Juggling with words

When people hear that I write, the reaction is often "Cool that must be amazing!" and I agree, it is.

What they are unaware of though is how intensive writing is and how at times, it can seem a lot like juggling. 

I am currently in the process of what will hopefully be a final edit of my Novella Integrate, the cover is almost signed off and then, once the final tweaks are done, it will be published.

In the meantime, whilst Integrate is with my editor, I am working on my full length novel (with working title of 'Thebes'), the full draft is now complete and I have started editing.  It is a long process of being critical, fact checking, re-writing where necessary, all in preparation for it to then go to my editor who will do the same. Then we will more than likely repeat the process a few times...

I have also started researching the next novel 'Elena's Island' which will involve both historical research as well as research about the Island on which it is set (Zakynthos).  This can be grueling as I need to ensure that the facts are 100% right, I don't want any mistakes. 

In the background I am also working on my branding, my tagline, overhauling my website and book cover ideas for 'Thebes' and 'Elena's Island'.  I also have a Facebook author page, twitter and this blog to keep up to date.  It is true when they say a writer's work is never done!

Despite the above I enjoy what I do and am grateful to have support from family, friends, fellow authors, and my followers.  I love my characters and enjoy delving into the interesting lives they lead and seeing the fantastic places they visit.  So yes what I do is amazing, and I am thankful that I am able to do what I love, despite occasionally having to juggle.

100 Women - International Women's Day

Today is International Women's Day. Women around the world are celebrating, and being celebrated for their achievements, however large or small.

Today one of my friends Deena Lees, a talented actress and voiceover artist, performed my poem 'Maisie' from my Collection of Poems and Short story book, at the 100 Women event at the Bath International Literature Festival.

I am very proud to have 'Maisie' read there as it is my favourite from the book, but even prouder that my friend chose to use a piece of my work, at such a renowned Literary Festival, I can't begin to thank her enough. 

If you have a spare five minutes today, take the time to help Women around the world celebrate, it is after all their day!

It's all about research...

As well as putting pen to paper (or in my case fingers to keyboard!), I spend a lot of my time doing research. My books are set in far flung destinations that have a long varied History and so I like what I am writing about to be accurate.

With Nabataea I was very lucky, I have been to Petra in Jordan and have memories, photos and video to refer to, the same is also true of Egypt. I have also done an Egyptology course and am due to do an Archaeology course in January.

This doesn't stop me from researching though. The world of Archaeology and History is fast moving at times, and things constantly change. When I first visited El Khasneh in Petra, you could walk inside and view the building in its entirety, nowadays the entrance is blocked and special permission is required to enter. At the Valley of the Kings in Egypt stills photography and video cameras (including mobile phones!) are banned from the site. Changes like this means I have to constantly read up and double check facts to see if they have altered.

I love research. I love learning something new, whether it be by using the internet, visiting a library or Museum, or reading one of my many books in my own mini library. I am currently researching Volcano's, Earthquakes, Pompeii, Herculaneum, Mount Vesuvius and the Roman Empire. This is in preparation for the groundwork for 'Vesuvio'. I have not yet had the chance to go to this part of Italy, but it is on my list and I hope to add to my pages of notes soon by seeing the real thing. 

Some may find research tedious and boring, but to me it is not only incredibly important for the type of writing I do, but as a history buff (all though my friends may term that 'geek') it gives me a chance to continue learning and expanding my knowledge of the Ancient World. 

Spoilers...

A lot of you have been asking me about the forthcoming work 'Integrate'. So here is some more information / spoilers.

'Integrate' is a short story, that is currently (dependent on final re-writes) about 50 pages (or approx 13,500 word) in length. It was originally a screen play written in the mid to late 1990's and has been gathering dust in the loft for over 10 years.

I decided to do something with it, but alas didn't have any spare money laying around to make it into a film, so I have taken a year to painstakingly re-write it as a story, which has proved to be much harder than writing a book or story from scratch. I have had to, re-think, re-work and fill, no easy job when you have an original piece of work you love, I wasn't even sure it would work, but at the end of the last re-write I felt it did, and was happy with the transition.

I'm not going to tell you much about the story as I want you to be able to read it without the story being spoiled. The plan is to publish in the lead up to, around Christmas, on both kindle (see kindle users I do listen to you!) and also on paperback. What I can do however, is provide you with the blurb (technical name for the text on the rear of books). So here goes:

Grief stricken by the loss of her identical twin sister Helena, Corinne struggles to come to terms with life without her. Visions of her sister’s last moments on earth, begin to plague her, growing ever stronger and more vivid as the days pass, jumbled snapshots that she must try and piece together.

Jack’s own life has been spiraling out of control since the tragic death of his girlfriend, he feels he has little to live for, his only solace being self destruction. In him Corinne finds an ally, someone she can open up to, in the hope that he can help her through the grief and suffering, but Jack hides a terrible secret that threatens to tear both their worlds apart.

A secret that sees Corinne plotting revenge for the sister she loved and lost.
A secret that sees Jack paying the ultimate price.

Integrate © Chrissie Parker, Oct 2011

More news follows soon, until then, it's back to final re-writes  / checks. Wish me luck! 

C x

Moving forward

The week has been busy, the last set of corrections are currently being done to 'Integrate', and I hope that it will go live on amazon kindle in the run up to Christmas.

This week has been all about the book cover. I've had a good think about what it will look like and come up with something deep, dark and dramatic. Intrigued? Hope so!

A brief including story synopsis has been written and sent to a designer who hopes to take my garbled notes and ideas and turn them into something spectacular! Can't wait to see what it looks like.

The next job will be a final check of the text before sign off and upload. That's the scary bit, and always a bit nerve wracking as once that green light goes, I always wonder should I have done one last check? Could I have changed anything to make it better? Was there anything missing? Learning when to say 'it's done and ready to go' is very difficult!

Once that's done it will be back to 'Thebes' for corrections and re-writes before it's sent off for agent submission.  

The writing never ends... But i do love it :)

A new start

The first blog of hopefully many to come!

It has been a busy few months, life has taken me on a slight meander and I have been deep in organising film shoots, crews for corporate clients etc. That's the day job... 

Days off and weekends are spent working on my next book and also a short story.

The short story will hopefully be finished and out in time for Christmas, just a last few re-writes and corrections and it will be ready to go. The title is 'Integrate'. The story? Spoilers! You'll just have to wait a little longer!

The book is well over ten thousand words in now and re-writes continue all the time. At the moment it only has a working title 'Thebes', it is set in Egypt and hopefully has a good mix, of intrigue, danger and suspense that the first book had. 

I have also signed up to do an Archaeology course with Exeter University, starting January. It will be for 6 months and I'm very excited about it. Once I start I will be able to tell you all about it!

That's it for now. Will write more news soon.

C x