Zachary Tringali's Blog, page 6

EXCITING writing news! PLUS NaNoWriMo!

So, let me lead with the news I can now officially share with the world: After querying my latest novel, Lorelei and the Sea, I’ve signed with The Jenks Agency and will be represented by Carolyn Jenks!

Even as I’m typing those words, now, I still can’t quite believe it actually happened. It has been a CRAZY ride, you guys, and I know it’s only just getting started. From the very first email, I thought it was too good to be true–and then I spoke with Carolyn Jenks on the phone and, as nervous as I was, she immediately made me feel comfortable. Not only that, but she was excited about my book and even excited about the ideas I had for books I still want to write. I feel incredibly lucky to have had things work out so well this far, guys, and I’m absolutely, 100% excited to share everything with you here as things progress!

For today, though, while I’m still sorting my brain out, I want to take a look back at the PAST. Let’s take a time-jump to NaNoWriMo 2009.

These are the notes for my very first novel, The Names We Chose. I’d first heard of NaNoWriMo in 2008, but I heard about it halfway through November and felt like I’d missed out on too much already to join in. When 2009 came around, I was nervous but ready! I met the fantastic local NaNo group in Gainesville and immediately the excitement was infectious.

That month was hard. It wasn’t just the daily word count, though. I, perhaps, hadn’t realized that the book would always be on my mind, even when I wasn’t writing. I have over 50 pages of hand written notes just because I couldn’t stop thinking about it! I only recently read On Writing by Stephen King, and he described the process of writing the first draft as excavating a fossil. There’s something buried under the ground and you’re digging frantically to uncover it, to find the shape of the thing, and you have to do it quickly. That’s the way it felt, this mad dash to get information on the page, to realize what happened next, and so on.

I managed to finish the 50K for NaNoWriMo, and I went on to write another 50K and finish the book in December. It was the first novel sized project I’d ever done. I tried to edit it, it even got to the point where a few months later I’d decided to rewrite the entire thing. I still haven’t been able to do that particular book justice, but one day I’ll come back to it and be able to tell that story the way it needs to be told.

NaNoWriMo ’09 taught me how exciting writing could be, and it also taught me the importance of writing every day and that with the first draft you just have to keep pushing. Lorelei and the Sea wasn’t a NaNoWriMo novel, but it was certainly built on all of the things I learned that first November, and so it seems perfect to me that I get to announce all of this to you at the start of the new NaNoWriMo.

I hope all of you other NaNo folks out there are hitting your word count and having a blast! Now, I have to go get my daily words in so I don’t fall behind!

I owe the blog a Friday Reads and the book I’m finishing now, The Charnel Prince is absolutely one I want to talk about here. I’ll probably end up posting about that tomorrow!

 

Everybody Scream! — In This Post of Halloween

I honestly don’t like being scared. I don’t know why I torture myself. For the most part, I’ve gotten better about it, but when I was a kid it was just the worst. For some reason, when I was younger, nothing in the world scared me more than aliens–and so of course I had an obsession with reading about them, and watching movies about them, and so on and so forth.

I even had this creepy alien figurehead that hung somewhere above my bed (why, oh why?) to torment my dreams. Whether it was aliens or, later on, weird creatures like the chupacabra (there were no goats anywhere near where I lived, so why this creature terrified me I will never know), I always indulged in reading about all of these creepy things and only regretting it later when I had to try to sleep.

I’ve since learned my lesson. I know my limits, now.

But on Halloween, I just can’t resist the temptation to indulge in a little scary media. Halloween is one half of some kind of agreement that’s only completed by me putting myself through some kind of ritual by fire and passing through on the other side alive but forever scarred. Without going through it, I can’t safely pass through and into Thanksgiving, where all of the delicious food is.

Last year, I think I gave my attention to the game Amnesia: The Dark Descent. My experience with that game can best be summed up with this video:

It was NOT a good time. And yet it was oh so right. For me, scary video games are probably the pinnacle of horror entertainment. I love a scary book as much as the next person (as evidence by my last book review post), and scary movies are fine, but scream-for-scream, nothing gives as much value as a well done game.

The interactivity makes it a kind of torture. If a movie scares you too much, it doesn’t care, it’s going to just keep going on without you and in around two hours it’ll all be over. A game, on the other hand, requires a sheer effort of will to push yourself further towards the end. You have that knowledge in the back of your head that you’re terrified and it’s you that’s causing that terror. You have to walk down that hall, you have to open that door and just hope there’s nothing scary behind it.

