November, Nano & the Worst Holiday Idea Ever

I was really looking forward to Nano this year. I had an idea; a book I really wanted to write, but that was one that needed to be written fast, without too much thinking, to make it work. I was excited.

Then events started changing my plans...

First off, the book previously known as The Fairytale Way. Once it became clear that there was actual interest in the novel, and I started working on it with an agent who wanted to sign me, I figured that I could use Nano to bring it to a swift conclusion, before the inevitable rewrites. It wouldn't be a true Nano, but it would be close.

Except, by the beginning of November I still wasn't in the position I had hoped to be - with an approved outline and the freedom to write until the thing was done.

Work continues, sort of apace, but it's hard going. The main problem seems to be that, in discussion with my agent, we've added all sorts of stuff that makes the story stronger. Unfortunatley, until last week, we'd forgotten to take anything away.

Cue cut of entire subplot and two major characters, and a quick reshuffle of the remaining facts and figures. I think I've just, now, got the actual events and so forth in place, but the first thing I need to do is go back and rewrite the first 60,000 words to conform to the new plot. And that's not the sort of thing you can do for Nano.

It's also not really the sort of thing you can do with confidence in my usual fifteen minute stetches. It's the sort of thing that requires concentration, and time. Bearing in mind that while trying to write this Sunday morning blog entry I've continued several conversations with my mother, dealt with a teabag crisis my husband was having, and solved a variety of Vista issues on my parent's new laptop, it's clear that peace and quiet to work is not available in large quantites.

But what the husband and I did have as a surplas of holiday days to take from work before the end of the year. And so was born what I am now terming the Worst Holiday Idea Ever.

We drove up to the parents in Wales on Friday night for a couple of days, and tomorrow we're driving over the mountains to spend the week in the family caravan on the Lleyn peninsula. It's going to be very cold (snow predicted on the mountains) and probably rainy. Everything's going to be closed because it's November in a seaside town. The TV only gets BBC 1&2 Wales, Harlech TV and S4C, the Welsh channel. There's no internet for miles.

We've prepared well; we've packed dvds and books and playing cards and games and things. And we've made a deal; Simon lets me work on the book in the morning, and then we can go shiver at some castle or Neolithic burial mound in the afternoon. The evenings are for the dvds. We're packing extra blankets, possibly a heater, and Simon bought me a hot water bottle yesterday.

And by the time we get back, I want a full synopsis and revised opening chapters to send to my agent.

Wish me luck!

My Brain Hurts

I spent an hour on the phone with my agent this evening, discussing the whys and the wherefores and the way forward with The Book.

The good thing is that she still loves the story. She just wants to make it bigger and better. She wants my little book to be all that it can be. This is great.

But it involves a lot of work, and a lot of thinking.

When we first met and started making adjustments to the book, the main things that changed were the location and the magic level. And somewhere along the way, implementing these changes has buried the why of the story underneath a stack of tarot cards and empty coffee cups.

So, while she's away in Wales next week, I'm going back to basics and thinking about what the story is about, and what the individual character tales are.

1. It's about language. It's about the stories we tell, and how they change into what we want to hear. It's about how what we're told is what we believe, even when it's a lie. And it's about what happens when people start telling the truth.
2. It's about the town, now. It's about how this little market town in Hertfordshire isn't like anywhere else. It's about how that affects the people who live there. It's about the history of the place, and its people, and how that's not what they've always been told, either.
3. It's about family. It's about sisters and about brothers, and about how there's no limit to what you'll do for family, or, in some cases, what you'll do to them.
4. It's about magic, and the magical in the everyday. It's about the feel of the seasons, the world, and the inexplicable things that happen. It's about fate and fortune and destiny, and how they're not always world changing futures; sometimes they're about cookie cutters.
5. It's about fairytales, and how to live them. It's about knowing that you can live a charmed life, and have your happy ever after, but that they're not always what you'd expect. And it's about how, if you work at them, sometimes they can be better than the stories.
6. And most of all, it's about love, and how real love doesn't need magic, or fate, or fables; it needs understanding, passion, trust and patience.
7. It's also about tea, calligraphy, getting what's coming to you, and hot chocolate. And a cat.

