Pete Sutton's Blog, page 48
April 11, 2014
Guest post - Jonathan Pinnock - Flexible Ficton
Today's guest post comes from Jonathan Pinnock a fictioneer of some repute.
Jonathan Pinnock is the author of the novel MRS DARCY VERSUS THE ALIENS (Proxima, 2011), the Scott Prize-winning short story collection DOT DASH (Salt, 2012) and the forthcoming bio-historico-musicological-memoir thing TAKE IT COOL (Two Ravens Press, 2014). He blogs at www.jonathanpinnock.com and tweets as @jonpinnock.
Flexible Fiction
I’m ever so slightly uneasy about the term ‘flash fiction’. In some ways, I think I’d rather begin to think of ‘flexible fiction’ or, perhaps, ‘fiction without rules’. Because the thing about flash fiction is that the writer has – depending on the circumstances – been either been coerced or given permission to write something that is shorter than the standard n-thousand word, three-act story that the world has come to know and love.
Coercion and permission are two powerful creative forces. If as a writer you are coerced into writing something very short, you are forced to use some different storytelling techniques. You simply haven’t got the room to go into every single aspect of each character’s back story. So you have to learn how to hint: how to show something in a single brushstroke, like a Japanese painting. Or alternatively, you only tell a fraction of the story. You leave the reader to make up the rest. The extreme end of this is Twitter fiction, which can be surprisingly profound, or indeed one of those six word stories like the Hemingway ‘baby shoes’ one that gets trotted out at every conceivable opportunity.
Quite apart from the fact that the end result can be just as rewarding as a full-length (whatever that means) story, it’s a remarkably good creative writing exercise, like writing poetry, that feeds into all other aspects of storytelling. It teaches you concision, rhythm and word placement. I’m convinced that writing flash makes you a better all-round writer. I have no evidence for this whatsoever, incidentally, but I have frequently observed the converse phenomenon: whenever a big name writer tries to produce a piece of flash or – especially – Twitter fiction, the end result is often very disappointing.
Permission is another important creative force. If you are given permission to write something very short, you suddenly realise you have a much wider range of stories to tell. There are stories that are just too odd to hold an audience over longer than a few hundred words. And there are others that are too slight, so that if you try and stretch them over too wide an area, they’ll tear apart under the strain. If you widen your range of stories to include very short ones, you have a much greater chance of telling a story that hasn’t been told before. And that’s surely something that every writer should be looking for.
However, it has to be said that taking this kind of flexible approach to fiction isn’t universally loved. There’s an interesting piece by Susan Hill on Lydia Davis’ new collection, ‘Can’t and Won’t’ in the current edition of The Spectatorheadlined ‘Don’t let creative writing students read this book’. Now I must admit I struggle with Davis (I’m slowly working my way through her ‘Collected Stories’ and I’m finding it a bit hit and miss, although I freely admit that this is almost certainly my problem, not hers), but the last story that Hill quotes in her review is sublime, and enough to force me to try a bit harder.
However, what bothers me about the review – which is generally extremely positive – is that it concludes with these words, which presumably gave the piece its title:
Still think she is probably not for you? Let me put a proposal. Buy this book and read just one long piece called ‘The Letter to the Foundation’. If you don’t agree that it is a work of genius, a profound, beautiful, moving, many-faceted jewel of a thing, then Lydia Davis is indeed not for you, as she should not be if you are on creative writing courses. What do you mean, why? Because you would catch her, and there is only room in the world for one Lydia Davis.
First of all, I think there is plenty of room for more than one Lydia Davis – I can think of several more writers like her already who haven’t yet broken through to public consciousness. More importantly, I’m not sure I like the idea of being careful of not catching Lydia Davis, because I suspect that what she’s really saying is that you should be wary of catching flash fiction.
Flash fiction, then, is a bit scary. Tearing up the rules always is. But it’s also exciting, and that means there’s no better time to be a short story writer than now. Actually, there’s no better time to be a writer, full stop.
And I’m now going to break a rule here, too. I was asked for 1000 words. But I think I’ve said all I wanted to say, so I’m going to give myself permission to stop at around 750. That OK?
Jonathan, Kevlin Henney, Jonathan L Howard, Justin Newland, Louise Gethin, Cheryl Morgan & Pauline Masurel (as well as yours truly) will be appearing at BristolCon Fringe in a Flash on Monday 14th at 19:30 - come along and hear flash performed.....
Jonathan Pinnock is the author of the novel MRS DARCY VERSUS THE ALIENS (Proxima, 2011), the Scott Prize-winning short story collection DOT DASH (Salt, 2012) and the forthcoming bio-historico-musicological-memoir thing TAKE IT COOL (Two Ravens Press, 2014). He blogs at www.jonathanpinnock.com and tweets as @jonpinnock.
Flexible Fiction
I’m ever so slightly uneasy about the term ‘flash fiction’. In some ways, I think I’d rather begin to think of ‘flexible fiction’ or, perhaps, ‘fiction without rules’. Because the thing about flash fiction is that the writer has – depending on the circumstances – been either been coerced or given permission to write something that is shorter than the standard n-thousand word, three-act story that the world has come to know and love.
Coercion and permission are two powerful creative forces. If as a writer you are coerced into writing something very short, you are forced to use some different storytelling techniques. You simply haven’t got the room to go into every single aspect of each character’s back story. So you have to learn how to hint: how to show something in a single brushstroke, like a Japanese painting. Or alternatively, you only tell a fraction of the story. You leave the reader to make up the rest. The extreme end of this is Twitter fiction, which can be surprisingly profound, or indeed one of those six word stories like the Hemingway ‘baby shoes’ one that gets trotted out at every conceivable opportunity.
Quite apart from the fact that the end result can be just as rewarding as a full-length (whatever that means) story, it’s a remarkably good creative writing exercise, like writing poetry, that feeds into all other aspects of storytelling. It teaches you concision, rhythm and word placement. I’m convinced that writing flash makes you a better all-round writer. I have no evidence for this whatsoever, incidentally, but I have frequently observed the converse phenomenon: whenever a big name writer tries to produce a piece of flash or – especially – Twitter fiction, the end result is often very disappointing.
Permission is another important creative force. If you are given permission to write something very short, you suddenly realise you have a much wider range of stories to tell. There are stories that are just too odd to hold an audience over longer than a few hundred words. And there are others that are too slight, so that if you try and stretch them over too wide an area, they’ll tear apart under the strain. If you widen your range of stories to include very short ones, you have a much greater chance of telling a story that hasn’t been told before. And that’s surely something that every writer should be looking for.
However, it has to be said that taking this kind of flexible approach to fiction isn’t universally loved. There’s an interesting piece by Susan Hill on Lydia Davis’ new collection, ‘Can’t and Won’t’ in the current edition of The Spectatorheadlined ‘Don’t let creative writing students read this book’. Now I must admit I struggle with Davis (I’m slowly working my way through her ‘Collected Stories’ and I’m finding it a bit hit and miss, although I freely admit that this is almost certainly my problem, not hers), but the last story that Hill quotes in her review is sublime, and enough to force me to try a bit harder.
However, what bothers me about the review – which is generally extremely positive – is that it concludes with these words, which presumably gave the piece its title:
Still think she is probably not for you? Let me put a proposal. Buy this book and read just one long piece called ‘The Letter to the Foundation’. If you don’t agree that it is a work of genius, a profound, beautiful, moving, many-faceted jewel of a thing, then Lydia Davis is indeed not for you, as she should not be if you are on creative writing courses. What do you mean, why? Because you would catch her, and there is only room in the world for one Lydia Davis.
First of all, I think there is plenty of room for more than one Lydia Davis – I can think of several more writers like her already who haven’t yet broken through to public consciousness. More importantly, I’m not sure I like the idea of being careful of not catching Lydia Davis, because I suspect that what she’s really saying is that you should be wary of catching flash fiction.
Flash fiction, then, is a bit scary. Tearing up the rules always is. But it’s also exciting, and that means there’s no better time to be a short story writer than now. Actually, there’s no better time to be a writer, full stop.
And I’m now going to break a rule here, too. I was asked for 1000 words. But I think I’ve said all I wanted to say, so I’m going to give myself permission to stop at around 750. That OK?
Jonathan, Kevlin Henney, Jonathan L Howard, Justin Newland, Louise Gethin, Cheryl Morgan & Pauline Masurel (as well as yours truly) will be appearing at BristolCon Fringe in a Flash on Monday 14th at 19:30 - come along and hear flash performed.....
April 10, 2014
Spindrift by Peter Reason
I've been chatting with Peter Reason about his forthcoming book Spindrift.
Peter retired as Professor of Action Research at the University of Bath in 2009 and is now Emeritus Professor. His major contribution was to the development of participative approaches to action research in the human sciences and in management, approaches variously referred to as “co-operative inquiry”, “participatory action research”, and “action science” or “action inquiry”. In these forms of experiential action research all those involved in the inquiry process are co-researchers, contributing both to the thinking that forms the research endeavour and to the action that is its subject. He has published widely on co-operative inquiry and action research and has co-edited the Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice. Peter was also a founding faculty member of the MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice, a pioneering programme designed to address issues of sustainability and justice in business, drawing on action research approaches; and led action research projects including Lowcarbonworks, and inquiry into the adoption of low carbon technologies in industry.
Since retiring Peter has focussed less on action research and more on “nature writing for an ecology in crisis.” While he values the ‘bright green’ work of creating more sustainable institutions and economic systems, he believes the root of the sustainability problem is that modern humans are dangerously anthropocentric; somewhere in the development of civilization, we started to see ourselves as separate from, rather than part of, the community of life on Earth. Spindrift: A wilderness pilgrimage at sea is published in 2014. This narrative non-fiction book, uses the device of a travel story – a single-handed sailing voyage in the yacht Coral to the west coast of Ireland in April and June 2011 – to explore the nature of the human relationship with the ecology of the Earth. He is also co-editing a collection of responses to the challenge of the Great Turning.
Web: www.peterreason.eu
Blog: onthewesternedge.wordpress.com
Twitter: @peterreason
Tell us a little bit about the genesis of this book, what made you want to write it?
I wanted to write a book that treated serious questions about sustainability within an entertaining travel narrative, a book that was not just for the committed ‘greenies’ but for a wider audience. I had finished an academic career in which I explored issues of sustainability through teaching and research. I also wanted to reinvent myself, post retirement, as a writer of creative non-fiction; the books origins were as the final manuscript for the MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.
As well as a good description of the basics of sailing, for anyone who doesn’t know about it, it is also a deep inner journey. How did you go about blending the two? Did you write a travelogue first or was it an organic process?
It all went together, starting with conversations with my friend Gwen, who came with me the first week, as we talked together about the sea, how we experienced its colours and moods, especially at night. Then, sailing on alone, with no distractions, I found myself getting deeper into a reflective space, experience the sea and the coast as much as presences in my world as objective things.
You quote from many, obviously influential, works in the book, who would you say has had the greatest influence on your thinking?
Thomas Berry, who was a priest and a cultural historian, showed me how to link a scientific understanding of the earth and the universe with a spiritual one. I only met him once, but he was extremely influential, and in many ways this book is a homage to him
I felt it was a very rich experience, reading the book, there is a lot packed in there, how was the writing process – did you create a lot more and cut it down?
A huge amount of editorial process goes into a well-produced book. My tutors, my writing buddies, my agent and Vala editors all helped me see what was necessary and what needed to go. For example, a lot of theory went. My tutor at Bath Spa said I could only use the ideas that I usually carry around in my head, which stopped it getting too academic. A whole chapter toward the end of the book was cut. But the essence was the same throughout
You deliberately set out to have a conversation with the “more than human” world – do you think it’s possible to do this in daily life as well?
Of course... but not all the time. One of the things I am most pleased to discover is that the world so often opens to something wider and beyond the everyday. There are continual tiny moments where there is sacredness in the ordinary. The thing is to notice them, stay with them, savour them, rather than rush onto the next task
I like that you have a few self-reflective moments about trying to force things like itineraries to conform when things like weather and tides are not at our beck and call. I know you explore this more in the book but can you just expand a little here on why you think we all have this tension within us?
Somewhere in the development of civilization, Western people started to see themselves as separate from the natural world in which we evolved and of which we are a part. This leads us to attempt to dominate the natural world, to see ourselves as against nature. So we build bigger and more powerful technologies of control, which work for a while, but then come back to bite is. Climate change arises as a result of our cleverness in harnessing fossil fuels. But it is going to bite hard, as we can see already from the flooding and extreme weather we have been having. In a little boat you have to learn to go with the wind and tides.
