StellarCon Schedule, and Another HM

This afternoon I head to StellarCon, my second convention in as many weekends. I have a fairly light schedule, which means more time to write! For anyone who cares, my schedule shapes up as follows:

Friday, 03/04/11

  • 7 p.m. – Politics and Religion in Sci-Fi and Fantasy (I’m moderating this one!)

Saturday, 03/05/11

  • 10 a.m. – Effective Use of POV in Fiction
  • 2 p.m. – Science VS. the Story
  • 4 p.m. – Tony Ruggiero’s Quick Write!

And that’s it. I’ll also be working at the Baen “Traveling Road Show,” which is always a hoot, and of course I’ll show up to provide moral support at some of my friends’ panels. (And, if history is any indicator, I’ll get recruited to participate in at least one of them.)

I haven’t decided what I’m going to write this weekend. Last weekend at MystiCon I concentrated on songwriting, which is a struggle for me but also a lot of fun.

And speaking of writing, the short story I sent to the Writers of the Future contest last quarter rated an “Honorable Mention.” (I’m actually pleased it did that well.) My WoTF tally now stands at 5 Honorable Mentions and 1 Semi-Finalist out of 12 stories judged. Hopefully they’ll like my 13th entry (sent last month) better!

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Codex Blog Tour: BRADLEY BEAULIEU (Part 2)

Continuing our discontinuous series of “blog tour” posts featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Today we conclude our interview with Bradley Beaulieu, author of The Winds of Khalakovo. Read yesterday’s interview here.


(Winds of Khalakovo cover art. Click to enlarge.)

___

What was the biggest surprise you got out of working on The Winds of Khalakovo? Is there anything in particular you hope your readers get out of it?

I suppose the biggest surprise is just how much of our world made it into the book. I was getting into politics just when I was getting into the thick of this book, and some of it crept in. The struggles in the Middle East certainly show up. And that was a surprise in a way. But on the other hand, how can it not? The events of our time affect me — they affect us all — so in some ways I imagine it’s impossible to keep those things out (assuming you’re writing a sweeping story with a lot of political implications).

I tried to be very careful not to pass judgment in the book, however. I don’t want my writing to be didactic. If it happens to illuminate some condition in our world and starts a discussion, I’m fine with that, but the story and the world come first. They are their own. They are not of our world, so I wanted them to be insular from it. By the same token (I know this sounds like I’m backtracking, but I’m really not!) if some of the issues we’re facing today came up in the story naturally, I didn’t try to quash them. I let them be and allowed them to play out as the world and politics and characters dictated.

It’s a fine line, I think. One of my favorite writers is Tim Powers, and I’ve heard him say at a few conventions that he never tries to say anything in his writing. He gets laughs with that line, and I know it’s impossible to take that sentiment literally, but I feel exactly like he does. I’m not trying to say anything with my novels. But just as certainly as I’m not consciously trying, those things that are important to me or that I’m trying to explore will naturally come up in the writing whether I want them to or not.

So this was probably the biggest surprise: the exploration of this saying nothing while saying things. It was a fun thought experiment to consider it more fully as I was writing and also while editing, just what the book was about and whether or not I had let my views come too front-and-center.

As for what I hope readers take from the novel, I would say this: that many of our conflicts — be they personal or political — come from a simple lack of understanding and an allowance of credibility to those who speak the loudest. I think it’s important to try, as much as we’re able, to see the other side of a conflict. Perhaps if we do, we might find that unscalable differences are not so difficult to climb after all. Though again, I wasn’t trying to say these things; I simply think that this is one of the themes that played throughout the novel.

What’s next for you … and what did you learn from The Winds of Khalakovo that you’re applying to it?

Well, I’m contracted for two more books. I’m in the final stages (thank goodness) of the first draft of Book 2, The Straits of Galahesh. Book 3 is bubbling around in my hindbrain now, but it’s starting to become more clear. I’m really looking forward to finishing these books, not because they wear on me (they don’t), but because I’m anxious to simply have the arc completed. Much as Tolkien considered The Lord of the Rings one book (and it was), I consider The Lays of Anuskaya one book, one story. It’ll be nice to have that wrapped up and out in the world.

