Normally I do my round up on the first of the month for the Aussie spec-fic author challenge and the next day I do my goals round up, so when I did my goals first instead of second my silly brain told me I had done the Aussie author challenge. Since I only open my computer if I really need to just in case it never turns on again(duct-taped together remember) I didn’t check my site until now. Aggh!

Well, better late than never.

In April I read Gary Corby’s The Pericles Commission. The book touts itself as a Hellenic mystery. Crime sleuthing in ancient Athens? You had me at hello.

I’ve actually been following Gary’s blog for months now and have been meaning to read his books the whole time, but just never managed to get around to it. That’s my favourite thing about the challenge, it gives me an excuse to do things I’ve been meaning to.

There is some seriously cool information woven in through the narrative about life and law back in 461BC and many of the characters are actual historical figures. Who knew that purses were not commonly carried back then, instead you kept your coins in your mouth (how you’d haggle around the coins in your mouth I’m not sure and, urg, germs).

I adore the character of Diotima (really? Me, liking a strong female character? You’d never guess it ;p ) and the narrative journey was great fun, at no point was I ever certain I knew the killer and there were plenty of great twists to.

If you like crime, or historical fiction this is a great book, double down on that if you like them both! You can read my Goodreads review for more of my opinions.

For my May book I’m reading Marianne de Pierres’ The Night Creatures Trilogy, starting with Burn Bright. It’s a very different YA series in a dark fantastic world of never-ending parties. I’m enjoying it so far, but it is competing for my free time with Fire Emblem on 3DS and Persona 4 Arena on PS3 – some seriously tough competition.

all that’s keeping my poor baby together

You may have noticed a rather long radio silence from me. Normally I have back-up posts so I don’t go more than a week without posting, however, when a wild toddler throws your computer on the ground and it falls to pieces that tends to render any computer based actions impossible without either repair or replacement.

Since there’s no money for replacement, behold, my duct tape repaired laptop.

(yeah, yeah, there’s a desktop in another room, but it’s at the far end of the house closeted away from the family so I can’t keep an eye on Xander while I’m on it. That and it’s a desktop… ewwww)

We also went to Supanova Gold Coast and here’s Xander dressed at the eleventh Doctor in front of the Hire a Tardis

Anyway, on with my progress report on my goals. This month was definitely my worst so far, but that probably has something to do with the fact that my other months all kicked ass. Plus, one poor month does not a year destroy – I just have to make sure I get back on my game, and by game I mean put down my 3DS and the inserted copy of Fire Emblem which has consumed all my spare time for the later half of the month (damn you awesome video games – you get me every time). I can’t entirely blame Fire Emblem and the sheer awesomeness of that game, manga is to blame too. I re-read three series this month(High School Debut, Fushigi Yugi Genbu Kaiden and Butterflies, Flowers for anyone curious).

So, I did manage to complete my novelette The Troll’s Toll and a sweet little follow-up short Petrified Lips. I also wrote a follow up for Charming which follows Hannah, it has no title yet and is still a little rough – not to mention the fact the computer kept not saving my ending. It is soooooo frustrating to write the same ending five times and always be wondering if one of the other lost ones was perhaps that tiny bit better than this one.

I also did some more tinkering in Storybook Perfect book 2 as I continue trying to wrangle the chopped in half remnants of the old second half into a book two. The start is very stilted, I need to add a good starting chapter and then figure out a smooth order for the following few chapters. There seem to be more rewrites involved than I had at first anticipated. At least the first book is looking good and is out waiting on an agent’s reply right now. So I’m making headway on goal #1 at least.

On goal 5 I haven’t submitted a lot this month because most of it is already out and waiting for responses or still needs work, but I have been told one of my stories is on the shortlist for a very cool magazine – so not a guaranteed in, but definitely a vote of confidence in the quality of that story, particularly since I thought I might have been aiming a little high by submitting it ;p

Also did some research for the Redlitzer (a local writing competition) by buying the anthology of previous winners and reading it. I’ve figured out what the judges seem to like, but I’m just not getting any inspiration. Sadly that’s about all the ‘learning’ I did.

I was still creating plenty, but didn’t do much else. Except for reading manga and playing video games. Oh, and I suppose I still did all that mothery, housewifey stuff too ;p how did you all go?

