Tuesday, January 28, 2020

#130 Inside the Emotion of Fiction "TIMESPLASH" by Graham Storrs



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***The CRC Blog welcomes submissions from published and unpublished fiction genre writers for INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION.  Contact CRC Blog via email at
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****Graham Storrs’s Timesplash is #130 in the never-ending series called INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION where the Chris Rice Cooper Blog (CRC) focuses on one specific excerpt from a fiction genre and how that fiction writer wrote that specific excerpt.  All INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links are at the end of this piece. 

Has this been published? And it is totally fine if the answer is no. If yes, what publisher and what publication date? It has been published three times; first by a New York small press that no longer exists, in 2010, then by an imprint of Pan Macmillan that also no longer exists, in 2013, (yes, the publishing world is in turmoil these days!) and, finally by me. The latest incarnation was published in 2018 so, although it is getting a little long in the tooth now, it isn’t s long ago that I gave it another polish, edit and proofread.

What is the date you began writing this piece of fiction and the date when you completely finished the piece of fiction? 
I began wring this book in 2008, had a final draft by 2009 and had it fully edited and published by 2010. However, there is a sense in which I kept on re-writing it after that. It’s second publication in 2013 involved a complete new edit with a second publisher and its third appearance in 2018 entailed re-editing it from scratch all over again. By the time of its very first publication, I estimated that I had read through the “finished” text about 17 times. By now, it must be double that!

Where did you do most of your writing for this fiction work? And please describe in detail.  2008 was a great year for me. Not only did I start to get some success as a writer but I quit my job and moved out to the country. Until then, I had done almost all my writing in cafes and parks during lunch breaks and tea breaks while at work. 
Since then, I mostly write outdoors, typically in my gazebo but in bad weather (increasingly that means extremely hot weather) I write in an armchair in my TV room. I live on a mountaintop at 1,000m (3,000 ft) in the bush, surrounded on all sides by forest and wildlife. As I write I am often distracted by creatures moving around me. There are dozens of bird species here – including several types of parrot – that I see regularly, plenty of lizard species – mostly skinks and dragons but I once saw a metre-long lace monitor stroll past – snakes (all poisonous but very beautiful), as well as kangaroos and wallabies, which are often feeding just a few metres from where I normally sit. It is a beautiful and peaceful environment to work in and I love it. That is where I wrote Timesplash – and about a dozen other novels since then.


What were your writing habits while writing this work- did you drink something as you wrote, listen to music, write in pen and paper, directly on laptop; specific time of day? My writing habits vary with the book I’m writing. Timesplash was a joy to write. I’d go out in the morning and spend as much time as possible working, then go out again in the afternoon. (Above Right:  Graham's Gazebo)
I’m a very slow writer (perhaps a thousand words a day if I’m really going well but probably an average of about 500 words). Many writers blast through to a first draft in a matter of weeks and then spend months revising it. My first drafts can take a year or two – sometimes more! – and I still take months revising them! Timesplash was relatively quick – maybe 18 months from start to final proofreading. (Left: Graham's TV Room with armchair)


I write straight into a laptop using a word processing program (LibreOffice – a Microsoft Word clone that is free and excellent – and do not ever print it out onto paper. I’ve tried using systems like Scrivener but I don’t get on with them. Basically, my writing style is to start at page one and to keep going until I reach the last page. I keep notes on the characters and locations in a separate file and that’s all the structure I need. Anything more just gets in the way. (Above Right:  Graham in his computer room)
What excerpt of the book was the most emotional for you to write? This excerpt can be as short or as long as you prefer.
Sandra got up and paced across the room. She stood with her back to him.
“Maybe this was all a mistake. I didn’t know you were a spook. I thought you were just, you know, a cop.” She turned to look at him, concern all over her lovely face. “It’s because you’re young too. I thought …”
He walked toward her. “You thought I’d understand?”
She nodded.
“Understand what, Sandra?”
She looked up to the heavens, looking for the words, then back at Jay. “Me, I suppose.”
He took a step closer. Suddenly, she looked like she might cry at any moment. Her eyes glistened, her lips pressed together and her nostrils narrowed. He could have reached out and touched her troubled face if he dared, if he didn’t dread her flying away like a startled bird.
“Look, I’ll try,” he said. “Don’t worry. I won’t tell anyone you’re here unless you want me to.” His own words frightened him. They took him over a line he shouldn’t have crossed, putting him where his heart had already gone.
With a sob of relief she closed the distance between them, wrapping her arms around him and burried her head in his shoulder. “Oh God,” she gasped. “Oh God, thank you!”

