Blog

Cover reveal – Hunter & Fox

Hold on there Pip, is probably what you are thinking. Did you just jump into the Tardis and head back to 2012?

Well, dear reader, we live in a brand new world of publishing, and since I am *ta DAH* a hybrid writer, I love using all kinds of publishing tools to keep the roof over our head.

I write for New York publishing houses, I jump into small press anthologies, and I produce my own work. Hybrid all the way!

In the dim dark past, when you got your rights back for your writing, there was not much else you could do with it. However, in these wonderful days of diversity and agility, we authors can take these books, spruce them up, adjust the price to how we want, give them new covers, and put them out ourselves.

Thus this brand new cover reveal for Hunter & Fox, with Kindred & Wings to follow. I have added into this edition a short story, Dragonsoul, which I wrote to delve into the history the Shifted Worlds. It’s a little bonus for those of you who might already have the novel.

The ebook is available now, and the print editions will follow once I have Kindred & Wings out. Once again Starla had done a wonderful job of giving me a beautiful cover. I just love the burnished effect.

So click here to buy the ebook, or if you use KU you can read the whole thing.

Young Adult and Me

This week is the cover reveal for The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh.

This is the first book Tee and I have written a specifically Young Adult story, and it is a little nerve wracking…after all it is some time since I was a YA myself…quite some time….

However, I do remember the stories I liked reading back thenâ€”even if there was no particular category for young adults in those days. I liked stories of people just enough like me to be able to connect with, but with fantastic situations around them.

I loved Ann McCaffrey’s Pern seriesâ€”growing up with dragons, what’s not to like. I loved Ender’s Game for what it taught me about being differentâ€”about how that was OK. I loved Wizard of Earthsea for all the trials and tribulations Sparrowhawk went through to reach his goalâ€”important messages for a child that wanted to become a writer. Not really that dissimilar to becoming an author actually…

I also remember what I didn’t like. Books that talked down to me. Books that were really instruction manuals for how children should grow up, and what rules they should follow. I tried reading books my mother had grown up with, and the only series I did enjoy were The Secret Seven and The Famous Five.

And that’s a bit of the secret; The Ministry Seven have always been equal parts The Baker Street Irregulars and the Famous Five. These days we don’t let our children spend all day on the moors catching criminals, but the orphans on the streets of a steampunk London had far more latitude.

So that’s my hope for Verity and the Seven. That they are fun adventures in the huge world of the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences. That they meet familiar faces but that they also bring something new to our world; the point of view of a young, intelligent girl, growing up, and figuring out all kinds of mysteries.

So please pre-order right now, and get ready for shenanigans with the Ministry Seven.

Verity Fitzroy and the Ministry Seven have the run of London, and that is the way they like it.
While she loses herself in machines and adventures, and the work they get from the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences, why her parents were killed remains a mystery she can’t leave alone.

When an archaeologist from the British Museum is kidnapped, and the only clue leads to an academy for young engineers, the Ministry sends the Seven in to investigate. What they will find within the walls of the country house, will lead Verity and the Seven down a dangerous path.

The Curse of the Silver Pharaoh

Our friend Old Yeller

In a recent Shared Desk, I talked with Tee Morris and Lauren Harris about quitting on a book. It’s a fun podcast about quite a hard decision. Have a listen if you haven’t already.

However I decided to go into it in bit more depth, since it is a big decision for an author. When should you put a novel away for just some time, and when should you can quits on it completely?

I have trunked many novels, oh so many novels. Usually there is something wrong with the story, and I know it, but can’t quite put my finger on it. So I tuck it away, find something else to work on and get back to it. A little distance from a project, letting it stew if you will, often lets my brain process it, and I can circle back around to it at a later date.

I have neverâ€”until nowâ€”realized that there is something more fundamentally wrong with it.

This story about Hollywood and Sumerian gods came to me about two years ago. I loved the concept, the characters popped right away, but even when I started writing it, I realized it was a problem child. No big panic. So I put it away as I have done with other books, and decided to come back to it later. And I did. More chapters came out, some of them forced, but I managed to get to about 58,000 words.

Not bad and a good portion of the way to my goal. However, once again it wasn’t feeling right. The characters and concept were still interesting, but the plot was wandering in and out, becoming something else. So away it went again. No problem it would sort itself out I told myself.

By the time I circled back to it again however, and I felt something different, but something familiar.

When I was a kid of about ten, I once got into a battle of wills with my parents over eating vegetablesâ€”like many kids do. I popped some broccoli in my mouth and immediately went to spit it out. At my grandparents table that wouldn’t do, I was told to finish it rather than spit it out. Defiantly, I kept chewing, and chewing, and chewing, and chewing. Let me tell you, broccoli does not get any taster the more you chew it. In fact it only becomes almost impossible to gag down. It is so bad I never forgot the sensation.