To be honest, I’d never heard of the genre ‘mythpunk’ before reading Chuck Wendig’s flash fiction challenge a month (or so) ago – though I have noticed a fondness out there for ‘punking’ eg/ steampunk and dieselpunk, both of which are awesome.

Mythpunk is apparently what I have been writing recently in my short stories, Groundskeeper, Charming, The Wyvern’s Sting and The Troll’s Toll. Mythpunk is a form of speculative fiction which takes elements of myths, fairy tales, and folk tales and mixes them with more modern ideas, like feminism and multiculturalism or twisting it in an unusual direction.

An illustration from Beauty and The Beast, artist Angela Barrett. This picture inspired a whole new tale and an unorthodox ending to another.

Sassy girl who tends a labyrinth designed to trap princess inside, check. A princess sold into captivity fighting for freedom and to gain back her throne instead of just sitting around and waiting for her prince, check. A broke prince rescuing princesses for the bounty money, check. Sounds like this is one of my new favourite genres.

Of course I’m not sure that my work has quite the edge that deserves a word like ‘punk’, but then again a lot of writers feel themselves inadequate in regards to certain aspects of their writing, so perhaps this is mine?

Regardless, I’m having a lot of fun toying with the mythpunk genre(another idea recently popped in my head to be a fun follow-up to Charming that would actually tie a few of the stories together) and don’t see myself abandoning it any time soon.

Me up a tree in my school uniform, because that was 50% of my school life.

I grew up with a great attitude. In primary school I was a tom boy, and just didn’t care about much but climbing trees, playing soccer and reading. I loved to climb camphor laurels and mango trees and read up in the branches until I was too sore to sit up there any longer. I had a patch in early high school where I was teased(who hasn’t?), but then it clicked in my head that I didn’t actually care about those twits who called me names and I did as I pleased.

I’m so grateful for that, because it means I have never stunted my imagination. My best friend and I would run about our forests (we each lived on farms which had plenty of forest and swamp and creeks in them) and have adventures. Yes, like little kids. We quested for treasure, fled from monsters (that were actually pets just chasing us for affection), had sword fights and hunted the Tuckean Swamp monster late at night.

I will never deny those things. OK, by some people’s view 17 is a little old to be hunting a monster on the back of your friend’s farm, but you know what? I never stifled my imagination. I let myself play. I let myself believe. I let myself live without letting peer pressure change who I was and wanted to be.

And this is who I am today.

I hope I can pass this on to my son.

Since I told you all last time about my current WIP, Keys, Clocks, Quests I decided to pick the novel project before that, currently in second draft phase, Written By The Stars.

1: What is the working title of your book? 

Written By The Stars. Yes, I purposefully said ‘by’ not ‘in’. If you want to find out why you have to read it

I’m not making it up, milk flavoured Fanta.

2: Where did the idea come from for the book?

I had an image in my mind of a world where everything was predetermined, and when you came of age your destiny was tattooed on your hands for everyone to see. That was how the world was born.

My protagonist came into being when I briefly thought how nice it would be not to have to choose anymore. I thought a girl who wants to run away from a tough decision would be the perfect person to throw into that world of fate. At the time I was drinking ‘milk’ Fanta from Japan, so that’s how she got saddled with the name ;p

3. What genre does your book come under?

Cross dimensional fantasy.

4: Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? 

I don’t know about actors, but the girl playing Fanta MUST have this hair. That is why I pinned this photo in the first place. Karen Gillan would probably do a smashing job, but until I see her in something else my brain just sees her as Amy Pond (sorry Karen, I’m sure you’ll break that mould in your next gig, I just have a funny brain).

Some of my actors are going to be way too famous to actually be possible (unless I’m unwittingly the next JK Rowling), but you get an idea of looks I’m imagining.

That. Right there. Auriga.

Christian Bale with a beard could do a damn fine Auriga (the Once-King), but he’d need to go back to the Batman Begins muscle/bulk to really fit.

Caelum’s a hard pick.  The closest I can think of is Alexander Siddig, but he needs to be younger, Caelum’s only 25. He has very Caelum eyes in this picture though.

