COUNTDOWN - 14 DAYS TO COMPLETION

I love oak trees, they are so gnarly.
A combination of the two middle trees
is definitely where I pictured Gaell and Rylo.

I have one - or technically fourteen days - until my fantasy novel has to be ready to submit in response to Harper Voyager's call for submissions. My fingers aren't typing quickly enough, they need to squeeze my brain into gear and I'm sure the problem would be solved ;)

I've been going through, on chapter at a time, applying Donald Maass' writing tips.

The alterations I made to the opening were inspired by tip 55

55 What do you like best about your MC?  How soon can we see that on the page?  How often?  Add more than you think needed.

DRAWN

CHAPTER 1

LOOK-OUT

As they always did in the days between harvest and fall, high winds blew across the valley.

Another gust of wind flustered her loose sleeves as Gaell crawled further out along a thick branch. Her fingers couldn't reach all the way around the wooden limb, so she dug her nails as far into the bark as they’d go and she inched along a little more. Looking down, she sucked air slowly into her lungs. The branch, comfortingly still, reminded her of the planks that ran through the rafters in the wool shed. If she were at home, indoors, she would have run along a board this wide.

“Gaell!”

The squeak made her pivot and steady herself, placing a hand against a smaller branch. Her friend who had been a sickly shade of green since he realised the height of the oak tree she wanted to climb, was now the whiter-shade of pale.

“Are you all right?” She crept back a step. “Do you want me to…”

Hugging the tree, with one cheek pressed to bark, he waved his free hand.

“Rylo?”

“No. A deal is a deal,” he said. Slowly, he lowered himself until he could squeeze back against the solid part of the tree. “You go. Dance along the branch like a squirrel. Don’t worry about me.”

She crouched, perched on the branch. Hesitant. Always small and thin, her friend had never looked so young – so sheltered. “Rylo. You said you’d climbed trees before.”

Rylo picked at the surface of the rope that lay along the branch between them. He stopped with a sudden reddening of his skin and rubbed the wiry threads flat. “I may have exaggerated.”

She narrowed her eyes and moved a pace back to where he clung like a tick on hair.

“Go. Go,” Rylo said. I’m fine.”

Gaell had never seen a less fine specimen. But, Rylo picked up the rope she'd lashed around the tree before winding it around her dress like contrasting piping. While she watched, he tucked the rope across his stomach. Then, he waved weakly at her.

The submissions Harper Voyager are looking for are all forms of adult and YA speculative fiction: Epic Fantasy ;) Science Fiction, Urban Fantasy, and Supernatural. It is also worth knowing, you can make as many submissions as you'd like.

DO YOU HAVE A MANUSCRIPT YOU ARE CONSIDERING SUBMITTING TO HARPER VOYAGER?

THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY - SIGNIFICANT OTHERS - SIX WAYS TO MAKE SECONDARY CHARACTERS WORK FOR YOU

DIFFERENT FLAVOURS?
IMAGE FROM WIKIMEDIA

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to a better understanding of ourselves. ~ Carl Jung

Is your secondary character proving to be no better than a negative reflection?

Is your secondary character too loveable? 

Is their comedic talent in danger of stealing the show?

Here are six ways to zap their star quality and to make sure your MC is memorable but not in danger of stealing your MC’s spotlight:

·  Screech them into second place by writing them unable to modulate their pitch, nothing grates on the nerves like a well…poorly–placed, high-pitched, comment.

·  Uh? Spread their attention too thin: give your secondary character has a method of communicating with others and make sure they do it whenever your MC wants to share a deeply meaningful observation

·  Attention deficit, in a best friend – no matter what kind of situation they're experiencing – makes for a more clearly defined MC

·  Have that secondary so-and-so sprinkle litter, cups or the broken-hearted around them, it will give your MC something thoughtful and strong to do

·  Give them two ears for listening but an over active tongue – nobody falls in love with the secondary character who displays a tendency to interrupt your MC’s train of thought.

