Wordy Wednesday with The Strange Seawolf

This week I welcome to the blog, a strange seawolf. Or is it The Strange Seawolf? Which ever it may be, strange seawolves are very welcome here. but let's find out more about our mysterious author and their book, Herald Petrel. 

So without further ado, a warm welcome to you Strange Seawolf, tell us a bit about you, what genre do you write? 

I think genres are a bit like gender: for a lot of people this form of categorization is a helpful concept and there is nothing bad about it. For me, though, it seems to needlessly narrow things down. I write stories about characters. All my writing develops from characters and what happens is defined by characters. They also define in which world I will have to build for them. For Herald Petrel I’d say it is Science Fiction although a reviewer recently categorized it as “Dystopian But Fun Space Opera”, and I am all for it!

So, that’s settled for this universe but who knows what the next characters will force me to write?

Do you have another job or are you a full time author?

Ha, yes, I do have another job. Writing is purely a hobby and an escape from reality for me. At daytime I am working for a database company. My job there is rather versatile, I train and help clients to use our software better, write the odd SQL here and there, and also do webinars and presentations. It is a database for a very niche field and I think I was born to work in that very niche field, so it fits and at the moment, I like it.

When did you start writing?

In elementary school. Okay, no, seriously, I always have written non-fiction. Writing fiction came late. 2019, after the death of my husband, I’d say. I wrote a lot of fanfic to escape, a concept that I hadn't known until I discovered Doctor Who at the same time.

As a side-note: I know it is popular to see fan-fiction as just a “training” to “real” writing, but I oppose that notion. For me it is an own genre with its own laws, challenges, and beauty. Sure, the main characters were created by someone else. But if you really want to write good fan-fiction you have to get the voice of those characters right. With your own characters it is you who defines what is “in character” or not. With fan-fiction, thousands of people have seen the same actors on screen and they will judge you by how convincingly you are able to make them see another believable story with them in their minds. So, while I also write original, I will never stop writing fan-fiction for characters that resonated with me or for series that were cancelled with threads dangling.

 

What 3 things are guaranteed to make you smile?

• Cats. Gosh, I am predictable like that but show me the image of a cute cat and it is an instant smile.

• Friends and colleagues. Especially colleagues who became friends. I am privileged to have gotten to know quite some goofballs in my life who never fail to put a big, silly grin on my face.

• Good food. Put some lovely food in front of me and it (and you) will be greeted with a resounding purr and happy smile.

 

 

 

Do you have any pets?

I always had cats. Right now, only a very old tomcat is left who is allowed to spend his remaining lives as a privileged and spoilt solo pasha.

Unlike my other cat who sometimes simply blocked the keyboard by slumping over it, he just silently judges me if I spent too much time writing.

Who is your favourite author? Do they influence your writing or are they a total break from the sort of thing you write?

I don’t have a favorite author, I don’t think my brain works that way.

I grew up with my father’s Science Fiction collection so I was exposed to and influenced by Stanislaw Lem, E.E.Smith and Douglas Adams. I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett, especially his Discworld and even more specifically his character Death, and I am eternally grateful to QuokkaMocha (check her writing out as well, you’ll find her on AO3 and Mastodon) for finally convince me to start reading this series.

My close friend and soul twin Panda Fedorko and I constantly inspire each other both in our original and fanfic writing.

Lately I enjoy reading across the Indie authors Mastodon brought to my doorstep and I fear I forget someone if I try to name them all. It would end up in a long list of recommendations which isn’t the intend of this question. Instead, go to the hashtags #PennedPossibilities and #WordWeavers to get a jump-start into an awesome community of writers, published and unpublished.

One shout out, though: The Winds and Pillar series by Hannah Steenbook doesn’t get by far enough love (“South Breaks” starts off rather gruesome so I thought it wasn’t for me since I am a soft bean but I was hooked with the third chapter and right now I impatiently wait to devour every new book as soon as it is out).

I think whatever I am reading will influence my writing but I have phases in which I write and phases in which I read and since there is no overlap of those phases I am not too worried about the genre I read.

Which book(s) are you reading at the moment?

None because I am in a writing phase. I do still have the two latest books of the Pitkirtly Mysteries by Cecilia Peartree to read (so much fun, seriously, if you like Scotland, cozy murder mysteries, and absolutely bonkers characters, that’s the series for you). And next up I’ll either tackle Watermyth by Anita Harris Satkunananthan or The Calling by Branwen OShea.

Where do you do most of your writing?

At my desk. I am boring like that. Sometimes on the balcony but that is an ergonomic nightmare.

Tell us about the character that you've written that you like the most - no spoilers!

