The Hunger Games and E-Books

*Contains minor spoilers for The Hunger Games trilogy*


I've just finished reading The Hunger Games trilogy and must say I really enjoyed it. I became completely immersed in this dystopian society, and as the traumatic events continued, I too became slightly traumatised. This is why I liked the ending, and was very pleased with how it was written. I felt that Katniss had the happiest ending she could have hoped for, given everything she experienced and that showed great skill (and restraint) on the part of the writer. 


I read the series on my Kindle, and whilst it was convenient and has helped me overcome my problem with storing paper books, the one negative I can identify with ebooks is that I am unable to share it with my friends or pass these stories on to my own children one day. So yes, "sentiment" and "community". Ebooks just can't compete.

W.I.P

Right, so I'm still trying to work on my novel about the witch/superhero sisters, which started life as a short story and developed into a first draft during NaNoWriMo 2010. I've been having problems with it because I just didn't know how to tell the story - whether to set it in the present with flashbacks or to tell it chronologically and perhaps stretch it out into a series.

I've finally decided to give the version with flashbacks a go. I had started to write a series, but the reason I got stuck, I think, is that all the good stuff that I was interested in actually happens in the present, rather than the past. So anyway, here goes version 3.

If anyone would like to recommend good novels (SF/Fantasy or not) that deal with flashbacks particularly well, I'd really appreciate it.

There's an interesting competition looking for stories to be included in an anthology at Fantasy Faction. I think I might use it as motivation to finish one of the short stories I've had lying around for months. The details are here, if any of you are interested (good luck!).

To Do List

Things I need to do:

1) Practice for my audition on Sunday for Return to the Forbidden Planet.
2) Finish off the short story that I'm writing about a selkie, trying to avoid as far as possible having to describe what I will delicately describe as "seal cuddles".
3) Finish chapter 1 take 2 of my Matti and Eva story.

I will not be distracted by:

1) Curse of the Wolf Girl (this book is sucking away my life, so engrossing it is).
2) The Sims 2
3) Judge Judy

That is all.

Inverness

Last week was the busiest time of year for my job (I work at a University and the A-level results were released), but thankfully everything is quietening down now and I can find time to blog again.

A couple of weeks ago, I went to Inverness for a short break. It was absolutely beautiful. I think if I was to run away, I might run away to there. We went on a wildlife watching boat trip at Cromarty with Ecoventures, and got to see dolphins, visited Loch Ness and Urquhart Castle and the Loch Ness Experience, and also Cawdor Castle. If anyone's looking for a short break, then I'd really recommend it.

I've just finished reading The Age of Five trilogy by Trudi Canavan. I am in awe of her world-building skills. The novels are told in third person, from multiple viewpoints so you gradually piece together this exquisite world of different races, religions, landscapes and environments. I felt Auraya's compassion for the Siyee so much that I almost cried when they were sent off to war to fulfil the terms of their alliance. It definitely left me wanting more, so I'm wondering whether the author is planning on writing more fiction set in this universe, as she is with the world she established in The Black Magician Trilogy.

Am now reading Curse of the Wolf Girl by Martin Millar, the sequel to one of my favourite novel's Lonely Werewolf Girl (published 2007). Don't want to give any sort of review yet, as I'm only on chapter 10, but I'm enjoying it so far. I'm not sure you'd be able to read it without reading the original though, and I think everyone should read Lonely Werewolf Girl, so go check it out!

Anyone reading this blog going to the Fringe: you've still time to catch Stitched Up! written by my friend and fellow Momentum alumni Robin Johnson (Website) (Review).

