John sent my Invent-10n story back with his comments yesterday and I've been working on it since.
John made some observations about the sex content so I'm toning that down a tad and I'm taking the opportunity to seed in some of the ideas I've had in the interim, mainly aimed at making the lead character - a blandnik called Jim Smith - seem a little more sad and anodyne. Again though it's all just a question of balance: I don't want him to come across as too much of a wuss.
I'm aiming to get all the revisions done by close of play Monday though it might take a little longer. The story seems a little stiff somehow so it might need more extensive surgery than I anticipated. I don't wanna get to fundamental though. John's going to send it to INTERZONE and I'm interesting in seeing their reaction.
I also sent the last (hopefully!) batch of Demi-Monde: Winter corrections off to Quercus. There's a new guy dealing with them - Rich - and I've got to say I'm impressed: he seems very much on the ball and is one of the few people who actually acknowledges e-mails. I find it infuriating when I send off an e-mails and then...nothing. I always get to wondering if it's been received okay. Anyway according to Rich everything is in train to right wrongs and correct the incorrect so the final book will be tight and error-free. Here's hoping.
I asked Nigel if he would put a front page on the web site (http://www.thedemi-monde.com/) announcing that the book will be published on 6th January 2011 and had to resist the urge to add 'This is the best book wot I ever read' and sign it Burlesque Bandstand.
Apart from that (and a little work tweaking Chapter 25 of Demi-Monde 3) it was just an ordinary day at the computer.
Ho-hum.
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Friday, 30 July 2010
HODGE-PODGING
Yeah, yesterday was a hodge-podge of a day.
I put in a shift with DM 3 in the morning and managed to cull 500-odd words as I tried to get a sex-scene right and then worked on a couple of chapters involving Nikolai Kondratieff. Nikolai's one of my favourite characters. In the Real World he was a Russian economist famous for developing the idea that economic activity in capitalist countries moves in 54-year cycles from boom to bust. He was eventually purged by Stalin.
When I was younger he was quite a hero of mine (come to think of it, it's a little sad to have an economist as a hero...I should have gotten out more!). I was fascinated by the idea that by examining history it might be possible to accurately extrapolate the past into the future. Of course, the world being such an indeterminate environment with so many people interacting in such unpredictable ways accuracy has always eluded us; the maths is simple too complex. Asimov touched on this in the Foundation Trilogy with Hari Sheldon and psychohistory but I was always worried by how Sheldon overcame the problems of free-will and scale (it was the Galactic Empire he was talking about, after all) in making his predictions.
The Demi-Monde is another matter as it's a closed system (the Boundary Layer sees to that) and hence Kondratieff with the help of Michel de Nostredame and his HyperOpia difference engine can make reliable predictions about Future History. That is if it wasn't for those damned elusive and very InDeterminate Daemons.
I've digressed! I was going to say that in the pm I got back to reading the DM 1 bookproof hunting for errors. Fortunately for me, Nell was also proofing and found a couple of real beauts of mistakes so they will go off to Quercus today.
Then at 9 pm the Rees family gathered for the last episode of 'The Big Bang'. Together with 'Have I Got News for You' and 'University Challenge' these are the only things we all will watch (though Ellie seems addicted to 'Friends'). Oddly the girls seem to have forgotten about their 'Lost' DVDs - they gave up at Series 3. I'm pleased: at the end of Series 2 the writers had run out of ideas big time.
I put in a shift with DM 3 in the morning and managed to cull 500-odd words as I tried to get a sex-scene right and then worked on a couple of chapters involving Nikolai Kondratieff. Nikolai's one of my favourite characters. In the Real World he was a Russian economist famous for developing the idea that economic activity in capitalist countries moves in 54-year cycles from boom to bust. He was eventually purged by Stalin.
When I was younger he was quite a hero of mine (come to think of it, it's a little sad to have an economist as a hero...I should have gotten out more!). I was fascinated by the idea that by examining history it might be possible to accurately extrapolate the past into the future. Of course, the world being such an indeterminate environment with so many people interacting in such unpredictable ways accuracy has always eluded us; the maths is simple too complex. Asimov touched on this in the Foundation Trilogy with Hari Sheldon and psychohistory but I was always worried by how Sheldon overcame the problems of free-will and scale (it was the Galactic Empire he was talking about, after all) in making his predictions.
