Andrew Toynbee's Blog, page 19

Six Sentence Sunday – the sword

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This week’s SSS is an extract from the later part of  ‘A Construct of Angels’.

Michael, our reluctant angel, has just given battle to a demonic swordsman, driving him from the streets of York.  Michael holds one of a pair of black swords in his hand; the other is jammed into the tarmac nearby – the result of a clever defence move by Michael.  However, the swordsman has left behind a dangerous mob, which Michael is holding at bay with the captured sword – although events are about to conspire against him.

Sara takes up the story;

Before my astonished eyes, the black blade began to disintegrate, dropping to the ground like crumbling ashes.

Michael hurled the hilt aside and stared at his hand in horror – a cold chill had raised goosebumps along the entire length of his arm.

The mob chuckled; many of them raised their bottles and makeshift clubs.

A knife flashed, my nerve broke and I leapt forward, racing across the slick street towards Michael. 

My hands reached out towards the second sword that had now toppled, the satin blade having softened the tarmac to leave a puckered crater in the black surface of the road. 

Michael shook himself out of his daze, his darkening fingers reaching for my arm as my fingers closed around the hilt…but he was too late – I was already beyond his reach.

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Hope you like it!

Write on!

Wednesday Worries

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It occurred to me last night that most, if not all, writers fret about their content and I began to wonder about the whole process of worry and uncertainty.

Do natural worriers make good writers?  Do we excel at creativity because our brains are always active, imagining events that range from statistically probable to those that will never happen even in the pages of a bad novel?

My mind, sadly, seems to be on a constant drive towards pessimism.  Some days, when my fret gland is active, my Muse goes into overdrive, conjuring up a series of ‘what-if’ scenarios that leave me questioning my sanity.

For example;  I can be driving past a police car and my Muse will whisper; ‘What if they decide to pull you over?  What if some of the flour that you bought last week leaked onto the carpet?  They might think you’re a dealer and arrest you.  You could end up in a holding cell with a vicious biker gang that’s out to make a headline.  They could kill you.  By the time the police realise it’s only flour you could have lost an eye, or a limb.  And then what would happen to your writing?’

This is the point where I look my Muse directly in the eye and say;

‘Seriously – WTF?’   

She will calm down and take her meds as prescribed and become lucid for a time, but then, without warning;

‘You know how you think you turned the gas cooker off, but you’re not sure because you might be remembering turning it off yesterday and only think that you did it this morning, but you might really have forgotten and when you get home and you turn on a light, it could set off a spark and blow up the whole house?’

Me;  FFS – The house is all-electric.

Muse;  Oh.  I worry too much, don’t I?  I think I will take a tablet.

Me;  Thank you.  Please do.

Muse;  *Pauses with the tablet close to her mouth*  ‘But did you ever wonder about Lenticular clouds – you know, the ones that look like flying saucers?  What it they really were flying saucers in stealth mode and they were watching us?  And what if flying saucers weren’t aliens but visitors from our future and they want to know why it all went wrong so that they could guide us to a better tomorrow?’

Me;  Now, look…

Muse;  I know. I’m sorry.  I’ll take that tablet now.

Me;  No, no.  *searches for a pen*  Seriously, that last one is a great idea – tell me it again so that I can write it down.  It could become a novel – a series, even.  Maybe Hollywood will pounce on it and offer me millions.

Muse;  *swallows tablet* Hmm?  Sorry, what idea?

*Andy groans*

So, is your mind naturally over-active?  Do you, as a writer, constantly ponder the (often far-reaching) consequences of your actions?  Does your Muse deliver a stream of possible and impossible scenarios – one of which might be a gem of a story?

For the sake of my sanity, I hope it does.

For your sanity, I hope it doesn’t.

Please let me know if I’m alone in this.

If I am, I will seek immediate help from the family of accupuncturist hedgehogs that live in the fairies nest at the bottom of my garden…

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Write on!

Six Sentence Sunday – on time!

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Today’s SSS is an extract from ‘A Vengeance of Angels’.  Again, it contains a mild spoiler if you haven’t read the first story; A Construct of Angels.’  So if you don’t want to know how the first book ends, please look away now.