As it turned out, that was how this Hollywood story was feeling. I had chewed and chewed so much, that there was no taste in it. I had lost passion for it, and worse still I knew there was something deeply, deeply wrong with it.

The more I forced myself to write the less I liked it. I still loved the idea and the characters, but the plot was getting less and less tasty. That was when I realized I was going to have to get rid of the words. Unlike the broccoli I could actually spit it out.

That was a hard decision though. For a writer every word constitutes time and effort put forth, and even when I have cut out scenes, I have kept them. I’ve gone back, reused, reworked scenes. So throwing away 58,000 words is painful.

It’s something no writer wants to do, and I’ve never been in this position, but there it is. Rather than trunking the novel, this one had to be taken outside and go to the great word heaven. Yep, as said I had to Old Yeller the poor thing. Like that poor lad in the book and the movie, I have to take care of the fate of my own words.

Now, that is not to say I won’t write the book, since there are elements I still love, but I need to put some more time between that old, tastless creation, and something new.

Is this something I would recommend for everyone? No, this is a big red button of last resort, and something I wouldn’t recommend to a writer who has never finished a book before. My own first book was an apprentice piece, it wasn’t pretty, but I learned a lot from doing it. Most of all I had to finish that one to know that I could.

This Old Yeller situation I find myself in now is totally different. I know I can finish a book. I know I have the craft to make good stories. And just as conclusively I just know this one needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

If you are thinking of taking your book out like this, please think carefully. Look at it critically, try several times and ways to fix it. Avoid ditching words if you can. However there is a point where you have chewed too long, there is nothing left, and you are going to have to make a sacrifice.

I finally reached that point when I realized I was chasing my tail and wasting time writing words that didn’t work.

Sorry Old Yeller. I’ve got to move on and find new words. I’ll make a New Yeller some day and think of you.

Rebelling…on all the things

MOPO_FBpage

The Ghost Rebellion has now been released to the general public. Yep, it is out there in the wild.

After $21,837 raised in the Kickstarter, an epic photoshoot with Michael Ward of Go ForWard, wrestling words with Katie Bryski and Jennifer Melzer, recording ten hours of audio, editing it, and all the nervousness possible, book five has made it into the world.

I was musing the other day how the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences has truly had a weird, and peculiar journey. How it has been an organic thing, a wild unexpected ride, and a joyful thing (with a bunch of terror through in there). It started as an experimental podcast for pay (yep, that would have sunk like a lead balloon) and now is a roleplaying game, novel, short story thing.

So I can’t think of a better title for this fifth book. Not only is the whole adventure a rebellion at the whole way this book publishing thing is done, but also this book is all about rebels, the weirdos, the strange people that don’t fit in. Eliza and Wellington are both oddballs in their own way. Eliza is a woman who is an adrenalin junky, and loves explosions far too much. Wellington is a man brought up by a terrifying father, and who seeks shelter surrounded by words. They are weird and wonderful, and so is their world.

You see, the Ministry is a lot like the collection of wonderful eclectic people I have met on this journey of becoming a steampunk author. Dreamers, makers, people who have wild ideas and make them real. I never really thought about it before, but the Ministry is a collection of geeks who have made themselves a family over the five years since the first book come out.

Strangely, or maybe not that strangely, this rebel spirit fits in very well with the vibe of steampunk. The punk in steampunk is a rebel, going against the grain, doing things differently, and that is what this series has become.

And then there is the self-publishing rebellion that has been going on for the last few years, which we have joined full-tilt with this novel.

And looking ahead, only more rebellions await. It’s all exciting, hard work, but worth it. Who knows what will come after the dust has settled.

For now here are all the buying links and a little David Bowie as music for the revolution.

Print edition

Buy in print

Buy a signed copy direct from the authors

Ebook edition

Direct from the Ministry

In Love with the Imaginary

So right now, if you are on any kind of social media you will see the outrage about Captain America.

If you have somehow managed to avoid it, SPOILER ALERT…

….

…..

In the latest comic, Captain America is revealed to have been a Hydra agent this whole time. Yes, creators just made Cap a Nazi.

This has brought about an outpouring outrage from many, and a great deal of sighing and eye rolling from the ‘it’s just an imaginary character’ crowd.

Yes, Marvel owns their characters, and the copyright to everything he’s in…but he also is a beloved character that lots of people have embraced in deep ways that others can probably find very hard to understand.

Ever since Hercules performed his tasks, and Beowulf took on Grendel, people have been drawing strength and inspiration from imaginary characters. Maybe they recall Captain America’s moral integrity when being tested, or his determination when he was just a 90lb weakling trying to serve his country.