Do you feel that a new chapter of your life has now started, post-pilgrimage?
I am a privileged person. I lead a happy and comfortable life. But underneath, what dominates my thoughts is the environment catastrophe to which we are so quickly heading. Not a day passes without my reflecting on this with a sense of dread. My continual question is, how should we respond? Of course there are lots of practical things that must be done by individuals, organizations and governments and international policy. But we must also learn to fall in love with the world again, engage with its beauty, or we won't have the spiritual energy to make the changes we need. So I continue to explore and write about the same kind of questions; that is my contribution, slight though its effects may be.
What’s next? Are you going to write more books?
Last summer I sailed my yacht Coral all the way round the west coast of Ireland to Scotland, blogging as I went (onthewesternedge.wordpress.com). I am working on another book, taking the same questions deeper. I am also deeply involved with the Vala Publishing Cooperative (www.valapublishers.coop) working to publish 'books from a better world'. We have some great and I think important books due out later this year.
Have you any more pilgrimages planned?
This summer I am taking Coral round the west coast of Scotland as part of my next book. I am also interested in the notion of everyday life as pilgrimage. Can we take the idea of pilgrimage, which is originally as a religious idea, and applying to our relationship to our world?
In one sentence was is your best piece of advice for new writers?
Write something, even little, as near to everyday as you can. Don't edit or change things, let the writing flow out. Go back later and see how it all fits together. Then edit ruthlessly. Bristol Book Blog Review Part travelogue, part inner journey, part deep thought on our place in the world. Peter Reason's book is a delight to read, redolent of the sea which infuses each page. He has thought long and hard and deep on the relationship between human and environment and it is this that shines through in the writing. As well as a brief description of the art of sailing, including the nautical naming conventions, which can be confusing to the landlubber (like me) Reason goes on to describe the outer journey he is taking in an effort to reconnect with the wild. This takes the form of sailing round the Irish coast, partly with a companion, partly alone. Drawing in many influential thinkers into his narrative he explores how we have become out of tune with the wider "more than human" world and discusses his meditations upon why this is so and what it is possible to do about it, at a personal level. Pilgrimages are usually religious experiences but this goes far beyond any "spiritual journey" in the normal sense of the word, being as it is a reconnection with the wider world, rather than any one god or spirit. Overall - intense, thoughtful, meditative this is a book that you'll want to read and reflect upon, and probably read again
Peter retired as Professor of Action Research at the University of Bath in 2009 and is now Emeritus Professor. His major contribution was to the development of participative approaches to action research in the human sciences and in management, approaches variously referred to as “co-operative inquiry”, “participatory action research”, and “action science” or “action inquiry”. In these forms of experiential action research all those involved in the inquiry process are co-researchers, contributing both to the thinking that forms the research endeavour and to the action that is its subject. He has published widely on co-operative inquiry and action research and has co-edited the Handbook of Action Research: Participative Inquiry and Practice. Peter was also a founding faculty member of the MSc in Responsibility and Business Practice, a pioneering programme designed to address issues of sustainability and justice in business, drawing on action research approaches; and led action research projects including Lowcarbonworks, and inquiry into the adoption of low carbon technologies in industry.
Since retiring Peter has focussed less on action research and more on “nature writing for an ecology in crisis.” While he values the ‘bright green’ work of creating more sustainable institutions and economic systems, he believes the root of the sustainability problem is that modern humans are dangerously anthropocentric; somewhere in the development of civilization, we started to see ourselves as separate from, rather than part of, the community of life on Earth. Spindrift: A wilderness pilgrimage at sea is published in 2014. This narrative non-fiction book, uses the device of a travel story – a single-handed sailing voyage in the yacht Coral to the west coast of Ireland in April and June 2011 – to explore the nature of the human relationship with the ecology of the Earth. He is also co-editing a collection of responses to the challenge of the Great Turning.
Web: www.peterreason.eu
Blog: onthewesternedge.wordpress.com
Twitter: @peterreason
Tell us a little bit about the genesis of this book, what made you want to write it?
I wanted to write a book that treated serious questions about sustainability within an entertaining travel narrative, a book that was not just for the committed ‘greenies’ but for a wider audience. I had finished an academic career in which I explored issues of sustainability through teaching and research. I also wanted to reinvent myself, post retirement, as a writer of creative non-fiction; the books origins were as the final manuscript for the MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University.
As well as a good description of the basics of sailing, for anyone who doesn’t know about it, it is also a deep inner journey. How did you go about blending the two? Did you write a travelogue first or was it an organic process?
It all went together, starting with conversations with my friend Gwen, who came with me the first week, as we talked together about the sea, how we experienced its colours and moods, especially at night. Then, sailing on alone, with no distractions, I found myself getting deeper into a reflective space, experience the sea and the coast as much as presences in my world as objective things.
You quote from many, obviously influential, works in the book, who would you say has had the greatest influence on your thinking?
Thomas Berry, who was a priest and a cultural historian, showed me how to link a scientific understanding of the earth and the universe with a spiritual one. I only met him once, but he was extremely influential, and in many ways this book is a homage to him
I felt it was a very rich experience, reading the book, there is a lot packed in there, how was the writing process – did you create a lot more and cut it down?
A huge amount of editorial process goes into a well-produced book. My tutors, my writing buddies, my agent and Vala editors all helped me see what was necessary and what needed to go. For example, a lot of theory went. My tutor at Bath Spa said I could only use the ideas that I usually carry around in my head, which stopped it getting too academic. A whole chapter toward the end of the book was cut. But the essence was the same throughout
You deliberately set out to have a conversation with the “more than human” world – do you think it’s possible to do this in daily life as well?
Of course... but not all the time. One of the things I am most pleased to discover is that the world so often opens to something wider and beyond the everyday. There are continual tiny moments where there is sacredness in the ordinary. The thing is to notice them, stay with them, savour them, rather than rush onto the next task
I like that you have a few self-reflective moments about trying to force things like itineraries to conform when things like weather and tides are not at our beck and call. I know you explore this more in the book but can you just expand a little here on why you think we all have this tension within us?
Somewhere in the development of civilization, Western people started to see themselves as separate from the natural world in which we evolved and of which we are a part. This leads us to attempt to dominate the natural world, to see ourselves as against nature. So we build bigger and more powerful technologies of control, which work for a while, but then come back to bite is. Climate change arises as a result of our cleverness in harnessing fossil fuels. But it is going to bite hard, as we can see already from the flooding and extreme weather we have been having. In a little boat you have to learn to go with the wind and tides.
Do you feel that a new chapter of your life has now started, post-pilgrimage?
I am a privileged person. I lead a happy and comfortable life. But underneath, what dominates my thoughts is the environment catastrophe to which we are so quickly heading. Not a day passes without my reflecting on this with a sense of dread. My continual question is, how should we respond? Of course there are lots of practical things that must be done by individuals, organizations and governments and international policy. But we must also learn to fall in love with the world again, engage with its beauty, or we won't have the spiritual energy to make the changes we need. So I continue to explore and write about the same kind of questions; that is my contribution, slight though its effects may be.
What’s next? Are you going to write more books?
Last summer I sailed my yacht Coral all the way round the west coast of Ireland to Scotland, blogging as I went (onthewesternedge.wordpress.com). I am working on another book, taking the same questions deeper. I am also deeply involved with the Vala Publishing Cooperative (www.valapublishers.coop) working to publish 'books from a better world'. We have some great and I think important books due out later this year.
Have you any more pilgrimages planned?
This summer I am taking Coral round the west coast of Scotland as part of my next book. I am also interested in the notion of everyday life as pilgrimage. Can we take the idea of pilgrimage, which is originally as a religious idea, and applying to our relationship to our world?
In one sentence was is your best piece of advice for new writers?
Write something, even little, as near to everyday as you can. Don't edit or change things, let the writing flow out. Go back later and see how it all fits together. Then edit ruthlessly. Bristol Book Blog Review Part travelogue, part inner journey, part deep thought on our place in the world. Peter Reason's book is a delight to read, redolent of the sea which infuses each page. He has thought long and hard and deep on the relationship between human and environment and it is this that shines through in the writing. As well as a brief description of the art of sailing, including the nautical naming conventions, which can be confusing to the landlubber (like me) Reason goes on to describe the outer journey he is taking in an effort to reconnect with the wild. This takes the form of sailing round the Irish coast, partly with a companion, partly alone. Drawing in many influential thinkers into his narrative he explores how we have become out of tune with the wider "more than human" world and discusses his meditations upon why this is so and what it is possible to do about it, at a personal level. Pilgrimages are usually religious experiences but this goes far beyond any "spiritual journey" in the normal sense of the word, being as it is a reconnection with the wider world, rather than any one god or spirit. Overall - intense, thoughtful, meditative this is a book that you'll want to read and reflect upon, and probably read again
April 8, 2014
Flash Finish
Todays guest is Kevlin Henney who is going to talk all about Flash....
Kevlin Henney writes shorts and flashes and drabbles of fiction and articles and books on software development. His fiction has appeared online and on tree, including with Litro, New Scientist, Physics World, The Pygmy Giant and Kazka Press, and has been included in The Salt Anthology of New Writing 2013, The Kraken Rises!, Flash Me! The Sinthology, Scraps, Jawbreakers and Kissing Frankenstein & Other Stories anthologies. He helps organise the Bristol-based events on National Flash-Fiction Day and is a judge in the NFFD micro-fiction competition. He lives in Bristol and online (tweeting here, blogging here and posting links to some of his stories here).
Kevlin Henney writes shorts and flashes and drabbles of fiction and articles and books on software development. His fiction has appeared online and on tree, including with Litro, New Scientist, Physics World, The Pygmy Giant and Kazka Press, and has been included in The Salt Anthology of New Writing 2013, The Kraken Rises!, Flash Me! The Sinthology, Scraps, Jawbreakers and Kissing Frankenstein & Other Stories anthologies. He helps organise the Bristol-based events on National Flash-Fiction Day and is a judge in the NFFD micro-fiction competition. He lives in Bristol and online (tweeting here, blogging here and posting links to some of his stories here).
Flash Finish
It's been around a long time and been called many things, but in the last twenty years the term flash fiction has become its most popular name. For as long as there have been short stories, there have been short short stories, stories under a thousand words long, even under a hundred. The last few years have seen a rise in the form's popularity. There are competitions with flash-fiction categories (e.g., the Bridport Prize), flash-only competitions (e.g., Flash 500), anthologies of flash, flash authors winning major awards (Lydia Davies may not like the term flash fiction, but a rose by any other name...) and it even has its own day (National Flash-Fiction Day). As well as being short, flash is current.
Much of its growing popularity is certainly down to medium and opportunity: flash-fiction length and blog length are surprisingly similar; flash is easier to read on phones, tablets and PCs than longer stories; flash can fill a gap in the day; and, most democratising of all, the length lowers the barrier to entry than for longer short stories or novels — it is said that everyone has a novel inside them, but with flash it is easier to let the stories out onto the page. Some have also sought a correlation between falling word count and falling attention spans but, in an age where few blockbuster films are shorter than two hours and the appetite for box sets of ever-longer TV series knows few limits, such cultural commentary seems to beg the question rather than answer it.
That said, these days there is more to fill the day, whether it's work or media that competes for our schedule. For the writer — who is rarely just a writer — flash fiction offers a form that fits more easily into the time slices of fragmented weeks and compressed days. The satisfaction of half-finishing something cannot begin to compete with the feeling of actually finishing it, whether a story, a marathon or a piece of Ikea furniture. And just to be clear, a flash fiction is a complete story. It may be short, but it's neither an extract nor a snippet, and nor is it a summary. A flash fiction tells a whole tale, and its words should be the best words to tell that tale. The reader should be left with the feeling that it is whole — any longer and something would be lost, either in word homeopathy or unnecessary plot meanderings.
Of course, not all stories can or should fit the flash mould, any more than they must necessarily all be told as short stories, or all be told as novellas, or all be told as novels. Each story has its length; one of the many skills of writing is to match the story to its length — telling a novel-sized story as a short or a micro-fiction as a novella is going to frustrate both reader and writer.
