"The Next Big Thing" Blog hop

I like memes.  I really do.  They're an easy blog post, and they give me a good opportunity to talk about one of my favorite subjects -- me.  So go ahead, friendly-friends.  Tag me in all the memes you want. 

Today, it's 'The Next Big Thing' blog hop, courtesy of my excellent Michigan writer buddy, Sarah Perry.  Thanks, lady, and by the way, I noticed the link to Elfhame on your blog.  So double thanks, times two.  (That's right -- exponential gratitude).


Ten Interview Questions for The Next Big Thing:


1. What is the working title of your book?  

"Oneironaut."  I'm not married to it, though.  It's a real term that means 'explorer of the dream world', and while it's a really appropriate title, people seem to be having trouble with it.


2. Where did the idea come from for the book?

I get these amazing lucid dreams when I take naps in the middle of my writing day.  Seriously haunting, tactile, resonant, lucid dreams, where I fly, and float through walls, and change the very laws of physics on impulse.  So I knew had to write a book about them.  Also, I just wanted to write a book where mundane objects have unexpected and extraordinary powers (ever see the miniseries, 'The Lost Room'? -- completely made of awesome).  So that, plus lucid dreaming, equals Oneironaut.


3. What genre does your book fall under?  

Young adult contemporary fantasy, I guess.  Though there's no magic or traditionally 'fantastic' elements.


4. Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

I'm blanking on this one.  I don't really know many actors, or much about Hollywood, in general.


5. What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

A young man crippled by physical and emotional disabilities finds that in the dream world, he's strong and free and powerful, and can take hold of certain objects and carry them into the real world: objects with strange powers.  (If it has to be one sentence, you should expect a lot of conjunctions.)


6. Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?  

Traditionally published, all the way.  I don't know where, and I don't know when, but after fifteen years of hard work and sacrifice, I don't plan to settle for anything less.


7. How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

I'm gonna say eight weeks, though there was a two year delay in the middle.  (While I had an agent and we were messing around with an earlier project).


8. What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?  

The "Dream Catcher" series by Lisa McMann, and The "Dreamhunter Duet" by Elizabeth Knox.  Though these books are very different, they're YA, and they're about dreams.  (Mine has no romance -- actually there's a disturbing lack of female characters in general).


9. Who or What inspired you to write this book?

I typically only get 5-6 hours of sleep per night, so a lot of times, in the middle of my writing day, I take a half-hour to an hour nap. Turns out I've been inadvertantly doing something called 'polyphasic sleeping', which has been shown to increase the incidence of lucid dreaming. So yeah, between that, and the fact that I interrupt the most creative part of my day to sleep, I've always had wild, amazing, kick-ass lucid dreams during my writing-naps. This book pays homage to them.


10. What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

I did a lot of research into dreams, both the psychological and physiological aspects of it, and I like to think that while they're enjoying the story, readers might also learn something from Oneironaut.  Like how to 'lucid dream' for example.  If you've never had a lucid dream... you're really missing out on something amazing.


---------

My 'five' writer-buddy tags:

Vivi Bickell
Monica Murphy
Mary Paddock
Anita Laydon-Miller
Heather Kelly


'Newcomer to Wordslinger' bonus tag:
Terri K Rowe


(and here's what you 'five' writers need to know to participate:)

Rules of The Next Big Thing

***Use this format for your post
***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (Work In Progress)
***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

It's National Novel Writing Month...

...and I'm a contender.  For those who haven't heard of Nanowrimo before,

"National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing on November 1. The goal is to write a 50,000 word, (approximately 175 page) novel by 11:59:59, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved."

 (as quoted from their website, Nanowrimo.org.) 



So we're eleven days into it, and technically I'm 'losing' at this point (note the par-level word-count bar which taunts me daily), but the good news is that I'm finishing one of my older, unfinished stories. And that's my actual goal -- just getting one more on the shelf.  According to Nano's rules, unless you start a new story on page one, you're what they call a 'rogue', so yes... I, Ray Veen, have gone 'rogue'.  But that's not so bad either.  Who minds being called a 'rogue'? Really, that just ups my street cred: "Ray Veen -- Writing Rogue".  Almost as cool as 'Ray Veen -- Wordslinger'.  But I digress.

The reasons I'm posting today are two-fold:

1. To give the thousands of slavering, 'Ray-Veen-obsessed' lurkers out there some idea of where I'm at in my writing.  My official status is thus: cranking out a new project while my last project is out for beta.  Letting it simmer until it's time to do the next round of editing.
2. Trolling for encouragement.  Because if I lose Nano again this year, it'll be my seventh in a row.

All right, slavering lurkers.  Time to not blow up my comment box.