Who is Alene Moneya?

February 18, 2021svrtnsse

I’ve been interested in music for much longer than I’ve been writing, so it’s hardly surprising my stories and my characters are influenced by the songs I listen to. Whenever I start a new book, I pick out a playlist to serve as soundtrack to the writing. Same when I need to get to know a new character.

This week, I started the first pass of revisions on Lost Dogs #3: A Freak Among Freaks.

Naturally, I decided to put together a new playlist. The book has a different main character, and while Alene and Roy have their similarities they’re not the same people, so of course her soundtrack is different. What surprised me, and what inspired this blog post, was how much Alene’s soundtrack has changed over time. It may sound obvious, but it really wasn’t expected.

When I started picking out a playlist for the revision of this book, I began by looking through the playlists I made for Lost Dogs #10: Nothing Left to Lose (there are four of them). That’s the most recent book in the series, and it also featured Alene as the main character. However, almost none of the songs for book #10 fit with who Alene is in book #3.

The playlists for book #10 were full of slow, dark songs. Strange electronic music with a lot of depth, subtle messages, and meaningful lyrics. That’s cool and all, because it’s reflective of who Alene is in book #10. Both me and the reader know her better, and the story is more introspective. It’s not who Alene is when we first meet her, though.

In book #3, Alene’s music is loud, angry, and dirty – and so is she.

There’s almost no actual punk music, but punk describes the feel I’m going for. Aggressive music with more attitude than substance. A sonic punch in the gut, if you will.

Sure, there are calm, quiet songs in the list as well, but they’re a minority, just like the loud angry songs were a small part of the playlists for book #10.

This fascinated me.

Alene is the main character of books #3, #4, #7, #9, and #10, which is probably in the vicinity of 200,000 words of story. It’s safe to say she’s come a long way – even if it’s been less than a month as far as the story goes. The things she’s gone through has affected her, but even then, I’d be hard pressed to put into words just how she’s changed.

With music, it was easy.

Right away, I could tell whether a song fit Alene or not. Does this piece of music feel like the person she is?

How is it that a song can say much about someone?

I have no good answer to that, but what I will do is give a few example of the music that represents Alene during the revisions of Lost Dogs #3 (and #4 – there’s not much change between those two). As such, here are three different tracks:

This may very well be the most “Alene” song ever. It’s loud, noisy, drum and bass, and it’s got Skin from Skunk Anansie on the vocals. I didn’t really listened to Skunk Anansie when they were big, but I knew their big hits, and I’ve seen the videos. Skin, the singer, was a big part of the inspiration for how I picture Alene in my head when writing.

For this one, the lyrics aren’t all that important, it’s about the sound, the vibe, and the attitude.

Despite what I said above about how the music has changed for Alene throughout her story, this is one of the songs that has stuck around for a long time. It represents standing up for yourself and about not taking any shit, and while that doesn’t always happen in the books, it’s still an attitude I want to associate with Alene.

Third out is K.Flay. This could very well be the theme tune for both the third and fourth book. The attitude is there, the lyrics fit, and the energy shifts back and forth. It’s quiet, a bit repressed, and then it explodes.

There we go. Three tracks to represent Alene. What are your thoughts on this? If you’ve read the books, do you agree?

Second Book Revised

February 13, 2021February 13, 2021svrtnsse

Yesterday, I uploaded the revised edition of the second book in the Lost Dogs series, Undeserved Second Chance. This one needed a lot more work than the previous book, which surprised me, as there weren’t any major content changes to deal with. I didn’t have to replace an entire chapter with two new ones, like with book one.

What I discovered when preparing for the revision was that the book, especially the first half, had a lot of language issues. Much of the prose just wasn’t particularly good. It was a bit dull, a bit boring, and filled with repetitions of things that had already just been said two paragraphs ago.

Fixing this took time, and rather than editing the existing prose, I ended up rewriting the introduction and the first few chapters. Here and there, I copied passages from the previous version, but even then, much of the text is new, even if none of the story actually changed. It just felt better doing it like that.

There were a few changes to the story overall, though. Most notably I took out the two flashback chapters and replaced them with a rewritten version of the first one, and I added one additional chapter at the end of the book.

