SpecFicNZ Blogging week day 2

First things first, Episode 2 of "Panathea - Bunyip Girl of Prophecy"

Mama Bunyip found the baby Panathea, almost dead, in the sewer. Most Bunyips would just eat the human child.
But Mama Bunyip had the Touch and saw there was something about that girl. Touch said Prophecy.
So Pan was raised by Bunyips in the dark and stinking tunnels beneath the City.
Pan was 13 when Mama Bunyip died; her protection among the other Bunyips gone. She climbed to the streets above.
Most stray teenage girls were chewed up and spat out by the Streets.
But Pan was raised by Bunyips. The other Street scum soon found out what that meant.

More excitement tomorrow....

I was interviewed today by Debbie Howell as part of Spec Fic NZ Blogging week and my answers are on her excellent blog - (http://deberelene.wordpress.com/2012/09/18/author-interview-richard-barnes/#more-1399) She writes about far more interesting things than me as well.

In return I chucked some questions to her. And please, I'm sure Debbie's ignorance of Doctor Who is just an accident of circumstance and not an appalling lack of taste, after all, she correctly identifies Tim Tams as being better than Toffee Pops:

Tim Tams or Toffee Pops?
I think I'd have to go TimTams ... That's a bit of an eye-opener, eh? When I was younder, it would definitely have been Toffee Pops. But, I guess, my sweet tooth isn't quite what it once was.
On the other hand, Toffee Pops thrown in a food processor (a whole packet) with some cream cheese (250g?? I think ... been a while), whizzed, rolled into balls and covered in choc sprinkles, or chopped peanuts, or whatever .... divine ... let me repeat - DI-VINE.

What was the best meal you ever had?
Hmm .. There are a few that I vaguely remember, but the one I can actually describe, was the old version of the Moonriver Salmon from Lone Star (did I say I was classy? Hey, Lone Star used to do good value meals ... now they're expensive, but they give us free meals for our birthdays ...). The salmon was served on noodles. The noodles had some sort of brown sauce on it ... soy, mixed with oyster, perhaps? (I think that's what I did when I recreated it at home, anyway). But the best bit? The aoli with just a hint of wasabi through it ... YUM!

And which movie can you watch over and over again?
Much to my husband's chagrin: UHF (aka "The Videot from UHF"), aka: Weird Al's movie. But, last time we watched it (I found another person who hadn't seen it! Yay! I had to enlighten them ... but, no, you don't borrow the DVD, I must watch with you ...) hubby still laughed. I think he just groans about it for show. It's a funny movie. Otherwise, there's the classics like "The Neverending Story", "Dirty Dancing", "Cocktail", and of course "Star Wars". I suppose Michael Jackon's "This Is It" counts as a movie, so that one slides in there, too.

Who is best Doctor Who?
Erm ... next? (oops)

What piece of writing are you most proud of and why?
I'm going to say I have two. I have a short story called "Oasis", which I was challenged to write last year by the Canaries from thecanaryreview.com. I had been lamenting over how much harder it was to write fiction than non-fiction (once the research has been done, of course), and that led to a challenge to write 10 pages, double-spaced in three days, with the prompt: "Main character wakes up with no memory, a stolen animal (your pick), and an incessant cough". The cough was easy - I had a cold at the time, myself. It was tough - I was sick and I had to turn all dragon-lady-ish over my writing time, banishing hubby and toddler from the house as often as possible, but I did it ... and then that story went on to earn 2nd place in a local Writers' Workshop contest. Not too shappy.
 And, of course, I'm proud of my novel, "Healer's Touch". It started out as nothing more than a way to pass the time when I was temping. I found myself with the most mind-numbing job of sitting there waiting for the phone to ring so I could put the caller through to the person they actually wanted to talk to ... Yeah ... no "Press 1 for so-and-so", nope, you got me for that. In between phone calls, there was nothing for me to do (and for security reasons the internet was pretty well locked down, so no email, no FB, no games ...). And so, I turned to pen and paper.
 What started out as nothing rekindled my relationship with the written word (I had left fiction behind in my pursuit of a scientific career ... yeah, that turned out well). And now I'm due to publish it early next year! Of course, the story bears little resemblance to those early days, although my original MC is still there, he's just been relegated. Also, I wasn't going to have magic, initially ... I wanted a "real world", with scientific explanations. But, magic is fun to play with, so I brought that in, and the story shaped itself from there.
 So, yeah, keep an eye out for "Healer's Touch" in 2013 (o:

