Rachel Luckett-Connor's Blog, page 2

A Cuppa and Catchup with screenwriter Mike Kubat!

It’s that time of week again, where I harangue an unsuspecting creative person into answering some gosh darn questions!  This week’s victim guest is Mike Kubat, a hilarious and talented screenwriter based in L.A. You may know Mike from ED EDD n EDDY, ATOMIC BETTY and a slew of other shows for younger audiences, including Disney’s MICKEY AND THE ROADSTER RACERS.

I’ve really been looking forward to this interview, as Mike’s not only my former colleagues, he’s also one of my best friends *cue mushy feels here* ^__^

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Rachel: Ey up, Kubat! Thank you for stopping by the blog

I love #lunathevampire and I was so happy when @nerderella asked...

I love #lunathevampire and I was so happy when @nerderella asked if I would like to write a couple of short #comics for it

My March 2017 roundup!

Now then!

Every month I’ll write a quick roundup of my recent goings-on. This is mainly for my benefit, because I’m forgetful and often need evidence (tentative as that may be) that I’ve achieved something or done something worthwhile for my career/health/relationships etc.

It’s also a way to roundup the best bits featured on the blog this month. Your time is limited, so I wanna help you get to the good stuff and get on with your day

A Cuppa and Catchup with Author Tim Powers!

It’s time for a cuppa and catchup! I recently interviewed internationally-acclaimed author Tim Powers, author of The Anubis Gates (you can read my review here). Tim’s also responsible for the swashbuckling tale ‘On Stranger Tides’ which inspired the Monkey Island games and the fourth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. He’s also credited as being one of the Fathers of Steampunk!

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Rachel: Lovely to have you aboard, Tim! Tell us a bit about yourself and what creative stuff you’re working on at the moment.

Tim: Well, my first novel was published forty-one years ago, and I’ve had fourteen in all so far. That’s fairly slow work, but I use the excuse that they’re generally pretty long, and research and plotting eat up a lot of time.

I’m halfway through another novel now, and I hope to have it finished by summer, roughly. It’s contemporary, set in Los Angeles, and it involves freeways. And of course supernatural stuff.

Rachel: I was first introduced to your work when I read The Anubis Gates, a historical fiction with time-travel, Victorian corruption and ancient Egyptian folklore. Can you tell us a little about your approach to historical fiction? What is it about a certain period of time that intrigues you?

Tim: A novel for me generally starts with something I stumble across in recreational non-fiction reading. I’ll notice some peculiarity — like Edison working on a phone to talk to dead people with, or Albert Einstein going to a séance — and I’ll start to wonder if a story might not be built around what I’m reading.

If I come across another oddity or two — like Edison’s last breath being preserved in a test tube in a museum in Michigan, or Einstein turning out to have had a secret daughter who disappears from history in 1902 — I’ll decide that this isn’t recreational reading after all, but research for a book.

[image error]For The Anubis Gates, it was a note in one of Lord Byron’s letters. He said that several people had recognized him in London at a particular date in 1810, when at that time he was in fact in Turkey, very sick with a fever.

I wondered how he might have a doppelganger, and started reading all about Byron, and his doctor in Turkey, and London at the time, looking for clues.

Rachel: Many people will know you as the author who inspired the Monkey Island games, as well as The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. What is it about writing pirate themed fiction that you enjoy the most?

Tim: Sometimes I’ve started research for a book just because some place or situation looks very likely to provide the stuff to make a book out of. John LeCarre-type espionage, for example, always struck me as just begging for the addition of a supernatural element or two, to base a novel on.

And I’ve always loved pirate novels like Stevenson’s Treasure Island, Sabatini’s Captain Blood and The Black Swan,and Howden Smith’s Portobello Gold, and I wanted to write a book with all the default situations “pirate story” implies: cutlass fights on tropical beaches, sea-battles between square-rigger ships, mutinous crews, the Royal Navy — and of course I’d add some supernatural stuff to all that. Voodoo and the Fountain of Youth were obvious elements to use.

