Ky Vatta

I've been reading one of my favourite author's recently, Elizabeth Moon, because I finally found Books 2 through 5 of her Vatta's War series. As with Moon's other series (Paksennarion, fantasy and Serrano Legacy, sci-fi), I was waiting for every chance to keep reading. And when one book was finished I would quickly pick up the next one and devour it.

It makes me wonder why I love her writing so much. It is quick writing, with just enough description to keep the imagination flowing. Moon actually flaunts the old rule of 'show don't tell' and spends a good portion of her books telling the story! With worlds as vast and complicated as a future earth that has expanded into space, it would be painful to read slow, dreamy descriptive passages. Instead, Moon gets on with it. And the dialogue carries most of the important information.

Below is Kylara Vatta, star of the Vatta's War series. What a fantastic name, too! "Ky" for short is just lovely. It is strong, yet feminine, a perfect match for this deeply moral, gifted leader with a surprising knack for killing and space warfare.

I just love the words Moon chooses for her characters and places. They sounds just right, yet they seem believable and match with the rest of the series. The male lead Rafe (short for Rafael) reminds me of Rhett from Gone With The Wind, such a worldly-wise man yet with a patient, loving heart. And say the word "Cascadia" out loud. Doesn't it just roll off the tongue? It sounds so neat when I say it in my head. This is the name of one of the main planets featured in the series. But the names aren't the reason I loved reading the books.
Here are some unique qualities about Vatta's War:

• Female lead character commanding a space force


• Other characters of all different types, creating interesting clashes and differing points of view at times


• Human beings only (no aliens)


• Technology advancements are most notable in the fields of communications (with realistic hurdles from the limitations of light-speed signalling) and modding for the human body (brain implants, sensory nodes, growing limbs etc.)


• Unseen enemy consistent with modern warfare - the main characters have little or no direct interaction with the bad guys (they're in space ships so they never come into personal contact with the pirate leader)


• No mention of evolution (it just isn't needed)


• Very low-key references to religion (all new and made up from what I can tell)


• Slight aspect of romance

The storyline itself, and especially finding out what Kylara is going to do next, is what keeps me reading. Top that with the slightest aspect of romance and you have a page-turner. What I would really like to see is something similar to the above, but with a strong love story to it. Maybe this is something for me to consider when I'm finished writing the Astor Chronicles. A sci-f love story.
So much to do. So much to look forward to.

Controlling Your Email Inbox

Do you want to:

• Become more productive by freeing up some time?
• Reduce your frustration and/or stress?
• Keep up with deadlines better by not having a too-hard basket in your inbox?
• Present a more professional image by not ignoring important emails?
• Reduce the size of your inbox easily and efficiently?

I have countless email addresses five of which I check regularly. At home I get 10-20 emails per day, which is fairly manageable, but it's enough to require a system. At work (Greenslade Creations) I get about 50-100 per day (more if I am sending more).

The important thing for you, when you're considering whether to use this system (or something similar) is to realise that "Do it now" is a timesaver when it comes to email and "Do it later" is a time-waster. Don't misunderstand me - I don't mean you have to action every email and every task it relates to as soon as you get it. What I mean is you need to DO SOMETHING with it as soon as you've read it. If you aren't going to action it right away, flag it, mark it unread or MOVE it to a folder called "To Do". This one critical piece of advice keeps you from having to re-read emails as more and more come in and ones you've put off move toward the end.

Why fantasy "adventure"?

The sub-genres of fantasy are many and varied. Some years ago I started thinking of my novel Talon as a fantasy-adventure novel, without really doing any research into it. To me, the spirit of adventure is inherant in the plot, the way it moves, the action (especially the fight scenes) and the epic nature of the overarching story.

Some sub-genres of fantasy include:

• historical fantasy
• comic fantasy
• contemporary fantasy
• dark fantasy
• fairytale fantasy
• heroic fantasy
• high fantasy
• superhero fantasy
• sword and sorcery

And more! (See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fantasy_subgenres)

Of these, Talon most fits in with high fantasy because of the epic struggle between good and evil forces in the world of Chryne. High fantasy is different to sword and sorcery (which can also have epic conflict between opposing forces) mainly because of its moral tone and world-affecting plot. The moral aspects in Talon are obvious to most of my draft readers and editors, however I have tried to make it somewhat open to interpretation.

