New Upcoming Books in 2011

[Alixz]

Bid Time Return is the title of a novel by Richard Matheson.  It was made into the movie Somewhere In Time starring Jane Seymour and Christopher Reeve.

The book's original title comes from a line in Shakespeare's Richard II (act iii, scene 2), "O call back yesterday, bid time return."

I didn't think that the title was why the story was rejected.  I was just commenting on your choice of title.  I read Matheson's book after I saw the movie and did some research on the title as I thought it was "cluncky".  Imagine, I thought that Shakespeare was "cluncky"!

[TimM]

Yeah, I got my title from Shakespeare.

I own Richard Matheson's book, but it's title Somewhere In Time.  They much have changed it when the movie became popular (and it is a great movie, BTW).

[Vive_HIH_Aleksey]

I'm pleasantly surprised to find so many authors on here. I've been writing for over 10 years, and never even tried to be published. The closest I came to completing a novel was 175 (double-spaced) pages, but I dumped it because I felt the story's course was just taking up space. It was about a young Russian figure skater who moves to the United States after suffering tragedy at home in Russia. I actually don't even like it anymore; I'm more compelled by what I have come up with for my writing group. There are two characters I've created, both Russian figure skaters, and they have pretty tragic lives. I think their stories would make great novel material, so someday I hope to actually work on it.

[aleksandr pavlovich]

   Re Reply #32:  I think that you are on the right track. You (most importantly) seem to know when to start over.  It is my belief that the key is "refine," refine and refine again.  IMO, the majority of attempts/submissions that I have seen on here are grossly wordy, overly-laden with adjectives, as if one HAS to describe in minute and compulsive detail EVERY movement the subject makes.
  If is to be historical fiction, then obviously research the time and place, besides the characters.  One disaster of an attempt (IMO) submitted on here on the Forum, in a snippet of just TWO+ paragraphs was enough to demonstrate that it was TOTALLY unrealistic in its posted concept.  The writer realized such (she had asked for comments!) and "junked" the attempt, changing over I think, to a subject that she may better understand.  
  Likewise you must have a thick skin, if you ask for comments, and BELIEVE in your work/s.  It is tragic to see someone so "worked-up" and profuse in their enthuasium, simply disappear from a thread after being asked (for instance) to give some "proof"/examples of their supposed earlier works.  IMO, this can be followed on a very short thread "Films and TV shows about the Romanovs and Imperial Russia,"  specifically:  "APA FORUM EXCLUSIVE:  The Testament Summary" .  Read the entire 12 posts of November 18, 2006 to November 22, 2006) to get the tenor of the subject.  Reply # 12 asked for information regarding any of the previous "screenplays"  (....."one of many that I have professionally written.") that may have been PRODUCED, so that one could see " a sample of your work."   NO REPLY since November 22, 2006!    Regards,  AP.

[Vive_HIH_Aleksey]

Thank you very much, Aleksandr Pavlovich! I greatly appreciate the comment. I remember that post from the screenwriter about The Testament!

One of the works I have in mind is indeed historical fiction, with a touch of horror elements. I set it originally in the time of Peter the Great, and take some artistic liscence to have him marry one year earlier than he did in reality, to a young woman he actually loved. The woman died in childbirth with his firstborn son. Right now I have him named Evgeni, simply because of the name's meaning. I do like the name so I think I will keep it. Anyway, I have him grow up and history plays out in general as it had, but with Evgeni at the forefront or background when it is called for. As his life as heir is filled with so much promise, he is kidnapped by a vampire... What year this happens is not entirely decided. I want him to be young, but also want him to have a reputation for being a great war hero and diplomat with regards to Sweden. He falls in love with and is soon engaged to the King of Sweden's daughter. Before the wedding is to take place, the Tsarevich is kidnapped.

I have found this forum to be a great source for things that authors might take for granted, such as etiquette and other things found in "Their World & Culture." I do hope to pay close attention to such details when I get around to working on this one. I intend the work to be a little like "Interview With The Vampire" which is one of my favorite novels, only instead of dealing with New Orleans history I plan to focus the majority on early Romanov history, then broaden into world history. Hopefully it will work out. He interacts with select descendants, without telling them who he really is, assists them in their reigns as an advisor, whether they want his advice or not. I plan on having him be a forward-thinking person just like his father was, so when he is forcibly turned into a vampire, he broods over what he could have accomplished in his reign, and how much better off Russia and the world would be if he had been allowed to claim his birthright. Here's hoping it goes well!

[Alixz]

I do want to mention one thing about royal vampires.  In years past, when I couldn't sleep, I would watch very late night TV.  One of the hour long shows was called "Blood Royal".  It maintained that Henry FitzRoy, the illegitimate son of Henry VIII was turned into a vampire.  There actually was a Henry FitzRoy, but I don't know if the shows producers knew that or not.

However, "Prince" Henry went about helping a city detective (I don't remember which city) fight and investigate crime.