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Michael, now an ex-angel and mortal being, is being addressed by an elderly hospice patient – one who has a reputation as a seer…

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Agatha Carpenter waved a bony finger at me and I felt the chill of one whose fate is irrevocably sealed.  I’d felt it before – as a doomed gladiator, as a convicted witch, as a Jew amongst the Nazis…

“The black swordsman is falling to Earth!” she wailed in a voice edged with hysteria.  “He seeks the one who shines most brightly – and all around him shall perish!” 

I knew a moment of panic. 

She could only be referring to one person; one Anakim…and he was coming for me.

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Write on!

Six Sentence Sunday – a day late.

Apologies, but I was very busy yesterday.  Something involving an autojumble, a three-metre table and the sale of my life-long collection of model cars.

So, to cheer myself up, I selected six sentences from my now-published book ‘A Construct of Angels’.

image courtesy of Hotblack at Stock Xchng

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This scene takes place once Michael the impromptu angel has been incarcerated in York’s Bootham Park Hospital, a secure (and real-life) mental care unit.

He had been babbling in mutiple (sometimes ancient) languages as well as trying to tear the flesh from his own arms and was promptly assessed by the authorities as mentally incapable.

Sara Finn, the paramedic who was partly responsible for not only causing him to fall to Earth, but for his imprisonment, is feeling terribly guilty about what has happened and decides to visit him.  A nurse called Susie escorts her to Michael’s room, where he appears to be acting very strangely;

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I watched, fascinated, as Michael pressed his fingers to his eyes, then flipped open his hands to form blinkers.  

For several seconds, he stared at his reflection in the acrylic mirror above the small sink, then covered his eyes before flipping open his hands to stare at his reflection once again.

“He does that a lot,” Susie said, her voice tinged with sadness.  

“But each time he does it, it’s…” her voice trailed off as if she was uncertain of her own thoughts.

“It’s..?” I prompted.

“Well, it’s as if he’s expecting to see a different face looking back at him.”

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Write on in 2013!

Wednesday Woes

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Some time ago I scoffed at the notion that my sequel to ‘A Construct of Angels’ might be as difficult to …er… construct as the original.

See The difficult second novel?  Nah!

Well, my confidence has taken a knock.  I’m not afraid to admit it, although I do feel slightly foolish at having to retract my former statement.

The high wave that I had been sailing upon, fresh from the joy of having finally achieved a lifetime’s ambition of publishing a book, has now flattened and I feared that I was facing a spell in the doldrums, bereft of the guiding wind that was my Muse.

As the tale within ‘Construct’ drew to a close, I had a clear and certain idea of where the sequel was heading and I’d even planned the ending – something which had been of tremendous help when I’d initially drafted ‘Construct’.

But now that idea is wavering.  I still know how the sequel (A Vengeance of Angels) is going to conclude, but as I passed 25,000 words, I lost focus, the thread and my sense of timing.

I can’t tell you much, but ‘Vengeance’ doesn’t follow directly on from the end of ‘Construct’.  Rather, it meshes with it, beginning two days before ‘Construct’ ended.  That, dear reader, is how I painted myself into a very tight corner.  I still have several events that need to transpire before the ending of ‘Construct’ is briefly revisited and the story continues from that already-published conclusion.

image courtesy of Sol One at Stock Xchng

So, rather than despair, I reached deep into the archives and dug out my old day-by-day spreadsheet.

click to read spreadsheet

(The above is a sample I put together to illustrate its uses.  If this inspires you in any form, feel free to create a story from it.)

This is one of the very few ‘planner’ tools I used in ‘Construct’ (I AM a confirmed ‘pantser’ after all), but it was invaluable to me.

Armed with this, I intend to review what I’ve already written, then forge ahead and plan out exactly how my self-imposed spiders web of a narrative will unfold.

What was that, you say?  Why can’t I ever do anything the easy way?  For the answer to that, you’ll have to ask my Muse.

Where is she, by the way?

*sighs*  Well, as Kenny Rogers nearly said; ‘You picked a fine time to leave me Loose Wheel.’

Watch this space for a word count that will clock up faster than Clark Griswold’s Christmas electricity bill!

Write on in 2013!

Six Sentence Sunday – A Vengeance of Angels

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I humbly offer you six sentences from my current WIP.

It contains (mild) spoilers if you haven’t yet read the first book; ‘A Vengeance of Angels.’

