A Crazy World

I've been remiss about posting. Suffice it to say, I'm in the middle of content edits and that madness known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). Oh, and reading entries for a contest.

Not to mention, Tuesday nights are my time to watch "Air Disasters" on Smithsonian Channel, except tonight they had a special on the Gettysburg Address. So I read my required page count for the contest and typed 2000 words for my NaNo project, an urban fantasy, The Judas Dilemma. For some reason, 2000 words seems to be the perfect number for me.

NaNoWriMo always starts the same way. Come October 1, and I'm like, "I got this!" A whole month to plot my story and develop my characters. October 15 rolls around, and I'm still confident. I mean, what's two weeks, right? October 31, 11:59 PM. I am so screwed! All I have is a name.

I hadn't even planned to write another angel urban fantasy. I wanted to write a story about an NTSB investigator. But the mind has a funny way of doing what it wants, and before long, I found myself writing about Judas and Emily, and the silver coin that binds them. Heck, I even managed to weave in a subplot/

Today, I posted 36,000 words. Only 14,000 to go. I'm surprised how well it's going, considering I only plotted the first four chapters in detail. I'm ashamed to admit my outlines were longer than my chapters. But somehow, it's coming together. Not perfect. First drafts never are. But yeah, there's something there.

If I manage to mold this story into something submittable, I have a couple of publishers in mind. Why yes, hope springs eternal. :-)

Exterminating Angel Cover Reveal

I'm excited to announce the cover reveal of my upcoming paranormal/urban fantasy, Exterminating Angel. It's scheduled to release Spring 2014, and is about an archangel who unwittingly unleashes a demon upon the city, and must enlist the help of Lucifer to stop it.

A stand-alone, Exterminating Angel was written between books 1 & 2 of my Angels of Death series, which begins with Death Sword. One of my goals for writing angel UF is to twist notions of good and evil, to challenge readers' perceptions. I don't know if I'll succeed, but when I've pitched the story to people, they say they want to read it. But pitching and writing loglines is a topic for another post. LOL

Anyway, I really like the cover. Wasn't sure how Renee would interpret the design from my notes, but she nailed it, imho.

I've also made a trailer video for Exterminating Angel. I'll update it when I get more information. Enjoy!

Contract!

I'm a bit remiss about posting this, but I recently signed a contract with my publisher, Lyrical Press, for an urban fantasy M/M romance, Exterminating Angel.

It's been a long journey with Zaphkiel and company. For at least two years, I jokingly referred to the story as "The Zaphkiel Project." I've lost track of how many times I changed the opening or, indeed, the plot. But the core premise always remained the same. An archangel unwittingly summons a demon, and requires Lucifer's help to destroy it.

Funny thing, people I pitched the story to wanted to read it. Horror writer John Everson told me to "go for it." Those three words were all I needed. For over two years, I wrote and rewrote, pushing my characters as far as I could without them revolting and killing me. Although, to be fair, there were times I wanted to push them off the proverbial cliff. (I love my characters and all, but damn, sometimes...) And then there was Raziel, who hinted he wanted a separate story. (I'm still debating that.)

I didn't know what to expect when I submitted Exterminating Angel to Lyrical. And the title? That came  from brainstorming and listening to Blutengel. Now, for me, titles either come easily ("Death by Fresh Air") or it's like digging through ten feet of solid concrete with a teaspoon. Not going to happen. And this was a teaspoon moment. Oh, I tried to come up with titles, A Discordant Melody being one. Sounds science-fiction, right? So I brainstormed. I wrote everything possible connected to the book, including songs I listened to, and one of them was "Oxidising Angel" by Blutengel.

For some reason, that led to "Exterminating Angel," which is a film by Bunuel. But it fit. I'd found my title. (Btw, I've seen a couple of Bunuel's films: Un Chien Andalou and Viridiana.) To say I was relieved I had a title was an understatement.

That said, I'm awaiting pre-edits from my new content editor, and I'm as nervous as a kitten in a rocking chair factory. I'm grateful and humbled Lyrical accepted my strange, dark, twisted little story. Lyrical was my first choice, and I appreciate their willingness to take a chance on an unknown author.

What Did You Just Call Me?

Courtesy: MorgueFile.com

Titles. They're the bane of my writing existence. Either they come easily to me, such as "Death Sword" did,or I struggle for years to find the right one. Sometimes, I enlist the help of friends. That's how my short screenplay "Cemetery" was named. Even today, I doubt I could come up with a better title.

Titles not only need to grab reader attention, they need to give a clue as to the tone and genre of the book. For example, I'm working on a collection of short dark fiction that I plan to call Malice and Mayhem: Tales of the Macabre. This should give a pretty good indication of the subject matter.

