Updates

Bullet points for the win!

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  • I went to Edinburgh for a few days last week. It was amazing–Edinburgh has such a wonderful vibe. It’s one of my favourite cities, but I think I’d need an actual reason to live there, rather than just waking up and deciding, “Okay, I’m moving to Edinburgh.” (Granted, you never know when you’re going to wake up and make snap decisions, so never say never?) I got to meet one of my ex-flatmates and we had a lovely time catching up etc.
  • I finished revising Draft Three of the werewolves while I was over there. Had breakfast, went back to my room, and thought, “Oh, wait, I could just finish the edits here.” So I stuck the DO NOT DISTURB sign on the door and spent six hours on them. I felt brilliant when they were done. And a little hungry.
  • Draft Three went off to readers over the weekend! One of them has already got back to me and is halfway through. I should be getting some comments by the start of next week, which is putting me weeks ahead of schedule. Looks very likely that querying will begin before the end of this month.
  • I started Draft Three of my new book today! It’s a YA steampunk with Alice in Wonderland illusions allusions. No, it’s not thanks to Tim Burton. I wrote the first draft back in late 2007, started a second draft, and then put it aside because I knew I had to improve to make it the best it could be. I went off and wrote the werewolves, which taught me a lot, so I can now say that putting the Alice book aside was a good idea. I also put a word counter thingy for it in the sidebar.
  • I got to bring out all my steampunk and Alice playlists, and I’m in the process of searching for all my Victorian history books. It’s set in an alternate London, but with enough similarities to keep it recognisable, so it’s time for a history brush up. Exciting!
  • The Cheshire Cat is awesome. Trust me.

Things I am loving lately

Helen3 Comments

Things I am loving lately:

  • THE NAME OF THE WIND by Patrick Rothfuss.

I finished THE NAME OF THE WIND this morning, and just–wow. I closed the book and had to take a moment of stunned silence in an attempt to sort my thoughts out. It’s the most amazing thing to find a gem of a fantasy tome to work through, a fully developed and detailed world to get lost in for hours and days. I wasn’t entirely sure where everything was going towards the end of the novel, but all the revelations towards the end–! After a year of putting off reading this in case the hype didn’t live up to my expectations, I’m as desperate as everyone else for THE WISE MAN’S FEAR to come out. *wants!*

  • Glee

Glee has been airing in Ireland and the UK for the last few weeks, so my housemate and I have been watching it every week. I’m loving it so far, and my love only increases with every new episode (no spoilers, please!). We’re watching the episodes that are aired on Monday evenings, so I have something to look forward to on Mondays now. It’s a win-win situation. The way the teenagers are portrayed and the dialogue, and the way the darker issues are handled–it’s skillfully done and kind of, well, epic. Two thumbs up, and I’m looking forward to buying Volume 1 of the soundtrack soon.

  • My Writing Workshop

I’ve been attending a writing workshop that specialises in children’s and YA fiction for the past few weeks. It’s been brilliant so far. The other people in the class are lovely and there are so many good ideas being worked on. I’ve also been taking a few stumbling steps towards sucking less at reading my work aloud. It’s a massive change, being able to talk about writing with people who aren’t online, but it’s incredibly freeing at the same time.

  • My book

Heh. When the editing is good well. 😉 Over halfway through now, almost there!

Happy Chocolate Day!

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While I have mixed feelings about Valentine’s Day (on the one hand, it’s always good to know people care about you; on the other , why does it have to involve pink and sparkles, and be on this day?), I still hope everyone has a lovely one. Even if you’re not in a relationship right now, why not let friends and family know that you care about them–Valentine’s Day can be about platonic love, too.

Me, I had Chinese food (to also celebrate Chinese New Year) and still have a small mountain of chocolate, and my sister and I wished each other a happy Valentine’s Day through text messages. All and all, it’s a pretty good one. 🙂

AW Blog Chain: Guilty (or comfort) pleasures

Helen11 Comments

I’m taking part in Absolute’s Write‘s first blog chain of 2010. The theme for this blog chain is guilty pleasures. There have already been many posts, all of them amazing and tough to follow! I’m going to try my best, though.

My guilty pleasures are… well, there’s not much guilt in them, so much as I know they’re comforting. Like many other people, I find myself giving the chocolate and cake displays a speculative glance after a bad day (especially a bad day at work). Some days Peanut M&Ms just make everything better.

On the other hand, there are certain books and authors that I deem ‘comfort reading’. I usually save their new releases for a day off, if I can, or I reread them after having a bad day. I don’t consider them trashy or ‘easy’ books–one person’s favourite reread can be the book someone else couldn’t finish–but I know what to expect. I can lose myself in the pages for as long as I like, and there is no higher praise for a book than that.

