Claire Ryan's Blog, page 8

The Marbling Experiment

I wish I had more photos to show, but honestly, it was so messy I didn’t dare pick up my phone! I tried marbling some paper over the weekend, and I picked two different ways: using shaving cream, and using cornstarch.

I treated some paper with alum before starting on the actual marbling.

The Shaving Cream

I attempted this in a pan using a method you see around quite a bit. Really all you do is fill a pan with shaving cream, dump blobs of acrylic paint into it, and swirl them around to make patterns. Then you lay the paper onto the pattern, lift it up (and it’ll be covered in shaving cream, mostly) and then scrape it off to reveal the marbling.

This went completely wrong when I scraped the stuff off. It looks like you have to get every last inch of the paper covered in shaving cream or paint, and it needs to be left to dry for a while before scraping. The end result for me was that the scraping smudged the paint all over the place, and it looked absolutely horrible.

I decided not to mess about with that any further.

The Cornstarch

This is messy. VERY messy. So messy I can’t even describe it. The shaving cream was messy, yes, but this was gooey crap all over the place.

The basic idea of marbling paper, okay, is that you have a medium – like water, or cornstarch – on which paint or ink floats and you can move around to make designs. The issue I had was that getting the consistency of the medium (called the size) to match the actual paint is almost goddamn impossible. I tried several different recipes, and ruined a lot of paint, paper and cornstarch, and I just couldn’t get it right!

The size has to be thin enough to allow the paint to spread out, but thick enough to keep most of it floating on the surface. It’s honestly very hard, and nothing I did got it right.

I think next time I’m going to try it with heavily watered down gouache paint and plain water. For now, I’m going to have to come up with something else to decorate my end papers.

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The Evolution of the Cover

Let’s talk about the cover of The Meldling! Here’s the evolution from first sketch by Katrianna all the way up to the final product. Click on the image to see the very big version.

Really all I wanted was to get the main character, Suzanna, onto the cover. When I sent the description to Katrianna, there were plenty of different details, especially in her clothes. And after I got the final image, I actually went back and rewrote some descriptions to match it!

The worst thing about book covers is that there’s an inevitable amount of text there that covers up the artwork. It can’t really be helped, unfortunately. It’s a real shame when the art is just so damn good. On the website header on the main page, you can see (if you have a good monitor!) some of the detail that goes into this kind of digital illustration.

Major props to Katrianna. She did a fantastic job based on little more than my half-assed rambling.

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More Archery at the Burnaby Range

I took a trip out to the Burnaby Archery Range again to do some more practice with my faithful yet rather crappy 18lb Wildcat bow. This time, we were shooting at 25 yards instead of 20, and I did notice the difference! The good news is that I seem to be getting better – when I’m not tired, that is. And I get very tired very fast, unfortunately.

Me and Taylore, looking boss as usual

Yes I took selfies. Don’t judge me! It was hot as all hell, and as you can see, the grass was yellow and dusty. Vancouver is under some pretty heavy water restrictions right now, which is a little ironic because it rained today.

Our first grouping. Not too shabby.

It was actually bright enough that I almost couldn’t get any photos. My sunglasses are very dark – I have sensitive eyes, don’cher’know – but it does mean that a very sunny day turns into a high contrast blur half the time. This probably didn’t contribute to my accuracy.

This is not actually impressive.

See, this looks like I’ve got Hawkeye beat. That’s a gap of about two or three inches and I nailed it in the center. What you don’t know, however, is that this is NOT the target I was aiming at.

I managed to miss the eight foot square target and hit the one next to it.

More practice needed, I think. Next on my list is acquiring a heavier bow, because damn do I ever need a workout at this point.

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Cover Reveal: The Meldling

So you know how I was talking about sticking with one WP theme for a while?

Yeah. That didn’t last. I realized that I was never really going to be happy unless I got a theme that I really, truly loved, and the theme I had just wasn’t it. So I spent the weekend tweaking a very solid theme into something that I really, honestly wanted, and this is the result.

Why? Because I’m publishing my first book on August 1st, and damn if I ever need my website to be up there on the cutting edge of awesome.

So without further ado! May I present the cover for The Meldling, the first in a trilogy that has pretty much come out of nowhere in my brain. How about that?

Pretty cool, huh? Props to Katrianna Anderson for the artwork, she knocked it out of the park. I met her at the Vancouver Comic Arts Festival this year, and her style just jumped out at me.

So watch this space, my friends. More announcements soon. The Meldling has been added to my new Books page – no sales links yet though! Sign up to the newsletter if you’d like to get New Release notifications. The Meldling will be available in digital format anywhere that matters.

