{"id":17361,"date":"2012-11-28T06:30:36","date_gmt":"2012-11-27T17:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=17361"},"modified":"2012-11-28T17:40:42","modified_gmt":"2012-11-28T04:40:42","slug":"the-next-big-idea-an-author-tags-author-meme","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/11\/28\/the-next-big-idea-an-author-tags-author-meme\/","title":{"rendered":"The Next Big Thing—An “Author Tags Author” Meme"},"content":{"rendered":"

A while back, fellow SpecFicNZ writer Amanda Fitzwater<\/a> tagged me to do a “The Next Big Thing”<\/strong> post, but at the time I was snowed under so I had to pass on the opportunity. But I always felt a little bit as though I had let the ball drop, so when UK author, Elspeth Cooper<\/a>, asked if I’d be willing to be tagged again, this time I said “yes.”<\/p>\n

In terms of what “The Next Big Thing”<\/strong> is\u2014well, I guess it’s a meme, only in this case it’s a meme that applies specifically to books and writing and is all about authors “hanging together” (in the sense of the first part of the famous Benjamin Franklin quote) and saying: “hey, look what’s happening, not just here, but with other authors over here, and also here.”<\/em> And there always seems to be something fun and\/or interesting happening, which is pretty durned good from where I’m sitting.<\/p>\n

But hey, today it’s my turn, so here goes with “The Next Big Thing”<\/strong> meme\u2014“\u2026on Anything, Really”<\/em> style.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. What is the working title of your next book?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Ha! That’s easy: Daughter of Blood<\/em><\/strong>, The Wall of Night Book Three<\/strong>. \ud83d\ude42<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Daughter of Blood<\/em><\/strong> is part of a series, so is part of the overall The Wall of Night<\/strong> quartet’s “big idea”, which is basically about an alternate world where an alien people, the Derai, believe themselves to be the champions of good, but are divided by prejudice suspicion and fear. <\/span><\/p>\n

Where did that particular idea come from\u2014I guess I’m of the school of Ursula Le Guin in the sense that I feel ideas are “just there”, in the ether so to speak, and as authors we simply reach out and pull them into being.<\/span><\/p>\n

Having said that, the initial idea of a twilit shadowy world (the Wall of Night itself, in this case) first came when I was a kid living in Singapore where the equatorial nightfall always came very swiftly. Experiencing that left a real impression, and at the time I was also reading the Norse myths, with concepts such the twilight of the gods, and books like Alan Garner’s Elidor<\/strong><\/em>, about a world that is literally all in darkness. A little later, I was entranced by the Beleriand backstory alluded to in The Lord of the Rings<\/em><\/strong>, which is also full of shadow and darkness. So in a world building sense, I kept working with that idea in my head until the Wall of Night environment took more concrete shape.<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of the people who believe themselves to be the champions of good, but are divided by prejudice suspicion and fear\u2014I think that idea probably comes out of my passion for history, as well as simply observing human fallibility via current affairs. But it was also sparked by long mulling over the trend I perceived in a great deal of the Fantasy I was reading, for the so-called “good guys” to do a lot of questionable stuff—but that was ok, by implication, simply because they were on the \u201cright\u201d side. I also really missed storytelling where the internal conflict within the protagonists is what really drives the story, not who smites whom and what colour hat they’re wearing when they do it (i.e. “white hats”\/”black hats.”)<\/span><\/p>\n

So I decided that I wanted to write a story where the internal conflict within both the individual protagonists, particularly Malian, the Heir of Night, and her friend Kalan (the two central characters), as well as their society (the Derai) is what the story is really all about.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. What genre does your book fall under?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Again, with the “ha!” because I think I already answered this question under 2)–but I see The Wall of Night<\/strong> series as “epic” and\/or “high” fantasy in the tradition of works such as Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings<\/strong> and Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar<\/strong> trilogy. It’s also been described as “Dark Fantasy” which I would agree with to the extent that there is a great deal of darkness in the story and some elements of horror\u2014but it’s definitely not “Horror” in a genre sense.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

This is such a hard question, because with Malian and Kalan I find it hard to pick out characters who really “fit” them, either in terms of how they look or their characters. I wonder of that’s partly because of how stereotyped female characters in particular are in terms of portraying strength of character\u2026 Plus there’s the whole young Malian and Kalan in The Heir of Night<\/em><\/strong>, and grown up Malian and Kalan in The Gathering of the Lost<\/em><\/strong> and now Daughter of Blood<\/strong><\/em>. So I really am going to have to pass on this one because there really is no one I can readily point to who seems “right.”<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I’m going to go with Daughter of Blood<\/em><\/strong> on its own for this one, since I’ve already given you the one sentence for The Wall of Night<\/strong> series\u2014so here goes\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

“Fearing that the Darkswarm is poised to rise, Malian and Kalan risk their freedom by returning to the Wall of Night—only to find that rather than uniting against external threat, the already dangerously weak Derai Alliance is focused on internal power plays and risks fracturing apart.”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Wall of Night<\/strong> series is published by HarperCollins in the USA, and Orbit in the UK, Australia and New Zealand. My work is represented by Robin Rue of Writers House Literary Agency.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

I am still writing Daughter of Blood<\/em><\/strong> and have been working on it for just on a year now.<\/span><\/p>\n

It took me 5 years to complete The Heir of Night<\/em><\/strong> (145,000 words), writing very much as and when I could snatch the time. My second novel, Thornspell<\/em><\/strong> (70,000 words), took seven months, and The Gathering of the Lost<\/em><\/strong> (200,000 words) took just on two years to complete.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

As above, I think the Wall series is epic Fantasy that sits in the same broad<\/em> quadrant of the Fantasy universe as The Lord of the Rings<\/em><\/strong> and Guy Gavriel Kay’s Fionavar<\/strong> trilogy. Other stories I see as sitting in the same broad quadrant include:<\/span><\/p>\n