This additional chapter is fairly short, and it’s there to tie up the story and connect it to the next one. In the original version of the book, the story just stopped, and the reader had no idea what to expect next. This new chapter hopes to fix that, so that it makes more sense to continue with Alene’s story, rather than leaving the reader hanging, wondering why I’m introducing a new character instead of continuing with Roy’s story.

For those of you who have already read Undeserved Second Chance, I’ve included the new chapter at the end of this post (it’s less than ten percent of the book). Obviously, it’s a bit of a spoiler, so if you’ve not read the book, you may want to skip that part.

First, though, I also included chapter titles with this book, as you can see here:

And now, from Lost Dogs #2: Undeserved Second Chance, I present to you…

Chapter 14

Time to Rumble

The wolf stood watch over him. Hackles raised and chest heaving. Exhausted from fighting off nightmares he couldn’t remember, but knew he’d had. His heart beat too fast, and the terrors of his mind still lurked just beyond the edge of awareness.

Little by little, the world came back into focus.

There was noise, and there was pain. Everything hurt, his stomach screamed for something to eat, and the hard surface under him swayed and vibrated.

Roy blinked against the darkness and tried to breathe.

The smell of stale sweat, blood, and filth washed over him, and bile rose in his throat. He tried to sit up, bumped his head on something just above, and lay down again.

Closed his eyes for just a moment.

– – –

When Roy woke again, the nightmares were gone, and his mind was clear. The stench, unfortunately, remained – and the hunger. He had no idea how long he’d been out, but probably over a day. His body still ached, and he’d soiled himself in his sleep, but the hole in his hand was gone.

His blood no longer burned with the taint of silver.

The affliction had done its job and healed his wounds.

He was alive, and he was free, and that was all that mattered.

Well, it’d be good to know where he was, and a shower and a change of clothes wouldn’t go amiss. He’d packed a towel. Might be time to put that to use.

Roy felt around for the backpack, found it and pulled it to him. He traced his hand along the ceiling until he located the hatch he’d climbed in through. Shuffled around a bit to get into position to open it, and pushed.

Daylight and fresh air rushed in to meet him. The wind tore at his hair and filled his nose with the scents of the world outside.

Mud and standing water.

More kinds of vegetation than he could count.

None of the salty tang of the sea.

Squinting against the light, Roy raised his head up through the hatch and looked out.

Enormous trees rising out of murky brown water.

Shafts of sunlight filtering in through the canopy far above.

From every vine and every branch, lichen hung like long beards, speckled with little white flowers, and alive with insects and butterflies.

Roy stared, tried to wrap his mind around what he saw, and eventually he cursed. Loud, foul, and long. He must have been out for days.

The mid-south swamps.

This was not where he needed to be, but it was the only explanation. Nowhere else would you’d find nature like this. A vast, nearly impenetrable band of marshland jungle. As close to lawless land as you’d find within the civilised world. Corporate city states built to harvest pearl slugs and swamp gas.

Only the truly desperate came here.

Fitting.

So much for a quick ride up the coast. Set him back a week, easily.

Grumbling under his breath, Roy grabbed hold of the edge of the hatch and pulled himself upright. Stood in the hatch, flung his arms wide, and raised his head. Let the wind rip into him. A deafening roar of air and light. Tore at his hair and clothes, and drowned out everything else.

Every thought and every emotion.

Every worry and every doubt.

The wolf loved it.

The speed and the wind and all the interesting new scents.

Roy couldn’t help but smile to himself. Sometimes, when travelling by train, he liked to open a window and stick his head out, just to make the wolf happy. It’s joy and excitement would rub off on him, and this was no exception. Despite everything, it wasn’t long until he grinned like a fool, for no other reason than that his inner beast loved the wind in his hair.

Perhaps there was a lesson to learn from that.

He was here now, and like it or not, he’d just have to deal.

There would be a town eventually, and a train station. There’d be showers, and a place to eat. He could get a ticket out of here, on an actual passenger train.

He’d also need to find an open pack he could join for the full moon, but there was time enough for that once he found a town. The main thing was, he was still free, he was still on the move, and there was no way the syndicate would be able to catch up with him now. Not here.

Things would be fine.

There we go. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions or comments, I’d love to hear them.

Is Lost Dogs Urban Fantasy?

January 15, 2021January 15, 2021svrtnsse

Does genre really matter anyway? Isn’t it more important to just tell a good story?

Yes, no, maybe?