Which brings me to my latest WIP, formerly known as The Zaphkiel Project. For two years, I've debated what to call this angel UF. Zaphkiel and A Discordant Melody were two titles I played with, but neither were very exciting. And A Discordant Melody sounded more like sci-fi. (Although who's to say I won't write such a story?) For those curious, it relates to the disruption of the planetary harmonics in the story, something I researched for this WIP.

I'm getting ready to submit The Zaphkiel Project, so I needed a title. I brainstormed, writing down character names and anything related to the book: Venus Transit, angels, demons, pentacles, ghouls, Tarot...

Nothing.

And then I wrote the title of a song by Blutengel: "Oxidising Angel".

That brought to mind the title "Exterminating Angel". Surely there had to be several books with that title. But this didn't seem to be the case. Instead, "Exterminating Angel" is better known as a movie by Luis Bunuel.

I doubt anyone will confuse my angel paranormal/UF with Bunuel's satire.

Detours Along the NaNoWriMo Freeway

Every November for the past several years, I embrace the novel-writing marathon known as NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). The goal? Write 50,000 words in 30 days.

I like to joke I start October 1 with the knowledge I have 31 days to plot my story and work on character development. October 15 rolls around and I insist I can plot this puppy in 16 days. Then it's October 31, 11:59p.m. I have probably one character and a vague idea of plot.

Every year. Like clockwork.

This year, I wanted to write a phantasmagorical type of story, about a father and daughter who run a very special exhibit at sci-fi/fantasy cons.Part of it is inspired by my own con experiences and my love of animation.

Then my editor and I were discussing my on-again, off-again, mostly off-again, Angels of Death series. The second book, Serpent Fire, was giving me fits. I struggled with the revisions. The plot seemed contrived and, while there were aspects I liked, it obviously needed an injection of something. What, I didn't know. Ironically, the third book, The Devil Inside, was coming along better.

My editor suggested perhaps writing Serpent Fire as a stand-alone. I thought about it and realized Devil Inside could easily work as the second book. Serpent Fire received a lethal injection to make room for a new story, and one I'm having fun with, when I have time to work on it.

In this new version, Uriel, a demon-hunter, accidentally shoots and kills a demon who had permission to leave Tartarus. As part of his punishment, he's forced to serve under Sargatanas, a demon Brigadier-General, whose tough, by-the-book rules irritates the more independent mercenary angel. Sargatanas considers Uriel to be a proverbial pain and a detriment to the company, despite his exemplary sniper skills.

I'd never written such a story, with opposite characters playing off of each other. I thought it would be fun to make the demons strict and the archangel rebellious.

Unfortunately, I lost the plot sheet I'd devised for the story, which is holding me up. And having had to work on a story galley, plus reading for a contest, has curtailed my writing time for NaNo. I've come to the realization I probably won't "win" this year, but as long as I get words down, that's what matters.

As for my phantasmagorical story, well, I've debated writing it as a serial or perhaps writing it as a series of self-published novellas. I think four stories might work, depending on my research. I also have an idea to release four novellas based around the Memitim. But so far, these are only ideas.

Anyone else doing NaNo?

For more information: http://www.nanowrimo.org

I Quit! No, Wait...

So I'm at a crossroads. I don't know if I should continue writing my angel UF stories or throw them away.

Part of it is no one seems interested in my angel UF, although the sub genre is apparently very popular. For other authors. Me? Not so much. I seem to have better luck with the vampire short story I wrote.Go figure.

I've learned to stop looking at my royalty statements, reviews, Amazon rankings, etc. Too depressing. Well, the reviews are okay. I can live with them. Love my stories or hate 'em, at least there's a reaction. It's the apathy that sucks. 

I like my Angels of Death series and want to continue writing it. At this point, I'm revising the second book and have the third partially written.There were some other angel UF/paranormal short novels and novellas I had planned to write, including a few short stories. But if no one's interested, seems pointless. I do have other story ideas to write, so lack of material isn't a problem.

Yes, I understand authors need backlists and first books don't always sell. But that's not always true. And when I see authors recommending other authors' books, I can't help but wish I could be that lucky. It's like I don't know the secret word to get into the awesome club house.

Still, despite wanting to quit, I'm too damn stubborn to give in so easily. I just can't give the naysayers the satisfaction. Oh, I can retreat but that doesn't mean I'm planning to surrender. And I know there are those authors out there who would love to see me fail. Y'all know who you are. Sorry. Not happening. Years of being bullied and abused has taught me to never give in. And I sure as hell won't start now.

A Conglomeration

First, I'm happy to hear the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Proposition 8 unconstitutional. The battle isn't over but any victory helps.