So, yeah. I guess that can be summed up as: Truth, and making your world the way you need it to be. Or something.

To summarise - my brain hurts.

Absent

Now, I know I haven't been here, but I have been working hard.

I'm finally hitting the home stretch - the almost final revisions of the first six chapters and synopsis are due over to the agent before Monday. She's already had the top forty title list... and we still haven't decided on one. She'll have a better idea once she's read the revised chapters - so much has changed, it's hard to keep it all straight.

I'm working a half day at the day job today, and plan to spend the afternoon in my local Costa with a large latte, my printouts and my pink laptop.

It's all very scary but exciting. Agent keeps saying things like 'I mentioned it to so-and-so, an editor at Big Publisher, and they're very excited to see it.'

Hopefully by this time next week, I should know what the next step is.

On the cards

In the first chapter of The Book Previously Known As The Fairytale Way (I either need a new title or a symbol of some sort, I feel) one character, Fliss, reads her love interest's fortune, using tarot cards.

In the original draft, I'd skimped over this a bit, and one thing that came up in my meeting last week was that the agent would like to see a fuller reading in the scene, for a variety of reasons.

Sadly, I don't know a great deal about tarot. But I do have a book. So last night I pulled out my cards and my book and I did a few sample readings for my fictional character, Mac, just to play around with the meanings and the combinations and the spreads.

I wasn't expecting Mac to be the unluckiest bugger ever imagined.

Seriously, no matter which way I cut the cards or shuffled them, every spread ended up with the ten of swords in it, and me reading the words 'unavoidable disaster and ruination' in my book. And that was just one of many feared cards that kept landing in his fortune.

For a secondary character with a happy ever after planned, this was not a particularly good sign, I felt.

Anyway, after removing most of the ill-omened cards from the deck, I was able to cobble together the sort of fortune I think Fliss should read for him. Still, I'm now worrying about what Mac's got in store for me in the later parts of this book...

Exciting news

I've been a bit quiet lately, because exciting things have been happening.

The most exciting of these was a meeting I had with a very lovely agent in London on Tuesday. As an upshot of that meeting, I'm currently revising (and finishing) the book previously known as the Fairytale Way, which has yet to find a new title. It also used to be set in London and now... isn't. Which is why the counter on the left is about to go back to the beginning and start again, although since I've already written the stuff once, hopefully it will move a bit faster this time round!

The changes we're making are strengthening the story, though, which is all that really matters.

And, unless I do something really dire to the thing, once I've finished, she's going to try and sell it for me.

Told you it was exciting.

Back on course

The last month or so has been unexpectedly busy, as evidenced by the way I dropped off the planet here.

Still, things have finally quietened down, and I seem to be getting back on course.

It's always hard to get back into the habit of writing when I haven't for a while, so I've been building this up slowly, with a nice, leisurely plan, and I'm back on course for finishing The Fairytale Way by the end of August.

And then I have all sorts of interesting new things to start in on...

Wicked

We were down in London at the weekend visiting some friends. Had a lovely time, but felt very old by the end of it; we were in bed by 1am and not at all hungover the next day. We then spent Sunday visiting garden centres.

It's all over.

But we did go see Wicked on Saturday night. It was so great! Simon bought me the soundtrack, which I think he might be regretting a little bit now he'd had to listen to it for forty eight hours straight...

I Am Returned

Had an excellent time in Wales, despite a variety of injuries and illnesses inflicted upon me and the husband. Still, we got to go swimming in the sea, which is the important thing. (Even if our most outdoory friend texted later to say 'But the sea's at its coldest at this time of year!')
Back now, and back to work. Took a bit of a break from the writing while I was on holiday - more thinking than actual writing on the current WIP, but I did get to do some fabulous research for something I hope to write next...

Anyway, some photos from our trip:

The beach outside our apartment

Kings Quoit, Manobier

One of a colony of around 200 Grey Atlantic seals on Caldey Island

Tenby! Wales!

