ROW80 Check in – I lose track

by john | Jan 19, 2011 | Writing

I’m now sure what week this is of ROW80, or what check-in it is. I just know I’m writing like hell and it finally feels good. I shook off the BS fear of writing crap that stuck me last night, and just decided to embrace the writing of crap! So I spewed out about another 2,000 words tonight, and I figured out the next plot twist. I thought I was done, but it didn’t make sense to end there, so what I thought was the big fight at the end of the book ended up just being the lead-up to the Really Big Fight at the end of the book. Then we have a little denouement, and I’m done. I’m not sure how I’m gong to make the reveal happen in the denouement, but I’ll let that sort itself out after I have the Really Big Fight with the deus ex machina (which I’m sweating a little since I used that device in the last book, but I think it kinda needs to happen here, but maybe I can avoid it. I dunno, buy the book, then you can see if I can get the good guys out of this mess alive without resorting to deus ex machina for two books in a row).

But I’m sitting at 46,000 words and change, and while I thought that this book was going to end up longer, now I think it’s actually going to be done at around 55,000 words. Because the story is pretty much over. I have a couple of scenes I’m thinking about dropping in earlier in the book, but I’ve pretty much told the story, and I don’t want to add in scenes that don’t move the story forward. So that’s probably not going to happen. I could flesh things out with more description, but that’s not my style. There are writers out there who do a great job of painting the picture with words, but I’m not them. I’m telling a story, and it’s kind of a fast one. You’re not going to read my books looking for some great meaning of life. You’re going to read them to kill time on the plane, because they’re fun. So I’m not gonna push it. The book will be as long as it is, and that’s just the deal.

Oh, and because I have the attention span of a meth-addicted gnat, Amazon has some killer albums on sale for $5 this month, including a live album by Jason Boland and the Stragglers and the new album from Bleu Edmondson. His American Saint album blew me away, and the followup is really good, too.

Writer’s Block

by john | Jan 19, 2011 | Writing

This opinion makes me unpopular among some of my fellow writers, but that’s okay. I’ve had unpopular opinions before and so far no one has kicked my ass for them. Good thing I’m a big dude, I suppose.

But writer’s block – I don’t believe in it. I think it’s a crutch for people who are afraid or lazy and don’t want to admit that they’re afraid or lazy. Lazy is easy to understand – I wouldn’t be this fat if I didn’t have a good helping of lazy to go along with my love of all things deep-fried. But afraid? What does a writer have to be afraid of? Even back in the “give me liberty or give me death” days, most people could write whatever they wanted without fear of actual dangerous physical repercussions. Even Salman Rushdie, despite his famous fatwah, is still alive and kicking, although I hear his vacation home in Tehran stands vacant most of the year.

So what are writers afraid of? I was pondering this last night as I sat in front of my computer, staring at a blinking cursor on a white page. I’d reached the climax of my next book, the sequel to Hard Day’s Knight, and I was stuck. I wasn’t stuck because I didn’t know where the scene was going to go, I was stuck because I was afraid that everything I’d written to that point was crap. You see, HDK has just started to sell, and it’s starting to get some positive reviews. And some of the reviews are saying exactly what I wanted people to get from the book. And all that is great! I love the fact that people are enjoying the book, and I love the fact that some of the influences that I wanted to homage in the book are coming through.

But while I’m writing the sequel I should stay very far away from those comments, no matter how encouraging. Because as soon as I started thinking “What if this book isn’t as good?” I lost the ability to move forward. I sat there for a good half hour, not worrying about anything except that the people who enjoyed Book 1 would feel let down by Book 2. Because I’ve been there. I have so many of those best first albums, those flashes of lightning in a bottle that never shone so brightly again. So I got myself good and stuck because I was afraid of writing crap.

Then I picked up a couple of books off my shelf, flipped through the pages, and realized that they’re abject crap. And I love every page. Let’s face it, kiddies, I’m writing genre fiction. I write novels about vampire detectives with smart mouths and comic book addictions. I ain’t shooting for War and Peace here. Hell, getting to Angels and Demons is enough of a stretch. Once I realized that I owe more of my literary heritage to the penny dreadfuls than the complete works of Shakespeare, I was okay, and I got about 1,500 words in last night. Tonight I’m going to bulldoze through the big fight scene at the end, and by the end of the week, I should be done with the denouement. That’ll put me two months ahead of schedule, so maybe I’ll take a week off and plot out some other ideas. Then on to editing, formatting, cover art and all those other things.

So that’s my writer’s block – it wasn’t writer’s block, just writer’s chickenshit. And I think that happens way more often than anything else, if we’d just be brave enough to admit it.

Indie Interview – Keith C. Blackmore

by john | Jan 17, 2011 | Writing

Welcome to a new feature here – an interview with another up and coming independent author. This week’s guest is Keith C. Blackmore, author of The Troll Hunter and The Missing Boatman. You can go to his website for more info on these books and other projects, and here are a few questions with Keith.

