All quiet on the Western Front

I haven’t given much attention to Standoff as I’d liked, having only given the novelette the must briefest of glances over the last few weeks.

Mainly because I’m stuck on a small little bit, from which the entire story is road-blocked. So in effect; not really a small bit.

The hardest part – again – is finding time. Life and all the things surrounding in have conspired to rob me of the opportunity to seriously get my head down and get some writing down. Fortunately the reasons are good, but unfortunately not from a writing perspective. I’m planning some quality alone-time with my brain and Scrivener (my writing app of choice) in the next week or so.

What is confirmed is how happy I am with the story so far. The writing is sharp, focused and it’s definitely of the style I have grown into the last few years. Still can’t escape writing in present-tense – so kill me if I love it

From The Asylum

Sad to hear that From The Asylum is closing its doors in July. I had a short story with them since November last year, and received notice yesterday.

Here’s their blurb:

http://www.fromtheasylum.com/interior2.htm

Shame.

Clearing out some submissions

I’ve had a number of rejections in the last month or so, and my ‘to submit’ pile has grown accordingly. Fortunately I have a to-do system that excels at continuously nagging me until I give in and clear anything outstanding (except, it appears, to actually write something).

Therefore I’ve dedicated an entire evening to submitting:

Waterwall to Clarkesworld Magazine (who, it must be said, has an awesome on-line submission system)
Dead Angels to Reflection’s Edge
Forever Morning to Cutting Block Press
Toby See The Stars to The Fifth Wednesday Journal

I wish, I really wish somebody invented a standard document format with which all submissions could be based on*. Each of the above subs required modifications for each publication. Finding the right magazine is easy. Getting the format right is the time-killer.

* yes, one exists, but it isn’t adhered to.

More text from Stand-off

It’s coming on well. Ideas are proving themselves less recaltricant than normal.

Some more snippets here:
–
…there had been a touch and go moment when a few undeads had somehow made their way up through the thick forestry, heading upwards, driven by some unknown bearing, but they had become stuck in the overgrowth and even now mewled aimlessly only 20 yards from the outstation and Boone, their sightless eyes fixed on some point behind him, unaware of his existence, only driven by some internal wiring defining their existence as a goal somewhere up the side of this mountain. Boone imagines that with a clear path the two undeads – a black man in a torn orange jump-suit and a massive grey haired afro teamed in an unlikely pairing with an old Chinese woman, her face like an angry, blood-rinsed walnut – would walk straight past him and continue up the mountain, down the other side and head right into the ocean without a single conscious thought running through their heads.

Slight roadblock

After a few days of near perfect running I’ve hit my first roadblock on Stand-Off.

I have been using an 8 page hand-written synopsis, writing almost verbatim from my – surprisingly excellent – notes and have come across the first part where in my infinite wisdom I had decided, when initially writing this outline, to skip some ‘small parts’(1) in the story. Whilst I can (and hopefully should) be able to overcome the gaps it’s still a stumble after nearly three thousand words of remarkably smooth prose.

I’ve also found myself recently aware of what is known in the media business as ‘zombie fatigue’. Ten years ago Zombie and Undead movies were very few and far between, and it wasn’t until the ‘Dead reboots and – more recently – 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later(2), Shaun Of The Dead, and numerous Romero remakes that a certain ennui has developed amongst the public in all matters undead. This translates into popular media, which explains why we won’t be seeing zombie movies for a while (Romero notwithstanding – the man is a full-on-zombie-making-machine).

So – this means that selling this story once written may prove somewhat of a mission. Considering how many vampire and werewolf stories are published in the small press every year, regardless of the fact that most are a) utter rubbish and b) more or less identical along a few basic deviations, I’m hoping a well written story which just happens to be about those pesky undead folks still has a home in the literary world.

Guaranteeing it’s a well written story is the hard part, naturally.

1) – where ‘small parts’ means ‘fundamental issues conveniently swept under the carpet during conception’
2) and now is not the time to debate the definition of a zombie, as both the 28 movies are not zombie movies – in the eyes of the professional un-dead discerner that is. Nor, it has to be said, are there zombies in this current story of mine. They are however, undead. It’s complicated.

More from Stand-Off

I’m calling this novelette Stand-Off for the time being, until something better crops up.

Another little snippet.

–
It is fully dark now, and Boone, sitting cross-legged on the roof of the outstation, smoking continuously from a pack of Indian cigarettes found underneath the till in the outstation (which, it transpires, doubles as a tourist shop), watches a gun fight in the nearest skyscraper reach the end of its narrative. The tale began with a series of small explosions, followed by muzzle flashes which worked their way upwards, flickering through the windows as the intruders made their way floor to floor. Screams of pain, anger, horror, or a mixture of all three filtered their way up to the outstation, mixed in with other noises from the city, mainly the undead stirring, following the action.

Watching now, as the gunfire becomes more sporadic, and more lights are extinguished, Boone can hear the awful cacophony of a very familiar tune begin to take form. Those unearthly, vague cries of death and hunger and naked uncontrollable desire for destruction, all taking form and melody, harmonising in unison, like a flock of birds following ancient patterns of flight built of millennia of genetics, racial memory and instinct, all with one overriding, definitive goal in mind, defined as one simple statement:

Find human – kill human.