I don’t know that I’ll ever return to that setting, but it certainly was fun to play with.

Rachel: Have you always known you were going to be a writer? What was your earliest memory where you knew this was your calling?

Tim: I was about five or six years old, and I read a book called Timothy Turtle. I don’t think it’d hold up to re-reading today, but it was about this turtle who got flipped over onto his back and needed the help of his woodland friends to get right-side-up again.

I thought that writing stories and getting them out in the world and read by strangers must be the coolest thing a person can do. I still think it.

Rachel: In the past, you’ve very kindly given me and other authors advice on the thoroughly miserable process known as querying. What advice would you give to an author seeking representation?

Tim: Oh gee, that’s a complicated one. But my main advice to a new writer would be to get a contract from a publisher and then go looking for an agent. Agents like to have some reason to believe that the manuscript they’re representing is publishable, and they really can’t tell just by reading it.

If you’ve had short stories appear in reputable places, that’s an implication that a novel you’ve written is also probably publishable … but the best evidence is if it has in fact already been bought by a publisher. With a contract already in hand, you can get the attention of virtually any agent.

Of course getting that contract isn’t easy! But at least in science fiction and fantasy, there are a number of editors who still look at unsolicited manuscripts, and for the rest of them you can send query letters.

Getting an agent is like getting a spouse — you shouldn’t sign on with either one just because you’ve found one that will take you, and you’re better off with none than with one that isn’t near perfect.

There are a number of publishers that accept unsolicited manuscripts, either all year around or on a seasonal basis. For starters, I’d recommend that writers keep a beady eye on the websites of publishers such as Tor, Baen and Daw.

Rachel: If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Tim: Oh — work faster, you lazy thing. And when you decide to write a trilogy, it’s a good idea to have the same publisher for all three books. (That didn’t occur to me when I sold the two books that follow Last Call.)

Rachel: Do you feel that with enough practice and perseverance, anyone could be a good writer? What crucial lessons would they need to learn to reach their potential?

[image error]Tim: I do think that with practice and perseverance — a perhaps irresponsible amount of perseverance — any literate person can eventually become a published writer. Good, I don’t know.

The only thing that distinguishes one writer from another is his or her perspective — that is, what that writer finds fascinating, what convictions the writer has, what conclusions the writer has come to about everything.

Ideally you don’t have the same default tastes and opinions and philosophies that are prevalent in your decade, so your work stands out a bit. And the best way to be independent of the attitudes and assumptions of right-now is to read heaps of stuff from other cultures and other centuries, which expose you to different attitudes and assumptions — you’ve got a bigger tool-kit, basically, than writers who avail themselves only of what’s popular right now.

Rachel: How do you find the writing process? Do you find it energizing, or exhausting, or both? Do you pace yourself or go ‘full steam ahead’?

Tim: I’m very pleased with myself when I write a thousand words a day; the work stacks up nicely over the course of months. I seldom do more than that — for one thing, on the occasions when I’ve done something like four thousand words in a day, I’m so pleased with myself that I take a week off, so it’s not really productive. So yes, I pace myself!

I outline very thoroughly before I start, and try to consider every possible variation of the plot, so that when I actually start writing I know what comes next, which characters will be present and what they’ll say, and what their eventual fates will be.

I let my characters have lots of free will and spontaneity in the outlining and plotting stage, but I try to allow them none any longer when it’s time to actually start writing.

Rachel: You’ve seen a lot of book trends come and go, especially in fantasy and science fiction. Are there any trends you’d like to see more of, or less of?

[image error]Tim: In general I’d like to see less of whatever trend is popular at the moment. I think too many new writers tell themselves, “Gee, I’d better figure out what’s selling right now, so I can write that.”

The trouble, of course, is that by the time your book is written and (God willing!) sold and published, that trend will be a bit stale. And if it doesn’t sell, you’re left with an unpublished manuscript that is very likely to be something you never cared deeply about anyway.

