The Liebster Award

Well, I have received an award!
Thank you, Leslie, at the Upstream Writer , for nominating me!  (blush!)
< http://upstreamwriter.blogspot.ca/2015/05/blogroll-liebster-award-tag.html?spref=fb >

Okay, so the rules are fairly simple:

 

1) Thank and link back to the person who nominated you. (That would be me!)

2) List 11 Facts About Yourself

3) Answer the 11 questions asked by the blogger who nominated you.

4) Nominate 9 bloggers who have fewer than 200 followers (and you can't nominate the blogger who nominated you, so I can't be one of those nine)

 

5) Ask them 11 questions (you'll find these down below)

6) Let them know about the nomination. (And this is important! I found out my own nomination quite by accident... Trust me, I've made sure it doesn't happen to the people I nominated!)

This is so perfect because I've not followed a lot of blogs over the last year, (sorry!) and so this is the PERFECT way for me to get some conversation and feedback going! 

Ready? Here we go!

Part 1: 11 Facts About Me

1. If you could be a character in any one of the worlds you've created for your books--like take over an existing character, or be your own kind of character--which world would it be and what character would you be?

·         Well, at my age, I guess that I could take over the role of Uncle Saul Rallence, retired member of the Topaz Realm Council and (quietly) captain of the Radiant Knights from a generation ago.   He is the quintessential user of the yellow topaz powers in his generation, and a critical member of the “Network” – a secret, loosely connected grouping of people that are trying to hinder the advance of the “Enemy”…who is inexorably advancing.

2. What's one item on your Bucket List?

·         Well, one item that stands out is to do a pub-crawl through the British Isles.

3. What is your favorite genre to read?

·         I am a sucker for well-written Sci-Fi/Fantasy, with a penchant for YA and Middle Grade work.

4. What is one of the stories you have started/written? (just the title and one paragraph description)

·         My debut novel is titled “The Boy Named Topaz”.   It is the tale of Toivo, a boy growing up in the Topaz Realm, the Shining world where people all possess the power to interact with and control Light itself to some degree….everyone except him.  He is “skin-blind” – a serious disability there – as well as being terribly clumsy and out of focus.  And he can see things like no one else can.  Sometimes those things are quite dark, and sometimes they look back at him.

5. What is your most prized possession?

·         This would be a toss-up between:  1) my cello, which I’m told I can play fairly well, and 2) my two schlager fencing swords, which I have been using for (gulp!) decades now.

6. What's your favorite vacation spot?

·         I would have to say Florida, though NYC is up there too.

7. How would you describe your blog?

·         The BlogSpot one is an exploration into the creative process that trammels through my brain, as well as a sketch book and sounding board.   

·         The Facebook Author’s page is where I am sharing insights and imagery from the story.  It is also a

 

8. If you could give one piece of advice, using only six words, what would it be?

·         Know That You Are The Stronger!

 

9. What is the craziest/nerdiest/geekiest thing you've ever done? (pick one superlative)

·         Hrm…this is a hard one…  I would say that the craziest thing I ever did was back in my Camp Counsellor days.  I was part of a “commando” team that stole back a 600-pound bronze bell from a rival summer camp.  Nearly herniated m’self…nearly got caught….nearly got arrested.   Heady days, to be sure.

 

10. If you had a week (but only a week) to travel anywhere in the world and do whatever you liked, where would you go and what would you do?

·         I would hop a plane and get m’self to Australia / New Zealand.  There are opal mines there, as well as some of the most amazing landscapes on the planet.  (Live in Canada, so I have few nice views here too…but those “LOtR” settings…sigh…)

11. If you could meet anybody, past or present, for coffee or drinks, who would it be?

·         Pentatonix…or perhaps Rick Riordan

 

Part 3: Nominations!Whew! I made it! Now that that's over, \

Now, I become nervous.  I must confess that I have not made a habit of reading the blogs of other authors, really.  Clearly that is in the midst of changing, but I will have to make a big pus                                                              

 

 

Book 2

Greetings to the world.

I've been away from my blog for far too long.  Sorry 'bout that.
I'm back now and I have some catching up to do, clearly.

First of all, "The Boy Named Topaz" is alive and well and sitting on the Amazon lists. 

I have had a book signing at my local Indigo / Chapters, sold and signed many copies.  That was a dizzying, heady time, let me tell you. 

I have attended the Ad Astra 2015 Sci-Fi Convention in Toronto.  Another first for me.  That was a marvelous time.  I got a chance to meet other authors, attended panels on topics pertinent to my craft here.  First time that I was known as an author first.  That was a marvelous feeling too.

