Brief writing update

Mid-January is always a good time to reflect on how well you are adhering to your New Year's resolutions. If you've fallen off the horse already, you're going to have to put in a lot of work to get back on and stay there.

So far, I'm doing a good job of following the writing resolutions I decided on the other week. I have drafted the first 'novelette' on my list (it was an 8,000-word short story in the end, not a novelette). I am close to finishing the outline for the next novelette, and I should start writing it tonight or tomorrow. This one will be longer than the first. It may even be a novella.

So far I am ahead of schedule, because I wasn't expecting to start novella 2 until the 24th. It's not just because the first novelette came in short: I took a 5-day break from writing to listen to A Memory of Light and to read Lindsay Buroker's new Emperor's Edge novella, Beneath the Surface. So all in all, I'm pleased with my progress so far, and I hope I can keep it up.

Did you make New Year's resolutions? How are they going so far?

On 2012, and why I'm glad it is over

I stuck my foot in my mouth last night, as I always do when hanging out with my husband's friends. Whenever I do, it reflects badly on him. When midnight ticked over, I said with some relish, 'Sayonara, 2012!' And then someone turned to me and said, 'Yes, it must have been awful for you, getting married and all.' I tried to recover the situation by pointing out how stressful planning a wedding is, plus there were bathroom renovations, etc. etc. 

Now it is morning and I have slept on it, I still stand by my relief that 2012 is over. Yes, some of the best things that have happened to me occurred in 2012. And no, nothing truly awful happened. (There were layoffs at work, but I still have my job.) But my lasting impression of 2012 is tiredness. The year ran me ragged.

Why was 2012 so hard? Because almost all of the facets of my life transitioned into a new phase. New marriage. New house. New decade of life. Finally moving from talking about wanting to be a writer, to actually doing it. These things are all awesome, but because they all happened at once, I haven't had a chance to fully enjoy them. And that is why I am so happy 2012 is over: because I've been looking forward to 2013, when I'll finally be able to enjoy the new life I created for myself in 2012.

What is your lasting impression of 2012?

Writing resolutions 2013

I have just put together my writing resolutions for 2013. I thought I would blog them here so that they are public, I am accountable for them, and you can call me on it at the end of the year if I don't achieve them. Without further ado:

Write first drafts of:

Three Dimensions Trilogy novelettes between books 1 and 2

12,000 words each, total 36,000

Reality Shifting, Dimensions Trilogy book 2

80,000 words

Three prequel Senjima no Monogatari novellas

20,000 each, total 60,000

Total writing goal:

176,000 words total

3520 per week (for 50 weeks)

704 per day (5 days a week)

Additional goals:

Revise Symmetry Breaking, Dimensions Trilogy book 1

Revise one Dimensions Trilogy novelette

Revise one Senjima no Monogatari novella

Breaking it down to a daily word count makes this list of resolutions look surprisingly achievable. I already know that I can easily write 700 words a day and not run out of puff. All I need to do is get in the habit of outlining or revising other stories after I have hit my daily word count. If that alone is my goal for 2013, I think I can manage that.

Trip to Marlborough Sounds

At our accommodation

Queen Charlotte Sound, from the mail boat

Queen Charlotte Sound

Kenepuru Sound

Kenepuru Sound

Driving along Kenepuru Sound

Queen Charlotte Sound

At the Omaka Aviation Heritage Centre
Etrich Taube exhibit

The story behind this exhibit alone was worth the entry price
Grid's Great Escape exhibit
(Some kiwi bloke somersaulting off his crashing plane near a trench, then calmly walking in and asking to use their telephone. Classic.)

The Baron's Last Flight exhibit
(Australian soldiers stripping the Red Baron's craft)

A biplane in the sky. With ME IN IT!
(Photo by BL)

Biplane just after landing
(Photo by BL)

Me waving from the biplane
(Photo by BL)

Some cheesy person grinning in a biplane
(Photo by BL)

I aten't ded yet

Just a quick post to say, yes, I haven't been blogging much recently. I can confidently say that I will probably continue to not blog much for a few weeks yet. My life has been very busy lately with:

• moving house
• wedding planning
• some freelance work on top of my day job.

