Posts Tagged ‘ novel ’

2016’s Writing Progress

Novels
2016 went quickly and slowly at the same time as I slugged through the editing and rewrites for my fantasy book, While I Slept. By the end of December 2016 I had finished the rewrite based on feedback from beta readers in the summer.

The book is now with a fresh group of beta readers for round two. I’m hoping the changes will be less severe this time around so I can get on with production. I’d really like to get this book out there soon since I’ve been talking about it for years – literally. I don’t want my novel production schedule to turn into a George R R Martin scale of a problem.

On the plus side, I’ve learned a lot about character arcs and story structure during the rewriting process. I feel better prepared to face another novel and the things I’ve learned should help me finish the first draft of the second book with fewer errors. Fingers crossed!

Short Stories
In terms of short stories, this year has gone well. I was invited to submit to two collections edited by Matty-Bob Cash. Both were horror themed.

The first horror collection Death By Chocolate was out in March by KnightWatch Press and centres on the theme of chocolate. Who knows – if you have a weak stomach, it might help you make it through the joys of detox January!

Death By Chocolate Book Cover

If you’re interested, check it out:
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2gqhim2
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2hn7Ty0

The second horror collection 12Days Anthology was out in December from Burdizzo Books and all its proceeds go to the Cystic Fibrosis Trust. It can also be said to have a loose chocolate theme as the collection had a count down in the form of twelve short stories based on the 12 days of Christmas. One was released each day in the run up to release, from 12 drummers drumming to a partridge in a pear tree. The final collected kindle and paperback editions are bursting at the seams with stories based on Christmas Carols and Songs.

12Days Anthology Book Cover

If you had a difficult holiday season and want to read about someone that likely had a worse time than you (and give to charity at the same time), this is the book for you.
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2hSuMaV
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2jbN8sI

Looking to 2017…
A few projects are in the works for me in 2017. I’ll check in with you once I’m cleared to release details.

2017
01/05
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Autumn of Editing: While I Slept Editing Progress

Autumn leaves through the sun

I’ve found myself loving the last few months. Autumn always cheers me up. The colour shining through the leaves and collecting on black and brown ground is something to enjoy on the drive to work, and it usually puts me in a creative frame of mind.

I’ve spent the past two months or so focusing on editing While I Slept, my paranormal mystery fantasy novel. It will be the first in a series and I plan to write a few spin-off series within the same world but with minor characters. (Though the spin-offs are likely to be a long way off yet!)

If you’re interested, here’s the updated blurb for While I Slept:

A Rift to the Otherworld has opened in rural Britain and the body count is rising. Arthur, an ancient Fae warrior, is broken from a spell-crafted sleep by Annie, who soon becomes his guide to the modern world. Together, they brave a ruthless enemy with no concept of mercy and a penchant for underhanded tactics. The world is teetering on the edge of supernatural war. Can these clashing cultures broker a deal, or will the Rift-towns become a bloodbath?

The very size of this novel gives you an idea how much there is to do (and long nights of Arkham Horror probably don’t help it get done…).

20151101_220333I’ve been working for hours a night on the current stage of edits and found my table just wasn’t high enough. I improvised with a printer, two board games and a slanted ring-folder. 20151107_142554

Definitely helped with neck and back pain, if not easy access to the printer and de-cluttered tables. That minimalism thing has never been my forte.

On the plus side, I’m 18/30 chapters into the current edit and I plan to work on book 2 from December to March, with the aim of releasing the second book within 6 months of the first. I think I’m going to need a lot of luck!

2015
11/12
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The Russian Sleep Experiment: Online

71gvfzyyNaLThose of you that have been keeping up to date with these posts know this has been a while coming, but the day is finally here. The Russian Sleep Experiment is live on Amazon in ebook and paperback formats.

Links below:

Kindle US                 ($3.10)

Kindle UK                 (£1.99)

Paperback US          ($5.99)

Paperback UK          (£3.99)

There is of course the option to look inside before you take the plunge of buying this psychological horror novella, and for the curious here’s the blurb and an extract from Part I…

Blurb:

Four political prisoners living in a 1940s Siberian POW camp volunteer to be Subjects in a Soviet Military experiment. They are promised freedom in exchange for completing the exercise. In return they must endure 30 days without sleep, fuelled by Gas 76-IA. One researcher, Luka, stands alone in believing the experiment needs to be stopped before irreversible damage is done but is he too late? The Subjects no longer want the Gas switched off.

