Shifting Gears (the Usual)

After writing 10K words on Doppelgänger, I had to rename the file, store it for possible later use, and start over. It happens. It sucks when it does, but I've learned not to fight it.

I couldn't make it work in a contemporary setting despite all of the notes I've amassed while working on the previous book. It's likely (most likely) a case of overthinking on my part because no matter what I did, I couldn't make events work in a contemporary setting while keeping things realistic within reason. 

And this is why I admire writers of contemporary fiction: I find that I keep resisting reality when I try, and I know it's not going to sit well with readers if none of my characters or cause-and-effect events are believable. My imagination takes flight, and when I go back and reread whatever sections I've written so far, my "modern day" side would point out places that won't work in the real world. 

Ignore the fact that since I write gothic horror, there'll be several things in the story that'll be highly implausible. However, what's happening is the way all those elements bleed into the rest of the scene / setting / characters. My plan was to make it something like "domestic gothic" or something along those lines, so the horror elements are supposed to be subtle and scattered. 

But I can't make it work because I'm me. 😑

So!

New file opened, new version started, and I'm back to square one with one chapter written. I'm sitting on it for the rest of the work week and checking it here and there to see if I'll still feel satisfied with the results, which I am, btw. So we're back to a historical fantasy with some subtle hints of magical elements worked into the story. I mean -- I love the idea of hexed lamps or hexed this and that (see: the Curiosities collection). You can say that I'm still mourning the loss of Eidolon and wishing I could do more for the series, but it is what it is, and I should keep moving forward. 

The story's the same as the original draft, but there are (of course) subtle tweaks because of the sharp change in setting. As with my other historical fantasy books, this one will be a mix of historical fiction and folklore, but (with any luck) it'll be closer to a straightforward historical.  

'Henning' (Omnibus) and a Love Letter

Henning was originally released as a two-volume series but is in an omnibus in its final edition. This book was one of my most sentimental projects, I'll have to say. One of my former co-workers had died from cancer -- this happened way after I left the company -- and he was, hands down, my favorite co-worker at that place. 

When I learned about his death, it took me a while to wrap my head around it considering the time gap between that and the last day we worked together. He was one of those people who left a lasting impression in me that I still cherish to this day. Herbert was one of the kindest and humblest people I've ever known, and he was a ridiculously talented artist to boot. 

A lot of his mannerisms found their way in the book, scattered among the characters. And as I write Doppelgänger, I'm finding myself leaning once again on the memory of my time working with him, this time inspired by the really tight bond I didn't realize I needed then. He was like the quiet and quirky but super cool uncle you always want to hang out with at a family reunion. He had so many great stories to tell, and I practically hung on to every word.

Tangents aside...

Another reason for the sentimental label I just gave this book is the fact that this was also a kind of a love letter to Berkeley, CA, where I worked for a good part of my years (frame shop just off Telegraph Avenue near UC Berkeley and then the art store just off Gilman Street and San Pablo Avenue). That said, I wrote the book sometime between those two jobs, which didn't really affect my memories of the fun times.

The most vivid and fondest memory I'll ever have about Berkeley involves the yearly holiday fair on Telegraph Avenue. There were also weekend booths popping up outside the holidays back then (not sure if they still do today), and I've bought a few things from local artists through the years. I've always loved strolling down the street, checking out booths and their one-of-a-kind merchandise, eating food from local restaurants, and just enjoying the hell out of myself. 

There are scenes in this book that take place in events like what I've described. Even writing those scenes were almost magical. 

Henning is currently 50% off in e-book format through the end of October. For a copy, go here to the book page and the list of online bookstores.  

'Arabesque' and the Cynic

This book was my first immersion in a satirical take on a fairy tale (or fairy tales in general). I was still in college and stumbled across a book required for an English class I wasn't taking and thought the blurb and some of the text I sampled looked pretty damned good, so I bought it.

And I was right. 

