We’re about a third of the way through the second round of beta-ing for Blood Bound, so while JK is doing her thing, I am doing mine. And right now that means (besides working on The Superhero Diaries) I am trying to write a query letter.

A query letter sells your article, novel, short story, or other work to an agent or editor. You send a query letter to get a request to write a piece or to save you (and the editor or agent) the expense and hassle of dealing with a manuscript that isn’t wanted. Query letters are sales tools. If you’re trying for an assignment, then the letter tells how and why you will do an excellent job for the editor. If you’re trying to place a completed manuscript with a publisher or agent, then the letter describes the book and your worth as an author.

They say that the hard part comes first but to me it’s the opposite. Writing the novel was the easy part. :/ Before I can even get the whole thing down perfect, or even submit it to Absolute Write for critique, I have to actually complete it. Unlike with writing BB it’s less… instinctive? Intuitive? Easy? Whatever the case is, I have a much shorter space to write it, I have to sum it up but still make it catchy, and I have to make the agent want to actually read it.

I’m almost there with a first draft thankfully. Just got to fill in a blank space I have, round it off and a few little bits. Then I can have it hacked to pieces by the people of Absolute Write.

And once that is all done, and I am happy with the final product… then I can actually start contacting agents about my novel.

Complete at 80 000 words, BLOOD BOUND is a young adult urban fantasy novel about a girl, a boy, and a hotel for vampires.

Hee hee. I am still giggling over that.

Originally published at Working Title. You can comment here or there.

I started writing my first novel when I was thirteen. It was called Never Trust A Hybrid and it was a girl who discovered that her father wasn’t dead… he was undead. What was planned was a journey of self-discovery, acceptance of one’s self and role in life, and internal debate on the nature of good and evil and whether it is nature or nurture that shapes you.

Not bad for a thirteen year old, I think. Unfortunately my thirteen year old self did not have the dedication to see the story through and even if I did I suspect it wouldn’t be as good as Blood Bound is today. Eight or nine years was good for me in that respect.

However Never Trust A Hybrid is not lost: it still leaves traces of influence on Blood Bound. One character survived from Hybrid and now is firmly settled into the BB universe. He is mentioned throughout BB, makes his first appearance in the sequel and was last seen shaking his fist at the sun.

Of course, Athanasios has changed since Hybrid: he is no longer the protagonist’s father (Delia: “Thank God!). His name is no longer Marcus/Mars and he was no longer identified with the god of the same name (in fact, he’s gone slipping down the Roman social ladder, all the way down to “slave”). On the flipside, he is still seen by some as a stupid radical for changing the way things have been done for centuries. He still has a surprisingly warm and fatherly demenour. He still has a fondness for modern technology.

Characters and stories evolve within themselves as well as from older, deceased works. I first came up with the concept of The Superhero Diaries back in 2006. Since I resurrected the idea there have been a number of changes.

• The overall plot has changed, while the opening sequence is still very similar in events.
• In the 2006 version, Gaia was called “Diana”. Now she is “Georgie”.
• The German superhero (whose civilian name is) “Aylin” was called “Sabine”. Now Sabine is someone else, although connected to Aylin.
• “Diana” lived with her parents and two younger brothers, aged 7 and 10. “Georgie” lives with her mother, stepfather and twin stepbrothers (aged 13).

Many things remain the same as stories evolve but some things do change. I can see how my own writing has evolved, just as The Superhero Diaries has evolved from its 2006 idea into the 2009 draft. Characters change and grow, new ideas are added and entire planned scenes are dropped (I learned this in BB when I had to cut some scenes because they didn’t fit anymore - I am still sad that the vampire macarena scene between Charlie and Jared is not mentioned in-text now).

They evolve.

 
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In a shameless plus that is not related to evolution of stories etc. but is about growth in a way, some friends and I have just opened up Bibliocon, a forum for the discussion of YA fiction (and other types as well. :P). So if you’re interested, join! Help Bibliocon grow. Help it evolve.

Originally published at Working Title. You can comment here or there.

It’s been almost ten days since my last blog entry and yet I can’t think of anything substantial to write. I know I should write something - after all, it has been ten days - but I just can’t bring myself to do much.

I was going to blog about my trip to Napier, but I couldn’t drudge up the energy. You can see my photos taken on the trip, though.

