Tag: novel

Posted on

Have Book, Will Read #8

There’s a steady March drizzle outside, but in here I have tea, books, and leftover Easter chocolate. Seriously, what more could a word-lover want? Here’s what I’ve been up to…

Recent Reads: Battles and books.

First up was Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, by Ransom Riggs. My daughter’s been on at me for a while to read this, and after the gorgeous trailers came out for the movie adaptation directed by Tim Burton I thought it was about time I dipped into it’s rather mysterious waters.

The tale of a troubled boy who discovers his own powers along with a whole hidden world of wonder and threat, Miss Peregrine’s was everything my daughter had promised and more. It’s a slow-burning story, which eases you into its often cold and murky waters inch by inch while at the same time pulling you so deeply into its world that by the time things begin to happen you’re right in there with the main character, Jacob, ensnared and enthralled as he is.

My next read was Robert Jackson Bennett’s City of Blades. I adored the first book in the series, City of Stairs, and thought there was no way he could top the charismatic Shara as a main character. But then he brought back a side character from the first book, General Turyin Mulaghesh, and I was smitten all over again.

Bennett is a master at producing original and unexpected protagonists. Mulaghesh is a stocky, aging, foul-mouthed, one-armed former war hero with a very dark past and a sense of right and wrong that goes above and beyond the call of duty. She is also deliciously stubborn, so when she is sent by the now Prime Minister Shara Thivani to investigate the strange substance uncovered in ruined and embattled Voortyashtan she resolves to get to the bottom of things no matter what it costs her.

After all the strange and divine powers of the last two reads, it was time for a little science fiction with Pierce Brown’s Red Rising. I’d heard this mentioned a few times but it had pretty much slipped under my radar until one of my town librarians suggested I’d enjoy it (hooray for librarians!).

Set on Mars, Red Rising tells a tale of oppression and the thirst for change, as lowborn miner Darrow infiltrates the elite Golds in the name of revolution. This one will definitely appeal to Hunger Games fans, and it’s not for the faint of heart as the battle scenes of the trials Darrow must go through to truly become one of the elite are pretty horrific. It’s incredibly fast-paced and I tore through the entire thing in one day, breathless and with nothing left of my poor, chewed-up nails.

Last on my list was Django Wexler’s The Forbidden Library, first in his middle grade series by the same name. It’s the story of Alice, who goes to live with her Uncle Geryon after her father dies in a shipwreck. An uncle she’s never heard about, who lives in a house full of mysteries. But the biggest mystery of all is the forbidden library. Until Alice creeps in at night and discovers magical powers she never imagined she had.

Alice shows us a world where books are a source of power – and also of grave danger. The creatures she finds inside them are no sweet fairytale things; they’re often nasty, vicious, and happy to kill. But Alice is both clever and fiercely determined to succeed. After all, if magic is real, perhaps her father is not really dead, after all?

Now Reading: Following the horse trail.

Loaded up on my Kindle and ready to go is The Art of Forgetting: Rider by Joanne Hall. All I’ve done so far is glance at the first page, so I’ll have to fill you in on this one next time round. A coming-of-age fantasy tale following a boy’s journey to become a cavalryman, it may be just what I need after all the strange directions my reading has taken me in lately.

To Read:

I have the first two books in Orson Scott Card’s Mithermages series on request at my library, so I’ll dive into those when they arrive. The Lost Gate and The Gate Thief tell the story of Danny North as he discovers his gate magic and the perils that follow.

I also have three novels on pre-order, all of them out at the same time at the end of March. I love the excitement of waiting for a new book to arrive! Myke Cole’s military fantasy Javelin Rain is the sequel to his excellent Gemini Cell. Sunset over Abendau is the sequel to Jo Zebedee’s dark space opera Abendau’s Heir. And The Adventures of Sir Edric, by Thaddeus White, is a fantasy comedy, with history’s most un-PC knight ever, the drunken, womanizing Sir Edric.

Words to read, worlds to explore. And my tea’s getting cold. Happy reading!

treelondon

Posted on

Flesh and Wires by Jackie Hatton

From the moment I saw the blurb for Jackie Hatton’s Flesh and Wires I knew I wanted to read it. It just sounded so intriguingly different. Jackie’s novel is a post-alien invasion tale set in the not-so-distant future right here in the state of Connecticut where I live. I’ve driven the highways mentioned, seen the towns where the story is set. And that, I think, made the novel so appealing to me. The idea of these gentle New England locations twisted into a story of survival was a great hook.

Flesh and Wires (Aqueduct Press, 2015) takes us to the world left behind after a failed alien invasion, where the conquering Ruurdaans have died from disease leaving behind a sparse population of survivors. Most of these are technologically enhanced women, wired by the aliens to serve as slave labor for their colonization. Thirty years on, the enhanced women, along with the few remaining ‘naturals’ (both male and female), have gathered in small enclaves with dwindling fuel and energy resources. Society is at the same time sophisticated, with the scavenged remains of all the abandoned homes and mansions in the area, and frugally simplified, almost to pre-industrial levels, with scant long-distance communications abilities and trade as the only currency. Community is the key to endurance.

Contact has been made by yet another alien race, the Orbitals, who claim to want to settle in peace on Earth. Lo, leader of the small yet sturdy Saugatuck community, must decide whether or not she is willing to trust the Orbital ambassadors, and how to lead her town through the upcoming changes.

Jackie Hatton chooses an interesting direction to take her tale. Although there are plenty of plot twists and action sequences, ultimately this is a book about the consequences of war and the relationships born from a desperate need to survive. Most – if not all – the women in the story bear deep psychological scars and PTSD is a running theme all throughout. New forms of partnerships have emerged, and in the thirty years since the invading Ruurdaans died out society has transformed into something completely new. Many of the characters, such as Lo, acquired extraordinary powers and strength from their alien enhancements, but this has brought its own brand of hardship and grief. And when faced with a new ultimatum to break out of their self-imposed isolation and evolve once again as a society, Lo realizes her people are less united than she thought.

Flesh and Wires is at the same time a gently written soft-paced affair and an explosive, volatile story of survival. It’s the looming threat of a thunderstorm on a summer’s day, the danger lurking in a seemingly quiet pool of water. This is not a loud novel, but a chilling one in many ways, and it tackles big ideas and leaves a lot of noise in its wake. It’s the sort of story that leaves a mark, and keeps you thinking long after you’ve put it down.

jackie

Posted on

The (Un)Familiar

I’ve just returned from a family trip to England. We had a wonderful time, with a castle, and wizardry, and a giant Ferris wheel, and a gorgeous baby nephew. And daffodils: lots and lots of daffodils.

It was a strange voyage of discovery and rediscovery. I spent the first eight years of my life in England, and have visited countless times, but it had been almost thirteen years since my last visit. Things change, and your vision of the world changes, so things appeared at the same time familiar and unfamiliar. And my children were visiting their mother’s birth country for the first time, so I was also experiencing everything through their eyes.

