Here’s the latest picture of Grumble. Like I said, he takes his role as guardian very very very seriously… Sometimes a little too seriously because it usually ends up with Petunia being sat on (for her own safety of course). If he could lock Petunia in a chest and sit on it I’m sure he’d attempt it if it would not cause the obvious outcry from everyone else…
These guys were quite fun to draw. They’re only appear in two paragraphs of chapter seventeen in the first book of the Standingground Chronicles – The House of Petunia, but creating them was enormous fun. These are dahlias which the hamadryads have persuaded to wear fake joke vampire fangs and pretend to be dangerous. As you can see, they’re throwing themselves into the part with enthusiasm and starting to enjoy themselves WAY too much.
They sulked when Petunia took their fangs away…
May I introduce another character in the Standingground Chronicles. Petunia Standingground has two aunts that are her legal guardians and also make her life miserable. They are called Aunt Dresden and Aunt Mopsy.
This is Aunt Dresden.
Aunt Dresden is known in polite society as ‘a formidable woman’. She is know in less polite society as ‘an interfering harpy’. When she was little Petunia once saw a book entitled “She Who Must Be Obeyed”. She thought it was about Aunt Dresden.
Again, its been a while…
I have been tired… very tired… The kind of tired where you can’t even get out of your own way and the thought of trying to use your brain, let alone trying to be creative is… well…
Ugh.
You know the feeling.
Never the less strange unexpected things grow in these kinds of places and the inspiration arose to try out a skill that I thought had been left behind at high school.
I decided to start illustrating.
I took art to 7th Form level in high school (thats either 12th Grade or Year 13 in current speak, I think) and when I graduated it seemed to get packed in a suitcase under the bed and never used again. Until lately…
I got out the metaphorical suitcase, dusted off my skills and had a go at drawing some of the characters in The Standingground Chronicles. I started off with Grumble which may or may not have been a good idea. Grumble is a griffin which meant I had to learn to draw an eagle head… then a lion body… then wings… Then assemble them all together like some outlandish exercise in drawing lego. Then I hit upon the idea of posting them here. It’ll give you some idea of what my brain has come up with. They may never get into my published work but this is a special treat for my potential fans. Just follow the link or click on the page ‘Character Art’.
And so I reveal my first character: Ta Dah
Grumble von Humboltshire, Knight of the Second Order of the Talon Gard, is the guardian of the Standingground family. He takes his position seriously. Perhaps a little too seriously because of traumatic past experiences. He gets rather paranoid about Petunia’s safety which results in the unfortunate habit of him shoving Petunia under his wing and sitting on her whenever he gets in a panic. Still, he is a fearsome guardian. He first appears in Book 1 – the House of Petunia, and will take quite an important role in book 4 of the Standingground Chronicles – The House of Scathland.
More character art will be forthcoming soon. (When I get ’em finished and figure out how to work this benighted sketch program I’ve downloaded…)
Well I’m back. Still querying The House of Petunia. Currently editing The House of Motokazu.
I have successfully added in pixies. They are suitably belligerent.
But today the blog is not about writing. Today is about what I’m reading because what you read influences how you write. Lately I’ve been visiting a very old friend, namely David Eddings.
Well he’s not strictly a friend, but I feel like I’ve known his stories for most of my life. He’s now deceased but for those of you unfamiliar with his work David Eddings is best known for his two epic fantasy sagas The Belgariad, and the follow on, The Mallorean. I keep waiting for these to be turned into a movie, or a TV Series. Waaaaaay better than Game of Thones in my opinion. More humour. Less nudity and ridiculous violence. Humans more likable. A series where being a hero and not a douch-bag actually pays off.
At the moment I’m re-reading through Edding’s entire Belgariad/Mallorean epic saga with a bit of Belgarath the Sorcerer and Pologara the Sorceress on the side. Thankfully I haven’t succumbed to the ‘I loved this when I was a kid but now I’m an adult I can see just how utterly terrible it is’. ‘Jana of the Jungle’ did that to me. ‘G-Force: Defenders of Space’ did that to me. David Eddings has not. Thank you David! The Belgariad has a clear bill of ‘I still really enjoy this’.
