Tag Archives: Dark Urban Fantasy

Off to Supanova!

Today I’m dashing into town with my DH (Dear Long Suffering Husband) who will spend all weekend with me, helping out at Supanova.   (On his birthday. Now that is love!).

There will be amazing costumes, heaps of people and lots of excitement. Supanova is the only place where I have seen grownups jump up and down like little children because they can’t wait for the doors to open. In fact, when they open the doors the announcers says, ‘Walk, don’t run. We don’t want anyone getting trampled’!.

Another fun thing for me is meeting other authors and catching up with my writing friends.

Here I am having a fan girl moment with Joe Abercrombie, while hanging out with the lovely Alison Goodman and Lindy Cameron.

Here I am having a fan girl moment with Joe Abercrombie, while hanging out with the lovely Alison Goodman and Lindy Cameron.

Today I’ll be hanging out with Cheryse Durant, fellow fantasy writer, who has just had her first book come out. Very exciting! She’s writing YA dark urban fantasy. So come by and check out her book, if this is your favourite genre.

TBSB HI RES poster front

 

And here’s the link to Cheryse’s boos trailer.

We’ll be over in the RICC building in Artist’s Alley. So if you’re coming to Supanova, drop by and say Hi!

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Off to the National SF Con

This weekend the national Spec Fic convention, Conflux, is being held in Canberra. It’s a fun-filled long weekend for fans of the genre, where you get to talk about the genre you love with other people who share your passion. There will be a packed program with workshops, panels and events,  (see Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday here). Here is but a brief glimpse of the things on offer.

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Thursday, Richard Harland will be there with bells on running a Writing Steam punk workshop from midday until three. Richard’s had a wonderful time in France recently, promoting his Worldshaker series. As you can see, he gets right into the steam punk era.

Richard_tophat

 

At 4pm there will be a Steam Punk High Tea. What could be more delicious? And then there’s the Opening Cocktail party at 7:45pm.

Friday, 11 am Fablecroft Press will be launching One Small Step (Go Tehani). (One of my stories is in this anthology). Unfortunately, I have to work on Friday so I won’t be able to make the launch.  I’ll fly down late Friday night and stagger into my hotel room.

OneSmallStepCoverdraft

At 2:30pm there’s a Guest of Honour interview with Marc Casgione, Publishing Director of Angry Robots. (more on the GoHs down below.

And you can’t miss the Regency Gothic Banquet  starting 7pm.

Celosia Lace Fingerless Gloves - Black Deep Red Metallic Embroidered Floral - Gothic Vampire Regency Tribal Bellydance Goth Fetish Mourning

 

Gorgeous gloves from this site.

 

 

On Saturday morning I’ll be running a workshop preparing lucky authors who will pitch their books to Marc Gasciogne later the same day.

At 2:30pm there will be a Guest of Honour interview with Naolo Hopkins, writer of challenging SF.

And at 5pm the Ditmar Award Winners will be announced, along with the winner of the Hemming Award.

8pm, the attendees will let their hair down at the Junkyard Cathedral Masquerade.

 

 

Sunday there will be a panel on Book Covers, which I’ve been prepping for. And I’m sure there will be a fierce debate of the possibility of a female Dr Who at 12:30pm. (I saw plenty of female Dr Whos at Supanova).

 

Is the World ready for a Female Dr Who? by Vinne Bartilucci

 

See here for a full list of workshops, events and pitching opportunities.

 

The Guests of Honour are:

Naolo Hopkins from the other side of the Pacific. She is the author of four novels and a short story collection (Brown Girl in the Ring, Midnight Robber, The Salt Roads, The New Moon’s Arms, Skin Folk).

Marc Gasciogne, Publishing Director of Angry Robot, UK. See an interview with Marc here at Bibliophile Stalker. Marc will he hearing the pitching session . (I’ll be running a workshop on pitching to help the writers prepare).

From Australia, we have Karen Miller, author of more fantasy books than you can shake a stick at.

Fan guest of honour is Rose Mitchell, long time fan and power-house behind many conventions including  World Cons.

And special guest, Kaaron Warren, writer of challenging macabre stories and novels.

 

A great time will be had by all, four days of programming is a big task to organise. See my interview with Donna and Nicole.

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Supanova Big Girl Squeee!

This weekend I’m off to Melbourne Supanova. I’ll be sharing a table with Lindy Cameron from Clandestine Press  (They published my paranormal crime Price of Fame). Here we are at the Brisbane Supanova 2012.

