Tag: writing a novel

Writing a novel – the reading list

~ Sean Monaghan ~ Leave a comment

I’ve just done a couple posts on the music that sustained and motivated me through drafting the novel. There were also a bunch of books I read that in their own ways helped sustain and motivate me. I won’t list everything – just the stuff that has really propelled me. While the novel is a science fiction technothriller (not to pigeonhole it or anything), I tend to read outside the genre, though in the process of writing I have read a bit more sci-fi than usual.

Modern Ranch Living by Mark Poirier. This has been around for a while – I first read it years ago and came back since it’s so good. Poirier’s style is laid-back and laconic and his characters rich and hilarious and his descriptions of the Arizona landscape are so real and invigourating that I’m just swept up in the book, before even getting to the complexities of the plot and the craftsmanship of the writing. I love writing about the southwest and have even set some of my own stories there – Eddie’s on Fire and Breathe In (okay, that was a shameless plug – last one I’ll do here, I’ll stick to the reading list).

Mars Life by Ben Bova. I enjoy Bova’s books from time to time, though I sometimes wish there was a little more depth. His plotting and characters are great, the ideas (I really like the nano-suits the Mars explorers wear – ultrathin so no bulky clunky stuff to haul around) and the feel for the environments he creates.

Sun of Suns, Queen of Candesce and Pirate Sun by Karl Schroeder. The first three books in the Virga series – the fourth is out already. Schroeder’s “playground” is an astonishing world – a 5000km diameter (I guess that’s 3000 miles) air-filled balloon, orbitting Vega, populated with drifting cities and artificial suns. While the technology that’s created Virga is hyper-advanced, the civilisation within is more steampunk or dieselpunk – jet-propelled wooden ships, wheeled cities and the like. A delicious milieu.

The Six Sacred Stones by Matthew Reilly. Pace, pace and more pace. If you want to learn how to just keep the action going, Reilly is a great example. There are things that bother me about his writing (sound effects, for one), but it’s kind of like a rocket sled ride as much as anything else. This is theme-park ride literature, pure fun and sometimes we just need some fun.

Okay, enough for now. I’ll do another post soon.

btw – if you want to know what the novel I’m writing is about, you can get a sense of it from the original flash fiction “The Rotated” here on Infinite Windows. The novel is based on the story, same characters, same situation and so on.

Writing a novel – the soundtrack, part one

~ Sean Monaghan ~ 2 Comments

Some writers write with children and dogs clambering and slobbering over them while the television blares and the elevated train blasts by the window every eight minutes and the neighbours down below argue about fishing trips and meter money. Others write in silence. I’m closer to the latter, but I do have music on pretty much always as I write. Sometimes it’s very mellow, other times a little more edgy. Here’s a selection of music which has sustained me through the task of drafting my novel.

Woob 1194 – a seminal ambient album that I’m lucky enough to actually own a copy of. Paul Frankland, the artist, has recently made the album, and some other tracks available again through bandcamp. Also listened to other em:t releases like Woob 4495, Gas 0095 and Undark 3396, as well some of the compilations.

S.E.T.I. – The Geometry of Night. This extraordinary album is somewhere between ambient and dance and science fiction. Some of the most startling rhythm patterns I’ve ever enjoyed. This is hard to find on CD, but it looks like he’s made it available on bandcamptoo.

Taylor Deupree – Northern. Taylor was part of the other S.E.T.I., not to be confused with the above (even though some sites do). Northern is minimal music, but as rich and full as can be, almost ambient but not quite. The original pressing (which I have) sold out, but Taylor did a re-issue which was a kind of re-visioning – reloading the original files with missing plug-ins so the sound is different, though I haven’t heard the new version.

Pitch Boys – O.S.T.. One of many remarkable releases on the Test Tube Netlabel (full disclosure, the Venus Vulture album Stick With Me Giselle, Things Can Only Get Better was released on Test Tube last year). O.S.T. is an hour-plus excursion into new realms.

Next post – rock.