Beyond this, I have a science-fantasy in mind, tentatively titled The Days of Dust and Ash. Think Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind meets The Coldfire Trilogy. I’m really excited about this story, because it’s a departure from what I’ve written in the past, though it will still be fantastic and wide in scope. The story focuses on a young girl who is summoned from the dust, a global consciousness that was created as the last great age of technology fell under a nanite plague.

One thing I’m certainly bringing to this next project is the notion of using artwork to advise the story. I’ve already collected a dozen or so sci-fi, ghostly images that have helped me to refine the “technology” of the dust — white magic, if you will — and ash — black magic. I’ll also use the fractal mapper again. The story will take place on a water-poor world, and mostly in salt flats, in particular. The ash — the force of evil — has trouble closing in on the pockets of the world that are covered in salt. But as the story opens, the ash is slowly exerting itself, turning back the tide against the small pockets of humanity, creating a pressure cooker for those that have somehow managed to remain alive through the global catastrophe.

___

The Winds of Khalakovo is due out in April 2011 from Night Shade Books.

Among inhospitable and unforgiving seas stands Khalakovo, a mountainous archipelago of seven islands, its prominent eyrie stretching a thousand feet into the sky. Serviced by windships bearing goods and dignitaries, Khalakovo’s eyrie stands at the crossroads of world trade. But all is not well in Khalakovo. Conflict has erupted between the ruling Landed, the indigenous Aramahn, and the fanatical Maharraht, and a wasting disease has grown rampant over the past decade. Now, Khalakovo is to play host to the Nine Dukes, a meeting which will weigh heavily upon Khalakovo’s future.

When an elemental spirit attacks an incoming windship, murdering the Grand Duke and his retinue, Prince Nikandr, heir to the scepter of Khalakovo, is tasked with finding the child prodigy believed to be behind the summoning. However, Nikandr discovers that the boy is an autistic savant who may hold the key to lifting the blight that has been sweeping the islands. Can the Dukes, thirsty for revenge, be held at bay? Can Khalakovo be saved? The elusive answer drifts upon the Winds of Khalakovo …


(Map of the region of Khalakovo. Click to enlarge.)

Learn more about Bradley and The Winds of Khalakovo on his web site, http://quillings.com/.

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Codex Blog Tour: BRADLEY BEAULIEU (Part 1)

Continuing our discontinuous series of “blog tour” posts featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Today our guest is Bradley Beaulieu, author of The Winds of Khalakovo, the first of three planned books in The Lays of Anuskaya series. In addition to being an L. Ron Hubbard Writers of the Future Award winner, Brad’s stories have appeared in various other publications, including Realms of Fantasy Magazine, Orson Scott Card’s Intergalactic Medicine Show, Writers of the Future 20, and several anthologies from DAW Books. His story, “In the Eyes of the Empress’s Cat,” was voted a Notable Story of 2006 in the Million Writers Award.


(Bradley Beaulieu.)

The story of how you got the idea for the book from looking at paintings in the art gallery is fantastic, but how long was it between first conceiving The Winds of Khalakovo and actually sitting down to write it?

When my wife and I went to the National Gallery in Edinburgh and saw all those great paintings, I decided that my next project (which eventually became The Winds of Khalakovo) would include the artwork I bought in postcard form. However, at that time I was working on another novel. I was finishing up a draft and knew that it would need at least one more to make it work. (As it turned out, that book went through at least four full drafts after my trip to the UK, but who’s counting?) I was also working heavily on short fiction at the time. I went to Orson Scott Card‘s Literary Bootcamp the summer following, and Clarion the summer following that. Suffice it to say that the story didn’t really get my full attention until around 2007, several years after spying the artwork. But that was great, actually. I was learning quite a lot about writing, which helped me to take on such a large project. Plus, the delay afforded my hindbrain to work on the story without the pressure of actually writing it. It was nice for the pressure to be off, so to speak, but of course the pressure was “on” in other pieces of fiction I was working on at the time.