While they’re there, your secondary character can bring out the best in your MC

From Donald Maass’s writing tips:

#7 What does a sidekick or secondary character see about your MC that your MC denies? Force a showdown over it.

#58 What’s one way your MC tackles the big problem? Find another character who can do the same thing, or the opposite.

My secondary character is loyal, reliable and even tempered but finds it hard to think outside the socially acceptable norms. My MC is impulsive, changeable and rebellious.

CAN YOU DESCRIBE YOUR MC AND SIGNIFICANT SECONDARY OTHER IN THREE WORDS?

TUESDAY TEASER - RIBBLESTROP FOR EVER AND HARPER VOYAGER OPEN TO SLUSH

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of ShouldBe Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and the author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

I am reading MG:  Ribblestrop Forever by Andy Mulligan 

This is the second Ribblestrop adventure. In this book, Inspector Cuthbertson is only a step behind the children-determined to destroy the school forever...again-and there's only a mad librarian around to help. The orphans are in for a worryingly-adventurous kind of adventure.

This excerpt is a timely reminder of the potential hazards inherent in eating boiled sweets while piloting aeroplanes ;)

You get four sentences for the price of two today:

The gobstopper spun against his uvula, where the digastric

muscle strained at once to eject it. The plane bobbed yet

again and the pilot panicked. He tried to swallow and disaster struck. The gobstopper was sucked straight into his

windpipe where it lodged like a cork in a bottle.

I THINK IT'S GOING TO SNOW

Get your boots out, Harper Voyager is opening up to slush ;)

If you are writing any kind of speculative fiction - science-fiction to fantasy - you need to know about Harper Voyager's decision to open themselves to unsolicited submissions. The window is between 1st to 14th October. Check this link. If your novel is polished, rather than published, this is a great opportunity to get your work noticed.

IS YOUR CURRENT NOVEL READY TO SUBMIT? WILL YOU BE TEMPTED TO THROW YOURS AT THE HARPER VOYAGER'S WALL?

Mine is about 50% short of the target. I can get a lot done in 19 days but I don't think complete and edited is anywhere near achievable.

OK. What do you think? This is my only stab at a YA fantasy. There's miles to go before Gaell can call herself anything like at home. Is it worth me doing little but work and write? I have ironing to fit in somewhere. And shopping. And football ;)

As they always did in the days between harvest and fall, high winds blew across the valley.

Gaell crawled further out along a thick branch that held aloft a section of the great oak’s canopy. She licked at her lower lip as she wriggled forward. Her arms couldn’t completely encircle the wooden limb, but she inched along. Thinking about it, there was a caterpillar-like quality to her movements. Gaell grinned and nodded her thanks. Then she spread her knees to secure her grip and let the rough bark rub the surface of her toes as she wriggled with efficiently away from the trunk.

Dawn glowed a warm orange that lightened the dark sky but not enough light to disturb her view. For once, she was glad her hair was uniformly long and plaited in two tidy brown ropes that dangled down over her ears. The fabric of her old, grey mourning dress was smooth enough to slip over the rough bark but it was unfortunately still pale enough to show the stains. She would have to find something more suitable to wear next time she slipped out to find adventure.

First she had to make sure she didn’t fall, of course.

The wind blew her cowl until it snapped and flapped at her neck as if she were being attacked by a silken bird. Shaking her head, excitement uncurled inside and she breathed out slow and long. She felt as if she had been holding her breath for a very long time. While she waited for the wind to settle, she stared at the grain in the bark and pictured again the fleeting thought, the image, that had pulled her from her bed so early.

“Can we go yet?” asked the boy who clung to the rope they had lashed around the trunk of the tree. He gripped the knot, wrapped around his stomach, in one hand and pressed his back against the thick body of the oak. He clung to the rope with white knuckled fingers and, although his arms would make only useful twigs Rylos to took his role very seriously. He was dressed in his scholarly best: the silver tunic, black silk stockings and laced boots. His cowl was pulled up to cover his head and ears to keep the wind from nipping at his delicate Vagan skin.

“No,” said Gaell, more forcibly that was needed. She turned back to her task and shuffled forward again.

