I went ahead and started a Pinterest board for tattoo inspiration. Check it out if you’re interested, link below:
Monthly Archives: December 2015
Tattooed thoughts
I really like tattoos.
To me, they’ve always been an attractiveness multiplier. Sure, you see some here and there that aren’t great, but in general an attractive person is even more attractive if they have some nice tattoos.
I go through phases where I think about getting tattoos myself. There are some ideas that I’ve been kicking around for years, but I’ve never taken that final step to actually commit to getting one. Part of it is all the usual reasons people don’t get tattoos. Part of it is that I’m not really happy with my body and think that tattoos just won’t look that good on me as I am. Part of it is that, even though I have things I like and kind of want, there hasn’t been a ‘perfect’ tattoo idea that has pushed me over the edge.
That may have changed.
On the cover of The Flame’s Burden there is a runic veve design. A veve is a religious symbol used in vodou; each loa has their own unique design that acts as a representation of that spirit during rituals. The religion of the people of the Sundered Land heavily borrows from vodou, and so similarly each of the lesir, the spirits they follow, also has a veve associated with them. The veves of the lesir are a bit simpler than those of the loa, and incorporate a little inspiration from futhark runes into their design. The one on the cover of The Flame’s Burden belongs to Lorajaðr Virdingsson of the Hyrr family of lesir, the patron spirit of the protagonist.
The design is a stylised bonfire, with cinders rising above it, and also doubles as a stylised sun rising over the horizon, below a trail of stars. When worked into a pendant or other object, the shape that is formed is meant to invoke the outline of a warhammer or axe.
I was looking at the cover of the book and it occurred to me that it would make kind of a cool tattoo. So I drew it on my wrist, and turns out I really liked it. The way the trail of cinders/stars peeks out from the cuff of a long-sleeved shirt is kinda nice, too.
It got me thinking that it would be kind of awesome to get a tattoo for every book that I publish. The tattoos would have a lot of meaning to me, personally, and it’s a thing that will be completely unique to me. I’ve been thinking a lot about this for a few weeks now.
The Sundered Land series of books will be easy–they have the runic veves on them that are perfect for this sort of thing. I could continue up my forearm, and maybe add some embellishments or colour to help unify the design into a whole rather than just leaving it as basic linework.
The Post-Apocalyptic Gothic series is a little more difficult. Prometheus’ Daughter doesn’t have an easy visual motif for me to work from. I could use something generic-ish that is in theme for it, like a DNA helix or something, but I’m not hugely keen on generifying my tattoos. My second Post-Apocalyptic Gothic novel, working title The Man from Porton Down, is relatively simple in comparison–the hardware designation from the Porton drone, a series of numbers, maybe done as though it were stencilled on with spray paint. I really like watercolour tattoos, and I’ve got an idea for a small sun with a solar flare arcing off it done in that style, maybe with the flare and corona hugging the other Post-Apocalyptic Gothic tattoos.
I’ll have to ponder some more. A friend recommended that I start a Pinterest board and start saving images for inspiration, so I might do that.
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Filed under Personal life, Tattoos
Know your format
There’s a lot of advice out there for writers. Some of it is fairly obvious, some of it is fairly useless, and some of it is contradictory. I’m not some incredibly successful author with a heap of credits to my name, so I have little grounds to go on when giving advice on writing. However, there is one piece of advice I really wish I’d been given, something that I didn’t read anywhere or hear at a lecture.
It’s incredibly important to understand what format you’re most comfortable working in.
I’ve been writing since I was in primary school. Right from the start, I wanted to write big fantasy epics, enormous doorstopper novels that contained hugely complex plots and beautiful, detailed worlds. I started worked drafts for a few, at various points, but I always ran out of steam or got distracted or my depression was acting up or I stopped for any number of other reasons. It wasn’t until I stepped back a couple of years ago to re-evaluate my writing that I noticed something: every single part-finished novel I’d written, every fantasy, every sci fi, every fan fiction… all petered out at around 45,000 to 50,000 words.
I saw this, and went: ‘I seem to consistently be able to write around that much. Why not make that the goal, then, instead?’