Why is this excerpt so emotional for you to write? And can you describe your own emotional experience of writing this specific scene/excerpt? Timesplash has two protagonists, Jay and Sandra, who are young and damaged and caught up in terrible events but they find each other and fall in love – in a rather tragic way. Although I struggled throughout this and the next two books, to like both my “children” equally, I confess I always secretly preferred Sandra. She had more to struggle against and more to overcome. She wasn’t always quite strong enough and sometimes she failed – but only for a while. When her relationship with Jay was brand new she didn’t know how to trust at all. Nothing in her life until then led her to believe that she could. In this scene, Sandra, in desperate trouble, is throwing herself on Jay’s mercy for the first time and I found writing her growing revelation that there is goodness in the world very poignant.  (Above Right:  Graham holding the Timesplash series in June of 2018)
Were there any deletions from this excerpt that you can share with us? And can you please include a photo of your marked up rough drafts of this excerpt. I’d love to show you my working but I never keep it. All the literally dozens of revisions I’ve done to the texts of every book I’ve written, I have deleted once I achieved a final version that I and my editor were happy with. Quite often I have deleted large chunks – whole chapters sometimes – and rewritten equally large chunks almost from scratch. Sometimes this was because the section was superfluous – there’s nothing like reading a book you’ve written from beginning to end to spot those needless diversions, or those bits of background or explanation you thought were so vital at the time but turn out just to have been road bumps on the reader’s journey. Sometimes it was because the writing just wasn’t good enough. I often think of writing as a performance – like a musical performance. I sit at my keyboard, like a pianist and, knowing the themes and the overall structure I’m aiming for (because I obsessively think about these things) I then produce a virtuoso improvisation. Which sounds great until you realize, on reading what you wrote, just how many bum notes you put in there. Luckily for me, my performances can be fixed in the studio, as it were.

Other works you have published? Timesplash was my first published series of novels. It comprises three books; Timesplash, True Path and Foresight. The series follows the story of Jay and Sandra and their entanglement with the dangerous time travel technology that destroys their youth and dogs their lives.
Recently, I completed the last book in my 9-book “Placid Point” series. This actually comprises three different 3-book series set in the same ‘world’. 
The Placid Point universe is one where, not long after today, the first transhumans are created when human minds are uploaded to computers. The consequences of this ripple down the millennia. It is a universe in which, although we don’t know it, countless alien civilisations fill the galaxy. most of them far more advanced than humanity ever becomes. In chronological order, the three series are:
The Rik Sylver series – Set about 80 years in the future, this introduces the transhumans of Omega Point and the disruption the new technology causes on Earth (and on the Moon, which is being rapidly colonised), all seen through the perspective of a Lunar private eye, Rik Sylver, whose life becomes horribly mixed up in the vicious politics of the transhumans and their human enemies. The three books are The Credulity Nexus, The Sentience Machine and The Dissonance Factor.
The Canta Libre trilogy – Set 300 years after the Rik Sylver series, at in a time of interstellar expansion, this story begins with humanity’s first contact with alien life. Earth’s Emissaries, aboard the space ship Canta Libre, are completely unprepared for what follows and for their future roles as Supplicants and Warriors. And, in the end, having stirred a hornets’ nest of alien enemies, they bring it all back home to find nothing is as they left it.

The Deep Fracture trilogy – Now 10,000 years on from the events of the Canta Libre trilogy, humanity has spread across a thousand planets. Even though shielded from alien interference in its affairs, it has failed to thrive, instead engaging in endless interstellar wars between neighbouring fiefdoms, erasing its past over and over. Only when a strange destructive force begins fracturing Human Space, do some people realise that humanity is under attack and that the only people who might be able to help are the mythical god-like beings of Omega Point. But Omega Point, when they find it, is nothing like what they expected and neither is their mysterious enemy. The three books are Loner’s Deep, Omega Point and Nadezhda

Outside of these series, I have written four standalone sci-fi novels, including Heaven is a Place on Earth, Cargo Cult, Time & Tyde and Mindrider, as well as a few collections of short stories  - including one rather large collection of crime stories called Sisters. This last is particularly interesting to me at the moment because I am currently writing my very first crime novel (not in the tiniest bit sci-fi) where the main character from the Sisters stories appears as a minor character in the book.






