Underground Update

For those of you who are waiting for the second chapter of Underground, I’m afraid you’ll have to wait a little longer.  I don’t expect to get it finished in time for Friday.  Things at school are picking up in preparation for exams, and it took more time than I expected to get my hands on information I needed for the chapter.  Apparently resources about medical education in Canada in the nineteenth century are hard to come by.  Imagine that. ;)

This weekend, between making outlines for open-book law exams, I’ll be reading the two new books I found at the medical library and hopefully finishing off the chapter.  I've got about a page left, then editing.  

Chapter two will be posted as soon as it is written.  Thanks for your patience!

Never be Afraid to Ask

I’ve been writing seriously for almost ten years, and while I’ve learned a lot about style, grammar, character and plot development, etc., I was reminded today of one of the earliest lessons I learned—and which I’d been neglecting.  When I was just starting to write, I had the opportunity to speak with Norah McClintoch, a mystery writer for young adults.  I asked her if she had any advice for newby writers like me.  Her response: Never be afraid to ask.

As writers, we can be expected to know about “wordy” things; we can even be expected to look stuff up online, but sometimes that “stuff” is not available—or sometimes it just isn’t enough.  As a historical re-enactor, I’ve nitpicked enough historical fiction and called fellow authors out on anachronistic language or imagery (and had them reciprocate) to know that, sooner or later, someone with more knowledge than me is going to come along and question what I’ve written.  I’d like to keep the times when the questioner is right to a minimum. ;)

This past week, I spent three days researching Romano-Celtic swords for The Harper’s Word.  There’s remarkably little information on this topic online—a few forums for swordsmiths, who speak in their own technical language; a few vague articles mostly about the first century A.D.; and a handful of pictures—which, being blind, aren’t very useful to me.  This morning, I finally gave up.  There was nothing to find.

Then, I stumbled upon the website of a British swordsmith who makes historical weapons.  In the “In Stock” section, I found a Romano-Celtic sword; unfortunately, it was first century A.D. in style.  But the swordsmith creates weapons from a variety of time periods.  I thought, “What the heck?” and e-mailed him.

Within hours I had a response, a detailed description of the weapon I needed, and a way forward for The Harper’s Word.  Just think: if I’d done this three days ago, I’d have had the chapter finished already! :) That’ll teach me to ignore the foundational lessons …  

Maybe I should take the hint and start asking around at the Faculty of Medicine for details about the early curriculum.  This information is proving almost as elusive as the Romano-Celtic sword.  

The Things You Learn When Researching ...

I took a break from Underground this afternoon and did some work on another of my projects—The Harper’s Word.  Set in fifth century Wales, this retelling of the folk story Math ap Mathonwy requires a lot more research than I’m used to doing.  I’ve become used to writing late seventeenth and early eighteenth century English stories, and while (being half Welsh) I’ve always had a soft spot for the mythology, my knowledge of the relevant history is sketchy at best. (For more information on The Harper’s Word, visit www.cmgbooks.com/3.html).

So, mostly caught up on labour law readings, I settled in to do some research.  An interesting fact for you: I’m blind, which means every book that’s of use to me for research purposes has to be scanned before I can read it.  Special software turns the resulting image into text, and then the screen reader reads the text aloud in a Steven Hawking-type voice that I can speed up to about 250 or 300 words a minute, depending on the quality of the scan and the style of writing (legalese goes much more slowly!). 

This afternoon, I scanned a copy of Lords of Battle: The World of the Celtic Warrior by Stephen Allen, and the majority of Taste: The History of Britain Through its Food by Kate Colquhoun.  While I haven’t had a chance to read either in full yet (I put on an audio book of Terry Goodkind—great fantasy author!—to pass the time while scanning), I did pick out a couple of interesting facts that I thought you might like to know:

1. Celts were famed for their bacon—is it any wonder we still get “Full Scottish/English/Irish breakfasts” at those lovely B&Bs?
2. The Romans developed pocketknives and folding spoons to take their utensils with them when they travelled.
3. My personal favourite: The Romans thought the British Celts were drunks.  The Celts drank Roman wine undiluted, while the Romans always diluted it; and the Celtic ale was said to inspire grand hangovers.  Funnily enough, the English translation of the Scots Gaelic word for hangover is, literally, “A headache with regrets.”  The things I remember from Gaelic class …

I’ll let you know if any other interesting tidbits turn up in either book—or in any others I happen to scan for research in future. 

Tomorrow, if I can put the law books aside for a little, I’ll be hunting for information on early curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine of Queen’s University.  Standby—Underground, “Chapter Two: A Gentleman’s Education” is coming soon to www.cmgbooks.com/5.html!

News from the Niagara Conference

I have finally gotten back from the New York comes to Niagara Conference and had a moment to breathe and write this blog entry. :) It was an incredible weekend spent with 28 other writers at the Old Stone Inn in Niagara Falls, Ontario. 

Before the conference, each writer was asked to prepare a pitch that described his or her book in 200 words or less.  Pitches were supposed to end on a cliffhanger, so agents or editors would be left wanting to know what happens to the characters.  I had a bit of trouble with this, since the book I was pitching was not a novel, but a collection of five historical short stories, told in three-year intervals.  As it turned out, though, when it came my turn to practice pitch on Thursday, no one could find much wrong with my pitch.  The organizer of the conference suggested a title change (The book was originally called Beyond Reason, and he suggested Time of Orange), but I chose not to accept this.  There is nothing wrong with the title Time of Orange, but I didn’t think it fit the book as well as my original title.  I might use Time of Orange for a story in future.

Friday, we had two guest speakers—Terry Fallis, winner of the Stephen Leacock medal, and Barbara Kyle.  Both were extremely interesting, and Terry is one of the funniest people I have ever met.  They spoke of their respective journeys to publishing (Terry through self-publishing, and Barbara through traditional), as well as their techniques for creating a new book.

On Saturday, we finally had the chance to pitch.  There were five professionals who might be interested in our work, including editors from Random House and Penguin, and two agents from The Rights Factory.  Unfortunately, having two agents from the same house meant that if one asked for material, there was little point in pitching the other.  I had two nibbles for Beyond Reason.  I expected the book would be a bit of a hard sell, being, as it is, both a collection of short stories, and a tragedy. 

However— and here’s the big news—Sam Hiyate of the Rights Factory asked to read the first story, and indicated that if he liked the voice in which I wrote, he would consider working with me to alter the ending; and Caitlin Alexander from Random House asked for the first 30 pages.  I’ll be sending those out later today, and will let you all know how it goes.

More importantly, as far as I’m concerned, I received two offers for internships.  I’m currently a second-year law student, but have little interest in actually practicing law—unless, perhaps, it's entertainment law.  I love contracts, and I love books, and I decided several years ago that it would be a good idea to meld the two and become a literary agent.  One of the agents at the conference told me “No one actually wants to be a literary agent; people just end up literary agents,” but she was pretty enthusiastic about my interest despite this.  Here’s hoping! 

So, while the conference was expensive to attend, I think between the manuscript requests and the job offer/internship possibility, it was well worth it!

* Congrats to all the other writers at the conference who were asked to send partial or full manuscripts to any of the editors and agents attending!