The WIP IT GOOD Blogfest

WIP Title: Stumped

Word Count (projected/actual so far): 75K

Genre: YA Contemporary

How long have you been working on it?: Since December 2012

Elevator Pitch (if you came across an agent in an elevator ride, what couple of lines would you use to summarize your book): It's American Pie meets The Sessions as a 16-year-old double amputee struggles to dump the burden of his virginity.


Brief Synopsis (250 words or less):  Sixteen-year-old Ozzy has a shelf groaning with swimming trophies. He also has his brother’s car, good buddies and a super-hot girlfriend who’s ready to take their relationship to the next level.  Tonight. At the lake. 

But a missing condom scuttles his plans for seduction.  Furious with himself, Ozzy takes his girlfriend home and drives off - into the path of an oncoming truck.  He wakes up in the hospital with both legs amputated above the knees.

It’s hard enough to come to terms with everything he’s lost, but when his girlfriend finally comes to visit and runs out of his hospital room gagging after one look at him, Ozzy knows he’s a hideous freak. He becomes convinced he blew his only chance at having sex.

Determined to prove he can still be a man despite his disability, Ozzy throws himself into dumping the burden of his virginity, but finds there’s a limited number of people willing to touch legless dudes in wheelchairs. He tries his luck with a fellow amputee in his support group, but with only one leg between them, the physical challenge leads to the first of many humiliating failures.  Another goes viral on the internet. With every misadventure, it becomes increasingly obvious that if Ozzy is going to do it, he’ll have to pay for the privilege.

Are you looking for a Critique Partner?: No.  I have a couple of super-awesome CPs already.

Are you looking for a Beta Reader?: Always!  Fresh eyes are SO important.

Oohh! Shiny!

After just grousing about not having any new ideas, one dropped out of the sky and whanged me upside the head.  And when I thought it through, I could amalgamate another story idea I've had hanging around for a while with it.

So I think I'm going to be starting a new book soon.  And it's going to be far more complicated than anything I've ever written before.  Or at least, I think it's going to be complicated.  I have so little idea of the actual details of the plot at this stage, I really don't know what might happen.

I have two awesome characters.  And I know a lot more about one than the other.  And I know how they are going to react to one another, and that there will be a huge, tragic moment toward the end.  But  the finer details I'll need to discover as I go along.

I keep thinking I'll start today, but I feel like I need to think about it all longer so maybe those fine details might filter through into my brain.  But then I also have my characters' voices in my head, ready to start telling their story.

Should I let the story settle, or just write and find it?

The bad... and the good!

I don't drive.  So I'm very reliant on public transport.  And where I live, that means taking the bus.  My house is actually one street behind the big bus barns where they are repaired and stored overnight, so there's usually one I can catch, even late at night because the drivers are heading back there anyway.

In general, the drivers are fine.  But every now and then, you come across one who seems to think his role as bus driver puts him into a position of power and he'll wield it.  Like the one I had on my way into work on Friday.

We were at the bottom of a hill, at the bus stop outside the Salvation Army church, and the driver had just closed the doors after letting people on and off.  There are lights at the bottom of this street, and they were red, so after closing the door, the driver didn't move.  A woman ran up and tried to get his attention so she could get on.  People on the bus called out to the driver to alert him to her being there.  The driver ignored it all and drove off.

At the next stop, the same woman, having run - no, sprinted - along the road, showed up again, just as he'd closed the doors, but before he'd pulled back out into the traffic.  Again he ignored her, despite now most of the bus yelling and urging him to open up for her.  He just sailed off, leaving this poor woman breathless and disheveled at the bus stop.

What a douche, right?  I've even had one driver see me running up my street toward the bus stop and wave as he drove off.  Believe me, I was livid!  Just the way I was when a driver refused to drop me at the depot when it was pouring rain, and 11pm because officially his route finished at the shopping center.

But on the flip side, the other night I was the only passenger left on the bus by the time we reached my suburb, and the driver offered to drop me off outside my house.  Unfortunately I had to stop at the supermarket on the way home, so he dropped me there, and he offered to wait while I shopped.  I refused because it seemed like too much of an imposition, but it was nice.

And last night, the woman in front of me didn't have enough money loaded onto her card and didn't have any cash to pay the driver and he let her on anyway.  Then, he picked up a really drunk girl and let her ride even though she didn't have any money either.  Nor did she seem to know exactly where she was going....  Or where she was....  I hope she made it home okay.

Have you ever had bad or good experiences with public transport?