And then, when we returned, there was that same feeling of known-yet-unknown that I always get when arriving after a while away. When, just for an instant, you see your home through a stranger’s eyes and marvel at how different it all looks, before the ordinary crashes down and takes over again.

But that small moment in which the ordinary becomes the extraordinary, when what should be familiar looks utterly alien for a heartbeat or two, that’s the sense of wonder that my favorite fantasy writers manage to capture. Worlds that are enticingly new, but feel oddly like home. Stories that mesmerize and draw us in, not just for their freshness, but because, deep down, they are also hauntingly mundane.

Wonder, and yet also recognition. Children’s fiction does this very well. Narnia is a new universe for a child reader, but it also reminds us enough of home that it makes sense. It has lampposts and fishing rods among the swords and talking lions. It feels real, open-the-wardrobe-and-check-for-yourself real. The Percy Jackson imaginary world of Greek demigods is laced through our modern-day life, anchoring it, making it feel possible. In Alice in Wonderland, familiar day-to-day objects like rabbits and watches and cups of tea give Lewis Carroll’s surreal tale enough normality to allow us to navigate its pages.

Adult fantasy fiction often achieves this same sense of the known-yet-unknown through more subtle ploys. Often it’s the characters themselves, with very recognizable feelings, goals, and morals, which anchor the story and give it just enough reality that we can take the leap into a new world while knowing, deep down, that we retain some level of comfort. As readers, we crave the new, but if we can’t find something to relate to, the new can quickly become overwhelmingly alien.

Next time you’re immersed in a book, take a moment to identify the strands that harness you to the tale. What makes the story appeal to you? And then sit back, close your eyes, and remember some of your favorite trips. Why was that place so special? Can you find any common threads between stories and real-life journeys?

Give it a try. Because in every unfamiliar moment, there’s a tiny drop of the familiar. And even the most brazen adventurer among us needs a thin tether to that which we already know. What’s yours?

IMG_6509
Mock up of Diagon Alley at the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London. J.K. Rowling does a beautiful job of intertwining the familiar and the unfamiliar.
Posted on

Boskone 53 Round-up

Boskone 53, February 19-21 2016

2016-02-28 14.09.17

Boskone is a long-running New England Science Fiction and Fantasy convention that skews more to the literary side, even though it also has events centered on movies, board gaming, etc. Last year was my first time at Boskone, and I was so smitten I’d bought this year’s membership before the con even ended. Boskone is big enough to bring in great authors, and small enough to be a friendly sort of place. To me, newbie convention-goer that I am, it’s perfect.

Here’s a very brief overview of some of the panels I attended, just in case you were wondering about what goes on at event like this. I’m not including all panels or kaffeklatsches, or even mentioning readings; this is more of a taster. And by the way, sometimes the best things are the ones you least expect. The pirate panel was a personal favorite! So find a convention near you, and maybe take a chance on something unexpected. It’s worth it.

(Also, next year’s Guest of Honor is Brandon Sanderson, so if my rambling notes don’t entice you to take a look at Boskone, maybe that will!)

*The following information is a summary of notes I took during panels. They represent only a portion of what was shared by panelists, and are subject to my own interpretation while writing them down at the event.*

Friday:

Things I wish a pro had told me

Peader Ó Guillin, Walter Jon Williams, Christopher Golden, Charles Stross

Writing a first draft is like walking a tightrope. If you stop halfway to look back, you’ll get frozen with fear.

Writing a full-length novel is like marriage or a relationship – initially there’s that first flush of love, but then eventually you have to settle into the relationship to figure out where it is going. Also, you have to find a way to make the non-exciting bits exciting to write; if you’re not excited to write them, no one will be excited to read them.

After the 1st book, books often sell on outline and first chapters. Sometimes the sale takes so long you’ve cooled on the idea and have to recover the spark.

Kaffeeklatsche with Neil Clarke

Clarkesworld believes very firmly in open slush submission. They have only commissioned stories on rare occasions, for anniversary editions, and even then from regular contributors. The magazine does have ‘regulars’, but they submit through the slush pile like everyone else.

The magazine has gained an industry rep for publishing things that push the boundaries in style and subject matter. Magazines tend to be more cutting edge; they can afford to take a risk on a story. A novel can’t. If one story gets bad feedback, it quickly gets buried/forgotten by the next issue. A novel that tanks can seriously hurt the publisher.

Both magazines and writers need to treat writing as business. They need to be able to thrive, not survive.

Saturday:

Young Love and First Kiss Fiction

Darlene Marshall, Esther Friesner, Django Wexler, James Patrick Kelly, Michael Stearns

Why does first love endure so much in fiction?

A lot of these books are a roadmap. When you’re a preteen or teen, the grown-up world is all around you but you don’t necessarily understand it, or how to get from point A to point B.

First love/kiss is a naturally dramatic device you can include in a plot. Having that first love/kiss brings an intensity that adult fiction doesn’t allow. Part of the attraction for adults reading YA is recapturing the feeling that anything is possible. That life is a fresh page. These novels bring this freshness; romance without the emotional baggage of failed relationships and a divorce.

But there are differences between young protagonists written for adults (Ender’s Game) and for teens: intensity of feeling. And YA doesn’t need a happy ending, but it does need a dramatic ending.

Branding and Social Media

Jeanne Cavelos, Melanie Meadors, Jordan Hamessley, Laurie Mann, Wesley Chu

The main thing about social media is it can’t just be about you. Social media is there to build community. Fans want to know they have something in common with you.

What are you offering that’s distinct and unique? That’s your brand. As an author, you want to prove yourself an expert: on yourself, on your field… Focus on yourself as a piece of a bigger picture and where you fit in. Create a professional persona for yourself. What you tweet or share on social media is only a fraction of who you are, but it’s your persona. What makes you distinct will attract people.

Sell yourself, don’t sell your books. Nothing turns off readers and buyers more than ‘buy my book’. If someone likes what you have to say, they’ll gravitate toward your book.

Talking about writing is interesting, and other writers will follow you for that, but you want readers to follow you, too. Find other things to talk about to build connections.

Tailor your social media accounts. You don’t have to feel that every platform needs you in every way. Pick the one(s) that feels best for you. Don’t do what you don’t want to do. For instance, don’t blog if it’s not your thing. Do what you’re good at. Only have accounts where you’re active. And it’s also important to know where your target audience hangs out.

Part of branding is creating a consistent look and feel across all your platforms. Publishers will give you your font, your art, etc. to use across your platforms, and you can use that to make postcards, bookmarks etc.

Be careful with negativity. Have the discourse – it’s important – but be aware. And really own it, if you’re going to be mad about something or someone. Anything that happens on the internet lasts a long time. You don’t know who you’re going to be working with down the line. Be careful with your opinions. You never know what’s going to go viral. Something you think everyone will like gets ignored, and then a throwaway statement you don’t necessarily want repeated goes viral.

It’s a Pirate’s Life for Me

Edie Stern, Leigh Perry, Darlene Marshall

People have always been fascinated by pirates. Transgression. Also, people who left merchant ships for pirate ships were stepping up in life. Pirates ate better, were paid better, and got disability pay. Also, they had a democracy of sorts. They often voted on who would be captain. Crews were integrated.