One thing I haven’t really talked about much (yes, this is an exclusive!) is that I also used a piece of software to help me with the world building. The software is called Fractal Terrains, and it allows you to specify some basic parameters about a world — things like diameter, water cover, mountain height and ocean depth, the number of moons — and the software will then render a world for you. I played with the software a lot, altering the parameters and retrying until I had something I liked. I knew that I wanted a world with archipelagos. The rendering of the terrain and the channels beneath the ocean surface ended up advising me on the magic of the world. It also created the geo-political structure. I circled the island chains until I had what I wanted: a loose collection of archipelagos that depended upon one another for survival. These became the nine Duchies of the Grand Duchy of Anuskaya, and two of my main characters became a Prince of one duchy and a Princess of another. It also made sense to me that there might have been an indigenous people on these islands that were pushed out by the expansion of the Grand Duchy. And from this flowed both the Aramahn, the peaceful peoples that originally inhabited the islands, and the Maharraht, the warlike splinter of the Aramahn that wish to push the Grand Duchy from the shores of the islands at any cost.

So the time period in this case, about three years, really helped me to prepare for this book, because it’s big. I don’t think it would have turned out nearly as well if I had just launched into it after finding that artwork. I also wouldn’t have been as deep and complex. All in all, though I was anxious to get to the project, I’m glad life and other things got in the way.

How long did it take to complete The Winds of Khalakovo? How did the creative stages progress?

As I mentioned above, I hit the pause button from 2004 to 2007. Another bit of serendipity struck in terms of the timing for the initial draft. I went to Clarion in 2006 (the last of the Michigan Clarionites!) and my writing took a major leap forward. As anyone who goes to one of the longer writing workshops will tell you, it takes months, and even years, to grok everything that you only have a chance to learn on a surface-level at Clarion. So I’m glad I had wrapped up Clarion and written a few short stories afterward before launching into The Winds of Khalakovo.

But I digress … I started in earnest in 2007 and I finished the first readable draft (which was probably three full passes on the manuscript) by late 2008/early 2009. It was at this point (and it was perfect timing) that Sarah Kelly, with whom I’d attended Clarion, was firing up “Starry Heaven,” a writing workshop based on the Blue Heaven workshop format. I jumped at the chance, because I knew I needed more eyes on Winds. I went that summer and got great advice from the other attendees. I’m thoroughly convinced that it pushed the manuscript over the top. Might it have been picked up anyway? Maybe, but I wouldn’t have liked my chances, and in any case it’s a much better book for my having gone.

I took the rest of 2009 after the workshop and polished up the manuscript, and when I was attending World Fantasy that year in San Jose, I approached Jeremy Lassen at Night Shade Books. He agreed to take a look at it, and roughly four months later, I had an offer for the trilogy.


(Winds of Khalakovo cover art. Click to enlarge.)

What major obstacles did you have to overcome while working on The Winds of Khalakovo, and how did you overcome them?

Well, the biggest obstacle is life. I have a full time job working with enterprise software — installing, training, customizing. I know, I know — I can hear the yawns already — but it’s something I enjoy, and it does indeed pay the bills. Still, the day job certainly has a way of cutting into the writing time. As does having a wife, and two children, and family, and friends, and hobbies, and… Well, you get the idea.

It’s tough. It’s difficult to sit back in my chair at night when everyone’s gone to bed already and get my hour of writing in. But I’ve cultivated the practice, and although I would never call it easy, there is certainly a sense of pride after the session is over, even if the words weren’t particularly great. That’s largely how I do it. Sure, there was some motivation in looking at the big picture: having a book published someday. But that’s really hard to use over and over again for the day-to-day grind of writing. So I allow myself to feel the pride that comes with simply doing. Some day (hopefully soon) there will be other rewards, like readers telling you how much they liked your book, but I’ll always stick to the mantra of getting in my hour of writing each day, which generally yields me 1,000 words.

Note that I didn’t address what it’s like now, which is a whole other thing. I’m under contract for two books now, and so that’s incentive in and of itself. It helps in a way. It’s more pressure than I had before, sure, but it’s good pressure. It’s making me push myself to create words, but also to try to live up to what I’ve started in Book 1. I’ve laid down a contract with the reader in Book 1, and I understand that I have to live up to it in Books 2 and 3. I hope I can do it. I’m certainly trying. And that goal helps me to continue to make the time for writing while life continues around me, and to me, and through me.