What flash can offer writers is a chance to experience completion more often, a chance to experiment more freely, a chance to improve their craft, a chance to experience a different kind of relationship with story and reader or a chance to find a new form in which they are most comfortable. Writing flash is not simply an exercise, although it obviously suits that role well and can flow out of it easily. Many of my flash stories started life as exercises, but I don't consider writing short short stories just an exercise — they're still stories, and that's what I want to tell.
With a low word count there's no bandwidth to spend on purple prose, extended backstory or garnishes of adverbs and adjectives. The writing must be sharper, yet it must leave more unsaid; it must assume more from — but work harder with — the reader over its short span. I sometimes read longer short stories and novels where I wish the author had some discipline in flash fiction, that they better understood the value of the words they were putting in the reader's path.
As for experimentation, I don't mean that to write flash fiction you must write experimental fiction, although it is easier to get the reader's permission (or indulge their forgiveness) to do this at the shorter end of the reading scale. But if you want to experiment with genre, point of view, tone or any other aspect of story and writing, you can do so more freely and still have a complete story with flash than if you are bound up in a novel-writing project with no other creative outlet.
To improve your writing, you need to be able to look back at it, look back it whole, not in just parts. You need to finish things, and flash fiction is easier to finish than a novel. That's not to say it's trivial — you will still vex over first and last lines, word choice, point of view and, yes, whether or not that comma should be there — but you will experience this more frequently and reach closure more often — more first and last lines, more story set-ups, more points of view — and therefore be confronted with and learn from your own work more often. As Neil Gaiman observed, "You have to finish things — that's what you learn from, you learn by finishing things."
April 4, 2014
Outlining your novel by K M Weiland - a review
Outlining your novel by K M Weiland
As with most things, if I need to learn how to do something I’ll turn to text. This is a how to book on, as the title says, outlining your novel. Weiland discusses the pros and cons of planning versing flying by the seat of your pants (or pantsing as it's known to writers)and misconceptions on outlining. Is an advocate on the benefits of outling, as you’d expect and gives a really thorough guide on how to do it. Along the way she ads inter-chapter interviews with a whole host of writers, gives practical examples using her own writing and makes sure that there are checklists that you can refer easily to.
Overall - If you want to learn how to outline then you won’t go wrong if you use this book.
As with most things, if I need to learn how to do something I’ll turn to text. This is a how to book on, as the title says, outlining your novel. Weiland discusses the pros and cons of planning versing flying by the seat of your pants (or pantsing as it's known to writers)and misconceptions on outlining. Is an advocate on the benefits of outling, as you’d expect and gives a really thorough guide on how to do it. Along the way she ads inter-chapter interviews with a whole host of writers, gives practical examples using her own writing and makes sure that there are checklists that you can refer easily to.
Overall - If you want to learn how to outline then you won’t go wrong if you use this book.
London Book Fair
Very quick post to say that next week I'll be at the London Book Fair under a number of different guises - festival organiser, event organiser, writer etc.
http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/
I've never been before, but have attended large conferences in the industry I work in (Telecoms) so think I know a little of what to expect.
On Friday 11th I'll be attending the London Writers fair
http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/whats-on/conferences/london-writers-fair/
So busy book week ahead!
http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/
I've never been before, but have attended large conferences in the industry I work in (Telecoms) so think I know a little of what to expect.
On Friday 11th I'll be attending the London Writers fair
http://www.londonbookfair.co.uk/whats-on/conferences/london-writers-fair/
So busy book week ahead!
April 1, 2014
Alison Morton - Guest post
Very happy to welcome Alison Morton to the blog today to talk about alternate history.
Alison Morton writes Roman-themed alternate history thrillers with strong heroines. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French, German and Economics, a masters’ in history and lives in France with her husband.
A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, she has visited sites throughout Europe including the alma mater, Rome. But it was the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain) that started her wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by women…
Writing alternately Is alternate (or alternative) history science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction or a bit of each? The problem is it embraces everything from ‘hard’ counter-factuals such as Napoleon winning at Waterloo, passing through time travellers going back to ‘fix’ a historical problem and stretching to the completely surreal ‘rule of cool’ space Nazis on the moon. And styles vary; stories can be infused with every last detail of their world as in S M Stirling’s The Peshawar Lancers, or lighter, where the alternative world is used as a setting for an adventure, such as Kate Johnson’s The UnTied Kingdom. But whether they are clever and sinister like Robert Harris’s Fatherland or thrillers set in a tiny survival of the Roman Empire like my Roma Nova series, alternate history stories must include three things: reference to the point of divergence in the past when the alternate timeline split from our timeline; how things have changed after the split; and how that world looks and works at the time of writing the story. Once you have decided where history as we know it (our timeline, or OTL) splits and an alternative line emerges (alternative timeline, or ATL), you need to research that divergence point so that you have a firm basis for taking your story forward. If you don’t know where you start from, you run the risk of the dreaded credibility gap. As writers, our job is to make things up, but readers get so much more out of a book if they know the author has done that job properly. Alternative history is imagined, but should follow “da rulz”. So what are they?
1. Identify the point of divergence and make it logical. It doesn’t have to be a grand event or have a grand cause. In history, there are many hair’s breath events caused by, for instance, weather, e.g. Washington’s crossing the Delaware River in 1776. On 26 December, the weather became progressively worse, turning from drizzle to rain to sleet and snow, plus very strong winds and floating ice in the river. Just suppose the blizzard had intensified, throwing all those boats and troops to their death in the freezing river… My books are set in Roma Nova in the 21st century, but the country’s origin stretches back to a divergence point in AD 395 when the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius finally banned all pagan religions. Religious persecution often changes history: when Protestant Huguenots were thrown out of France the French silk and weaving industries collapsed and the prosperous mercantile and professional class was ruined. The French economy, and thus political clout, took decades to recover. Who knows what a more powerful France would have achieved? 2. Research the divergence point thoroughly. Find sources, books, visit places, museums, conferences and ask questions. Check you have the correct clothing, food, armour, currency etc. for the time you are writing about. The Roman civilisation lasted over 1,200 years; things were significantly different in AD 395 from how they had been in 100BC. Serstertii, the archetypal silver Roman coin, had disappeared by AD 395 and the gold solidus served as the standard unit, so my 21st century Roma Novans use solidi. 3. Reinforce the divergence point story to anchor the time you are writing about. People often refer back to their country’s foundation story and Roma Novans are no different. They often quote the courage of how over four hundred Romans loyal to the old gods trekked north out of Italy to find refuge in the semi-mountainous area near modern day Austria. 4. Use elements from the historic record carefully, but not fearfully. For my books, I reached back into history and plucked the Praetorian Guard name forward into the 21st century for a special forces unit. Not only does this build on the thoughts of toughness, a dash of ruthlessness and a sense of duty and glamour that we may already have about them, it uses their historic name to anchor them as archetype Romans guarding the ruler and the state. And my Praetorians didn’t go off the rails as the original ones did! 5. Think through the setting that has formed your characters. No country can survive without a functioning government, an economic, social and political system, law and order and income. You don’t need to mention these as such, unless it impacts on the plot, but you need to have it all worked out in your head, or in a notebook or a file on your hard disk or in the cloud.
How do people make their living? How are they educated? What kind of industry is there? Is the government representative? Are laws authoritarian, permissive or strict? What is the food like? Are there markets, little shops, big chains? What does the money look like? One big thing to think through apart from its history is what your alternative world looks like. If it’s a country we already know, has transport developed beyond the horse and cart to steam trains or electric trains? Is it safe to travel from one town to another? If it’s an imaginary country, are there mountains, seas and rivers? What’s growing in the fields, does the countryside consist of plains, valleys or mountains? And two general writing tips… 6. Ensure your story is essentially gripping and page-turning whatever its setting. Creating an exotic world, however original and detailed you make it, will not save a weak story. Can you grab the bones out, e.g. trap – conspiracy –on the run – confronts bad guy, and see if it would work in another genre? 7. Make sure your characters live naturally within their world. You have to get the essence and detail across to the reader without any info dumps. No reader wants a detailed history lesson in the middle of an action scene. Pare these to a minimum, just enough to take the narrative forward. Imagine explaining somebody’s entire life story to your best friend when you’re relaxing over a drink. All your friend wants are the bare facts of what that person has been doing to cause you to mention them. Now you’re armed with these tips, why not try alternating history yourself?
INCEPTIO, the first in the Roma Nova series, was shortlisted for the 2013 International Rubery Book Award and awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion® in September 2013. The next in series, PERFIDITAS, published October 2013, has also just been honoured with the B.R.A.G. Medallion®. Alison is working on the third book SUCCESSIO which will be out in June 2014.
Connect with Alison on her blog http://alison-morton.com/blog/
Facebook author page https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor
INCEPTIO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Inceptiothriller
PERFIDITAS Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Perfiditas
Twitter https://twitter.com/alison_morton
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton
Amazon UK author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/
Amazon US author page: http://www.amazon.com/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/
Buying links (multiple retailers):
INCEPTIO: http://alison-morton.com/inceptio/how-to-buy-inceptio/
PERFIDITAS: http://alison-morton.com/perfiditas/how-to-buy-perfiditas/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many thanks to Alison for that fascinating guide to writing Alternate History!
Alison Morton writes Roman-themed alternate history thrillers with strong heroines. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French, German and Economics, a masters’ in history and lives in France with her husband.
A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, she has visited sites throughout Europe including the alma mater, Rome. But it was the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain) that started her wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by women…
Writing alternately Is alternate (or alternative) history science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction or a bit of each? The problem is it embraces everything from ‘hard’ counter-factuals such as Napoleon winning at Waterloo, passing through time travellers going back to ‘fix’ a historical problem and stretching to the completely surreal ‘rule of cool’ space Nazis on the moon. And styles vary; stories can be infused with every last detail of their world as in S M Stirling’s The Peshawar Lancers, or lighter, where the alternative world is used as a setting for an adventure, such as Kate Johnson’s The UnTied Kingdom. But whether they are clever and sinister like Robert Harris’s Fatherland or thrillers set in a tiny survival of the Roman Empire like my Roma Nova series, alternate history stories must include three things: reference to the point of divergence in the past when the alternate timeline split from our timeline; how things have changed after the split; and how that world looks and works at the time of writing the story. Once you have decided where history as we know it (our timeline, or OTL) splits and an alternative line emerges (alternative timeline, or ATL), you need to research that divergence point so that you have a firm basis for taking your story forward. If you don’t know where you start from, you run the risk of the dreaded credibility gap. As writers, our job is to make things up, but readers get so much more out of a book if they know the author has done that job properly. Alternative history is imagined, but should follow “da rulz”. So what are they?
1. Identify the point of divergence and make it logical. It doesn’t have to be a grand event or have a grand cause. In history, there are many hair’s breath events caused by, for instance, weather, e.g. Washington’s crossing the Delaware River in 1776. On 26 December, the weather became progressively worse, turning from drizzle to rain to sleet and snow, plus very strong winds and floating ice in the river. Just suppose the blizzard had intensified, throwing all those boats and troops to their death in the freezing river… My books are set in Roma Nova in the 21st century, but the country’s origin stretches back to a divergence point in AD 395 when the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius finally banned all pagan religions. Religious persecution often changes history: when Protestant Huguenots were thrown out of France the French silk and weaving industries collapsed and the prosperous mercantile and professional class was ruined. The French economy, and thus political clout, took decades to recover. Who knows what a more powerful France would have achieved? 2. Research the divergence point thoroughly. Find sources, books, visit places, museums, conferences and ask questions. Check you have the correct clothing, food, armour, currency etc. for the time you are writing about. The Roman civilisation lasted over 1,200 years; things were significantly different in AD 395 from how they had been in 100BC. Serstertii, the archetypal silver Roman coin, had disappeared by AD 395 and the gold solidus served as the standard unit, so my 21st century Roma Novans use solidi. 3. Reinforce the divergence point story to anchor the time you are writing about. People often refer back to their country’s foundation story and Roma Novans are no different. They often quote the courage of how over four hundred Romans loyal to the old gods trekked north out of Italy to find refuge in the semi-mountainous area near modern day Austria. 4. Use elements from the historic record carefully, but not fearfully. For my books, I reached back into history and plucked the Praetorian Guard name forward into the 21st century for a special forces unit. Not only does this build on the thoughts of toughness, a dash of ruthlessness and a sense of duty and glamour that we may already have about them, it uses their historic name to anchor them as archetype Romans guarding the ruler and the state. And my Praetorians didn’t go off the rails as the original ones did! 5. Think through the setting that has formed your characters. No country can survive without a functioning government, an economic, social and political system, law and order and income. You don’t need to mention these as such, unless it impacts on the plot, but you need to have it all worked out in your head, or in a notebook or a file on your hard disk or in the cloud.
