I’ve been all the way through the desk editor’s comments on the proofs of ICE SHOCK. The ms is covered with handwritten new bits and changes. I only have ten very minor points to address from the proof reader.
Then it’s type up my list of page changes and down to the post office with it.
Meanwhile, the last chapter of Joshua 3 (current title ZERO MOMENT) is planned, a quarter-written and waiting to be finished.
I could do both things today. So why can’t I even get started?
Completion anxiety. (Hey, it’s a real thing…)
I’m not normally a big procrastinator but as I hurtle towards the finish line, time and again, mentally, the brakes scream into action and I slam to a halt.
Today, instead of working, I want to do something else. For example, spend the day thinking about muffin based-humour. (Hey, it’s a real thing.)
Here are my favourite bits of muffin-based humour.
Well here is is – although if you ever check out themgharris.com you’ve already seen it.
I’m pretty darn impressed. To move from black to red for the J symbol is so simple but it hadn’t occurred to me…and the new lettering for the title ICE SHOCK is kewl. With the neon yellow slipcover too – I think this is going to look fantastic. I can’t wait to catch my first glimpse of the completed package.
In keeping with the red-and-yellow colour theme, I have ordered my new BlackBerry Pearl in red. And when I upgrade to the new iPod nano, I think it will be yellow. I have a red one now – it was one of the original nanos, but a special edition when everyone did red gadgets to support charity. I have a red laptop too. 🙂
Glory glory Man United…
Ooh..Jessica my desk editor and I rewote the blurb together. Here’s what will be replacing the one on the cover shown here:
Josh thought the worst was over – but it hasn’t even started…
Josh is even more certain now that his father’s death was no accident – and he’s starting to wonder if he can really trust his closest allies. When he learns of a secret buried within the Ix Codex, he must journey back to the secret Mexican city of Ek Naab. Shocking news awaits him about the mysterious Bracelet of Itzamna. Did Josh’s dad really take it? And where is it now?
‘Racing for the curtain’ is how some screenwriters refer to the increased pace of Act III, when everything hots up as the character, story and plot all ‘race for the curtain’.
In some senses, even the writer experiences the race. As the plot speeds up, climax follows crisis, with last-minute challenges to the escape and everything heads for the denouement, so does the speed of writing. As my pal, author Susie Day put it to me the other day, “You want to be writing it as fast as your readers would be reading it.”
So it’s surprising and gratifying to find that even now, even with a planning freak like me, something can pop out of the subconscious, some last minute discovery of a detail that can be used to work a theme right through the book.
I’ve had it happen before, in every book I’ve written. It usually hits around Act II. This time I’m about just 12,000 words before the end of ZERO MOMENT (current working title for Joshua 3). And on Saturday night, it hit.
I was a little tipsy from my half of the M&S dine-in-for-2 wine. Suddenly I had an urge to write, and to jump ahead in the narrative and write the final scene of ZERO MOMENT. (I did this also for INVISIBLE CITY).
I was listening to some music to get myself in the right mood – the music that would be playing at that point of the story. I looked up the English lyrics for the tune that was playing – the version was instrumental-only. And I realised that they were perfect for the song which has a major role in the story. (Technically it acts as a synecdoche referring to Josh’s sister and father-via-sister). I had previously chosen a different song ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’. But in fact the title, the lyric and the composer of this other song made it much more appropriate.
The song is ‘Wave’ by Antonio Carlos (‘Tom’) Jobim, that master of bossa nova. (And if you remember INVISIBLE CITY, ‘Waters of March’ – Aguas de Marco by Jobim is Josh’s parents’ favourite tune) I count ‘Wave’ as perhaps my favourite jazz song (although ‘Stardust’ and ‘Me, Myself and I’ are also contenders). These are the translated lyrics:
So close your eyes
For thats a lovely way to be
Aware of things your heart alone was meant to see
The fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream togetherYou can’t deny don’t try to fight the rising sea
Don’t fight the moon, the stars above and don’t fight me
The fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream together
When I saw you first the time was halfpast three
When your eyes met mine it was eternity
By now we know the wave is on its way to be
Just catch that wave don’t be afraid of loving me
The fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream together
When I saw you first the time was halfpast three
When your eyes met mine it was eternity
By now we know the wave is on its way to be
Just catch that wave don’t be afraid of loving me
The fundamental loneliness goes whenever two can dream a dream together
Dreams and jazz are elements which I find myself repeating in my stories. Partly because dreams and jazz mean such a lot to me, partly because Haruki does that also, to such wonderful effect that I can’t help but emulate and partly because I’m probably not imaginative enough to think of any other way to create the desired effect.
So in Joshua 3, as in INVISIBLE CITY and in ICE SHOCK I’m pulling out the same corny trick. (Yes, I have to face up to the fact that deep down I’m deeply sentimental. For goodness sakes don’t tell anyone.)
