Gothic Faery Tales

For the Darker Side of Faery Tales

Novel in Progress: The Golden Stair

Photo of Blarney Castle: Teresa Mucha

In October of 2006, an idea for a novel based on the Grimm’s Fairy Tales of Rapunzel came to me. With the help of Karen Weisner’s excellent book: First Draft in 30 Days. I did just that — I wrote a first draft of 55,000 words in 30 days. It is only a coincidence that November happens to be Write a Novel in 30 Days Month. I must have caught the vibe!

The story came together shortly after I returned from London where I had lived for 9 years. While living there, I came in contact with many dark forces, not only of the human, but of the supernatural variety. I am a natural clairvoyant so seeing the Unseen is quite commonplace for me. It’s why I write “fantasy” — because I am always in touch with what is behind the things we think of as real.

I had many friends in London who were card carrying Goths. England is a very Gothic country: gloomy, full of ancient architecture, a long history of human darkness in contrast to incredible brilliance; let alone that it is the land of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The list can go on forever.

One of the most creepy Goth icons is Countess Erszebet Bathory, the Hungarian Princess who bathed in the blood of virgins to preserve her youth and beauty. Deep in my imagination, the Bathory mythos combined with my experience of living high above a rose garden, a lifelong love of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, particularly Rapunzel, a re-reading of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story: Rappuccini’s Daughter, my own experiences practicing magic, and a history of reading horror and dark fantasy fictionsince childhood, to create the idea for a Gothic re-telling of Rapunzel from the point of view of the Witch.

Behind this page, I will be blogging about the progression of this now 400 page novel as it goes through the editing, publication, and marketing process. I am doing this to keep track, and also so that you will be able to see what is involved in creating and selling a work of popular fiction at a time when, supposedly, people don’t read and yet everyone and their uncle is writing a book.

As I was learning, over the last 15 years, the overwhelming amount of the stuff you need to know about  writing and selling popular fiction, I waded through many confusing messages, and information that is out of date since the World wide Web has taken over. I hope that, as I go through all the steps, those who wish to follow me will find a guide even if it is only one step ahead of where they are themselves. And this being a blog — comments and discussions are encouraged.

As it stands on this day, December 11, 2009,  The Golden Stair is in the very first stages of the publishing process.  I tend to be experimental and have a pioneering spirit, so I chose to self publish with iUniverse, for several well-thought-out reasons:

1. My initial submission to DAW Books in May 2007, was approved by the submissions editor and passed further along to another set of editors. They had it in their system for 9 months. When the stock market crashed, I received a rejection notice. That is a long time to wait to find out your book wasn’t up to snuff. When I finally looked at the manuscript again, I was embarrassed to see that it was far from ready — so I am glad they didn’t publish it!  It was a lesson well learned.

2. I continue to refine the book, and publish some short stories on the web. I have also been learning about internet marketing. It has been a very steep learning  curve because ,as of November 2007,  I know nothing about the internet except how to do email and  google searches

3. DAW said a first novel has to be  pretty mind blowing for them to want to invest  in book these days. After so many years pf hearing and reading about editors at publishing houses making books ready for publication, this was a reality check, and caused me to re-think the whole business. Now I am on my 5th draft of the book and plan a few more. It has to be perfect.

4. Studying internet marketing has opened up a world of possibility. I have always admired artists who also took control of the promotional side of their careers like Loreen McKennitt for example, with great success. I guess I like a challenge, but I am also convinced that many writers may go the way of Indie musicians and film makers to accomplish their goals.

5. I do not have an agent. In August of this year I can attend a rather costly Writer’s Conference and shmooze to find an agent. OR I can send my manuscript to TOR  books who, like DAW, take un-agented submissions. Trouble is my manuscript can end up under a pile of teenage dragon novels for 4-6 months — if they even get to it that amount of time. My experience tells me that if something can take longer it will.

6. At my age, I hate to waste time. I know this novel will be great when I finish with it. iUniverse has editors that will help. Plus they were having a sale, and what woman doesn’t like a sale?

I have done a lot of research and have found some complaints against this company and  against self publishing in general. Nothing is perfect, and I have bought many traditionally published books that are so badly edited I cannot believe they got out the door. I also know traditionally published writes who lament the lack of sheer literacy of some editors working at  traditional publishing houses. Some of the complaints against self publishing ,and iUniverse,  are nothing but rants by temperamental cry babies who have obviously not done the least bit of homework on the realities of publishing and expect to be the catered to and coddled like the little stars they are not.

So taking those with a pinch of salt and being an innovator by nature, I have gone this route. If you are thinking about doing this yourself, just follow me, I won’t lie to you but will tell it straight as I experience the process. I can’t share the contents of the book with you, but I will make sure it is equal to better than anything else you read in this genre of fiction.

Wish me luck and come along!

Lello Bookstore stairs, Portugal.

I will miss the grand old days of BOOKS and BOOKSHOPS full of amazing treasures!