As to the work that my co-author and I have developed - the first year of writing was spent in libraries (this was pre Internet) doing research on clothing, dining, etiquette, modes of transportation, servant behavior and etiquette, etc.  We also sourced maps of the cities as they were in the time we were writing about.  We didn't even begin the story until we had a good enough feel for the time 1870 through 1918 that we were setting our story in.  A lot of what we found wasn't even used, but the feel of the time and place was essential. We drew diagrams of the houses that our characters lived in so that no one would be suddenly walking through a wall that hadn't been there before.  If there was a table in the foyer, it had better be there in all chapters unless the housekeeper moved it.

We sourced fashion and knew from the undergarments to the muffs what everyone was wearing.  We didn't describe it all in the book, but we knew the difficulty involved in dressing and moving in the clothing after it was put on.  No slouching or "limbo rock" for our characters.  They walked and sat and stood and moved as they were able in the style of the time.

I remember once saying that a character put his foot on the "fire dog" of the unused grate.  My co author told me that he would have been bent double to do that and would look pretty silly, so it was changed to "fender". 

It is a long a tedious process, but one that every writer of historical fiction should undertake.  Just setting up the intimate party and dinner scene and making sure that the description of the room was accurate took many months of research and work and the scene was actually only a few pages long.

AP is right about not dwelling too long on each and every move and describing each and every item ad-nausea, but the writer must know what he/she is talking about even if the reader only gets the thumb nail sketch.

Even with all of that work, the manuscript was read twice by Dell and returned to us for refining.  That was 30 years ago and unforeseen things happened (the kind that make publishers shy away from working with co-authors) and although we started the process, it was never finished and so never published.

After all this time, we are tied up in intellectual property rights and although I keep saying that I am going to hire an attorney to straighten it out, I haven't and neither has my co author.

But research - research - research should be added to refine-refine- refine.  I heard once that Gustave Flaubert the author of "Madame Bovary" wrote each and every sentence out three times before he chose the right one.  I don't know if that is true or if that is actually necessary, but you get the point.

[Kalafrana]

Alixz

I agree with you entirely about the need for historical fiction to be accurate. I probably don't go as far as you do, but if there is something I think people will notice I certainly check it. In particular, I am enough of a military geek to  know there are hundreds of military geeks out there just waiting to spot the wrong version of the Short Magazine Lee Enfield....

Another thing I notice is geography, and time taken to get to particular places. I read one book set in the 1745 Rebellion whose author, an American, quite clearly had absolutely no idea of British geography. At one stage the hero and heroine flee to France by ship from Inverness (in northern Scotland, for non-British Forumeers). The sea distance to the Seine estuary is of the order of 800 miles, and even with favourable winds (by no means guaranteed) the voyage would probably take a week, yet the author depicts an overnight crossing. Now she admits that before she wrote the book she had never been to Scotland, but there are such things as maps!

Ann

[Vive_HIH_Aleksey]

That's very true, guys, and it's great to be reminded of those details!

I actually ran into a similar issue with something I was planning for my writing group, a self-sailed honeymoon of the Carribbean in a large catamaran (after research I decided that was the best kind of ship for the venture and the couple aboard) from April 16th to August 20th. I actually went on a sailing forum and they suggested that I pay closer attention to the schedule I planned out matched with the maps and distances between the various islands. I took that advice and shortened the destinations that they would visit.

I actually have another historical fiction really in the works, it's just a "for fun" scenario I came up with inspired in part by the film "The Ring," a "Sweet Valley High Mystery," figure skating, and the last Imperial Family. One of the first things I did was to research turn-of-the-century figure skating. I knew that jumps were done, a few of them, but only single rotations, but that was all I knew about it. I discovered that music was performed in those days, and used that to my advantage. I also discovered, with the aid of an amazingly well-preserved 100-year-old video of ULRICH SALCHOW himself (great Swedish skater, inventor of the Salchow jump that everyone now does, 10-time World Champion and 2-time Olympic Champion) that they did some pretty great footwork and spins back then too! That video helped me the most by far. I also did research on the geography of the Alexander Palace and its grounds, using the main AP site... Whether I did a good enough job remains to be seen. I have only just started to come to that point. But I plan on rewriting the whole thing soon anyway, with better description and research. The first draft, which isn't even done, was done primarily for fun, like I said. But I do want to take it seriously now.

Here's a link to my thread actually:
http://forum.alexanderpalace.org/index.php?topic=13282.0

[Alixz]

I have always been interested in figure skating and actually did some ice dancing when I was young.  I never competed but my dance partner did and he was very good.

I would love to see that film of Ulrich Salchow.  We toss the names around now and I think that some forget that a person had to invent the various jumps and spins that we now use today.  They didn't just appear.  Some of the moves are taken, of course, from ballet like the spiral which is an arabesque in ballet.

But even the "lay back" spin had to have been invented by someone and now everyone does it or may even be required to do it as a required move for the judges.

Your book sounds interesting and your research on your catamaran trip must have enhanced your story a lot.

