Why are you reading this...

...when you could be visiting the award-winning GUD Magazine and picking up their past issues for any price you want. That's right, any price you want. I already have issues 0 and 1, so I picked up 2, 3, and 4 for a reasonable sum. At 200 pages per issue, there's something for everyone. Why not head on over there and throw a few dollars their way? Writers, it's an opportunity to research a potential market. Readers, it's the chance to read some quality imaginative fiction. So, why are you still reading this...?

Sand Between a Dead Boy's Toes at Nossa Morte

The latest issue of Nossa Morte includes my seventieth publication, a dark fiction entitled Sand Between a Dead Boy's Toes.

I remember (as a kid) imagining my bed was a boat and the carpet a sea. The sharks in the tale came to me in a dream. As for the dead boy - he dropped himself into the story... If you want to read the result, pop over and take a look, only please come back and tell me what you think...

Some Questions (and Answers) on The Writing Process

Seen this on a few other blogs and thought I'd have a go...

1. Are you a “pantser” or a “plotter?”

I always attempt to plot before I start writing, but not too much – not so that the story or characters lose the ability to surprise me. Still, I do like to feel in control, even during the first draft.

2. Detailed character sketches or “their character will be revealed to me as a I write”?

I usually have at least a sketch, yes. The basics. And one or two unique aspects that could make him/her more interesting to the reader.

3. Do you know your characters’ goals, motivations, and conflicts before you start writing or is that something else you discover only after you start writing?

I think it's a good idea to know such things before you start writing, yes. Motivations, definitely. Conflicts, not so much; they tend to suggest themselves along the way. Basically, I like to know as much as I am comfortable knowing – enough to be able to begin with confidence, or at least to fool myself into believing I'm ready to rock and roll.

4. Books on plotting – useful or harmful?

Just plotting? Or writing advice books in general? They're never short of interesting, in my experience, but I don't study them, more allow my sub-conscious to absorb what it thinks is useful and discard the rest.

5. Are you a procrastinator or does the itch to write keep at you until you sit down and work?

Procrastinator. I don't sit down to write regularly enough, I've always said that. Too easily drawn toward 'easier' distractions. That said, the itch always drags me back - eventually.

6. Do you write in short bursts of creative energy, or can you sit down and write for hours at a time?

I need at least an hour's writing time as it sometimes takes me twenty, thirty minutes just to warm up. I can't scribble a sentence here, a paragraph there, it just isn't me. Notes, yes, but not draft. Two hour sessions work best for me, and after a nine hour workday (mostly spent on a computer) that's about as much as I can stand.

7. Are you a morning or afternoon writer?

I prefer morning or late-night - the quiet times of the day.

8. Do you write with music/the noise of children/in a cafe or other public setting, or do you need complete silence to concentrate?

Complete silence would be nice but is hard to find. Quiet is fine though. Non-public setting.

9. Computer or longhand? (or typewriter?)

PC. At work I'll scribble notes on slips of paper, but I always, always write the story itself on computer.

10. Do you know the ending before you type Chapter One?

Not always. I try not to panic if I don't; most of the time I find the ending emerges organically during the writing of the first draft. I'd say eighty percent of the time I know the ending or have already written the final paragraphs long before I get there.

11. Does what’s selling in the market influence how and what you write?

No. But I do write what I like to read.

12. Editing – love it or hate it?

Love it and hate it. Editing is a vital part of the process, but while first drafts are about creation editing is about polishing that creation until it shines as brightly as it can. By the umpteenth read-through or revision it's easy to feel...restless, keen to move on to something new. But the extra effort always makes the end result worthwhile. And publishable.

The Chapter - I salute thee

It's the little things that get you through.

Reading about the output of other writers on their blogs and listening to a writer friend of mine talk about what story he's finished writing this week (okay, he's mostly redrafting old material, but still...), I've been feeling like the slow kid in class lately. I'm the kind of person and writer that likes to feel as though he's making progress – getting the work done. And that is perhaps the hardest part of writing a novel, the grey feeling that it's going to be a long haul. So, God Bless the chapter. It may not provide the thrill of completing a brand new short story, but it's a nice pick-you-up on the journey toward that 90 or 100 or 120,000-word mark.

