WIP Wednesday - Starlings, Kidnap and Libraries

After a year of thinking about the book, a handful of weeks working on a plan, and several minutes staring at the blank screen, I've finally started work on my next book, provisionally titled 'Cobweb Strings of The Rotting House'. I say provisionally titled because as much as I love it and am sure it would make a kick-ass short story title, I'm not certain it's memorable enough for a novel. I wonder about this after...

...hearing a couple of people in real life trying to remember the name of my novella, Theatre of Curious Acts. Maybe I need something shorter next time. More direct. Something you can't forget. Or perhaps they just never remember anything. I appreciate that last sentence.

I've left my WIP with HausStarlings fluttering about my Pearl and Miranda, and one of them is about to be stolen and forced onto the stage. I do wish the floorboards would stop creaking but I guess we'll save that problem for the next draft.

And in awesome news, a library in Columbus, Indiana has a copy of Theatre of Curious Acts. As a kid, I loved going to the library and never could have imagined I'd have an actual book in one. It would be bloody fantastic if my local library had a copy on their shelves, of course it would also be bloody fantastic if it still had shelves and a viable roof. The place is home to weeds and rats now. Boo! Hiss!

That Wednesday Thing

It's Wednesday.

There is work and there is progress.

Thus, this is my first Wednesday WIP post in (cue melodrama) forever. Back on the horse, in the saddle, leaping over the smelly corpse of my writer's block. As I said in 'this post' I knew the writing funk wouldn't last. I think that's the first time I've been blocked and not in the 'I can't think of any ideas' sense (there were still plenty of those) but I didn't seem to know how to construct a story (sarcastic comments appreciated and forgive my urge to pull tongues at you). A bit like forgetting how to tie your shoelaces. Odd. Probably a bit of the blues, but I've shaken them off with a healthy dose of singing far too loudly to the new Steps album and riding a sugar rush of leftover Halloween candy. So what was I doing before I blogged here...

Oh yes, writing.*

*If anyone yells 'twittering' you may be right. Oops!

WIP Wednesday - Are you done, Kathleen Fair?

Or maybe that should be titled, 'There's so much missing here, Kathleen Fair'.

The novellette/novella is complete at 14,537 words. Hearts, men and mirrors have broken, but fair Kathleen is the most lost of all.

Now to let it stew while I contemplate what happens in the bits between the bits or decide to lob off other bits.

The above was achieved with a little help from my friend, Freedom. Dude is a pain in the ass at times with his tough love, but in the end, when the universe restores, I appreciate his tenacity.

WIP - Building Bricks

I'm trying a new approach, we'll label it How I Write Method 230. As most of you know, I had a wander along the corridors of Writers Block a couple of weeks ago and to help combat it (and to ensure I don't sit down to a blank screen), I'm building my ideas before I start to write them. And then, in the case of my just completed short story (Glimpses of Beauty through Bleached Bone - 3700 words), I may write some stories out of order. That is, when I'm stuck, I'm jumping to another scene where I know what happens. It worked for Beauty. So today, I am working on building a new short story something to do with perfume and balloons and the Devil.

In other news, there are just 3 copies of Nowhere Hall left. Thank you so much to everyone who has pre-ordered the chapbook. Three copies!!! Scratch that, Nowhere Hall has SOLD OUT! I think I owe quite a few people a drink should I ever meet them.

WIP Wednesday - Heart...Break

The soundtrack for my novelette/novella/thing-of-undetermined-length is Once More with Feeling, you know, the Buffy musical. Of course you know--I've put a picture to the left. I think it's just an excuse to visit You Tube daily.

I've got a theory. Some kid is dreaming. And we're all stuck inside his wacky Broadway nightmare...

(Apologies, but sometimes you gotta belt out a song. Be grateful you're not in the room with me and a karaoke machine).

Barbed Wire Hearts (working title) currently stands at 10,376 words and is about a boy who loses his heart...

If made of glass, his heart would have splintered. If balloon like, it 'd burst. Where it once beat, it thudded, then dropped into his bowels waiting for him to shit it out.

...literally. I made poor Eddie wander around a forest with it dribbling down his inner leg. Although, I'm reserving my sorrow for Rose, she's just discovered the coroner's stitches on her chest. I don't think he did a very good job.

Works (Once) in Progress Wednesday

Hadley Rille Books are five years old and to celebrate they're hosting a contest and you could win an Amazon Kindle 3G. All you have to do is sign up for their newsletter. Plus if you buy any of their books direct from the publisher between now and December you get an extra entry for each book.

