A month ago, I
got a message from Andy Livingstone that he had been signed on with
HarperVoyager for a three novel ebook series beginning with Hero Born - available in Sept 2014.
When you're online pal of newly minted writers, good news is especially welcome when it comes from such an endearing source as Andy who contributed a skilfully crafted poem for the Handbook of the Writer Secret Society. I read it over and over. For me, it made the book.
Like Andy, I have been writing for around four years. Not everyone I got to know intitally still calls themselves a writer. Some take time away from the craft. Others abandon it. But for those of us that truly love what we do and put all of that energy into our words, there are many success stories brewing.
The thing is that Andy thanked me. I was the editor of the Handbook. I had visited his site and read some of his work where he had captured an archaic form of language, which was an unforgettable experience. Reading is the only real opportunity to go back or forward in time we can have. As a science fiction lover, I live for those brief moments of full immersion that too few authors can achieve.
Never miss an opportunity to support a writer that has an impact on you. We often assume that if the writer is talented that they already know their worth, but my appreciation of his work mattered to Andy as much as his work mattered to me.
So, go now, and tell someone. Flame that artistic spark. If you're lucky, very very fortunate, there will be more on the horizon.
Oh, yeah, and Andy tagged me in this WIP Blog Hop. You can read his answers here or enjoy some of mine.
1. What is the name of your main
character? Is he/she fictional or a
historic person?
historic person?
Eron.
He's an awkward academic in a largely illiterate world. I've been asked if he's based on my own personality by friends reviewing the revised versions. But, no, he is fictional.
2. When and where is the story set?
2. When and where is the story set?
New Zealand. I lived there from 2011 to 2014, but my novel takes place about 550 years in the future after we've ruined everything and lost technologies. It does not, in many ways, resemble the New Zealand I know.
In the timeline for my novel, the earth develops a distinctly different orientation when the earth is hit by a meteor in 2065. Of course, that's all modern history for Eron, but the characters retain a general awareness that they are in the Northern Hemisphere despite having no contact with the rest of the world, if anyone is indeed still alive.
4. What is the main conflict? What messes up his/her life?
Pride.
Just before he is recruited into the scribe's division of the Auck City Guard where he lives, Eron takes a little bullying from his older brother to heart and implusively applies to be a warrior to prove himself.
But, the City Guard rejects his application on a technicality and sends him to the farthest corner of the island to dig latrines as a Sanitation Specialist.
5. What is the personal goal of the character?
Funny enough. Eron's personal goal is exactly the same as the main character in Andy's novel:
"Staying alive. And getting home. Saving the world just happens along the way. Or so we hope."But, more specfically, Eron needs a place to hide and has to enlist assistance from a nomadic culture he does not understand and has been taught to look down on.
6. Is there a working title for this novel, and can we read more about
it?
No.
At first, I wanted to call it the Guards of Auck, but after I changed the name of the city from Auck to Auck City - it didn't seem to flow as well. I've been thinking about various possible titles, but I'm not willing to commit to a working title until the final revisions are done.
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| Working Cover by Chris VanDyke |
7. When can we expect the book to be published?
I suppose the reason I haven't finished this post for the blog hop since I first received the invitation last month is that I cannot give an end date for the revisions. I abhore editing. I can find a thousand ways to avoid it and since this is my first full length novel - there is a lot to be done.
I suppose the reason I haven't finished this post for the blog hop since I first received the invitation last month is that I cannot give an end date for the revisions. I abhore editing. I can find a thousand ways to avoid it and since this is my first full length novel - there is a lot to be done.
I'm about 50% finished with the final revisions. I'll personally be satisfied if the rest are complete by my birthday in October.
And now, here are some more writers with blogs and books who I'm curious about. To participate, copy the questions and write a post about your WIP remember to link-it-forward and nominate new writers you know others might enjoy.
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