It’s much better to … well, for one thing, to have read enough in and out of your field, old and new, so that the current trends aren’t all you’re aware of; but it’s much better to write about things and people and settings that you independently find fascinating and dramatic, which will probably result in a book that’s outside of “what’s selling right now.” With luck, it will start a trend of its own, and you can move on to something else.

Rachel: Do you have an old book idea from years past that you’d like to resurrect one day?

Tim: I’ve always thought a good fantasy novel could be written involving mountain climbing; using horrible mountains like the Eiger or Mount Everest. The setting is already stressful and dangerous, and there are details like bodies of fallen climbers hung forever in inaccessible locations, and “demons of the upper air,” and occult motivations of climbers …

Maybe one day!

Rachel: People define success in so many different ways – what do you feel makes a person successful?

Tim: Well, money, of course — both for its own sake and because it indicates that you’ve got a lot of readers who want to buy your stuff. Then too, you want your books to hang around for a while — stay in print, not just appear and then sink out of sight forever.

I wonder if we can use “successful” to describe writers who died broke, but whose books are now widely read and esteemed! Maybe, if we broaden the definition of “successful” a bit.

Rachel: What kind of research do you do for your stories, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?

Tim: I spend altogether too much time doing research. The thing is, I get my plots and characters from the research — I don’t think of a story and then do research for it, I find a likely character or situation or historical period and then do research in order to find out what my characters and plot will be.

I follow side-trails — if a historical character I’m researching pursued beekeeping in his retirement, for instance, I feel duty-bound to read up on beekeeping. And then the history and folklore or honey might occupy me for a while. I throw a very wide net, and I have to look at all the litter that accumulates in it.

In all of it I’m looking for “things that are too cool not to use,” and when I’ve scavenged twenty or thirty such things, my main task is how to connect the dots.

Rachel: Do you remember getting your first writing advance? What was it for and what did you spend it on?

[image error]Tim: I believe it was six hundred dollars on signing, against a total advance of twelve hundred dollars. (This was in 1975.)

I don’t know what else I spent it on, but according to the “journal” I was keeping at the time, I bought a new pipe and a one-pound can of Balkan Sobranie #759 tobacco.

I wish I still had it — Balkan Sobranie stopped making it many years ago, and full cans of it go for hundreds of dollars on Ebay now.

Rachel: You’re writing a first draft – is your weapon of choice a pen or the keyboard?

Tim: I do first drafts into a keyboard now, because I can type faster than I can write. Before I had a computer, and an electric keyboard, I did all my first drafts with a Bic pen, crossing out bits and adding others in, with asterisks meaning flip the page and insert the paragraph on the back; and then when it was done I would spend a month typing the whole thing with one finger and a thumb for the upper case.

The nice thing about the handwritten first drafts was that you could tell when no more revision was possible — there was no more white space on the page.

A friend once said, “Powers used to take a year to write a book, but then he got a computer and now it takes him three years.”

Rachel: You have many fans from all over the world – do any of them ever reach out to you? What sticks out in your mind as something nice that makes you feel like ‘yes, this writing lark is worth all the blood, sweat and tears’?

Tim: Yes, sometimes! Once when we were in Israel, a guy told me that he had been in a disabled tank in the Negev Desert, and while he waited for rescue as bullets and mortar shells pounded his tank, he found my book The Anubis Gates to be a welcome distraction. That was very gratifying! And once a woman told me that she and her friends had played games, based on one of my books, in her snowy schoolyard in Belgrade. It’s reassuring to get some evidence that people are out there enjoying the things!

Rachel: Was there ever a time you felt a bit discouraged by writing? How did you bounce back?

Oh sure. My first two books were published by Laser Books — that was Harlequin Book’ brief experiment to see if science fiction would sell as well as romances — and when they discovered that SF did not sell as well, they folded the line. And I found myself right back where I’d started, sending unsolicited manuscripts  to editors and getting form rejections after long waiting. But by that time I had quit graduate school and didn’t want to go back, so I got a part-time job at a pizza parlor and kept sending the stuff out. And a couple of years later Lester Del Rey at Del Rey books bought one, and I was back in business!

