The Woman in Black

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I finally saw The Woman in Black with my sisters early Wednesday evening. I’d already done my share of review-reading beforehand, and I reread Susan Hill’s novel in preparation. I’m a sucker for classic ghost stories, as you know, and this was a great opportunity for me to scratch that itch, seeing as how it’s been a dog’s age since I last watched a really good haunted house film (The Orphanage, 2007). I also come from a family of ghost story fanatics, so watching The Woman in Black with my sisters was a definite plus.

I’m putting my review under a cut because it has major spoilers. Beware.

Continue reading →

Happy Birthday, Charles Dickens!

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Here’s the man to blame for starting my obsession with classic lit, historical fiction, historical fantasy, what have you. :)

Charles Dickens 200th Birthday Google Doodle

A Tale of Two Cities was the first Dickens novel I read when I was in high school, and I wouldn’t have even heard about it had I not stumbled across a movie adaptation of the book on TV. I remember not only being fascinated by the costumes but also developing a schoolgirl crush on the characters of both Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton. Unsurprisingly, they look alike, so you can’t really blame me. :D It wasn’t till I was in college, when I reread the novel with a more critical eye, when I realized that it was Sydney I should swoon over and not Darnay. Both times, I was a sobbing mess at the end of the novel.

A Tale of Two Cities Illustration by Ralph Bruce

To me the biggest influence that Dickens has in my own work has always been writing memorable characters. I know for a fact that I’m nowhere near his level of creativity and skill, but it’s definitely something I work hard to achieve, regardless of what story I write. Quirky characters, especially, are a bit difficult to create (they have to be unique and cockeyed enough to up the interest levels) and “maintain” throughout a novel-length work (they have to be consistent in their cockeyed-ness), but the final results are well worth all that grief. Again, I don’t think I’ve written any character that comes close to any of Dickens’, but the challenge is always there. And I’ve always considered that to be one of the most fun goals I give myself whenever I begin a new story.

Speaking of writing, I’m just about halfway through Dr. Morbid’s Castle of Blood (or Masks #6). The novel’s coming along pretty well, though I’m finding myself second-guessing this story’s plot more than I did with Mimi Attacks! The circumstances of Eric and the superheroes’ adventures aren’t the same; in this new book, they’re trapped, which means very limited action and setting. In Mimi Attacks!, their adventures are pretty much the standard supervillain-versus-superhero kind of thing. So there’s a bit of nervousness and occasional angst-ridden moments of writerly nail-biting throughout the writing process for Dr. Morbid, and I hope I’m able to pull this through without a hitch.

Releasing two Masks novels in a row earns me a break from writing contemporary fiction after Dr. Morbid, and I’ve been refining the story outline and notes that I scribbled in my writing journal for that French historical fantasy novel I talked about before. Following that, I need to turn my attention back to contemporary fantasy again, but not in the Masks universe. I’m still trying to find a new story (series, maybe) that would serve as a complement to Masks and maybe a replacement down the line when I get tired of writing about superheroes. I certainly can’t see myself writing about Eric for more than ten books, and in fact, I didn’t expect to go beyond five volumes overall. But in this series’ case, it’s good to simply go with the flow as inspiration dictates. If and when I write the final book, it’s not going to be an end-end, if you know what I mean. It’ll remain open-ended to show that Eric’s adventures are ongoing even after the curtain closes. I hate goodbyes, anyway. I’d rather have the gang continue the good fight and end the series that way.

And now I’m starting to bum myself out by thinking about it. One day at a time, dahlink. One day at a time.

Man, I Don’t Want to Move from My Chair

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I don’t feel like putting together a real blog post, so I’ll just share a video. If you’re a cyclist – specifically a roadie – you’ll appreciate the spot on humor in it.

I don’t know if urban cyclists have their own video, but I know that mountain bikers do. That said, I’m off to ride my bike for a bit and get some miles under my belt before the rain comes (goodie, goodie, weather reports say that there’ll be some rain next week!).

EDIT: I think Bradley Wiggins has the best tweets. Sorry, Lance.

On Yet Another Nostalgia Trip

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Lately I’ve been going through all the unread books in my Kindle, and I haven’t been in the mood to dive into any of them. I think I’ve about three unfinished novels that I’ve yet to get back to, but I’m just not feeling it. A day or two ago, I went on a shopping spree over at Smashwords, and while I’m thrilled to know that I’m set for the next three months as far as reading materials go, I’ve yet to touch any of the novels after reading the three short stories I bought.

Maybe I’m just burned out on the stuff I’ve been reading. Ever since Andy got me the Kindle for Christmas 2010, I’ve been eating up every book I bought, and they’ve all been stories released by small e-presses. Now I feel like I’m stagnating and need a change of scenery.