At least once a day, I think that I should get back to working on that 30 year old novel  If the fiction editor for Dell thought that it was good enough to read it twice, it is a shame that my co-author and I never finished the work.  However, it is hard to work on something that I would have to give half of the credit to someone else for even though my co-author has not even written to me in over 20 years.  That is why I need an intellectual property attorney.  I keep telling myself that I should get one, but somehow other things get in the way.

I think that she has never engaged one as I would have gotten some kind of documents from her if she had.  I guess that I keep hoping that someday the phone will ring and she will be on the other end saying, "Let's get back to work".  I have left that message at least a dozen times in the past 20 years but have never received a reply.

So the manuscript sits collecting dust.

[Teddy]

Maybe in some eyes now offtopic but here is a book I saw today at Van Hoogstraten for those interested:

'KAISERKINDER. Die Familie Wilhelms II. in Fotografien' von Jörg Kirschstein
http://www.hoefische-festspiele.de/die-macher/38-buch-kirschstein.html

You can order it at Van Hoogstraten, The Hague: www.hoogstraten.nl

[Vive_HIH_Aleksey]

That's pretty cool, Alixz, and I do remember you mentioning that in the past.

It's a shame about your co-author and you not being able to work things out. I wish you the best in trying to get back to work on the manuscript.

The catamaran trip wasn't part of a book, though I might make it part of one in the future. It's part of my writing group right now, and actually have only just started it. I still have a ways to go before I get to the actual trip; I haven't even written the wedding yet. *groan* I do plan on having some interesting things happen there, such as the discovery of a sunken Spanish galleon, complete with treasure. You know there are a lot of ships with such treasures that have never been found in the Carribean! So I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility for them to have found one! Funny we should arrive on skating fiction; one of them is a singles skater, his partner is an American football player in university. I hope to put the skater's life into a novel, along with a character I have as his half-brother; whether they will be related in the books I don't know but it makes for interesting perspective.

Yeah the film with Salchow is incredibly well-preserved IMO and over a minute long! It's really great even if it's silent.

For the historical fiction with the skater and the cursed dress, I actually had in mind that this young lady will have been a pioneer in her time, but since WWI cancelled the figure skating championships, 1914 was the last year she competed, since she was murdered in 1918. I have in mind that she had a chamber orchestra travel with her, performing when she skated, having character-driven programs, and becoming the first female to do some of the jumps that the men were doing at the time. Reading your above message also gave me the idea to perhaps have her invent the layback spin! Since she dies in 1918, and she was only on the scene for a few years, it's quite possible that she would be one of the forgotten pioneers. Cecilia Colledge of Great Britain is credited with the invention of it, but since she wasn't born till 2 years after my past heroine is killed, I see definite possibility for making this scenario work. Colledge is also credited with inventing the one-hand Biellmann spin but it's not named after her; so that kind of thing has happened. I definitely like the idea of this girl being a real star, rather than a "nobody."

This actually is where I am struggling. I want her to be a good skater. I want her brother to have been an officer on the Standart, and later an officer of the White Army, and in fact THE "Officer" to the Imperial Family in Ekaterinburg. I want her husband to be a revolutionary, but she doesn't find out until later. At any rate, she becomes closely acquainted with the Imperial Children, but the issue for me is how could I arrange all that, because of protocol/ettiquette? I actually was wondering what would be the proper placement for these questions I have about that. Could she be a commoner and still be acquainted with the Imperial Children? How could they have met? That sort of thing is perhaps hard to answer.

[GrandDuchessAndrea]

Vive_HIH_Aleksey, I just read some of your story about the figure skater, and it's marvelous! Finish it! It's really good!   

[Vive_HIH_Aleksey]

Haha thanks, I certainly intend to!

[blessOTMA]

Alixz,   just the fact it's been 20 years may impact what options you have greatly...it would be good to know. I encourage you to explore the way forward. I think this sort of falling out happens alot

[Alixz]

This actually is where I am struggling. I want her to be a good skater. I want her brother to have been an officer on the Standart, and later an officer of the White Army, and in fact THE "Officer" to the Imperial Family in Ekaterinburg. I want her husband to be a revolutionary, but she doesn't find out until later. At any rate, she becomes closely acquainted with the Imperial Children, but the issue for me is how could I arrange all that, because of protocol/etiquette? I actually was wondering what would be the proper placement for these questions I have about that. Could she be a commoner and still be acquainted with the Imperial Children? How could they have met? That sort of thing is perhaps hard to answer.

If her brother is to have been an officer on the Standart, then it would be possible for her to meet the Imperial children.  After all we are told that the crew of the Standardt were treated as close friends and family of the Imperial family.  This one is for free - perhaps the officer brother could be looking at a picture of his sister and one of the children asks about her.  When finding out that she is a figure skater, the Imperial is entranced about something she will never be able to do and asks to meet this sister.

I don't know much about figure skating and competition before Sonjia Hennie as she was the most celebrated for her time.  But she was born in 1912 and died in 1969 so she would be much after your story time line.

I was doing some checking about what skating was like before 1918 and I found this (not before 1918 but interesting none the less) on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WFu634cUog

For some reason I can't get my sound to work, but the skaters look fascinating.

It is a thought.