Brain Reboot

And did I mention the degree is finally done? (hurrah! Results in mid July! Hoping to pull off a 2:1 overall)  And with that clear from my brain, and the drain that is holiday cover for the family business also done with, I'm finally getting my head around everything that's been put on hold.

Most notably, the writing of fiction stuff.  It feels like a small age since I last wrote anything fictional (a quick check suggests the last was just before the last degree module started up, which makes sense) and the little writing cells, they be so rusty.  So I went digging through my old writing to get back in the groove and discovered things I'd completely forgotten I'd written.  Most of which are unpublishable, but teenage/early twenties me did have some surprisingly interesting ideas! (Also some truly terrible and slightly problematic ones, but, we evolve...)  And there's a ton of unfinished shorts from the last couple of years that need sorting out.

And there's new fiction things I've been noodling over the last few months - after sitting down and plotting out things, have discovered that novel-wise I've got 3 secondary world/portal fantasies, 2 urban fantasies, a paranormal romance, a horror, 2 historic fantasies, 2 SF and a supernatural crime thing all begging attention. And that's before we get to the short fiction.  Do not even get me started on the short fiction. It's a looooooong list.

And then there's non fiction - there's a ton of blog posts I need to write so there may be the vague chance of weekly blog posts at some point (don't faint!), plus I want to get back to the short fiction reviewing again.

Am also plotting future anthologies, o'course, because I do love doing the anthologies and hope at some point to eventually edit one that pays pro rates to our lovely authors.  Though where and with who is going to take a bit of creativity.  Possibly a kickstarter may happen next year.  Watch this space.... :-)

Fox Pockets: Piracy

Woohoo! We have official launch! 

Fox Spirit is delighted to announce the release of the first Fox Pocket ‘Piracy’.

The order of the next three volumes has been confirmed as Shapeshifters (I'm in that too!), Guardians and Missing Monarchs.

Small but perfectly formed collections of stories by a den full of talented writers, put together by Fox Spirit books for your enjoyment.

The stories are flash fiction, giving the reader bite sized introductions to Fox Spirit and the writers we love to work with. All designed to fit perfectly into the pocket so you can take a little fox with you everywhere you go.

There are ten books to the collection being published during 2013 and 2014 and titled:

Piracy, Missing Monarchs, Shapeshifters, Guardians, Under the Waves, In an Unknown Country, Things in the Dark, The Evil Genius Guide, Reflections, Piercing the Veil

Stories in Fox Pockets will wander unfettered between genres, mixing horror, fantasy, science fiction and crime. The subjects are deliberately loose to invite a wide range of interpretations. This pocket series showcases some of the wealth of new talent coming through in genre fiction.

The books will be available as a paperback through Lulu for 24 months after the release date of each volume. Ebook releases will take place a month after the paperback and will be available for longer, but not forever.

Fox Spirit will be offering a subscription to the paperbacks as part of a giveaway through the newsletter this summer so please subscribe on our home page to make sure you don’t miss out.

More about all our titles at www.foxspirit.co.uk

Piracy can be found at
http://www.lulu.com/shop/various/fox-pockets-vol-1-piracy/paperback/product-21058618.html

---So there you go, official press release and everything! Go pick yourself up a fun anthology right now!

Foxy Jen!

And did I mention I'm going to be in this?  Let the happy dancing commence!  ;-)

Full line up (in no particular order) is:

Asher Wismer – War Most Willing
Josh Reynolds – Bultungin
Alec McQuay – Javier Reborn
Rahne Sinclair – EigiEinhammr
KC Shaw – A Cloud Like a Bunny
Emma Teichmann – Mimicans
Margret Helgadottir – The Lion
Jonathan Ward – Mask
S.J Caunt – Metamorphic
Michael Pack – To Fly
Fiona Glass – The Boyfriend, From Hell
Rob Haines – Reliquary
Jenny Barber – To Fox Tor Mire
Francesca Terminiello – Job Security
Den Patrick – Seductions
K.A. Laity – Carlos

Coming out from Fox Spirit Books soon, more details as and when.... 

Kari Sperring Interview

Oooooooh. My interview with the lovely and generally fantastic Kari Sperring will be appearing in the December BFS Journal. (The all new BFS mega-mix that, so rumour has it, will be a glorious hardback beast that combines Prism and Dark Horizons in one shiny package...)

Kaz's Summer Camp Week 9

Yes, I know, missed the update last week. (very bad Jen!)

So, with no further ado, here's the Tuesday Kaz's Summer Camp update!

Has been a week filled with research and editing and mad story planning so new words a bit on the pathetic side.

Also, given a sudden explosion of, everything, I'm redefining the targets for the last month of Camp!

So:
1) Taurus - my baby! Is doing quite well over on Authonomy. (Phew!) New wordage for last week: 2500. I think. It's hard to tell because I deleted vast chunks and rewrote quite a bit but it's still holding together.
Target for the end of August - another 35k new words.

