Message in Bottle

It takes only five seconds of watching the news to see how messy this world is. I know I've talked a lot about how writing serves as an escape for that. Now, I'm starting to wonder if my writing should do more. I don't want to beat people over the head with moral lessons, but there are certain opportunities we authors have. For me, this became relevant in the two short stories I'm currently working on. 

The first is the tale of how James Hawke lost his arm and Esther pushed herself into a position of power. Obviously being a Victorian era woman, Esther would not normally have such freedoms. Many of the other characters dismiss her for this alone. When she first meets Bryan in "The Knocking Below", he assumes she is a client and that the E. Doyle on his father's note must be a man. Some of the earlier stories show Esther on her own in Europe but her gender causes struggles there as well. This is actually one of the main reasons why she stopped freelancing and applied for the position with the Hawkes. As the assistant to a more liberal hunter, she finds herself having to explain her presence less. On the other hand, that means many people over look her in favor of speaking with either James or Bryan. In this story, she has no one to stand up for her. While Constable Riley Cooper is her friend, he can do little to help. So here, Esther has to prove to everyone in London she is fully capable of doing the job. And of course she is! 

Originally, I had Esther completely on her own solving this case. Riley's role has slightly grown, but he doesn't really do any of the heaving lifting. As much as I love him, this isn't his story. It's Esther struggling with finding a way to keep the future she wants in a world where she's told her future has already been determined. 

A lot of my inspiration for her comes from the Agent Carter series that was on ABC several months ago. While Peggy is a superior agent, she is stuck taking lunch orders and filing paperwork. This isn't a struggle that only select women are confined to in select time periods. It's all over the world and it's happening right now. I can only hope that my writing has similar effects to the ones Agent Carter had. Also, I hope Agent Carter gets renewed for season two. The world needs more stories of incredible women. 

My Lovely Editors

While I sit and wait for the publisher's edits of The Knocking Below, my mind wanders towards my personal editing team. I know I've touched on how I edit my own work, but I can't forget my Betas.

For anonymity, let's call them A, B, and C. Only one of those is not their initial, but it's a mystery! Also, I wanted this to look uniform...All three of these Betas are close friends, whose opinions I highly trust and value. I know they won't be too hard with my fragile ego, but they are also honest. So first, I want to thank them for all their help over the years. You guys are the best!

Then how exactly does one find a Beta reader? Years ago, I signed up for authonomy.com to gather interest and opinions on my work. I've had a lot of great experiences there, but it wasn't as personal as I would have liked. Still, I highly recommend it to other authors. The next step was the obvious post on Facebook asking for help. A, B, and C all chimed in and I happily swamped them with my writing.

It's always good to find someone who will be honest with you, but you also want to find a Beta who will actually be interested in the story. If someone hates science fiction, you don't want to bog them down with aliens and lasers. Being my friends, I already knew we had similar tastes. While only one of them is a writer, they all have experience in creative work, along with an interest in history.  For me, it also helps to have the opinions from people looking at the story instead of nitpicking all the grammar. Am I not detailed enough on the setting? Does the dialog make sense? Is it exciting enough? These three always help answer those questions.

So for anyone out there looking to get published, make sure you have a great team of Betas. They are invaluable. I really lucked out with mine.

I Stand Alone

When working on several different stories within the same fictional universe, and quite often not in chronological order, it helps to have each one stand on its own. It has been a bit of a struggle for me to keep that in mind when writing new stories because not everyone knows all the little details floating in my head. Vague mysteries are great, but they shouldn't take away from the entire story.

First, I have no idea the order things are actually going to be published in. It rarely is enjoyable to read something where you don't understand what is happening. There is no guarantee my readers will read each and every little scrap I put out there. As much as I would love for it to happen, who knows. Also, you don't know the order they will read the shorts!

The best comparison for what I'm going though in my head is Star Wars. You have the two-soon to be three-trilogies, video games, comic books, and the novels. Ignoring how Disney is rewriting the canon, there are quite a lot of stories going on. As much as I love Star Wars, I haven't read every single piece of the Expanded Universe. I think I've touched about a fourth, and that's being generous. Yet that doesn't detract from my experiences while watching the movies. I can't tell you Han Solo's entire genealogy, but I still love him.

