On Tuesday I went on Journal Jabber, a segment of BlogTalkRadio for an hour long interview about Untimed, writing, and all sorts of other stuff. It was a lot of fun and if you missed it live you can find it here at BlogTalkRadio or below directly.
Archive for Untimed
The E-Book versions of Untimed will be only $0.99 cents from Monday, April 15 until Friday the 19th! Take the plunge, it’s certainly a great deal.
Buy it on Amazon!
Tweet, share, like, follow, blog and grab a copy of my book. The trailer can be found here.
About Untimed
Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, his own mother can’t remember his name. So when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously. Still, this isn’t all bad. Who needs school when you can learn about history first hand, like from Ben Franklin himself. And there’s this girl… Yvaine… another time traveler. All good. Except for the rules: boys only travel into the past and girls only into the future. And the baggage: Yvaine’s got a baby boy and more than her share of ex-boyfriends. Still, even if they screw up history — like accidentally let the founding father be killed — they can just time travel and fix it, right? But the future they return to is nothing like Charlie remembers. To set things right, he and his scrappy new girlfriend will have to race across the centuries, battling murderous machines from the future, jealous lovers, reluctant parents, and time itself.
“A masterful storyteller, Gavin builds a solid plot with believable characters.” — Kirkus
“Adventure, chemistry… and roller coaster plot are sure to appeal.” — Publishers Weekly
“Like science class in Las Vegas!” — FantasyLiterature.com
This awesome Trailer for Untimed was made for me by The Other House, a LA based firm specializing in book trailers. They’re one of the few houses with consistently classy output. I went with an animation style because I’m bothered by live action or straight up photography (in a book context). Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 70s and 80s when only cheesy Tie-In novels had photos on the cover, who knows?
In any case, I also had to keep my trailer short (mostly for budget reasons) and so it was also an interesting exercise to squeeze the basic concept into about 15 seconds of storytelling.
Let me know how we did! And make sure to watch it in 720p!
The latest issue of Publishers Weekly just came out, and Untimed earned a starred review! I’m 2/2 on this, as The Darkening Dream also earned a star — and they are quite rare, usually only 1-2 books per issue. The review is good enough that I’ll quote it in entirety, although you can find it on the PW site too:
Gavin (The Darkening Dream), perhaps best known for his work in the video game industry as the creator of Crash Bandicoot, kicks off an exciting series with an intriguing take on time travel. Fifteen-year-old Charlie, so forgettable that his own mother can’t remember his name, is inadvertently thrown back in time when he enters a portal created by a strange clockwork man Stranded in 1725 London, Charlie joins a gang of urchins, meets lively fellow time traveler Yvaine, and accidentally gets Benjamin Franklin killed, totally wrecking the course of history. Charlie and Yvaine must brave the hazards of unfamiliar eras (and the sinister mechanical Tick-Tocks) to restore the proper course of events. Gavin doesn’t sugarcoat the perils of times past, instead exposing his heroes to all sorts of experiences, and Phillips’s dramatically lit spot illustrations amplify the mystery and menace of the setting. The sense of adventure, chemistry between Charlie and Yvaine, and roller coaster plot are sure to appeal to a wide range of readers, who may cry foul at the cliffhanger ending before demanding more.
You can also find all the Untimed reviews (which are pretty uniformly stellar) here.
To help kick off the launch, the E-Book versions of Untimed will be only $1.99 cents from Sunday, January 20 until Friday the 25th! Take the plunge, it’s certainly a great deal.
Buy it on Amazon!
Tweet, share, like, follow, blog and grab a copy of my book.
About Untimed
Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, his own mother can’t remember his name. So when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously. Still, this isn’t all bad. Who needs school when you can learn about history first hand, like from Ben Franklin himself. And there’s this girl… Yvaine… another time traveler. All good. Except for the rules: boys only travel into the past and girls only into the future. And the baggage: Yvaine’s got a baby boy and more than her share of ex-boyfriends. Still, even if they screw up history — like accidentally let the founding father be killed — they can just time travel and fix it, right? But the future they return to is nothing like Charlie remembers. To set things right, he and his scrappy new girlfriend will have to race across the centuries, battling murderous machines from the future, jealous lovers, reluctant parents, and time itself.