1.    What are your influences and sources of inspiration?
I was an avid reader of comic books and later got into trade paperbacks. I
read a lot of different stuff, from action adventure to horror, SF to
fantasy. The first novel I read was Conan by Robert E Howard, and a few
other pulp writers whose names I can’t recall right now (sorry). At some
point later I remember picking up a copy of Terry Brook’s The Elfstones of
Shannara. I also remember reading Dracula at around twelve or thirteen,
and that lead to me picking up the Nightshift collection of short stories
by Stephen King. Movies were hard to come by in my hometown, so I would
read a lot of movie adaptations, and a lot of them were written by Alan
Dean Foster, who quickly became a favourite of mine. Anything that was in
comics, print, or on the screen was a source of inspiration. I also played
Dungeons and Dragons (yes, yes) quite a bit and the idea of creating my
own adventures was something I wanted to do, just like the movies Those
were good times with good friends as well, but I realized that sometimes,
the characters controlled by the players didn’t always do things I
envisioned in gameplay, so, the next big step was writing my own adventure
with characters of my own creation. In university, I majored in English
literature but the course selections (the classics) were mostly pretty
boring (there were some exceptions–Shakespeare was great, as was Charles
Dickens).  Classic mythology was a course I loved but didn’t do well on
as, during the final exam, the professor insisted on making me answer
questions I had no interest in. I also studied the classics in SF &
Fantasy during university, as well as a little military history.

2.    What genres do you read and why?
Mostly SF and Fantasy but I will go outside of that. I’ve read westerns
(Larry McMurty’s Lonesome Dove) Annie Proulx (The Shipping News) as well
as a bunch of others. Some nonfiction as well if it’s anything weird or
different. I want to get a new book called The Decent which is about this
group of people that explore the deepest known caves on Earth, and they go
down in the earth for kilometres. Anything outside of SF & Fantasy is
essentially research for me as I study how other authors do things.

3. Who are your favourite authors and why?
Robert E Howard, Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Alan Dean Foster, Larry
McMurty, Annie Proulx, John Steakley,  and bunch of others. Steakley
particular has a writing style that hooks me right from the get-go. I read
most of these authors because they are or were the best at what they do,
so studying them is important, and they tell great stories.

4. Have you met any famous writers and did they live up to your expectations?
Met Chris Clairemont at an SF Convention in Nova Scotia, Canada. Also met
Guy Gavriel Kay. Both guys were very friendly although I do remember Chris
and his wife just getting back from Australia and being jet-lagged. He did
sign my limited series Wolverines though.
Kay awarded me first prize in a short story contest, and told me that I
was good at capturing and developing “a voice.” It was a year before I
knew what he meant.

5. Aside from writing, what other interests do you have?
Avid movie watcher–some great stories out there–although I don’t do
musicals (unless it’s a Disney animation). Still a big PC gamer, and I’m
currently enjoy playing Fallout 3. I enjoy exercising, mountain biking,
and walking. The biking and walking in particular are great ways to work
out writer’s block, and to just think.

6. Have you had anything traditionally published or adapted into a film?
Came close to traditionally publishing a long time ago with my first
fantasy novel Not a Bard’s Song, which is probably as close to mainstream
fantasy as I’ll get. The publisher (a small press) “loved” the book but
went bankrupt. None of the big publishers wanted it. So, while still
peddling it around, I wrote the sequel, a few more fantasy novels, and a
horror book. I’ve had a few articles published in Korean newspapers (my
first paid work!). Nowadays, I’ve all but given up on the traditional
publishing industry as ebooks and ereaders are becoming more and more
prevalent.

7. Can any of your work be viewed, if so where?
My website is www.keithcblackmore.com, where you can find news and reading
samples. There are a couple of free horror stories there–Taste and Ye
Olde Fishing Hole. There will be some short fantasy fiction there as well,
which will be the lead in to a series of short stories under the title of
131 Days.  Also, links Amazon.com, where whatever ebooks I have are
currently selling. Reviews are coming in, and I’m pleased with them. I
hope they continue.
8. What’s your current book about?
The Missing Boatman is a horror tale about the week where a lot of people
start surviving terrible accidents and disasters all over the globe. It’s
a modern day story about “what if” none of us could die anymore, and what
might happen once the world populace discovered their newly found
immortality. It’s fantasy, Death is a character in the book, and there are
a lot of powers, both good and bad, that want to find him… or kept him
missing.
I was a student of classical mythology in university, and came across one
story which I found exceptionally interesting. It was about this man who
had wished for immortality and got it, but later realized the gods had
played a trick on him. They made him immortal, but they did not grant him
eternal youth. As a result, he continued to age, until he was an
incredibly old man. The Missing Boatman takes that myth a few steps
further, and I hope people enjoy the story.
The Troll Hunter is a work of Heroic Fantasy. There is very little magic,
monsters aren’t as commonplace, and it’s harsh. Gritty. Or so I tried to
make it that way. It’s hard not to talk about the story without giving
away too much of what I hope will be a surprise. I think fans of George
RR Martin, David Gemmell, and Joe Abercrombie will enjoy it. It’s begins
with a company of hard-nosed shock troops called Sujins, and they’re
pulled back into duty one morning without any reason. They eventually
find out that they are to protect a heavily armoured koch (coach) heading
north, through a country on the verge of losing a very costly and drawn
out war. They also learn that their leaders are harsh veterans of the
war, and pretty much despise each other.
And once on the march, things do not go the way they are intended.
I’ve written the first forty or so pages (or six chapters) in such a way
that, if a person can figure out what is about to happen, then my hat is
off to them. But all is revealed soon enough, and by the end of the first
few chapters, I hope the reader will be hooked.