2) Aqua Vitae: more plotting and planning and a shedload of research. Keep wondering whether I ought to be splitting my brain with this and Taurus, as the deadline for the competition is December 31st. Four months to write, edit and rewrite a full alt-history novel? Ooh, tricky. Very almost dropped it last week, but then got a flash of plot & character that might just work, so I'll see how this one goes.
Target for the end of August - 20k new words.

Other than that, I might, if you pushed me, confess to committing random acts of Lost fanfic. (Well, there were these persistent plot-bunnies that wouldn't go away... it had to be done...)

Kaz's Summer Camp Week 7

::Looks at calendar.:: Yep. It's still Tuesday. How'd that happen so fast?

So, ladies and gentlebeings, it's time for the Kaz's Summer Camp update.
(Yes, I know, I missed last week. Bad Jen. I claim excessive OU work. And that's the story I'm sticking to...)

No surprises, due to a rather complicated essay that kept my brain all tied up, (also there were wasps! In the walls! Then crawling all over the floor in their final death throes!) not a lot of fictional writing got done last week.

However - targets:

1) Hunting Ground: Glanced at the edits, didn't do much on it. Did try and find a potential market for when it's ready but can not find one that quite fits.

2) Emerald Eyes: Stands at 2339 words. Now know where it's going as the end is all written out, but the middle is still somewhat, er, lacking.

3) Kill the Wizard: no progress. Kill the story? Possibly. ;-P (Also I've got a shiny idea for an entry for the Pratchett prize thing in December so am quite tempted to do a binge writing month next month to bang out the first draft which will leave plenty of time for edits.) Yep, sounds like a plan. So, new target = Aqua Vitae. Smuggling and sea monsters and a watery apocalypse!

4) Taurus: 1500 new words. (I know, pathetic!) However have done a lot of plot fiddling and there's an actual decent motivation for the secondary bad guys/problem causers. Plus it seems to be going quite well on Authonomy (which is nice!) and I've had some useful feedback for purposes of editing. But enough work avoidance, back to the word-mines!

Taurus!

Can haz Authonomy now! W00t!

Ahem. Hi. Sorry about that.

So, if you're an Authonomy peep and feel like having a wander over to read a thrilling tale of kick ass chicks, Minotaurs and mermaid-pirates, have finally uploaded the first five chapters of Taurus here. Crits welcome. :-D

(Am waiting for Authonomy to approve the cover art. But it's lovely. Really. And courtesy of fellow Autho member Bradley Wind.)

The pitch:
Karis was content to live a life of raiding the waters around Marigan. Until a distress call from her human sister brings her against the might of the Gethine Alliance and the secrets they’ve uncovered in the ghost city of Sagara.

Amy Morgan was only supposed to recover a sword from a maze. One pack of Minotaurs later and she finds herself caught up in a new world where mermaid-pirates hunt the seas, her friends are captured and there’s all manner of trouble waiting for her if she can find her way home.

Kassia was looking for adventure, but an expedition to Sagara gives her more adventure than she ever imagined when she finds something that the violent Gethine Alliance has spent years searching for.

But surviving the Alliance’s attentions is easy compared to what’s waiting for them back on Earth.

That link again...

Kaz's Summer Camp Week 5

Must be Tuesday again! So here's the Kaz's Summer Camp update! :-D

Weird thing? It feels like I've written a lot, but I've also been editing and deleting a lot so the technical word counts of many and various have actually dropped. Happily, they have better words in, but still...

So:

1) Wicked Sisters - done. That's so last month! :-D Therefore, new target #1 is edit Hunting Ground story and send off somewhere.

2) Emerald Eyes - 500 new words, and the plot is getting a wee bit unexpected. I have absolutely no idea how it's ending now, it's all gone from plotter to pantser.

3) Kill the Wizard - no progress.

4) Taurus - 2000 new words, plus a metric ton of edit-fiddling. I now declare it ready for Autho! Woohoo! Just got to write the pitches and upload. (Then try not to spend too much time playing on Autho when there's a million other things to do, like bang out the next few chapters.

Which does mean new target #4 is write another 40k of the all new and improved Taurus!

Though I'm about to enter another assignment deathmarch week so immediate progress might be slow...

Kaz's Summer Camp Week 4

If it's Tuesday, it must be time for the Kaz's Summer Camp update! Woot! :-)

Slower week this week due to OU assignment bashing and sinus explosion (eurch, must be summer), but words were still done. Oh yes indeedy.

So:

1) Wicked Sisters - done, status as last week.

2) Emerald Eyes - 200 new words, and plot shifting in interesting new direction. Goodness knows where it's going to end up now.

3) Kill the Wizard - no progress. There's ages yet to fiddle with this one.

4) Taurus - 2000 new words, plus more edit-fiddling. Yay! Still lovin' it.
Merc girl is kicking major ass. Adventurer girl is staying in the background so that the spotlight can be on ghost-singer girl. Mermaid-pirate girl is still awesome. :-)

It's not quite ready for Autho. Very very close, mind. Got to work out a few bugs in the third chapter.