Oh, picking favs is unfair, especially when it comes to characters. But let’s take Rafaela Louise Sanchez Gomez, Raffi for short. She’s the assistant of the main character in Herald Petrel, Captain Galahad, and while I can see several characters capable to take over if Galahad drops out, there is simply no one who could replace Raffi. She is a proud asexual and aromantic. She has absolutely no filter. She says what she thinks without worrying too much about the consequences. She is curious and loves investigating places and things that are absolutely none of her business. She also has no problems whatsoever to tell her boss he’s wrong and one of my favorite sentences I ever wrote for her is: "What mess did you manage to maneuver your heteroromantic arse into?" She has basically adopted Galahad because she felt he needed a daughter and she sometimes plays the role of the wise guide for him. Their relationship puts all common father-daughter or mentor-mentee tropes upside-down. I always cheer if I get to write a scene with Raffi.

What is your favourite biscuit?

Two: Maryland Choc Chip Cookies and McVitie’s Ginger Nuts. When I travel the UK, I try to pack as little as possible into my suitcase so I can restock my stash because it is rather expensive to get those in mainland Europe.

Tea or Coffee?

Depends. I can’t even function properly without having at least two big cups of Earl Grey in my system in the mornings. And usually, all my writing runs on tea. I do enjoy a coffee with colleagues, a big latte macchiato in a nice café, or a strong espresso after lunch, though.

In the film of your life who would play you? (why)

Gosh, I do have one actress I would love to see in that and it is Cush Jumbo! Okay, no, wait. She doesn’t look like me. So, who looks like me? Lassie? Hmm, probably too old. All of them. Same with the wolf that played with Whatshisname? Costner? I mean, perhaps Pixar could animate my life? That would make a lot more sense. And, hey, then Cush could voice me. You would get that badass energy Cush radiates with a cute animated seawolf doing... database work. Okay, I might have to pimp my life a bit before I got material for more than 5 minutes of biopic. BRB. Now, If I could remember where I put that flyer of the Mt. Everest guided tours for wimps…

If you could genetically cross an animal and a vegetable, what would you pick and why?

Given both species consented, I’d cross a cabbage and a hedgehog. You’d get a cabbage that eats the snails that are lured into its vicinity. Probably nothing you can harvest then, though. And they make a hell of a noise when they grow shoots. Ah, well, no experiment is perfect, right?

And now your appetite is well and truly whetted, why not explore some links...

Here’s the universal book link to get Herald Petrel from your preferred retailer: https://books2read.com/HeraldPetrel

And here on Goodreads and Bookwyrm people say nice stuff about it.

Herald Petrel also has its own website https://fly.herald-petrel.com/

If you want to follow Strange Seawolf you can do so on Mastodon @strangeseawolf@mindly.social and on Instagram strange.seawolf (Strange Seawolf says "fairness warning: I haven’t figured out what I am doing there, if you see me posting weird stuff: no you haven’t!")

As someone who has read Herald Petrel I can really recommend it - first of all because I loved the diverse mix of characters, and when I say that I include aliens that are not just Star Trek style aliens with humanoid features and sexes but just different coloured skin or the odd face bump! These aliens are alien! And also because the story is exciting, and the space feels real, along with the challenges living on a spaceship brings. 

 

Strange Seawolf image created by The Patrex

Wordy Wednesday - Pippa Harvey, The Watcher's Lullaby

Back in the olden days of this blog, when I was keen and less lazy I had a regular author slot once a week on a Wednesday. This slot might be a review of a book I read or an interview with an author, or maybe advice on reading, reviewing etc.

But as I said , I got older, lazier and booktok seems to be the place the young folks find out about books these days. However, not to be deterred and just in case some other old people (or you young'uns) like to still read a bit I decided to bring it back.

So today I am starting with a review. I was kindly sent an e-book by Pippa Harvey,  The Watcher's Lullaby.

It's been a while since I've read a creepy book and this book is very creepy. Lots of atmosphere and some genuinely scary 'goosebump' moments.

The story follows two women who live in the same house many many years apart, and one of them appears to have stayed around. Is it all it seems though? Is the watcher a malevolent spirit or a loss soul? 

Some of the themes around the behavior of the men in the tale are interesting, although they do stick to the 'man who assumes women are being irrational' which helps the story move on but is a little annoying.

 "Sweetheart, you can't let yourself be spooked by noises and creaks in this house. Older properties come with their imperfections."

 The female characters are stronger and support each other most of the time. The historical part of the story is very sad, with Maud being a very emotionally lost person with scarce support from those around her. 

 "Without a word, William walks into the rear parlour and adds some coal to the range. Taking a seat by the fire, he reaches for Henry Stephen's Book of the Farm. It's always beside his chair and, apart from the newspaper, the only reading he ever does, usually on a Sunday afternoon. Not only does it guide him on the animals and crops, but it means he can avoid conversation."