One of my ‘comfort authors’ is Sarah Dessen. While her latest book, ALONG FOR THE RIDE, was released in the US last June, it’s finally been released over here now. Sarah is one of my favourite authors, though I came to her late. I don’t  consider her books too light or fluffy, since they do tackle serious topics but don’t get bogged down by them, but they are comfort reads nonetheless. I can’t wait to sit down with her latest UK release and get stuck in. And even though her books often work from a similar formula, each situation is treated a little differently; no book is exactly the same as its predecessor. And for a little while, at least, I can get lost in someone else’s story, whose problems may be similar to ones I faced or still face, or completely different to any I’ve experienced. It’s a bit like the appeal of reality TV or talk shows–your life could be much, much worse.

So that’s what I’m going to do once I’ve posted this blog–I’m settling down with a cup of tea and ALONG FOR THE RIDE. I’ve already read about 70 pages and I can’t wait to get back to it. If I’m lucky, I’ll be able to finish it. Otherwise, I’m going to try and read as much as I can before I have to get some sleep for work (and this is why it’s better to save a favourite read for a day off, so you don’t need to get up early the next morning!)

Other authors I consider comfort reads include: Jacqueline Carey, Tamora Pierce, Sarah Waters, Ilona Andrews, and Robin Hobb. As you can see, I also consider authors of the huge fantasy tomes to be comfort reads; one of my favourite things is to settle down with Jacqueline Carey’s latest book and read, and read, and read.

So, yes, Peanut M&Ms can sometimes make everything better. But Peanut M&Ms and a good book can make everything awesome.

The Chain:

Claire Crossdale – http://theromanticqueryletter.blogpost.com
Fresh Hell – http://freshhell.wordpress.com
shethinkstoomuch – http://shethinkstoomuch.wordpress.com
lostwanderer5.blogspot.com – http://www.lostwanderer5.blogspot.com
Lindzy1954 – http://www.lindsayncurrie.webs.com
RavenCorrinnCarluk – http://www.ravencorinncarluk.blogspot.com
Forbidden Snowflake – http://alleslinks.com/
AuburnAssassin – http://clairegillian.wordpress.com/
DavidZahir – http://zahirblue.blogspot.com/
Charlotte49ers – www.amandaplavich.com
collectonian – http://collectonian.livejournal.com <– PREVIOUS
vfury – https://helencorcoran.wordpress.com/ (ME)
Bsolah – http://benjaminsolah.com/blog <– NEXT
JackieA – http://sherrygloagtheheartofromance.blogspot.com/
LadyCat – http://carolsrandomness.blogspot.com
AimeeLaine – www.aimeelaine.com/writing/blog

Draft completed!

Helen4 Comments

Over twenty months after I started the first draft, I finished the third (or fifth, if you count two rewrite attempts that went nowhere) draft of THOSE WHO FAVOUR FIRE last Thursday. I finished it at work, during my lunch. I’m currently fixing the last couple of things that changed during this draft and then it’ll be ready to go to readers. I’m both excited and terrified, but mostly excited!

Such strange search terms…

Helen6 Comments

So like everyone who has a blog, I check my stats constantly regularly. The title of my blog is a paraphrased line from a song: “The Necklace of Marie Antoinette” by Hannah Fury. (A free download of this song, and many others, is available here on her website. Hannah Fury is one of my favourite artists and has been for years–I’ve written a lot of words to her music playing on loop.)

This is part of the song with the line that my blog title comes from:

I’ll make it look like it was meant to be

I’ll make it seem like I was innocent

I’ll make the strychnine taste like raspberry tea

Now, I sometimes forget that having strange blog titles can result in some… interesting search terms. I’ve had this blog since 2007 (I started it on livejournal, then blogspot, and finally I moved it over here where it will hopefully stay). It’s only been since I started following my wordpress stats that I’ve had proof of this.

A few weeks ago someone clicked to here through searching covering strychnine taste. At first I laughed, until I realised a potential reason for that and my laugh turned into a wheeze. Of course there are many other (and non-fatal) reasons for googling such words–how many times have you started typing random things into Google when bored?–and I’m sure many writers have typed the most bizarre “how to kill” questions into over the years. (My latest, and most strange to date, googling was: “Can a window be nailed shut?” It was a plot-related point, I assure you.)

I mentioned this to my housemates, who had a similar reaction of laughing and then wheezing. It led to an interesting conversation about Google in general.