Risks and Writing

I have a lot of respect for writers that take risks with regards to pursuing their dreams. Being a writer means that you have to have a certain amount of free time in which to write, to day dream, to plot and plan. Quitting the day job is a big step, especially if that means living on the bread line, working from commission to commission, and only making your next mortgage payment based on your popularity with, say, white, female, middle-class 20-somethings going on package holidays to Alicante. It's risky business indeed. Not many authors ever get to live comfortably from their writing alone. I like to day dream about quitting my job and supporting myself with my writing, but there are too many variables that rely on chance for me to consider this as a viable option at present. I don't think I'd be brave enough to leap off the cliff into full-time writerdom without a parachute of some kind (a five-book deal? A big fat royalty cheque? A Nobel prize?). So I have a lot of respect for people who do leave the rat race, even part time, to pursue their dreams. Does playing it safe though mean that I'm a worse writer? Or that I'm any less serious than someone who has made more of a sacrifice, who has taken those risks? I don't think so, and I hope not. I think of it as being "sensible" rather than anything else, though there is a little bit of insecurity and fear mixed in there too.

I really enjoyed The Black Magician Trilogy by Trudi Canavan, and after taking a short break to read The Boy With The Cuckoo Clock Heart by Mathias Malzieu (good), I have now started reading the first book of Canavan's second trilogy The Age of the Five. I'm only on page 5 at the moment, but will tell you how it goes. Enjoyable so far, though her prose style is a little abstained - still, it is early days and I'm sure I will get into the story in a couple of pages time.

Still in the planning stages of what I *think* is going to be my next novel (don't want to jinx it!). Will give you more details next time. It's all very exciting at the moment, as I can see the potential in the story stretch out for me for miles. But whether I'm able to do it justice, well, we'll just have to wait and see!

Jive Bunny

I've taken the plunge and have got myself cast in Return to the Forbidden Planet, which for those of you who don't know, is a jukebox musical based loosely on The Tempest and The Forbidden Planet. It'll be on in February at the Concordia Theatre, Hinckley, Leics. I am in the chorus, and I am trying very hard to silence that inner voice inside my head that is ambitious and attention-seeking and wants me to audition for a lead role. I don't have time to be a lead (assuming I'd be cast of course). Monday was the first dance workshop, where we learned to jive. It's been years since I've been to rock n'roll nights, and so I was a bit rusty, but it was really good fun. Good exercise too!

Our TV digibox has been broken since Sunday, and it's sad to say I'm feeling a bit lonely without it. The technician is coming Friday, so all will be well, but if any one has any suggestions about what I can do to fill up my TV-less evenings, they would be most appreciated. I don't really watch telly, but it's nice to have it there in the background.

I have been reading more, possibly as a consequence but maybe not - the books I'm reading are very mind-absorbing. I'm reading Trudi Canavan's The Black Magician Trilogy, and have read the second book and half of the last book in 2 days. It's a really good book, in my opinion. For those who scoff, I think it's important to read popular fiction, even if your goal is to write high-brow literary fiction, just to see what techniques are employed to hook a reader. Even if you are looking to write literary fiction, surely the aim of the game is to sell a few copies as well as winning hundreds of awards? So, this series is action packed, but also has central characters that you care about.

I'm rubbish at plotting. Anyone have any advice about how I can improve? I'm still working my way through Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots, which is very interesting and insightful, but not particularly practical. I guess the answer is the same as the answer to how anyone gets good at anything - with practise!

Elsewhere: Damien takes on the Paranormal Romance fandom not quite single-handedly here:http://damiengwalter.com/2010/06/30/who-reads-urban-fantasy/

A plug for my friends' new Edinburgh show, Stitched Up!: http://www.edfringe.com/whats-on/theatre/stitched-up

My current favourite twitterer (is that the right phrase?), my old school pal Marc Burrows (now a stand-up comedian and musician): http://twitter.com/20thcenturymarc

And the web-strip that I follow on a semi-regular basis, Hark, A Vagrant - check it out! http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php

What I'm Reading...