Also, many of you are probably aware of the RWA/RWI debacle. I won't get into it here but the gist is the Romance Writers Ink chapter of the RWA decided no same-sex entries in their More Than Magic (MTM) contest this year. They apparently did not have a problem with same-sex entries before, since many GBLT books not only finaled but won in previous years. Supposedly, the reasoning was the members "felt uncomfortable" with such entries, hence the ban.

Well, to say the information went viral is an understatement. Members of the Rainbow Romance Writers (the GBLT chapter of RWA) protested and other writers, blogs, etc. picked up the rallying cry for the RWA and RWI to stop this discriminatory practice. Sadly, the RWI canceled their contest.

I hope the RWA does the right thing. Many of my favorite writers identify as GBLT. And lest you think this applies only to romance writers, let me also list a few who are noted among the literary: James Baldwin, Tony Kushner, Edward Albee, and Audre Lorde, among others.

On another note, I'm hoping to share some news soon. Also, here's my writing update, with a nod to Sara, who posted hers last week. (And I did say this was a conglomeration) :-) Anyhoo, working on the 3rd revision of The Ripper's Daughter. I used Lynn Viehl's The Novel Notebook to plot my story and it's really helped keep my story focused so these rewrites are going much better than the angel UFs, which I often had to restart from scratch. Either that or I've finally found my genre. LOL

Speaking of angel UF, The Zaphkiel Project is currently with beta readers/CPs. So things are moving along a bit faster than last year. I really want to submit two books this year, hence my drive. (Besides, I can't let everyone else have all the fun, right?)

Happy Anniversary

Today is the first year anniversary of Death Sword's publication. The journey began in November 2008 when I wrote the first draft for National Novel Writing Month.

Death Sword is the first in a planned four-book series focusing on the angels of death. Altogether I have eight or nine angel urban fantasy/paranormal stories planned, some partially written, some finished and ready for revision, and the rest mere ideas. Many of the ideas are developed from information I come across in my research.

If you ask me where I even got the idea to write about angels and demons, I would probably shrug and admit I've no idea. Perhaps it was independent filmmaker Kenneth Anger who piqued my interest with Lucifer Rising. Or a question that seems to be a recurring theme through my stories. What I do know is I enjoy upending notions of good and evil. Maybe not necessarily in Death Sword, but the ride's not over.  

You can buy Death Sword at the following:

Lyrical Press
Amazon
Barnes & Noble

Knowing When To Quit

This post is not about quitting writing. No, even in my darkest moment I don't seriously consider that. It's about knowing when to give up an idea that's just not working.

I have been struggling with the urban fantasy WIP for months - nay, it's years now. Having started from the beginning four times, and never getting more than 10,00 words in, I knew in my heart there was a serious problem. So I sent it out to a few beta readers to get some other opinions. And all the beta readers, independently and unanimously, have told me that the plot, for a variety of reasons, just isn't working.

There are some parts that can be salvaged. Some good ideas have come out of my world-building, including a sub-plot involving Loki the Nordic trickster god that seems to have some mileage. But the main plot has to be scrapped, as everyone who's read the WIP thinks it's either too weak, too flawed or just plain not working. And I think I need to get a better handle on my main character, too.

In some ways this is a bit depressing, but to be honest it's nothing I didn't already know, deep down. The problem is I now have a couple of characters and a sub-plot, but not enough to fill a full-length novel and no idea what the main plot's going to be. So I have decided to abandon this WIP for the time being. Maybe if I let the idea stew in my head for a while, it'll cook up something tasty in time.

Sometimes you get too close to a manuscript to be able to see its flaws. That's when its useful to get other opinions. And painful as it might be, there are times you have to let go of the idea you've been dogging so hard you can no longer see that it's falling apart. And I think that's where I am at the moment.

So I'm letting go of my supernatural private eye for now. Some time ago she stopped talking to me, and I failed to listen. I'm rather hoping that some day soon she'll appear again, saying, "this is my story, and this is how to tell it". At that point I'll go back to the computer and write it down.

In the meantime, I'm going to carry on chronicling my amateur sleuth's adventures. She's been talking to me quite a lot of late. It's time to listen.

Giveaway time!

I’m really stoked. On Monday my next urban fantasy release hits virtual shelves the world over. I wrote The Namaqualand Book of the Dead in a fit of pique about two years ago when Twilight madness was at fever pitch. In many ways it’s my reaction against the portrayal of obsessive love being a positive personality trait.

Set in Cape Town, South Africa, and also partially along the country’s West Coast, the story is part tragic romance and travelogue, offering readers unfamiliar with an African setting a chance to explore a world with which I am familiar.