The book was Briar Rose by Robert Coover, an American writer who wrote a good number of fairy tale retellings with a postmodern angle. This book was a really short one, but its approach to reimagining the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale caught me completely off-guard once I started reading it.

It was, by far, the most cynical take on a beloved fairy tale I've ever read, and I'm glad I took that chance in the university bookstore. I loved the book. I loved its weirdness, its satire (not the gentler Horatian satire, either, but more along the lines of my preferred kind: Juvenalian like Jonathan Swift's kind of satire), and especially its non-linear storytelling.

Since the focus was on the sleeping princess, the book was a long immersion in the princess's dreams. And they were alternately dark, hypnotic, horrifying, and sensual. I've seen readers react to the book and criticize it as misogynistic, but to me it read more like an anti-fairy tale. No HEA except in dreams.

And the writing style, being postmodern, was distant and aloof -- cold, almost. I LOVED IT. The POV was one most readers nowadays loathe, which was the third person omniscient, so the perspective is wide-ranging and all-encompassing in order for the slightly bitter tone to make a full impact.

It was the main inspiration for my own attempt at writing a cynical take on Snow White while also weaving a number of other fairy tales and myths into the plot to create my own version of entrapment and manipulation. The difference between Arabesque and Briar Rose is that the princes do find their HEA in the end. 

I remember working with an editor back in the day after JMS Books accepted the manuscript, and I apparently confused him with the mix of fairy tale samples -- especially in the woodland scene. We went back and forth over those, and I ended up trimming a few things that I thought were too much while he suggested removing them entirely. 

But I didn't write them into the scene for no reason, though, and needed to show how disillusionment was beginning to grip Alarick after years of being taught happy endings for virtuous characters in those childhood tales. Also I wanted to maintain that dream-like feel that escalates inside the cottage. 

As the blurb notes, this book was all about homophobia, misogyny, and conversion therapy, which I explored via Roald's ordeal and even Ulrike's descent into madness via metaphors and analogies. Even symbolism, i.e., the strange flowers being hawked at the open air market.

I really enjoyed writing this book, and I'd love to write something like this again down the line (now that I'm much older and even more cynical). I guess this would make my only attempt at writing something postmodern-ish, and now I'm jonesing to get another book by Robert Coover (like Pricksongs and Descants). 

Arabesque is currently 50% off in e-book format through the end of October. For a copy, the book page is over yonder. 

'The Twilight Lover' Gallery Page Now Up (Plus Other Updates)

I'll be posting stuff about the books on sale this month next weekend. We're down the final stretch, and The Twilight Lover will be out in less than a month (whoop!). I just finalized the manuscript and hit publish on the print book, and now I can really focus on the newest WiP.

Anyway, I finally put together a gallery page for The Twilight Lover, and it's over here. 

I wasn't kidding when I said in that gallery page that this book was one of the most fun I've ever had, writing it. I hope readers enjoy it as much as I did as I dive back in and work through a darker book. 

I dumped my first attempt at writing the opening chapter for Doppelgänger as the epistolary approach wasn't working as well as I'd hoped. It's now being written in a more standard first-person narrative, and it's also a contemporary setting.  

Trying to write something modern that's also a lot closer to realism than my previous efforts has always been a challenge. I've never been one for realistic fiction. I tried with Icarus in Flight, Banshee, and The Glass Minstrel, and while I'm proud as all hell of those books, I'm not keen on repeating the experience. It's just not me. 

Doppelgänger will be closer to Banshee in treatment (both books are first person POV), but the fantasy / paranormal elements will be in the minority. At least I have those to lean on for a fuller expression of my brain's weird turns, and I expect to continue along these lines in future contemporary books. I did mention that there's a germ of an idea for a future story in the Nightshade universe, and it's starting to feel more and more likely. 

Now if THAT happens, I'll be squeezing it somewhere in the calendar as I'd like to see a more even balanced release schedule involving both historical fantasy and contemporary fantasy. Beyond A House of Profane Gods, there are no new stories percolating somewhere (not counting that one for the Nightshade plotbunny), but I'm actively scouring through images for potential story prompts. 