And then Del Rey rejected the next one, and the one after that, and the one after that, and I was once again pretty much back where I’d started, until a year or so later Ace Books started buying the ones Del Rey rejected.

And I’ve had books rejected since, too! But there’s never been any choice but to keep at it.

I’ve always believe that a crucial step in making a career as a writer is to make sure you’re not fit for any other sort of employment. I feel I’ve achieved that.

Rachel: Are you reading any good books at the moment?

Tim: I’m on a Michael Connelly binge right now — he writes absolutely riveting police-and-courtroom dramas.

In the car I’ve got a battered paperback copy of John D. MacDonald’s Condominium, which I’ve read several times before, so that I can read it if I get stuck in a line at the bank or Taco Bell.

I probably re-read more books than read books for the first time. I’m always re-reading Heinlein’s juvenies, and Raymond Chandler, and Lovecraft, and Dick Francis, and Peter O’Donnell’s Modesty Blaise novels.

I’m afraid I don’t keep up with current stuff very well!

Rachel: Let’s talk TV!! Are you watching any good shows at the moment? What would you recommend we check out?

Tim: (my wife Serena and I) don’t have cable, so we wait for things to come out on DVD and then burn through a whole season in a couple of days — so we’re not really up to date! But we’re caught up in House of Cards, and since we watched Breaking Bad obsessively we’re now following Better Call Saul … we went through Downton Abbey … we’re big fans of 24, and I want to watch them all again in one enormous marathon … and we always go back to the British spy series from the ’70s, Sandbaggers, which is terrific and ended far too soon.

Rachel: If you could take any three people to dinner, living or dead, who would you take and why?

Tim: I have to say H. P. Lovecraft, even though he is justly condemned for being a racist. If you read his letters, you see that he was a fascinating guy. We might never have got stories from Fritz Leiber, Henry Kuttner or Robert Bloch if not for the extensive help he gave them, and I know I learned a lot about writing from reading the advice he gave them, and many others, in his letters.

Then — Lord Byron. I’ve been fascinated by him sever since I read the Andre Maurois biography of him in high school. Even if he was drunk and in a bad mood, I’d still want him along.

And finally I think G. K. Chesterton. He’d be erudite and witty and physically imposing enough to keep Byron in line, and Catholic Chesterton and atheist Lovecraft, both of them polite and intelligent, could have some interesting arguments. Byron would side with one for a while, then with the other.

Rachel: You’re headed to a desert island – what three items do you take and why?

Tim: I suppose “a mirror to signal passing airplanes with” is cheating, since it would ideally get me off the island. Okay — tobacco seeds, because I’m sure I could find something to make a pipe out of; the Bible, so I could really read it thoroughly straight through; and a violin, in the hope that I could learn to play it. (Of course I’m assuming I also get to take basic survival stuff like rope, a knife with fishing hooks and line in the handle, and a magnifying glass!)

Tim, it’s a pleasure and an honour. Thank you for stopping by!

 

Did you enjoy my interview with Tim? Go say nice things to him on his website or Facebook page

How to fall in love with writing again

[image error] I hate writing.

At least right now I do. It’s not that I don’t have ideas. Believe me. The problem is that I dwell too much on the end result. I want the end result – a finished, polished story – right now.

All that other gumpf in between – the typing, the self-doubt, the numerous, numerous revisions – makes my teeth itch. Sometimes when I’m in the thick of that stuff, I enjoy it. Right now, I loathe it, which means that I unfortunately loathe a rather sizable part of the writing process.

So many writers I speak to deal with the conundrum of loving writing and hating it at the same time. So what can we do about it?

The first draft: building a house that nobody would ever buy

“Rachel, whatever do you mean by that statement?”

Well, I’ll tell you, dear reader. On those rare occasions where I stop procrastinating and start actually writing a book / script / article, I equate it to building a house from scratch. I’m about to get all self-indulgent with my imagery now, so bear with me:

I’m standing in a wide, barren field. There’s nothing for miles but soil and the vast, endless black of space. In my hands I hold the plans for a giant, opulent house. I see that house clearly in my mind. I see the winding driveway, the arch windows that suck the very sunlight from the sky, the oaken doors, the pearl-accented bathroom and velvet-lined cinema room, all of it.