Rylos sniffed. “I agreed to one hour. It was a bargain. I’m sure it’s nearly been an hour.”

Gaell shrugged her shoulders. It was as non-commerce a gesture as a person could make. In truth, including the time it took her to get him out of his solsaal, her hour was almost up. She refused to look at hm. She was doing him a favour, Rylos would learn the essence of trade was in the details.  “We haven’t been here for an hour.”

“I don’t know why you wanted to make this deal,” Rylos called at her back. “I still don’t see what kind of trade could benefit from climbing the tree anyway.” He grumbled away to himself and tugged and tested the line. “Nothing of any value grows here.”

There was so much tugging, Gaell had to grip to keep her balance. Poor Rylos. He was the reason Gaell was able to come to the tree anyway. Who else would accept her trade? He was also the reason why she did not plan to fall. No doubt, Rylos would try his best to hold the rope if she slipped. Fell. It was all she hoped for. She would make every effort to find whatever it was that drew her to the tree and she wouldn’t break her neck in the process. As well as having no desire to experience that level of pain, Gaell couldn’t bear to think of Rylos’ face if he failed to keep his side of the bargain. Generations of reliability snuffed out by a fall that had nothing to do with profit. It was too terrible to consider, she thought with a grin.

“Gaell?” called Rylos. “Why are we here?”

Gaell sighed, “Does it matter?”

THOUGHTFUL THURSDAY - 9 FACE SAVING THOUGHTS

banksy d*face 

Outside, among your fellows, among strangers, you must preserve appearances, a hundred things you cannot do, but inside, the terrible freedom. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

This Thursday, I’ve been having an even more thoughtful time than usual.

I dived deep into the subject of Face: the superficial appearance, voiced beliefs and attitudes that may, or may not, be an accurate reflection of a person’s character.

(I'm knee deep in this topic, that's Thoughtful Thursday for you.)

FACE:

· Everyone works to maintain face

· The individual’s face is shaped and reshaped depending on who is there to see it.

·  Presenting the right face can be the difference between being accepted or rejected.

·  When surrounded by others, the face shown by any individual can a reflection of others in the group.

·  Face is one way the subtleties of power is seen even when the group is, theoretically, made up of equals.

·  Face affects behaviour.

·  The biggest struggle a person deals with during the course of their day is to understand the public face every other individual presents to the world.

·  The difference between the protected, private and true identity of an individual and their public face can be the truth behind two people’s relationship or a major cause of aggression.

·  The ability to always present an appropriate face is the highest – and lowest – form of communication.

FACE IS SO BRITTLE IT IS IMPORTANT TO MAKE SURE IT CRACKS... I PLAN FOR IT.

HOW IS YOUR PUBLIC FACE HOLDING UP FOR YOU?

TUESDAY TEASER GODS AND WARRIORS by Michelle Paver

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of ShouldBe Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and the author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

My teaser:

     He had no face: just an eye-slit between a high bronze throat-guard masking nose and mouth, and a black-painted helmet of scales sliced from the tusks of boars, with bronze cheek-guards and a crest of black horsetail. Only his hair showed that he was human."

All I would say to Hylas, the soon to be hero, is if you're going to make enemies don't make them the "monsters of darkness and bronze" who have no compunction about killing goat-herding teenagers. Michelle Paver's black warriors are royally bad.

WHAT KIND OF MONSTER WOULD YOU WANT TO FIGHT? 

Please make mine a short one with all the power of a feather in flight ;)

WRITING AND COMMUNING WITH NATURE

Robin doesn't like sesame seeds, but enjoys
pumpkin and sunflower seeds.
Image from Wikimedia 

Writing is not a serious business; it’s not work. Writing is a joy, a celebration... you should be having fun at it. ~ Ray Bradbury

We have a juvenile robin in our garden.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been trimming back and mowing, and turning the soil.

At first, the bird sat on the fence while we worked. Over-time, it became confident enough to get closer and then close.

We had to be there because we were tidying the garden. But, every time the bird turned up, seeing Robin made us smile.

