A new Book of the Week post! I’ve been looking forward to talking about this specific book for a while now, though I had to postpone it for various reasons (a very busy business trip to London and then nearly dying while traveling to Glasgow), but the result is that I have more context to talk about it, since I’ve read further into the series. Today, we’re going to take a look at The Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe, the first installment in his acclaimed Book of the New Sun. Very slight spoilers after the jump.
I’m alive…somehow
StandardRemember when I was super excited to take the train north from London to Glasgow, and I was going to do a bunch of revisions and work on Of Genesis and write a new Book of the Week post?
Yeah, Storm Desmond had different plans.
I have never had a more insane day of travel in my life. I got to be nice and comfy in first class on the train for all of an hour before landslides and severe flooding forced the train to stop, all the passengers were shuffled off, and we were ferried aboard buses to take us the rest of the way north to Glasgow. The bus I was on broke down about 45 minutes later, because of course, and I ended up in a taxi with five Scottish women, being driven by a lunatic who thought it was great fun to go 85 mph and hydroplane all over the highway in the midst of a minor hurricane.
Did I mention that my seatbelt was broken? Because my seatbelt was broken. I legitimately thought I was going to die last Saturday, as this taxi skidded from lane to lane and six people yelled at the driver to slow the eff down.
Somehow, somehow, we made it to Glasgow in one piece, after seeing no fewer than six overturned vehicles on that highway.
I’m back in Colorado now after a less-eventful-but-still-hectic-at-times weekend, and it feels great to be home. Maybe now I’ll be able to get back into my routine of posting here.
Oh, and did I mention that I had the manuscript of All Flames Cast requested by an agent in NY? Because that happened. Full steam ahead on revisions!
Checking in: London Edition
StandardPhew. I survived. As I write this, I’m sitting in a hotel room in London, having just worked communications and speaker support for the big HPE Discover event this week. Today is Day 9 of the trip, and the event ended yesterday…which means I finally have some free time to get caught up on things.
First off, yeah, I know I haven’t posted at all, but quite honestly it’s been a bunch of 12-16 hour days for the past week, and there’s simply no energy left after that. I’ll be doing a more involved Book of the Week post for all of you, to go up tomorrow, as a way to make up for it.
Secondly, as noted above, I’m in London. It’s gorgeous here, and the entire time I’ve been itching to get writing. Open on my screen right now is Scrivener, with a freshly-minted file titled Of Genesis. This thing is in motion. Outlining is underway, checkpoints are being set, and I’ll probably start some preliminary work on the prologue tomorrow. I’m positively giddy at the idea.
Which brings me to tomorrow. I’ll be on a train through the British countryside, heading up to Glasgow to meet a friend (a fellow writer and Wheel of Time fan). Because of that, I doubt I’ll have much time for posting until I’m back in the States next week. The Book of the Week will go up, somehow, even if I have to use Starbucks free wifi or something, but that’s going to be the only post here for a while.
Thanks for bearing with me.
Writing Update: When Things Demand Attention
StandardSo it’s been barely a month since my last State of Writing update, where I talked about my plans for the coming year and the beginning of work on Magisterium. I was very excited (still am) to get started on that book, since it was one of my favorite ideas.
However, it’s been quickly dawning on me that Magisterium needs to take a back seat for now. I did a bunch of worldbuilding this fall, and started writing the first draft. As of right now, Magisterium sits at just over 6000 words—and the spark just isn’t there. I’m going to be revisiting this book in the future, but it’s clear that I need to do some more work on this outline and get things together better.
Where that spark is is back with Chronicle of the Sons. I’m underway on revisions for All Flames Cast, which remains top priority, but my thoughts have been increasingly bent toward the sequels. It has become obvious to me that I need to go with what feels right, and at this time that means Book 2, Of Genesis. Even just considering writing this book has me excited, which is how it should be. I just can’t get away from these characters and this world. The tale must go on.
Cup of Dcaf: Why I Write
StandardWith November being National Novel Writing Month, I’ve seen a proliferation of posts about writing habits, motivations, help and tips, and, most of all, identity as a writer. NaNo is a big deal in the writing world, especially the amateur section of it (let’s be honest here: the pros were already writing during November). NaNo is the time for people who “always wanted to write a book” to find the motivation and acceptance in the community and sit down at a keyboard or put pen to paper. There’s a general air of beginnings with NaNoWriMo.
For me, though, NaNo is something I’ve struggled with. It feels very much like it’s targeting a different demographic of writer than I fall into. NaNo, for all of its freedoms and encouragement and message, feels very restricting to me. I plan things out way in advance, and even when I don’t or can’t stick to those ambitions, I still have an order of things. NaNo seems like a wrench in the gears when it comes to that.
Because of all this, I’ve been giving a fair amount of thought to my situation and identity as a writer. Continue reading
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