I knew that Sara’s mind wasn’t ready to face the world – not yet. 

Only hours after saving humanity – and me – from the clutches of the Dark Realm, she lay unconscious and still in the bed behind me, monitored by the human machinery that would alert us to any improvement in her condition.

‘Human’ machinery…  I snorted. 

I’d have to get used to dropping the word ‘human’ from my thoughts – I was one of them now, as I had been when I was Joseph Barrett, Clyde Wilmslow, Pavel Yolkina, Akari Nakagawa …

I sighed. 

So many lives; so many names to remember. 

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Write on in 2013!

I’ve only been and gone and done it again!

image courtesy of shadowkill at Stock Xchng

This weekend, I did a quick mental calculation and realised that ‘A Constuct of Angels’ had been live on Amazon for almost three months.

How time flies!

Rightly or wrongly, I’d signed up to KDP Select’s 90-day exclusivity deal in order to test the Amazonian waters (well, it WAS my first time) and was interested by Amazon’s ‘Lending Library’ scheme that promised authors a share of umpteen millions per month depending on how many books were borrowed by other KDP members.  Part of the downside of this is that the author has to sign an exclusivity deal with Amazon for a minimum of 90 days.  Well, those 90 days have now expired and I had a peek at how many of my books had been borrowed by other KDP Select members.

So…(opens envelope), Ladies and Gentlemen, the number of borrowed books after 90 days totalled exactly (drum roll, please);

Zero, nada, nill.

Zero multiplied by umpteen millions = ?  Well, you can do the math, as they say.

Sheesh.

Amazon automatically renew KDP Select for the author, UNLESS that author remembers to untick the renewal box.  With only two days to go, I unticked and have now dipped my toe into the next part of the adventure.

‘A Construct of Angels’ continues to be live at Amazon, but as of today, it’s also available from Smashwords in multiple formats.

Now, I’ve been warned that Smashwords is not simply a ‘post and forget’ site; that marketing work needs to continue.

Smashwords has many detractors on various blog sites, with some authors complaining about low sales.  Others are constantly chiding these same authors for not marketing effectively.

So it will be an interesting experiment.  A steep learning curve lies ahead, but I intend to do everything that my spare time allows to spread the word.

Also, now that I’m no longer tied into Amazon, I’m free to explore beyond the boundaries.  To infinity – and beyond?

I will let you know how I get on.

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Write on in 2013!

The Next Big Thing

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(A really BIG THING – loosely relevant image of the day)

I was very thoughfully tagged in The Next Big Thing  Author blog hop by Jon at jumpingfromcliffs - what a great start to the New Year!

No, I haven’t seen a badge…despite back-tracking this award through several blogs.  I’m not sure that there is an official one, although I did borrow the image below from Michelle Proulx – hope you don’t mind, Michelle!

the next big thing

The Next Big Thing is part interview and part award, consisting of a series of questions about a writer’s latest work and how it came to be.

What is the working title of your book? It began as ‘Angels Instead’, partly as a nudge in the ribs towards the glut of vampire books and partly as a nod towards Robbie Williams’ song ‘Angels’ which contains the line ; ‘I’m loving angels instead.’  That line helped to drive this book from concept to completion, despite some very trying times.

What genre does your book fall under?  I originally categorised it as a paranormal romance but have since found out that it’s also an urban fantasy.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?  One sentence?  Sheesh…it took me months to condense it down to two paragraphs.

*taps side of mouth thoughtfully.*

Okay, here goes.  A paramedic accidentally pulls an angel to Earth, where she discovers that he has only six days to save humanity from a terrible fate.

Where did you get the idea for your book?  A combination of ‘what if…?’ questions that coalesced into one story.  ‘What if a dead body suddenly came back to life?’  ‘What if Hell launched an all-out attack on Heaven?’ ‘What if a human fell in love with an angel (as opposed to a vampire or werewolf)?’

Who or what inspired you to write this book? It began as a collaboration with a friend, but our diverging ideas led to my story becoming a prequel to the main idea and her story as the future events that would follow.  Sadly, she didn’t continue with her part.  I very nearly foundered too, but Robbie Williams’ song, echoing in my head, made me determined to pick myself up and continue with my prequel.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript? The ‘Hell attacks Heaven’ idea was conceived in late 2009, but my part didn’t really take shape until March 2010.  I finished the first draft about a year later. 

