Build-up to a Fantastic Conference!

 Today I’m posting the first of a short series of blogs surrounding my attendance at the Rhemalda Publishing ‘Got Stories?’ conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on June 16^th 2012. It was one of the most enjoyable and rewarding experiences of my life so far, but more of that later.

 When I first learned of the conference from Rhemalda, my immediate thought was – “I have to be there!” My second thought was – “Can I afford to be there?” After all, it’s a long way from the UK to Utah, and it would incur a certain amount of expense. My third thought, however, (and this was the clincher) was – “Can I afford not to be there?” The answer to this turned out to be a resounding “No!” so the decision was made.

Much of my strong desire to attend the conference stemmed from a slight feeling of disconnect from Rhemalda and my fellow authors. I felt such a long way away from everything, being in the UK. This was silly, really, because the US is such a huge country and many of my fellow authors hadn’t had the opportunity to meet face to face with Rhett and Emmaline either. This conference would give those of us who could make it a wonderful chance to put actual people to the Facebook profiles, email messages, and grainy, intermittent Skype images that was all we’d had to work with so far. I knew I would forever regret it (and be extremely jealous of those who did attend!) if I didn’t manage to go.

After a conversation with my lovely husband Dave, who often travelled to the States on business in the past but rarely does so now, we agreed on a schedule for our visit. We have several sets of friends in the US, and as it would be silly not to include as many of them on this trip as we could, we decided to fly out the Sunday before the conference and spend a few days relaxing. It wasn’t easy as we had to organize our flights, hire cars, dates and times around when our friends could be free, but we finally achieved the juggling act. We settled on flying from London Heathrow (our nearest airport) into Houston, where we would stay with our first set of friends. Dave has often described Houston to me but I had never been there, so I was looking forward to seeing the place and where he used to work.

I am not a big fan of flying because I often suffer from motion-sickness. If I get it bad, it can affect me for two or three days, and I was worried I wouldn’t be able to enjoy our visits. But as we had decided to make the most of this US trip, and had booked some holiday after the conference as well as before it, we had also decided to fly out in more comfort than usual. Yes, we were going Business Class!!

The plane was a Boeing 777, and the Business Class end was even more comfortable than I had anticipated. I’ve never yet been able to sleep on a plane and the allure of fully-reclining seats was a strong one. I felt I was being cocooned in a little individual pod of comfort and once I settled myself in, I actually began to feel excited about being on a plane. Big change for me!

The 9 hour flight went extremely well. There was hardly any turbulence (which is usually what sets off my motion-sickness), the seat was ridiculously comfortable, the food and service were excellent, and the personal entertainment center had more TV shows, movies, music shows, and games than even a ten-year-old child could exhaust. Plus I had my Kindle, and had recently started reading Karen Amanda Hooper’s Tangled Tides. What more could I wish for?

We landed in hot and humid Houston (it was around 99°, whereas the UK had been about 16° and drizzly!) at around 1.30 pm. That’s 7 pm UK time. We collected our hire car, a black Ford Escape with thankfully efficient air-con, and drove to the district of Houston where our first set of friends lived.

We had already decided to try staying awake until 9 or 10 pm, so we could acclimatize as quickly as possible. Our friends helped enormously by providing us with a fabulous supper in their garden, although I only survived the temperature by sitting right next to, and sometimes actually inside, the spray from their garden sprinkler, and we retired to our very comfortable guest room feeling no more than slightly wearier than usual. I slept well although I did have minor anxieties, because I’d asked our friends if next day they would listen to and comment on the talk I intended to give at the conference: Fantasy World Building. I knew they’d be gentle with me, but I was still dreading how it might go.

Find out how it went in my next post. J 

THE TANGWYR HAS LANDED!

The Tangwyr Arrives!

 

Remember that post back in January? The one about the metal artist who sent us photos of a tangwyr he had created just from the picture on the front cover of King’s Envoy? Well, I am excited to announce that the creature did finally make its way to my house, and in time for my birthday!

