leviathan rises

1 April, 2014

“Under the Waves” Anthology Announcement

fs-under-the-waves4 I’m happy to announce that my short story LEVIATHAN RISES was accepted for Fox Spirit’s “Under the Waves” pocket anthology.

LEVIATHAN RISES is the short story of a homeless girl who makes friends with a homicidal seamonster. It’s a little bit bloody and a lot of fun.

A few of my friends were accepted too: Steven Poore with his story “That Sinking Feeling”, K.C. Shaw with “The Pukk-Pool”, and J.B. Rockwell with “Petra and the World Turtle”. These guys rock, and I can’t wait to read their stuff.

The Fox Pockets books are a series of short stories selected to give an example of the kind of work Fox Spirit represent as a publisher. I recently read their Piracy collection (£2 on Amazon as an eBook, £4.15 as a paperback) and it had some absolutely fantastic work, so I’m looking forward to being a part of this one.

The “Under the Waves” Fox Pockets anthology will be out later this year.

1 May, 2013

What’s Up Wednesday?

I’m trying something new today instead of my usual Road Trip Wednesday post — blog friend Jaime and her sister Erin are hosting What’s Up Wednesday, a new blog meme. Let’s give it a spin! what'supwednesday

What I’m Reading

I’ve just finished UNRAVEL ME by Tahareh Mafi, which I enjoyed, and now I have a host of new books to chose from — I’m looking forward to Chuck Wendig’s THE BLUE BLAZES in particular. (ARC Provided by Angry Robot.)

What I’m Writing

I’ve just passed the 30k mark on Leviathan Rises, and the voice is finally starting to feel solid. I managed to go back and fix the first chapter, which had been not-quite-right for a while, and now I’m working on the rest.

This story is proving tricky because I wrote those 30k haphazardly: jumping around the timeline, skipping to exciting scenes, writing sections with no idea where they’ll fit. Now that I’m on the end stretch, I need to go back and pull it all together into solid chapters, and that’s rough going.

Worth it, though. I really love this ridiculous oddball of a story.

What Inspires Me Right Now

I’m on a musical kick! Mostly listening to Fall Out Boy’s new album Save Rock and Roll, and this gorgeous track by a new musical find, the band Les Friction:

“This force is in love with you. It wants you safe. It wants you well.”

What Else I’ve Been Up To

I’m thinking very seriously about doing my theory test in the near future, and I’ve been studying for it in my spare moments.

I’m also trying to eat healthier — more fruit, less sweets, more water, no fizzy juice, and multivitamins ahoy. It’s working reasonably well, my sleep is settling down and I’m more aware of issues with my blood sugar level. I just need to up my exercise amounts to go along with the new regime.

Last but not least, I’m playing the free horror game Ib. I wasn’t convinced an 8-bit game but be creepy, but I’ve jumped out of my seat a few times. It’s a great little game.

25 April, 2013

Reporting in from the Sea Cave

Just checking in to say I’m still here, but currently drowning in Camp NaNo scribbling. My writing cave has now become a seacave, where I spend my days raging at imaginary seamonsters.

Ryugu Sea Cave, Japan. File ©Batholith, released into the public domain. — Ryugu Sea Cave, Japan. File © Batholith, released into the public domain.

I’ve also been asking my friends what messes these seamonsters-in-human-form could get into as they run around the British coastline. Some of my favorite suggestions: getting angry at chavs in the cities, taking a dive to some underwater wrecks, visiting the Giant’s Causeway…

Thanks to a spree of bad health I’m not sure I’m going to be able to meet my Camp NaNo deadline — I’ve just passed 15k and my target was 30k by the 30th March.

But hey, progress is progress, so I don’t feel too bad about it. Now, I’m off back to work, but before I go — how’s it going? What are you writing? Is it going well or are you running into problems?

Sound off in the comments. I look forward to hearing what everyone’s up to. :)

31 March, 2013

The Next Big Thing: Leviathan Rises

I’ve been tagged for The Next Big Thing bloghop by the very talented YA horror writer Robin Moran, whose blog you should go visit to learn about her creepy YA ghost story Lapse.

The idea of this bloghop is to highlight the writing you’re currently working on, so I’m covering my Camp NaNo story about seamonsters. How excited am I to get the chance to blether on bout my work-in-progress stories? VERY. VERY EXCITED.

What is the working title of your book?

LEVIATHAN RISES.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

The lovely UK publisher Fox Spirit had an open-call for short stories that was well-recommended by friend and fellow writer Rob Haines. They’ve currently got a submission call on for their Fox Pockets series, a series of pocket-sized books containing around a dozen short stories.

Leviathan Rises started out as a short story for their ‘Under the Waves’ prompt, and after it was done I still had more left to write about that world, so I kept on going…

What genre does your book fall under?

YA (Young Adult) Urban Fantasy.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I almost never cast actors for my characters, preferring to draw designs for them when I can, but for Leviathan Rises I wanted to have a strong image of my characters. The main female character, Tuesday, came to mind relatively easy — an older version of Amandla Stenberg, who plays Rue in The Hunger Games.

Left: amandlastenberg.com. Centre and Right: Hunger Games Promo Images.

The main male character Leviticus, the Leviathan in question, took a bit longer to find. I had to trawl through smartly-dressed male model images for hours. It was terrible. My life is so hard.

Eventually I found Torian, a model for Photogenics Media. Here are some images from his portfolio for your enjoyment:
torian_leviathan

What’s that look for? Leviathan’s get shirtless a lot. You’d be surprised.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A runaway teenage girl and a seamonster on a mission from God team up to stop the world drowning in a biblical flood.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’m hoping to be represented by an agency.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I’m still working on it. Hoping to finish it next month during Camp NaNo. Wish me luck!

What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?

Hannah Moskowitz’s “Teeth” for a similarly dark ‘n gritty take on seamonsters.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

After watching Supernatural, I was unsatisfied with their take on Leviathans. Computer-generated teeth? Really? That’s all you’ve got?

These big, biblical beasts have quite a backstory, and their lore stretches back much further than just the ‘seamonster with big teeth’ from the show.

When I saw the ‘Under the Waves’ short story prompt, I saw a chance to create my own versions of humanoid Leviathans. And so the fun began…

And now to play TAG!

I’m really tempted to just invite all The Inkbots to give this a shot, because it’s fun. But to name some specific names:

I’ll tag the prolific fantasy writer K.C. Shaw, whose steampunk story recently kept me up half the night.
UPDATE: KC’s next big thing is up over here.

21 March, 2013

Camp NaNoWriMo!

I was wavering over whether to join Camp NaNoWriMo, a month-long NaNoWriMo running in April, until I heard the news:

They let you set a word count.

After that, I was sold. I don’t want to rush 50k in one month, but I have a first draft to finish and 30k (1k a day) seems much more manageable.

So I’m set! This April, I’m taking part and writing 30k in one month — here’s my camper profile.

I’m not quite sure how this ‘cabin’ system works but I’d love to add blogger friends in it. Drop by with your username in a comment and I’ll try to add you to my cabin group.