Three Janes and a Haunting
Exciting news!
I just found out yesterday that the state goverment is giving me an arts grant to write Three Janes and a Haunting, my gothic Tasmanian YA novel featuring Jane Franklin, demonic possession, time travel and a houseful of plucky but messed up psychic orphan girls.
Much love for the state government Why not celebrate by voting Labour in the federal election next Saturday? (grins)
It also means (thanks to another piece of news that I can't share publicly quite yet) that I am booked in to write two real novels next year. Hurray! This one isn't a huge grant, but it's enough to cover my daughter's daycare bill for the year which is a HUGE deal for us. I don't contribute nearly as much financially to our household as does my valiant wage-earning honey, so it's lovely to be able to do that. There may also be a new laptop on the horizon... shhh, don't tell my current laptop, don't want to hurt her feelings.
*dances the happy novel dance*
The only bad news is that I have to put So Unfairy, my funny fairy godmother mangaesque YA novel on the backburner AGAIN because no one is paying me to write it yet. But hell, it's a good problem to have. I can't describe how awesome it is to be back in the game now that I have finally hacked the hideous stinking thesis out of our lives.
I am feeling very classically inclined right now - just finished watching the brilliant second season of Rome, which was wonderful despite them killing off at least one of my favourite characters (not counting all the ones I knew we had to see go cos of historical necessity) and the odd recasting of Octavian. Ultimately we felt it was a necessary recasting because we didn't want to see our beloved Max Pirkis be so... well... evil isn't quite the right world... let's just say... interesting. Livia was an odd take on the character - kind of Drusilla to Octavian's Spike which isn't entirely wrong, but... well, yes.
I had a blinding stroke of brilliance this week about MY Livia novel which I will write one of these years.
Anyway, also classical thoughts because I am rereading the Masters of Rome series (slowly, but much love for Sulla) and my honey is reading (before ME! Aren't I generous) McCullough's latest, Antony and Cleopatra, and discussing comparisons with me between the characters in that and in HBO's Rome. Hah I finally convert him to Ancient Rome in pop culture analysis after I get my doctorate. Isn't that always the way?
I am a week away from finishing Power and Majesty - well, almost finishing. I still have a chapter of pre-story that I have to write but am avoiding it because ... because... okay, I hate rape as a narrative or character-backstory device. And yet I have it in this book because I was interested in seeing the way that not only a rape victim recovers psychologically but also her friends - and I needed my protagonist's friends to have a certain level of vulnerability that aroused her lioness instinct. But now I've moved the narrative back a couple of years I actually have to show the bloody thing - or at least the day that it happened - and I don't want to. Not at all. Nope. Not doing it. Which sort of suggests I shouldn't have DONE it in the first place. Stuck with it now, though, the novel doesn't make sense without it, damn it. I just have to suck it up.
So, no more rape backstories for my female characters ever. First and last. I have learned my lesson.
In other news - apparently the Deepings Dolls are popular this Christmas, because the sales and orders just keep coming in. Hooray! And we're up to Chapter 13 of Drak Magic, over at mocklore
I just found out yesterday that the state goverment is giving me an arts grant to write Three Janes and a Haunting, my gothic Tasmanian YA novel featuring Jane Franklin, demonic possession, time travel and a houseful of plucky but messed up psychic orphan girls.
Much love for the state government Why not celebrate by voting Labour in the federal election next Saturday? (grins)
It also means (thanks to another piece of news that I can't share publicly quite yet) that I am booked in to write two real novels next year. Hurray! This one isn't a huge grant, but it's enough to cover my daughter's daycare bill for the year which is a HUGE deal for us. I don't contribute nearly as much financially to our household as does my valiant wage-earning honey, so it's lovely to be able to do that. There may also be a new laptop on the horizon... shhh, don't tell my current laptop, don't want to hurt her feelings.
*dances the happy novel dance*
The only bad news is that I have to put So Unfairy, my funny fairy godmother mangaesque YA novel on the backburner AGAIN because no one is paying me to write it yet. But hell, it's a good problem to have. I can't describe how awesome it is to be back in the game now that I have finally hacked the hideous stinking thesis out of our lives.
I am feeling very classically inclined right now - just finished watching the brilliant second season of Rome, which was wonderful despite them killing off at least one of my favourite characters (not counting all the ones I knew we had to see go cos of historical necessity) and the odd recasting of Octavian. Ultimately we felt it was a necessary recasting because we didn't want to see our beloved Max Pirkis be so... well... evil isn't quite the right world... let's just say... interesting. Livia was an odd take on the character - kind of Drusilla to Octavian's Spike which isn't entirely wrong, but... well, yes.
I had a blinding stroke of brilliance this week about MY Livia novel which I will write one of these years.
Anyway, also classical thoughts because I am rereading the Masters of Rome series (slowly, but much love for Sulla) and my honey is reading (before ME! Aren't I generous) McCullough's latest, Antony and Cleopatra, and discussing comparisons with me between the characters in that and in HBO's Rome. Hah I finally convert him to Ancient Rome in pop culture analysis after I get my doctorate. Isn't that always the way?
I am a week away from finishing Power and Majesty - well, almost finishing. I still have a chapter of pre-story that I have to write but am avoiding it because ... because... okay, I hate rape as a narrative or character-backstory device. And yet I have it in this book because I was interested in seeing the way that not only a rape victim recovers psychologically but also her friends - and I needed my protagonist's friends to have a certain level of vulnerability that aroused her lioness instinct. But now I've moved the narrative back a couple of years I actually have to show the bloody thing - or at least the day that it happened - and I don't want to. Not at all. Nope. Not doing it. Which sort of suggests I shouldn't have DONE it in the first place. Stuck with it now, though, the novel doesn't make sense without it, damn it. I just have to suck it up.
So, no more rape backstories for my female characters ever. First and last. I have learned my lesson.
In other news - apparently the Deepings Dolls are popular this Christmas, because the sales and orders just keep coming in. Hooray! And we're up to Chapter 13 of Drak Magic, over at mocklore