The great satisfaction of writing new stories

I'm loving writing new stories. One of the things they don't warn you about is that most of the work of writing a book is actually rewriting, editing, polishing. Because I started several books at the same time they all needed reworking at the same time - oops. I got bogged down in edits. The Secrets of Time and Fate needed its final tweaking - just as important as the first structural edits - and just as time consuming. On the plus side, I really enjoyed sailing down the Mediterranean with my characters, feeling the waves under the keel, rowing in silence past Barbary slavers at midnight, exploring Brindisi and Crete and Corfu in the sixteenth century. The contemporary showdown was fun to write too, rounding off my characters' stories.

Now I'm writing new stuff, and for once I have a plan! Not a very comprehensive plan, admittedly, but I have the structure of a previous book to work from, and that's helping. My three principals come from a book I wrote years ago, and although the focus has changed they haven't, not very much. I've managed to find four writing days in the last week, and have already written 16k words. I think this intensive writing is possible because I do already know where the story is headed, I don't have to work out what happens next all the time. Assuming the book will be about 100k at the end of the first draft, I'm hoping to be at 25k by the end of the week - a quarter of the way. How satisfying is that? When I get stuck, I'm going back to the Lorina project, which is taking shape too. I do realise I'll fall into the doldrums at some point, but I'm enjoying myself in the meantime.

I've been asked to teach a novel writing workshop, which I'm working on. That should be fun! I also met a load of new writers at Okehampton, lovely people with a passion for writing. I'm looking forward to seeing what they come up with. Creative writing groups in North Devon are thriving.

Coming up for air

It's been such a long time since I blogged, which is unusual for me. But for the very best reason - I've been writing. 

The Secrets of Time and Fate comes out in June (Del Rey), I've completed the Twins book, and A Baby's Bones (and sequel) are polished up and ready to go out see see if anyone likes them. I like them which is my main thing - I like the main characters. I'm pretty happy with the cover, too. 

It occurs to me that if you love your characters, that creeps out in the writing. In my last book ('The Twins Book!) I found my antagonist really scary, and hope that's crept into the writing too. Locations too - as I start writing The Lorina Book (seriously, why can't I do titles?) I've found the cottage starting to colour my descriptions. We got the house in January and have been sorting out the damp, finding ways to dry it out and make it comfortable - but I write so much more away from the distractions of home. 

Meanwhile, we're selling our main house so we don't spend so much time travelling, and to downsize now we have room for the boys at Appledore. Wish us luck!

Space to breathe, space to work

The cottage is progressing gently, surveys have come back (not falling down), money has been collected and a million forms filled in. We will have a cottage by the sea hopefully by the end of December. the idea makes us both more imaginative, walking along the seafront makes us feel like children. This is a dream come true for us - who thought we would ever be able to afford to live in such a nice place, just for fun? OK, it's our entire pension fund as well - worth having anyway. 

Planning a space only nine feet wide is fun too -   it does make you think carefully about what can go where, how wide everything is. My parents live on a narrowboat so are experts in narrow living, nearly nine feet seems capacious beside a boat. Hopefully a lot of our spare stuff can go to the cottage, including the odd spare offspring. 

The Twins book is almost finished, I'm onto a third draft, just a run through to fix a big plot twist that didn't work. Going through the second draft I found a much better one. I think some writers struggle to do a first draft, think they can tidy up the language and the grammar a bit, and it's done. Maybe it is for some people, but I'm not one of them. Mine evolves between and during drafts. I know my characters so much better now, I know the sub-plots, I can see where a character came in and then just disappeared. More work, more time but I want to get it right.

Meanwhile, I'm making linocuts and these are drawing out strange poetry. All inspired by Appledore.

Octopus

The Secrets of Blood and Bone - the paperback!

The Secrets of Blood and Bone comes out in paperback today! Apart from being in the final stages of polishing book 3, The Secrets of Time and Fate for its release next year (can't wait, it's my favourite!) the book coming out in paperback is a treat. Hardbacks are lovely things but most readers want a paperback. I've been lucky to get some lovely reviews in America after the launch there, and hope we'll see a bit of feedback over here too!

