Mightier than the Sword - A Part of the Aidan Moher Network

It’s been a while since I last updated (despite any promises I may have made), but that doesn’t necessarily mean that progress on the novel has been equally quiet. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. For the first time since I started conceptualizing and writing Through Bended Grass the finish line is firmly in sight. Of the 28 planned chapters, I’m currently working on Chapter 24 (currently untitled). Yeah, that’s close, only 4 more + and epilogue to go.To give you another perspective on how close the end is, the chapter I just wrapped up (Chapter 23) is titled, wait for it, Through Bended Grass. Generally, it’s safe to say that when a chapter shares a title with the novel itself, it’s probably an important one… and it’s no different here. Chapter 23 sees Rowan make a final pass from Ireland and back into the Fey world to confront her biggest challenge yet.

Through the whole novel, Rowan is desperately searching for her missing son, Lewis, and from Chapter 24 on her questions begin to be answered and, well, she’s not exactly going to like everything she hears.As you can probably guess, Through Bended Grass (the chapter, not the book!) is the first time the title of the novel begins to make any sort of sense. Of course, I spread hints through the rest of the book, and one character in particular gives you a good glance (hah! pun not intended ;)) at the meaning, but it isn’t laid out before the reader until this chapter.

In fact, the scene where the meaning becomes clear, as Rowan passes back into the Fey world, is one of my favourite scenes in the novel, and one of the few times where I feel that the words on the page do justice to the vision I had in my head.I won’t lie, that chapter took me a long time to write, with many days staring at my computer screen and little progress at the end of my writing session. Still, I think all that time was well spent.

Of course, since the climax of the novel is approaching, there’s also a lot of action, some great revelations about the characters (if I can toot my own horn, of course) and a, hopefully, satisfyingly ragged ending. Rowan’s story isn’t always a happy one, it isn’t always a perfect one, but I do think it’s a compelling one. Through Bended Grass ends here, with most everything wrapped up, but I have a feeling that Rowan, and other characters in the novel, aren’t quite done with me yet.Now, I’m not suggesting I’ll be writing another story about Rowan or the Fey world, in fact, I have another story brewing in my head that stars a new protagonist and takes place in Morocco/Japan, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few familiar faces popping up in the future.

You see, I’ve always been a fan of standalone stories that are bridged in little ways. Terry Brooks did a good job of this early in his career, with novels that stood well on their own for newcomers, but with just enough connections to past works to satisfy longtime readers. That all being said, it’s probably best to concentrate on finishing and selling one novel, before jumping into the deep end with sequels.

Speaking of selling the novel, at the suggestion of my good friend, Shawn Speakman, my plan is to try to have a solid draft of Through Bended Grass done by October. Why? Well, a huge writer’s conference happens in Surrey, BC every year and this time around Terry Brooks is attending, and, well, any advice and help I can get from a fellow like him would be a huge leap forward in actually seeing my manuscript turn into a published novel.In any case, I’ve still got a lot of work ahead of me… but I’m bloody eager to do it.

The end is in sight, now I’ve just got to get there.

Since coming back from my trip, and having to deal with the holidays, I’ve been struggling to fit writing back into my life. The book’s outlined, the stories there, screaming to get out on paper, but I just wasn’t giving myself the time to write. Then, on the advice of Cory Doctorow, I decided that instead of trying to eke out several solid hours a week to write a big chunk, I’d try to split the writing up over the course of the week. Afterall 5 sessions of 500 words is just as good as 1 session of 2500 words, right? Plus, it’s easier to find 30 minutes to an hour each day rather than trying to eke 4-5 hours in one big chunk.

Turning that corner was a bloody good idea, considering I’ve finished two chapters which brings me up to 20 out of 28 chapters. What’s that? Is the finish line in sight? Oh yeah.

Chapter 29: Lud, in the Mist

This was the first chapter I wrote after a hiatus of a few months for travelling and the holidays. Frankly, I was amazed at how easily I got back in to the world and the heads of the characters. This chapter introduces two characters (well, one of them has shown up before, but this is where they both get their place in the spotlight) and they’re two of my favourite characters in the novel.

Not only do the two of them (a sort of Odd Couple-type, vigilante Faeries) give me a chance to have some fun with dialogue, but they’re very different types of characters than I’ve had the chance to write elsewhere in the novel. The two of them kick of a very important plot string that leads right up into the climax of the novel and are a major component in one of the first scenes that arrived fully formed when my novel was still in the dreaming phase.

To say I’ve been eager to write them, to truly meet them and get to know their characters, is a severe understatement.