Bea copes better as a strong independent woman, although at times I worried her marriage would fail because of the stress of the new home.

The two women are linked by the house, and their lives share many similarities. But how far will the links take them, how close will their lives become?

No spoilers here, but this is a ghost story. Read it in a darkened room by candle light in a storm and you will be jumping at every breath of wind.

 You can get a copy here

 Trigger warnings for child loss.

Wordy Wednesday with Michelle Midnight

Wordy Wednesday greetings  to you all, let me welcome you to the blog, grab a beanbag or a comfy chair and cuddle up in this virtual nook while I introduce you to the author of the week, Michelle.

Michelle writes as Michelle Midnight. She is a 17 year old writer from a small city in California, and is currently writing  her novel, Society's Trial. 

Her hobbies consist of reading (in a tree during the summer, on her bed during the other seasons), programming, and of course, writing. She loves all things dark and morbid. (was the pen name a clue!?) Her favourite author is Stephen King, and her favourite poet is Edgar Allen Poe. She loves shows such as Supernatural, Doctor Who, and American Horror Story. Also, she thinks she may  have an addiction to green tea.

So let's find out a bit more...

Michelle, how long have you been writing?

I've been writing for about eight years.

Why did you start writing? And what makes you keep doing it?

I started writing in fourth grade when I was nine-years-old. I was in a four-five combo class, and the teacher assigned a writing project for the fifth graders when it was nearly Halloween. She decided to make us fourth graders do it as well, and I had so much fun with it. My story was called Don't Take What's Not Yours. It was a horror story with three characters in it. Spoiler alert: they all died. Since that moment, I realised I loved to write, and I continued to write after that.

Who is your least favourite character and why? If the character is one of yours, how hard is it to write a character you dislike? 

It's difficult for me to dislike a character I've created. I've fallen in love with every single one of my characters, even the most messed up and sadistic villains. However, there are two characters who I despise in my current project. Their names are Lars and Drew. They're only minor characters yet they managed to annoy me. I don't have a specific reason why I don't like them. Maybe I don't hate them, maybe I just haven't learned to love them yet. You probably think it's difficult for me to write them, but that's not true. I love to make them suffer.

What is the best snack to keep you going while you write?

The best snack for writing is grapes. They're tasty, low in calories, easy to eat, and they don't leave a mess. 

Do you have a day job (student?) or do you write full time? If you don't have a job, is being a writer full time your dream or do you have a job you'd love to do?

I don't have a day job since I'm still a high school student. In the future, I want to become a software engineer while being a writer on the side. Being a full time writer would be fun, but I love programming and computers, so I'd want to do something related to that in my life.

Do you have any unfinished stories that you are not currently working on? If so why have you shelved them and do you think they will be reanimated one day?

I have many stories I've started but never finished. I started my first novella when I was a 12 year old middle schooler. It was a dark fantasy/supernatural kind of story. When I started high school, I got bored of it, so I put it away to work on my novel, Society's Trial. I thought about abandoning that novella, but I changed the characters' names and rewrote the outline. Now I'm in love with it again. It's not a novella anymore. Now it's a novel, and it will be my second novel. Even though I fell back in love with it, I still won't work on it until I've landed an agent for Society's Trial. As for the other stories, I refuse to continue working on them because I'm not done living the world of Society's Trial.

What story are you writing right now? Tell us about the plot (no spoilers please)

I started writing my current story when I was 14. It's a third person omniscient YA psychological crime thriller titled Society's Trial which follows sixteen year old bookworm Jace Woods. After the bully, Claude, pulls a "prank" that went wrong, Jace gets rushed to the hospital, so he could get his injuries treated and get an MRI scan. The doctor notices a change in Jace's personality, so he leaves the room to retrieve the results of the MRI scan. Jace becomes impatient, so he leaves before the doctor can return. It turns out, certain areas of Jace's brain became "damaged." These areas will "turn off," causing poor judgement, empathy loss, and impulsivity then "turn back on" randomly. What this means is, if these areas turn off while he has a violent thought, his brain will be unable to stop him from acting upon that thought.

Can we buy any of your stories and if so where? If not is there anywhere we can read them? 

Unfortunately, Society's Trial isn't published yet, since I'm currently querying and seeking an agent. However, I occasionally post snippets on my Twitter (@Writer_By_Night) and sometimes on my Tumblr (midnight-writing-time.tumblr.com)

If you could travel to anywhere in the world right this minute where would you go?

If I could travel anywhere at this moment, I'd go to an empty field with a stack of books with me. I'd place a blanket on the ground, lie down, enjoy the silence, and read. I'd have the most peaceful day ever.

If you could have one super power what would it be?

