bye, little book

 journal, shadow bound, shadow queen  2 Responses »
Apr 192010
 

This afternoon, I lugged to the post office a ream of paper otherwise known as the proofs of Shadow Bound, and sent them on their merry way to Allen & Unwin. The proofs are dead, long live the proofs!

It's actually kinda sad, in a way, because this is the last I'll see of this book. It's now officially all grown up (or as grown up as it will ever be under my care) and now I'm shoving it out the door to face the big bad world. Here's hoping I taught her how to swing a punch and speak politely (not necessarily in that order) well enough to survive out there.

One of my last tasks was to come up with a glossary of all the characters. SQ and SB aren't that character-packed, but they are quite political books, and the shifting relationships between the characters inform a lot of the plot. So a glossary for the back of SB seemed a good idea, a handy index for readers who haven't (re-)devoured SQ immediately prior to getting their hands on SB.

Only every time I tried to construct the glossary, each and every entry turned out to be rife with spoilers. I kid you not. At one point, this was my glossary (spoilers redacted):

Matilde: Protagonist. Daughter of Luitger (deceased) and Laleh (deceased), grand-daughter of Beata. Much-put-upon.
Beata: Matilde's paternal grandmother; also has the memories of Matilde's maternal grandmother (Shadi) in her head. By SB she SLIGHT SPOILER.
Dieter: Husband of Matilde because SPOILER. Smug.
Helena: Daughter of Beata, sister of Luitger, and thus Matilde's aunt. She SPOILER.
Renatas: Son of Helena (deceased), and thus Matilde's cousin. Right annoying prat. He SPOILER.
Sidonius: Ilthean general and SPOILER.
Amalia: Dieter's younger sister. Passionate and SPOILER.
Roshi: Matilde's Skythe cousin on her mother's side. In SQ she SPOILER, and SPOILER, and SPOILER; in SB she SPOILER.

Isn't that the most helpful glossary ever?

I settled for a family tree instead. It seemed less fraught.

 Posted by at 6:14 pm  Tagged with:

pretty sure the stuff in my kitchen sink has achieved sentience

 journal, shadow bound, writing life  6 Responses »
Apr 152010
 

Deb vs Proofs, so far:

  • One (1) paper cut gash, to Deb's right index finger
     
  • Several (5+) stubs to Deb's big right toe, because she keeps catching it on the chair or the corner of the desk when turning to check something on one of the stacks of paper on the floor
     
  • Three (3) separate instances of Deb being caught muttering to herself on public transport, causing irreparable damage to her facade of being (relatively) sane
     
  • One (1) moment of soul-crushing despair, on discovering a seemingly unsolvable plot snarl
     
  • Seven (7) nights of sleep deprivation, due to racing thoughts and the fact that proofs are, bet you didn't realise this, some kind of Lovecraftian horror what eats your brain
     
  • ZERO (0) instances of seagull-singing!
     
  • 473 pages full of little fixes: VANQUISHED

Huzzah! I think, technically speaking, the proofs are still ahead, given all the casualties they've inflicted on me. But I have slashed their innards with green ink, so at least I went down fighting.

There are still the big fixes to go, and when I mean big I mean like last night's effort — which involved 3 hours to fix a grand total of 5 pages. Oof. Word and page counts make fine and dandy targets, but they do not accurately reflect the thinking time that went into them. But I have all weekend to tackle said big fixes, which feels like glorious, copious quantities of time, so I'm quietly hopeful that I can do it without feeling too pressed by the deadline.

Now, did I miss anything interesting while I was buried in all those stacks of paper?

 Posted by at 7:46 pm  Tagged with:

seagull singing status: not yet

 journal, shadow bound, writing life  Comments Off
Apr 112010
 

So far, the proofs have taught me three things (or at least, three things which come immediately to mind).

First, a "brace" is a pair of something. Did you all know this? I did not. I was in fact under the impression that it denoted decidedly more than two. Dear proof-reader, thank you for questioning.

Second, enjoy those easy pages which have no mark-up, because sooner or later you're going to hit a page with one tiny little question that makes you realise you have previously farked up the plot in a rather horrifying way, and fixing it elegantly (which you must do, it being proofs stage and nobody therefore wanting to add too much more bulk to the book) takes a good four hours. To produce a paragraph. Oy vey. (I fixed it. But now I am not ahead on my target. Boo.)

Third, I do NOT, resolutely NOT, need a smaller desk. In fact, I may well need a much, much larger desk.