Anything you would like to add? I’ve met lots of writers over the years. We all do things differently, we all have different circumstances and opportunities, we all work in different genres, and we are all very different people. The only thing we have in common is the passion to write and to keep on writing no matter what. I think this blog series demonstrates that as well as anything you’ll ever see.

Graham Storrs Biography
I’ve had a few jobs in my time. My first real career was as a research scientist, first in academia and later in commercial R&D. I became a software designer specialising in AI and user interface design (I even won awards for it). I then ran some large multimedia development centres for multinational software companies, and ended my working life running my own usability consultancy. I now write books and I suppose you’d say I’m retired. I’ve has published short stories and novels covering all the major sci-fi themes, including time travel, dystopian futures, transhumanity, alien invasion and space opera. Within each theme, I’ve tried to mix it up, writing thrillers, adventure and comedy. Keeping the science real is as important to me as keeping my characters plausible and my books and stories are heavily researched. (Above Left:  Graham with his daughter Katherine)
Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/graywave
or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GrahamStorrsAuthor
For details of all my novels and short stories, visit http://www.grahamstorrs.com/


INSIDE THE EMOTION OF FICTION links

001   11 15 2018 Nathaniel Kaine’s
Thriller Novel
John Hunter – The Veteran

002   11 18 2018 Ed Protzzel’s
Futuristic/Mystery/Thriller
The Antiquities Dealer 

003   11 23 2018 Janice Seagraves’s
Science Fiction Romance
Exodus Arcon

004   11 29 2018 Christian Fennell’s
Literary Fiction Novel
The Fiddler in the Night

005  12 02 2018 Jessica Mathews’s
Adult Paranormal Romance
Death Adjacent

006  12 04 2018 Robin Jansen’s
Literary Fiction Novel
Ruby the Indomitable

007  12 12 2018  Adair Valerez’s
Literary Fiction Novel
Scrim

008  12 17 218 Kit Frazier’s
Mystery Novel
Dead Copy

009 12 21 2019 Robert Craven’s
Noir/Spy Novel
The Road of a Thousand Tigers

010 01 13 2019 Kristine Goodfellow’s
Contemporary Romantic Fiction
The Other Twin

011 01 17 2019 Nancy J Cohen’s
Cozy Mystery
Trimmed To Death

012 01 20 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
Crime Novel
Second Story Man

013 01 23 2019 Alexis Fancher’s
Flash Fiction
His Full Attention

014 01 27 2019 Brian L Tucker’s
Young Adult/Historical
POKEWEED:  AN ILLUSTRATED NOVELLA

015 01 31 2019 Robin Tidwell’s
Dystopian
Reduced

016 02 07 2019 J.D. Trafford’s
Legal Fiction/Mystery
Little Boy Lost

017 02 08 2019 Paula Shene’s
Young Adult ScieFi/Fantasy/Romance/Adventure
My Quest Begins 

018 02 13 2019 Talia Carner’s
Mainstream Fiction/ Suspense/ Historical
Hotel Moscow

019 02 15 2019 Rick Robinson’s
Multidimensional Fiction
Alligator Alley

020 02 21 2019 LaVerne Thompson’s
Urban Fantasy
The Soul Collectors

021 02 27 2019 Marlon L Fick’s
Post-Colonialist Novel
The Nowhere Man

022 03 02 2019 Carol Johnson’s
Mainstream Novel
Silk And Ashes

023 03 06 2019 Samuel Snoek-Brown’s
Short Story Collection
There Is No Other Way to Worship Them

024 03 08 2019 Marlin Barton’s
Short Story Collection
Pasture Art

025 03 18 2019 Laura Hunter’s
Historical Fiction
Beloved Mother

026 03 21 2019 Maggie Rivers’s
Romance
Magical Mistletoe

027  03 25 2019 Faith Gibson’s
Paranormal Romance
Rafael

028 03 27 2019 Valerie Nieman’s
Tall Tale
To The Bones

029 04 04 2019 Betty Bolte’s
Paranormal Romance
Veiled Visions of Love

030 04 05 2019  Marianne Maili’s
Tragicomedy
Lucy, go see

031 04 10 2019 Gregory Erich Phillips’s
Mainstream Fiction
The Exile


032 04 15 2019 Jason Ament’s
Speculative Fiction
Rabid Dogs

033 04 24 2019 Stephen P. Keirnan’s
Historical Novel
The Baker’s Secret

034 05 01 2019 George Kramer’s
Fantasy
Arcadis: Prophecy Book

035 05 05 2019 Erika Sams’s
Adventure/Fantasy/Romance
Rose of Dance

036 05 07 2019 Mark Wisniewski’s
Literary Fiction
Watch Me Go

037 05 08 2019 Marci Baun’s
Science Fiction/Horror
The Whispering House

038 05 10 2019 Suzanne M. Wolfe’s
Historical Fiction
Murder By Any Name

039 05 12 2019 Edward DeVito’s
Historical/Fantasy
The Woodstock Paradox

040 05 14 2019 Gytha Lodge’s
Literary/Crime
She Lies In Wait

041 05 16 2019 Kari Bovee’s
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Peccadillo At The Palace:  An Annie Oakley Mystery