So, in celebration, I’m giving away three electronic copies of The Namaqualand Book of the Dead. All you need to do is Tweet, Blog or do a Facebook status update tagging me with the following link promoting my new Facebook author fan page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Nerine-Dorman-author/173330419365374?v=wall
Remember to mail the evidence (either as a screen shot or link) to my email address so I know where to send you your book: nerinedorman@gmail.com

Read an excerpt here: http://www.lyricalpress.com/store/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1_22&products_id=313

Coming Full Circle (Confessions of a Former Literary Snob)

Confession time.

Yes, I’ll admit it. I was one of those literary snobs who turned up my nose at genre (or commercial) fiction.

It didn’t start out that way. During my middle school years, I devoured mysteries, fantasies, horror, and thrillers. When I first starting writing (again, in middle school), I wrote a horror anthology called “Tales of Terror.” There were three issues, composed of short horror stories penned on notebook paper and stapled together. On the back page of every “anthology” was a place for feedback. During that time I also wrote three YA mystery/thriller novellas.

High school found me writing stories about 1920s gangsters and poetry. Encouraged by my English teachers, I enrolled in college with the intention of graduating with a degree in English.

Around that time I also had the lofty (if delusional) idea of writing literary fiction. But not just any literary fiction. Pulitzer Prize quality literary fiction. (Yeah, told you it was a delusional idea.)

I continued writing poetry and a few short stories. A writer friend tried to persuade me screenplays were the new American novel but I wasn’t as yet convinced. I think I tried my hand at writing some awful plays. I also served as editor of the literary magazine (one issue) and the college newspaper. (It’s not as impressive as it sounds.)

Now journalism occupied my time, particularly the alternative press. Another friend loaned me copies of In These Times and Sojourners. Instead of the current pop favorites, my musical tastes ran to political bands like Midnight Oil, Johnny Clegg and Savuka, Billy Bragg, XTC, Peter Gabriel, etc.

My goal was to now write Pulitzer Prize winning articles. I even planned to go to graduate school for journalism, Columbia being my first choice.

I graduated from college with a B.A. in English and a minor in creative writing. I never pursued my Masters. Nearly 13 years would pass before I started to write again. Why? Because every time I started a project, my inner critic silenced me. Not only was I not writing literary quality work, I wasn’t writing creatively at all. (I was, however, working as a freelance writer for a couple of local magazines.)

In 2003, I decided to write a novel. The catch? I didn’t allow myself to edit until the first draft was complete. And I did finish it, a 50k YA horror. The following year I participated in my first NaNoWriMo.

Since then, I’ve written one novel, three short novels and one novella. I also have three short novels in progress and several ideas for future books. Guess what? They’re all genre fiction: horror, mystery, paranormal, urban fantasy, etc. Well, you get the idea. The point is I’ve written more since I returned to my writing roots.  

Maybe I should’ve stuck with genre writing and not been a literary snob.

Lesson learned.

Beginnings, Middles and Endings

I have had many a discussion in the past about what makes a book "good". I am willing to concede this is a matter of personal preference. A book might be superior in its language, and win all kinds of literary prizes. But that doesn't mean I'm going to like it.

Other books might tell a great story, but the writing style leaves a lot to be desired. They still manage to be mega best sellers ([cough] Dan Brown [cough] Stephenie Meyer).

I admit to being fairly simplistic in my literary tastes. I like a beginning, a middle, and an end. I like things to occur in chronological order. I like plenty of action. There has to be death, and danger (and preferably a bit of gore). This is what draws me to horror, crime and urban fantasy - on the whole, these genres have plenty of excitement, the characters face danger, and blood gets spilled.

A few years ago I read - and really hated - Donna Tartt's "The Little Friend". It started off well. A 12-year-old girl goes sleuthing to discover who murdered the brother who was killed before she was born. A mystery, then. I got quite engrosed in following her journey as she picks up clues.

But the book comes to an abrupt end without revealing who the killer is. That's an unsatisfactory ending. Fans of "The Little Friend" tend to say that the book is not about the murder, it's about the main character's emotional journey through adolescence. But you know what? That sort of journey just doesn't have enough action for my liking. And to introduce a murder mystery in a plot and not solve it? Well, that's just cheating.

I may never win any literary prizes in my writing career. I'm not even claiming to be all that good a writer. I just want to tell a story that has a beginning, a middle and and end. And preferably a horrible death somewhere along the line.

'Genre' fiction gets bad press sometimes, perceived as somewhat low-brow. But I'm happy to stick with my crime, horror and urban fantasy stories. Generally I'm in for an enjoyable read. And I'm also fairly confident I'll get a proper ending.