How do people make their living? How are they educated? What kind of industry is there? Is the government representative? Are laws authoritarian, permissive or strict? What is the food like? Are there markets, little shops, big chains? What does the money look like? One big thing to think through apart from its history is what your alternative world looks like. If it’s a country we already know, has transport developed beyond the horse and cart to steam trains or electric trains? Is it safe to travel from one town to another? If it’s an imaginary country, are there mountains, seas and rivers? What’s growing in the fields, does the countryside consist of plains, valleys or mountains? And two general writing tips… 6. Ensure your story is essentially gripping and page-turning whatever its setting. Creating an exotic world, however original and detailed you make it, will not save a weak story. Can you grab the bones out, e.g. trap – conspiracy –on the run – confronts bad guy, and see if it would work in another genre? 7. Make sure your characters live naturally within their world. You have to get the essence and detail across to the reader without any info dumps. No reader wants a detailed history lesson in the middle of an action scene. Pare these to a minimum, just enough to take the narrative forward. Imagine explaining somebody’s entire life story to your best friend when you’re relaxing over a drink. All your friend wants are the bare facts of what that person has been doing to cause you to mention them. Now you’re armed with these tips, why not try alternating history yourself?
INCEPTIO, the first in the Roma Nova series, was shortlisted for the 2013 International Rubery Book Award and awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion® in September 2013. The next in series, PERFIDITAS, published October 2013, has also just been honoured with the B.R.A.G. Medallion®. Alison is working on the third book SUCCESSIO which will be out in June 2014.
Connect with Alison on her blog http://alison-morton.com/blog/
Facebook author page https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor
INCEPTIO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Inceptiothriller
PERFIDITAS Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Perfiditas
Twitter https://twitter.com/alison_morton
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton
Amazon UK author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/
Amazon US author page: http://www.amazon.com/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/
Buying links (multiple retailers):
INCEPTIO: http://alison-morton.com/inceptio/how-to-buy-inceptio/
PERFIDITAS: http://alison-morton.com/perfiditas/how-to-buy-perfiditas/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Many thanks to Alison for that fascinating guide to writing Alternate History!
Very happy to welcome Alison Morton to the blog today to ...
Very happy to welcome Alison Morton to the blog today to talk about alternate history.
Alison Morton writes Roman-themed alternate history thrillers with strong heroines. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French, German and Economics, a masters’ in history and lives in France with her husband.
A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, she has visited sites throughout Europe including the alma mater, Rome. But it was the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain) that started her wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by women…
Writing alternately Is alternate (or alternative) history science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction or a bit of each? The problem is it embraces everything from ‘hard’ counter-factuals such as Napoleon winning at Waterloo, passing through time travellers going back to ‘fix’ a historical problem and stretching to the completely surreal ‘rule of cool’ space Nazis on the moon. And styles vary; stories can be infused with every last detail of their world as in S M Stirling’s The Peshawar Lancers, or lighter, where the alternative world is used as a setting for an adventure, such as Kate Johnson’s The UnTied Kingdom. But whether they are clever and sinister like Robert Harris’s Fatherland or thrillers set in a tiny survival of the Roman Empire like my Roma Nova series, alternate history stories must include three things: reference to the point of divergence in the past when the alternate timeline split from our timeline; how things have changed after the split; and how that world looks and works at the time of writing the story. Once you have decided where history as we know it (our timeline, or OTL) splits and an alternative line emerges (alternative timeline, or ATL), you need to research that divergence point so that you have a firm basis for taking your story forward. If you don’t know where you start from, you run the risk of the dreaded credibility gap. As writers, our job is to make things up, but readers get so much more out of a book if they know the author has done that job properly. Alternative history is imagined, but should follow “da rulz”. So what are they?
1. Identify the point of divergence and make it logical. It doesn’t have to be a grand event or have a grand cause. In history, there are many hair’s breath events caused by, for instance, weather, e.g. Washington’s crossing the Delaware River in 1776. On 26 December, the weather became progressively worse, turning from drizzle to rain to sleet and snow, plus very strong winds and floating ice in the river. Just suppose the blizzard had intensified, throwing all those boats and troops to their death in the freezing river… My books are set in Roma Nova in the 21st century, but the country’s origin stretches back to a divergence point in AD 395 when the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius finally banned all pagan religions. Religious persecution often changes history: when Protestant Huguenots were thrown out of France the French silk and weaving industries collapsed and the prosperous mercantile and professional class was ruined. The French economy, and thus political clout, took decades to recover. Who knows what a more powerful France would have achieved? 2. Research the divergence point thoroughly. Find sources, books, visit places, museums, conferences and ask questions. Check you have the correct clothing, food, armour, currency etc. for the time you are writing about. The Roman civilisation lasted over 1,200 years; things were significantly different in AD 395 from how they had been in 100BC. Serstertii, the archetypal silver Roman coin, had disappeared by AD 395 and the gold solidus served as the standard unit, so my 21st century Roma Novans use solidi. 3. Reinforce the divergence point story to anchor the time you are writing about. People often refer back to their country’s foundation story and Roma Novans are no different. They often quote the courage of how over four hundred Romans loyal to the old gods trekked north out of Italy to find refuge in the semi-mountainous area near modern day Austria. 4. Use elements from the historic record carefully, but not fearfully. For my books, I reached back into history and plucked the Praetorian Guard name forward into the 21st century for a special forces unit. Not only does this build on the thoughts of toughness, a dash of ruthlessness and a sense of duty and glamour that we may already have about them, it uses their historic name to anchor them as archetype Romans guarding the ruler and the state. And my Praetorians didn’t go off the rails as the original ones did! 5. Think through the setting that has formed your characters. No country can survive without a functioning government, an economic, social and political system, law and order and income. You don’t need to mention these as such, unless it impacts on the plot, but you need to have it all worked out in your head, or in a notebook or a file on your hard disk or in the cloud.
How do people make their living? How are they educated? What kind of industry is there? Is the government representative? Are laws authoritarian, permissive or strict? What is the food like? Are there markets, little shops, big chains? What does the money look like? One big thing to think through apart from its history is what your alternative world looks like. If it’s a country we already know, has transport developed beyond the horse and cart to steam trains or electric trains? Is it safe to travel from one town to another? If it’s an imaginary country, are there mountains, seas and rivers? What’s growing in the fields, does the countryside consist of plains, valleys or mountains? And two general writing tips… 6. Ensure your story is essentially gripping and page-turning whatever its setting. Creating an exotic world, however original and detailed you make it, will not save a weak story. Can you grab the bones out, e.g. trap – conspiracy –on the run – confronts bad guy, and see if it would work in another genre? 7. Make sure your characters live naturally within their world. You have to get the essence and detail across to the reader without any info dumps. No reader wants a detailed history lesson in the middle of an action scene. Pare these to a minimum, just enough to take the narrative forward. Imagine explaining somebody’s entire life story to your best friend when you’re relaxing over a drink. All your friend wants are the bare facts of what that person has been doing to cause you to mention them. Now you’re armed with these tips, why not try alternating history yourself?
INCEPTIO, the first in the Roma Nova series, was shortlisted for the 2013 International Rubery Book Award and awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion® in September 2013. The next in series, PERFIDITAS, published October 2013, has also just been honoured with the B.R.A.G. Medallion®. Alison is working on the third book SUCCESSIO which will be out in June 2014.
Connect with Alison on her blog http://alison-morton.com/blog/
Facebook author page https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor
INCEPTIO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Inceptiothriller
PERFIDITAS Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Perfiditas
Twitter https://twitter.com/alison_morton
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton
Amazon UK author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/
Amazon US author page: http://www.amazon.com/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/
Buying links (multiple retailers):
INCEPTIO: http://alison-morton.com/inceptio/how-to-buy-inceptio/
PERFIDITAS: http://alison-morton.com/perfiditas/how-to-buy-perfiditas/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Many thanks to Alison for that fascinating guide to writing Alternate History!
Alison Morton writes Roman-themed alternate history thrillers with strong heroines. She holds a bachelor’s degree in French, German and Economics, a masters’ in history and lives in France with her husband.
A ‘Roman nut’ since age 11, she has visited sites throughout Europe including the alma mater, Rome. But it was the mosaics at Ampurias (Spain) that started her wondering what a modern Roman society would be like if run by women…
Writing alternately Is alternate (or alternative) history science fiction, fantasy, historical fiction or a bit of each? The problem is it embraces everything from ‘hard’ counter-factuals such as Napoleon winning at Waterloo, passing through time travellers going back to ‘fix’ a historical problem and stretching to the completely surreal ‘rule of cool’ space Nazis on the moon. And styles vary; stories can be infused with every last detail of their world as in S M Stirling’s The Peshawar Lancers, or lighter, where the alternative world is used as a setting for an adventure, such as Kate Johnson’s The UnTied Kingdom. But whether they are clever and sinister like Robert Harris’s Fatherland or thrillers set in a tiny survival of the Roman Empire like my Roma Nova series, alternate history stories must include three things: reference to the point of divergence in the past when the alternate timeline split from our timeline; how things have changed after the split; and how that world looks and works at the time of writing the story. Once you have decided where history as we know it (our timeline, or OTL) splits and an alternative line emerges (alternative timeline, or ATL), you need to research that divergence point so that you have a firm basis for taking your story forward. If you don’t know where you start from, you run the risk of the dreaded credibility gap. As writers, our job is to make things up, but readers get so much more out of a book if they know the author has done that job properly. Alternative history is imagined, but should follow “da rulz”. So what are they?
1. Identify the point of divergence and make it logical. It doesn’t have to be a grand event or have a grand cause. In history, there are many hair’s breath events caused by, for instance, weather, e.g. Washington’s crossing the Delaware River in 1776. On 26 December, the weather became progressively worse, turning from drizzle to rain to sleet and snow, plus very strong winds and floating ice in the river. Just suppose the blizzard had intensified, throwing all those boats and troops to their death in the freezing river… My books are set in Roma Nova in the 21st century, but the country’s origin stretches back to a divergence point in AD 395 when the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius finally banned all pagan religions. Religious persecution often changes history: when Protestant Huguenots were thrown out of France the French silk and weaving industries collapsed and the prosperous mercantile and professional class was ruined. The French economy, and thus political clout, took decades to recover. Who knows what a more powerful France would have achieved? 2. Research the divergence point thoroughly. Find sources, books, visit places, museums, conferences and ask questions. Check you have the correct clothing, food, armour, currency etc. for the time you are writing about. The Roman civilisation lasted over 1,200 years; things were significantly different in AD 395 from how they had been in 100BC. Serstertii, the archetypal silver Roman coin, had disappeared by AD 395 and the gold solidus served as the standard unit, so my 21st century Roma Novans use solidi. 3. Reinforce the divergence point story to anchor the time you are writing about. People often refer back to their country’s foundation story and Roma Novans are no different. They often quote the courage of how over four hundred Romans loyal to the old gods trekked north out of Italy to find refuge in the semi-mountainous area near modern day Austria. 4. Use elements from the historic record carefully, but not fearfully. For my books, I reached back into history and plucked the Praetorian Guard name forward into the 21st century for a special forces unit. Not only does this build on the thoughts of toughness, a dash of ruthlessness and a sense of duty and glamour that we may already have about them, it uses their historic name to anchor them as archetype Romans guarding the ruler and the state. And my Praetorians didn’t go off the rails as the original ones did! 5. Think through the setting that has formed your characters. No country can survive without a functioning government, an economic, social and political system, law and order and income. You don’t need to mention these as such, unless it impacts on the plot, but you need to have it all worked out in your head, or in a notebook or a file on your hard disk or in the cloud.
