Random Ruminations Remotely Related to wRiting.

Did I mention I’m listening to Tim Power’s book, “On Stranger Tides”? As I mentioned in my review of “Declare” there was historical basis for many of the events surrounding Kim Filby. I think this book will be similar in that there is a lot about pirates. Specifically Black Beard. I know he was historical. Another main character, who is a pirate is Philip Davies. The point of view is from an Italian man who Davies renames Jack Shandy. I imagine that Shandy isn’t historical, but I’ll probably do a Google search to see if he is, and Davies, too. So far it’s been as good as ‘Declare’.

I’ve taken a break from fiction for a while, though. I blame iTunes and the OS 5.0X upgrade for my iPhone. I saw that they have made an iTunes U app. So I checked it out and downloaded a couple of Psychology seminars; one from Yale, and the other from Cornell. I have to admit, the human mind has fascinated me since my first semester of college 34 years ago. Had I not been so swayed by rash assumptions based on other’s opinions, I might have pursued a career in that field. Everyone said you needed a doctorate to do anything with it, and, I don’t know why, but that discouraged me. After listening to these seminars, I would love to have earned a PhD in psychology, and work on interesting psychological studies. Oh, well. I’ll just use the information I get from these seminars to eat better, sleep more, and put it into my fiction.

I’ve been posting audio episodes of my first completed novel, “The Price of Friendship” at www.podiobooks.com/title/the-price-of-friendship. It was my learning novel and took nearly three years to write, after countless rewrites and edits. So it’s a bit rough and I find things that I would change if I were to do a written version. With audio, you can edit as you record and emphasize words and phrases to make even obscurely written sentences make sense. But it’s done and I have eleven episodes posted, with two more going in tonight.

What has this got to do with writing?

I was asked why I write YA Urban Fantasy. I really had to think of a reason. It’s a fact that of the four Nanowrimos I have completed, all four of them have main characters who are either in high school or community college. The two other novels I’ve written, “The Price…” takes place at the end of Chad’s eighth grade year, and the other at the beginning of a freshman’s year. Most of my short stories are about children and teenagers.
First, I think, being an adult is filled with so many things that are serious. Sure, there is a lot of opportunity for conflict, but I’m left feeling serious, and negative. I’m writing about a mad scientist right now and I find it is extremely difficult for me. I’m happy with the way it is going, but I was only able to write about 300 words at lunch time today. During the first draft of my previous two novels I would average between 900 and 1400 words at lunch time.
Secondly, they say write what you know. I remember my youth well. I remember my emotions, my dreams, failures, fears, and girls.
Thirdly, I find more adventure in those years than I have had in my life since then. There is so much potential, so much mystery and though we probably didn’t recognize it, so much danger. Personal relationships are fast and hot and every day is competition. Turn all that ninety degrees and introduce the characters to a fantastic new world with unusual people, beautiful scenery, a dragon, some elves, and a hot babe, or two, and those teenage years wasted watching reruns of Gilligan’s Island and The Brady Bunch take become an adventure worth writing about.
Philip ‘Norvaljoe’ Carroll is a staff editor at Flying Island Press, enjoys writing first drafts of novels and learning more about psychology, history, and sciences. He begs you to go to Podiobooks.com and subscribe to his novel, “The Price of Friendship”.

Flagship Volume 2 Issue 2
January 2012

Three great stories.
Two great articles.
One great price $1.99
Buy it now

Dear imaginary friends and non-existent readers. I had promised you the review of “The Game of Thrones” written by George R. R. Martin, but I have had some experiences with writing and publishing, this week, that I want to share with you instead.

Not really.

Laura Nicole is a fan of “The Game of Thrones”. Those of you who might actually exist, might know her. When I had mentioned I was finishing up the book, she had some questions. She had been watching it on HBO.

So for those of you who aren’t reading this blog, but watch the HBO series, I share this for you, without any spoilers.

There was a lot of talk about “The Game of Thrones” at World Con. They even had the throne of swords sitting there so you could have your picture taken in it. In fact, it was at World Con that I logged onto Audible and bought the book.

Almost 35 hours long, it took me well into the second of four sections to really start to enjoy it. Up to that point I couldn’t remember who had done what to whom and all the names, places and events sounded the same. I felt like I was slogging through the story, instead of experiencing it. Two weeks after I finished the book, I’ve forgotten the evil family’s name that took over the kingdom, there is just so much to remember.

There is enough sex, violence, violent sex and sexual ritual to make this book into a hit HBO series. Therefore, I wouldn’t recommend the book to anyone younger than seventeen, though I imagine most twelve year old boys would get a kick out of it. Language is harsh at times and gory death quite detailed. A firm ‘R’ rating.