Life expectancy on merchant ships was horrible. To free room for cargo, living quarters were cramped, and food and supplies (for bad weather, for instance) were cut back on. There were rarely doctors aboard. A sailor who became disabled was simply abandoned on shore. So pirate life was much better.

People more likely to be taken captive by pirates: carpenters and surgeons.

The difference between pirate and privateer was a piece of paper*. Privateers were legitimate, pirates were not. Privateers had been given permission by a government to operate, often functioning as a navy of sorts. There are two sides to the coin: pirate/patriot. It all depends on who’s doing the name-calling.

* The ‘Issuance of Letters of Marque and Reprisal’ was something a legitimate government could do at the time.

Robert Louis Stevenson invented a lot of the pirate myths and tropes that still endure. In real life, there was no walking the plank, and one-handed pirates didn’t have hooks, just wooden replacements. The tattoos, however, were real and used for identification. The gold jewelry was real too, a way of carrying your wealth with you so that if you died you had enough on you for a decent burial.

The worst insult in the Royal and early American navy was to call someone a marine. The original marines were in charge of onboard discipline so sailors hated them. They were the officers’ line of defense, so this antipathy was encouraged by the officers to keep the marines from siding with the sailors against them.

Why the parrot? A good-sized parrot on your shoulder gave you height leverage. A well-trained parrot could see above a crowd and give you advance warning of enemies.

Fight vs. Flight

Wesley Chu, Flourish Klink, Errick Nunnally, Tom Easton.

“An action scene is a conversation with fists” (Wesley Chu). At the end of the day, the scene should have a result, a character placement, an impact on the characters. In movies, fights are often fillers. Fillers don’t work in writing. So when writing a scene you want to think about what it leads to – the result, where the characters are, what they’re feeling.

Writing: you’re either looking at the scene broadly or going for the close look and details. Only get into the specifics if you know what you’re talking about. Long, detailed fight scenes are extraordinarily boring. Unless you’re using it to show damage, mental fatigue, etc. it’s just filler.

Things happen a lot faster in fight than you think, and are over a lot faster too. And then you have to think about cost of combat: when there is contact between two things there is damage.

Don’t underestimate flight. Indiana Jones, for instant, is a character who doesn’t mind turning and running. A lot of great characters aren’t fighters. Dick Francis’ characters are often on the receiving end, not the dealing out end.

However, the flight option can be tricky when writing female protagonists. Because even though it’s the logical option, even for a trained fighter, since women are often outside their weight class, it can send the wrong message in fiction. But the truth is, even for the trained fighter, aggression and size will win over skill anytime. In real life, any woman knows that the first thing is to run the heck away.

Knife fights: The thing about knife fights/disarms is that you’re going to get cut. In real life, when you look at emergency rooms, you’re going to see that people with knife injuries die a lot. “A knife fight is not a casual thing under any circumstance” (Flourish Klink). People underestimate knives in fantasy.

Likewise, sword fights are short, unless you’re well-armored. But is realism the best thing for entertainment? Probably not. No one is going to complain about embellishment. However, fear of death should be a key motivator. Think about tunnel vision in combat. There’s a huge difference between a controlled environment like a lesson, and something that’s actually happening.

You also have to consider your setting. How does the cold affect your weapons? Or being punched? How does having wet clothes affect your movement?

If there’s no tension, it’s not action, it’s just movement. A definition of an action scene is that there must be tension.

Sunday:

Dealing with Rejection

James Patrick Kelly, Barry Goldblatt, Bob Kuhn, Kenneth Schneyer, Darlene Marshall.

The rejection is not you, personally. If the same kind of rejection is coming over and over again, it might be time to have a good hard look at your submission. But don’t hate yourself, or the rejection.

Make a submission list. If you get a rejection, send it right back out to the next on the list. Don’t let a story sit and gather self-doubt.

“Do your due diligence before you start sending things out” (Darlene Marshall). Research what people want before submitting. Sometimes what you’ve got is really good. It’s fine the way it is. But it may not fit the current market. So you have to understand yourself AND you have to understand the market.

“When you swim in the sea of rejection, just let it roll off your back” (Jim Kelly)

Why Anthologies?

Bob Devney, Tom Easton, Esther Friesner, Leigh Perry, Erin Underwood. 

Anthology comes from the Greek for a collection of flowers, a garland. For a long time it meant a poetry collection.

Anthologies all pay in different ways. Sometimes it’s a flat fee. Sometimes it’s an advance and royalties.

Anthologies keep short fiction alive. Short stories do a job of invigorating fiction as a whole.

Story placement: the importance of a strong leading story, a strong finale, and a strong middle. If the last story can be a wrap-up one that embodies what the anthology was about, even better. Also, don’t follow a banjo act with another banjo act. Space out similar style or genre stories. There has to be a flow between stories, or else readers who read in order will complain it feels choppy.

2016-02-19 12.00.01

Posted on

Spotlight on Making Time to Write with Anne Lyle and Elspeth Cooper

When the holiday jollies are long gone and the weather is ceasing to be an excuse for binge-watching Buffy, thoughts turn to finally making good on those New Year resolutions. Perhaps this is the year you promised yourself you would write that fantasy novel that’s been simmering away in the dark corners of your brain, or dust off the old sci fi you started in college.

And then reality sets in and you hit the mother of all snags. Just when are you supposed to write this shiny beautiful thing of words and ink? You have a full time job; the kids are small and need constant attention; the chronic migraines are making your life a hell on earth; you’ve taken on way too many commitments to fit in writing time; the demands are incessant and never, ever seem to stop. The shiny beautiful thing starts to fade into the distance and lose its sparkle. “Someday”, you tell yourself. “Some other time.”

But there is no perfect golden time to write that novel. Very few authors have the luxury of endless free hours in which to write. But they carve out their moments. They find a way. I’ve invited two fantastic authors to tell us a little about juggling time and making it all fit in, somewhere, somehow.

Anne Lyle is the author of the Night’s Masque trilogy (Angry Robot), the story of swordsman-turned-spy Mal Catlyn. The Alchemist of Souls, The Merchant of Dreams, and The Prince of Lies lead us in and out of the intrigues of 16th century politics and the international affairs involving the mysterious skraylings from the New World. Anne’s exciting prose is a lot of sword-swishing fun, and paints a great picture of life during the Elizabethan period.

Epic fantasy fans will find Elspeth Cooper’s The Wild Hunt quartet (Gollancz/Tor) an absolute treat. The first three novels, Songs of the Earth, Trinity Rising, and The Raven’s Shadow, tell a tale of magic woven deep into the world around us, and those caught in its song: Gair, an orphan brought up by the Church to be a Knight, and Teia, a clanswoman fighting against both her own fate and that of the entire land.

Juliana: Welcome Anne and Elspeth. Now, a lot of people never even begin writing in the first place because they think they can’t find time. Could you start by telling us about when you first began writing? What made you decide it was a good moment for it?

