A book is born

The book is done!!!!

The Strange Chronicles: Book 1 - The Mighty Orange-Peel (first draft) was finished last night 8 August, at 9:30 pm in Edinburgh, Scotland weighting in at a healthy 17 Chapters, 125 pages (A4 1.5 spaced),  52,000 words. It will obviously change and grow as edits are made and an epilogue is developed. But, no matter what, it is novel! And, in the cold hard light of day, the final chapter still reads well!

It was a long process. I started writing the book early 2010 (I still remember the moment I 'found' Gemmy's face and writing really took off). I'm over the moon with how well it's turned out. I've reread the first half and it feels like a book. So, I'm confident the second half, which I finished much faster, has the same depth even though the pace of writing and story is much faster.

My favourite part of writing so far has been seeing how the story has developed. In my outline it was meant to be 15 chapters. The way the final book has actually taken shape is so much more different to what I'd intended. The characters have grown and changed with the story and it’s been just as much an adventure for me finding out what was going to happen. The major plot points haven’t changed, but the characters’ reactions to situations have become more organic and truer to the characters. Also, the world that I established changed. So, plot devices I’d planned for suddenly didn’t make sense. What I’d planned to go A, B, C, D ended up A, F, Z, B, D.

So, now begins the process of rationalising the book. I’m sure there’s a plot hole somewhere, a few mistyped names (Mhetli became Mehtli for about two chapters), superfluous sentences, areas needing to be expanded, etc. But, my beautiful book has been born.

It’s been crazy and fun getting the characters and story to the place where it’s at. So, I’m going to do my preliminary edits, celebrate and let the baby rest for a week, play Lego Harry Potter (finally), read A Hero for Wondla (finally), maybe do some more illustrations and then come back with fresh eyes! 

On a side note, I absolutely can't wait to get it printed and bound - by my own fair hand of course. Definitely going to have a party then.

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Who's guarding tomorrow?

So, the ominously named facility, Morgengarde, is headed up by an equally ominous director, Ixtilton Wurmstab. 

He is described as:
The director stood at least two heads taller than Gravander and was heartily built. He wore elaborate Garzian robes of red, black and gold that matched his bright flame of vermillion hair. His wide, sun-kissed face was open and pleasant. Off-set by his brilliant green eyes, Gemmy was transfixed by the man.

The character in the book comes from Vfor (pronounced 'Fuhr'), a country on the continent of Arbea minor. His 'healer's' name is directly linked to the work that is conducted at Morgengarde (which means 'guard of tomorrow'). Is he working for good or evil?

A lot of the names and places in the book are related to mythology. Ixtilton is the name of the Aztec god of medicine and healing. 


I'm not sure if the surname sounds a bit too 'on the nose' though. It's misleadingly sinister however.  'Wurmstab' refers to the Rod of Asclepius which is a symbol of healing (contrary to popular belief, it is not the caduceus).

How could a man with such a name and face not be working for good?

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Judging a book by its word count

So, chapter 15 is finished and I decided it was time to go back and look at the rest before I sprinted on with the remaining three chapters. With this two errors of memory happened.

1) I realised that chapter 15 was in fact chapter 14! Long story short, the first two chapters were extra-long with exposition so had to be split into five shorter chapters. This took them out of sync with the outline. Then, as the story developed some of the later chapters ended in the middle of the following chapter according to the outline. So, I misremembered my numbering. No big deal, right?

So because of this I decided to corral the final chapters into one document and do a word count. Then,

2) My word count revealed I was at almost 43,000 words! Now, I'm terrible with remembering numbers and the word count for a novel can be arbitrary. But, in my head I remembered that the average novel was 200k words! Panic (and probably too much coffee) set in.

I was almost certain I was on the track to exiting 'novella' territory. It's a young adult novel, so I don't want it to be J.K. Rowling/harrypotter-book-seven-long. But, I was hoping for something a bit more than Neil Gaiman/Odd and the Frost Giants-short.

I could have sworn that I'd worked out that if each chapter was around seven pages of A4 at roughly 11 pt type that I would have hit the mark. My shortest chapter is six pages and longest at eleven.

GOOD NEWS folks!!
Well, a bit of Google looking later, I realised I misremembered the figures. It is in fact (roughly) 50k words for 200 pages (printed)- which is where my memory of the 200 figure came from. So, the tale of the Mighty Orange-Peel has been given a respectable amount of space so far.

