R. F. Long

One of the most wonderful things about holidays is that I get time to work my way through my TBR pile. Some of these are books I’ve had for AGES, others are new (books tend to shuffle up and down the pile, in a bizare sort of queue jumping, elbowing others aside sort of way) but they are all books I want to read.

The Demon’s Surrender by Sarah Rees Brennan

The Poison Throne by Celine Keirnan (and the next 2 in the Moorhawk series)

Evermore by Alyson Noel

The Angel’s Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

The Cathars by Sean Martin

and hopefully Revelation by C. J. Sansom (if I manage to borrow it before I go)

Plus a book on the Megaliths of Brittany. And a trip to the library before we go.

Hey, last year I took 16 books for a 14 day holiday… and read them too!

As part of the run up to Octocon, the National Irish Science Fiction Convention held (funnily enough) in October, my story CARRYING KEPTARA is currently available as part of their free showcase anthology, along with stories by Peadar Ó Guilín, Brian J. Showers and Derek Gunn.

It’s available in ePub, Kindle and PDF formats.

Plus they are running a short story competition.

What are you waiting for? RUN!

Claire Hennesy has a thought provoking post up today about Retellings, where writers take well known and established stories like fairytales and folklore and use them as a base for their own stories, building on them, changing their slant or reworking them into something new. I started to reply there, but given the fact that I LOVE this subject, my reply started to get long, which is a little unfair on someone else’s blog. So I thought I’d put it here instead. You should of course read Claire’s post first! (but be warned, I now have MORE books to add to my neverending TBR pile).

For me, it seems to work the other way. Quite often I start out telling my own story and find that the fairy tale or mythic elements bleed through as the characters take on those ghostly archetypes that linger in the background of our cultural life. They are still my stories, my characters, still in their own stories but rather than deliberately drawing on archetypes I find they filter into the story in a subtle way (a hopefully subtle way). Because those fairytales are powerful things. They’re beguiling and whimsical. On the surface. But then you go deeper. And deeper. They tell raw and compelling stories when you whittle them down to their purest form. They have darker versions of themselves hidden away in the shadows behind our polished up 21st century versions.

So if I show you an image of a single glass slipper on a staircase, your mind fills in the rest and you go Ah-HA! If there’s blood on the slipper, or if the slipper shatters into a million pieces, your mind is both startled and intrigued. How has the story been changed? Or has it? Is there some older, darker version you haven’t heard before.

I think it’s part of the way writers often feel that stories tell themselves. That they run away with us clinging on for dear life via the pen.

So in my case a fantasy quest novel takes on elements of folklore and fairytales harking back to those older legends and the place of blood and sacrifice they came from. Or an urban fantasy set in modern day Dublin becomes a reimagining of the Percival legend with Celtic overtones and a heroine skirting to the wrong side of divine law.

Myths and folktales lend resonance to our stories and give a sense of a far deeper pool of storytelling behind them. It’s an exciting and abundant area in which to play.

Found this on twitter (via @grattongirl and @ERMurray) and thought I’d share.

Working away, pottering along, enjoying the birdsong in the trees…

I just wanted to do a quick post to let you know about the new writing site – Writing.ie

I’m really excited about this site which hopes to be a one stop shop for all things writerly in Ireland, and a wonderful resource for writers everywhere. As it grows, there’s going to be so much going on here, but even in its infancy, its a treasure trove of information, interviews and insights. As the founder, Vanessa O’Loughlin says in her introduction, the Irish are reknowned storytellers, so there is plenty to keep everyone interested.

Authors from all sorts of genres talk about their work, their lives and their methods in the Meet the Authors section, there are all sorts of goodies in the Writer’s Toolbox (including a glimpse into one of my infamous notebooks, if you dare!) and the fantastic 100 Tips from Top Authors.

Add to this Guest Blogs, a For Readers section, details on Courses and the Events Guide, I’m going to end up spending a lot of time here!

mainly powered by a hurricane and winter storms no less…

Here are a few bits of excitingness to keep us all going before December:-

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WEXWORLDS // Sci Fi and Fantasy Fiction Festival 2010 // November 26th – 28th, 2010 // Wexford Town, Ireland

the Schedule is now available to download in .pdf format.

I’m hoping to get down on Saturday, but will definitely be there on Sunday as I have a couple of panels to be on.

12.00-12.50 Whites Hotel FREE

Current Sci-Fi TV Join Andrew Donkin with John Vaughan, Michael Carroll, Ruth Long, Peadar O’Gullinand C.E. Murphy as they discuss Dr. Who, Fringe, New V, Torchwood, Walking Dead and other popular programmes.

and

14.00-14.50 Whites Hotel FREE

Myth and Folklore in modern fiction – Join Herbie Brennan, C.E. Murphy, Oisín McGann, Maura McHugh and Ruth Long. Eminent authors discuss the uses and popularity of themes in Fantasy.