Elspeth: I’ve always maintained that if you really want to write, you will find the time, because you can’t not write. But that’s just the way it happened for me; others’ mileage will vary, of course.

I was still at school when I started writing stories. It began as the kind of ‘What I Did on My Holidays’ homework that ends up five or six times longer than that of the rest of the class, and is still not finished come Monday morning. By 14, I was tackling novel-length fiction, and the die was well and truly cast. Epic fantasy, here I come!

But I have to say, there was no conscious decision to start writing. As a teenager, I wasn’t anything like self-aware enough to know what I was doing. It was more a case of stories leaking out of me, and having to put them somewhere.

Anne: I started writing back in my teens, but like many people I didn’t take it all that seriously – I just had a vague dream of being published one day – and then of course career and family got in the way. In 2002 a major milestone birthday was looming and I realised I was still no further forward with my dream than I had been as a kid, and I knew I would still be in the same position a decade later if I didn’t do something about it. Right there and then I vowed I would get a novel written and published before the ten years was up. Technically I missed that deadline by two weeks, but I did have the review copies a couple of months before that, so I’m counting it as a win. 

Juliana: What are currently the biggest hurdles you face in order to write? 

Elspeth: There isn’t one big one, so much as a collection of little inconveniences that mount up and eat away at the days. I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2004, but it took another five years before I could give up the day job. So I should have all day to write, right? Uh, not really. A big part of this disease is fatigue, which can manifest itself as muscle weakness, cognitive issues/brain fog, and problems with balance and stamina. It’s also a fluctuating condition, so some days I can get a full five or six hours at the keyboard, and on others I’m lucky to be able to make myself a cup of tea without hurting myself. It’s frustrating!

Anne: For me, it’s my day-job. I’m a web developer on a bioinformatics resource used by scientists around the world, and whilst that’s very rewarding it also demands a lot of mental energy and concentration. It’s far too tempting to spend my spare time doing something less demanding than wrangling a 150,000-word manuscript! 

Juliana: What’s an average week like for you, as a writer? 

Anne: My week varies hugely depending on where I am in a project – I’m somewhat of a binge writer, so I’m generally more productive if I power through a draft and then take a break for a week or two to recharge my batteries. That said, mornings and weekends are my usual time for writing; I’m lucky enough to have a study of my own where I can shut myself away, and no small children demanding attention. The cats, however, are a different matter… 

Elspeth: As you can probably guess from the last answer, it tends to vary. I’m usually up at about 8am, ease myself into the day with a bit of social media, then work until my husband comes home. We have dinner and a bit of family time, then I put in another couple of hours before clocking off. If things are going really well, I might get another hour or so on the laptop in bed, whilst hubby gets his beauty sleep.

Some days can be really productive; others feel more like digging coal with a teaspoon. With MS, there’s no such thing as “working faster” or “trying harder” because it’s not laziness or distractions that I have to overcome. I simply cannot do it. Consequently, I don’t work to word-count or page-count targets, because it’s too stressful when I don’t hit them. I’ve learned to be happy with just feeling I’ve achieved something, whether that’s 50 words or five pages of editing.

Juliana: Could you share some tips with those who are struggling to fit writing time into their lives? 

Anne: Basically you just have to suck it up and do it. Chuck Palahniuk famously wrote “Fight Club” in 15-minute stints during his breaks at work. If you can’t find a few minutes here and there during the day, you need to either get up earlier or go to bed later (depending on whether you’re a lark or an owl). If you want it badly enough, you _will_ find time.

Also, don’t wait for the muse to strike. Get out your notebook or laptop or phone or whatever, and focus on getting something – anything – on the page, no matter how clunky or dull it reads; you can always polish it later, once you have the whole story worked out. The more you write, the easier it becomes to slip into the zone, and the better your writing will be. 

Elspeth: The best thing I’ve found is to carry around a notebook and pen, or even just a note-taking app on your phone, and use it to record your ideas. On the bus, in the bath, in your lunch-break at work. It mounts up. I wrote a good chunk of my first book on a Psion Series 3a organizer on the train to work (that’ll tell you how old I am!).

Another good tip is to carve out a block of time for yourself and make it absolutely sacrosanct: this is your writing time, and nothing short of the end of the world as we know it should interrupt it. Every day is best, once a week if you have to, but try to make it a routine. You will quickly find yourself looking forward to it.

And don’t forget thinking time! I find showering, washing the dishes or weeding the garden can be particularly productive. My story-brain is always processing, especially whilst my hands are busy with something boring or repetitive. 

Juliana: What’s the strangest place or oddest snatched moment you’ve used for writing? 

Elspeth: The strangest was in the ladies’ loo at my old job. No lie – that scribbled idea led to a pivotal scene in my first book! 

Anne: I’m not sure I think of anywhere as a strange place to write – I’ve become so used to always having a notebook or my phone with me, so I can jot down ideas as and when they come to me. For example I wrote the entire first draft of my first published short story on the way to work one day, using my iPhone. It was only 400-odd words, so I had to flesh it out later, but that’s usually the way I work anyway. 

Juliana: With all your dedication to carving out writing time, are there any upcoming projects you can share with us? 

Elspeth: I am hip-deep in finishing my four-book Wild Hunt series at the moment, so my future projects are no more than a twinkle in my eye. However, I have plans for a standalone novel in the Wild Hunt universe that features a down-on-his-luck gentleman assassin and a mark who’s not quite what she seems, and another, slightly more literary thing that I’m calling a ‘historical fantasy road movie’.

Anne: I’m still working on the first book of a new fantasy series, this time set in a wholly invented world, though it borrows from our history. I guess you’d call it clockpunk, since the setting is pre-industrial and somewhat 17th-18th century in flavour. It’s a bit different from my previous series in that there’s not much romance and swordplay, but there’s plenty of action and intrigue and some really cool stuff that draws on my science background but with a fantasy twist.

It takes me a long time to get into a new series, since I don’t know the characters’ motivations and personalities, so I have no clue when it will be finished (or published). Before another decade has passed, though – I think I can promise that much! 

Juliana: Besides all those stolen moments for writing, writers also need to find time to read! What’s on your current to-read pile? 

Anne: I’ve just finished “Of Noble Family” by Mary Robinette Kowal, which is an excellent conclusion to her Regency fantasy series – so gripping, in fact, I read the whole thing in a couple of days. Next up is either “Labyrinth of Flame” by Courtney Schafer or “Shards of Time” by Lynn Flewelling, depending on whether I fancy ereader or dead trees. The latter is also an end-of-series novel, and the former is the third in what I think is a trilogy, so a lot of fictional goodbyes coming up! I also need to buy a copy of “Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen” by Lois McMaster Bujold, which is the latest (and possibly last) in her Vorkosigan series. 

Elspeth: I have a dreadful habit of buying books faster than I can read them, and then I can’t decide what to read next because there’s always something new. That said, I’m eagerly awaiting THE SILVER TIDE, the conclusion to Jen Williams’ Copper Cat trilogy, so that’s probably first up. After that, I think I’m going to dive into Courtney Schafer’s THE WHITEFIRE CROSSING, which has been waiting far too long. 

