Avril Sabine's Blog, page 14

Experiment X-One-Six

When I first came up with the idea for Experiment X-One-Six I was originally a little daunted by all the science research I needed to do. Although I never hated science at school, I was never absolutely in love with it like I was with English and History. But I was soon lost in the fun of research, learning about DNA, viruses, white blood cells and growth plates. The ideas for the story began to develop further and I found myself researching rigor and livor mortis, thermal imaging, security systems and the Norse goddess Idunn. It sometimes surprises me the mix of subjects I end up researching for a story.

Years ago, before the internet, I had to wait until I could visit a library to do all my research, which would often slow down my writing. Sometimes it’s possible to make a note to check facts and go on with the story. At other times it isn’t. Particularly if a plot line hinges on a fact being a certain way. These days it’s good to be able to check facts and research information as I need it. Since I don’t do much planing I never know exactly what will happen next in my story.

The research didn’t finish there. I had so many other topics I needed to learn about. Anyone need to know how much blood is in the human body? Well, that’s in the book too. You can now buy the ebook version of Experiment X-One-Six on Amazon and hopefully the print version will be available later this year.

Torn Grate

I saw this grate some time ago and wouldn’t even know if it was still damaged. Now I’m sure most people would look and think vandals, thieves or something equally ordinary. While one part of my brain, way at the back in an almost unnoticed place thought that, the rest of my brain was going along on different tracks. Such as wondering what clawed its way out of there. A closer inspection showed documents on the other side of the hole and of course demonic texts instantly came to mind.

Maybe it was a vandal, out for a bit of fun and while trying to lever the grate open they cut themselves. A droplet of blood fell inside when they put their hand in the opening. Bored, they turned away, only to freeze at the sound of sizzling. Peering into the gap they saw smoke rising from an ancient tome. The smoke began to form a shape and a demon became solid, asking how he could repay the vandal for setting him free. What a pity no one had ever warned the vandal that demons tend to twist requests so that what you think you’re asking for is never what you end up receiving.

Aschenputtel

While I was reading through numerous fairytales, trying to decide which one I wanted to retell, I stumbled across Aschenputtel. I noticed so many similarities to Cinderella and after some research learned it was the original Cinderella story. It’s fascinating how stories change over time and it made me think of a game I played in primary school. Everyone would sit in a circle and one person would whisper a phrase to the person next to them. After the phrase had been whispered around the circle the last person would say what they had been told. It was never the same as what the first person had said and sometimes so different that it bore absolutely no resemblance to the original phrase at all.

In Aschenputtel you won’t find a fairy godmother, mice or pumpkin coaches. What you will find is a character who makes far more of her own decisions in going after her dreams. And that is someone I can relate to far more than the Cinderella who waits to be rescued.

Aschenputtel is now available on Amazon.

The Two Chairs

If it’s one thing I don’t lack, it’s story ideas. I see them everywhere. Often looking at a scene or artwork will give me a snippet of an idea. Sometimes those ideas become stories, at other times they’re added to my large file of ideas in the hope that one day I’ll find the time to write them. The following is the snippet of a story that came to me when I saw this photograph.

He could see them, only ten metres from him now. There on the beach where they’d always been, side by side. Close enough that a person could reach out and take the hand of the one in the chair beside them, yet far enough apart that the little fold up table could be set between them with afternoon tea placed upon it. They sat overlooking the lake so that when the grandkids came to visit, they could be supervised and yet when it was only the two of them there was a relaxing view to enjoy.

Seven and a half metres away now. Closer than yesterday. He could almost see her sitting in her chair. The one on the right. Always the one on the right. Even in bed her side was on the right. Seven metres away. The sun might have been setting, but it was more than bright enough to see the chair was empty. Even when his vision blurred it was clear to see no one was there. He ran the back of his hand across his eyes. He remained still. Seven metres. Maybe tomorrow he’d manage to get close enough to touch the timber of the backrest. The kids didn’t know what they were talking about. It wasn’t just a chair. It was where she’d spent so many hours, sometimes even in the rain, telling him to join her.

His shoulders slumped at the thought of never hearing that request again. Never hearing her voice. He turned away, unable to look at them a moment longer. Maybe he’d try again tomorrow. It wasn’t like it had been that long. Barely a year. He trudged back to the house, the building as empty as the chair.

The Irish Wizard

I had a lot of fun writing my children’s novel, The Irish Wizard, but even more fun watching the cover being created. It was a surreal feeling to see an image of some scenery from my book in front of me. I could picture Hailey and Lachlan walking along the dirt road, Hailey following her brother into more mischief, his enthusiasm convincing her. I could see some of the other characters from the story walking along that road too. Liam O’Neil as he headed off into the distance, Granny Esme on her way to meet them and Soren taking one of his infrequent trips into town. The Irish Wizard is now available to purchase on Amazon and is an urban fantasy aimed at upper primary school children.

Notorious

“Do you want to be a pirate?” Neither of my boys were in the least bit surprised by my question.

The youngest nodded. “Sure.”

My oldest asked, “Where are we going?”

“To see a replica of a fifteenth century caravel.”

“Can we go on it?” my youngest asked.

“Yep.”

That one word convinced them. Next came figuring out the important details such as who was taking photos and who would use the camcorder, since this was also a research trip for me. Who says research can’t be fun?

The ship, ‘Notorious’, was launched from Port Fairy, Victoria, Australia in 2011 and took ten years to build. If you want to learn more about Graeme and Felicite Wylie’s ship check out Wikipedia. You can also find ‘Notorious’ on Facebook.

