R. F. Long

Well, recovery is one thing, but the website is all recovered from the nasty hacking (that was my most unfun thing possibly forever and totally ruined my watching of Endeavour, not to mention a couple weeks afterwards) and I’ve been something of a naughty author not updating my blog very much. Alternately, I’ve been a very good writer because I have been writing. Read more…

Well, at home on the sofa to be honest.

With the writing? Well, that’s a different story.

THE TREACHERY OF BEAUTIFUL THINGS is all finished. Another full manuscript is making its way out into the world shortly, plus a proposal. And my lovely agent has something else.

So I am writing new things. Without totally focusing on just one. Where’s the fun in that? I currently have:

The Library Book – I’ve been talking about this one for a long time and it’s finally coming together, for now.  I wouldn’t have the greatest belief that this will continue. This one is elusive.

The Brittany Book – I got the idea for this one on last year’s holiday and this year it went ballistic while I was over there. Loads of ideas, a plot, various scenes. Nothing that coherent though. I’ve jotted it all down longhand and (probably next year when I go again) it’s many plotbunnies will ambush me again.

The Space Opera – there’s quite a bit of this, but it has stalled for the moment. Still ticking away in the background though. It does that.

The thing is when I write it isn’t a start middle finish sort of thing. Never has been. It comes in fits and starts, I get ideas out of order and jumbled up. Sometimes I have to write longhand to get hold of the story, sometimes that’s just too slow.  The old cliche is that books are like children, and in a sense they are. In that no two children are ever the same, nor is exactly the same approach correct for every one. And no matter what they put you through, you keep at them. Sometimes it just takes a bit more time.

Life has been getting rather hectic again, but I’m trying to put some things in place to deal with that. I’m involved with Irish Pen (not on any great level, but I’m there). There are lots of family things going on (dentists! Lots of visits to dentists! The horror.) and of course I’m still working full time. Octocon is coming up fast (15 days or so – *SQUEE* – if you’re there, say Hi!). Before that there’s an awesome Writing for Children night run by Irish Pen in the Irish Writers’ Centre. After that (when we’ve recovered) we’re off to Ashford Castle for a Harry Potter Night. All very exciting. And tiring.

But writing has to fit in around this. What’s the point in writing if you don’t have a life? But equally I’d be a basket case if I couldn’t write. So evenings and weekends have to adapt, and notebooks have to be carried around.

Speaking of notebooks – this is my 12th wedding anniversary present. Just right for notes on the Library Book, don’t you think?

So, that’s where I am, in a general, spiritual and bibliographical sense. Busy, but happy, determined to write more, and trying not to think about submissions. In a nutshell, business as usual.

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.

At Pcon I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Cheryl Morgan for Salon Futura, and that interview went live today.

It’s very funny to listen to myself, let alone watch myself talk. I use my hands. Let me rephrase that… I use my hands A LOT.

We covered a wide range of subjects in my 20 minutes – my library day job, old books, paranormal romance, erotica (err… yes… *blush* I think you can actually see the blushing in the video), Soul Fire, The Scroll Thief, my Holtlands stories, Young Adult fiction and May Queen. Wiiiiiiiiiiiide range of subjects.

So a huge thank you to Cheryl. May we meet again very soon.

Here’s the video.

*BLUSH*

So, I’ve been slacking off a lot of late and I’m hoping to get back into the swing of things from now on.

The plan is to get some new words every day. What I usually do is aim to write 500 a day and more if I can and track it. I’ve recenly started a new project involving magicians (untitled as yet) so I’m going to focus on that. I also have edits to do on 2 projects but no deadlines for them as such. So if I get stuck I’ll probably switch to rewriting. Or if a deadline emerges of course. But I really want to write something new at the moment.

So, here we go.

Oh, and I just spotted the actor Andrew Lee Potts from Primeval and Alice – just as I imagined Jack in May Queen. Like the living image! Uncanny.

I’ve been mulling over this one for a little while. (Admittedly I also forgot to write this for a little while, but let’s just go with mulling it over, eh?) A conversation with a friend while on holiday sparked off some interesting comparisons between the publishing world and the art world. (There may have been a glass of wine or two involved. We were in France, after all.)

While writing is an art, it is also a craft. It is also a very hard job that you have to do every day. But then, no artist steps up to a canvas and produces a masterpiece on their first attempt. Practice practice practice, preliminary sketches, balled up bits of paper in the corner… it all sounds terribly familiar, doesn’t it?

But where the analogy really came together as we talked was in terms of finding an agent, of selling a novel, the business end. Read more…

Wow, this month ran away with me. Why? Well a number of reasons. Life, of course, and a bit of a whirl on ideas, research, rewrites etc.

The research bit is what I’m thinking most of today. As a writer I’m continually researching. I want to know how everything happened (luckily I married an  engineer who wants to know how everything works). I want to know about the people involved and the events which shaped history. I got a fantastic interactive DVD on Dublin from Viking to Tudor times yesterday from the fab Dublin City Radio. Once I can wrestle it back from my children I’ll spend hours playing with it.

Once I can wrestle it back from my children.

Research means always asking questions, about squirrelling away bits of information to be used later, about following up on things. Anything can be useful information. Especially when writing fantasy. Books of course, but also documentaries, exhibitions, lectures, holidays and day trips.

And they don’t have to be boring. Read more…

As part of their celebration of Fantasy Romance this month, I was asked to write a guest post for the Book pushers.

Come and tell me about your favourite fantasy romances and why you love them.

I’m at that point.

Today (or at least that’s the plan), after the pre-requisite trips to the green-grocer, butcher and supermarket for anything we can’t source elsewhere, after the cooking of dinners and the referee-ing of small children, I’m going to try to decide what I’ll work on next.

This should be easy (I always tell myself). But it rarely is.

I am blessed/cursed with a lot of ideas, some of them very fully formed and ready to go. New ones spring up all the time and I tend to jot them down and then try to move on with what I’m meant to be working on.

So… I have a series of ideas folders. I have some initial research. In some cases I have a LOT of research. (I like research.) At the moment there are at least 5 books calling for attention. Often there are many more. Read more…

Because I’m in the midst of edits…

And I want to share the grief…

Well, no, not really. I’m one of those strange creatures that actually enjoys edits. And I am enjoying these ones. It’s just that we’re going on holidays on Saturday morning. HOLIDAYS! And so I want the edits done.

As I am not editing right now I thought I’d write about edits – because my mind is slightly twisted by all the variety of spellings my writing brain came up with in the course of writing the first draft of this book, and my editor brain can’t really take it anymore.

Yes  – two brains. Writer brain and editor brain. They share the same head.

It’s noisy in there. Read more…