Am now also getting a wee bit distracted by the Terry Pratchett novel comp thing. There might be something I could batter into shape for it. Or could maybe try something shiny new. Dunno. Needs thinking on, that one.

Kaz's Summer Camp week 3

Week 3 of Summer Camp! Woot! :-)

Better week this week (woohoo!) as writing was done! So, targets:

1) Wicked Sisters - done and splicing process into Taurus in effect.

2) Emerald Eyes - up to 1000 words now, have also changed the sex of the evil vamp and have a lovely opening scene that only verges slightly on the purple. Evil lady vamp is working so much better then cliched evil guy vamp. Now to start killing people...

3) Mysterious new short - might possibly be a comic fantasy entitled Kill the Wizard. I might even have the grand total of 109 words on it... :-) It's the last on my priority list though...

4) Taurus - Yay! I am officially back in love with this one. The mermaid-pirates have plot related stuff to do; girl-adventurer is romping around underground city with old gal-pal and new gal-pal (the latter of whom is having a larger role to play now); and the unfortunate mercenaries (now with brand new kick-ass chick leader) have had their first encounter with the minotaurs (Of Dooooooom! :-) ) and are getting ready to go in the maze. (and despite the fact that I've edited and rewritten that particular scene about a dozen times now over the last couple of years, this latest variant is the best yet! (I blame the mermaid-pirates!)

And the whole thing is actually hanging together and working now. (Finally!) ::is happy, cries:: :-)

As far as Autho goes, technically I've got the wordage for an upload (10,006!) but they're not quite consecutive... so, just got to fill a few gaps and it's altogether possible that next week may see jumping on the sofa. And backflips. :-)

Kaz's Summer Camp Week 2

Arrgh. Not a good week on the KSC target front. For this, I blame academic deathmarch!
(On the plus side, an essay on Pugin, dissent and gothic architecture is all done and handed in!)

So, targets...

1) Wicked Sisters - finished it last week, so that's good!
2) Emerald Eyes - wrote words, deleted words, wrote words, deleted words, decided it's still crap, will keep on keeping on...
3) Hah! Got a few ideas but no words have landed on page yet.
4) Taurus - still floating at the 7k mark. Need to do slight rewrite on the mermaid-pirates chapter to match the tone with the minotaurs & treasure hunter bits. Also invent the back story for an Ancient Civilisation (tm) so that my daring girl-adventurers can secure a map/guide to accessing multiple other worlds from the secondary world they're already playing in... Also fiddle with the on-Earth treasure hunt bits to merge the plot line with the shiny new stuff! (LOVE multi-world fic!) :-)

Kaz's Summer Camp

Wahey, I'm in Summer Camp! Kinda. Virtually. Specifically, the funky writerly summer camp started up by Kaz Mahoney.

Our mission: to use the months of June, July & August to achieve writerly goals of our choice.

So, my goals: (being teeny as there's OU coursework and an impending bout of holiday cover to contend with...)

1) To finish edits on Wicked Sisters story and send off
2) Finish gorgon vs vamp short story (temp titled Emerald Eyes)
3) Write another short story (write, meaning, *write&finish*)
4) also I'd like to get enough decent wordage together to upload something to Authonomy but I forgot to add that one to the sign up post...

So, since today is the first goal update day...

1) Wicked Sisters edits finished. (Hurrah!) However, according to my many different beta-readers, it still reads more like a part of a longer work. Which is actually handy because I had this idea the other day of making it the start of an all-new B plot in the current novel-in-progress (see 4.) So, junk it as a short story and weave it into n-i-p? Possibly best. Plus, what isn't improved by the addition of mermaid-pirates? :-)

2) Emerald Eyes. Oy vey, is this one kicking my ass. It was started with the intention of submitting it to a monster mash anthology that Pill Hill Press is doing. (Blimey, but they're doing a lot of themed anthologies!) The aim: a scary story featuring at least two classic monsters. The problem: I suck at scary stories. Might work better as comic fantasy though...

3) Behave! There's two months to go yet! :-)

4) Taurus! Aka the current novel-in-progress. Aka, the Nano thing from a couple of years ago that just won't die. The original Nano version was just a little over 50k, being a fun romp with multi-world treasure hunting, insane death count and Minotaurs. Except it was a bit thin and cliche. However, latest version now has bonus extra mermaid-pirates and more action in the not-Earth worlds which is making it way more complicated but also way more lovely! I love multi-world fic!

I've got this pegged as the Authonomy one mainly because I asked a nice chap over there to do me cover art about a year ago so it would be quite nice to actually use it... :-)

As far as Authonomy & Taurus goes... I only need a 10k minimum of decent quality words (it's the decent quality bit that keeps blocking me... that, and them being consecutive words...) - so far, though, I've got just over 7k, so victory may still be mine. ;-) (Then I'll have to whip some semblance of sanity out of the rest of the plot...)