Six Sentence Sunday: It's a Curse

A simple concept: writers offer six sentences to pique your interest. Here's mine:


"And you're a beast among men, Roman Dalton." Marinova spoke softly but the words hit like a blow anyway. I hunched my shoulders and walked on, the zubrowka churning my guts yet. When I reached the lifts I punched the button with a little more energy than it called for to summon one. The wolf arched in my spine. His time drew closer. I hit the button again. I needed to finish up this job.


You can buy It's a Curse: Drunk on the Moon 7 and the other titles in Mr B's killer fun werewolf PI series along with a bunch of my fine colleagues at Trestle Press. You can also win a copy at Goodreads.

Drop by the Six Sentence Sunday blog to sample other writers. 

Writer Wednesday: Michel R. Vaillancourt

I'm kicking off a new feature today: Writer Wednesday. So many of my colleagues have been kind enough to feature me on their blogs, I'm well overdue for returning the favour. First up is my fellow Trestle Press author, Michel R. Vaillancourt.

Tell us a little bit about yourself, Michel.

In brief about me, I am forty-two years old, currently living in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada.  My day job is CEO & Alpha-Geek for a video conference hosting company.  I’m married, I have a son and I have been reading and writing for most of my life.  I have been involved in Steampunk for two years and a fan of adventure stories since I was twelve.

Q: What do you write on? Computer, pad o' paper, battered Underwood?

I'm a story teller, in terms of mindset.  So for me, the challenge is keeping myself "surrounded by the magic" that story telling brings me in front of a spoken-word audience.  Distractions that remind me that it's "just me here" are my bane.  So, I tend to write with most of the lights off, at my computer, using a full-screen won't-let-you-format-or-spell-check application called OmmWriter.


 The lights are out, because that "shrinks the world" the way that being on a stage or at a campfire does.  I can't see my audience, I just have to trust they are there.  I use a computer because my thoughts tumble out of my fingers, and I can't hand-write fast enough to keep up, and for some reason dictation never works for me.  OmmWriter gives me a visual and auditory ambiance that washes away the rest of the house noises, the sound of the five cats, four birds and a dog, etc, and allows me to emotionally drill into the scene I am trying to capture.

Q: Do you listen to music while you write? Does it influence what you write?

Absolutely, I do.  My listening music tends to be based on my mood.  Sometimes, I just want quiet, or I pick one of the ambiance sequences that is part of OmmWriter.  I either listen to Steampunk music from groups like Abney Park, Vernian Process and Vagabond Opera, or I listen to trance/ electronica from Tiesto or Armin Van Burren.  Other times, I listen to atmospherics like Brian Eno's "Music For Airports" or "Music for Films".


 A few times, I've used music to help me craft a scene...  for that I dig out movie sound tracks and find the right "feel" I am looking for.  Most of the time, though, the music is there to work as creative grease, not to actually be a direct influence.

Q: Do you write in short bursts or carve out long periods of time to work? Is it a habit or a vice?

I write when I have a story to tell.  I don't write because I "have" to because of an "external" influence, like a deadline or a screaming publisher.  I already have a job, so I have the luxury of writing my stories out because I feel like telling the next part of my story. How much I write at a session really depends on how much I have to say.  I write "until I'm done" and nothing more.  If that is 100 words, okay.  Some days it is 3200 words.  My wife knows that my story writing is a joy in my life, so when it is what I want to do, she encourages me and lets me go to it. That makes me very lucky on many fronts and I know that.

Q: What writer would you most want to read your work? What would you want to hear them say?


These days, it would Cherie M. Priest.  I'd love to have them publish a review of my work.  She's pretty much the benchmark for Steampunk writing these days, given the success of "Boneshaker".

Q: On the days where the writing doesn't go so well, what other art or career do you fantasize about pursuing instead?

Other way around for me.  On the days my IT business isn't going so well, I fantasize about doing well enough as an author to go full time pro with it.  I haven't had a "bad writing day" so far;  I'm fortunate that way.

Q: What do you read? What do you re-read?

Right now, not much.  I'm pretty busy, and I'm trying to stay focused on my own story world and my own story writing.  I'm a dreamer, so I get caught up really easily in other people's worlds.  So, until I get my second novel sealed and delivered, I'm keeping my reading pretty narrow.  Mostly period research and associated Steampunk-themed blogs.