___

Tomorrow we will conclude our conversation with Bradley. Meanwhile, you can read more about him and The Winds of Khalakovo on his web site, http://quillings.com/.

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Codex Blog Tour: GARETH D. JONES

The fourth installment in our discontinuous series of “blog tour” posts featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Today our guest is Gareth D. Jones, editor of The Immersion Book of Steampunk — an anthology of original stories due out in April from UK-based independent publisher Immersion Press. The Immersion Book of Steampunk covers the whole spectrum of steampunk from science fiction to fantasy, adventure to romance. Contributors to the anthology include veteran author Paul Di Filipo and steampunk authority GD Falksen.


(Gareth D. Jones. Courtesy of his Blogger profile. Click to enlarge.)

Gareth D. Jones is an environmental scientist from the UK who also writes stories and drinks lots of tea. His stories have appeared in 40 publications and 20 languages. He has recently completed his second novel and is also working on comic scripts and screenplays.

We appreciate Gareth taking time out to give us some insight into what it took to turn this anthology into reality.

___

How long was it between first conceiving The Immersion Book of Steampunk and getting down to work on it?

I’ve discovered over the past year that a lot of publishing opportunities are a result of serendipity as well as inspiration. I’ll fill you in on some related history that leads to how I ended up working on The Immersion Book of Steampunk. It’s a long and waffly story, I must warn you.

When my first story saw print in a UK small press magazine, I was most disappointed to find that nobody reviewed the magazine. I decided to rectify this by starting to review as many UK-based print and electronic ‘zines as I could, and later anthologies, which appeared on several different reviewing websites, most recently SF Crowsnest. I came in contact with several editors and publishers by doing this and later posted interviews with many of them on my website.

When I had an idea for a different anthology, I emailed a small press publisher to ask what he thought. He liked the concept and said he’d like to publish it if I edited it. This led to momentary panic as I had no idea where to start. That project has been put aside for a while but is still under development.

When I attended EasterCon, the British national SF convention, in April 2010, I met up with that publisher and several other editors and publishers. These meetings led to my 4th pro story sale, and I was offered the editorship of a new pro webzine and also asked to edit The Best of Murky Depths, which is due out soon. I also met Carmelo Rafala, whose name I recognized from Jupiter magazine, where several of my stories have appeared. Carmelo was launching the first title from Immersion Press, a new independent press. Soon afterwards, Carmelo asked me to edit The Immersion Book of Steampunk. After I’d bombarded Carmelo with numerous questions, I got stuck straight in to working on the anthology.

The Immersion Book of Steampunk is due to be released in just a few weeks, and as an anthology it went through a much different genesis than a novel. How did the stages of the project progress?

I love a bit of steampunk, but I’m not a great authority on the subject, so the first stage was to do some research, find out who are the hot names in steampunk, who are up-and-coming and which authors I’ve enjoyed recently also write steampunk. I wanted to include some well-known names, but the idea behind Immersion Press is also to showcase newer writers.

It’s an invitation-only anthology and I started sending out invites in June 2010. It’s difficult to know how many to invite, not knowing how long the stories are going to be, or how many will sign up. A couple had to pull out due to other commitments, but I had such a great list of possibilities that I had no trouble filling my quota and could easily have filled a much fatter volume. I had all the stories by my deadline of December, and edited each as it arrived, sending them back to the authors for approval and then proof-reading again. I collected bios from the authors and then struggled over my intro, handing the whole package over to Immersion Press by the end of the year.

What major obstacle did you have to overcome while working on The Immersion Book of Steampunk?

Too much choice of great authors.

What was the biggest surprise you got out of working on The Immersion Book of Steampunk? Is there anything in particular you hope your readers get out of the finished work?

What impressed me was that authors not only submitted stories for the anthology, but that most of them were written specifically for the anthology. I felt honoured to be the first to read these stories from authors across the globe. I also had the privilege of ‘discovering’ a new author and buying his very first published story.

I’m hoping that readers will enjoy the stories as much as I have, that they will appreciate the sense of fun and adventure in the broad variety of stories I’ve collected.

You mentioned the privilege of ‘discovering’ a new author. How did that work, since this was an invitation-only anthology? Is this another case of serendipity as well as inspiration?