Why use the term "adventure" at all? Perhaps I should just call it 'high fantasy'. What does the word "adventure" add? And isn't it true that all fantasy, science fiction and horror novels contain an adventure of some kind? Many action novels/movies do as well. How do we define this? This is something for me to think about, and I welcome your feedback by email.

The history of the genre of fantasy is fascinating and the more I study it the more I realise I have read only a fraction of what the genre has to offer. If you're interested in fantasy I highly recommend "Fantasy of the 20th Century: An Illustrated History" by Randy Broecker. If you want to buy it, please click the link in my Amazon panel to the right. I'll close this post with a quote from the book:

"The earliest roots of fantasy literature can be found in the epic poem Gilgamesh circa 2000 BC and in other classical works such as Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid. These, along with the mythologies of the Greeks, Romans, Celts, and Germanic peoples all with their various deities, form the basis of heroic fantasy. It is quite possibly the oldest theme in literature."

With a genre that accesses the most ancient themes and speaks to the deepest moral issues in every person's life, fantasy is an escape for just about anyone. But that's a topic for another blog.

Rejection

Rejection is a concept writers must get well acquainted with. When you pour so much of yourself and so much time and energy into a piece of writing, it can be devastating to be told it just isn't good enough. Over all the years I've been part of writing groups (all of my adult life and then some!) this one lesson has been commonly taught. But it's important to remember that rejection from one publisher or agent doesn't mean your work is rubbish. It may mean that, but what it probably means is "your work isn't right for me at this time".

As with the music industry and performing arts, it takes both talent and tenacity to make it big as an author. Naturally there needs to be a filtering process between backyard-Benny and the big-screen (or in my case the big press) or else production and publishing houses would not be perceived as producers of high quality material. This would drastically affect sales. Furthermore, at any one time there are far more actors, singers, writers (etc.) than there are funds and places/projects to produce their work and build their careers.

Today I received another rejection letter. This is from one of the major literary agents in Australia, which will remain un-named. The agent in question turned around my submission in an impressive amount of time (just over one month). Her cover letter suggested that she did read my synopsis and at least part of the first chapter. Her reason for rejecting Talon was because it didn't excite her. Understandably one's personal taste has to come into the equation and an agent would hardly be able to do their job properly if they didn't first enjoy and love the work of their authors.

So where does this leave me? First of all, I was hardly expecting anything other than a rejection, so it hasn't been much of a blow. And secondly, I do think my novel is exciting and I am committed to seeing it published when it is ready. There is always going to be that tiny voice in the back of my mind saying nasty things like, "it will never be ready" or "it's not good enough" but all I can do is keep on improving it and continue learning.

For now, I have my work cut out for me. I am working through a series of edits done by Stephen Thompson (www.essteemedia.com) which are absolutely excellent. I highly recommend Stephen's services over at esstee media.

Editing is something I enjoy, but it is time consuming and uses a different kind of creativity to writing. But that's a topic for another blog.

Dark Space By Marianne de Pierres

Marianne’s writing is not for the faint-hearted. She tells it like it is, even if it happens to be a futuristic world she’s invented. The substance of her worlds is palpable, with places you can see, hear and smell in your mind. Her characters strut across the pages, cantankerous, callous and compassionate all in one chapter. The language Marianne uses is utterly ingrained in the world and she utilizes the device of contradiction to produce intriguing oxymorons. Marianne is a unique and powerful voice in science-fiction, a credit to the writers of her country.

Dark Space is an ominous space opera set primarily on the mining world of Araldis where the main character, Baronessa Mira Fedor was raised. After fleeing back to her home planet to avoid a gene-transfer that would rob her of a rare talent for flying biozoons (organic pilot ships), Mira is among the survivors of a system-wide invasion by body-fluid-sucking aliens.

The setting in Dark Space consists of a number of planets in the Orion system inhabited primarily by humans and humanoids (called “humanesques”). Earth is never mentioned, but there are obvious influences such as the pseudo-Italian language and certain customs indicative of various Earth cultures. The Aristo women, for example, wear concealing “fellalas” which seem like the Islamic abaya overgarment. An author note at the beginning reads “I have taken extreme liberties with the Italian language. Please do not look for grammatical accuracy — you will not find it. This is the far, far future!”

