Factotum 1st Draft is DONE!

Yes, just as the title says, it is true, finally (*rolls eyes*) filled with self-doubt and trepidation, I am finished climbing the mountain. Factotum MBT Book3 1st Draft is complete! Now all that is left is to climb all the way down the other side.

Now for some celebratory answers!

Sylvenger was wondering ... 'in the video from Youtube for Lamplighter, it pronounces Europe's name exactly like the continent "YUR-up". I don't know, when I read the books I just thought it would be pronounced with a little more sophistication, like "yoo-ROE-puh".'

Actually, when used ordinarily it is said "YOO-rup", though for more formal situations you will find it written Europa and said "yoo-ROE-puh".

Ben Bryddia was wondering "... how nearly the present editions of Books 1 and 2 match their original drafts. In hindsight, would you have written them very differently?"

The final volumes you all have read bear marked differences from the very first drafts, pace, detail, the fleshing out of a situation to enrich events and characters, the reduction or moving of detail to the Explicarium, the tightening of my language, refining refining refining have been the usual process for making a final draft of both of the previous two MBTs. Friends how have had the dubious 'honour' of reading the first and final drafts inevitably comment on the general air of tightness and little improvements throughout the final text. I am looking forward to the process of improvement for Factotum upon whose threshold I now stand.

We are getting there folks; thank you all for sticking in there with me and for you most excellent minds and your support.

Errata

I would just like to take this opportunity to correct the doggerel that Rossamund recalls of Swill early in Lamplighter. I got the metre all out o' whack and would like to offer to you a slightly improved version (and so let you in on my restless and constant polishing of the H-c)

Honorius Ludius Grotius Swill
Will saw off your limbs, but eschews the pill;
For coughs he takes fingers, a sneeze he'll take toes,
But fevers will cost you your ears and your nose.

So no its syllable count for each line is 11, 10, 11, 11 whereas before it was 11, 9, 12,11 - which does not sound like much but I like the rhythm in the more even structure of the new version better - sounds more lilting in my head.

If at this point you think I a little nuts, you just might be right...

To answer a couple o' questions:

Yes Jenny M, MBT will be a trilogy but I truly intend and hope to bring you other tales from the Half-Continent over the years in what, Lord willing, will be a long term relationship between me and you all, an ongoing expounding of this pretend place through story and reference, a picture book (cheers Differlot) maybe film, and what ever else can express it best. What the next book after Factotum will be, I can as yet not really say... I do have ideas though.

Kathryn I will be showing the little man's face in Book 3.

And right now Portals I am just about to finish the 1st draft of Book 3 (such as it is), and for most f this year shall be editing it (several times), drawing character illos, writing the Explicarium for Book 3 (which may need to be shorter to make room for the story), complete the cover for the US edition and tweak the ANZ cover, attend various public events, finish off the map for Book 3, finalise the Appendices for Book 3, make all necessary corrections to all of the above... And in the period between handing everything up and it going to the printers I will be taking a great big breath.

European Refinement.

This is an updated, slightly more "polished" design version of a previous rough for Europe's final harness in Book 3.

That's all...

A Quick Break & An Idea.

You might be wondering what the new poll asking about a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure [TM] style story is all for. Well, I was reckoning that when Book 3 1st draft and maybe edit passes are finally done we could embark on a project together where I write an entry upon a certain Half-Continent character, list a poll of options for their next action, give you a week or two or three to choose which way next, write that, give you more options to choose for the next bit and so on (am I making sense?) and maybe build story together. So I have put up a poll to start and we shall go from there.

Thoughts anyone?

To add a little spice to the entry I am also including some sneak peak appendices proposed for Book 3 (though constraints of book length might mean some do not make it in... we shall see) Until then, I hope you enjoy these.



If you find any errors (such as the one for "parry" on the sabrine adept image) don't fret, these have yet to go under an editor's scrupulous eye.

And the Winner is...

Just back from Brisneyland (being Brisbane for the uninitiated) having attended the Aurealis Awards night where, if you'll recall, Lamplighter was shortlisted in the Best Young Adult Novel category. Alas alak, I have to content myself with the shortlisting for I can reveal to you all now that Melina Marchetta's (of On the Jellicoe Road and Looking for Alibrandi fame) first foray into the spec fic world, Finnikin of the Rock (Penguin/Viking) took the honours.