I’ve been staring wistfully at my bookshelves – the physical ones, that is – and eyeing all those novels I saved from my college days. Ann Radcliffe, Tobias Smollett, Daniel Defoe, George Eliot, Fanny Burney, etc. – I suddenly realize how much I miss reading those long, hefty volumes with the teeny-tiny text. I miss the language. I miss taking delight in seeing the difference between Georgian English and Victorian English. I miss 18th century epistolary fiction. I miss 19th century realistic fiction. I miss the sordid, bodice-rippery gothic fiction of the late 18th century. And, yep, I miss my upper-division and graduate English classes and those professors who were some of the most influential people in my life.

During my first year in college, my younger sister, who worked at Record Factory way back in the 1980s, gave me my first classical music cassette tape, and the pieces there pretty much defined my college days. I mean, sure, I loved alternative and post-punk music, but that was more associated with my social life, not academic life. My art professors played classical music while the students concentrated on our work, and they were the ones who solidified that association between classical music and academia. They were also the ones who got me into Gregorian Chants, which I’m aching to listen to, now that I just reminded myself about them.

The video above happens to be the same version of that specific movement from Telemann’s viola concerto that was in my cassette tape, and I was so excited to see it posted on Youtube. Listening to it not only brought back a lot of great memories from college, but also made me yearn all the more for those old books that are still with me. While I’m still trying to figure out how to clear out my physical library as I’ve got way too many books that I don’t need, I’m glad that I never got rid of those novels that were once required for my classes.

I think half or more than half of them are now available in e-book format, but I won’t convert. At this point, they’re more than just books from the good old days. They’re a part of my past – with a link that borders on spiritual – and I think it’s high time to give my Kindle a well-deserved break, crack some of those books open, and relive some great memories within those yellowed pages.

Here’s a Health to the Cow and to Her Long Tail

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This post’s subject header was taken from the “Gloucestershire Wassail”, which is a traditional English Christmas song. I spent part of my day earlier listening to traditional French holiday music in order to get myself worked up over my next historical fantasy novel. Nope, it doesn’t take place during the holidays, but there’ll be lots of snow in it – and for good reason. No spoilers, though.

Anyway, I just randomly latched on to that line because I couldn’t come up with one that’s more appropriate. Might as well liven things up around here by throwing you off.

The past several days, the indie publishing scene was suddenly all abuzz about social networks and marketing, and I’ll have to say that those blog posts couldn’t come at a better time. Susan Kiernan Lewis, Kristin Kathryn Rusch, and J.A. Konrath all talked about the ineffectiveness of social media when it comes to marketing one’s books. And what they say pretty much lines up with my thoughts about networking based on my own experiences, all of which convinced me to damn what “experts” say and stick to my blog and maybe Twitter for what I need.

Do I start to believe that selling your book has bollocks to do with social media?

Is it possible that the prevailing belief that having an online platform is essential to a book’s success is wrong? Are we all just the cool kids playing with the latest gadgets and wanting them to be essential and really they’re irrelevant? Is it really the author’s platform that’s important? Is that why YOU buy a book?

Isn’t it about the damn book? Read more

From a writer’s viewpoint, I’ve seen just how little effect social media have when it comes to bringing in sales. Yes, they work – to a point. And a lot of the results depend on many factors, all of which are already explored in those articles I linked to. My experience overall has been poor, regardless of where I go, and I know I’m not the only one who goes through this. Twitter is this world of infinite noise, where your tweet is only a drop in the proverbial bucket. The chances of people latching on to it and retweeting it is miniscule unless you’re being followed by hordes of faithful fans who hang on to your every word. Not so in my case. Even a link to a blog post here doesn’t get clicked on, but when I’m lucky, I might have one or two out of over 300 followers checking out what I have to say. Goodreads? Well – I left all my groups, deleted my blog, and just kept my account if only to be able to access Goodreads’ database and update it with new books.

I went through a bit of a crisis of sorts recently because of experiences I had over at Goodreads, and those articles pretty much hit me over the head with what’s so obvious. I really should be focusing more on writing and improving, not wasting time hobnobbing with everyone. Another aspect of that crisis involves the need to set firmer goals for myself where publishing’s concerned.

I wanted desperately to supplement my novels with short fiction, but I simply can’t do it, and it’s frustrating. Unless a filthy rich, distant relative ups and dies and decides to leave all his wealth to me, there’s just no way for me to free up the time to do what I really want to do, which is to focus on both long and short fiction. Then I went back and reassessed those short stories I contracted with Queerteen Press and saw that I even managed to fool myself there, though temporarily.