The Demi-Monde is another matter as it's a closed system (the Boundary Layer sees to that) and hence Kondratieff with the help of Michel de Nostredame and his HyperOpia difference engine can make reliable predictions about Future History. That is if it wasn't for those damned elusive and very InDeterminate Daemons.
I've digressed! I was going to say that in the pm I got back to reading the DM 1 bookproof hunting for errors. Fortunately for me, Nell was also proofing and found a couple of real beauts of mistakes so they will go off to Quercus today.
Then at 9 pm the Rees family gathered for the last episode of 'The Big Bang'. Together with 'Have I Got News for You' and 'University Challenge' these are the only things we all will watch (though Ellie seems addicted to 'Friends'). Oddly the girls seem to have forgotten about their 'Lost' DVDs - they gave up at Series 3. I'm pleased: at the end of Series 2 the writers had run out of ideas big time.
Wednesday, 28 July 2010
A LITTLE UNPLEASANTNESS
174,723
175,284
561
A short day today as Ellie's going to a party so I'm taking her to Cambridge.
I've been working on a new character in DM 3 for most of the morning trying to get him right. Trouble is he's a real bad ass - vicious, cruel and nasty - and it's been difficult getting the correct balance. I want readers to dislike him but I want their revulsion to creep up on them so he can't be bad straight out of the blocks. The trouble is with all the slasher stuff in the movies these days I suspect today's audience is pretty ho-hum to violence, it's immurred to the stuff.
Ah me.
I'm also proofing DM1 (again): I've found a couple more mistakes which is worrying.
175,284
561
A short day today as Ellie's going to a party so I'm taking her to Cambridge.
I've been working on a new character in DM 3 for most of the morning trying to get him right. Trouble is he's a real bad ass - vicious, cruel and nasty - and it's been difficult getting the correct balance. I want readers to dislike him but I want their revulsion to creep up on them so he can't be bad straight out of the blocks. The trouble is with all the slasher stuff in the movies these days I suspect today's audience is pretty ho-hum to violence, it's immurred to the stuff.
Ah me.
I'm also proofing DM1 (again): I've found a couple more mistakes which is worrying.
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
REDUCTIO AD ABSURDUM
Start of the Day:171,422
End of the Day: 174,723
Written: 3,301
I was reading an interview given by another author published by Quercus, Tom Fletcher (his book 'The Leaping' is highly recommended), and one of the questions posed was about the themes Tom had incorporated in his novel. This got me thinking.
My approach to writing is totally instinctive - an instinct backed I suppose by having read piles upon pile of books - so I have never really taken the time (or thought I had the need) to analyse just what I am writing about or even considered what are the themes that dominate The Demi-Monde. This, I suppose, is hardly surprising as by nature I'm something of a Deconstructivist - I hate regimentation - and apt to just go with the flow, but I had to admit it was an intriguing question.
I cogitated and came up with the answer that the major theme of The Demi-Monde is absurdity. The religions of the Demi-Monde - UnFunDaMentalism, ImPuritanism, HerEticalism, HimPerialism, RaTionalism and Confusionism - are merely the religions of the Real World stretched and distorted to breaking point. Now it might be that some readers think that all I was intent on doing was taking the piss but this is not the case. I believe that only by showing a belief system in extremis so to speak is it possible to see it as it really is...reductio ad absurdum.
It is a fact that every religious and political creed eventually becomes just a ridiculous pastiche of what it originally was but by then its followers (and the guys at the top making so much money out of it) have invested so much intellectual and emotional capital in it that they are unable (and unwilling!) to see it for what it has become. This is 'The Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome' and why all religions and all political systems ultimately end in tears: they collapse under the weight of their own absurdity.
Satire is the way in which a belief sysem is stress tested and why it is so essential that a society is open, free of censureship and one in which everything can be criticised
The problem I have is that by concluding the Demi-Monde has a satirical aspect I find myself on quite trecherous ground, in imminent danger of taking myself too seriously and getting a long way up myself (I'm no Jonathan Swift, after all).
But if I can't reach the heights attained by Swift, I can, at least, be inspired by him:
"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but there own.'
I think I'm gonna quit now while I'm ahead. Let's just say the major theme of The Demi-Monde is entertainment...and if it stimulates a little thought along the way, then that's my Bonus Ball.
End of the Day: 174,723
Written: 3,301
I was reading an interview given by another author published by Quercus, Tom Fletcher (his book 'The Leaping' is highly recommended), and one of the questions posed was about the themes Tom had incorporated in his novel. This got me thinking.
