S.K. Dunstall's Blog, page 38

Charles Dickens sold his stories one episode at a time. T...

Charles Dickens sold his stories one episode at a time. To quote Wikipedia:

His novels, most published in monthly or weekly instalments, pioneered the serial publication of narrative fiction, which became the dominant Victorian mode for novel publication.

Wikipedia entry for Charles Dickens

With the advent of eBooks, serialisation of novels seems to be entering another golden age.

John Scalzi’s The End of All Things, was recently released as four eBook novellas—one novella per week starting on 9 June and going through to 30 June.

A lot of people seem to think it’s the best thing to happen to books in a long time.

Is it?

Is it, as Maya Rodale asked on the Huffington Post last year, modern torture? Or the best way to read fiction?

Some people love serials. Others hate them.

I’m in two minds. I sometimes read them and enjoy them, but in general it’s not my favourite way to read books.

But then, I get frustrated if a full-length novel in a series ends on a cliffhanger.  And a series of novels is just a serial in its own way, except the stories are a lot longer.

I read short stories and novellas and enjoy them, but my favourite form of fiction is the full-length novel. I also like to read novels straight through. In one sitting if I can (I’m a fast reader); otherwise over a period of days. If a book takes me longer than a week to read, I’m probably not planning on finishing it.

I admit, I even subscribed to Ann Leckie’s newsletter so that I could read the first chapter of her novel in one gulp, rather than a sentence a day. And you know, just one chapter is frustrating when you’re waiting for the full book.

Waiting every week for the next instalment in a series … it would have to be something truly special to keep me coming back. I usually give up two or three stories in.

Once upon a time people watched weekly serials on television and tuned in to see what would happen next week. Many of us still do—look at Game of Thrones—but equally as many download and binge view.

I even have friends who refuse to read a book series (of full-length novels) until they know the series is done, for they don’t want to wait for the next book.

Modern publishers appear to be pushing out books in a series over shorter periods of time. Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, with three full novels over eight months is an extreme example, but many novels come out nine months apart.

I can’t work out if serialisation is just an extension of this, or not.

This weekend it’s movies and books

The edits for Alliance are away. This weekend it’s all about movies and books (and house cleaning) before we restart properly on book three.

I’ve just finished Charlaine Harris’s Day Shift, and thoroughly enjoyed it. Sherylyn’s reading Cress, by Marissa Meyer, and enjoying that. Robin Hobb’s new book, Fool’s Quest, is out. That’s on the list to read soon, and somewhere in here I hope to read John Scalzi’s Lock In and Vernor Vinge’s Children of the Sky.

Not only that, Anne Leckie has started posting excerpts of Ancillary Mercy on her blog site. One sentence a day.

We’ve a few movies to catch up on too.

Hugh Grant as Alexander Waverly was rather good too.

Earlier today we saw The Man From U.N.C.L.E. It was a fun movie, very much in the style of the original television series and movies.

I think both Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer did excellent jobs. In fact, I liked Cavill better than Robert Vaughan in the role of Napoleon Solo.

But … growing up, David McCallum’s Illya Kuryakin was one of my favourite characters. I found it hard to reconcile Hammer’s version of Kuryakin with my version.

It’s a lot like how, for some people—me included—there is only one Mr Darcy and one Lizzie Bennet, and that’s Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle from the 1995 BBC TV series. Firth and Ehle made those parts their own.

The incomparable Mr Darcy and Lizzie Bennet

For me, McCallum made Kuryakin’s part his own.

Thus throughout the movie there was this strange feeling of, ‘that’s not Illya’, he wouldn’t behave like that. Yet the silly thing is, I could see that Hammer did as good a job as Cavill did, and I liked his character better. (Then, I always did like Kuryakin better.)

I’d like to see Guy Ritchie make a second Man From U.N.C.L.E. By that time I should have reconciled myself to Hammer in the role. It would be interesting to see how much that changes my perception.

Edits are nearly done on Alliance

It’s been freezing here in Melbourne, and we’ve been inside working on the book. But while we were writing … look, our first freesia for the year.

We’ve almost finished the first major edit of ALLIANCE following initial editorial feedback. Our deadline is Friday, 14 August.