Q: Where did the idea for The Sauder Diaries: By Any Other Name come from? Do you have a surefire way of sparking inspiration?

The full explanation is on my blog site with a complaint, an argument and two pretty girls. The short version is that I wanted to answer the question "who are the sort of people that live in a world where airship pirates are possible?"  That's why the main character, Hans Sauder, starts off into the world of airship piracy with as little knowledge as the reader at the beginning of the book.  It is an exploratory work.

 I added to that the idea that I wanted to write a really -strong- female character.  One that would really be very counter-culture to the Victorian ideals of womanhood.  One of the things that the Victorian Era served as was a kind of watershed for the Sufferage Movement.  To me, to be true to "Steampunk" as I see it, you pretty much need a female lead or supporting character to be ahead of the curve;  already be out there, doing the sort of things that women of the time rallying in the streets could only dream about.


 As far as sparking inspiration, one of my favorite comments about the nature of human discovery is that "... more great moments in science have been heralded with the words 'that's funny...' than 'eureka!'."  So, when I want to tell a compelling story, I start with a compelling question and then figure out how to make the answer feel like "that's funny...";  a sense of discovery or disbelief that grows into wonder.

 The Sauder Diaries: By Any Other Name

The Sauder Diaries take place in an alternate-history Earth, in the year 1888.  The Crimean War ended as a stalemate and Europe is divided along the Allied and Russian Imperial borders by the Scorchlands. Large sections of “civilized Europe” cannot be traveled due to bandits, renegade armies, and rogue mad science experiments.


 Hans Sauder is the son of a German industrialist, on his way to University to study airship engineering. His passenger airship is attacked by the legendary pirate ship the Bloody Rose.  Hans is taken prisoner and given the choice of joining the crew, or taking his chances with parachuting into the wilds of Europe.


 Thus begins the “diaries”, detailing his travels — the reader is first treated to Hans' impressions of events and then gets to see what really happened.


 Hans and his new crewmates are hunted by the airship navies of Allied Europe, chased into hiding in Egypt, board merchant ships over Germany, and visit hidden black market trade centers.  Things really get rough when they are hired to undertake a dangerous mission in the skies of the Russian Empire.


 As the story unfolds, Hans' new life is further complicated by the romantic advances of the leader of the ship's gunner-marines, a ruthless and no-nonsense woman with a chip on her shoulder.  As well, Hans is perpetually dogged by a deep conflict between his sense of morals and duty to his family, and the challenges and adventure of this new life he has discovered.

     He had made remarkable friends, found an improbable love, fought, killed, saved lives, wept and laughed all over a half-a-mile in the sky for three remarkable months.  He knew what it was he had been missing his entire life.

     “But I cannot stay,” he said quietly to himself.  

Michel can be found at his website, on Twitter and Facebook as well as Amazon and Goodreads. Look for him on the Steampunk Writers Ning, too.
 

Haunted, Spies & a little Melancholia

Angela Carter: she's been a kind of spiritual mother to me since I first read The Bloody Chamber and knew I'd found a kindred soul. This week I finally started writing the novel that's been brewing in my head for some time now inspired by Carter and to some extent also by Kingsley Amis. Hard to imagine two writers more diametrically opposed, but there it is. They fit together in this project. So my head snapped back a little to see this story in the Guardian about Carter's postcards to her friend and literary executor Susannah Clapp. All kinds of resonance from the details in that story from her love of sending postcards to other coincidences that make me wonder just how much of Carter's life will intertwine with my story. Maybe it will only be at the start. Owl Stretching began the day I realised there would be no more sad, funny novels from Kurt Vonnegut, but his ghost only hung around now and then to remind me. He didn't really poke his nose into the proceedings much. Carter died far too soon (and about the age I am now). I feel a responsibility to write the kind of stories she might have written -- or at the very least, as fearlessly as she always sought to write. It's a goal. There's a slide show of the cards. Check it out.

I've got an interview up over at Ben Sobieck's blog, where he suggests I might really be a spy. It's funny how that theme keeps recurring: the first novel I ever wrote -- way back in high school -- followed the adventures of a wannabe spy. The title I'm sorry to say was Ace Spies Incorporated and the plot followed a similar path to just about every film from North by Northwest to The Man Who Knew Too Little with the innocent main character getting caught up with the real thing and quickly getting in over her head. The novel also featured thinly veiled versions of my teenage crushes, the Beatles (ah, that 70s resurgence of second wave Beatlemania). I don't think I have a copy of this anymore, although my old friend Carla might.