My approach to writing is totally instinctive - an instinct backed I suppose by having read piles upon pile of books - so I have never really taken the time (or thought I had the need) to analyse just what I am writing about or even considered what are the themes that dominate The Demi-Monde. This, I suppose, is hardly surprising as by nature I'm something of a Deconstructivist - I hate regimentation - and apt to just go with the flow, but I had to admit it was an intriguing question.
I cogitated and came up with the answer that the major theme of The Demi-Monde is absurdity. The religions of the Demi-Monde - UnFunDaMentalism, ImPuritanism, HerEticalism, HimPerialism, RaTionalism and Confusionism - are merely the religions of the Real World stretched and distorted to breaking point. Now it might be that some readers think that all I was intent on doing was taking the piss but this is not the case. I believe that only by showing a belief system in extremis so to speak is it possible to see it as it really is...reductio ad absurdum.
It is a fact that every religious and political creed eventually becomes just a ridiculous pastiche of what it originally was but by then its followers (and the guys at the top making so much money out of it) have invested so much intellectual and emotional capital in it that they are unable (and unwilling!) to see it for what it has become. This is 'The Emperor's New Clothes Syndrome' and why all religions and all political systems ultimately end in tears: they collapse under the weight of their own absurdity.
Satire is the way in which a belief sysem is stress tested and why it is so essential that a society is open, free of censureship and one in which everything can be criticised
The problem I have is that by concluding the Demi-Monde has a satirical aspect I find myself on quite trecherous ground, in imminent danger of taking myself too seriously and getting a long way up myself (I'm no Jonathan Swift, after all).
But if I can't reach the heights attained by Swift, I can, at least, be inspired by him:
"Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody's face but there own.'
I think I'm gonna quit now while I'm ahead. Let's just say the major theme of The Demi-Monde is entertainment...and if it stimulates a little thought along the way, then that's my Bonus Ball.
Monday, 26 July 2010
BOOKPROOF COVER
This is the back cover of the bookproof - the mock-up that goes out to reviewers and such.
And this is the front cover:
SHERLOCK
As I'm a great fan of Holmes I took time out yesterday to watch the new BBC programme entitled 'Sherlock'. This is a 'reimagining' of the Conan Doyle character with him now portrayed as a modern day hyperactive 'hi-level sociopath' who's very tech-savvy and who to avoid boredom has set himself up as a consulting detective.
Now I'm all for 'reimaginings' and I can accept that bringing Victorian characters up-to-date is the way to go: the production costs are lower (no period costumes or settings necessary) and young people (like Kit and Ellie) who aren't familiar with the original have a greater chance of relating to the characters.
But...
With great reimagings comes great responsibility and unfortunately this one shirked that responsibility big time.
I first noticed what I call 'nerve failure' on the part of writers and producers attempting to breath new life into classic stories when another 'reimagining' hit the small screen a few years back. This one was the reworking of the Jekyll and Hyde story and was called simply 'Jekyll'. Although blessed with a first-rate leading man (James Nesbitt) they still managed to eviscerate the story whilst simultaneously making it risible. The one good thing about watching this mish-mash of mediocracy was I thought 'I can do better than that' and this in turn led to me writing 'Dark Charismatic'.
'Sherlock' had all the same faults. Everything was too bland and much too predictible. The character of Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberpatch who the girls declared 'unfit') had none of the original's darkness and was much too hysterical to be a sociopath. Watson (Martin Freeman) was better but still there was just that certain something missing. And the realtionship between the two of the princlpals...nonexistent.
My biggest gripe was with the plot (plot?) which was ludicrous. This was being shown at 9 pm for heaven's sake so surely we could expect something with a little more heft, a little more gravitas and - dare I say it - a little more originality. It was BORING!
I went to bed fuming and woke up with a whole new idea for how Sherlock should have been portrayed. Trouble is (thanks to Guy Ritchie who, I admit, made a good fist of it) there's Holmes overkill at the moment so I'll have to keep it under my hat for a couple of years.
Now I'm all for 'reimaginings' and I can accept that bringing Victorian characters up-to-date is the way to go: the production costs are lower (no period costumes or settings necessary) and young people (like Kit and Ellie) who aren't familiar with the original have a greater chance of relating to the characters.
But...
With great reimagings comes great responsibility and unfortunately this one shirked that responsibility big time.