So, for the uninitiated, the world of the Belgariad is your standard medieval universe which seems to remain perpetually medieval in spite of having over seven thousand years to develop historically.
Seems odd, but never mind.
It’s divided into different nations which all share distinctive characteristics. Chereks resemble vikings, Sendarians are practical farm folk, Tolnedrans are kind of Roman and like money etc. Someone has suggested that this makes everything a bit flat and 2D. All I can say is that it never bothered me… The Angaraks are the baddies (divided into Nadraks, Thulls and Murgos) and yes, okay, giving them asian characteristics could be interpreted as racist, but I think the Mallorean softens that somewhat. Your nation would be a nasty one as well if it suffered for millenia under a horrible Grolim priesthood.
Human sacrifice, people. Nuff sed.
The story itself revolves around Garion, an orphan farm boy who is raised in obscurity by his mysterious Aunt Pol in remote Sendaria. He has no idea who he really is or his role in fulfilling ancient prophecy.
Cue ‘coming of age story’ peppered with magic, baddies, prophecy, grumpy sorcerers, spoiled princesses, uppity and overly superior sorceresses, barbarians, horse lords, spies, faithful blacksmiths, brainless knights, a ridiculously powerful and slightly silly orb and a rather smug talking Prophecy and any number of fantasy tropes you care to throw in and you have a rollicking good tale well told which is also FUNNY. The scene in Guardians of the West when the pregnant Ce’Nedra goes into labour and Garion goes into panic still makes me laugh. Polgara’s threat to feed everyone boiled hay for a week if anyone dared call her ‘Polly’ I shamelessly stole and directed towards Grumble, my griffin character.
Its interesting reading this from my new writer’s perspective. David Eddings isn’t completely perfect. Firstly the Mallorean is a salutory lesson in ‘crutch words’. Crutch words are words or phrases that a writer unconsciously falls back on continually. For instance one author had her characters ‘cross their arms over their chest’ so frequently I wanted to scream. You have to watch for them because they ruin good writing. David Eddings, not so much in the Belgariad and definitely in The Mallorean, has all his characters saying ‘sort of’ with alarming regularity. It irritated me more than Silk’s constant needling or Ce’Nedra’s histrionics. ‘Really’ came in a close second.
Yes David, it really did.
Secondly Eddings tends to get bogged down in detail when he gets to battles and sieges. They go on for pages and pages and pages. I skipped most of the battle of Thull Mardu in Enchanters End Game and most of the seige of Rheon in Guardians of the West. Its the reason I gave up on is later series The Elder Gods. All he DID was describe battles and sieges.
Why me?
I’ve now got as far as The Sorceress of Darshiva in the Mallorean so my David Eddings journey is nearly at an end. I may be inspired to try The Elenium, I may go on to something different. Who knows?
It ain’t easy being the chosen one…
I love writing but…
I especially love writing silly things but…
My latest absurdity is describing pixie culture in The House of Motokazu. Pixies, among other things, are horribly easy to offend. They have a philosophical objections to socks and are deeply suspicious of bananas.
This sort of ridiculous can keep me happily writing for weeks but lately I’ve found an increasingly frustrating tendency to sit at my computer and blow raspberries at it.
You see, its winter here in the Southern Hemisphere. August marks the final month before Spring. Its been rainy, in biblical proportions, cold and drear. I’m desperately sick of it. I’m tired and weary and trying to write anything seems like trying to slog through knee deep mud. I know I’m not alone. Many of my writers guild colleagues are suffering the same gloom.
Trying to produce anything with my usual verve seems like trying to grow bananas in August (not that you can actually grow bananas in New Zealand, I’m just trying to make the banana metaphor stretch). I’m even starting to hate the work I’ve actually finished. When you get to that stage you know its time to back away from the computer before you delete the work of years in a fit of pique.
In the words of Monty Python, “and now for something completely different”.