What other books would you compare this story with in your genre? I deliberately haven’t read other Angel romances in order to avoid any story influencing and I haven’t found any Vampire romances that have a similar storyline, so I couldn’t really say.  I’d like to think my story was unique as it doesn’t feature any love-struck teenagers in high school, but of course, comparisons can always be made with other books.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?  That’s an easy one to answer.  When I was writing my story I kept several celebrities in mind as visual character references.

Janeanne Garafalo (The Truth about Cats and Dogs) would play Sara Finn, my main character,

with Tom Ward (Silent Witness) as Michael the Angel.

A younger Rutger Hauer (in his Blade Runner days) would be ideal as the Aryan (the antagonist)

with Sara’s medical colleagues played by Alexander Siddig (Deep Space Nine)

and Kyle McLachlan.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?  I tried to interest every genre-relevant agency in the UK for over the course of a year, but no-one seemed to be interested.  I was about to begin targeting the US agencies when the notion of self-publishing occurred to me.  I’d seen many articles about it and with a good deal of help from several bloggers, I self-published in October 2012.

What else about your book might pique your reader’s interest?  The notion that Angels are constructed from clusters of souls.  That and the fact that Heaven is dangerously close to losing the war with Hell.

Thank you for taking part in the Next Big Thing Author Tour.

And now comes the point where I pass on the TNBT baton.

I’m to nominate five writers and bloggers who inspire, entertain and motivate me on a daily basis.

I’m going to try to avoid duplication so I’m not including patwoodblogging or Nightwolf’s Corner or Unravelling my Mind as Jon just nominated them and they’d be answering the same questions twice.

Michelle Proulx, Candace Knoebel and James Calbraith have also recently been tagged.

So I hereby nominate;

Ryan Casey

Cookie 5683

Casey Voight

Introverted blogger

Writeminds authors

I have had so much fun in the short time I’ve been blogging – and I’ve learned a great deal in the process.  I look forward to learning more, sharing your experiences looking out for your latest (or debut) books in the various electronic outlets.

Write on in 2013!

Fame…such a fickle [fik-uh l] thing!

This week, WordPress sent me two notifications and I was thrilled to read them.

Firstly this one;

and then, shorty afterwards, this one;

I’d just like to throw out a great big

to everyone who has elected to follow my relatively random and possibly insane ramblings as I stumble and fumble my way through blogging.

I’m still astounded that I have been blogging for less than six months (I checked today) and people have found me interesting enough to push my following so high, so quickly.  Thank you again for following me whilst I continue to develop my (rather haphazard) style.

FYI…one of my (rather loose) resolutions for 2013 was to achieve fifty, then a hundred followers.  Ambitious, I know, especially when I told myself quite firmly (I can be tough on myself and often fear myself coming in the door) that I would not simply ‘trawl’ for followers, but interact with those bloggers whose content I find to be most fascinating, entertaining and instructional.

So if you’re reading this…it’s because I LOVE YOUR WORK!!

I hope I’m able to provide a little of the same in return.

(Alternatively, if you’ve dropped by on the offchance or because you think I have an odd Gravatar (I AM in there…bottom left)., then WELCOME!  Please join the throng)

My other rezzie in 2013 is to read through everyone’s posts – something that began to slip last year.  But I’ve now rearranged my inbox to collect all posts in one folder so that they won’t slip between the floorboards, as it were.

I look forward to following everyone’s content in 2013 – some of the New Year stories have already been hilarious.

Happy blogging everyone!

Write on in 2013!

Chatterbox Hall of Fame shortlist

I’ve had a lot of fun and have learned a great deal about blogging AND publishing since I began actively blogging and posting back in July this year – and I have made a lot of new friends.

According to the WordPress stats, here is a list of the top five chatterboxes who have kept me entertained this year;

Thank you to everyone named, plus everyone else who didn’t make the top five but was kind (and patient?) enough to interact with me.

I know that some bloggers chatted to me by email, thus keeping them from the WordPress top spot.  Thank you also.

I look forward to chatting with you and commenting on your posts in 2013.

Bliadhna Mhath Ùr!

(Happy New Year)

Write on in 2013!