We caught our first glimpse of the ship while walking down a dirt path. We came around a stand of trees and saw a timber ship at the end of the dock. She looked like something misplaced in time. An old fashioned ship tied up to a modern dock, looking very majestic for all that she seemed out of place.

Wayne welcomed everyone aboard, answering the many questions people had. Regaling us with fascinating stories about building the ‘Notorious’ and sailing her. Once on board, with the gentle sway of the deck beneath my feet, the breeze against my face and the tang of salt in the air, I couldn’t help noticing how solid everything looked. We were surrounded by polished timber and masts towered over us with furled sails. The reclaimed wood, the ship had been built from, added to the charm and feeling of authenticity.

We took the narrow steps leading below deck and found ourselves in an area with several large trunks. Obviously somewhere for pirates to keep their treasure. It was amazing being below deck and unable to see the modern world I could easily imagine we were in some long gone era. Imagine that we were taking on supplies before setting off to explore the seas on some great adventure. About to face sea monsters, fight pirates, capture great treasures and return home laden with the bounty of our voyage.

If you ever have the chance to visit ‘Notorious’, or any other replica sailing ship, I highly recommend going. We loved every moment of it and were disappointed we couldn’t become stowaways.

Sleeping Beauty

One of the fairytales I had the most unanswered questions about when I was a child was Sleeping Beauty. There were so many things about it that didn’t make sense as I reread the story and thought over the storyline. By mid primary school I even went so far as to search out several different version of the story to see if other writers had answered any of my many questions. Sadly they hadn’t so I continued to come up with my own answers. Much of what went into my retelling of Sleeping Beauty are those answers I came up with in primary school. Ones I thought on for many hours. Answering then rethinking and altering them a little bit each time until the story made sense to me.

Fairytales Retold: Sleeping Beauty is now available on Amazon. This retelling is told from the perspective of the prince.

Why?

It was pointed out to me that when I talk about my stories I nearly always mention the questions that occurred to me while I’m writing the story. Questions are one of the main techniques I use when it comes to writing. Things like, why would she do this? What could he do in that situation? What would happen if you add this into the mix? Why, what, how, who, when, where. They are constantly running through my mind when I’m writing. Or even when I’m thinking about writing. So it’s no surprise that I mention them when I’m talking about my stories.

I’ve always been extremely curious, even as a young child. Just like then my favourite question was ‘why’. And it is such a great question. Unless of course you’re the parent of an inquisitive three-year-old and then it’s probably more like a form of torture for most people. Except for me. I loved all the questions my kids asked and still enjoy them. They make me think of even more questions that I can solve.

Now the reason I think ‘why’ is such a great question is because it raises so many important points. Why is a character doing something? Do they have a logical reason and is it something they would be likely to do given their personality and background? Why is this happening? Is it the obvious result of what occurred before or a result of the character’s actions? All through the story I’m always asking ‘why’. This is often followed by ‘what’, my second favourite question and usually followed by ‘why’ again. What should happen next? And why? What is that character likely to do? And why? What are the possibilities? And why?

Luckily those possibilities are often endless. Just like the questions. All those endless possibilities and questions lead to numerous story ideas. Which is one of the reasons why I never lack for stories to write.

Dealings With Joe

I used to hate writing short stories. I found them so confining and almost impossible to write. It took me a while to realise that it wasn’t short stories I didn’t like writing it was that most of my ideas are far too big to be contained in a small amount of words. That many of my small ideas were too big to fit into a few thousand words. So I’d start out planning to write a short story and end up with thirty to fifty thousand words. There would be nothing wrong with the story, except for the fact it wasn’t the short story I’d set out to write. Eventually, I learned how many words it generally takes me to write a particular idea. I also figured out that I don’t have many short story ideas and the ones I do often end up closer to novellas in size.

Now I want to make it clear that I’m not complaining. It was just frustrating, aiming to do one thing and ending up doing something else instead. Even though it was a good something else, I still wanted to figure out why I wasn’t achieving my goal. The problem was that it took me a while to recognise ideas that were going to grow once I started writing them. I finally figured out that the ideas that have numerous questions that need answering, are definitely going to grow.

Although occasionally an idea comes along that ruins that theory. Which is what happened with Dealings With Joe. It was a short story that had me asking a lot of questions, but still managed to remain short. Dealings With Joe is now available on Amazon.

Supanova

Earlier this month I went to Supanova, on the Gold Coast, where I launched Demon Hunters 3: Tainted. It was a great event and I absolutely loved all the costumes. It was like seeing the characters from some of my favourite movies, games and books come alive. Not to mention some of the genres I like, such as Steampunk, wandering around. The amount of effort and creativity that went into some of the costumes was amazing.

There were people dressed as characters from The Elderscrolls, which are games I’ve loved since they first came out and I’ve played ever since. And of course there were storm troopers, Darth Vaders and Jedis. I saw numerous Doctor Whos and there was a Tardis you could stand beside and have your photo taken.

There were League of Legend Champions, Pokemon, Disney Princesses, Sailor Moon, Captain Jack Sparrow, Lego man, Hogwart students, warriors, and superheros. Just to name a few. So many of the people were good about stopping and posing for photos when asked.

There were also lots of booths filled with amazing items for people to buy. Artwork, jewellery, memorabilia, costumes and of course books. There was so much to see and do. Many of the people I talked to said they were glad they came both days or they wouldn’t have had enough time for everything.

It was a great weekend and I certainly want to go to another one.