How do people make their living? How are they educated? What kind of industry is there? Is the government representative? Are laws authoritarian, permissive or strict? What is the food like? Are there markets, little shops, big chains? What does the money look like? One big thing to think through apart from its history is what your alternative world looks like. If it’s a country we already know, has transport developed beyond the horse and cart to steam trains or electric trains? Is it safe to travel from one town to another? If it’s an imaginary country, are there mountains, seas and rivers? What’s growing in the fields, does the countryside consist of plains, valleys or mountains? And two general writing tips… 6. Ensure your story is essentially gripping and page-turning whatever its setting. Creating an exotic world, however original and detailed you make it, will not save a weak story. Can you grab the bones out, e.g. trap – conspiracy –on the run – confronts bad guy, and see if it would work in another genre? 7. Make sure your characters live naturally within their world. You have to get the essence and detail across to the reader without any info dumps. No reader wants a detailed history lesson in the middle of an action scene. Pare these to a minimum, just enough to take the narrative forward. Imagine explaining somebody’s entire life story to your best friend when you’re relaxing over a drink. All your friend wants are the bare facts of what that person has been doing to cause you to mention them. Now you’re armed with these tips, why not try alternating history yourself?
INCEPTIO, the first in the Roma Nova series, was shortlisted for the 2013 International Rubery Book Award and awarded a B.R.A.G. Medallion® in September 2013. The next in series, PERFIDITAS, published October 2013, has also just been honoured with the B.R.A.G. Medallion®. Alison is working on the third book SUCCESSIO which will be out in June 2014.
Connect with Alison on her blog http://alison-morton.com/blog/
Facebook author page https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMortonAuthor
INCEPTIO Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Inceptiothriller
PERFIDITAS Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Perfiditas
Twitter https://twitter.com/alison_morton
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5783095.Alison_Morton
Amazon UK author page: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/
Amazon US author page: http://www.amazon.com/Alison-Morton/e/B007JZ1XRS/
Buying links (multiple retailers):
INCEPTIO: http://alison-morton.com/inceptio/how-to-buy-inceptio/
PERFIDITAS: http://alison-morton.com/perfiditas/how-to-buy-perfiditas/
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Many thanks to Alison for that fascinating guide to writing Alternate History!
March 31, 2014
Airships seen in Bristol
Airships seen in Bristol
On Saturday evening we all put on our best Steampunk finery and went down to the Folk House in Bristol for "The best book launch I've ever been to" (said an attending author). There was a Victorian picnic, with cucumber sandwiches &cake and royal Kir & homemade lemonade and a tentacle cake kindly baked by Pat Haws-Reed.
There were radio-play style adaptions of Brass & Bone by Jo Hall - she likes to call it “The Six Million Guinea Woman” story. My own story Artifice Perdu was also adapted brilliantly by Roz Clarke & seemed to be well received by the audience. Many thanks to Scott Lewis, Ken Shinn, Claire M Hutt & Duncan Thow for stepping up to play parts.
There was also a band, Cauda Pavonis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2nW4kCnjMc who were really rather good, it was their first ever acoustic set apparently! They sang about Weyland \Smithy, Vampires, Carnivals and the Morrigan. Splendid stuff, seek them out.
Our first lines winner is Ambly Robustus with the line:
Above the clouds the 'Homeward Bound' floated steadily through the moonlit air-scape , a night sky like black silk, diamond-glitter with millions of stars. Congratulations! A signed Hardback & bottle of Sutton's Writers Unblock will be winging their way to you soon. I asked some of the contributors (the ones I could track down and corner, not letting them go until they answered my questions) a set of questions: Cheryl Morgan (publisher & author of the story "Something in the water")
What inspired you to publish this collection? We wanted to do something with a strong local theme. Bristol has a huge amount of history in the Victorian era, so steampunk was a natural. Also I get very irritated with the people who dismiss all steampunk on the grounds that, being set in Victorian times, it must be sexist, racist, homophobic and so on. I wanted to challenge the writers to think about these issues and produce stories at address them. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? That the history of Egyptian archaeology in the UK is heavily dependent on a lesbian woman who lived in Bristol. And that the Nubian pharaohs were impressive people. In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Read, read more, study what you read, there is so much you can learn from other writers.
Cheryl's mewsing on the Ball here: http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=18780 Joanne Hall (Editor and author of the story £Brass & Bone)
(Jo performing Brass & Bone - she's the one in the cloak on the right) What inspired you to to edit this collection? Mainly it was Roz's enthusiasm that pulled me along, but I have had stories in a couple of Bristol-themed SF anthologies before (Dark Spires and Future Bristol) which were both edited by Colin Harvey. We knew there was plenty of scope for fantasy and SF set in Bristol, and after Colin died we decided we'd try and carry on his legacy by doing more anthologies in the spirit of the ones he had edited. The idea for it being specifically steampunk came from the history of engineering that Bristol is famous for.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? The importance of proper research - when writing a story in a real place, it helps to go out and see and feel and smell the place it's set in. Even if you go back and slightly fudge the geography, if you're writing a story set, for example, on the Suspension Bridge it really helps to go up there and get a feel for it. I am guilty of sometimes being a keyboard warrior, and it's made me realise I should get out more! In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Your writing will get better with practice, don't give up on it, read everything you can and write every day (and if people offer you advice, take it on board, pick out the parts that apply to you, and file away the rest!) Jo's own blog about the ball can be found here: http://hierath.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/the-airship-ball-being-a-true-reporte-into-goings-on-and-shennanigans/ Ian Millstead (author of "The Traveller's apprentice") What inspired you to write your story? I was inspired by the Bristol setting, which was further encouraged by Eugene Byrne’s talk about possible prompts for stories, and by the challenge of writing in the steampunk sub-genre which I’d not tried before. I also have a lot of trust in Roz and Jo as editors. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? The characters don’t always do what the author is trying to get them to do.
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Write and have good characters to write about. Ken Shinn (author of "Case of the Vapours")
(Ken performing Brass & Bone with some fine dramatics - also in the picture Myfanwy Rodman and Desiree Fischer) What inspired you to write your story?
As much as anything, to be a slightly awkward sod! The title summoned up so many images of airships, zeppelins, flying machines soaring above...all of which can provide great stories, but just made me feel a bit cussed. As a result, I decided to get my story RIGHT down to ground level, and focus it on the lowliest members of Society in alternate Bristol. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?
To never be afraid to ask (politely) for help about what you don't know. Whether it was Eugene Byrne kindly pointing me in the direction of fruitful areas of research, or close friends with editorial experience casting their eye over the story as it developed, a lot of good was done for the story by others than the author. However, the other side of that coin is that one should always write, first and foremost, to enjoy onesself. To paraphrase Joe Lansdale, "if you think that writing is such a pain, why the hell not do something else that you might like?"
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers?
Just write what you want to, don't worry about whether the theme is original or the prose is up to scratch at first...concentrate on writing something that feels right to you, something that gives you some pleasure to read back - THEN and only then start worrying about whether it'll appeal to others! Deborah Walker (author of "The lesser men have no language") What inspired you to write your story? As soon as I saw the call I had the gut feeling that I wanted to write about the Victorian fern craze. Ferns naturally led to pod people. And given Bristol's historical links with the slave trade, I wanted to explore that issue. But as my main character developed another aspect became apparent. I'll not spoil it for the readers. But it's true to say that my story had a lot of different inspirations.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?I learnt something about point of view. As I edited, I rewrote the story from third to first person. First person made the main character more understandable/likeable for the reader, in this particular story I think. I also learnt a lot about the fern craze. (I even bought a book about it.)
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers?Set yourself targets. I set weekly and monthly targets for finished words and for number of submissions. Targets really keep me on track. John Hawks-Reed (author of "Miss Butler and the Handlander process")
(John pointing to the elephant just off-screen) What inspired you to write your story? A picture of my grandmother and her five sisters that's on the wall of my aunt's house in deepest Worcestershire. The notion of 'steam elephants' had been in my head for a while, but I had no idea how a story with/about/near them would work. As is the way of these things, it's not actually about the elephants any more. Although I still have the sheet of paper crammed with intricate writing about the organisation, disposition and logistics of a steam elephant brigade that I was given by an only mildly scary friend. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? More and more often, I think the direction of the story is going one way, when in fact the characters are beetling off at a tangent and I'm (metaphorically) chasing after them going 'Hoi! Over here!' In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Writing and improv comedy seem closely linked - go with the suggestions offered by your characters.
John's own blog about the ball is here: http://hirez.livejournal.com/479220.html Piotr Swietlik (author of "Flight of the Daedalus) What inspired you to write your story? A chance to get published. I also wanted to point out the general public lack of interest in space exploration. Not sure if that went well but hopefully will be more visible in the follow up story. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? Mainly I've learned that I actually can do it and that working from a prepared outline is way easier. I also learned that I still need to learn a lot. In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Write, write, write... Jonathan L Howard (author of "The sound of gyroscopes") What inspired you to write your story? I didn’t even realise that I’d ever written any steampunk until reviews for Johannes Cabal the Detective started coming in. Several of these very reasonably pointed out that, as I’d created a pseudo-Victorian milieu (I’d actually made it a sort of more-or-less coherent mash up of elements dating from the 1870s to around 1950) with air transport provided by analogues of dirigibles (aeroships, heavier-than-air vehicles that use gyroscopic levitation for lift and etheric line guides for main power and forward motion) and helicopters (entomopters, which use the principles of wing motion employed by dragonflies and bees), that looked pretty steampunky to them. Since I’d inadvertently created a steampunk world without meaning to, it seemed natural to return to it when Airship Shape & Bristol Fashioncame along. Johannes Cabal the Detective features an interlude at a gentlemen’s club called Blakes, an archetype of the sort of club that featured so heavily in stories written in the Victorian and Edwardian period. It is a club that takes on almost exclusively professionals of assorted fields, with the gentry largely absent unless there’s something interesting about them beyond having an entry in Debrett’s. It is a club where stories are told, and these stories tend towards the unusual. So, I had my setting, but what sort of story would be told there that specifically involved Bristol? The first thought that came to mind was the balloon festival; perhaps there was something I could do with that? But, I thought, in our world interest in balloons led to blimps and dirigibles, whereas in Cabal’s world they had aeroships. Surely balloons would undermine the line of technological development? That was the initiating spark. If hot air balloons led to dirigibles, what earlier technology led to the aeroships? So were born the gyrospheres; great, hot air balloon-sized rigid cages containing a fuel emulsion burner and engine to power the whirling armillary wheels of a giant gyroscope. Now I had an analogue to hot air balloons, a gyrosphere festival was the next step and that in turn was made a more dynamic undertaking by turning it into a race. The rest... well, you can read it for yourself.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?
The main thing I learned was how surprisingly easy it was to slip back into writing about Blakes after four or five years. I’d often meant to write some short stories using the club as a device for the telling, but had never got around to it and thought that after such a long period I might have trouble recapturing the tone. But, no. It flowed easily and was fun to write. I think I’ll go back there again, but won’t leave it so long this time.
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? One sentence be damned, I can say it in one word – Persevere. And Myself? Should I turn those questions back onto me?
(Me (in red waistcoat & bowler hat) performing Artifice Perdu with Ken Shinn, Duncan Thow, Scott Lewis (author of The chronicles of Montague & Dalton) & Claire M Hutt) What inspired me to write Artifice Perdu? The gothic majesty of Bristol cathedral led naturally to Gothic fiction, the works of Victor Hugo and Richard A Kirk and The weird: A compendium of strange & dark stories by Ann VanderMeer. It's also, I guess, because I work for a French company, there's a deeper meaning there I'm sure....
What did I learn about writing whilst writing my story? How important a good editor is. Roz & Jo deserve at least as much credit for my story as I do, they took a lump of prose with the hint of a good idea and through gentle prodding made me turn it into the story that it is now. I'm still not 100% happy with it and there are things I would change about it now ten or so months after it was first written but I'm going to have inordinate fondness for it, warts and all, as my first professionally published piece. I learned that an interesting premise can't carry a story, you need characters. I wrote the story in May last year and it was the eigth story I wrote after making the decision at the beginning of last year to start writing. I've had a vague idea that I'd like to write for a long time, I've always been interested in books and the publishing industry but I'd always prevaricated. Two things gave me the kick I needed. The first, and most important, was getting involved in organising Bristol Festival of Literature and meeting lots of authors and going to lots of "get writing" style events. I found that authors were just normal folk, something I should obviously have realised! and that although writing was a craft it is accessible to everyone. The second kick was meeting Barbara Turner- Vesselago at her book launch (for Writing without a parachute) and her publisher Sarah Bird (of Vala) who, in response to my "I'd like to write" said "Why don't you then, anyone can" which was the final push into putting pen to paper. It's been a strange journey since in which I've been commended in a competition and won another one and been published both online and in print.