042 05 20 2019 Annie Seaton’s
Time Travel Romance
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043 05 22 2019 Paula Rose Michelson’s
Inspirational Christian Romance
Rosa & Miguel – Love’s Legacy: Prequel to The Naomi
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044 05 24 2019 Gracie C McKeever’s
BDMS/Interracial Romance
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045 06 03 2019 Micheal Maxwell’s
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046 06 04 2019 Jeanne Mackin’s
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Coco Chanel

047 06 07 2019 Philip Shirley’s
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048 06 08 2019 Bonnie Kistler’s
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049 06 13 2019 Barbara Taylor Sissel’s
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050 06 18 2019 Charles Salzberg’s
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052  06 20 2019 Nona Caspers’s
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053 06 26 2019 Jeri Westerson’s
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055 06 29 2019
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#058 07 04 2019 Hannah Mary McKinnon’s
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#059 07 05 2019 Sonia Saikaley’s
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#060 07 09 2019 Olivia Gaines’s
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#061 07 11 2019 Anne Raeff’s
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#062 07 12 2918 Vic Sizemore’s
Literary Fiction-Short Stories
I Love You I’m Leaving

#063 07 13 2019 Deborah Riley Magnus’s
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TRILOGY

#064 07 14 2019 Elizabeth Bell’s
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NECESSARY SINS

#065 07 15 2019 Lori Baker Martin’s
Literary Novel
BITTER WATER

#066 08 01 2019 Sabine Chennault’s
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#067 08 02 2019 Margaret Porter’s
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BEAUTIFUL INVENTION:  A NOVEL OF HEDY LAMARR

#068 08 04 2019 Hank Phillippi Ryan’s
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THE MURDER LIST

069 08 08 2019 Diana Y. Paul’s
Literary Mainstream Fiction
THINGS UNSAID

070 08 10 2019 Phyllis H. Moore’s
Women’s Historical Fiction
BIRDIE & JUDE

071 08 11 2019 Sara Dahmen’s
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TINSMITH 1865

072  08 19 2019 Carolyn Breckinridge’s
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KALIEDESCOPE & OTHER STORIES

073 08 21 2019 Alison Ragsdale’s
Emotional Women’s Fiction
THE ART OF REMEMBERING

074  08 22 2019 Lee Matthew Goldberg’s
Suspense Thriller
THE DESIRE CARD

075 08 23 2019 Jonathan Brown’s
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THE BIG CRESCENDO

076 09 02 2019 Chera Hammons Miller’s
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077 09 09 019 Joe William Taylor’s
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078 09 15 2019 Linda Hughes’s
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079 09 19 2019 Max Elliot Anderson’s
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080 09 22 2019 Danny Adams’s
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Dayworld: A Hole In Wednesday

081 09 24 2019 Arianna Dagnino’s
Social/Historical/Adventure
The Afrikaner


082 09 29 2019 Lawrence Verigin’s
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Seed of Control

083  10 05 2019 Emma Khoury’s
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The Sword And Shield

#084 10 07 2019 Steve McManus’s
Mystery/Suspense/Thriller
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#085 10 08 2019 Sheila Lowe’s
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PROOF OF LIVE

#086 10 10 2019 Jess Neal Woods’s
Historical Fiction
THE PROCESS OF FRAYING


#087 10 11 2019 Karen Odden’s
Historical Suspense
A TRACE OF DECEIT

#88 10 14 2019 Kate Maruyama’s
Love, Loss & Supernatural
“HARROWGATE”

#89 10 17 2019 Sherry Harris’s
Mystery
“LET’S FAKE A DEAL”

#90 10 18 2019 Linda Mooney’s
Science Fiction Apocalyptic/ Post Apocalyptic
“THE TRUNK”

#91 10 19 2019 Jayne Martin’s
Flash Fiction Short Story Collection
“TENDER CUTS”

#92 10 22 2019 Janice Cole Hopkins’s
Inspirational Romance
“IT ALL STARTED AT THE MASQUERADE”