Writing is both equal parts inspiration and discipline, but you have to acknowledge when it’s time to stop forcing the issue and take a writing sabbatical for a month or so. So to that end I’m putting the lot in the metaphorical drawer and leaving it. I’m querying at the moment, which is a process of ‘hurry up and wait’. So while I’m waiting to hear back (if at all) I’ve decided to fuel my imagination with some self directed study.
There are a couple of books that have sat in my ‘to be read’ pile, for a while. Now is the time to dust them off. Just for the record, these are non-fiction study books which require concentration, not novels.
So, here’s the lineup… this should keep me out of trouble for a while…
Well maybe just one novel …
The last one is because I’m feeling very metaphorical about winter at the moment and this charming little story by Tove Jansson seems just the ticket.
I am also knitting a poncho out of an old, stupidly long, scarf.
Hopefully I will be back to my silly best soon. In the meantime The House of Petunia is still being queried… fingers crossed…
So Pitch Wars is about over. Didn’t get chosen so I’m now facing the daunting task of querying agents, hoping that one, just one of them will take on The House of Petunia. I fired off my first one a few days ago and was quite surprised at the butterfly, slightly sick feeling I had when I finally pressed the ‘send’ button.
I’ve read a few stories about some people’s journey to becoming a published author. They vary and they bear remarkable resemblance to birth stories. I have never been through the process of giving birth but most of my friends have. I have one friend who was so traumatised by her terrible birth experience, she suffered PTSD and needed counselling. Another friend’s baby literally popped out in 15mins, giving her just enough time to get into the bathtub and get hubby to ‘catch’.
I think querying agents might just amount to the same thing. Some authors go through an agonising process of endless rejection, revision and disappointment before they land that contract. Some are contracted on the spot. I don’t know where my experience is going to fall, but I’ll keep you posted. But one thing I will keep in mind.
One of the heartbreaking things I read was an author who had an agent who required her to make huge amounts of changes to her manuscript. She made them and the agent still chose not to pick up the manuscript!
Thats just evil.
I will continue to follow Diana Wynne Jones’ advice and write the kind of story I enjoy reading. Any revision I do to correct story weaknesses will be to satisfy myself, not anyone else.
As in relationships, as in writing – never change yourself to suit another person’s preferences.
Let the querying begin!
Today’s happy discovery is Breaking Cat News by Georgia Dunn. Its a cartoon about cats and when I discovered it I binge-read the archives and GOT NO WRITING DONE!!!
Breaking Cat News follows the news career of (from the left) Elvis (grumpy siamese reporter), Lupin (manic anchorman) and Puck (sweet and sensitive cat in the field). They cover the news that is pertinent to cats like Kibble Spill In the Kitchen, Its Fuzzy Blanket Season, There is a Strange Cat in the Yard and Pot Plants: Why Do You Do This To Yourself Woman. I love it because it’s quirky, funny and engages in brilliant story telling. The water colour is fantastic as well.
The latest story line about a trip to the vet is hilarious. Click and check it out.
Georgia, if you ever read this humble blog, please be my illustrator!!
I wonder if every writer suffers from what I now call ‘get a hair cut and get a real job’ moments? Those moments of panic when you’re driving, in the supermarket or at your day job, when you think about how you’ve devoted you life to trying to make this writing thing work and you think:
“What on earth am I doing?!!! I should be working in an office somewhere earning actual money!”
For some reason this always seems to happen to me on a Friday…
Except when it happens on a Tuesday…
No, I don’t know why…
This is where I deeply appreciate my fellow artists and the people who believe in me who slap me upside the head whenever I get like that. The people who threaten to mug me in a dark alley if I ever give up writing.
You guys are worth your weight in gold.
Thanks.
So I’ve been rabbiting on about Pitch Wars for the last few weeks. Its a writing contest of sorts. The idea is to submit the first chapter of your book and your query letter to a selection of volunteer mentors. Each mentor is a published author in their own right. If they chose you then you’ll spend the next couple of months getting your novel shined up ready for the agent round. That’s where both you and your mentor pitch to a group of agents with the hopes of getting that awesome contract.
I have entered The House of Petunia.
For the experience if nothing else. You get to interact with a lot of writers.
For me it’s now a waiting game…
sillylicious 