I will definitely get the second book, but I can’t guarantee the next. I don’t like the “Endless Epic” type of story. Big, fat, paperback books come to mind that I actually read, like, “The Wheel of Time” series and what was that other one? I think it was “Wizard’s First Rule.” I eagerly read the first three or four of each of those series, but they became repetitious in their conflicts, resolutions, methods of torture, etc, that I vowed to never read another until I could turn to the last page and read the words, “The End” I don’t know if that’s how George R. R. Martin is, but I’m sure the money is great, the audience and sales are guaranteed and it’s hard to not ride that rollercoaster as long as you can.

Once I got into the story I found the action gripping, the dialog salient and revealing and the conflicts compelling. Martin has no trouble with killing main characters, so don’t get too attached to anybody, cause they’re likely to not last far into the next book.

Laura Nicole asked me how the narration was. Really, it was masterful. The narrator does male and female voices that are varied and distinct, believable and the book has a cast of a thousand, and he narrates them all. I’ve gained a great respect for this in the last week as I have been recording my own book, “The Price of Friendship” (shameless plug….found on Podiobooks.com) and have struggled to make and maintain distinct voices for the half dozen characters I am working with. I’m not doing nearly as well.

I give the book four out of five stars and recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind a graphic helping of sex and violence in the story.

Philip ‘Norvaljoe’ Carroll is a staff editor at Flying Island Press, is gaining weight due to inactivity, is sleep deprived and is recording the last five episodes of “The Price of Friendship” this weekend to get all sixteen up within a two week period.

Random Ruminations Remotely Related to wRiting

I was planning on writing a review of George R. R. Martin’s first book in the “Game of Thrones” series, but I’m having an internal battle. I hate to break a promise to my many imaginary readers, but since you don’t truly exist, does it really matter?

 
As soon as I finished “Game” I wanted something else to listen to, I turned on the iPhone and went to my Audible app but before I could type in “Tim Powers” I saw a book in my library I had listened to a couple years ago; “On Writing”, by Stephen King. I fired that one up, instead of purchasing a new one, and within the first few minutes I was laughing out loud. (Something I don’t do very often.)
I’m almost done with it. It’s only about 8 hours, compared to “Game” which is nearly 35. I’ve been making notes on my hand of how I need to change the book I’m currently doing my first edit on.

 
Which is one of the things I wanted to bring out from his book. He says a story should have “two drafts and a pollish.” I have always called my initial draft the rough draft and the next time through my first edit. When I go through it the next time I call that my final edit, he calls that one the pollish, though it sounds like the same things happen in each.

 
This is how he reccomends writing. The first draft it written “with the doors closed” and fast. He says it should be written in three to four months, writing every day. He says this way you don’t lose track of your characters and they stay fresh. Door closed means you don’t talk about it or show it to anyone while you’re writing it. Doing so may have two possible negative results. One, you may become discouraged to pursue a direction that would have been good as a result of someone saying something negative about it. Or, two, you make get a big head and fill the story with repeticious fluff when someone tells you how great you are.

 
Personally, I like to tell my wife what I wrote each day. It gives us something to talk about, and speaking something out loud helps me get a clearer picture of what I’m trying to do.

 
I agree one hundred percent about doing it fast. That’s why I like Nanowrimo. It gets you in that habbit. The two novels I’m working on now, I wrote the first in 60 days, with 51k words. The next, Nanowrimo, I wrote, starting one week after the first, in 45 days for 98k words. The second book, acording to my alpha reader was better written than the first, though he like the first better. (King also says the only way to improve as a writer is to #1, read, and #2 write, a lot. I think that’s why the second novel was better written. I had just come off a wonderful ride with the first, and had learned quite a lot from it.)

 
The second draft is written with the door open. He says to give your story at least a six week break. Don’t look at it, read it, edit it, or talk about it. Do something completely different, so that you can come back to it as the reader, fresh. King recomends giving the story to six or so trusted readers, let them read it through entirely before discussing it with them.

 
This second draft you can fill plot holes, add theme, and symbolism. You should also correct grammar you notice.

 
The polish draft is for, just that, polish. Every sentence check for grammar and punctuation. Don’t depend on the copy editor.

 
There is a ton more stuff that he says that is excellent and vastly functional for any writer, new or not so new.

 
What makes this book great, I think, are the memoirs. He watch his life, growth, development as a writer, back ground from a lot of his stories, and just a lot of fascinating stuff.

 
I highly recomend this book, five stars. I’ll listen to it again in a year.
Thanks for your patience, my imaginary friends. I’ll write about “The Game of Thrones” next week.

Philip ‘Norvaljoe’ Carroll is a staff editor at Flying Island Press, afather and grand father, impatient, and lazy. He’s the author the recently released, just yesterday, novel at www.podiobooks.conm, ‘The Price of Friendship’. A teen to adult, family friendly, urban fantasy. This is his first novel, so be kind to him.