Juliana: A big thank you to Elspeth and Anne for sharing a little of what it takes to get those words down. So there you go, folks: always carry a notebook with you…and maybe leave one in the bathroom just in case!

Find book information, interviews, and blog posts at Elspeth Cooper’s website, www.elspethcooper.com. Elspeth tweets as @ElspethCooper and she has an author page on Facebook.

Check out Anne Lyle’s website – www.annelyle.com – for further information on her work, as well as blog posts on writing and technology. You can also find Anne on Twitter @AnneLyle.

 

 

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out January’s Spotlight on SFF Gatherings with Alex Davis, Joanne Hall, and Steven Poore. Next up in March: Spotlight on Writing Horror.

Posted on

Love, Longswords, and Lightsabers

2016-02-10 09.37.33

With Valentine’s Day approaching, and a serious need to distract myself from all the chocolate treats on sale, I started thinking about romance in science fiction and fantasy. I’m not talking paranormal romance, oh no, that would be too easy. I’m thinking about all the love stories that hide under action-packed tales, weaving their way delicately through the adrenaline surges and the blaster fire, the sword-work and the combat spells.

Take a good look at your favorite novels and chances are there’s a love story in there, somewhere.

Why is love a recurring theme in fiction, even if it’s quietly hidden away under an adventurer’s cloak? For one, it helps ground your characters. Along with pain, fear, and other easily recognizable and relatable feelings, love helps us understand a character and gives that character extra dimension and realism. Even if they’re a magic space knight. An underlying ribbon of romance also provides a secondary plotline that can run alongside the main plot, adding both tension and depth.

Is romance necessary in a novel? Of course not. But sprinkling those action scenes with a little of that loving feeling can be a whole lot of fun. I’ve chosen five fast-paced books with great love stories in them for anyone looking for a Valentine’s Day read. The chocolate treats are optional.

 

Gemini Cell, Myke Cole

A fast-paced military fantasy novel with a killer love story to fuel it on, Myke Cole’s tale about a dead Navy SEAL who turns into an undead zombie warrior may not be an obvious pick for a romantic Valentine’s Day read. And yet the central core of the story is the death-defying love that Jim Schweitzer has for his wife and child. Full review here.

 

The Demon King, Cinda Williams Chima

YA is full of wonderful love stories, and The Demon King and the subsequent books in the Seven Realms quartet are a perfect example. Cinda Williams Chima serves up everything you could possibly want in an epic fantasy series: high magic, low magic, warcraft, sieges, court intrigue, international politics… And of course, a fabulous romance too.

 

Time Salvager, Wesley Chu

This one is a time travelling science fiction tale set in a bleak future. Sounds romantic, right? Not really? Wait until you meet James Griffin-Mars, a depressed chronman bent on self-destruction, who falls for a woman from the past and forfeits everything to be with her. Although Wesley Chu’s novel is packed with intrigue and exciting action sequences, at its heart it’s a love story.

 

Fade to Black, Francis Knight

How about adding a little fantasy noir to the mix? Francis Knight’s Rojan Dizon is a jaded, disillusioned P.I. with pain mage powers. But as he’s unwillingly dragged into a battle for civil freedom that he has no real wish to join, he finds love. Messy, unrequited, ill-fated love, but love, nevertheless. And this love is what keeps him going throughout this and the next two books in the trilogy, pushing him to make ever-harder choices and sacrifices.

 

The City Stained Red, Sam Sykes

Okay, you might say, now you’ve gone too far. Where, you might ask, in this veritable bloodbath of a novel, is the romance? But Sam Sykes does like a bit of loving, and he certainly doesn’t shy away from the sex scenes. Lenk and Kataria’s on-off flirtation is the one constant thing in this novel; whatever mayhem happens to be going on, we know that somewhere around the corner we’ll get another dose of the awkward love and even more awkward lovemaking that is part of the wonderful train wreck of their relationship.

 

Bonus title: The Princess Bride, William Goldman

Yes, I know you’ve probably watched the movie at least a couple of times, and can most likely quote from it with your eyes closed… But HAVE YOU READ THE NOVEL? Because, if not, get thee to a bookstore or library and please, please, please read this immediately. This is the ultimate swashbuckling, sword-toting, cliffhanging, magic-wielding love story: a quest for romance and the best kiss in all time. And it’s incredibly funny, too.

 

All that’s left to say is, enjoy!

*please consume chocolate products in moderation. or not. hey, it’s your call.*

Posted on

Have Book, Will Read #7

It’s almost February which means that, given the wintery cold outside and my penchant for hot mugs of tea and sizzling plotlines, I’ve been devouring books non-stop (but not really, because digestion?). I read so many books that I’ve actually lost track of everything I picked up over the last month or two, so I’ve rather arbitrarily chosen three that were particularly enjoyable…

Recent Reads: Swords, spaceships, and science.

First up on the list is Andy Weir’s The Martian. My son watched the movie with friends and then requested the book. Since it was lying around the house gathering dust, I thought I’d take a peek, thinking I wouldn’t like it much as I’m not usually one for the harder sorts of science fiction. Boy, was I wrong!

It turned out to be a real page-turner of a book, where days and months blur together in the race to bring astronaut Mark Watney back from a disastrous mission that leaves him stranded on Mars, while at the same time Watney, a botanist and engineer with the ability to MacGyver the heck out of anything he finds, tries to survive long enough for help to arrive. I loved the way the author jumped back and forth between Earth and Mars, with the prose of his Earth-based POVs contrasting nicely with Watney’s log entries. And his main character’s sense of humor is a lovely counterpoint to the dryer science sections.

While my head was still in space, I turned to a brand new debut. Uncommon Purpose by PJ Strebor is the first of his Hope Island Chronicles, a series that tackles the war between the Athenian Republic and the Pruessen Empire, following Nathan Telford as he grows up and trains to fight against the cruel Empire responsible for enslaving his family in his youth.

Though a little dark and bloody at times, young Telford’s story is a gripping one and you can’t help but root for this determined young survivor. The last third is particularly exciting and I recommend reading it when you absolutely do not have to put it down. Because you won’t want to.

I recently discovered the Pax Arcana series by Elliott James, and read the third book, Fearless, over the winter break. This is urban fantasy at its best, with a great cast of characters and some interesting and unusual mythological creatures added to the mix.

In Fearless, werewolf and former Knight John Charming must infiltrate a secret supernatural fight club to save a blushing virgin from certain death – even though the virgin in question is a nineteen-year-old college boy. John is a great character, and the Pax Arcana stories are always fun and fast-paced, filled with great dialogue and terrific action.

Now Reading: Love me some Viking wrath…

On my Kindle at the moment is Path of Gods, the third and last installment of the Valhalla Saga by Snorri Kristjansson. I’m only a couple of pages in, but the first two books in the series were a bundle of blood, guts, and Viking glory, and this one promises to live up to the others and deliver a smashing great sword-shattering time.

