Quarterly Reading List

This is the first time I've been able to do a quarterly reading list, because I'm finally keeping track of the books I'm reading. Hooray!

1. SERAPHINA by Rachel Hartman

Beautiful writing, and one of the few series where I want to buy the next one. I'm looking forward to the adventure promised! (Please please please let it be an awesome adventure.)

2. THE GATHERING DARK by Leigh Bardugo (known as SMOKE AND BONE in the US)

Don't hate me. It was okay, but the hype for it was insane, and I just didn't love it as much as the rest of the world.

3. THE LOST WORLD by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Staggering amount of racist and sexist issues in this book. I'd only recommend it if you were able to look past those issues and read it for the adventure alone.

4. DEVINE INTERVENTION by Martha Brockenbrough

Cute, funny, light-hearted read, but I still haven't recovered from the ending.

5. OUT OF THE SILENT PLANET by C. S. Lewis

It was okay. Didn't leave as much of an impression as I was hoping, especially because I love love love the Narnia stories (except THE SILVER CHAIR, and let's just pretend that one doesn't exist).

6. TO THE GENTLEMAN IN THE BACK by Marissa Meyer (under the penname Alicia Blade)

If you were to ask me what my favourite story of all time is (published or unpublished), THE ANSWER IS THIS. It's on ff.net, but my best friend printed and bound it for me so I have a copy to read in bed. This is my sixth? seventh? reread. I'll never get sick of it. You too can enjoy the madness, giggles, and romance here.

7. SCARLET by Marissa Meyer

Yes, I read the Lunar Chronicles as her crit partner, but I always read them again in book form!

8. CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein

Read it. Just. Read it.

9. A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES by Deborah Harkness

Despite the similarities to TWILIGHT and the fact the possessiveness of vampires makes me queasy, I did enjoy this book.

10. YELLOWCAKE SPRINGS by Guy Salvidge

A book set in Western Australia about a community created around a nuclear reactor facility. As creepy as you expect it to be, and I loved the idea of Controlled Dreaming State! (But not the Controlled Waking State *cough* *runs away*)

11. ASYMMETRY by Thoraiya Dyer

Oh wow. Oh wow. One of the best short story collections I've ever read (up there with LOVE AND ROMANPUNK by Tansy Rayner Roberts). If you can snag a copy on your kindle, do it. I never wanted to leave the worlds Dyer created! Looking forward to reading more of her work.

Currently reading SPLASHDANCE SILVER by Tansy Rayner Roberts. A female pirate who's also a witch? YUSSSS.

As you can see, the list isn't huge. I haven't mentioned the few books I didn't finish. Also, I spent one and a half months writing instead of reading. Every spare moment felt like precious writing time at that stage, so I didn't pick up a book for a while. Taking that into consideration, I think I did well.

What are the best books you've read this year? (And don't talk about THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH, I'm still waiting for my bookstore to get their butts into gear, and I'm very mad about it.)

Another Draft Bites the Dust

Well, I've finished another draft. Huzzah! This time I've written an adult Urban Fantasy. While YA was my thing for a long while, I think it's time to accept the fact I can't get into a teenager's mind like I used to. Besides, I like writing about cocktails and fun things happening during work and all that stuff my life is made up of now.

Some stats for this draft:

Date started: 21st February 2013

Projected end date: 22nd April 2013

Actual end date: 26th March 2013 (Almost a month in advance!) (Um, I had more days off work than expected.)

Number of words: 98,343 (!)

Things that were neglected during the writing of this draft: Household chores, dog, housemate, work, boyfriend

Things that will no longer be neglected: See above

Things I can do now: Read, rewatch Sherlock, read, talk to my boyfriend, sleep, read

Next step: A quick read-through for obvious errors, then off to beta readers!

Okay, in case you haven't figure it out, I'm off to read for a bit, then get some actual sleep. Zzzz...

Interview (And Event! And Goodreads Giveaway!)

You might remember my interview with the amazing Tansy Rayner Roberts way back when. I'm pleased to announce that Tansy's new book, A TRIFLE DEAD, is coming out this Thursday, March 28th (under the pen name Livia Day)! Here's a little bit about the book:

Tabitha Darling has always had a dab hand for pastry and a knack for getting into trouble. Which was fine when she was a tearaway teen, but not so useful now she’s trying to run a hipster urban cafe, invent the perfect trendy dessert, and stop feeding the many (oh so unfashionable) policemen in her life.

When a dead muso is found in the flat upstairs, Tabitha does her best (honestly) not to interfere with the investigation, despite the cute Scottish blogger who keeps angling for her help. Her superpower is gossip, not solving murder mysteries, and those are totally not the same thing, right?

