Hey folks
It's my birthday today (getting old) and I'd like to share with you my thoughts on Jeff VanderMeer's existential horror novel called Annihilation and its sequels (Authority and Acceptance). Annihilation is one of my favourite books of all time and truth be told I haven't been able to find anything in the science fiction/cosmic horror/existential horror gene that tops it.
Have you read the books? You should! (However, you should skip the second book in the series - if you commit to the whole Southern Reach trilogy - and read only the last twenty pages or so. It's really not necessary to read the rest because there's a) no plot and b) it's boring as heck to follow a main character who goes to hid job in a boring office and does boring stuff there.)
Annihilation (the first book in the trilogy) is one of the best books I've ever read. It's quite honestly also (one of) the most impactful book(s) in my library.
I want to tell you why.
The most striking theme in Annihilation was to me the existential dread/horror the protagonist faces as she ventures into Area X. It has so much in common with what I'm constantly going through in real life (confusion about life/depression/trying to find ways to improve myself/trying to find meaning in life itself) that it resonated with me very deeply. There is always a sense of not knowing what's going on and what's going to happen. The tension is constant and the stakes are higher than life or death. They are existential. The biologist (the main character of the first book) finds new and stranger things every time she takes a step forward in Area X just as anyone else faces problem after problem in their day to day lives.
There are several scenes in the book where events happen and are not explained. This would be annoying in most books but in Annihilation it fits perfectly.
The ending too is very open and inconclusive. There is no 'good guy defeats bad guy' or even 'protagonist overcomes antagonist' climax. The climax is written the same as the rest of the book - very quietly but with lots of tension in it. The ending remains open-ended.
Another reason why this book is great is its main character - the biologist. The biologist does not change whatsoever during the course of the book (although she learn a lot of new and weird things). A lot of the times this is likely to be the sign of a bad book. But not so with Annihilation. The whole journey of the protagonist is so beautifully written and her character explained/developed that it impressed upon me such an awareness of how it's not always necessary to win/to defeat your own demons/etc. etc.. The point made was that everyone lives with some sort of disadvantage or baggage in life - which is true - and the point that follows this initial tidbit is that it does not matter at all. In a sense it says 'the past does not matter' just like the psychologist Alfred Adler did.
What does matter (and here Annihilation makes the greatest case for itself) is that we must simply go on despite our baggage/fears/anxieties/past. We must go on while trying to become better versions of ourselves. We must stay in motion and never surrender even when we feel hopeless or feel as if our life is meaningless or has come to a crushing end. This is portrayed by the book's ending very well. The biologist does not achieve what she set out to do immediately. What she expected did not come to pass. And still she decides to go on. There is no going back for her - or us - into the past. To return to the real world beyond Area X would be an admission of defeat but despite there being almost no hope of still achieving her goal the biologist soldiers on. It doesn't so much say 'go on despite adversity' as 'go on because there is nothing else left and you cannot return to the past'. It gives you a sense that there is only one way - forward.
At this end point of the story the biologist's motivations have changed (her initial goal did not come to pass) but her journey forward has not really. The biologist continues to move forward not to achieve her prior goal but because 'What else is there to do?'. I personally found that very beautiful and it immediately turned Annihilation into one of my favourite books. (Likely even the most favourite). I haven't been able to find anything that compares since.
Authority
Obviously after reading and loving Annihilation from sentence one I decided to stick with the trilogy. I read Authority next... and was severely disappointed. There is literally nothing that redeems this mock-up of a novel. In about the same 250 pages as Annihilation nothing whatsoever happens except some dude I don't care about (called Control, of all things) goes to work doing a job I don't care about (spoiler alert, he's a desk clerk in an office). And that's the book. The last twenty or so pages alone are relevant to the plot set up by Annihilation and continued in Acceptance, but the rest is plot-less plodding along of the most boring kind.
I recommend you skip most of the book and only read the last 20-30 pages to get the one small piece of information you'll need (but not even truly need) to get into the beginning of Acceptance smoothly.
