrote a good fifty or sixty thousand words in total, but every time I ran out of ways to link the holes together with the story that I had chosen. I also love the police, the job is my dream, and all the shows out there I love. The darker the better, and so combining the two became the only way to go.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest? In essence it is a tale about life. How our past can come back to haunt us if it lets us. It is about being in the wrong place at the wrong time and not being able to stop the spiral once it starts. Friendship is also a central theme, and the lengths we will go to protect out true friends, regardless of what they have done to us. What is that saying “A good friend will help you move, a true friend helps you move the bodies.”
My 5 nominations are:
Take it away peeps!
October 13, 2012
Review: Zomblog II
Zomblog II by T.W. Brown
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Zomblog II follows off nicely from the ending of Zomblog. We are reunited with Meredith and friends, and continue to share in their adventures as they journey across the country.
The thing that sets this novel (and its predecessor) apart from the standard Zombie fare, is now that the zombies have arrived, they are no longer the only threat.
After more than a year on the run, dodging the undead, small communities have been formed. Armored fortresses offer sanctuary to many. We visit several of these places during the book, but Meredith cannot seem to bring herself to settle. She always moves on, something leaving her friends behind, but often taking new ones with her.
Where there are the roots of civilization, there are two forks that said group could take. Good and bad, and it is this horror that Todd Brown once again captures with masterful ease. While dodging the slow, lumbering undead may sound daunting, avoiding the roving bands of lunatics intent on using all women as their personal sex slaves, and crucifying anybody else that is left alive after their murderous blood train has rolled through is a completely different story. The Genesis Brotherhood are the real villain of this novel, and while there is plenty of zombie slaying action to sate even the most ardent genre readers, this second installment in the Zomblog series asks some interesting questions about humanity.
There was one particular scene that chilled my blood, but I won’t give it away for any clue would spoil the impact just a little.
I highly recommend this novel, but you must read the first installment of the series, for it is not meant to be read as a standalone book. There are a lot of little references to the previous books, and given that the man who started the Zomblog died in book one, it is certainly beneficial to get to know him first.
I cannot wait to start book III in the series.
October 12, 2012
Writing: What is Horror?
Reblogged from Colleen Anderson:
As I write up these different definitions there will indeed be crossover as there are genres and subgenres and sub-subgenres for each type of writing. The world of publishing is taken up with labeling, much like the world in general. We like things to fit into neat categories. For marketing we want to appeal to a certain demographic so although I might write a story and not put any tag on it, someone else will: either the reader, the publisher, or the reviewer.
A nice little post about horror and it's different forms.
October 11, 2012
NaNoWriMo or NoNoWriMo: To Write in November
Two years ago I joined the NaNo community and I managed to meet the goals it set. Last year I skipped it because I was busy working on another project. This time around, I am without a current project and the time span for NaNo would be the perfect amount of breathing room to give my novel before editing starts.
The question I keep asking myself though, is should I try. I mean I have 2 more kids this time around than last, I have a more demanding job, and in general quite a busy life. To find tim to sit down and write 2000 words a day (I like to take Sunday’s off) could be rather difficult.
I have the story idea, and I will spend the next weeks looking into it, trying to determine if it really is a 50k story or not. At this point in time, I am not sure, but it is only the very bare bones form at the moment.
But tell me, are you planning on joining NaNo this year?
What is it about this ‘competition’ for lack of a better word at this rather decaffeinated hour, that drives people on? Ok, we are all writers, and any excuse to write will get out attention, but NaNo surpasses that. It is a global event, and somewhat epic within the right circles. I think it is great fun, an excuse to really sit down and challenge yourself. In essence you get to spend one month, working (and possibly living) like a pro – full-time writer - and for people like me who work a full-time job, it is a little slice of heaven.
Even while writing this short post, I have as good as convinced myself to give it a go, so I am off to sign up and start planning.
I hope to see you there, because whatever happens, it is as good as guaranteed to be one heck of a good ride.
October 9, 2012
The End
Well this is very odd. As I sit here, I have just closed my WIP and said to myself, it is done. The first draft of my novel is finished. Ok, I know it is not ready and that a lot of editing work is still required before I can say that, but still the first draft is the key step. You can’t edit what you haven’t written… right?
Anyway, sitting here, I feel…. nothing. When I have finished writing my previous two novels, there was a definite sense of ‘YAY, I’m done.’ I walked around with a smile on my face, so happy that even the day job couldn’t bring me down. This time however… nothing.
It’s not that I don’t like the novel. Once I have my edits out of the way, I think it will be my strongest piece yet. I had just hoped to feel more satisfaction at a job well done.
I guess it could be because this novel is a standalone product. It has a beginning, middle and end. The previous two novels, are part of my Highway to Hell trilogy, and so don’t end. They are merely setting things up each time for the next installment. There is no air of finality to them. Ok, the individual storylines are rounded out, but in my mind I still know that there is more to come.