I have this pine monstrosity I've been thinking of getting rid of, it being too high for a short person such as myself, and I admit I've been toying with the thought of going all minimalist. A just-barely-enough work surface, which I would naturally keep sparse and clean. But the proofs have reminded me that such a wish is utter, utter folly.

Any desk I own will need to have a work surface large enough to contain the laptop, lamp and scanner (its normal accessories), plus room for the stack of pages I'm working on, the stack of pages I'm yet to go through, the stack of pages I've been through but may need to go back to or at least refer to, a notepad for "thinking out loud" or experimenting with the words I want before committing them to the page in question, and somewhere to put the scads of reference material such as maps, lists of names, issues to fix, &c. That's a whole lot of stacks of paper, and my pine desk is, despite being to my mind too large, not up to the task. I currently have drawers pulled open on either side of me acting as ad-hoc surfaces for supporting the reference material.

On the plus side, this means I don't have to find money for a new teeny desk any time soon. (And a new larger desk is not going to happen. If I have to I'll resort to the floor.)

I'm planning on putting that money I just "saved" towards the purchase of a new camera, so I can taunt you with pictures of Mongolia.

and they're all (well, mostly all) cousins

 shadow bound, writing life  7 Responses »
Apr 072010
 

The proofs for Shadow Bound landed today. The fourteen-day forecast is therefore for sudden squalls of insanity, the occasional seagull impersonation, an inability to discuss any topic that does not immediately relate to (for example) the placement of commas, and a general air of abstraction and sleeplessness.

Although, the proof reader has won my undying love for the following comment in her cover letter:

This was a thoroughly absorbing read. Lots of urst (please cast Viggo Mortensen or Hugh Jackman as Dieter), tension and complexities.

Heh. Heheh. I think it was only a couple of months ago I finally figured out what URST stood for,1 and now apparently I've written a book with sufficient URST to make at least one person think of Viggo.

I can live with that.

This evening, along with getting started on the proofs, I also wrote up the dedication and acknowledgements. My next task, concurrent with the edits, is to whip up some kind of character/house/tribe glossary — which I think is no bad idea, given that no less than 40-odd character and house names are mentioned in the first 60 pages. And this is a novel with actually not that many characters!

It's all starting to take shape people. Book!

  1. I'm slow on the uptake. But I know there's at least one person who also doesn't know what it means, so just for you, Mum: UnResolved Sexual Tension. [↩]

she has a face!

 announcements, journal, shadow bound  6 Responses »
Apr 012010
 

Yesterday I suffered from sponge-brain caused by a criminal lack of sleep which, I don't mind telling you, is entirely Tripod's fault, for scheduling their show so late.1 (Although when I pointed this out to them, what did they go and do but thank me for making the effort to turn up! Who thanks people for being a teasing jerk? The boys from Tripod, obviously. Sorry, Mum — their mums obviously did a better job at instilling polite behaviour.)

(Also, said show was fantastic. I realise the comedy festival has only just started, and it's a big call to make so early on, but this is my favourite show so far and may well turn out to be my favourite show of the festival. A lot of this has to do with Tripod, who are, of course, we all recognise this, brilliant. It also has to do with their special guest star, Elana Stone, whose voice in the first dragon song utterly slayed the entire audience. I do love me a strong female vocalist.)

And today Reliably Absent Yarra Trams sabotaged my attempt at a social life.

But it doesn't matter! Why, you ask? Because Allen & Unwin have released their July 2010 catalogue!

Er, yeah, that's great, Deb, I hear you say. But what does this, yanno, mean?

Well, for all of you oh so patiently waiting for Shadow Bound to become a real grown-up book, this means you are now in possession of a firm publication date2 AND, as a bonus, a first glimpse of the cover art.

Is it not pretty? And shiny?

Yes, okay, I know it's not particularly large, but I don't have a large version to hand to show you, on account of the large version not being actually finalised yet. Once I do, you can bet I'll be slapping it up on the blog for you all to ogle and admire.

  1. Oh, okay, Meandering Yarra Trams probably has some share of culpability as well. [↩]
  2. Note: due to the vagaries of the industry, a publication date of July 2010 means the book should start appearing in stores sometime in June 2010. [↩]

but i guess they do that here, i dunno

 hijinks, journal, the wages of honey, writing life  Comments Off
Mar 082010
 

The lovely Mek posted this yesterday, and I can't help but post it myself for those of you who read my journal but not hers, because I love me a bit of whimsy, and this sort of stuff makes me laugh out loud:

In other news, I appear to have started yet another novel. Yes, before finishing that short story which has glomped and bulled its way into novellette territory, and before finishing the faerie novel. And before so much as starting those seven or so novels lined up in the back of my brain, impatiently waiting their turn to be written. Er, oops? My only excuse is that enthusiasm is infectious. My plan is to finish the short story while writing this new novel, and then finish the faerie novel while writing this new novel. No plan survives first contact, of course, but we'll see how we go.

