Brandenbrass, or: there was a time once when I blogged often...

Still here, still battling on: if there was an award for World's Suckiest At Self-Discipline (and blogging), I would surely be a contender.

Where I am at creatively, atm? What does a soul do with creativity and inspiration? With the flow and the necessary ebb of productive humours? Do you put them in a box, a routine that allows them daily expression? Do you wait until they burst in fiery generating glory then suffer the long slow down-swing before the next up-swing? Is it something in-between? Is this in-between even possible? As an author of three books, should I have not already figured this out?

While you chew on that cud, please be entertained by a glimpse of a current WIP: a map of Brandenbrass.

Brandenbrass: Work-in-progress.

Brandenbrass: a detail.

Of course, is doing a map of Brandenbrass useful? Perhaps leaving it uncharted and open to interpretation would serve better?* I do love a good map tho, and figuring out how in Photoshop I can achieve an antiquated look has been a grand adventure.

Also, for those not connected to the Book-of-Face, I have an anthology of two stories (if a pair of tales can be called an anthology) before my publisher atm: the first being The Corsers' Hinge, the second a story of a country girl come to the city to make coin for her family back in the parish of Broad Trim with a working title I will not divulge because i think it gives away what happens. These are awaiting acceptance, and if by God and my publisher's grace they go ahead, it will clock in at about 50,000 words - so not as long as Foundling, but still with some substance. Here's to praying/hoping this might be available next year.

As to your observation about far-seeing Idaho, Mr Alyosha, this is indeed an insight for Idaho was indeed extraordinary woman carrying much of the vigour and clarity and inspiration of the mighty, self-destroyed Phelgms. She alone of all the survivors of her original nation's fall managed to establish a new empire, and only the hard hearts and selfish ambition of her ministers finally brought that empire low by the betrayal of her equally dynamic grand-daughter, Dido, the reputed founder of the Sceptic/Haacobin dynasty. Thus, this is why the aristocracy are so keen to align themselves with such a vaunted bloodline.

How do I speak about the Derelands, Simon? I want to spout on and on, but also want to save it all for actual stories. Can I ask you what ideas you might have about it?

Time to log, cheers to you all.

*My word, I am full of questions today...

What to say...? or I keep changing things!!!

How does one go on after a silence of two months? A strange thing it is to disappear so abruptly - all I can say by way of some manner of compensation is that there has been A LOT of good work going on for the next Half-Continent story (rather than the much anticipated Harlequin romance set in outback Australia... sorry about that folks, I know you were all longing for it so :) - a synopsis written, various passages penned and muchas muchas muchas research and invention going on.

The upshot right now of this is that in going much deeper into the construction and function and crewing of a ram I have discovered that some of the information about gastrines and rams given in MBT is now revised. I must confess myself a tad perplexed: how am I to proceed?

The normal process is to present your world full-formed upon the world, an unshakable rock of continuity and consistency. Yet here I am tweaking and changing and - more properly - refining ideas all the time, as I have always done.

What concerns us here are gastrines and just how it is that they work. Here are the variations:

OLD IDEA AS PRESENTED IN MBT ~

• dog box & gears
• 5-20 year life span
• jointed leavers everywhere
• put into the vessel individually

NEW IDEA AS I WORK IT THROUGH MORE ~

• muscles work straight to screw; "gearing" is simply the amount of effort gastrines put in and the number of gastrines put to the screw
• 30-50 year life span - I like the idea of them living as long as a generation of vinegars (& notwithstanding death due to sickness or injury or being eaten whole and entire by a ravening kraulschwimmen)
• straight wooden beams and levers
• grown within the vessel (though this one I am not so sure about)

My thoughts are that none of this actually varies things too much, that the previous information can be easily incorporated into the revisions and vice versa - well that is what I hope anyway... Is it appropriate to simply alter things as I go and expect you all to just keep up? Is it actually a good thing for the whole process to be evolving right out there in publicland?

Where I will draw a line is at the total reversal of an idea: what I intend is only the kind of fluctuation that will occur as a I think an idea through all the more deeply, and discover some real-world fact that adds to the whole.

So, there, I am back, fretful as ever - if anyone is still reading :/

Most earnest mae culpa for so long a silence.

Oh, and just to speak into any suspense, my current project is (at this stage anyways) a new story with different characters set in HIR 1602 - the very next year after MBT. Events in MBT have an affect on it, are part of its own motion - because, verily, they are events more particularly in the Half-Continent - but it is its own tale.

