This week, I have mainly been proofreading. Specifically, checking the page proofs for Guardians of Paradise, which is due out in just over three months. Review copies should be ready to go out far sooner. This means that the time has come to employ the marvels of t’internet to find out what, if anything, the […]
The internet: all life is there
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 13 June 2010 0
Proving myself wrong
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 9 June 2010 0
I had intended to write about the ‘two-thirds blues’, that point in writing the first draft of a novel when the initial impetus is long gone and the end seems impossibly far away. However, my protracted writing wibble of the last few weeks means I’m over that hurdle now; I’m currently working on the climax […]
Parish Notices
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 4 June 2010 1
Firstly: the official launch/signing for Guardians of Paradise will be, as is becoming at traditional, at the Little Green Dragon Bookshop in Alton, Hampshire. The date will be Saturday October 2nd, which is actually a couple of weeks after the book hits the shops, but does coincide with the local literary festival. More details to […]
Three years ago today …
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 31 May 2010 0
… I got the phone call that changed my life. The one from J, who is now my editor, offering me a three-book deal. I still remember clearly the combined sense of elation and disbelief I felt, not just as she was talking to me but for about two days afterwards. It had finally happened. […]
Fractal Quilting #4 – stitching in
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 27 May 2010 0
Earlier this year, when I was giving a talk at my old uni, a creative writing student asked whether I wrote my narrative in the order I expected it to be read. I had to say, rather unhelpfully, that I did and I didn’t. For me, the pleasure of writing is the act of accumulating […]
Fractal Quilting #3 – casting on
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 21 May 2010 0
Having built up to the monumental arrival of that first scene – the signal to begin actually writing the novel – I should probably explain that this moment isn’t always a perfect creative epiphany. OK, sometimes it is: I wrote the prologue for Guardians of Paradise longhand in one frantic splurge, in the waiting room […]
Fractal Quilting #2 – making hexagons
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 18 May 2010 3
Ah yes, the first scene: the signal to actually begin writing the damn novel, as opposed to just scribbling notes about it. However, by the time I come to (and I wince at the term) create my narrative I will have committed some of those scribbled notes to electronic files, and that’s what I’m going […]
Fractal Quilting #1 – accumulation of pattern
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 13 May 2010 0
Working on first drafts always leads to periods of silent contemplation up in t’garret, because considering how first drafts come to be written is far easier than actually writing them. I came up with the phrase ‘fractal storytelling’ during one such unfocused-cloud-staring-session; however, cool though it sounds, it’s not entirely accurate. I’ve settled instead on […]
Weird ego-maths
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 8 May 2010 3
In the way such things do, a possible definition of writing success recently popped into my head: when the number of hours people have spent reading your stories exceeds the number of hours you’re spent writing them, you’ve done it. Whatever ‘it’ is. I did wonder if it’s possible to, as our American friends say, […]
Story! For free!
Posted by Jaine Fenn on 3 May 2010 2
We’re back in sunny Hampshire: as often seems to happen, going on holiday has left me mentally refreshed but physically exhausted. That’s probably the right way round, though. While I was away a somewhat atypical story of mine, ‘A Mirror to Life’ has been posted up at ‘DayBreak’ magazine, the online story website for the […]