Victoria Pearson's Blog, page 3

strange Love has a makeover

I don't normally do this kind of post here, but I was so excited I had to share this with you :~)





Some time ago now I found myself in a position to be able to create a beautiful version of Strange Love - the stories laid out how they should have been, if not for my lack of technological knowledge and the use of cookie cutter templates.

when it finally went live I couldn't wait to see my beautiful version up on Amazon, so that casual browsers would see the beauty within when they clicked the "read preview" link. Alas it was not to be so, amazon shows only the plain text version, it seems, despite that version no longer being for sale.

Nevertheless, Strange love has had it's makeover, and you can still have a sneek peek.

The ever tireless @tiredpixel has not only lovingly crafted a beautiful book out of my words, her has created a little showcase of it too.  I urge you most mightily to take a look: http://t.co/nrAMCbBP

Heather Smith Shewrites Next Big Thing Blog Tag

The warmest of welcomes to
Heather Smith, who is the very first guest I have hosted on this blog, visiting
to take part in the SheWrites blog tag. I’d like to take the opportunity to say,
having had a sneak peek at her answers, I am looking forward to reading her
work in progress when she is ready for it to be read. Without further ado, I
shall pass you over to Heather…



 



When I saw this blog tag, I
really wanted to take part but not having a blog obviously presented some
difficulties. Thanks very much to Victoria, for allowing me to guest on her
blog so I can share this with you. At some point I hope to have a facebook
author page so maybe I’ll post this on there too. :-D



 



What is the working title of
your book?



A Necessary Evil



Where did the idea come from
for the book?



When I was younger I used to
play a game on the Playstation called Galerians which was about a young boy who
gains psychic abilities when he is subjected to rather unpleasant scientific
testing. I've always enjoyed this kind of story so I decided to write my own
story based around the subject. The end result is, in fact, nothing like the
game but there are a few similar themes.



What genre does your book fall
under?



Young adult fantasy, although
I'm hoping it will appeal to older readers as well.



Which actors would you choose
to play your characters in a movie rendition?



I think for my heroine, Lisia,
it would have to be an unknown actress. I can't think of anyone who is well
known now who fits the idea I have in my head. When I first started writing the
story, the only person I could see as Zelimir (Lisia's travelling companion)
was Gerard Butler, but as the story has evolved he has become much younger so I
think, unfortunately, Mr Butler would probably be too old now. I would love to
have Nathan Fillion as the evil Brother Phelix (possibly due to his evil Caleb
in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) and someone like Alfie Boe (ok so I know he's not
an actor) to play Anselm.



What is the one sentence
synopsis of your book?



A young woman awakes in a
dungeon with no memory of who or where she is or how she got there, fleeing
from her captors she embarks on a journey to recover her life and discovers
shocking news that will cause her to question her place in the world she knows.




Will your book be self published or represented by
an agency?



I'm planning to publish it as
an e-book initially and if it does well I will try and secure an agent for
possible paperback publication.



How long did it take you to
write the first draft of your manuscript?



It took me about two years to
write my first draft but without my writing buddy (my good friend Jess
Sturman-Coombs, author of Poker Face) it would have taken much longer. She kept
me going through all the down times when I wanted to give up.



What other books would you
compare this story to within your genre?



I guess if I had to pick one
it would probably be Poison Study by Maria V Snyder but only because both
feature a female protagonist who begins the story being held prisoner. The
eventual journey of my characters is quite different to the one taken by Yelena
in Poison Study. When I first started writing, lots of people said to me
"oh that sounds like .........." so I've spent a lot of time trying
to make it a unique story line with as few similarities to other books as
possible but obviously there are themes in it which are common to many books.



Who or what inspired you to
write this book?



I've always enjoyed creative
writing and wrote what I'd guess you'd call short stories when I was at secondary
school but I had no idea if I could actually come up with enough material for a
full length novel. Over the years I had tried many times and failed to come up
with a story that would flow enough for a novel, but when Jess (Sturman-Coombs)
told me she had started writing I thought it might be time to give it another
try. So I guess you could say it was Jess who inspired me to write the book but
the love of writing has always been there from a young age.



What else about your book
might pique the readers interest?



The book is really a journey
of self discovery as both Lisia and Zelimir start the story with no memories.
There's some ups and downs, a fair few action packed scenes and towards the end
of the book there's a bit of a twist which I hope will shock the reader.
Essentially its about a young woman who just wants to go home and the
difficulties she faces along the way.



 

SheWrites - The Next Big Thing blog tag

The lovely Jess Sturman-Coombs , author of the Poker face series has invited me to take part in the
promotional blog tag, which originated on the SheWrites site. Despite terrible
tech gremlins invading (again) I managed to meet the deadline. Here goes:



 
What is the working title of your book?




 Strange Worlds – Surreal Stories and Tainted Tales


 




 Where did the idea come from for the book?





 I have been writing short stories for a few years now . Whenever I get stuck on my novel length WIP (working title The Soul Bus) I outline a short story, it feels good to be able to finish something when you get to the point when you feel like you’ll never finish that novel! When I realised how many stories I had knocking about, begging to be polished up and read, I decided to start grouping them together and preparing them for publication.





 The first short story
collection was Strange Love – Short Stories and Twisted Tales shared the very
broad theme of love, this Strange Tales book will focus on the inner workings
of a person’s mind,  a view of the world
seen through another’s emotional weather. It also looks at what our world would
look like if it were ever so slightly different, if fairy tales were true, or
if zombies walked the earth and not just in our imaginations.



 What genre does your book fall under?










Do short stories count as a genre? Everything I write has a dark side, usually reflecting the darkness inside the human soul, and as ever, there will be traditional fairy tales that have been turned on their heads, twisted round and seen from a whole new viewpoint.






 
Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?


 





A difficult question to answer when talking about a short story collection, but I think I would have to go with completely unknown actors. When I am watching a movie and I recognise one of the actors but can’t remember what film they were in before, I find it very distracting. I would want the audience to be completely immersed, not suddenly yelling “Oh, he was in X-Men!” halfway through.
















What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?



A collection of short stories and tangled fairy tales, showing the world through fresh eyes.















Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?



This collection will be self-published. As far as I am aware it is very difficult for unknown short story writers to gain representation, so I haven’t started submitting work to agents or publishers yet (although that is the plan when The Soul Bus is ready).










Who or What inspired you to write this book?




The beautifully encouraging comments and reviews of my first short story collection made me think it was worth producing some more. Now I have visions of the Strange Tales Collections growing year by year. I hope I can pull it off!



What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?






 Each of these stories should open up your mind to a new perspective, make you ask questions. What is it like to be an unborn child, with no concept of the self? What happens after the zombie apocalypse, when all humans have been killed or turned? Why do rich, privaledged people with little talent gain positions of influence while talented poor children end up stacking shelves in the supermarket? What if sleeping beauty was to wake in the 21st century?

 


How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?


 
Some of these stories have taken years of writing and rewriting, editing and screwing up and throwing away, re writing again. Others seemed to stroll into my mind fully formed and demand to be written. One story in particular must have come to me in a dream because as soon as I woke up that morning I sat down with my notebook and parker pen and didn’t stop scribbling until it was done. Of course it wasn’t perfect at that point, but it was almost as close as I could make it and I was very pleased. I was quite worried that I may have just regurgitated something I had read years before and forgotten; it came so easily. Having shown it to a few trusty betas now, I am fairly sure it is original after all, and I am tickled pink by it.


 
 What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?















That is a difficult one, but I do much admire Neil Gaiman’s short story telling prowess, and his Smoke and Mirrors collection explores similar themes to my work.



     Tag! You're it!  The five Lovely ladies I have tagged in for next week are:  






Karen Heard


Misa Buckley

 




 

Karen Leigh


 Dr Emma Briant










 and last but by no means least
Heather Smith (who hasn't got a blog, so shall be returning here to guest - link to follow )

 


 
Looking forward to reading your entries ladies, have fun :~)

 














 







 

 









    






















 



 



 





 



 



 



 

The Show Must Go On

  Everyone loves a good show, the lights, the make-up, the
pretty girls singing songs, the actors that can produce a smile or a laugh or a
tear with the mere twitch of an eyebrow, the carefully pitched tone of a line.



The show must go on. So few ask why.



Partly it is the sheer energy that goes into it, the months
of rehearsals, the bitter arguments over the precise stance of an actor
delivering his monologue, the momentum. The performers think the show must go
on because of the paying audience, people who have worked long hours, denied
themselves luxuries for this one evening of entertainment. The audience thinks
the show must go on because of the hours of hard work the performers have
invested, the energy and the time. They see it as a mark of respect, thanking
those people for their time with rapturous applause.  The truth is the build-up of those things –
the energy it all creates.



The show must go on, for They need to be fed.



They live in the darkness, under the floors, scuttling in
the echoes of long dead applause. They feed off of the build-up, the effort,
the sweat and sprained ankles. They feed off of the rapture of the audience,
the nerves of the dancers, watching themselves for the first imperfection that
spells the beginning of the end. They feed on the fear of a bad show, the hope
for a good one.



They have been there for centuries, quietly growing in
numbers, biding their time. They are the reason the audience leaves the theatre
exhausted, the reason the performers crash the moment the last curtain call has
passed.



They are the reason you rarely see an elderly performer, why
those in the business become hollowed out, empty. Those that have spent so long
being another person, and have lost who they are underneath the costumes. They
have been quietly feeding away, stealing souls.



They have scuttled in the darkness too long; cramped and
crowded. They have grown strong now, living off people’s dreams.

 

The Mind Pit

I live too much in my own head.



It is a dangerous place to wander through, swinging a summer
picnic basket.



There is always the pit to be skirted, lurking like a Lego
brick in the dark.



So easy to slip into, so hard to scramble out of, the Pit of
Beasts.



And once inside the beast called Self-doubt smothers you in
an almost loving embrace, while Insecurity spears you with barbs, filling you
with the poison that chants:



“You will never be good enough, brave enough, liked enough.”



And Paranoia whispers in your ear that they do not love you,
do not even like you, they whisper behind your back.



And you start to feel that here is where you belong, in the
Pit of Beasts. You begin to fear leaving the darkness where no one can see you,
dread climbing back into the light.



The beasts laugh, and cling and whisper.



And your picnic basket lies in the long grass, forgotten.

777 Challenge!

Jess Sturman-Coombs, the fabulous author of the Pokerface
series nominated me for the 777 challenge. All you need to do is take 7
sentences from either page 7 or 77 or your current WIP: that can be from a
novel, short story, blog post or whatever.



I have several WIPs of different kinds. This is from The
Soul Bus (p 77):








“Has Haldor been in today?” Jeff asked casually.



The barman’s tri-fingered hand scratched at his exposed
brain slowly. Then he brought it down, covered in a gelatine substance and
sucked on it slowly, his half mouth sucking like a wet vacuum cleaner. Then he
grinned, a ghastly parody of a smile.



“Not yet” he wheezed, drool dribbling out of the corners of
his mouth.



Jeff took the drinks back to the table without replying.













Just to let you know that scene takes place in a pub called
The Seven Angels, in Hell. The barman is a demon type thing.








Now I just have to nominate 7 writer/bloggers to take on the
challenge….



You’re up:



Cameron Lawton



Karen Heard



Susie Holiday



Jessica Grey



Anna Meade



Megan Cashman



And….



Ryan Foley








Enjoy!

New Web page!

This is the new site where you can get all the info on New releases, all the links to get you to various different fiction I have on htere, and a blog of the ups and downs of  generally trying to be an eerging author in the Age Of Technology:  Victoria Pearson Let me know what you think!

Strange Love

Regular readers of my blog will know that I have been working on my collection of short stories for a while (a long and at times agonising while) but it is finally available to buy!

Strange Love is a collection of ten short stories sharing the (very loose) theme of Love. Some of them have appeared on this blog (or at least an early version has) but there are also several exclusive never before seen stories in there too.

It is available now through CreateSpace, but will be landing on Amazon and Kindle's virtual shelves in the next few days. Keep an eye on twitter and facebook for the links.

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who helped make this dream a reality; most of you know who you are and I couldn't ever have done this without your help, advice and support (and spelling correction).

Getting emotional now. Just post the link, woman! Oh, OK.

https://www.createspace.com/​3897326



Amazon Link:




http://www.amazon.co.uk/Strange-Love-Short-Stories-Twisted/dp/1477588396/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341861678&sr=8-1

150 word challenge - Night Driving

I love driving at night time, always have. Roof down, wind
in what’s left of my hair, cruising down empty lanes. Sometimes if I am on a
long, straight road, I turn off the lights and go as fast as I dare. Not for
long, you understand, just enough to remind myself that I am alive, and I want
to live.



It was on one such night, driving with my full beams on,
watching rabbits and foxes scramble from my presence that my life stopped all
together, or else it began in earnest.



I see him sitting on the side of the road, offer him
assistance. He smiles at me then and I am chilled, but I remind myself I am
bigger than this wasted figure before me, that I could floor him if chose to.



When he sinks his teeth into my neck I orgasm, and I am
ashamed.

Coming very soon...