Thank you for all your - well, "suggestions" is to little a word for the depth and passion of your thoughts but it will have to do... maybe "advice"? - it helps a whole heck of a lot, even if I seem to be going in some other direction, your thoughts and ideas go with me all the same.

Final inkling: I reckon this will be a stand alone story - no multiple volumes...

OK, this one really is the last thoughts: Rossamünd's story does go on, whether a write about it or not, so let your minds run free with that one; & Europe is indeed too "cool" to let go, but I reckon I need time to ponder just how to tell about her next... & I reckon, though I seem to "avoid" or digress for now, that the Half-Continent might indeed be working up to some kind of dissolution, though do not mistake the movements in one small part of the Sundergird (as seen in MBT) to equal a threat to the greater part of it - just see how small an area we cover in the story so far; I reckon folks in Hamlin or Gottingen could not give two hoots what happens in Brandenbrass (bar the impact on trade, I suppose.. hmmm...)

It must be said though that cataclysmic dissolution is a bit of a genre cliche, too, and though I keep finding myself in my inexperience committing them , I am trying not to do so, and all conquering baddies threatening the existence of everything seems an obvious one to avoid. The original premise of the Half-Continent was that the existing relationships were/are enough to generate stories without then needing to break the idea.

Apart from a certain LoTR, the few genre novels i have read always seemed their best at the start with the original concept of the world, before everything gets broken - it was where I wanted to stay, and I haven't and continue to put all this work into figuring just how the H-c works "now" to bust it all up again. That said, I do think there does need to be some manner of larger and obvious conflict... hmmm.

...& Aphrodine, expect to find "rumsibol" in some form in the next book too, if i may, simply brilliant!

Revelations from the Forum Roleplay

Been reading the roleplay going on over at the Forum and was delighted to find Wolf Blood's out-of-character comment as the story being told unfolded:

"(My mistake has turned into a plot element :D)"

I had to laugh in happy sympathy here, Welcome to my world! I could not help but thinking.

Such accidents are the stuff of writing.

Oh, and yes, I have a new poll - rather pertinent as momentum slowly gathers in me to begin a new text in the new year.

Tropes & ...

Now, in my experience (not necessarily that broad, but there you go), the word "trope" is usually thrown about in a supercilious manner by folks who have themselves never dared to bare their own soul in story to an often unkind world to show how superior they are. In this example, however, over at TV Tropes, the use of the term in so thorough and gleeful a manner has been a revelation, and very helpful to boot! I had no real notion - for example - that MBT was a "world of no grandparents"; this was certainly not intentional but probably reflective of my own real life experience. It is funny how hard it is to fit such things as a granny and/or grandpa into an adventure story - I shall be on the look out for such omissions in future...
That said, neither do I want to include things just because. Either way, thank you TV Tropes, a/ for liking MBT, b/ for helping me see my tale in so succinct a fashion - a great aid to learning this whole writing game.

Speaking of which, I have begun what will , Lord willing, be the next Half-Continent story, and this in turn raises an interesting dilemma:

...Along with the change of the series name in the US from Monster-Blood Tattoo to Tales from the Half-Continent and the (Oh, I surely hope so!) creation of more H-c tales, what on earth do I change the name of this blog to?

Oh, and cheers very much for your comments last post - has anyone got their hands on a copy of Corsers' Hinge (as found in The Legends of Australian Fantasy) yet?

... and happy new financial year.

Q&A

I'm Allliiivvveee..!

Over at Bookface[TM] (where I am I think spending far too much time... maybe) Jane Hart Mason was good enough to ask me:

Howdy... I hope you don't mind if I ask you a quick question, and I promise not be hurt if you don't have time to answer, or if it is your rule not to or whatnot. I am working on a little story of my own (not really to publish, just for my kid), and although I know what happens next and so on, I just can't seem to get it done. It may just be writer's block, but I am wondering if you have any tips or method as to what you do when this (if this?) happens to you. I have heard some writers set aside time to work on their stories, and even if they can't get anything written, they force themselves to sit there and think about it at least. Have you ever had any success with this? Mayhap you are one of those who is able to just pour it all out without pause, and if so please disregard this query. (I wish! DMC)

... to which my answer was:

Dear Jane, Great question. It beats at the heart of every writer's journey/struggle. For me writing can frequently be like pulling teeth from my jaw = hard and very painful. Even when I am enjoying a story (like I am currently with a novella also set in the Half-Continent) I still have this crazy reluctance to write!!! Don't ask me why, I just work here...Making yourself just sit and write regardless is probably the only way "to get it done"; feelings are rebellious and fickle - only sometimes do I "feel" like writing. Unfortunately it will have to be like getting an injection, you turn up, face the pain, push through and get on with the good stuff afterwards, congratulating yourself for your courage.You might try setting aside half an hour or so with a goal of 100 words. Sounds a tiny amount perhaps, but in such a small, hopefully less painful quantity two things might happen: 1/ the story will get chipped away in little lumps (re: the way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time) OR 2/ you just might find your flow and go on longer, writing more words and even get into the whole project again.Making a list of "beats" as I call them might help too, an extremely brief dot-point of each significant moment. I have just discovered this device in the latter stages of the 2nd draft of MBT Book 3 and it makes my head and the way forward so much clearer. Even if you reckon you know what is coming, this might make it even clearer and build some enthusiasm in you to press on to boot.How is that? Hope it helps. Unfortunately writing is not a magical process, it it the grind of getting the words down occasionally intersped with moments of inspiration, delight and relief. It is climbing a steep mountain on your own and when you are at the top, it is climbing all the way back down again. So, climb on, brave author.

Also, check the comments of previous post for answers to your excellent and helpful questions.

(Was intended to be the...) Bumper Final Issue (for the year that is...)

Well, 2008 has come and nigh gone again (indeed, it is gone!) and all the while I have been wrestling through some book I am supposed to write *rolls eyes* ;P The previous two books of the Monster-Blood Tattoo series so far has been a distinct journey and this third is now different - as another author once said you never learn how to write your next book, just the one you are currently working on.

How true that is. Book 3 - the infamously long-to-wait-for Factotum - has been a process all its own, with its own momentum, its own surprises. It is frightening and wonderful to go out in the story on a hunch that it is the correct direction and have it rewarded with an unexpected unfolding of whole unforeseen and richer moments in the tale.

One of the hardest things has been facing the finish the text, fear fear fear; is this story good enough? Does it do what it needs to do? Will folks like it? The great thing is that now it is not even 18 months to release folks, so hang in there.

A recent high point was when Katie - a fellow metaphoric citizen of the Half-Continent - sent through images of a costume she has been working on. I won't tell you who it is of, 'cause you ought to know...

(c) Copyright Katie/ Spacetart 2008+9. Used with permission.

I could not help but ask Katie how it works as a functional piece of clothing to which she responded:

"As a functional piece of clothing, I'm not really sure. For me, it was fine, since I was at work and didn't have a huge range of movement,but for the actual characters, I'm not sure how it would stand up to the whirling fighting movements without the benefit of spandex/lycra.Though you can't see it, the sleeves do tie on like it's said in the book, so that wouldn't be an issue, but around the inseam, it might be a problem. The stomacher actually worked well, and stayed on fine with the ties. I have new respect for the seamstresses of the clave if they have to paint that diamond pattern, and even more if they have to quilt or sew them together."

My thoughts on that last statement are that the cloth comes dyed that way by request - still, it'd be a heck of a job for the dye house then and prodigiously expensive to boot. You can see the rest of the images of her astonishing creation and Katie's comments on them here! Thank you, Katie!

Next bit o' niceness (my how that word has change in meaning!) is this piece of superb well, I suppose you might call it "fan art" (somehow that does not seem to cut it with me) from our own curiousmouth - and again I shall leave you to figure who the two figures are...(c) Copyright Katie/ Spacetart 2008+9. Used with permission.

(c) Copyright Curiousmouth 2008+9. Used with permission.

Thank you all so much for another excellent blogging year, you all make writing and creating better, "funner", a bit more real; I hope I might do the same for you sometimes.

New Year's Resolution: to get the Varificon up and running fully - there are too many genuinely excellent new words in there, I think a couple might make it in to Book 3. I am hoping it might become a corporate cooperative dictionary we can all dip into, so help yourselves peoples (with proper credit of course).

Welcome to 2009!

On with the new year!

Going back to go forward...

Something I find frustrating when I write is those times when I am keen to press on with the story but it occurs to me that one of the characters (usually Rossamünd, bless him) is not being quite true to himself in an earlier chapter. Sometimes I will try to write on, enjoying too much the sensation of the word count increasing and chapters being marked off (especially with the hot breath of deadlines panting on my nape).

Inevitably, however, I can avoid it no longer and must put the advance of the words on hold and correct the earlier discord, work the changes all through the text until I am satisfied - which can cost frustratingly large amounts of time. Yet once the agony is grappled the text invariably is far improved and my sense of direction stronger, and I leap off once more into 'storm front' of the tale with fresh vigour.

Sometimes I also just get stuck...

Still here...

... writing... writing... writing... writing... writing...