To Read:

For once, despite my self-made promise never to let unread books gather, I actually have both a physical to-read pile and a digital one. Yikes! A few titles that have wriggled to the top of the pile:

Road Brothers by Mark Lawrence, because who wouldn’t want to read more about Jorg’s band? A short story collection that I’m looking forward to tackling.

The Art of Forgetting: Rider by Joanne Hall, a coming-of-age fantasy tale following a boy’s journey to become a cavalryman.

Flesh and Wires by Jackie Hatton, a post-alien invasion story set right here in my current home state of Connecticut.

So there, lots of books to read and lots of tea to drink while outside the frost sparkles and the cold gives me plenty of excuses to stay home with a blanket. If you need me, I’ll be the one keeping warm under all those words and worlds…

dragon
Snow Dragon, because winter.
Posted on

Oh, Nuts! Where do I begin?

I had a blog post planned to kick off the New Year. It was going to be all about beginnings. I had several books lined up to take a look at how the authors began their stories, but then I had houseguests staying and the blog post kept being put off, and off, and off…

And then, bang in the middle of all the delicious chaos of houseguest-landia, I look out of my window and see this:

2016-01-05 08.27.38
The Grey Council convenes.

Pretty cool, right? Maybe they’re discussing emergency winter prep. Maybe they’re hatching a nefarious plan to break into my house and steal ALL the birdseed. Or maybe they’re just trying to keep their furry hindquarters warm, and the floor is made of lava, so they’ve devised a ‘death’ game where they have to shoot each other off the tree trunks with nut-powered magic and in the end there can BE ONLY ONE!

Or perhaps it was just a wonderful serendipitous moment that I just happened to capture. But it’s fun to imagine the stories behind the shot, and it sure entertained a bunch of us on Facebook that day.

And more: there, in that absolutely random photograph, is a beginning. Is it one I’ll ever use? Probably not; I don’t usually write about tiny, furry battle mages. But it was a little slice of life that got me thinking for a while and, really, that’s all that a beginning is. Something that sticks in your mind and keeps on growing until it’s so big and full of awesome that you just have to sit down and write and see where the story takes you.

That weird dream you had that you can’t quite forget? A beginning. The oddly shaped tree you pass every day on the way to work? A beginning. Those comments you overheard in the coffee shop that day? Bam! A beginning.

Because the true beginning isn’t the much-edited and highly polished first page of the novel you love. Trust me, that thing’s probably been rewritten a gajillion times to look that sleek and wonderful. No, the true beginning is that image or concept that makes you want to spend hours slaving over a keyboard in the first place. The primordial spark of life, the moment you stop in your tracks in the middle of the grocery store and go, “Oh!” while your heart beats just that little bit faster, and your eyes get that gleam that anyone who knows you will recognize as the ‘forget me for the next few months’ look.

So here’s to a new year and to many, many new beginnings. And if the well runs dry, you can always have my furry battle mages.

You’re welcome.

Posted on

Spotlight on Imagining the Future with Ralph Kern and Stephen Palmer

‘What comes next’ is a big deal if you happen to live on Earth. Trying to predict the future is the basis for pretty much everything on this planet, from governmental policy-making to next year’s spring fashion line. We live in the present, but a good chunk of our energy is invested in tomorrow’s outcome.

So why should fiction be any different? From current trendy post apocalyptic YA, like the Hunger Games or Maze Runner series, to classic dystopian novels such as George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four or Ray Bradbury’s Farenheit 451, readers and writers alike have long shared a fascination for the future.

Granted, it’s probably much easier to imagine the Earth in 2235 than to create a ten-year governmental plan with actual consequences, but it’s still a major challenge for any writer to create a believable future that makes sense, culturally, politically, and socially. I’ve invited two talented authors to join me here and tell us how they pulled it off.

Author of nine novels and countless short stories, Stephen Palmer is an old hand at painting the future. In Muezzinland (Wildside, 2003), for instance, we travel through twenty-second century Africa, and Memory Seed (Orbit, 1997) explores a dying human civilization on Earth. In the recently released thriller Beautiful Intelligence (Infinity Plus Press, 2015), Stephen gives us a frantic, fast-paced futurescape. This is a place where western civilization has all but collapsed, leaving great expanses of Europe and the USA an economic wasteland. In Stephen’s world, where everyone is virtually connected via the nexus, and eyes are everywhere, two scientists and their teams race to be the first to create true artificial intelligence while staying a step ahead of the Japanese corporation hunting them down.

Police officer Ralph Kern released his first novel Endeavor in February 2014. Originally self-published, Endeavor was picked up by Tickety Boo Press and the second volume in his Sleeping Gods series comes out in November. The novel, which is in process of being adapted for the big screen, tells the story of the Starship Endeavor on a daring mission to solve the Fermi Paradox. Due to their manner of star travel, each time the ship and crew return home the planet has moved on and evolved. This means that, in practice, Ralph has had to create multiple future Earths: the 2118 Earth the explorers first depart from, and the different future Earths they encounter each time they return.

Juliana: Thanks for joining me on the blog, Ralph and Stephen. Have you always enjoyed reading and writing science fiction? What is it about stories dealing with humanity’s tomorrow that you find appealing?

Ralph: And thank you for hosting us, Juliana. For as long as I can remember, my genre of choice has been science fiction, especially the harder end. I love the hypothesizing of what will happen in our future. What will society look like? How would we deal with a discovery which changes everything? What will our children and children’s children be like? The possibilities are endless, and so often make for fascinating stories.

Stephen: I discovered SF and Fantasy when I was a teenager, and, having a vivid imagination, it was instantly attractive. These days however I don’t read a vast amount of SF, very little in fact – for me the compelling SFnal factor is wanting to know how everything pans out… a hundred years from now, a thousand, a million, or (if I can manage it) 800 million. I’m one of those people who wants to find out everything to satisfy a thirst for knowledge; it really bugs me that everything after my allotted three score years and ten is going to be beyond my grasp. So I write imagined versions instead. The books that inspire me these days are things like

The Life & Death Of Planet Earth by Don Brownlee and Peter Ward, a book that describes how the planet will change as geological time progresses. Much of what I read these days is about the past and future history of something or other…

Juliana: Continuing from the previous question, is imagining the future something that comes easily to you?

Stephen: Well, I suppose I’d have to answer yes to that. Of course, “easy” doesn’t necessarily mean accurate, or even interesting, as some of my fans would tell you. As somebody though who loves nature and is particularly keen to support Green agendas, imagining the relationship between humanity, and individual people, and the natural environment is very high on my list. A lot of my work has this at its heart, most obviously in novels like Memory Seed and Glass, and Urbis Morpheos. I’m truly interested in how it will all turn out for humanity on planet Earth, and that fascination I think comes out in some of my work.

Ralph: Imagining the future I’d like to see is very easy. Imagining a future which I think is realistic is more difficult. Without the benefit of a crystal ball, there are many things you have to take a best guess on but you know what? That’s the fun part.

