‘The Prophecy’ - something new for me at the time

The Prophecy is science fiction and it is a Young Adult novel. It is the first book in the Peace Child series and it was a first in many ways for me when I wrote it. It was the first time I’d written science fiction, it was the first time I’d written for young adults and it was the first time I’d written a novel over about 29,000 words.

In fact, if formed part of my PhD thesis, Peace Child, Towards a Global Definition of the Young Adult Novel.

I had a writing routine back then (2003-2007) that involved writing for two hours a day and producing 2000 words. I also read avidly and devoured as many young adult novels as I could find: ones in other languages, form other English-speaking countries and anything that was labelled ‘young adult’ by publishers, book-sellers, teachers, librarians and young adults themselves. I sought to define what the young adult novel was and shape my novel accordingly.

It soon became apparent that it wasn’t a matter of writing the story and then working on the definition.  The two processes had to go hand in hand.

I won’t give you my definition here - why would I deprive you of the pleasure of reading the thesis? Find out all about it here: https://research.bangor.ac.uk/en/studentTheses/peace-child-towards-a-global-definition-of-the-young-adult-novel. I can however tell you I identified seven characteristics.

There was an explosion in YA literature between 1996 and 2005. Back then I was familiar with pretty well every YA text. Now there are far too many of them to keep track and the YA novel has moved on.

The story itself is a about a Peace Child, a sort of super-charged diplomat who seeks to bring people on opposite sides together.  Oh, I wish we had a few of those around now. Kaleem’s world is in a distant future, where we have colonised other planets and found other life in the universe, But as ever in science fiction we encounter the same problems that challenge us in our own world.

I spent many months before I started writing the story creating Kaleem’s world.  I thought about food, clothing, schooling, religion, finance and many other matters.  When I started writing more questions came up. I find this happens too in fantasy and historical fiction.   With the latter you have to go and find out - for example for one book I needed to know which cut flowers would be available in the autumn in 1941. In fantasy and science fiction you have to use your imagination – but in fact you are still writing what you know.

Is science fiction and science fantasy for young adults the equivalent of the glove puppet and  anthropomorphised animals for very young children? I suspect it is.

I have now completed six stories in the Peace Child series. I shall be starting the seventh and final one shortly.    

This first novel shows how the Peace Child, Kaleem Malkendy, fulfils a prophecy and saves his planet. In the process he finds out a lot about his own identity. He has to learn to understand otherness. In subsequent books he faces other issues but there is always the need to find a third way between opposing entities. In books five and six he hands over the batten to the next Peace Child and in book seven we shall meet her successor.

The prophecy? It is something to do with the Tower of Babel. Kaleem is a super linguist. Is the prophecy accurate? In a later book some explanation is offered as to how it came about … and yet we are left wondering. Here’s a hint for you:  one characteristic of the young adult novel is that it allows the reader to make up their own mind about what is really happening. I think The Prophecy does.              

 

Kaleem Malkendy is different – and on Terrestra, different is no way to be.
Everything about Kaleem marks him out form the rest: the blond hair and dark skin, the uncomfortable cave where he lives and the fact that he doesn’t know his father. He’s used to unwelcome attention, but even so he’d feel better if some strange old man didn’t keep following him around.
That man introduces himself and begins to explain the Babel Prophecy – and everything in Kaleem’s life changes forever.   

Find you copy here

Babel and the Prophecy

                                 

 

Someone has just written a review of Babel, the second of my Peace Child trilogy.  This was first published in 2011 and I have some distance from it now.  The review made me remember some astonishing things:

·          There was concern a about an aging population because medicine had become so good. People weren’t dying so in order to stop overpopulation compulsory euthanasia was introduced

·           A pandemic had spread over Terrestra

·          Terrestra had cut itself off from other planets

·          Terrestra now had to reach out to other planets  

·          The protagonist’s enemy had become involved in a fascist movement

And Book 1 is called The Prophecy.

 

Oh well. Stories repeat themselves don’t they?     

Lots of Books

I’m feeling a tad prolific, a trifle gob-smacked, if not somewhat overwhelmed and even a little inert.

I have four books just out and a fifth out any minute now.
Babel is out as a paperback, it and The Prophecy are now available on Kindle. Hipp-O-Dee-Doo-Dah, the anthology which I’ve edited and in which my story The Gargoyle appears, is available now.

Shortly, my novel for 9-11, Kiters comes out with Tabby Cat Press.

I’m doing a special offer on signed copies until 30 June. Sign up for my newsletter if you want to know more.

It’s all good, I guess, but I’m so busy, I can’t get my head round launching properly.      