I lower the plans, and I’m reminded of how empty this plot of land is. How even when I lay the first brick to my dream house – my story – there’s every chance that down the line, that brick will crumble, or my inner critic will point at it and scream “oh my God, what an ugly, ill-laid brick you’ve laid there! What are you, a complete, mayonnaise-brained buffoon? What would EVER possess you to put the brick there? Just give up. Just give up right now, you fraud. Let the professionals build the houses, will you?”

Maybe I’ll send the inner critic on a shopping trip, and in her absence manage to lay a whole line of bricks. Maybe I’ll make it all the way to the roof, the windows. Hell, I might be rolling out that plush, cardinal-shaded carpet in my boss-ass home cinema, when a well-meaning friend (a betareader or critique partner, if that wasn’t abundantly obvious) pops around and makes a checklist of all the cracks, mould-spots and termite-eaten floorboards they’ve found. A part of me will thank them profusely, another part of me will ask why? Why, you eagle-eyed scoundrel? I only asked you around for a cup of tea and see if you fancied watching Strictly Ballroom on the big screen with me! F*** off home with your perceptive self!

[image error]Now the flaws have been pointed out, I MUST tear my leaking, drafty, spore-covered dream house down to its bones and start again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

 

“Yeah but Rachel I didn’t come here to read about your crap, rambling house analogy. I came here to find out how to love writing again.”

I know you did, and we’re getting to that.

What causes us to fall out of love with writing, then?

Falling out of love with writing usually has very little to do with having no ideas. Just like with any long-term relationship, pretty much anything can make you want to throw your hands up in the air and say “I’m done lol bye forever.”

What separates writing from relationships however is that writing never really lets us move on. Sure, it tricks us into thinking it’s over, that we can hang up our quills and take up an interest in, I dunno… kazoos or custom-made lederhosen. The urge always comes surging back however, when we watch a great film or pick up on an interesting conversation on a bus, when we read a book, put it down and think “F*** me, I could’ve written that SO much better!”

We fall out of love with writing when we forget what made us write in the first place – passion.

When the passion in your relationship fades, you might not always ‘show up’ the way you did in the early days, when everything was fresh and bursting with life. You don’t always listen, you don’t hang on every word that’s said, you don’t obsess over how things are unfolding, or every little gesture they make or how they say your name – writing is the same.

I haven’t fallen out of love with writing, but something else is wrong!

So you love writing more than ever, but you know something’s not quite right. Let’s take a look at some common roadblocks that every writer comes up against from time to time:

 

[image error]A fatigued writer sleeping in the wild. Notice the wretched contortion of his keyboard-harried arms. 

Not enough rest: If you’re not getting adequate sleep, that is almost guaranteed to have a negative effect on your writing. During sleep, your brain settles into the fertile soil of your subconscious, and it’s from here that most of your stories will spring.

 

 

Make a commitment to get a solid seven hours of sleep. Lay off the caffeine at least three hours before you go to bed. If you struggle to nod off, read a book (you should be reading lots anyway if you’re taking this writing lark seriously). Playing a white noise track in the background can drown out distractions like knobhead neighbours or the incessant grinding of your teeth against their spleens.

Feeling bad when doing ‘non-writing’ stuff: The problem with forming a writing habit is that it can start to feel like drudgery. Yes, you should set time aside to write, but you must also set aside time to just be. Writing is an important part of your life, possibly the most important, but it’s still only a part of your life. Being with friends, eating good food, getting laid, travelling, playing video games, walking the dog and failing to repeat all the complicated shit they do in YouTube makeup tutorials are parts of your life too. Denying them will only diminish your enjoyment of writing.

