Category Archives: pilgrim of the sky

April… May… June?

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Yes, officially I suck as a blogger. But hey: I’ve been at this a while. Sometimes a gal needs a break.

I’ve been away long enough that WordPress now has a totally different dashboard, it’s almost June, and I’ve been to San Francisco and back. There are some big, awesome things going on. So I thought I’d let you know about them instead of, you know, just keeping them to myself. (Bad author. Bad!)

ConCarolinas – I am a guest! I am speaking on four panels: Changing History at 11:00 am on Saturday at University Ballroom A, Political Intrigue at 1pm in the same room on Saturday, Panel of Ice and Fire at 4 o’clock in Keynes on Saturday, and Mythology & Folklore in University Ballroom A at 1pm on Sunday. Come listen to me babble!

I’m an editor at Bull Spec! I am thrilled to be lending my eyes and brain to this fantastic publication, which isn’t just SFWA qualifying now, but also really gave me my first break. “Dr. Adderson’s Lens” appeared in Bull Spec #1, and people still talk to me about it. I’ll be concentrating on all things fantastical over there, so when we open to submissions please feel free to send us your best! I’m particularly drawn to fantasy that pushes past the expected, stories that start off in surprising ways, and unusual settings. Not that I don’t have a soft spot for a well-told S&S tale, just that I’m particularly interested in where fantasy is going, not just where it’s been.

Pilgrim of the Sky. It has its own website now! It looks like the book will be out now in December, which suits me quite well. One of my favorite scenes takes place during the holidays (granted, in Second World it’s Marymas, and not Christmas, but you know…) There are going to be lots of cool announcements re: the book in the coming months, including cover art and purchasing details. To say I’m excited is an understatement. In the mean time I’m planning on another vlog this week, as well as some research/windows into the worlds I made, and why I made them. (And also some Art History 101!)

Glassmere. I am writing a book. With large quantities of vitamin B6 have done wonders on my hands (and, the good news, is that my carpal tunnel isn’t, technically, severe — i.e. there is no nerve death) work has commenced. But writing isn’t going quickly. Part of the reason is that I’m spending a ton of time researching. The book takes place in 1910, and getting details right is really important. But I’ve also been reading a great deal, especially books about English manor homes, like Howards End and The Edwardians. So far, I’ve just crested 8K (which is just a fraction of a book, I realize) but the pace is good for right now. It’s a complicated book, with lots of difficult themes (race, family, class, religion, love, revenge) that require attention. I’ve mentioned before that it’s a personal book, and obviously not because it’s real. But the characters are based on real people — or at least partially. Evelyn and Julia are much like my sister and myself, and their grandmother and great-aunt are much like my own. Except changed, moved around, and muddled with. Still, it’s a story about sisters. And it makes a person think.

Additionally, I’ve been falling into research pits every now and again. If it isn’t calendar houses, it’s Ming Dynasty jewels; if it isn’t fashion magazines and corset styles, it’s train cars and race relations. I will be an expert Edwardian when this is all said and done…

For now, that’s about it. Work is excellent, but definitely keeps me busy. Hard to believe I’ve been there half a year already. Finally falling into a writing groove is awesome, and I’m looking forward to the months to come!

Marching on…

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Oh, look, I’m starting this post with a pun about the month of March. But yeah. Looks like I went the entire month of February without posting a single darned thing to my blog. Apologies. Sort of. We’ve moved, I’ve been working full-time, and life in general has been speeding by so fast I’m having a hard time keeping track of time, let alone posts. I’m not really apologizing, because it’s not like I’ve neglected on purpose. Anyone who’s sent me email in the last month will probably attest to the fact that response times aren’t really my strength at the moment! But I’m getting there.

