Where I am now

I've been neglecting this blog terribly for real-life reasons, mostly to do with my day job (i.e. stay-at-home mother of a toddler). Computing time has been precious, and while I can write on my Alphasmart and do forums and twitter on my phone, editing and Scrivener take priority on my computer.

So I thought it was beyond time to do a quick update. :)

Mermaids and Misadventures is written and in editing, and I'm really excited about sharing a book from the POV of Esther. She is so much fun to write. The sequel, Dragons and Deception (working title), is being outlined, although I've written a few scenes. It will be the penultimate novel length instalment, according to current plans.

Game dev wise, I am dying to get back to Stepsister, but I'm suffering the same computer access problems.

I've also outlined a historical love story in Adelaide, South Australia in 1928, about the relationship between a ambitious, wealthy white girl and a mission-raised young Aboriginal charwoman. Working title Lesley and Faith. I am still embroiled in research, so I will be ready to go when Scholars and Sorcery is complete. Much as I love Cornwall and writing books set in Cornwall, there's something special about writing a book set in the town in which I now live. I'm doing lots of cruising around town on buses picking out locations.

I also keep meaning to prepare the paperback copies of the books. Maybe when the whole series is out...

The final line is written...

Mermaids and Misadventures is into editing.

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Kitty art commission

Two blog posts in two days is not like me, but I wanted to share this adorable commission of Lady Emmeline Eversleigh, aka Kitty, in classic shoujo style by michiro-mitch.

I love big sparkly-eyed 1970s-1980s shoujo like that of Riyoko Ikeda, and my book seems like a good match for that art style. I think michiro-mitch did a fantastic job of capturing the style, and also Kitty's charming trickster personality.

Dimsie Moves Up Again

Dimsie Moves Up Again: Dorita Fairlie Bruce (1922)

'Well,' said Rosamund, doubtfully, 'we always have set our faces against the persecution of new girls, even if they're senior to ourselves.'

'Humpf!' said Jean Gordon. 'I've come gradually to the conclusion that the persecution never occurs unless it's deserved, and it usually does a lot of good in the end."

'Oh, but Jean!' objected Dimsie, 'it all depends on the reason. A girl shouldn't be ragged or snubbed because she's different from everybody else, and doesn't know any better.'

'She's come to school to learn,' returned Jean, conclusively.

Finding a new school story at a charity shop is always a little like winning the lottery for me. A recent trip came back with two new prizes, Dimsie Moves Up Again and Celia Wins.
Dimsie Moves Up Again is only new in a certain sense. I have foggy childhood memories of this one that became more clear as I read. One thing that remained intact from being a little girl: the impression that the Headmistress of the Jane Willard Foundation is an absolute monster. But more on that later.
DFB is one of my favourite school story authors, and she is reliably excellent when it comes to serious examinarions of school politics and loads of girls with boyish nicknames, two of my favourite things.
Her Dimsie series is notorious for being about the Anti Soppist League, the existence of which gives the impression that Jane's is a hothouse of lesbian desire that needs to be continually repressed, much like, I suppose, Fernleigh Manor. This gains added hilarity by Dimsie expressing the need to be down on soppiness while sitting with her head on the beautiful Rosamund's lap, for example, and the tendency of her girls to act like walking together to church is a date or a ball dance ("Are you already engaged elsewhere?") or to make exceptions when it's perfectly acceptable to kiss.
This is a little unfair, of course. The "soppy" behaviour Dimsie and her friends are determined to stamp out is more widely expressed as false emotion, airs and graces, and sentimentality of all kinds, including the "wrong" kind of bullying, i.e. that not intended to knock someone's corners off and force her to act like all the conventional girls she's with. (See the quote above about the unfortunate Fenella Postlethwaite in this book.) Sentimentality, effusive affection and other vaguely sapphic behaviour is simply a subset of "soppiness" that the girls will eventually grow out of anyway.
Never mind. In a universe in which Dimsie Grows Up never existed, I'm sure Dimsie and Rosamund, who is stated to be able to "get more out of Dimsie" than anyone else if she wants to, are together forever.
Back to the monstrosity of Miss Yorke, Jane's headmistress.
Tony, a senior girl who is immediately likeable because of her nickname, is a shoe-in to be voted Head Girl, which is done on democratic lines. Tony is a "thoroughly straight, good-all-round sort of girl" and has "the qualities that would make a capital Head Girl". She's adorable. The only other possibility is the wishy-washy, sensitive, musical Ursula Grey (let's take a moment to admire DFB's character naming, which is always perfect) who is not as popular, but is Dimsie's protegee. Yes, Dimsie has protegees who are older than her. She's annoying that way. Dimsie starts going around making girls promise to vote for Ursula.
So Miss Yorke calls in Tony, tells her that she doesn't have the right to order this, only request it, but Tony is not to stand for Head Girl. For the Sake of the School. Because, um... She has too many irons in the fire and lacks concentration.

