Wednesday 10 October 2012

TAG! I'm it!

My fab friend Gill Hoffs invited me to participate in this fun blogging round robin game of tag!
It's great because it gets me blogging again sooner than I planned and it gets me thinking about my current project in the same way a reader might....well....what exactly makes my current project interesting? lets see!

Gill can be found here. GO! Read!!! She is FAB (honestly):
http://gillhoffs.wordpress.com/

Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing


What is the working title of your book?     
Harbinger or Death’s Door, can’t decide at this point.

Where did the idea come from for the book?
Sitting on the Museum Street library floor in Warrington Cheshire. I was reading Patrick Ness for the first time and totally immersed in this world he creates, when bam!  a load of WHAT IF questions popped up! Then the character of Rosa just jumped into my head, fully formed with all her gifts and faults, and the fact that she was displaced to this desperate situation.

What genre does your book fall under?    YA sci-fi/dystopian fantasy






Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?
Ohhhh, great question!!   Definitely NOT Kirsten heavy-breather Stewart. Maybe Emmy Rossum (a few years ago) as Rosie, but just bare faced with freckles and her hair plaited all messy. Evan…hmmm maybe Adam Brody, and Finn is definitely Zach Roerig. (Problem is, the fellas I find sexy are too old to be my characters ....Hugh Jackman or Robert Downy Jnr as late teens/ early twenty somethings???)

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?
 Orphaned teenagers stranded on a dying planet find a device with the power to renew the earth-but is it from God or science? Add how will they protect themselves from the enemy that stranded them there once they discover the truth? (sorry 2 sentences, go on, rap my knuckles)
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
Well, I have a book under consideration with a publisher at the minute so hoping they will want both of them! (are you listening universe?)

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
The first draft is currently 36k but it should be completed at the end of Nanovember! (National Novel Wtiing Month-www.nanowrimo.org/  )

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Arrrgggh no idea. It’s dystopian ,and fantasy so maybe lovers of Divergent or the Hunger Games might like, (or heaven forbid it would ever be that good, Patrick Ness) it but it is very different, and there are definitely no vampires.

Who or What inspired you to write this book?
Reading Patrick Ness- The Knife of Never Letting Go. I just fell in love with that book & the ones that followed, although mine is very different. It's more about the 'feel' and the idea of being young but still having power when a situation seems desperate or out of your control.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
 It has a teeny tiny teenage girl who can summon volcanoes, grow roses with her tears and who can either make it snow or start fires depending on who’s kissing her.

Oh! And read Patrick Ness- he's amazing. www.goodreads.com/author/show/370361.Patrick_Ness
 
So now it's the turn of my friends to answer these questions! Look out for them some time next week!
 
Zoe Sharp, fabulous crime writer of the Charlie Fox series, at Hardboiled Collective    http://hardboiledcollective.blogspot.co.uk/




Friday 5 October 2012


Have you ever heard that saying 'Be careful what you wish for?'


yeah, well...DON'T listen to it. Wish for things. Big things. Things you really want.


Then work your ass off to get them.


And when, IF and when, things start to look promising, relish every single minute of it, every little baby step towards the realisation of it, every little pat on the back that happens along the journey. Goals aren't just the END result, they are also the accumulation of knowledge, skills and experience that happens along way whilst you are busy chasing that 'thing' you want so much.

I've been fishing and had a nibble. Dropped a little dangling 15k worth of worms someone's way and they have decided to taste test the rest of the bait. It's ever so exciting because at the tender age of over 40 and under 50, it feels utterly delightful to have the small bit of validation that comes with this. Maybe all my scribbling time has not been a total waste, you know??

Well, not a waste at all really, as it's prevented me on many occasions from having to clean house, organise the dead batteries in the kitchen drawer according to size and colour, checking to see which pairs of trousers are too impossibly short for my boys to get away with any more...

so nibble away Mr. Fish. I think my worms are rather tasty little tid-bits, and I hope you do too.


---- ----- ---- ---- !!!!!!! ---- ---- ---- ----


well...here we are again, quickly ticking off days on our calendars until.....NOOOOOO!!!!  Not another year of NaNoWriMo!!!!!!


I have a game plan this year. I can type slightly faster now....35 or 40 wpm as opposed to last years pathetic offering of only 27 words a minute.

And....hold onto your suspenders ladies, I actually have a PLOT, the production of which required one of those 'no children were harmed during...' disclaimers. (my poor neglected kids and it's only going to get worse)

I am a notorious pantser, and I suffered greatly for it last year. so, this year is going to be vastly different.

I have a detailed plot, which, as we speak, I am trying to tailor into a calendared (okay I made that word up but it works) format that tells me day by day which chapter I will write and how it will fit into an already existing 36k worth of MS that is more shapeless  and unorganised than the near to bursting contents of my girdle ('magic knickers' for you younger readers).

I also am researching in preparation.....I need to understand: pioneer preparation, SAS training, creation theories, pandora mythology, a bit of interstellar warcraft and some spaceship capability shite. Oh. and what it might sound like if you were to stick your head in the ocean and hear/understand the sounds of all the living things in it. And that's just for starters.

I'm thinking that December will be yet another writing free zone this year. we'll all need it!