Marie Marshall

Author. Poet. Editor.

Tag: publication

November 29, 2013

The quality of ‘Phoenix’

Editor-in-Chief of The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes, Richard Vallance, comments on the physical quality of the book: 

“… The slip cover is in rich full-colour on high quality glossy paper. Now, there is a world of difference between cardboard bound and cloth-bound hard cover books, and this anthology is cloth-bond. The thirty-five black-and-white illustrations in the anthology itself beautifully complement it. The page layout of the sonnets (two per page) is highly professional, as readers will see the moment they open the book… As for content, stand prepared, my fellow editors, poets, sonneteers, readers and other publishers. You are in for a most pleasant surprise…’

The anthology is currently available here, and will soon be available at the major on-line retail outlets.

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November 24, 2013

Millie and Marie meet some Angels

© Millie Ho

© Millie Ho

The first 'Angela' © Millie Ho

The first ‘Angela’ © Millie Ho

Recently it began to seem like a good idea to find cover art for The Everywhen Angels, my soon-to-be-published novel for older children, in a bit of a hurry. The idea was to publish well in time for Christmas, in order to advertise it for the seasonal market. Well, that might not happen, but in any case the perceived urgency gave me the chance to ask Canadian artist Millie Ho if she could come up with something post-haste. I sent her a copy of the draft manuscript, we discussed an idea I had in mind, and Millie set about constructing it.

Almost every day a sketch would come of one or all of the main characters – Angela, Charlie, and Ashe.

The first 'Ashe' © Millie Ho

The first ‘Ashe’ © Millie Ho

I watched their characters take shape. In the book, we read the same story three times, each version as seen by one of this trio. With each version we get more of the back-story, and maybe more revelations about the underlying mystery. All of it? Hmmm, wait and see. I ask a lot of the young readership; for example, Charlie’s story is told backwards, and one of the first things that happens is that he emphatically contradicts one of the major events of Angela’s story. I touch on ‘difficult’ philosophical matters but, as I learned from my literary hero in the genre of fiction for young readers, Alan Garner, an author should never underestimate the intelligence of his or her readership.

The first 'Charlie' © Millie Ho

The first ‘Charlie’ © Millie Ho

The book came about as a result of a heated but amicable argument between myself and some friends. They are all Harry Potter fans, and I was tearing JKR’s literary style to shreds*. They said I should either write a fantasy set in a school and make it as good as one of hers, or shut up. So I wrote one! It doesn’t quite qualify as a ‘fantasy’, but it does feature a group of teenagers with weird powers. An early draft was tried out on the twelve-going-thirteen-year-old daughter of one of these friends. It was read to her one chapter at a time, at bed time, in return for tidying her room and doing her homework. Never had her room been so tidy, and never had her homework been so promptly completed! I think I more than won the challenge. So does my publisher, P’kaboo, who has been enthusiastic about securing and publishing the book. I did try it with Head of Zeus first of all, who asked to see the full manuscript and were impressed by it, but decided it didn’t fit with the portfolio they were building up. P’kaboo then practically tore my hand off to get it.

You will soon be able to read the book, and you will soon be able to see more of Millie Ho’s artwork on the cover. There is a teaser of the final cover illustration at the top of this article. From the sketches here you will be able to see how Angela and Ashe developed from waif-like individuals to young people with great presence. Charlie’s sardonic streak was visible right from the word go.

The Angels take shape. © Millie Ho

The Angels take shape. © Millie Ho

My publisher  was as enthusiastic as I was about Millie’s finished illustration. Millie and I are now talking about further collaboration. There is a possibility of some high-action teen-vampire fiction of mine being turned into graphic novels by Millie’s ink and brush. Millie has already added the word ‘fangirling’ to my vocabulary – it’s what we do with regard to each other’s work. Seems like a good basis on which to continue. I’ll keep you informed.

__________

* Fair’s fair – at the end of the day, JKR can ignore my opinion all the way to the bank, and good luck to her!