Lindy_and_Rowena_SupanovaSupanova is heaps of fun. Amazing costumes, lots of talented people, writers, artists, actors from right across the mediums and associated speculative fiction sub genres. It’s always great to catch up with readers. It’s really nice to go somewhere, where the things you love aren’t considered weird.

 

This is me with Meaghan in Brisbane

This is me with Meaghan in Brisbane

Here I am at the last Supanova, hanging out with Isobelle Carmody and the Dark Lord.

Here I am at the last Supanova, hanging out with Isobelle Carmody and the Dark Lord.

So if you are in Melbourne and plan to come to Supanova, drop by and say Hi!

 

 

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Typing in the Rhythm Section

Narrelle Harris tells us about her love of writing to music.

narrelle-m-harris

 

 

I like listening to music when I write. Not all the time, of course. Sometimes you need the sounds of silence so that the difficult words have somewhere to line up and make their own rhythm.  But generally, and especially during first drafts, I like building up a soundtrack to the world I’m building.

I have eclectic tastes in music: my collection contains classical, light opera and new age albums right next to alternative rock, pop punk, folk punk and the occasional heavy metal band. I like to discover new bands and new styles, though not everything is to my taste. I’m open to persuasion, though. I’m always chasing after the corollary to Sturgeons Law.

(Sturgeon’s Law being that 95% of everything is crap: the corollary therefore being that the other 5% is worth looking out for. One day I’ll find the 5% of yodelling that works for me.)

Music has been a long love of mine. I learned piano as a child, played the recorder at school and on and off over the years I’ve attempted songwriting. I co-created a Blake’s 7 filktape back in the 80s (writing lyrics mainly, though also one piece of music, and I even sang on one track.)  I’m better at lyrics than melodies, though, and sadly my vocal range is limited and kind of nasal – but the call of music is always near.

FlyByNight_sm-196x300

In fact, for me, music and writing are never far apart. My crime novellas, Fly by Night and Sacrifice, are about two musicians. I’ve written lyrics for some of my stories, and music is often referenced in my books. It seems perfectly natural to me to develop a soundtrack for each book I write.

By ‘soundtrack’ I don’t mean ‘playlist’. I’ve compiled a playlist or two to accompany books I’m working on, but often once I’ve done so, I don’t listen to it. I tend to pick songs that reflect aspects of the plot or

Sacrifice2-209x300

character development, but then I find that in the writing, things move and change; they subtly change or veer off, and songs I might have liked while I was working on the first draft of chapter five are no longer right by the time I’m at chapter 25. By the second or third rewrite they may not be relevant at all. Worse, the song might be subconsciously pushing me in a particular direction which lacks subtlety or that truthfulness which is so important and getting to the heart of the character or their story.

I suppose a playlist focuses too much on the lyrics, which can be detrimental. Soundtracks are more about the general rhythm and atmosphere of the aural landscape that contributes to the mood and setting.

So playlists don’t usually work for me – but I do definitely have soundtracks that go with my writing. When I wrote Fly By Night and Sacrifice, I spent a lot of time listening to REM and About Six Feet (my brother in law’s band – he allowed me to use the lyrics to some of the songs in the book). When I wrote Witch Honour and Witch Faith, Loreena McKennitt, Clannad and Enya got a lot of air time.

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The Opposite of Life had a more eclectic soundtrack of alternative rock, but by the time I got to Walking Shadows, I was steeped in pop punk and the likes of Fall Out Boy, though more recently the soundscape WS-Rough-front-207x300consisted of Shinedown,, The Matches and Florence and the Machine.

The artists listed for each book are of course not the only ones I listen to while working. My choices can be fairly wide-ranging and include quirky lounge music (like The Real Tuesday Weld), show tunes from Cole Porter as well as music selected for its ambience.

It’s not completely random, though. The choice of the right bands, the right kinds of songs, the right mood and tempo, can be important in getting my head into the right space.  I work full time in day jobs to pay the bills, with only ten or so hours a week to write, so choosing the right background sound can act like a mnemonic  trigger (or Pavlovian response) and switch my brain from corporate-writer-mode to creative-writer-mode faster than I can sometimes achieve on my own after a day in the office.

Sometimes it’s too much. If I have a tricky scene, or something

intense, I need silence. Then the music goes off and it’s just me and the tyranny of the blank page. Often, though, the aural queue helps slot me into the imagined world I’m writing, unlocks the imagined people, and off I can go.

Opposite_cover

 

I may not have pursued music through the piano (and a short lived attempt at the guitar, abandoned when I broke both bones in my forearm a month later); I may only attempt to write songs in a haphazard fashion; I may be half-hearted and fickle about the use of playlists; but music is an essential part of how I write and the worlds I create.

