What I've Been Reading # 8

Hal Junior - The Secret Signal
By
Simon Haynes
Bowman Press 2011
ISBN978-1-877034-07-7

Hal Junior – The Secret Signal is the first children's book from WA author Simon Haynes. The book is a prequel to the humorous adult Sci-fi, Hal Spacejock series. Older Hal is good natured, confident in his abilities but an utterly clueless trouble magnet. It was interesting to glean a little insight into Hal’s formative years.

Hal Junior is good natured, confident in his own abilities, an utterly clueless trouble magnet, but he is a well meaning and likable dreamer. The story opens with Hal dangling upside down in a garbage chute by his elastic shoelaces trying to retrieve the only homework he has actually bothered to do. The antics continue from when his mother, the head of station research, gives him a secret signal for help, right to the climax where his earlier misadventures give an idea that might just save the day – or destroy the entire station…

This is a brilliant easy to read but exciting and funny story, perfect for reluctant boy readers. The humour is not as sophisticated and obscure as Simon’s adult series but I still caught myself chuckling out loud while reading the book. I can’t wait for the next book in the series.

Speculative Fiction Workshop

BLOOD, BOGGARTS AND BATTLESTARS: AN INTRODUCTION TO SPECULATIVE FICTION

With Margo Lanagan - at the NSW Writers' Centre.
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I find myself looking forward to Margo Lanagan’s speculative fiction workshop in March. Plenty of hands on exercises.
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As a reader, I have always been a fan of fantasy. (I do use always in a relatively loose fashion. I was a late starter as a reader finishing my first ever novel in Year 11 at school). Tolkien, Steven Donaldson, David Eddings, Susan Cooper, Anne McCaffrey and Raymond E Feist were all favourites once I caught the bug.
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I am also a huge fan of Science Fiction and horror movies but couldn’t really find as much passion for Sci-fi and horror books back then. I have since discovered some brilliant science fiction authors, particularly Elizabeth Moon. And Simon Haynes is great for sci-fi humour.
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I find that I still don’t like horror stories that rely on gratuitous violence and gore to be scary. (Scott Sigler could be the exception to that rule). That goes for books and movies. It just isn’t scary. The stories that give me delicious shivers are the subtle ones that sneak up on you. The ones that could almost be possible. Dean Koontz is the standout there.
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Now as a writer, I find myself drawn to the speculative end of the scale. I’m not really happy unless there is at least a hint of magic in my stories.
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Fantasy and Horror are huge in publishing at present, particularly in young adult and children’s fiction. This is thanks to the Harry Potter and Twilight phenomena. It’s hard to keep up with the new vampire titles. (Thank goodness they are on the way out). On the other hand, Science fiction seems to be dead in the water.

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So knowing that, why did I pick a science fiction story to write during last years NaNoWriMo. Seriously, I’m asking – I have no idea. Now I have the story in the form of a very rough first draft. But what do I do with it now? Are publishers even looking at science fiction? They don’t seem to be. Is it even worth the effort in re-writing and polishing my draft? Or do I write something more commercially viable?
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I’m hoping Margo’s workshop will answer some of my questions.

NaNoWriMo - Week One

NaNoWriMo Week One

Ok. Week one of (NaNoWriMo) National Novel Writing Month is over and I am sitting at this moment on a respectable 12699 words. This is despite the fact I have just come back from a wonderful 21st wedding anniversary weekend away with my wife.

Now it’s time to get back to writing. In 2007 and 2008, by this time into the challenge, my stories were starting to take strange, unplanned turns.

I found out about NaNoWriMo toward the end of October, 2007 and entered the challenge with the simple image of the main character returning home from the cemetery where he had put flowers on his dead girlfriends grave. She had been killed a month earlier when a drunk classmate ran her down in a car. On the way home, he meets his girlfriend who begs him to help her save the boy who killed her. I had no other ideas about the story and basically explored what happened next to explain her appearance. The seat-of-the-pants method was quite fun but the final product, though it had some interesting concepts, was a complete confused mess.

I planned a little more in 2008 and did much better. Thanks a lot to the book cover art I created as an inspiration to keep writing. I still use it as my desktop graphic. It’s also the main reason I want to try and break into the book cover design industry. 2008’s effort was much more cohesive, but still ran off on several tangents that took me away from the story I envisioned.

This year, not only am I on track with my word count, I am on track with the story too, without the problem of losing the freshness of the story by over planning. There have been a couple of surprises for my with the story, some interesting new characters who have turned up out-of-the-blue and two of my bit part characters seems to have pushed their way to the front of the stage. But the main storyline is still true to the plan.

The above picture is of Clang, one of the bit part characters. He was an AI computer program placed inside a robot cat. Clang decides he likes being a cat a little too much and conveniently loses his vocal programming and now only obeys the commands he wants to obey.

