I read the second in the series about Darren Shan. I have to say that while I appreciate the reinvention of the vampire mythology, I'm not so keen on this as a young adult book. It's pretty dark and violent. Maybe it's good for junior high readers, but I certainly wouldn't recommend it for younger kids. Don't get me wrong. The story is exciting and the characters are very intriguing. It's a well written book, but it is pretty dark for younger readers. Maybe I'm losing my taste for the gruesome. Hmm, maybe it's time to write another thriller and get my taste back. It's been a while since my play, The Bone House, has been done. I wonder how I can top that play. I'll have to do some brainstorming.
September 2005 Archives
I finished Audrey Niffenegger's book last night. Wow! Great love story. The conceit of the book is that a man suffers from a condition that causes him to jump around in time, but the heart of the book is about the woman who falls in love with him and waits for him time and time again. The characters are very well defined and the story is touching.
My only warning is that like all stories involving time travel there's a certain moment of confusion about when is now and when is then. The first 50 pages were the hardest to read as I had to figure out the jumps in time, but after that the story flowed. I suspect it flowed from page 1, but I just had to get used to the conceit. The book is a YRCA nominee for senior high readers. It's well worth the read.
Now that The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul is nearly finished (my editor is proofreading now), I'm thinking about the third book in the series. I have a title: The Mystery of the Skid Mark. I won't tell you what the story is, but I'm wondering if the title makes you want to read the book or just glad that you wore clean underwear today.
The great thing about planes and y/a books is that I can catch up on my reading while being sandwiched between two burly fellows on a flight. I read Eion Colfer's Artemis Fowl, the first in a series about a criminal mastermind who is 12. I loved the book. The main character is a criminal genius but he is targeting fairies. It's a cool concept, and I want to get the next book.
The other book I read on the return flight was Cirque du Freak, which seems to be targeted at older readers. I can't give much of it away, other than to say that there are creatures of the night in the story, but not in the way you expect. The characters are interesting and aren't the usual types you see in y/a fiction. I have the second in the series, The Vampire's Assistant, and I'll have to get cracking on that to see how the series evolves.
I'm sad because I have to go home now. The Winnipeg International Writers Festival has been so much fun. Yesterday, I went on a rural tour with Rosanna Deerchild. We read to high school students in Portage La Prairie and some adults in Minnedosa. Both sessions went over very well, even if our driver accidentally left Rosanna behind in Winnipeg. A mix-up in communication made for many laughs and a road trip for artistic director Charlene Diehl.
In the evening, I joined Gillian Chan, Clem Martini and a super-hero costume wearing Troy Wilson for book signings at McNally Robinson Bookstore. I was thrilled to see about 3 or 4 kids from the Tuesday readings show up at the bookstore to get their own copies of The Mystery of the Frozen Brains. Thanks for coming out!
And this morning, I did a panel with Tamas Dobozy, an amazing fiction writer, who read a passage that had me in stitches. I'm running out to get that book right now, and then I'm hitting the airport for the trip back to Edmonton.
Winnipeggers have a great writers festival!
Oh, and I did get to walk about the Forks in the afternoon. The marketplace is pretty funky and cool. Lots of arts and crafts stores and cool fast food places that serve Caribbean food, Sri Lankan dishes, sushi, and many other tantalizing treats... like MINI-DONUTS! The coolest thing I discovered (and wished I had more time to do) was the waterbus system. You can hope on a waterbus that runs to different points along the river. Each trip is supposed to take 15 minutes. Oh well, next time.
Day 2 of the Winnipeg International Writers Festival. What a great festival. The organisation is top-notch, and the staff and volunteers are excellent. The audiences are so supportive, and the opportunity to meet other writers is fantastic.
Last night, I read with Neil Bissoondath, Karen Connelly, Lauren B. Davis, James Meek, and David Bergen. They were all wonderful storytellers, and I felt honoured to be in their company... and I felt a bit in awe of their talent.
Today, I did two school sessions with Simon Rose and Sheree Fitch. Simon was great, but Sheree set the standard for all young adult writers talking to kids. She was so at each with the kids and so positive. I wished I had a fraction of her energy. The morning session was packed with kids, and they were amazing. The afternoon session had about 100 kids and, if possible, they were even louder than the morning group. I had a blast with both groups of kids.