I really can't think of any author who doesn't try to keep to this model, but I seem to keep forgetting in my first draft. The words come out and it all makes sense in my head. When I read it over, I realize half of what's going on is not mentioned at all. My current project is actually about a character who doesn't appear until the second volume of the Gaslight Hunters. It is one of those instances where I could not wait to write about her and this one particular location, even though the first book isn't 100% finished. The Muse sweetly suggested writing about her anyway, writing about her first day in London.

So why not! It won't take away from any of the other novels or shorts. It also gives me an opportunity to build the alternate reality away from the eyes of Esther and Bryan. This particular character is also one of the bridges between the Hunters and the currently unnamed series in Russia ten years earlier. I hope everyone is as excited about this as I am.

We have a title!

Oh happy day! Such a happy day! After ages of halfhearted notes with nonsense titles, there is finally a proper series name for The Hunters.

The Gaslight Hunters! And any shorts will be referred to as Gaslight Tales.

This was an idea I had earlier, but wasn't quite sure. Over the weekend, it rolled around in my head some more and I loved it. Originally, I wanted Gaslit Hunters, but everyone I spoke to said it didn't roll off the tongue quite as well. The second idea was Gaslight Inquests, but it sounded to similar to another book. Plus, they refer to themselves as "hunters" so I thought it was more appropriate.

Hopefully you are all just as excited as I am! Plus, more good news is on the horizon!

What exactly is "Marketability"? And how can I get it?

While I'm not writing for the money (does anyone?), it clearly pays a huge part in the actual procedure of publishing. The story has to be something that people will invest their time and money in. It has to be an easy sell for publishers and agents. Having a good market makes that easier for everyone. But how on earth do I figure out my own market?

I know my genre and I know the audience. Is that enough? Though, if the rejection letters are to be believed, I might not have those two figured out quite right. Not being what they are looking for raises these questions a lot. Either I change to be what they want, or find someone else. Right now, I'm looking for someone who wants the stories I have to tell. I just keep slipping on the nitty gritty.

First, I am starting to get uneasy about where I should start. Do I focus all energies on the shorts or the novels, instead of splititng them like I am. If I focus on the shorts, I'm building up the world and the characters before unveiling the major plot. If I focus on the novels, I focus on the plot and all it's secret. The shorts then fill in the history.

While I'm trying to read more about the inner workings of publishings, I don't feel like I'm getting these answers. I've asked other authors and professors, and have received different responses from each one. I just want to be certian I'm going about things the right way, and not wasting time and efforts. There isn't a magic key to getting published, aside from working constantly at it. I guess that's what I'll just have to keep working on.

My market will appear one of these days. Or I can just make my own.

Never Enough Time

Writing does indeed require vast amounts of time. Time plotting and thinking. Time actually writing, and then rewriting. Then time editing! But our characters are just as pressed for time as we are. 

Especially when writing historical fiction, one must be wary of time. Even in alternate universes, certain events happen in a certain order. I can't change the dates of the Ripper killings just because I want Esther to be in summer dresses. My desk is currently filled with calendars and lists of dates, with question marks filling in various blank spaces. 

Because of the international escapades of the Hunters, I seem to fumble with their time a lot more than with Scarlet. She only leaves England once, where Bryan, Esther, and Thomas leave nearly every month. Plus, the Hunter universe has several other casts whose whereabouts I have to keep track of. Scarlet and her opponents are much more orderly in their crimes. By no means, does that make them any less exciting!

Mysteries tend to need a much shorter time frame than other adventures in my experience. In modern detective shows, you see the pressing need to solve it under 48 hours. In historical, I find many cases are solved in a week or two. Fast paced scenes make for more exciting reads though. Look at Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle. Her novels are shorter than most, and he wrote mainly short stories. On the other hand, Wilkie Collins did write much longer novels. 

In the end, it's the story itself that matters. Not the page or word count. But that story has to happen in a reasonable amount of time, just right on the edge of thrilling and logical. I'm still working on finding that balance myself. Only time will tell if I get it right.