First Paragraph of new zombie story

Ok – here’s the first part of Standoff City Of Lost Light Hong Kong Zombie Story whatever.

I seriously need to find a name for this.

First draft etc, so usual caveats apply &c
–
“Boone…”
He opens his eyes, waking from a fever dream where he is stood at a bar, a pint of guiness in one hand, a mobile phone in the other, his mother’s frantic voice coming at him from thousands of miles away, while all around him the world crashes down in a single day.
When he comes to, staring at the clear blue sky, his first thought is: I’d kill for a Guinness. I would rake civilisations, destroy countries and annihilate worlds for just one ice cold pint of black.
Still ascending from the hot, smoky disjointed thoughts of his diseased mind, he believes he can, by dint of force of mind alone, conjure the pint in his right hand, condensation dripping down the side, creamy white top thick as icing.
“God help me, I would. “
“Would what? “ comes back the voice.
“Destroy the world, “ Boone replies through cracked lips.
“He’s still delirious, “ the voice says. A Chinese voice replies, tone curt and dismissive.
“No. I just really want a Guinness, “ Boone says, blinking at the clear sky above, feeling the wisps of memory detach from the fever-dreams until only the image of the bar and the drink remain, his mother’s screams on his mobile phone now a distant, uncomfortable, vague humm in the background of his mind.

The Amazing speak as you type Irate Scotsman Typing Tutor!

I came up with this gem a long time ago, whilst presumably on some sort of drugs…

Enjoy. Or not. Probably the latter…

The Amazing speak as you type Irate Scotsman Typing Tutor!

Yes! Image being blind. Imagine not being able to see…close your eyes now. No, really, close them. Dark isn’t it? Kinda scary, isn’t it? Just imagine if you couldn’t see at all, I mean, it’s okay for us, we can just open our eyes, but what if you were blind?

How would you type? Sure, you could find those knobbly bits that are on F and J and find your way, but if you can’t type that’s no help, and if you can, how do you know what your typing? For all you know you could be yu[omnh vomplryr foggoesj!

Well, thanks to the Amazing Irate Scotsman™ you can now know exactly what keys your are typing down. Press A, and prepare to hear the throaty tones of a gruff Glaswegian. Press a J and indulge in his smoke riddled baritones. Press and hold down allt he keys and you can almost believe you’re in a room with 15 angry vomiting scotsman!

Coming soon: dangerously sarcastic stoned guy and pretty yet bitchy blond! You’d be crazy – no psychotic to miss out!

Ring 0800 BUYMESTUPID

Third Person

I’ve been thinking over the last few days about the first section on my new novelette.

The section in particular involves two cousins descending into Hong Kong Island on a cart – a Hong Kong laid waste by a zombie holocaust*  and I started to think how I would describe all this to the reader in locational terms which the characters may not know, but which might be useful for the reader to get more of an impression.

And then this led me to contemplating just how a narrative told in a third person perspective from one character can presume to offer information not within the character’s remit, in effect turning the narrative into an omniscient third person perspective. Would this bother the reader? I don’t know, but it bothers me as a writer. I’ve always been a fan of intimate stories, and the second I start to introduce that omniscience I find it removes the reader from the character – for me it’s like how can you share an experience with a character when you know more about that experience?

I’ve written in first person for most of my writing life, and I think it is from this that my reticence to push the fourth wall comes from. In this case I will introduce this description in the form of (subtle, always subtle) exposition.

In short – I shall give Boone a map.

 

* really – is there any two better words combined in the English language? I think not.

writing writing writing…

I managed 800 words on Standoff City Of Lost Light untitled yesterday evening, and was pleased with the results. I had half an eye on this story after polishing off the final edit on Toby See The Stars and pretty much dived in on the first chapter without thinking. I found myself thinking of the first section whilst trying to sleep the other night, and felt that as it stood the first attempts didn’t come across as well as I hoped. The last version was particularly bad where I had decided Milo was suffering from autism, and the first part came across as an attempt to mesh Rain Man with Day Of The Dead. An interesting concept, but not that interesting. I want Milo to be odd – he is an oddball after all, but I’m all about subtle with my writing right now.

So I blatted through the approach to The Park – a reservation on the side of a mountain which faces onto Hong Kong island, which looks a lovely place to visit – and found myself happy with the results. The best part was how easy it all came across, very natural, very comfortable. I’ve come to realise I’m lazy when it comes to description – perhaps because I write at speed, yet slowly, which makes no sense but bear with me – and the entire section on Hong Kong silenced by a zombie holocaust comes to something like three sentences. Obviously not quite good enough. But overall I’m pleased.

I’ve found out in the last few years that the key to finishing a story is to get it written. This sometimes means I will leave an entire section unfinished and just plough on, often leaving tricker technical parts for the editing process, which I am growing to realise is a skill more important (for me) than writing itself. This prevents me getting stuck on a section that is bugging me, or not quite coming across, or is putting too many hurdles in getting character a to plot device b.

Standoff City Of Lost Light untitled has already been heavily plotted, with a 2,500 word synopsis that provides a great foundation for a smooth, uncomplicated writing journey. Looking forward to it.