A Lot to Lose

Time for a confession. I have a problem, a common problem that many people have: I'm too heavy. It has various reasons, but it really comes down to the old culprits of too much food and too little exercise. When I stepped on the scales recently out of curiosity - it's not a regular habit at all - I was horrified. Six months in the land of Supersize has indeed done a number on me.

So when I heard about a group of writers getting together to spur each other on in the health department, I jumped in. I only know a few of them so far. The idea is that the most successful "loser" each week is to get linkage and cheers from the rest. Sounds good, yeah? This week's winner was K. Ann Seeton and you can find her blog at Quicksilver to Gold.

I'm not going to win this week. I'm probably not even going to register any progress, because I'm still away from home and any hope of setting up regular habits.

However, I did buy a treadmill, and it's waiting for me when I get back. I plan to build up to walking all day with an adapted high desk. It'll be great for my ongoing back problems - walking has always done a load of good right there - it's healthier than sitting and a way to get that exercise in even if I'm stuck in front of the computer for 14 hours a day at times. (Whether I'll walk all 14 hours is another question entirely!)

I've heard about treadmill-deskers mapping their virtual progress cross-country. That sounds like a really cool idea so maybe I'll track myself from Cape Reinga to Bluff. In hunting around for webapps to help with this, it seems most of them exist to track actual routes and calculate distances, not take input distances and calculate a location along a route. I may have to resort to drawing on a paper map!

I hear great health benefits are possible even at a slow speed, and that I could log 5 miles / nearly 10 km per day with a gentle pace. We'll soon see about all that, I guess...Interesting times are definitely ahead.

If I wrote Doctor Who...

...would you read it? 

I've been getting curiouser and curiouser about the notion of fanfiction. Writing for the fun of it, without thought of commercial gain - impossible in this scenario - using existing characters and worlds AND potentially tapping into a fanbase that loves it just because of "who" is in it.

So I'm thinking of having a go. Short bursts to start with, to see if anyone likes it. Flash-fiction, let's say. Of course it would be Doctor Who. Though I'm a Trekkie too, the writer in me rather likes the infinite possibilities of time travel (Yes, I know, they do that in Trek too, but far less often!). No one can beat the Doctor for sheer quotability. Hmm. Can I come up with some doozy one-liners for him?

In perusing some of the fanfic that's already out there, I've noticed that the writers often don't spend much time describing the characters. Well, sure, maybe it's not needed since everyone knows them so well already, but that's no excuse for weak writing, now is it? I would want to pay particular attention to that aspect, pretending they were people from out of my own head that I have to describe fully or no one will comprehend them.

The next thing I'd have to think about is what kind of story would I do? Well, I've often wondered what would happen if the Doctor ended up in New Zealand. I don't think that's ever officially happened - correct me if I'm wrong, please. Okay, so that's a setting.

I'm kind of leaning towards the Tenth Doctor with Donna and River, to start with. An interesting combination that we saw far too little of in the series. Plus some locals of course.

That just leaves a plot needing figured out...yes I do have thoughts on that, but I'd love to hear yours! What do you think the Doctor should get up to in my part of the world?

I'm a writer, too

So I've published 25 books by 16 people (okay, 27 people if you count all the anthology contributors!) over the last three and a half years - not a bad haul. Two of them were my own novels, so in that sense I've been guilty of a sort of ego-publishing. I did the best I was able at the time. Maybe I relied too much on my own knowledge in declaring these books were ready...certainly my personal sales figures haven't been stellar, though of course numbers aren't everything. It's just a little hard to get motivated to write a sequel for Legendary Space Pilgrims when only twenty people read it in the first place.

There have been times I despaired of my own writing and decided to focus on publishing. That's a lot of fun and has more immediate results. It takes a little less time to publish someone else's book than to write one of my own.

However, eventually I began to pine for the writing life. I set up the Avenir Eclectia project in part for myself, to create a space where I could finish an ultra-short story in one sitting and publish it. Others found the same to be true.

But there's got to be more. More than just struggling on alone, stabbing in the dark and hoping for better sales on the next book. I need help.

Yup, the publisher - wearing her writer hat - needs a publisher. A support network to carry on the infrastructure while I worry about making my story the best it can be. And an editor to stand by my side and call me on to higher excellence. To make me better than I could ever be on my own.

Enter PYP. A press somewhat like my own in size and setup, with some overlap in genre, the very highest of standards, and a drive to shoot for the stars. With an indomitable Captain at the helm who - at times inexplicably to me - really likes the way I write.

And so it is, dear friends, that I reveal the happenings of this week: I've signed three contracts with PYP: for two brand new novels individually plus an omnibus edition. The titles we've settled on for now are A Guildswoman's Dream and A Guildswoman's Journey. I have a lot of writing to do! Some is done already, and we've been working on edits - at times with much hilarity as I remember my own dealings from the other side of the table. Yes, I complain and whinge, but ultimately it's the editor's call and I absolutely respect that. Hope I'm not too much trouble, Chila!

Splashdown fans, never fear! It's not going anywhere. In fact, this deal has been in the works for well over a year, so it's not new - we just formalised it at last.

So there you have it. The publisher is a writer again. Watch this space, but don't hold your breath: we're going to give this project as long as it takes until we're completely happy with the result.

The deed is done. :)

Fragments: Reflected - My post at Beyondaries

Hey, folks! Today I have a new column up at Beyondaries, the magazine of Port Yonder Press. My part's called "Fragments: Reflected" so please go check it out - and the other great stuff on there.