Chapter 20: Dust, Death and Sunshine

This was an interesting chapter to right, if mostly for the drastic shift in tone from the beginning to the end of its relatively short length. It starts off an exploration of a part of the Fey world that Rowan doesn’t really realize exists and ends with a life and death battle with a face from her past. The two characters I mentioned from the previous chapter really get to shine here and strut there stuff.

A damn fun chapter to write.

Colleen Lindsay, an agent with FinePrint Literary Management and well known blogger, held a really fun contest over at her blog, The Swivet, recently that asked writers to post a query to the novel and Colleen would give the winner’s query and first chapter a serious look over.

The catch? The query had to be 140 characters or under, including spaces and punctuation!

From her post:

First, can I just say? WOW! You guys really know how to rise to a challenge. And, boy howdy, did I ever give you a challenge: To come up with a great book query in 140 characters or less (the length of the average text message or Twitter post). The idea was to A.) have some fun and B.) see if I could get you all thinking about how to convey a clear story idea in a very concise way. And while it quickly became apparent to me that more than a few of you don’t seem to know how to count, the majority of you managed to keep within the contest guidelines very nicely. And a few of you managed to not only hook me with your wee tiny query, but you managed to do it with a unique voice.

There were a lot of great entries, some absolutely hilarious ones, and a few that kinda made me question whether the writer was actually communicating in the English language. But there were several real standouts for me.

The winning query:

What would YOU do if you realized all the kids on your baseball team were vampires? Explains the night practices! Little League Sucks, YA.

With well over 300 entries, everyone had their work cut out for them, so you can imagine how tickled I was when I saw the results and found myself in the Best of the Rest/Runner-up section among about 10 other queries picked!

My Query:

LABYRINTH - (David Bowie and Muppets) + Fey mythology x The dirty streets of Ireland = THROUGH BENDED GRASS, a 90k contemporary Fantasy.

The coolest thing of all is that, via Twitter, Colleen let me know that she’s interested in getting her hands on a realy query for Through Bended Grass! While it’s not a sure bet by any means, there’s nothing like encouragement like that to get someone motivated in finishing their novel!

So, can you pitch your novel in 140 characters?

First I must apologize to Mightier than the Sword, I certainly didn’t forget about you. I promise!

Second, to those of you who have stuck with me – checking periodically in hopes that I might’ve returned from the ether to drop some hints about the progress of Through Bended Grass – let me just say that I have little excuse other than laziness, maybe. Actually, maybe that’s not entirely true, and I’ll explain why.

Last October I hopped on a plane, with nothing but my backpack and my girlfriend, and hit the roads (or rather, traintracks) of Eastern and Central Europe for a few months. The journey was fantastic and opened my eyes up to so many things that I had little appreciation for in the past. I’ve spent some time in Western Europe before and had little idea what I would find when in the other, underappreciated side of the continent. All I can say is that I was utterly blown away by the generosity and beautry of the people, the timeless, tragic history of the land and the utter decadance of the food (and beer!).

The countries I visited were:

• Holland
• Czech Republic
• Slovakia
• Poland
• Hungary
• Croatia
• Slovenia
• Austria
• Italy
• France

Most importantly, however, were the plans that were to come after my travels, which included a several month hiatus in Ireland. For obvious reasons (my novel taking place in Ireland, for instance) this would be a big influence on bringing Through Bended Grass into the light. I’d spent a fair bit of time in Ireland a few years ago, but I was eager to get back and drop myself into some of the places that Rowan explores over the course of the novel.

Well, it didn’t turn out all as planned. The economy started collapsing almost as soon as I got to Europe and by the time I got to Ireland, getting a job and living there for a few months seemed like a tough task indeed. Plus I didn’t want to miss Christmas with the family! So, instead of a few months, we spent a few nights there and then headed back home, just in time for the holidays.

Being back in Ireland, and Dublin in particular, was a great way to re-immerse myself in the story and get another perspective of what the Irish way of life is like. Maybe it’s because I’m older, maybe it’s because I was in a different part of town, but I saw a harder edge to Dublin that I missed the first time I was there – drunk bums, drugs, dirty streets, stag parties – and I think that experience will enhance my story in a big way. Don’t get me wrong, all the wonderful things that first made me fall in love with Ireland were still there, but I was able to catch a glimpse at some of the seedier elements of city living that will help draw life into my version of Ireland in Through Bended Grass.

Enough about the travels, though, you probably want to know how the novel is coming along, eh? It’s coming along great and very slowly, all at once.

While overseas I had a lot of downtime, and that gave me a terrific opportunity to contemplate the story and how the final third (the unwritten portion) should unfold. To say that I had several epiphanies while there would be an understatement. Slowly, over the course of those two or so months, the entire story unfolded itself before me and by the time I was leaving Ireland I knew exactly how it should end.