Now I am chugging away on the sketching phase for Book 2.  The element that I need this book to reveal are fairly clear, but there are gaps between the conception and the implementation.  My first book was a grand voyage of discovery of the process that a writer uses to pull together such a volume of words.  The Crafting of the bigger story, and how it links to the bigger story that I can see in m'head. 
My overall Story Arc is set in my head.  Each of the episodes in it are fairly fixed as to when they occur.  The problem with being a non-linear thinker is that I can see the final battle clearly in my head, and elements of books 3, 4 and 5....when I need to be focusing on 2.
Sigh.
Naught to be done about it.  My Muse likes leading me through music-induced mazes made up of crystal-clear clips from bigger mental vids.

Feel free to find me on Facebook or Twitter. 

TTFN

Fate Favour You

Jeff

And, in the end...

Hello folks.
Well, we have reached the goal.  My novel, "The Boy Named Topaz" is launched and live on Amazon!
Thank you all for the questions and comments over the years.  I really appreciate the feedback that was posted.
As a promotional deal, if you download the book between August 24-28, 2014, then it will be free! 

Enjoy, folks.  Work on the next book is underway.  Expect new postings soon.

Jeff.
xxoo

http://www.amazon.ca/Named-Topaz-Opalstar-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B00MV6IF8K/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=undefined&sr=1-1&keywords=gartshore

New networking

Hey folks.
Update for ya.
I now have a fully formatted version of my manuscript, which is now called "A Boy Named Topaz".   I got the template from the Createspace website connected with Amazon Direct-to-Kindle service. Was quite an effort, given that when I went from one medium to the other, all the quotation marks became capital A's and &'s. Still proof reading and processing it, but not far off.
I will like upload it to Amazon, and see where that takes me.
I have posted the prologue on a page here. Feel free to peruse it, at your leisure.

TTFN

Jeff Gartshore 

Interesting possibility

Hello there, everyone.
Yes, it has been a long time since I wrote last.  I've been focused as much as possible on my teaching career right now, and this project is on hold - which means that I've been processing things subconsciously, of course.

1)     Concept....I think that Ebbella is actually TWINS!  Ebba, the true Clear topaz sister, and Ella, whom the Heart of Light has gifted differently.   Ella is a extremely rare Pink topaz!  (in RL, pink topazes ARE that rare.  Their crystals are usually so tiny that they are useless for jewelry.  When you do find one large enough to polish and mount, it is quite valuable.  Therefore in the stories, Ella has a variant of the Clear topaz powers.  Haven't worked the details out on that one yet, but I'm sure it will bubble to the surface when I'm least expecting it.
She and her sister are identical, and in the Hidden villages, when you are "gemin", there is a strong tradition of twins trading places continuously.  It means that they both have the same knowledge as each other.
How would they be able to do this?  Heh heh heh.   This one jumped out at me.  They see things that are invisible to most people, even in the Realm of Light.  They would be able to see the tiny EM emissions that are distinctive to different gem-types (which resembles opalsight, which sees every hidden thing, and the Peridot's sense about what Power an individual has.)   That means that, like the Opals, they can see the Hidden Pathways between the Realms. . . . secret trans-dimensional worm-holes that criss-cross the universe in every which way.  The Clear topazes use them to appear and disappear in secret.    Hence, Ebba and Ella are BOTH in the Squad with Elpis.
(I figure one of them has a deep abiding crush on Elpis, too.  ;-)

This little tidbit will not be surfacing in the stories until Elpis reaches the Diamond Realm during his Academy Journey, which is quite a ways off, given that the first book is still being chewed on here.    I just keep filing these little connections away, and eventually they will be able to be woven together.

Thanks for following my ramble.
TTFN

Jeff

p.s. This post resembles one posted a while ago, where the idea of Pink topaz surfaced.  This thought was developed a little further than the last one, imho.