I want to write a review of Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange, both by Melissa Marr but again… nothing happens.

It’s like all the sparks have gone out of my head for the moment.

I’ve had the same problem with writing The Superhero Diaries. I know exactly what comes next in the story - a pissing contest (not literally, just a “lay ‘em out and we’ll see whose is bigger” thing) between two Supes (over the catching of airplanes) and then the introduction to Georgie’s family. I’ve only just settled down the names of her stepbrothers (Callum and Paul) but her mother and stepfather keep eluding me. I kinda see “Steve” for him so that’ll probably stick. Her mum is still gone.

As you can imagine, that blows. I have entire scenes in my head waiting to go, all laid out but I can’t muster up the energy to sit down and type. I’m in my worst stage of procrastination.

I thought about writing a blog about job-hunting but what would I say? I applied to loads of places and got rejected. I am either over-qualified or under.

Basically life kind of sucks. And to make things even worse… my Pikachu gets wiped out by Lorelei’s Dewgong in one hit. And there’s only four levels between them.

Hmph.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Holy Blog Of Doom, Batman! I just totally realised I have not updated this since people stopped clapping and Tinkerbell died… You would not believe the fairy dust I have to clean up. I prostrate myself in sorrow and beg thy forgiveness..

I am totally exhausted with responding to fanmail, a ticking crocodile, just generally being a terrible burden to the secret service, my day seems to be a litany of stuff and giggles from lunchtime to midnight. I am plotting and planning. maybe tomorrow.

I will try to remember I promised you I will try to remember my blog password more often in future. Sorry! Don’t hold your breath though, you’re likely to turn blue..

 
As you might have guessed, I am a lazy blogger, just like Aisling, Sean, Britney and probably many more.

Seriously folks, I have been a little wiped lately. I went and saw Australia and I’ve been staying with a mate and watching DVDs. I’ve also been working on my next writing project, The Superhero Diaries. So I am up to something. Really.

My real last words are these: I am not dead yet but I need to go to bed… it’s almost midnight, and I’m nodding off in my chair.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Last year Crystal ran a challenge that was to read 28 books in 2008. While as of this writing I see no signs of a challenge of 29 books in 2009, I am going to undertake it on my own.

I’ve spent a little bit of time yesterday and today beating the crap out of BellaBiblio, Jem’s wonderful book cataloguing script. As well as wanting to change some fields around and make it work for movies as well as books, I also wanted it to work within a page created by Wordpress.

It turns out it wasn’t as hard as I thought it might be so that really gives me hope of writing a script some time this year - I still have no idea what I might actually make, though. Help?

Anyway, to see what I have done thanks to BellaBiblio, check out 29 Books in 2009 and 29 Movies in 2009.

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

It’s just gone midnight here in New Zealand, and that means it is now officially Christmas!

And as a gift to you, I offer this:

Celebrate! Celebrate!

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

Ah, the good old “where do you get your inspiration from?” question. I’m sure just about every writer has had that question asked of them at least once: I know I have.

As I wrote then, I get my inspiration from “everywhere and nowhere” or to take a more down to earth approach, I get it from everywhere around me. I get it from my daily life. Everything I see and hear gets absorbed from the sign I see on the street to a song on my iPod to a movie on TV. Everything gets tossed into the melting pot of my brain, and so another flavour is added to the imagination broth.

And sometimes, stuff comes bubbling to the surface.

Let’s start with Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (the film, not the book, as I saw the movie first). The most obvious way it has influenced my writing is that Daniel is a perfumer from the Georgian Era. I am grateful for this because it just adds a little bit of difference to him. The most common era to pick seems to be Victorian and I’m glad to be a little different in that respect.

Moving on to music I would like to thank Mr David Bowie for his inspiration. Not only is he mentioned as a music interest Delia and Daniel have in common (for reference, Daniel’s favourite songs include “Heroes”, “Ashes to Ashes” and “Changes”, they both like “As The World Falls Down”, Delia loves “Underground” and “Rebel Rebel” and Athanasios - the oft-mentioned, but yet to be seen vampire king - is more than happy to air guitar to “Suffragette City”) but he actually inspired a character - a vampire named Jared. He was originally supposed to be dressed more like the Goblin King his name closely resembles, but instead he came as a classic vampire (but with real fangs). He’s more of a Thin White Duke inspiration, looks-wise.