It might seem as though I’m über prolific, but I’m not. All eight of those short stories were already written between 2001 and around 2005. A few were published before, but I now have my rights back, and by and large, they all sat in my writing folder for years before I thought to do something with them. So, no – I didn’t start with a clean sheet of paper for each of those stories. Would I realistically be able to divide my time between new short fiction and new novels? Not with a day job, I can’t.

If I were to choose, I’d rather focus on novels, at least until I finally leave my day job behind. Pipe dream, that. The long and short of this is that I want to beef up my backlist in some way, and if I can’t manage a combination (my ideal), I think I’m better off focusing on one or the other. And since I’m a lot more comfortable writing longer stuff, I’ll stick to novels, and in order for me to achieve my writing goals for the year, social networks simply have no place in the grand scheme of things. I already took Twitter off my sidebar.

It’ll be interesting to see how things pan out with my short stories. At the moment, it’s way too early to tell, but I’ll definitely be keeping close tabs on them. Maybe what I’ll see will end up reshaping my goals, who knows?

Now Available: Out of the Depths (And Some Goodies)

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Heads up! My short story, “Out of the Depths”, is now available from Queerteen Press in e-book format (note: short stories are only available in e-book format). In brief, it’s a horror / gothic retelling of the “Pygmalion” myth.

Blurb: It has been a year since Konstancji’s lover passed away, but rather than move on with his life, Konstancji hires one young man after another to sit for him as he obsessively works on a statue. What’s apparent is the fact that each sitter dies and is replaced with a new one, his grieving family compensated generously.

What no one’s aware of, though, is the purpose of the statue, which is the means through which Konstancji hopes to bring his beloved back from the dead.

If you purchase directly from the publisher, you’ll receive a 20% discount. Go here to buy it as well as to read an excerpt if you want to get an idea of the piece’s tone and style.

And some extra bits of news!

     

“The Knight”, a short story due out in March, is now listed at Queerteen Press. It’s a retelling of the “St. George and the Dragon” legend, and you can read the story’s description and an excerpt over here. And then there’s Mimi Attacks!, the next book in the Masks series (this is book number five), which is all about superheroes, supervillains, crazed fangirls, and a sixteen-year-old boy who always ends up with the short end of the stick. Book blurb and excerpt can be found here. Since this is a novel, it’ll be available in both print and e-book formats.

There you have it! And if you purchase a copy of “Out of the Depths”, I hope you enjoy it. :) It’s the only horror story in the collection of short fiction that I’ve contracted with Queerteen Press.

And My Mad Scientist Days Are Over

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Well, that was quick. XD You see, I set aside this week for me to work on my “experiment” – yeah, the one I mentioned in my previous blog post. Mind you, I’ve been preparing stuff the past few days, even spending a lot of time turning things over and over in my head. Unfortunately picturing something and preparing the materials for it don’t necessarily mean an easy process or, in my case, transition.

I went all mad scientist with my writing, and look where it got me.

The long and short of all this is that I tried to write something mainstream. I was aiming for a novelette that I was going to self-publish, and you know what? I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t. Not only did it feel like I was disemboweling myself for material and inspiration (even with all the notes and rough story outline I have), I really hated everything I wrote down. Every word. Nothing clicked, nothing made sense, and it was pretty easy to see just how forced the story was.

I was completely, hopelessly out of my element, and it showed. I don’t want to go through with this. I can tell just from today’s horrible writing experience that this isn’t for me. So I’ll continue to specialize in genre fiction for LGBT teens, but I’m not complaining. It’s my niche, I’ve long settled down and grown deep roots in this market, I know my way around and find it pretty easy to come up with new stories, and it looks like I won’t be moving away anytime soon.

In fact, I already have a story outlined in my journal for a new historical fantasy novel that takes place in France. I’ll be working on it as soon as I’m done with Dr. Morbid’s Castle of Blood (or Masks #6).

Of course, one might insist that I should give mainstream fiction another shot, but I don’t work that way. The awfulness of today’s writing “frenzy” really gutted me on a lot of levels that it’s impossible for me to dismiss this as just a fluke. I’ve long learned to listen to intuition, and when it says, “NO!”, I know better than to second guess it. And today, it just about screamed a ginormous negative in my head, complete with about twenty exclamation points.

So, no. I’m not moving forward with my “experiment”, and while it’s a bummer that I wasted a day, I’m glad I at least gave it a shot. Another thing that I’m taking away from this is the fact that I feel a lot more confident and secure in my niche despite its smallness and relative obscurity, given what the status quo is in the LGBT YA market. From here, I need to focus on improving even more and, hopefully, help genre fiction for LGBT kids enjoy more exposure.