Sandra Bond

#ScribesAndMakers July 15: Our next featured creator has made toys. Have you ever?

I was about to say "no" when I recalled that, as a very small child, with help from my mother, I used to draw faces on clothes pegs and make them into families. (Daddy had a moustache. Mummy didn't. Of such were gender norms made, in the days of my youth.)

#ScribesAndMakers 16 July: Our next featured creator is a baker. Describe a baked good you enjoy.

Really good freshly baked bread is an underrated pleasure.

#ScribesAndMakers 14 Jul: How objective do you feel you are when it comes to assessing your own work?

Better than I used to be. What happens follows a regular course; when I first write it I think it's wonderful, then for the next week or so I'm convinced it's shit, and finally I gain some kind of perspective and can tinker with it and edit as required.

#WordWeavers July 14: What is the most unusual or interesting word in your WIP's first sentence?

"Killed", I suppose.

#WritersCoffeeClub July 13: In what ways do you play with the limits of the genre in which you work?

Spec-fic only has limits if you pay attention to gatekeepers, and I make it a strict policy never to listen to gatekeepers.

Jesting apart, I am congenitally unable to avoid colouring outside the lines of genre. I was awfully flattered when a reader coined the term "sparkling slipstream" to describe my books. (Get busy with the fizzy! Sparkling slipstream!)

#ScribesAndMakers July 13: Has a bear ever featured in your work? If so, what sort of bear?

Martin the shapeshifter offers to turn himself into a giant teddy bear to comfort an exhausted and fraught Imogen in The Devil's Finger.

She declines.

#ScribesAndMakers 21 Jun: Our next featured creator works collaboratively with their partner, often working in worlds the other created. Do you create work based on the creations of others? (Eg. Pop art, fan art, fan fic, etc.) Why or why not?

I've written fanfic, and I need no more justification than that "I write what I want to write".

Three Men in Orbit is fanfic too, albeit professionally published; Jerome K. Jerome conveniently died long ago enough to be out of copyright...

#ScribesAndMakers 20 Jun: How difficult is it for you to receive criticism of your creative work?

If requested and constructive, it's all part of the creative process. It only really annoys me when it's ill-founded, like being chided for spelling my own character's name wrongly, or being assured that it is impossible to correct a mistake made with a typewriter. (To name two examples that really got my goat.)

#PennedPossibilities 1070: For characters with a significant other, how do they cope with being apart?

When J. and his (male) friends go off on their holiday in space, his wife Ethelbertha and her (female) friends rent a house on the coast and enjoy themselves.

#ScribesAndMakers 22 Jun: Have you ever worked collaboratively on a creative project? How did it go?

I was in a band. It was awesome. We were not accomplished musicians, nor did we achieve great success, but we had one helluva good time for a few years.

It was like being in a gang of cool kids, something I had never achieved at school (and which I'm pretty sure none of the others had either).

It also started a creative habit I have never kicked, and which ended with me becoming a novelist.

#WritersCoffeeClub July 16: What's a trope you'd like to see subverted?

All of them. ALL of them.

I make frequent references to TVTropes in order to avoid falling into common ruts.

If I must pick one, it's the fantasy cliche of The Chosen One.

#WritersCoffeeClub July 15: Do you read a lot outside of your comfort zone?

Not any more, to be frank. I barely have time to read inside it. As James Tiptree put it, few writers if any manage to read as often as they exhort others to.

#WritersCoffeeClub July 14: How do you escape your comfort zone, writing-wise?

Depending on how you define "comfort zone", either I'm always within it, or else I'm always pushing it. I myself tend to think the former; I'm far more at ease with the written word than with any other form of communication.

#WordWeavers June 23: What one object would make your MC’s life much easier?

Darroll would kill for a control panel to allow him to choose when, and where, to time travel.

Juniper, similarly, could really do with the user's manual for that magic harp.

#WordWeavers July 16: If your MC was a superhero, what would their symbol be?

Sad to relate, I am forced to go with the obvious and deem that the superhero symbol of Juniper, from Juniper's Harp, is a harp.

#WordWeavers 21 Jun: Does your current WIP’s MC arc feature positive, negative, or no growth?

Barbara's arc is predicated on survival rather than growth, though I suppose one could say she gains experience and thus grows as a result of her struggles to keep her head above water and not surrender to either Dr Hulvey's authoritarianism or Jeffrey Downdale's blandishments.

#PennedPossibilities 1071: What is something you wish existed in the real world that exists in your WIP?

Barbara's toy monkey is based on a toy monkey I had when I was a kid. Like all my stuffed toys, my father burnt it when I was a teen, saying I was too old for them.

#PennedPossibilities 1072: Is there a place in your world known for peace? Is it difficult to find?

Hewith's Grove is not difficult to find, but it is in a remote location.

#WordWeavers July 15: Does your antagonist have a line they won't cross? If so, why?

Ed Crowe won't betray a friend. He knows that if he can be trusted, they will give him that trust.

Eddie Drygalski won't break the law (but he is very good at knowing exactly how far he can push the law without breaking it).

Liam Baxter won't (knowingly) place himself at risk of physical harm. He learned the importance of this early in his career of celebrity gossipmonger, when he lost three teeth.

#WritersCoffeeClub June 21: What do you listen to while you write? (music, silence, a crowded café?)

Silence by preference. I love music, but -- perhaps because I love it -- it distracts me if I can hear it while writing.

I can write in a public space with a little conversation going on, if I must, but silence is better for my focus.