And I’m open to suggestions. Does anyone have any bands to recommend? After all, I do have a new book to write.

What’s your favourite vampire-related song and why?

Catch up with Narrelle on GoodReads.

Catch up with Narrelle on Twitter  @daggyvamp

Narrelle’s Web Page.

 

www.narrellemharris.com

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Filed under Australian Writers, creativity, Dark Urban Fantasy, Fantasy books, Female Fantasy Authors, Fun Stuff, Music and Writers, Nourish the Writer, Thrillers and Crime, Thrillers and Mysteries

Winner Lee Battersby book give-away!

Lee says…

I liked xfirefly9x’s reply, because I could see the thought processes behind it and the desire to find some sort of normalcy in extraordinary circumstances is one we can all respond to.

But there was something insanely ambitious in Maree’s desire to go hunting the kraken, and the crazy-underwater-adventure theme fits in with The Corpse-Rat King itself, so for sheer bravado, lunacy, and sense of adventure, I’m going to give the nod to Maree.

 

So Maree email Lee. leebattersby(at)gmail(dot)com

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Winner Jason Nahrung Book Give-away!

Jason said:

What a tasty selection of vampires! Pam, one of my favourite characters from True Blood played so brilliantly. Christopher Lee, legend. Thanks to Mark, I have a new series to investigate.

But it’s the double whammy from Shadow of the Vampire that gets the nod: Dafoe’s Orlock is wonderfully nuanced in his re-creation of Schreck’s character from Nosferatu.

And now I have a great desire to go watch Lugosi’s Dracula again. Thanks all, and Sean and mooyah, for taking the time to leave a comment!

So, Scott J Robinson,please email Jason. jnahrung(at)gmail(dot)net to organise the posting of your book.

Meanwhile… Jason says:

Bookings open for Salvage Queensland events in August

Bookings are now open for those able to attend my chat at Caloundra Library on Monday August 13 at 10-11am and at Noosa Library on Tuesday August 14 4-5.30pm. Expect to hear about the writing and publishing process, landscape as character and inspiration, and vampires, of course. Given that Salvage was primarily written on (and is kind of set on) Bribie Island and polished off at Noosa, it’s something of a homecoming.

You can also rsvp for the Brisbane launch at Avid Reader, 6 for 6.30pm, on Friday August 10 by emailing events @ avidreader.com.au or phoning 3846 3422, or drop me a line and I’ll pass it on. Kim Wilkins will be doing the honours.

You can also book in for the Darkness Down Under panel, with Kirstyn McDermott, Angela Slatter and myself, at Logan North Library on Saturday August 11 at 1.30-3pm. If you like reading or writing horror and dark fantasy, there should be something in this for you.

All events are free. Copies of Salvage will be available. There will be coffee and time for chinwagging. I’m looking forward to it!

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Trent Jamieson’s Book Launch for ‘Night’s Engines’. (Book 2 of the Nightbound Land)

Back in 2003 the ROR group went to Varuna to critiue our books in progress. Oh my, we all look so young! (Tansy, Marianne, Trent, Maxine and me). Trent put in a book which would later be developed into the Nightbound Land duology. I remember being in awe of his vision for this world, so different and inventive. And Margaret, would she escape…

Flash foward to 2012 and the second book of the Nightbound land is about to be released. Yay!

Trent says:

The Nightbound Land was inspired by my love of monsters and Steampunk. I wanted to write a big secondary world science fantasy filled with steam engines, mad men, and creatures out of nightmare, and the world of Shale was the perfect canvas for my obsessions. It’s everything I love about fantasy bound up in tooth and claw and clockwork machines. I only hope that it’s as fun to read as it was to write.

AVID READER (in Westend,brisbane) are holding a “Night’s Engines” evening, where they’ll celebrate a stella year of writing and publishing books!
Thursday 19th July
6pm for a 6.30pm start
Free event but RSVP essential
RSVP to events@avidreader.com.au 38463422
Trent Jamieson must be the hardest working writer in Australia. We have had book launches for 5 Jamieson books in the past two years and we are SO PROUD! To celebrate publication of the second book in his Nightbound Land series we are holding our first ever dress up party. Come as Trent Jamieson means obligatory moustaches, beards and/or glasses. Dress up and have some fun or just come on down and celebrate with us in the traditional un-hirsute manner.
So, here’s wishing Trent, all the best with this duology. I’ll be coming along to the launch, although I won’t be in steam punk costume. (Haven’t got anything suitable).
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd-GIecM1jQ&feature=player_embedded]

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Winner Rob Kaay book give-away!

