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editing, fantasy, nanowrimo, pilgrim of the sky, publication, the gnome and the necromancer, WIP, writing
The Gnome and the Necromancer
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…
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My October Projects*
Novel editing has taken a pause in order to attend to two anthology submissions I want to finish. The good news: finished one last night, edited it tonight, will submit in just a bit. It takes place in the world of The Aldersgate, featuring three familiar faces to those who follow such things: Sir Gawen, Sir Renmen, and Sir Din. It takes place ten years before the events in the book, and tells the story of how Sir Gawen–once known around the Continent for his prowess and crazy mad skull-crushing skills–gave up his cushy captainship and joined the Order of the Asp. The second story is posing more of a…
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A moment of blatant self-promotion
The Mammoth Book of Steampunk is looking for reprint recommendations. And whaddya know, but I’ve got a bunch of stories that would qualify for just that. They’re seeking suggestions over here. So if you’ve read something of mine that you like, please feel free to let them know! (I added some notes to help you remember each story.) “The Brass Pedestal” – Steampunk Tales #4, Short Story category, November 2009 (Sophronia seeks revenge on her philandering, relationship-destroying brother by getting a bug implant and a metal corset) “Dead’s End to Middleton” – Crossed Genres #16, Short Story Category, February 2010 (seven gun-toting, alien-killing sisters in the American West, and the…
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The Pits of Research
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…
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Official Pilgrim of the Sky Announcement from Candlemark & Gleam
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…
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Wait. Are you telling me Jesus was a dragon?
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…
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I have an announcement…
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!…
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New Places to Read My Stuff
Well, I’ve been a bit behind on stuff in general, and while I’m not yet entirely lucid (one might argue that I rarely am…) I thought I’d share two bits of very cool news. First, you can now find my short story “The Monastery of the Seven Hands” in an anthology of dystopian fiction edited by Jason Sizemore entitled Dark Futures at Barnes & Noble and Amazon.com. Pretty nifty, eh? I’m a particular fan of that delightfully dystopian cover. The TOC is impressive to say the least, and I’m looking forward to reading all the pieces once I have my copy. Go forth, buy! I had this to say about…
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Picture yourself on a boat on a river…
I’m not terribly with it at the moment, but things are improving. Quite obviously I made it through the surgery, and after reacting horrifically to the anesthesia (I think I was actually throwing up before I woke up) I went home. For the time being I’m staying with my parents, and trying to rest. Really most of my day revolves around sleep. But hey, the body heals best in that state, so there you go. Right now it’s a matter of mitigating pain, which is, at times, pretty astonishingly intense. Yay for drugs. Other than that, I’m trying to catch up on some movies I haven’t seen in a while,…
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Take a load off, Fannie.
I’ve gone back and forth whether or not to post about this at length, considering it’s a personal issue. But at this point I figure there’s no harm being candid, and I don’t want people thinking there’s something terminal going on with me. Plus, I figured if you’ve me me or seen most pictures of me, you’d probably figure this out sooner or later. In short, I was really looking forward to 2010 since 2009 really sucked. I mean, my sister had cancer and we lost our house that year. I figured there was nowhere to go but up. But things didn’t go so well. I mentioned being diagnosed with…
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Weird Tales Uncanny Beauty Issue
I’ve been waiting to talk about this until it was official but, hey, look: official! And awesome. I had the privilege of coming up with a project together with Brigid Ashwood, a brilliant artist and fellow lover of speculative fiction. The piece in the upcoming issue is entitled “The Wakened Image” and it’s a look at some of the “made” women in mythology, taken from the Mabinogion and Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Brigid helped me brainstorm the subject, and then I wrote a three-part poem in blank verse; Brigid provided some astonishingly beautiful pictures to accompany the text. The issue isn’t available yet, but soon. I’ll keep you posted. I am so…
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The Great Inbetween
Oh hai. Yes, I have a blog. Sometimes I write in it. Right now for instance. Yeah, been busy. BUSY. Busy with stuff I can’t yet share with the world; some writing related (in the speculative sense), some blogging related. All busy related. So far, there hasn’t been time for much new writing. I have yet to catch novel fever on any one idea, but do have some projects I am trying to work on, anyway. Even if they are being difficult. I’ve had a few ideas that I’d like to pursue, but at the moment I’m sitting on a half dozen novels and feel, rightly so I think, that…