We never thought it was looking for company, it tidied away the food we were turning up. 

Watching Robin's constant twitching, I'm sure our presence in the garden made the bird secure enough to concentrate on eating and not keeping an eye out for the neighbours’ cats.

This has been a learning experience. And an unequal relationship.

For the bird, it’s been about fulfilling its basic need for food. 

But, that's not what we got out of seeing the robin. We felt a deeper emotional response – profound. 

It’s our robin. 

But, I don’t think it knows that.

Communing is almost as satisfying as real communication.

I have to work.

I love to write. 

Over the past few weeks, I have learned why it's important to get outside too.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE RECENTLY THAT MADE YOU ENJOY BEING OUTDOORS?

YOU ARE WHAT YOU THINK - The Guardian The Whole Picture

“You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.” ~ Elizabeth Gilbert "Eat, Pray, Love"

I hope you can get this grainy advert to run, it is amazing. When it comes to responses, based on POV, this advert was designed to put the viewer through the emotional wringer.

No matter which emotion your character is feeling:

anger

aversion

courage

dejection

desire 

despair

fear

hate

hope

love

sadness

         Arnold (1960) 

these emotions are felt as a direct response to the situation multiplied by what they think is going on. 

The emotional response is caused by how the character interprets what they can see or hear.

Your character could react in the wrong way because they are sure they know what's happening.

WHAT MADE YOU THINK TODAY?

PITCH-BOTHERED AND A IS FOR AERIAL ARTIST

To prepare you for
Introducing Characters:
A is for Aerial Artist
Image from  solid gold creativity
Hossein Baghalan Aval by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images AsiaPac, 

I have been spending a lot of time visiting Deana Barnhart's GUTGAA blogfest. 

Just to help you out, I linked you straight over to pitch #6, although I can't think why ;)

Over there, we are deep in the Pitch Polish process.

For the past few days, people have been reading queries and offering advice on how to make them shine. I have enjoyed reading all the query letters and the first 150 words.

It has been superbly useful.

Angela, Cat, Jayme and Katie as well as an anonymous commenter really helped me direct the focus on my MC.

Right now, my pitch for THE HIGHER ROAD reads like this:

The twelve-year-old girl who survives a traffic accident has mirrored internal organs, but her doctors just consider that an interesting anomaly. Unfortunately, when her injuries heal overnight she might as well have Bio-engineered @ ALIEN LABS ^TM Everyone suspects she was created to appear human, in an alien laboratory. The evidence stacks up against her when materials of non-terrestrial origin are found at the crash site.

The government orders scientists and secret service agents to study and to guard her; but they don't want information to leak to the press and cause a mass panic. She is kept in isolation and interrogated. The girl – who names herself, Thursday – suffers almost total amnesia. Every flash from her past is painful but she builds a memory of the boy who saved her from her sense of touch–his hand on her arm and his mouth against hers when he breathed for her. She owes him her life and she feels she must repay the debt. In the face of constant pressure, Thursday guards her rescuer's secret with courage and loyalty–stubbornness. She is horrified when the boy, Ethan, is brought – willingly – to see her at the loch-side castle, secret location. This is just the beginning of the adventure… two alien species are ready to infiltrate planet Earth, and Thursday is the only person who might be able to persuade Ethan to do something about that.

Thursday and Ethan learn a lot about themselves, and human nature, when one of them is suspected of being alien and the other is… not from around here.

INTRODUCING CHARACTERS

A few months ago, and I can't remember where but it was definitely on line, I read a description designed to introduce a new character into the plot of a book.

My thanks to the unknown author of the piece, when I saw it I knew I had to write it in my work book. I had to develop it into a writing exercise I could work out with every week. 

To tone my writing and shape my descriptions, I plan to use Tuesdays to introduce a character using the same basic sentence format. It's in present tense,which I never use, so it will be good for my skill-development ;)

A IS FOR AERIAL ARTIST

The once-noisy audience gasps. Swinging a foot as he sits on a narrow metal bar far feet above the crowd is the most perfect example of man I've ever seen. Dark brown hair short enough to give edge to his wild look and his body sculpted like Michaelangelo finished shaping him, yesterday. Pass the oxygen, the crowd has forgotten to breathe while he runs his hands up the trapeze wires and swings out over our heads.

