Tag: random thoughts

A multimedia booklike experience

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts, Writing

Ideally, I aim for some kind of cross-media experience to accompany my eventual book releases. I love the idea of artwork, music, and special edition items to go with my work. Pictures of the characters would be an absolute must, and maybe some action scenes or a couple of the more exciting locations drawn up, too. A website where people can download theme music for the different places and people in the stories. Pocket versions of my books where they are printed all small and super cute!

Ambitious, much?

Half of this, I could probably manage with a pile of help from my talented and creative husband (who is an illustrator and songwriter, among other things). Things like the pocket books, and including high quality art prints with sales would be a deal I would have to wrangle with my publisher. And we all know that publishers tend to have their “tried and true” method for making books, and it probably wouldn’t be seen as profitable enough to step outside the boundaries of normal publishing.

But a girl can dream. Goodness, half my profession is made of dreams and fantasy, so what’s another mad idea on top of the rest!

Since I am a big fan of videogames and cartoons/anime, as well as enjoying a good movie, I tend to think of my stories in a very visual mindset. If I had the opportunity to make a graphic novel, or an animated series from my books, I already have all the pictures in my head. To be totally honest, it would make me deliriously happy to animate some of my stories. Maybe one day I’ll put some of my other extensive hobbies on hold and get to work on that kind of project. In the meantime, I’ve still got new books to write, and they are eagerly demanding my attention. And I have nothing wrong with that!

~A

Some kind of bird like paradise

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts

My place of gainful employment is graced with a whole stack of regular wild bird visitors. Seeing animals makes me very happy, and birds have such amusing personalities. I love to stop every now and then, just watching them cavort in the trees or across the lawns.

The locals are the crows, though there are pigeons and doves, seagulls (they come over from the Swan River), mudlarks, willie wagtails, some varieties of sparrow or finch, rainbow lorikeets, twenty-eight parrots (named for their call, supposedly sounding like “twenty-eight”), and gorgeous white cockatoos and red-tailed cockatoos. I’ve also been super blessed to see the resident boobook owl on two occasions!

No, I’m not a bird watcher or ornithologist. It’s animals in general that fascinate me endlessly.

The cockatoos are the most hilarious. They all love to vie for the top-most branches on the trees. These are, of course, also the thinnest and weakest of the branches, so you’ll see the birds swaying back and forth, wings outstretched to maintain their balance, because they will not let got of that prime position in the tree. Cockatoos also love to tear up grass, and you’ll often see them dotting the lawns.

All the parrot-like birds will sometimes hang upside down from a branch. In the cockatoo’s cases, it’s because they really want that branch! When it’s the lorikeets or twenty-eights, it’s usually because something they’re eating is hanging at such an angle, they can only reach it by also hanging downwards. I think two of the lorikeets were checking out one of the hollowed tree branches as a potential nest yesterday!

Today, I kid you not, I saw two crows holding hands. Erm, holding claws. Feet. You know. They were standing side by side, just hanging out, one with its foot curled around the top of its friend. They were very serene. I called out to the crows that I was onto them.

I know what those birds are up to. They’re being birds.

~A

Never write on an empty stomach

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts, Writing

Okay, I don’t know about everyone else, but I get seriously cranky if I haven’t eaten in a while. My mood takes a really sharp decline when my stomach is empty, and considering how much I love food, it’s not surprising that eating has a way of improving my outlook immediately.

Being hungry is super distracting. Not just because I’m thinking about how much I’d like to chow down, but I get vague and even more forgetful than usual (which is a very bad thing). Then there’s the criticism. I get horrendously irritable and critical of everything when I’m hungry. I might not show it outwardly, but I end up kind of resenting things until I’ve had my next meal.

Trying to write when I’m that grumpy is a seriously awful idea. It’s better to just grab a snack and get back to the work later, when I’m riding the food-high.