Meanwhile, I've been engaging with bloggers and internet publishing sites in the US, answering questions and writing articles:

http://www.sffworld.com/2015/09/rebecca-alexander-interview/
http://whatever.scalzi.com/2015/09/03/the-big-idea-rebecca-armstrong/ (never mind the name!)
http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/2015/09/guest-post-rebecca-alexander-author-secrets-blood-bone-role-science-fantasy-writing/

It's been a long time coming, I'm thrilled to see it out and hopefully book 3 won't be too far behind. It was great fun to take the characters further, to resolve the whole story arc. Book 3 involves Kelley at sea in the pirate ridden, storm driven Mediterranean, Felix trying to uncover the science behind borrowed time with an unlikely ally from the Bathory legacy, and the key to longevity coded into obscure poems by Eliza Weston - Kelley's daughter -  as she struggles to outsmart Elizabeth Bathory.  And, of course, resolves what happened to Jack, last seen dropping off a bridge into the river... As other writers will tell you, trilogies are hard - where do you draw the line between writing a standalone book and keeping a longer story running through. I hope the whole series will be resolved at the end of book 3 although I have already started writing, for my own pleasure, book 4. The characters live in my head now, they are part of the family!

Meanwhile, I've been collaborating with a lot of local writers on an anthology of short fictions, poems and memoir, which also comes out today. More about that later!

Meanwhile I have to find mental space to get back to work on the Twins book, the second draft is pulling together really well, ready to go off to my agent. Although writing has seemed like crawling through treacle, this year I have written pretty well two whole books and planned a third. It's giving me lots of editing to do up to Christmas.

Once upon a time...

...I dreamed of a cottage by the sea. The sea feeds my imagination like nothing else, it fills me with energy, I even sleep better when I've been out on the beach. But our new house is tucked away by a big river, a few miles inland. Then I inherited some money, and if my son and I put our little funds together we could - almost - afford the shabbiest, tiniest, most story-book wreck of a cottage. It's pretty run down - my son is unimpressed by the rather basic kitchen and plumbing arrangements - but I love it. I love it so much a book is writing itself out of the house, even before we get the keys. Now we're balancing paperwork from the bank, the solicitors, the mortgage (we didn't quite have enough) all to buy a two-up, two-down writing retreat a few yards from the quayside at Appledore. You can hear the sea through the cracked single glazed windows. Sea breezes rocket down the open chimneys and fill the air with soot. The only toilet is outside in the yard. I love it.

It's been a strange two years. My first book was published in the same week my husband got the news that he had a virulent cancer and it had already started to spread. His reaction was that he wanted to move from my lovely house to this new town, which has been a sensible and grown up thing to do. But my imagination, somehow, didn't get packed. Writing books I started in 'the big house' was fine, but I was starting to worry that new ideas were just not coming. Well, that's all changed. Not only do I have my creative non-fiction project to work on, I am starting a new Sci-Fi book and writing this 'house' book. I'm looking forward to working on it in the house.

The place is very small, and completely cluttered, and we're all excited about ripping out carpets, rubbing down window frames and rewiring so it can at least be warm. Warm and dry. And sparsely furnished with the pieces that didn't fit in the new house that I miss. The aim is to create a writing retreat to give me somewhere to de-stress, and perhaps let it out to fellow creatives in time. the whole loft is a big studio space, lit by two roof windows, one facing south and one north, looking over the roofs to the estuary beyond. Lovely. It's a bit of a shame you can only get there climbing up a ladder like a bookcase. Maybe we'll have enough money after the rewire for some proper stairs.

Book 2 has come out in the states, and I'm thrilled about it. It even looks gorgeous, I love the cover.

In creative chaos

I'm up to my neck in creative projects at the moment which is - mostly - Yay! but slightly ARGHHH as well. I sit down to work and a dozen projects claim my attention. Grant applications, job applications, marking, teaching workshops, two books almost finished, promotion, a legacy to organise from my mother-in-law's death, an investment property to (maybe) buy... the list goes on (and on). The problem is the sheer number of choices to be made. Not to mention all the kids' stuff and normal family stuff. I'm looking forward to October when it all calms down, books will be out, paperwork will be done, decisions made, kids back at college/university. 