You can almost hear every woman's thoughts:

I'm in Quality Control, just let me check those muscles are real.

Please! Don't get dazzled by those lights... it would be a shame to bruise perfection.

If you need to you could fall on me... but, make it later, after the show.

And every man's thoughts:

I'm in quality Control, let me check those muscles are real.

Please! It's not like they're real, it's all done with lighting.

If all I had to do was swing about all day, I'd look that good too.

  

My apologies for not posting yesterday, I spent AGES going around The Making of Harry Potter studio tour.It was so AMAZING I survived the concrete proof that the HP films weren't real. I say GO ME! During the tour, I was able to out-potter even my daughter who is so much the fan that I had to drag her out of the WB/PotterGift shop while they still had merchandise to sell.

HAPPY WEDNESDAY! IT MAKES A GREAT LATE-TUESDAY!

WHICH STAGE OF THE WRITING PROCESS ARE YOU AT RIGHT NOW?

WRITING AND CONFLICT

Never…was so much owed by so many to so few. ~

Winston Churchill

Oh, bless!
I was this age when I wrote my first book.
Image from Wikimedia

Writers?

This quote is definitely true of writers.

It takes effort, time and a certain amount of conflict to bring an idea from the first inkling to the final draft.

Despite the pleasure to be found in writing, it can be a lonely and difficult struggle to get the pages to reflect the world you first imagined.

It takes bravery to write and finish the novel and then comes the really hard part. Once it’s done, the safest place for it – for the writer – is to put it in a folder and keep it from harm.

With a deep breath and nervousness, the brave writer begins to write, and then re-writes, their query letter.

If that letter is ever seen by anyone else it offers it up to a world of criticism and rejection.

It would be easier not to bother, after all the first joy of writing is writing.

I have entered my Query letter for Deana Barnhart’s GUTGAA Pitch Polish blogfest.

I know I’ll learn from the experience. I hope everyone who stops by to read and comment can take away snippets of good advice too.

Have a great weekend. May all your conflicts be little ones – so little they don’t scratch at your surface or cause you any pain.

WHICH PART OF WRITING BRINGS YOU INTO CONFLICT?

For me, it is the time away from family

Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few. ~ Winston Churchill

This thought praised the service, and the sacrifice, of the brave men and women of the RAF after the darkest hours of the last world war. I would never belittle their sacrifice or that of anyone whose work and service protected, or protects, the peace and security of nations.

IMAGINATION IS AN AWE-FUL THING

DOESN'T HE JUST MAKE
YOU THINK?
IMAGINE
IMAGE FROM WIKIMEDIA

“I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination. Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” - Albert Einstein

The imagination is an awe-ful thing.

Our imaginations are spectacular. When ideas start as tiny golden glints, the real treasures lies beneath – deep in our imaginations – where rich veins seam just waiting to be discovered. 

While we’re walking about doing the useful, the practical and the everyday-normal tasks, our imagination lets us see into alternate realities – sometimes multiples versions of it – without even missing a step. 

Imagination can take us from the known-world and into a place that expands like the universe. In our imaginations there are limitless possibilities.

When we’re all-unfocussed gazing into some kind of middle distance, where nothing of this world exists, it’s because we are somewhere else entirely and only our physical bodies remain in this dimension. With the infinite power of the imagination, we are somewhere else in space and time and, even there, we are writing.

Either that, or reading.

WHAT HAS YOUR IMAGINATION DONE FOR YOU LATELY? ;)

GEARING UP FOR THE EPIC GUTGAA BLOGFEST

DEANA BARNHART
and the #GUTGAA Blogfest

I hope you had a fabulous weekend bordering on the mythic ;)

If your weekend fun was mostly mythical why not make Monday spectacular by signing up to Deana Barnhart’s Gearing Up to Get An Agent Blogfest (this link is for the full list of blogfest activities)

In the GUTGAA Blogfest, you could meet and greet a group of people who are spinning their way through the query process and working on ways to get themselves an agent.