“A masterful storyteller, Gavin builds a solid plot with believable characters.” — Kirkus
“Like science class in Las Vegas!” — FantasyLiterature.com
I debated about publishing a hardcover edition of Untimed, as paper sales on The Darkening Dream leaned heavily to the paperback (presumably for cost reasons). In the end, I just had too, as they look so good.
This time around I did the entire mechanical (the print ready PDF) and layout myself, as I did with the paperback. Good professionals charge around $1000 per mechanical (so usually over $2000 for both paperback and hardcover). If you have a good eye and substantial Photoshop skills, it’s doable by yourself. I did every element on both paperback and hardcover exteriors except for the actual cover illustration (Cliff Nielsen did that, and that is way beyond my artistic abilities).
The hardcover mechanical would have only taken me about four hours, but I ran into a nasty bug with photoshop PDF output that cost me an extra eight. I hate that kind of thing, but it happens.
If you are interested in making a hardcover edition yourself through Lightning Source, you can read about how I did it here.
Here is what the mechanical looks like
In case you’re curious about the book behind the pretty cover:
Untimed: A YA time travel novel by Andy Gavin.
Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, his own mother can’t remember his name. So when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously. Still, this isn’t all bad. Who needs school when you can learn about history first hand, like from Ben Franklin himself. And there’s this girl… Yvaine… another time traveler. All good. Except for the rules: boys only travel into the past and girls only into the future. And the baggage: Yvaine’s got a baby boy and more than her share of ex-boyfriends. Still, even if they screw up history — like accidentally let the founding father be killed — they can just time travel and fix it, right? But the future they return to is nothing like Charlie remembers. To set things right, he and his scrappy new girlfriend will have to race across the centuries, battling murderous machines from the future, jealous lovers, reluctant parents, and time itself.
Find the Hardcover here on Amazon!
(even if it says “out of stock” you can still order it and it’ll ship in a couple of days)
Buy Sample Characters Reviews Reviewer Info
The back cover. It has the usual cloth jacket and flaps inside.
My novel, Untimed, is now for sale at Barnes and Noble and iTunes. Well, B&N at least, as iTunes (finally up as of morning 1/7/13) is still reviewing/processing, but will post shortly.
Buy it Now!
With my previous novel, Amazon had over 90% of the sales, and B&N probably did 90% of the remaining. This time around I may skip the Google Bookstore as it barely sold anything and provides a highly inferior customer experience. The Google formatting even mangled the images, which Untimed has in spades. Maybe I’ll take a look at Kobo too.
My novel Untimed was conceived as a fusion of ideas. Lingering in my mind for over twenty years was a time travel story about people from the future who fell “downtime” to relive exciting moments in history (until things go wrong). I’d worked out a time travel system but had no plot or characters. Separately, in 2010, as a break from editing The Darkening Dream, I experimented with new voice techniques, especially first person present. I also read various “competition.” One of these was The Lightning Thief (the first Percy Jackson novel), which has an amazing series concept (if a slightly limp execution). I love mythology and history, and liked the notion of something with a rich body of material to mine. I wanted an open ended high concept that drew on my strengths, which brought me back to time travel.
Some of the mechanics from my earlier concept merged well with a younger protagonist, voiced in a visceral first person present style. I started thinking about it, and his voice popped into my head. I pounded out a chapter not too dissimilar from the first chapter of the final novel. Then the most awesome villain teleported into the situation. I can’t remember how or why, but it happened quickly and spontaneously. Tick-Tocks were born (or forged).