I've been reading quite a lot lately. Recently, I finished Octavia Butler's Wild Seed - do you know it? It's quite an old book, having been published in 1980 (the year of my birth, coincidentally). The great thing about this book is that there is no waffle, no expedition. Everything is told in a very manner of fact way, everything relevant to the incidents of the scene you are reading. Butler knows exactly where her story starts, and doesn't preamble to set tone, universe, etc. That doesn't mean that the writing isn't lyrical or the world is lacking in some way - it is a very absorbing story. It feels like a very honest way to tell a story, and something that I'm going to try with my own writing.
I've also just finished reading Orson Scott Card's Hart's Hope. The narrative unfolds as a series of stories told by a mysterious narrator to one of the title characters, going over events that have shaped his life in order to persuade him not to kill his son. At first I found the conceit a little trying as the stories were not perhaps as engaging as they could have been. But by the middle section, I was hooked, and I'm not sure why - perhaps it was when, finally, we were given a hero to root for. Aside from Point Fantasy and the usual children's classics, I think this is actually the first alternative world medieval-esque fantasy book I have ever read,which is quite depressing when I think about it.
I'm now reading Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman. I am enjoying it so far, although I think I can tell it's for a younger audience, as a lot of the world-building stuff about the politics of the universe is presented to the reader on a plate. But aside from that, as I said, I'm enjoying the story, though I'm only about a quarter of the way in.
I've been reading Christopher Booker's The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories which I've had for a while but haven't tackled before. I've only just finished chapter two so far, but already it has proved insightful when analysing my own work and the plotting problems I've encountered. The chapter I've just finished explains the plot Booker has named "Overcoming the Monster" which covers everything from Star Wars, Little Red Riding Hood, The Magnificent Seven, the James Bond films, and, obviously, Beowulf. The hero/heroine gets "the call" - he/she must defeat some sort of monster that is threatening their home/mankind/the planet, and, equipped with "magical weapons", he/she goes off to face them. There is a stage where the hero first mets the monster/bad guys or their associates, and they win. Then they get captured/face the monster again, and it all looks like it's over for our hero until by some superhuman means, they overcome the monster at the last minute and save the world/get the "princess"/get the treasure. It's interesting, to me at least, because my own failed Inter Vivos sort of followed this story pattern, and comparing it to this very basic formula it's easy to see some of the places it went wrong (of course, to say this is it's only fault is being extremely simplistic!). My heroine Nox set out to defeat a monster that wasn't particularly threatening. Big fail.
So I've been enjoying reading lately, trying to write around it, think about the things that I want to do. I have been working more on my Corrie Flint-inspired novel, which is set in London and focuses on many different supernatural creatures that live there (the Banshee story sort of fits into this universe). It's been fun reinventing the troll and the leprechaun into 21st century London, and I just wish I had a little more time coming up to really be able to work on it more, rather than having to steal an hour here or there.
So things are looking up at the moment. I'm at Alt.Fiction on Saturday, so if any of you happen to be there, please come and say hi! The Speculators newspaper is free in the goodie bags apparently, so you can read my short story in there too!

My First Convention!

I'm going to my first SF convention in June. I recently bought a ticket to Alt.Fiction, which takes place in Derby. Apparently it's a good one to start off with, so I'm pretty excited to go. I only really got in to Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2008, after I was told that that's what genre Inter Vivos was. I grew up reading Roald Dahl, Point Romance and Point Horror (back in 1993 when they were popular, so don't scoff!), and children's versions of classic novels - Great Expectations, Tale of Two Cities, Stories of Edgar Allen Poe. It wasn't that I was snobbish against Science Fiction, but those SF stories were always marketed as "Boys' books", and I was never exposed to them. I was aware of Sci-Fi only through Star Wars (a film I didn't watch until I was 17). I first heard of The Hobbit at age 15 and I'm sad to say I probably didn't know anything about Lord of the Rings until the first film came out. So I've been playing "catch-up" since 2008. It's important to know about the genre that you're writing in - not just what's current and what sells, but the history and roots of the genre. I think I'm doing a pretty good job at catching up. I don't like the hard Sci-Fi stuff, as I tend to find most that I've read is not character-focused enough for me. I'm reading Octavia Butler (Wild Seed) at the moment, and she is brilliant in the way she crafts a story - she doesn't mess about, just gets on with it, somehow seamlessly filtering in the back story so she doesn't have to worry about exposition. I wish I could do that.
If anyone has any suggestions of good SF/Fantasy books to read, then please let me know. I'm on to either Ursula le Guin or Orson Scott Card next.

