Monthly Archives: December 2010

Sapphique Winners

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Everyone, thank you so much for stopping by and making Catherine feel welcome! (As usual, I broke my comment policy and left the entry comments unanswered.)

I drew two names awhile back, then got totally bogged down with all the holiday stuff I wasn’t doing while I was busy racing around to hit my Book 2 deadline, so apologies for the delay! The winners of the finished copies are:

Elizabeth Mize

and

You’ll both be hearing from me shortly so I can get your mailing addresses.

To everyone, thanks for making the final Breathless Reads week a big success, and happy holidays!

Interview With Catherine Fisher

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Now, for the interview portion of Breathless Reads week!

If you spend much time around this blog, you probably already know how the contest works: all you have to do is comment here and you’ll be entered to win a finished copy of Sapphique. On Sunday, after 8:00pm Eastern, I’ll draw two names—one from the comments on this post, and one from Wednesday’s post—and announce the winners next week. Quick reminder: if you don’t have a livejournal, be sure to include a name and your email address and also, the contest is US-only.

Today I’m interviewing Catherine Fisher, who gives us some really wonderful thoughts on imagination, craft, and finding inspiration in all kinds of places.

1) Are there any scenes in Sapphique that you’re especially pleased with, and can you talk about them without sharing too much?

Hi Brenna and thanks very much for your questions. There are a few scenes involving Jared which I really enjoyed writing, especially the one where the Queen attempts to blackmail him (Can’t say too much here).  I loved writing her exquisitely polite and utterly ruthless character. Also there’s a fight between Keiro and a certain monstrous chain-gang which was fun, though action is always tricky.

2) I know that some authors don’t like to read while they’re drafting, but I find it essential. Do you read while you write, and if so, is it similar to what you write, or entirely different?

Like you I have to read. I’m always reading at least two different things. But if I’m working on a book I tend to read things that are totally different- crime novels, or literary fiction. No YA and probably not much fantasy, unless it’s classic stuff like HG Wells. I also read a lot of history and archaeology books, and things on myth and legend. I always have a backlog!

3) Was there any particular inspiration for the world of Incarceron and Sapphique?

The inspiration came from many things, but certainly Piranesi’s designs for Imaginary Prisons. Huge empty halls, hanging with chains and torture chambers. I think they must be behind a lot of Western fantasy and imaginative literature. Maybe he was the first fantasy artist.

4) The world you’ve created is filled with wonderful details and is incredibly visual. Did you see any of your scenes in your head before you started?

Thanks very much. I like descriptions to be really vivid and tactile; I feel it helps the reader to live in that world, and the stranger the world the more real it needs to feel. I don’t visualize anything beforehand though; the details come as I write, or are sometimes added in later, when I understand where the scene is and what it’s about. I don’t know if it’s true for you, but I find the plotting harder than the descriptions.

5) A lot of the readers who stop by my blog are also writers and I know they would love to hear any wisdom you care to share. Do you have a particular piece of advice for writers?

My only advice is read, write what you want to, and don’t give up. Take advice, but don’t always follow it. Read your stuff aloud. Be bold, take risks. Craft the book as if it was a piece of carving- the reader will only see what you show them. Above all, don’t think you have to know everything in the story at the start- I never do. Just begin, and see where it leads you. Amazing places, very often.

Thanks for stopping by and giving us such great answers, Catherine!

Thanks again Brenna, and I very much enjoyed The Replacement!

Guest Post by Catherine Fisher (Plus Giveaway*)

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It all might have been so different.

Writing a novel is a strange process. It’s a sort of self-induced hypnotism- getting your mind into a daydream state where you can tap into all those ideas and images we all have already stored up somewhere in there. I usually start at the beginning of the story and work through it, but events can  change radically as I go along, so I often have to go back and revamp  earlier sections. The worst dilemmas occur at places in the story where  several equally interesting but different things might happen. Only one can be chosen, and so the other options are  ghosts of stories. Echoes and shadows. As I  go on they fade away, and the book becomes slowly more solid. The whole process of writing and rewriting and editing takes about a year. By the end, I’ve forgotten all the doubts and vagueness of the beginning, and most of the indecisions and worry. Like the reader, I tend to think this is how it was always going to happen.