Rapier: So bad he’s cool
The Tick-Tocks are supposed to be mysterious, and I really wanted to reveal their secrets layer by layer. It was even important that by the end of the book, while you understand a lot more about them, you don’t really know exactly where they come from or what their up to. A great nemesis needs this. Think Darth Vader or Professor Moriarty. Their secrets aren’t all on the table to begin with. Additionally, one of my favorite emotions to play with is “creep.” My first novel, The Darkening Dream, is all about creepiness, and I think it’s much more effective and scary than plain horror. So the Tocks are supposed to be creepy. Not exactly horrific, but just mysterious and creepy. That’s one of the reasons they don’t talk. Creepy.
Charlie: Not even his mother remembers his name
Charlie’s character derived automatically from his voice, which I tried to make authentically 15. And while he’s sweet, and fundamentally optimistic and good natured, realism demanded a bit of an edge. Teen boys think about shit and sex. Sorry, but it’s true. I rub up on issues that make some squirm, even if I deal with the lightly: teen pregnancy, drinking, slavery, etc. But to sweep these under the carpet wouldn’t do justice to the 18th century – or our own.
Yvaine: Comes with serious baggage
As to Yvaine. Well, she’s based in part on the kind of girl I wanted to meet when I was a teenager. This seems odd, considering how messed up she is, but like Charlie, I didn’t have much luck with girls in High School. In the 80s, being a “computer guy” and even worse, into video games, was pretty much the kiss of death (see 16 Candles for reference). Yvaine is smart, capable, and in charge, but she’s also damaged and emotionally needy. I thought the combination worked.
Donnie: If you think the wig is impressive, wait until you see his sword
Lastly, I’ll talk about Donnie. I’ve noticed that the most effective jerks tend to have some real charisma. Because of Yvaine, Charlie never really likes Donnie, but he maybe could have briefly. Donnie holds his little band together throw a mixture of intimidation, generosity, camaraderie and loyalty. He may be mostly out for himself, but he really sees himself as the protector and leader of his gang, and he acts this way to hold up his own self image. Even in the end, his loyalty to Stump is his own undoing, which is kinda sad – but that’s life. Real villains are heroes in their own stories.
Both the paperback and Kindle versions are available. If your stocking is stuffed with a brand new Kindle, or you already have one, or you read on the Kindle app anywhere (iPad, Android, etc.)…
Buy it now!
The e-book launches at the low, low price of $5.99, certainly a bargain given that it took me a year to write. Plus the book is lavishly produced with a cover by award winning fantasy artist Cliff Nielsen and there are twenty-one gorgeous interior illustrations by Dave Phillips.
For those of you that aren’t Kindle people, in the next couple of weeks I’ll try to get all the other E-Book variants up (B&N, iTunes, etc.). Also, I’m also working on a stunning hardcover edition — just because I can.
About the book:
Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, his own mother can’t remember his name. So when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously. Still, this isn’t all bad. Who needs school when you can learn about history first hand, like from Ben Franklin himself. And there’s this girl… Yvaine… another time traveler. All good. Except for the rules: boys only travel into the past and girls only into the future. And the baggage: Yvaine’s got a baby boy and more than her share of ex-boyfriends. Still, even if they screw up history — like accidentally let the founding father be killed — they can just time travel and fix it, right? But the future they return to is nothing like Charlie remembers. To set things right, he and his scrappy new girlfriend will have to race across the centuries, battling murderous machines from the future, jealous lovers, reluctant parents, and time itself.
So try it out and see what you think. Afterward, please review the book on Amazon. Reviews matter!
Buy Sample Characters Reviews Reviewer Info
Prepared yourself to launch yourself back (and forward) into history! My new time travel novel, Untimed, is launching on December 19!
Charlie’s the kind of boy that no one notices. Hell, even his own mother can’t remember his name. And girls? The invisible man gets more dates.
As if that weren’t enough, when a mysterious clockwork man tries to kill him in modern day Philadelphia, and they tumble through a hole into 1725 London, Charlie realizes even the laws of time don’t take him seriously.