Muddling

I've been 'in between projects' for quite a while now, but nothing is leaping out at me as being a fantastic idea to pursue.  And it's been a long time since I felt this way.  It's not like I don't have things I could be working on.  Stumped is out with beta readers, so I don't need to be playing with that one, but I'm not feeling any great pull toward revising the big pile of poo that is Paradise either.

But if I'm not revising, I should be writing, right?  But how can I write something when I don't have a story that's burning to be told?

Is this a sign I need to be taking a break for a while?  I did write 4 books in the last year.  Maybe my brain is trying to tell me something.

Has this ever happened to you?

Query help!

I'm trying to throw together a halfway decent query for STUMPED, and am finding it difficult.  And since my lovely blog readers were so helpful when I was writing my query for Sidewalks, I thought I'd give you all a shot at ripping this new one to shreds.

So have at it!  I'm struggling to get Ozzy's voice in there.  He's a very funny guy, even if his story doesn't sound humorous.  And some of the situations he gets himself into are hilarious, even if they are kind of tragic at the same time.

Dear Agent of my Dreams,

XXXX (reason for choosing agent) so I thought you might be interested in STUMPED, a 75 000 word contemporary YA novel.

Sixteen-year-old Ozzy Hellier has a shelf groaning with swimming trophies, his brother’s car, good friends and a super-hot girlfriend who’s ready to take their relationship to the next level.  Tonight. At the lake. 

But a missing condom scuttles his elaborate plans for seduction.  Furious with himself, Ozzy drops his girlfriend home and drives off - into the path of an oncoming truck.  He wakes up in the hospital, both legs amputated above the knees.

It’s hard enough to come to terms with everything he’s lost, but when his girlfriend finally comes to visit and runs out of his hospital room gagging after one look at him, Ozzy knows he’s a hideous freak. He becomes convinced he blew his only chance at losing his virginity and sex takes on such a mythic quality he’s sure it’s the only thing that will make him whole again.

Determined to prove he can still be a man despite his disability, Ozzy throws himself into dumping the burden of his virginity, but finds there’s a limited number of women willing to touch legless dudes in wheelchairs. He tries his luck with a fellow amputee in his support group, but with only one leg between them, the physical challenge leads to the first of many humiliating failures.  Another goes viral on the internet. With every misadventure, it becomes increasingly obvious that if Ozzy is going to do it, he’ll have to pay for the privilege.

Ozzy’s obsession takes him into the seedy underworld of brothels and escort services where he learns that sex and intimacy are not the same thing, and that sometimes the price you pay for getting what you want is much higher than a sex worker’s fee.

I was inspired to write this book after meeting an Australian sex worker whose advocacy for the disabled is extraordinary.

My short stories have appeared in Halfway Down The Stairs, A Fly in Amber, Daily Flash Anthology, The Barrier Islands Review, Death Rattle, Drastic Measures, Rapunzel’s Daughters and Cutlass and Musket – Tales of Piratical Skulllduggery among others.

Per your submission guidelines, you will find XXX below.  Thank you for your time and consideration. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Regards,

Kate. 

Thanking you in advance for your help.... Happy to return the favor whenever you need it.

Best and Worst Movie Remakes Blogfest

When I saw this blogfest I just knew it was right up my alley.  But you know what?  It's hard to come up with definitive films.  There are so many terrible remakes of great films, but equally, there are a bunch of fantastic remakes of mediocre films.

So often foreign language films are remade to make them more accessible for English language audiences, but in translation, a lot of what made the films great, the cultural context, gets lost.

And the most pointless remakes are when filmmakers decide to remake their own films.  What were you thinking, Michael Haneke?  Funny Games is one of the creepiest films I've ever seen, but the English language remake you did of your own film is just insipid, despite being almost shot for shot identical.

So for my best remake I'm going to go for The Departed which is an English language remake of Hong Kong action flick, Infernal Affairs.  

A close second has to be  Scarface.  Brian De Palma's version is actually better than Howard Hawk's original because the laws about what could and couldn't be shown on screen had relaxed and therefore the more shocking aspects of this story could actually be shown.

As for the worst remakes?  There are so many terrible ones., but none quite so repugnant as the English language remake of my favorite film, Wings of Desire (or Der Himmel uber Berlin) as City of Angels.  I would urge you to avoid this film like the plague.

And there's a bonus question!  Best and worst remakes of songs.  Again, there are so many bad ones and I don't want to leave you with a horrible taste in your mouth, so one of the best...  Rowland S. Howard's version of She Cried by The Horrors.  This song is THE song I played over and over when I wrote The Sidewalk's Regrets.