Book Trailer:

Extract:

A hand gripped my shoulder. I jumped, and turned to see Jecis. His hair was a mess and his wiry beard was tangled. he looked as wild as I felt.

‘All good?’ he asked. He dropped his hand and looked into the mirror with me.

‘They’ll be watching us,’ I said.

It bothered me, more than I had thought it would. As much as they had wanted us here to test their drug, I knew they’d also be guessing the details of the resistance movement, wondering how far my brother was involved. They were good at getting secrets out of people, torturing them for information. Had I really been right to risk my secrets for my freedom? I could only hope lack of sleep would not make my mouth run.

Jecis shrugged and swayed on his feet. ‘We’ll get used to it. Few weeks and we’ll forget they’re there.’

I snorted, crossed my arms, and turned back to the mirror. That was what I was worried about. I could not afford to get complacent. They never would.

Comments:

I’d love to know what you think of the book so if you have the time I would really appreciate a short review. It doesn’t have to be long – a sentence is more than enough. Any feedback I get will really help to get my book seen. Please spread the word!

2015
08/18
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Stocking Up and NaNoWriMo

DSCN6225 by pippalou on morguefile

It’s been a busy month.

I’ve found some good sites and a few useless ones (always the way to find the good among the bad) and I’ve been stocking up on writing inspiration and good ebooks.

#NaNoWriMo

It’s the month of NaNoWriMo (or national november writing month) for the uninitiated. I decided last minute (at around 7pm on the 1st November) that I was going to join in. This is my profile if you’re interested: Bellalullaby.

The fun of the activity and the support of the writer community drew me in. Plus, I like a challenge. I’d wanted to write Book Two of The Otherworld Series – the book that comes after While I Slept – for around a year now and had been putting it off due to other writing activities I was waiting on. I decided I’d waited long enough.

For those who don’t know, the series is fantasy/crime with a strong sub-plot of romance and takes place in a world where the Fae (all manner of supernatural creatures including but not limited to Giants, Piskies, Donestre and Succubi) Otherworld has reconnected to our own. As their society is one which values violence and power rather than mercy and order, murderers tend to trip over the border into our own modern world. My protagonists Annie and Arthur do their best to deal with these.

I’m currently over 22,000 words in to book two. I had originally decided on the name Salt The Windows but this may well change. I’m not feeling it fits the plot as it’s coming together. I’m hoping for a gem of a title to come up in the writing process.

#StockingUp

In addition to NaNoWriMo, I’ve been stocking up on some good ebooks. This has stemmed from me finding a great site: Bookbub. You can search their site or give them your email address and get lists of discounted ebooks and free ones. You can specify what genres you like and even get a selection sent daily to your inbox.

I must have downloaded 20-30 so far. Course, I haven’t had a chance to read them yet but they should provide good fodder for reviews on here after the madness of NaNoWriMo.

#GoodEditingSite

As the tag would suggest, I’ve also found a great editing site through searching through the sponsors for NaNoWriMo. I would highly recommend Scribophile. The name is a little weird but they do great stuff.

Making an account is free and members can post chapters or short stories up for critique. You post by using up points called karma and you gain these points by critiquing others’ work. In short, it’s a matter of what goes around comes around and, so far, I’ve had some quality comments.

#AllinAll

A good couple of weeks to start out November. I currently have a beautiful Midnight Jasmine Yankee candle burning, an evening of writing behind me and a promising series ahead of me. Any questions or comments, chuck them my way on here or via my twitter (link in my name below) and I’ll get back to you.

Holly Ice

2014
11/11
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While I Slept – My Novel and Superstition

while i slept novel otherworld fantasy

1383461209nfki7 by archbob on morguefile

I found a book in a local charity shop over the weekend. It was quite a treasure for a writer: “A Pocket Guide to Superstitions” by Steve Roud. It made me think about how I could develop the social culture of the Otherworld in my novel’s final edit.