Still, this isn’t all bad. In fact, there’s this girl, another time traveler, who not only remembers his name, but might even like him! Unfortunately, Yvaine carries more than her share of baggage: like a baby boy and at least two ex-boyfriends! One’s famous, the other’s murderous, and Charlie doesn’t know who is the bigger problem.
When one kills the other — and the other is nineteen year-old Ben Franklin — things get really crazy. Can their relationship survive? Can the future? Charlie and Yvaine are time travelers, they can fix this — theoretically — but the rules are complicated and the stakes are history as we know it.
And there’s one more wrinkle: he can only travel into the past, and she can only travel into the future!
The paperback and Kindle versions will be available at launch, with hardcover and other ebook adaptions to follow. The cover is by award winning fantasy artist Cliff Nielsen and there are twenty-one gorgeous interior illustrations by Dave Phillips.
Meanwhile, read the first two chapters here, free!
My latest Advanced Reader Copy of Untimed. NOTE: the white balance leans overly orange in this photo
This was a busy week for Untimed swag. The proof came for the latest ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) and it looks fantastic. Not only the outside, but the interior has a new properly done layout that includes all the illustrations and near print ready formatting.
Swag bookmarks
I also received a run of bookmarks. These look pretty cool but I wish there was an easy way to get proofs before printing a big run. The way they price these things on the online printshops (I used overnightprints.com for these) it only makes sense to order 1000-2000+, but there are no (physical) proofs. The text on the back is a little close to the trim for my taste, even though it was well inside the safety zone. They also have a 2-3mm variance in the cutting, which is typical but annoying. They aren’t all centered perfectly an I’m a perfectionist. Still, they look cool. For those of you curious about the process, below are the print ready versions.
My upcoming novel, Untimed, features an amusing cast of characters, so I gathered up their likenesses into a rather oddball “family” album which can be found here.
Longshot: Shoot first, ask questions later
I just received the final version of the Untimed cover painting by Cliff Nielsen. I’d thought Cliff knocked The Darkening Dream cover out of the park (it’s even won a number of awards) but this one is on fire.
The art above, cool as it is, isn’t intended to be a complete composition. This is a book cover painting, and so there is extra space to work with around the central figure as well as fairly monochromatic areas for the titles and to the left for the back cover (paper edition). I crop different sections out of it as needed for different uses, such as the banner above or the current front cover composition to the left. The logo and text composition aren’t set in stone yet, either, I’m still noodling on them.
You’re probably wondering who the hell the clockwork man is. Meet Rapier. He’s nearly indestructible, dresses in time appropriate blue uniforms, carries a sword, and kills time travelers on sight. History is his playground. He can be anywhere or anywhen. And no one has a clue what he or the other Tick-Tocks want. Which is all a bit of a bummer for our time traveling protagonist, Charlie.
The scene above is inside the church of St. Bartholomew the Great, London, in the year 1725. At the time, a young Ben Franklin worked there (oddly enough, the building was used as a print shop). When Rapier gets in on the action, the paper is literally hot off the presses!
Be sure to leave your thoughts on the new cover in the comments!
Vote on logo options here, check out some interior illustrations, or
read more about the story of Untimed.
Interior illustrator Dave Phillip’s version of the same scene about two minutes later – when things go from bad to worse!
The old stock photography cover I did myself
A while back, Cliff Nielsen, the amazing artist who created the cover for The Darkening Dream, finished the amazing new cover painting for my second novel, Untimed. This is going to replace the stock photography clock cover to the left, but I’m not ready to reveal it (I will in a week or three) but I’ve been experimenting with logos and wanted to collect your opinions. As a side note, I’ve been doing my mechanicals myself. Not only is it cheaper, but my photoshop skillz have gotten moderately elite — at least for a programmer/author.
Below are three takes on the logo. You can even see just a hint of the cover illustration here, but I cut it tight to be a tease (and content aware filled out a bit of someone’s head!).