‘Wave’. How did it take me until almost the end to realise that this is the song? It even fits in with the Brazilian theme of the novel.
Wah. I am going to miss writing ZERO MOMENT. I can already feel the first pangs of loss (I always feel like this towards the ending.)
Oh – I’ve selected a choice Youtube clip of Jobim performing ‘Wave’ (instrumental version) with the legendary Herbie Hancock. If you like it, look at some others. It’s a real favourite with fans of bossa nova.
Now you only have to wait until March 2010 to understand the context of this post…
Well here it is, the final proofs of ICE SHOCK, waiting for me to check through the line edits and maybe add a line or two here or there…
A brilliant end to a wonderful week, which began on Monday with some wonderful news from my agent re JAGUAR’S REALM…can’t be more specific just yet. And a totally cool party at the London Transport Museum to launch the WOW 366 book. Have you bought it yet? Go and buy it, it’s terrific bedtime story material! My daughter and I are reading three per night. My fellow writer, our lead developer for the Alternate Reality Game we are making for  ICE SHOCK and Litopian, Richard Howse was there and blogged about the evening, including a nice photo of my agent, me and Rich.
After the party I went off to the Afro-Cuban Lounge at Buffalo Bar. Word on the street is that this is no longer the top Cuban club night in London (and therefore the UK) – rumour has it that there’s a place on Wednesdays that’s better. But I’m telling ya, this Monday night the Buffalo Bar was swinging. Lots of hunky guys and sexy latino women, all terrific dancers, a friendly buzz. I was even invited to join a rueda. God, how I love salsa.
Then on Tuesday, St Giles Fair – it being the first Monday and Tuesday following St Giles’ Day. I was feeling queazy, a bit hung-over after my night of drinking and dancing in London until the small hours. So I had to say no to the Waltzer, usually the highlight of the fair for my little girl. Still managed the barbequed corn-on-the-cob at the Jamaican food stand, the fresh cotton candy and hot donuts… And I stood for a few minutes letting the atmosphere of the fair wash over me. Some years it has struck me as grubby, crass, loud and mercenary. This year, however, I felt nothing but the lurve; for carnie folk and good times, memories of being there as a student, with my first daughter and now my second.
Tradition. You can’t beat it.
Then I dropped by the office of our IT company and met no less than five new employees who have joined since I last happened by…wow! See how well they’re doing without me? Also had a good morning talking to Rich about the ARG, putting together a project plan and coming up with neat ideas. This game…is going to be so fun.
Hung out with Susie Day and talked about Blake’s 7, one of the great loves of my life, and probably something to which I owe my writing career, since that’s how I got started – writing Blake’s 7 fan fiction. Hung out with Julia Golding and talked about writing crime fiction for kids. Muhahaha. More on that anon…
This is what I have always enjoyed about work. Hanging out with top practioners and talking about how to get better. In the end it doesn’t matter if the work is science, business or writing. So long as you work with the best in the world, work is heaven. You can’t ask for more.
Went to sleep last night listening to stuff about the Large Hadron Collider, for which, major kudos!
Saturday morning down in the Oxfordshire market town of Witney – with a surprisingly literary crowd thanks to Waterstone’s Witney Book Festival. It’s a new mini-festival. Julia Golding and I shared an event in the local Corn Exchange. We quizzed each other on outdoor survival (Julia passed with colours) and the world of diplomacy (I was clueless), and about writing and our latest books. Julia’s latest is EMPTY QUARTER, the second in the Darcie Lock series about a teenage girl whose family business happens to be spying and not, after all, working innocuously in an embassy. My daughter and I are reading it now. I had to skip ahead because it became rather too exciting to read in short bedtime chunks…
Then it was on to the small-but-perfectly-formed and jam-packed Waterstone’s Witney, where a <insert collective noun> of children’s authors hovered in the children’s section signing books and watching a master bookseller in action – Mark Robson. (Here’s Mark’s account of the morning.)
Mark is the author of an admirable number of books – including the DRAGON ORB and IMPERIAL series (he’s also one of those rare self-publishing success stories). Julia too is prolific…they both publish 2 or 3 books a year (see what a slacker I am?). Mark also spends many a Saturday signing in bookshops, where he can handsell a whole stack of books – and not just his own!
Sarah Singleton, author of gothic fantasy novels for teens (including the award-winning CENTURY) was also there. I must admit to being rather impressed by all these authors as they stood by their stacked up books.
I’ve so far resisted the temptation to stop reading books for adults and throw myself gleefully and exclusively into the richly imaginative worlds of YA fiction. But having met the authors and heard about their books makes that sooo difficult.
Yes, I know I still haven’t finished “The Feast of the Goat” by Mario Vargas Llosa. But first I want to read “The Amethyst Child” by Sarah, “Imperial Spy” by Mark and “The Diamond of Drury Lane” by Julia.
