The Phoenix from the Mushroom Cloud

All---

So I recently posted about reaching the point of no return with a noel in progress and making the hard choice to nuke it and move on.  I took a couple of days mulling over concepts that I had sketched out for other novels, working on where I wanted to go next.  As I settled on one, I suddenly began to see ways that some of the themes of the nuked novel could be resurrected in the form of the new concept.

So it may yet be resurrected...

Meanwhile, conversation with a friend led to a concept for another novel that also has me suddenly on fire.  At the moment, I'm grinding through a quick treatment on that concept so that I get everything down, and then planning to concentrate on the other project.

I have now gone, though, from being at a dead-end, to being captured by two separate novels with a lot of momentum and a strong future.

Writing is a strange, unpredictable art.

.Nevets.

Merciless Unto Your Craft

All---

One of the things that I think marks a professional writer is the ability to be merciless to himself and to his writing when necessary.  I'm not saying professionalism requires selling out, debasing your artistic integrity, or  treating your talents with disrespect.  I am saying that there are times you look at a project, even one you're 25K words into, that part of you loves very much, and realize that you can invest three years into making that one project work out, or you can nuke it and take on something else.

It's okay to be a pure artist, and to say, "No, I cherish this project," and I will work with it as long as it takes to make it right."

I think writers on the more professional end of the spectrum have to be willing to make those calls.

So that's what I'm doing for right now.  Book #2 is being nuked.  Actually, I'm parking it for another day.  There's a lot of potential in it, and there are things I love about it, but while Book #1 is on query right now, I need to focus my energy n having an effective follow-up offering in a timely way.  That's not going to happen with Book #2.

So now onto a new Book #2, which will be a stretching experience that will require plenty of its own merciless attention.

.Nevets.

Sublimation: Fin

All---

Last night, I finished Sublimation.  It's hard to describe what that feels like.  I think my emotions are appropriately surreal.  Another author I directed me to this quote by Truman Capote:

Finishing a book is just like you took a child out in the backyard and shot it.


The same author described this as a bit of typical melodrama.

Given my own penchant for writing larger than life, it's probably not out of place to feel a bit melodramatic about completing the book.  I would hesitate to describe it as shooting a child, but I also sort of understand.

I have finished books in the past, but this is the first book I have finished with the intent to publish and a belief that it is a good book.  I'm excited about that.  I'm proud of it.  I feel a sense of satisfaction.

At the same time, as I prepare to send off a query, I'm understandably nervous.  At this point in my writing career I've gotten to a point where I can send off stories for consideration without more than a few butterflies and typically with only a little disappointment if they don't immediately find a home.  A book is an entirely different animal (as it were) and I really have no idea how my emotions are going to endure the roller coaster which likely awaits me.

I also know, being fairly pragmatic about my writing, that the form in which Sublimation exists now is not its final form.  It's a good book.  It's in good shape.  Agents, editors, and publishers will nevertheless recommend changes.  Some of those changes will be for quality, others for practical reasons, and others for marketing reasons.  Right now, the book is my work.  Before we're done, it will be much more of a team product.

On top of all that, I've spent a whole lot of life energy on this book.  And now it's done.  There will be a lot of work -- a lot of work -- but it's already time for my emotional investment to move on.  As soon as I send out my query on Sublimation, it's time to shift the energy of my writing life into Ennui and Malaise, my next thriller, which currently sits at about 40,000 words.

So, yeah, I guess in a way I understand what Capote meant.

What is Sublimation?

I'm so glad you asked!

Sublimation is a dark thriller about surreal evil, good gone too good, and a man whose twisted past just might end the world -- or save it.

Sublimation is a novel of psychological suspense, in which one man's twisted past puts more than himself at risk and one woman tries to figure out if she's too good for her own good, or her family's.

Sublimation is about what happens when a group of men start gambling for the right to set off bombs, and the only people who can stop them are their own figure head and a federal investigator who can't see past the rules.

Sublimation is the story of a man and a woman, each of whom finds past and future twisted together to keep the present shadowed in a darkness that is shadowed by innocent lives lost.

You can read a little more about Sublimation by visiting my official website.

