by Jason Fischer | Sep 14, 2011 | Writing
So, a bit over 2 months into this writing hiatus, and things are going quite well. There’s only one embargoed project left to be revealed, which will hopefully be happening a bit later this year, and After the World’s “Army Corpse” is completely edited and out of my hands. Excellent stuff!
The complete removal of internet from the house is my sole secret to any success at this mad enterprise – yes, I’ve been locking the damn modem in the damn car 🙂 thus do words appear. Once the good Mrs Fisch hid it from me with my blessing, which turns out to be exactly what the talented Vandermeers do.
Best of all, my novel “Papa Lucy and the Boneman” is tearing along, like a demon horse with a coffee enema and rocketskates. If I can stick to the schedule, the first draft will be finished very soon, and I should have the second draft done by the end of October. My process involves writing 1st/2nd drafts concurrently, ie each writing session involves revision and tinkering, prior to any new words appearing, which seems to work for me (your mileage may vary, of course). Luckily, I haven’t spotted any major structural woes so far, which I’ll save for draft #3 after October.
So what’s in this opus? Once more, readers get to step into the world of Lanyard Everett, last of the jesusmen, scumbag and deeply troubled individual. I’ve shown glimpses of his world in my Aurealis Magazine stories, but this time around I get to play with the history of the place, the backstory, and some other awesome POV characters just to give this place a bit of depth and resonance. I’m trying for the flavour of Jack Vance, the structure is a bit Hyperionish, if you mix in a bit of Mad Max, Terry Dowling’s Rynocceros, and some of Sean Williams’ Books of the Change. I’ve spotted a lot of these influences creeping into the nascent draft, but I hope to give it my own unique twist, the insanity that I only just had the room to touch on in the short stories.
Having. A. Ball. 🙂
What else has been happening? Have been loving the extra time with the family, lots of reading time and cuddles with my boy, trips to the park and beach, the luxury of time to do errands and chores. Mostly though, I’ve been consistently pouring buckets of words into my various projects, and justifying the trust that Arts SA have put into my sometimes shaky time-management skills. Dudes, I’m coming up with the goods 🙂
by Jason Fischer | Sep 10, 2011 | Pimping, Publication, Writing
Following the release of novellas “Killable Hours” and my own “Gravesend”, Black House Comics have upped the ante. Not only is the After the World saga continuing, it’s been expanded from a standalone novella into a full-fledged fiction anthology, available in newsagents around Australia (and online). You’ll still find a zombie apocalypse novella in each bimonthly issue of After the World, but now each instalment is accompanied by some fantastic fiction, with a bit of something for everyone.
Issue 3 is headed up by Jason Franks’ “Pack Rules”, an absolute hum-dinger of a story set in the same shared universe as the first two books. I’ve had the privilege of already reading this piece, and it knocked my socks off. Bikers scavenging for supplies in a zombie ravaged Melbourne; the residents of an upper-class apartment, holed up and terrified; a pack of feral dogs abandoned, desperate to survive in a world where dead monsters walk.
A whole swag of other fiction can be found in this magazine, including tales of science fiction, horror, and just plain weirdness. My contribution to this issue is the slipstream “A Clockwork Arthur”, where the argot of Nadsat meets the downfall of Camelot. To top it all off, look at that cover. Just look at it! Jason Paulos at his finest.
(image nicked from http://blackhousecomics.com/articles/after-the-world–anthology—issue-3-out-now.html)
Future issues will include my sequels to “Gravesend”, the upcoming “Corpus Christi”, and the third instalment “Army Corpse”. These two are intended to make Gravesend look like a trip to Disneyland, and hopefully folks get a kick out of seeing the surviving characters from the first book (and the bad things I do to them – oh so bad).
After the World can be found in your local newsagent, or can be ordered online via this link: http://www.blackboox.net/after-the-world-pack-rules-issue-3/
Aspiring writers, here are the submission guidelines for this very cool publication, check it out: http://blackhousecomics.com/submissions-for-after-the-world.html
by Jason Fischer | Sep 2, 2011 | Publication, Writing
A while ago, I successfully auditioned for a spot in a shared universe, because playing in someone else’s backyard is always good fun. Each author got to use the main character of Katya, a capable assassin in a bizarre Byzantian setting, and it was an absolute hoot to write this. The good news is that these stories have just gone live, the even better news is that they are all available for free at the following website:
http://storyportals.com/
My story “Dead Letters” is one of the forthcoming pieces, but if you register as a member on the site (free membership) you will get access to these stories as they are released for public viewing. The first handful of Katya stories are now live, and two other serials will also be launched on the site in the near future. Editor Larry Segriff has attracted some seriously good writers to this project, including authors of D&D novels and some of my WotF buddies too. The setting is rich and detailed, much along the lines of the early Forgotten Realms, and as far as characters go Katya is seriously, seriously cool.
Katya, Lady Assassin
(image nicked from here: http://storyportals.com/series/katya-lady-assassin)