Juliana: I imagine one of the difficulties of writing about the future is creating technology that is recognizable enough to be believable, yet won’t become outdated after a few years of publication. How do you tackle this?

Stephen: It depends. In Urbis Morpheos I was writing about people on the Earth a million years hence, so there was no point talking about modems and hypertext transfer protocols. Mind you, that was a deliberately “mysterious” work clothed in hints and metaphors. In Muezzinland I did make a stab at deciding what aspect of computer technology might be around in 2130. Beautiful Intelligence was similar: I tried to extrapolate certain things I see now, such as the shocking influence virtual technology has on young people, and the lack of privacy people have these days (if they allow the internet to strip them of their privacy, that is – I don’t). No author however should expect to get it right, or even want to get it right – it’s more about the characters and the narrative. But I do think imagined veracity is important, and at the very least you have to be consistent. Part of the fun of writing Beautiful Intelligence was contrasting the different approaches of the two teams, then messing up their plans for them in a way consistent with the economic and social milieu.

Ralph: Oh I’m very sure that in 10 or 20 years, my work will seem incredibly dated, after all, think how much culture has changed with the advent of the internet and then smart phones to bring it into the palm of your hand! Who knows what paradigm shift is just over the horizon of a similar scale? I can take a good guess – augmented reality would be what I would put my money on and which forms a part of the Sleeping Gods universe. Still, there are many developments which could happen and I say with conviction there will be new inventions we haven’t even thought of which might revolutionize the world as much or even more so – who would have predicted social media even up to a couple of years before it stormed into modern culture? But as writers who want to create a plausible world, extrapolation of existing technology combined with a healthy dose of imagination helps. I apply the Iphone test. We all can probably envisage what the Iphone 7. 8 or 9 will roughly look like. But, assuming Apple is still around in a hundred years, what about the Iphone 100?

Juliana: What are the biggest challenges when it comes to creating tomorrow’s society, with its own distinct culture and linguistic terms?

Ralph: One has to balance readability against plausibility. Let’s take the augmented reality I mentioned. What would a society look and act like where everyone sees the world through that lens? Or has implants wired into them so they can talk to anyone they want just by thinking at them? Would their communication be in terms we can understand? I’d suggest it would be something on par with how we would describe telepathy. But does that necessarily make for an interesting narrative that a present day reader can truly buy into? It would be difficult for us to sympathize with a character who doesn’t speak but thinks at people. An aside, part of Endeavour involves a scene set in the 16th century. Jennifer, my editor, and I did a lot of research into how people spoke back then. It would be comprehensible… just, but not exactly easily readable by any stretch of the imagination so we had to tone it down a touch. Extrapolate that 400 years into the future and it is likely our descendants would think the same of our speech and writing. I don’t know whether the term has an official name, but I often think fiction set in the future, distant past or a fantasy world has the benefit of the story being told by a narrative interpreter who helps us poor present day readers understand and that’s okay – Especially in the realms of hard SF, readers are quite understanding of that fact.

Stephen: I have to admit, I don’t really think of it in terms of challenges. I just imagine it however I like. Even when I was a naïve and dim writer editing the third version of my debut novel I realized there was no point in worrying about such things. As long as the characters were “right” in their setting, and as long as the plot felt good, I was happy. Still am. A few readers of Beautiful Intelligence have remarked that they don’t believe America and Europe will suffer massive economic depressions around Peak Oil, but I think that will happen, so I included it in the setting. Anyway, it doesn’t matter how accurate people see that as – if they should be reading Beautiful Intelligence in 2092 – what matters is whether or not they enjoy the story. I’m afraid I have a bit of a “Kate Bush tendency” when it comes to my work – I hope my fans follow me wherever I lead. I’m not the kind of author who is known for one genre of work, which means alas I will lose fans over the years. Hopefully I’ll gain a few though. That’s the problem with having a muse – you have to follow it regardless of direction.

Juliana: What are some of the common pitfalls that you tend to see in portrayals of humanity’s future?

Stephen: Mostly just being exceedingly dull. My early unpublished work was about the milieu, not the people in the milieu; too many writers take that mistake into their published novels. (I imagine self-published work is full of it.) The good stuff is vivid and different and iconoclastic, like Gwyneth Jones, or Jack Vance. The bad stuff… well, I won’t name names, but endless expositions on future Chinese societies or Martian futures with diagrams does not a good book make in my opinion.

Ralph: What one sees a lot of in fiction is selective adoption of current technology when extrapolating progress into the future. To use a simple example, one of the tropes of science fiction is fighters and warships slugging it out in space. But hold on, what about unmanned aerial vehicles which are fairly mature even now? Or how can some technology be a step down from what we currently use? I’m okay with it as long as there is a reason, even an implied one. But too often authors simply forget or ignore contemporary developments in order to create a plot device to serve their story. That moves things into the realms of science fantasy for me or at best an alternative reality story where whatever that thing was they are ignoring has not been invented.

Juliana: Could you share some tips for science fiction writers attempting to create their own world-to-be?

Ralph: Completeness. A well-realized future world gives the impression of actually being able to function and has the weight of a future history behind it. Think that little bit wider when creating your world. Okay, every aspect may not make it onto the page, nor should it as it doesn’t necessarily have a place in the story, but if you do take that view, I firmly believe it transfers into the writing. One of my favorite bits of writing is the working out of context. Take Endeavour. Some time prior to the main story being set, there was a nano-tech revolution which is on par with the industrial revolution of the 18th century. Do I need to delve deeply into that for the story I wanted to tell? No – but the wider thinking of the profound changes that brought, or brings more accurately, to society helps give context for other elements of the tale. That also may help with the pitfall I mentioned. If you need to have space fighters rather than drones? Well maybe there is some kind of technology which stops drones from being used.

Stephen: Cultivate your imagination. If you’re copying other genres, authors or series because you idolize them, give up now – you’re not destined to be an author. Be a total one-off even if that means you never get anywhere. If you are persistent – by which I mean over years, possibly decades – and if you increase your luck by never giving up and following every lead, you might get somewhere. Or you might not. But the change from writer to author happens because imagining is an inseparable part of your psychological make-up, so questions of writing success don’t enter into the equation.

Juliana: Who are some of the authors you admire for their ability to weave convincing visions of our future?

Stephen: In addition to those mentioned above: William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Bruce Sterling. Alastair Reynolds’ space opera novels were particularly good; reading the Revelation Space trio was a great experience.

Ralph: While many writers invent future societies, there is one who stands out as truly creating convincing worlds – Peter F Hamilton. I’m very sure an editor who is purely plot focused could easily cut down his weighty tomes to half the length or less, but that’s not what his writing is about. Two of his major works, The Nights Dawn Trilogy and the Commonwealth Saga explore every nuance of those universes, from the lowest end of the social spectrum to the highest offices, from slums to palaces. What he comes out with is a universe that can function which he then sets stories within. The Commonwealth Saga is especially interesting as he balances the inevitable stagnation which immortality would bring with the sense that humanity exists in a universe which is evolving – forcing change on people who don’t necessarily want it. Like or loath the hedonistic worlds he creates, they are among the most complete visions of near to far future societies.