So, yeah: busy busy. For the most part this was to be expected, but I am sad that I haven't had a chance to work on my novel for a while. Instead, I have been snatching moments here and there to make notes on what changes I want to make to the text when I have the time. I've also been doing some initial brainstorming and research for the series I want to write after the one I am writing now. With a multiple-book story, I think it is important to set thoughts in motion a year or two before you start writing so that you subconscious has time to work in the background. It makes the outlining process easier. I started brainstorming my current novel two years before I outlined its current form, and more than two years before I started writing it.

I hope to get back to revising Symmetry Breaking in December. Until then, wish me luck getting through this crazy patch.

Book review: The Emperor's Edge, books 1–5

A few months ago I downloaded a free book to my Kindle. The cover caught my eye, and since it was free, I thought 'Why not?'. Of course, because it was free, I didn't read it right away. (Which I am very glad about, because at the time there were only four books in the series, and book 4 ends on a huge cliffhanger!)

The book is called The Emperor's Edge, and it is the first book in a series of the same name, by author Lindsay Buroker.

Anyway, last week I listened to a podcast interview with Lindsay Buroker over at The Creative Penn, and after hearing her talk about her books, I decided to give The Emperor's Edge a go. What followed was a five-day period in which I neglected to answer emails, get proper sleep and (gasp!) check Twitter because I was too busy reading.

The Emperor's Edge series is about a group rather like 'Robin Hood and his Merry Men'; misunderstood misfits who want to do good and help the Emperor, except the pesky bounties on their heads keep getting in the way. It is set in an industrial era secondary world with fantastical elements (magic, etc.). The group includes a female ex-enforcer (police officer); an assassin with an unparallelled work ethic; a womanising dandy with a near-unbeaten duelling record; an ex-alcoholic scholar with a tragic past; a mute ex-slave; and a punk kid with lots of magical talent but very little magical experience. The first three books each chronicle this group fixing a relatively stand-alone problem, although there is an overarching plot linking the three adventures together. Several months pass between each of these books. Books four, five, and the upcoming book 6 are a trilogy covering the same adventure, and book five, at least, started straight after the cliffhanger at the end of book 4.

These books are a lot of fun to read. This crazy band of misfits, however well intentioned, have more success blowing things up and causing mayhem than anything else. They destroy mansions, they destroy trains, they destroy underwater bases, they crash dirigibles . . . and garbage trucks . . . Except for a stolen police truck, not a single mode of transport that they acquire makes it to the end of the current book still in their possession and in one piece.

The books are character-focussed. Most of the plot hangs on an awkward and angsty little tangle of interpersonal relationships (not quite a love triangle, but more awkward than one because of who is involved in it). Although my credibility was initially stretched in this regard, particularly in the second book when our heroine was acting rather immature, Lindsay hit her stride portraying this relationship in the third book and I have been invested in it ever since.

The world-building is weaker than the character-building. All the places the characters visit are vivid and well described, but the reader is given very little idea of what is 'over the next hill'.

There are some problems I had with the books, especially the first two. There was one rather eye-rolling occurrence of hero-saves-the-girl-from-being-raped; and, as mentioned earlier, in the second book the heroine's behaviour made me think of some of the more stupid things I said around guys I liked when I was too young to know better. But even if these problems were mistakes, they helped to portray the main character's growth. By the fourth book Amaranthe is far too badass to cower and wait to be saved, and she's mature enough to begin to deal with the relationship she is in.

Occasionally I was jolted out of the story by an unusual typo or misuse of a word, such as 'accept' being used instead of 'except'. Although Lindsay Buroker hired an editor to help her clean up the books, my guess is that she did not also hire a proofreader.

Other than these few problems, I found the books engaging, addictive, and enjoyable. They are an example of an indie author who has worked hard to establish her niche and her brand, and whose works have rapidly caught up to the quality level of traditionally published books in the fantasy genre.

All five books are available from the main eBook retailers.

So, I disappeared for a while . . .

Sorry for being absent for so long. First, I moved house. Then, I got addicted to a series of books. So addicted that I didn't check Twitter for 5 days. That's . . . unheard of.

Anyway, I'm dropping by to say that I'm intending sometime this week to write a review of the books that took all my attention. So look out for a review of the first five books in the Emperor's Edge series by Lindsay Buroker.