Apologies to anyone who has already seen this on my Facebook page – but it’s such a fabulous thing, I just had to post it here too.
Yes – the tangwyr has landed. Its creator rang us up one day in early March to tell us that he had finished the sculpture, and that he would be very happy to come and install it for us. So we fixed a day, and he arrived with the creature in his truck – a truck that also carried the huge metal head of a horse. Good job it wasn’t a unicorn, or I would have had that off him, too!

Gorgeous horse-head sculpture

We had already decided where the tangwyr would go, and Dave helped assemble and steady the platform that would allow the artist to reach the relevant branch. He was able to carry the beast by himself, and it was installed quite simply by attaching it to the end of a long steel pole. It moves slightly in the wind, which I love because it gives the creature life.
The artist has lacquered the underneath of the tangwyr, but not its head and back. The back of it will continue to go a lovely rusty color, which matches well with the book cover, while its undersides will retain that gorgeous steel-blue of naked metal.
I simply adore it, and it sends shivers down my spine each time I see it. I still can’t believe this impressive creature came out of my head.
Now – if only Drum, Sullyan’s magnificent warhorse, would also turn up on my doorstep, my dreams would be fulfilled!



Coming in to land ...

TO PLAY, OR NOT TO PLAY?

The other day I was chatting with fellow writer Rachel Summerhill, when she asked a question that got me thinking. The subject of our conversation was my novel, King’s Envoy. Rachel had just finished it, and had told me she would post a review on Amazon and Goodreads. I was thrilled, of course. It is always lovely when someone takes the trouble to record what they like about a novel, and say how eagerly they are looking forward to the next book in the series. This is what we writers thrive on – the knowledge that others have taken as much out of a novel as we put into creating it. It’s not necessarily an ego thing (although it might be for some). What it’s really about is knowing you have made a bond, both physical and spiritual, with a complete stranger. That, to me, is still a very special feeling.

But that isn’t what got me thinking. In her email, Rachel also asked me various questions about the plot and the characters. Very interesting questions. She made some assumptions, based on what she’d read in King’s Envoy, about how the story might continue. They were questions I didn’t want to answer (sorry, Rachel!) because I didn’t want to spoil her enjoyment of books two and three. But they did get me thinking. They made me recall an earlier review I’d received, where the reviewer mentioned a feeling of the reader having been “played”.

At the time, I wasn’t sure whether this comment was a negative, a positive, or simply a statement. I didn’t really give it too much thought. Rachel’s plot questions brought it back into my mind and I began to wonder if any work of fiction can be created without the reader being played.

After all, isn’t that what mystery novels do? What thriller or murder novel would entertain so well if the reader wasn’t constantly being deceived, or pointed in the wrong direction? Even the gentlest of period romances have an element of playful misdirection . The heroine is going to marry the dashing hero – Oh no! He’s turned out to be a bounder, or worse, already married, and she’s left nursing a broken heart. Even Agatha Christie wouldn’t have sold half so many novels if the perpetrators of all those foul murders had been easy to spot, hiding behind the butler.

I will be honest. When I was writing my Artesan novels, this issue of deliberate misdirection was not uppermost in my mind. It was only once the series was finished that I realized it was, in essence, a mystery thriller. It came as a surprise to me – I thought I was writing an epic fantasy adventure! It just goes to show how important it is for a writer to read. So much can be absorbed simply by reading the work of the masters.

On Editing ... A Door Called Sally.

Some of my fellow Rhemalda authors have blogged recently on the subject of editing and, with the second book of my Artesans of Albia series, King’s Champion, nearing this process, I thought I would add my own thoughts.

