It’s always a treat when you stumble upon a new facet of the characters you’re writing.
I’ve been with Rime and Jonas for a while now, through Spell/Sword and in
Phil Noto
their far, dark future of Lodestar. As every writer must, I know a lot about them. More than I’ll ever subject the reader to, more that would remotely be germane to the narrative. But still I can be surprised, and find out something brand new about my protagonists in the process of writing.
I’ve been working on Riddle Box, the second book, and it’s a murder mystery. It’s completely different from Spell/Sword structurally, and purposefully puts the kids in a radically different situation than the first book.
Today, I discovered that Rime is a huge nerd for mystery stories.
I mean, me too — but Rime is a pretty sour sort, and can be a moody jerk. It is positively delightful to watch her get jazzed up about solving the mystery of The Riddle Box.
What’s next? Am I going to find out Jonas is an opera geek?
I wrote this poem years ago, trying to explain and capture a certain feeling. An intense anxiety coupled with a desire to interact, to read, to flip between channels, web pages, build a model, read a book, watch a movie – flipping between different apps on my phone over and over. Just punching wires into sockets trying to suck up enough juice to lay quiet, to lay still.
It’s clearly rooted in anxiety, mis-directed psychic energy. It can be turned to
Artist Unknown
nothing productive, nothing useful, nothing creative. Just more and more black wires leading to empty pages , burning through the html of the universe.
I’ve been feeling it a lot lately.
I wouldn’t call it a hell, but it’s definitely one of the tunnels that lead there.
Enough people have finished the book to start asking me some pointed questions about it.
Questions like:
1. Wait, what?
2. Is it RHYME or REE-MAY?
3. What’s all this about Jonas being a murderer? Say it ain’t so!
4. You do realize that the ogre’s name changes in Chapter One?
Artist – Bruno Vergauwen
5. Wait, you killed them? Why are you so horrible?
To which I respond:
1. Dude, I know, right?
2. It’s RHYME, like ‘Rime of the Ancient Mariner’.
3. Not telling. Yet. Keep buying books, suckers.
4. [hides in a barrel]
5. Dude, I know, right?
And a couple of people have also asked “So, Jonas keeps mentioning his Master, the knight he served. What’s his Master’s name?”
Here’s the fun part. I have no idea.
Names are very, very important. The best ones appear, fully formed in the savannah of my mind — or I fall upon them like wild beasts in the tall grass.
And I haven’t caught his Master’s name yet.
I know the shape of their story, the gleam in the old man’s eye — but not his name, not yet.
Isn’t this great? It’s like Spell/Sword is spoiler-proof.
I want the leather of my sword-grip to creak as my knuckles go white. I want the lightning to crackle between my fingertips like Egg Shen. I want the Flux Capacitor to ignite as I travel through time.
I want the power, I want the fairy tale.
I want to run down the secret hallway, and slam my rainbow colored key into the console of the Black Lion. I want to save the universe with Rock and Roll, my electric guitar made of steel and griffon-talon. I want to wake up in the middle of the night to the sound of Holmes and Watson clattering by in a horse-drawn carriage.
I want the legend, I want the world of doors.
I want the Master Sword dreaming in the glade, and Excalibur in the Lady’s hand, and Cloud picking up Zach’s sword — his mind all wind and shadow.
I want all the promises that the world is not as it seems. I want Mulder and Scully in a Ford Taurus arguing with the night. I want all the possibilities, the promise of wonder. I want Seven Dragonballs, even if I never get to make a wish.
I want the doors. The endless, endless doors.
I want this world to be not as it is. Or, at the very least, I want the walls of this world to get a little thinner. Thin enough to hear the music from the Universe One Over.
I want to tell my story and I want my mom to get better and I want there to be enough money and I want Emerson back. I want my Beloved to never know pain or doubt, and I want my friends to never know want or despair.
I want to break the rules. I want to undo and shine and defeat and cheat death, cheat life, mashing in the codes on my controller and rolling back the cruel grip of time.
I want to snatch the lost from death’s grip.
I want to not be afraid. Of the Unmaker and its thousand, thousand shadows.
I want there to be more magic in this world, because there is so little — just a tiny, tiny drop.