We wanted to make a sensible investment by buying a nice little house around the corner. Since then, information has come to light that the shop next door is going to become three flats - all of whom are going to want to share the property's parking space - which comes with the property but I don't want to spend the rest of my life asking people to move their cars for the benefit of our tenant. Anyway, it seemed like a very safe option, and part of me wants something a bit more exciting. I have just spent half an hour speculating on buying  railway carriage by the sea...

The Lorina Bulwer project is marching on whatever else I think about, the words just fall onto the page in capitals, partly influenced by August, when my daughter died after her final illness. I'm just so glad she died at home, but the horrible rawness of that time stays with me, mostly because I can't think about it too much except each August when it demands to be seen, and experienced and grieved. Now the words just come gently, and pierce the printed cotton strips and say their own thing. I'm amazed at the power of the very personal words and the way they feel sort of finished once they are stitched. Very therapeutic, maybe stitching helped Lorina deal with her feelings. 

Other themes wander in, the wonderful Bellacouche studio in Moretonhampstead makes woollen shrouds, and in Yuli Somme's church studio she has felt shoes on each stair which brought so many ideas into my head, now getting space on the fabric. 

SHOES LIKE PIXIE SHOES CHILDRENS SHOES UP TO BED INTO A WORLD OF FAIRIES AND WITCHES AND SPELLS GOOD CHILDREN BAD CHILDREN DARK STAIRS TELLING STORIES IN OAKEN CHAPTERS

And so on. Who knows where it will go or how it will edit itself? It doesn't have to be poetry, the lack of punctuation plays games with the meaning as it goes anyway. It's also absolutely addictive to do. Lorina appliquéd figures and then ranted over the top, I'm going to have a play with that next on a separate piece. 

Meanwhile the Twins book is powering on, I'm presently standing with my back to a locked door while two nutty characters play out their end game. It's all just adding to the decision making stress. Will they get out of this alive, and if so, which one? I look forward to finding out. Perhaps I ought to stitch the scene onto fabric...

 

Finding a new voice

Every instinct is saying 'write a fictional character' but all that comes is my own story. Lorina's words trigger my own memories, both sympathetic and antithetic. I wrote a few notes about her learning the piano, and my own childhood experiences of pianos came to mind. She wrote about her anger about being unable to complain, I found myself choked up on her behalf as well as my own. I still find it difficult to stand up to doctors. But her childless state, her living at home with her mother (for fifty-five years) suggests a domestic dullness that I have never suffered from! I even found a detail of her will.

I was surprised to find she had so much money on her death, effectively almost three hundred and sixty pounds. Which I suppose explains the various threads and fabrics she had in order to produce her rants! I'm playing around with both an autobiographical voice (I'm reading everything Julia Blackburn has done at the moment - amazing writer!) and my fictional character as well. Part of me knows no-one wants to read about me, but it's a way to compare Lorina's life to a modern voice. Which a fictional character could do. I'm not sure, more head scratching to do.

The story has drawn me in, so much that I find myself writing snippets in the middle of the night when I can't sleep. I wish I could sleep, insomnia is getting a bit tedious. When I was younger I would just come downstairs and work for a few hours, but I'm too tired to concentrate.

The Secrets of Blood and Bone comes out in the US on September 1st and I am writing bits and pieces of publicity enquiries as they come in. It's lovely to get back to book 2 and I find I'm getting more excited about it. It comes out in paperback in the UK on October 8th. Then book 3 will have its turn, and the trilogy will be done, which nicely rounds the series off. Except for me, I'm already drafting out book 4 (just for fun, but it's a bit compulsive).

Meanwhile, it's hard to concentrate on the Twins book, which I hope to get back to shortly, because we have builders coming to take off all the asbestos on the roof and hopefully put nice, reclaimed slates back on. Of course, high winds and torrential rain are forecast...