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November 21, 2013

And so the Phoenix has risen at last!

phoenix2The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes is – if you didn’t know already – an ‘Anthology of Sonnets of the Early Third Millennium’. by that I mean it contains examples of this long-established form of poetry written by contemporary poets. More than two hundred and fifty poets have been included in this book, and it is the first anthology of specifically 21c sonnets to be published. Editor-in-Chief is Richard Vallance, former Editor before his retirement and the magazines’ closure of Sonnetto Poesia and Canadian Zen Haiku. This anthology is his swan song as an editor. I’m proud to have worked alongside him not only as part of the editorial team of SP and CZH, but also as Deputy Editor of The Phoenix Rising from the Ashes.

At present the book is available at Friesen Press in hardback and paperback, and from eBookPie for your electronic reader, but will shortly also be available at Amazon, Barnes & Nobel, etc.

I really can’t recommend it too much. I know the work that went into it, I know the personal exertion that Richard went through to produce it, I know how the editorial team toiled. Most of all I know the quality of the poetry in the book – it is outstanding. There isn’t a poet in there who doesn’t warrant more reading. The sonnet is far from dead, and those people who choose to take the form as a vehicle for their poetic expression don’t do so out of nostalgia, but because it works. This anthology is a work of quality.

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November 9, 2013

How to get a copy of ‘Lupa’ in the UK

You can simply walk into your local branch of

Waterstones

and order it!

November 8, 2013

So, what next?

author clip art

… I hear you ask. What’s next after crashing into the world of teenagers and vampires? Well, you know me of old, how I proudly state what my current or next project is, and then you hear no more about it. The fact is that writing a teen-vampire novella at breakneck speed has knocked me back on my heels. It was such fun! I’m left wondering whether fun increases in indirect proportion to literary merit, but frankly I scarcely care. Last night as I lay awake I suddenly had the premise for a sequel. I wonder. Maybe not yet. Anyhow, finishing the first draft of a book does not mean the end of working on it. The novella is currently with a couple of readers who are proofing through it with a specific task in mind. Then it will go off to my publishers (who asked for it in the first place) to see if it will do. That’s when the really hard work starts, as it is scrutinised in minute detail by the in-house editor. That’s a process I have just been through with The Everywhen Angels – tedious, but necessary.

Which brings me on to the task(s) which will be engaging my attention next. Hopefully The Everywhen Angels will be out before Christmas. There will be the job of bringing it to the public’s attention. A similar job will be needed for The Phoenix Rising from its Ashes – that’s the major, new anthology of 21c sonnets, of which I am Deputy Editor. Also on the desk is completing a macabre story for this year’s Winter Words literary festival; this task involves getting to grips with the dialect of the Shetland Isles, a very specific branch of Scots, in which a major character speaks throughout, and which pervades the story.

I think that takes us up to Hogmanay. So what then. Well, I still have another novel on the desk, one for which I have done a lot of research but which is proving difficult to write convincingly. The main problem with it is that I have decided to use the third person (as an ‘omniscient’ narrator) rather than the first, and this is a major departure for me as regards longer fiction. My usual mode is first person, because I like to get under the skin of my protagonist and draw the readership close to her/him. Writing in the third and yet being able to carry readers with me is no easy option, but I won’t let it defeat me. I’ll get there some time. However, competing with that novel-in-progress, are other ideas. Will the sequel to my teen-vampire novel seduce me? Will I write a totally different novel, the seed of which is in my mind, about a cynical wizard-detective? Or will I go off at a tangent to all of these? Already I’m considering proposing a collaboration with an artist on a project to produce a graphic novel – such a tempting idea for me, but maybe not for the artist. So who knows. I’ll make you no promises, and meanwhile you can be sure my mind is bubbling.

M.

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October 19, 2013

Angels, Mothers, Vampires, and Others.

Michael

This morning I finished my final read-through of The Everywhen Angels, my forthcoming novel, and gave a small list of unresolved typographical issues to my publisher. I think that’s the job done. I’m still awaiting the cover artwork, but that’s for the ‘house’ artist.