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My first handbound book

I’ve created a number of notepads and sketch books with blank pages, and I’ve re-bound a few second-hand books, but this is my first proper book – one that I typeset myself, printed myself, and bound myself.

I think the end result is pretty good! The paper on the cover was easily the most expensive part of it, at $10 for a single sheet. I think this was definitely a very successful binding attempt, and it produced a good-looking and very sturdy book.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U0uPM...

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Would you like to choose what I write?

Okay! There’s a few things to talk about, so let’s get stuck in.

I completed a book, and sent it out for beta-reading. The question now is what do I do once I get feedback.

See, I’ve been staring at this book for hours over the last few weeks. True to the creative process of writers everywhere, I now hate it with the passion of a thousand fiery suns. I’ve closed the file and I’m not going to look at it until people come back to me with feedback.

I know it’s got flaws, unfortunately. If I had the time or interest, I’d go back and fix them, but honestly, I just can’t. A book doesn’t have to be perfect, and I have other books to write. And now, I’ve decided that I’m going to let someone else decide which I should write next.

Here’s a short list of stuff I have in the pipeline:

Fire Eyes, Shadowblade, Book 1 of Mekkaneer’s Madness Trilogy (fantasy adventure)
Mekkaneer’s Madness Book 2 (unnamed)
Mekkaneer’s Madness Book 3 (unnamed)
The Meldling, First Novel of the Daemonva (fantasy) – this is the one I just finished
The Nameless Knight, Second Novel of the Daemonva
Third Novel of the Daemonva (unnamed)
The Dogs of Law (alternate universe paranormal police procedural)
Winterlight (YA fantasy)
The Hunter General (steampunk)
The Fortune of Dragons (YA fantasy)
Snicker-Snack (a fantasy retelling of Alice in Wonderland)
Imperion Light: Adventures in Wartime (steampunk)
The Devil in the Details (fantasy comedy)

I think you can see a trend here. I’m going pretty heavily into fantasy right now, with a bit of steampunk and other weirdness on the side.

So here’s the deal, my friends. As soon as I publish the book I just finished (official announcement soon), I’ll be setting up some stuff to build a mailing list. Anyone who signs up to my mailing list gets to vote on what I’ll write next.

My creative output will be in your hands. You pick a title above, and whichever gets the most votes in the month after I publish a book will be the thing I concentrate on next. I’ve already announced Fire Eyes, Shadowblade, so if I get no votes, that’ll be the one. The only rule is that you get one vote per email address, and you can’t vote for a third book in a series if I haven’t written the second yet.

I’m also going to do something pretty special for the print version of every book I complete. I’ve been working on my bookbinding skills lately, as you might know, and I’ve got everything I need to print and bind my own books. So I’m going to make the print versions myself – they will be handmade with the best materials I can find, signed by me (obviously) and limited to three copies each. I’ll keep two – one for me, and one to keep as a present for someone close to me.

The last one will be given away to a reader.

Again, watch this space for the mailing list, kids. Only people on the list get a shot at the print copy, so consider yourself warned!

Ah, so busy… Let me know if you think I’m nuts in the comments below.

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New WordPress Theme, Woo! Also, News.

I think we’ve established by now that I change my website about as often as I change my clothes.

Something just happens to me, and I end up hating whatever my current theme looks like, and then it’s off to the WordPress Theme Directory to pick through eleventy million different and usually horrible looking business themes.

Then I give up, grab one at random, make it look somewhat serviceable, and then stick with it until something else comes along.

I’m a flawed character, is what I’m saying.

Still – I need to get my butt in gear for the new book. Did I mention the new book? No, not that one. I’m following my theory of defeating procrastination by working on whatever is closest to completion, and, as it happens, it’s not that one. I will have a completely different fantasy book for you in a week or two!

Yay!

I’m also planning on making a few super special handmade editions, with wood covers, stitched pages, and other fancy stuff. There will only be three at most – one for me, one for my mother, and one which I’ll save for a special occasion.

I also updated my book on marketing, which you can see over in the sidebar there. The cover wasn’t great, so I threw together a new one, fixed a few things, and completely reformatted the inside of the ebook and the print book.

I’ve taken to building ebooks manually in Sigil. Bonus – they come out looking amazing. But it is long, slow, mind-numbing work.

Anyway I promise I’ll stop changing shit everywhere for at least a couple of weeks. More info as and when it happens…

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Further Adventures in Book Binding

I decided to try out the Coptic stitch binding, and here’s the result!