For me as a reader, genre is a way to narrow down the search for new books to read. Instead of looking at All Books, I can look at Books In The Genre I Like, and I’ll have an easier time finding something that I’m in the mood for.

As a writer, I know that not everyone will enjoy what I’m doing. Knowing what genre best fits my book will make it easier for me to find readers who might like it.

When I first came up with the idea for Lost Dogs, I envisioned it as an Urban Fantasy story, but these days, I’m no longer so sure. In this article, I look at a few different definitions of the genre, and I’ll try to answer the question: Is Lost Dogs Urban Fantasy?

If Urban Fantasy is fantasy that takes place in a city, then yes.
If Urban Fantasy is about hot chicks in tight black leather staking vampires and playing fetch with werewolves, then no.

In fairness, neither of the above are good definitions of Urban Fantasy. The first is too vague, and the second too specific (and maybe just a tad sarcastic). It’s a little bit more complicated than that.

When I think of Urban Fantasy, I think of fantasy stories taking place in a modern day, real world city, but I also think of stories in that setting with a certain feeling, and a certain vibe. Stories with attitude, with action, and with a bit of mystery.

Lost Dogs isn’t big on action, but it’s there, in almost every book.
The story has attitude, but it’s not the snarky, confident, kick-ass kind of attitude.
Is there mystery? No, not really.

Sure the world and the characters may be mysterious to the reader, and there are plenty of things to wonder about, or to jog your imagination, but the mystery isn’t central to the story. It’s not about uncovering a secret, or solving a riddle, or exposing a conspiracy.

It’s about a middle-aged man trying to come to terms with his past, and it’s about a young woman trying to find her place in the world. It’s about how both of them struggle against the monsters living within them.

Going by my own definition, Lost Dogs is not quite Urban Fantasy, but close.

Let’s see what others have to say.

In this article, Mishell Baker lists five elements that Urban Fantasy must have (let’s take that with a pinch of salt):

The City – yep, got that.
The Magic – got that too.
The Mystery – nope.
The Point of View – yeah, kinda got that.
The Sizzle – hard nope.

The fourth element, Point of View, is about how Urban Fantasy is heavily character-driven, and how that shines through in the voice of the story. Lost Dogs is all about character, and although it’s written in third person, the characters definitely come through in the narration.

However, even with the best of good will, I can’t in good conscience claim that the story has “sizzle.” There may be a hint of it in books seven, and a little more in book ten, but other than that, there’s nothing.

Considering that one of the main characters lets his love for a woman rule his every decision, this may seem a bit weird, but there you go.

Much as Lost Dogs does not include all the “required” elements, I still think that the list is a good one.

I’m not ready to settle just yet, though, so I dug up this article from Reedsy. It explains how the term Urban Fantasy has been used in the past, and then moves on to say:

“These days, this is the understanding that is most widespread: to be an urban fantasy, the story simply needs to be a fantasy with supernatural elements that is set in our world and modern time.”

I like this definition. It fits with my own thoughts, and it meshes well with the list of elements above.

The thing to call out the bit about how the story should be set in our world, which Lost Dogs isn’t.

Lost Dogs is set in a fairly traditional fantasy world (elves, dwarves, dragons, magic), but in a time period that’s roughly equivalent to the real world of today. This isn’t very common, and from what I’ve found, there’s no widely accepted genre for that.

Now, can I answer the question?

Is Lost Dogs an Urban Fantasy story?

I’ve checked my own understanding of the genre, I checked the elements listed by Mishell Baker, and I checked the definition provided by Reedsy.

For better or for worse, Lost Dogs doesn’t match any of these definitions. It’s close, but it’s not quite there, so the answer will have to be a reluctant “no”

Why reluctant? Does it really matter what genre it is as long as the story is good?

This ties back to what I mentioned at the start about how I, as a writer, want to find readers for my book.

I believe that people who like Urban Fantasy will enjoy Lost Dogs, but I also believe that if they’re looking for a story that matches the definitions of the genre, they might be disappointed – not because the story is bad, but because it’s not what they expected.

As such, I’ll keeping hanging out in places where people who enjoy Urban Fantasy meet. I’ll talk about my books when it’s appropriate to do so, but I won’t be making out that they’re the next big thing. Since, after all, they’re not Urban Fantasy, but Urban fantasy is closest to what they are.

If you’re curious, you can read more about the books on the blog, here, or you can grab the first part directly from Amazon, here.