Playing about with covers

I've been playing around with cover images for OF TWO MINDS, thinking it would be nice to have one on ABNABooks, or for possible future contest entries. Fortunately my husband, Ron, has taken some nice nature photos over the years, and such subject matter will always do in a pinch, especially for the books that have to do with Timu Maarinen and Wythe Weaver. What's in my mind for my real covers is artwork on the order of a cross between Arthur Rackham and Maxfield Parrish. Something a bit pre-Raphaelite/Art Noveau. Wish I were an artist.

This is my current effort.

Playing god

The other day a friend of mine asked me for a definition of High Fantasy. I gave him a history of fantasy fiction since William Morris in the 19th c., but the real answer ended up being that High Fantasy involves a detailed subcreation, including political situations and systems, religion, philosophy -- a myriad of cultural details.

When I took a notion to subcreate I knew I wanted to base the world of my novels on our world. Mostly I wanted to create a culture derived from my Sami heritage, and treat its belief system as something that was literally real. My Telmi shamans really do share intimate communication with animals and plants, even with places and the spirits of their ancestors.

The "civilzed" cultures in my work are modeled on real-world social history too. I know they're pretty recognizable -- the Albraharan desert culture that spawns religious movements that are at once mystical and rationalistic; the multicultural Xanthian Empire where various pantheons of gods rub shoulders constantly; the Ravellan League that adopts and adapts Albraharan ideas, makes them even more practical and rational, carrying them to the point of atheism; the northern Vaaselian culture with its rigid social structure and pragmatically scientific turn of mind.

The essential conflict in my stories is between the spiritual and the rational -- between science and religion. It's not a dialectical conflict, but one that occurs on a contiuum, from animism to atheism.

What makes the stories stories, rather than a thought exercise, is the characters. The metaphysical and political conflicts are always expressed through their personal lives, and I think the most attractive aspect of my fiction is the fullness and reality of my characters.

Announcing another new website

www.abnabooks.com

Valya Dudycz Lupescu (wonderful name!), an ABNA semi-finalist, has launched a website to feature the work of all ABNA entrants. Each of us has a profile, a synopsis of our entry, and an excerpt (in some cases longer excerpts than those permitted in the ABNA competition, in all cases complete, not cut off in mid-sentence.)

It's a beautiful, eminently functional site, easy to read and navigate. There's even a forum! ABNA entrants who have published works available to purchase can offer those books through ABNABooks.com, too. Contact information for each author is also available, so readers can view websites and email their favorites.

Three cheers for Valya!

My friend Bill

has just created his own website, to communicate with the web-world at large about his fiction.

It can be found at

http://sublimetales.googlepages.com

Bill's work is reminiscent of Tom Robbins or Kurt Vonnegut -- satirical, with a sci-fi edge, but directed at the world's immediate problems, ie., the dominance of power and wealth seeking individuals and organizations in all decisions of global importance. Bill's background is Buddhist, and the speculative elements of his fiction draw from Buddhist philosophy and mythology as much as garden-variety 20th c. intergalactic tradition. The notion of "aliens" is only part of the framework for some very funny and philosophically incisive narrative.

If that's the sort of trip you're up for, William W. Wraith is an author to watch.

A little slow

I'm a little slow updating things here, I guess.

I didn't make the 100 cut in the ABNA, but neither did my hands-down favorite, Swimming in the Rainbow. Other good things didn't make it either. One I liked very much that did make it is The Raider's Wife by Cathy McCallum.

I'm glad for myself to be out of it, because now I can concentrate on my writing. I haven't stopped revising or working on new things, ever, but I'm doing much more work now that I'm not thinking about the contest 20 hours a day.

My new novel on the origins of Lord Valmur Karoli, Chancellor of Vaaseli and definitely arch-villain of the first two Alliance Chronicles books, is moving on apace. That is, I've written several scenes from throughout the story in my mind, and have completed four chapters (available to read in first draft at The Wood Beyond the World on writerscafe.org.)

I'm using a new and slower method of composition, after learning some hard lessons from my summer revisions of Of Two Minds. Writing scenes in my head is a large part of the process. Though I've always done this (usually flat on my back in the bedroom, just before dropping off for a nap) I'm doing it much more consciously now, and working on bits from throughout the story, not necessarily in chronological order. I'm planning to use only the most significant and striking of this material in the actual first draft -- though other bits will be available, of course, if my beta readers think there's something lacking.

I've realized already that this particular story has a definite operatic tone to its plot: madness, murder, rape, revenge, in an escalating spiral. I'm going with my friend Bill's advice to make language more colorful, use more simile and metaphor. Just hope I can keep it from being too potboiler, retain some literary qualities.

Finally found one

Last night I finally read an excerpt in the ABNA contest that really blew me away. Not only is it perfectly written, in a technical and stylistic sense, it's exceptionally original, and completely compelling.

It's Swimming in the Rainbow, by Rebecca Crandell. A very odd story, but constructed with such grace and aplomb, that only someone rather devoid of imagination could fail to be swept away by it.

It's the only thing I've seen that I really could back a hundred percent to enter the finals and earn the grand prize.

Rebecca, I'm now your biggest fan.

Waiting out the ABNA

The last days of the ABNA semi-finals are fast approaching. On February 19 our numbers will be reduced from 835 to 100. None of the entrants can figure out how this is going to be accomplished. Some entries have 100 and more reviews with 5-star ratings, but very poor Publishers' Weekly reviews. Some entries judged superior by PW are hardly reviewed at all. The contest administrators have pledged, on the ABNA homepage, to take customer reviews into consideration when picking the 100, but how they're going to reconcile profligate stars and inferior writing, neglected works of great quality, and the more professional judgments of PW and Amazon Top Reviewers is baffling.

As my PW review found serious fault with the last half of Of Two Minds, and made mock of my protagonist's psychological development, I have little hope of advancing, so I'm just waiting it all out at this point, and continuing to work on other things. Reviews still trickle in, almost entirely from fellow-entrants -- very fine, thoughtful reviews, that I appreciate more than I can say.

But somehow 100 good to excellent novels must be selected, and the ABNA will have to at least seem to fulfill its promises.

I haven't looked at more than a tiny percentage of the semi-finalists' excerpts, but I haven't really seen one that I thought was entirely publication ready. I have seen several that had commercial success written between every line, and I expect to see them in the cut of 100.

I wonder what will become of the rest of us?