For Christmas, I got Elle King's new album, Shake The Spirit. I'm a big fan of Elle King; I like to describe her music as "Wild West Rock." The thematics and lyrics remind me of the roughest parts of an old-school western. (The two songs that most people are probably familiar with - "Exes & Ohs" and "America's Sweetheart" least fit into this mold.)
There's one song that reminds me very strongly of Maren, my narrator in Surgeburnt. Not that I think anyone would try to babydoll her: she's almost six feet tall, athletic, and essentially has venomous talons ...
Baby Outlaw - Elle King
About Me
- Lindsey Duncan
- I'm a professional harp performer, chef / pastry chef, and speculative fiction writer from Cincinnati, Ohio. My contemporary fantasy novel Flow is available from Double Dragon Publishing, and my science fiction novel Scylla and Charybdis is now out from Grimbold Books. I've also sold a number of short stories and a few pieces of speculative poetry. I write predominantly fantasy, usually epic and/or humorous, with some soft science fiction. I play the traditional lever harp with a specialty in Celtic music - but I also perform modern and Renaissance tunes. And yes, you read that right - I have a diploma in Baking and Pastry and an Associates in Culinary Arts and am currently working in the catering field at Kate's Catering and Personal Chef Services (Dayton, KY). I am a CPC (Certified Pastry Culinarian) and CSW (Certified Specialist of Wine).
Sunday, January 27, 2019
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Wednesday Wanderings
If you've been watching this blog space (which is a bit like watching grass grow, only less organic and more purple), you may have noticed that it's been quieter of late, fewer posts. That's because I haven't as much time to write. In fact, my ratio of brainstorming-while-doing-other-things time to writing time has been such that I can't keep my thoughts restricted to active project.
Which is why I've been playing around in my head with a concept of a group of investigators, directed by a seer / mage afflicted with wild magic. There's a big secret underlying the magic of this world ... and our mage knows this. It may not be the rationale for all the missions she assigns the team, but it definitely influences her decisions.
So the obvious course, even in a story with multiple third-person points of view, would be to omit her, leave her as a shadowy figure in the background, and let the secret and her purpose be a big reveal near the end of this imaginary novel.
But to be honest, I'm inclined to a different strategy: have the mage be a point of view character from the start. Let her know what she knows and let the reader in on the secret ... but not the other characters. There's opportunities for so many levels of tension here, for characters mistrusting or misinterpreting her motives (and the reader screaming, "No, you fool!"), for learning the personalities of the characters and building the anticipation of how they will react to the truth ...
A long time ago, I read a book on writing which discussed the weaknesses of the trick / surprise ending. When the writer is trying too hard to startle the reader, they lose out on other opportunities ... and if the story "plays fair," the reader may get to the answer ahead of it. (This whole stream of thought ties into my personal theories about treating the plot of a story like a mystery, in the genre sense.) Sometimes it's worth it ... sometimes, the more effective story pulls back the curtain.
A great example of a series where the reader knows more than any one character, and tension builds waiting for these in-story revelations, is Jana Oliver's Time Rovers series. These characters come from two different societies, each of which totally change the game in their own way. Watching them discover each other is far more fun than dropping a bomb on reader and characters at the same time.
Of course, this is all theoretical anyway: this isn't even a project I've seriously considered writing. But it's been a fun mental exercise, and I think it helps me as I develop the "real" ones. Or ... who knows. Maybe this will blossom into a novel in its own right.
Which is why I've been playing around in my head with a concept of a group of investigators, directed by a seer / mage afflicted with wild magic. There's a big secret underlying the magic of this world ... and our mage knows this. It may not be the rationale for all the missions she assigns the team, but it definitely influences her decisions.
So the obvious course, even in a story with multiple third-person points of view, would be to omit her, leave her as a shadowy figure in the background, and let the secret and her purpose be a big reveal near the end of this imaginary novel.
But to be honest, I'm inclined to a different strategy: have the mage be a point of view character from the start. Let her know what she knows and let the reader in on the secret ... but not the other characters. There's opportunities for so many levels of tension here, for characters mistrusting or misinterpreting her motives (and the reader screaming, "No, you fool!"), for learning the personalities of the characters and building the anticipation of how they will react to the truth ...
A long time ago, I read a book on writing which discussed the weaknesses of the trick / surprise ending. When the writer is trying too hard to startle the reader, they lose out on other opportunities ... and if the story "plays fair," the reader may get to the answer ahead of it. (This whole stream of thought ties into my personal theories about treating the plot of a story like a mystery, in the genre sense.) Sometimes it's worth it ... sometimes, the more effective story pulls back the curtain.
A great example of a series where the reader knows more than any one character, and tension builds waiting for these in-story revelations, is Jana Oliver's Time Rovers series. These characters come from two different societies, each of which totally change the game in their own way. Watching them discover each other is far more fun than dropping a bomb on reader and characters at the same time.
Of course, this is all theoretical anyway: this isn't even a project I've seriously considered writing. But it's been a fun mental exercise, and I think it helps me as I develop the "real" ones. Or ... who knows. Maybe this will blossom into a novel in its own right.
Wednesday, January 09, 2019
Wednesday Wanderings
Lemming-like, I approach the topic of my year in review. Initially, I thought that it would be a depressing topic, at least where my writing is concerned. Then, I realized I had forgotten the biggest news of my year: the publication of Scylla and Charybdis! It didn't register because I sold the book long before that and spent months in the editing process, so I've been basking in that since before 2018 began. But April 15, 2018, is when Scylla and Charybdis debuted to the world, and I loved introducing it to potential readers.
Overall, though, 2018 was a year of gradual progress rather than dramatic breakthroughs, but that doesn't mean I had no momentum. I sold stories to new markets, including a long-time goal of mine - Andromeda Spaceways Magazine - and other editors who were a pleasure to work with at Metaphorosis and KZine. Though it hasn't been as swift as I would like, I've been finishing edits on Unnatural Causes, and I feel like I've made more headway with it than any pre-submissions edit. I'm closing in on the end of Surgeburnt, which is unlike anything I've ever written before. And finally, after months of research on synesthesia, I'm crafting a world that centers around it as a magic system. I've also had a few hints and whispers that I can't yet divulge.
Looking forward to what 2019 might bring.
Overall, though, 2018 was a year of gradual progress rather than dramatic breakthroughs, but that doesn't mean I had no momentum. I sold stories to new markets, including a long-time goal of mine - Andromeda Spaceways Magazine - and other editors who were a pleasure to work with at Metaphorosis and KZine. Though it hasn't been as swift as I would like, I've been finishing edits on Unnatural Causes, and I feel like I've made more headway with it than any pre-submissions edit. I'm closing in on the end of Surgeburnt, which is unlike anything I've ever written before. And finally, after months of research on synesthesia, I'm crafting a world that centers around it as a magic system. I've also had a few hints and whispers that I can't yet divulge.
Looking forward to what 2019 might bring.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)