All A-Tremble.
I mean - to come to work and see this!
About my OWN JACK YAP!
After staying up until two AM writing - and FINISHING!!! - Canary of Candletown.
Well, first draft, that is. But done! In a shape I can recognize as a STORY!
What a slippery little monster this was. The process attained a level of plasticity I heretofore had never experienced. I plotted it out. I had scenes in mind. I had an ending in mind. Dialogue. Action. I had antagonists lined up and inventions all in a row. And what did this story do? No sooner would I write a scene than - suddenly! in the bathroom! or at the oven! - that scene would say, "But what I'm REALLY about is THIS!" And then I'd have to rewrite it!
The last time I wrote something with this much research behind it was Pale, and from a Sea Wave Rising, which, to be perfectly honest, I never thought I'd sell. I'd vacillate between liking it okay and wanting to smash its face in. I was never so surprised in my life to see an acceptance email as I was when Cat said yes for Apex.
This is nothing like "Pale" except that... Except that I started out with no vocabulary for this particular time period, this particular place, these particular themes. I assumed a hundred things when I set out to write the draft and one by one had the Rugs of Assumption pulled out from under me.
Canary's ending completely astonished me. I had no idea. I found what I did hard to relate to Patty in the morning (for the lump in my throat, and for the NERVES of me), but I must have done something right, because she started crying as we drove to work. I'm still a bit breathless when I think of it. I think it might be good. Really good.
But! I have had this sort of notion before. Watch, two weeks later, and O the TARNISH! O, the ASHES OF MY AMBITION! Ohhhh, the DRAFTS I'll have to write to get the story to a level even of passable. Past drafts I've had to abandon in despair. Because some things? Can't be fixed.
Yes. There's that too.
I never trust this feeling, and neither should you, hearing about it from me.
Who's to say a thing is good or not anyway? My job is only to love it and make it the best story ever!!!
Canary is, currently, top-heavy. I'm not certain about the interludes. Everything needs to be combed out. Where I'm ham-handed, let me have delicacy. Where I'm preachy, let me know restraint.
But the POINT is... The draft is done. And I've done something I've never done before. I've written a steampunk story, hot damn. And there is a fierceness in me at the thing I have done, because I -- I think I've stepped up. I think I've topped my best. Or will have, once I've polished it.
ISN'T THAT A FUNNY FEELING???
***
Patty actually finished hers too last night. An hour before I did. But I'll waive that point. I won't hold it against her. With a vegetable peeler. Near her scalp.
You don't know how good she is. How can you? But you will.
***
Now.
The New York City premiere of Witches of Lublin is tonight.
OHMAHGAWDIWANNAHEARITWAHHHHHHH!!!
Apparently, it'll be online. Will I catch it? At midnight? Will I, will I?
IT'S SO GOOD! (Well, I read it. It was good on the page. But a play's not a PLAY on the page! And they have frikkin BARBARA ROSENBLAT in the cast!!! (She is the only Amelia Peabody for me.)
So, yes. Barbara Rosenblat. Among other little known names. You know. Like Tovah Fledshuh and Neil Gaiman.
BEKAW, MATIES!!!
(As a one-legged parrot with an eye-patch might say.)
I have, for Black Gate Magazine, done gone and interviewed the writers, composer, director and producer in a sort of frantic Round Robin, which I must organize on the page out of myriad emails and post to the BG Blog on Monday.
IT'S PROBABLY THE COOLEST THING I'VE DONE ON THAT BLOG YET!!!
If I do say so myself. Mostly, it's all due ellen_kushner.
***
I need to fix Canary and turn it in.
I need to finish a draft of Martyr's Gem, do my revisions for How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain with the Crooked One, and I need to take another look at Lady of Shades.
I need to do all of this before the end of April.
Because in May, and for the rest of the summer, that's novel time. That's Shadowstalkers. Because I AM going to send it on an agent quest before I move east. I am. I must. I can't just keep talking about it.