Having done that, I turned my attention to The Milk of Female Kindness, an anthology of prose, artwork, and poetry on the subject of motherhood. Contributors are drawn from as far afield as Australia, North America, and Britain. The Australian editor is Kasia James, and I am privileged to be doing a little editorial consultancy for her. The contents are marvelous – poetry ranges from Alison Bartlett’s ‘Reasons to Breastfeed’ to my own ‘The Maclaren’, about someone who can’t breastfeed – and I would especially recommend Maureen Bowden’s short story ‘Hiding the Knives’. I don’t have any information as to when the book will appear, but I’ll let you know as soon as I do.

I have also heard that the international anthology of modern sonnets The Phoenix Rising from its Ashes, for which I am Deputy Editor, is now ready to go to print. Publication is a little behind schedule, but it has a bit of a struggle to get this far. Being a deputy means you don’t get final say. I have often thought that it would have looked a lot different had I been at the helm, but it wasn’t my baby, and so all the recognizable facial features will be those of its very loving father, Editor-in-Chief Richard Vallance. Richard has sunk considerable energy and personal resources into this collection, and deserves to see it thrive. Again, more news as I get it.

Having work edited – the most chastening part of publication for an author – is damn good schooling for doing editorial work oneself. It sharpens up one’s initial presentation, for a start. Shortly, I hope, I shall be in a position to hand over the first draft of my teen-vampire novel. I’m winging it. I didn’t want to write a romance, where another Bella falls for another Edward*, so I launched straight into an action scene without even pausing to dream up a plot. I figured that my protagonist would suggest to me how the story would go and so she did! Imagine a tomboyish, even ‘boi-ish’, version of Buffy in a New York setting, a generation into the future, when energy resources are running thin and vampires are finding their way into positions of influence in the world. Imagine her reading a book about a nineteenth-century vampire hunter and finding connections. Imagine that despite her heroism she makes fatal mistakes. Imagine vampires with whom any person-to-person understanding is next-to-impossible (hence no cheesy romance). Imagine, most of all, the feeling that as a teenager one is marginalized and kept in the dark. That’s the way the novel is shaping up at present. The question of teenage alienation and lack of understanding is not a new theme for me. I deal with it a lot in The Everywhen Angels, for example. In my teen-vampire novel it is going to be dealt with a little more simply and superficially, amongst the episodic, crash-bang plot. I have to say it feels a little as though I’m writing a pot-boiler, but we’ll see how it comes out…

It’s a while until the next Showcase at the zen space is due out. Nevertheless I’m currently thinking about it. My aim this time will be to feature, strictly, writers whose work has not yet been seen in a Showcase. This means I will have to start sending out invitations and calling for contributions soon. I’m taking a little rest from writing poetry myself, but will be back at it shortly, I’m sure.

Finally, have you picked up your free ebook copy of my novel Lupa? If not, go here to do so – and also think about writing a review for me.

__________
*That’s a Twilight reference, for those of you who don’t instantly get it.

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October 11, 2013

Vampire moments

Wompeer

Today I’m remembering two of my favourite vampire moments. The first has to be from the movie The Fearless Vampire Killers. Veteran British actor Alfie Bass, playing a Jewish innkeeper, has been turned into a vampire. He invades a maiden’s bedroom at night, she screams, and holds up a crucifix. “Oy, oy!” grins Alfie, “Did you pick the wrong vampire!” The old jokes are the best. FVK has to be my favourite vampire movie ever, if only for the irony of the title – the hunters seem to spend the whole film in a state of abject terror, and never kill a single vampire.

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Bela Lugosi as Dracula

Another moment comes from a TV show from the 1960s, Michael Bentine’s It’s a Square World. In the sketch I recall, another veteran british actor, Clive Dunn, arrives in Transylvania on a cultural mission to bring cricket to the peasants in the Carpathians. At a village inn he finds a group of terrified peasants, led by Michael Bentine, cowering in a corner in fear of the local nobleman, a notorious vampire. Dunn brings out his cricketing gear, but the language barrier produces a hilarious result, as Bentine, in a cod Eastern-European language, mimes to his fellow peasants how to cosh a vampire with the cricket bat, and drive stumps through its heart. Enter the vampire, probably played by John Bluthal dressed a la Lugosi, and the peasants flee. Not realising what this newcomer is, Dunn promises to turn him into “a first class bat”, and off they go together, Dunn folded ominously in the vampire’s cloak.