In one sentence what is my best advice for new writers? Write, read critically, persevere, write, read critically, persevere... Many thanks to all the authors who answered the questions. If you've read Airship Shape why not leave a review online? Amazon, Goodreads, Librarything or even just here in the comments or mail me at BRSBKBLOG at GMAIL dot COM.
On Saturday evening we all put on our best Steampunk finery and went down to the Folk House in Bristol for "The best book launch I've ever been to" (said an attending author). There was a Victorian picnic, with cucumber sandwiches &cake and royal Kir & homemade lemonade and a tentacle cake kindly baked by Pat Haws-Reed.
There were radio-play style adaptions of Brass & Bone by Jo Hall - she likes to call it “The Six Million Guinea Woman” story. My own story Artifice Perdu was also adapted brilliantly by Roz Clarke & seemed to be well received by the audience. Many thanks to Scott Lewis, Ken Shinn, Claire M Hutt & Duncan Thow for stepping up to play parts.
There was also a band, Cauda Pavonis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2nW4kCnjMc who were really rather good, it was their first ever acoustic set apparently! They sang about Weyland \Smithy, Vampires, Carnivals and the Morrigan. Splendid stuff, seek them out.
Our first lines winner is Ambly Robustus with the line:
Above the clouds the 'Homeward Bound' floated steadily through the moonlit air-scape , a night sky like black silk, diamond-glitter with millions of stars. Congratulations! A signed Hardback & bottle of Sutton's Writers Unblock will be winging their way to you soon. I asked some of the contributors (the ones I could track down and corner, not letting them go until they answered my questions) a set of questions: Cheryl Morgan (publisher & author of the story "Something in the water")
What inspired you to publish this collection? We wanted to do something with a strong local theme. Bristol has a huge amount of history in the Victorian era, so steampunk was a natural. Also I get very irritated with the people who dismiss all steampunk on the grounds that, being set in Victorian times, it must be sexist, racist, homophobic and so on. I wanted to challenge the writers to think about these issues and produce stories at address them. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? That the history of Egyptian archaeology in the UK is heavily dependent on a lesbian woman who lived in Bristol. And that the Nubian pharaohs were impressive people. In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Read, read more, study what you read, there is so much you can learn from other writers.
Cheryl's mewsing on the Ball here: http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=18780 Joanne Hall (Editor and author of the story £Brass & Bone)
(Jo performing Brass & Bone - she's the one in the cloak on the right) What inspired you to to edit this collection? Mainly it was Roz's enthusiasm that pulled me along, but I have had stories in a couple of Bristol-themed SF anthologies before (Dark Spires and Future Bristol) which were both edited by Colin Harvey. We knew there was plenty of scope for fantasy and SF set in Bristol, and after Colin died we decided we'd try and carry on his legacy by doing more anthologies in the spirit of the ones he had edited. The idea for it being specifically steampunk came from the history of engineering that Bristol is famous for.What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? The importance of proper research - when writing a story in a real place, it helps to go out and see and feel and smell the place it's set in. Even if you go back and slightly fudge the geography, if you're writing a story set, for example, on the Suspension Bridge it really helps to go up there and get a feel for it. I am guilty of sometimes being a keyboard warrior, and it's made me realise I should get out more! In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Your writing will get better with practice, don't give up on it, read everything you can and write every day (and if people offer you advice, take it on board, pick out the parts that apply to you, and file away the rest!) Jo's own blog about the ball can be found here: http://hierath.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/the-airship-ball-being-a-true-reporte-into-goings-on-and-shennanigans/ Ian Millstead (author of "The Traveller's apprentice") What inspired you to write your story? I was inspired by the Bristol setting, which was further encouraged by Eugene Byrne’s talk about possible prompts for stories, and by the challenge of writing in the steampunk sub-genre which I’d not tried before. I also have a lot of trust in Roz and Jo as editors. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? The characters don’t always do what the author is trying to get them to do.
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Write and have good characters to write about. Ken Shinn (author of "Case of the Vapours")
(Ken performing Brass & Bone with some fine dramatics - also in the picture Myfanwy Rodman and Desiree Fischer) What inspired you to write your story?As much as anything, to be a slightly awkward sod! The title summoned up so many images of airships, zeppelins, flying machines soaring above...all of which can provide great stories, but just made me feel a bit cussed. As a result, I decided to get my story RIGHT down to ground level, and focus it on the lowliest members of Society in alternate Bristol. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?
To never be afraid to ask (politely) for help about what you don't know. Whether it was Eugene Byrne kindly pointing me in the direction of fruitful areas of research, or close friends with editorial experience casting their eye over the story as it developed, a lot of good was done for the story by others than the author. However, the other side of that coin is that one should always write, first and foremost, to enjoy onesself. To paraphrase Joe Lansdale, "if you think that writing is such a pain, why the hell not do something else that you might like?"
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers?
Just write what you want to, don't worry about whether the theme is original or the prose is up to scratch at first...concentrate on writing something that feels right to you, something that gives you some pleasure to read back - THEN and only then start worrying about whether it'll appeal to others! Deborah Walker (author of "The lesser men have no language") What inspired you to write your story? As soon as I saw the call I had the gut feeling that I wanted to write about the Victorian fern craze. Ferns naturally led to pod people. And given Bristol's historical links with the slave trade, I wanted to explore that issue. But as my main character developed another aspect became apparent. I'll not spoil it for the readers. But it's true to say that my story had a lot of different inspirations.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?I learnt something about point of view. As I edited, I rewrote the story from third to first person. First person made the main character more understandable/likeable for the reader, in this particular story I think. I also learnt a lot about the fern craze. (I even bought a book about it.)
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers?Set yourself targets. I set weekly and monthly targets for finished words and for number of submissions. Targets really keep me on track. John Hawks-Reed (author of "Miss Butler and the Handlander process")
(John pointing to the elephant just off-screen) What inspired you to write your story? A picture of my grandmother and her five sisters that's on the wall of my aunt's house in deepest Worcestershire. The notion of 'steam elephants' had been in my head for a while, but I had no idea how a story with/about/near them would work. As is the way of these things, it's not actually about the elephants any more. Although I still have the sheet of paper crammed with intricate writing about the organisation, disposition and logistics of a steam elephant brigade that I was given by an only mildly scary friend. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? More and more often, I think the direction of the story is going one way, when in fact the characters are beetling off at a tangent and I'm (metaphorically) chasing after them going 'Hoi! Over here!' In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Writing and improv comedy seem closely linked - go with the suggestions offered by your characters.John's own blog about the ball is here: http://hirez.livejournal.com/479220.html Piotr Swietlik (author of "Flight of the Daedalus) What inspired you to write your story? A chance to get published. I also wanted to point out the general public lack of interest in space exploration. Not sure if that went well but hopefully will be more visible in the follow up story. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? Mainly I've learned that I actually can do it and that working from a prepared outline is way easier. I also learned that I still need to learn a lot. In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Write, write, write... Jonathan L Howard (author of "The sound of gyroscopes") What inspired you to write your story? I didn’t even realise that I’d ever written any steampunk until reviews for Johannes Cabal the Detective started coming in. Several of these very reasonably pointed out that, as I’d created a pseudo-Victorian milieu (I’d actually made it a sort of more-or-less coherent mash up of elements dating from the 1870s to around 1950) with air transport provided by analogues of dirigibles (aeroships, heavier-than-air vehicles that use gyroscopic levitation for lift and etheric line guides for main power and forward motion) and helicopters (entomopters, which use the principles of wing motion employed by dragonflies and bees), that looked pretty steampunky to them. Since I’d inadvertently created a steampunk world without meaning to, it seemed natural to return to it when Airship Shape & Bristol Fashioncame along. Johannes Cabal the Detective features an interlude at a gentlemen’s club called Blakes, an archetype of the sort of club that featured so heavily in stories written in the Victorian and Edwardian period. It is a club that takes on almost exclusively professionals of assorted fields, with the gentry largely absent unless there’s something interesting about them beyond having an entry in Debrett’s. It is a club where stories are told, and these stories tend towards the unusual. So, I had my setting, but what sort of story would be told there that specifically involved Bristol? The first thought that came to mind was the balloon festival; perhaps there was something I could do with that? But, I thought, in our world interest in balloons led to blimps and dirigibles, whereas in Cabal’s world they had aeroships. Surely balloons would undermine the line of technological development? That was the initiating spark. If hot air balloons led to dirigibles, what earlier technology led to the aeroships? So were born the gyrospheres; great, hot air balloon-sized rigid cages containing a fuel emulsion burner and engine to power the whirling armillary wheels of a giant gyroscope. Now I had an analogue to hot air balloons, a gyrosphere festival was the next step and that in turn was made a more dynamic undertaking by turning it into a race. The rest... well, you can read it for yourself.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?
The main thing I learned was how surprisingly easy it was to slip back into writing about Blakes after four or five years. I’d often meant to write some short stories using the club as a device for the telling, but had never got around to it and thought that after such a long period I might have trouble recapturing the tone. But, no. It flowed easily and was fun to write. I think I’ll go back there again, but won’t leave it so long this time.
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? One sentence be damned, I can say it in one word – Persevere. And Myself? Should I turn those questions back onto me?
(Me (in red waistcoat & bowler hat) performing Artifice Perdu with Ken Shinn, Duncan Thow, Scott Lewis (author of The chronicles of Montague & Dalton) & Claire M Hutt) What inspired me to write Artifice Perdu? The gothic majesty of Bristol cathedral led naturally to Gothic fiction, the works of Victor Hugo and Richard A Kirk and The weird: A compendium of strange & dark stories by Ann VanderMeer. It's also, I guess, because I work for a French company, there's a deeper meaning there I'm sure.... What did I learn about writing whilst writing my story? How important a good editor is. Roz & Jo deserve at least as much credit for my story as I do, they took a lump of prose with the hint of a good idea and through gentle prodding made me turn it into the story that it is now. I'm still not 100% happy with it and there are things I would change about it now ten or so months after it was first written but I'm going to have inordinate fondness for it, warts and all, as my first professionally published piece. I learned that an interesting premise can't carry a story, you need characters. I wrote the story in May last year and it was the eigth story I wrote after making the decision at the beginning of last year to start writing. I've had a vague idea that I'd like to write for a long time, I've always been interested in books and the publishing industry but I'd always prevaricated. Two things gave me the kick I needed. The first, and most important, was getting involved in organising Bristol Festival of Literature and meeting lots of authors and going to lots of "get writing" style events. I found that authors were just normal folk, something I should obviously have realised! and that although writing was a craft it is accessible to everyone. The second kick was meeting Barbara Turner- Vesselago at her book launch (for Writing without a parachute) and her publisher Sarah Bird (of Vala) who, in response to my "I'd like to write" said "Why don't you then, anyone can" which was the final push into putting pen to paper. It's been a strange journey since in which I've been commended in a competition and won another one and been published both online and in print.
In one sentence what is my best advice for new writers? Write, read critically, persevere, write, read critically, persevere... Many thanks to all the authors who answered the questions. If you've read Airship Shape why not leave a review online? Amazon, Goodreads, Librarything or even just here in the comments or mail me at BRSBKBLOG at GMAIL dot COM.
Airships seen in BristolOn Saturday evening we all put on...
Airships seen in Bristol
On Saturday evening we all put on our best Steampunk finery and went down to the Folk House in Bristol for "The best book launch I've ever been to" (said an attending author). There was a Victorian picnic, with cucumber sandwiches &cake and royal Kir & homemade lemonade and a tentacle cake kindly baked by Pat Haws-Reed.
There were radio-play style adaptions of Brass & Bone by Jo Hall - she likes to call it “The Six Million Guinea Woman” story. My own story Artifice Perdu was also adapted brilliantly by Roz Clarke & seemed to be well received by the audience. Many thanks to Scott Lewis, Ken Shinn, Claire M Hutt & Duncan for stepping up to play parts.
There was also a band, Cauda Pavonis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2nW4kCnjMc who were really rather good, it was their first ever acoustic set apparently! They sang about Weyland \Smithy, Vampires, Carnivals and the Morrigan. Splendid stuff, seek them out.