About a week ago, I noticed another odd search term: how to make strychnine. After another moment of, “Oh, not again,” I then thought, “Hmm… how do you make strychnine? I wonder if could I use it in a story…” Ah, the mind of a writer. You can get an idea from the strangest things that collide together. It definitely beat the time I was watching one of my housemates playing Guitar Hero and realised one of my antagonists was actually double-crossing the people who were double-crossing her.

In conclusion: search terms can be very strange and amusing. And hopefully not lead to fatal results.

Blog Award

Helen6 Comments

The lovely Emily Cross gave me a blog award! Which was wonderful and unexpected. She received the award from Corra McFeydon, and the details of it are:

Please accept the ‘Creative Writer Award’ with no strings attached. You can post it within an awards page, sidebar, or new post; you can link it to me and pass it on to writers you know who host writing blogs, or you can simply read this note with my thanks attached and do nothing further. This is just intended as a gesture to further the premise ‘writer’ within ‘blogger.’ I’d love to see more writers acknowledged for the craft! Because we all are writers.

The blogs (and the people who write them, I suppose!) I am passing the award on to are:

Michelle McLean’s Writer Ramblings

Victoria Schwab

Their posts and journeys have been both informative and inspiring to me for a long time now.

Yay!

Helen3 Comments

The weather has been wretched for the past week or so–our snow is now turning into slush–which put a slight cramp in my writing (taking the laptop outside and potentially slipping would have had… unfortunate results). I have now learned that I can’t make much progress when my housemates are in the house–there are too many distractions not even including the internet.

But now the pavements are no longer deathtraps, so I have been ensconced with my laptop in coffee shops once more! I have also reached all the drama and horrible stuff that leads to the climax, which is all very exciting and means I keep trying to write just a little bit longer. If I manage to write insanely over the next few days, I may even be finished the third draft by Sunday. If not, I will definitely be finished by next week. I can hardly believe it. In some ways, it’s quite terrifying because this will be the draft that people will read and offer opinions on.

And now, in fact, I am off to write some more! I love the happy, dizzy feeling that accompanies nearing the end of a draft.

New year, new start etc.

Helen4 Comments

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas/time off and New Year. Mine was lovely, and I’m pretty excited about 2010. I have a good feeling about it. It’s already a vast improvement on 2009 for many different reasons.

I didn’t write down my New Year’s resolutions last year, but I’m going to this year. I like resolutions and the sense of purpose they bring, the feeling that there is something hopefully solid–if the resolutions are somewhat realistic–to work towards during the year.

My 2010 resolutions are:

  • 1. Start querying the werewolves when the fourth–and hopefully final–draft is ready.
  • 2. Rewrite the steampunk Alice book and hopefully get people to read that.
  • 3. Start writing in a paper diary again.
  • 4. Try to read 150 books. (I reached 76 last year. Not bad, but I can definitely do better.)
  • 5. Walk more, especially now that my student travel card has expired and public transport is expensive again.

What resolutions did any of you decide for this year?

Winter

Helen2 Comments

Winter is very strange this year. We’ve been veering from storms and intense flooding (not in Dublin, thankfully, but Cork, where my family lives, was hammered last month) to proper icy temperatures. Winter is my favourite season, and I do like the crisp, icy mornings, but I don’t like being cold and damp. The line has to be drawn somewhere! I want my frosty mornings, please, not the rainy ones.

I’ve been doing a lot of writing in Starbucks, as usual, but the wonderful festive coffees have returned. Even better, Starbucks brought the Eggnog latte back this year (it sadly wasn’t available last year) and I’ve fallen in love with it again. It’s strange, though, as it’s advertised on the signs outside, but not on the actual boards behind the counters at all–I only discovered it was actually back by a co-worker remarking they’d seen the cartons of eggnog being delivered. I immediately rushed to get one, and I was so excited that the barista serving me laughed at my enthusiasm.

I’m still working away on the third draft of TWFF. Progress has slowed due to Chapters Eleven and Twelve needing extensive rewriting. But it has to be done–it’ll just take some slow and careful work. My glimpses of the finishing line have veered dramatically in the past week or so, but I’m getting there.

I’m in the middle of writing a blog post about female characters that should be up soon. The romantic subplot of TWFF centres around three girls, and while one of them was only introduced in the third draft, two of them have been around since I wrote the first chapter of the first draft back in May 2008. I’ve learned a lot since then about writing female characters, and how to make them realistic and complex and what makes them tick. Werewolves are normally female in the world of TWFF, while men have to be bitten to shapeshift, and that put an intriguing spin on the gender dynamics of the Pack and how they interacted with each other. Thinking about all this and shaping it into a blog post has been really interesting.