Being a British author in an American publishing company brings its own unique set of circumstances when it comes to edits. As I am also a freelance editor, proofreader and writing mentor, I have experience of this process from both sides. Does it make having my own work edited easier or harder? The answer is that I don’t really know. No one likes to see their precious text covered with red, or have someone tell you that a certain scene doesn’t work, or that you have failed to spot a glaring typo in the sentence you’ve read a hundred times. Yet maybe I can take this process easier than some, because I have personal experience of trying to be diplomatic when dealing with other writers. I know that the process isn’t personal, and that my editor is trying to help me make my novel as clean and as good as it can be. And I do know how hard it is to spot your own mistakes! A case in point was when I first decided to design and have printed some King’s Envoy bookmarks and flyers. How many times did I check and recheck the wording on the files before I sent them to the printer? And how ticked off was I when they came back, and my mother instantly spotted the “h” missing from the word “publisher” and the “g” missing from the middle of “engaging”?

Very ticked off. Seriously – very!

So, if an experienced proofreader can still miss typos, a good, impartial editor is invaluable.

Yet there is leeway for discussion when your edits come back, especially if your novel, like mine, is set in a particular historical period.

My Artesans of Albia series is set within a completely fictional fantasy world, yet for inspiration I drew heavily on the English Medieval period. There are no machines in my novels, no guns or engines; people rely on horses for transport and swords, bows and knives for defense. The nobility live in fortified manors or castles, wealthier citizens in towns, the ordinary people in small villages. Health care is basic, with drugs being purely herbal, although procedures such as blood transfusions are just coming into use.

 Ok, you are thinking – what does this have to do with editing?

It all comes down to terminology.

If you follow a certain trade, you will use terms that most lay people will not understand. For instance, how many people today could name all the parts of a sword? How many of you know what a tang is, or a quillon? Yet a swordsmith or blacksmith would know these terms intimately. The same applies to the various sections of a castle – it’s no good someone telling you there’s a fire in the bailey if you run with a bucket of water to the keep.

This issue of long-forgotten, or specialized terms came up for me once the first round of King’s Envoy edits came back. Two in particular caused some confusion. The first was the word “midden”, and the second was the term “sally port”. For those of you who don’t know, the word “midden” means a dung heap. It can apply equally to what comes out of a horse’s stable or to the unusable leftovers from a kitchen. It is, quite simply, a pile of refuse. This is where the differences between UK English and US English come into play because although it’s an old word, I believe more UK readers would recognize the term than readers in the US. As it was not vitally important to the story, and I didn’t want to make my readers keep reaching for their dictionaries, I was quite happy to substitute this word and use “dung pile” instead.

However, the term “sally port” is a specialized term relating to castles and fortified manors. Simply put, a sally port is a small door either to the side of, or actually let into, the huge doors or gates leading into a fortified building. It would be used when a small number of people, on foot, wanted to enter or leave. The word “sally” can also mean a charge or sortie (as in battle) or to go forth, as in an excursion. The term is derived from the Latin “salire”, meaning “to leap”. (Who says fantasy novels can’t also be educational? J)

In this case, I felt justified in sticking to my guns and asking for the term to be kept in the novel. As the photographs show, I also managed to find a living example of a genuine sally port in the ruins of a small castle in Pembroke, Wales, UK.

So, although the editing process can often mean change, it can also be useful for highlighting what is important, or what needs to remain.

Expect Unusual Excitements!

You would be forgiven for thinking that having your first book published is the epitome of excitement, that it doesn’t get any better than that. And, in many ways, you’d be right. Before my Artesans of Albia series was accepted by Rhemalda, I spent many years believing nothing could top being offered a contract, and then seeing my very own creation, my book, displayed on a bookstore shelf. Don’t get me wrong – that was, and still is, one of the best moments of my life. But, of course, the excitement doesn’t end there.

There’s the entire exciting process before the book is ready for publication – editing, cover design, layout, etc – followed by reviews, a book launch and, hopefully, the thrill of fan mail. There’s a bit of stress involved there too, of course, but on the whole, the process is exciting, especially the nearer you get to completion. For some reason, I didn’t consider any of these things when I was dreaming my dream of publication. I guess I thought I wouldn’t have much involvement in the cover design and book layout stage; I imagined the publisher would have their own style and that I, as the author, would have little or no say in how the book looked. It’s one of the many perks of signing with a small press rather than a large, impersonal one – you get much more say in these important decisions, and it was my first unexpected excitement.