Since returning I’ve outlined the story fully and now the real work begins in getting those final chapters down on paper so I can have a complete story to edit and, eventually, submit to publishers and agents. It’s crazy to think the finish line is finally in sight. Just the other day I sat down and began work on Chapter 19, and by golly did it feel bloody good to be back with Rowan after so many months of not being able to write.

The final break down is:

Prologue + 28 Chapters + 3 Interludes + Epilogue = Through Bended Grass

Of course, this could always change, but I feel very confident that I have the story laid out properly and the fun stuff is all about to begin. I can’t wait to share it all with you.

Oh, and I promise I’ll be back to updating Mightier than the Sword more frequently now that the dam has burst!

 Just a fun little blurb I threw together.

Violently stolen from his home by his Faerie father, seven-year-old Lewis Hayes appears to be the lynchpin in a centuries old war waged by the Tuatha De Dannan and their delusional King. As Rowan Hayes, Lewis’ single mother, searches for her son, she is relentlessly pursued from the real world streets of Ireland to a fantastic Fey world filled with twisted legends - Saint Patrick, Oberon, The Morrigan and more. Rowan and her son are soon at the centre of conflict as an ancient war is brought back to life and two worlds, human and fey, violently collide.

Thoughts?

Ahh, I must apologize for my absence. It’s not for lack of wanting to update, truly I did… but, well, you know how it is.

Life’s been busy lately, and writing’s been sparse. Well, no, scratch that, I’ve been writing a fair bit, but in the form of A Dribble of Ink as opposed to Through Bended Grass, which is valuable in its own right.

Those of you who follow both of my blogs (which I expect is about, well, all of you) probably followed along the little incident that happened as a result of my review of Paul Kearney’s The Ten Thousand. I didn’t talk about it much over at A Dribble of Ink, but the aspiring writer in me had a really hard time writing that review.

Writing Through Bended Grass has been such a learning experience for me, such a labour of love, that the writer in me (as opposed to the critic) could understand Kearney’s reaction 100%. I know how heartbroken and frustrated I’d be if someone said similar things about my baby. An author puts so much of themselves into each and every novel that they write, that it would almost be like a personal affront to hear negative things said about their work.

Being a critic, as much as A Dribble of Ink qualifies me for that title, leaves me, and any potential novels I write, open to harsh criticism. I have to be as blunt and honest, as objective and fair, about every novel I read that I can expect nothing less from those who read (and hopefully) review them.

To this end, each time I set out to write a review (whether positive or negative), I keep it in mind that the reviews I write can be a powerful tool for the authors of the novels. Positive reviews can help fuel their engines, their desires to writer; negative reviews can help point out the areas in which they can improve. An honest review, therefore, is almost as much help to the author as it is to potential readers.

If Through Bended Grass does make it to shelves, I know that I can’t expect every review to be positive, that’s just not the way it works. I do hope, however, that I can learn something from each of those reviews, something that can help me improve as a writer.

Hopefully Mr. Kearney was able to learn something from my review, whether he agreed with it or not.

As for Through Bended Grass, as I mentioned a couple of days ago, Chapter 16: The King of the Faeries? has been done for some time now and turned out even better than I had hoped it would.

It’s a very surreal chapter - not a whole lot of action, but a good glimpse at some of the more obtuse and fucked up areas of the Fey world. This area that Rowan finds herself in is infected by the addled magic of a particularily prominent Faerie who seems to be Rowan’s last hope in finding Lewis.

Playing with her perceptions of the world, which is an endlessly shifting morass of imagery. Rowan has, up to this point, taken most of the weird shit she’s encountered off the chin, with a certain distractedness. This chapter is one of the first times where she really starts to question what she’s seeing, to consider the reality of what she’s been accepting on her journey to find her son.

It’s a tough aspect to juggle. A lot of people would just collapse under the stress of being thrown into a bastardized version of a landscape that’s only supposed to exist in their picture books; Rowan’s a special breed, though. But even she has her limits, and they’re certainly stretched to the limits in Chapter 16.

Fun times, indeed.

Chapter 17 (which is currently untitled) is on it’s way and is a pretty big turning point in moving the plot to the final endpoint. A new character is introduced who, along with his companion, is going to be a lot of fun to write about. Especially if I can get a certain scene to play out properly near the end of the novel (what would happen if a big fuckin’ Fey creature rampaged through contemporary Dublin?)

Ever onwards.

Gah! No time to write!

 Chapter 16 is done. I’ll write about it when I get a chance….

Well that was quick.