Acceptance
In Acceptance the existential horror switches to cosmic horror. It's reasonably well done and I liked a lot about it (but not everything). Acceptance starts where Authority's last few pages left off. It's written from multiple points of view out of which only two are really great. The best one is of course Saul's. This was one of my first experiences with an author who writes a homosexual character and does not make the book all (angsty and boring) about it. No. Saul's story is really well done. I truly felt for the character and later on his lover as well. There is no 'oh he's so special because he's g-a-y'. He simply was attracted to men and had a boyfriend(-ish?) and that's it. This stood in stark contrast to a lot of other queer novels whose only point seems to be to make a big deal out of their characters being non-heterosexual. Acceptance did not and so of course this off-handed way of telling us he's gay was at the time a huge plus point from my point of view and also gave Jeff VanderMeer a lot of credibility in my eyes.
If he included Saul's homosexuality just to have the obligatory homosexual or whether Saul came to him this way I don't know (and probably never will) but it read very smoothly on the pages. It was just as a valid and real a relationship portrayal as any romantic side-plot I'd read before. And therefore that's a thing to applaud VanderMeer for. He did not draw attention to it.
The rest of the plot revolving Saul was the same level of perfect. A focus was put on Saul's experiences with Area X and its formation. I liked that a lot. It did not clarify anything in Annihilation (although it did give some hints of how Area X was made) and it really only served to pose more questions. At the end of the trilogy there is still a great sense of mystery and strangeness around and Area X has neither been conquered (again not hero beating a villain) nor destroyed. It is simply there and it is spreading from its point of origin.
What happens next (if anything at all) is up to the reader's imagination.
I won't like. I'm dying to read more about Area X and what happened to it/our world when it spread. But I am equally happy with the conclusion as it is. Not everything is knowable. The world is not as transparent as most books would have us believe. And that's just beautiful when it's written down in a book.
All that's left to do is watch the movie. (I know I'm late!)
Have a good night/day! WriteBot.
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label adventure. Show all posts
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Saturday, December 1, 2018
Review of the Japan exhibition in Amsterdam (Tropenmuseum)
Hey everyone!
Today's post will be fun because I had a lot of fun today even though the exhibition (in the title) wasn't really great.
Firstly I biked about 60km from where I live to Amsterdam (that's to and from). That's always pretty fun (not being sarcastic!). Secondly I went to a Japan exhibition in a place called Tropenmuseum.
The exhibition can be pretty much summed up in one sentence: A nerd's bedroom has more Japan-related items than the exhibition.
It's also only about the size of five nerd's bedrooms poorly utilized. The collection is very small.
Let's go room by room (actually not sure if 'section' doesn't fit better):
Room/Section 1: a meagre collection of a few comics and three gaming consoles where you could play some weird-ass bad graphics fighting game and a drumming game (you could play the drums with a stick and it would be translated into something or other on the screen). Also a big screen on which random Japanese songs were played
Room/Section 2: about four man-sized dummies wearing weird but colourful dresses, a 12+ section that should really have been 18+ and was definitely NSFW (also included tentacle pr0n), a small, ugly robot that spoke poorly about stuff and where you could interact by pressing buttons on its screen, and a sort-of robot-like statue in silver plastic that I don't know the purpose of.
Room/Section 3: Another huge screen with intros/scenes from weird films, a 12+ horror section that at the moment of my being there showed something from Godzilla, some figurines (you know the small ones from various popular series?). The coolest thing about this room/section was probably the life-size samurai statue in full armour with two wooden swords and the samurai sword with authenticity certificate (although this was only a blade and lacked a handle and was also encased in glass so it felt like looking at a simple knife).
Room/Section 4: some scrolls and paintings, at the end of the exhibit walls that looked like they were made of instant noodles (not sure if on purpose - it wasn't really obvious enough - or if that's just how it always looks). Inside these noodle-walls was some pottery. It looked like someone tried to set up a Japanese tea ceremony except there was no teapot/cups so they had to stack bowls instead. This was simply a stack of bowls and on two or three other pedestals had been placed more bowls.