I’m also really looking forward to this:-

15.00 Alien 8 FREE

Grand opening of Alien 8 by Eoin Colfer – Join a vast selection of authors, who will happily sign your books among the many activities planned to celebrate the opening of this new Science Fiction Shop located in Selskar Square, Wexford.

Bookshops good! Free events wonderful!

There are also workshops (Lego! Rockets! Magic Swords!!!) which look amazing and all they’re asking for them is a fiver! What are you waiting for?

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And speaking of December… only 26 days to go until …

SONGS OF THE WOLF comes out on 7th December 2010 and is available for preorder on BookDepository, Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.com and others. SONGS contains the two Holtlands novellas THE WOLF’S SISTER and THE WOLF’S MATE, previously only available in ebook format.

Reviews:

Octocon – 16^th – 17^th October, Camden Court Hotel, Dublin

Ok, this was all very action packed so these are highlights otherwise it will go on forever!

Read more…

I’m going to be at Octocon this weekend, Ireland’s Science Fiction Convention, where we’ll be up to all kinds of shenanigans. And I’ll be on a couple of panels

Saturday 12pm Urban Fantasy vs. Paranormal Romance

Sunday 1pm Where’s My Money Honey?! ( New Funding Models) – Err… Yes, me and money. Anyway…

And I’ll be helping out (and hopefully eating some of the sweets) at Claire Hennessy’s Writing YA workshop on Sunday afternoon along with Sarah Rees Brennan. (If they haven’t polished them all off before I get in there.)

Oh and I almost forgot E_W_H himself will be on a panel on Sunday at 2pm – Managing The Writers in Your Life. Yeessss…

All this and George R. R. Martin as guest of honour, C.E. Murphy, Maura McHugh, Derek Gunn, Fabulous Lorraine, Michael Carroll, Peadar Ó Guilín and many more.(So many in fact I can’t link to them all! I have to make biscuits for a cake sale. No really. :S )

If you’re around Dublin this weekend, come and play! We don’t bite. Much.

I’ve been working on Graffiti Angel rewrites and plantsing along on my YA Space Opera this (last) week. Plus the odd bit on my May Queen sequel. Hey, at least it has a draft synopsis now. That’s something. Octocon is coming up this weekend so my delightful pre-con stress dreams have started – you know the type: locked in a loo, went out for a coffee and can’t get back etc. This means of course that I’m even more unfocused than usual! Really looking forward to the convention though.

So this post is a mixture of things that have caught my fancy on the internet over the last while:

Spacy stuff for himself

1)Sergey Korolov was the chief rocket scientist for the Soviet Union during the 1960s space race with the US. His identity was so secret he was referred to only as The Chief Designer. It is probably due to his early death in 1966 that the US were the first to land on the moon. His Soyuz spacecraft is still in use today, and has now taken on a new significance (video from BBC – sorry about the ad). I guess, as my space-mad husband pointed out, you could say he won in the end.

Books I love, writers I admire

2) Alan Garner’s books have been really important to me for as long as I can remember. Here he is talking about The Weirdstone of Brisingamen (video from The Guardian) and the influence of Alderley Edge on his books. He describes perfectly the way I feel about Dalkey and Killiney, and how landscape works its way into writing. To (probably mis-) quote:  “Here I learned the rockness of rock, the treeness of tree and the skyness of sky” – “…a sense of otherness about the place that goes back as far as there have been people to react to it”.

History

3)Pictures of people re-enacting the Battle of Hastings amuse me!

Funny

4) Hogwarts online amuses me too!

and finally

5) RNA is Fabulous at Fifty. Get all the goss!

So that’s it for now. I will be at Octocon over the weekend, talking books, sci-fi, fantasy and chasing my children all around the place. If you’re there say hi!

I’m delighted to have my good friend and critique partner David to blog here today. David’s “Beauty and the Bastard” has just released from Liquid Silver and its about angels. And so is his post.

So, without further delay…

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When Angels Visit

Thank you for inviting me, Ruth. I’m thrilled to be here sharing my happiness upon the release of Beauty and the Bastard.

I believe in angels.

There: have an Abba earworm. J You’re welcome.

Beauty and the Bastard is my first story involving angels and demons, and I’m working on a second one now. But even though I only started writing about these beautiful beings last summer, they’ve been around in my life for years. Read more…