There have been others along the way and they will probably be subjects of other blog posts. But my latest excitement was the most unexpected of all, and I can still hardly believe it happened. It resulted from a casual stroll around an antiques centre following a nice walk with  my husband, Dave, back in the summer. The UK has many of these centres – they sell traditional antiques such as furniture, items of silver, old paintings, etc, but they also sell architectural salvage, such as old stone urns or statues from people’s gardens, as well as “kitchenalia” and jewelry. In fact, you can find almost anything. Outside this particular shop, mounted on the wall high above my head, as if it was flying, was the most gorgeous metal owl. Sculpted in rusted iron, it is, to me, a thing of incredible beauty. It was a bit pricey though, and we left the shop without buying it. Imagine my excitement when I found that Dave had bought it for me for Christmas! He is just so lovely (Dave, I mean. Well, and the owl too.)

After I had opened this wonderful present on Christmas Day, Dave proceeded to tell me the story that went with it. As a way of advertizing my book, both of our cars carry flyers in the window depicting the King’s Envoy cover. When Dave went to visit the workshop of the artist who made the owl, in order to collect mine, the artist saw my flyer. He was instantly drawn to the depiction of the tangwyr, the strange flying predator on the cover, and asked Dave all about it. He said he liked to create strange and wonderful creatures in metal and that my tangwyr would make an excellent sculpture. He said he might make one later in the year. In fact, he was so taken with the idea that he made his sculpture within two weeks, and sent Dave some photos of it. Because Dave didn’t want to tell me about the owl, he had to wait until Christmas to show me these incredible pictures. To say that I was amazed and excited would be a huge understatement! 

So it seems that being an author and having a book published can lead to all sorts of wonderful and exciting things. I feel so proud that my tangwyr creation, brought to life initially by the talented artist Eve Ventrue, should have led to its existence as a striking and beautiful work of the metal smith’s art. I simply have to have one, and have high hopes for my birthday in March. Watch out for another blog post then!

How Do You Find Inspiration?

One of the commonest questions fiction writers get asked, I think, is “where does your inspiration come from?” The simplest, and actually truest, answer is “everywhere”, yet that always sounds like a cop-out to me. In reality, inspiration CAN come from anywhere; from your everyday life, from the people around you. It hides within the events of your day, or maybe what you see on TV or read in the newspaper. It can spring out at you from something you overheard, some joke or snippet of gossip while you were in the coffee shop or having lunch with your friends. Creative people can recognise inspiration where others might only see the ordinary, or mundane.

Personally, I think that finding inspiration also depends on what type of genre you write in. If I was a romance writer, or a crime writer, I could find a wealth of inspiration on any news channel. Horror writers too, I’d imagine – far too often! But what if you’re like me, a fantasy writer? How does a writer who works in unfamiliar, created worlds find inspiration? Does it come purely from our own imagination or can it also be found in our everyday lives?

The answer, of course, is “yes, of course it can,” and just the other day I found a prime example of how inspiration works for me.

I am extremely fortunate to live in a particularly beautiful and rural part of North Hampshire in the UK. I am surrounded by farmland, by fields of crops, by hedges that change their colours depending on the season. Rabbits and hares, deer and pheasant run in the fields (not always a good thing when you own Lurchers, as I do!) and there are wide field margins around which the farmer permits us to walk. Our roads are country lanes and therefore fairly quiet, and the village is one of the prettiest around. It also contains some of the nicest people you could wish to meet.

This area is primarily a working, food-producing farm. Wheat, sesame, oilseed rape, grass for seed and hay, sheep, cattle and pigs can all be found in the fields. Tractors are a regular sight and they can churn up the lanes and field margins, especially at this time of year. Farmers by nature and profession are a practical lot, not given, you’d be excused for thinking, to flights of fancy. And yet, one day, I turned a corner of a field I often walk around and was confronted by the scene in the photo above. There, in the entrance to a mundane, muddy, working farmyard were these fabulous standing stones, appearing as if by magic (although I suspect by tractor) overnight. I was entranced. Such an unexpected sight immediately set my writing senses a-tingle – how could I fail to be inspired?