Time to crack on with the last three chapters. I'm actually really really excited. In a lot of ways, I'm finding out how it will all go down just like everyone else. The details of the story keep shifting as I write because the characters are growing and changing with the story.

Oh, here's a first crack at a cover for the book. What do y'all think?

So good!
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The girls are back in town

So, as the novel is careening towards it's end I've gone back and consistency check names, places, etc. One of the biggest gaps I noticed was that I hadn't named Gemmy's sisters. They were referred to simply as 'B' and 'L' which are my older sister's initials.

Much like Gemmy, I'd just carried on writing referring to their letter and as the characters began to take shape, so did their names. It's been a while since I did some character drawings for the book and I realised it would help bring things into focus to take the writing forward.

Bringing their faces into focus has really helped define and fully thresh out their personalities in writing as well. Here are the sketches of the girls next to their finished drawings.

I introduce Ilamatä (Ilä  for short - pronounced 'EE-ley'):

  

And Lauta (pronounced 'l-Ow-Ta'):

 

Ilä's name comes from the Aztec goodess, Ilamatecuhtli, who created the stars. But it is also a nod to her developing powers. Lauta is based on German for 'shout' as she's a very boisterous character. Also, she often speaks for Ilä who is mute.

I actually spent time drawing pictures of my wee niece to inspire the facial features for the girls. Ilä looks most like what I imagine she'll look like when she's ten. Though, I think, if she ever came home with a haircut like Ilä's her mother would scalp her, hop a plane to Scotland, then pummel me! The haircut was inspired by my youngest sister who always had a short cut (more function than fashion I think) as a little girl. Lauta is the wild child but that's why I wanted to keep her hair long - think, Summer Glau, prima ballerina meets action hero.

Enjoy!
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Associating with ducks

I like to think of myself as a digital Bansky* so designed a logo for a social group called 'The Laughing Duck Society'. The group is named for a former Edinburgh pub called... The Laughing Duck. What do we ducks stand for... well, it's a secret.

It was a giggle manipulating a duck to have a smile. I'd been experimenting with making comic book images of photographs for my Queen Elizabeth comics and thought it would work well since 'massaging' the features of the duck left it with a surreal look to begin with. I think the cartoonish finish works well combined with the 'clip art' belt. 

I used the font, 'Felix Titling', because it's reminiscent of the font used for one of my favourite films, 'Dead Poets' Society'.

The motto, 'Ridere cum mei frater est vitam' means 'To laugh with my brothers is life'... I hope. If not, I blame my high school education and Google translate!

Quack!
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* The logo was not commissioned for the group, they may not have liked it, probably didn't need or want it,  other people might find it strange and superfluous, so that's pretty much why I did it! Sadly, like Bansky, they seem to like it despite my anarchic intentions. Blast my conventional awesome!

Queen's PR

Everyone is raving about the Queen Elizabeth II's cameo in the Olympic opening ceremony with James Bond. However, before that, she AND Prince Phillip were happy to endorse my rugby team's 10th Anniversary Book launch. Liz is reputed to have a wicked sense of humour so I think she'd enjoy them...

Enjoy the launch posters.

My favour part was playing with photoshop affects to create a comic book images of photographs. That and editing in funny elements into the Prince Phillip photos. Although, I'm pretty sure J-Biebz and that NED are  actually in P-Phizzee's posse.

Enjoy!
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‽ Marks the spot

In addition to being an illustrator and writer I, a proud bibliophile, also bind books as a hobby. As my binding (and avid collection of papers and bookbinding cloth) has increased to a 'proficient' level I decided it was high time that I get my very own maker's mark. Remember the interrobang? Well, meet the themobang!

This beautiful brass handled letter is a finishing tool used to engrave letters and patterns into book covers and spines. I'm hoping to get a full set of handled letters at some point for customising the books that I make. I'm also itching to get my hands on some gold leaf!

The tool itself was created by Kevin Noakes of Bookbinding Designs. He's a crazy talented guy and I can't wait to get more tools from him. If you're looking for a custom tool get in touch with Kevin. Not only is it well-crafted he was soooooo quick and professional.

I studied binding at the Owl & Lion Gallery in Edinburgh under Isobel Ting. She is wicked cool and my books are not a patch on hers. If you're looking to learn a new skill, even just as a hobby, I highly recommend her courses. Or if you want a handmade journal, get thee to the Owl & Lion!

Enjoy!
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