But as that strange death turns into a string of random crimes across the city of Hobart, Tabitha can’t shake the unsettling feeling that maybe, for once, it really is ALL ABOUT HER.

And maybe she’s figured out the deadly truth a trifle late…

Sounds awesome and delicious, right? Tansy was nice enough to answer some questions for me about A TRIFLE DEAD.

Why did culinary crime seem like the right genre for you after writing fantasy?

It's not really a question of after - the Cafe La Femme books have been in my head a long time, alongside the fantasy writing. Crime is my other literary love, and I've always wanted to do both. But as for the culinary side - that was kind of an accident I fell into, because my protagonist Tabitha cares so much about food (much as Velody from the Creature Court books cares about dressmaking) that the culinary side of the stories started to take over.

She likes food way more than murders, which is understandable, really. Food is far more delicious.

Which do you prefer writing: a light-hearted pace, such as in A TRIFLE DEAD, or the intricate worlds of your previous fantasy novels?

Again, it's not a choice. I find light-hearted first person stuff does write up a lot faster than the more serious, epic stuff - but in the case of A Trifle Dead that comes with a mystery plot and even (especially) a fun, light-hearted murder mystery needs a lot of hard work under the bonnet to make it look so effortless.

Fantasy plotting is WAY easier than crime, the longer the books the better, because you have a lot more choices in directions and misdirections to try. With a crime novel, especially a fairly short one, there's no stray castle to hide in for a chapter or two, no complicated political flashbacks, and so on.

Mostly I want to write what I'm most in the mood for reading, and I have been going through a bit of a crime spree in my reading material in recent years, but I haven't given up epic fantasy even a little bit.

Why did you decide on a Tasmanian setting?

The books grew out of the setting. I've lived in Hobart most of my life, so it's the best possible place I could set a contemporary murder mystery series. Crime tends to have a close relationship with its setting, and all my favourite detectives over the years are deeply embedded in their home town or city, whether that's Spenser's Boston, Falco's Ancient Rome, or Stephanie Plum's Trenton.

Cafe La Femme grew out of a real building in town that I've felt an attachment to since I was a kid, and while my much younger writer self was very self-conscious about writing stories set in the place where I live, it's something I really enjoy now, throwing in layers of history and in-jokes, but also trying to create a believable and compelling setting to people who have never been here before - which is harder than you might think!

I’ve got to ask it. Where did you get the name Xanthippe?

Xanthippe was the wife of Socrates! She is always portrayed as a bag, nagging scold of a wife which makes me think that she's had a bad rap over the years - my ears always prick up when I read about 'bad' women in the ancient sources. I do like to throw in favourite names from time to time and this one weirdly seemed to fit Zee.

I also wanted something that was Greek and started with an X or a Z, which doesn't leave you a LOT of choices really...

Is there anything else you’d like to promote? (Ahem, SPLASHDANCE SILVER.)

Why thank you for the offer! Fablecroft Publishing have started putting out new, revised e-editions of my very first fantasy novels, the Mocklore Chronicles. Splashdance Silver is up now, and will shortly be followed by Liquid Gold and then the previously-unpublished Ink Black Magic to finish up the trilogy.

These books are magical adventures with a similar light, comedic touch as A Trifle Dead, and it's very exciting to have them available again to readers.

Thanks, Tansy!

Back to A TRIFLE DEAD - I'm hosting the Perth book launch, so if you live in Western Australia and want to meet the publisher, taste the best trifles/macaroons/other desserts, and pick up a copy of the book, come visit us on Thursday! Information can be found here.

And, if you live in Australia, you can enter the Goodreads giveaway to win one of three copies. Good luck!

Guest Post!

I did a guest post over at A Backwards Story for A Week of Little Red in honour of Marissa Meyer's SCARLET release.

Want to know my thoughts on SCARLET's two schmexy heroes, Wolf and Thorne? Find out the strange and random comments I gave Marissa during my first beta reading of SCARLET.

You can find the guest post here.

Before You Start Your Story

You know how authors release novellas or shorts between novels in a series? I tried this "extras" technique out on two WiPs, and it's crazy how much it helped. The trick is to write them before you pen a word of your first draft.

All you need to do is take your protagonist back to a point in his or her life that will be important to the plot later. Doesn't have to be pivotal, as long as they discuss or think about it in the actual manuscript.

Get your pen/computer/typewriter out, and write the scene. You'll have a better understanding of your character and their motivations, as well as setting, the relationship with other characters, and backstory. Makes a huge difference.

Happy writing!

