How Ruby Ransome Started

I don't remember exactly how the idea came to me, but one evening about 11 years ago and change, I started thinking: Wouldn't speakeasies make the perfect cover for vampires?  And then of course the next idea that followed was, wouldn't the mob make the perfect cover for vampires?

I've always been fond of vampire stories, ever since I discovered Anne Rice in my teens, so it occurred to me that something like the 1920s would be perfect for disguising vampire activity.

I started researching, and the more I learned about the culture and the politics of the 1920s, the more I could envision vampires running everything behind the scenes.

That was earlier in 2011.  I started writing the novel earlier in the year, and I think I had around 30,000 words when I started NaNoWriMo later that year.  I finished the novel off with an additional 50,000 words that November.

I've been thinking about all this again because of my plans of reviving Ruby Ransome this November.  I still need to start reading through the original novel and refreshing my memory on both the story, and all things 20s.  These details used to all live in my brain, and I'm sure they're still there somewhere, but it's going to take some excavation to help me remember it all again!

Will Ruby Make a Reappearance This November?

I wrote the first draft of Ruby Ransome back in 2011, an entire decade ago.  It's hard to believe it was so long ago.  I started the novel earlier in the year and wrote the final two-thirds of it during NaNoWriMo that year.  The following year, I wrote the second novel, even though I still had yet to edit the first one.

I have struggled with revisions of the first novel over the years, and have had some thoughts of what I want to do with the second novel, and whether I want to have a novella set between them.  About five years ago, I shelved revisions of the first novel semi-permanently when I realized that I wanted to rewrite a significant portion of the novel.  Some time later, I had a revelation about why the novel didn't seem to "work" in some parts: I had the main characters' motivation all wrong, and was still trying to force through the events I wanted, and I could tell in rereading the novel.

So I need to rewrite huge portions of the novel, if not all of it.  The main plot points of the novel will largely stay the same, but the character motivation will be entirely changed, in a way that makes the events seem much more believable.

I've been thinking about Ruby a lot lately, as I've been working on some of my other websites, and in doing so, have been looking at this one.  I realized that next year will be 2023 - a hundred years after the year Ruby's first novel takes place.  (I have plans to make the series span the remainder of the decade.)  It would be incredibly fitting to publish the first novel in 2023.

I've always planned on self-publishing Ruby Ransome in order to maintain creative control, so it's not unfeasible to get a novel ready to go sometime between now and next year.  It would, however, take a substantial commitment of time between now and then.

Can I do it?  Probably.  A year is a fair bit of time, and should be plenty long enough to rewrite the novel, revise, and get all the self-publishing things into place.  It'll probably require setting some goals and sticking to a timeline.

With that being said, I am strongly considering starting the rewrite of Ruby during NaNoWriMo this year.  In order to make it work, I will need to be ready to write come November 1st.  That means I have a lot of work to do before then, though, as I will need to read through the existing novel, review my research materials, and reacquaint myself with Ruby's world.  I may need to consider rereading some of the books I read while researching, too.

With any luck, Ruby will be making a reappearance here soon!

Ruby on hiatus

I know, it's been a long time since I've updated this blog.  But I haven't forgotten about Ruby... just got a little distracted while trying to tell her story.

I'll be changing web hosts here soon, hopefully, so my site will go through some down time.  Hopefully it won't last too long!  I have hopes of getting back to work on Ruby's story later this year.

Ruby Ransome revived

I've had somewhat of a hard time working on Ruby's story regularly.  I'm midway through revisions on my rough draft of the first novel, and I really need to finish... but revisions are haaaard, and I'm having trouble staying focused long enough to see one round of revisions all the way through.

I have a lot of my own projects I am struggling to find time for, actually, so this year for NaNoWriMo I chose to work on other projects -- anything, really, as long as I was working on something of my own (rather than client work) every day.  It's gone fairly well, but it's had an interesting effect.

Action heroines in history

Who doesn't love tough heroines like Furiosa in Mad Max?  Believe it or not, though, 100 years ago women didn't have to fight for screen time.  Tough heroines had their own stories and were celebrated in their own rights.

The Forgotten Female Action Stars of the 1910s

For anyone who likes strong heroines and history, you don't have to choose one or the other.

AnomalyCon, Camp NaNoWriMo, and other upcoming posts

It's been a busy spring so far, but after a couple years off, I think I'm finally at a place where I can work on Ruby Ransome again.  I had taken a break from it back in 2013, but I've struggled to find time to write ever since.  I think my heart still lay with Ruby, even if I had become discouraged with my ability to tell her story for a little while.  I just couldn't find the same passion for any other project.

And 'tis the season to pick it up again, after all.  The last weekend in March was AnomalyCon, which always has plenty of writers' panels and other sources of inspiration.  And of course, this month is Camp NaNoWriMo.

Fads of the 1920s

It's Camp time again -- Camp NaNoWriMo, that is.  I'm doing something a little different for Camp this time, though.  Instead of working on a novel, or even trying to finish past projects as I've done before (e.g., my failed attempt at April's Camp NaNoWriMo), I'm going to blog every day.  I have quite a few blogs and I've been slipping on all of them, so my goal will be to write a couple of blog posts a day for all of July.

Which brings me to an article about the 1920s that I've been meaning to blog about for a couple weeks:

4 Forgotten Fads Of The Past