For the first time in months I am going to be flinging my creative ink at the canvas of my new WIP without thought of editing and embracing the freedom and unadulterated joy in WRITING that First Draft!
“A dripping wet canvas covered the entire floor … There was complete silence … Pollock looked at the painting. Then, unexpectedly, he picked up can and paint brush and started to move around the canvas. It was as if he suddenly realized the painting was not finished. His movements, slow at first, gradually became faster and more dance like as he flung black, white, and rust colored paint onto the canvas. He completely forgot that Lee and I were there; he did not seem to hear the click of the camera shutter … My photography session lasted as long as he kept painting, perhaps half an hour. In all that time, Pollock did not stop. How could one keep up this level of activity? Finally, he said ‘This is it.’
Pollock’s finest paintings… reveal that his all-over line does not give rise to positive or negative areas: we are not made to feel that one part of the canvas demands to be read as figure, whether abstract or representational, against another part of the canvas read as ground. There is not inside or outside to Pollock’s line or the space through which it moves…. Pollock has managed to free line not only from its function of representing objects in the world, but also from its task of describing or bounding shapes or figures, whether abstract or representational, on the surface of the canvas.”
– Hans Namuth 1950
I love the first blush, the illicit intimacy and the head-rush of a First Draft. First Drafts are all about the Writer, the Creative, the Artist. I love simply getting lost in a first draft and a new story. I love meeting the new characters and watching their scenes in my mind’s eye like a movie. I love that the story can and will go anywhere and everywhere.
What do you love about first drafts?
________________________
In other exciting News just in from this weekend…The anthology that could…
WooHoo! I am now a contributor to an AWARD-Winning anthology! “Tales for Canterbury” just scooped the 2012 Sir Julius Vogel Award in NZ for the Best Collected Works in Speculative Fiction-SciFi/Fantasy/Horror. This is a national award awarded annually at the NZ National Science Fiction Convention to recognise achievement in Science Fiction/Fantasy/Horror. Congrats to our editors: Cassie Hart and Anna Caro on scooping the win! The editing team did a brilliant job in pulling together a great crew of authors, who all contributed incredible stories all for an amazing cause. Once again, I am so proud and pleased to be part of a fantastic crew of authors and editors who helped get this anthology out there.
There are still print copies available on the current print run of Tales for Canterbury. You can buy them here. *All profits* will be donated to the NZ Red Cross Earthquake Appeal. See talesforcanterbury.wordpress.com for more details. (* ie after we’ve paid any applicable transaction fees, printing, and shipping costs – neither Random Static nor the authors are keeping a cent)
A little background on the Sir Julius Vogel Award: The awards are named for Sir Julius Vogel, a prominent New Zealand journalist and politician, who becamePrime Minister of New Zealand in the 1870s. He also, in 1889, wrote what is widely (though erroneously) regarded as New Zealand’s first science fiction novel, Anno Domini 2000 – A Woman’s Destiny.[1] The book — written and published in Great Britain after Vogel had moved from New Zealand — pictured a New Zealand in the year 2000 where most positions of authority were held by women – at the time of writing, a radical proposition. In 2000, New Zealand’s Head of State, Governor General, Prime Minister, Chief Justice and Attorney General were all women, as was the CEO of one of the country’s largest companies, Telecom.
Click on the Creepmas tree to take you to more creepy posts on the blog tour.
It’s the 19th….Seven days into the #Creepfest Blog Tour….Having fun yet? Chilled to the bone!! Winning some early Christmas gifts? Are you talking it up? Are you hopping along to all the spots on the tour (click on tree above)?
