Category: zero moment

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Glad to be back

How to adjust to being back from what may well be the best holiday of my life…? Yes – it was perfect. And so was the company of my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephews.

Cos sometimes it can be a right downer, getting back to the everyday disorder of life. And I live with people who have decided to torture me on a daily basis with their flagrant disregard for my OCD. Everywhere I look in my house I see things which make me sad.

I do have a choice, obviously – I can give up all notion of doing anything else with my life other than cleaning and tidying after my children. Or I can try to ignore it by writing stories.

(Btw you wouldn’t know I have OCD-levels of tidiness tendencies to look at my house, you’d think ‘what a family of slobs.’)

That’s why I don’t invite people to my house. (A Stygian stables of housework or stories. Can’t manage both.)

Luckily I have a job I totally love – I write children’s books and I’ve just started a new one. A few nice literary festivals coming up – Stratford, Hay-on-Wye, West End Festival in Glasgow.

Joshua 3 (ZERO MOMENT) to revise. Joshua 4 (title under wraps) to write. I met Editor Polly for coffee and cake in Oxford yesterday. We chatted about what needs doing on ZERO MOMENT and then I told her The Entire Plot Of Joshua 4.

That’s right. Someone apart from me now knows what is going to happen in the next two Joshua books.

Ahhh but. I know that some of you are watching this blog for any hints of what is going to happen. Well there’s a lot I won’t reveal because it’s part of the Puzzly Twisty Mysterious side of the story. But maybe I can let spill that the Sweet Lurve side of the story is going to develop over the next two books. And mostly it will be agony for Josh. I’ve been listening to a lot of songs about boys in love with girls they can’t have. heh heh.

Frank (German translator of Joshua) says I am ‘evil’. Or was it ‘cruel’? It’s true. I am. But what am I gonna do? Unrequited love is the only romantic kind.

Been watching lots of YouTube too. Seinfeld, salsa dancing. I hear there’s a bigscreen version of this where the shows go on for ages! Must investigate.

Here’s a YouTube clip of cute Northerner, Anthony Hill, a student who is also a singer-songwriter. Does a lovely line in covers of other songs too. Sings while playing guitar, sitting on his bed.

This is his version of Scouting for Girls ‘She’s So Lovely’. All about a guy in love with a girl – who has a boyfriend. “She’s so lovely…” he sings and wonders, “I don’t know how we’ll make it through this…”

Yep. That’s Josh in the next two books. *evil laff* Can you guess who the girl is?

If you enjoy this, be sure to watch some of Anthony’s own songs. My new favourite is Ode to Sangria.

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travel zero moment

Perth before the moisture burns off

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Reclaiming the lake in Claremont, Perth.

Every time I’ve been to Perth, WA, this lake – which is visible from the flat we stay in – is nothing more than a muddy puddle from which bleached old tree stumps emerge, like ancient bones.

 But in October – spring in Australia – look! Blue water and everything.

It’s wonderful to meet up with my siblings and  nephews/niece. Australia always freaks me out because you travel for so darn long to wind up in a country full of English-speaking people who live in nice bungalows with front gardens and eat fish and chips by the sea.

I shouldn’t be posting to my blog, I should be trying to sleep. A touch of insomnia from a bit-of-a-cough and I have to get up in 90 minutes to drive ‘down south’ to Smith Beach.

A very interesting guy called Daniel introduced me to a jazz recording of a pianist named Jan Johansson, a wonderful album called Jazz Pa Ryska.

Hmm, I thought. I’ll use that.

Meanwhile have been thinking a little about ZERO MOMENT. I typed the last sentence a few days ago but now need to do a good polish before anyone is allowed to read it. Anyone means two people right now; my agent and my husband. And then my new editor.

I keep getting the feeling that it might be quite good. But then again it might not be. At this stage, I can’t tell.

Meanwhile, check out the awesome Jan Johansson. Died in 1967, very sadly. Daniel gave me the CD. I’m taking it right back to my daughter’s jazz piano teacher…

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ice shock writing zero moment

Completion Anxiety Provokes Muffin Humour

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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.