This year I didn’t set out every scene in the outline, I picked the major plot points of the story and made signposts to use as a guide. I know I have to get the main character from where he is to the next signpost and I work out what events would believable get him to that point. It seems to be working and I have come up with some interesting events I couldn’t really have planned in advance.

Interesting times, but enough of this for now, I’m going back to my writing. I’ll post another update next week.

NaNoWriMo Preparations

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I like to have a good image in my head of the characters I'm developing for my stories and books. This years NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) effort is a young adult Science Fiction / Mystery / Adventure titled 'Strangeway's Mind Ship'. I decided to introduce two Alien races to the story. This is an integral part of the novel because the main character, Horatio Hornblower Strangeway (a human) is a part of the first Space Service Academy class to accept alien and modified human cadets to the Officer Corp. The growing Purity Faction is opposed to this decision.
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So in a round-a-bout way, the novel will deal with issues of prejudice, intolerance and fear, but the main theme is about the choices we make and the consequences of those choices.

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I’ve never designed an alien before but I thought it would be cool to have a race, evolved from a creature similar to Earth foxes. I wanted the Vorpal to be bi-pedal and more humanoid than vulpine but still have a distinct Fox-like appearance.
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I thought the best way to get the image in my head was to draw a picture of Vix Sorrell, one of my main characters, and a Vorpal character to boot. They do say, ‘a picture’s worth a thousand words’. I had a heap of fun painting her. She is not at all like I first imagined her but I think I like her better now.
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These aren’t my only preparations for this years NaNoWriMo. I have been plotting out the major events in the story. This is my Sign Post Method of plotting. In the past, I’ve tried winging it and writing the story to see what happens – NOT really a success for me. I end up getting sidetracked and lost and giving up on the idea. And I’ve also tried doing detailed outlines of every scene but found the story lost it’s freshness as I tried to colour between the lines.
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For this novel, I’m trying something in the middle of those two extremes. I have started to map out the major plot points along the way. These will be my Sign Posts to keep me on track – or at least help me find my way back to the path – but I will still have the creative freedom to tag along behind my characters and write about the things they get up to along the way.

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You Can't Judge A Book By It's Blurb

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There is an old saying, ‘You can’t judge a book by its cover.’ Well, I have a new saying for you. ‘You can’t judge a book by its blurb.’

I know what you’re going to say. ‘Jeff found a book that didn’t live up to his expectations from reading the blurb.’ Wrong!

In fact it is the exact opposite.

I want you to play a little game: - Pretend you are an editor looking for a new science fiction novel for your book list. Now pretend an author bails you up in an elevator and you make the mistake of asking him what his manuscript is about.

First, let’s think about what makes for good science fiction.
· Action
· Space battles
· High tech. gadgets and weaponry
· Aliens
· Danger and conflict
· A vicious enemy to defeat.

Well, that’s a start.

Now slip back into your role as editor. What if the author told you the main character is a young man living on a company planet. His mother is killed in an accident and because he is not employed by the company he is forced to leave the planet.

An excellent start. (Spoilers imminent!)

The rest of the plot follows like this. The MC signs on to a merchant ship as a galley hand. He is accepted by the crew, treated fairly, makes friends and gets on well with everyone. He really enjoys his new life on board ship and the climax of the story is!

Get this!

He helps organise a market stall for his shipmates and himself to sell personal trade goods while they are stopped at the space stations along their trade route.

Where is the action? – well there isn’t a lot.
Where are the space battles? – obviously somewhere else in the vast universe.
Where are the high tech. gadgets? – Unless you consider a coffee urn high tech. then they are pretty thin on the deck.
Where are the aliens? – there are none.
Where is the danger and conflict? – none of that either.
Where is the vicious enemy? – obviously off in that somewhere else in the vast universe where the space battles are going on.

How fast would you scramble out of the elevator when the doors finally opened?

This is probably why Nathan Lowell’s book ‘Quarter Share’ is not available as a print book yet. It is available as a FREE audio book - along with his other titles in the ‘Trader's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper’ series ‘Half Share’, ‘Full Share’, and ‘Double Share’ and their companion book, ‘South Coast’ the first in the ‘Shaman's Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper’ series – from http://www.podiobooks.com/

I started listening to ‘Quarter Share’ with very few expectations, even though it was recommended as a good book. Unless Nathan is using some form of subliminal mind control, this is one of the most interesting and enthralling science fictions novels I have ever come across. Honestly, not a lot actually happens, there is not really any conflict to speak of and the climax sounds kind of lame. Still, I could not put the story down. I listened until my ears nearly bled – to the entire series – TWICE. My wife hates science fiction. She loved the series too.

I can't tell you why this is such a great series. I don't know - It just IS!

All we need now is an editor on crutches who can’t get out of that elevator.

Please, do yourself a favour and visit the Podiobooks site and have a listen to ‘Quarter Share’ It doesn’t cost anything. What’s it going to hurt?
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Nathan Lowell’s web site - http://solarclipper.com/

Happy listening.