Write off September, start anew in October

That's my plan, anyway. For various reasons, September has not been a great month for writing. But October looks promising! I'd like to get a few things done:

1. Finish and publish Ravenor. Although it's turning out to be much longer than I expected, the end is in sight, so that shouldn't be hard.
2. Finish and publish The Snow Fairy's Curse. I don't think this will be much longer than I predicted, so hopefully that can be done too.
3. Make more progress on the Secret Project. I doubt I'll come close to finishing, but I'd like to perhaps hit the halfway mark.

I'm not sure whether I'll continue with December in the Dark. I loved the idea when I conceived it, but other ideas keep popping up that I like better. Sometimes the desire is to try and work on a hundred different projects at once, but then I know I'm not producing my best work, so I must resist! I know some writers can do this, but I'm a slow and steady kinda gal and I'd rather produce one or two works that I'm proud of than a dozen that I think are subpar.

The Tyranny of the Word Count

When I started writing Ravenor, I was almost positive it was going to be a short story, probably less than 10k long. Now, as you can see from the word count metre, it's edging towards my predicted grand total and I am dismayed to find I'm nowhere near finished. I'm now guessing it's more likely to be 20k. This is...well, it's not bad, but I had hoped to be finished and ready to publish by now. I'm not the world's fastest writer and when I see the finishing line moving further and further back, I get discouraged.

That's not to say I won't finish Ravenor, only that I wonder now why I bothered setting a target word count. Why not just write until the story is done, rather than worry about length? I suppose length matters if you're planning to publish traditionally or via epresses, but if you're self-publishing there are no guidelines on minimum/maximum word counts. I bought an indie book recently that was about 1k and it wasn't any less enjoyable for it, so why did I worry about hitting an arbitrary length or, indeed, exceeding it?

Lesson learned: from now on I won't assign targets like this to my stories. Whether they end up being 10k or 100k, as long as I feel I've told the story, it doesn't matter.

Sunday morning muse and news!

First the news! I wrote a creepy little story called GHOSTS IN THE GLASS, and it's going to be published in the Mirror, Mirror anthology from Static Movement. I'm so glad I discovered this place! And I love this cover.

And now the muse. I woke up at 8am on a Sunday, dammit, with a shiny new idea in my head and I want to start it immediately! I feel like I should make a concerted effort to finish Ravenor and The Snow Fairy's Curse first, but this idea is just up in my face shouting "No! Do me!" And who I am to resist the call of the muse when she strikes on a Sunday? So I'm up, I've had breakfast (after a fashion; I'm not sure chocolate chip cookies really count), and I'm ready to write! Let it begin.

The Hunger Games - I'm a little bit worried

Has anyone else seen the teaser for The Hunger Games film?

I have to confess, it worries me a bit. I adore these books (well, the first two anyway; I thought Mockingjay lacked the same energy that made The Hunger Games and Catching Fire so compelling but that's by the by), and I was very excited to hear about the films.

Then I saw Jennifer Lawrence had been cast as Katniss and was a bit worried because... well, she just doesn't look like Katniss as I envision her. But I've heard great things about her as an actress, and of course it's silly to expect your vision of a character to be the vision, so I was still optimistic. Then I saw a picture of her in costume:

She looks amazing, but does she look like she lives in the world of Panem? I'm undecided. She looks pretty healthy and clean for a kid in District 12. She looks fierce and capable, but does she look like a product of a society that forces children to fight to the death? I'm undecided on that.

The trailer hasn't helped convince me either way. I can see this film being either awesome or awful, no middle ground. The casting is great (Donald Sutherland as Snow is geniuse!), but what if the producers just want another Twilight? They might amp up the romance subplot (which, whilst important, was not the reason I loved the books personally) and downplay the political and social machinations that made the books so fascinating to me. It seems like every YA book with a hint of paranormal or dystopian about it is being optioned for film rights at the moment, and there's a danger that a lot of bland films will be churned out in the wake of the Twilight phenomenon. I'd hate to see The Hunger Games fall into this trap.

Of course I will go and see it. I'm still holding out hope it will be awesome, despite my reservations that everything looks too slick and polished to be believable as the world Collins created. But I love that she's been so involved - that makes me believe my fears will be set to rest when the film is released.