The foreign/made-up words used throughout Dark Space are in keeping with the setting, but make it difficult to understand what is going on at times. There are techno-babble words like “mag-beam”, “res-shift”, “moud”, “preserv-field” and “catoplasma” ; and pseudo-Italian words like “studium”, “nobile”, “cavaliere”, “ragazza”, “speranza”, “sorella” and “bambini”. Even halfway through the novel there are new words appearing in sentences with no explanation of their meaning. Marianne shows instead of telling the reader what is going on, to enhance immersion. When context doesn’t make it obvious what certain words mean, it is best just to keep reading. Eventually the reader has a general idea of what the words mean without being explicitly told. This is artful storytelling, but can be frustrating at times.

Another artful storytelling technique is the use of oxymorons. On page 253, for example, intergalactic vagabond Jo-Jo rasterovich is forced to take a philosophy course to remain in a good spying position in Scolar space. Marianne writes from his point of view, “The agony and ecstasy of it all went on for several weeks...” an oxymoron that fits nicely with the sadomasochistic character of Jo-Jo.

Many of the characters in Dark Space are sexually deranged in one way or another. There’s Trin, the son of the Principe (ruler of the aristocrats in their part of space), who has problems performing without the aid of “bravura” until he meets a ginko (alien) with mottled skin-folds and gills. Then there’s Tekton, a character set apart from most of the others, but closely tied to the events that unfold on Araldis. Intelligent and ambitious, Tekton engages in sex with various beings throughout his travels, mostly to curry favour. And Jo-Jo Rasterovich, who has nightmares about the wobbling thighs of one sexual encounter, enjoys being walked on by an alien with spines in her feet...

With her sexuality unmentioned for most of the novel, Mira stands apart as the most appealing of the four main characters. Honest, fair-minded and hard-working (especially for an aristo), Mira charts the turbulent territory of Dark Space, giving the reader a voice to anticipate rather than despise. Marianne de Pierres pulls no punches—the selfishness of some characters extends to unnecessary and brutal killings that shock Mira as much as the reader. But in this climate of dark motives and vicious acts of violence, Mira is revealed as a diamond in the rough. The four characters trade turns in the novel until the final chapter, which has seen the darkness of Mira’s world turn to chaos...

Chaos Space is the name of the second book in the series. I look forward to reading it. But that’s a topic for another blog.

To buy Dark Space or read articles about writing by Marianne de Pierres, visit her website:

www.mariannedepierres.com

Wrath of the Lich King

For those of you who don't keep up with the gaming scene, a phenomenon called 'Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games' has gained in popularity over the last few years. There are dozens of MMORPGs out there, but none quite so popular as Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft (WoW). Set in the high-fantasy world of Azeroth, WoW is a jaw-dropping display of creativity and game design genius.

More than 11 million people around the world pay a fee (of around AU$20/month) to play World of Warcraft (more info. on Wikipedia here). And on November 13, 2008 the team over at Blizzard released the second expansion for the game - Wrath of the Lich King. Like most roleplaying-games, players level up and are able to 'gear' their characters with bigger, brighter and better armour and weapons. The entire game is quest and reward based, meaning that you walk around in this amazing world talking with npcs (non-player characters) and receiving quests to achieve certain objectives. When you return having completed the quest you are rewarded with gold, items, reputation points etc.

The original WoW, released November 2004, allowed players to go from level 1 to 60 at which point there was 'end game' content that only level 60 players were powerful enough to do well in. The first expansion The Burning Crusade was released in January 2007 and enabled players to reach for new heights with level 70. Along with a totally new continent to explore and the ability to fly around, it also introduced greater reputation-based rewards. One of the top rep rewards was getting a Netherdrake mount, a player's very own dragon to fly around the world on (called a 'flying mount'), pictured below.

Wrath of the Lich King allows players to level to 80 and it has again raised the bar on what MMORPGs can do. The world is bigger and more complicated than previously. Factions, races and species war both within and without their own groups. In WotLK the old saying 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend' isn't always true. One major improvement in this expansion is the dynamic terrain. Without knowing much about the mechanics behind this or whatever design processes were involved, I can simply say that in-game the terrain is mind-blowing.