Monday 3^rd September is the meet and greet session. Imagine, this is an opportunity to meet people who would love to hear all about your writing and all about you too. What’s not to love? ;)

Questions for the Meet and Greet

-Where do you write?

I write at my desk in the small ex-bedroom with the stunning view over mine and my neighbours’ backgardens (sometimes, it has a too stunning view of everything that goes on in the gardens)

-Quick. Go to your writing space, sit down and look to your left. What is the first thing you see?

At the left hand side of my desk is the larger pin board – it is currently covered in maps and images of castles and my favourite ‘Donald Maass Writing Tips’

-Favourite time to write?

My favourite time to write is whenever I get a block of time with no other responsibilities. I have been known to write in bed, at the kitchen bench while cooking, in the car and definitely while waiting for the washing machine to finish a cycle.

-Drink of choice while writing?

My drink of choice while writing depends on which time of day it is I have, in the past, lined up a cup of tea, next to a cup of coffee and a can of diet ‘cola’.

-When writing, do you listen to music or do you need complete silence?

Mostly, I write with music that matches the emotional intensity of whatever I am writing. I like my music atmospheric. If things are intense I don’t notice that the music has ended. Obviously, I couldn’t hear it over the tapping of the keys. ;)

-What was your inspiration for your latest manuscript and where did you find it?

The inspiration for my short stories came from a walk in a park. At the entrance there were two gatehouses. One was shabby and the other was beautifully kept,  and I couldn’t help but wonder why.

-What's your most valuable writing tip?

My most valuable writing tip (apart from the 58 writing tips on the Donald Maass’ Literary Agency Website) is to read. Read for enjoyment first. Then, as a writer, read every newly published book can find in the genre you want to write. Read so you can unpick how the author created characters, pace and plot.

Answers complete :D

Now, I need to get out there and Meet and Greet a lot of new friends who are all gearing up for acquire themselves an agent.

This Monday will be epic, if not mythic ;)

Like Deana and about 200 other writers I can't wait to see what everyone wrote! 

HAVE YOU SIGNED UP FOR DEANA BARNHART'S GEARING UP TO GET AN AGENT - #GUTGAA - BLOGFEST?

THE LAST WEEKEND BEFORE THE START OF SCHOOL

THIS IS PRETTY-MUCH HOW I FEEL!
IMAGE FROM WIKIMEDIA 

OH NO! THE LAST WEEKEND BEFORE THE START OF SCHOOL

In the England, this is the last weekend before the start of the new academic year. 

I know for some, my American, Scottish and Irish visitors, in particular, the holidays are already drifting from short into long term memories.

Before the countdown to timetables and deadlines began, we wanted to cling to the holiday spirit while we could. The Paralympics has made that a lot easier, every event I watched has been as inspirational as it was exciting.

While everyone was still under the same roof and before the stress of planning, prepping, marking, grading, form-filling, filing and fuming kicks in we:

·        went to the pub at ate with friends who like us and swapped the holiday stories that couldn’t make it onto FB ;)

·        met up for take-out curry in numbers so large the Met would have kettled us if our gathering was outdoors ;)

·        walked and looked for signs that the trees were ready to shift from green to gold

·        fought over who got to play at riding the micro-scooter and fought harder to avoid dipping off the front of the skateboard (what can I say… we live on a hill)

·        planned a bar-b-q dinner that turned into an indoor event because it rained–which came as a great surprise ;)

If you weren’t able to celebrate the last few days of freedom, I hope you had fun doing what you like and how you like it.

HAPPY SEPTEMBER TO YOU!

IF I HAD TO SUM UP SEPTEMBER IN THREE IMAGES I WOULD SAY IT IS THE MONTH OF FRESH PAGES, NEW STARTS AND FURNITURE POLISH.

CAN YOU SUM UP SEPTEMBER IN THREE WORDS?