Howdy Ya’ll!
Forgive me, for I just binged Ted Lasso on AppleTV and I’ve absorbed some of his infectious positivity. This will pass shortly, as I’ll be starting season two of The Handmaid’s Tale soon.
Good news! THE BLACK SKY audiobook was finally approved by Audible and is available to digest via your ears. Many thanks are due to my narrator, Mr. Eric Grubbs (hi Eric!). We did the whole project exchange files via Dropbox and notes via email. Eric took all of my odd cadences, run-on sentences, and multi-syllabic words in stride.
THE RELENTLESS MOON by Mary Robinette Kowal
After a slow starting pace (on my end), I tore through the second half of THE RELENTLESS MOON’s nearly 450 pages in part thanks to how engaging and exciting the book becomes. For those not familiar, this is the third in a series dubbed The Lady Astronaut Novels that started with THE CALCULATING STARS in 2016 and THE FATED SKY in 2018. Each book builds on the premise of an alternate reality where an asteroid strike on Washington D.C. has completely decimated the eastern coast of the United States, and the future of humanity on earth is in question. It’s set in the late 1950s, so woven into the fabric of each book are the realities of time regarding women and minorities.
What makes the books so effective is that Kowal isn’t loose with her science, nor is she too wonky. It’s such a difficult balancing act it’s remarkable. She infuses humanity and drama while keeping everything grounded, logical, and realistic. That makes the books eminently readable page-turners.
Kowal (among others) is a proponent of a writing technique known as “The Mice Quotient.” She goes into it with great detail on her site, so if you are a writer and interested in check it out, I suggested visiting. Part of the process is analyzing your story and determining what type it is using this guide:
Origin of THE BLACK SKY
I’ve written about the origins of THE BLACK SKY both at the blog I kept during the writing/revising period, as well as my own blog. Here’s the timeline:
Came up with the idea in 2011, thought it might be a feature screenplay, but then tried it out as a one-hour television pilot.
I got stuck, and for the heck of it, I tried to convert it to a novel in 2012. I liked it but didn’t love it. Then life happened - daughter was born, moved into a new house, got a new job, etc. It got put on hold.
2016 - I read The Martian by Andy Weir, which I really enjoyed, but was really interested in his methodology of writing one chapter and posting them for feedback. Around that time, drummer Jacob Slichter of Semisonic was a guest on the podcast I co-host, Dig Me Out. Besides being a really good drummer in a rock band, he’s also a writing professor, and he mentioned on his Facebook page about writing “500 words a day” as a mantra to complete a project. I took those two ideas and ran with it to complete the actual first draft of the novel.
Now that you’ve got the backstory, here’s what I’ve got to share: the original pilot I wrote for THE BLACK SKY back in 2011. Just click the link and it will take you Dropbox to view or download the PDF.
Updates on THE RED SKY
As I am taking a different approach to outlining this time around, I am also taking a slightly different approach to writing. On THE BLACK SKY, everything was written in order. I didn’t jump around from scene to scene or chapter to chapter. It meant sometimes I had not spent time with a character or plot thread for a period of time and had to revisit to remember where exactly I had left off. This time around, while I have the big picture plotted, the individual stories threads are being written (at the moment) as separate entities. I’m hoping this will allow me to stay on track with a particular story, and then weave the threads together as I get farther along.
Question - would you be interested in Beta reading THE RED SKY? If so, leave a comment and let me know.
More updates to THE RED SKY playlist on Spotify. New additions include Autechre, Ben Vince, and John Frusciante.
Stuff I’m Into
Books - currently reading Keep Moving by Maggie Smith.
TV/Movies - Just finished Ted Lasso on AppleTV (highly recommend) and The Boys on Amazon, currently watching Street Food - Asia on Netflix and Counterpart on Amazon. Caught the Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band documentary “Letter To You” on AppleTV (really good) and Amy Schumer’s 2019 comedy special “Growing” on Netflix.
Music - SIGN by Autechre, Love Is The King by Jeff Tweedy, Letter To You by Bruce Springsteen
What are you watching, reading, listening to at the moment?
Stay safe!
Tim