Creating Worlds

Before I started writing The Prophecy, I spent months creating my world. I sat in cafés dreaming of Terrestra 3500. I worked out how people lived, what they ate, how they dressed, how society was organised, how they travelled around, what they believed in, what they did for fun and what the physical attributes were of the planet. On top of that, there were also the normal thoughts about character and plot.
Now, I’m revisiting all of that and thoroughly enjoying it. One of the editors at The Red Telephone has suggested that I provide a glossary of characters and setting features for readers of Babel as they may not remember it all from The Prophecy. He has a point. I’ve had to look up some things myself.
However, I’d never suggest using a glossary instead of setting everything up correctly. It should be obvious what certain things are and who certain people are from the way they are introduced. It would be wrong to bore readers of the second volume who knew the first for the sake of the handful who go straight to volume two. I’d like to emulate Oisín McGann who is a real master of setting up worlds, especially in his novel The Gods and Their Machines. There are no words of exposition. He simply shows us his world. This is extreme showing not telling.
Another writer who does this successfully, this time in an historical context, is Caroline Lawrence in her Roman Mysteries series. The first time you meet a Latin word or a little Roman culture, Lawrence makes her meaning transparently clear. She also includes these items in a glossary at the back of the book in case you have forgotten what an expression means the next time you meet it. For those readers who are really interested in Latin words and Roman culture there is more on her web site.
Yes, I’m really enjoying writing the glossary about the world I have created. It’s also reassuring me that my world works.

Free Author Visit to Wetherby High School

This was a very enjoyable visit. I worked with mainly year 8s. There were more boys and they were remarkably engaged. And they say boys are not interested in reading… Still, I do have to confess that rumour had it that the alternative was their usual French lesson. How ironic! I used to be a language teacher. And today I had the proofs of a French resource I’ve written. If only they knew!
Nevertheless, the students- the majority boys –listened well and responded well to my questions. Many admitted to liking fantasy and science fiction. Only a few girls liked science fiction. Could The Prophecy change that? Who knows?
It was good that they understood, much of what was going on in the snippets of The Prophecy that I read out. Am I allowed to say I wrote it right?
They listened well and asked some very shrewd questions. Extremely pleasing for their age again – especially from the boys. I told them quite a lot about my editing processes, and they seemed to understand quite easily.
I also met a teacher and a Y13 student very committed to writing. It is good to meet people like that.
I arrived at about break-time. I realise the staff room is something I miss from my days as a secondary school teacher. There is a certain camaraderie not found in Higher Education. A large chocolate cake dominated. Someone had reached their thirtieth birthday at the weekend. At the university, you are lucky if somebody comes out of their box -aka office- at the same time as you let alone meets your for a coffee or lunch. But I guess we also have compensations. Like the fact that I’m working from home for the rest of the day.

The Books Have Come

They’ve arrived! My lovely creamy, yellowy copies of The Prophecy. I did worry a little that they may not come in time. They have and they all look good.
Over thirty books out and I still get quite a kick out of seeing their glossy covers. However, I don’t like opening them. I find sentences I want to change. It’s odd as well – I don’t quite recognise them. I’m so used to seeing my books as double-spaced A4 sheets. They don’t look quite as if they belong to me when they’re in the form of books on the shelf. Who is this Gill James anyway?
I’m going to have to pick the bits I want to read soon and practise. That’s enjoyable, though. I think we’ve got a fair audience. Perhaps the free chocolate cake and the free carrot cake is attracting them….
Is text enhanced by performance? Or should the text speak for itself? I know often in critique groups, one tends to underread. I did have a friend, though, who could make the direst texts come to life. At readings anyway one has to actually perform. Practise I must, therefore.

Book Launch Imminent

I’m getting so excited. My book "The Prophecy" launches on 18th September. It actually comes out, of course on 14th September. We’re holding it at the Nexus Art Café in Dale Street, Northern Quarter, M1 1JW. Fans, if you want to come along, you’re most welcome, but do RSVP to admin@theredtelephone.co.uk. Carrot cake and chocolate cake free on a first come first served basis. Books for sale, obviously, and I’ll be doing a few short readings.
It’s a great venue and very appropriate. I’m hoping to get them into the Creative Café network. They’re actually a really good example of the Creative Café. The epitomise it – and they’re still pushing it further.
It was good yesterday, having the excuse to go and visit to pay the deposit. I just had to try a piece of the chocolate cake ….

