Next Big Thing

Rebecca Schwarz tagged me to talk about my Next Big Thing. She is the author of the short stories Flotsam, Fairview 619, and the forthcoming The Gyre. Her latest WIP is Inside Out (working title).

 

Although I've put out a number of short stories as well as a novelette (through my imprint, Step5 Transmedia) it might be better to call my upcoming release(s) my FIRST Big Thing(s), since it (they—depending on how editing goes) will be my first novel-length work(s).  Further muddling the issue is the, erm… next Next Big Thing, the first novel in a planned trilogy that I'm gearing up to write during this year's NaNoWriMo.

10 questions about your Next Big Thing:

1. What is the title of your work in progress?

Fnerge! is either the name of the first book or the name of the duology, or possibly the leading phrase of the title (as in Fnerge! Chosen1 and Fnerge! 2Worlds).

2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

My interest in the transformative process is essentially boundless. The seeds of this work were generated by Greg Bear's Blood Music and the merge scenes from Rudy Rucker's 'Ware Tetrology. I wanted to do a near-future thriller/monster book involving a nano-infected menace (essentially an SF draped version of the blob). Instead I wrote a science fantasy set in schizoid secondary world/universe-next-door. With miniature dragons.

Sometimes I wonder if there is any sense at all to be made of the way my creative faculty functions.

3. What genre does your book fall under?

Science Fantasy is what I'm going with. With some horrific elements, of course. Also, it's kind of YA.

4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in the movie?

The protagonists and generally human characters could all be played by The Goonies. One of the main villains is modeled after Stephen King, so maybe he would be interested in a non-cameo? The Xyzzerns (and other nonhumans) could be played by whoever-it-was-who-animated-Gollum. Mereg the evil supercomputer could be played by Hal 3000, and Tommy Lee Jones could be Agent Alpha (that one is obvious).

5. What is a brief synopsis of the book?

A race of tiny dragons gives a young man (Andy) the power of The Mayhem in exchange for helping them defeat an evil supercomputer on the 2worlds (a bifurcated alternate plane). Other players and powers become involved, pursuing related and opposing agendas. Also, romance happens. But not with the talking dog.

6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

It depends on how technical you want to be about defining self-publishing. I don't require an agent for submissions to my publishing company (Step5 Transmedia), and I am fairly likely to accept my own work for publication. But I won't be publishing it. My company will.

7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?

I wrote most of it during NaNoWriMo in 2011. The last 10% took me another two months. I just recently started editing in earnest, and I expect that to take another few months. Hopefully I'll be releasing the books in the first quarter of 2013.

8. What other books would you compare this story to in your genre?

I would love for these books to be compared to the work of writers like Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett, Rudy Rucker, Piers Anthony, L. Ron Hubbard, Stephen King, and Andre Norton. The setting and story are such a cross-genre mish-mash that I really can't think of anything specifically like it, but it has tons of inspiration drawn from bits and pieces of the works of the authors listed above.


9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I guess I already answered this one in #8, above. One addition: if it isn't clear, the title (Fnerge!) is very inspired by Fnord (phrase used to 'sign off' in Steve Jackson Game's writings about the Illuminati).

10. What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

Erm… lizardmen, spiders, Ankabi, and Wuzza? Furry, insane, dwarves-in-space analogs called Gonzoi? Creepy meta-mythological characters? No tea? Did I mention romance (but not with the talking dog)?

Here are my picks for the next Next Big Thing:

 

(forthcoming)

About Self-Epublishing:

It's a pain in the keister.

Okay, maybe not compared to all the effort that would go into paper self-publishing, especially how it used to be before POD and online distributors like Amazon and Smashwords. But still.

And maybe it isn't a pain so much as it is work, and unfamiliar work at that. But, but, but...

Yep. I'm going through some growing pains. And I'm feeling a tad bit whiny.

It took me around three or four hours to edit and format my most recent story, Hunter-in-the-Dark. It took about the same so the cover, and about the same to do the actual publishing. All told, I'm about 12 hours invested now, not counting the time spent actually writing the thing.

That's not too shabby in some ways, compared to how things were for self-pubbers until the last few years. But it's about three times longer than I want to be spending on a short story. It's also about the same amount of time it took me for the last three.

So, why aren't I getting faster? I've learned a ton in the process of getting the other stories up. That should translate to increased speed, ease, and efficiency. The problem is, I'm also figuring out new things that need to be done.

So basically, my workflow has gotten 'leaner', but it's also gotten more involved. I'm currently resisting the urge to go back and fix all the stuff I had no clue about in the first three stories. Like back matter and cross-links :) I probably will, but later, after I've done a few more and figured out even more ways to improve my presentation.

The concept of which makes me want to simultaneously tear my hair out and jump for joy. It's a strange and nonobvious time we live in, ain't it?

***

Important addendum: My publishing company (Step5 Transmedia, of which I am the founder, owner, and PR flack) wants to make sure I let you know that Hunter-in-the-Dark is not actually self-published. Because it's published by, erm... Step5 Transmedia. Yep. I'm recursively shameless.