#WritersCoffeeClub 20 Jun: What of your immediate surroundings enter your work? The seasons, music, dreams?

All and none, depending entirely on the current needs of the story. More likely none, though. Part of the reason I write is to remove myself from my current location and thoughts.

#PennedPossibilities 1048 — MC POV: When was a time that you “buried the hatchet,” so to speak?

Darroll: "I managed to form a truce with Ed Crowe and his buddies. This wasn't because I actually wanted peace with them, though; it was to enable me to worm my way into their circle for... shall we say, my own private purposes."

#PennedPossibilities 1069 MC POV: Do you have an end point or destination in mind for your journey? What will you do after you’ve reached it?

Barbara: "I don't know what my ultimate destiny will be, or how I shall find it, but I know I won't get anywhere until I find a way out of this fucking clinic."

#PennedPossibilities 1049: Does your antagonist have everything they want? If not, how do they plan on accomplishing getting it?

It would be hard to portray a villain with everything they want, I think.

Ed Crowe and Liam Baxter want power; Ed gets it by violence, Liam by knowing things he's not meant to.

Eddie Drygalski always wants more money, and gets it through what Liam calls his "little wheels and little deals".

Alvin Tidmarsh is just discontent and seeks to make others discontent too.

#TimeTravelAuthors 15 July: Wednesday post-size snippet (optional word: fail/loss)

“Whatcha mean, Boardman?” asked Serxner.

“Well, road trips need planning,” pointed out Boardman. “They don’t just happen.”

“Eh? Of course they just happen. Spontaneity is part of the fun.”

“In your world, perhaps, Rowdy. If you fail to prepare, be prepared to fail.” Joe Boardman adopted that self-righteous expression of his, the look of a man who knows his opinion is the right one and be damned to anyone else.

#PennedPossibilities 1051. MC POV: What, if any, superstitions do you keep? Do you feel compelled to impose them on others?

Darroll: "When I change my socks or underpants, I stand on one side of my bedroom and try to throw them into my laundry basket without touching the sides. If I miss, I have to pick them up and drop them in using my toes. No hands.

I guess this came out of trying to get better at basketball.

Impose this silliness on others? Really? You serious?"

#WritersCoffeeClub June 23: How effectively do you convey tone in your writing?

I think I'm pretty good at it, but trying to prove it in a margin of this size is not feasible.

#WritersCoffeeClub 22 Jun: Walk us through how you build a story.

1) invent protagonist
2) invent situation for them to be in
3) figure out what they want, need, and aim for
4) come up with a supporting cast who will either help or hinder those goals
5) start writing
6) keep writing till the characters start to clamour to write themselves (usually around 20,000 words in)
7) finish book
8) revise book, especially those first 20k words
9) submit it as appropriate
10) sell it
11) publication! yay!

#WordWeavers June 22: How do you use buildings and architecture in your current story?

It takes place in a run-down NHS facility that was built in the 1960s and was already exhausted and dingy by the 1980s. This joyless setting colours (or perhaps I should say, leaches colours out of) most of the characters and the story.

#TimeTravelAuthors 13 July: A character's favourite colour.

Darroll likes orange, partly because it's a colour he thinks few other people, if any, would name as their favourite. As was mentioned a few prompts back, one particular orange t-shirt plays something of a role in his understanding of what's happened to him after his accident.

Just heard to my considerable surprise that BFS Horizons is taking, not one, but two of my poems. Gosh!

Normally my SFF poetry is much harder to place than my mainstream verse, so this is particularly welcome.

#writing #poetry

#TimeTravelAuthors 23 June: Do any characters use certain words/phrases/speech styles?

Joe Boardman repeats himself. ("I worry about you, Martock. I *worry* about you.")

Rowdy is slow-spoken and says "uh" a lot, a trait which makes it easier to think he's less intelligent than he is.

Darroll's mom speaks in cliches which she's picked up from television.

And Horsehead specialises in avoiding answering questions, by answering them with another question.

#PennedPossibilities 1050: Name a habit that your SC can’t seem to break.

Joe Boardman is a hopeless addict to his X-Box.

Vaendras can't stop making complex and dangerous plans, even though if one of them fails it will likely mean harm or death for him.

Chaz Singleton spends most of his book trying to stay on the wagon and away from drink and drugs, with varying levels of success.

#TimeTravelAuthors 21 Jun: Parents or mentors in your story?

Darroll's parents are divorced; his mom is a mere TV watching cipher, and his dad lives far away. Small wonder, perhaps, that he's so ready to accept Horsehead as a mentor and parent-substitute.

Other characters get along better with their parents; Vanessa, Joe and Chuck all have comparatively normal families. Beth's dad, the mortician, has a more strained relationship with her, and Rowdy's parents are farmers who work him hard.

#WordWeavers 13 July: To your MC’s love interest, what is the most admirable thing about the MC?

Vanessa: "Darroll isn't scared to be different, to be himself."

Martin: "Imogen never gives up even when everything's turning against her. And she isn't even fighting this battle for herself. She's fighting it for Jemima... and me."

Ethelbertha: "J. is not handsome, but he can be charming, and he makes me laugh. Also, he makes many other people laugh, and they buy his books as a consequence."

Book Quote Wednesday rolls around like a wheel once more, and the prompt word is "change".

Here, from The Psychopath Club, Casey explains to Darroll how Todd Krank -- formerly Mike Rugeley -- got to be the person he now is.

#BookQW