Tucana is the hardest to pick of all, probably because Hollywood doesn’t do normal women. Tucana is not skinny, but not fat. She’s an Australian size 10-12, short to average height with a blonde bob. If you can think of any actress matching this feel free to share.

Eridanus is easy to get the face of. Totally Jeffrey Dean Morgan – but really tall, and 20 years old. His smile, the way his cheeks crinkle and eyes light up, absolutely perfect for Eridanus.

I feel really mean, I keep telling actors they’re too old, or their body isn’t the right size/shape. You’re all fine as you are, just not identical to my characters!

5: What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

When faced with an unwanted engagement ring, Fanta, a young astronomy student, wishes she could run away and wakes up in a world where the Gods make every decision for you. She joins  a group of dissidents in the fight against the gods for freedom of choice.

I know, it’s a little long. I’m still tinkering with it.

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

I plan on getting an agent, but the work is still rough, not quite at the stage of approaching an agent, so I’m not going to waste their and my time sending it out just yet.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

Two months and a couple of days. I actually wrote a few posts about the journey if you want to check them out.

First mention, my post about completing the first draft, a post about making ‘the sentence’ for novels using Written as a case study, and a really awesome research trip, or if you want to check them ALL out use the tag Fanta’s Story(the initial working title) and it should pull up everything.

8: What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I think the book that comes closest is actually a manga series, From Far Away by Kyoko Hikawa. Or maybe Fushigi Yugi(Yuu Watase) a bit as well. I’ve not really read any books like this.

There is a distinct fairy tale feel to the novel, it starts off with a sense of Alice In Wonderland, then turns into Sleeping Beauty for a short while – so you can see I’ve got a bit of a thing for fairy tale undertones.

9: Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I pretty much covered this in ‘where did the idea come from’. Milk Fanta, the weirdest thing ever.

10: What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

When I’ve been telling people in my personal life about it every one really seems to dig the Hyakan, the destiny tattooed onto your hands. Personally I love the fact I’ve stranded an astronomy student in a world with almost no stars, I like the little bit of symbolism that provides too.

–

If you’re curious, I have a couple of Pinterest boards (that I really should update) for this novel too, one for clothing research and one for anything else.

I returned to work on the 1^st of the month to Key, Clocks and Quests, intending to get enough of a draft hammered out that I would be able to come up with a working title that didn’t suck the big one. Fell a bit short, but did manage to pound out an extra 7,500 words, so I’m making progress on goal #3.

I also wrote 14,800 words the novelette ‘The Troll’s Toll’ and am down to the very final scene now. The Troll’s Toll was supposed to be a short story, but at 15,000+ words I’m afraid there’s nothing ‘short’ about it. I’m still counting it as work towards goal #5 (write and submit more short stories).

In fact, The Troll’s Toll is the story in which I have had my most productive recorded day ever, typing 8140 words in one day. I know, mammoth! I may perhaps have had a few better days back when I was bedridden with my vertigo disorder, but I wasn’t recording my word counts back then.

I also wrote a flash fiction piece ‘Stolen Hearts’ which I’m intending to submit to Fireside Magazine.

The biggest achievement for me this month was receiving my first acceptance for a short story. I’m eagerly awaiting the edits to come through and looking forward to giving you all more details when they’re available.

As for goal # 7, learning, this month I’ve mostly been reading short stories on my Kindle to see what published shorts are like. I’ve read all the old Fireside magazines, several Aurealis releases, Subversion: Science fiction and fantasy tales of Challenging the Norm from Crossed Genres, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show(awards anthology), Dieselpunk ePulp Showcase, and Phoenix by Chuck Palahniuk (the writer of Fight Club).

I beta read Talitha Kalago’s Lifesphere Inc (very awesome young adult series) and of course have been devouring the critiques for my writers’ group as well, so am working a fair amount with other writers also. This wasn’t really a goal, but it’s something I quite enjoy.

How are you tracking with your goals this month?

The Wild Girl is the story of Dortchen Wild, the girl who lived next door to the Grimm Brothers (yes those Grimm brothers) and told them many of their most beloved stories – even encouraging them when they considered giving up – all in the name of love. But don’t go into this novel expecting perfect flowering romance, this is as story with darker realities to it. You can read my review on Goodreads here.

