Hi, dudes. It was starting to look a little dusty around here, so I thought I'd break my weird radio silence and try to get back into it. I also owe it to aigooism, because she is awesomebeans and gifted my account with paid time. ♥ Plus, I've missed hanging out on LJ. After finishing the first draft of the steampunk novel I drifted into the vast post-novel chasm of lethargy, and it's been a bugger trying to get back out. Mind, I really did mash that puppy for two solid months, so I should have probably been prepared for a reasonable amount of fallout. But urk, I so wasn't prepared.

To deal with my recent creative dry spell, I've been doing a lot of DIY around the house. It keeps me busy and physically active, and ultimately satisfied when it goes right! The place is starting to feel fresh and sprung, and that helps me feel fresh and all springy. Good times.

It was also my writing group's 1st birthday, and last Tuesday we had an impromptu party to celebrate. I can't believe it's been a year since Storyslingers started. In some ways it's like I've known them forever, and in others it's like we're still brand new. Hopefully our second year will be even more productive than the first.

On the writing front, I think I'm steadily getting my mojo back, entertaining some new short story ideas. One of them focuses on a not-too-distant future in which there are web designers for our faces. See there, I'm combining things I know about with things on which I can only speculate! I did finish the first draft of the story about lightning, but have come to realise—with the help of a beta reader—that it's too rushed and I need more time to work it as a longer piece, maybe a novelette or even a novella. For now it is going back into the WIP folder while I concentrate on other stuff.

Oh, and I've finally succumbed to Tumblr. If you have an account there and fancy connecting, go ahead. I will add you right back. The Tumblr may be updated more regularly than the blog, and it'll be about general stuff like media, literature, a bit of writing, and odd snippets from my brain. I think I already prefer it to Twitter...

I want to post about movies I've seen, music I currently love, games I've played and books I'm obsessed with, but this is getting rather long so I'll do the rest soon. For now, I'll leave off with one of my favourite tracks at the moment:

♫ Too Close, by Alex Clare. I'm so happy this is doing well in the UK charts. :)

This past week's been exhausting but in a positive and productive way. I'm still behind on all things LJ and I'm sorry if I've missed anything important. I hope everyone is well!

The Dorset Writers' Network publishing day went swimmingly. Me and Jennifer Bell gave a talk on e-zines and online publishing, and amazingly I wasn't all that nervous, even though it was my first time addressing a (small, but big to me) crowd on a Topic of Interest. At one or two points we thought we were losing them, but the feedback was good and a few people asked if they could send follow-up emails if they had any problems. We also got to see a real, live Agent—in the flesh!—which helped demystify them a great deal. She was extremely nice, and after finding out she represents the genres I write in, I took her business card.

Then yesterday I skipped over to Bath with Becky Bye, Beth Stewart, and Jennifer Bell for a speculative fiction workshop held at Roscoff Deli and lead by a lovely group of post-grad creative writing students. It was so nice to connect with more local writers, and we've since swapped Twitter handles so we can stay in touch.

On Sunday I finally got to type "The End" in my steampunk novel document! It's a first draft that's sparse in places, and a draft that's full of plot holes big and small, but I am aware of those plot holes and I know they can be fixed. I'm letting it settle for a few days before I begin any editing, and in the meantime I'm going to write the outline (yeah, backwards!) and shuffle things around for maximum impact. My little first draft is woefully broken right now, but I do love it. ♥

And at last, I'm slowly cobbling together my very own custom layout for www.jenniferkoliver.com. It'll run on Wordpress, using the Thematic Framework (which is brilliant, btw) , and I'm really excited about it, but man it's a slog figuring out some of the code. The design hints at the Victorian era and is light and fun and whimsical, which will work nicely alongside my current projects (and a few on the distant horizon). I've also been itching to change my LJ shoe layout for a while, so I think I might adapt the new layout for this blog, too. Anyway, once I'm down with the WP theming, I should be able to switch it up now and then to keep everything feeling fresh. On top of that, I've got a couple of small web design commissions on the go. All in all, good times!

♫ Deathcar, by Fightstar.

65,000 words through the first draft of the steampunk novel. A few weeks ago hierath linked to one of her blog posts in which she talks about story walls, and how they seem to crop up for a lot of writers at the one-third and two-thirds stages of a project. Being a bit of a newb at this novel writing racket, I assumed I was immune to these writing phenomena when the first 25k words went so quickly, but nope: I hit my walls around 25-30k and 60k. It's freaky! Anyway, I am pleased to say I'm now (mostly) unstuck and THE END looms. I also have the beginnings of plot for the follow-up novel. Aaah!

I'm also hammering away at new short story that grew from a totally random plot-bunny attack. I can't remember why it came up, or where it came from, but something obviously pinged my brain recently because now I am writing about strange lightning-powered machines, set in the early 1800s. That's all I'll say for now. Oh, except earlier today I did a search and found this cool article: Secret Sprites: Study Explains High-Altitude Flashes.

Something I'm finding extremely useful at the moment is this article on the 20 common grammar mistakes that (almost) everyone makes from Lit Reactor. I'm guilty of a couple of these; unfortunately, they're like a writing reflex. But I'm determined not to let any slip through into final drafts.

There are a few projects upcoming and currently in progress. It's nice to have a To Do List that's short and manageable—I don't imagine it'll always look like this!


♫ Polaroids and Chinese Whispers, by Our Ceasing Voice. Post-rock from the Austrian Alps. This is very atmospheric; good for moody writing. It's also available for free download on Last.FM here, as are quite a few of OCV's tracks.

It's no secret I'm slightly obsessed with Paperblanks notebooks, as I've Tweeted and blogged about them before. I recently picked up two new notebooks, their stunning "Midnight Gold" and "Indigo Sky Mares," and after mentioning my purchases on Twitter I got into a micro-conversation with the good people at Paperblanks, which lead to an opportunity to take part in their bi-monthly "Featured Artist" segment.

Before I link to the interview, I should point you to their various ranges of notebooks (both lined and blank), guest books, day planners, and address books of all shapes, sizes and designs. It's so hard picking a favourite design, and I talk more in the interview about the ones I tend to favour, but there are a couple I've got my eye on for my next Paperblanks spree—their "Japanese Lacquer Boxes" collection and the "Mucha" collection. They're both so elegant and beautiful!

You can read the interview, in which I ramble about notebooks, creativity, and inspiration here. (There is also a pic of me looking all thoughtful and authorish.)

And the rest of their Featured Artist interviews can be found here.

Had a great day out in Bath last weekend, and it turned out to be very fruitful in terms of research material. I came away with way too many books, a few photos hastily snapped on my iPhone, and a gazillion details and ideas for the world-building of my steampunk novel. In the end we only managed to hit one museum—No.1 Royal Crescent—as we ended up wandering for most of the day in the crisp air, soaking up the atmosphere and architecture. More trips are required soon, and perhaps we'll be able to visit the Jane Austen Centre or the Roman Baths.

( There are a few pictures under here, mostly of miscellaneous buildings and the Royal Crescent. Some hints as to what my novel backdrop will look like )

The tour guides were gracious and extremely patient with me as I bombarded them with eager questions. Even though my research falls just after their period of expertise, they were all kind and accommodating and explained a load of nifty stuff that'll be handy when I'm editing and shuffling facts around. I also think I scared one of the guides during the following exchange:

Kind Lady Tour Guide: *interesting facts about the 18th & 19th centuries*
Jen: Wow. Can I take you home with me and sit you next to my desk so I can ask you questions as I write?
Kind Lady Tour Guide: Hahaha… *slowly backs away*

For those wondering, I didn't kidnap her. It was tempting, though.

I also succumbed to two more Paperblanks notebooks—"Autumn Maiden" and "Lindau." You might think, by now, I have too many notebooks and it'll take me years to fill them, but… there are never enough.

Never enough.

♫ Horror With Eyeballs, by The Dissociatives.

Starting my new notebook was so much fun, all those crisp pages and the new-book smell, and that shiny gold-brushed brocade hardcover and mmmm. As always, Paperblanks blows me away with their quality designs, and this particular book is the perfect look and feel for my current projects. Ah, it really is the little things in life, isn't it?

On Sunday I'm venturing to glorious Georgian Bath on a research trip with my writer friend Jennifer Bell. This will give me the opportunity to fill in some of my "[insert street name here]" notes in the novel document, and also visit various landmarks that feature in the story, including the amazing Royal Crescent where one of my characters lives (in 1865). They've done up the first townhouse in 18th century style, so I should be able to figure out the layout of the house and pick up some ideas of its contents. I'm also hoping to hit the Jane Austen museum and possibly the Pump Room restaurant for some afternoon tea. It would be fun to see the Roman Baths, but I don't know if we'll be able to fit it all in, as we also want to swing by the library. Anyway! I will no doubt take loads of pics, and I'll post some of them here if anyone's interested.

I've also got a week off work starting today, and I plan to do some serious word crunching throughout. The steampunk novel is now at 45,000 words, and I've got the rest of it figured out—hastily sketched in aforementioned notebook. In some ways, it's sad knowing everything that's about to happen, because I've had such a blast feeling my way through to this point. But, the end is in sight. Well, the end of the first draft, that is.

Hope you all have a great weekend! I should be more commenty in the coming week, as catching up with LJ happenings is high on my To Do List.

♫ Piano Tune VIP, by Bar9. More dubstep (I know, I know, but it's all I can listen to right now while I write!), this time really filthy. You need decent speakers for full effect.

How awkward is it when you're walking along and someone comes out of a room or doorway and starts walking the same way as you, and you're sort of walking together but not quite, and you don't know each other, so one person has to speed up and one has to slow down until there's enough distance between you to walk comfortably again, and everyone involved feels a tad stupid? The answer is, most awkward!

I've been playing a spot of The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion in my spare time (a little late to the party, as always), and all I can say is: epic whoa. ( Cutting this for lengthy rambles about large RPGs )

Aside from that, I've been writing, submitting, receiving rejections—a couple of them very encouraging—working, playing, and snuggling my cat. Me and my Storyslingers co-mod are hoping to host a Short Story Slam in July, so we're starting to plan for that.

I hit 40k words on the steampunk novel recently, which I estimate to be about halfway through. It's good, solid progress, and that is fab. Also, things that I started to think weren't relevant and may end up being cut are now becoming relevant. Is this a part of my brain that's one step ahead of the rest? Could be, could be! Thank you, brain. I'm still mostly running on instinct, still finding it an enterprise of discovery and excitement. But there's always that tiny, niggling fear that I'll lose the plot or veer too far from my (shady) goal.

And a couple of weeks ago I discovered:

♫ Wake You Up and Insect Flick, by Coven. A relatively new dubstep act, who I hope continue to bring out quality beats!

A couple of months ago I mentioned a short piece of mine being accepted by the fabulous Jersey Devil Press. Well, yesterday it was published on their site in Issue 27! You can read the story for free here: "Death Car Alley."

It's a 3,900 word dark, urban fantasy with hints of a monster-apocalypse and a dash of tongue-in-cheek. You can also download a .pdf of the full issue here, which I recommend because then you'll be able to read all the stories from issue 27.

I also want to say a massive thank you to Yvonne Anisimowicz and Dabs Lyons for their superb beta reading. ♥

Gosh, it's so nice to finally have something to share!

I just spent more time reading fake_lj_deaths than I care to admit. I didn't plan on getting sucked in by the deluge of crazy that's been reported there over the years, but then, I say that about a lot of websites and blogs. The things people do, the lengths they go to—like it's really worth all the effort and all the lies. But still… it makes for some interesting, eye-opening reading. Kind of reminds me of the Msscribe fandom biography, although I doubt many fakery fiascos will ever match up to the sheer scale of that one. You may need to set aside a whole weekend, if you haven't already read it. (And on a side note, I do feel horrible for the people who genuinely get hurt, who are lied to and whose good will is taken advantage of. I'm not saying it's all hilarity. Most of it is just plain train-wreck reading.) I don't think any of us can be entirely true to ourselves online, even if we tried. It's a totally different format. But it's about how you present what you do show of yourself, right? Right.

Novel progress is goodstuffs. I've passed the quarter way mark—quarter way! Aaah!—and we're only halfway through January. davidbcoe recently blogged at Magical Words about Writers and Ambition, and a lot of it resonated with me big time, especially given my current project:

"Creative ambition is what drives us to do things with our story that we’re not sure we’re capable of doing: deeply complex characters, complicated plot twists, non-linear narratives, exotic settings that require that extra round of research or brainstorming. In other words, it forces us to stretch as artists, to challenge ourselves, to risk failure by reaching for greatness."

This is exactly what I'm pushing for with the steampunk novel. At first I thought it was going to unfold in a certain way, but as I write I realise that I have the materials to do things I've never done before. The gamble is those things not working, but if I can't try it with a story like this, when can I? So, if the plot doesn't want to be linear (which it currently doesn't), I'll let it go and see what happens. If the world doesn't feel as rounded as it could, I'll research harder and bring out as many colours as I can. Right now, I'm more excited about it than terrified, though that's subject to change. *g*

And now that I have a shiny new PS3 slim (in limited edition silver, no less!), I've finally been able to finish Dragon Age II. Hurrah! As long as you don't treat it as a sequel to the epic, sprawling, plotty Dragon Age: Origins, it's a fairly entertaining game. You get to kill a lot of baddies. There are issues with uninspired backdrops and repetition, but there are a couple of nice cameos from DA:O characters. I can see why loads of fans didn't like it, but it's fun if you don't take it too seriously. I do hope DA3 will be better, though.

♫ Dragon Age II Main Theme, by Inon Zur. You might like this if you're a fan of Hans Zimmer.

Another batch of Bleach icons, this time more varied in characters, although I still couldn't keep the Arrancar entirely out. There's also a couple of silly ones, so beware. ;)





( You need to take it easy so we can fight properly... )

A little belated, but Happy New Year, everyone! I hope January is treating you kindly so far.

My January is all about writing, writing, writing. I'm learning I write more regularly on a long project than on a series of short projects. I realised that I wrote a bunch of short stories in 2011 that I never edited, and therefore never sent out on submission—this, I shall remedy in 2012. (Wait, that sounded dangerously like a Resolution!) ( Some blather about the steampunk novel-in-progress, cut for the sake of the uninterested )

getyourwordsout has kicked off and I'm already well over my target word count. The community itself is so organised and has the most dedicated mods—I love it! And I'm meeting all these cool new peeps, too. Peeps I can't wait to get to know better!

The other night at my writing group one of our members gave a presentation on Concordance software, which is for analysing language and studying electronic texts closely. There are a load of key features, like word counters, the ability to make wordlists, word frequency lists, indexes, and you can do proximity searches. My favourite thing is that you can check which words occur most often in a document (a bit like a word cloud), a handy way of weeding out those wicked crutch words you're not even aware are sneaking into your stories ("very," anyone?). Nifty. More about the software here and here.

Also, I mentioned the new TV series Eternal Law a couple of weeks ago, and I have to say so far it's not grabbing me. I'm saddened, as I had high expectations. But I'll stick with it for now and see how things unfold.

♫ Promises, by Nero. Dubsteppy goodness. Nero was probably my favourite emerging music act from 2010/2011.

I hope you all had a fabulous holiday! I'm drifting through my last few days off before I go back to work on Tuesday. To be honest, it'll be nice to slot back into a steady structure, as too many lazy mornings are bad for my health (or maybe it's all the leftover chocolate from Xmas. Who knows!).

There are two more TV events I forgot to blather about in my previous post: Downton Abbey's Christmas special and the BBC adaption of Dickens's Great Expectations. ( There are spoilers for Downton within. Also some videos and trailers of Great Expectations that Dickens fans might be interested in )

Moving on, I really want one of those spiffy little word counter thingies for the novel, but I'm afraid a counter will only enable me to obsess over numbers. It's bad enough having a word count at the bottom of Word documents (sometimes I switch them off because my eye strays there way too often, and I should be more focused on, y'know, actually writing new words, not how many old words I have).

Related, one of the things I'm enjoying the most is coming up with my own technology, especially the more creepy stuff. The worst part is that I can't talk about it, even though I want to. It's partly a jinxing thing, and partly the fear that I'll give away plot stuff that ought to be kept as a surprise. I've noticed a lot of authors are happy to talk openly about details of their stories, but I can't even bring myself to utter the title yet. I is wimpy.

Oh, and related to the above related, the other day I caught myself magpying. It was a horrible crash to Earth when I realised. I thought I'd come up with a terrific idea for a plot element, but it turned out I'd read something similar only a month or two before, so I had to take my plot back to the workbench. Such a shame, as the idea was fab, but props to the other author for making up something so cool that, for a moment, I unconsciously channelled it.

♫ Screamager, by Therapy? This takes me right back to my rock-chick days, moshing my heart out and getting stomped on. Ah!

Wishing everyone a very Happy Holidays! If you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a fabulous day anyway, full of good food and much cheer and other shiny things.

I'll be here most of the day writing and plotting and generally messing about, as I rarely do big, busy Xmases, so if you're also online tomorrow and want to chat, drop me a comment or an email.

I just saw an ad on TV for a new show set to air next year, Eternal Law. I'm not a massive fan of law shows, but this one has angels and other supernatural elements. Plus, it's written by the same team who put together Life on Mars and Ashes to Ashes, which is enough to pique my interest.

Then there's The Hobbit. I'm terribly excited about the whole thing, but there's one detail from the trailer that made me boggle—the apparent Galadriel/Gandalf squishies. Does, um, anyone remember a load of unresolved sexual tension in the books? I read them too long ago. Then again, this may simply be some sneaky, misleading cutting on the part of the people who put together the trailer. Time will tell! But oddly, I kind of like the idea. IS THAT WRONG? She's older than she looks, you know.

And since this is literally the only time I can post this, here is a short piece I wrote for my writing group, purely for entertainment. Warning for some gore. And possibly the obliteration of childhood dreams and wishes.

'Tis the Season to be Exanimate
By Jennifer K. Oliver
Festive silliness, with a grotesque twist. 1,800 words.
Many thanks to Dabs for eyeballing this. Any remaining mistakes are my own.

( The big man works us to the bone three-hundred-and-sixty-four days a year under extremely stressful conditions. We're not allowed out of the workshop. Ever. And we get paid in candy canes. I have zero sympathy… )

Another link to a handy research site. Yeah, let's call it that. Cheers to Jennifer Bell for pointing me to Bangable Dudes in History, which is much in the same vein as My Daguerreotype Boyfriend. I'd just like to thank whoever thought up these sites for their tireless dedication to vintage photography that provides me with valuable eyecandy research.

Novel plotting clips along at a pace. I'm immersed in the 19th Century, and have to keep reminding myself that at some point I'll need to pick a specific year to set the story. There's just so much interesting stuff, I'm sad I can't use it all. Settling on a decade, let alone a single year, is proving tricky.

I may have also figured out part of my playlist for the novel. I'm going to include most songs from Two Suns by Bat for Lashes. Girl can do atmosphere, and her stuff is experimental and beautifully crafted and imaginative, which works great for a steampunk setting. I particularly love Glass, Travelling Woman and Two Planets. In the past when I've talked about playlists for writing projects, people have asked "What was it about those lyrics that you felt tied in with the story?" but it's often nothing to do with the lyrics, more the emotions or atmosphere a song evokes. I generally disregard lyrics anyway, unless they're uncannily similar, which doesn't happen often. I'm not trying to find meaning in the words; I'm seeking a vibe in the overall sound that compliments what I'm writing. Anyone else use music in this way?

Randomly, I'm utterly in love with the artwork of Jo Chen, who draws the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comic covers, along with loads of other stunning things. A definite recommendation.

On Saturday I went on a trip to London with a bunch of work colleagues. Since it's so close to Christmas, we opted not to do the shops because of the hordes of last-minute gift vultures, so instead we hopped on the Tube and headed to South Kensington for the Natural History Museum and Science Museum. I finally got to face off against one of my childhood nemeses (yeah, I had more than one)—the ever bitchin' Medusa. ( Here is a picture of her. I swear, if she hadn't been standing on that giant plinth, I would've punched her in the face for all those sleepless nights when I was seven ) My favourite part of the Natural History Museum is the palaeontology zone, where you get to hang with some dinosaur fossils. There's also a animatronic T-Rex, and if you pretend really hard, it's actually pretty scary when you're standing right next to it. Here's a short video taken with my iPhone (just remember: their vision is based on movement. Gosh, what would I have done without Sam Neill?). ( A few more pics under here )

The Science Museum was a goldmine for researching my novel project, though I didn't get to see all of it. You need a day for each museum to experience the lot. Still, I loved the Exploring Space section (one of my favourite subjects is "life, the universe and everything") and Making the Modern World, which was all about technology throughout the ages. ( Here are a couple more pics ) All in all, an excellent day out.

On the writing front, I've decided where my novel will be set, and I'm now even more excited about it. The place I've chosen is local to where I live, so I'll be able to travel there regularly for research. It's also bursting with history and there's plenty of colourful facts from the Georgian and Victorian eras. I've already learned a few quirky details that I can use in the setting—things that'll give the story a gloriously grim edge. So far I have my main characters, a couple of secondaries, and some vague-but-getting-brighter ideas about the plot. Hurrah!

Ending with ♫ Come to Daddy, by Aphex Twin. This song became something of a cult phenomenon in the late 90s/early 00s. The video was shot in the same council estate where some scenes from "A Clockwork Orange" were filmed. I'd describe it as part horror, part bizarre tongue-in-cheek drum 'n' bass experiment with death metal jingle undertones, and part genius.

Starting off with a link I've found useful lately:

The Victorian & Steampunk Name Generator. Some of these random generators are fun, but often you can't use the results because they're so wacky or nonsensical, but this one is kind of cool. The names aren't so out there that they're utterly useless, and even in the cases of the more extreme names, you can often pick out single elements, mix and match them, and come up with something workable.

And now a writery question:

You're writing or have written a story. You've come up with the perfect title. You love your title—it encapsulates everything your story stands for. But you find out someone else has a story out with the exact same title. Would you change your title, or would you stick with it regardless? In a similar vein, have you ever had readers confuse your story with another story of the same title? How did it make you feel?

Now to the me stuff. I'm cutting some of this for length: ( I don't usually make resolutions, but I'm making a promise to myself that in 2012 I will write That Novel )

Thanks to momebie and theemdash mentioning this on their blogs, I've discovered a fantastic community that sounds right up my alley: getyourwordsout (there is a website here). The premise is that you pledge to write a set amount of words in a year. You can pick from five different goals: 150k, 200k, 250k, 300k, or 350k (for the seriously prolific wordslingers). Then you check in each month and let others know how it's going. I'm OK with short stories, but when it comes to long pieces I need structure, not just in the novel but also in my life, and I love the idea of having a venue to share progress updates (which can sometimes feel spammy on a personal blog or Twitter).

I'm jazzed about this project, and about sharing the ups and downs with other writers going through the same thing. I'm pledging to write 150k in 2012. I imagine between 70-100k of that will be The Novel. The rest will be spent on shorter works, as I still want to write flash fiction, short stories and novellas and continue submitting to magazines. Woo!