I first noticed what I call 'nerve failure' on the part of writers and producers attempting to breath new life into classic stories when another 'reimagining' hit the small screen a few years back. This one was the reworking of the Jekyll and Hyde story and was called simply 'Jekyll'. Although blessed with a first-rate leading man (James Nesbitt) they still managed to eviscerate the story whilst simultaneously making it risible. The one good thing about watching this mish-mash of mediocracy was I thought 'I can do better than that' and this in turn led to me writing 'Dark Charismatic'.
'Sherlock' had all the same faults. Everything was too bland and much too predictible. The character of Holmes (played by Benedict Cumberpatch who the girls declared 'unfit') had none of the original's darkness and was much too hysterical to be a sociopath. Watson (Martin Freeman) was better but still there was just that certain something missing. And the realtionship between the two of the princlpals...nonexistent.
My biggest gripe was with the plot (plot?) which was ludicrous. This was being shown at 9 pm for heaven's sake so surely we could expect something with a little more heft, a little more gravitas and - dare I say it - a little more originality. It was BORING!
I went to bed fuming and woke up with a whole new idea for how Sherlock should have been portrayed. Trouble is (thanks to Guy Ritchie who, I admit, made a good fist of it) there's Holmes overkill at the moment so I'll have to keep it under my hat for a couple of years.
Sunday, 25 July 2010
MORE RESEARCH NEEDED
Start of the Day: 169,258
End of the Day: 171,422
Written: 2,164
Finished the chapter and have pretty much finished the Demi-Monde part of Book 3. Of course it now needs to be knocked into shape, slimmed down and polished but in essence it's finished.
Now I need to turn to the action taking place in the Real World and for that I need to take time out to read up on plagues! This will take ten days or so, so in the interim I'm just going to be reading through what I've written and critiquing it.
The amount of research I've needed to do for the Dem-Monde series came as something as a surprise.
The original idea for the Demi-Monde came after the first book of mine - Dark Charismatic - that John Jarrold handled on my behalf went the rounds of publishers. Dark Charismatic is my re-imagining of the Jekyll and Hyde story seen largely from the POV of Jekyll's wife, Margaret. Set in the year 1877 it portrays Jekyll as a much more ambitious character, his evil going far beyond a little localised murder and mischief. I thought it was pretty good but as no publishers were terribly interested (there's a lot of sex in it which might account for their nervousness) I suppose it wasn't. Anyway one of the rejections I received said something along the lines that the Victorian London I'd conjured wasn't authentic.
Now this, I've got to tell you, was a real downer. I'd spent months researching London of that era and thought I was well equipped to convey the attitudes, the morality and the speech patterns of the day. The problem was, I liked writing about this era, I like steampunk, so what was i to do?
The answer was to create my own Victorian world and that's how the Demi-Monde came into being. Being virtual reality it's by definition faux-Victorian and that gave me the lattitude to twist things around a bit.
And it seems to have worked out fine.
End of the Day: 171,422
Written: 2,164
Finished the chapter and have pretty much finished the Demi-Monde part of Book 3. Of course it now needs to be knocked into shape, slimmed down and polished but in essence it's finished.
Now I need to turn to the action taking place in the Real World and for that I need to take time out to read up on plagues! This will take ten days or so, so in the interim I'm just going to be reading through what I've written and critiquing it.
The amount of research I've needed to do for the Dem-Monde series came as something as a surprise.
The original idea for the Demi-Monde came after the first book of mine - Dark Charismatic - that John Jarrold handled on my behalf went the rounds of publishers. Dark Charismatic is my re-imagining of the Jekyll and Hyde story seen largely from the POV of Jekyll's wife, Margaret. Set in the year 1877 it portrays Jekyll as a much more ambitious character, his evil going far beyond a little localised murder and mischief. I thought it was pretty good but as no publishers were terribly interested (there's a lot of sex in it which might account for their nervousness) I suppose it wasn't. Anyway one of the rejections I received said something along the lines that the Victorian London I'd conjured wasn't authentic.
Now this, I've got to tell you, was a real downer. I'd spent months researching London of that era and thought I was well equipped to convey the attitudes, the morality and the speech patterns of the day. The problem was, I liked writing about this era, I like steampunk, so what was i to do?
The answer was to create my own Victorian world and that's how the Demi-Monde came into being. Being virtual reality it's by definition faux-Victorian and that gave me the lattitude to twist things around a bit.
And it seems to have worked out fine.
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