Ebbella, a mystery girl

Greetings all.
Into the school year now, and my workload is heavy but manageable.
I have been processing thoughts on the least defined of the characters in Toivo's little squad:  Ebbella, the girl from the Hidden Villages.  She is a Clear topaz, and as such, her range of the Spectrum is up above the Visible, into the ultraviolet and above.
I have been treating her char as that quiet girl who is sitting on the side of the room, silently reading a book or some such...but when you look again, you can see  that she is gazing intensely at you, her eyes full of questions.
I had originally based her appearance on one of the girls that I was teaching many years ago, but then I saw a face in a National Geographic article about the Sami people....and then, like a splash in the face, I was looking at Ebbella.  Triggered all sorts of side-thoughts:

Jeff

Still here, and chugging subconsciously

Hello all.
Yes, August is here and soon we teachers will be grinding out our plans for the new school year.  The re-drafting of the manuscript is still on the back burner at the mo', but that is not to say that the brain is mush.  In the process of getting my head organized, that durned creative spark just keeps making connections...
Ebbella, understated girl in Elpis' squad...member of the secretive clear topaz region.   I got to thinking about her the other day.  I already see her as clear as day in my head, but her region to is NOT visited while Elpis is a boy. The reason for that hit me whilst wandering around in the rocks and minerals section of the Royal Ontario Museum, in Toronto.  There is no possible way that Elpis would have been sent to visit there: the mineral opal glows when exposed to ultraviolet light, which is the range of the topaz Spectrum that the clears command.  His opal powers would have been lit up like a beacon, and that would have been the end of one of the shorter-lived plot lines in all of literature.
Heh, I am beginning to think that she is unique in her tribe too...because I have envisioned a moment when she has to use her powers at full adept level, and it is revealed that she is a PINK topaz...rarest format of the gem.  ( true fact that...pink topazes are usually so small as to be useless.  Get one big enough to facet and mount and you have a truly valuable jewel.)

We shall see if that can be woven into the tale when I get to that end of the narrative.

Take care.

draft #7

Hey all.
Have't posted in a while, but I've returned to my job as an elementary school French and Music Teacher, so I've been 'Real-World' occupied.    That's the way of things.

Just a note to say that the most completed Draft I have generated, #6, is nice and all . . . but I find that I am able to conceive of how to modify the story to make the narrative more immediate.  Draft #7 is my attempt to bring the tale of Elpis and his friends into a format that is more gripping.  I must say that I have been guilty of wanting to reveal my wonderful fantasy world as fast as I could.  I'm a first-time author, what can I say?  Well, having read "The Lost Gate", by Orson Scott Card, and "The Hunger Games" since I last blogged has shown me that my chronicle-style narrative, hopping from moment to moment through Elpis' young life, is less immediate than I am wanting. 
Therefore, I am now able to conceive of how to delay the revalation of him being from Opal until well into the story....the strangeness of his powers is a mystery to him and to the reader, and they discover it together.  Uncle Saul's secretive meetings and mysterious connections will still be there, but the reader won't have the answer to SOME of the questions until graduation day, and those will help move Elpis / Topaz towards the right questions that he has to ask to get the answers that he needs.

(Confession:  It is a very exciting thing for me to actually be able to conceive of this level of reformatting.  The sheer size of this task is not as daunting as it might of been, at some earlier part of my life.  Not sure why, but not complaining either.  This manuscript WILL be ready.  It might have to be middle of August now, but Focus is no longer the Foe that it used to be.)

TTFN

Jeff

The Author's voice

I'm pondering, of late, how one goes about finding one's voice, as an author.  To all you still in school, that is part of your Language Arts learning.  (I know it is.  I have read the Curriculum documents.  Heh.)

Here's a couple of good links that speak to the idea of "voice":

http://www.write4kids.com/feature3.html

http://fictionwriting.about.com/od/glossary/g/voice.htm

It bears thinking.  The concept of "voice", as it applies to the stories that you write, is one that you learn as you go.  The more you write, the more you learn about your own writing process, the more you learn what your voice feels like when it is present on the page.

I feel that many of my chapters do have elements of voice to them.  They are inconsistent, though.  I'm learning how to recognize this sort of thing as I go here.  I do not relish the thought of a total re-write on this manuscript, but I'm thinking that some kind of process like it will be the only way that I can get all the styles to line up better. 
I know that I need to find a better literary vehicle to drive the plot given that the chapters jump forward through Topaz's life, sometimes 3 or 4 years at a time.  As I have it now, there's not a through line yet.  The chapters are episodic.
Maybe I need to treat this as a series of short stories.  Hrm... limiting, perhaps, but it is a way to address the discontinuity. 
Saul is probably going to have to be the through line, then, since he's the constant in Topaz's ever-changing life.  The story is about Topaz growing up, but the central character could be Saul?  NO.  That's too much of a change. 
More research is needed here.  I will finish the adjustments that I'm making right now, but these topics need to be addressed. 

I have a goal now....several actually.  Good.  One needs goals in one's life.