Stuck in a Rut

I'm going to be 29 tomorrow. I'm just hoping I'm going to have a better day than I've had today. I'm just bored, and have been for a couple of weeks now. I do my NaNoWriMo writing, which is still going well, I have about 8,000 words to go to finishing it. I go to work every day. And that's it. I can't find a book that will hold my interest, and TV is mostly rubbish. I'm pretty broke, so can't really afford to go anywhere. I think I'm in a bit of a rut, which is why I haven't been very good at updating this blog regularly. Who wants to read about rut-girl and her twinkle-less existence?
Anybody have any good ideas for ways to add excitement into my life? Or at least a good book to read that I can escape into?

NaNoWriMo Day 11

Things are still going well for me, NaNoWriMo-wise. I'm one whole day ahead of my target word count, which I'm hoping to add to tomorrow and Friday as I have a hen weekend to go to this Saturday, and chances are I won't get any writing done.

In terms of word count I'm doing well. In terms of story though...it all feels a bit rushed. I haven't read back over anything I've written yet, so I don't have anything to really reflect on, but I feel like at the minute I'm merely capturing scenes, rather than feeling and living them. I've moved away from 3rd person singular to 3rd person multiple viewpoint, so that now I can jump into anyone's head that I feel like it, depending on whose is the most appropriate mind to view a particular scene from. It's working so far. Plus, it's nice to get out of Tom's head. He's a bit dull. I might have to inflict him with a lisp or something to make him a tad more interesting. If he was a Sim, I probably would have drowned him by now.

I've had quite a productive year this year. I've written Inter Vivos draft 2 from scratch starting in January, which amounts to just over 120,000 words in its unedited state. I've completed three short stories, two of which are making the rounds at the moment looking for publication. And now I'm almost 19,000 words into my new Banshee novel.

I'm not sure what I'll do when I can finally say "Inter Vivos is finished" and start sending it off to publishers and agents. I will start working on another novel, naturally, but the decision will be between Dorcas Grubb and Banshee, and possibly something else, depending on how long it takes me to finish IV. I also want to work on a collection of interlinked short stories, ordered a bit like Pulp Fiction out of chronological order with occasional recurring characters.

It's good to have options.

So that's it really. Still reading Juliet Barker's Brontes biography, which weighs a tonne. I've drawn the conclusion that Charlotte wasn't particularly likeable, rather selfish actually and quite condescending. My favourite is Anne, the more practical, realistic one. Going to read The Tenant of Wildfell Hall next.

Hmm...

I think I'm suffering from "blog block" at the moment. I just can't think of what to write on here. I know lots of gossip, but it's about other people and so can't relate it on here (that's cruel). I don't feel like my life is dull right now, more like I'm just gently bobbing along on the ocean that is life, and there's nothing to report, not even the odd seagull.

I read a really dreadful book the other week, called Marked by PC Cast and Kristen Cast. I read it to the end though, which is more than I can say than some books, but it was truly awful. It was written in first person teen-speak, which in itself is annoying, but in this instance made the narrator and lead character extremely annoying and unrelatable. I mean, kudos for PC Cast getting her daughter to help her with the lingo, but her daughter isn't a teen neither - it's like it's been written by someone who watched Clueless and has attempted to copy it verbatium. Like, totally.

On the other hand, I watched Torchwood: Children of Earth on Virgin on Demand over the weekend (the first whilst still drunk at about 2:30am). This was excellent. I've only seen a couple of episodes from the first series of Torchwood, and it never really grasped my attention - it was too much like a Doctor Who episode, but with added gratuitous sex/violence, just because it was post-watershed. This story though, which was self contained over 5 (I think) episodes, was really tight, and everything there felt planned out - not a single line or sfx wasted. I hope they do more Torchwood episodes like this. Very good (and perfect for my hangover the next day).