If you are careful when you peruse my bio on the end of that article, you'll see a piece of news that's been brewing for quite some time now... go on, you know you want to! :)

Up Next

There's this series of questions that's been going around lately; sooner or later it had to come to me, so here goes:

1) What is the title of your next book/work?
Not sure yet, in fact. No doubt something snappy and alliterated in the theme of its inspiration. One option is Arachnids and Aristocrats, except that suggests more spiders than I intended. Bugs and Bluebloods? Suggestions welcome.

2) Where did the idea come from for the book/work?
I always wanted to do one of those rewrites of a famous novel from the public domain, but transforming it into my genre. It took me a long time to figure out what I wanted to do, but basically the best way to explain it is Pride and Prejudice in space.

3) What genre does your book/work fall under?
Science fiction, with maybe a touch of fantasy blended in.

4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Oh gosh. That's not something I ever think about, really. Off the top of my head: Keira Knightley as (wait for it) Darcy Mac; Liv Tyler as her trusty sidekick Carla Bingley; and a selection of stubbly dark-haired action heroes as the Bennet brothers, diamond miners all: let's say David Tennant, Robert Downey Jr., and more of that general type. 

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
A pair of rich kids from Avenir station go down to the planet Eclectia to seek adventure hunting its giant beetles, but they don't expect to get involved with an array of suitors...

6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Neither, my dears. We are the independent press and we do not approve of the wording of this question. :P

7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Haven't started. Hope to get through it within the next year, alongside other projects.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Don't have a clue, sadly. Anyone got a good idea? There's space chases, romance, a whole lot of dust, narrow escapes from volcanoes, fights with huge bugs, and intercolonial politics. What do you call that?

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
See number 2, thanks.

10) What else about the book might pique the reader’s interest?
It takes place in the already existing world of Avenir Eclectia, a multi-author project with room for microfiction and full-length novels and everything in between. The first "novel" is out now for the amazing price of $5.98.

Now I'm supposed to tag people to carry this on, but I hate doing that, and besides I know a ton of people have already done this. So if you would like, feel free to steal the questions and go for it!

Avenir Girls' Day

It was a surreal experience to look at the faces around me and realise that they understood about the Bug Wars, Ash Lung, angels and spiders, nomads and miners. Four of us in one room for the first time ever! As we discussed our characters and stories, reconciled different elements and brainstormed new ideas, reminisced on Walt's legacy, and exchanged signatures in shiny books, it came home to me once again that I know these people very well, even though we only met that morning.

Stories do that. I've been following these ladies' work for a long time now, editing, tweaking, and enjoying. There are real people behind this world, and it was my great pleasure to meet some of them.

Above, back: Deborah Cullins Smith, Kaye Jeffreys and Mary Ruth Pursselley, contributors to the Avenir Eclectia project. Grab it now!

Avenir Eclectia Volume 1 - Paperback $5.98 (or 4 for the price of 3!)
Avenir Eclectia Volume 1 - Kindle $2.99
Avenir Eclectia Soundtrack by Michael L. Rogers - CD $15.00 or $8.99 on MP3.

Avenir Eclectia - The Beginning

Last week, the first print collection of stories from the Splashdown project Avenir Eclectia was published. I'm so excited! We've been working slowly at this for almost two years now and it's wonderful to see this culmination. Of course, it's just a start - there's much more to come.

There are a bunch of other blogs posting about it this week:

Heather Titus, another contributor, interviewed me about it here.
Travis Perry, my intrepid co-editor, considers the scientific basis for the existence of such a planet.
Contributor Jeff Chapman interviewed Greg Mitchell about his stories.

And much more... a search would serve you well :)

So for my part I'm going to go all the way back to the very first story that I wrote, at a time when nearly no one knew about the project and no one else was writing for it. Thankfully, that all changed! But this first tale was my attempt at setting the bar - I wanted my contributions to be short, punchy, evocative and deep.

I did as every Avenir writer after me would do: I created a character, gave her a name (a somewhat unusual one in this case, because of the cultural shift), a location and a position in life. Then picked a turning point for her to experience in the moment that my window looks in on her.

The part with the song was inspired by a track that had already been written for the project:

I felt the potential in the spawning world, but wanted to begin gently with just a tiny peek. And this is what came out of it...

COOL, SMOOTH METAL by Grace Bridges
First published online on March 12, 2011
Story no. 1 in Avenir Eclectia Vol. 1 (click for buying options: $5.98 paperback, $2.99 Kindle)

Cool, smooth metal met Ave’s fingers as she slid down the wall to sit in the corner. No one would bother her here in this obscure corridor—not for a while, at least. She concentrated, and felt the distant, almost intangible vibrating of the station. Its comfort calmed her, and she hummed to herself, head down, hair shutting out the world and thoughts of Smith. A good kid, but they were both too young—only fourteen Foundings.* And the children—the beggars, the poorest of all beings, who didn’t even have a claim to parents—they looked up to her. She must do right, and not be distracted by an obsession for love, as heady as it was. The time was not yet come.

Ave recognised the tune she hummed, and smiled a little: her name-song, and that of the colony. “Arise, Avenir Eclectia; be strong, Avenir Eclectia. Stand firm, Avenir Eclectia; live on, Avenir Eclectia.” A rousing anthem that gave her the tingles. Her first carer had given her the name of the entire colony: Avenir, though she went by Ave. She placed her hands on the floor, felt her connection to the huge space habitat and the presence of the planet below, and hoped she hadn’t hurt Smith beyond repair. He’d understand, someday. Wouldn’t he?

The beings on the planet called to her and she rested in their mental embrace, sensing only the living station through the cool, smooth metal.