093: When In Doubt, Insert Explosion
Not much work on the novel last week. I had a weekend getaway where I managed to spank out nearly 7000 words recently, pushing me well into Chapter XXII. The first third is wrapping up: the mystery is fairly well exposed, our brave adventurers have discovered the first key clue which will aid them on their quest, and a couple of things have been blown up. All in a day's work.
It's still strange to come and go with this book. The events of the book start on a Friday and it's now just Tuesday for them while I've seen almost a hundred Tuesdays since I started. I think they're ready for Wednesday -- hump day -- which, now that I write it, is almost like the peak of the book. It's like the chaos of the work week: we don't know what the hell we're doing until Wednesday when we suddenly chill and remember how to do this and the rest of the week is an accelerating slide towards the weekend.
No? Must just be the way my week runs, then.
Anyway, the first third is wrapping up. It's probably not an literal third; I imagine the last part will be shorter and tighter. The first part of the book is the hook where you set the metal barbs in the reader deep enough that they can't wriggle out. It's all mysterious and exciting and thrilling so far, but now -- yes, now -- we're going to sit down and talk. And we're going to talk about deep subjects, topics you've never wanted to face before because their very existence frightens you. This is the section where the author takes his liberties and gets out his soapbox and, at least in the Apocalpytic Thriller, tells you why the end of the world is nigh.
Or maybe more shit will blow up. Joel Silver's entire contribution to the action film will be remembered as: when you think the audience's attention is starting to flag, something must explode. You can always tell how bad the script is by how often things -- in a very non-sequitor stream of consciousness sort of way -- explode.
I've got some history to invent. We're going back to WWII in this next bit when Liz and Markham learn about what it was that Grandpa Maratre was doing during the war and what he heard that so freaked him out for the rest of his life. We're going to get our first glimpse of the Cabinet Noir and all the idle bits of research that I've been doing over the last two years are going to start to come together. Ah, that's always a nice feeling.
And then, rest assured, things will start exploding again.
writing
This is a reasonably comprehensive list of my published work, both virtual and physical.
THE MISFIT LIBRARY
I am Nine of Thirteen, one of the members of the Misfit Library, a writing collective which puts out a quarterly journal of our respective work. We are scattered across the globe and determined to change the face of the planet one story at a time. The link above will take you to Misfit Central where you can acquire copies of the journal as well as read exclusive online material.
SYMBOLIC
I wrote a column for OPi8.com's Transmit blogs: journals of the new dark underground. SYMBOLIC tracked the novel I was working on, referencing the process and the research materials which mad up the backbone of the work. In addition, SYMBOLIC busied itself with ruminations and considerations on the nature of language and communication. And a wee bit of mythology. The first 100 entries of SYMBOLIC can be found here on this site as well as at OPi8.com.
LITERARY REPRESENTATION
I am represented by Scribe Agency as my literary agents. Please contact these gentleman if you have any queries about my work.