Almost... but not quite!

Steampunk is fashionable, these days. And this book had almost all the characteristics to make it a champion of the genre. I actually rescued it from the non-genre part of the bookstore, and indeed it  almost had the literary qualities to be shelved there. It reminded me a lot of Susanne Clarke (the main character, Edward Moon, really feels like a clone of Mr. Norrell). And indeed, the atmosphere of the book has almost the charm of the Jonathan Strange saga. The characters are almost as quirky as in a Gaiman book (and indeed the Prefects are totally lifted from Neverwhere, of which the Somnambulist unfortunately lacks the wit. Finally the grandiose underlying conspiracy, and the gothic details are almost as pictoresque as in any Adéle Blanc-Sec graphic novel.

Don't get me wrong: I almost had a lot of fun reading this one :)
Also cited, for anyone interested:

In other news and information

My story, Fatebook has been chosen to be one of the finalists at the Match-that-Artwork AnthologyBuilder contest. The finalists names have been now posted. It'd be a great Christmas gift to be the winner, but being one of the finalists is already pretty cool. Below the image that inspired the story.

Meanwhile I'm slowly (very slowly) dragging my feet through the first few chapters of the NaNoWriMo novel, Forgotten Sons (working title). Looking for the right voice, wrestling with words, seeking the vein to tap to get it to flow...

NaNoWriMo & Christmas

While according to the calendar, half month is now officially shot, the count still stands at a solid and round zero. I was glad however to discover that the story that delayed my NaNoWriMo start has been selected as "recommended" at the Spec the Halls Christmas Story contest.

Also, as of today I finally have an outline for the first novel of the Forgotten Children saga, the very one I should be writing this month. Sure, the outline still has enormous holes, with words like "rescue" or "something horrible happens" that takes the place of entire chapters. But even a safety net is full of holes, and I finally feel I can start to swing on the trapeze. Wooooh, the view is really scary from up here!

Rediscovering Magic: Indigo Springs

After few pages, I still didn’t know what to expect from Indigo Springs. It starts in medias res, and for a while I was wondering how to unravel all the information fed to me, taking in all the implications of  the wonderful and scary things that are hinted to.  Magic-powered terrorists on a rampage in the homeland? It reminded me a little initially of Palahniuk’s Lullaby, especially given the similar “frame story” setup . Except that all the havoc and the cheap thrills happen behind the scenes.

But what about the  liquid magic and the flying carpets: how could the author sink hardcore magic into a real-life setting, and make it believable? She succeeds, I think,  in a way that goes beyond fantasy: by making us care about the lives of ordinary, small town  people in extraordinary circumstances. A.M. Dellamonica masterfully interplays first person narration with the point of view of Astrid, the time-displaced protagonist, as she narrates the (re)discovery of blue magic. It’s an atypical cast of characters, whose status and relationship takes a while to absorb. But the payback is definitely worth the effort, and a thick narration is woven out of every person, place and object, unveiling the wonders little by little, building on anticipation.

And that to me, was the real magic.

NaNoWri: The Never Starting Story

Day 9 and my word count is still zero.

Tragic, I know. Yet, I have hardly rested. I finally finished a short story and (with some help from an exceptional editor) submitted it to this year's Spec the Halls Christmas story contest. And I have been working on the novel, I swear. I even have a working title, and a soundtrack to go with it.

More seriously, I have been trying to put some order in the chaos that accumulated in 4 or so years of notes about the universe and the story. It might seem like lots of material, and the problem is that it's possibly way too much for one novel. Sometimes it's divergent. Sometimes inconsistent (the main character changed gender and name 3 or 4 times through the years). So far I have written the "bible" of the novel (or perhaps, of the series of novels if this one clicks) and I have taken a stab at the cast of chracters, who they are, what they look like, what they want. Some of them are described in  a few paragraphs, other are half a sentence, translucent ghosts.

Now it's the most  dreaded time: working on a synopsis of the story. Stay tuned.

From:NaNoWriMo Day 9: Productive | Inkygirl: Daily Diversions For Writers

The Thrill of the Blank Page

NaNoWriMo essential inspirational words from John Irving

Full interview at http://bigthink.com/johnirving/big-think-interview-with-john-irving

NaNoWriMo: plotting

Let’s face it: I’m going to lose this year’s NaNoWriMo, big time. I haven’t even been abel to start, focused as I was writing a short story. Last night I finally typed the three magical characters (###) that indicate the end of the end in the standard manuscript format. More work is required, but it will be of the editing kind, which I will do later at night when all those creative energies are about to go to sleep.

But at this point we are 5 days into November, and I still have a big round ZERO word count. What is worse, I haven’t thought about a plot yet. Sure, we know what they say “No Plot No Problem.” But I want this month of November to count for something: even if I “lose” I want the stream of words to be produced to go towards a self-contained, consistent story which I will continue adding on, polish and restructure in the future.

What have now is several years of notes. I have thought in passing about this novel for a long time. Once in a while I would type up some thoughts, toss it in some folder, and forget about it. I almost thought I was suffering from a classic case of Worldbuilder's Disease, but what I lacked was the chance to put all of this together. Now, I have a (slightly less than a) month to do just that, to unravel the garbled yarn in my head, put some order into chaos, and hope that something worth reading will take place in the process.

And if you stay tuned I might even tell you how this is going to happen...

NaNoWriMo: And so it begins

The plan for this year:

• Cheer from the sidelines. Many more people I know are participating, and that makes it even more fun that usual.
• Meet other writers, perhaps, if we won't be too busy typing away
• Harness the energy. I'm once more playing to lose, focusing more on quality and structure than output, while living this wonderful yearly appointment with collective creativity.
• Have fun, as usual!