It's time.
***
About my OWN JACK YAP!
After staying up until two AM writing - and FINISHING!!! - Canary of Candletown.
Well, first draft, that is. But done! In a shape I can recognize as a STORY!
What a slippery little monster this was. The process attained a level of plasticity I heretofore had never experienced. I plotted it out. I had scenes in mind. I had an ending in mind. Dialogue. Action. I had antagonists lined up and inventions all in a row. And what did this story do? No sooner would I write a scene than - suddenly! in the bathroom! or at the oven! - that scene would say, "But what I'm REALLY about is THIS!" And then I'd have to rewrite it!
The last time I wrote something with this much research behind it was Pale, and from a Sea Wave Rising, which, to be perfectly honest, I never thought I'd sell. I'd vacillate between liking it okay and wanting to smash its face in. I was never so surprised in my life to see an acceptance email as I was when Cat said yes for Apex.
This is nothing like "Pale" except that... Except that I started out with no vocabulary for this particular time period, this particular place, these particular themes. I assumed a hundred things when I set out to write the draft and one by one had the Rugs of Assumption pulled out from under me.
Canary's ending completely astonished me. I had no idea. I found what I did hard to relate to Patty in the morning (for the lump in my throat, and for the NERVES of me), but I must have done something right, because she started crying as we drove to work. I'm still a bit breathless when I think of it. I think it might be good. Really good.
But! I have had this sort of notion before. Watch, two weeks later, and O the TARNISH! O, the ASHES OF MY AMBITION! Ohhhh, the DRAFTS I'll have to write to get the story to a level even of passable. Past drafts I've had to abandon in despair. Because some things? Can't be fixed.
Yes. There's that too.
I never trust this feeling, and neither should you, hearing about it from me.
Who's to say a thing is good or not anyway? My job is only to love it and make it the best story ever!!!
Canary is, currently, top-heavy. I'm not certain about the interludes. Everything needs to be combed out. Where I'm ham-handed, let me have delicacy. Where I'm preachy, let me know restraint.
But the POINT is... The draft is done. And I've done something I've never done before. I've written a steampunk story, hot damn. And there is a fierceness in me at the thing I have done, because I -- I think I've stepped up. I think I've topped my best. Or will have, once I've polished it.
ISN'T THAT A FUNNY FEELING???
***
Patty actually finished hers too last night. An hour before I did. But I'll waive that point. I won't hold it against her. With a vegetable peeler. Near her scalp.
You don't know how good she is. How can you? But you will.
***
Now.
The New York City premiere of Witches of Lublin is tonight.
OHMAHGAWDIWANNAHEARITWAHHHHHHH!!!
Apparently, it'll be online. Will I catch it? At midnight? Will I, will I?
IT'S SO GOOD! (Well, I read it. It was good on the page. But a play's not a PLAY on the page! And they have frikkin BARBARA ROSENBLAT in the cast!!! (She is the only Amelia Peabody for me.)
So, yes. Barbara Rosenblat. Among other little known names. You know. Like Tovah Fledshuh and Neil Gaiman.
BEKAW, MATIES!!!
(As a one-legged parrot with an eye-patch might say.)
I have, for Black Gate Magazine, done gone and interviewed the writers, composer, director and producer in a sort of frantic Round Robin, which I must organize on the page out of myriad emails and post to the BG Blog on Monday.
IT'S PROBABLY THE COOLEST THING I'VE DONE ON THAT BLOG YET!!!
If I do say so myself. Mostly, it's all due ellen_kushner.
***
I need to fix Canary and turn it in.
I need to finish a draft of Martyr's Gem, do my revisions for How the Milkmaid Struck a Bargain with the Crooked One, and I need to take another look at Lady of Shades.
I need to do all of this before the end of April.
Because in May, and for the rest of the summer, that's novel time. That's Shadowstalkers. Because I AM going to send it on an agent quest before I move east. I am. I must. I can't just keep talking about it.
It's time.
***