I finally saw Melancholia, but I'm not ready to write it up. Harrowing, I can say that much. Amazing, incredible visuals and powerful drama, yes -- but harrowing. And I start teaching Wednesday. Eek!

Six Sentence Sunday: Mandrake and Magpies

A simple concept: writers offer six sentences to pique your interest. Here's mine:

The rain began: that horizontal rain that filled all your pockets and wormed its way down your neck. Riley argued that it wasn't a sign either. It wasn't Galway unless the rain was whipping down—even when the sun came out. As he crossed over the little rivulet that passed under the road, a single magpie laughed at him from its perch on a reed and he remembered it was one for sorrow, two for joy, and looked in vain for a second. "Shoo," he muttered, waving an ineffectual hand. The pie flicked its tail feathers, hopped to the other bank and continued to make remarks about the weather—or his fate. 

You can buy "Mandrake and Magpies" in the anthology Dark Pages: International Noir along with a bunch of my fine colleagues at Trestle Press. Drop by the 6 Sentence Sunday blog to sample other writers.

Trestle Press BOGO & Brit Grit Too

 

ONE DAY THROW DOWN!

 SALE WITHIN A SALE

PAUL D. BRAZILL’S BRIT GRIT TOO MONDAY -- AND MONDAY ONLY! -- $.99, PLUS THE BUY ONE GET ONE FREE IS STILL IN FORCE!!

 

Amazon Kindle Best-Selling and trailblazing author Paul D. Brazill has decided to drop the price of his legendary Brit Grit Too to $.99 for one day, Monday, January 16, 2012. If you purchase Brit Grit Too Trestle Press will match that with any title up to the full purchase price of $4.99 as part of the BOGO sale (which includes It's a Curse and Dark Pages: International Noir of course!)

Just email Paul D. Brazill or find him at his legendary blog -- or email Trestle Press directly with your proof of purchase (e.g. your confirmation email from Amazon).

Here's the lowdown on Brit Grit Too:

Edited by Paul D Brazill, Brit Grit Too collects 32 of Britain's best up and coming crime fiction writers to aid the charity Children 1st. The BRIT GRIT mob is coming to kick down your door with hobnailed boots. Kitchen-sink noir; petty-thief-louts; lives of quiet desperation; sharp, blood-stained slices of life; booze-sodden brawls from the bottom of the barrel and comedy that’s as black as it’s bitter—this is BRIT GRIT.

Table of Contents.

1. Two Fingers Of Noir by Alan Griffiths

2. Looking For Jamie by Iain Rowan

3. Stones In Me Pocket by Nigel Bird

4. The Catch And The Fall by Luke Block

5. A Long Time Coming by Paul Grzegorzek

6. Loose Ends by Gary Dobb

7. Graduation Day by Malcolm Holt

8. Cry Baby by Victoria Watson

9. The Savage World Of Men by Richard Godwin

10. Hard Boiled Poem (a mystery) by Alan Savage

11. A Dirty Job by Sue Harding

12. Squaring The Circle by Nick Quantrill

13. The Best Days Of My Life by Steven Porter

14. Hanging Stan by Jason Michel

15. The Wrong Place To Die by Nick Triplow

16. Coffin Boy by Nick Mott

17. Meat Is Murder by Colin Graham

18. Adult Education by Graham Smith

19. A Public Service by Col Bury

20. Hero by Pete Sortwell

21. Snapshots by Paul D Brazill

22. Smoked by Luca Veste

23. Geraldine by Andy Rivers

24. A Minimum Of Reason by Nick Boldock

25. Dope On A Rope by Darren Sant

26. A Speck Of Dust by David Barber

27. Hard Times by Ian Ayris

28. Never Ending by Fiona Johnson

29. Faces by Frank Duffy

30. The Plebitarian by Danny Hogan

31. King Edward by Gerard Brennan

32. Brit Grit by Charlie Wade

Spinetingler Award nominee Paul D Brazill has had stories in loads of classy print and electronic magazines and anthologies, such as A Twist Of Noir, Beat To A Pulp, Crime Factory, Dark Valentine, Deadly Treats, Dirty Noir, Needle, Powder Burn Flash, Thrillers, Killers n Chillers, Noir Nation, Pulp Ink, Pulp Pusher, Radgepacket Volumes Four and Five, Shotgun Honey& The Mammoth Book Of Best British Crime Volume 8. He writes for Pulp Metal Magazine and Mean Streets as well as his blog, You Would Say That, Wouldn't You? He is the creator of the  horror/noir series, Drunk on the Moon, published by Trestle Press.