Editing, editing, editing

I continue to edit Babel. At the moment I’m checking for character. Are the characters consistent? Do they grow? Are they rounded. When I use dialogue, does it sound like their voice?
I really do find it useful to check for one thing at a time, though I’ll often notice other things apart from what I’m actually looking for in a particular edit. So, writing always become rewriting.
There is the danger, I suppose, that after a while you become jaded and cannot see the major faults. In any case, though, you edit from big picture to smaller detail. You get rid of the real problems first and then come down to spellings, punctuation and syntax.
Yesterday, I also looked at final proofs of The Prophecy which comes out in September. I agreed with the copy-editor on all but one change. We were using Track Changes. I then accidentally “accepted all”. Fortunately, I’d got two copies. However, I was then not able to find the change I did not want to accept. I guess I just have to trust my copy editor.

Editing and Editing and Editing

I am now on the eighth edit of Spooked. Tomorrow I show it to an editor even though I want to do another six or seven edits on it myself. It is gradually growing right, although until very recently I’d thought a novel I finished a year a go – and started about ten years ago – was much better.

So, why am I proposing to show this to an editor before it’s really ready?

It’s actually a matter of geography. I’m in Cambridge tomorrow for the CWIG conference, and the publishing company is based near Cambridge. I’ve never actually met my editor before though we’ve had plenty of conversations on the phone and via email. I’m also meeting the new publicist. It will be interesting.

I’m taking some things along for her to have a look at. My precious The Prophecy – I just can’t get used to that - it used to be Peace Child. I’ve actually had that one made into real books so they are easier to read. - Spooked as mentioned and Miss Maplethorpe – a short novel, perhaps for reluctant readers. According to Microsoft it has a reading age of 4.6. Interestingly that was edited to perfection when I last looked at it, about eighteen months ago. I’m sure today I would find it a bit shaky. I did have a little glance at it, though, as I printed it, and it did look fine.

But when do you stop editing?

I’m keeping fingers crossed for my lunch time meeting tomorrow.

I’m also taking a few extra copies to the conference as well. There will be many networking opportunities there as well.

Coping with Rejections

Rejection is just part of life when you are a writer. It doesn’t stop hurting, though. It is definitely the down on the roller-coaster. Or is it?

At least when you’ve had the rejection you can move onto the next submission. I have my really beloved baby, The Prophecy, out there now. One publisher has the first three chapters and a synopsis. They’ve had them a couple of weeks. They haven’t acknowledged them and I have a creepy sort of feeling that maybe they didn’t get them: they were emailed as an attachment. But I don’t want to ask yet, as it might sound like nagging.

I did send another query letter yesterday, again by email, and the answer came back: no they don’t publish YA. It didn’t say that in their guidelines and they looked just the zany sort of publisher who would. Oh well!

I’m not hurrying this one. I’ll go for likely looking people as I see them and only proactively seek new opportunities as the rejections come in. I’m really waiting on my first publisher as being published with them would be so appropriate. Meanwhile, I’ll get on with other writing.

I know another writer who just calls rejections “rewrites”. I guess that is an optimistic way of looking at them. I can see that that works for those rejections where you get some feedback. I’m not sure that it works for the ones which are just standard slips. I guess, though, that you make a mental note of the fact that that imprint doesn’t quite fit the style and content of your writing. Can you make it a better fit? If not with this piece, then with another?

Hopefully, the more you write the better you get.

In any case, I can’t not write. It seems to be in my blood now.

Final Draft “Peace Child”

Yes, yet another final draft. I did make quite a major change in this. I renamed one of the characters for part of the story, which for the readers slightly disguises who she is. It gives another layer of mystery, hopefully. I was intrigued, too, to spot some really loose bits. You would have thought I’d have got those ironed out by now or be experienced enough not to have them in the first place. But there they were. I guess we do carry on growing as writers. All the time.

I discussed this with a colleague yesterday whose latest book has just come out. It looked good. He was pleased with it, and I’ll probably buy a copy. But I almost detected in him the same cringe factor I feel about looking at work that was completed a while ago. He also confessed to having moved on. That is the way of it for writers.

Indeed, the new “patch” in PC does seem to stand out. It is quite vibrant. I am pleased with it. But does that create a problem for the rest of it?

The novel has also changed its name. It is now “The Prophecy”. Part II of the trilogy will be “Babel” and the final part “Peace Child”. It will be known as the Peace Child trilogy. But yes, my husband and my PhD internal examiner were right. Would young adults want to read a book with the word “child” in the title?

I’m now going to have about ten copies made into a proper book and let a bunch of people read it again. A plain dark blue cover, I think. Good old Lightning Source. I may, that way, get some endorsements even before it goes out in the big wide world.