Congrats to her - I'd be lying if I did not admit I was a tad bummed, but I got over myself and and very happy to have Lamplighter on a shortlist.

The other winners of the 2008 Aurealis Awards by category were:

best science fiction novel
K A Bedford, Time Machines Repaired While-U-Wait
(Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing)

best science fiction short story
Simon Brown, ‘The Empire’, Dreaming Again
(Harper/Voyager)

best fantasy novel
Alison Goodman, The Two Pearls of Wisdom
(Harper Collins)

best fantasy short story
Cat Sparks, ‘Sammarynda Deep’, Paper Cities
(Senses 5 Press)

best horror novel
John Harwood, The Seance, Jonathan Cape
(Random House Australia)

best horror short story
Kirstyn McDermott, ‘Painlessness’, Greatest Uncommon Denominator (GUD), #2

best anthology
Jonathan Strahan (editor), The Starry Rift
(Viking Children's Books)

best collection
Sean Williams & Russell B Farr (editor), Magic Dirt: The Best of Sean Williams
(Ticonderoga Publications)

best illustrated book/graphic novel
Shaun Tan, Tales From Outer Suburbia
(Allen & Unwin)

best young adult short story
Trent Jamieson, ‘Cracks’, Shiny, #2

best children’s novel
Emily Rodda, The Wizard of Rondo
(Omnibus Books)

best children’s illustrated work/picture book
Richard Harland & Laura Peterson (illustrator), Escape!, Under Siege, Race to the Ruins, The Heavy Crown, of The Wolf Kingdom series
(Omnibus Books)

Peter McNamara Convener's Award for Excellence
Jack Dann

Well done to everyone (with an especial cheerio to Sean Williams, Richard Harland, Laura Peterson, Shaun Tan and Omnibus!) and thank you to the organisers for a great event.

And just to turn all the attention back to MBT for a moment, the paperback of the English language editions of Lamplighter will be released this year in May, which is something to loo forward to.

Answer time!

Probing questions from Differlot:
"[Do you] know what planet is the half continent?"

The world of the Half-Continent is called the Harthe Alle (at least by some) or the Alt Gird (though not so often). Tungolitrists (what we would call astronomers) name it Deuter Diana or just Deuter. Of course other races have other names, but these three will do for now.

"I wonder what Europe does in her free time, hmmm?"

Europe would not admit to having such a thing as we would call "free time" - her oppinion on the matter would be to use time as usefully as possible; "sitting about only makes for darkened and uselessly bedizzened thoughts," is how she would put it, I reckon.

"What happens if a wit or fulgar gets turned into a monster do the monsters learn how to use the artificial organs, or since they have been put in maybe they are dead and the monster only posses natural parts since it probably wont be able to take treacle till found by somebody. They might just die from not having any."

Now here's a question I'd not considered! Monsters would not ever become lahzars, and since the whole system of treacles and surgeons is a totally human system, so you are right, even if a monster could become lahzarine, they would die from lack of treacle and such things.

Also, for those of a praying persuasion, I would very much appreciate your prayers as I struggle to get the final two chapters of Book 3. Typically I tend to have a vision of what a scene will look and feel like, a sketch - if you like - in my head, from which I spring forward to actually explore and fill out with words. Right now, however, my soul is being very reluctant to cough up a clear view of the end.

Who'd be a writer, hey?

Time to get European.

Today being the last day before I trip off to Brisbane to attend the Aurealis Awards I though I would share a bit more of y process with you (how the two are related I do not know, but it makes for a beginning to a post, so I am running with it).

What I have for show and tell today are a couple conceptual sketches completed for Book 3, done to help me get a better "eye" for what Europe is wearing at certain occasions in the story. The first is for a more formal and fancy event.

This second sketch is me trying to get a handle on colour and style for a set of new-made harness for fighting in. Spotting that clipping from the fashion section of the local paper helped me greatly in fixing down the nature of the cloth which I had previously designated as read on the sleeves and blue-grey on the apron. I like the green with red florals much better, though the flowers on the cloth used for the harness would not look or be placed in quite so modern a manner.