1. The Muffin-Top episode of Seinfeld.

2. Ross Noble, standup comedian, talks about finding human faces in muffin tops.

3. Bob Kelso and the muffin (Scrubs)

Later today I’ll put a photo of my Starbucks muffin on this post. I’ll try to get one with a face.

“Now there IS a face. Next muffin.”

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writing youtube zero moment

Joshua 3 – Racing for the curtain

‘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…

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ice shock writing zero moment

Joshua 2 vs Joshua 3

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All my online writing buddies are all talking about this post today. It’s about how an author falls in and then out of love with their manuscript.

Right now I’m madly in love with Joshua 3, convinced it’s the cleverest and prettiest book ever. Meanwhile I’m sullenly continuing to date Joshua 2 even though we both know it’ll soon be over. And Joshua 1 is my glamorous ex- who’s gone on to much better things than me. (In a sexy orange outfit, no less.)

My life right now:

In the mornings I go straight to the desk and fiff and faff for a bit. Then I read through yesterday’s new words once again and tweak. Then I look at my plan for Joshua 3 and see where I’m up to. And then, just as I’m thinking that I really don’t feel in the mood, I start writing.

Somehow, I get words out. This is where a writer reaps the benefit of having established a work habit. If I only wrote when I felt in the mood, these days, I would hardly ever write. After the first 200 words it gets easier. Sometimes I’m done in two hours – the whole 1000 word quota. Very, very rarely I write more. This only happens when I have a particularly emotional scene to write – I can get just in the right mood and have to write that.

Writing action is both the worst bit and the best. When you write action, paradoxically everything slows down. Action eats words. A chapter might take 1500 words if it’s just dialogue and revelation. But when there’s action you can chew through 4000 words during which only minutes have passed. So you write and you come back the next day and for Josh…maybe only minutes – or seconds – have gone by. As the writer you dwell in those moments for a long time. Those action sequences become the focus of your thoughts, sometimes for days at a time.

(My as-yet-unsold manuscript ‘Jaguar’s Realm’ is largely one long chase – writing that was really tiring! The poor hero, Leo, hardly ever had a chance to sit down. I really felt for him  as I had to invent scrape after scrape.)

So…in the morning, 1000 words of Joshua 3. Working title is TIGER KIDNAP, but today I thought of another: ZERO MOMENT. Any preferences?

And in the afternoon it’s down to Starbucks with my laptop and fifty pages of the ms for Joshua 2 (most likely ICE SHOCK or DARK ICE), plus my editor’s notes. I grab an iced mocha and a panini and chug through the revisions.

My pal Susie Day usually turns up with her manuscript for her own second novel, also to be published by Scholastic. It’s going to be called GIRL MEETS CAKE. Cool title huh?

We work and then we talk. About writing, editing, Doctor Who and TV and books and movies. We sob to each other about the few difficulties of writing. It’s okay, it’s lovely being a writer, but turns out that it drives you quite, quite mad to make up stories for a living. So we are crazy together.

Thank goodness for Susie, I’d probably crack up without her to talk to. I don’t even know why, but I’m definitely not as sane as I was when I was a scientist. I think I have the sort of mind that needs to do dull things repetitively, like make up test-tubes of chemical reactions and repeat experiments, for at least a small part of the day. Having to be creative all day long is unleashing some scary part of my psyche that I’m not sure was supposed to operate at more than 5%. I’m still struggling to adapt, to be honest.

It’s important to point out that if we lived in Jamaica, we’d make the effort to do as Ian Fleming did in his afternoons, and go snorkeling. But we don’t, so we write.

Today I reached 35,000 words. I’m close to writing the midpoint of the novel – I always try to make this super-dramatic. From the midpoint on, I try to pick up the pace so that a fast-paced story becomes roller-coasterish. (That’s why all the facts and knowledge have to come in the first half. Later I don’t want readers to have to pause to learn.)

DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA how hard it is to do this? If you write thrillers for a living then you do. Otherwise, well it’s surprising just how hard it is. I’m not going to tell how either, so thurp.

35,000 words. And still at least that much more to go…