T-shirts

From the Mercy Thompson series. Me? An urban fantasy nerd? Never.

It's so true

T-shirt transfer paper. Hell yes.

So Tired

I am soooooooooooooooo tired.

The other night, I literally did not sleep. Instead I tossed and turned and sort of begged the gods to let me sleep. Last night I only got four hours. So the deficiency builds!

I just finished Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs, and it was quite brilliant. I'm now moving onto the fourth book in the Mercy Thompson series, Bone Crossed.

As part of my novel-writing research I got two other books out of the library--when giving advice on writing, every author I've read an interview of has advocated extensive reading inside and outside of the genre. This time I'm opting for inside - Kitty and the Dead Man's Hand by Carrie Vaughn, a werewolf story, and Covet by J. R. Ward, a novel about fallen angels.

This deserves its own entry

Giant Muffins

So, Ryan and I went to the Christmas Continental Market. It was SO good, the bratwursts were from heaven and I bought lots of fudge and a giant muffin or miniature cake, depending on how you look at it. It was encrusted with chocolates.

On the writing front, I'm looking into the importance of having a basic framework for the book, a general design. I've been doing a little bit of planning regarding what will happen next. I think it's time to at least solidify the magical traits.What I've done so far has made a good foundation for the action to take place on, but I believe it could get harder after this. I still want to make sure that it flows freely.

I've also discovered that I have a tendency to give too much away too soon. I'm not very good at building tension yet, because mentally I'm way further on in the storyline than the part I'm writing, and I have a hard time knowing when to withhold certain details.

I'm off for a bit of planning...

It Feels Christmasy

Good news... the Christmas market is now at City Hall! I'm going tomorrow. Here's a list of highlights taken from the Belfast City Council website (I added capital letters because I just won't stand for that all lower-case shit on my blog).

• Bratwurst sausages and German beers
• Warming gluhwein
• Liqueur coffees
• Gourmet burgers
• Spanish paella
• Toasted baguettes
• Waffles, crêpes and Dutch pancakes
• Cakes, fudge and sweets
• Continental and Irish cheeses
• Exotic meats from around the world.

YES please. I'm going tomorrow to gorge myself on these delights.

I've been thinking about getting back into poetry. I haven't done it in a very long time. Nowadays, my poetic efforts are channelled into the novel. I think it's important, especially in this literary climate when people have such short attention spans, that your language is efficient descriptively - you have to cram the most vivid language you can into a few short sentences. If you're trying to be commercially successful, that is. In Thomas Hardy's Return of the Native, the first seven pages are devoid of people, dedicated utterly to a detailed description of the landscape. The modern equivalent of that would be something like this:

The uninhabitable heath was dusky and filled with foreboding.

The Mercy Thompson books have the best
covers ever

There's got to be a happy medium.

At the moment, I'm reading my way through the Mercy Thompson Series by Patricia Briggs. I'm currently on the second book, Blood Bound. Already, I love this series. It's about a native American coyote-shapeshifter, who was raised, much to her chagrin, by werewolves, because her mother didn't know what else to do with her. She is an outsider and has tried to escape the wolves, but circumstances force her to try to find her place among the local pack. Most importantly, Adam Hauptman is sexy.

I'm doing a good steady amount of work on my own novel at the moment. I'm aiming for around 1000 words per day. I don't always acheive that, but it's still a good rate to work at. I always get at least one page done per day.

There's apple pie coming out of the oven in a minute. I'm off.

Beginnings

Well, I say that, but actually my beginning began months ago. Right now, I'm chronologically three chapters into my novel, or about a quarter of the way if you go by word count (25,000).

I tend not to write in order - I write more as the ideas pop into my head. In fact, I've got a good chunk of material for later books in the series, including the very last page or so of the last book. I'll probably end up rewriting it, though. I find it easiest to do the key events first and stitch them together later. As Charlaine Harris - one of my favourite authors - said once in an interview, the hardest bit about writing a book is the everyday stuff that links the major scenes together. I think that the ability to write those parts engagingly is the mark of a good author.

Truthfully, I don't know the whole story yet - I haven't made a list of bullet points or an overview. I tried to, but found that as soon as I put finger to keyboard, it just wouldn't flow as naturally as it should. It seemed kind of hollow - maybe I'd hindered my own passion by trying to adhere to my own prescribed rules. I think it's possible to avoid being formulaic while staying on track and relevant. I want the twists and turns to surprise me, because then they'll (hopefully) surprise my reader.

One of Charlotte's (my protagonist's) close friends was just knocked down by a car. He's in the ER right now and I still don't know whether he'll make it out alive or not. He's not relevant in the foreseeable future, but I think his death might be a little too bleak this early on in the book. Another of my characters shocked me by behaving violently - I had no idea he had such a short fuse.

I'm struggling to find a village in Antrim to base my fictional one on. I can't use a real one, simply because none of them fit my specifications. There must be a manor house nearby - if not, the real village's history would have to be completely rewritten. It's something that's dangerous to tamper with.

For now - less blogging, more writing.