I just picked up 'Sweet Potato Pie and Other Surrealities' by Lawrence M. Shoen via Amazon - I know, I know, I lost out on my entry, but I don't suppose a future Hadley Rille author (that's me - yay) can or possibly should enter to win the Kindle. Oh, and I'm sure you'll agree that not many covers outclass Camille Alexa's 'Push of the Sky'.

And Hadley Rille are not the only independent publishers offering amazing deals at the moment. Morrigan Books are hosting a variety of sales this month - the current is for Dead Souls. I may already have that on my shelf. Ahem! And check out PS Publishing's FantasyCon releases sale - fantastic. Erm, I maybe have a story in that little lot. I've ordered myself Rio Youer's End Times, Gary Fry's The House of Canted Steps, Catastrophia, and The Company He Keeps (an extra copy for me to lick).

I fear my collection of wallet moths are going to starve.

WIP Wednesday - Red Pen Massacre

I typed the pretty words The End on Grim Glass Vein at the weekend and came to the conclusion, I'm a liar. It's not the end at all. It's never the end. In fact, I'm back at the beginning and boy this red pen is brutal. I swear, my manuscript is going to pay me back with several hundred paper cuts. Though I have to say...

I'm loving editing it. I'm averaging about a page an hour (seriously agonising over every word, in fact every character in every word), but that should speed up in about 15 pages. When I'm done, I'm going to give it another pass and see how I feel about it.

Gnaws fingernails.

On Sunday/Monday, I worked on the synopsis. I scribbled a few sentences about each paragraph and then whittled them down. I'm letting it stew. At the moment, I'm convinced it's good to go. At the moment, I'm wrong.*

*I don't admit that very often.

WIP Wednesday - The Google Issue

Things I have googled this week with regards to my rework in progress:

Fairies pulling buses
Buses circa 1918
Popular songs from The Great War
Catapult Trebuchet Slingshot
Train Funnel
1920s trains
When did Mackintosh coats first appear?


Things I have googled this week with regards to most fabulous idea that is brewing:

Steampunk Names
Wreckage Wings
Victoria Wren
Impossible Tower
Victorian Insects
Liverpool 1900

WIP Wednesday - Rejecting Headless Abba Dragons

What is Cate up to this fine October evening?

a) She fell down a dragon's mouth with some soldiers and is wondering what Alice would do?

b) She's trapped in You Tube hopping from Abba video to Abba video and frightened she's going to emerge with either sideburns or flares.

c) She's drowning under rejection letters, or would be if she'd bother to print them out.

d) She keeps flicking the head off her Sally (Nightmare Before Christmas) doll and staring at a crack in the wall.

e) All four.

WIP Wednesday - Guy with Freckles

The ego may have deflated a little since last Wednesday - it had to happen - and the writing may have been slow going (lazy writer syndrome with added excuses) but I still have positive vibes about Grim Glass Vein. So positive, I'm concerned that when I eventually sub it and the no's start coming in, I'm going to hit that beast named despair. Or rather, that beast named despair is going to hit me.

Draft Two currently lingers at 12,161 words and I hope to get another couple hundred words in before I switch off today. At the moment, the note I scrawled onto a post-it keeps distracting me. It reads: Who is the guy with the freckles?

He didn't exist until today and yet I can see him standing up and following Sydney into the school and goodness knows what happens next...

One of the boys, freckles stretching across his nose in a wide band, looked up. "Hey," he started. A girl nudged him in the ribs, and her leg outstretched in an attempt to trip Sydney up. She weaved her way between them and entered the school.

Unfortunately, everytime I read the freckle line I get an image of Adam Ant.

WIP Wednesday - The Ego Has Landed

I love the second draft of Grim Glass Vein - love, adore, 'tis a beautiful thing. Honest, this is the best thing I've ever written, I'm riding a tide of euphoria. See, wee Sydney agrees with me...

We're having so much fun and our ego's are growing so large and wonderful, in fact I have to be careful not to stand up too quickly or all the blood in my very large head sloshes about. Word count is 7,403 out of a projected 60,000. What am I saying? Projected? I am doing such a wonderful job, I can have any word count I like. I feel that good. Nothing can go wrong. Right?

I think I'll make a cup of tea, eat some cake, and plan my Nebula speech.

"Cate’s manuscript is so wonderful, I know I’m in safe hands... Ooh, I don’t think she’s noticed the swimming pool in the plot. I think I’ll take a dip while she isn’t looking."