And after the last session, Sheree and I were lucky enough to sit in on a tech run of Comet in Moominland, a MTYP production that is going off to a festival in Montreal. The production was amazing, set in the round with miniature set pieces and characters. I felt like a kid again.
I'm off to a rural tour tomorrow, but won't be near a computer, so I'll wrap up my report from the festival on Thursday.
I went pretty hard this week on the television project. I had to write the series bible, a document that basically spells out what the tv show is about, who the characters are, and what generally should happen in a typical episode. These documents are tricky, because it's easy to fall into the trap of making the thing very technical and dry. I opted to make it a sales type document, which might be light on the exact details of how each episode should look, but I figure I can flesh it out later on down the line. The first thing people have to do is like the characters in the show and buy into the premise. After that, how it's put together is something other writers care about, and right now this document is for the broadcaster.
Anyway, I'm pretty tired and I'm off to a festival, so I'm going to take this opportunity to recharge my batteries. I'm going to do a lot of readings at the festival, so there won't be much time to work. I'll use my free time to catch up on some reading. Hopefully, I'll come back ready to tackle the next step of the TV project.
The trick to writing every day is figuring out when you're most creative. That time actually changes from month to month. I used to write at night, but now morning is my time to shine. I tend to run out of steam by the early afternoon and I'm completely wiped out after 6:00 pm. But being the nut that I am, I keep thinking that I can write all day long, so I work on one project in the morning and save another one for the afternoon, and for some crazy reason I think I'll have enough brain power to tackle a third project at night. I'm admitting failure. I've been putting The Forbidden Phoenix down as a night time work project and I haven't touched it in days because I'm just too tired from working on the TV project. So what to do?
I think the best thing is to finish off the preliminary work on the TV series this week, and then take time on the weekend to get a couple of good cracks at The Forbidden Phoenix. There's no real rush to get the project done, but I'd just like to get it off my plate for awhile so that I can take a break from it.
I found a new way into a writing project: monologues. It worked really well for my kids' play, Nearly Normal. I came up with a stream of consciousness speech from my main character, and it shaped not only his voice but a sense of his character. In a lot of ways I knew more about the character from the monologue than if I had listed all his attributes and personality traits. The play was much easier to write because of the monologue.
So, thinking that it might have been a fluke, I decided to repeat the experiment with the television project. I've come up with two monologues for characters in the pilot. I still have five more characters to go, but so far it's helping me see the series a little clearer. A monologue is another good tool for kickstarting a play, book, story, etc. It's not the only one, but if you're stumped for a way to start your story, I'd suggest letting your main character just talk for awhile.
Whew! No more mystery. I've finished addressing my editor's notes, and I scanned the manuscript for any last-minute changes. It's done. I'm sending off the manuscript with the hope that my editor will give the green light and the book can go to the publisher for copy editing. I'm about a month ahead of schedule. It's nice to get the project off my back for awhile. I know I'll need to proof the galleys but that'll be a couple of months down the line.
How fitting to have all this rain today. Because work is pouring on my head. As I try to get up to speed on the TV project my editor sends me what looks to be her final notes on The Mystery of the Graffiti Ghoul. Yes! And then I hear that a producer is interested in The Forbidden Phoenix... but he has notes. And I've been getting tons of requests for readings for Read In week. But I wouldn't have it any other way. I love the pressure. I just have to remember to take some time out and breathe every now and then. Back to work.
I had full intentions to move on to the polish of Forbidden Phoenix and revisions to Count of Monte Cristo, but a new project is about to shove everything off the table for a few months. I'm going to be developing a TV series with a local producer. The work will be intense. The deadline for three one-hour episodes is October. In addition to all my reading commitments I know I'm going to be swamped. If my blogs become scarce, it's just because I'm too busy working on the project.
Okay, I'm finished the official second draft. I've clarified the relationship between Norman and his dad, and I've seeded enough clues about the father's stroke, while maintaining a sense of the mystery of the play. Norman's dialogue is getting stronger with each pass, and I've pared the script to 35 pages. With all of Norman's monologues, the play should run about 45 minutes. I'm going to hand it in today to the Citadel folks in the hopes that they'll agree to do a reading in October (and hopefully decide to produce the show for their next season).
