NaNoWriMo 2018 - Here We Go

So November is upon us, bring with it the end of Spring, hot days and sweat-drenched nights. And the National Novel Writing Month. It's a special time of year for writers to be even more isolated, stressed and sleep deprived than usual, for a lot of us have challenged ourselves to write 50,000 words in thirty days. 

It's hectic. 

Last November I competed in NaNoWriMo for the very first time, after finishing the first draft of 'Emma and the Madhouse Kids' on the 28th of October, leaving me no time to prepare. I jumped right into it with a half-formed idea, based on a question about strange lights in the sky, and wrote 50k words towards a Sci-Fi story I've tentatively titled 'The Rings of the Earth'.

And you know what? I still don't know how that one's going to end, let alone if it'll ever see the light of day. I originally hoped to work on it again this November, but it's a rather complex story and will take an awful lot of editing and revising after the first draft is complete. When I started, I had no idea what I was getting into, and at least half of my writing time I was using to research NASA, JAXA, ESA and ROSCOM, as well as the ISS, details of existing space probes and a whole lot of other sciency stuff..

So as discussed in this blog post, I'm focusing on something simpler that I'll hopefully be able to self-publish within 12 months. It's something I've tentatively titled 'Dragons of Bern' and focuses on a family living in an alternate-history Germany, so the Kingdom of Bavaria, Prussia, Hessia etc. It's a YA story, featuring German mythological creatures including Dragons (the title should have given that away). And yes - I know Bern is in Switzerland, not Germany. Basically, I'm a lot better prepared this year than last year, I'm excited about this new novel, and can't wait to get started.   

But of course, November isn't just NaNo, I still have to go to my day job, be a husband and father of our Rescued Greyhounds, November also happens to be backed with work, family and social commitments, plus a book launch near the end of the month I'm going to be involved with. Finding time to write isn't going to be easy. I guess some of you are asking, "why do it if it's going to be so crazy? If it's going to cause extra stress and take up so much of your time?"

And you know what? I have an answer. Aside from the odd short story, I've literally done nothing but edit 'Emma and the Madhouse Kids' for almost a year now. I need a break from it. And without NaNo chances are I would just keep editing it for the next 12 to 48 months too. And as much as I love that story and those characters, I don't want to do that. I have other great stories bubbling away in my head that I want to write, and this is the perfect opportunity to start a new project.

Also, the writing community on both Twitter and Facebook are always great, always supportive, and that's taken up another notch for NaNo because we know how draining and exhausting it can be.

But it's also fun. We know it's mad, but we're writers. Mad is our normal.

ASF Book Review #1 - 'Eve of Eridu'

 
Welcome to my first book review!

At the moment, I'm all about celebrating Speculative Fiction written by Australian authors.  Speculative Fiction, of course, is an umbrella term covering the genres of Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Dystopian, Utopian, Superhero, Supernatural etc.

And here's my first book, 'Eve of Eridu' by Alanah Andrews.

I'm going to let you all in on a secret first.  Alanah's actually from New Zealand.  But like Phar Lap, the Pavlova and Russell Crowe, we'll have to claim her as our own, this book was that good!

So, 'Eve of Eridu' is about a girl called Eve, who lives - wait for it - in Eridu.  Eve has lived her whole life committed to suppressing her emotions, just like everyone else in Eridu. She's been the perfect student, constantly at the top of the leaderboard, everything is as going as well as it can in her post-apocalyptic world. 

That is, of course, until her brother - like her an exceptional student at the top of his leaderboard - fails the harvest.  Instead of being assigned a role in the new world, he is culled. And Eve has to be content with that. To be content is to be free, says the Book of Eridu, which all citizens do their utmost to follow. After all it has been proven that emotions - love, greed, jealousy, anger and hate - had caused the wars of history and resulted in the destruction of the world. The scant thousands who lived underground in Eridu were all that was left of humanity, and they could not allow the mistakes of the past to be repeated. 

Eve struggles to be content with the sudden and unexpected loss of her brother, and to make things worse, there's a new kid, Sam,  who won't leaver her alone. Struggling to keep her monitor a calm blue, and with it her place on the leaderboard, Eve's emotions threaten to overwhelm her, threaten her chances of surviving the upcoming harvest. But not only does she have to pass the tests, she needs to uncover the secrets behind Sam's mysterious appearance, and confront the chilling truths of the world the founders of Eridu created. 

Andrews has crafted this dystopian post-apocalyptic society superbly, and it is sure to send chills down your spine. One of the remarkable components of this story is the Grid, which is in effect a digital afterlife, where the essences of Eridu's citizens are transferred to when they are culled or die. Eve is a compelling character, confronted with a staggering challenge and a mystery that might shake her to the core. The one criticism that I have is that it was too short, I would have enjoyed more exploration of the changing relationships Eve had with Sam, her colleagues, guardians and the overseers of Eridu.  But I say that about almost every book I read - I always want more! 

Ultimately it's an excellent story about a teen struggling to fit in, struggling to be the person everyone expects her to be.

For more, go to her website.  

Here's a link to the book on Amazon.

For now, I've got an edit of my own manuscript to complete and send to an editor, as well as completing three short stories before November arrives. November, of course, brings the madness of NaNoWriMo, where I will be diving into my Alternate-History Germany novel.  Yes, that's right.  The one with the dragons.

Keep tuned for more news and more reviews!

He's Dropped the Easiest of Marks: The Trouble With Being Average.

In the recent AFL Grand Final, a player dropped a mark.  And the commentator announced "he's dropped the easiest of marks."  It's been bugging me ever since.

This is the Grand Final.  The Big Dance.  The culmination of a gruelling pre-season, a winter's worth of Home and Away games and an incredible month of finals football.  The entire year has been preparing for this game, and the chance to win a flag is something all players have dreamt of for decades.  Every kick, every mark, every handball will contribute to the outcome of the game, will decide if you'll leave elated or heartbroken.  With all that pressure, nothing is easy.  I probably couldn't have tied up my bootlaces without losing my breakfast.

People say writing is easy.  People say art is easy.  People say writing blogs is easy.  I think that saying something is easy is easy.

We don't know the struggles other people are going through.  We don't know how much they sacrificed and how much they struggled, getting through University, getting their work to a place that they're happy with, how scared they might be of sharing their work, let alone submitting it for fear of rejection or criticism.  Some people even struggle to get out of bed.

For me, even deciding to start writing was a hard one.  For twenty years I've been an avid reader, losing myself in the works of some of the greatest authors.  Like Le Guin whose words flow like poetry, simple and beautiful, yet cutting to the core of the deep questions.  Like Donaldson and Herbert, who built incredibly vivid worlds, inhabiting them with wondrous species with their own rich histories, mythologies, creeds and customs.  Like Dick and Burgess whose intellect, linguistic skills, creativity and imagination are out if this world.  How could I even try, with the benchmark so impossibly high?  How could I hope to write anything comparable to the works of those incredible gifted people?  I couldn't, so I didn't.

What I write is nothing like that of my literary idols.  I always wanted it to be, though.  I always wanted my writing to be as eloquent, as powerful, as funny and as beautiful as theirs.  But it isn't.  It's the story if my life, to some extent.  I've always wanted to be better-looking, to be stronger, to be better at sport, at art, at languages.  I never even liked my own name as a kid.  But as I've grown up I've started to appreciate myself more.  I even chose to keep Austin as my pen-name, when it would have been the easiest thing in the world to use something else.  And I've accepted that even though my writing isn't awe-inspiring like that of my heroes, that doesn't mean it's not good enough.

Thanks for reading,

Austin P. Sheehan.