Authentic Arctic Thrillers
I’ve mentioned the tradition I had about sacrificing my first drafts to the sea, and if I managed to grab them, then they were meant to be. Well, I performed the ritual sacrifice each time on Denmark’s west coast, with varying success, and, to date, very, very few sales. 😉
Just keep writing!
Which is what I did.
And for the curious among you, the draft in question was Slow Demons.
Chris
As much as I think I can edit electronically, prior to getting more eyes on a manuscript, I really need to work through a paper copy of the manuscript.
I found the above picture of one of my Steampunk books (yes, I’m obviously in that folder at the moment on the hard drive) and I can see that I’m still doing exactly what I was doing several years ago.
Chris
Back when I knew, I mean I just knew I was going to be a successful author of Steampunk books, I had a publishing ritual.
Jane and I moved into a crappy bungalow apartment in Denmark after returning from Greenland. It was the worst apartment ever. It reeked of cigarette smoke. The neighbours were loud and often drunk, playing music at stupid hours and doing that whole stupid drunk thing of adjusting the volume up and down.
Jane and I were both struggling with reentry to Europe – each in our own way, as we tried to come to terms with a faster and more urgent way of life, and a whole new set of priorities.
The weird thing was, these new priorities really didn’t seem very important at all. A bad day at the boarding school where I worked might include an incident when a member of staff didn’t tidy up after themselves. I had to bite my tongue several times to stop myself asking if anyone had died. Because, on a bad day in Greenland, someone probably had.
But I had this ritual.
When I finished a book Jane and I would take a short drive to the beach on the west coast of Denmark. I would walk to the water’s edge and toss my manuscript onto the sand as the water receded. If I managed to retrieve it before the waves returned, then it was meant to be.
I liked this ritual, just like I liked the foam on my boots, the sun in my face, and even the sand between the pages that I found when editing.
It was a good ritual.
The only problem was, it didn’t work.
Not one of those books I tossed into the sea ever really sold. I mean, if the sea had told me that, I could have saved a lot of money on commissioning covers, etc. Of course, if I really thought about it, then I would realise that the fact that I could grab the manuscript before the sea took it probably meant the sea didn’t want it.
Hmm.
As Maratse would say.
Now, I still love those Steampunk stories. They are not nearly as polished as my later work, but the raw edge to them makes them fun to read.
At least for me.
Apparently, not the sea.
But then there was a second part to the ritual. A very important part: cake!
It was a sign!
And regardless of whether the sea wanted any of my books, it got Jane and I out of that crappy apartment.
Curiously, I haven’t once tossed a single Greenland story into the sea.
And again, with another Maratse Hmm, I could think about that, and celebrate with a slice of cake!
Chris
I published The Ice Star on January 26th, 2017. It was the first book I published that ever really sold, and it changed everything.
If you’re familiar with my story around writing The Ice Star, you’ll know I was sick of it. I had rewritten the book, from scratch, at least three times. While the lecturers at Falmouth University thought I was on to something, and I achieved a distinction for my work on The Ice Star (graduating in 2015), I was done. My brain was cooked. And, as I’ve mentioned before, I embarked on what I knew would be a successful writing career based on the conviction that The Ice Star would never sell, and Steampunk was the way forward.
Yeah.
That went well.
It took two months on the Yukon River to persuade me to dust off the latest draft of The Ice Star, and I revisited it on a tiny computer in the canteen of an Alaskan ferry crossing Prince William Sound.
I can’t remember how much I wrote on the ferry, but I finished revamping the story (and The Starlighter) before the end of 2016. I self-published in January 2017, and things became interesting after that.
And Maratse arrived, of course.
I often credit Seven Graves, One Winter as my breakthrough book, but really it was The Ice Star. Maratse is in it – his first ever appearance – but it was Konstabel Fenna Brongaard who forged my writing career.
So this post, and the new cover, is basically a thank you to Fenna, and the readers who bought the book and helped me take the next step on my way to becoming an independent author.
Chris
Everyone needs a hero – or several. One of mine is the Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen. Fans of Scott will protest, and I’ll ignore them. 😉 However, one of Amundsen’s classic quotes was in a telegram he sent to Scott: ‘Beg leave to inform you Fram proceeding Antarctic. Amundsen’. Thus kick-starting the race for the South Pole.
Love it!
And in that vein… Petra is heading south!
The Crocodile Beat is coming along, and I’m using concept art to develop it.*
I started using 3D art in the creative process last year. Before that I often used sketches to puzzle out one thing or another, but the 3D stuff has taken it to a new level. Like it or loathe it, I’m loving it! 🙂
Anyway, you’ll see in artwork above, I’m teasing out an idea of Petra in a desert area. She’s got a small pistol tucked into the small of her back, a water bottle, and the ubiquitous Land Rover.
She’s all set.
About that Land Rover, however. I’ve always loved them, always wanted one, and even more after a very short stint as an off-road instructor in a Land Rover Defender. But money and climate… you know. Owning a Land Rover is never going to happen.
But, if you’ve read some of my books, you’ll note that they turn up every now and again. 😉
Chris
*Edit (February 5, 2022): The Crocodile Beat will be a stand-alone novel. Sigh. 🙂
If you’re reading this then I succeeded in a personal challenge I set myself this time last year. I signed up for the challenge to write one short story a week for fifty-two weeks, and I recently uploaded the last one.
For those of you following my blog, or curious/concerned about the variety of pen names, genres and other “stuff” I’ve been writing this year, the challenge goes some way to explaining that.
What I discovered was, I like short stories. I need to get better at them, but I enjoy writing them. Some are available to buy, some are in collections, and some are in a digital pile as I wonder what to do with them. But they are done.
What’s next?
Another challenge?
That’s the question I’m asking myself at the moment. And while I think I have an idea, I’m still mulling it over.
Chris