The Next Big Thing Blog Hop!

Crossposted from my Blogetary blog:

The Next BIG Thing….
Recently, Leigh Purtill asked me if I’d like to be involved in a new round of blog tagging called the Next Big Thing Blog Hop where we don’t talk about what we have published, but instead try to pique people’s interest in what we are working on now. After reading about what Leigh is working on, I’m so excited for her to be finished and get it published! You can read her Next Big Thing Blog Hop post here.

Sharing what you’re working on can be a scary thing. Many writers (me included) have a slight superstition around talking about what we’re writing, especially with people outside our readers or critique partners. We’re afraid of the great “Unfinished Epic” jinx, where we’ll end up never carrying through with what we talked about because we talked about it too much. And then there’s the fear that someone will see your idea, take it as their own and then publish it before you have a chance to finish it and get it out there. And then everyone will see your story as one of the “Also Ran” members of the publishing race.

But, something I keep coming back to, and that this most recent project has reminded me of, is that, as Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun. Many of the same tales have been told and retold for generations. What’s unique with each tale is the author’s filter and how they tell that tale. So, my job as a writer is to trust my filter and not worry about the other guy. Just do the work.

And one of the fun things about doing the work is that you get excited about it and want to share it! So, now that Leigh has got me started on this blog hop, I get to answer some questions about my next BIG thing I am working on and I hope you enjoy it.

1. What is the title of your work-in-progress?
“Once Upon a Convention,” though the file’s slug tends to just be labeled “Cynthia,” after the main character.

2. Where did the idea come from?
I love fairy tales, myths and legends and delving into cultural stories. My favorite as a kid, of course, was Disney’s version of Cinderella. Also, when I was a kid, I thought it would be cool to rewrite some of the biblical tales from the point of view of a regular person or child going through it. Then I forgot all about that and went through my angst-filled teenage poetry writing years…
Anyway, didn’t think anything about that for a long time and then as I got older I found those anthologies where writers rewrote fairy tales, some of them very dark. I also reread many of my favorites, as well as the rewrites, and discovered new versions of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, as well as books on Chinese mythology, Egyptian mythology, Lummi teaching stories, Mother Goose, Italian Folktales, Russian folk tales, Irish legends, and then there were the Greek, Navajo and Coast Salish animal tales. There is so much out there. And the last five to 10 years has seen many redos of fairy tales in the realm of film. And then as you read more myth and legend and go back to old favorite books you realize that they also are redos of myths and legends that various writers loved over the years (from Tolkien and C.S. Lewis to Sherman Alexie and Tony Hillerman to Neil Gaiman, Ellen Datlow, Terri Windling, and on). And then there are those writers who write new tales, but based on the old fairy tales and with prose so beautiful you feel you really are reading an old fairy tale rediscovered, such as Patricia McKillip.

So, to make a long story not quite so long, a couple of years ago I decided to accept the challenge of rewriting a fairy tale. I had other friends who had done it and I decided to try it. And, I decided to try it with probably the single most overused fairy tale in the world – Cinderella. And then when I was talking it over with a friend of mine, she gave me an idea for the setting, and then bam! The idea was just sitting there waiting to be written.

3. What genre does your book come under?
Contemporary paranormal romance, with a little mystery and urban fantasy thrown in.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie?
For Cynthia, the protagonist, I would like Emma Watson or Amber Tamblyn or someone like that. For the love interest someone like William Moseley (Peter from the Narnia Chronicles), Rupert Grint or Marc Warren, maybe Russell Tovey. But, in my opinion, all the characters are unique and important so it would be fun to find actors for all the parts.

5. One sentence synopsis for your book?
Cinderella retold in modern day Los Angeles with the help of the bridal industrial complex, a mystery, and lots of style and fashion porn.

6: Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?
It depends. I don’t have an agent. If it feels like this book could get me an agent, I’ll send it around, but I’ll also submit it to publishing places that don’t require agents. And if I can’t get it published that way, then I’ll go for self-published. So, we shall see. But that’s a long way off. I have at least two more hard-core revisions to go before it even gets close to that stage.

7: How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?
Well, back a couple of years ago, it was only going to be a short story and then I wrote the first chapter (took me a month) and realized it needed to be a book. So, I put it down until I could get my head around that. Then about a year ago I decided to make an effort to push my way through to the end, no matter how rough it was. I usually get stuck on little things, so I ended up putting notes in all sorts of places to come back and fix later. That was last year. It was a very rough draft and it took a couple of months. I put it aside to age. Then this year, the last 4-5 months I’ve been going through it the second time, smoothing it out and fixing those places where I left notes. I’ve had critique partners go over bits of it and I have a couple of readers going through it to check for accuracy for some things. And when they’re through, I need to go through it at least twice more, just for plotting and fixing inconsistencies, find a couple of other people to read it for consistency and story, etc., and then the fussing and fiddling will really begin.

8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I would say it’s a mix of “Enchanted, Inc.” by Shanna Swendson and “The Devil Wears Prada” by Lauren Weisberger, sort of, and in Los Angeles. At least, that’s sort of the feel of it.

9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?
See above about myths and legends and fairy tales. I think they still have something to teach us and every new writer finds something else we can glean from them. Also, while I want to be one of those writers who’s able to use her filter to describe an old tale in a new way, I can’t seem to write that beautiful prose that Patricia McKillip or Ellen Datlow or Terri Windling do so well (you know, the kind you find in magazines like Shimmer). But I’m pretty good, I think, at writing relationships between people, which is more contemporary. So, instead of trying to be the fish that is asked to climb a tree and mimic the beautiful prose, I decided to stick to my strengths and do a contemporary romance.

10.What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Style and fashion – heavy on the shoes (duh!). Lots of intersecting relationships – friendship, family and romantic. Also, adventure, mystery, a touch of magic, a goldfish named Huey and a bartender named Gus.

And that, dear readers, is the next big thing for me. Now, I would like to tag another writer who can tell you about HER next big thing, Rosaliene Bacchus.

I met Rosaliene when we both belonged to the Miracle Mile Writers Club, which now is no more. But each month we used to see each other and I’d hear about the stories she was working on. Rosaliene is originally from Guyana, by way of Brazil. When I have read her short stories I have been impressed by the colorful settings and personalities in them. At New Year’s we got together at another writerly poet-y friend’s house and I heard more about the novel she is working on and it sounds like a tale that needs be out there. It sounds epic and I can barely wait to hear about her next big thing!