Just goes to show how rough my sketches can be, but there purpose is ideation not polished illustration. I heartily recommend little sketches to help with "seeing" your writing.

If you are seeking even more European costuming goodness head over to Monster Blood Cult to see what Erin Montemurro is doing (really, go check it out, 'tis remarkable!)

An enormous grateful tip of the hat to Mr. Bennett Lovett-Graff (aka Polymath Paradise) for his thorough and heartily uplifting insights into MBT Books 1 & 2. For such as you and all the goodly folks here do I strive - such responses are the endeavour rewarded.

Here's a question for you: should I or should I not get a spot on Facebook?

Cybils Fantasy/SciFi Shortlist 2008

Well, it is near two weeks since the peep of the year and have you heard anything from me..?!

I am very chuffed to break silence (as it were), do as others have done and post up a shortlist from the up and coming Cybils Awards in my own chosen genre, Fantasy & Science Fiction:

Cabinet of Wonders written by Marie Rutkoski, Macmillan
Graveyard Book written by Neil Gaiman, HarperCollins
Magic Thief written by Sarah Prineas, HarperCollins
Savvy written by Ingrid Law, Penguin USA
Airman written by Eoin Colfer, Hyperion
Curse Dark as Gold written by Elizabeth C. Bunce, Scholastic
Explosionist written by Jenny Davidson, HarperCollins
Graceling written by Kristin Cashore, Harcourt
Hunger Games, The written by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic
Wake written by Lisa McMann, Simon & Schuster

... and (*drum roll*)

Lamplighter written by some weird fellow surrounded by notebooks in a darkened room, Penguin USA.

A true and dare I admit astonishing honour - (watch for my over-use of this word in Book 3... :( - to be included amongst such lights. Congrats to us all, to the judges for hour upon hour of reading to get to this list, to anyone who dares attempt to write a book - shortlisted, awarded or otherwise - and to you most excellent folk who read! Thank you R.J. Anderson for pointing my shortlisting out to me; thank you Laini Taylor-Di Bartolo for you great summary and to you all for your continuing support.

Only a couple of weeks away from the 2008 Aurealis Awards too.

My head is so swollen at the moment I am having trouble fitting through doors and cannot drive my car. Of course, ego takes a big hit when confronted by the daily struggle with the English language, which often feels a lot like...

English language & Plot not doing what it ought to: 1 - D.M.Cornish: nil.

Never-the-less, we are getting there folks!

Klesita (welcome to you!) was asking... "Is it true that Jim Henson Co has the rights of the series? Do you still retain some kind of rights over the script that will allow you some control over the final product? It would be a shame if the movie trashes this beautiful/fearful/incredible world and its inhabitants..."

Yes, the Henson company does indeed have the rights to MBT; no, I think they have to right to make the story what they want it to be, and if I get any say in how it turns out it will be purely on the condescension of the director etc. I too am nervous of what the final product my morph into; I reckon at this very moment the Henson Company are probably nervous how I actually end the story (and me along with them) - so nerves all round.

Ben Bryddia ponders... "Do they have land mines in the Haacobin Empire? You know, big ceramic or porcelain spheres full of mordants, just waiting for some hulking unterman to step on, and crack open? Which makes me wonder, are there any poisonous potives of the gas variety?"

Not in the way we have landmines, no. More like buried or hidden bombs with long fuses, and with or without potives. There are devices known as belchpots (amongst other names): large cauldron-shaped pots of cheap iron or clay with a metal base plate and filled with black powder (sometimes called cannon char) and lots and lots of langridge (or langrage, read: shrapnel). These pots are then buried into the soil, their mouths pointed in the desired direction of the blast, and when needed are set off with a long fuse. Variable and messy, but very cheap and relatively simple to produce.

Most repellents and the like work on a rapid expansion in air principle, so it that sense much of a skold/legermain's arsenal is somewhat gaseous, if not to start with, certainly once "deployed". There are a few pure gas potives, but they are rare due to difficulties of storage (usually in a tightly stitched animal bladder of some variety).

Breakfast today: Apricot Fruity Bix