As you can tell from the rooms the exhibition severely lacked:
A tea ceremony set (what was up with the random bowls in section 4 I will never understand) or even just a single teapot with Japanese style painting on it
Kintsugi (art of fixing of broken ceramics by sealing cracks/putting it back together with gold)
Chopsticks (you could argue those aren't 'typically' Japanese as they're used elsewhere as well... but if you're going to explain Japanese culture then maybe eating habits should be a big factor)
Instant Ramen (???) or ANYTHING at all food related
Kimonos/Yukata's/etc. (there was only a small paragraph on some plaque without even a picture explaining this traditional wear)
Geta (Japanese sandals)
The onsen culture
Cherry Blossoms
And so on and so forth. The exhibition was therefore quite disappointing to me. It was the bare minimum of Japanese pop culture (comics and animations - and then not even that fully 'explained'), a paragraph on a single wall why robots are so popular/important (apparently it's because they have a soul according to Shintoism), figurines, a samurai in armour with swords, and some scrolls and paintings.
I know nothing new about Japan that I (and probably most people) didn't before.
Another huge letdown was the food corner. This of course was a part of the whole museum (there were other exhibits which were equally tedious as the Japanese so I won't get into them) but I kind of hoped there would be SOME Japanese or special food as they promised on their website. According to the website you could get tasty treats from different parts of the world. According to the actual menu you have the choice between a ham and cheese toast and some lemon cake (and in the lemon cake cylinder was a literally a half moon end of cut cake because apparently they didn't care to remove the leftovers they couldn't sell but just left them in there).
I would personally not recommend anyone to visit it. It's a much better choice to wait until March/April for the next ComicCon if you want a nerdy Japanese experience. (That being said I also plan to visit TomoFair in January because I've never been - and they have food!)
Thirdly I biked back in the rain (but that was also quite enjoyable - still no sarcasm here - and I had bubble tea before I left so no complaints there).
WriteBot wishes you a good night/day. Cheers!
Today's post will be fun because I had a lot of fun today even though the exhibition (in the title) wasn't really great.
Firstly I biked about 60km from where I live to Amsterdam (that's to and from). That's always pretty fun (not being sarcastic!). Secondly I went to a Japan exhibition in a place called Tropenmuseum.
The exhibition can be pretty much summed up in one sentence: A nerd's bedroom has more Japan-related items than the exhibition.
It's also only about the size of five nerd's bedrooms poorly utilized. The collection is very small.
Let's go room by room (actually not sure if 'section' doesn't fit better):
Room/Section 1: a meagre collection of a few comics and three gaming consoles where you could play some weird-ass bad graphics fighting game and a drumming game (you could play the drums with a stick and it would be translated into something or other on the screen). Also a big screen on which random Japanese songs were played
Room/Section 2: about four man-sized dummies wearing weird but colourful dresses, a 12+ section that should really have been 18+ and was definitely NSFW (also included tentacle pr0n), a small, ugly robot that spoke poorly about stuff and where you could interact by pressing buttons on its screen, and a sort-of robot-like statue in silver plastic that I don't know the purpose of.
Room/Section 3: Another huge screen with intros/scenes from weird films, a 12+ horror section that at the moment of my being there showed something from Godzilla, some figurines (you know the small ones from various popular series?). The coolest thing about this room/section was probably the life-size samurai statue in full armour with two wooden swords and the samurai sword with authenticity certificate (although this was only a blade and lacked a handle and was also encased in glass so it felt like looking at a simple knife).
Room/Section 4: some scrolls and paintings, at the end of the exhibit walls that looked like they were made of instant noodles (not sure if on purpose - it wasn't really obvious enough - or if that's just how it always looks). Inside these noodle-walls was some pottery. It looked like someone tried to set up a Japanese tea ceremony except there was no teapot/cups so they had to stack bowls instead. This was simply a stack of bowls and on two or three other pedestals had been placed more bowls.
As you can tell from the rooms the exhibition severely lacked:
A tea ceremony set (what was up with the random bowls in section 4 I will never understand) or even just a single teapot with Japanese style painting on it
Kintsugi (art of fixing of broken ceramics by sealing cracks/putting it back together with gold)
Chopsticks (you could argue those aren't 'typically' Japanese as they're used elsewhere as well... but if you're going to explain Japanese culture then maybe eating habits should be a big factor)
Instant Ramen (???) or ANYTHING at all food related
Kimonos/Yukata's/etc. (there was only a small paragraph on some plaque without even a picture explaining this traditional wear)
Geta (Japanese sandals)
The onsen culture
Cherry Blossoms
And so on and so forth. The exhibition was therefore quite disappointing to me. It was the bare minimum of Japanese pop culture (comics and animations - and then not even that fully 'explained'), a paragraph on a single wall why robots are so popular/important (apparently it's because they have a soul according to Shintoism), figurines, a samurai in armour with swords, and some scrolls and paintings.