“When were you going to introduce me to this tasty little morsel?” asked a stranger, sidling up to Charlie.

He was like a mirror-image of Charlie, in the sense of left being right and everything else being opposite. Where Charlie wore black, this man wore white, and where Charlie’s hair was brown, deep and rich, his hair was gold, pale and sleek against his equally pale skin. He was very good-looking, although the slight delicacy of his features made me think of him as pretty rather than handsome. Like Charlie, his fangs were exposed, but I didn’t need to see those to know he was a vampire. He had to have been the friend from Salt Lake City Charlie had invited to the party.

Although his role in the actual text of Blood Bound is small, if I do get to write the sequels his role is expanded in book two (he’s actually the one who kicks off the mystery plot) as well as his importance in the backstory revealed.

And I suppose you could say musicals are another strong influence featured in my writing, Blood Bound especially. It’s obvious in the text that Delia loves to sing, and if she had her way she’d be singing on Broadway. She names her cat Mr. Mistoffelees, considers herself to be a bit like Belle from Beauty and the Beast (”a beauty but a funny girl”) and sings songs from shows to keep herself calm even as the situation turns terrifying.

Sometimes it’s not even influences, but I see my characters, my stories in other things. The main one that pops in my head is the colour schemes from Pushing Daisies (RIP). Like Ned, Daniel wears somber colours and is a little awkward in his own skin, meanwhile Chuck and Delia are bright, bubbly and colourful and bring that into their paramours’ lives.

While this entry barely touches the surface of what’s in my imagination pot, when people ask me where does my inspiration come from I can say, “Everywhere.”

Originally published at Working Title. You can comment here or there.

As you can probably see, I have changed the layout of Disdainful-Soul.net and yes, it is in response to some of the lovely suggestions made by the people of rev.iew.me. Since I have now got myself out of that slate blue rut I have been in for a while it’s now time to work on the content of the site.

I have added part two to the Handy Tools For Making A Website series, and there will be more to come. But right now I want to work on the downloads section. I have one SMF pretty much ready to go for download - I just want to make a few minor tweaks before release (and I’ll be editing the current one available too). I also want to add some more web templates.

All I need now is some inspiration. Anyone care to suggest some colourlovers palettes? Some stock images? Some brushes? Give me a push and I’ll roll down the hill.

And since Aisling did me a wonderful favour by making Working Title her link of the week, I am going to share the link love and link to Celestial Kisses, to help them on their way since they have just opened (and also, it’s a requirement to go into the draw to win a prize. Stuff looks great though).

Celestial Kisses bath and beauty products are handmade in small batches to ensure the highest quality. We use only the finest ingredients and our natural products contain no artificial preservatives, no rendered animal fat, no petroleum products, and no cheap hydrogenated oils.

We choose to make products that we wouldn’t hesitate to use ourselves, which means we prefer to use natural botanicals and pure essential oils to ensure a spa quality product you will love to use over and over.

Since I am a fan of Lush and other sites, this is my kind of thing. And to everyone else, spread the link love. Find a link, link it… and tada!

Originally published at Disdainful-Soul.net. You can comment here or there.

I HAVE A BA!

I submitted Working Title to rev.iew.me (a website reviewing community, run by Jem and with a lovely design by Jacky) and while so far the responses to the design and content have been very positive they have pointed out a few problems/things that can be tweaked.

• I am still in the final stages of adjusting the length of the pages when the content isn’t very long (see: domain) and removing sidebar bits on it. Thank you Wordpress loops.
• Speaking of loops, I shall be removing asides from the recent post sidebar post-it.
• I will be making all the sidebar post-its even - they were originally all uneven to fit in with the notebook thing, but now all except “categories” are even.
• I’ll be fixing the repeating background image of the notebook spirals.
• I’ll switch the FAQs and projects navigation tabs around. That will take a little bit of time as I’ll need to remake the post-its because of angles and colours.
• I’ll be fixing the input and textarea parts of my CSS to make them wider and fit in more with the overall theme of the layout.
• I am going to do some reorganising of some pages, adding some more content here and there.

As you can see, nothing too major will be going on, but just in case something does seem weird, or I do have maintainence mode up, you have been forewarned. I’ll return to a regular writing-related blog soon enough.

Originally published at Working Title. You can comment here or there.