Anyway, in writing news:  I’ve tentatively started a new project, gotten some very good insight on an old project (which will, eventually, be revisited), and am preparing for the publication of that other project, Pilgrim of the Sky. In Pilgrim news, I do have some fun stuff to share. Just not yet. Things are looking very positive. The edits to the draft are so far very well received, and I couldn’t be happier on that account. I’ve secured an artist for the cover, too, which I’ll talk about soon. Good things are afoot. Not to mention, here in North Carolina, spring is blooming all around us–the pear trees are just starting to turn, followed quickly by the red buds and dogwoods. I never tire of spring here. The blooms just call to me to be creative, to breathe in the beauty, to go all Keatsian and romantic.

I also finally finished “The One in the Swamp” for the Shotguns v. Cthulhu anthology. I am so excited to be part of this project, as a fan of all things Lovecraftian. I’m even more thrilled that I was able to finagle a dark, weird west tale into the mix, and continue to tell the story of the Sutherland girls. This ain’t the last you’ve heard of them.

Writing as of late has been slow. I’m still struggling to balance work life and booklife. I’m getting an odd distance to some of my older projects, and spending all too much time thinking about what kind of writer I want to be instead of just sitting down and writing. Hence, I chose a more difficult project to attend to next. After wavering back and forth for a few months, I’ve finally settled on writing Glassmere; it’s magical realism, set in the 1910s in Kent. And while that might not sound personal, it’s probably the most close-to-life novel I’ve ever attempted. It’s dark, deep, challenging on every level. It’s going to require research, planning… it’s going to take a while.*

I also have not been reading enough. I’ve had Elizabeth Bear’s All the Windwracked Stars since last summer, when my lovely friend Julia Rios gave it to me. But I haven’t made progress in the book because I haven’t made progress anywhere. I’ve not been reading at all. Period. Which is a grave offense. I can blame work and moving and everything else, but the truth of the matter is that I don’t know how to write well if I’m not reading something, especially when we’re speaking novels. So I’m making time. And it’s amazing how restorative those moments are with the book, how they make me examine my own work as well as the world of storytelling on a larger scale. Marvelous.

At any rate. This week we’re headed to PAX East, and I am jazzed to have a chance to get out a bit, hang out with awesome geeky friends, and let loose. Yes, I work at an epicly cool place. I can’t imagine a better place to work than a video game company. However, work–especially when one is suddenly the breadwinner–has a way of warping life around you and making things rather different than they were before. I need to let my hair down for a few days, and PAX East will be the ticket.

I will try to not neglect the blog for another month. As I mentioned, good things are afoot, and I’ll be chattering more as the month progresses, I’m sure!

* Reading that paragraph I realize that’s the worst sell for Glassmere that I’ve ever seen. Consider this instead: Little Women and The Buccaneers meet The Chronicles of Narnia and Alice in Wonderland. With a bit of Gosford Park thrown in for good measure. The main players are two sisters in their late teens (Evelyn and Julia) and their grandmother and great-aunt. The magical realism part is important, as it’s a major plot function, but the heart of the book is about sisters, family, jealousy, grudges, and love.

Adventures in Editing

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Last night I turned in my book to my editor, Kate, over at Candlemark & Gleam. This is a first for me. You know, editing a novel that will actually get into the hands of readers. I’ve spent lots of time editing my own books, and I generally enjoy the process quite a lot. I know many writers find it tedious and awful. And it can be, absolutely. But I have a good feeling about this draft; the second I sent it off to Kate, I missed it.

As I saved the file, I thought of the last two years. In late 2008, I completed the first draft of Pilgrim of the Sky; it was somewhere around 65,000 words. It grew from a flash of an idea: a female protagonist getting sucked into a Neo-Victorian/steampunk world that’s a near mirror to her own. Now, in 2011, that one idea is a 93,000 novel.  A real novel. And it encompasses so much more than steampunk now; it really doesn’t even fit into a genre. Speculative, sure. But it’s got elements of fantasy, the Gothic, romance, and some heavy mythology and philosophy. It’s layered, like a painting, which makes sense since Maddie, the main character, is an art historian. Her eye is tuned to read into things, and so the book–told in a very close third person–reflects that.

