stillsostrange

While I don't like to get too carried away when externalizing my characters (e.g. That whole, oh, I don't write the stories, it's all the characters school of writing), it does sometimes feel like I'm having tiny conversations in my head. Tonight's went something like this:

ME: I need to cast the demon-king of Samarkan't. I think we need Clancy Brown. (Browses GIS)

ISYLLT: Clancy Brown is hot.

ME: Seriously. Possibly the hottest guy to ever run around in a skull hat. Also the tallest.

ISYLLT: And who's he playing again?

ME: The demon-king of whatever this Nongol city is.

ISYLLT: This calls for a necromancer.

ME: Yeah, probably. Too bad you're not in this book.

ISYLLT: What do you mean I'm not in this book?

ME: Not in it. This is not a Necromancer Chronicle. You're getting into trouble somewhere else until someone pays me for TNC #4.

ISYLLT: You can't have a plot that requires flirting with a hot demon-king and not have me. This is not a job for amateurs.

ME: I didn't say anything about flirting--

ISYLLT: You yourself said he was hot.

ME: I don't think that's the point...

ISYLLT: That's why you haven't sold book 4.

As of this morning, I've lost ten pounds since the dark time that was right after World Horror. This appears to translate to a noticeable improvement in my vinyasa. I can't tell if it's helping the climbing yet, because the past three weeks I've done core class or yoga before climbing, and that uses up most of my strength and stamina for a night.

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Only 300 words on the Nameless Mesofauxtamian Epic today, but that brings me to 2700 words, and all of Chapter 1 except for one awkward conversation and a bunch of bracket notes awaiting their true content. Chapter 2 is a katabasis, so that's something to look forward to. I look forward to a title even more.

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ArmadilloCon fixed my programing so I am no longer moderating. The sock puppet crisis has been averted. For now.

Which is a little like Death Race 2000, but with less Sylvester Stallone. And fewer cars.

In other words, I've signed on to the "book in five weeks" race with desperance, la_marquise_de_, and other persons of dubious sanity. Since I have no foolish notions about my own writing speed, my goal is not a book, but three chapters and a synopsis. And a title. I need one of those too.

I was asked about my process for beginning novels recently, and since I could use more somewhat coherent craft posts, you all get to hear about it. The question is relevant right now, as I'm just starting work on Oracle of Plagues.

Usually my novels accrete from several different sources and ideas, gathering mass until I have enough to work with. Images, characters, angry refutations, etc.

( The accretion of OoP )

Titles are important, too, even if it's only a working title. Oracle spent years being "The FauxMayan [redacted]-sporking Suestravaganza"--while entertaining, this didn't give me much to work with. Even if I have to call Oracle something else eventually, be it for thematic or marketing reasons, the title is enough to go forward with.

A pitch blurb is just as important as a title. If I can't write a blurb for a potential novel, I don't know enough about it yet. I can always revise it later, as needed.

( The blurb )

Now that I have a title and a blurb, I have to start worldbuilding. This is the fun part, usually. I have to create the Serpentine Kingdoms, their culture, the gods Ravana and her friends work for, etc. This will involve much googling and reading of Wikipedia, and probably digging through TrekEarth.com for awesome photos. I could start writing without the worldbuilding, but that leads to the hell of bracket notes. I also need to figure out who the antag is, and what the clashing goals are. That "rival priest" in the blurb isn't a real person yet. Right now I have a first paragraph written, but I can't get much farther until I can see the setting and know who the major players are.

Once I start writing, I'll need a soundtrack. Right now I don't have any songs for this book, and don't know what my themes will be. Possibly blood and snakes. (TDC had spies and revolution and water. TBP had angst and death and gothiness. KoD had spies and angst and deserts.)

Once I get all that, I'll probably have enough momentum to write the first 15k. Then I'll get stuck, because that's what always happens. Hopefully, that 15k will be solid enough to pitch the novel, and then we'll go from there.

And now I have to grovel through more CEM.