  

Happy Friday the 13th Hearts & Werewolves

UPDATE: My short sharp interview over at Mr B's is up, too! Drop by for more lies and exaggerations.

Happy Friday the 13th! If you're not superstitious, then you won't mind that I put a spell on you. Don't worry -- it's just to get you to join in the Valentine's Day giveaway that my publisher Trestle Press has cooked up. I'll be giving away FIVE copies of It's a Curse: Drunk on the Moon 7 at Goodreads. Just RSVP to the event to be in the running for the freebies. Be sure to find me on Goodreads if you haven't done so already. Some people give hearts and chocolates: I give you a free book. What could be better than that?

But the fun doesn't stop there: lots of the Trestle Press folks are doing the same thing, so you have lots of opportunities to win. I know the books aren't really that expensive, but I also know how much more fun it is to get away with paying nothing at all. Oh, I know you people, yes I do.

Here's a wee excerpt of It's a Curse, where Roman first meets his client. Hazard a guess at who Jameson might be based on (g'wan g'wan g'wan):

"Coffee? Or are you ready to start oiling your neck again?" Duffy flipped the battered National Geographic over on the counter so that the unnaturally green frog smiled upside down from the cover as I sat on a stool.

"Coffee." I wished I had thrown a few more aspirins down my gullet but another cup ought to sort that out. Duffy's java had about five times the strength of a normal brew. He claimed the beans had come from his cousin the alchemist. On days like this, I almost believed him.

He slid a mug across the counter and grinned a little too widely in its wake. "So, we gonna hear some wedding bells soon?"

A growl rumbled in my throat. The full moon was still days off, but the wolf already ran under my skin. He never really left anymore.

"Come on, Roman. You were awfully friendly with her last night."

This time I did snarl. "I don't remember a thing."

Duffy grinned. "You missed a good show. Those metal jockeys never had a chance."

I let the hot black blast fill my throat and ignored him. The wasps in my head were beginning to drown at last and a little silence would have aided their demise. Unfortunately Duffy blathered on, a pointless tale of drunken boasts, a damsel in distress and damage to the furniture that he blamed on me.

"Mr. Dalton, I presume?"

I swiveled my neck to the right, a mistake as the wasps took flight once more. "Who wants to know?"

He was tall and trim, clad in a Saville Row suit worn with such utter carelessness that he had to have been born to it. Sandy brown hair topped a face with the bluest eyes I'd ever seen and an amused look that its wearer probably never lost. He took a drag on a Gauloise and favoured me with a broad smile that managed not to suggest any sort of friendliness. "Edward Jameson."

"You're a long way from home, Mr. Jameson. Why didn't you send your butler instead?"

One eyebrow raised just enough to deepen the picture of amusement. "It's a rather delicate matter. My butler and I have a little understanding; he pretends not to know all my intimate secrets and I pretend to believe him. May I sit down?"

****

Hope that whets your appetite. Don't forget I'm over at the Writer's Block Party and all the folks from The Girl's Guide to Surviving the Apocalypse are over at Pornokitsch talking about why we do what we do.

Tuesday's Overlooked A/V: Spacedog

Before the main feature, a little advert: through the 24th, Trestle Press will be offering a buy one, get one special, which means you can buy It's a Curse: Drunk on the Moon 7 or Dark Pages: International Noir and get another book the same price for FREE!

I'm cheating a bit on the "overlooked" aspect of today's choice as it's a new release. Let us say, it is in danger of being overlooked in a market crowded with Xmas product and far too many soporific X-Factor Idols of Disney uniformity annd blandness. Truly remarkable and independent voices have a hard time being heard at all, let alone getting a decent chance at finding an audience in the overcrowded cacophony that is the net.