Meanwhile I’d joined the Critters online writing workshop. Anatoly Belilovski had several short steampunk stories to be critted, so I sent my crit back with an invitation to submit the final version. It wasn’t until I’d accepted it that I found it this will be his first published story.

What did you learn from The Immersion Book of Steampunk that you’re applying (or will apply) to your next projects?

I’ve learned all of the questions that I need to ask of the publisher before I start, rather than randomly thinking of them throughout the project. I’ve gained much more confidence in editing too, and in approaching authors to start with. Everyone I corresponded with, even those who turned me down, which included multiple-best-selling-novelists, were very supportive.

I mentioned The Best of Murky Depths, which is a reprint e-anthology containing my choice of prose and graphic stories from the first 3 years of the fabulous Murky Depths magazine. I wrapped that up at almost the same time and it should be out soon. I’ve just finished my second novel too, so I’m now planning to get back to my original anthology idea, now that I have a much better idea of how to go about it. I also have great plans for a TV pilot screenplay and the outline for a series, and a graphic novel.

___

It sounds as if Gareth has more than enough to keep him busy, and we wish him the best of luck with all his projects!

For more information on Gareth D. Jones and The Immersion Book of Steampunk, visit his web site at http://www.garethdjones.co.uk/.

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MystiCon Schedule

Next weekend I’ll be at MystiCon in Roanoke, Virginia. I’m scheduled to participate on several panels:

Friday, 02/25

  • 8 p.m. – When SF Goes Wrong – SF’s Abuses of Real Science
  • 10 p.m. – From SF to US – Making It Real

Saturday, 02/26

  • 10 a.m. – Allen Wold’s Writing Workshop
  • 2 p.m. – Star Trek – Where To From Here?
  • 5 p.m. – When Is It Time to STOP

Sunday, 02/27

  • 10 a.m. – Allen Wold’s Writing Workshop (conclusion)
  • 11 a.m. – Stroking Your Editor’s Ego

I took Allen Wold‘s writing workshop at CapClave many years ago — I like to think I learned a little about writing better story openings — and I look forward to working it from the other side of the desk, as it were. And, of course, I look forward to spending time with my writing friends, and especially to learning from David Gerrold, the MystiCon Guest of Honor.

Should be a good weekend!

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Codex Blog Tour: ELAINE ISAAK

The third installment in our discontinuous series of “blog tour” posts featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Today our guest is Elaine Isaak, who dropped out of art school to found Curious Characters, designing original stuffed animals and small-scale sculptures, and to follow her bliss: writing. Elaine is the author of The Singer’s Crown (Eos, 2005), and sequels The Eunuch’s Heir (Eos, 2006) and The Bastard Queen (Swimming Kangaroo, 2010).


(The Bastard Queen cover art. Click to enlarge.)

Beloved bastard of an unloved king, Fiona will do anything to please her father, even studying magic though she never shows more than a spark of talent. But the plague that grips their city sends her to work with the dying, as enmity builds between the two peoples her father has brought together.

Struggling to find a cure for the plague, Fiona discovers that its emergence is no coincidence—and that her scorned suitor may be leading a conspiracy that will end in genocide. Even her father wears a false face, and every new tragedy reveals another secret set to shatter her life and her kingdom.

A mother of two, Elaine also enjoys rock climbing, taiko (Japanese drumming), weaving and exotic cooking — when she can scrape the time together.


(Elaine Isaak. Click to enlarge.)

Given all her many activities, we appreciate Elaine taking time out to answer our questions about how she turned her idea for The Bastard Queen into reality.

___

How long was it between first conceiving The Bastard Queen and actually working on it in earnest? What did you do in the interim?

This one had to wait. It’s the third in a generational series (that is, they build on each other, but they’re not a single story-arc). I had finished the first and second, but hadn’t sold them yet. While I had some fun ideas for a third, it seemed foolish to work more on something I wouldn’t be able to sell for a while. Instead, I had a dramatic idea for a different series which I started in the meantime, giving myself a second book to offer if my first series didn’t sell. Ultimately, it did, and I had the chance to write The Bastard Queen — it was definitely informed by some of the research I was doing for the new books.