I know nothing new about Japan that I (and probably most people) didn't before.
Another huge letdown was the food corner. This of course was a part of the whole museum (there were other exhibits which were equally tedious as the Japanese so I won't get into them) but I kind of hoped there would be SOME Japanese or special food as they promised on their website. According to the website you could get tasty treats from different parts of the world. According to the actual menu you have the choice between a ham and cheese toast and some lemon cake (and in the lemon cake cylinder was a literally a half moon end of cut cake because apparently they didn't care to remove the leftovers they couldn't sell but just left them in there).
I would personally not recommend anyone to visit it. It's a much better choice to wait until March/April for the next ComicCon if you want a nerdy Japanese experience. (That being said I also plan to visit TomoFair in January because I've never been - and they have food!)
Thirdly I biked back in the rain (but that was also quite enjoyable - still no sarcasm here - and I had bubble tea before I left so no complaints there).
WriteBot wishes you a good night/day. Cheers!
Monday, November 19, 2018
What I'm working on: current WIP
Hey everyone!
Today I'll give you an incentive to check out my webpage (www.jasmingelinck.com) more often!
Why should you do it? Because there is soon to be a new story (collection)! At the moment I'm working on an anthology of short stories (among other things) called Xenos. Xenos means strange - and boy are those stories strange (and some of them are horrific)!
In the anthology there will be six stories all centered around one of these topics:
aliens
first contact
weird as heck science experiments
aliens
cosmic horror
aliens
The stories in the anthology will contain old(er) stories as well as brand-new stories! A story that's been on Amazon for a while and is doing well on its own is 2115. This is about a band of people trying to survive the first phase after the aliens landed and their city (Detroit btw) was destroyed. All I can tell you is they're getting outta town real quick! Here's the official blurb:
2115
In the year 2115, aliens landed on Earth. A worn-out soldier, an obliv-addicted EMT, and a little girl take a group of survivors out of the destroyed city to establish a survivors' shelter in an old highway tunnel.
The other stories included in the anthology are:
Moonfarer (a weird Solaris-esque story)
Of One Mind (weird as heck science experiments mentioned above ft. the connection of human minds - alert! Horror!)
Eye in the Sky
Gate (< this one needs a different title yet. It's not complete and not 'done' either at this point)
Immortal (I sent this story off to some magazines and got really good feedback... even though they didn't take it Q_Q)
If you like Lovecraft you might like this anthology. If you like weird as heck cosmic horror/existential horror then you will love this anthology. I know I do (and not just because I'm biased!). I'm actually getting to the point where I write the things that actually TOUCH ME in some way or other. And they're all weird as heck. Please don't tell my therapist.
The anthology will be out on the 7th of December! (A day before my birthday incidentally! What a coincidence!)
Anyway! Stay tuned, sing in tune, check out my website now and then again tomorrow and the day after that, and so on and so forth. There should be an update on Xenos soon. The cover is done. A sneak peek? Hmmm! Soon. I promise.
Have a good day/night!
WriteBot
Today I'll give you an incentive to check out my webpage (www.jasmingelinck.com) more often!
Why should you do it? Because there is soon to be a new story (collection)! At the moment I'm working on an anthology of short stories (among other things) called Xenos. Xenos means strange - and boy are those stories strange (and some of them are horrific)!
In the anthology there will be six stories all centered around one of these topics:
aliens
first contact
weird as heck science experiments
aliens
cosmic horror
aliens
The stories in the anthology will contain old(er) stories as well as brand-new stories! A story that's been on Amazon for a while and is doing well on its own is 2115. This is about a band of people trying to survive the first phase after the aliens landed and their city (Detroit btw) was destroyed. All I can tell you is they're getting outta town real quick! Here's the official blurb:
2115
In the year 2115, aliens landed on Earth. A worn-out soldier, an obliv-addicted EMT, and a little girl take a group of survivors out of the destroyed city to establish a survivors' shelter in an old highway tunnel.
The other stories included in the anthology are:
Moonfarer (a weird Solaris-esque story)
Of One Mind (weird as heck science experiments mentioned above ft. the connection of human minds - alert! Horror!)