 

I had been thinking about how to develop and resolve a few issues with the Otherworld because the creatures there can live a very long time and yet have lost all knowledge of where the entrances to our human world are. Perhaps it has been so long they have forgotten the exact location and, as a colleague at work suggested, these portals have become more of a myth, lost to time? After all, most the creatures in this book are not the scholarly, writing type. Most of them tend to die early in power plays, too.

 

Roud’s book, since I started reading it yesterday, has given me a few ideas. He describes superstition being a result of believing luck to be a very real influence on one’s life – both bad and good. I was thinking the creatures in my Otherworld of While I Slept could have superstitions, much more like the old ways of our culture in the UK – refusing to walk under ladders and salting the windows, leaving food out for the fairies…

 
 

Here’s a peek into the Otherworld of While I Slept currently…

 
 

All manner of Fae creatures, from Piskies and Giants to Succubi and cat spirits, live in a world connected to our own (thus, the Otherworld). This world has towns villages and cities just like our own. One of their major trading posts connects to the Cotswolds, UK. The creatures live within a walled city which is full of large, bedouin style tents.

 

They have many strange and magical crafts. They can create fabric which has moving, life-like designs. Fabric which spits like fire when you get close but isn’t hot to touch or fabric which sparkles like a jewel but is soft. They also have a black market after dark where they sell, buy and trade the humans that were left in their world when the rifts to our world closed long ago…

 

These creatures do not have the same morals we do. They have no problems coupling up cross gender or cross species. Their whole culture revolves around power and dominance. Whoever is most violent or scary, generally wins the riches. It is somewhat similar to the courts of Shakespeare, only much more medieval and violence is much closer to the surface, as is sexuality.

 

Half breeds are looked down upon but not by everyone. Only those who feel the need to feel superior and elite. After all, if those half breeds are as strong as their counterparts, they deserve just as much respect. In a weird way the Otherworld is both more and less equal than our own.

 

It is an incredibly fun world to write about. Flinging out the mainstays of our morals and culture has been a blast and I think, after this content edit has been handed over, I’m going to enjoy threading in even more new cultural values and superstitions.

 

It stands to reason, after all, that creatures who live in a world where magical things are real, would have more superstitions and mystical cures (some of which I’m sure would work!) than the rest of us, out here in the bland human world where science is king.

2014
09/24
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Editing out the Chaff – While I Slept

14108984543z07r by hotblack on morguefile

 

A few days ago I had that magical moment I was looking for.

I found an editor for my fantasy novel While I Slept that’s good at what I’m bad at spotting: plot holes, character inconsistencies, unrealistic reactions…

 

That’s what I always view as a good editor-writer relationship – something complementary rather than complimentary, needlessly critical or hacking.

 

Every writer knows what they want for their manuscript and their style of writing. I didn’t want an editor that would slash away my voice and implant their own style, or someone who would make “improvements” that I viewed as deteriorations. A writer has to be careful whose advice to take with their writing. It is true what is said: not all suggestions are going to improve what you already have.

 

For now, I’m grinning like an idiot and really looking forward to finding out what my editor has got to say about the book as it stands. As someone on the other side of the planet (the USA), she has no reason to say my book is good if it isn’t and has no reason to be scared away from saying something critical.

 

In effect, she will be my first reader who is a complete stranger to myself and that’s exciting. I haven’t experimented in showing my writing to strangers since my early, early attempts at writing on www.fictionpress.com (I was on the site before it split into fan fiction and fiction).

 

I am also getting a brilliant editor at a fraction of the cost a lot of established websites will charge and this way I can ensure I am not getting a package deal but an individual deal, catering to my specific needs. I’m sure there are benefits to the larger companies and they will have a lot of experience but for a book of my length (around 97K words), I’d be looking at £500-£700 which, to me, feels like robbery.

 

I’m happy with my editor and the price we settled for, a fraction of the cost of larger companies but still a decent remuneration for the task at hand. I loved her sample edit and the suggestions she made were very insightful so I only see good things ahead for the edit, and the future of my novel.