Pre-chapter blurbs

When you read stories, sometimes it's the little extra bits that add depth to a created world.  This is an interesting side task.  I'm finding that this little tidbit is a neat challenge...a chance to set the tone for the chapter, maybe even a key to understanding what is to follow.

Here are a few examples:
************************************************************
In Dream, we visit our other selves
so that we remember what we learned
when we were them.
      One of the Pearl Realm Mysteries

************************************************************
Everything grows
when you know how to nourish it.
     Saying from the Emerald Realm

************************************************************
“But, sirrah, you are but one. How will you survive battling so many?”

“Majesty, I am but one, but if I bear your favor, then I shall be many times more than myself.”
     from “The Peridot Queen and the Opal Knight”, a children’s tale.

************************************************************

TTFN
J.A.Gartshore

Thoughts about the process

Hello everyone.
I've read this tidbit in various resources, and once again it makes sense for me.
Read.  Read voraciously.  Absorb stories and sentences and cool turns of phrase into your brain from it all.  This is the bank of words that you use when you create your own stories.
Having recently finished "The Lost Gate," by Orson Scott Card, I was reminded of this...by the simple fact that the man can assemble words together in a truly masterful way.  His prose is very easy for me to absorb. 

Choose your favorite author, re-read a book of his/hers, then go and write something.  It's how you grow.  After all, you are the one who knows your story first . . . the trick is making it so that others can know it too.

J.A. Gartshore

AHHH! A new direction of effort...again!

I love my wife more and more, ya know that. She sees with different eyes, and not the filled eyes I have from looking at the depths of this story for as long as I have. She is truly my peridot...she comes to me and I am empowered by her.


Thanks to her, I am beginning to see that my current manuscript is, in fact, the first two books of my series, schmucked together. Therefore, I'm beginning to look at filling out the first part of the story, up to Topaz's graduation...treating that event as the climax. The adept stories that happen in the second half will certainly be kept, but interspurced with Academy elements.



Back to the drawing board....
 
...this means that all the sensory descriptions that I glossed over can now be expanded to a much greater extent.
...the interactions can be broadened.
...the emotional reactions to things can be revealed more thoroughly
...the Topaz Realm can be explored even more.
 
This burst of revisionist thinking is actually coming from two sources.  The first is my wife's suggestions, of course.  The second comes from having almost inhaled a new book by Orson Scott Card, called "The Lost Gate."   Greatjumpingsquashnibbletsonaflamingkabobstick!   THAT MAN IS A MASTERFUL WORD-SMITH!!!!  It's not my concept, thank goodness, but it does explore a magic system that is fresh and that breathes life into aspects of human history like nothing I've read in ages!  
 

 
Read his stuff.  Now.  Right now.  Find this book, or "Ender's Game" and subsequent books, or anything by the man, and read.  He's that good.  'Nuff said.
 
J.A.Gartshore
 
p.s.  New life is breathed into my stories here, with the need to further expand.  It's exciting, and infuriating, all at the same time. 

A fresh crew...welcome

If you are new to my blog, I bid you welcome. 

Just so that I can get a sense of who you all are, could you please....


1)     Introduce yourself
2)     Mention what month / gem you are



If you want to tell me a bit about yourself, you are welcome to.  This is a blog that I'm using as a thinking space for the stories.  There are many concepts here that I'm exploring for stories that happen later on in the Arc. 

I will answer, if I can, answer any questions you would like to ask me.

I really appreciate your interest, and I look forward to your reactions as you move forward in the reading of my work.



Fate Favor You.



Jeffrey A. Gartshore.

The Process and the Learning

The more I revise-retool the manuscript, the more I'm appreciating my reader-helpers, specifically my amazing-brilliant-so-much-smarter-than-I wife.  As a lawyer, she sees things that I don't, language-wise.  Every point of weakness or linguistic ambiguity that she points out is like a wonderful little flash of light that helps me learn more and more each time. 
Ah, I'm going to be learning things about how to be an author for the next 70 years, I sure of it!

Proof-reading...amazing what you find.

I've made a new, current physical working copy of the manuscript. Intersting. I'm finding many loose ends that I had thought dealt with hiding here and there.  So, after tightening all the time references, I've started another round of proof-reading/editting. The physical copy seems to be easier to see, for me. (Heck, the first sketches I wrote were drafted with a fountain pen. I guess I'm just a visual thinker. Surprise? Nope.)


Hope I can get this set of corrections finished in a timely fashon. Ya never know...a literary agent might nibble. Heh.