But the book itself has undergone a journey, and most of it has been through editing. I submitted the novel in 2009 to another small press, and it was rejected on some rather curious reasoning. You can read the post I wrote, “Novelfail: Facing rejection with grace, or learning to” if you want more of the story. At the time it really did feel like the end of the world. I was furious at being rejected for such a stupid reason. Yet now, thinking on it, I am so glad the book was rejected. Sure, at the time it was a good 80K of a book. I’d beefed it up since its first draft, and done a significant amount of editing. But it wasn’t there yet. And thankfully I’ve had a brilliant editor help me get it to where it needs to be.

And that’s the thing. Editing isn’t just about dialogue and grammar and pacing. Yes, those are all important things. But editing gives you a chance to dig deeper, to find the themes that you might have missed the first time, that bring the book from good to truly complete.

The editing process didn’t just help me fix dialogue and tighten up the plot. It revealed a better story. This last edit was no simple run-through. It took a ton more research, and an editor who had the ability to, on one hand understand the book, and on the other challenge me to make it better. There are elements in the current draft now that would never have been there if Kate hadn’t made me sit back down with the draft and consider a few things. Of course I went a little deeper than she probably expected, but it’s only because I found so much room for improvement, so many places to make broader or more delicate strokes.

And most importantly, in this almost final iteration, my main character is someone I’d actually like to take out to coffee. The first draft, Maddie was so acerbic. She was crass and had a foul mouth, and as a result wasn’t a terribly compelling heroine. But that changed in the course of edits. She became softer in some instances and stronger in others. And most importantly, I dedicated a whole new section of the book to her truly discovering her own power. Before, she was passive; now she’s active.

Anyway, that’s a long rambly way to say: pay attention to edits. Take the time. Work at it. Use your editing time to push your novel to its limits, to stretch it far beyond your initial imagination. There are bits of magic hidden that will only out with work. The book will reward you in the end, I promise. It will make you a better writer, and it will surprise you at every turn.

That’s the magic of creation. People so often bemoan the difficulty of it all. And yes, it’s a tough world out there. Publishing is rarely rewarding, and the book industry is turning on its head right now. But you have the power to do remarkable things, to be better at every turn, regardless of the details out there. Writing and editing are in your control, completely. And that is power. You can always get better.

Updates in Nutshell. Or a Clam Shell.

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I’ve been inexcusably quiet here the last few weeks, and no, it’s not because of NaNoWriMo. Again, real life and things got in the way of that. Let me tell you, there’s nothing I would have rather done than write a novel from scratch, revel in the joy of creation, and bask in the awesome of writing for the month of November. But life has a way of being a stinkypants sometimes, and that’s totally what happened. I won’t get into the details of the personal life stuff, but it comes down to the fact that I’ve been job hunting, working on GeekMom, doing the holiday thing, working on Crossed Genres, and using my extra time to catch up on some anthology submissions (and a sale) as well as edits for Pilgrim of the Sky. When I had less work to do, NaNo was far easier.

In addition, we just released the first issue of Crossed Genres edited by Jaym Gates and myself. A momentous occasion, to be sure, as I’ve never been an editor of such proportions before. I really enjoy the process of finding those stories that shine. I’m particularly fond of the steampunk/Chinese influenced world of Jaymee Goh’s story “Lunar Year’s End“, but the TOC is really strong all throughout. What other magazine brings you such a width and breadth of genres? It’s truly fun to be part of the Crossed Genres team, and we have lots in store for the months to come.

Also important to note, I decided to axe the original ending of the Pilgrim of the Sky in favor of something more… transcendental. The book now contains 100% more quahog and 100% sphinx. I will rework some of the 10K I chopped, including the climax scene, but my heroine needed more punch. And now she’s got it.

Meanwhile, I am doing my darndest to focus on Pilgrim and edits and publication and try not to let other issues in the publishing industry get to me. But it’s hard. My husband is always the first to remind me that I’ve made a huge amount of progress in the last few years, but I can’t let go of that annoying voice in the back of my head. The one that doubts. That tells me I’m really not terribly marketable (squids and exploding eyeballs and whatnot).