 

My next blog post will be focusing a little more on my novel, letting you know a little more about what it’s all about as it has been a long time since I last did a sneak preview. Until then!

 

Holly Ice

1404341641ezt58 by ttronslien on morguefile

2014
09/21
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The Cliff of “Oh god, I’m not good enough”

SONY DSC

picture by deegolden on morguefile

 

I’d not realised until last night how close I’d been to stepping off the writerly cliff of “but I can’t”.

I have a confession to make: the novel that I finished, While I Slept, the one that I am trying to get an editor to bid on currently, has had a literary outing of sorts. I submitted it to two different agents back in June. Neither of them were mean. One I’d even met beforehand. She quite politely declined the book but it just puts a downer on the whole thing. It makes you think: but if they don’t like it, maybe no one will?

 

I was very quiet about these submissions because I didn’t want people checking back every few weeks and offering me dreaded pity. I wanted to deal with any rejection on my own and without others keeping tabs on response times and helping me get revved up about something which might not work out. Perhaps that was a bad idea, I don’t know.

 

Then last night I read this article. It made me remember what I’ve known all along; writers don’t get lucky overnight. We have to slog and send out dozens if not hundreds of submissions until we find an agent or publisher that wants to take our project on as their own. Professional and even best-selling authors have faced the same problem and had just as many pitfalls as me, if not more. I knew that, but almost forgot it when faced with rejection.

 

I suppose it’s a normal reaction but I realised I need to buck up. I’m going to get this novel edited and get my book sent out to more than two agents. I’ve got a list of eight at the moment that have said they like my genre and I have a similar number of publishers that don’t need an agent to be submitted to.

 

I’m still looking into self-pub options as well – especially into cover artists I really like the look of – but that’s a little ways off for action-ability yet, especially as I’m going to pay out for some objective editing from a stranger who will truly bring fresh, unbiased eyes on my work.

 

 

Here’s hoping it all works out!

Feel free to share your own stories with me on here or on twitter.

 

Holly Ice

2014
09/18
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Finding an Editor Worth Having

sw_Editing_N10_20130809_230442 Jppi on morguefile

by jppi from morguefile

I made another big step for me this week. I put the first 10 pages of my novel on a freelancing site – Elance – and asked for bids to edit the work. I’m after quality and reasonable pricing for content suggestions – character flaws, pacing, flow, plot holes etc and an accompanying list of commonly made mistakes would be nice.

It’s hard to find an editor that completely suits a writer and understands what is style and what needs fixing. It is also hard to find someone who doesn’t overprice editing. Writers don’t have that much money and an edit is a needed expense but not one that’s worth 2000$!! Even if you do have lots of experience, that’s internet robbery.

So far, it’s looking good. There have been a couple of good bids and at least one editor I have a really good feeling about. I just hope they’ll be – for me – that magical editor that works well with the author and is the trusted confidante they keep coming back to. Maybe that’s a dream but here’s hoping!

Let me know your editor horror stories and amazing matches. Give me an idea what to look out for – to avoid or go after. I have a few of my own ideas…

One of the editors bidding on my project ADDED IN adverbs and changed my style so the flow did not work anywhere near as well. Not someone I want working on my book.

A number of the bidders failed to read what I wanted and suggested a proofread or grammar and typo check when that is not the sole focus of what I’m looking for. Others endlessly quoted their “recommendations” and didn’t personalise their bid to me.

One prospective editor even suggested they have been a “prolific writer since they could hold a pen” and yet they have no job history on the site and no shown publishing credits.

If the public or your prospective audience (in this case, me) has never heard of you, it’s probably better not to call yourself prolific.

This leaves me with about four promising editors, including the one I have a good feeling about. My plan is to wait a little longer, see if anyone else bids, and make sure I have a firm idea of who to go with. A novel is a writer’s baby, after all.

2014
09/13
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The Self Publishing Question

 

dodgerton skill house, books, fiction, self publish, publishing, self-publish, self-publishing, agents, publishers, money, author, writing, story, fiction, fantasy, quest,

Picture by Dodgerton Skillhause (http://www.morguefile.com/archive/display/870011)

I keep coming back to this question: is self publishing a better route to take?