I mention all this because my teen-vampire novel-in-progress has now passed thirty thousand words. I can’t help thinking that just writing it is the easy part…

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October 5, 2013

From Shogunate Japan to the Bayous with Sam Snoek-Brown

sam

If you have fifteen minutes to spare, I recommend watching this video clip of Sam Snoek-Brown, a writer for whom I have enormous respect. In this televised interview he talks about such things as how he teaches his creative writing students all about getting rejected by publishers. But the main topic of the interview is his forthcoming novel Hagridden, and the influence of classic Samurai movies on his writing. The novel is set at the time of the American Civil War, but its action happens well away from the battlefields, cities, and plantations of North and South.

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October 4, 2013

I’ve been here before

angels

It seems like only days ago that I was proof-reading the final draft of Lupa. There were three of us on the task, and we still let a glaring typo go through into the first print run. Now I’m at the same stage with The Everywhen Angels, and I’m a little jumpy about making the same mistake. I always blame typos on my legendary North Korean keyboard, but no one really believes me. The other thing that has me on the edge of my seat is the prospect of seeing the cover illustration. I have passed my own ‘vision’ to the house illustrator, but who knows what he will come up with. Reactions to his cover for Lupa were very good – not without exception, but you can’t please everyone.

Meanwhile my new teen-vampire-themed novel is progressing slowly, after an initial burst, but it definitely is progressing, and probably more quickly than anything I have ever written. A bit.

I would like to remind you that if you would like a free e-book copy of Lupa you can still get one – but hurry! You’re also invited to send in a review, with the possibility that you could win an autographed copy of the novel. You will see from the on-line review form that it doesn’t have to be a long review, but the text box on the form does expand to allow you to ‘wax lyrical’.

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September 16, 2013

Demons and Angels

A few days ago I asked you this question: What well-known character in children’s fiction is known in Chinese as Fú Dìmó? I had many interesting answers either as comments or tweets, some of which are contained in the montage below – including the correct character, which nobody guessed. Have a look at the montage, and see if you can spot the correct character. I’ll reveal the answer below.

Who is Fu Dimo?

I’m guessing that you had no trouble identifying each of the characters in the montage. Each answer was imaginative, even if Fu Manchu and the cast of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon stretched the idea of ‘children’s fiction’ a little far. Whoever guessed Harry Potter probably got the closest, but still ‘no cigar’.

The correct answer is… Lord Voldemort from the Harry Potter canon. You could have spotted the phonetic similarity between ‘Voldemort’ and ‘Fú Dìmó’. It might have been easier to spot if the translators had gone with their first idea, and had used a character ‘Fo’ instead of ‘Fu’. However ‘Fo’ can have associations with Buddha, and that might not have seemed appropriate for such a villainous character as Voldemort. It has been pointed out that the etymology of the name ‘Voldemort’ suggests ‘wish of death’. This fact reminds me of the difficulty of translating literary texts (I have done a little translating, mainly between French and English, and I briefly worked with the late Vera Rich, proof-reading an unfinished translation from Belarusian to English). JKR’s translators went for a phonetic rendering with an appropriately sinister meaning, rather than taking a meaning from the etymology of the original.

Anyhow, thank you to everyone who played the game with me.

That takes care of today’s demon. Now what about tomorrow’s angels? Just a quick update on The Everywhen Angels, my soon-to-be-published novel.  We have completed the major editing stage and are now looking at the first full draft, with our eyes open for any missed typos and new glitches. I received this comment from the publisher’s editor, himself no mean novelist: “… the book is something special. The characterisation is convincing. The narrative is entertaining and gripping, but at the same time shows a wealth of knowledge and research and introduces challenging food for thought on abstract matters…” That is quite something for a YA book. We’re still waiting for cover art, but hopefully the book will be out well before Christmas and in time for the publisher’s schools promotion.

More news as I get it.

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