Too busy doing other s***: Sometimes life just happens and it’s completely outside of your control. You get ill. Your boiler breaks. Your best friend gets dumped. Your boss comes a ‘calling for that big world-ending Powerpoint presentation a week early. Your cat runs away. Your other half can’t get to school in time to pick the kids up so you have to go fetch ’em. Your annoying uncle’s in town and your ma will KICK OFF if you don’t go over to her house and listen to him go on about them bloody foreigners while blowing stale tobacco smoke in your face and picking his nose when he thinks you’re all busy watching Casualty.  

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Life happens. The world doesn’t care about your writing dreams and that’s not your fault. Yes, you should guard your time and spend it wisely, but know what battles to fight.

Not feeling good enough: One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn is that I’ll never be the greatest writer in the world ever (or even the greatest writer in this apartment, ever *side-eyes the irritatingly talented Robert*).

Now, don’t judge me for my delusion. You’ve had it too, don’t even deny it. You’ve daydreamed about mile-long queues of glittery-eyed fans waiting for this one moment in their life when they get to talk to you, world-building, dream-weaving, yarn-spinning deity among men you. You’ve seen yourself picking up that Lifetime Achievement Award. You’ve seen the vision thousands of years from now. The one of a schoolteacher on the terraformed planet Chorizo58 of the Heartburn Nebula sigh wistfully to her class about you, the greatest scribe to ever walk the Earth.

Every writer dreams of being the best. The truth is however that there’ll always be someone better.

Being at peace with this truth, and forgiving yourself for your human imperfections may just illuminate the path back to love for your writing. The irony is that by accepting that you’ll almost certainly never be the best, you can relax into your craft and create work that’s truly beyond anything you’ve created up to this point. Funny how that works!

Denying what we actually want to write: The publishing industry seems to be littered with trends, and it’s hard to know what will ‘sell’ or catch on. It can feel like the only way to ever be successful as a writer is to cater to those trends, and this may mean denying your actual passions.

Chasing trends is a surefire way to put a shelf-life on your writing . Whatever’s hot today will be incredibly stale five years from now. Do yourself and your writing a favour and spend some time writing about things you actually care about. If you want to dabble with what’s hot right now, by all means, but don’t exclusively write things that you think other people want. The hilarious thing is, many people don’t know what they want until they see it. Creating something original might just win them around.

“Write what you love…write the things that look like your heart, pulled open with prying fingers. Walk towards yourself as a writer, not away. – Chuck Wendig

 

Writing is playing

Remember when writing was fun?

Remember when it was the first thing that popped into your head of a morning?

Remember when you used to feverishly scribble notes down, stealing words like stealing kisses from a lover on the stairwell?

Remember when you ached to write?

Remember when you didn’t care what the world thought of your writing or if they’d l0ve it like you do?

What happened to that writer?

What happened to that love?

Why’ve you left your muse in a litter-strewn alleyway somewhere, crying and stumbling about the place with one shoe missing and half a kebab trickling down her arm? WHY, YOU CAD?!

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Don’t worry. You’ll find her again, I promise. All you need to do is retrace your steps. Think about those heady days when you truly loved writing, and recreate the scene. Listen to music, visit a coffee shop, take a train somewhere new. Take photos. Sample new food. Wonder. Wander. Feel everything. See, touch, taste, smell, hear everything, and nothing.

Be there.

Be present.

Be.

This is where the magic happens. This is where the bolt strikes out from the blue. When expectations fall away. When the critic runs out of barbs. When all you see is the joy, and the life, and the sheer thumping chaos of creating.

Your muse never abandoned you. She’s there, I promise, waiting for you. Loving you from afar. Stop holding back .Stop worrying. Just fling your arms open and run towards her.

Helpful articles on falling back in love with writing:

Jeff Goins – How to fall back in love with writing (stop writing for approval, find your voice, recreate the romance)
Inspire Portal – 15 ways to fall in love with writing all over again (find your flow, let go of perfectionism, figure out what only you can say)
Chuck Wendig (Terrible Minds) – 25 ways to get your groove back as a writer (read outside of your comfort zone, have new experiences, team up with other writers and brainstorm)

How do you fall back in love with writing? Tell us all about it in the comments!

 

This is Rob’s “She forced me to leave the...