Interview

My good friend Allyson Lindt invited me and Ozzy from Stumped over to her blog today.  So if you're at all interested, pop on over and find out what Ozzy has to to say for himself.

http://blog.apathyshero.com/2013/05/kate-larkindale-interviews-ozzy-from.html

Proposal

I've been asked for a book proposal and two chapters from an editor.  Which is exciting, even if the book isn't something I'm 100% passionate about writing.  But to be honest, I'm not sure exactly what a proposal entails, or what format it should take.

Is it like a query blurb?  A longer synopsis?  Or something halfway in between?

And is there a specific layout editors expect?

Does anyone know the answers to this?  At the moment I have about 1.5 pages, single spaced, outlining what I think the story will be.  Given I'm a pantser, and never do outlines, this is more than I usually start a book with, and I'm entirely unsure if I'll stick with it once I start writing.

I also haven't included the ending in my proposal because I don't know what it is going to be.  My MC has 2 choices and until I get to know her better through writing the story, I don't know which way she'll lean.

If any of you know about proposals, could you share your insight?

The Hardest Job

It's Mother's Day, and while we never do anything special to celebrate it, it means something to me now that I am a mother.  I don't think I ever appreciated what a difficult job mothering was until I became one.  Especially if you want to be a good one.

It's not something you can learn from a book.  There are hundreds of parenting books out there, sure, but you don't learn to be a good parent by reading a book.  Every kid is different, and what might work for one kid, won't work for another.

I think that's the hardest part.  You have your first kid and think you've made all your mistakes, learned all the lessons, but when baby number 2 comes along, you're starting from scratch.  You may be a little more prepared for the utter exhaustion that comes with the sleepless nights, but that's about it.  Almost everything else will be different.

But that's also the wonderful part of being a mother.  That you're not rolling robots out into the world. That each of these tiny bundles you bring home will be a unique individual with his/her own gifts and talents and disappointments.

So, happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there.

Time for a change?

I've been feeling restless and I'm not sure why.  Last week I 'celebrated' my 8 year anniversary of being in my current job.  8 years!  I've never even lived in one country for 8 years, let alone held down a job for that long.  And next week I have a major birthday.

So maybe that's why I'm feeling restless.

But I don't know what to do about it.  It could be partly because I'm between writing projects and don't have anywhere to toss my creative energy.  It could be that I'm suffering a little bit of depression over my writing career - or lack of it.

I don't know....

I just think something needs to change.  But what?

What's Up?

I've had a fantastic month A-Zing and reading blogs about all kinds of different things, some of which I've never thought to think about before.

But now, it's back to writing.

I'm one chapter away from finishing the new draft of Stumped, and I'm still struggling with writing an ending that's satisfying.  I think I may have figured it out, but until I try to get the words down on paper, I can't be sure.  Tonight will tell all....  And then I have a few beta readers lined up to take a look.  Plus, my wonderful go-to critique partner is zipping through it and giving me fantastic feedback.

I've been querying The Sidewalk's Regrets and the rejections are hurting far less than I expected them to.  I think having a new project you're in love with helps ease the sting.  Your heart's moved on a little, and you can focus your attention away from the story you're putting out into the world.

The Boyfriend Plague didn't make the semi-final round of ABNA, which was pretty much to be expected given they only had 25 semi-finalists this year.  I'm still proud to have made the quarter-finals. Top 500 out of 10 000 isn't bad.

And once I'm finished this revision of Stumped, I still have a whole messy, ugly first draft of my NaNo novel, Between Paradise and Nowhere to revise.  Plus, there's a niggle of an idea I have for a new story....  Or maybe two.

Where are you at with your projects now?

After the A - Z

The A - Z challenge is over, and after a few day's rest from the blog, I realized it was time to get back here and to resume my usual schedule.

This was my third year doing the A - Z, and I think having a theme was a great idea.  In previous years I've just written something at the spur of the moment, off the top of my head and nothing linked together in any way.  So I liked the structure of having a theme.

Sorting through eight years of film reviews was interesting too.  My reviews are getting longer.  The early ones I looked at were only two or three paragraphs long.  My newer ones are often over a page.  They're better written too.

I think I may keep including the odd film review here on the blog.  From the comments I got during the challenge, there aren't many real arthouse/foreign language films being released in cinemas in other parts of the world, so the awareness of them is limited.  Since this is my speciality, whenever I see something I think is really worth seeking out, I'll post a review here.

The rest of the time, it'll be the usual mix of writerly angst, observations about the world around me and random ramblings from my often-addled brain.  I hope all my new friends from the A - Z challenge will keep visiting.  I know I'll keep going back to your blogs!