 

Rob says:

Thank you for all your responses, but the Midnight Rambler stuck out to me in a good way.  Well, my mate Matty came close, but if I chose him, you’d all think it was rigged!

Although the band I personally would have liked to have hung out with backstage is Nirvana, I like how passionate Midnight Rambler is about the Cat Empire in Melbourne.  Melbourne is, after all, my old stomping ground.  I also like how she’s a fellow author and is way into music and gave me some good advice about my youtube videos!

So congratulations Midnight Rambler, you can contact Rob on query(at)robkaay(dot)com

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Meet Rob Kaay…

I have been featuring fantastic female fantasy authors (see disclaimer) but this has morphed into interesting people in the speculative fiction world. Today I’ve invited the talented Rob Kaay to drop by.

Look out for the give-away at the end of the post.

Q: You’ve worked as a professional musician. (Rob was signed with Columbia records in his twenties and was based in New York and Melbourne. He had an epiphany when he turned thirty, returned to Perth and started working on Silverbirch his dark urban fantasy novel). Rather than approach a traditional publisher, you went straight to self publishing. I know many traditionally published writers are re-releasing their backlists by self publishing. What was your reasoning behind taking the self publishing route?

A: As soon as I finished my first draft of Silverbirch, I sent out twenty query letters, with the first three chapters attached, to some of the biggest publishing companies and agents in the world.  I aimed high.  One of the bigger firms got back to me with an interest to see more of the novel once I had completed the second draft.  It gave me great motivation to work on the book some more.  The only problem was, once I completed the second draft, I could see the possibility of the company liking the book and maybe picking it up.  A scenario flashed before my eyes that resembled what had happened to my band in the music industry, our music being picked up by a major label.  A system controlling how, when and why my work was released.  That whole situation; where a massive corporation was in total control of my artistic expression, left a sour taste in my mouth and caused me to want to work solo from that point forward.  I was reluctant to hop on that merry-go-round again, so I didn’t bother sending the second draft.  I released Silverbirch; A Tear in the Fabric of the Night Sky myself and plan on doing that with all my music and books in the future.

With the upcoming sequel, Silverbirch; Fall of the Epicenter, I am currently editing the third draft and have no plans on showing publishers or agents.  I don’t care how many copies I sell, I have written the sequel exclusively for those people who have found and enjoyed the first book.

Q: While you were on the road touring your wrote two journals about this experience. (See here). About one of them you say ‘this is what it’s really like being in a band’. Are these journals the sort of thing you don’t want your mother to read?

Actually, they’re both about what it’s really like being in a band.  I didn’t write the journals about one specific band though.  I created characters based on a number of different people in a number of bands I’ve been in and/or supported.  The character of Robkaay however is heavily based around myself.

I deliberately wrote the books in a journal type format to give kids who are thinking of dedicating their life to being in a touring rock band an up close and personal spectrum of exactly what is involved.  From what it’s really like to take drugs, sleep with groupies and be drunk for weeks on end.  In reality, it’s a lot different than how cool it sounds.  There are dark moments when my character talks from inside a depression and can’t believe he has sacrificed a beautiful relationship for the sake of a small piece of delusional unattainable fame.

As for the second part of your question . . . normally, if you’re in a rock band and you write about what it’s really like, you don’t want your mother to read it.  However, in my case, my mum was the editor!  Every few chapters she would ring me and ask, “Is this a character you are writing or did this really happen?!”

Q: From doing these author interviews I know that about 75% of writers are aural – they play music while they write, some even go so far as to make up lay lists of certain types of music to get them into the zone for a particular book. (The other 25% are visual and make up folders of photos). As a musician you have a soundtrack that goes with Silverbirch (available here). Is this because the music and the story are so intertwined that you can’t imagine producing one without producing the other?

While writing Silverbirch, sometimes I listen to my own instrumental music, but mostly I listen to other bands.  I listen to lots of Trent Reznor’s instrumental stuff like Ghosts I-IV, the Fight Club soundtrack, Moby’s free instrumental music, instrumental Crosses . . . anything really, as long as it’s cool and dark . . . just as long as there are no vocals.  Vocals distract me. (Rob is giving away a free EP to accompany Silverbirch).