Eye in the Sky
Gate (< this one needs a different title yet. It's not complete and not 'done' either at this point)
Immortal (I sent this story off to some magazines and got really good feedback... even though they didn't take it Q_Q)
If you like Lovecraft you might like this anthology. If you like weird as heck cosmic horror/existential horror then you will love this anthology. I know I do (and not just because I'm biased!). I'm actually getting to the point where I write the things that actually TOUCH ME in some way or other. And they're all weird as heck. Please don't tell my therapist.
The anthology will be out on the 7th of December! (A day before my birthday incidentally! What a coincidence!)
Anyway! Stay tuned, sing in tune, check out my website now and then again tomorrow and the day after that, and so on and so forth. There should be an update on Xenos soon. The cover is done. A sneak peek? Hmmm! Soon. I promise.
Have a good day/night!
WriteBot
Tuesday, December 26, 2017
Leshen! Do you HAVE TO write every idea into a book?
I went out to cycle around the close-by lake yesterday. It's about an hour and a half around and you can cross some islands (pirate island is one of them! Treasure island another!) while you do it. Treasure island (where you start) has a small path across it. This path is about one bicycle wide and surrounded by the lake/rivers on either side of it. As you'd expect close to the water there's also some brushwork around the water's edge and some trees stretch their branches over the path. It's quite idyllic.
It's also scary when you're alone (but that might just be my imagination).
As I was riding my bicycle through it I had this idea: what if suddenly a leshen appeared out of the brushwork before me? It was quiet and though the bushes around the edges of this path aren't particularly thick it seemed entirely possible.
(PS: if you don't know what a leshen is you absolutely need to google! They look awesome. They're a kind of ancient spirit - at least in the Witcher - with human-ish bodies and elk skulls/antlers. They must be one of my favourite monster of all time.)
Let's get back to the story:
A few leafs got stuck in my wheel and I got off the bicycle to remove them.
I DID look over my shoulder while doing it but predictably there was no leshen (sigh).
I got back on my ride and had the idea that: what if there's this old lady driving her car in rural Colorado (or somewhere else?) when suddenly this elk-man thing jumps out at her? I gave her a name: Henny. Henny doesn't have time to do much except push the brakes and steer away and because she's old she has a near heart attack. This gets back to the sherrif's department when Henny's husband calls into report the accident.
Henny's file is placed in front of my main character's desk (a woman called Clarisse INSERTLASTNAME). The department of course doesn't believe in Henny's elk-man BUT there have been other such incidents where a leshen was spotted. Riz's superior wants her to write Henny up because when speeding away she crashed her car into two others (or a tractor) on the other lane. Riz is getting tired of these yeti-reports she gets daily and though her job is easy (write a speeding ticket) there's been too many coincidental reports of fairytale monsters to sit still.
At the end of the first chapter Riz is going to rural CO to find out what the heck Henny and the other witnesses have seen.
This is where I stopped writing yesterday and I've been considering the story ever since. I have this voice (obsession) urging me to write the rest but at the same time I'm not sure this is a book I should/would write. I probably could. It seems like I have to (thanks obsessive compulsive) but I'm not sure that I want to.
Here's the argument in my mind:
I only have one other new project going and the rest are edits. I might as well try this story out.
However - I've already started a new story and I keep starting stories I don't finish. Do I want to add another?
And also: I am currently editing two stories and have one more on the back burner to edit. Do I really need more work on my plate?
These are all questions you should keep in mind. I have no clever answer - or any answer really - in this post. I'm still trying to figure it out myself.
Here's my favourite part of the first chapter however:
It's also scary when you're alone (but that might just be my imagination).
As I was riding my bicycle through it I had this idea: what if suddenly a leshen appeared out of the brushwork before me? It was quiet and though the bushes around the edges of this path aren't particularly thick it seemed entirely possible.
(PS: if you don't know what a leshen is you absolutely need to google! They look awesome. They're a kind of ancient spirit - at least in the Witcher - with human-ish bodies and elk skulls/antlers. They must be one of my favourite monster of all time.)
Let's get back to the story:
A few leafs got stuck in my wheel and I got off the bicycle to remove them.
I DID look over my shoulder while doing it but predictably there was no leshen (sigh).
