The Next Big Thing

Susan Price

          I don't know who first had the idea for this, but it's become a bit of craze among on-line writers.

         First, you answer the ten questions below about your work-in-progress.

        Then you link to the blogs of other writers, about their work in progress.

          So, here goes -   

Q1. What is the working title of your book?

          I usually call it ‘Sterkarm 3’ because it will be the third Sterkarm book. But its official working title, at the moment, is ‘A Sterkarm Embrace.’ It’s also been called, ‘A Sterkarm Cure’ and ‘A Sterkarm Potion’. The title’s in progress too.

Sterkarm Handshake and Sterkarm Kiss

Q2 where did the idea come from for the book?

          The second book in the Sterkarm series, ‘A Sterkarm Kiss’, ended in a cliff-hanger. This one takes the story on from there.

Q3 What genre does your book fall under?

          The time machine makes it science-fiction or fantasy, but the realistic scenes set in the 16^th Century Border Lands make it historical. The love between 21^st Century Andrea and 16^th Century Per make it a romance. All the fighting makes it an adventure.

          Is there a Science-fictionish Historical Romantic Adventure genre?

Q4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

          That’s a poser.  I don’t think the film industry have it in them to cast my heroine, Andrea, because anyone in the film world would say, ‘She’s fat, so she can’t be a lead.’

          Andrea is a big, bonny lass, with child-bearing hips. It would kill the film industry to cast her properly. I doubt they’d even try – they’d go on auto-pilot and cast some tiny, bony waif. (I give my reasons for making Andrea big and bonny in this interview.) In character, she’s quite shy and gentle, but has a very strong sense of right and wrong, and is quite brave and determined in acting on it. I don’t know that she always gets it right.

          I’m equally clueless about who to cast as Per, the hero. He’s a tall, fair, blue-eyed Border Scot – his nickname is ‘The May’ or ‘The Girl’, so he is pretty, but there is nothing girly about his character. He has been raised since childhood to ride, fight and lead. He’s also been raised in the belief that it’s his family, the Sterkarms, against the world, and he recognises no authority except that of his family elders - and not always them. He thinks for himself. He has a lot of charm, but underneath the good looks and charm, I have to say, he is a dangerous thug. Don’t get on his wrong side.

Any suggestions for casting these two?

Q5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

          Love, war, poison and deer-hounds.

Q6 Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

          At the moment I’m hoping that my agent will find it a publisher for the new book, and for the two older books. But I’m not ruling out the possibility of publishing it – and republishing the first two – myself.

Q7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

          Three years. I started working on it in 2009, about the time I was appointed Royal Literary Fellow at De Montfort University. Throughout my three years at DMU, I worked on ‘Sterkarm 3’. It’s still not finished. I daresay that even if my agent can find a publisher, there will be rewrites.

Q8. What other books would you compare the story to within your genre?

          I almost stopped writing the first book, The Sterkarm Handshake, when my brother lent me a story called, I think, ‘Mozart in Mirrorshades’ by, I think, William Gibson. It described – brilliantly - a time-travelling future society pulling out of the 18^th Century in much the same way as the Americans pulled out of Vietnam. Marie Antoinette, who’s become the mistress of an executive, and Mozart, whose music has been influenced by the music he’s heard from the future, are desperate to be taken to the future too. For a while, after reading this story, I thought there was little point in writing my book. But I recovered.

Q9. Who or what inspired you to write this book?

          I was fascinated by the history of the Border Reivers – and I’d loved the ballads since my teens. I’ve loved folk-lore and legends for even longer. I wanted to write about the reivers, but didn’t want to write a straightforward historical novel. I thought about bringing time-travel into it, so I could have characters from the 21^st and 16^th centuries interacting. I liked that idea – but the light-bulb above my head didn’t really light up until I thought that the 16^th century characters would think the 21^st century people were Elves from the Hollow Hills because of their ‘magical’ technology.

Q10 What else about your book might pique the reader's interest?

          It features an unexpected use for plastic carrier bags!

          And here are the writers I'm linking to:-

          Cally Phillips - Scots playwright, screen-writer and novelist

          Joan Lennon -  An originally Canadian adoptive Scot, and warm, witty writer.

 

LET'S MAKE THE FILM RIGHT HERE! In Our Kitchen...

£1.71  Ghost Dance by Susan Price  $2.99

          I met up with my brothers last week, and mentioned that I was days away from publishing my third book on kindle, GHOST DANCE, the third book in the Ghost World sequence.

          Adam looked at Andrew and said, “We ought to make a trailer for them!”  Andrew enthusiastically agreed, and the rest of the afternoon was spent in planning how it could be done for no money at all.

          I never asked them to do it!  It was, I swear, entirely their own idea.  For all the attempts I’ve been making to let the world know that my books are on the kindle, making a trailer had never occurred to me.

          But, both my brothers love films, and they’re both artists.  (Andrew, the older, has worked as an artist for a computer games firm, and does the book covers for my kindle books; and Adam has published cartoons, and draws the Blot cartoons.) They said it would be a fun way of teaching themselves some new programmes and techniques.

          There followed a long discussion of whether to use stills, or some kind of puppets, or animated paper cut-outs.  What dissolves would be best.  “Can we get Alan (our cousin) to play some music for us?”

           They are going to meet up this Thursday, to draw up a story-board.

          I don’t know if it will come to anything, but I’m agog.  I’m even prepared to disturb the moths in my purse and buy them a camcorder (though the last I heard they were planning to borrow my aunt’s.  Keep it in the family is our motto.  This is why my Twitter name is @priceclan.)
          Film trailers are nothing new of course.  My friend and fellow Scattered Author, Katherine Langrish, has made a trailer for her book DARK ANGELS I love it (and the book) and played the trailer to my brothers for educational and inspirational purposes.

          I think Kath’s short film captures the atmosphere of her book brilliantly, and I’m impressed by its quality.  If Kath had told me she’d paid large splodges of moolah to have it made professionally, I wouldn’t have doubted it, but in fact she made it herself, with help from her family.

          I’ll be thrilled if my family can come up with something as good.  You can bet I’ll keep you posted on the progress of PriceClan Studios.

        

And here's Blott -

There are more Blot cartoons at www.susanpriceauthor.com