I write because my passion is to tell people stories.
Stories of love and hate, of fear and hope. Stories where good people do bad things and bad people do good things. Stories of lives that are unexpected, horrible and beautiful.
I write these things because I believe they are true in real life, therefore should be in fiction too. But not matter what I write, I always seem to be asking 'why'?
Just wanted to give you all a quick update on the the anthology that holds my 5th published short story. It was going to be released on December 1 2009, but due to unforeseen events and deadlines the release date has been pushed back to January 1 2009.
I’d rather the editors and owners do this, than put into production a book of sub-standard quality. Now that I’ve had a chance to read through all of the stories (yes, special privileges for us authors) I know that you will all enjoy this anthology when it’s finally ready for purchasing.
And to prove it, below you will get to hear the very first promotion for the anthology titled Chinese Whisperings: The Red Book. Check it out:
Lynda posted the introduction to our blog panel today at Reality Skimming.
She asked some interesting questions to start us off, like: will people want to identify with someone who isn’t slinging her enemies about her head when angered? Could an author make their female character strong, and fun, without turning her into a damsel in distress? Can we identify without feeling belittled? And is there anything worth learning from them?
All good questions. Lynda also mentions one of these non-viloent herioines that she developed for the next book in her Okal Rel 10 book series. No doubt we will hear more about this girl, Sam, over the coming week.
Personally, I wonder if it’s possible for a female character to not “kick butt” at this point in time? Or is there still a hang over from the recent “equality wars” that make women want to read about other women who can kick butt just like a man can?
I look forward to answering these questions over the coming week and I hope you will add your opinion to the conversation as well.
Tuesday, August 11th! Where has the time gone. It’s been an amazingly long couple of weeks and I have lots of updates for you.
1) I sent out two Flash Fiction stories two weeks ago to the “Creatures of the Night” contest put on by Absolute Xpress. The contest closed on August 1st at midnight so I should find out in a soon if either of my stories have been selected.
2) I’ve been working with artist Herman Lau on the Graphic Novel project “Beloved Child”. It will be a while yet before anything big happens on this (it is a part time venture), but we are working on a five page sample. You can check out some of the character sketches that have been done so far. When we have more done I’ll let you know and post it on this page.
3) I will no longer be participating in a couple of things.
A: I’ll not be apart of the “Four Horsemen” novella project with the other writers from the “Seven Deadly Sins” anthology. We had a bit of a falling out – writing groups are funny like that – but I’ll write more about what I’ve learnt later.
B: I won’t be on the “Writing Group Synergy” panel at the Con-Version 25 science fiction conference in Calgary.
4) I will be on a few other panels at the Con-Version conference in Calgary, and possibly moderating some. When I have more details I will post. So if you’ll be in Calgary, Alberta, on August 21 -23, come say hi.
5) My other collaborative work is going great. I’m working on the final edits to the short story “Innocence” that will be appearing in the November 2009 edition of the Chinese Whisperings Anthology named “The Red Book”. The website officially launched on July 31.
6) I’m also working on a script for an artist friend of mine who wanted to showcase his Animation skills. It’s just words on a page right now, but soon I’ll post a link to the blog were we will be posting about the collaborative process needed to create an animated short (5 minutes).
7) Perhaps this should have been first, but I was really hoping to tell you that my novel “Ice Debt” was complete. With only 5 pages or so left I was putting off posting this until it was done. Well I have bad news.
A recent storm (July18) sent a power surge through my house. It killed my laptop, frying the hard drive. Luckily, I had a back up. I thought everything was good until Sunday.
I sat down to finish off those last few pages of my novel… and the document wouldn’t open. It was corrupt. I spent three hours trying everything I could think of to make it work, but nothing. I finally went to a computer guru to find out if there was anything that could be done to save my five-pages-from-the-end novel. Last night he told me the news.
He was able to extract the source code of the document. Thousands of pages long, but embedded within it are sentences. I won’t know if all of them are there, or even most, until he sends me a document to slug through. It will take days I’m sure but I still hope to salvage it.
Unfortunately, Mr Magic 8 Ball said “Outlook not good” when I asked if I was getting my novel back? So, on the off chance that Mr. 8 is right, I have decided to start working on a new novel. I won’t start actually writing it until I know the fate of “Ice Debt”, but at least it gives me something to do in the mean time… and I like world building.
(UPDATED: I’ve got my novel back. It needs to be put back together – kind of like a puzzle – but it seems to be all there. I’m missing a few sentances, and the last couple of chapters are toast, but I’ve got most of it. Looks like I don’t need to start something new after all.)
That’s all for now.
Thanks for sticking around thus far. I’m sure there are plenty more adventures to come.
I just wanted to touch base with everyone. I’ve been in talks recently with a couple of up and coming writers (one from the UK and one from Australia) who wanted to start an Anthology. Gotta tell you the concept is really cool.
Each writer in the anthology has to take a minor character from the story before and make it their point of view character. They also have to make reference to some of the events that happened in previous stories and have two weeks to write the 3500 word story. The idea is based on the game of “Telephone” or “Chinese whispers”. You never know what the story will look like at the end but you should be able to trace it all the way back to the beginning. It’ll also give readers a unique read. A whole story will be told by the book, but the reader could also read each story separately and just enjoy them for the short stories they are.
I’ve agreed to be writer #5 in the anthology. My two weeks started today and as you can see I’m well over the half way point in just one day. The story was really easy to write. All the characters were already made up for me, so I just threw them in a room together and pressed play.
Other things that are happening? Well, funny you should ask. The four of us from the Seven Deadly Sins anthology have gotten together and are writing something new. Four Novella’s. Each one based on a Horseman from the Apocalypse and one of the angels of the four winds. They will all tie together in some way, but will be distinct as novella’s.
As you can see I’m really into the collaborative work lately. No wonder I’m on the panel for “Writing Group Synergy” at the Calgary Con-Version Science Fiction Conference this August.
Yes, 2009 is turning out to be a great year.
Anyway, I’ll write more about these projects soon. This is just a taste of things to come
Tuesday, August 11th! Where has the time gone. It’s been an amazingly long couple of weeks and I have lots of updates for you.