We're off on our hols today - to a world without the internet (or, at least, a flat without).

See you in a couple of weeks...

Family Achievements

I might not have mentioned this, but I have the best family ever.

They're wonderful; supportive, fun, loving and intelligent. We also sing a lot. Often in public.

There are plenty of us - I have eight cousins, a variety of aunts and uncles, and only relatively recently lost two of my beloved grandparents.

I am truly blessed and fortunate to have grown up with such a crowd.


The only downside, if you can call it that, is that they all are, and always have been, highly successful and brilliant.

Living up to my elder cousins' achievements has always been hard; whether it was exam results, university acceptances, roles in plays, careers, even boyfriends and husbands. It's just lucky that they're all so nice, and that I love them so dearly.

At twenty seven, I'm finally having to deal with living up to my younger cousins' achievements, too.

Which is by way of saying, look out for David Whitley's new Children's Fantasy novel, The Midnight Charter, sold to publishers across the world, and due in stores in early 2009.

For more information on Davey, here's his agent's website: http://www.mvagency.com/davidwhitley.html

Eighteen

I'm at home in Wales this long weekend for my baby brother's eighteenth birthday. He's nine years younger than me, so it's been a long time coming. He's off to university in Warwick this October, and we're all terribly proud of him.

Anyway, so I'm curled up in my Grandparents old armchair by the French windows in my parent's lounge, listening to my family bustle about their day. We've had the traditional boiled eggs for breakfast, and any time now I have to start making a chocolate & coconut birthday cake.

In the brief meantime, I'm going to try and ignore distractions and get some words down.

The Swing of Things

So, I've re-instigated the word counter on the right hand side of the page; I always feel better if I can see myself making progress.

Of course, progress is a little thin on the ground at the moment, but I've written one scene today, and that's better than nothing.

Spent the weekend hunting triffids in the back garden, and causing snail Armageddon. Much fun, but I ache today.

Back to the words...

Playing Tag

Bonnie tagged me, as she is wont to do.

Eight Random Facts About KJ

1. I talk to myself a lot. Not usually when there are other people around, but still.
2. I count my steps whenever I’m walking somewhere.
3. I make my husband watch 80s brat pack movies, even though he hates them. His least favourite so far is St Elmo’s fire, which just happens to be the one that I love best.
4. I call my mother almost every evening, even when neither of us has anything much to say.
5. I’m much more useful in the mornings that the afternoons or evenings. If only I would get out of bed earlier I’d be unstoppable.
6. I recently bought a pink laptop, even though I probably really shouldn’t have.
7. I love local folklore and mysteries. I have many books on the subject and delight in telling people all about them, even though they don’t care. Sometimes I make them visit sites of extreme interest with me, and they wonder why a piece of wood at the side of the road is in any way interesting. Then I tell them, and they still don’t care.
8. I’m never really satisfied with the seasons. My favourite is always which ever it isn’t right now. I always think that Autumn is my favourite, but actually, since it doesn’t have Christmas, my birthday, or pretty flowers, I’m not so sure.

I'm not tagging anyone, but if you want to do it, feel free.

What I'm working on right now

After a few weeks off to mess around with some edits and some submissions and stuff, I'm finally getting back to working on the book I started writing for Michelle's Write On Redux.

I've already got just over 30k, and some reasonable background and character work.

More importantly, I just finished the collage that's been hanging, half done, over my desk for the last few months. I'm hoping that its completion will help spur me on to finish the book itself; certainly it's helped get my head back into the story. You probably can't make out much from the picture, except teapots and jampots, but obviously they're the most important features.... Not really. It's a story about fortune, fable and falling in love. But most of all, it’s about families; what we do for them, to them and because of them.

Recent submissions of my previous Write On Novel have started to get replies - so far all declines, but some very nice, personal ones, and requests to see whatever I write next, which I'm taking as a good sign. It's one of the reasons I want to get this finished, so I can send it out. I really love this story, and have high hopes for it. If it turns out on paper the way it is in my head...

