Doing the 'Happy Dance'!

I woke up the other morning to find an email in my in-box from my UK editor. (Since I'm in Australia, he's awake when I'm asleep).

The covers for my trilogy have arrived. I'm blown away. Clint Langley has outdone himself with these covers. They are all great, but my favourite is the middle one.

Writing is like the iceberg, so much goes on even before the book gets sent to the publisher. What you finally see in the bookstore is the product of years of research, writing and rewriting. Much time is spent in the intangible world of the mind, so the days when something physical appears are red letter days.

Seeing these covers was a red letter day for me. All the writing, rewriting, researching and waiting have finally paid off.

Meanwhile, I am in neck deep in another new writing project and feeling deprived when life gets in the way. Family obligations and work conspire to eat up all my time as well as the mental space in my head where I have to go to create a new world. It all seems so intangible and ephemeral, but then I look at how the Chronicles of King Rolen's Kin is coming together and I know it is achieveable.

So this is a 'hang in there' post. It is all worth it.

How do you keep the flame of your passion for writing alive?

These Boots Are Made For Kicking

So you want to write short stories. Or you don’t. Couldn’t care less. It is my considered opinion – and as everyone here knows I am a moderate and ponderous sort of person, mild-mannered and calm – that all of you need to write a lot more short stories, so you can submit it and get over this namby pamby fear of submitting your work. Because I can’t be having with that and I don’t want to call y’all sissies. (Even if you are.)

What I most often hear is "But I don’t like writing short stories." Or perhaps "I’m a natural novelist." Or yet "I don’t have short story ideas!"

The fact I normally hear these pronounced in the tone my kids used for "but I want a cookie" normally means I roll my eyes and go hide somewhere with a book. But leaving aside my excellent parenting skills, my general answer to these is "cry me a river" for the first two and "You can learn" to the last. I too am a natural novelist, I don’t generally like writing short stories, and heaven knows I don’t even have SINGLE NOVEL ideas, but more like a six book series.

You see, there are reasons to learn short stories – beyond the fact that you need desensitizing. Once you’ve made it and you’re a big name (shut up. The alternative is I keep kicking you. ALL of you will become major names by default) people will ask you for short stories and short stories are your cheapest means of self promotion. Write short stories for as many anthos and mags as you can – chances are people will find them and then look for everything else you wrote. At least if you do a creditable job. So... about learning to do that job.

Ideas are the easy part. I have a friend who routinely tells me "I have this idea for a short story" – when in fact he doesn’t. What do I mean by that? His "idea" will be something like "What if squirrels discovered electricity?" That is not an idea. It is the rawest glimmering of what-if. And it’s certainly not a Short story idea. Maybe an essay.

Could it be a short story idea? Sure. Follow that life line. So, squirrels discover electricity. Do they discover how to create electricity or how to steal it from homeowners, with tiny wires so they can watch squirrel porn on their tiny laptops? Let’s say they steal it. We have Mary. She lives downtown and suddenly her energy bill skyrockets. The landlord/energy company doesn’t believe her. A quick investigation finds that squirrels have found some discarded computer parts, assembled them, and are stealing electricity to watch Nutkin does Norway. Mary solves the problem by teaching the squirrels to distribute their electricity theft. She perhaps furnishes them with bigger screens, or something. In return they do something else for her – perhaps fill one of the electricity company’s trucks full of nuts. Or take nude pictures of the landlord and paste them all over the neighborhood.

Now what you must resist is the impulse to figure out how this will affect university at large. Will Mary’s boyfriend who is a biologist want to study these newly sentient squirrels? Will the squirrels become partners with humans in space exploration? Will there eventually be a tiny twitch of the tail for squirreldom, a giant step for the species of Earth? No. Don’t go there. Drop it. I mean you, Chris. You don’t know where it’s been, and besides you’re borrowing trouble. Short stories by definition take a smaller slice of the pie, usually concentrated on one person’s problem and its more or less reasonable solution. Yes, there are a few short stories with a cast of thousands and dancing elephants, but they’re rare, far between and require consummate skill.
I will confess part of this is weighing "what is a short story idea" and part of it is habit and practice – like everything else.

So, grab a couple of short story anthos (the Greenberg themed anthos are actually pretty good for this) and read a couple of short stories, it might help.

In any case, shoot me a few ideas in the comments. I’ll weigh in, as will the bunch that hangs out here, and we’ll discuss whether they’re short story ideas or not. If it makes you feel better shoot ideas you never plan to use, just so we can argue if they’re short story ideas of not. Just post them, we’ll discuss them, and your understanding will improve. (Grasshopper!) Of course, you might also want to tell me how insane my squirrel idea is. ;) Or your alternate ideas for Squirrels Discover Electricity. (Ah, like any of you is as brilliant as I am. Whole cities are powered by my shining intellect. In fact squirrels would probably steal me... er... um... WHAT is in those cold meds?)

I know you have questions: So, you have this idea, but is it YOUR idea to write? What is a satisfying end for a a short story, versus a satisfying end for a novel? And where the heck do you find all these ideas, anyway? Will you give me the address in Kansas where they send you ideas if you send them a SASE?

All this and more will be answered when you tune in to the next episode of "Boots, Stories and tired writers!"

Persistence Pays Off

Artwork by R & D Studios.

My fantasy trilogy, 'The Last T'En', was a finalist in two US awards and won a national Australian award.

Even so, it is possible for an author to be orphaned. The line finishes, the editor moves on, the agent retires and suddenly, even though they've sold internationally, the author has to start all over again.

During this dry patch, I never stopped writing and I read voraciously, trying to work out why I loved certain authors' books.

The more I wrote, the more I was sure I was on the right track. I set out to write the kind of books I wanted to curl up with on a Sunday afternoon, ripping reads that transported me to other worlds, where ordinary people found the inner strength to battle incredible odds.

And now my agent, John Jarrold, ( Go John!) has sold a three book fantasy series.

PRESS RELEASE –THREE-BOOK DEAL FOR AUSTRALIAN FANTASY NOVELIST

John Jarrold has concluded a three-book deal for Australian fantasy writer Rowena Cory Daniells with Christian Dunn of Solaris, the mainstream genre imprint of Games Workshop’s publishing division, BL Publishing. The series is entitled King Rolen’s Kin and the first book, provisionally called BYREN’S BANE, is due for publication in early 2010. The deal is for World English Language rights.

The books follow the lives of three of King Rolen’s heirs, when their kingdom, Rolencia, is invaded by their ancestral enemy, Merofynia. A sweeping fantasy adventure, the narrative explores the eternal questions of ambition, trust and betrayal.

Rowena Cory Daniells first became involved in speculative fiction in 1976. Since then she has run a bookshop, then a graphic art studio where she illustrated children's books, had 6 children in 10 years, sold nearly 30 children's books and a fantasy trilogy (The Last T’En) internationally, established R&D Studios and served on the management committees of state and national arts organisations. She lives by the bay in Brisbane with her husband and children, and has a Masters in Arts (Research).

Contact John Jarrold for further information: e-mail: j.jarrold@btinternet.com phone: 01522 510544.

8^th December 2008

Persistence pays off. Keep writing, keep growing as a writer and believe in yourself.