Such a little thing to shine in the darkness. The secret flame we clutch in weary hands through the wind and rain.
I want the thousand heroes, I want the doors open wide.
I’m considering entering a short story into the Sword&Laser Anthology, and I’ve been throwing the handful I’m considering up on my FB page for feedback.
Here’s a master post of all the ones in contention. The theme of the anthology is ‘unusual or unlikely’ stories within the science fiction or fantasy genre. Thoughts on these? Do you think I can whip one of these into shape, or should I start from scratch?
The Book of Teon – A demi-god records his final words and remembers an age of wonder.
Knight of the Scroll – A follow up to ‘Book of Teon’ a contemporary scholar studies the recording from the previous tale.
[I’m also considering combining these two into one story.]
You Can Call Me Isaac – 80’s period psychic soldiers battle for supremacy amidst the backdrop of Aaron Sorkin’s A Few Good Men. [yes, really.]
Star Prophet – My submission for ‘The New Yorker.’ Purposefully strange.
Oh nothing. Just my first official notes for The Riddle Box. I still need to decide on a lot of character names [probably won’t until I get into the first draft] and the timeline is wafer-thin — but here is the proto-skeletal structure of my second book.
So, for those of you finishing Spell/Sword and wondering where The Riddle Box is…whelp, this is what I have so far. And a lot of crazy ideas.
Ahhh…this is much more exciting than begging for reviews.
I feel this tremendous psychic weight taken off my shoulders. It’s done, for better and worse. This gigantic project that has consumed me for two years — and the feeling of having a ton of my system resources free up is electric.
But then there’s the new anxieties. People are reading it. Not many yet, but PEOPLE ARE READING IT. And I
The Earth-Pig Born
need to figure out how to get more people to read it, need to market, promote, shill, all of that. Got to learn to stop checking my Amazon sales rankings, it’s like a new ant-bite, I just can’t stop scratching it.
Sprinkle a crazy busy work week plus final rehearsals for August:Osage County on top and I’m feeling more than a little rickety.
But I’m excited to get back to writing. I’m going to lay out my rough writing schedule for The Riddle Box next week, and hopefully get started before the end of the month. After the past year of editing, the thought of just throwing out some crazy ideas and poor grammar for Book Two is intoxicating. I’ve already got the first scene rattling around in my head, several new characters, the overall arc of the story. It’s a murder mystery, y’all!
You’ll notice me continuing to flounder and poke around trying to promote Spell/Sword — but I’m hoping that it can start running in the background over the next few weeks to months, so I can focus more on The Riddle Box.
I’m also thinking about putting together a big post on self-publishing in general, my experiences with CreateSpace and KDP — any interest?
The book is out. Time to lean back and watch my inevitable rise to literary, internet and financial domination.
Picture of my Excitement Level, despite the Tawdry Real-World pitfalls of Self-Publishing
That’s how it works, right?
Right?
Only if this was a Disney Channel movie, unfortunately. And it if was I would hope that my animated sidekick was a talking Roomba.
After two years of work, stress, and toil — I’ve taken the first step. But only the first step. And now the long, grueling march to More Than a Blip. Shuck and jive, self-promote, sing and dance and drop my pants — whatever it takes, as long as it takes. The key is to not get frustrated or discouraged — ’cause it’s going to be SLOW.
And now for some Thankery.
The Alpha Readers, the Beta Readers, the people who dealt with my endless questions and ruminations as I floundered around.
Margaret Poplin, my designer, for her calm, efficient management of my insanity and quick, thorough, excellent work on the layout and design of the print cover.
My beloved for not strangling me during this entire process.
The Crew of the Lodestar for letting my try out lots of stupid stories and characters on them.
Joe Peacock for giving me the push at the right moment.
And you — whoever you are, reading all the way to the end. I’m going to need your help the most from here on out.
Spell/Sword is in final review with CreateSpace and Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing to be available in print and e-book. Just a few more days until I can announce the official release date.
It’s a weird sensation. I’ve been dreaming and working towards this day for two years, and now that I’ve turned the corner I just feel a vague unease.
Out of the frying pan into the fire. I’ve made it. Now I’ve got to push it.
spell-sword.com 