Then I tell myself to shut up. Because, in the end it doesn’t really matter, does it? It comes down to the fact that, hell or high water, I write. And writing will happen whether or not I’m marketable. Maybe one of the weird ass books I write will start a trend. Or maybe it won’t. It makes me happy. And that’s the most important part. *cue the strings*

Anyrot! The gears do keep on moving, and I am the machine. So tally-ho!

The Gnome and the Necromancer

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With the month of November looming, it’s time to consider NaNoWriMo. Last year it was NaNoEdMo for me, as I was busy doing edits on Queen of None.  But this year,  I haven’t been writing much at all since I finished Indigo & Ink, and figured I could use November to focus. Edits on Pilgrim of the Sky aren’t due until early 2011, after all. Things have been… well, meh in a lot of ways, and I’m seriously in need of some writing therapy. Not to mention, it’s really fun being involved in something creative with a group of awesome friends.

So: enter The Gnome and the Necromancer. This is a departure for me. For one, it’s Urban Fantasy, and takes place in the modern day, here in our world, and not in a secondary world where the rules don’t apply. It’s also YA, the main character, Ruby, being all of fourteen. The other MC is a gnome, for lack of a better term, who is a professional kidnapper. He’s supposed to steal magical children and bring them to his side of the world, but he sort of slips up in Ruby’s case, and she ends up unleashing her powers inadvertently on our world.

Anyway, here’s the synopsis:

Ruby Benson is fourteen, and her life couldn’t be worse. Or so she thinks. When her cousin Calvin passes away in a tragic car accident at the age of sixteen, she accidentally brings back his soul from the Underworld: into her corgi. Her inadvertent magic spell triggers the Changeling Court, who realize–for the first time since her birth–that she was not taken as a baby, as she should have been.

Talfryn Windwake, the changeling gnome in charge of her case, gets sent back to Ruby’s side of the world to retrieve her. He expects the transition to go smoothly: after all, aside from not taking her when he should have fourteen years ago, he’s got a perfect record. But Ruby isn’t going down without a fight. As Talfryn struggles to redeem himself after his unforgivable error, Ruby must come to grips with her new abilities, and decide whether or not she wants to trade her old life for a new one… the life she should have had in the first place.

A bit more marketable? Perhaps. Nothing wrong with that, I don’t think. But it’s going to be both lighthearted and sad at times. Themes of death, loss, love, duty… you know, those sorts of things. And shorter. Hopefully no more than 65-70K, which should work well for the genre and the time!

Anyway: if you’re doing NaNoWiMo this year, feel free to friend me! You can find my page here!

The Pits of Research

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Technically it's a chasm.

I did it. I fell into the Pits of Research.

Don’t get me wrong. I love research. At a point in my life I wanted to be a professional researcher, i.e. a professor, so the hankering to discover new information is definitely strong with me.

However. There are good and bad ways to go about these things. I’ve been adding to and editing Pilgrim of the Sky, which, as I mentioned, has a lot to do with religion. Sort of. In the book, the premise revolves (haha, revolves…) around eight worlds. These worlds are all connected, are part of infinite worlds, yet still have similarities between them. The main character’s world is mostly ours. Now, on top of that, the book relies heavily on concepts of the reincarnation of divine beings and, well, divine beings in general. I won’t say too much because it would ruin some of the story, but our heroine gets involved with these quasi-divine, reincarnated people.

One of my goals in this edit was to branch out the various pantheons I include, away from Celtic and Norse to something more interesting. Now, I’ve spent a great deal of time over the last week sifting through research on every pantheon I can find. And it’s helpful.

But I was totally misguided.

The thing about having these eight worlds is a connection to but not a dependence upon each other. My mistake was leaning too heavily on research and not heavily enough on my own imagination, on the fantasy freedom I meant to explore in the first place.