How long did it take to complete The Bastard Queen? How did the work progress, from research to publication?

The research happened during the two year interval that it took to sell the first books, so I was able to write quickly once I hit the ground. I think it was about 9 months of writing and my revision. Publishing was another matter because of some difficulties with the original publisher, then a change of agent. I finally sold the book to a small press, but it took about another two years. They have a very professional approach to editing, and we worked on revision for another year, then production.

What major obstacle did you have to overcome while working on The Bastard Queen? How did you overcome it?

I changed publishers and agents, leaving this book sort of dangling in the breeze. After much consideration, focusing on my new series made more sense than trying to place this book with another big publisher. Naturally, that brought difficulties of its own, including a problem printing the covers that almost forced a delayed release (and would have ruined the promotional plan I had put in place).

Writing books, for me, is easy. The business of writing, not so much.

What was the biggest surprise you got out of working on The Bastard Queen, and what do you hope your readers get out of it?

This was the first time I had written a full-length novel with a female protagonist. For me, it was a process of overcoming my own perception that, well, boys have more fun. Especially after the more adventure-based The Eunuch’s Heir, it took me a little while to really inhabit Fiona and her concerns.

In general, I want to create worlds and societies that have more realistic complications than are often associated with fantasy fiction. I like to work in the ambiguous spaces where good guys might do bad things.

What’s your next project … and what did you learn from The Bastard Queen that you’re applying to it?

Interestingly, it’s sort of the other way around. The dark historical fantasy series I’ve recently sold is the one I started when I set aside The Bastard Queen. As a result, my “new” work actually informed this older one rather than the other way around. But I think exploring some of the issues of class and race that crop up in The Bastard Queen, and trying to achieve a stronger level of realism, will serve me well as I move ahead with the new books.

___

We’re glad we had this opportunity to showcase Elaine Isaak and her new book The Bastard Queen. And don’t forget about the two books ahead of it in the series:



(Cover art for The Singer’s Crown and The Eunuch’s Heir. Click to enlarge.)

Visit www.ElaineIsaak.com to read sample chapters of The Bastard Queen and find out why you do NOT want to be her hero.

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Codex Blog Tour: LEAH CYPESS

Continuing our discontinuous series of “blog tour” posts featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community ….

Today we talk (so to type) with Leah Cypess, author of Mistwood (published last year in hardcover and coming out in paperback in April).

Mistwood is the story of an ancient shapeshifter bound by a spell to protect the kings of a certain dynasty. And of a confused girl found in a forest who is told she is that ancient shapeshifter, even though she can’t remember anything about her past. Possibly they’re the same story … possibly not. She’ll have to figure it out while protecting the current prince, navigating his intrigue-filled court, and making sure nobody finds out that she has lost both her memory and her powers.


(Mistwood cover art. Click to enlarge.)

We appreciate Leah taking the time to answer our questions about how she turned her idea for Mistwoodinto reality.

___

When you first conceived of Mistwood, did you start working on it right away, or did you set the idea aside for a period of time?

I didn’t conceive of the book as a whole so much as I conceived of the first scene — an image of men riding into a misty forest in search of a supernatural creature. I started writing that first scene as soon as I thought of it, and continued working on the book pretty regularly after that (with “regularly” modified by the fact that I was in law school at the time).

Wow, law school and novel writing at the same time — how did that work? How long did it take to write the book and then to shop it around?

Since I was in law school when I started working on Mistwood, I had many interruptions along the way — including a revision request from an editor for a previous manuscript, and then working at a law firm, which was a rather large interruption.

I finished a basic first draft over three years, where “basic” means “scattered throughout various notebooks I used to bring with me on my morning commute.” After two years of working at a law firm, I quit and spent some time writing full-time; during the first few months of my full-time stint, I finished both Mistwood and another manuscript I had been working on.

After some thought, I decided to submit the other manuscript first, because it was about vampires and I was under the impression that vampires were hot. Turned out that by the time I started submitting, vampires were no longer hot, and I got a bunch of rejection letters saying, essentially, “Good story but we’re sick of vampires.”