Getting it Done

By Jeff Hite

As a writer there a times that I really struggle to well, um write. There are stories that need to be written for sure. There ideas and half written epics all gathering dust on the back shelves of my imagination. So it is not for a lack of things to write that I struggle. No it is fear.

It may sound strange considering I put my work out there all the time, but I still struggle with the fear of letting other people read my work. If you know anything about from reading my columns, I am far form a great self editor. So some times I really worry about the misspelled words and the grammar mistakes that I know are there.

But more I fear that people won’t like my stories, or even worse won’t understand them. I am sure we have all had that dream were you are talking to someone, trying to tell them something very important, and they just can’t understand you. Some times I feel that way about my writing.

So what is a writer to do? Well as you may have guessed, I don’t have all the answers but here is what I do. I write the stories anyway. I work them and rework them until I am happy with them. Then I send the out to people I trust to tell me the truth about them. After that it depends how much I like the story, but then I let it go into the wild.

There is a saying, if you love something you will let it go, and it will come back to you of it’s own free will. I don’t know if this is true of stories but i have gotten feed back on stories that has made me happy, and that other than the love of stories, is what writing is all about. So have the courage to share your stories, and go write.

Random Ruminations Remotely Related to wRiting

“Declare” by Tim Powers. A book review.

In defense of audio fiction. I listened to this book on audio which I purchased from Audible.com. I mention to my friends at work that I am ‘listening’ to a book and they make some condescending remark like, “books are supposed to be read”, or something equally absurd.

I was listening to the Grammar Girl Podcast and she mentioned Audible is her sponsor and pointed out that the average number of books “read” by the average reader in one is is between five and six. The average “Audible Listener” listens to fifteen to sixteen books a year. Those statistics are surely correct. I am one that was bringing the average down on the “reader” stats. I have been reading one book for nearly four years now. But since I started listening to Audible recordings in August of last year I have listened to five complete books and am part way through three others.

“Declare” is the critically acclaimed novel about British espionage and the supernatural on Mount Ararat.

Andrew Hale is inducted into a super secret agency in the British secret service as a very young boy. For much of the book I wondered if I was watching another version of “A Beautiful Mind” and if anything he was doing was real. He has to learn the espionage trade as he goes.

The story takes you through the second world war occupied Paris, divided post war Berlin, and cold war Russia. You start in England but visit Lebanon, Arabia, Turkey, France, Germany and Russia.

The characters are richly written and fascinating. The plot is absorbing and immersive.

I especially like a story that teaches me something about history or geography or some aspect of human life of which I am not very familiar. This book is very satisfying in that respect. There is information about occupied Paris, the indigenous people and the refugees, short wave radio, the Spanish Civil war, Lebanon, the Arabian Desert, the Bedouin people, cable riding, the Djinn, Mt. Ararat, Noah’s Ark, Russia and cold war Russia.

The most fascinating aspect of this story is the main character’s interactions with Kim Philby, a historical double agent who worked between Great Britain and Russia. You have to read or listen to the afterward that tells which references to Philby are factual and which are fictional. Philby’s father wrote a major work on Arabia that Powers used for much of his reference material for ‘Declare’.

Tim Powers is a gifted writer and tenacious researcher.

As I finished this book I immediately logged on to Audible.com and was please to see that they had added three more of Mr. Powers’ books since I began reading this one. However, I told myself before I could purchase another, I would need to finish listening to George R. R. Martin’s, ‘The Game of Thrones’. (I didn’t want to. The first section of the four was hard for me to get into. I have, since, gotten absorbed into this story and will soon have a review of this story as well.)

The only problem I had with ‘Desire’ was changing points of view. I felt, throughout the book, that the story was about Hale. However, it’s important that the listener/reader asks themselves at the beginning of each chapter, “Who is speaking.” I found a few times that other peoples word work coming from Hale’s mouth until I realized there had been a POV change. Then, it was harder to find my place in the story until I had resolved who had spoken what.

The language isn’t extreme, nor the sex graphic.

I give this story five stars and recommend it to anyone who enjoys stories of historical fiction, espionage and or science fantasy.

Philip ‘Norvaljoe’ Carroll is a staff editor at Flying Island Press, and is buried in things he has to do and things he wants to do. He needs to cut his grass, rebuild his 1965 Barracuda, and record the final episodes of his Podiobooks.com novel to be released on January 18th, ‘The Price of Friendship’; A novel of teenage relationships and dimensional travel.

Things I learned

BY Philip (Norval Joe) Carroll

I read a blog post this week and I learned two things:

1) Don’t write like you talk.
2) Make and support your point early on.

This is how the article taught me these things:

I often write like I talk. I assumed that created a conversational tone to the blog and would make it easier to read.