October Backlist Bonanza: 'Arabesque' and 'Henning'

And we begin the final quarter of the year, which also happens to be my favorite (the first quarter comes second, obvs) with the nights lengthening and the temperatures dropping. For this month, we've got two more books on the half-off throne:

ARABESQUE

An ambitious young princess, Ulrike, turns to the dark arts in order to become queen despite her younger sister's warnings of a fatal consequence to mortgaging her soul. She succeeds, yet Ulrike finds herself trapped in a hateful marriage, her mind slowly being devoured by her powers, while conceiving and giving birth to a boy.

Alarick -- "the bastard prince" -- becomes the court's favorite object of mockery because of the scandal of his conception, his mother's spiraling madness compounding his ordeal. When Alarick falls in love with a childhood friend, Roald von Thiessen, the added sin of an unnatural romance gets caught up in a tumultuous aristocratic environment that's rife with hypocrisy, cruelty, betrayal, and murder.

Forcibly separated from each other during a bloody uprising, Roald and Alarick become helplessly ensnared in nightmarish adventures designed to twist their characters and destroy their minds in the process. The young lovers fight for their souls and a way back to each other in a world weighed down by the forces of dark and light magic, and gods grapple with each other over mortal destinies.

Arabesque is more than a gothic, homoerotic retelling of the Snow White folktale. It is also a dark allegory exploring contemporary issues such as misogyny, homophobia, and conversion therapy.

and

HENNING

Book 1: The Hunted Prince: Young Henning Babkis has learned not to consider himself to be anything special. Ignored and taken for granted by his family, his education suffering as a result of their neglect, he nevertheless struggles to fit in and improve himself, though with unimpressive results. He's also learned not to expect anything more for himself, convinced that he's doomed to live his life in a deep closet, surrounded by people who don't care and who'd have given him a lot of grief if they were to find out he's gay.

Things come to a sudden head when Henning's fifteenth birthday rolls around. An unexpected and terrifying attack by a creature from another world shakes up his quiet life, and Norbert steps forward with remarkable and shocking revelations as to Henning's true identity. And from a boy who's grown up to think himself as a nobody, Henning discovers a previous life in a world called Wintergrave -- a world of magic, romance, and danger.

In the company of a motley bunch of former warriors, Henning must reclaim his former life and regain his powers in order to defeat an old threat. But in order to do that, he needs to convince a certain former lieutenant that the two of them were deeply bonded before and need to reform their connection now in order to get their powers back. The wrinkle? Ellery Thomas is in a happy relationship with another boy in this lifetime.

Book 2: Prince of Wintergrave: Being a prince in a past life yields no benefits in the present, Henning has quickly learned. His concerned housemates have made themselves his official, overbearing chaperones, Ellery appears to despise him, and Henning's limited movements slowly wear down his nerves. With his awakening process turning out to be more of a zombie-like stagger, the stakes rise inevitably as undead attacks not only increase in frequency, but also in danger levels.

Henning finds some relief in the company of Alan Scott -- a handsome, smart young man he meets in a store, who displays an earnest interest in Henning. He gradually tears Henning's heartbroken attention away from Ellery, offering him promises of happiness as can only be defined in a boy's first love.

In the meantime, danger now spills over to threaten innocent civilians as they get dragged into monster attacks, making it difficult for Henning and his companions to fight back while raising troubling questions about the walls between worlds being torn down by dark magic. It also reveals the effect of a soul bond on Henning and Ellery's awakening -- that is, each boy's awakening is affected by the other, and the mystery of how and why only get muddier.

As Henning and his companions scramble for answers, it's a mad race against time when things happen that make them suspect Varian of crossing over to their world, searching for Henning.

Both books are 50% off in e-book format through this month, and I'll be posting tidbits about each in the coming days.