There are passes along the edges of cliffs, mountains that rear into the heavens, yet a persistent wanderer can find a way to cross. There are staggering heights from which to fall (if you have a fear of heights beware Howling Fjord!).

There are a lot of people I talk to who say they would love to play World of Warcraft, but they know that it will hook them and addict them so much that they won't want to keep doing everday things they have to do like go to work! Blizzard itself seems aware of this phenomenon when on load-screens it says things like:

"Bring your friends to World of Warcraft, but don't forget to adventure outside Azeroth with them too!"

And

"Take all things in moderation, even World of Warcraft"!

But that's a topic for another blog.

Publisher's Style Guides

I once worked in a medium-sized publishing and speaking organisation where I was handed the task of overseeing the style guide when its former overseer left. This organisation was one that took its duty to provide correct and consistent copy very seriously, even though it wasn't a university nor a member of the media. While I was there I learned about some of the history for this organisation's style guide, the reasoning behind many of the rules, and the point at which the rules could be bent or broken.

To those who have never written or edited much, the subtle nuances between one way of formatting something and another go largely un-noticed. And, to the educationally-challenged, grammar and punctuation are among the words you were supposed to learn in English, but didn't really pay much attention to. But to those of us who have worked with style guides and those who profess to love the craft of writing (and/or editing), a style guide is a refuge.

A style guide is a place to turn when you're not familiar with an organisation's way of doing a particular kind of thing with text. One that is well put together will actually save time, not create work, for its users. To do this well and 'properly' takes time, and the best style guides are ones that are continually analysed and updated to keep pace with the changing nature of communication, formatting and language.

The history of a style guide will usually be based on one or another of the existing style manuals that are out there. For example:

• The Associated Press Style Book
  http://www.apstylebook.com/
• The Oxford Guide to Style and The Oxford Dictionary for Writers and Editors
  http://www.ritter.org.uk/
• The Chicago Manual of Style
  http://www.chicagomanualofstyle.org/home.html
• The MLA Style Manual
  http://www.mla.org/
• The Elements of Style (Strunk & White)
  http://www.crockford.com/wrrrld/style.html

And different organisations will have different needs when it comes to typesetting, writing and editing. In the case of the place I worked, the style guide had been nutted out over a period of many years and factored in the needs and preferences of readers in Australia and the USA. The cooperation and compromise required for this was impressive, but it left the organisation with a somewhat clunky and irrelevant style guide. In addition, people were very busy and were unwilling to keep visiting the style guide to update it. Decisions that had been made decades ago were easier to simply maintain, than question. New people with knowledge only of modern trends in writing and editing were quickly put in their place.

There were some rules that were followed to pad out articles and books (eg. double-spaces after periods) and others to save space (eg. using single quote marks instead of double). Certain trends refused to budge even after a major transition to web-based content (which for those of you who don't know makes the use of double-spaces after periods painful at best). As time went by, management realised the need for different rules depending on the medium. So in print, the Style Guide still had full effect (double-spaces after periods, single (CURLY) quote marks) but web content was allowed to have single-spaces after periods and subtitles on DVDs were allowed to have double, straight quote marks for clarity. There were different rules for different countries (eg. use of .org for UK, Europe, Canada and the USA, but .com for Australia, NZ and others. Dr. with a dot for the UK, Europe, Canada and the USA, but no dot for Australia, NZ and others).

The flexibility was nice for those people who wanted their way, but I remember thinking if we're going to allow this (i.e. if we don't mind too badly one way or the other) why not change it for everybody to make the style guide more practical and useful for writers, editors and graphic designers? Perhaps not with every rule-bending option, but some of them.

The larger a style guide gets, the less likely people are to follow it. It becomes too complicated and too difficult to 'wade through'. Most people in an organisation tend not to care. It falls to those with the editing responsibility to 'fix' everyone else's oversights. Even graphic designers are forced to become experts at the style guide to avoid last minute changes from the final sign-off editor. And few graphic designers are good at editing the work they've just spent four hours laying out.

But that's a topic for another blog.