I’m still not entirely sure what I’ll be putting myself through this year! I’ve already read a couple of horror novels, but I’m feeling the need for something more. Maybe I’ll dig out a game to play.

Or maybe I’ll just hide under a blanket until the season passes and hope that Thanksgiving is on the other side, waiting with a comforting glass of apple cider and a piece of pumpkin pie.

That sounds nice.

Friday Reads & Reviews

It’s Halloween! Well, it’s almost Halloween, anyway! And in that spirit, I’ve been reading a few horror books to get in the spirit. The awesome thing about horror novels is the way a great one will stick with you for a few days after you’ve read it. It’s this interesting, delayed effect where you might not be afraid while you read it, but five, six hours later, in bed, you might find your mind turning back to that story, and that’s when it really sets to work. They creep inside your head and take up residence there, making you question every sound/sight, even if only for a night.

And it’s awesome.

Now, on to the review!

Heart-Shaped Box, by Joe Hill. Whenever possible, I like to start to read an author’s work chronologically. It just works better that way, usually. Authors are constantly improving, even if it’s only in some small way, and it can make going back a difficult or strange experience if you’ve read their latest work already.

Plus, it’s just fun to see the way writing styles evolve over time.

Joe Hill only has two novels out so far (and a book of short stories–and a popular, amazing comic book called Locke and Key), but I did read his second book (Horns) first, and comparing the two novels as I’ve read through Heart-Shaped Box has been interesting. The dialogue is a little stiff and in sections it feels overly explanatory. Some of the prose carries the same burden and tends to tell instead of show, treating us to paragraphs of information that doesn’t really seem to matter. For the most part, these things are loaded into the front of the book, so it’s really just a matter of pushing through the first quarter if it seems a little slow.

While these things can be detrimental, the core of the story in Heart-Shaped Box is a solid, classic ghost story, and it does that very well. The chapters are short and the pacing is quick, so it was a breeze to get through, and the characters were all fairly interesting. In the beginning, Jude’s character perhaps seemed a little at odds with himself between his dialogue and his description in the text, but over I think Hill got a handle on his character over time and Jude did sort of come into himself.

Having read Horns previously, it seems you can sort of tell where Hill is getting a feel for things in Heart-Shaped Box. Some elements are maybe not as elegant as they could be, but there’s a foundation there and it showcases the fact that he really does know his stuff. There’s nothing quite so fitting to the season as a proper ghost story, and when this one gets into its grooves and the inhibitions are dropped, this really is a fantastic modern take on the ghost story.

Overall: All things said, it was an interesting book and it delivered on its premise. The scary parts were scary, the tense parts were tense, and if the other beats didn’t line up as well, perhaps I was just comparing it too harshly to how much I enjoyed Horns.

Learn More: Heart-Shaped Box on Amazon ; Joe Hill’s Webpage

If you liked this book, you might also like: Horns by Joe Hill; Full Dark, No Stars by Stephen King

And next up we have a review for Chorus of Dust, a novella that I also read this week.

Chorus of Dust is one of those stories that’s just a pleasure to read. As Walters’ debut effort, it sets him up as an author capable of building an atmosphere and tone that runs throughout the story, creating a successful portrait of small town life that tends to be synonymous with horror fiction.

One of the aspects of this novella that I found myself really enjoying was the pacing. Walters manages to give us a languid pace that allows the story to slowly unfold without ever feeling plodding, slow, or boring.

While Adem, the story’s main character, admittedly and rightly gets the bulk of the characterization, it’s done well. There are some characters that I wish had been more fully realized, such as his sister Sam who can feel a little flighty at times and Ray, the author coming out of retirement. Ray certainly had a fair amount of time dedicated to his history and who he was, but it felt difficult to make the connection and his end up the story seemed to just fade away at the end.

That said, Adem is a strong enough character going on an interesting enough journey that it never bothered me too much.

While I never found myself being truly scared during this novel, there was a very present thread of tension and darkness that ran through it.

I think Chorus of Dust is a great start and I’ll be looking forward to whatever Walters puts out next.

Learn More: Chorus of Dust on Amazon ; Justin Paul Waters’ Webpage

Halloween isn’t over yet, and there’s always time to do more reading! Do you guys have any favorite scary books? I’m sure I’ll be wanting to check out at least one more before the end of the month, and I’d love some recommendations. I think my favorite horror novel ever has to be House of Leaves–that one has stuck with me for a long, long time.

Also, you can follow me on GoodReads if you like these book reviews! I’ll be keeping track over there, too.

Why I NaNo & The Best Cup Ever

As I scrounge up spare minutes to put towards finishing off the novella I’m working on in time for November and National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), I’ve started thinking a lot about NaNo itself.