'It is a great pity, Tony. I wish with all my heart I could let the election take its course, but it wouldn't be safe, so--' she paused, and looked at the tall straight girl before her with a little sigh '--so I must appeal to a principle which I know is strong in all you girls who have been long at the school. Will you think first of what is best for Jane's, Tony?'

My outrage, it still burns.
There is of course, other stuff going on. Ursula must be allowed to learn to play the cello instead of the piano (I would care more if not for my burning loyalty to Tony), people think terrible shabby things of Dimsie because of a purely altruistic attempt to delay another girl getting her hockey colours, some younger girls are wicked low-down rulebreakers. It's all quite glorious. Five stars.
But I shall leave you with another classic moment:

'Thanks, awfully, for the flowers, Dimsie dear. I shall play all the better because you gave them to me.'
'I'm not sure,' said Dimsie, doubtfully, as she followed her down, 'whether that's a speech that should be listened to by a conscientous Anti-Soppist--but never mind!"

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Elves and Escapades out--Fairies and Felicitations free!

I am excited to announce that Elves and Escapades, the sequel to Pegasi and Prefects, has been released today. (On my birthday!)

It feels like it's been forever since Pegasi and Prefects came out, but actually, it's been about three months. :)

To celebrate, the stand-alone prequel novelette Fairies and Felicitations is free for five days.

YA Spring Fling Guest Post: Milda Harris

The YA Spring Fling Giveaway gets underway on the 20th. It's not too late to be guaranteed a free YA ebook of your choice if you sign up to the mailing list by the 20th March. (Including Pegasi and Prefects if you haven't read it yet, just in time for Elves and Escapades.) There are tons of books in different YA genres available, as well as swag and goodies.

One of the books you can win is terrific scifi paranormal Doppelganger by Milda Harris. I'm very pleased to host her author interview below.

What’s your favourite thing about spring? I enjoy the change of weather from winter to

spring. Flowers bloom! It's such a pretty season!


What’s the best thing about being a writer? I love creating new stories and making up

adventures. It's the best job ever!


What’s the worst thing about being a writer? Sometimes it is really, really hard to create.

Sometimes you don't feel like writing at all. Still, part of being a writer is writing no matter

what!


Tell us more about your books. I have two main YA series for sale right now. One is

The Doppelganger Trilogy, which is a YA sci-fi/paranormal romance series. My book

Doppelganger is the first in the series. It is also the book that I have in the Spring Fling

Giveaway. Doppelganger is the story of Citrus Leahy and how one day she goes to school and

finds herself already in class! Luckily, the boy she has a crush on has the same problem.


The other series I have out is The Funeral Crashing Mysteries, which is a YA romantic

mystery series starting with Adventures in Funeral Crashing. That book is currently free to

download. Adventures in Funeral Crashing is about a funeral crashing sixteen-year-old girl who

ends up solving a murder mystery with the hottest guy in school.



I've also written a few other books. My other YA titles are The New Girl Who Found a Dead 

Body and Connected (A Paranormal Romance). I also wrote a new adult romantic comedy called

Crashing Prom. 


Coffee or Tea? Coffee!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok, I like tea too.


Plotter or Pantser? Pantser, but I so wish I was a plotter.


Are there any books involved in the YA Spring Fling that you’re secretly lusting after? 