Rule #1 for fantasy writers: research from the real world is great, and knowledge is power and all that jazz — however, relying too heavily on it can cloud your mind and slow you down. The most important thing for me, at this moment, was not mapping god to god across every known pantheon, but rather, just telling a good story and having some cool things happen. Which is what I’m doing at this juncture with my main character. I decided she needed some real testing. A gods’ gauntlet. But the thing is, the gauntlet isn’t in her world. Yet for some reason I spent hours this week reading up about the Mesopotamian and various Asian pantheons. Not that it won’t ever help me, or help me in another section of the book… I was just doing it all wrong. This is not the research you’re looking for, in other words.

Okay, so I lost a few days. It’s not the end of the world. Just be wary of research. As fun as it is, as thrilling as it can be, it can also blind you from your task at hand.

Anyway. Back to that gauntlet. Time to roll for initiative.

 

Official Pilgrim of the Sky Announcement from Candlemark & Gleam

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I’m not terribly good at describing Pilgrim of the Sky. But thankfully, my publisher is! To get a better idea of what the book might be about, and what I’m currently immersed in edits with at the moment, consider the following from their announcement post:

How to describe this novel? Hm. That may be a tough one. It’s sort of…a world-hopping, reality-bending, art-historical, socio-religious steampunk odyssey. And that’s just for starters.

It takes place both in our world – in a corner of the world that I’m particularly familiar with and fond of, Western Massachussets – and in a number of other worlds, each of which has its own character and flavour. Natania has an unbelievable knack for description and imagery, and I can honestly say that the lush descriptions of Sixth World make me want to pack up and move there, just to get a taste of floating mansions, copper corsets, and electromagnetic horseless carriages in a refined pseudo-Victorian society that has some truly surprising twists to it.

But that’s only part of this novel. Pilgrim of the Sky also features murder, ambition, greed, multidimensional travel, and opiate abuse. You know, as you do.

That about says it, indeed.

Wait. Are you telling me Jesus was a dragon?

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So. I’m editing. After talking with Kate at Candlemark & Gleam on a few plot issues, we agreed that expanding Pilgrim of the Sky in a few places is definitely the way to go. Initially my goal was to write an 80,000 word novel. For some weird reason in 2008, when the book was written, I was under the opinion that this was What I Needed to Do. Keep in mind that the second draft of The Aldersgate was a whopping 160,000, and you can probably see that my intentions were well-founded.

However. To get the book to where I want it to be for publication I need to add some stuff. I need to fluff out the world a bit, bring out a few of the characters who fell by the wayside (Joss Raddick and John Iosheka in particular) and just generally go in with a finer brush.

At this point I’m about 1/3 through on the first pass edits, and just finished my first bonus scene in which there is a magic compact and frequent use of the word transcorporeal. Also, some debate as to whether or not Jesus was a dragon. (He wasn’t.)

But anyway. I’ve got a net gain of about 1K at this point, but I anticipate much more heading into the meat and potatoes of the book. Oddly I also cut down on cursing. Much of the dialogue was written ages ago (what feels like) and I’m spending a lot of time making it flow better. It’s not so hard with Randall, who speaks more or less like most of the characters I write (i.e. a sort of casual Victorian thing)–but my main character is from the present. And this whole talking like a normal person thing is just harder for me.

Yes, I like editing and I have a hard time writing modern dialogue. I’m weird. (My husband Michael thinks that the difficulty stems from years of MUSHing; I think it’s just from years of reading very little that takes place any time after 1900).

So, considering I’m back in the swing of things I thought I’d present a shorter update/status/metrics thing. Behold!

One thing I loved: The elevator. There’s an elevator in the Roths’ house and I absolutely adore it. It’s all shiny and weird and steampunk and uber-Victorian. It’s really dorky to love an elevator, but there you go.

One thing I loathed: Well, there are quite a few things I loathed, but I got rid of them. This is why editing is fun. Mostly they were large chunks of exposition that said something to the effect of “Maddie felt frightened and/or on the verge of panic and didn’t know if she should trust Matilda/Randall.” The delete key, it is my friend.

Best quote: Randall has just taken Maddie to his office, which he shares with one J. G. Iosheka, who is apparently not in attendance.