I did my first NaNo back in ’09. I painted this amazing cup to commemorate the occasion. It’s a cup with a dinosaur breathing fire on it, so you know I was pretty jazzed about the whole thing. I wrote a little novel called The Names We Chose, which I spent the next few months trying to revise before retiring–one day I’ll get back to it, when I feel like I can do the story justice. While I’d been writing pretty frequently before that, it marked the first time I really tried my hand at long fiction with any kind of success.

What I found was that having that goal of 50,000 words at the end of the month kept me writing every single day, which was probably the thing that had been lacking in any attempt up until that point. It’s so easy, when you’re starting a huge project, to delay and wait until the timing is right, but that November I learned to write no matter what, even if sometimes I felt like nothing was going right or making any sense. The timing is never going to be perfect, so you might as well start right away while the idea is fresh.

I also learned that the first draft is always the hardest part. The second draft is by far my favorite part. At that point, I have a complete novel to work with, and sure, maybe the structure is a little shaky and the prose is rough, but I can step back and see it in its entirety and start to build a solid foundation in draft two. I know what’s coming and I can set things up in advance, I can add in all of the things I thought of too late during draft one, so on and so forth. None of that happens until draft one is done, though, and that first November, because of the time constraints and the inability to ever look back, really taught me that my job in draft 1 was just to make sure all of the pieces are in place no matter what else happens.

Now, I like to think I have a pretty firm grasp on the concept. Or, as firm a grasp as is possible. I’ve written something like five novels since then, and I understand how the process works for my brain, largely thanks to NaNo.

But I think the thing I love most about NaNo, and the thing I’ll remember most fondly, is the sense of community. With twitter and blogging these days, it feels like there are more writers than ever and it helps to alleviate some of the isolation involved. But NaNo, to me, is a month-long celebration of writing, and so it’s different still. It’s a chance to meet new people, an excuse to stay up late and drink way too much coffee, to write madly and reward yourself with candy (always the best part!), and to remember just how awesome and fun writing can be.

Because it is. And it can be easy to forget that when you’re banging your head against the wall and wondering why your first draft is so horrid. During November, though, none of that matters and it all just becomes part of the experience.

Friday Reads & Reviews

This week has found me finally reading Theft of Swords by Michael J. Sullivan. Theft of Swords is the kind of bread and butter fantasy book that I long for every once in a while. It has all of the familiar comforts: dwarves, elves, swordsman, thieves, and magic. You know what you’re getting into when you pick up the book, and sometimes, as is the case here, that kind of foreknowledge is really nice and helps you just relax and enjoy the read.

While the prose tends towars the simplistic, it’s intentionally so, remaining sparse to keep the focus on the plot and the characters. This doesn’t really bother me and I find in the case of an adventure book like this, it’s often better to get right into the good stuff. The clean, tight prose keeps the pages turning quickly, which is all I really ask for in this situation.

However, there is one area that almost drags the book to a dead stop: dialogue exposition. If there’s one weak part in the book(s), this is it. There are several moments where the world is fleshed out by one character asking another something about the world and the second character expounding upon history and the way things are now and so on and so forth, and this kind of thing really just drags all of the forward momentum to a stand still. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t really add enough to the story to make up the difference for me.

Luckily, these things aren’t too prevalent and the book is still really enjoyable. I’d say it’s a near perfect read in the categories of fun, light-hearted entertainment. What’s even better is that each book seems very much self-contained. Sullivan mentions having written them styled in the fashion of episodes of a TV series and it very much reads that way. With each additional episode you’re treated to some further depth about characters and they really build upon one another to the point that the second book, Avempartha, is leagues better than the first book, The Crown Conspiracy, which was no slouch either!

Overall: I had fun and I’ll definitely be going back for the next book.

Learn More: Theft of Swords on Amazon — Michael J. Sullivan’s Webpage

If you liked this book you might also like: Retribution Falls (Book Number 1 of the Tales of the Kettyjay) by Chris Wooding; The Lies of Locke Lamora (Book Number 1 of the Gentleman Bastards Sequence) by Scott Lynch.

What’s Up Next: I’m around 15% done with Gods and Fighting Men: The Story of the Tuatha de Dannan and the Fianna of Ireland, translated by Lady Gregory. More on that next week!

Research Consumes Me: Viking Longships

This is a Viking ship known as the Gokstad ship. It was discovered in a burial mound in Norway, and for the next X thousand words, it will be my home.

