Saturday 6 October 2012

A couple of tags

Elizabeth at Use Your Words... tagged me in the Next Big Thing thing a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I'd give it a go:

1. Working Title? Our Beautiful Child and other stories

2. Where did idea come from for the book? There are three novella length stories in the collection. The first one I wrote is The Traveller, which contains my most favourite character ever. The second one Ella's Story wasn't supposed to be connected to The Traveller, but I noticed I'd set the story in a similar town, with similar landmarks. And then, eventually, I decided to write a a third based in the same town, because the idea of a trilogy felt right by then. Although some of the characters overlap a little bit, they are completely separate and can be read as individual stories.

3. What genre does it fall under? Contemporary alternative paranormal-ish romance!

4. One sentence synopsis? (Cheating: one sentence for each story!!)
  • Ella's Story - a recurring dream about her own death sends Ella into turmoil, especially when elements of her dream start to come true.
  • The Traveller - a stranger in town captivates most of the women, but he has his eyes on just one.
  • Our Beautiful Child - Rona is chosen by the local ghosts as a channel between their two worlds when a fake medium tries to hold a seance in the local pub.
5.Self-published or agented or what? Hopefully published by Vagabondage Press, my publisher for Cat and The Dreamer.

6. How long did it take to write first draft? The Traveller - the first story - started life in 1999 I think, but there were big gaps between writing stories. The final story took the longest, because I just couldn't grasp all the elements of the story - I was thinking about it for a couple of years - and now it's my favourite.

7. What actors would you choose to play your characters? Erm... I'm going to pass on this one because I can't think of anyone who could play them. My favourite character is based on two real people, so only they could play him - but I don't think either of them are actors!


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Next, Teresa at The Wittering Woman tagged me in Seven Things About Me. I've done a lot of tags where I've had to share seven, or more, things so I'm not sure I can come up with anything new. I'll give it a go...

  1. I had two imaginary friends when I was little, called Iccance and Occance. (The spelling might not be entirely right!)
  2. I got so nervous on my wedding day that I couldn't eat until about nine o'clock in the evening. I hated being the centre of attention! (It was a long time ago, I'm much better now.)
  3. I've just sat here for five minutes thinking of a number 3, and I'll probably take the same length of time to think of a number 4.
  4. I'm very bad at singing, playing Trivial Pursuit and playing any kind of sport which involves hitting a ball with something.
  5. But I'm quite good at making omelette!
  6. I wave at train drivers.
  7. I own the DangerMouse complete box set.
Phew, I did it! 

I'm not going to pass this on to anyone specifically, but if you'd like to take part, especially with the Next Big Thing if you have something to talk about, then consider yourself tagged!

29 comments:

  1. Your seven random things are great. I always get to those and go "Wait, have I already said that?"

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    1. I had a quick look back at a couple of others I've done - I'm really not interesting enough to answer these properly!

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  2. Ooo, I would love to eat one of your omelettes made by you! I bet it would taste yummy. And while reading this post, I'm thinking I should really read Cat and the Dreamer one of these days because I'm a fan of your blog. Congratulations! *throws confetti and hugs* :

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    1. Thank you for your lovely comments, Livia - I'd obviously love you to read Cat and The Dreamer :-)

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  3. I'm coming to your place tomorrow for an omelet breakfast!

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  4. Your books all sound really cool. I like the idea of things having tie-ins but not necessarily being dependent upon each other. Stephen King does that a lot--like setting so many of his stories in Castle Rock. I always think it's a neat idea.

    And I wave to trains too. :) Doesn't everyone?

    Also, while I have your ear for a sec, if you want to go vote in ponyfest for me, that'd be awesome. My daughter is SO excited about the pony she drew for me. I hate to let her down by not getting barely any votes. Our pony is Cacee by Tamara haha. Thanks!

    http://rebeccaenzor.com/2012/10/05/welcome-to-ponyfest12/#comments

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    1. Thanks Tamara. I did wonder whether setting my stories in the same town made the town sound really weird, but if Stephen King does it then I'm in good (and successful) company... confession: I've never read any Stephen King books!

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  5. I agree, your books sound great! Loved your synopsis of each. :)*

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  6. I like the idea of almost linked stories going together in one collection.

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  7. Its hard to write one sentence snipits. Well done. ANd good luck with your books!

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    1. Thanks Stephen. They really are hard - I rewrote them all a couple of times :-)

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  8. Hey,

    Not blowing smoke up yer arse, but I loved the synopsis of the three novellas... have you thought about fleshing them out into three stand-alone contemporary alternative paranormal-ish romances :)

    Good luck :)

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    1. Thanks Mark! I toyed with trying to make them longer, but I love the lengths as they are - the pacing seems just right, and if I tried to flesh them out it would be obviously padding for the sake of it. I like the hit and shock of the stories as they stand :-)

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  9. I love your seven random things, especially #3. And your one sentence synopsis (all three of them) are/were fantastic. Best of luck with it!

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    1. Thanks M.J :-) Random facts are hard to come up with!

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  10. Making an omelette is a hard skill to master. ;)

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    1. ^And I posted that on my husband's name.... ;)

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    2. For a long time my omelettes turned into scrambled egg, because I was too impatient. But I've learnt to bide my time... it's a life lesson :-D

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  11. Ha! I loved your number three! Of both tags, actually. Contemporary alternative paranormal-ish romance is the best sounding genre ever!

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    1. Thanks Peggy :-) I was planning to coin 'alternative romance' because it sums my stuff up, in the most part, but I've just realised that it's also applied to erotic fiction, and I don't write that, so I'm now trying to come up with a new, unique term... It's harder than I thought it would be!

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  12. I'm bad at sports and making omelettes.

    It was great reading about your project. :)

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    1. Thanks Medeia. Sports are great for watching, bad for taking part in, and you can always have boiled egg :-)

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  13. My ancestors were Dawsons and Brownings from England...any way we're related? LOL.
    I almost caught the church on fire lighting the unity candle, I was so nervous about everyone staring at me...I also can't play sports...I wave at passers by...and I never had imaginary friends, but had tons of imaginary adventures!

    Can't wait to read the new sort of trilogy. (Oh, and can I get Cat in paperback?)

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    1. I always get worried at the school's Christingle service where all the kids - Years 3-6 - hold a lit candle and spread out around the dark church. Kids in the dark with fire seems like such an odd combination.

      I have no idea when the trilogy will be available at the moment. And no - sigh... - Cat isn't available as a paperback, just ebook, sadly...

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  14. I'm glad I'm not the only one who started a story in 1999 and is still talking about ;)

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