I also have my soundtrack almost finalised. Just a few more tweaks when something jars - sadly I have to actually write the words to notice this. Which means it's time to get back to work!

Mary Elizabeth Reeves

My cousin Mary is getting married this year; we're all traipsing down to London for her hen night next weekend. This is why I'll be spending my six month anniversary having dinner with various relatives, assigned to my house for the weekend, while my husband runs screaming as far away north as he can get.

For the actual do on Saturday, one of Mary's best friends has asked us all to email her a memory or story about Mary, like the first time we met her, that she can put together into a book for the bride-to-be.

I had some problems narrowing down my memories, so at the moment what I plan to send is this:


Mary Elizabeth Reeves

I don’t remember meeting Mary for the first time; she’s simply always been a part of my life.

I do remember the excitement of a visit to Wrexham, back when we still lived in Surrey, because it meant we’d be at HQ on a Sunday, and I’d get to see the cousins. It meant I’d get to play with Mary. When we moved to Wrexham it was even better. I was nine, Mary was eleven, and we got to see each other every single Sunday.

We had endless games we could play at HQ; climbing the walls on the landing (before they were repapered); seeing who could jump off the swing at its highest point; searching for fairies in the fairy ring (although we never found any); weaving designs into the seat of the garden swing with red and orange twine; playing Scooby Doo (although Mary was always Daphne. I had to be Velma); hunting for Narnia behind the wardrobe in the Brown Room, or for the cuckoo clock anywhere else in the house.

There would always be egg sandwiches, or cheesy scrambled eggs, on offer for when we got hungry. And if we were lucky enough to be staying over (top and tail in the Pink Room, whispering secrets until the Spar sign across the road went out), the sweet fairies would come and fill the tin on the dresser with goodies for us.

Then there were the holidays; weeks and weeks of sunshine and swimming in France, or of squalls and seagulls in Porthmadog, where we filled our days with boule runs, Jimbo planes and tuppenny falls. Or cycling round Center Parcs, listening to Bryan Adams and drinking non-alcoholic cocktails named after characters in the Robin Hood stories.

Later, we found ourselves buying the same clothes; a throwback to the days when our mothers dressed us as twins. We’d bump into each other in the Golden Lion (Mary was present the first time I ever kissed my husband), then later in Marks and Spencer in Wimbledon. Living just down the road from each other in London for two years, we met often with Emma in the Weatherspoons to drink Lindemans Bin 65 and eat Chicken Pasta Alfredo with garlic bread.

I live further away now, but we still get together often; she’s always up for a visit to Stevenage if Simon’s making bread and butter pudding. And we’re still there, as often as possible, for family Sunday lunches, usually with our heads together, whispering.

So, no. I don’t remember meeting Mary for the first time; but I think that’s probably the only thing that I don’t remember.

Write On Redux - Day Ten

Another good day yesterday:



Stats for Day Ten:

Day Ten Word Count: 5,131
Day Ten Page Count: 20
Overall Word Count: 30,216
Overall Page Count: 112

Fun scene coming up next!

Write On Redux - Day Nine

Now, this is more like it:



Yes indeedy. That means that the stats for today are:

Day Nine Word Count: 7,005
Day Nine Page Count: 26
Overall Word Count: 25,085
Overall Page Count: 92

Today also brought me to the first major turning point for my heroine, and the first up close and personal scene with the hero.

Such, such fun!

Write On Redux - Days Six, Seven and Eight

Let's just say that it's a good job Michelle gave us that extra week.

Day Nine going better, though.

Write On Redux - Days Four and Five

Sucked.

Variety of reasons, but since this is a no excuses kind of deal, I won't go into them.

Anyway, as Michelle has graciously granted us an extra week, I'm just writing the days off and continuing from here. Although, I'm off to Cambridge in a second to do some shopping, so I'll have to write hard this evening.

Tomorrow is entirely dedicated to writing, and other writing related activities.

Latest numbers:



That's 66 pages, for anyone who's counting.

Write On Redux - Day Three

Late posting again, but still.

Excellent progress on day three - 23 pages / 5705 words

Day four going less well...