Outliner or Pantster?
I started out as a pantster because I wasn't even trying. But once I got it on my head that I'd like the story to really be something, I drafted an outline here and there, and I applied story structure - woo! Sure, I had a go at writing off on other tangents, but I did, ultimately, return to the outline I kind of had in the back of my head from way back when. Sure, I've slipped in parts of my experiments, but on the whole, I stuck to my vague plan, that became less vague as time went on.
 These days, I find myself more comfortable with something in the way of a plan in mind. But, if I start hearing voices in my head, then those scenes get written down as is, ready to go where they are needed.
I think I am a Pantsliner? Hmm ... that doesn't sound right ...

Do you have a day job?
Oh yes. Technically 2, I guess. I have a part-time job as well as being a mum. Luckily being mum to a toddler means I get day-time sleep times to write/read/interwebs, for now ...

Lady Macbeth is often seen as the Fourth witch. Discuss.
 Oh, gosh ... Been too long since I checked out any Shakespeare. And my favourite was always "A Midsummer Night's Dream", so I'm a little lost on the witches ... and Macbeth. Better add them to my reading list, eh?

SpecFicNZ Blogging week 2012 - It's ON!!!

SpecFicNZ Blogging week is with us again, and once again I challenge myself to seven posts, seven days, seven drabbles (so seven, exactly, one hundred word episodes) and ONE story.

Last year's effort was called "Going Down" (click here to find part one and go from there) and it was completely made up day by day.

This time round, I've done some more thinking ahead of time...well, I did two parts. Parts 3 - 7 may be a little more improvised.

Without further ado, I present Part One of:

"Panathea - Bunyip Girl of Prophecy!!"

Panathea was born to the sound of gunfire. The copdroids had nearly broken through to her parent’s house.
A bullet took her exhausted Mum. Chester, her Dad, put Pan in the nurse-o-matic and dropped her into the sewer. Prophecy said she would survive. He went to face the authorities.
“Where’s the kid?” growled Sergeant Grunt. Chester’s life dribbled from his bullet holes.
“Gone.” Chester died smiling.
Grunt blasted the only copdroid with him. The public would hear Chester the terrorist was dead. Grunt’s superiors would hear the child was dead. No child, no prophecy.
Prophecies? Surely, they were just crap.
More thrills and spills tomorrow...

Log on to SpecFicNZ and see what else is going on during the blogging week.

And while you're here - go to Smashwords and buy my awesome ebook:
 "The Royal Wedding from Hell"

Go On...you know you want to. I can promise that Prince Harry does not appear naked in it, nor does Princess Kate for that matter. And it's available in all e-formats, so you can read it on Kindle, Kobo and everything else, even just plain old pdf.


 

THE ROYAL WEDDING FROM HELL - NOW AVAILABLE!!!

It's out. Editing done, formatting done, cover done, uploaded to Smashwords and has even had ONE whole actual, full price sale!!!

Yes - the novella the world has been waiting for has hit the Internet in ebook form:

"The Royal Wedding from Hell"

Click this link and BUY IT NOW for the ridiculously low price of just US$ 1.99 (in fact, you can get it for just $1.49 until the end of July). Oh, go on, you know you want to.

"Relive the Royal Wedding of Kate and Wills, but this time, with demons, swordfights and car chases. All of the romance, all of the pageantry, all of the flesh hungry beasts of the abyss. Join Kate, Wills, Harry and Pippa as they take on ancient forces of darkness, hordes of monsters and a plethora of possessed celebrities. It's the Royal Wedding from Hell"

A distinct lack of activiy caused by Game of Thrones

I’ve been writing...

Not a lot actually, my friendly PHD in English Lit did a thorough proof-read of ‘The Royal Wedding from Hell” and I’m slowly implementing the changes. I’m pleased to say there weren’t that many, I’m just finding it way too easy to watch telly than sit down at my PC - in particular Game of Thrones is the best TV show in years.

Sod it – I WILL finish the final edit. AND, I WILL finish the cover (surely karma, there’s a lot of articles about covers floating round the NZ Spec Fic community right now), AND I will get the story formatted and published on Smashwords, then Amazon, then everywhere else I can find....