I'm keen to get more writing done this year, partly because after Shadow Bound I have nothing contracted and, you know, I'd really like that to change; and partly because my ability to pin words to the page seems to have slowed down frighteningly of late. I don't know if the words I am pinning down are better put together, and will therefore require less editing. Here's hoping, because that would mean the extra time I'm taking now will be recouped later and it might all even out. (That just sounds too neat to be true, though.)

yes, this is how i spend my creative energy – what of it?

 journal, shadow queen  16 Responses »
Feb 142010
 

We interrupt our normal blog practices to briefly toot my own horn: this GoodReads review popped up in my browsing this morning, and I can't decide what I love more: the shelves she's chosen (books worth your time! kick ass heroines!) or that she's read the book twice in the space of two weeks. It's a good way to start the day. (Ladies and gentlemen, your author, quietly glowing for the rest of the week.)

But now, people, on to matters of EXTREME importance: Nutella: Bread? Or spoon?

It has come to my attention that some people, some clearly confused and misguided people, think this hazelnet paste is to be used solely as some kind of spread, and that it is indeed best when consumed via bread delivery means. And my response is this: why, why, for the love of all things vegetable oil, would you bother smearing it on bread and thereby making it too dry, when you could just eat it straight off the spoon?1

But, judging from the fact that my family apparently eat all sorts of foods "the wrong way", it is just possible that I'm the freak in this scenario. So, Internets, set me straight: bread or spoon?2

  1. I have also heard of nutella on crepes. I am less averse to this scenario, because crepes are not as dry nor as thick as bread, and therefore I assume the crepe would not suck all the moisture out of the nutella. [↩]
  2. I reserve the right, if all y'all turn out to be freaks who prefer bread to spoon, to blithely ignore you and go on with my spoonish ways. Just so you know. [↩]

i'm not afraid of a little chemical reset

 journal, shadow queen  4 Responses »
Jan 282010
 

My circadian rhythms responded to Tuesday's punishment by waking me up at 5:29 both yesterday and this morning. Oh, circadian rhythms, this means war, and you're going down. (At least no one has greeted me this morning at work with a horrified expression and the diffident, "Are you OK? Do you need to go home?" which I normally earn after a day or so of interrupted sleep patterns.)

Today I am going to do something I don't often do: link to a review.1 Mainly because that bit down the bottom, all in capitals, is the entire content of the email Karen sent me directly on finishing the book and, well, it's my favourite summary of Shadow Queen ever. And now you can all enjoy it too :)

Speaking of Karen, she also has smart things to say about the author's position in the whitewashing fracas, as does Justine.

And Caitlin Kittredge has smart things to say about the "write every day" mantra, and how that works for her. And how you can make it work for you.

  1. That was it. Quick, wasn't it? Didja catch it? [↩]

shadow bound, the wordle

 journal, shadow bound  6 Responses »
Jan 232010
 

So, it's probably a touch mean of me to tease you all with a wordle of Shadow Bound, since it won't be published and available to read until much closer to the middle of the year.

But I'm going to do precisely that.

Gee, can you guess which two characters get mentioned an awful lot?

 Posted by at 7:37 pm  Tagged with:

gotta tell you: liking this doing-nothing schtick

 journal, shadow bound  3 Responses »
Jan 192010
 

Today I bring you: a title!

Book 2 of The Binding — which I have previously been referring to by such monikers as Book 2, Pledged, the rest of Matilde's story, and "that effing car-crash of a narrative" (you know, when I'm feeling particularly affectionate) — shall henceforth be known as Shadow Bound.

I'm very happy with it, and not only because pretty much every title I could think of with Queen in it started to sound dreadfully, er, steamy. So going with Shadow for the linking element? Good thing. (Titles. They're hard.)

In other news, today, in stopping to let me board, the tram stopped directly under the insulated point, and couldn't start again. The driver tried all sorts of strange and mystical things like peering at the roof, adjusting the side-view mirrors, sitting down so heavily in his seat that he rocked the tram (not enough), and even jumping in his cabin to rock the tram (not enough). After all his efforts failed … we had to get out and push. PUSHING TRAMS. I have never heard of such shenanigans.

Makes for a good story, though, there is that.

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