.Nevets.

Teaser: Novel #3

All---

Just a quick teaser here.  I had a dream last night, a rather detailed and prolonged dream, that essentially fed me what will likely be my third novel.  I've jotted down all the notes I could think of and drafted a first paragraph, to capture the tone.  And to whet your appetite.

"Rex Avunculus"
by C. N. Nevets, excerpt (c) 2010

The sun never seemed to rise on the estate of King Uzziel. His acre of land at the northwest corner of the city, where man's creation butted up against God's, was dark around the clock. Uzziel Mann, the tyrant lord of little more than his own family, who had built his palace out of debris and discards, preferred that the sun stay out of his affairs. And like most who were more mortal than he, the sun appeared to defer to Uzziel's wishes.

.Nevets.

The Great Novel Rebrand

All,

First, don't forget to read my review of Cinders that was posted earlier this weekend. I don't want my talking about my own book to distract from thoughtful consideration of a book I strongly recommend.

That said, I do want to talk about my own book.

I have been focusing a lot of my energy lately on Real Stakes, because I have been more confident of its market-readiness. I believe in Ennui and Malaise, but at this stage of its development I am not sure yet how to best pigeonhole it for sale. Real Stakes, I have believed, slides neatly into the thriller genre.

Anyone who has been reading my blog for a while knows that I have been perplexed by the question of genre. Ultimately, I have decided that the best home for my writing is psychological suspense, which allows me to brush up against horror and to embrace a somewhat more literary style than a traditional thriller. That's good because my interest is really in the intersection of psychology and philosophy within the dynamic sphere of character, not really in gun play and adrenaline -- though I use both to a high degree.

And that's the rub.

I am facing down what I think of as the Elektra factor. If you haven't seen it, Elektra was a 2005 Jennifer Garner vehicle slash Marvel Comics splash. It has a lot of action, a lot of special effects, a lot of comic book villainry, and a fair amount of Jennifer Garner in revealing costumes. Needless to say, all of the above are what the critics focused on. I'm not here to recommend the movie, nor to claim it as an all-time great. But I have always felt that critics allowed themselves to get distracted by the flash and they missed a nice redemption arc told through simple dialog and solid acting.

My writing is vulnerable to the same sort of thing. If you've read much of my writing, you know that in addition to a lot of voice, there tends to be a lot of evil and fair amount of violence. In other words, a whole lot of stuff that is eye-catching and can easily distract readers away from the heart of my stories. More than I'd care to admit, my writing had been heavily influenced by the music and imagery of Pink Floyd and the story-telling style of Japanese pop culture. There is a lot of philosophy, a lot of psychology, a lot of individual angst, and it's all expressed through often exaggerated evils, both literal and symbolically represented.

What I'm now facing is the realization that Real Stakes is sitting right in that spot. It has all the trappings of a thriller, but is really exploring the philosophies of evil and obedience and how they interact with the psychologies of three very different individuals. One happens to be something of a secret agent. One happens to get pulled into a conspiracy that threatens the United States, and perhaps the world. One happens to be a criminal with a broken childhood. There is plenty of action. Plenty of subterfuge. Plenty of adrenaline.

But I have now realized that I need to make sure that what I'm actually trying to do does not get lost in that. Domey Malasarn helped remind me of that when he remarked that he'd appreciated the philosophical digressions in my other things he'd read. That really brought it home for me, "Yeah, that's what I do." And I need to make sure that I still do that.

As such, I am re-branding Real Stakes. It is now Sublimation. It is still a thriller, but by tweaking the focus of the title I can situate the book in the appropriate context: a thriller that, when the adrenaline lets down, you're thinking about what else was going on between the lines and in the background. The real story of this book is not of gamblers and spies. The real story is about good, evil, and (to borrow a phrase from Jeeves) the psychology of the individual.

Now, I just need to rebrand the opening of the book, of which I am fond, but which I believe sets the focus in the wrong place...

.Nevets.

*** *** *** ***

Excerpt from, Sublimation, (c) 2010.

I'm not a poetic man, and while I have my attachments, I'm not given to sentimentality. Even so, if any night in history has deserved to be regarded as remarkable, it is that one. Without even knowing it, seven billion people rode into the jaws of death, into the mouths of hell.