As for new stuff... there are things afoot that will get my creative juices flowing. First up is a new New Zealand sci-fi anthology - a follow up to the cracking “A Foreign Country” (which featured my story “Miramar is Possum Free”).

Submissions to the new anthology (provisionally called “Regenerations”) are open to the end December 2012. Which means I’ll probably finish something and get it submitted just before cracking open the New Years champagne.

AND, I will run my fastest ever Half-Marathon on June 24^th around Wellington Harbour.

Now – go and buy “Tales from the Bell Club”, featuring my horror story, “The Girl in the Cabin.” – it’s available as an ebook and in a re-cycled tree version.

GO ON, GO BUY IT NOW!!!! Please.

And today’s drabble.....Game of Thrones, Season 1, in 100 words

(WARNING BIG SPOILERS – DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN’T WATCHED THE SHOW OR READ THE BOOK)

Under duress, Ned Stark decided to confess to being a traitor rather than denounce the new King, Joffrey Lannister, as the bastard son of his Mother and her twin brother. Joffrey still had Lord Stark’s head.

Ned’s family declares war on the Lannisters. Lord Tywen sends his dwarf son, Tyrian to the capital to be the King’s Hand. Turmoil engulfs the Seven Kingdoms.

Across the sea, Daenerys, the sole heir of the old Mad King, has hatched three baby dragons, and swears vengeance.

In the north, the Night’s Watch see that the White Walkers are rising.

And winter is coming....

First draft done...and we wait for first reactions

It's always great to finish something, or at least, get it to a state when you can't go any further without several second pairs of eyes. And so it was that I came to the (first) finishing of "The Royal Wedding from Hell".

The first edit was fun - taking that very first, warts and all version, re-reading it, giving every major chunk a number, making a wee post-it note for each chunk and then arranging and re-arranging bits to make sure it all makes sense, re-writing some bits completely, cutting out bits and writing all new bits (like how I somehow missed a major character getting killed - he was there one moment, then gone the next).

So after a week or two of that, I reached a version that can be passed out to my 2nd readers, including a Phd in English Literature who is excellent at the hardcore grammatical proofreading, as well as annoyingly good and honest story critique. Though it did make my teeth grate when I handed the manuscript over and she said "ah, a misplaced apostrophe" a second later.....

So with the actual writing bit finished (for a week or so surely) I can take it easy, right?

NO, because I have to knock up a cover for my novella. I have gone back to my faithful old desktop PC, still running Windows XP (Service Pack 3), still running very well and clear of bugs (mainly because it is not connected to the Internet) and still with PaintShop Pro installed on it.

I've not touched PaintShop Pro for years since the photo editing tools that come with Windows 7 are good enough these days, but, I need logos and layers and fancy fonts and some way to make a blood splattered effect.

And cover design is interesting - just casting my eye along the shelves of the bookshops or around Amazon and I realise that there's an awful lot of ways to put your name and the name of the story on the front cover. Name above, or name below title?

Along with cover, I need to make some kind of similar themed banner for the blog, and thumbnail versions, and other little logos to go here and there for Facebook and so on.

And then - I have to make sure the finished, finished version is formatted to go through the Smashwords convertor, then figure how to do all that again for Amazon.

And then try to plug the whole thing - it would be nice to have someone buy it in the end. And maybe even read it.

It is all a great exercise though - and hopefully I can put it all to good use again when I get to writing and publishing "MechaObama vs The Angel Romney".

And now, 100 words of awesome Prince Harry and Pippa action from The Royal Wedding from Hell (2nd readers version, very subject to later editing...)

“Cover your ears,” said Harry. Pippa did as she was told as Harry hit another switch.

A sonic shockwave pulsed out from the car and the dozen or so armed cops were thrown backwards.

“Woah,” said Pippa.

Harry clutched his head. Blood trickled from his nose. “So that’s what happens with that,” he gasped.

“Harry, get us to the church on time,” said Pippa.

He shook his head to clear it and pumped his foot to the floor again. The car shot forward, hurtling towards police barriers and the tower of Big Ben.

They roared past the Houses of Parliament.

Recording my Reading

One of my goals for 2012 was to make a record of every book I read. I do read somewhat voraciously, and I found that I’d read books and then they would just drop out of my head completely. No more, I thought.