The first notebook is tiny – maybe 3 inches by 5 inches. I made the covers from cardboard, duct tape, and an old paper gift bag. The stitching is some spare hemp cord that got hilariously tangled every few minutes, and the paper on the inside is plain printer paper that I cut to size.

The second one is a proper artist’s book. I tore the covers off an old hardback, stripped them down to the board, and cut them to size, then I covered them with some more of that nice cotton fabric I used in the last project. The stitching is cotton cord that I waxed with bees’ wax – to stop it getting tangled all the time – and the inside is really thick watercolour paper.

Stitch binding is pretty interesting, but I’m not sure it’ll be suitable for my actual books. I’m planning to have a wooden, laser-cut cover, and I still need to work out the best way to attach the text block to it.

Still – this was lots of fun, and a great learning experience. I’m finding that I really enjoy book binding, the same way I enjoy sword fighting.

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Adventures in Bookbinding

Today, I bound my first book! As you may know, I am somewhat craft-inclined, and it seems that book binding is a perfect choice of hobby for a writer. It’s a really interesting thing to do and there are dozens of different ways to bind books.

I followed an Instructable tutorial using whatever material I had lying around, and I got EVERYTHING covered in glue and little bits of paper. It was awesome!

You can see that I cocked up the spine, and the inside isn’t much more than crappy printer paper. The cloth cover is some random cotton remnant I picked up a while back. All in all, I think it came out quite well!

The plan is to do a few special editions of my books in print. These would be all handmade by me personally, and sold for {insert ridiculous price here} or given as gifts to the important people in my writing life. Obviously though I need a lot more practice!

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Defeating Procrastination

My author friends, let us talk about procrastination.

We are all guilty of this. We sit down to write, and suddenly the laundry waiting to be done looks inviting, or we get the urge to vacuum all the things. It is our nemesis! And a wily foe it is, ever creeping into our brains and diverting us from our appointed storytelling tasks.

Long have I struggled with this, friends. Long have I fought this demon, and traded victories with it. Every day the fight begins anew… but I have found effective strategies to combat this menace, and today, I share them with you. Take careful note, and know that you must always play to your own strengths to defeat the procrastination monster.

Step 1: List all your current works in progress.

A work in progress is any that you intend to publish, that has not been published yet. The length and quality does not matter. Make a list of everything.

If you store your writing in digital format, create a new folder called Writing, create subfolders for each discrete work in it, and dump everything related to each work into its respective folder – covers, notes, drafts, everything. The list of folders in Writing will serve as your list.

If you store your writing in paper format, spread everything out on the nearest available floor. Make a stack of paper for each work – again, include everything related to each work in its stack. Store the stacks in a file binder or something similar if you want to reclaim your floor space.

Step 2: Rank the works

There are two criteria used to rank your work:

How much time is required to finish and publish it
How many people want to read it

This is all you need to know. Quantify how much time you need in order to finish each work, and then note how many people are waiting to read it. Place the work with the least amount of effort required and the most amount of people waiting for it at the top, and continue in that fashion. If you have to choose between time and people, weight it towards time.

This means that a novel you’ve been working on for a year with three beta readers waiting for the final draft should rank higher than a first chapter and outline you threw together and showed to ten people, all of whom liked it.

Step 3: Learn The Pomodoro Technique

This is a technique that makes you work in short sprints. There are dozens of apps on the iOS and Android app store if you want one specifically for it. If not, and you want to do it old school with a kitchen timer, here’s how it works:

Choose a task to be accomplished.
Set the timer to 25 minutes.
Work on the task until the timer rings, then put a check on your sheet of paper.
Take a short break (5 minutes is OK).
Every 4 blocks of 25 minutes, take a longer break.

This technique is magic. It pushes productivity like nothing else on earth.

Step 4: The 3/1 rule

Determine how much time you want to devote to writing every day. This does not include time spent blogging or dicking around on social media or doing random marketing stuff for your writing. Two hours is convenient because it fits into the Pomodoro Technique above, and most authors have jobs and families and stuff.

For every four blocks of time that you spend working on a project, three should be dedicated to the highest ranked work in progress, and one block may be dedicated to any other work in progress. This gets you working on the most important thing, and stops you going completely bonkers from ONLY working on the most important thing.

Step 5: Profit!

The purpose of all this is to make your writing process modular. Every writer I have ever met complains about having new ideas, and getting distracted by random crap. It’s hard to write, to be honest. It requires brain power that we don’t always have available, hence we are beset on all sides by procrastination.

I hope this humble process will be useful to you, my friends. Now go forth, and conquer the monster! May you bring back its head and mount it over your fireplace!

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