This time I don’t have that. I won’t be writing these characters anymore. This is it, the big goodbye. Could it be that I have become so attached to them, that I am merely sad at seeing them leave? They have been a part of my life for several months now, an integral part. Maybe I just hate goodbyes.
How do you feel when you finish that first draft? Elated, sad, or indifferent? I would love to know.
The Evolution of Horror
Reblogged from Fandango Groovers Movie Blog:
Horror is in many ways the purest genre, whilst it may overlap with other genres and have many sub-genres, some dig into your subconscious, whilst others are happy to just make you jump or disgust you with gore all horror movies have the same purpose and addenda, to scare the shit out of you!
Like many other art forms movies and particular horror movies often follow trends that change over time.
An interesting post discussing the evolution of horror movies.
October 8, 2012
Is Size Really Important?
The impact of e-books has been tremendous. Putting aside self publishing for a second, e-books have still played an important role in the evolution of the book.
How many people do you see sitting on a train or in the bus during the daily commute staring into an e-reader? I bet it is more people than used to sit there holding a book.
I used to commute to work, and there would be one or two people reading a book in the morning, but now, and while I cannot verify it myself, a number of my commuting colleagues have advised me, nearly everybody is staring into a reading device of some sorts.
Reading has become … in a word, easier since e-books came alone. The size and weight of an e-reader is obviously a factor, but so is the anonymity of it. You can now sit and read whatever you want, without having to watch those around you stare at you, clearly judging you based on the cover of the book you are reading. (Ok, maybe that last bit is one of my own personal issues but you get the picture.)
E-readers have made reading fun again.
As someone who has always loved reading, I don’t get it, because reading has always been fun, but it cannot be denied that the interest in reading has gone up since e-readers came to town. A study I found online concluded that 40% of people with an e-reader say that they are reading a lot more than before, with traditional books.
This fact, does lead nicely into the main point of this topic. Size.
Is size important, or is it really a case of knowing how to use what you have?
Stories are there to be told, and in the old days, back when story telling was a word of mouth event (insert any image you want here) the length of the story depended on how much there was to tell. It was done when all was told, and that was it.
Somewhere along the way, this got lost, and word counts came into play.
When I first started to write, and was looking around for how to get an agent and / or a publisher, I was reading so many sentences and advice columns that said…
A debut novel should never be over 100,000 words, people don’t want to read that much from an unknown writer
A novel is at least 70,000
Short stories have to be 5,000 words, but collections need to be 70,000 in total etc.
It was just another example of where the modern world has decided to define itself by a number, rather than a gesture, or the event itself.
With e-books however, the momentum has been shifted. We can not write what we want to write and have it made available to people. The restrictions or the theoretically imposed restrictions of a certain work count have in essence been removed. The importance has once again been placed on the tale being told and not the length of time one is given to tell it.
It is a fact of life, some stories are shorter than others. Some are short and powerful, while others are slow and lingering. It would be unfair to the storyteller, the audience / readers and the art itself if we were to either stretch or condense the tale because society dictates that it should be a certain length.
Novellas and short stories are widely available now, and can be bought as individual entities, perfect for all walks of life. The daily commute, or those quite moments that arise from time to time where the children are at school or playing quietly and housework can, well… fuck the housework, reading is fun.
We are forced to place too much of an emphasis on size that I find it refreshing to see authors using the e-book revolution (and I am also talking about large name, mainstream writers… or at least their work is on the piece) as a chance to bring back the art of story telling. To not be afraid of varied story lengths.
Sure, the bigwigs out there may still adhere the this outdated fallacy, but it is us, the writers that can bring around the true change in consensus. A story is a story no matter how long it is, and if it is important enough to the teller for them to need to share it with us, then nothing else should matter.
October 5, 2012
I love to Stumble
It is the weekend, I have a semi=sleeping baby in my arms and an a daughter tickling my feet so I will be brief. Nobody likes a bit serious post on a Saturday morning.
This past week, I have discovered the joy of stumbling. I don’t mean drunken ramblings after one too many down at the local ale house, but rather StumbleUpon.
I am sure to be one of the last people – as I always am with websites and all things technology related – to discover this sire, and I am almost positive you know of this great place, but I have to say it. StumbleUpon Rocks
The premise is simple, or at least, my understand of it is simple. You set some ‘interests’ such as Sport, or Horror Movies, and then you click the Stumble button. The site then searches its database and gives you a random page that is tagged as belonging to your interest. You find some truly amazing stuff, and also some incredibly random things that remind you that the internet can be fun.
Have you all found StumbleUpon already? I hope so, but if not, you have to check it out, but be warned it is mildly addictive.
Early American Serial Killers: Jesse Pomeroy
Welcome to Freaky Friday. Today we’re going to look at another early American serial killer, Jesse Harding Pomeroy.
Jesse Pomeroy’s case is unusual for two reasons:
He had only two known victims.
He was convicted of murder at the age of fourteen.
Serial Killers fascinate me, what makes them tick, who they are... anyway, a nice little post about an early American Killer