Cultural links

Had this interesting thought the other day:
Ruby = Spartans
Sapphires = Samurai

Both warrior cultures, very different focus and spin. 
Leads me to find other cultural links between my Realms and the real world.

Garnet = pre-Revolution Russia, right before the change
Diamond = Finns (stoicism)
Peridot = Canada (+USA?  Possibly...)
Amethyst = Beijing?  Hong Kong? (a la Blade Runner)
Topaz = California?  (That's a whole culture right there...)
Aquamarine = Carribbean. (with enough PotC , of course, Yo ho!)
Emerald = The steamy jungles of the Amazonian Basin?
Pearl = Australian Outback (the aboriginal peoples there refer to the "DreamTime" culturally.  Research cue!)
Opal = The irish / scottish celtic cultures...with a serious dose of gypsy nomadicism!
Turquoise = Switzerland?  (Neutral, Make great timepieces)

Always interesting, this exploration of the possible links that can be called upon.  Now to keep the brain focused enough to make use of that in the tales...

And the next step begins

Hello all.
I have now completed my manuscript.  It is essentially done.  (I reserve the right to polish it here and there, but the bulk of it is as it will be)
I have sent out 5 query letters to various literary agents.  I have about 100 more on my list.  This is the longish part.  *(Literary Agent is a person who knows a whole lot more about the publishing industry than I do, who agrees to try and sell your manuscript to different publishers for you.  They know the latest trends, what different publishers are looking for, and have contacts within the publishing community.  They are usually payed by taking 15% of whatever money comes to you.  i.e. if they think your work is a masterpiece...the next "Lord of the Rings", they will move Heaven and Earth to get the right publisher printing it, since 15% of your profits from royalties and advances goes to them.)

This is a time consuming process, but I figure that I'll just keep plugging away until someone nibbles.  Some of them want just a query letter (which introduces you and your work to them in an interesting way).  Some want up to the first 3 chapters.  Many will accept email submission of query letters.  .... the list of things I'm learning goes on and on.

Heh.  At least it's possible to take this step now..

TTFN

Jeff

the process

Got chapter 7 re-tooled now.  Chewing on 8.  I've lost some momentum with the self-editting task, but I chug away at it still.  Real-life tends to be distracting....gets in the way of this mild, self-induced obsession that I'm using here.  So be it.

I'm going to be adding Historical references to the beginning of each chapter, in such a way as to show the larger universe that my stories come from.   Thank you, Kristen.  That wife of mine is still one of my strongest idea-banks.  xxoo

The Re-tooling of Manuscript draft #4...

Update:  Got a draft of the entire manuscript now.  The self-editting process is my current challenge now.

As of right now, I've got Ch. 2 re-worked. Heh. I thing I'm picking up speed here. Now, I use the momentum to finish retooling by the end of this week, then....then I send out my first query letter to a literary agent, with samples of my work.

More news, as it filters down.

Jeff

more imagery from the story arc

At this point, I'm thinking that each world that Topaz visits on his Journey will get its primary inspiration from a particular song.

Opal:  Bring Me to Life,  by Evanescence

Sapphire:  Shut Up and Drive, by Rihanna
                Ordinary Day, by Great Big Sea
                Downeaster Alexa, by Billy Joel
                St. Elmo's Fire, by John Parr

Peridot:    Almost, from the movie Enchanted
               The Cup of Life, by Ricky Martin
               American Wake (The Nova Scotia set),  from Riverdance

Ruby:     Awake,  by Godsmack
             Return of the King, from the sountrack to the movie 300

Pearl:     Serenity, by Godsmack
             Moonlight Desires, by Gowan

Emerald:   Welcome to the Jungle, by Guns 'n Roses

Diamond:  ?

Aquamarine:    Pirates of the Carabbean, (nuff said)

Amethyst:   Take On Me, by A-Ha.

Garnet:     That Don't Impress Me Much, by Shania Twain

Turquoise:  Circle Game,  by Joni Mitchel

Topaz:     Wanted Dead or Alive, by Bon Jovi
               Firework, by Katy Perry

Now that I've captured this list, and can actually see it with my eyes, I understand why some of the story elements that I've imagined are not all that clear for me.  I need to get some powerful, image-ful songs in my head for Diamond, that's for sure.  We'll see.  This is a side thought for me, of course.  Still chugging away at the first one here. 
Morgan, the daughgter of a friend of the family, read the first few chapters, and liked 'em.  Being 13, she's the target audience.  Yay for me...I'm writting in a way that is accessible for the adolescent mind, so far.  Now to keep it up.

TTFN

Jeff