Gome World

Tips on writing in the Gomeworld Universe

I am working with several middle school and high school classes to help them to create their own fiction.  For some we are going to try to create several short stories involving existing or brand new characters (gomes, humans, or otherwise) and put them together as an anthology.  The most successful of these projects will be published by Orchard House Press so that these budding young authors can get to see their own fantasy fiction appear in print.  Here are a few tips that I give to anyone wanting to try to write good fiction:

Characters: 

Make your characters memorable and authentic.  A good way to do this is to ask yourself a lot of questions about the character and force yourself to answer them so that you have an in-depth understanding of what they are really like.  Here are some suggestions:  http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/07/detailed-charac.html

Don't have too many characters in any scene or your readers will get lost.

Give the main "good guy/good gal" character (the protagonist) some vulnerability.  Someone who is rich, beautiful, handsome, smart, athletic, thoughtul, and flawless is boring and hard to get your readers to relate to.

Plot line:

Have some conflict develop (an unpleasant surprise for the protagonist, for example) and resolve it in a surprising and satisfying way.

Start with a "bang."  I describe this in more detail here http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/11/creating-a-memorable-opening-scene.html

Have a "boffo" finish.  I have no idea what "boffo" actually means but a great literary agent who used to work with me used that phrase.  She said that if you are writing "commercial fiction" (stories that you want lots of people to buy and read) then no matter how exciting or compelling the story has been for the first three quarters of the book the finish has to be even more exciting and amazing so that your readers are left breathless by the end and eager to find more of your stories to read!

Key elements/golden rules:

Write about something you know.  That way the details will be more authentic and believable.

Describe scenes in all five senses.  I give a few examples here http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/07/describing-scen.html

Don't throw in irrelevant details, or have too many side trips and detours.  http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2007/06/side_trips_and_.html

Other considerations:

If you include any of the existing characters from the Gomeworld Universe try to make their behavior and conversation be in line with what your readers have already encountered.

If you create a new gome character follow the rules of the Gomeworld Universe (which I detail in the various Gomeworld Universe Sourcebooks)  http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2009/01/gomeworld-sourcebooks.html

If you are writing as a group (like a class project, for example) consider writing around a similar theme (The worst school trip ever, the Science class that went wrong, A summer vacation to remember, etc.).  That way your anthology of stories will seem more professional and well thought out.

Have FUN writing.  Although some aspects of creative writing are hard work (editing, checking for spelling and grammar mistakes, re-reading your first draft, reading it out loud to friends, re-writing to make it more clear, getting rid of unnecessary words, editing it again...) the whole point is to create something that a stranger will enjoy reading.  If you get excited about your story it increases the chances that your readers will get exctied about it, too!

The Birth of Another set of Triplets!

One of the most exciting parts of writing a new story is to see the cover designs.  All of a sudden the story that was in your head has the look and feel of a real book.  You can see what it is going to look like and can imagine people holding it in their hands and enjoying it.  It really comes to life.  And since my second adventure with Finn, Hadley, and their scruffy, rude, bad-tempered companion Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome is another trilogy it feels as though I am giving birth to another set of triplets!  EJ Angel, the cover design artist for my books has an exuberant style.  She reads the stories and then asks me to list some of the most memorable scenes or events in each book.  She then designs a vibrant abstract collage that merges those images together.  Finally she superimposes the faint image of a grumpy and enigmatic rock creature in the corner.

The title of the story is Twilight Cave but you won't know why until the second book in the series.  Book 1 is called The Scourge of Catalonia.  Catalonia is a region of Spain in the northeast of the country close to France.  The great Mediterranean city of Barcelona is in the heart of Catalonia and the story opens with a dramatic scene in Parc Guell, a wonderful place featuring lots of mosaic sculptures designed by the famous Catalonian architect, Antoni Gaudi.  Gaudi also designed the massive cathedral, Sagrada Familia which was started being built over a hundred years ago and is not finished yet!  Much of the story takes place in a rich country estate called Segovia with a white mansion surrounded by olive groves and vineyards.  I hope you like the cover of this book which captures images from all of these places and has a feel of whimsical artwork and bright summery Mediterranean light.