The historical details are magnificent, everything from herbal lore and daily life to the exciting and terrifying times of the Napoleanic wars. Everything has been researched thoroughly and dripped into the book in a fashion where you learn so much without being info-dumped to death.

Also, as an added bonus this month, Kate herself visited one of my local libraries to do a reading to promote her book. She’s a great speaker (I’ve also heard her before at last year’s Brisbane Writers Festival) and her life story is actually as interesting as some of her books – so if you ever get the chance do go listen to her. I had her sign my copy of Bitter Greens since she’d sent me The Wild Girl already signed. It was quite exciting for me as well since she guessed I was a writer and (since I’d just got the news the night before) I was able to tell her about my first short story being accepted for publication.

I’m probably starting to sound a bit fan girl-ish, but it makes some sense when you realise I was reading Forsyth and Carmody in my teens, right when I was first getting into fantasy as a genre. These are some of the writers who solidified my love of the genre and formed part of who I am as a writer today, so I figure it makes sense to be a little fan-ish.

I’m going to be reading Gary Corby’s ‘The Pericles Commission’ for my April read. I’ve been wanting to get into Corby’s books for almost a year now, but the dreaded TBR pile of doom has been keeping me at bay. They are murder mysteries set in Athens in 461BC and I can’t wait to devour the first one.

How do you organise your books?

Novels are sorted alphabetically by author surname then by series order and date of release. My non-fiction is grouped by topic (eg/writing, small business, pets) then author’s surname. My manga is sorted alphabetically by title then number within series. My graphic novels are sorted by publisher (DC, Marvel, Image ect) then into character related series by in-story time line.

Is it weird to be so specific but so different? I might be a little OCD.

Do you prefer series books or stand-alone books?

I’m not particularly partial to one over the other, however when it comes to series I vastly prefer the pre-planned series when the author knows exactly what point they will finish at, like most fantasy series (Tamora Pierce’s quartets, Robert Jordan’s truly epic Wheel of Time), as compared to the never ending series (The Sookie Stackhouse mysteries(I don’t mean I don’t like them, just making an example nearly everyone would know)). There is something much more comforting in reading something planned to only be 3, 4, 14, what-ever many books long when compared to a series which is totally open ended. Maybe because the cynic in me thinks those other series feel like cash-cows after a certain number of books.

Do you have a favourite time of day and/or place to read?

I’m the mother of a toddler. I read whenever I can find the time! I’ve even read a book once when Xander wanted to be pushed on the swing without end. He wanted to keep going so I read a book and pushed the swing with the other hand. He got to swing for ages like he wanted and I didn’t get exasperated by the monotony.

I do also like a tea and a book, or a good soak in the bath with a book too (can’t be interrupted by a toddler in the bath ;p )

Are you the type of person that only reads one book at a time or can you read more than one at a time?

I can read a non-fiction book in tandem with a fiction novel and also be reading a manga or graphic novel (and playing an RPG with a great storyline too!), easily, but I struggle if I try to read two fiction books at the same time. The recent purchase of an ereader has made it a little easier, but it’s still a stilted process.

What is the last book you bought?

The last book I bought for Xander is a picture book, Sora and the Cloud by Felicia Hoshino. It was recommended to me by Jen at Perogies & Gyoza. It is a lovely story with beautiful art and is bilingual. I want to buy him the first ‘How To Train Your Dragon’ book since Xander is mental about the movie/TV show, but have only been able to find the later volumes so far.

The last book I bought for myself was the Story Bundle eFantasy set technically, but for proper paper books my most recent purchase was The Stone Key, the fifth book of Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn Chronicles because somehow I’ve got every other book in the series apart from that one, yes, including the sixth in the series… how I missed the fifth I’ve no idea.

What are you currently reading?

In manga I’m just finishing off Kobato by CLAMP, I’ve read the first five before, but only recently got a hold of the final volume so finally get to find out how it all ends. CLAMP are always great with crazy complex endings.

In fiction I’m reading The Keeping Place, the fourth book in Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn Chronicles(in paper book form) and Joe Abercrombie’s The Blade Itself in ebook form.

If you’re ever curious as to what I’m reading you can keep an eye on my on Goodreads profile.