#93 10 29 2019 Kristi Petersen Schoonover’s
Short Story Collection
“THE SHADOWS BEHIND”

#94 11 01 2019 David Henry Sterry’s
Fiction: Sexual Violence
“THE TENDERLOIN WARS”

#95 11 03 2019 Jay Requard’s
Dark Fantasy/Horror
“DEATH & DUST: THE PALE SAND ADVENTURES”

#96 11 04 2019 Caroline Leavitt’s
Fiction
“WITH OR WITHOUT YOU”

#97 11 06 2019 Kelsey Clifton’s
Science Fiction
“A DAY OUT OF TIME”

#098 11 13 2019 John F Allen’s
Urban Fantasy Tale


#99 11 16 2019 Damian McNicholl’s
Historical Novel
“The Moment of Truth”

#100 11 19 2019 Stacia Levy’s
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“Girl Crush”

#101 11 24 2019 Charlotte Morgan’s
Fiction Novel
“Protecting Elvis”

#102 11 26 2019 T. L. Moore’s
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“Ed On My Shoulder:  Maria & The Candy Trail”

#103 11 27 2019 Jeanne McWilliams Blasberg’s
Coming of Age Literary Novel
The Nine


#104 11 29 2019 Charlotte Blackwell’s
Adult Paranormal
“MYSTIC EMBRACE”


#105 12 07 2019 Mike Burrell’s
Satire Novel
“THE LAND OF GRACE”

#106 12 09 2019 Phil McCarron’s
Screenplay
“Escapement”

#107 12 11 2019 Wendy H. Jones’s
Crime Fiction/Police Procedural Novel
“KILLER’S COUNTDOWN”

#108 12 13 2019 Sandra Arnold’s
Historical Literary Fiction
“The Ash, the Well and the Blue Bell”

#109 12 16 2019 Amalia Carosella’s
Historical/Contemporary/Duel Timeline/ Women’s
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“DAUGHTER OF A THOUSAND YEARS”

#110 12 19 2019 Laura Bickle’s
Weird Western/Contemporary Fantasy
“DARK ALCHEMY”

#111 12 27 2019 Brian Pinkerton’s
Science Fiction Thriller
“THE GEMINI EXPERIMENT”

#112  12 28 2019 Sandra de Helen’s
Lesbian Thriller
“TILL DARKNESS COMES”


#113 12 29 2019 Jo Wilde’s
Vampire Thriller
“THE CROSSING”

#114 12 30 2019 Sam Richard’s
Short Story Collection of Weird and Transgressive
Horror
“To Wallow In Ash and Sorrows”


#115 12 31 2019 Duncan B Barlow’s
Literary Fiction Novel
“A DOG BETWEEN US”

#116 01 02 2020 Allison Landa’s
Young Adult Novel
“BAD HAIR”

#117 01 03 2020 Pablo Medina’s

Literary Satire Novel
“THE CUBAN COMEDY”

#118 01 06 2020 William Trent Pancoast’s
Historical/Literary Novel
“THE ROAD TO MATEWAN”

#119 01 07 2020 Jane Bernstein’s
Contemporary Novel
“The Face Tells the Secret”

#120 01 09 2020 Terry Kroenung’s
Young Adult, Historical and Fantasy
“Brimstone And Lily”


#121 01 12 2020 Melissa Yi’s
Fiction Thriller
“GRAVEYARD SHIFT”


#122 01 15 2020 Marcie R. Rendon’s
Crime Thriller
“GIRL GONE MISSING”


#123 01 16 2020 Tori Eldridge’s
Multi Genre Novel
“THE NINJA DAUGHTER”

#124 01 17 2020 Kristen Joy Wilks’s
Christian Romantic Comedy
“YELLOWSTONE YONDERING”

#125 01 20 2020 Susan C. Shea’s
Cozy Mystery
“DRESSED FOR DEATH IN BURGUNDY”

#126  01 22 2020 Phong Nguyen’s
Improvisational Fiction
“ROUDABOUT”


#127 01 23 2020 Kate Thornton’s
Mystery Short Story In Its Entirety
“Ai Witness”


#128 01 24 2020 Phil McCarron’s
Semi Fictional Essays
“The Great Facepalm: The Farce of 21st Century
Normality”


#129  01 27 2020 Kenneth Weene’s
Historicized Literary Fiction
“Red And White”

#130 01 28 2020 Graham Storrs’s
Science Fiction Thriller
“TimeSplash”


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