I got back on my ride and had the idea that: what if there's this old lady driving her car in rural Colorado (or somewhere else?) when suddenly this elk-man thing jumps out at her? I gave her a name: Henny. Henny doesn't have time to do much except push the brakes and steer away and because she's old she has a near heart attack. This gets back to the sherrif's department when Henny's husband calls into report the accident.
Henny's file is placed in front of my main character's desk (a woman called Clarisse INSERTLASTNAME). The department of course doesn't believe in Henny's elk-man BUT there have been other such incidents where a leshen was spotted. Riz's superior wants her to write Henny up because when speeding away she crashed her car into two others (or a tractor) on the other lane. Riz is getting tired of these yeti-reports she gets daily and though her job is easy (write a speeding ticket) there's been too many coincidental reports of fairytale monsters to sit still.
At the end of the first chapter Riz is going to rural CO to find out what the heck Henny and the other witnesses have seen.
This is where I stopped writing yesterday and I've been considering the story ever since. I have this voice (obsession) urging me to write the rest but at the same time I'm not sure this is a book I should/would write. I probably could. It seems like I have to (thanks obsessive compulsive) but I'm not sure that I want to.
Here's the argument in my mind:
I only have one other new project going and the rest are edits. I might as well try this story out.
However - I've already started a new story and I keep starting stories I don't finish. Do I want to add another?
And also: I am currently editing two stories and have one more on the back burner to edit. Do I really need more work on my plate?
These are all questions you should keep in mind. I have no clever answer - or any answer really - in this post. I'm still trying to figure it out myself.
Here's my favourite part of the first chapter however:
"Why don't you come to my
apartment?" Mel said as she passed the other deputy's desk. "We
could order pizza, watch a movie..." Her voice trailed off.
And then what? Riz thought. Have sex?
She didn't need sex. She needed to find out why all of Blackwater had
suddenly gone insane with these fairytales.
Monday, December 25, 2017
Merry Christmas!
I haven't been able to do too much these last few weeks. I called in ill Tuesday the week before last and haven't been to my day job since because of burn-out. In the first four days after calling in sick I managed to write 40k words because another project fell apart. I'm now working on it from another angle.
Depression's kept me mostly in the house meanwhile. As stated in my last post I ordered lots of food because I was too exhausted to make any. HOWEVER. I have also been more productive with THINGS THAT MATTER (TM) than in the months before.
I have FINALLY FINISHED a novella I've been trying to work out the last two years since early (March) 2015. This is called ELEGY OF THE STARS and you can read the first 'chapter' (It's not really meant to be read in chapters) here: Elegy of the Stars Chapter 1
This novella was extremely emotionally taxing and the last kick I needed - apparently - was the absolute and complete meltdown I had last week. I spent a few hours crying to myself and ranting on reddit and then spent some more hours pitying myself. This happens to me approximately once a year or so. It's no longer a big deal. It stills feels bad. It felt bad enough I didn't manage to send proper Christmas gifts or invite anyone over. (However a quiet Christmas is sometimes nice and it gives me additional recovery time!)
Anyway... let's go back to the novella now that you have some insight in what depression has been doing to me the last few weeks.
As I said this novella was insanely difficult to finish despite being only 30k words. I picked it up and dropped it about 4-5 times before because it was just so incredibly emotionally taxing to write it.
Elegy of the Stars is about this little girl (Oria) struggling to survive on the streets of a small planet called Glast. The plot's already explained in the post linked above so I won't go into more detail. I'd rather talk about the worldbuilding of it! Here we go.
Glast:
This planet isn't in view of any sun (the planet Reath is blocking the sun year round) and so scientists had to make their own artificial star - the Seirios. The Seirios sits on top of the main Administrative building in the only and very small and dirty city of Glast - Oblivion - and the star's light is transported via light pipes to fields and so on to keep the planet lit. The streets are harsh: during the creation of the Seirios radiation went rampant and a lot of people (90%) got infected by the mutation virus that came with it. They're not all that there any more and part of that infected population has formed a cult around the Seirios. There's also miners who like little girls and boys. However the most problematic part of this population is the healthy citizens of Oblivion. They've always had access to the radiation vaccine and they basically rule the planet. They're the cultivators who produce the food and supplies everyone needs but almost no one can afford. They're also not altruistic.