After so bloody long without updates, it seems like I’m on a roll again. Chapter 15 titled Here Be Dragons is done and dusted. Hell, Chapter 16 is almost done, too.

 Shawn Speakman (blog HERE) often speaks about hitting the homestretch of a novel, the point after the halfway mark and how it starts to feel like you’re going downhill from there and gaining momentum with every word. I beginning to understand what he means by that. After finishing off Chapter 14 and the interlude, that marked roughly the halfway point of the novel (about 46k words out of 90k) and also served as the climax for ‘Part One’ of the novel (despite what I said in the last post, this was actually the end of ‘Part One’ not ‘Part Two’…). It seems that since hitting that point, or even a few chapters earlier, when I finished off Chapter 12, the words have just been flowing out of me.

 I may not exactly be able to see the finish line at the moment, it’s still a ways off, but I know that there is less in front of me than behind and that’s an encouraging thought. I find that the second-half of a good book is almost always a faster read than the first half, and I think it’s a good sign when the writing’s the same way.

 Chapter 15 is a bit of a change of pace from 14 (which was balls to the wall), but it was challenging to write in its own part. Without giving too much away, the structure of the chapter jumps around a lot in time and answers some question posed at the end of 14 in (I think/hope) interesting ways. There’s also a lot of room for some neat imagery and it was a great way to explore some aspects of my version of the Fey lands.

One character in particular has really stepped out of the shadows and surprised me. He doesn’t appear in this chapter - in fact he doesn’t appear again for a few chapters - but I’m constantly surprised by how much he and his actions have rippled  through the story. He was originally going to be a bit of a bit character, no more than a plot device, but as the writing has moved on he’s affecting more and more of the story and it’s even getting to the point where he (and his parallels to Rowan) will have a defined effect on the end of the novel.

Now, who said writing isn’t bloody exciting?

I outline in a pretty organic manner, but at the end of the day I have a solid outline for the novel and the first 18 or so chapters. It’s nice to know that even with all that outlining, I can still be surprised by the twists and turns of the story.

Well, onward to writing. Chapter 16 should be done pretty soon!

Well… no updates for almost a month and now two in two days? What the hell happened?

 Chapter 14, The Calm Within the Storm,  is done. No I didn’t write it in a day (productivity like that is in my repetoire) , but rather half of it has been written for about 6 months now.

 ”6 months?!!?” I hear you exclaim. “But why?”

There’s a good reason. Back a few months ago I was in a creative writing class (I didn’t have a job and figured I should keep myself busy somehow, so I enrolled in school) and used it as a great launching pad to get started on Through Bended Grass. I wasn’t able to bend each and every assignment towards my novel, but when we had to write a descriptive piece, I knew this was the scene to do.

 Chapter 14 is one of the most frenetic and important chapters in my novel and one of the first ones to form fully in my head. I won’t go spoiling much, but the end of the chapter ends with Rowan conciously throwing herself off the top of the Cliffs of Moher during a wicked storm  and tumbling 600 feet into the frothing ocean below.

 This ends the second part of the novel with a hell of abang and sets up the rest of the story. This also acts as roughly the halfway point in the novel, meaning it’s all downhill from here. Like walking south.

The next portion of the chapter, a short interlude, was also written almost a year ago and was originally included as the prologue of the novel. The interlude showcases the first moments when Rowan and Lewis’ father meet and then spend a rather twisted, tangled and sweaty night in the sack. I decided it wasn’t the best way to start the novel, but it acts as a perfect foil coming off of the frantic Chapter 14. It also allows me to drag out Rowan’s fate for a few more pages.

Chapter 14 is home to a few revelations and a couple of minor twists, which have been fun to play around with. Hopefully I’ve managed to drop enough hints and red herrings throughout the text to make it satisfying to the reader.

 All in all, I couldn’t be happier with how the first half of the novel has gone. I spent a lot of time beforehand plotting out the novel and outlining things. I’m amazed by how closely what’s been written matches what was in my head when first dreaming it all up. It’s the little things that have reared their heads along the way, however, that really make the whole process so exciting.

 Well, onwards to Chapter 15!

Well, after Chapter 12, which took a bloody era to write, Chapter 13 and most of Chapter 14 are done.

 Chapter 14 marks the halfway point of the novel, roughly, and features one of the most dramatic and tone setting scenes. I’m really happy with how things are coming together and after this chapter it’s all downhill to the conclusion of the novel. I can’t believe I’m nearing the hump, the end line is in sight and I just gotta find a way to get there.

But that’s half the fun, right?

I’m still thinking of putting up a new excerpt. Either Chapter 10 or the extended excerpt that some of my friends have read which contains chapters 1-3. Let me know which one you might be more interested in.