I opted out of freezing to death in the Irish Sea this morning, but did have a lovely walk in the rain. I've also written about 1200 words of the lesbian YA not-an-arcology-sexbot story which is probably no longer called "Needlepoint", which is due in the beginning of July and which reminds me pointedly of why I don't usually write SF; I have the entire plot mapped out, but every paragraph involves a new piece of worldbuilding, each one wrung like blood from a stone.

I've also rubbed enough rocks together to get a spark for a new novel project, tentatively titled A Wake of Queens. It has nothing resembling a plot yet, but there are generations of warrior queens, the Witch Queen of Angmar, and a snake god or two. Snakes are as good as a plot, right? And maybe an eldritch horror or three.

Recently I read a post by a writer of my acquaintance which said that she is reluctant to write books--in this context urban or contemporary fantasy--with female leads, for fear of not being taken seriously, or being tarred with the brush of Romance.

Reader, this makes me angry. I'm talking flames on the side of my face angry. And not even so much angry at the writer in question, who I like and whose work I enjoy, but at the fact that this is probably a valid concern on her part. nojojojo's epic fantasy books--and the books of many other female authors--have been called "Romance"*, presumably in a dismissive way, and presumably because a) the author is a woman, b) the main character is a woman, and c) someone has sex somewhere in the book. I'm guessing the only reason I haven't heard this said about The Necromancer Chronicles is because I don't have Google alerts turned on. To this fear and to the sexist fuckwits who engender it, I have only this to say:

Fuck. That. Noise.

My books are full of women. Fighters, spies, witches, academics, queens, starving artists, acrobats, whatever. They're cis, trans, lesbian, straight, bi, or asexual. They may have relationships or not, they many fall in love, fall out of love, seduce, betray, sacrifice, save the world, destroy the world, or not. Some of them may even end up happy, for a while. (But everyone dies alone.) Which is not to say that my male characters won't also do all those things, but the gender or sex of my protagonist has no fucking bearing whatsoever on the merit of my books.

My job is not to cater to sexist twits. My job is not to try to change their minds. My only job is to write the best book I'm capable of at any given moment, and by Cod the best book I can write will have women in it.

Some of them even have back tattoos.


*My deep and abiding hate-on for genre writers slagging on other genres is a rant for another day.

I just started a long rambly post about the perils of party separation and travel times, and after I'd typed two paragraphs I realized how I can avoid it. So carry on.

But while I'm here, has anyone smelled a camel recently? I'd imagine they're pungent and wooly, but specifics would be appreciated. The Austin zoo doesn't appear to have any, or I could go be a crazy person and ask to smell their animals.

The magic of LJ comes through again! I figured out my elephant. I also named my warrior priests--they ended up being the red pilgrims, but thanks for all the suggestions. Bonus thanks to desperance, because "the Risen" is excellent and I'll have to use it somewhere, and to lindensphinx, because I found another home for Illumined.

Now I have to insert the newly-discovered elephant into relevant scenes, and prepare for the elephant stampede that now gets to happen somewhere in the second part of the book. Okay, maybe that metaphor has run its course. Nonetheless, I look forward to the stampede.

Also, I feel that I should sing the praises of my publisher. Remember the cover art prints Orbit was giving away? Anna-my-UK-editor sent me one! I now have a gorgeous print of the yellow Bone Palace cover, which I've framed and will soon hang.

I just read saladinahmed's "Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela". This story is beautiful and beautifully written, and I wish to sing its praises across the internets.

Now all my ghouls are sad they don't have hooves.

Despite the best attempts of cedar (Juniperus ashei), I'm still alive. Kingdoms is due at the end of the month, so even if I don't post metrics, I'm writing every day. It will pretty much take a miracle to have a draft by the 31st, but I don't actively disbelieve in miracles, so who knows.

I've spent the past week rewriting the first few chapters, which is an exercise in frustration, but a necessary one. The character who'd been giving me the most trouble just got a sex-change, which seems to have made him (now her) more talkative. I also figured out what my antags are doing, which lets me turn the tension up a couple notches. (It was previously at zero notches, so this can only be a step in the right direction.) Now I just have to get everything in order and start knocking things down.