The blog I read was written much like mine. Conversationally, with many commas and jumps from fragmented thought to fragmented thought. I found it distracting and difficult to follow. I will repent and attempt to be more contiguous or homogenous in the future.

Secondly, I felt by the time the author got to her point, I had lost interest.

The blog started with the statement that human slavery is alive and well in the United States and each of us is a willing supporter of it. I was interested, initially, because I attended a discussion at Baycon last Memorial Day on this very subject. At the discussion they made the claim that anyone who is expected to perform any task without being paid for it is a slave. This presumption was focused primarily at churches. Several popular sects were named. This same allusion would have to be applied to other volunteer organizations, such as, the boy scouts, girl scouts, Rotary Club, Elks Club, Flying Samaritans, 4H, etc.
I hoped the blogger would address this same argument, and hopefully clarify it.

Instead there was a long winded description of inalienable rights and several descriptions of slavery. I was trying to read this on my iPhone, and that may have lead to some of my frustration with the circuitous way the author was approaching her contention.

Finally she came to her point. At least I assume it was her point. I read the paragraph three times trying to understand what she was saying.
She spoke about applying for a grant to write something outside her normal genre to make some money while she worked at getting a novel published. She was denied the grant because her work was deemed ‘commercial fiction’.

Here is my point. I read this paragraph in which she described this response as baffling and horrifying three times to see how it might equate in any way to slavery. I didn’t see it. What I saw was that I had to read further to find out what the hell she was talking about.
But I had lost interest.

If my co editors wish me to continue writing a blog in the future, I promise that I will make them short and to the point. I have said before that I am not an expert, just trying to share some ideas and techniques that have worked for me. I haven’t sold a novel, taught a course, or made a buck at writing. So if you don’t want to read this, no problem.

And if they don’t want a blog, I’ll limit myself to book reviews and only trouble you five or six times a year. Speaking of which, next week I will review the book, “Declare” by Tim Powers.

Otherwise, keep writing. That’s the only way you’ll get any better.

Philip ‘Norvaljoe’ Carroll is as staff editor at Flying Island Press and a family man with many interests. Living in the Central Valley of California there are many sporting and cultural opportunities, few of which he avails himself. He hates traffic and crowds, so avoids San Francisco like the plague. He sunburns, so avoids the beach like the plague, or maybe, like skin cancer. He is happy to be at home, writing, playing Eve online, or spending time with his kids.

MUTINY!

Galley Table 57

Guests and Cast

Val Ford
Doc Coleman
Scott Roche
J.P. Losier
Jeff Hite (host)

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Random Ruminations Remotely Related to wRiting
I ran on Monday night. Only the second time since the marathon on October 1st. My twin brother told me he was preparing for a half marathon in March and I told him I would prepare with him. It ends up that he will run one in Modesto with me on one weekend, then I will run one with him in Sacramento on the next weekend.

But as I was coming to the end of my run I remembered I hadn’t thought about my blog post. That is usually where I have my insight.

I had been thinking about what a rotten December I’d had, and feeling pretty down about the whole year. I don’t know why I felt December was rotten. I’ve just been feeling down. Probably because I hadn’t been running, and I hadn’t been running because I lost my momentum during October when I was trying to finish up my “Teenage Vampire Love Story for Boys”, because I wanted it done and simmering on the back burner while I worked on my Nanowrimo story.

And then I had a perspective moment.

In four months time I had written two novels for a total of about 150,000 words, if you add in the 7800 word short story I wrote and edited twice smack in the middle of the second week of Nanowrimo.

I’d been to two cons this year; Baycon and Worldcon.

I ran three half marathons and one full marathon and logged about four hundred total running miles.

All the while with two children with special needs and a wife who is 75% disabled.

There were some serious down times, especially in the early part of the year, but over all, I figure I had a pretty good year.

I know my co workers at The Flying Island had their share of tough times as well, between illnesses, job changes, family members, and, well, family members. But we’re all mostly alive and kicking for the next year. It’s five months away, but there is a lot of buzz about Balticon, which I hope to go to this year.

So, what’s this got to do with writing?

Most of us feel like we should or could do more, and many times feel like we have failed when really we’re doing ok.

Often I look at my own writing and think, “good grief. How could I think anyone would want to read this?”

Then, after a few months I go back to it. I can see that there are flaws, and bad times, but most of it’s good, and a lot of it has a nice flow. With a little more work, something good could come from this.

I’m looking forward to new challenges and successes in 2012, right up until, and even past, when the Mayan Calendar ends.

Keep writing. Start running. Let’s all have a great New Year.
Philip “Norvaljoe” Carroll is a staff editor at Flying Island Press and really likes to have run. Yes, that’s past tense. While running, he’s a little negative, but feels good afterward. He writes stories that seem to include teenagers in them, and will have his first real novel released this year, self published and distributed by Podiobooks.com