This is the world Oria has to navigate and she can only rely on herself. During the years on the street she's allowed one person to rely on her but eschews all other forms of communication or teamwork with even fellow street rats. This changes when she meets Quinn. He saves her life and suddenly she's in his debt. He has an easy solution to getting rid of that debt but when she agrees to it instead of getting rid of Quinn she falls into even deeper debts to him.
There is a lot of pain and struggle in the story. It's not something that I'd usually write (probably that is why it was so hard). I don't like reading depressing stories and don't like writing them either. And yet. This was a story I couldn't get out of my mind. I mean I could. I got it off my mind a year and then another - but at some point I had to return. I had to try again. And it's finally done!
So what are the next steps?
I've commissioned my cover artist to make cover for the story and I hope to be done with the last edit (spellings and general polishing) by the time the cover is done. And then it's off to KDP!
Again! If you want to read the first chapter please click here: Elegy of the Stars Chapter 1
I'll post some more chapters (probably the whole novella) in the future and will have some small comments about what was so difficult! Tune in if you like.
PS: I'm also always happy about comments!
Depression's kept me mostly in the house meanwhile. As stated in my last post I ordered lots of food because I was too exhausted to make any. HOWEVER. I have also been more productive with THINGS THAT MATTER (TM) than in the months before.
I have FINALLY FINISHED a novella I've been trying to work out the last two years since early (March) 2015. This is called ELEGY OF THE STARS and you can read the first 'chapter' (It's not really meant to be read in chapters) here: Elegy of the Stars Chapter 1
This novella was extremely emotionally taxing and the last kick I needed - apparently - was the absolute and complete meltdown I had last week. I spent a few hours crying to myself and ranting on reddit and then spent some more hours pitying myself. This happens to me approximately once a year or so. It's no longer a big deal. It stills feels bad. It felt bad enough I didn't manage to send proper Christmas gifts or invite anyone over. (However a quiet Christmas is sometimes nice and it gives me additional recovery time!)
Anyway... let's go back to the novella now that you have some insight in what depression has been doing to me the last few weeks.
As I said this novella was insanely difficult to finish despite being only 30k words. I picked it up and dropped it about 4-5 times before because it was just so incredibly emotionally taxing to write it.
Elegy of the Stars is about this little girl (Oria) struggling to survive on the streets of a small planet called Glast. The plot's already explained in the post linked above so I won't go into more detail. I'd rather talk about the worldbuilding of it! Here we go.
Glast:
This planet isn't in view of any sun (the planet Reath is blocking the sun year round) and so scientists had to make their own artificial star - the Seirios. The Seirios sits on top of the main Administrative building in the only and very small and dirty city of Glast - Oblivion - and the star's light is transported via light pipes to fields and so on to keep the planet lit. The streets are harsh: during the creation of the Seirios radiation went rampant and a lot of people (90%) got infected by the mutation virus that came with it. They're not all that there any more and part of that infected population has formed a cult around the Seirios. There's also miners who like little girls and boys. However the most problematic part of this population is the healthy citizens of Oblivion. They've always had access to the radiation vaccine and they basically rule the planet. They're the cultivators who produce the food and supplies everyone needs but almost no one can afford. They're also not altruistic.
This is the world Oria has to navigate and she can only rely on herself. During the years on the street she's allowed one person to rely on her but eschews all other forms of communication or teamwork with even fellow street rats. This changes when she meets Quinn. He saves her life and suddenly she's in his debt. He has an easy solution to getting rid of that debt but when she agrees to it instead of getting rid of Quinn she falls into even deeper debts to him.
There is a lot of pain and struggle in the story. It's not something that I'd usually write (probably that is why it was so hard). I don't like reading depressing stories and don't like writing them either. And yet. This was a story I couldn't get out of my mind. I mean I could. I got it off my mind a year and then another - but at some point I had to return. I had to try again. And it's finally done!
So what are the next steps?
I've commissioned my cover artist to make cover for the story and I hope to be done with the last edit (spellings and general polishing) by the time the cover is done. And then it's off to KDP!
Again! If you want to read the first chapter please click here: Elegy of the Stars Chapter 1
I'll post some more chapters (probably the whole novella) in the future and will have some small comments about what was so difficult! Tune in if you like.
PS: I'm also always happy about comments!
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