A fairly heavily “styled” version where the text is inspired by antique clock parts (this is after all a time travel novel with clockwork killer machines). Thanks to longtime friend Jason Rubin for help on an earlier variant of this logo.
A similar brass treatment, but using a more strait forward lowercase type treatment. The font is modeled after an 18th century typeface.
Same deal as above, but all uppercase.
Similar to the top-most one, but with arabesque tooling in the metal instead of brushing. This new variant was added 9/12/12, after most of the comments. Since people liked #1, I wanted to work in that direction.
So, dear readers, which version do you like? Let me know in the comments. None of the above is a viable opinion, but please give reasons.
The back of a Breguet watch, I was going for a similar sort of vibe with the arabesque tooling.
All twenty-one interior illustrations for my time travel novel, Untimed, are now finished! These are painted by Dave Phillips, an awesome artist I commissioned earlier this year. I thought I’d use the occasion to show two new images. And because I love process, I’m posting both the rough and final versions. To get a close up look at this, click one of the images and it will bring up a Smugmug lightbox. You can use the arrow keys to flip back and forth between the rough and the final to see the differences.
Above is is “Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd.” Our protagonist Charlie has to go all the way from contemporary Philadelphia to 1725 London to meet a girl, but she has more than her share of baggage!
For those of you who are curious, Donnie, the guy in the middle with the crazy wig, is actually nineteen and dressed as a “Macaroni.” Remember the line from Yankee Doodle Dandy: “He stuck a feather in his hat, and called it macaroni”? In the early 18th century it was in vogue for trendy young men to dress in outlandish colors (Italian Style) and they were called Macaronis. Tim Roth also plays a fantastic and similar dandy in the excellent 1995 film Rob Roy.
Time travel isn’t just about competing for girls, sometimes tiny changes can have big consequences. Well, maybe letting Ben Franklin get killed and leaving the clockwork men to run amuck doesn’t qualify as “tiny.” When Charlie gets back home to modern day Philadelphia (above), things look a bit different then he expects!
Previously released images can be found here and here and stay tuned for more.
Dave Phillips, the awesome artist I commissioned to illustrate my time travel novel, Untimed, has been quietly cranking away. A couple of weeks ago he finished the rough versions of all twenty-one images. I thought I’d use this post as an opportunity not only to show off his brilliant work, but to shed some light on the process. The images on the left are the roughs, and on the right the finals.
We use the roughs to establish composition and for me to check that all the details are consistent with the novel. I give him feedback and he then spends the time to polish the image up. Neither of these images required any major changes, but it’s fun to see both how well the rough makes an impression, and how much more detailed the final is.
To get a close up look at this, click one of the images and it will bring up a Smugmug lightbox. You can then use the arrow keys to flip back and forth between the images, including between the rough and the final to see the differences.
This particular image, released previously, shows the mysterious Tick-Tock gloating over a dying Ben Franklin — oops!
And this new one occurs 80 years later across the English channel. Ever wonder if you’d like yourself? Time travelers can find out first hand. Or, perhaps, meeting yourself will destroy the very fabric of the spacetime continuum!
I ran across this extremely interesting and totally meta article on fantasy magic by Brandon Sanderson. I’ve had my own version of this kind of theory since the early 80s but he really spells it out.
He breaks magic systems down into how “hard” or “soft” they are. Meaning, how defined are their rules.
If you’re a writer working on your fantasy magic systems, I suggest that you decide what kind of feel you want for your magic. Do you like the techno-magic like you find in my books, or in books by L.E. Modesitt Jr. and Melanie Rawn? Do you like the hybrids like you find in someone more like David Eddings or J.K. Rowling? Or, do you prefer your magic to be more vague and mysterious, like you see in Tolkien or the George R. R. Martin books? I like to read works by all of these authors, but when I write, I prefer to have rules, costs, and laws to work with in my magic, and that makes it more fun for me.