It was a cool spring night in Denver. Overhead, a shooting star pierced the belly of a descending Orion. All about, the wind was crisp with the fresh potential of a coming summer. And in an abandoned pickle warehouse, the final battle of godlike men was about to begin. The men would not carry weapons, control armies, or conduct experiments. They would play cards, throw dice, and spin colored wheels. And their names would be Smith and Jones. I'm Alec Smith.

“Keep moving, god-man!”

“Keep on your on your feet!”

The two tuxedo-wearing gorillas were enamored of the word keep. Everything they said amounted to nonsense, but I could not escape the jarring cadence their words were given by the inclusion of that simple word in every sentence they uttered.

“Keep your eyes forward!”

“Keep going straight, god-man!”

They kept calling me that, too. It was insensible to me. It was an insult on their lips, like when you turn a self-acclamation back on someone. Way to go, Number One Dad. Tell us again how to win games, Captain of the Plant Softball Team. Smooth moves, Astaire. But god-man?

“Keep walking, god-man!”

“Keep your head about you.”

Easier said than done. I hadn't head my head about me all evening.

What I'm Working On

All,

It's been a little while since I've talked about what it is I'm actually working on, so I thought I'd mention my two major WIPs. Pardon if these summaries sound a bit like pitches. They sort of are, I suppose.

Real Stakes is a novel of psychological suspense in which an outlandish web of conspiracy ensnares an over-confident con-artist of a businessman and a legalistic investigator who holds the Law as the only ethics and morality of any meaning. The conspiracy itself is equal parts outlandish and terrifying, falling somewhere between Ludlum at his most intrigue and Koontz at his strangest. The tone and intimate portrayal of human fragility are both brutal and compassionate, in the veins of Fight Club or Candlemoth. In an abandoned pickle warehouse on the outskirts of Denver, a high stakes poker game becomes the opening foray of a battle between Smith and Jones -- a battle that the woman known to her colleagues only as The Detangler will do anything to stop. For those orchestrating the battle, it a struggle between God, the Devil, and Man. In the end, will anyone come away winning?

Ennui and Malaise is a novel of psychological suspense in which a painfully bored man who has turned to day dreams, wistful prayers to gods in which he doesn't believe, and the power of an adventurous imagination finds himself accused of murder -- the murder of a man whose death he had daydreamed. As in Faulkner or O'Connor, the contemporary work of RJ Ellory, or the cinematic work of M. Night Shyamalan, much of the real violence is psychological. His sense of self and his understanding of the world come crashing down on him, and all he has left to cling to is his own original wish that life present him with something interesting. Interesting, he now has, but perhaps at the cost of everything else.

Not truly pitches, don't worry, just done that way to try and help you get a sense of what I'm working on and where it's coming from. Each novel is is at ~ 30K words. Real Stakes will probably end up around 120K, since it follows something of a suspense thriller format. Ennui and Malaise is more like to be 80 -- 95K when all is said and done.

Rose and I are working out a system for her to act as sort of my draft manager, giving me goals and deadlines, because I really do work better when I have an external expectation to meet. We haven't gotten to specifics yet, but I am really aiming to one of the two WIP's "done" by Christmas. (Ready to look for representation.)

.Nevets.

My First Novel, a Remembrance

All--

You may recall that last Monday I talked about one of my earliest memories of writing, entering the Young Author's contest. It wasn't long afterward that I began work on my first novel. It was called, "Crow," and it was a western featuring a well-intentioned cowboy, his Indian ally who knew better than he, and another Indian who was out to kill him.

This was almost twenty years ago so I don't really remember many fo the details. I think the novel was something like 24 single-spaced pages long. There were chapters of about one to three pages. I remember some gruseome details about charcoal bladed knife that broke off in its wound. I remember that Crow Indians were all like the movie Legolas. And I remember that even then, the point of the story for me wasn't the action but the maturation of the character as a person. A little over my head for a twelve year-old or whatever I was, but still it was my aim.