What I'm Up To

Happy 2013! I'm personally looking forward to this year. No reason. Just am.

I haven't been online much recently because I'm getting a new manuscript together in a rather unusual way.

Many of you might be having this problem - you're trying to write something and all you can think is agentagentagent or readerreaderreader or publishedpublishedpublished and you can't seem to get those chants out of your head. That's what happened to me. My work wasn't nearly as "me" as my initial writing, and it lost its fun, no matter what I tried. So I took the agent-reader-published craziness out of the equation and began writing in a notebook. I know. Old school, right?

But wait! There's more!

Years ago I bought a gorgeous bronze notebook with symbols and carvings on the cover. It looks like something out of a magic realm. I was waiting to use it for something special. I figured now was as good a time as any.

So what I'm doing - wait for it - is scribbling down the first draft of a scene in some cheap notebooks, then writing it out again in my bronze book. The rewrite includes perfecting my sentence structure and using stronger vocabulary. Focusing on the craft as well as getting the words down. Yes, it's madness. Yes, it takes twice as long. And this novel isn't going to be short, either. But querying is in the distant future using this method, so that's mostly gone from my mind. Now I only worry about the story.

The other reason I'm doing this is because I'm prone to rushing to finish manuscripts. And with wonderful contests and agent crits constantly up for grabs, it becomes sorely tempting to submit too early. (Hands up, come on, who else is guilty of this?)

By writing in notebooks, there's no possible chance for me to put my work into contests. I can concentrate on my story first and foremost, which, at this point in my writing life, is what I need to do.

Will this method get me back on track? I'll keep you posted.

So. Anyone else struggling with writing things more so than usual?

Guest Post!

I was lucky enough to win a guest post at Cupid's Literary Connection, and Cupid not only posted it, but very nicely raved about it (thanks, Cupid!).

You can find the post here.

And Suddenly - October

Yikes! When did October happen? It's school holidays here in Western Australia, so I've been plugging away at my new book, NaNo-style. I'm writing 6,000 words a day in the hopes I'll finish it before I have to go back to work and spend weekdays with little munchkins.

My latest project isn't my best work in terms of "homg this is literary genius let's put it in a museum and study it in English classrooms for all time." More, it's my best work in terms of "homg this book is so much fun I can tell the author loved writing every word and I can't stop laughing because these characters are AWESOME."

I was aiming for the first version with all my other manuscripts. Tell you a secret: I prefer the second way. Maybe it'll flop, and no agent will touch it lest they catch my crazy. Or, hey, maybe people will think my crazy is Pure. Genuis. (Shut up, I can dream.) Regardless, I'm still having more fun writing than I have in a very long time.

Pitch Friday!

Got a finished (unpublished) manuscript?

Well, this is for you! Australian publisher Twelfth Planet Press is having a Pitch Anything Friday for TODAY ONLY. It's open internationally - all you have to do is tweet your pitch and use the hashtag #12thPlanetPressPitch. It can be for any genre, any style. Fiction, nonfiction, art, craft, promotion, anything!

If you missed the window but still want to find out how to submit to Twelfth Planet Press, check the website.

And if you need help pitching using less than 140 characters, I did a post on how to do that here.

Good luck!

(Yet Another) Change to the Process

A few posts back I raved about how well plotting worked for me. I got the story written quickly, it was an adequate length, and there were few revisions needed. With such a successful experience, I figured plotting would be my best bet for my newest story. So last week I sat down and started brainstorming. I wrote copious notes for about five pages.

I didn't write anything else for six days. Not a word.

Yesterday, I'd had enough. I didn't know the minor details about my world yet. I didn't know much about the plot. I didn't have essays on my main characters (although I know a fair bit about where my minor characters come from). Despite all this, I opened up a Word document (I know, not even Scrivener!), and started writing.

I wrote a chapter. Four(ish) pages. Maybe not a huge amount, but it was a start, and it was darn better than how I was doing before.

So why didn't plotting work for me this time?

I thought about it, and the best answer I can give is this: Last WiP, it wasn't really a first draft. It was a rewrite. I wanted to take out the magical elements (which were essential to the plot in the original), and emphasise what had been the secondary plot.

And that made all the difference. Because I had a basic plot already written out. I had the setting, and the characters. Technically, that original story WAS my plotting.

I don't know much about this new story. At ALL. But maybe if I think of my first draft as my plotting, work out world-building and character development as I go, and write it relatively quickly, I can do up a proper plotting sheet and then open up Scrivener to do it properly.

I can't believe it's taken me so long to figure out that this is my process.

How about you? Have you worked out a process, or does it change for each book? Do you have another way of besides just "plotting" or "pantsing"?