“Who’s J. G. Iosheka?” asked Maddie, shivering into her stole. It was alarmingly cold in the office. There was a fireplace, buried behind a chest of drawers, but likely not much of a chance that it was in working condition.

“That’s who I’ve brought you here to talk to,” Randall said, going over to the cluttered desk. He removed a ring of keys from his pocket, and after a few tries—no doubt due to the decidedly dim light—he got the drawer open.

“He’s not in your desk, I hope,” Maddie said. She noticed a row of pickled specimens on the other side of the room and pointed. “Or over there.”

Randall laughed. “Dear me, no. But those are his. He’s a bit of a biologist. But it’s been some time since we shared the office, though I keep his things here as a matter of sentiment, I suppose.”

“He’s not here and you want me to talk to him?” Maddie asked. Perhaps Randall was more addled than she had been led to believe.

Worst quote: (Not a quote, but some juicy pre-dialogue mess) Randall shook his head, shaking his hand. (He’s all shook up, see?)

Thoughts: I really like Maddie’s sense of humor, her dry sarcasm and occasional wise-cracks. I’m trying to make that a little more apparent in this draft. But she’s one of the most humorous main characters I’ve written (at least intentionally so; I’ve got plenty of MCs who have no idea how hilarious they are at all). Her situation–being sucked into a weird, Victorianized version of her own world–makes for plenty of absurd moments.

Around the Bend: More John Iosheka, the Wilds, and Mother Mary. Yes, this all makes perfect sense to me. Also, going to have to tidy up those more intimate scenes… wait, that just sounds wrong.

Anyway. Onward!

I have an announcement…

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Today is September 22nd, which happens to be the birthday of Frodo and Bilbo Baggins, give or take. And while this day is perfect for gorging on cheese and mushrooms, taking walks in the park among the trees, and starting adventures, it’s also a good one for announcements (or so I’d like to think).

No. I am not disappearing. I have no magic rings, and even if I did own one, I’d probably have lost it by now or else left you entirely. I’m far too much of a Took to let a ring sit in an envelope for years.

The announcement is this: I have sold my first book! And no, it’s not that one. And not that one, either. But it is Pilgrim of the Sky, and it will be finding a home at Candlemark & Gleam, with a release date (tentatively) of August 2011!

I got the news shortly after I got out of surgery, and after talking back and forth (as lucidly as I could manage) with Kate Sullivan, one of the editors, I decided that Candlemark & Gleam was really the best home for Pilgrim of the Sky. I wrote the book with independent, small presses in mind, and after it received one very perplexing rejection almost a year ago, I’d been waiting for a place I felt fit the vibe of the book. When I saw a Tweet announcing submissions for this new, ambitious, small press, I figured there was nothing to lose. Plus, I really like their approach.

Even cooler? I feel like they really get the book. Which is no easy task. Pilgrim of the Sky is genre-smooshing, incorporating science fiction, fantasy, time-travel, multiverse theory, metal corsets, steampunk, romance, Romantic poetry (especially Wordsworth), and a little bit of religion and a heap of art history. (And floating mansions. And did I mention a talking raven and a guy that turns into a horse? Can you see why I didn’t query this one to agents?)

Still, as strange as the book may be in its genre, it’s still rooted in reality, being the only book I’ve ever written to take place in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, where I grew up. A lot of what I have to say in that book comes from the 18 years I lived there, and my experiences in that unforgiving climate. For that reason it’s surprisingly personal. The settings in many cases come straight from what I’ve seen–going from Northampton and the First Churches and Nini’s Pizza to Sunderland and the great, 18th century Colonial homes, then along the Masspike to Boston. (As I said in an old post just as I’d started the book: There’s something odd about that part of the world that you can’t quite put your finger on… it’s no coincidence that Lovecraft wrote about New England, let’s just say.)

I will keep you posted in the future, as I’m going to be heading into edits, soon. I’m one of those curious people for whom the editing process is enjoyable, so I’m actually thrilled to be revisiting Maddie, Randall, and everyone else–especially knowing that in less than a year I’ll be able to share their story with readers!