Shopping for an agent is tiring, brings up tonnes of tabs on your screen and in the end you only end up finding a small handful that really might like what you do and you like what they do (at least, that’s what I’ve found of the fantasy genre).  You send your samples off, you wait, you hear back, usually not positively either. And what for?

Self-publishing gives the author a higher percentage of each sale but it does require a marketing mind. I don’t have a marketing mind but could I learn those tricks? I’ve read a lot on the topic of self publishing and it was a huge topic at the LBF (London Book Fair) 2013 but how many seminars does it take to learn how to do well? Can you learn how to do well? Probably not. A lot of the trade is luck and timing.

It is an agonising choice to make; to go it alone or to stick to traditional marketing teams for low profit?

I took the big step today (for me it seemed big) of contacting a cover artist whose work I adore for a rough cover quote, as well as an associate of hers who does photo shoots. This will give me some more information on the potential cost of sourcing a professional cover for a self published book that I would be happy with and give me an idea of how practical this approach might be for me and my needs.

In the mean time, I think I will send my sample off to the remaining agents on my list and leave it to fate; if the agents I chose don’t choose me back, I think I might just go it alone and risk my name on that scary big market out there.

Wish me luck!

(Any advice is also welcome).

 

Holly Ice

 

2014
09/05
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I Write Everything Backwards – Or Forwards Depending on Perspective

Review Holly Ice Writing Novel While I Slept Elisa Art Vibes

Picture by this lovely artist: http://artvibes.tumblr.com/ (Very talented)
I feel very much like this frog- trying to keep the cold rain out of my MSS one word at a time with only a flimsy leaf for help.

So how can I write backwards and forwards? Well I write in linear fashion but have a very loose plan for novel and for short stories. I usually have an idea of the main issue; a group of serial killings, a kidnapping, a love interest gone right etc. However I usually don’t have a clear idea of the ending until I get to it or what the characters are like until I start writing them.

This can be a problem.

It can also make the writing process more fun and realistic.

What reader is going to know the back story of your characters, their pets, fears and hair colour until you introduce them? I know many writers and writing advice articles will focus on the need to plan. I’ve tried it before – these endless character sheets and plot planning bullet points. It stifles me creatively. The last thing my spontaneous imagination and muse wants is a list. I hate lists. Lists are for chores and homework and shopping. Not writing.

This is where many will say I’m going backwards. I edit the story and only then look at it to see if it makes proper sense. I have to fix plot gaps where things have been added but not introduced or dropped but not had a proper good bye scene. This makes my editing a lot harder. It also makes the first draft much less complete.

Of course, I’m still looking for better ways of planning and a few have been suggested to me or have come to my attention.

One is a sentence for each scene of the novel. Not a bad idea but my best ideas usually come to me in process. Other ideas are to expand upon this and change it as the novel progresses. Again, not a bad idea but I’m a lazy sod and like keeping to one document. I procrastinate enough as it is without another one.

But with the way I work my first draft will need better structure. So far I’ve found two great articles by Randy Ingermanson. Whole novel structure in the Snowflake Method and scene by scene editing with thing/action reaction units here (all free to read and use). It sounds like maths but it really isn’t. I used to do langauges and my brain just needed this simple formula of how to make words do what I think I know I want them to do but can’t quantify.

The character part of his snowflake method even helped me work out what was wrong with one of my novel’s characters. I knew something was but couldn’t place it without his help so I am indebted to him for that. The scene section kept me up all night one night and forced me to write 2000 words in 30 minutes before I could sleep. That’s as high a recommendation as I can give for motivation.

I’m yet to see if these plans will work at the “correct” side or more usual side of novel workings – in the planning stages. That’s for the next book to find out. For now, his advice and the book Self Editing for Fiction Writers  is going to be in the wings, waiting for my first draft to be complete.

If there is any advice you can give me for the next stage of writing and perfecting this thing, please, please, leave a comment.

Hopefully I’ve shown you something that’ll help you, too.

Holly Ice

2013
08/20
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