Only one? That's a difficult question. I'd say the power to control time. The days go by so quick, I wish I can freeze time or slow it down.

Thanks to Michelle for answering my questions and letting you all into her thoughts. Do follow her on twitter and be there to watch a novel being born, and then you can say that you were there before she was famous.

As we don't have a book image to share, here is an image of almost midnight.

Thanks for reading.

The first Wordy Wednesday of 2019

I know I haven't blogged since hector was a pup, but fear not for I have a treat for you today.

No 2018 round up, no best bits of my year, no lists of funniest tweets or my most read blog posts, no; today for your enjoyment I have revisited a favourite person of mine, a friend and author...can you guess?

 Welcome back to the blog Ed! I had interviewed Edward Kendrick back in 2015 so it seemed like it was about time to have another chat and see what he's been up to.

Well Ed, what have you been up to since last we heard from you?

Good question (puts shiny apple on blogger’s table). Well, it’s been a funny old time really. In the three and a half years between interviews I’ve continued to write, do some self-publishing and generally tried to make things happen. I haven’t really chased agents in a long time and things have been difficult with work and deteriorating mental health problems, and that kind of thing tends to get in the way of word mining. Total bummer.

Still, I’ve somehow managed to release another four novels. A trilogy set in the soft toy afterlife about all kinds of serious things as well as fluff, stuffing and prat falls, and a near future sci fi sports biography type thing (you can see why agents are attacking my door with crowbars, desperate to get at my easy to sell goods). They are all pretty good, to be honest, but I would say that.

In addition to that I’ve written four more novels that are in various stages of development* Plus, I plan to self-publish two further novels in January 2019. The first is called ‘Self Portrait’ and is the third part in the Gita Askari sci-fi series and the second is a spoof spy/assassin novel titled ‘Diamond Double Black’. Art is all in place. Editing has been done, just the formatting and general mucking about to go.

*gathering dust in a draw/hard drive.

How Does family life affect your writing?

Well, it comes in different packages. It makes me want to write things that the kids would want to read as well as more mature readers and I hope it makes me care a bit about people in general, and so show some kindness through to the characters I want to write about. In reality I’m not sure how true that last bit is, but anyways…

In more practical, nuts and bolts terms, it makes writing very difficult. I have a physical job that can leave me physically and mentally drained. I get back and I want to spend time with the kids and my lovely wife. The writing takes a back stage. If I can get the computer on before 8 o clock then I have a chance of getting some words in that make sense, past that then the exercise starts to become futile as I can’t get passed the fatigue as I have no momentum to push through it.
I wouldn’t put the writing first, ever. My family are the important bit. This is a flight of fancy, promising invisible unicorns and whispered praise that could just be long delayed echo.

What books have you enjoyed reading in 2018?

Here is a tricky one. I’ve been very depressed this year and one of the things that does is remove my ability to concentrate for long periods of time. I’ve pushed my head up above water every now and then and managed to get a book in or a tv series I’ve enjoyed, but for the most part it’s been a fog.
Saying that, I read The Real Town Murders by Adam Roberts in January, which I really enjoyed and I’ve been reading A Christmas Carol out loud to my wife in bed. Obviously, we know the story off by heart already but still, it’s good to go back and read it. Still a bit weird that it doesn’t have the muppets in the book, but you can’t have everything.

What’s the best food to accompany writing?

This year? Fizzy strawberry laces. Hands down.

What’s one thing that stops you writing?

My mental health. If I’m not in a good place then I can still write, but not even I can type when at the bottom of the well.

If you could visit any country on Earth. Where would you go? (all expense paid)

I’ve never actually left the British Isles before, which I know is rare now, but it’s true. I’d love to go to lots of places on this wonderful globe but top shot would be Canada. I like the cold and the heat and I love the idea of all that space/northern lights/snow/north American continent stuff without visiting Trump’s America. Plus, I have one of my oldest buddies out there. In truth, I miss him far more than I’d ever tell him, and never contact him enough on Facebook. So, I would go there. (can I go for several weeks to a month, so I could do loads of stuff? Cheers!)

And what does a writer hope to get for Christmas?
That is a tough one. I normally have my eye on a film or two and some music, but really, that is something I’m pretty sure I’m going to get, so the mystery isn’t really there. To tell you the truth, I really like getting a gift that’s left of field. Every year my older friends gather together around Christmas and we hang for the day and have a laugh. This always involves gift giving. I normally give people handmade gifts. Weird calendars, odd posters, unconventional jigsaws, that kind of thing. They, in return, head to the internet to wow me with the very worst they can find.
I’ll just attach a picture, because a picture can say a thousand words….

Well, I think that's enough of that!

Thanks for popping back and I'll check out all the new reads.

You can follow Ed on twitter too where he squeezes out words almost every day.

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