By hard or techno-magic he means books like his own, or comic books, or video games (like WOW or Diablo), where the magic is a well defined tool. On the soft side are books like Tolkien with a more mythic feel. But what is particularly interesting is his insights into the narrative impact of magic.
Resist the urge to use magic to solve problems unless you’ve already explained and shown that aspect of how the magic works. Don’t give the heroes a new power whenever they need one, and be very careful about writing laws into your system just so that you can use them in a single particular situation. (This can make your magic seem flimsy and convenient, even if you HAVE outlined its abilities earlier.)
Very good advice. If your magic is soft enough that major new developments occur every time it is used, then you better NOT use it to solve problems. Or:
If you’re writing a soft magic system, ask yourself “How can they solve this without magic?” or even better, “How can using the magic to TRY to solve the problem here really just make things worse.” (An example of this: The fellowship relies on Gandalf to save them from the Balrog. Result: Gandalf is gone for the rest of that book.)
Semi-consciously, this is what I did in The Darkening Dream which has multiple complex magic systems that are not fully explained, and is hence a kind of middle-soft magic universe. The characters do use magic, but it rarely helps or pans out the way they want, and when it does, I’m generally using a power that I clearly set up before. The villains make heavier use of magic, and their systems are better defined. Still, things often go poorly. In this book I really wanted to give the magic a sense of weight. To make it clear that it was never free or easy and required years of study, practice, and consequences often far outweighing the long term benefits.
My second novel, Untimed, is in many ways closer to a hard magic system in that the time travel has very rigid rules. This (and the related villains) are the only “supernatural” element. I try to maintain my sense of mystery in a number of ways despite this increased definition. 1) The characters are young and alone and don’t know all the rules. 2) They find them out as they go and by trial and error (emphasis on the error). This is also useful to avoid bombarding the reader with too much infodump. 3) I keep the “how” this all came to be and the “why” the villains do what they do hidden throughout the first book.
To me, this balance of the feel of the mystical world is absolutely essential to fantasy writing. How much I like a story is heavily influenced by it, even if I am a fan of tales across the hard/soft spectrum. Like everything, execution is key.
Find Brandon Sanderson’s entire article here.
A detailed write up on the basis of the magic I used for The Darkening Dream is here.
Young Ben Franklin at the printing press
Exciting times! My brand spanking new literary agent is already out there earning his keep. Eddie (the aforementioned agent of awesome) sent out Untimed Thursday on submission to New York and worldwide. It’s not only great to have such enthusiasm — we only signed two weeks ago — but an appropriate juncture given that the historical changes in Untimed (a time travel novel) pivot around Ben Franklin, who was one of America’s earliest important printers. People tend to remember him for the whole “founding father” bit but he was first and foremost a printer, political essayist, and satirist (not to be confused with my favorite mythological beings, satyrs).
But rest assured, Untimed is anything but old fashioned. Below and left is another awesome illustration by Dave Phillips to underscore the prose (one of approximately 21 that will be in the book). And that’s just a rough draft! Dave, like many artists, does two passes. The first (like this one) is to establish the composition, mood, and layout. Then, once we get that out of the way, he does a final with more detail. Truth is, this is little different than writing. The initial illustration is like a scene outline. Or video games, where we would rough out a level without all the visual details to see if the game play worked as intended.
The mysterious Tick-Tock gloats over a dying Ben Franklin - in 1725! — rough draft illustration by Dave Phillips
Who are the Tick-Tocks? And what do they want?
Nothing good, as far as protagonist Charlie is concerned. Their policy on time travelers is to stab, shoot, or crush first — ask questions later.
But it’s more complicated than that, as I’m working out now while making detailed outlines for book 2 and 3. Ah, plotting. I have a love/hate relationship with this phase of novel writing. Scratch that, more hate. I love the actual writing best.