Fortunately, Goodreads provides me with the means to keep a record. So now, every book gets a rating out of five, a quick review and the date I finished it.

How do I decide on what rating? I had to come up with some kind of scheme. All reviews and ratings are done as soon as possible after the book is finished (or given up on), so there’s little hindsight involved or deeper musings – it’s all about the most immediate reaction.

No stars – So bad I couldn’t bring myself to finish it.

1 Star – At least I finished it. But that’s about all I can say.

2 Star – Not recommended, fails to entertain but there is something that redeems it from being something I actively dislike.

3 Star – Solid, I’d say give it a go if you like that sort of thing – essentially, the book does what it says on the tin.

4 Star – Above the call of duty – pushes the barriers a little more. Go on, read it, even if this not usually your thing.

5 Star – Go and read it now. You have no choice, you must read this. Hits all the right buttons and then a bit more.

A few examples...

No stars – “Star Wars – I, Jedi” – it had a great premise, the first person narrative of a man on a revenge mission who has Jedi powers, hence conflicted between the light and dark...but it was just dull, was going nowhere. Gave up.

1 star – Kevin J Anderson Star Wars books – I finished them just to see what would happen, but sort of regret doing so.

2 star – Dragonlance – unoriginal, fantasy pulp with very annoying main character that managed to all come together at the end. Unfortunately it was only at the end.

3 star – The Da Vinci Code – a thumping good read, but your life will not be incomplete without it.

4 star – True Grit – a western, with outlaws, gunslingers, chases and shootouts. And a terrific first person voice and character that shines through. Maybe you don’t like cowboy stories, but you will like powerful characters up against each other, their enemies and the frontier itself.

5 star – The Grapes of Wrath – JUST GO AND READ IT NOW.

A recent 4 Star book was "Antithesis" by New Zealand author, Pat Whitaker. My review:

"Intelligent science fiction - there's a novelty. No hyperspace, no big robots, no time travel, just a well thought out story about ants.

Well, there's a fair bit more than ants going on, although, as Whitaker clearly enjoys his research you will learn a lot about the creature that makes up possibly one fifth of all the biomass on Earth.

One of the book's strengths is the sense of location - Whitaker really makes Namibia come alive, and brings a sense of history and how that has affected and continues to affect local communities.

If the book has a fault, then the main character is perhaps too good (at her profession, morally, socially) and a touching subplot about a local girl is resolved a little too quickly.

The ants are the stars of the story, Whitaker keeps it tight and efficient - much like the insects themselves."

I do recommend seeking it out - first of all, its simply a good piece of intelligent sci-fi, and secondly, it's good to support independant authors and publishers. Click on the link above to go to Smashwords where you can download a copy.

And today's drabble is a shameless trailer for the upcoming "Royal Wedding from Hell":

It is 2011. The world suffers from the worst economic meltdown in decades. Millions of people are       struggling.

Goddamnit, we need a party. Luckily, there’s a big one coming.

Prince William is about to marry Kate Middleton in the biggest show of British pageantry since Charles married Di.

Hundreds of thousands will line the streets.

Millions will watch on TV.

Nothing can go wrong.

But Harry has lost the rings.

And an ancient evil is stirring.

All of the romance,

All of the pageantry,

All of the flesh hungry beasts of the abyss,

“The Royal Wedding from Hell”

April 2012

"Tales from the Bell Club", featuring my story "The Girl in the Cabin" is now available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Tales-From-Bell-Club-ebook/dp/B007IVQ7BK

It looks like a great anthology - the editor, Paul Mannering (a New Zealand writer and fellow Wellington dweller) has come up with a intriguing theme - all of the stories are personal narratives of folks who've suffered horrifying experiences, all set within the great pulp era between the late 1800's and early 1900's. The Bell Club is where they tell their tales.

My story was originally conceived as a horror Western, but in hindsight was more horror than Western, which made it a neat period piece and this anthology seemed to be a perfect home for it.
Fortunately for me, Paul accepted it. It's always very satisfying to see your writing reach the outside world.

When I get my copy I'll post review of the other stories.

Huge thanks to Paul and the folks at Knightwatch Press who put in the hard yards that help aspiring writers like myself get into print.