In the story Finn, Hadley, and a group of kids from the Magnolia Academy of Arts and Science (MAAS) are invited to spend a couple of weeks at the Segovia estate which is owned by a rich Spanish art collector and sculptor called Baltazar Mendoza.  During their stay some of the kids are taken on a caving trip in some of the amazing limestone caves underneath the mountains near Montserrat.  During this caving trip Finn disappears and the adults believe that he is dead.  It turns out that he has been captured by some evil gomes who take him deep underground to the great gome city of Barcelunda. 

If you want to learn more about Twilight Cave; The Scourge of Catalonia (Book 1) and hear me read the opening chapters go to:

http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/03/the-scourge-of.html

Book 2 is called The Depths of Barcelundaand for the cover of this story EJ created a very different feel.  Barcelunda is a very dark, smoky, scary place.  There are long tunnels and boreholes with stalactites and stalagmites.  Everything is gray and smoky.  Evil magicians create potions in little glass bottles.  Certain sections of the city are kept behind massive iron gates.  Where the city comes close to the cliffs at the edge of the mountains the pale light of the moon filters in to create an eery twilight feel to the place.  I hope you like the cover of this book which I think captures the atmosphere of Barcelunda very well.

Although the grown ups think that Finn has fallen to his death in a big sink hole in the cave, Hadley and her Catalonian friend, Alina, are sure that he is still alive.  With the help of Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome they set off to try to find where Finn is being held prisoner.  It turns out that the gomes are feeding Finn sludgy mud and poisonous drugs to try to turn him to stone.  In a very elaborate two stage ceremony the gomes will then bring Finn's petrified body to the remote and desolate Island of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland where they plan to smash him to smithereens at the Great Standing Stones of Calanais.

If you want to learn more about Twilight Cave; The Depths of Barcelunda (Book 2) and hear me read the opening chapter go to:

http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/03/the-depths-of-b.html

In Book 3, The Weird of CalanaisHadley, Alina and Wullie need to travel to The Island of Lewis to try to prevent Finn from being destroyed.  They meet up with Wullie's best friend Alexander Clambucket Targomshie of Calanais (Big Sandy to his friends) to seek out the great gome-witch Mhairhidgh Dubh (which, of course, is pronounced Varry Doo).  Mhairhidgh Dubh gives then a potion that might re-direct the power of the Barcelundan sludge that has petrified Finn.  But to make that potion the witch requires them to accomplish three tasks...

The cover of the book shows the mountains and rocky waterfalls of the Scottish islands along with a sinister castle in the background.  In the foreground are treacherous peat bogs and the enigmatic Standing Stones of Calanais that were raised over five thousand years ago, long before the great pyramids of Egypt.  The bird in the top right hand corner is one of the most feared of all the bird predator; Catharacta Skua, the Great Skua, known by locals as the bonxie.  A pair of these fierce birds guard Varry Doo's layer.

If you want to learn more about Twilight Cave; The Weird of Calanais (Book 3) and hear me read the opening chapter go to:

http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/03/the-weird-of-ca.html

Weird and wonderful Catalonian food

When Hadley and her classmates take a tour of Barcelona in Twilight Cave: The Scourge Of Catalonia (Book 1) the unpleasant Mrs. Holstein and her suck-up teacher's pet, Tiffany Kistlebutt make interesting choices for lunch:

"Why don't you watch me order, children, and then you can learn something.  Ah, Pescaditos Frito.  That will be small pieces of fried fish, I expect.  Like fish sticks.  I shall have those..."

I don't think that this was what Mrs. Holstein had in mind.

...a large pile of tiny fish; two inches long, dipped in batter, and then fried whole.  You could still see their little fins, their little tails, and their beady little eyes looking up at you from the plate.