Our first lines winner is Ambly Robustus with the line:
Above the clouds the 'Homeward Bound' floated steadily through the moonlit air-scape , a night sky like black silk, diamond-glitter with millions of stars. Congratulations! A signed Hardback & bottle of Sutton's Writers Unblock will be winging their way to you soon. I asked some of the contributors (the ones I could track down and corner, not letting them go until they answered my questions) a set of questions: Cheryl Morgan (publisher & author of the story "Something in the water")
What inspired you to publish this collection? We wanted to do something with a strong local theme. Bristol has a huge amount of history in the Victorian era, so steampunk was a natural. Also I get very irritated with the people who dismiss all steampunk on the grounds that, being set in Victorian times, it must be sexist, racist, homophobic and so on. I wanted to challenge the writers to think about these issues and produce stories at address them. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? That the history of Egyptian archaeology in the UK is heavily dependent on a lesbian woman who lived in Bristol. And that the Nubian pharaohs were impressive people. In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Read, read more, study what you read, there is so much you can learn from other writers.
Cheryl's mewsing on the Ball here: http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=18780 Joanne Hall (Editor and author of the story £Brass & Bone)
(Jo performing Brass & Bone - she's the one in the cloak on the right) What inspired you to to edit this collection? Mainly it was Roz's enthusiasm that pulled me along, but I have had stories in a couple of Bristol-themed SF anthologies before (Dark Spires and Future Bristol) which were both edited by Colin Harvey. We knew there was plenty of scope for fantasy and SF set in Bristol, and after Colin died we decided we'd try and carry on his legacy by doing more anthologies in the spirit of the ones he had edited. The idea for it being specifically steampunk came from the history of engineering that Bristol is famous for.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? The importance of proper research - when writing a story in a real place, it helps to go out and see and feel and smell the place it's set in. Even if you go back and slightly fudge the geography, if you're writing a story set, for example, on the Suspension Bridge it really helps to go up there and get a feel for it. I am guilty of sometimes being a keyboard warrior, and it's made me realise I should get out more! In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Your writing will get better with practice, don't give up on it, read everything you can and write every day (and if people offer you advice, take it on board, pick out the parts that apply to you, and file away the rest!) Jo's own blog about the ball can be found here: http://hierath.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/the-airship-ball-being-a-true-reporte-into-goings-on-and-shennanigans/ Ian Millstead (author of "The Traveller's apprentice") What inspired you to write your story? I was inspired by the Bristol setting, which was further encouraged by Eugene Byrne’s talk about possible prompts for stories, and by the challenge of writing in the steampunk sub-genre which I’d not tried before. I also have a lot of trust in Roz and Jo as editors. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? The characters don’t always do what the author is trying to get them to do.
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Write and have good characters to write about. Ken Shinn (author of "Case of the Vapours")
(Ken performing Brass & Bone with some fine dramatics - also in the picture Myfanwy Rodman and Desiree Fischer) What inspired you to write your story?
As much as anything, to be a slightly awkward sod! The title summoned up so many images of airships, zeppelins, flying machines soaring above...all of which can provide great stories, but just made me feel a bit cussed. As a result, I decided to get my story RIGHT down to ground level, and focus it on the lowliest members of Society in alternate Bristol. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?
To never be afraid to ask (politely) for help about what you don't know. Whether it was Eugene Byrne kindly pointing me in the direction of fruitful areas of research, or close friends with editorial experience casting their eye over the story as it developed, a lot of good was done for the story by others than the author. However, the other side of that coin is that one should always write, first and foremost, to enjoy onesself. To paraphrase Joe Lansdale, "if you think that writing is such a pain, why the hell not do something else that you might like?"
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers?
Just write what you want to, don't worry about whether the theme is original or the prose is up to scratch at first...concentrate on writing something that feels right to you, something that gives you some pleasure to read back - THEN and only then start worrying about whether it'll appeal to others! Deborah Walker (author of "The lesser men have no language") What inspired you to write your story? As soon as I saw the call I had the gut feeling that I wanted to write about the Victorian fern craze. Ferns naturally led to pod people. And given Bristol's historical links with the slave trade, I wanted to explore that issue. But as my main character developed another aspect became apparent. I'll not spoil it for the readers. But it's true to say that my story had a lot of different inspirations.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?I learnt something about point of view. As I edited, I rewrote the story from third to first person. First person made the main character more understandable/likeable for the reader, in this particular story I think. I also learnt a lot about the fern craze. (I even bought a book about it.)
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers?Set yourself targets. I set weekly and monthly targets for finished words and for number of submissions. Targets really keep me on track. John Hawks-Reed (author of "Miss Butler and the Handlander process")
(John pointing to the elephant just off-screen) What inspired you to write your story? A picture of my grandmother and her five sisters that's on the wall of my aunt's house in deepest Worcestershire. The notion of 'steam elephants' had been in my head for a while, but I had no idea how a story with/about/near them would work. As is the way of these things, it's not actually about the elephants any more. Although I still have the sheet of paper crammed with intricate writing about the organisation, disposition and logistics of a steam elephant brigade that I was given by an only mildly scary friend. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? More and more often, I think the direction of the story is going one way, when in fact the characters are beetling off at a tangent and I'm (metaphorically) chasing after them going 'Hoi! Over here!' In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Writing and improv comedy seem closely linked - go with the suggestions offered by your characters.
John's own blog about the ball is here: http://hirez.livejournal.com/479220.html Piotr Swietlik (author of "Flight of the Daedalus) What inspired you to write your story? A chance to get published. I also wanted to point out the general public lack of interest in space exploration. Not sure if that went well but hopefully will be more visible in the follow up story. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? Mainly I've learned that I actually can do it and that working from a prepared outline is way easier. I also learned that I still need to learn a lot. In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Write, write, write... Jonathan L Howard (author of "The sound of gyroscopes") What inspired you to write your story? I didn’t even realise that I’d ever written any steampunk until reviews for Johannes Cabal the Detective started coming in. Several of these very reasonably pointed out that, as I’d created a pseudo-Victorian milieu (I’d actually made it a sort of more-or-less coherent mash up of elements dating from the 1870s to around 1950) with air transport provided by analogues of dirigibles (aeroships, heavier-than-air vehicles that use gyroscopic levitation for lift and etheric line guides for main power and forward motion) and helicopters (entomopters, which use the principles of wing motion employed by dragonflies and bees), that looked pretty steampunky to them. Since I’d inadvertently created a steampunk world without meaning to, it seemed natural to return to it when Airship Shape & Bristol Fashioncame along. Johannes Cabal the Detective features an interlude at a gentlemen’s club called Blakes, an archetype of the sort of club that featured so heavily in stories written in the Victorian and Edwardian period. It is a club that takes on almost exclusively professionals of assorted fields, with the gentry largely absent unless there’s something interesting about them beyond having an entry in Debrett’s. It is a club where stories are told, and these stories tend towards the unusual. So, I had my setting, but what sort of story would be told there that specifically involved Bristol? The first thought that came to mind was the balloon festival; perhaps there was something I could do with that? But, I thought, in our world interest in balloons led to blimps and dirigibles, whereas in Cabal’s world they had aeroships. Surely balloons would undermine the line of technological development? That was the initiating spark. If hot air balloons led to dirigibles, what earlier technology led to the aeroships? So were born the gyrospheres; great, hot air balloon-sized rigid cages containing a fuel emulsion burner and engine to power the whirling armillary wheels of a giant gyroscope. Now I had an analogue to hot air balloons, a gyrosphere festival was the next step and that in turn was made a more dynamic undertaking by turning it into a race. The rest... well, you can read it for yourself.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?
The main thing I learned was how surprisingly easy it was to slip back into writing about Blakes after four or five years. I’d often meant to write some short stories using the club as a device for the telling, but had never got around to it and thought that after such a long period I might have trouble recapturing the tone. But, no. It flowed easily and was fun to write. I think I’ll go back there again, but won’t leave it so long this time.
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? One sentence be damned, I can say it in one word – Persevere. And Myself? Should I turn those questions back onto me?
(Me (in red waistcoat & bowler hat) performing Artifice Perdu with Ken Shinn, Duncan, Scott Lewis (author of The chronicles of Montague & Dalton) & Claire M Hutt) What inspired me to write Artifice Perdu? The gothic majesty of Bristol cathedral led naturally to Gothic fiction, the works of Victor Hugo and Richard A Kirk and The weird: A compendium of strange & dark stories by Ann VanderMeer. It's also, I guess, because I work for a French company, there's a deeper meaning there I'm sure....
What did I learn about writing whilst writing my story? How important a good editor is. Roz & Jo deserve at least as much credit for my story as I do, they took a lump of prose with the hint of a good idea and through gentle prodding made me turn it into the story that it is now. I'm still not 100% happy with it and there are things I would change about it now ten or so months after it was first written but I'm going to have inordinate fondness for it, warts and all, as my first professionally published piece. I learned that an interesting premise can't carry a story, you need characters. I wrote the story in May last year and it was the eigth story I wrote after making the decision at the beginning of last year to start writing. I've had a vague idea that I'd like to write for a long time, I've always been interested in books and the publishing industry but I'd always prevaricated. Two things gave me the kick I needed. The first, and most important, was getting involved in organising Bristol Festival of Literature and meeting lots of authors and going to lots of "get writing" style events. I found that authors were just normal folk, something I should obviously have realised! and that although writing was a craft it is accessible to everyone. The second kick was meeting Barbara Turner- Vesselago at her book launch (for Writing without a parachute) and her publisher Sarah Bird (of Vala) who, in response to my "I'd like to write" said "Why don't you then, anyone can" which was the final push into putting pen to paper. It's been a strange journey since in which I've been commended in a competition and won another one and been published both online and in print.
In one sentence what is my best advice for new writers? Write, read critically, persevere, write, read critically, persevere... Many thanks to all the authors who answered the questions. If you've read Airship Shape why not leave a review online? Amazon, Goodreads, Librarything or even just here in the comments or mail me at BRSBKBLOG at GMAIL dot COM.
On Saturday evening we all put on our best Steampunk finery and went down to the Folk House in Bristol for "The best book launch I've ever been to" (said an attending author). There was a Victorian picnic, with cucumber sandwiches &cake and royal Kir & homemade lemonade and a tentacle cake kindly baked by Pat Haws-Reed.
There were radio-play style adaptions of Brass & Bone by Jo Hall - she likes to call it “The Six Million Guinea Woman” story. My own story Artifice Perdu was also adapted brilliantly by Roz Clarke & seemed to be well received by the audience. Many thanks to Scott Lewis, Ken Shinn, Claire M Hutt & Duncan for stepping up to play parts.
There was also a band, Cauda Pavonis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2nW4kCnjMc who were really rather good, it was their first ever acoustic set apparently! They sang about Weyland \Smithy, Vampires, Carnivals and the Morrigan. Splendid stuff, seek them out.
Our first lines winner is Ambly Robustus with the line:
Above the clouds the 'Homeward Bound' floated steadily through the moonlit air-scape , a night sky like black silk, diamond-glitter with millions of stars. Congratulations! A signed Hardback & bottle of Sutton's Writers Unblock will be winging their way to you soon. I asked some of the contributors (the ones I could track down and corner, not letting them go until they answered my questions) a set of questions: Cheryl Morgan (publisher & author of the story "Something in the water")
What inspired you to publish this collection? We wanted to do something with a strong local theme. Bristol has a huge amount of history in the Victorian era, so steampunk was a natural. Also I get very irritated with the people who dismiss all steampunk on the grounds that, being set in Victorian times, it must be sexist, racist, homophobic and so on. I wanted to challenge the writers to think about these issues and produce stories at address them. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? That the history of Egyptian archaeology in the UK is heavily dependent on a lesbian woman who lived in Bristol. And that the Nubian pharaohs were impressive people. In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Read, read more, study what you read, there is so much you can learn from other writers.
Cheryl's mewsing on the Ball here: http://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=18780 Joanne Hall (Editor and author of the story £Brass & Bone)
(Jo performing Brass & Bone - she's the one in the cloak on the right) What inspired you to to edit this collection? Mainly it was Roz's enthusiasm that pulled me along, but I have had stories in a couple of Bristol-themed SF anthologies before (Dark Spires and Future Bristol) which were both edited by Colin Harvey. We knew there was plenty of scope for fantasy and SF set in Bristol, and after Colin died we decided we'd try and carry on his legacy by doing more anthologies in the spirit of the ones he had edited. The idea for it being specifically steampunk came from the history of engineering that Bristol is famous for.What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? The importance of proper research - when writing a story in a real place, it helps to go out and see and feel and smell the place it's set in. Even if you go back and slightly fudge the geography, if you're writing a story set, for example, on the Suspension Bridge it really helps to go up there and get a feel for it. I am guilty of sometimes being a keyboard warrior, and it's made me realise I should get out more! In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Your writing will get better with practice, don't give up on it, read everything you can and write every day (and if people offer you advice, take it on board, pick out the parts that apply to you, and file away the rest!) Jo's own blog about the ball can be found here: http://hierath.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/the-airship-ball-being-a-true-reporte-into-goings-on-and-shennanigans/ Ian Millstead (author of "The Traveller's apprentice") What inspired you to write your story? I was inspired by the Bristol setting, which was further encouraged by Eugene Byrne’s talk about possible prompts for stories, and by the challenge of writing in the steampunk sub-genre which I’d not tried before. I also have a lot of trust in Roz and Jo as editors. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? The characters don’t always do what the author is trying to get them to do.