Today this seventh day in the Blog Hop…I have the pleasure of Jessica McHugh on the blog…Jessica is a fantasy author who spins some wickedly crooked flash fiction too….Have a look at her latest offering…
#Creepfest Author’s Flash Fiction Challenge
1.) Re-imagine Santa’s visit to drop off gifts by putting a #Creepfest spin on it. Max words: 200
“This one is perfect. There are quite a few elves beneath this house,” Santa said as he landed his reindeer by the back door. “Calling them ‘elves’ doesn’t make it any less creepy, you know,” Dasher snorted. “Maybe you should just stop being lazy and deliver the presents the old way, down the chimney.” “If you don’t shut your snout, I’ll send you down the chimney.” “Okay, forget the chimney. How about those elves?” “I thought so.” Santa twisted his mittens into the snow and the ground began to shake. Then, up through the ivory banks, a multitude of skeletal hands wriggled. Santa hooked bows on bones and placed presents on palms. When a beagle’s rotting skull popped out of the snow, Santa tossed the gift cards and Fido caught them with a yip. “Be careful with those gifts,” Santa warned the decrepit “elves” as they pulled the presents underground. “Oh, and do mind your manners if there are any children around when you pop in. Especially you, Fido. If a kid catches a glimpse of you, it might put them off dogs forever. Gift cards too.”
[Note to bloghoppers-Aside: So just a reminder…Jessica’s’s Flash Fiction is the sixth entry into the Creepfest Challenge…Let me know what you think of it and check back here tomorrow for the sixth offering as you are going to help pick the winning Creepfest author at the end of the tour. Please let me know, in your comment below, how you rate this sixth story, in the challenge, by the wickedly, imaginative Jessica McHugh out of 5 stars (5 = Brilliant).]
2.) On Santa’s list this year, would you be naughty or nice? Tell me three ways yougot on to either the naughty or the nice list.
Except for all of the holiday flash horror in which I’ve killed Santa, I think I’ve been pretty nice this year. Or I just haven’t been especially naughty. I drank lots of champagne, but not excessively. I ignored an annoying co-worker instead of bitching about her. And I set aside my writing many times when my husband needed a good cuddle.
3.) Who is your favourite villain in a classic fairy-tale and why? I do love the cannibalistic witch from the Hansel and Gretel story just because I find it incredibly clever to use a candy house as bait. However, you’d think someone that clever wouldn’t lean so far into the oven… Oh well, I imagine she had a good run.
4.) If you were a character in “The Christmas Carol”…who would you be and why? I’d prefer to be “Fozziwig” from “The Muppet Christmas Carol” because I like to party hearty and I laugh at my own jokes.
5.) What gift would you leave under the tree if you were the Christmas Grinch? A huge bottle of wine one must drink entirely to read the note at the bottom which says, “You’re working tomorrow. Merry Christmas.”
Jessica McHugh is an author of speculative fiction that spans the genre from horror and alternate history to epic fantasy. A prolific writer, she has devoted herself to novels, short stories, poetry, and playwriting. She has had ten books published in three years, including “Rabbits in the Garden”, “The Sky: The World” and the first three installments in her “Tales of Dominhydor” series. More info on Jessica’s speculations and publications can be found at JessicaMcHughBooks.com.
Thanks for that sneak peak into your imaginative mind Jessica…I am not going to be able to look at elves in the same way again…what did I hear someone say they are made up? Wash your mouth out…as Jessica has just shown, even if you cannot see them, does not mean they don’t exist! Happy Creepfest and Merry Christmas Jessica! 🙂
The Reader Challenge
~13/12 – 23/12~
I am going to ask you a question and you are going to answer it in the comments. Only 1 entry per person is allowed. However, to be eligible you need to:
after all this is done: tweet that you have been visited by#GhostofCreepmasPast and tag me @AuthorKimKoning
Also make sure that you are hopping to the other blogs in this #Creepfest Blog Tour
These 5 tasks will make your entry eligible for the prize.
~~~~~~
So drumroll…Here is the question challenge.
Question: The Ghost of Creepmas (Creepfest’s Christmas) Past is making a house call and this week he is visiting your house. He takes you back through time to your worst Christmas Nightmare. (This can be real or imagined.) Tell me about it in 200 words (max).
~~~~~~
I will choose a winner and a runner-up on the 24th. The winner will win an ebook copy of Tales for Canterbury + $10 Amazon voucherThe runner-up will win a $10 Amazon voucher.For more info on Tales for Canterbury (which includes my debut short story “The Ring of Fire), click below…
A fantastic anthology of 34 talented authors including: Neil Gaiman, Jeff Vandermeer, Jay Lake, Sean Williams along with others. (Includes my debut short story - a YA dystopian "The Ring of Fire)
Kim Koning 