Juliana: Thank you, Stephen and Ralph, for a fascinating glimpse into what writing about humanity’s future involves. I’m looking forward to all those new words and new worlds I know you have planned for us!

New work by Stephen Palmer includes the novella Monochrome, in Space Trek (Tickety Boo Press, November 2015), and a new novella coming later in the autumn: No Grave For A Fox (Infinity Plus Press) is set eighteen years after the events of Beautiful Intelligence, in the same world. Also, keep an eye out for the release of an alternate-history trilogy set in Edwardian times, opening with The Girl With Two Souls. For news and updates, as well as information on all Stephen’s work, visit www.stephenpalmersf.wordpress.com or check out his Facebook page and Twitter updates @libermorpheos.

The second volume in Ralph Kern’s Sleeping Gods series, Erebus, will be released in November 2015 (Tickety Boo Press). He also has a short story, Steel Eye, in the upcoming anthology Space: Houston, we have a problem (Tickety Boo Press). You can find Ralph’s updates and news on his Facebook page.

ralph steve

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out August’s Spotlight on Small Press Publishing with Gary Compton. Next up in October: Spotlight on Cover Art.

Posted on

Spotlight on Small Press Publishing with Gary Compton

Tickety Boo Press is on fire! Well, not literally, since that would be tragic and not something to celebrate here on the blog. Launched on 30th January 2014, the UK-based publishing house is quickly becoming a busy, busy hive of all things speculative. Do you like science fiction? Try Ralph Kern’s Endeavor. Maybe a little space opera? Have a peek at Jo Zebedee’s Abendau’s Heir. Prefer fantasy? No problem. Teresa Edgerton can tickle your taste buds with Goblin Moon and its sequel, Hobgoblin Night. How about a dash of romance, or even gaslight? Give Indigo Heartfire by Jo Marryat or Oracle by Susan Boulton a try. And if you’re looking for darkly delightful, then the Biblia Longcrofta by Simon Marshall-Jones may be your cup of tea. TBP isn’t afraid to tackle any sub-genre.

The brave and motivated guy behind Tickety Boo Press is Northumberland native and proud basset owner Gary Compton, who juggles the roles of acquiring editor and graphic designer far more skill and aplomb than I could ever dream of. And Gary, himself a speculative fiction writer, is getting ready to add author to that list of achievements. Tickety Boo is very much a family business, with Gary’s daughter Emma taking charge of author royalties and the selection of US and UK-based editors, among other tasks.

I’ve followed Tickety Boo’s journey from the very start, and have always thoroughly admired Gary’s openness in discussing his ideas and plans, his sensitivity toward his authors, and his willingness to consider suggestions and constructive criticism. So when I decided to tackle small press publishing in my Spotlight series, my thoughts naturally turned his way. With 12 published novels and anthologies in 18 months, Tickety Boo is fast becoming a force to be reckoned with.

Juliana: You’re probably tired of answering this by now, but why start your own press? What were your personal motivations?

Gary: I have always run my own businesses since 1983 and feel I am virtually unemployable in the real world. I could not just be satisfied being a kitchen fitter. I had to have my own kitchen company. Once I had that, I wasn’t satisfied just buying the cabinets, I had to make them – hence a fully operational, innovative cabinetworks where we machined the rawest of materials into beautiful bespoke cabinets. I am very much hands on, so that’s the reason I do as much as I do.

Juliana: In this world of big corporate publishing, where do you feel that small presses like Tickety Boo fit in? What is the role of the independent publisher among all the big fish?

Gary: Good question. I think publishing is changing and I think Tickety Boo has some ideas that if successful will shake it up a little. But to answer your question – quality of the words/books and sales are the only things that matter. There is no point in creating activity just to massage mine and the author’s ego. So every book is taken on with the goal of selling a lot and making the press and the author some hard-earned cash

Juliana: TBP has chosen so far to stake out a spot in a particular market niche, that of speculative fiction. Do you feel it’s important for the smaller independent publisher to specialize, or do you have plans to eventually branch out into other genres?

Gary: We will be branching out. We have an imprint planned for crime and thrillers. You heard it here first. It will be called Homicidium. That’s Latin for murder. So watch for an announcement on that. Also Romance is being discussed between the team.

Juliana: Are there rivalries among smaller independent publishers?

Gary: I haven’t come across any rivalries. Ian Whates helped me immeasurably in the early days, and Simon Marshall-Jones at Spectral and Graeme Reynolds at Horrific Tales have also helped a lot.

Juliana: And following on from the last question, how important are partnerships and networking?

Gary: Massively important! You are building a brand and you need friends and acquaintances to buy the books and hopefully share your news as well.

Juliana: Starting out from scratch must have meant a pretty steep learning curve. What do you feel have been your biggest hurdles so far?

Gary: Yes for sure. I could write a book on my mistakes. I think getting the systems in place so authors have access to their sales data and to make sure royalties are paid on time. My daughter takes care of that but I watch over it on behalf of the authors who can message me at any time with queries or requests for updates. You have to remember, I am doing a lot – covers – formatting, editing – marketing etc. It’s a lot of work so if I have forgotten to do something I prefer it if the authors give me a nudge rather than festering on my incompetence. So lots of mistakes, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Juliana: What are the best things about running a publishing company? The stuff that makes it all worthwhile?

Gary: My most favorite job is doing the covers. I love that. It satisfies my natural desire to be creative. I also like finding new talent.

Juliana: Would you like to tell us about some of Tickety Boo’s upcoming projects?

Gary: Well, in October we have Erebus, which is the second of the Sleeping Gods novels. Endeavour, the first, has been our most successful title in terms of revenue. Ralph is great to work with. He’s tough but honest. We also have the second book from Ian Sales: his first book, A Prospect of War, has done very well too so I am looking forward to that. Also a previously unannounced Space Opera: coming out in October/December is Uncommon Purpose by P.J. Strebor. There are ten books in this series and so far the editorial team have waxed lyrical about it. There was a virtual fight between the editors to get the job. Thankfully, it has just been edited by J. Scott-Marryat so it’s in great condition, and Teresa starts on it 1st September, so hopefully she will add value.

Juliana: Who are some of your own personal favorite authors? Not Tickety Boo authors; I’m not that cruel to make you choose among your ‘children’!!

Dan Brown is my favorite and Martina Cole not far behind.

Juliana: Thank you, Gary, for giving us a tiny peek behind the curtain. I look forward to all the new releases, and to continuing to see Tickety Boo Press grow and expand.

You can find more information on Tickety Boo Press books on their website, Ticketyboopress.co.uk, as well as submission guidelines for both novels and anthologies. Follow Tickety Boo Press on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/GSCompton) and Twitter (@GarySCompton) for launch and submission updates and sales promotions.

oracle hob nightgoblin malevolence ralphbiblia

Spotlight is a monthly blog feature. Check out July’s Spotlight on Writing Local Flavor with Jo Zebedee and Anna Dickinson. Next up in September: Spotlight on Imagining the Future.