This time around I’m trying to plot the entire book in detail before digging into the text, which being a pantser is against my nature. But it needs doing as time travel is complicated and I must research the periods I intend to visit. I’ve already pounded through four or five history books in the last two weeks. Hint: Buckle on your sandals, this time I’m headed way back!
On Tuesday I got the call. (Technically, I’d gotten the call a couple of times before, but this time it was from someone that fit)
Backing up. Two months ago I sent a small blast of query letters regarding Untimed to a few top literary agents. Unlike a couple years ago when I did this for The Darkening Dream, I only sent them to people I was really interested in, and I didn’t engage emotionally (a few rounds of arbitrary rejection will inure you to that peril).
Untimed is more high concept than TDD, so my full request rate was a stellar 20%!
Eddie Schneider of JABberwocky sent this short email two weeks in:
Please send over the manuscript — this is definitely something I’m interested in!
Short – but sweet. So I sent the manuscript (about 30 seconds later). A month after that I got a note that he was reading and “so far, so good.” Then I flew off to the Maldives (in the Indian Ocean) for my friend and business partner Jason Rubin’s wedding (totally awesome BTW, pic here). In the back of my head there was that usual hope/worry thing, that voice that alternately mumbles ”it’s a great book” and “probably, just another rejection.” Remember, of course, that publishing and literature are hugely subjective and even Harry Potter and A Wrinkle in Time were rejected countless times.
But on Monday, when I saw an email from him in my mailbox I somehow knew it was positive (of course I “knew” this on several previous occasions too…). But this time I was right.
In any case, I had a great (and long) phone chat with Eddie and we hit it off. And I like the intuitive feel of Jabberwocky. First of all their website is awfulagent.com - obviously they have a bit of a sense of humor – and second they represent a large stable of “real” science fiction and fantasy authors. Authors I’ve read like Charlaine Harris, Brandon Sanderson (my Way of Kings review here), Elizabeth Moon (I read her gritty military fantasy series way way back and loved it), and more recently Mark Hodder (my Spring-Heeled Jack review here). Eddie likes video games and graphic novels and got excited when I started talking about Julian the Apostate (more on that here). No one gets excited about Julian the Apostate.
And did I mention that he thinks Untimed is great as is (i.e. no big fifth draft – which I would do if I thought it’d make the book better, but I’m certainly happy to skip after four drafts and the line edit to end all line edits).
So we haggled out the paperwork. I’m represented. Now off down the rabbit hole to see what the publishers have to say. Will they be willing to offer Untimed the treatment it deserves? Time shall tell. We hope so.
Nice to have a another we in the equation!
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought–
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!One, two! One, two! and through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.“And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!”
He chortled in his joy.‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
I finished the line editing on my second novel, Untimed, last December, but that doesn’t mean the work is really over. On one front, it’s out to various agents and editors, but on the other I’m working on spit and polish.
I had it professionally proofread and just finished going over all those little fixes. This is just an extra step to make sure it’s as free of errors as possible and that the comma, hyphen, and spelling niceties are as consistent as possible. And apparently I don’t like commas half as well as I should.
But far more exciting is that I’m having the book illustrated! I know it’s relatively rare to illustrate novels, but I love art and believe — well done — that it really adds to the overall experience. Working with the agent who represented the awesome cover artist for The Darkening Dream, I found a talented illustrator named Dave Phillips (his website is here and some portfolio samples here). He has a real knack for character (see this for example) and knows how to capture lifelike personality in his figures. Over the last few weeks we’ve been developing character designs and now the first (more or less) finished image.
To the right, our hero Charlie (in front), confronts the mysterious Tick-Tock, a rapier-wielding clockwork man who serves as the only link to Charlie’s missing father.
But Tick-Tocks are full of surprises, including the ability to punch holes in time!
Two free Naughty Dark tickets to the first reader who guesses the exact physical location of the scene (reply in comments here). You must not be one of my beta readers or one of their relatives. Hint: “Ghost H…”
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35 of 100 tickets! |
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