This is Rob’s “She forced me to leave the house” face. #dayout #dayoutyay #york #britishfantasy #leeds #nerds #saturday #books #lol #haha #funny

A Cuppa and Catchup with author and essayist Holly Raychelle Hughes!

It’s time for another Cuppa and Catchup! Today we have the lovely Holly Raychelle Hughes on the blog. Holly’s a fiction writer and essayist who has written about the many pitfalls for people trying to get by in the film production and creative industry, as well as her own painful experiences. She wants to see a safer, more respectful Hollywood, where everyone is treated with dignity and can speak freely of their troubles without fear. She’s also my friend and fellow Pitch to Publication comrade.

A Cuppa and Catchup with author and illustrator Meg Cowley!

Every now and then I’ll invite an author, artist or other creative type-person onto the blog for a quick chat about their work, their future projects and just general life gubbins. To kick off my ‘Cuppa and Catchup’ series, here’s my lovely friend and Yorkshire-based author and artist Meg Cowley!

Hi there, Meg! Thank you for stopping by the blog

Book spotlight – The Anubis Gates by Tim Powers

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Tim Powers is famed for his historical fantasy novels, specifically his ability to pick a seldom-explored pocket of time and create a rich narrative within it.

One such book is The Anubis Gates, a fast-paced Victorian adventure following Brendan Doyle, a sharp-witted historian who must rely on more than his knowledge of the future if he’s to escape the past alive.

One thing I love about Tim’s writing is how immersive it is, and how organic the settings feel. He has a rare ability to create a vast swell of characters that are fully realised and beautifully fleshed out.

In The Anubis Gates you’ll find Horrabin, a truly terrifying nightmare-clown of a creature and one of my favourite literary villains. As this book came out in the eighties, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s to blame for many a reader’s clown phobia! I guess ultimately, one of the endearing qualities of The Anubis Gates is how strongly you feel for the characters. You either love them, loathe them, or in Horrabin’s case, a bit of both!

There’s quite a tragic edge to one of the magic systems in The Anubis Gates. Brendan gets caught up with a character called Dog-Face Joe. Without giving too much away, the myth of Dog-Face Joe leaves few survivors in its wake, and you feel a heavy sense of gloom for anyone who falls foul of it. There are real consequences here, a real alchemy of sorts for everyone who gets mixed up in the story’s dark arts.

Some readers are skeptical of books with multiple POVs, but Tim moves nimbly between several characters’ heads in quick succession without making the writing feel choppy or superficial. Indeed, being able to move between completely contrasting characters gave the story more definition, in my opinion.

I see a lot of talk about having a message in your writing. In a world where it seems to be all about some lesson writers want their readers to learn. It’s refreshing to reach back a couple of decades and read a book that focuses solely on entertaining and dazzling you for a few hundred pages. I cried at the end of The Anubis Gates, because it’s beautiful and cathartic and neatly wrapped up, and because I would like to see more books of this breed out there in the world. Luckily, Tim’s furiously working away on more stories as we speak, and has an impressive back catalogue to peruse. Don’t mind if I do! 

Read this book if you:

Love classic adventure stories such as Indiana Jones or The Mummy
Love historical fiction, specifically the Victoria era or post-Enlightenment
Love flawed, multi-dimensional characters
Enjoy multiple POVS and no one can tell you different, damnit!

Have you read The Anubis Gates or any other of Tim’s books? Tell me all about it in the comments

Be the pebble: the small acts that bring big changes

[image error]We’re not even a month into 2017, and it’s already established itself as the year of huge, sweeping events. People in their thousands are waging war against the things that wound, disgust and enrage them. They’re speaking out. Their feet are coming down. They’re taking no more.

Sadness fell heavy upon me while reading Tobias Stone’s 2016 article on how history will shed light on what comes after Trump and Brexit. Stone is deeply intimate with human history, and spoke of how we “have a habit of going into phases of mass destruction, generally self-imposed to some extent or another”.

