Adam Christopher | Steampunk and dark fantasy author. Now with added superheroes!
Adam Christopher is a New Zealand-born SF writer living in the sunny north of England.Archive for General
Update and NaNoWriMo
Okay, that last post where I said I’d keep everything up to date? Slightly premature. But stay tuned, I have a brand new website comin’ along real soon. I’m going to hold off posting anything substantial to this until the new site is running, to save the hassle of reposting it. Should be all systems go sometime this week.
In the meantime, I’ve signed up to NaNoWriMo as a way to get my third novel kick-started, so feel free to add me as a writing buddy and we can spur each other on!
The other Thursday
Darn, I already have a post called ‘Thursday’. I should have delayed until tomorrow.
Just the briefest of updates. September is pretty busy and I’ve just got back from San Francisco, hence no updates in the last week. I’m going to schedule, as a minimum, twice-weekly updates, one on Sunday and one on Wednesday. The Sunday one will be a Writing Habits interview, the Wednesday one will be a proper blog entry. I’m going to try and do more than that, but that’s the minimum content per week.
But in the meantime I have some sleep and a metric buttload of work to get through, so let’s meet up again here real soon, okay?
Thursday
It’s Thursday, that time of the week that (like Arthur Dent) I could never get the hang of, so I’ll keep it brief. I’ll even itemise things.
The Devil in Chains
Somebody added my 2008 novella to Good Reads (although apparently it doesn’t recognise the cover), and even reviewed it! I’m rather flattered, and quite frankly to have someone tell me that in one scene,
An ordinary exploration of an empty room suddenly becomes an exercise in exquisite grotesquerie.
… makes me all sorts of happy inside.
What also makes my head spin is a review in the form of a Shakespearean sonnet. This goes beyond flattery and into the surreal realms of honour. I think a w00t is called for. Thanks to Kate for her devotion to the cause!
Speaking of The Devil in Chains, I need to get cracking on reformatting the PDF properly for the Sony eBook reader. This website will also undergo a bit of a redesign when Seven Wonders is done, which will make it easier to keep track of projects and also easier for people to find stuff to read. For the moment, you can grab The Devil in Chains here as a PDF, or here as an eBook for the iPhone/iPod touch.
Seven Wonders
The book that never ends! Actually that sounds a bit harsh. The draft of this superhero novel is at about 95,000 words, and I’m slowly in-filling the middle bit. I’m giving myself to the end of August for this, and I think I’m on track. It’s actually a lot of fun writing about Tony and Jeannie and Sam and Joe and SMART, as not only do I know what happens to them at the end, I’ve already written it. Going back in time a few weeks and seeing what they were up to before everything went wrong is really interesting as a writer.
Master project list
Something else for the website is a proper tracker of projects, but I’ve yet to find the right funky progress bar widget. However, having discovered the wonder of VoodooPad (basically your own personal off-line wiki), I’ve started transferring dozens of separate documents of notes and ideas into one repository, which means I’ve also created a master index of novels, plotting out a sort of schedule well into 2010 and beyond. VoodooPad is a work of genius, and now joins Scrivener on my list of essential writing tools.
Which means nothing until I actually show you guys something, but it did surprise me (pleasantly, I should add), that I’ve got no fewer than 11 novels planned so far. Which is good, because to make it as a writer you need, firstly, to keep writing and writing and writing, and then when hopefully something is picked up, if you want to make a living out of it you have to be working on the next book, and then the next, and then the next.
So a list of 11 books is easy. It’s just a list and a few notes for each. Ideas are cheap and the imagination is limitless. Sitting down and writing is hard, but at least I know where I am aiming.
Tall, handsome and Canadian. And tall.
Two weeks ago I was trapped in a football stadium in Milton Keynes with the cast of Torchwood. I know, it sounds bad. But two of my personal heroes were there too, Leonard Nimoy and Nathan Fillion, so I was safe enough.
Anyway, to complete the portrait gallery, my picture with Nathan arrived the other day. Now, I knew Nathan Fillion was a handsome chap, but seeing him in person was still quite a surprise. He’s tall, and broad, and has great hair, great skin, and a great smile. And he’s tall. Have I mentioned tall? I’m just under 6 feet, more or less, so I’ll leave you to do the maths.
Tall, handsome and Canadian actor meets not-so- tall, not-so-handsome, not-so-Canadian SF writer. Hilarity ensues!
So there we go. I met Spock. I met Captain Malcolm Reynolds AND bestselling mystery writer Rick Castle (and I have the autograph to prove it). Life, I think, is complete.
Captain Tightpants and the green-blooded hobgoblin
Whoever said you should never meet your heroes was clearly an idiot. I spent six hours yesterday driving to and from Collectormania at Milton Keynes to spent about thirty seconds with two of my own heroes, Nathan Fillion and Leonard Nimoy, and it was worth every mile. Even the permanent roadworks at Birmingham (a ruse to get people on to the M6 Toll, I’m certain) and torrential downpour that only a British summer can give couldn’t remove the smile from my face.
I suppose there’s nothing much to say. Nathan is tall, broad, handsome, has great hair, perfect skin, walks with a film star swagger and was utterly charming and delightful. Seeing my autograph request, he asked where my wife was (she couldn’t make it down), laughed when I asked him to sign a Castle picture as Richard Castle, and even wrote a neat tagline above the name (“Murder, he wrote!”). It was especially cool to meet him now, having just finished watching the completely superb first season of Castle a few weeks ago. I meant to ask when shooting starts on season two, but quite frankly I was far too star struck to manage much conversation.