If you come across an unfamiliar word, do you stop to look it up right away?

If I can gather the meaning by context no(but often will write it down on a near-by notepad so I can look up the precise definition when I have a chance – there is always a notebook nearby in my house), but if it stumps me I will look it up.

When I was a kid I read way above the ‘normal’ level (like The Never Ending Story at 9) and I used to lie down with a dictionary and whatever book I was tackling and look up the words immediately without having to pause too long. In primary school(and some of high school) I was frequently accused of ‘reading the dictionary’ because of my vocabulary.

Do you snack while you read? If so, favourite reading snack?

I try not to snack too much because the food often ends up on the book and I’m a little OCD (little? Probably not the most apt word) about keeping my books tidy. Well-read creases in the spine are fine, but food splotches are not cool. However as a mum now I often have to combine activities, so eating and reading occur a lot more together than they used to. I love to drink a chai or earl grey tea while reading. I’ll sometimes dunk choc-chip bikkies in said tea if I’m hungry, but I have to be careful the soaked bikkie doesn’t fall back into the tea and splash the book.

First, and this is my personal style, there is the planner. We get an idea and we start planning. We world-build, we design costumes, we create characters and their back stories and we work the plot from that little spark of an idea into an entire plot, scene by scene. I’m not positive how everyone else does it, but usually once I have my idea the muse comes in and takes over and it all just flows out – as long as I don’t stop. It’s kind of like I pants the plot, then follow it.

The second method is the ‘pantser’. The pantser has their premise, their idea, their protagonist and antagonist and maybe a few other characters, possibly a scene they can’t wait to get to and they just sit down and start writing. Yup, they do it by the seat of their pants, hence the term. I’m not sure I could pull this off with anything but a short story.

My money’s on this guy being a pantser.

To be honest, with both methods you can see a tiny bit of overlap. When I make my initial plot, I am technically pantsing while I come up with the ideas that form the outline, also, while I’m writing my scene outline often reads: “Hayd and Even go hunting, a butengram attacks” so I pants the details. Also if a great idea comes along while I’m typing that sends the book off on a bit of a tangent I tend to follow the tangent to see if it take me somewhere cooler than my original idea – after all, my plot outline is still there and I can go back to it if I don’t like the tangent. On the other side the pantser still has some idea of what is going to happen and who their characters are as they wing their way through their story.

I’ve heard of other methods too, but many of them seem to still fall (technically) under either pantser or plotter, for example the beautiful sounding the snowflake method.

The snowflake method is a mathematical way of coming at a story and planning it. You start off with ‘the sentence’ (for those not in the know this is the sentence that sums up your entire novel in less than fifty words(for an idea of what that looks like check out my ‘Current Projects‘ page and you’ll see a whole cavalcade of them) and start building in a carefully planned method around it. If you want the details, read this page. The snowflake method seems like the hard core planner’s ideal method, but it’s a little too rigid for me.

So, if you aren’t a writer, now you know a little more about writer’s minds. If you are a writer, what methods do you like or use? If it’s pantsing or snowflake I’d love to hear how it works for you or how you go about it because they are fascinating yet foreign ideas to me.

Originally I thought my sudden lack of progress was a result of having achieved my goal – I sprinted to the finish line, crossed it then sat down to puff and pant instead of jogging on. However, going back to the manuscript now I can see another issue which was probably just as large a contributing factor: my plot outline.

In late October, prepping for NaNo, I moved most of my outline into little plot cards in Scrivener. I didn’t do them all for several reasons, including: I never thought I’d get that far and I like to be a little more flexible with the end half of the novel, because as many writers know things just happen sometimes in the story, while riding on that euphoric, muse-induced typing frenzy ideas you weren’t even aware you were thinking pop out and they cause your story to change course a little. A tight outline restricts this creativity but a softer, looser one encourages you to expand on those new ideas.

So now I’m back in Scrivener, taking my loose little plot outline from a notepad document and trying to put it into little cards so I can finish my NaNo novel before I take part in Camp NaNoWriMo. So far it’s working well, an additional 6,000 words over the last two weeks, slow, but better than nothing. Now lets see if I can’t get myself typing like this guy: