Joshua Reynolds's Blog, page 49

WIP Wednesday #25: Two-Five

This week has been busy. Lots of things, all needing to be done soonest.

The Sea Leopard continues its crawl towards a complete first draft. At 110,000 word mark, I’ve finally reached the downward slide into the climax. I’m hoping to have the first draft completed by the weekend, but in all likelihood, work will continue well into next week. Which isn’t the end of the world, schedule-wise, but closer than I like to cut it.

It’s a flaw in the design–there are possibly too many moving pieces, and all need to be nudged to a satisfying conclusion. Seven main characters, eight secondary characters and a host of tertiary characters, all scrambling for space. Some will be excised entirely from the second draft, while others might get their parts expanded slightly. I’m trying not to think about that yet.

On the short story front, I’ve been working on a small one for an unfamiliar intellectual property, which I can’t really discuss. It’s fun, though. Bit of a farce, with added magic and zombies.

Once I finish this one, I’ve got five more short stories to write before the end of September. Which sounds like a lot, but really isn’t. That’s three whole months, after all.

I’ve also revised a few pitches at the request of various editors, made a few new pitches, and signed various contracts for things I can’t discuss yet. Like I said, a busy week.

By the way, if you haven’t picked up a copy of the newest entry in the Adventures of the Royal Occultist, The Infernal Express, why not do so today? And if you’ve already read and enjoyed it, feel free to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Monday Carnacki

Last week, I mentioned Carnacki: The Lost Cases, an anthology coming soon from Ulthar Press. Today, I’ve got a sneak peek at the cover art, courtesy of editor Sam Gafford.

Carnacki: The Lost Cases is due to be released in print, in July of 2016. Contributers include William Meikle, John Linwood Grant and Charles R. Rutledge.

The Lost Cases

Ulthar Press has announced the table of contents for Carnacki: The Lost Cases, an anthology of all-new Carnacki stories. Each story is based on one of the ‘lost cases’, i.e. those of Carnacki’s adventures which were mentioned in passing, but never explored in detail. My story, “The Delphic Bee”, explores the strange events of the Buzzing Case, which finds Carnacki in East Sussex, investigating an apiarian phantom.

Carnacki: The Lost Cases is scheduled for release next month.

WIP Wednesday #24: Fatigue

It’s week 24 out of…however many weeks are in a year. Is it a leap year? Does that matter? Probably not. The work continues regardless.

The first draft of The Sea-Leopard has broken the 100K mark. It currently stands at 101,987 words. There’s not many left, thankfully.

I’ve reached that point in the draft where I see more problems than solutions. Too many characters, the plot is too complex, too many moving parts, etc. Partly, this is due to the length. This isn’t the longest book I’ve ever written–Neferata was 120K and Lord of the End Times was close to 140K–but it ‘s in the top three. I’ve been working on it on and off since November of last year, which might also account for my narrative fatigue.

Then, it might also just be that the draft will need a substantial overhaul once it’s complete. The only way to find out is to complete it. There comes a point in any writing process where sheer, dogged persistence is the only skill that matters. Where the writer has to drag the manuscript, bleeding and exhausted, over the finish line by any means necessary.

I am at that point. I will finish this draft before July. One way or another.

In happier news, I finished the draft for “Cemetery Gun” today. Rounding out at about 4,000 words, it’s a brutal little fantasy thriller featuring gun-play, grave-robbers and ghouls. I’ll let it sit for a few weeks before I attempt to revise it, but I’m fairly happy with it as is. I don’t have a market in mind for it yet, but I’m sure it’ll find a good home, eventually.

With that out of the way, I can concentrate on revising “Orbis Tertius”, an old, unpublished, Royal Occultist story, for a new occult detective themed market which has come to my attention. “Orbis Tertius” is an unabashed homage to one of my favourite short stories, “Tlon, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius”, by Jorge Luis Borges, and finds St. Cyprian and Gallowglass facing off against a predatory alternate reality in the heart of London.

Speaking of the Royal Occultist, if you haven’t picked up a copy of the newest entry in the Adventures of the Royal Occultist, The Infernal Express, why not do so today? And if you’ve already read and enjoyed it, feel free to leave a review on Amazon or Goodreads.

Zibaldone #14: No One Goes There

Today we have another bit of free writing from my commonplace book. Like the last one, it’s a nasty bit of southern fried weirdness, composed as a way of warming up for the day’s writing. It’s more a vignette than a story in and of itself. The old store, and its odd decorations, is a real place, though there’s nothing inside but empty shelves and cobwebs.

The store has been closed now for close to fifty years. The paint has all curled off, like strips of dead skin and the tin roof is full of flyspeck holes that make a whimpering sound during the lightning season. 

In the back room, fifty years ago, something happened. Just something, nobody knows what. Not really. A baby was born. Or a baby died. Maybe it was knives over cards, and blood dripping on an ace of spades. Some folks, when they were younger and more honest, said there was a woman there, in a cage, who’d tell a story for a taste of something, but she wasn’t really a woman, because what woman has eyes that yellow, or hands that rough, with palms so thick they might be pads? What woman has wings?

She killed a boy, who couldn’t answer her question. That’s what they said. Now they don’t say anything. Children’s stories. All of them. Just ideas. Something happened, we know not what. It doesn’t matter. Not now. Not after sixty years. 

Trees grow close on all sides now and crowd the road that runs in front. You miss it, if you blink. Just a ghost of a place that once was. Something happened, but it doesn’t matter. The windows are barred with iron and pregnant with dust and pollen residue and spiderwebs that stretch from crack to crack like tiny ladders.

The door through which the smell of pork cooking and sweet sodas sweating in the hot air once drifted is closed and barred and locked triple-tight with iron and there are curled yellowed pages from a book stuffed in the cracks and corners. Sometimes, they wriggle loose and whip and writhe across the road, plastering themselves across the thick, black-barked trees, revealing their skin-names to the world.

Deuteronomy.

Genesis.

Judges.

Ruth.

Isaiah.

The storm season boils through, sending old, crumbling pages flying high and tumbling low, pulling them from door and shutter, sending them away into the deep woods. Leaving the door bare and blank. On the windows, the iron rusts softly, crying red tears through the dull years.

They say, that sometimes now, you can smell those old-timey smells coming from the door and from the windows again.

They say, sometimes, you can hear a woman laugh, in the wind. Or the rustle of great black wings against the bars of a cage that is rusting away into nothing as the tide of years laps against the shore. Waiting.

They say, under the moon, you hear a voice, asking a question. One that nobody has answered yet. One that will never be answered, because we’ve forgotten how.

They say these things, sometimes. But usually, no one says anything. Just children’s stories.

No one goes there anymore, though.

Vernian Processes

Just a quick reminder–the last day to preorder a copy of Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra is June 12th. This Sunday, in other words.

If you’re interested in getting a copy of the novella, either in trade or hardback, now’s the time to do it. And you can also grab a copy of Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows for your Kindle or other electronic device, if you’re of a mind.

If you’re on the fence about either, why not check out Bill Adcock’s review of Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra, as well as David Brzeski’s review of Phileas Fogg and the War of Shadows for the British Fantasy Society.

WIP Wednesday #23: Author Rank

A bit of wisdom for this Wednesday. Amazon author rankings are the devil. If you stare at them too long, they’ll claim your soul. Look at pictures of kittens instead. Much easier on the soul, kittens. Unless they’re evil kittens. Which, come to think of it, is every kitten ever. Scratch that. Look at pictures of fruit bats instead.

The Sea-Leopard is this week’s project primus. After a wholesale restructure and shakedown, the draft is still going to be a 120-130,000 word beast. But it’ll be a tighter 120k, if that makes sense. I know it doesn’t, but pretend for my sake. Despite the restructuring, none of the characters have changed much. Some of them are getting more page-time, however. Bad guys, mostly.

I like to give the antagonists some time on stage, if only to humanize them a bit. A one dimensional villain might as well be one of those themed goons Adam West used to punch in Batman. Show what they want and why they want it, and get the reader to understand, if not empathize, just a bit. Not exactly a deep cut regarding my writing process, but it’s free, and you’re welcome.

I’m still arguing with myself regarding magic and monsters and such. Originally, this was a historical with the serial numbers filed off. Then it got a bit weirder. Now there’re magic storms, sea monsters and the like. On the second pass at the draft, I might prune those elements or just go all in on them. It’s a fantasy novel, so I feel like there should be a monster or two, if only to keep things interesting.

Besides work on the amazing, ever-expanding novel, I’ve spent the past few days working on a variety of pitches for a publisher I’ve worked with before. Only one of them will end up becoming a full novel, but all of them are fairly exciting. Whichever one I end up working on will be a lot of fun to write, I suspect.

I’ve also outlined what I hope will be a submission for 18thWall Productions’ Speakeasies and Spiritualists anthology. It’ll be a Royal Occultist story, involving a seance, the skull of a man hanged at the Tyburn Tree, and a buried treasure. Nothing fancy, just a nice, creepy story, full of ectenic manifestations and ghostly black dogs.

With those out of the way, I need to commence edits on The Divine Drowned. This might take anywhere from an hour to a few days, depending on what I decide to do at this stage. Sometimes I like to rip things apart before I send them off to the editor, other times I decide to hold off until I see what they say. With this one, it could go either way. Hopefully I’ll get it done before the weekend.

Oh, and speaking of the weekend, you have until June 12th to preorder Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra. Do me a favor and maybe check that out, drop a few bucks on a copy.

That Way Madness Lies

Jonathan Green, editor of Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu has posted the full table of contents for the anthology at his blog. It’s a brilliant lineup, and I’m not just saying that because I’m included in it. There are stories by Graham McNeill, Guy Haley, Ian Edginton and James Lovegrove, among others.

My story, “A Tiger’s Heart, A Player’s Hide”, finds the Royal Occultist, John Dee, and his assistant, William Sly, investigating a mysterious pestilence afflicting the playhouses of London, even as the latest play by one William Shakespeare makes the rounds. Are the two related (probably!)? To find out, you’ll need to grab a copy of Shakespeare Vs Cthulhu later this summer.

And speaking of things that aren’t out yet, have you preordered Phileas Fogg and the Heart of Osra yet? There’s only a few days left to do so, if you were planning on it.

Wanderers in Shyish

As a tabletop tie-in writer, it’s always a fine thing to hear that a story you wrote inspired someone to create something spiffy. Frankly, it doesn’t happen very often with my stuff. But when it does, I like to call attention to it.

Case in point: these fine silver-armored wanderers in the Realm of Death, painted up by one Robert Crouchley, based on characters from the four part audio-drama series I wrote. Robert’s done a fine job of bringing Tarsus and his Bullhearts to the tabletop. A warrior chamber of the Hallowed Knights, these unfortunate Stormcast Eternals were sent to forge an alliance with Nagash, and had the bad luck to get on the Undying King’s bad side.

The four audios–“Prisoner of the Black Sun”, “Sands of Blood”, “Lords of Helstone”, and “Bridge of Seven Sorrows”–are still available for download from Black Library, if you’re interested. Too, there’s a new series of audio-dramas, written by David Guymer, which follows the surviving Bullhearts on their hunt for the treacherous Mannfred von Carstein. And be sure to check out Tyler Mengel’s reviews of the series and its sequel. He’s kindly reviewed all four episodes of the first series and the first two of the second.

Maybe give all that a look-see (and a listen) this weekend. And be sure to stop by The Grand Alliance Community and let Robert know how awesome his stuff is.

WIP Wednesday #22: Something Else

Not much to report this week. I finished the first draft of The Divine Drowned, three days later than I hoped and close to 6,000 words over the word limit. So that’s going to need some editing. In the meantime, have some Chris Calloway.

Fun Fact: I met Chris Calloway, once, years ago.

She was performing at my place of employment and several of us were given the task of shooing away her ardent (often elderly) admirers during intermission and afterwards. She was a lovely woman. Great sense of humor, amazing voice, beautiful laugh.

Also, watching her perform “Minnie the Moocher” live was a damn religious experience, I kid you not.