Based on the first book, we’ll have at least another round of edits after that, possibly more, but for the moment we’re almost done with this draft.

This is one time we back up the changes frequently. Sometimes two and three times a day if we’ve worked a lot on the draft, because we’re at that stage where we’ve done the major rewrite, and now our changes are little more than tweaks. Cleaning up the text, fixing typos. If we lose those tweaks we’d never be able to reproduce them, we’d just have to redo the work.

As the deadline approaches my housekeeping gets more and more … rushed is a polite word. So come 14 August, I’m going to clean house.

After that, it’s back to book three.

Library talk

On Wednesday night we did a talk at Balwyn library.  The talk was part of their “New and Emerging Author” series, where they support and introduce readers to debut authors.

It was a really great night.

We had a small group, which made it comfortable and non-intimidating and the audience was great with their comments and questions—both during the talk itself and afterwards over tea and cakes.

The moderator, librarian Fiona Malcolm, was excellent.  Everything you want a good moderator to be.  She read the book beforehand—she reads every book-talk author’s book—which was nice, because she doesn’t normally read science fiction.

Fiona asked questions, and we answered them.  Because she had read the book, she asked good questions—related to the book, related to co-writing, related to the writer’s journey to publication.

This was our first public appearance as authors and the good moderator, combined with the small but receptive audience, made for a non-stressful evening. It was a good introduction to being public about our book.

Thank you Fiona. Thank you Balwyn Library. And thank you to everyone who came along.

Great books are seldom written, they’re rewritten

If you don’t know the story behind the publication of Go Set a Watchman by now, you’ve probably been living without television or internet for the last few months.

Back in the late 1950s, Harper Lee tried to sell a novel, Go Set a Watchman. Publishers J. B. Lippincott bought it, and came into the hands of editor Tay Hohoff.

Ms. Hohoff was impressed. “[T]he spark of the true writer flashed in every line,” she would later recount in a corporate history of Lippincott.

But as Ms. Hohoff saw it, the manuscript was by no means fit for publication. It was, as she described it, “more a series of anecdotes than a fully conceived novel.” During the next couple of years, she led Ms. Lee from one draft to the next until the book finally achieved its finished form and was retitled “To Kill a Mockingbird.”

Jonathon Mahler, “The Invisible Hand Behind Harper Lee’s ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’“. New York Times 12 July 2015.

The rest is history. To Kill a Mockingbird had been Lee’s only published novel until the manuscript for Go Set a Watchman resurfaced recently. There was some controversy over the discovery of the manuscript, and whether or not Lee truly wanted it to be published, but published it was, and sold a million copies in its first week on sale.

Another controversy is over the quality of the book. As Joe Nocera says in “The Harper Lee ‘Go Set a Watchman’ Fraud”

Issue No. 2 is the question of whether “Go Set a Watchman” is, in fact, a “newly discovered” novel, worthy of the hoopla it has received, or whether it something less than that: a historical artifact or, more bluntly, a not-very-good first draft that eventually became, with a lot of hard work and smart editing, an American classic.

Joe Nocera, ” The Harper Lee ‘Go Set a Watchman’ Fraud“, New York Times, 24 July 2015

One thing everyone agrees on. Tay Hohoff had a lot to do with just how good ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ was.

I think many people underestimate the work an editor does.

Most authors I know would say that the novel they initially turned in is not the one that gets published.

Sure, the days of the having two or three years to work on the edits is gone (for most of us, anyway), but a good editor will make suggestions as to how you can fix your work and make it better.

The editor doesn’t rewrite the book for you—that’s your job—but your book will be better once the editor has given their input.

To paraphrase one of the commenters on Nocera’s article,

… Lee’s two books are … the perfect example of the adage that great books are seldom written, they are re-written.

Bejay, commenting on The Harper Lee ‘Go Set a Watchman’ Fraud. 25 July 2015.

Alliance book cover

We saw the final artwork for the cover of Alliance today.

It’s awesome.

The cover of book two, Alliance

The artist is Bruce Jensen again. He did the Linesman cover too, and the two covers look great side-by-side.