I wrote the entire novel on a Tandy computer using Text(tm). I remember that for most of the time I had the program set on blue screen with yellow writing, but that I would tinker with the display colors sometimes in order to set my mood. Most every time I sat down to write I was drinking Ginger Twist herbal tea, a beverage which still gets me in the writing mood.

I think there are dot matrix printouts of Crow in a box somewhere, and if I ever find those, rest assured I will post at least exceprts...

Next week: the fan fiction novels!

.Nevets.

More about Real Stakes

All---

I wanted to tell you some more about Real Stakes, and Jennifer White started a WiP Meme yesterday that I thought would make a good vehicle for doing so.

1. When did you start writing your current WiP?

Roughly December 1st as a novel. I spent a couple days on part of it last spring, trying it out as a short story concept. It's also inspired by a piece of flash I wrote for Flashy Fiction on 9 May 2009.

2. Where does your WiP take place?

All over the United States. A lot of the early action takes place in Denver, Laramie, and Iowa City. The later action... You'll have to read the book to find out.

3. Who is/are the main character/s of your WiP?

The main characters are two gamblers and an investigator known as The Detangler.

4. Describe your main character(s) in one word.

Gambler #1: Private
Gambler #2: Obsessed
The Detangler: Lawful

5. Open up your WiP to a random place and copy the first sentence you see.

He didn't know what the speaker was up to, but the man's breath smelled too much of French onion dip to be taken seriously.

6. If you were going to have lunch with one of your WiP's secondary characters, who would it be and why?

I'd probably want to have lunch with Allie, the Detangler's daughter. I'd love to find out what it would be like to grow up with such a legalistic rule-monkey for a father. That's partly because, as anybody form whom I have been dungeon or game master can attest, I'm a bit of a rule monkey myself. Be good to find out what my kids are going to be in for.

7. What do you consider your WiP's theme song and why?

In a way, every thing I write has, “Mad World,” as its theme song. When I first heard the original Tears for Fears version, I really clicked with it, and I have over half a dozen different covers in my library now. Most of my stuff boils down, in some way, to the disconnect between what people think the world is, what they discover it really is, and how we all end up running in circles because we don't really know what else to do.

8. What do you consider your main character's theme song?

Gambler #1's theme is probably “Wake Up Time” by Tom Petty. If I got into why, I'd be revealing too much about his back story. Just take the mood from it and go with that.

Gambler #2's theme has to be “Guns and Cigarettes” by Atmosphere, because he's all about obsession and drive. You'll know that as soon as you meet him if I did my job right, so I'm not giving away any secrets there.

The Detangler's theme is probably “Gabriel's Oboe” from the soundtrack of The Mission. I hadn't really thought about it until now, but there's a bit of Father Gabriel in The Detangler's devotion to doing the right thing by the Law.

9. What's your favorite thing about your WiP?

I think it sort of redefines heroism, and not in any of the cliché ways that everybody redefines heroism these days. It's not about unexpected heroes or the dark side of good people, or the secret nobility inside of evil people. But I do think it's a pretty honest picture of what real heroes are like, and what constitutes true heroism.

10. If you're WiP were to be made into a movie, who would you pick to play your main character? Your villain?

My key villains are always among my main characters. I'm an equal opportunity author that way. Either that or the lines are just sorta clurry. But here's what I might cast:

Gambler #1 – Maybe Alan Cumming
Gambler #2 – Zachary Quinto
The Detangler – Wil Wheaton

That's all for now, but stay tuned for more information later!

.Nevets.

Real Stakes by C. N. Nevets

Real Stakes is the tentative title of a novel-length work in progress by C. N. Nevets, author of psychological suspense. It is the story of high-stakes gamblers who finds themselves caught up in a shadow Armageddon, and of the investigator known as The Detangler, who must give up everything to stop the final roll of the dice that may just end the world.

"The final battle of godlike men began in a pickle warehouse on the fringes of Denver, Colorado on an crisp, early spring night marked by the overhead passing of a single shooting star through the descending constellation of Orion. They did not carry weapons, control armies, or conduct experiments. They played cards. And their names were Smith and Jones."

The stakes are everything and the House still wants its cut.

Writing begun December, 2009.