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Write and have good characters to write about. Ken Shinn (author of "Case of the Vapours")
(Ken performing Brass & Bone with some fine dramatics - also in the picture Myfanwy Rodman and Desiree Fischer) What inspired you to write your story?As much as anything, to be a slightly awkward sod! The title summoned up so many images of airships, zeppelins, flying machines soaring above...all of which can provide great stories, but just made me feel a bit cussed. As a result, I decided to get my story RIGHT down to ground level, and focus it on the lowliest members of Society in alternate Bristol. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?
To never be afraid to ask (politely) for help about what you don't know. Whether it was Eugene Byrne kindly pointing me in the direction of fruitful areas of research, or close friends with editorial experience casting their eye over the story as it developed, a lot of good was done for the story by others than the author. However, the other side of that coin is that one should always write, first and foremost, to enjoy onesself. To paraphrase Joe Lansdale, "if you think that writing is such a pain, why the hell not do something else that you might like?"
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers?
Just write what you want to, don't worry about whether the theme is original or the prose is up to scratch at first...concentrate on writing something that feels right to you, something that gives you some pleasure to read back - THEN and only then start worrying about whether it'll appeal to others! Deborah Walker (author of "The lesser men have no language") What inspired you to write your story? As soon as I saw the call I had the gut feeling that I wanted to write about the Victorian fern craze. Ferns naturally led to pod people. And given Bristol's historical links with the slave trade, I wanted to explore that issue. But as my main character developed another aspect became apparent. I'll not spoil it for the readers. But it's true to say that my story had a lot of different inspirations.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?I learnt something about point of view. As I edited, I rewrote the story from third to first person. First person made the main character more understandable/likeable for the reader, in this particular story I think. I also learnt a lot about the fern craze. (I even bought a book about it.)
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers?Set yourself targets. I set weekly and monthly targets for finished words and for number of submissions. Targets really keep me on track. John Hawks-Reed (author of "Miss Butler and the Handlander process")
(John pointing to the elephant just off-screen) What inspired you to write your story? A picture of my grandmother and her five sisters that's on the wall of my aunt's house in deepest Worcestershire. The notion of 'steam elephants' had been in my head for a while, but I had no idea how a story with/about/near them would work. As is the way of these things, it's not actually about the elephants any more. Although I still have the sheet of paper crammed with intricate writing about the organisation, disposition and logistics of a steam elephant brigade that I was given by an only mildly scary friend. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? More and more often, I think the direction of the story is going one way, when in fact the characters are beetling off at a tangent and I'm (metaphorically) chasing after them going 'Hoi! Over here!' In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Writing and improv comedy seem closely linked - go with the suggestions offered by your characters.John's own blog about the ball is here: http://hirez.livejournal.com/479220.html Piotr Swietlik (author of "Flight of the Daedalus) What inspired you to write your story? A chance to get published. I also wanted to point out the general public lack of interest in space exploration. Not sure if that went well but hopefully will be more visible in the follow up story. What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story? Mainly I've learned that I actually can do it and that working from a prepared outline is way easier. I also learned that I still need to learn a lot. In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? Write, write, write... Jonathan L Howard (author of "The sound of gyroscopes") What inspired you to write your story? I didn’t even realise that I’d ever written any steampunk until reviews for Johannes Cabal the Detective started coming in. Several of these very reasonably pointed out that, as I’d created a pseudo-Victorian milieu (I’d actually made it a sort of more-or-less coherent mash up of elements dating from the 1870s to around 1950) with air transport provided by analogues of dirigibles (aeroships, heavier-than-air vehicles that use gyroscopic levitation for lift and etheric line guides for main power and forward motion) and helicopters (entomopters, which use the principles of wing motion employed by dragonflies and bees), that looked pretty steampunky to them. Since I’d inadvertently created a steampunk world without meaning to, it seemed natural to return to it when Airship Shape & Bristol Fashioncame along. Johannes Cabal the Detective features an interlude at a gentlemen’s club called Blakes, an archetype of the sort of club that featured so heavily in stories written in the Victorian and Edwardian period. It is a club that takes on almost exclusively professionals of assorted fields, with the gentry largely absent unless there’s something interesting about them beyond having an entry in Debrett’s. It is a club where stories are told, and these stories tend towards the unusual. So, I had my setting, but what sort of story would be told there that specifically involved Bristol? The first thought that came to mind was the balloon festival; perhaps there was something I could do with that? But, I thought, in our world interest in balloons led to blimps and dirigibles, whereas in Cabal’s world they had aeroships. Surely balloons would undermine the line of technological development? That was the initiating spark. If hot air balloons led to dirigibles, what earlier technology led to the aeroships? So were born the gyrospheres; great, hot air balloon-sized rigid cages containing a fuel emulsion burner and engine to power the whirling armillary wheels of a giant gyroscope. Now I had an analogue to hot air balloons, a gyrosphere festival was the next step and that in turn was made a more dynamic undertaking by turning it into a race. The rest... well, you can read it for yourself.
What did you learn about writing whilst writing your story?
The main thing I learned was how surprisingly easy it was to slip back into writing about Blakes after four or five years. I’d often meant to write some short stories using the club as a device for the telling, but had never got around to it and thought that after such a long period I might have trouble recapturing the tone. But, no. It flowed easily and was fun to write. I think I’ll go back there again, but won’t leave it so long this time.
In one sentence what is your best advice for new writers? One sentence be damned, I can say it in one word – Persevere. And Myself? Should I turn those questions back onto me?
(Me (in red waistcoat & bowler hat) performing Artifice Perdu with Ken Shinn, Duncan, Scott Lewis (author of The chronicles of Montague & Dalton) & Claire M Hutt) What inspired me to write Artifice Perdu? The gothic majesty of Bristol cathedral led naturally to Gothic fiction, the works of Victor Hugo and Richard A Kirk and The weird: A compendium of strange & dark stories by Ann VanderMeer. It's also, I guess, because I work for a French company, there's a deeper meaning there I'm sure.... What did I learn about writing whilst writing my story? How important a good editor is. Roz & Jo deserve at least as much credit for my story as I do, they took a lump of prose with the hint of a good idea and through gentle prodding made me turn it into the story that it is now. I'm still not 100% happy with it and there are things I would change about it now ten or so months after it was first written but I'm going to have inordinate fondness for it, warts and all, as my first professionally published piece. I learned that an interesting premise can't carry a story, you need characters. I wrote the story in May last year and it was the eigth story I wrote after making the decision at the beginning of last year to start writing. I've had a vague idea that I'd like to write for a long time, I've always been interested in books and the publishing industry but I'd always prevaricated. Two things gave me the kick I needed. The first, and most important, was getting involved in organising Bristol Festival of Literature and meeting lots of authors and going to lots of "get writing" style events. I found that authors were just normal folk, something I should obviously have realised! and that although writing was a craft it is accessible to everyone. The second kick was meeting Barbara Turner- Vesselago at her book launch (for Writing without a parachute) and her publisher Sarah Bird (of Vala) who, in response to my "I'd like to write" said "Why don't you then, anyone can" which was the final push into putting pen to paper. It's been a strange journey since in which I've been commended in a competition and won another one and been published both online and in print.
In one sentence what is my best advice for new writers? Write, read critically, persevere, write, read critically, persevere... Many thanks to all the authors who answered the questions. If you've read Airship Shape why not leave a review online? Amazon, Goodreads, Librarything or even just here in the comments or mail me at BRSBKBLOG at GMAIL dot COM.
March 27, 2014
Sarah Butland Guest Post
Today Sarah Butland dropped by to talk about money
Sarah Butland was born in Ontario, the year was 1982. She was moved to New Brunswick for over 15 years and now resides at home in Nova Scotia, Canada. Butland has been married to her high school sweetheart and has a superstar son named William, and a cat named Russ who all make her house a home.
BananaBoy and the Adventures of Sammy was born with Sending You Sammy, her first published children's book. Then came Brain Tales - Volume One, a collection of short stories and finally Arm Farm, her current literary pride and joy.
Butland has also won Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
Some Say it's All About the Money...
It's important to remember who you are without the need for money. We are more than paper currency and it's crucial to realize without that we are souls, hearts and pumping blood.
I often ask friends what they would love to do if all jobs/ careers paid the same. Some don't know what to say, often their minds are confused by the opportunity presented as it's always been so much about the money.
But opportunity speaks volumes too and we all create our own opportunities. People often wonder why all the drama happens in their life and it's no wonder – they dwell on it and what you focus on seems appreciated and keeps happening.
Instead let's focus on the essence of life and all we have to offer without concern for a paycheck. Feel the blood, life and soul flowing through us and celebrate all the good in the world.
Except for when it comes to Fantasy and Fiction
When you're a writer the possibilities are endless and as long as reader's can believe it or simply enjoy it, you've succeeded.
Most authors will say it's not about the money, it's about finding readers but they are always thinking of the sales. It's what our world has become accustomed to so a reprieve when reading a story focused more on life and essence of being is often welcomed.
My award winning short story, Blood Day, starts with the line:
I've always been told we all bleed red, take breaths, and die if poisoned so I often wondered why I wasn't dead yet.
The reader is then welcomed into the strange life of Veronica as she tries to discover who she is while not being the cliché of a coming of age story, this is more coming of human story.
What would you do without the need for money?
If you were told the most important thing was to cherish every tear drop, memory and celebrate drops of seeped blood, how would you spend your days? In happiness, I suspect.
Thanks for reading,
Sarah Butland
www.SarahButland.com
Download Blood Day The Short Story today for free to escape your need for money. http://bookShow.me/B00J5NTC5W
Sarah Butland was born in Ontario, the year was 1982. She was moved to New Brunswick for over 15 years and now resides at home in Nova Scotia, Canada. Butland has been married to her high school sweetheart and has a superstar son named William, and a cat named Russ who all make her house a home.
BananaBoy and the Adventures of Sammy was born with Sending You Sammy, her first published children's book. Then came Brain Tales - Volume One, a collection of short stories and finally Arm Farm, her current literary pride and joy.
Butland has also won Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award.
Some Say it's All About the Money...
It's important to remember who you are without the need for money. We are more than paper currency and it's crucial to realize without that we are souls, hearts and pumping blood.
I often ask friends what they would love to do if all jobs/ careers paid the same. Some don't know what to say, often their minds are confused by the opportunity presented as it's always been so much about the money.
But opportunity speaks volumes too and we all create our own opportunities. People often wonder why all the drama happens in their life and it's no wonder – they dwell on it and what you focus on seems appreciated and keeps happening.
Instead let's focus on the essence of life and all we have to offer without concern for a paycheck. Feel the blood, life and soul flowing through us and celebrate all the good in the world.
Except for when it comes to Fantasy and Fiction
When you're a writer the possibilities are endless and as long as reader's can believe it or simply enjoy it, you've succeeded.
Most authors will say it's not about the money, it's about finding readers but they are always thinking of the sales. It's what our world has become accustomed to so a reprieve when reading a story focused more on life and essence of being is often welcomed.
My award winning short story, Blood Day, starts with the line:
I've always been told we all bleed red, take breaths, and die if poisoned so I often wondered why I wasn't dead yet.
The reader is then welcomed into the strange life of Veronica as she tries to discover who she is while not being the cliché of a coming of age story, this is more coming of human story.
What would you do without the need for money?
If you were told the most important thing was to cherish every tear drop, memory and celebrate drops of seeped blood, how would you spend your days? In happiness, I suspect.
Thanks for reading,
Sarah Butland
www.SarahButland.com
Download Blood Day The Short Story today for free to escape your need for money. http://bookShow.me/B00J5NTC5W
Pete Sutton's Blog
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