I did actually get a pic with him personally, which is coming by post, but in the meantime I snuck in this snap while standing in the autograph queue.
Rick Castle himself signs his latest bestseller!
Leonard Nimoy, on the other hand, was an entirely different prospect. I’m not sure I’ve ever met quite such a legend as he, and certainly his autograph queue was the longest of the day. But he was also charming, a real gent, signing a picture of Spock for me (no dedication), saying it was a pleasure with a smile. And then later on I got a little closer and exchange a handshake and some polite chit chat.
Famous actor Leonard Nimoy and not quite so famous SF author Adam Christopher, Sunday 7th June, 2009. That's Nimoy on the right.
And that was it. A entire day and probably a minute of rubbing shoulders with two personal heroes. I also got fairly close to Philip Glenister and the Ashes to Ashes Audi, but possibly the biggest surprise of the day was that people actually seem to have watched Torchwood, going by the crowds of adoring fans the cast appeared to attract.
Funny old world, innit?
The One Rule, and how I broke it
No sooner had I posted my little lecture on making writing the ONLY thing you do, I went and got a gig reporting on the Bristol Comic Expo last weekend. I knew as soon as it was arranged that this was going to put a serious dent in my writing schedule, and I was dead right. Quite apart from the 6-hour round trip to Bristol and back, and two nights away from home, taking notes from three 1-hour audio recordings, then turning them into three 3000-word articles, is one metric buttload of work – this, and the fact that I bizzarely decided to write a short story at the same time (more on that later). But as a DC fan through-and-through, the chance to hear Dan DiDio in person was just too good an opportunity to miss, and despite it taking a big bite out of my novel time, it was a fantastic weekend. My first report is up on CBR, and you can enjoy it here. My hat is off to CBR editor Jonah Weiland for making my articles look so good with lots of tasty comic art to accompany them!
However, although my wordcount suffered, it was a very worthwhile experience for one important reason. Getting a peek into the inner workings of a comics company as large as DC was an incredible inspiration – there are dozens of creators, writers and artists working very hard to keep an entire universe of characters and storylines going. The planning and management of such a vast mythos as the DCU requires, according to Dan, rooms full of whiteboards and blackboards and story charts, all kept under tight security.
And then it occurred to me. It was all about the story. Hearing it from Dan himself, and the host of DC creators who were at the expo, it was patently clear that the number one priority was telling good stories.
That, to me, is a wonderful inspiration, that people are striving so hard to entertain others with works of fiction. And really, fiction, the written word – be it book, novel, short story, comic, screenplay, theatre script, even the scripting in a computer game – is what most of us spend most of our leisure time seeking. Human culture derives most of its entertainment – and let’s face it, the persuit of happiness is mainly what life is about – from storytelling.
This is perhaps not news to a lot of people. But sometimes you come to these kind of realisations, even though it was staring you right in the face. This is a good thing.
So after a weekend and a week buried deep in the DC universe, I’ve emerged recharged and re-inspired. And of course, I happen to actually be writing a superhero novel anyway, caught somewhere between the brightly coloured spandex of the Justice League of America and the muted adult tones of Watchmen.
Seven Wonders then has hit 14,377 words, which leaves 85,663 to go. I’ll need to rejig my timetable as I’m about two weeks off schedule, but with a bit of luck this new-found creative energy will let me build up a bit of momentum, and I’ll be able to get some extra words down to catch up. And in fact the 6,800 word short story I wrote in the three days immediately following from Bristol was a really good exercise in getting the imagination back in gear.
But more on that later!
Justice League International (Bristol branch)
A slight diversion, but as I’m writing a superhero novel, an entirely appropriate one.
Dan DiDio and the author*. *Accuracy of statement not guaranteed in all States and territories.
Spent a terrific weekend at the Bristol Comic Expo stalking DC Comics‘ very own Senior VP and Executive Editor Dan DiDio. He’s a brilliant speaker, and given the mind-boggingly awesome state that the DC Universe is in at the moment, his two panels (DC Nation and the DCU) were entertaining and fascinating.
Anyway, you’ll be able to read full reports from yours truly on the panels (plus Dave Gibbon’s chat about Watchmen) at comicbookresources later in the week.
Now, back to the writing!
And now in glorious colour…
New Gods, new look! Okay, cheesy as hell. But sometimes cheese is good, right?
What isn’t cheesy at all is the fab new banner crafted by fellow comic book and general SF afficiando Lee Medcalf, to whom I am eternally grateful for his mad skillz. Lee can be found on Twitter as @CartoonBeardy, and his excellent blog is linked to the right there. Lee is currently slagging off my favourite author, H.P. Lovecraft, over on his site, so be sure to pay him a visit and post spam in his comments. Tell him I sent you!
Why the change? Well, steampunk is dark and monochromatic and greasy, while superheroes are bright and breezy. So this blog is now in presented in colour-o-vision! Behold the fine blue background, it took ages to find the right shade.
So my thanks to Lee, whose banner will be proudly displayed as I tackle my second novel!
On holiday on purpose
Back from the cliffs of North Devon. Normal service will resume shortly!
You know you are procrastinating when…
…you spend hours adjusting your blog’s CSS. But hey, it’s fun to learn by trial and error!