What gets your creative juices flowing? Has anyone else come across something so unexpected, it resulted in a piece of writing? I’d love to hear!

Take Your Opportunities Where You Can.

Recently, I attended the British Fantasy Society convention in Brighton, UK. I had never been to one before and I have to say that these things are not normally my cup of tea. I’m quite shy among lots of people I don’t know and I’m not good at starting up random conversations with strangers. Even when those strangers share a common interest, i.e fantasy novels. However, because King’s Envoy had so recently been launched, and because I’d had the excitement and acclaim of having a short story accepted for the Society’s 40^th Anniversary Anthology, ‘Full Fathom Forty’, it was too good an opportunity to miss. So, along with my husband, I went.

The convention was held over three days, Friday through to Sunday. Due to work and other commitments, we couldn’t go until the Saturday morning. This meant I missed being in the signing line up for Full Fathom Forty on the Friday afternoon, which was a shame. It would have given me the chance to meet my co-anthology-authors, and also the opportunity to speak to buyers of the anthology about King’s Envoy. Still, it couldn’t be helped.

Once we registered on the Saturday and collected our goodie bags full of free books and other yummy stuff, we planned our day. Christopher Paolini, author of the Inheritance Cycle, was being interviewed that morning and I thought it would be interesting to hear what sort of questions he was asked and how he handled them (just in case someone ever wanted to interview me like that!). The interview lasted around 45 minutes and it was quite interesting. I was slightly surprised to see how few people turned up to listen though – he was one of the major convention guests yet only about a third of the available seats were taken. The best bit for me was when he was asked a question concerning what he thought about the fantasy genre in general. His answer was that in his opinion, there was a lack of strong, credible female main characters in fantasy novels. My husband nudged me at this point and whispered that if Christopher Paolini wanted to see a really credible and strong female fantasy character, he ought to read MY books. I smiled and nodded – like THAT was ever going to happen. Imagine my surprise when, after audience questions and the interview broke up, my husband went up to Christopher and gave him a copy of King’s Envoy! To the guy’s credit, he actually looked interested and said he’d read the book when he could. I would never have had the guts to do that, but my husband is very used to conventions in his own business life and he’s very good at connecting with people.

That was the first good thing to happen at the convention. The second occurred when I was waiting to try and catch the eye of an agent who I knew would be attending the convention. This agent is known for representing fantasy authors and years ago, when I first began submitting King’s Envoy, she was very helpful to me. She was the first real publishing industry professional to give me any feedback on my work. She was very encouraging, and looked at my work on three separate occasions. Although she didn’t take me on, she did give me much helpful advice. As she was going to be at the convention, I thought it might be nice to introduce myself and thank her for all her help.

While I was waiting for her to come out of another meeting, I was approached by a guy who said, “I saw you in Christopher Paolini’s interview. Would you mind giving me your thoughts on how it went?” It turned out that he was working for Random House, Christopher’s publishers, and he was doing video interviews with people. I agreed to be interviewed and managed to get in a few good plugs for my book, including the one about strong female characters. That was a bonus I didn’t expect!

I then managed to catch the agent as she came out of her meeting and found that she was as nice as she had seemed from her emails. I think she was genuinely pleased that I’d taken the time to connect with her and thank her, and then she asked for a copy of my book! I hadn’t tried to plug it at all and I hadn’t shown it to her, so there was no pressure on her to ask for one. Her favorable reaction to the cover picture really pleased me and she seemed genuinely interested in reading the book. Who knows what could come of this? I’m not even sure I’m looking for an agent, but when opportunities present themselves like this, I believe in taking them. I also believe in thanking people who go out of their way to help me.

These three things all came about quite unexpectedly, and stemmed from me pushing myself to do something out of my comfort zone. The lesson here is that you should never think something isn’t worth doing, and you should take these opportunities where you can. Who knows where they might lead?