Where we’ve been on the internet

This week, it’s all about editing. We’re busy working on Alliance.

We have also done some guest posts for Linesman in the last month, so rather than leave you with nothing to read—if you missed any of our guest posts—here is an update.

Firstly though we would like to say a big thank you to John Scalzi, Chuck Wendig, Mary Robinette Kowal for providing great support, not just to us, but to all writers. And a huge thank you to Sally, at The Qwillery, for her support for both us and all other debut authors, especially in our genre. Thank you all.

Without further ado, in order of posting:

July 2, 2015: John Scalzi posted our Big Idea for Linesman. Here we talk about where the idea for Linesman came from.

July 3, 2015: Interview with The Qwillery about writing in general, and about and Linesman.

July 9, 2015: Five things we learned writing Linesman, on Chuck Wendig’s site.

July 14, 2015: Mary Robinette Kowal posted Our Favorite Bit of Linesman on her site.

July 17, 2015: The Qwillery very generously allow us a guest post spot. This time we are talking about how we co-write.

And if you are still looking for something to read, there is always the book itself. You can read the first chapter by clicking on the link from the front page of our blog. (This is the ARC version, so it may have some typos.) Or you can read a longer extract on the Penguin Random House site, on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.

Enjoy

Reflecting on technology

In 2008 I bought a Hewlett Packard tablet PC. I used it five times before I gave up and went back to my desktop. It was too heavy to use as a slate, and almost too heavy to use as a laptop. Nowadays it’s just junk. I can’t even give it away.

Ever since I can remember, I was convinced tablet computers would replace desktop PCs and laptops. It seemed such a logical progression. They had touch screens, you could carry them around, what more could you ask? Yet even though tablet computers had been around since the late 1980s, by the time I put that HP into storage I was starting to wonder if they would ever take off.

We called it Clunker. It was a heavy little thing.

Then of course, Apple brought out the iPad.

The iPad was the tipping point for tablet computers. Now, tablets are everywhere.

What about the technology that doesn’t last?

Recently, over at John Scalzi’s blog, Whatever, we posted about the ideas—or images—that were the precursor to writing Linesman.

One of these was

… we read about an early Comdex or Macworld exhibition where the first Apple Mac was on show. An old man stopped to look at the Mac. He picked up the mouse and moved it in front of the screen to see what would happen

One of the commenters (thank you, Matt), said

… what the old man was likely thinking of was the light pen, which was an even older technology that worked exactly like what he was trying to do with the mouse.

So naturally, I looked up light pens. Which are exactly what they sound like. A pen that you point at the screen and the screen detected the change in light and sent that information back to the computer. Think of it like a modern-day touch-screen, only instead of measuring electrostatic fields it measured light.

The light pen never took off because you had to hold it up to the screen for long periods of time. Look what we have now. Tablets, with touch screens.

To become popular a technology has to be useable. I didn’t use my HP tablet. It was too heavy both as a table and as a laptop. Light pens didn’t work because you couldn’t physically hold your hand up for long periods of time. (The requirement for specialised software would have impacted too, but software can be written.)

Timing and marketing also has an impact. Can anyone remember Betamax vs VHS? Which doesn’t matter any more, because both technologies are now obsolete.

The iPad is light. It looks good and it’s easy to use.

You don’t always get what you want

Back in 2008, when I bought my HP tablet, I expected that by 2015 the tablet would be the only thing I would use. I wouldn’t have another computer.

For some people it is, only for them it’s a mini-tablet and it’s called a mobile phone.

For me? I seem to have regressed. My phone is a phone and a camera, and that’s all. The only time I connect it to the internet is to download images.

My iPad? It’s the best little eReader around. I play the occasional game on it, and I use it to listen to music. That’s all. As for software—I’ve stopped trying to find new apps. I don’t use them.

My laptop. I can put it in my bag, which is a big plus. I use it on the train to write, and when I am out. Again, that’s it.

The bulk of my work is still done on the desktop PC.

Which is not what I would have expected mid-2015.

Answers to What Cat Am I

Our latest quiz was about cats. Real cats, feline aliens, people with cat names. You name it, we had it.