Q: Regarding your premise for Silverbirch you said: ‘I’ve always been interested in what causes people to do crazy things when they’re not in control of themselves, like when they’re drunk, on drugs, angry or sleep deprived. Obviously in a touring rock band, I saw a lot of people doing crazy things they couldn’t remember, so I decided to create a race of people called Silvers who were influencing our decisions. That’s pretty much how Silverbirch; A Tear in the Fabric of the Night Sky was born.’ Did you research psychology to help you with the building of the Silvers’ society?

Nope.  I’m just writing fantastical ideas as I see them in my mind.

Q: You are working on a sequel to Silverbirch. ‘I specifically went travelling last year to the Lake District and London in England and Jordan in the Middle-East and Egypt and visited the Mayan Ruins in Mexico to write the sequel. I learned as much as I could about what the Egyptians and Mayans believed and wrote most of the next Silverbirch on the road.’ What do you look for when you travel like this? Are you going to specific places to set story elements, or are you looking for the feel of the place?

With Egypt, Jordan and Mexico, I wanted to learn more about ancient civilizations and marvel at what they accomplished and wonder at how.  Some of the things these ancient civilizations knew and could build between 3000 and 6000 years ago blows your mind.  Especially when you’re there, seeing how they made everything happen without mechanical engineering or steel.  How the hell did they pile 4-tonne slabs of stone on top of each other to form the Pyramids of Giza, fifty stories high, without steel cranes?  It’s still a mystery.  Also, what happened to the ancient Egyptians as a race of people and what is the true meaning behind their hieroglyphics?

When I travel to places with as much history as this, I like to immerse myself in the environment and allow my imagination to ask me all sorts of questions that most people would deem as weird.  It helps to unlock story ideas and pathways in my wild imagination.

With other places, like London and Grasmere in England . . . I talked my girlfriend into specifically visiting London because I wanted to write about Nudge storming the BBC Studios.  With Grasmere, I heard they had an abundance of silver birch trees.  The BBC Studios and the town of Grasmere have become key locations in the next book.  I find that I can’t write about a place properly and make it believable unless I’ve physically been there.

Q: The art for Silverbirch is particularly nice. Are you also an artist, or did you hire a freelancer to produce this artwork?

I know, I like to do everything I on my own!  But no, I am super crap at drawing.  If you asked me to draw you a stick figure of a man with shoes on, I’m sure it would come off looking more like a twisted tree with roots sunk in two ugly pots.

Ken Taylor from Melbourne illustrated the ‘young Nudge holding the mushroom‘ graphic for A Tear in the Fabric of the Night Sky.  Dan Mumford from London illustrated the ‘female reptilian from Venus‘ graphic for the upcoming novel, Fall of the Epicenter.

Q: With your background in music, do you plan to do more cross-platform releases or ‘enhanced’ e-books in future?

As a musician and author, I am seriously looking to explore greater ways to tell a story in the future.  For now, other than releasing my stories in written form, I am also creating podcasts, writing most of the music myself.

Q: I was prompted to start this series of interviews because there seems to be a perception in the US and the UK that fantasy is a bit of a boy’s club. Do you think there’s a difference in the way males and females write fantasy?

 I don’t think there is a difference just because a male or female writer has written something.  I think the difference comes from how different we all are as general Humans in the way we see the world.  How different we are all individually brought up in various environments with vast belief systems.  Everyone has something to say, regardless of gender.  If it’s interesting enough, lots of people will want to read the writing.

Q: Following on from that, does the gender of the writer change your expectations when you pick up their book?

Not at all.

Q: And here’s the fun question. If you could book a trip on a time machine, where and when would you go, and why?

First up I would dial in the year 3000 B.C. to Egypt.  I want to see how they built the pyramids!  Second, I would dial in 3000.  I want to see how technology advances in the future.  I want to know what will become of the people of Earth and whether Humans are still the dominant species!

Giveaway Question: If you could go back stage and mingle with any band in the last 60 years, which band would it be and why?

(Rob is offering a paperback edition of Silverbirch; A Tear in the Fabric of the Night Sky and two signed limited edition bookmarks and stickers to a randomly selected winner!)

Catch up with Rob on Shelfari

Catch up with Rob on Goodreads

Catch up with Rob on Linkedin

Catch up with Rob on Facebook

Follow Rob on Twitter @robkaay

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Filed under Australian Artists, Australian Writers, Book Giveaway, Comics/Graphic Novels, creativity, Fantasy books, Indy Press, Music and Writers, Promoting your Book, Publishing Industry, Writers Working Across Mediums

How cool is this?

My Dh had finished the trailer for The Outcast Chronicles. Ta Da!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDfjjKVn96Q]

I’m going to interview him in a couple of weeks about putting the trailer together, so if you have any questions, drop them in the comments.

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