What if you hate them?

Your main characters, I mean? I'm steadily working away at The Snow Fairy's Curse, and I've come to the rather annoying realisation that Jack, my hero-in-training, is... well... rather annoying. He's impulsive and immature. He doesn't think things through very much, and when he does, he usually allows fear to rule his actions.

I kinda wanted him to start the story immature so I could have him grow, but I didn't count on finding myself so impatient with him - especially as I'm the one in charge of his actions! Hopefully as the story continues, he'll man up (by which I mean, I'll make him man up), otherwise this could be one of those stories where everyone roots for the hero to die horribly. And that would be sad.

Poetry = published

Earlier in the week I was feeling a bit emo and blue so I wrote some emo poems. And then I thought, maybe someone somewhere will like my emo poetry, so I scouted around and found this anthology and submitted them. And they got accepted! So, yay, my two poems HARM and PORCELAIN GIRL will appear in Poems from the Dark Side volume II. How cool is that? I think it's rather cool.

Not another book review - Linger by Maggie Stiefvater

Oh my. Where to start? If you haven't read Shiver, here be spoilers, I guess.

Linger continues the story of Sam and Grace, a boy who was a wolf and a girl who might become one. It also takes up the story of Isabel and Cole, a girl who's brother died and a boy who wants to die. That's a very simple overview though, because Linger is far more complex and nuanced than that. The love story of Grace and Sam, set against the backdrop of the wolves' dilemma - cold makes them wolves, heat makes them human, and eventually they will stop being human forever - is heartachingly well written.

It's also a sharp contrast to the developing relationship between Isabel and Cole. Whilst Grace and Sam have fought - and still fight - seemingly impossible odds to be together, Isabel and Cole are self-destructing, fighting their own demons, lost, hurting, and their abrasive attraction makes a great counterpoint to Grace and Sam's lovely, gentle romance.

This book takes us deeper into the werewolf mythology begun in Shiver, as it is speculated that the basic understanding werewolves have of their condition is flawed, and that Sam's apparent "cure" is no such thing. Nothing is resolved as such in this volume, but the seeds are planted for the third book, and I'm excited to see what Stiefvater has in mind for the finale. Linger is a slow-burn of a book, building chapter by chapter into an emotional firework that left me desperate for Forever. Sometimes it seemed as though not much was happening, but actually the careful building and breaking down of relationships carried the book along quickly and smoothly towards the ending (which was beautifully sad).

I loved the juxtaposition of the four leads (even if I occasionally found the changing viewpoints confusing). Cole's self-loathing and selfishness versus Sam's compassion and need to belong, and the way they reacted to each other, deepened both characters and offered new perspectives on them by means of contrast. Isabel and Cole worked great together too - Isabel is probably my favourite character, so I loved being in her head, and I liked the slow way the pair of them opened up to each other. Grace is perhaps the hardest character to get to grips with for me, but I enjoyed her journey in Linger, enjoyed her battle for independence and her future, both with her parents and her wolf heritage. I would have loved to see Olivia return, but I guess that's for Forever?

I would love to do a really intelligent analysis of why this is such a good book, but I'm still a little overwrought - it's not often I finish a book and feel weepy. Stiefvater has an elegant, melancholy style that imbues every word she writes with meaning and feeling, and I envy that. Between Grace and Sam, the littlest gestures have the deepest meaning. I cannot overstate the emotional impact Linger had on me, and I had to go order Forever immediately. Can't wait to see how this story ends.

I start things

Sometimes I just don't finish them, but that's another story...

Today I started two things: a novella called The Snow Fairy's Curse and a Tumblr for posting pretty pictures and quotes I like. I suppose I could do that here, but there's something I like about having a dedicated place to post pictures of cake.

*Dusts off the blog*

I'm back! I notice I haven't blogged since early June, which I guess was also the last time I worked on Ravenor. I'd like to say I was off having exciting adventures but it would be a lie, so I won't.

Well, never mind. I am back and I am working on Ravenor again. I've added 1k today, which has made me realise my initial estimate of 10k seem rather conservative. Well, never mind that either. A story being longer than I thought isn't a bad thing unless the story sucks (which I hope it doesn't). Hopefully I can actually get it finished and published soon, and then people can decide for themselves...