Answers are hidden below the fold, so if you still want to do the quiz go to What Cat Am I.

Otherwise, click Continue Reading for answers.

 

 

1. I was turned into a fiddle using someone’s life

There’s always a Diana Wynne Jones question in our quizzes. It’s almost obligatory. This one was from Charmed Life, the first of her Chrestomanci Books.

2. I was nearly left behind at the cat shelter, but I now live in a magical inn

This one is unpublished, but it’s from Sweep in Peace, book #2 of Illona Andrews‘ Innkeeper Chronicles. You could read it as they wrote it.

3. I join forces with a human who travels into the unknown in a test for survival

Because we mentioned Andre Norton in the intro to the quiz, you should have expected an Andre Norton question. This one was Mark of the Cat.

4. I have strong opinions which I am always willing to voice. I also have a keeper. Or rather, the keeper has me. Whatever

Summon the Keeper by Tanya Huff.  Summon the Keeper isn’t my favourite Tanya Huff book. But if you to read soft military sci-fi (if there’s such a thing), I highly recommend her Confederation books. I also love the Tony Foster books.

5. A plague is ravaging our planet and killing us all. The cure may be in a song

The second of our feline alien books. This is a Star Trek novel, Uhuru’s Song, by Janet Kagan. It feels like a Mary Sue in that one of the main characters is not a Star Trek regular, but I don’t think it’s meant to be. And it’s one of our favourite all-time Star Trek novels.

6. I earned my name from my green eyes with slitted pupils. I can see in the dark

Joan D. Vinge’s Psion.  I re-read Catspaw (book 2 in the series) often.

7. Get off my tail or I’ll smother you in your sleep

Mr Snuggly, from Charlaine Harris’ Midnight Crossroads.  He’s such a cat cat, a rarity in a talking cat.

8. All the dogs in the neighborhood are scared of me. I send them running

If you have children you may have recognised this one. It’s a classic. Scarface Claw, the big tom that scares all the dogs in Lynley Dodds’ Hairy Maclary From Donaldson’s Dairy.  For years I thought Hairy Maclary lived on a dairy farm. But a dairy is the term we use in Australia for a milk bar. I’m not sure what the equivalent is in other countries. Convenience store? It’s the little shop you used to go to buy your milk and bread.

9. My son, Morgan, loved being a kitten. When we got turned back into humans he was most upset

Yes. We had two Diana Wynne Jones’ books in here. This is from Castle in the Air, the sequel to Howl’s Moving Castle.

10. I have razor sharp claws. I travel around in a shopping cart wheeled by my owner.

Last, but by no means least, Guilty, from Johnny and the Bomb, from the incomparable Terry Pratchett.

 

How many did you get right?

What cat am I?

It’s time for a new quiz

So far this week it’s been all about our book.  It’s time to talk about other people’s books, and to have some fun.

Andre Norton wrote a lot about cats, and the internet is filled with them. (Cats, we mean, not Andre Norton, although it is pleasing to see there seems to be a lot more around about Andre just recently.)  So, it’s a perfectly good subject to write about.

While we don’t have cats in our book, we have read lots of books with cats in them.

And not just cats, people who look like cats, people who are named for cats — anything’s fair here.

Because cats are so popular you get a double dose today. Ten questions instead of five.

The question is, as always … What book am I reading?

I was turned into a fiddle using someone’s life
I was nearly left behind at the cat shelter, but I now live in a magical inn
I join forces with a human who travels into the unknown in a test for survival
I have strong opinions which I am always willing to voice. I also have a keeper. Or rather, the keeper has me. Whatever
A plague is ravaging our planet and killing us all. The cure may be in a song
I earned my name from my green eyes with slitted pupils. I can see in the dark
Get off my tail or I’ll smother you in your sleep
All the dogs in the neighborhood are scared of me. I send them running
My son, Morgan, loved being a kitten. When we got turned back into humans he was most upset
I have razor sharp claws. I travel around in a shopping cart wheeled by my owner.

Hints:

One of these books has not yet been published but you have been able to read it on-line
There’s a wide reading age range (the widest)
One author is here twice.