Time. An interesting concept. Why is that you sometimes have too much and then sometimes not enough? Another question might be why, when you have time, is it usually not possible to do stuff you didn't have the time for when you didn't have enough time? Now I sound like the Saskias, that's Saskiaspeak in a nutshell. Ok. A for-instance. The blog hasn't been updated for a while. The reason for this is that I've been working at the day job. Now the day job (in TV production for those of a nosy disposition) is all hurry up and wait - frantic activity spaced out by periods of doing nothing. So why not write the blog in the doing nothing bits? A couple of reasons, one being that you can get called to do something at a moments notice and so lose track of what you want to say, and second, I don't have the computer, internet connection etc etc etc. So the poor old blog has to wait. 'Course, the Saskias wouldn't have this sort of trouble. If they don't have time for stuff they just get Voice to shift them back in time a bit and do the same period all over again. What a pity we can't all do that - but then on the other hand - think of the chaos it would cause. No. I'll leave it to the Saskias, thanks all the same. And the title? If I'd called it History, I'd have had Stephen Hawking's heavy mob after me!
Ian B
Thursday 26 September 2013
Saturday 14 September 2013
A pair of Chandlers
No, not the people who sell you bits of rope and stuff for your boat (if you have one, you'll know what I mean), but the surnames of characters in books. Specifically in my two series of books, the Saskias and Lisa, Jody, and Holly. Anyone whose actually read both series (or even some of the short stories on the websites) will know that there's Saskia Chandler - and then there's Lisa Chandler.
Is the name Chandler special to me? Do I know anybody actually called Chandler? The answer is 'no' to both questions. So what's going on? Are the two characters related? Again, the answer is 'no'.
The 'Lisa' series was begun many years ago in a hotel room in Amsterdam on a day off from working on televising a series of football matches. I'd been thinking about doing it for quite a while and just decided to have a go. I continued with it when I returned to Manchester, went at it for a while, then had to put it down as other things intruded. Obviously characters need names and Lisa Chandler, Jody Kenyon, and Holly Merrick were born. All three names were more or less random, out of a hat if you like.
I think most of a year, or maybe more, went by before I decided to write anything else, and it wasn't the Lisa series at all. That was about half a book in and was nowhere near the three book trilogy that exists today. What got written was the first part of the Saskia saga. Now, bear in mind that this was only for my own pleasure, to see if I could do it, so to speak. With that in mind I was lazy and gave Saskia the same name as Lisa - as I say - sheer laziness. When I came up for air, I discovered I'd written almost 80,000 words! That's a whole book! Then came the scary idea - what would happen if I tried to get it published. Ok, it needed a bit of mucking about with, but I did that and sent it to some publishers. As you might imagine, I got lots of rejections - until one day near Christmas a couple of years ago I got an acceptance!
Excited at the prospect of maybe becoming a published author, I realised I had most of another book already mostly planned and written - 'Lisa'. That was the point at which I thought up the idea of writing the whole story as three books - each part told by one of the three girls, Lisa, then Jody, then Holly. For a while the keyboard ran hot as the story almost wrote itself. It was only after I'd finished that I realised Lisa had the same name as Saskia. What to do. I couldn't change Saskia, that was already with the publisher (another story altogether - don't ask). The 'Lisa' trilogy was at around a quarter of a million words, I wasn't about to change all that - even with Find and Replace. So I decided to do nothing and left both girls with the same surname. Does it matter? You tell me. I don't think so for one moment, but that's just my opinion.
Ian B
Is the name Chandler special to me? Do I know anybody actually called Chandler? The answer is 'no' to both questions. So what's going on? Are the two characters related? Again, the answer is 'no'.
The 'Lisa' series was begun many years ago in a hotel room in Amsterdam on a day off from working on televising a series of football matches. I'd been thinking about doing it for quite a while and just decided to have a go. I continued with it when I returned to Manchester, went at it for a while, then had to put it down as other things intruded. Obviously characters need names and Lisa Chandler, Jody Kenyon, and Holly Merrick were born. All three names were more or less random, out of a hat if you like.
I think most of a year, or maybe more, went by before I decided to write anything else, and it wasn't the Lisa series at all. That was about half a book in and was nowhere near the three book trilogy that exists today. What got written was the first part of the Saskia saga. Now, bear in mind that this was only for my own pleasure, to see if I could do it, so to speak. With that in mind I was lazy and gave Saskia the same name as Lisa - as I say - sheer laziness. When I came up for air, I discovered I'd written almost 80,000 words! That's a whole book! Then came the scary idea - what would happen if I tried to get it published. Ok, it needed a bit of mucking about with, but I did that and sent it to some publishers. As you might imagine, I got lots of rejections - until one day near Christmas a couple of years ago I got an acceptance!
Excited at the prospect of maybe becoming a published author, I realised I had most of another book already mostly planned and written - 'Lisa'. That was the point at which I thought up the idea of writing the whole story as three books - each part told by one of the three girls, Lisa, then Jody, then Holly. For a while the keyboard ran hot as the story almost wrote itself. It was only after I'd finished that I realised Lisa had the same name as Saskia. What to do. I couldn't change Saskia, that was already with the publisher (another story altogether - don't ask). The 'Lisa' trilogy was at around a quarter of a million words, I wasn't about to change all that - even with Find and Replace. So I decided to do nothing and left both girls with the same surname. Does it matter? You tell me. I don't think so for one moment, but that's just my opinion.
Ian B
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