One of those rejection letters, from an editor at Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins), was very detailed and included a request that I send her future manuscripts. So I sent her the query and first two chapters of Mistwood, a manuscript I hadn’t looked at closely for over a year. She sent a request for the full about a month later, and then emailed me two weeks after I sent it to say she was interested in the manuscript and wanted to show it to the other editors.

What major obstacle did you have to overcome while working on Mistwood, and how did you overcome it?

My biggest obstacle was that I wrote the book over the course of three years and in a very disjointed fashion. When I finally gathered together all the various pieces, it turned out I had written some scenes that completely contradicted each other, others that were out of order, and had written at least one scene twice! Piecing it all together in a way that made sense was rather headache-inducing. I could never have managed it without the help of critique groups (I sent it through Critters a total of four times!) who could point out things like, “Your heroine made the same shocking discovery twice,” or, “but she already knew that in Chapter Four!”

What was the biggest surprise you got out of working on this project? Is there anything in particular you hope your readers get out of the finished work?

As someone who worked for 15 years to get a novel published — and who had the experience of watching a manuscript be considered by a publisher for two years before being rejected! — I was very pleasantly surprised by how fast it happened once it happened. (Though publishing is still a very slow business, overall; that patience I acquired has come in handy more than once.)

The most important thing I want my readers to get out of any of my books is a great reading experience. But I also hope that experiencing my main character’s dilemma might help someone who is faced with difficult choices.

You’ve got a new novel coming out soon … what did you learn from Mistwoodthat you applied to it?

My new novel, Nightspell, a stand-alone companion novel to Mistwood, will be published in May 2011. The first draft of Nightspell was mostly written by the time I sold Mistwood, but I learned a lot from the revision process for Mistwood — mostly about keeping scenes tight and clarifying characters’ motivations — that I applied while revising Nightspell.


(Nightspell cover art. Click to enlarge.)

___

Leah’s 15-year odyssey to publication is a great example of perseverance, and an inspiration to those of us who are working and writing, and writing and working.

A little about Leah: She used to be a practicing attorney in New York City, and is now a full-time writer in Boston. She much prefers her current situation.


(Leah Cypess. Click to enlarge.)

Leah published her first short story (in Marion Zimmer Bradley’s Fantasy Magazine) while still in high school, and a mere 15 years later, finally sold her first novel. Mistwood was published by HarperCollins (Greenwillow) in 2010; Leah’s second novel, Nightspell, will be published in May 2011.

Mistwood‘s paperback release is April 26th, and Nightspell will be released in hardcover on May 31st.

For more information, visit Leah’s web site at http://www.leahcypess.com/.

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Codex Blog Tour: GARETH L. POWELL

Today we begin a discontinuous set of posts as part of a “blog tour” featuring fellow members of the Codex Writers online community.

Our first featured author is Gareth L. Powell, author of the novels The Recollection (forthcoming from Solaris Books) and Silversands, and the acclaimed short story collection The Last Reef. He is a regular contributor to the wonderful British SF magazine Interzone, and his work has appeared in a number of recent anthologies.

Gareth has given guest lectures on creative writing at Bath Spa University, and has written a series of non-fiction articles on science fiction for The Irish Times. In addition to Interzone, his work has been published in magazines all over the world, including: Hub, Best SF, Concept Sci-fi, Infinity Plus, Fiction, Ennea, Nowa Fantastyka, Aphelion, Quantum Muse, Byzarium, Phantastes, Bli Panika, Tank, Outshine, and Efimero.

Gareth’s short story “Ack-Ack Macaque” won the Interzone Readers’ Poll for best short story of 2007. He can be found online at www.garethlpowell.com.


(The Recollection cover art. Click to enlarge.)

Gareth’s new book, The Recollection, combines contemporary action with far-future “space opera”:

In modern-day London, failed artist Ed Rico is secretly in love with his brother’s wife, Alice. When his brother disappears on a London Underground escalator, Ed and Alice have to put aside their personal feelings in order to find him. Their quest reveals to them terrifying glimpses of alien worlds and the far future.

Meanwhile, 400 years in the future, Katherine Abdulov must travel to a remote planet in order to regain the trust of her influential family. The only person standing in her way is her former lover, Victor Luciano, the ruthless employee of a rival trading firm. And in the unforgiving depths of space, an ancient evil stirs…

I really appreciate Gareth taking the time to answer a few questions about how he took the idea for The Recollection and turned it into reality.