Stories after all from their beginnings around the camp fire, have been a way to learn about how to deal with a world set against us. Heroes like Beowulf and Grendel after all would not have persisted throughout so many generations if they didn’t have something deep and important to offer.

It isn’t ours to judge what people get out of characters. Even as writers our own creations, once they are out in the world, are absorbed into the readers in very deep ways. They cease to belong to us, and become personal to the reader. They develop meanings and importance to this wider group of people than we can ever have imagined. They teach things about perserverance, hope, and morals, and inspire those in others.

As a writer I cannot imagine a higher honour than someone I wrote about caring so much about a character that it becomes so beloved. It is hard as an author or an artist to grasp that sometimes. We love them, we create them, and sometimes it is hard to grasp that characters life meaning so much to a reader.

So when something like this Captain American furore breaks out, I actually like it, because it shows that humans are still invested in this imagined things. They still matter, no matter how much technology we surround ourselves with. The grubby, frightened human gathering around the campfire is still within us, looking for strength where ever they can find it.

I feel sure there is some switchero that Marvel is going to pullâ€”but in the end, that doesn’t really matter. The important bits of Captain America, reside in those that care about him passionately, and no matter what the latest writer working on this iteration says, he can’t touch that.

People have fallen in love with someone imaginary, and made him real. As a writer that is a beautiful thing. The rest is all noise.

Historical research for authors

Before becoming a full-time writer, I spent thirteen years working as a research librarian in the corporate environment. My favourite part of the job was hunting down answers to questions, and I have kept hold of that passion throughout my writing career.

If you notice a lot of my writing is involved in history, and even the fantasy series like the Books of the Order are based off of it. I have always been fascinated by people who lived in the past, what they experienced and what they thought. Also, for a writer looking at history, its politics and events. In the last episode of behind the scenes in Game of Thrones for example, they talked about basing a lot of the struggles against slavery, around how Abraham Lincoln tried to find a diplomatic solution with the South first.

So how does one go about researching? Well let’s dive in to how I approach it.

The Broad Brush

First I like to get a broad understanding of what was going on. So right now, I am in the midst of researching New York City in the Gilded Age. So first I hit Wikipedia…now don’t start foaming at the mouth.

If this was way back when I was at university, I would have gone to an encyclopedia to get a broad overview, but right here and now Wikipedia is just the same. Be aware that it is crowd-sourced information, so don’t just take it as gospel. However for broad sweeps it is a great way to jump in and get a lay of the lan.

Note down dates, and important people since these will the be tentpoles your story revolves around. Keep an eye out for little nuggets of information that fascinate you. My Iron Lily concept came from another project I was researching, when I came across information about strong-women of the nineteenth century. I believe my eye might have lit up from the inside…

Organize Now!

Organization is paramount now, here at the beginning, before you get buried in all sorts of interesting facts.

For first drafts I work in Scrivener, and I find this is a great way to keep all your notes organized. I make new folders for characters, places, and events.

Down to the Nitty Gritty

Now that I have a broad overview, I want to get down and dirty with the history. To get a real feel and texture for the place, I head to Pinterest. What…another indrawn breath? Seriously, if you are looking for images of the past, Pinterest is a great place. Also fashion, including historical fashion, is easy to find on Pinterest. Here is my board of pinned images for New York City as an example. I also tend to make my own Pins if I find anything offline.

If I am lucky and working in an appropriate timeline, I may even find things on Youtube. Working on the Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences series, I found some wonderful early footage of London street scenes. Moving images are pretty unlikely if your book is set in the Viking age though…sorry…

Now we start to get down into the nitty gritty. What we’ve been dealing with is all secondary sources, but if you are lucky enough to find them, you can’t get better than primary sources. For example, for the Iron Lily, I was hipped onto a book by Leanna Renee Hieber, called King’s Handbook of New York City – 1892. Bliss! If the area you are writing in is not as large and well documented, you can probably still find primary sources, like diaries or images at a local library or museum. Even if they are small they will be concentrated on your area. If you get a chance talk to someone at the museum. When I was working on Chasing the Bard I visited Shakespeare’s birthplace, and was able to clarify some facts about his father’s glove selling business.

Go There…virtually or otherwise

Finally, the last piece of research which can’t be found online, is going there. At the end of this month, I’ll be traveling to NYC. I’ve been there before, but for a couple of days I want to immerse myself in what remains of the Gilded Age. I plan on hitting the Musuem of New York City, but I would also like to stand in the places where my characters will go. Even seperated by time there is nothing to compare to going to a place. And hey, if you are making money off it, tax deduction! If you cannot realistically get to a place, then go online. Look at the streets if they have been mapped by Google. Search out travelers who have been there and read their blogs, and look at their images. We are so lucky to live in an age where we can access such information, and for a writer it is pretty heady stuff.

« Previous Page