cucumberseed @ 2012-10-09T22:09:00

Lisa M. Bradley  ( cafenowhere ) tagged me to answer ten questions about my current work-in-progress. What an exciting way to learn about forthcoming projects, like Rose Lembergs's ( rose_lemberg ) Bridgers and Mike Allen's ( time_shark ) The Black Fire Concerto! Here are my answers.

Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing

What is the title of your book?

The Child in his Sword, which is totally a Kate Bush reference.


Where did the idea come from for the book?

Lots of places.  It started out as a junk-drawer short story that had too much in it.  I tried to write it as a novel and got nowhere with it until I had the chance to sit down and think about it.  The junk drawer had been organized, but a junk drawer it remains.


What genre does your book fall under?

Fantasy, but that's a cop-out, and I know it.  I call it fantasy because there's no scientific through-line from here to there, though it takes place in a patchwork retro-future of people from our world that involved, at one point, interplanetary travel.  Also, there is body horror.  ALL THE BODY HORROR.  The characters are young people, and there isn't a lot of language or really any sexual content, so I guess some poor bastard might want to make it YA, but refer back to ALL THE BODY HORROR.


Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

No.  For one, I don't work like that.  For another, oh god, no.


What is a one-sentence synopsis of the book?

Erm... A crazy living weapon infects a bunch of kids and turns them into really super-defective living weapons in hopes that they will win a war.  I suck at one-sentence synopses.


Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I have to finish a whole draft before I worry about that.  That said, I'm going to try to go traditional about it.


How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

30000 words in a month, so far.


What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?

Shade's Children by Garth Nix is probably the closest.  Maybe that one by that horrible Mormon guy (not the one running for president - the one who wrote that thing that time about kids in space that we all loved when we were 12).


Who or what inspired you to write this book?

This story is my demon.  It keeps coming back to haunt me and I accept that I will never be free of it until I finish it.  I am terrified of it, and I don't want to do it, but I don't really have any choice, and people who are important to me seem to like it, so, yeah.


What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

Monsters.  All sorts of monsters.  Armies of monsters.  Armies of tree monsters that spawn caterpillars that crawl in your throat, choke you and then hijack your oxygen-starved brain.  Big rotting Montauk-monster looking things that grow giant trilliums on their backs.  Monsters.


Include the link of who tagged you and this explanation for the people you have tagged.

I linked to Lisa at the top. Now I'm tagging vg_ford , seyeh , and sovay (this has gone to almost everyone else I know - probably them too). Please talk about any creative project you're working on, be it short story, poem, novel, novella, anthology, collection--anything. It's a good exercise.