How long was it between first conceiving this project and actually starting to work on it in earnest?

I conceived the core idea of The Recollection in 2003, shortly after I finished writing my first book, Silversands. I wrote some plot and background notes, and then put the idea to one side. At that time, I hadn’t had anything published, and I figured it would be a lot easier to generate some interest in Silversands if I had a few magazine credits to my name; so I spent the next few years concentrating on short fiction.

I made my first sale to Interzone in 2006, and that led to the publication of my first short story collection The Last Reef in 2008. After that came out, I decided the time was right to take the lessons I’d learned from short fiction and apply them to a novel-length project; and so I dug out my old notes and started work. Along the way, Silversands was picked up by Pendragon Press and published last year.

How long did it take to complete the book? How did the stages progress, e.g., research, writing, editing, etc.?

Not long after I started writing the book, I was introduced Jon Oliver, the Editor-in-Chief of Solaris Books, at a convention. He agreed to take a look at it, so I sent him the first 50 pages and a 3000-word synopsis, on the strength of which he commissioned the novel. After that, it was simply a matter of finishing the book.

I finished the first draft at the end of October and sent it out to a handful of friends for their comments. Then, having made one or two slight changes based on their feedback, I delivered the manuscript to Jon in November.

What major obstacles did you have to overcome while working on The Recollection? How did you overcome it them?

The obstacles I had were the same as those faced by anyone with a young family, a mortgage and bills to pay. I had to squeeze my writing time between my day job and my parental responsibilities.

Luckily, I have a patient and understanding wife. With her encouragement, I took a part time job which allowed me a free day during the week to write while the kids were at school. I also wrote in the evenings after they were in bed.

I found that by trying to write every night, I soon got in a routine and the words started to flow. I didn’t worry too much about hitting a daily target; if the words came and were good, I was happy. Even if I only wrote a paragraph in an evening, I knew that the next day I might write two or three thousand words, so it all balanced out; and every sentence was a step closer to my goal.


(Gareth L. Powell. Click to enlarge.)

What was the biggest surprise you got out of working on The Recollection?

I was surprised at just how much fun this book was to write. By the time I was halfway through, I was flying along. The characters and plot had come alive, and I couldn’t wait to dive in each day and spend some more time in their company.

Most of the short fiction I’ve written has been set on Earth in the near-future, so it was great to be producing an epic widescreen space opera. As a kid, I always loved those sorts of books. I dug the hardware. So it was fantastic to have the chance to pour my love of the genre into a book of my own.

What’s your next project?

I have other novels up my sleeves. There may even be a sequel or two to The Recollection. I am also considering a second short story collection, bringing together a lot of the stories I’ve had published in magazines and anthologies over the last couple of years, since the release of The Last Reef.

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Speaking of anthologies, Gareth’s work is featured in a number of recent anthologies, including Shine (Solaris, 2010), Conflicts (NewCon Press, 2010), Dark Spires (Wizard’s Tower, 2010), 2020 Visions (M-Brane, 2010), and Future Bristol (Swimming Kangaroo, 2009).

The Recollection will be released on September 1st, 2011, but can be pre-ordered now on Amazon.

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Atlantis and Destiny

Ten years ago today — February 7, 2001 — the Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from Kennedy Space Center, on its way to the International Space Station.


(Destiny module being installed on the International Space Station. NASA image.)

STS-98 astronauts Kenneth D. Cockrell, Mark L. Polansky, Robert L. Curbeam, Thomas D. Jones, and Marsha S. Ivins transported the U.S. laboratory module “Destiny” and installed it on the ISS.

And, speaking of destiny, 20 years ago today the Salyut-7 space station was de-orbited after nearly nine years of operations. The main character in my story, “The Rocket Seamstress,”* bemoaned its loss:

Where are Salyut and Mir, Mother Russia’s glorious outposts? Rusting homes to fish instead of men.

May we one day have outposts in space that are not in any danger of falling from the sky.

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*The story appeared in Zahir in 2007, and is available now on Anthology Builder.

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