A ton of them look like fun reads. Maybe Never Sleep, Kissed, Fashion Fraud, Miss Popularity,

Watermelon Summer, or Unclaimed.


What was the last YA book you read? I just started reading Insurgent by Veronica Roth.


Why do you write YA? I have loved YA since I was in high school and I never stopped. I

read everything, but YA still holds a very special place in my heart.


What are your top tips for surviving a bad review? I try not to read it! I skim them. I

think bad reviews are very important for potential readers and writers. Still, as a writer I

can't take the blow to my ego so I only try and take away helpful criticism from them. The

truth of the matter is, one book is not meant for everyone to like. You have to keep it in

perspective.


What are your top tips for surviving a zombie apocalypse? Run! Stock up on supplies.

Get to high ground or somewhere fortified. Lastly, hope your luck lasts long enough to

survive!


What inspires you? I'm inspired by books I'm reading, movies, television, and most

importantly - real life!


Where can readers find your books? Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iTunes, Kobo, Google

Play, Smashwords, Createspace, and more!

I'm an app addict. I'm always looking for a better tool. That being said, I thought I'd share a quick and dirty guide to the apps I find invaluable as a writer. No affiliate links here, just gushing.

Scrivener (Mac and Windows: I have both). Price: $40 Windows, $45 Mac, and frequently discounted (e.g. for various Nanowrimo events).

This gets pride of place, because... what can I say that hasn't been said before? Moving from word processors into a custom-built writing app is a revelation. Structuring, outlining, editing, making notes, compiling into an ebook... There is absolutely no part of writing that Scrivener doesn't make easier. It's incredibly rich in features, each feature well thought out.

My first books (treating Elves as second writing-wise), I used it more tentatively, and it was still a miracle. From Fairies onward, I've made much heavier use of its features. I love writing with my outline, scene synopsis and guiding notes visible, in particular.

Distraction-free writing? Phooey. I like it all there. There's a mode if you like that kind of thing, though.

If only I'd had it when I was working on my thesis.

Calibre (Mac and Windows) Price: Donationware

Calibre more than earned its donation. Once I've compiled an ebook, I load it into Scrivener at the touch of a button and look at it in its viewer. If I see changes to be made, it's back to Scrivener. If not, I send it, at the touch of a button, to my kindle and my editor's email.

Googledocs (Any platforms). Price: Free (or your soul)

This is what I use to write on the go. It doesn't matter if it's my Nexus, my iPad or even my phone--it all syncs seamlessly, for future dropping into Scrivener.

A Novel Idea (iOS). Price: Freemium (the paid version was less than $4)

This is my brainstorming app of choice. Nothing like lolling back with a tablet, coming up with ideas. A Novel Idea has places for characters, scenes, ideas, books... and best of all, they can be linked and cross-referenced to your heart's delight. I love this.

Celtx Index Cards (Android and iOS). Price: Free

I haven't found anything as purpose built as A Novel Idea for Android. The Index Cards application belonging to screenwriting app Celtx is the best alternative I've found. Being a Scrivener fan, I'm used to plotting in index cards, and they are easy to reorder and colour codable, and Celtx plays nice with Scrivener. Nice (and free!) little app.

Contour (iOS, Windows and Mac) Price: $10 for iOS, $40 Mac and Win

I started using Contour while plotting Mermaids. My God, I love it. I'd bought it on an impulse, thinking I was wasting $10 on something I would play with and never seriously use. I was a pantser, after all. I was wrong.

Contour is a screenwriting planning app based on a proprietary system. It guides you, through questions and fields, through an extensive planning process aimed at a tightly structured work. By the time you've worked through the starting questions, you should know if your concept is going to fly, or if you need to go back and do more work. There is a detailed manual, and more information is available at a touch.

I've read a lot of craft books talking about the four act structure. Nothing ever made it all click into place like Contour. Planning through it is challenging and joyful, and means I've gone into Mermaids knowing what each scene is going to achieve and what it's place is in the overall structure. Pegasi and Elves had structure imposed on them afterwards, with a lot of time consuming rewriting. This time, I know my structure going in.

It's a great feeling

---

Eleanor Beresford is the author of the Scholars and Sorcery series of LGBT YA fantasy novels. Find out more here.