The currently untitled Viking Fantasy Novel I’m working on has taken to sea and Viking longships like the Gokstad ship are the topic of the day when it comes to research. I’ve known this would come up and so I’ve been picking away at the research as I go. At last, I’m there, and the main character has set off across the icy sea aboard a ship called the Leaping-Death.

I don’t think there’s anything that sums up Viking culture better than these ships. They were built to cut across the water quickly, to be deadly tools of war for the purposes of raiding. Some longships had small compartments below the main deck to keep plunder and other goods, but there were no cabins, so if you wanted to sleep during the trip you just had to make the most of hunkering down between the rowing benches.

What has been even cooler has been reading about how the Vikings didn’t base their navigation of the seas on maps or even the stars. Instead, they would base it on common landmarks and even smells, with some sources claiming they were able to smell when they were close to land and use sightings of whales and other sea life to tell where they were in the ocean.

In a few words: that is horrifying to me. Can you imagine being out adrift at sea and just hoping you remembered all of the landmarks right? It’s no wonder things were discovered on accident so often, but it’s equally amazing that people ever ended up getting to where they needed to go! Especially when you consider the trips that took several days, if you’re out in the ocean and can’t see land whichever way you turn! Yikes.

And I’d just like to point out that no matter how soothing and beautiful we think whales sound today, can you imagine being out in one of these ships trying to sleep and all you can hear out in the endless darkness is this:

I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I’d be getting any sleep.

Back to the Beginning

I’ve scrapped the initial 37,000 words of Sherlock Holmes in Fantasy Land.

In a word: YIKES.

Scrapping work is never easy, especially something that’s gotten so long. It’s not something I do, ever, really. If something isn’t working in a first draft I just keep pushing–that’s what the first draft is there for. This time, though, I managed to get so mired in something that’s not working that the project ended up just sitting there.

I left it to work on other things. I wrote short stories, I edited another book, I had plenty of other projects, but I always wanted to go back to working on the Fantasy-Sherlock book. Dilemma.

So, I’ve scrapped it. Too much time had passed and even when I tried to push ahead, I wasn’t in the right mindset to continue with the first draft again. I’m back at the beginning now, I’m plotting and taking notes! There are things taped on the wall so soon enough the office where I write will most likely start to look like the rooms you see in crime TV where people plaster FACTS and FIGURES all over the place. All I need are some newspaper clippings!

As scary as it is, it feels good to be back at the beginning. I’ve worked out most of the problems I was having and I feel like I finally have a solid basis for moving forward, which was 90% of the problem with the OLD first draft. It’s very, very hard for me to write a “mystery” style plot when I’m discovering the plot as I write it, so I’ve abandoned that approach for something a little more structured.

A little finger crossing wouldn’t hurt as an accompaniment to all the planning, though…

Whodunnit? Oh yeah, it was me.

Codename Sherlock Holmes in Fantasy Land (SHIFL, henceforth) is the first book I’ve ever written that follows a kind of “whodunnit” theme. I’ve worked on other projects that had mysteries, of course, but they were usually small things and they weren’t very hard to keep track of. With SHIFL I’ve got a crime within a crime to the point that I’m making notes constantly and I sort of feel like the car in Inception during the second half of the movie where it’s driving off of a bridge for twenty minutes in slow-motion.

What I’m saying is this: I could really use some kind of murder board like you see in cop procedural shows all the time.

And maybe that was all just a shameless attempt to post a photo from Castle because the season finale aired on Monday and I already miss it, but that’s okay!

I really could use a huge whiteboard to keep all of my facts straight. And if Nathan Fillion wanted to come along in Castle persona and help me figure out the plot points, well, that would be all right, too.

The Trouble With Research

The real problem with researching a book is the real problem with going to Wikipedia at all. EVER.

One minute you’re looking at a page on Venetian masks to get a good mental image for the book you’re working on and the next minute you find your on a page about something called gesso, which is apparently the substance used in the construction of modern Venetian masks.

Then you’re back on the original page, having remembered what your original goal was, and you’re marveling at just how creepy these Moretta masks are.

I mean, look at that thing. I don’t think it’s even necessarily the physical appearance that creeps me out the most, but the fact that (according to the Wiki), these are kept in place by a button or bit on the inside that women had to bite down upon to hold the mask in place.

On the plus side, I got some fantastic notes and ideas for the book I’m working on.

Of course, on the flip side there’s all the nightmares.

I should mention that all of this is for a project I’m tentatively calling Sherlock Holmes in Fantasy Land. This book has been stewing in the back of my head for a long time, while I’ve worked on other books, while I’ve worked on other short stories, etc.

I’m just glad I’ve finally found the right way to work on it.