I am quite pleased with myself, I have had a mass clearout of all the cast off remains from past interests and hobbies. This resulted in two rubbish bags of junk being shared out between the appropriate colour-coded rubbish bins. My husband was staggered at the amount I was throwing. Some of it was from hobbies I couldn't even remember starting! The reason for this is that I am channeling my creative energies into my writing - oh, and playing my ukulele!
I have also created a new writing area in the bedroom, and because hammers and drills are like an alien technology in my hands, I am quite pleased with the rather basic effort I have made. This is where I am now plotting out my novel.
Calawaynn developed from a short story for a writing forum I used to visit. Then I got looking at the 1000 words and realised I had the characters and situation for a novel, so I set to work plotting it deeper.
Calawaynn is a Worldwalker, a druid and magician who has lived for ten thousand years and currently residing in Dagenham, and the only person in the neighbourhood with a goblin buried under the rockery! Calawaynn is on The Council of The Three Worlds: a council formed when Alban, (the world of mankind,) and Tir-na-noOg, (the world of Faierie,) became aware of each other and began to work mutually. They were also aware of a third world, Penumbra-Ama-Va, (human and Elfin words translating as: 'World in Forever Shadow'.) Human and faierie emotions of the baser and primitive kind feed the existance of Penumbra, and part of the council work is to prevent the tides of Penumbra-Ama-Va from dragging the Human and Faierie worlds towards a darker existence.
Calawaynn is also custodian of the afflictions of mankind - blibical plagues, diseases and evils that have been the curse of humanity. Calawaynn has his own reasons why he kept them in jam and marmalade jars, and the fact is, he did.
A number of these jars are stolen by a thief from Tir-na-noOg, and one of these jars contains an imprisoned evil known as Baba Yaga. This is the evil that in fantasy was the witch that Hansel and Gretel confronted. The evil that stalked with the pendle witches. The evil that stalked with the Salem witches. Now Baba Yaga has been released and is free in Penumbra-Ama-Va, where her power is increasing and posing a serious threat to the life of Faierie and mankind - this amounts to a bad day for Calawaynn.
This starts out as a fantasy with humour but I am experimenting with shedding that humour as the darker elements and suspense mounts. This may or may not work.
Lets see how it goes.
Tuesday 13 July 2010
Thursday 8 July 2010
A dream in words
I have read many thousands of books over the years, starting with Enid Blyton when I was a child, it is probably true to say The Famous Five are perhaps my best remembered friends of those years and the biggest adventure was that gang of children and their dog opening the world of fiction to me.
At various times through mylife I have tried to write short stories and novels, I achieved several of the former and even managed two of the later. The first novel was a Western and the second a science fiction, both ran to some 800+ pages and were, quite frankly, rubbish. I seemed to find the short story easier and even had a couple published, but I wasn't happy with short stories, I liked the idea of world and character creation, these were projects I could immerse myself in to a satisfactory degree. My efforts at writing have been irregular stop-start affairs, and like all my hobbies and interests, very 'here today and gone in favour of something new tomorrow'. I am now 52 years old and it strikes me that if I want to create something a publisher will deem worthy of print, this must be the time to start.
I have swept most of my other interests and hobbies out of my life, half finished knitting, long forgotten cross-stitch. I even have amateur radio equipment to which I suddenly had an interest. (anyone want to buy two CB radio's?) I am now putting my writing and the novels within me as my central interests and I have made a good start.
Calawaynn is the working title for my first fantasy novel, and this blog will chart the progress of it's creation. Maybe you will learn about me as well, as I hope to add a few entertaining episodes from life as I proceed.
You are welcome along and experience the birth of a novelist and her rise or fall.
At various times through mylife I have tried to write short stories and novels, I achieved several of the former and even managed two of the later. The first novel was a Western and the second a science fiction, both ran to some 800+ pages and were, quite frankly, rubbish. I seemed to find the short story easier and even had a couple published, but I wasn't happy with short stories, I liked the idea of world and character creation, these were projects I could immerse myself in to a satisfactory degree. My efforts at writing have been irregular stop-start affairs, and like all my hobbies and interests, very 'here today and gone in favour of something new tomorrow'. I am now 52 years old and it strikes me that if I want to create something a publisher will deem worthy of print, this must be the time to start.
I have swept most of my other interests and hobbies out of my life, half finished knitting, long forgotten cross-stitch. I even have amateur radio equipment to which I suddenly had an interest. (anyone want to buy two CB radio's?) I am now putting my writing and the novels within me as my central interests and I have made a good start.
Calawaynn is the working title for my first fantasy novel, and this blog will chart the progress of it's creation. Maybe you will learn about me as well, as I hope to add a few entertaining episodes from life as I proceed.
You are welcome along and experience the birth of a novelist and her rise or fall.
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