And there was a beautiful view 
But nobody could see. 
Cause everybody on the island 
Was saying: Look at me! Look at me! 
        ~ Laurie Anderson, Language Is A Virus


I know I've written about Spacedog and Sarah Angliss before; I was so pleased to have a chance to see them perform last June (and yes, I got to play the theremin after the show :-). I'm even more pleased to say that they've released a CD Juice for the Baby.Of course I immediately downloaded it as soon as I heard about it (can't remember if that was on Facebook or Twitter) from Bandcamp.I'm happy to report it's just as wonderful as the live performance. There's the ethereal music, theremin, vintage sound clips, and beautiful vocals and recitations all woven together in a seamless waking dream of surreal affect. You can't see the robots, but you know they're there.

The songs range from the eerie "Electric Lullabye" and the somehow comfortable "My Death" to the heartbreaking  "For Laika" as well as the captivating (and favourite at the moment, because it's owls) "Owl Club" featuring guest Professor Elemental.And how can I resist a song channeling Tommy Cooper? I can't, of course. Besides, 25% of the procceeds from that song's downloads will go to the Entertainment Artistes’ Benevolent Fund, jus' like that!

This collection is magical: it manages to feel both like a seance with a lost past and an ultra-modern dream. Angliss and her co-horts (which include sister Jenny on vocals and percussionist/composer Stephen Hiscock as well as the guests) bring a sense of wonder to the mechanical and electronic, a glitter of the uncanny which makes the coldness of technology seem warmly alive. Highly recommended! 















Be sure to catch all the Overlooked A/V recommendations at Todd's blog.

Obsession: Guest Post at Trestle

I'm up on my publisher's blog today with a piece on obsession. Yeah, you wouldn't imagine it, eh? Me? Obsessed? Nah. Here's the first part of it. Read the rest over at Trestle and feel free to share.

K.A. Laity- "Obsession"- Guest Post, author of "Drunk on The Moon-It's A Curse"

Obsession

I seem to have two speeds: obsessed and don't care. The greater part of the world falls into "don't care": politics, fashion, television, sports -- I just don't care. For that matter, add cooking and cleaning and talking to people who don't amuse me. Obsessions: writing, Peter Cook, The Fall, writing, myth, magic, folklore, writing, travel, theatre, film, writing and classic British comedy. And writing. I completely understand P. G. Wodehouse's comment, "I never want to see anyone, and I never want to go anywhere or do anything. I just want to write."

My ex once accused me of having hypergraphia. It's a clinical disease where people obsessively write anywhere, anytime, on anything they've got in front of them. Most people who suffer from the little-studied disease write nonsense: it's the action of writing that comforts their manic sprees, not content. I have a head bursting with stories that want to be written and I spend a lot of time in front of my black Mac going tappity-tappity. I also go out to the pub with friends and go see plays and walk along Galway Bay and think nothing at all but what a wonderful world this is. But writing is what I do. Writing is how I see the world. When something terrible happens to me, I struggle through it by finding the right words to describe it in my head. ..


Read the rest over at Trestle Press and if you haven't checked out It's a Curse, well criminy! It's only 99¢ -- it's not going to break the bank! Hee hee, and this is the beginning of my birthday week, so don't forget about my birthday wish. I appreciate your help.

Publication: It's a Curse

 Whoohoo and hoooowwwwwwl! It has arrived. My contribution to Mr B's fine Trestle Press series Drunk on the Moon: IT'S A CURSE. Yes, of course of course, it takes its title from a song by The Fall and yes, there may be a few references to other Mark E. Smith lyrics in there.

You're shocked, I can tell.

Here's the synopsis:  

Roman Dalton’s woken up in the wrong place again, but he can’t blame it on the moon this time. Finding himself in a tug-of-war between two lovely women might sound like he’s landed in clover, but one wants to ‘save’ him and the other—well, he’s got a feeling she’s a whole lot of trouble wrapped up in a designer gown. As far as our favourite werewolf PI’s concerned, IT’S A CURSE.

On Friday I had a chance to chat about it on the G-Zone with fellow Trestle Press writer Edith Maxwell. Mr B called in too and well -- to be honest, the two of us kind of hijacked the rest of the show, hee hee. You can listen to the whole thing from the archive. Great fun.

I've already made a trailer for it. Tell me what you think. And help spread the word! The page could use tagging, liking and of course, reviews! It's at B&N, too.