Because some pieces make for fantastic muse fuel for future stories. Like this one:
Or this one (okay, so it’s not a movie soundtrack, but a TV series theme):
And especially this:
Yeah, I get far more musically inspired for historical fantasy fiction than contemporary fiction. Go me. :D This blog post, by the way, is really more of a note to myself. I need to save and file away these videos for future use.
After a few weeks’ break due to the release of Mimi Attacks!, the next short story is finally available.
Baltasar grows up in a world of absolutes, of black and white, right and wrong. Just as his brothers and sisters who went before him, the boy is groomed to follow only one road, at the end of which is a life no different from his parents’ and grandparents’. His parents’ strict teachings and the naïveté that results, however, render him ignored and friendless, and Baltasar spends much time alone.
During one of his solitary wanderings in the countryside, he stumbles across an enchanted land and its melancholy, ageless ruler — a land full of color and magic, and a bond that defies everything he’s always known about the world. But what’s unusual, tempting, and exciting doesn’t always lead to a clearer path, and Baltasar is forced to choose between two wildly diverging worlds, with each exacting a high price.
“Erl-King” is a retelling of Goethe’s ballad by the same title.
Since this is a short story, not a novel, it’s only available in e-book format. If you purchase directly from the publisher, you’ll receive a 20% new release discount, which will be good for a limited time. You’ll also see an excerpt posted there, and if you do purchase the story, I hope you enjoy it!
The worst thing for me is starting a new story. Getting the words down is like cutting a vein open or flaying myself alive because, usually, while I have the story pretty much mapped out in my head, the opening scenes are always – always – so nebulous and elusive.
Right now I have two – count ‘em, two – freshly started drafts of a couple of stories. One is a French fairy tale, and the other is Helleville, which I attempted yesterday. I’ve been going back and forth between them, revising here and there, and largely fretting over whether or not I should move forward with both or with just one. I’m technically not a multi-tasker, and I don’t like having my attention divided between two or more unfinished stories. I hate working like that. It’s not normal for me. I have to decide this week which story to focus on all the way to the bitter end, and it’s not going to be easy, the way I vacillated like a spoiled and indecisive brat yesterday.
I’ll try to look at stuff tonight and see if something will make up my mind for me.
In the meantime, I’ve been drooling over Prometheus, which is Ridley Scott’s newest film and possibly a prequel to Alien.
I mean, holy shit, I’m salivating and pawing away at my laptop screen every time I read an article about it or see the trailer for the gazillionth time. :D Sure, it looks completely Hollywood-glossy by Alien standards, but I don’t think it’s really fair to compare two different films that were made decades apart as far as special effects technology’s concerned. Still – being a worshiper at the Blade Runner shrine, I’m really champing at the bit, and I’m planning to do a sci-fi marathon leading up to the theatrical release of Prometheus. I’d like to see the first two Alien(s) films plus Blade Runner and John Carpenter’s The Thing. All classics, which can never be surpassed by this generation’s crop of sci-fi and horror filmmakers.
Oh, drama! This week was the designated week for me to get started on a new story, which was technically Helleville. Unfortunately I got bogged down by my hand-wringing over novel-length stuff and ended up scrapping an entire writing day to all kinds of writerly existential angst. I got online, dug up articles and blog posts regarding the short fiction market, and in the end, I got into an email exchange with my publisher regarding her thoughts on the matter.
And that helped a lot, in addition to a quick chat I had with a writer of lesbian romance fiction who’s currently self-publishing fairy tale novellas.
Anyway, I decided to cut back on my novel-length fiction – at least indefinitely. My plan is to keep my Masks series going with novel sequels, of course, but that’s also because Eric’s universe is packed with so many possibilities as far as sequels go. And since there’s really no major story arc that strings all of the books together, I write them episodically – like a sitcom, pretty much.
But as far as new contemporary fantasy and especially historical fantasy stories are concerned, they’ll all be published as either novellas or novelettes, which will all be bundled together as single author anthologies following specific themes. I like the idea of having a huge backlist of shorter fiction from which readers can pick and choose (I sound like iTunes, don’t I, but that’s the idea) what they’d like to read without the burden of being stuck with other stories they don’t care for – or books that are too long for them, considering my writing style, which might not sit well with some readers. But if they want collections either in e-book or print, they also have that option.
I may be writing series novellas, but that’ll depend on how well the stories do with readers, i.e., if there’s enough of an audience to justify sequels. By and large, though, the shorter stories will all be linked thematically. Original fairy tales, ghost stories, and boarding school fantasy stories are lined up so far. More themes will pop up as I go along, but the beauty of writing these shorter pieces is the fact that I can also alternate between them and not get bogged down so much from writing in the same genre for too long, the same way I get burned out on marathon writing that’s required by novels.
Today I finally started writing the first novella (the story’s too elaborate for a novelette but not enough for a novel), which I’ve yet to title. It isn’t Helleville, and I did this to shock my system into moving again after several days of lazing about and resisting the idea of creating something. On that writing day that I wasted, I was really hell-bent on working on Helleville, but I couldn’t get a single word written. I figured then that, having written two contemporary novels in a row, I was just burned out on the genre. Now that I think about it some more, it could very well have been a combination of genre and story length in addition to my indecision.
And I’m glad I held off and talked to my publisher and that other writer. Maybe I just needed that bit of reassurance from people in the know after having devoted four years straight to nothing but novels. Letting go is always a hard thing for me; separation anxiety tends to hit me hard, even though the logic of the situation is so glaringly obvious. At any rate, I’m ready for it now, and I look forward to exploring uncharted territory.
Well, that’s been a pretty good break from the (publishing) rat race. :) I disappeared from the ‘net for a few days – or more like reduced my online time to an occasional tweet or simply reading blogs I subscribe to. This is a new month, and this week marks the beginning of the next writing project I have on my plate, which is Helleville.
I mentioned before that I decided against turning this into a series, and the main reason why is because sustaining a series really depends on how much of a loyal audience you win from the first book. I don’t know to what extent the numbers over at Goodreads are any indication of readers’ ongoing interest in the Masks series, but it’s pretty understandable (and logical as far as I’m concerned) if numbers taper as the series goes on.
Then again, maybe I’m just shooting myself in the foot by letting reader responses dictate the series. One argument against that runs along these lines: what if I get inspired with more stories in the same universe, with the same characters? Then I should go ahead and write them, yeah? Yeah.
The long and short of this is “I don’t know. Maybe I should just play it by ear and not fret over it so much.” That sounds reasonable enough. Fretting is in my blood, though, so as far as that’s concerned, it’s way, way easier said than done.
As for historical fantasy, I haven’t decided yet on how to publish future stories. I continue to vacillate between novels and novelettes (ideal length would be 15,000 words), the latter also leading to single author anthologies that are themed, but I find myself leaning more and more toward novels. I’m just more used to that length even though I started out publishing short stories. The good thing is that at least I don’t plan to get started on that French fairy tale till after I’m done with Helleville, and that’s largely because I find the holiday season very, very conducive to inspiration for historical fantasies. :D Yeah, I know, I’m bizarre that way. But at least that’ll give me enough time to mull things over some more.
At any rate, I’m back and refreshed and ready to tackle something new. I’m pretty excited about the new book even though I’ve yet to name the characters. That’s because when I take a break from writing, I really take a break from writing. Now it’s panic time.