There’s no denying that history is riddled with echoes. Some may ask why we even try to rise above our innate hostility, especially if we’re destined to fall prey to it every half-century. 

On the bus home, I came across another article. One that melted my dejection like dawn upon the frost.

Celeste Ng, author of EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU,  broke my heart with her 20 small acts of resistance list on Teen Vogue. It’s part survival kit, part love letter to anyone who knows we must do better despite history’s insistence that it’s beyond us. It’s for anyone who knows we can rise above the playbook of years past, and work alchemy through our outrage into something that truly transforms lives.

It’s for anyone who knows that all great stories start with a #smallact.

If you haven’t read the article, please do so now. It’ll remind you of what you knew already; government officials are meant to hear you. They’re waiting to hear not only where they’re going wrong but what they’re doing right.

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I know you cringe when your family shout you down over this stuff. I know how small and hemmed in it makes you feel. Why is it that the ones we love the most can make us so regretful we ever spoke up? Luckily, you know the importance of mature, even-toned conversation, and that minds seldom change overnight. You’ll try again tomorrow, or next week, or whenever you judge is right. Water knows it needs patience and time to crack the rock, and so do you.  

There’s more good news – small acts don’t always need to come with spit and warcries. Small acts can be like the sun coaxing the coat from the wind-battered man; so gentle and silent in their action that they’ve worked their magic before you even know it.

Let small acts transform your relationships. Let mouths speak more kindly. Let ears listen more deeply. Let care flow more fiercely and time go more gladly. Feel their hands grow warmer in yours. See how their face glows when you make them smile. Share your snacks with them, share your fears with them, your favourite book with them. Sit in the now with them, not the shivering future or the snarling past. Be the loving eyes you want to see looking back at you.

Let small acts transform your workplace. Speak up when you see someone pushed down.

Save an extra seat at the lunch table. Put the phone away when waiting for meetings and ask them about their day. Tell them you picked up some lozenges to help with that cold they can’t shake. Demand that their hard work is recognised. Check that email about pay rises they’re about to send for typos. Ask them what they’re doing on the weekend, and make that coffee date. Offer to help, and mean it. Expect nothing back, only a hope that they’ll pass it on.

Let small acts transform your neighbourhood: Smile at your neighbours, especially those who know some other place as their birth home. See the apprehension in their eyes. Hear the small voice inside them, the one that wonders if they’ll escape the word ‘other’. Your morning greeting, your table of free goodies on the front lawn, your gentle wish for them to drive carefully on these icy roads…all of these things matter. Capture hate on camera when you can. Parry the barbs of the bigoted with your love and presence. Maeril showed you how, so you know it can be done.

Know that your elders have seen unrest come and go. Ask them to tell you about the time they faced these problems. Make them a cup of tea as you do. Mow their lawn. Ask them if they want anything picking up from Tesco. Put their wheelie bins out on your way to work or school. Set up that DVD player they’ve been scared of since their son-in-law bought it one Christmas. Press play on the I Love Lucy DVD you bought off Amazon, and laugh with her, with them. Let them know their joy is heard, and valued.

Write to your MP and let them know you appreciate their compassion for low income families, for failing schools and crumbling playgrounds. They’re human too. They need feedback, so provide it. Attend town meetings. Promote local events. Buy from local shops. Wish your bus driver good morning (I’ve been doing this for two years, and have only been yelled at once, which is a record for Leeds).

If you REALLY want to put small acts into motion, Read Celeste’s article. Take notes. Put the lessons into action and share them with those around you. Inspire them to add their own pebbles to this vast lake we call humanity. Count up every small act you can. Hold each one to your heart, know its power, and look for more.

I know this world makes you feel like the only good deeds worth doing are big, loud and earth-shattering.

I know this world seems indifferent to the care and energy you bestow by just living your life.

Yes, we must be courageous. Always.

Yes, we must protect those who suffer with our words, our stance and our principles. Always.

But when the dust settles, and silence descends, please know that your daily deeds remain priceless, my love. Your kindness is changing the world, just as the tiny pebble changes the vast lake.

One ripple at a time.