Yesterday, I put the finishing touches on chapter eight of The Ballerina, the Boy, and the Thing in the Water (after rewriting 2500 words; even for first draft, it was some bad shit) and felt that momentary surge of elation I'm talking about. Savour these moments. Today, I sat down and typed "Chapter Nine" at the top of a page and felt the discomfort of staring at the blank page all over again. But I kept ass in chair until I had something. Maybe not something great, but something I'm content with (until draft two, that is), something that will keep me coming back and putting down the words until I reach the next stage in my journey – chapter ten.

Book Review: The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, John Boyne

I decided to use some money I made from a recent short story sale to buy a handful of books. The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas was one of them. That title, the setting, and the dark subject matter seduced me.

The family of Bruno, the nine-year-old son of a German officer, move out of their Berlin home into "Out-With," a place where the people who live on the other side of the fence are all thin and sad and wear the same striped pyjamas. Bruno befriends one of these people, a boy the same age as him, and begins a doomed friendship.

I'm very confused as to what the target audience is for this book. It has sold around 5 million copies I believe, so it has an audience – but who does this audience consist of? Children? I don't believe so, because so much of the novel's power relies on subtlety and knowledge of What Went On In The Camps, two things I suspect would go over the heads of most children and young adults. On the other hand, if it's supposed to be adult fiction it is deeply flawed and at times unbelievable. Few if any children ever made it into the concentration camps because they were of little use to the Germans (being essentially non-productive). They were sent straight to the gas chambers within minutes of stepping from the train. And the fences surrounding such camps were electrified (they are not here). These two historical facts are conveniently ignored by the author for the sake of his story. But when we're talking about history, about something like the Final Solution and genocide, should writers be taking such liberties? In addition to being written from a child's perspective, the author seems to have adopted a childlike disregard of the facts. Some have found this offensive. I can see both sides of the debate. Back to the story.

I managed to put such gripes aside and approached The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas as a piece of fiction (albeit aimed at a hard-to-pin-down demographic). So, is it any good? Yes. And no. Inaccuracies aside, the plot is interesting if at times predictable. Characters are presented as stereotypes (as a nine-year-old might perceive them) which in turn makes them a little tiresome and lacking in depth. For instance, Bruno's sister, Gretel, collects dolls and is a rotten sibling. That's it. Bruno himself is at times likeable and sympathetic while at other times annoyingly dense and unperceptive. And I was confused about the narrator. Who was he or she? "And that's the end of the story about Bruno and his family" read one line. Who was telling the story? Wouldn't it have worked better in First Person? To have it relayed through the eyes of the boy? Frustrating.

That said, there is much to like and admire: the voice and style, the simple direct prose, the dialogue, most of the interactions between Bruno and his family and Bruno and the Jewish boy, the plot's structure though not its liberties with historical fact, and the pace – it's a fast, fluid read – but like the dark side of human nature itself, there is also much to loathe.

Starting Point - The Novel

Working title is The Ballerina, the Boy, and the Thing in the Water. Based on an unfinished short of mine that grew, which in turn was inspired by the Dali painting, Woman at the Window (Muchcha en la ventana). It's currently sitting at a little under 37,000 words of a projected 90,000 (first or rough draft), or seven complete chapters. I'm picking things up at chapter 8. Spent a couple hours today refamiliarising myself with chapters 5-thru-7, writing brief summaries of each, and putting down a few ideas for chapter 8 as well as one or two future scenes. Although it's been a little over a year since I worked on this project, it was surprisingly easy to reacquaint myself with it. Not only that, but I'm quite excited by it again, which I'll take as a good omen.

Chapter 7 excerpt:

Ella stood in the corner farthest from the window. She cinched her dressing gown tight and looked down at the small expanse of wooden floor in front of her. Faint lines, arcs, and whorls patterned the dust; memories of dances past. Each had been penned by her feet during the first two weeks of her confinement, written anew over the last in code. In secret code.