WIP Wednesday - Comic Strip Presents

My poor characters are complaining...

... so I've started the second draft.

***Oh and you'll need to click on the pictures to make them nice, big and readable***

WIP Wednesday - Down to Earth

Stepped off the cliff, fell for a few days, started flapping my wings, began to soar, and now I'm nose down in the dirt. Welcome to WIP Wednesday.

Feeling like TypewriterWoman (a grey skinned superhero with a keyboard attached to her lap and fingers in constant motion), I set myself daily goals and decided that the first draft of Horrifiques would be done by August 31st. Then the holiday packed its bag and I found myself back at work and have done about 400 word since. I hope my sigh didn't blow the dust off your shoulders.

Horrifiques currently lurks at 9,125 words and at this line, "There was no sign that they had run that way, no swing to the double doors or trail of fake coupons." Yes, I did vomit that up.

And don't forget, if you want a signed 'The Sour Aftertaste of Olive Lemon' bookmark email me at - firemaiden @blueyonder.co.uk - removing the space. And thank you to everyone who bought a copy - someday someone will immortalise your name in stone.

WIP Wednesday - The Miracle Post.

A WIP Wednesday were I actually have some work in progess - it's a miracle.

I've spent the past fortnight finding every possible way to procrastinate and proving award-worthy - there should be a Stoker or a Nebula or an Olympic Medal dedicated to procrastination. Then yesterday, I superglued my butt to the chair (or maybe the consumption of candy floss and Edinburgh Rock secured it there for me) and forced myself to start work on 'Horrifiques' my next YA book and boy was it difficult. I'm at the 'I can't do this' stage which hopefully by next Wednesday will have switched to the 'this is fantastic, agents are going to pop out of my computer and force me to sign with them' stage, then of course it will go back downhill but at least I'll have a decent word count by then to keep me bouyant.

I hope.

Gulp!

So the current pathetic, a short story would be longer, word count is 2,485. I'm not going to bother working out the percentage because it's pants with added loons. Not much more to say, so I'll leave you with a teaser (which is actually the thought that sent the million other thoughts spinning).

"She should have died, that's how they noticed her, because they should have died too."

WIP Wednesday - Drawing Dolls

Well, surprise surprise, I haven't done any work on 'The Horrifiques' in a fortnight. Work on two books at once - did you really fall for that old line?

Draft no. 789 of 'The Drawing of Dolls' is progressing. Storming towards the end (and feeling very happy with myself), I decided to have a quick look through the early pages, figured I'd change the odd word, delete the odd adverb. Ahem! Check out exhibit A. I am officially announcing that WIP Wednesday will involve editing Dolls for the next twenty-seven years.

Exhibit A


The Drawing of Dolls
23,649 / 30,000 (78.83%)

WIP Wednesday

My second WIP Wednesday post, I guess it's lucky I finally have a WIP to write about. Or rather, why have one WIP when you can have two.

I've spent the past week (and most of the month) avoiding working on anything. Yesterday I sat down and decided to finally start work on my YA 'The Horrifiques'. I re-read the outline (impressed and left wondering why I'd delayed working on it), and then within the space of a day, I decided to pick-up my MG, 'Lucy Baxter & The Evil Emporium', again!!! I did this about a month ago - edited the manuscript, decided I hated it. I've given the manuscript a name change - The Drawing of Dolls - and I've started work on it hoping to turn it into a novella or maybe a short YA novel. Oh, and I've promised myself I will work on both (because I'm sure it's a delaying tactic to save the hard slog of writing a proper first draft).

So, here's where my WIP's stand - the estimated end figure is of course estimated:

The Horrifiques (YA) 1st Draft
1045 / 45,000 (2%)

The Drawing of Dolls
878 / 30,000 (3%)

Anyone else up for the WIP Wednesday challenge?

WIP Wednesday

I've noticed a theme running on several blogs known as WIP Wednesday, and of course I thought it a marvellous idea. A good W day to catch up on where my current projects stand or slumber (ahem!). First off, let me point out that I claim to have about 6 books I want to write, and then there are several places I need to write shorts for (ie it's almost July and I have nothing to send to Necrotic Tissue), so where do my WIP's stand at this moment. Please take a moment to enjoy the visual representation of my brain workings...




Ah! Sweet June, it's too warm and sunny to worry about writing. Eyes glance towards the window. Oh! It's dull and raining. Writer goes away to think up another, better excuse.