I won’t turn this into a massive spiel, but I do stop to think about how my situation is so blessed: my food is easy to come by. There are people out there who never know when they will eat next. I like giving to charities, so let me just say, if you can afford to give a dollar, or drop a can of soup into an organisation’s donation box, know that you did make a difference to someone. If everyone who has “enough” can donate just a little, we’ll change the world for the better.

Anyway, I’m heading back to my story now. Here’s to hoping for another 800+ word flash of writing.

~A

Thursday, in space

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts

I have been weird and distracted for the past few days. I haven’t done anything productive, unless we count my semi-constant thoughts about my stories as productivity (which I kind of do and kind of don’t; it’s an integral step in my writing process, but it’s totally invisible and hard to “count”). It might just be the extra hours at my job that’s made me spacey, or it might be the time of year. I’m sleepy and content to just read a lot of books. It’s winter. Pull up a blanket next to the fire and eat apples all day.

I had a brief conversation with the lovely Cynthia Robertson about Western Australia. I don’t consider myself very nationalistic, but I truly love the land here, and there is something special about Australia. I described some of the landscape through our vast state, and it really got me thinking about a recent trip I took down south with some of my family. We drove for several hours through farmland, down into the gorgeous forests that cover the South West with cool, moist greenness. And even though I am making plans to move down there and live among the trees, it was the drive itself which brought up some interesting ideas.

There’s a secret part of me that believes the farmland is what Western Australia really is. It’s not “home” to me, not the way the dense bush is. The farms here are sprawling, dry-fenced yellow fields. We have some of the most unique trees here, growing as tall as they can, and throwing their branches wide at the top, looking almost like something from Dr. Seuss. In contrast to those, we have the short, curling trees; gnarled into a hunched, peeling, claw-like form. They are often scattered through the fields, either dead or dying, barren of leaves either way. Those trees are the melancholy bones of the bush that lived before the farms cleared everything away, laying under the endless blue skies.

I am an environmentalist, which is why my feelings towards the drought-weary hills and huddled cows and sheep come from a hidden place inside me. I am saddened by what humans have made from the world, and I see it here, in my homeland, where the farms have striped those places bare. But it’s so poignant. Driving through the country, you’re very alone, or very together. The harshness of the landscape only leaves room for absolutes. I’m a little bit in love with that part of Australia.

~A

Voice (not the way we usually talk about it)

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts, Writing

“Voice” is a term used in writing to convey the unspoken personality of the author. The part which makes your writing definably and obviously yours. At least, that’s what I think it means. For an industry based 100% around using words, the professionals latch onto some seriously strange lingo at times, so maybe after all this time I’m still misunderstanding what a “voice” is.

But that’s not what I’m interested in talking about. I mean the character’s actual spoken voices.

I’m Australian, born and bred, but I default to a vaguely proper British accent (the Queen’s English) for many of my characters. It could have something to do with the fantasy genre which I write for most frequently; we’re kind of indoctrinated to having medieval fantasy, with British accents on all the characters (especially when pictured in film). It seems to be my standard fall-back option, but it works well enough. It’s different enough from my everyday to be interesting to me.

There have been times where my characters are from a specific real-world location. Those characters always happily exist with their proper accents. Australian, Japanese, or locality-specific locations in the USA (who do have some of the most amazingly varied types of accents I’ve ever experienced, next to the Brits) have made their appearances in some stories.

I think I stick to familiar accents, just for the simplicity of it. As amusing as a Welsh character would be to create and read (I’m looking at you, Jacob), I just have that much more experience with Aussies or Americans.

This, of course, all makes the “read it out loud” part of editing my work into a very humourous exercise. I try to do it privately, to save my family from the bad accents I’m putting on (and save myself the embarrassment!). I’m no voice actor. But I know my character’s voices.

~A

The First Step

Posted on by Ashlee Scheuerman in Thoughts

Looks like I have a blog now!

I will do my best not to ramble too incoherently. This cannot be guaranteed,  because I am known for fits of excitement, impassioned spiels, and I really do like talking about important things (not to be confused with Important Things, which I also sometimes talk about).

Heading off in search of delicious coffee. Come back soon! (that means me, too)

~A