So I did an experiment. Just picked a random concept I had and decided to write it as a 40-50,000 word novella. Three months later I had a full, complete first draft. It was the first time I’d ever really completely anything.
That was not Prometheus’ Daughter. That particular draft is still sitting on my computer, and there it will remain for the foreseeable future. Not that it was bad, exactly, just that it will require quite a bit of work and doesn’t fit into my existing publishing schedule terribly well. I do plan on revisiting it at some point and getting it into proper form, but it served its purpose: it was my proof of concept.
Pretty much almost exactly a year later, Prometheus’ Daughter was published.
I can’t write enormous doorstopper novels. What I can do is short novels/novellas, and serialise them. So that’s what I’m doing. And with two books out now, I think it’s working out quite nicely. So that’s what I’m going to stick with. I know now what I’m comfortable and capable of accomplishing.
So, yeah. It’s really important to understand what format you’re best at. I just wish someone had told me that ten years ago.
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Excerpts are up
I’ve managed to finally upload some excerpts from my two published novellas. These and excerpts from all future published works will be available via the ‘Freebies’ page on this site.
Links here in this post as well, for ease of use!
Given that The Flame’s Burden has only just been released, I’d encourage everyone to take a peek at the excerpt to get an idea of whether you’ll like it or not.
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Filed under Freebies, Published Books, Website news
The Flame’s Burden
The Flame’s Burden was released this month! Just narrowly squeezed in at the end of the year, so I can officially say that my release schedule is one book a year at the moment. It also means that publishing my first book wasn’t a fluke, I guess!
I had placed a lot of unnecessary importance on the idea that I had to finish this one and get it published by the end of the year or I was a horrible incompetent failure of a writer. On an intellectual level, I realise how dumb that is — so what if I didn’t put it out this year? I’ve never really thought I’ll get anywhere pursuing writing seriously, so my release schedule just doesn’t really matter and I should just do things at my leisure. I don’t know, I guess part of me is still hoping that maybe one day I will be able to support myself from writing fiction and if I wasn’t able to maintain a book a year (and they’re small books, not huge doorstoppers!) then I would never get enough of a catalogue under my belt to make a serious go of it.
Next year I’m very seriously considering taking some extended leave without pay from my day job to pretend I’m a full-time author and just write as much as possible. Not 100% sure if I’ll go through with it, as I’ll need to support myself on my savings while doing it and it’ll be a big financial hit, but it’ll accelerate my release schedule by an order of magnitude and makes the slim possibility of me ever getting anywhere with my stories just that little bit bigger. Sigh, big adult decisions suck.
The Flame’s Burden
Ask is a young man, recently initiated into the priesthood that watches over his people, and touched by one of the patrons of fire. When contact is lost with a neighbouring village, Ask’s mentor Igul goes to investigate. Still new to his responsibilities and position, Ask chooses to remain behind to ward their home against the monsters that lurk in the shadows of the frigid taiga.
As time passes and no word comes, Ask is faced with a difficult decision—should he stay to protect the people left in his charge, or follow after Igul and pray that his mentor and their neighbours aren’t already dead? Can he save his people from the growing darkness? Or will his decisions lead only to their destruction?
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Prometheus’ Daughter
Prometheus’ Daughter has been out for over a year and a half, and I’m only just now starting to sort out my website properly… >_> I had planned on doing this much earlier, but best laid plans, etc, etc.
My goal is to put up excerpts from each of my novels as they’re released, some short stories, and some other assorted things. For now, though, here’s a link to Prometheus’ Daughter on Amazon.
Prometheus’ Daughter
In the ruins of Geneva, decaying buildings stand silent witness to the twilight of humanity. Adele, a doctor like her mother before her, uncovers a long abandoned medical laboratory during a scavenging expedition. Believing that her discovery may be the key to mankind’s survival, she eagerly delves into the lab’s secrets.
Her dream of saving humanity quickly turns into an obsession, driving away the people she loves most. When her experiments bear fruit in the form of a genetically engineered clone, Adele finds that her daughter is not at all as she had expected her to be. Will her creation bring hope and life back to the sun-scorched world? Or will her hubris condemn her and everyone around her?
Filed under Published Books