So it’s fascinating to be reminded how far changes can go. The other day I came across one of my notebooks (I have lots!) with early notes on what would eventually become Incarceron. I had thought the Prison’s name was there from the start, but no, here was a list of scribbled titles. /Captivia? Incarcerax?/ Lots of irritated variations on/ jail/, and /wing/, and /chain/.

Then, who was the prisoner? My notes suggest things. /Girl inside/ boy outside?/ I do remember that was my first idea, that the one trying to escape would be a girl, and the one Outside, the privileged one, would be the boy. Obviously it didn’t work, because a few pages later there’s a sentence in large underlined letters.  SHE IS THE WARDENS DAUGHTER!! That was a big decision, and totally changed the shape of the book.

Finn was sometimes called Giles. Claudia was always called Claudia. Her tutor, Jared, also always had that name, but he was meant to be a very minor character. That soon changed. And the Warden, Claudia’s father, became, as soon as he stepped out of his carriage, far more interesting and challenging than I had expected.

I suppose my point is that stories are not fixed until the last word is written. They are not inexorable. There might have been, very easily, a novel called Incarcerax about an imprisoned girl which would have turned out wholly differently.

Maybe better, maybe worse.

Maybe somewhere, in some other dimension, you are reading it.

*Brenna here—Thanks for the wonderful post, Catherine! I relate to this so much. I have countless notebooks full of directions that stories never went in—but could have!

Once again, I have two finished copies of Sapphique to give away. All you have to do is comment (make sure to include an email address if you don’t have an lj account) and you’ll be entered to win a copy of Sapphique. You’ll also have a chance on Friday, when I post my interview with Catherine, so stop by and comment on Friday too, if you want to increase your odds!

Sapphique

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Well, it’s December, and we’ve come to the final installment in the Breathless Reads blog tour. Where did the year go?!

Today begins our week with Catherine Fisher, author of Sapphique, which comes out December 28th from Penguin Young Readers.

On Wednesday, Catherine will share a really lovely guest post about the writing process, and as usual, Friday will be interview day, but for now, I’m going to do my best to tell you a little bit about the book.

sapphique cover

Sapphique is the highly-anticipated sequel to a little book called Incarceron—you may have heard of it? It’s a New York Times Bestseller and the news was recently announced that it’s going to be a feature film, and will star Taylor Lautner in the role of Finn. THE Taylor Lautner, you may ask? Why yes, I answer, The Taylor Lautner.

For those who haven’t read Incarceron, I apologize because this is going to be a little spoilery by necessity. Or, a lot. So, if you don’t want it spoiled, stop . . . reading . . . right . . . NOW. Mainly, Sapphique begins several months after Finn has escaped from the living prison Incarceron, leaving his friends behind. (See, I told you?)

Now on the outside, Finn is faced with a new and oppressive world in which he is a lost prince, subject to the machinations of the Queen, when all he really cares about is rescuing his comrades. Meanwhile, back in Incarceron, Attia and Keiro are determined to find their own way out. And then there’s Incarceron itself. The vast living prison craves freedom from itself and is spurred on by the legendary escape of Sapphique—the only prisoner it ever loved. Sapphique is a strange, beautiful, sweeping book with no easy answers and a story that explores what being free really means.

I hope you’ll check back Wednesday—I’ll be sharing Catherine’s guest post and you’ll have the chance to win a copy of Sapphique!

Coming up for Air

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Once again . . . say it with me, people: I Am Not Dead.

But, I’m still hacking my way through a massive final edit on The Demon Book (which actually has a lovely title, by the way—I’m just not allowed to share it yet).

The manuscript is due the middle of next week, and when I say that for the last month, my life has involved little else, I’m not exaggerating (you can ask D—lately, his household tasks have come to include carrying my empty energy drink cans out to the recycling and occasionally reminding me, with the utmost tact, to brush my hair).

However, I did want to let you know that next week, I’ll be featuring Catherine Fisher, author of the bestselling YA fantasy Incarceron, and its upcoming sequel, Sapphique. As usual, there will be prizes.

And now, in lieu of actual content, I will leave you with a link to this post I wrote three years ago about the madness that is my revising method. My publishing circumstances may have changed, but I promise, Revision Girl has not.