Tiffany Kistlebutt was sure she could do better:

"Let me try to translate this one, Mrs. Holstein.  I think it says "Fish and Potatoes - a Catalonian specialty."  I expect that will be their version of fish and chips."

  Tiffany's meal was also not what she had in mind:

A large chunk of tough-looking cod, complete with wrinkly skin and bones sticking out, sat on top of a piece of bread floating in a yellow oily broth in which several boiled potatoes and some pieces of hard-boiled egg floated.  Tiffany pushed herself back from the table, and looked as though she was going to be sick.  Hadley felt like her own day was steadily improving.

Both of these were meals that I tried when I visited Barcelona.  I must admit that they were NOT my favorites!  I also did not like the pile of rubbery pieces of Cuttlefish:

But don't get me wrong, most of the food that I ate in Barcelona and the surrounding area was absolutely delicious.  The descriptions that I give of the preparations of tapas in the kitchens of Casa Segovia were based very closely on some of the wonderful meals.

Alina arranged mushrooms, baby squid, olives, chunks of cod or pork and cherry tomatoes on a skewer, rolled it in smoked paprika, and then put it on a platter to pass to one of the cooks... Someone pulled from the oven a tray stacked with baked onions stuffed with spinach and pine nuts, and roast aubergines with goat cheese and anchovy fillets.  The salty, oily smells made Alina's mouth water.  On the table behind her someone was slicing Catalonian black sausage and laying slivers of smoked eels on top of toasted bread with a scoop of fig marmalade piled on top of that.  And on the nearby stove one of the other teenage girls was stirring pots containing all the wonderful sauces that got poured over the tapas before they were served.  Alina could smell plum sauce, the fiery tomato allioli for the toast potatas bravas, and a tangy green puree of lentils and garlic.

If you get a chance to visit Barcelona be sure to go to a Tapas restaurant and sample a few of the amazing dishes that they produce.  Although some of them may be weird, most all of them are wonderful

I do love wacky sculptures!

Although I sometimes make fun of weird modern art in my books I hope you can tell that I really love art of all sorts.  Good art is meant to surprise you or make you think differently about something or make you see a detail about something that you didn't realize before.  Even art that seems to provoke unpleasant feelings is doing a useful service to you by making you think more deeply about why you have that reaction.  The emotional connection that humans have with rock and metal that has been carved into shapes for a practical purpose or for an artistic purpose is one of the themes that I explore in my Gome stories.  So I had a lot of fun describing the sculpture garden in the grounds of Casa Segovia in Twilight Cave: The Scourge Of Catalonia (Book 1).  I got the inspiration by looking at some of the magnificent and fantastical sculptures that I saw around Barcelona.  some of these are very traditional and classical, like cherubs, or naked gods holding boats or baskets of fruit on their heads or backs while babies crawl over them...

    With other more modern sculptures it is sometimes hard to tell what the artist had in mind.  The Catalonian sculpture Joan Miro seems to have liked birds a lot because a lot of his sculptures have birds in their titles although he is not all that good at carving things that look much like birds!

   

The big tall colorful one in the paddling pool is very famous and is called "Woman and Bird."  Hmmmm...  I think that he must have got frustrated by his art sometimes and just got mad.  Here are three paintings that are shown in his museum in Barcelona that just look like he threw three pots of black paint at the wall:

In fact I am quite sure that that IS what he did!  What do you think they look like?  What about the big black thing with the hole in its middle standing behind the man in the art gallery?  Do you think that is meant to be a space alien or someone who is just very hungry?  Can you give it a title?

What is your favorite sculpture?  I'd love to see what drawings or carvings or clay sculptures that you come up with.

The imaginary decadence of Segovia

In Twilight Cave: The Scourge Of Catalonia (Book 1)  Finnley, Hadley, and their class mates from the Magnolia Academy of Arts and Sciences are taken on a trip to visit the magnificent country estate of Baltazar Mendoza, a famous Spanish art collector.  The estate, surrounded by olive groves and vineyards is called Segovia and is a complete figment of my imagination.  When I visited Barcelona a few years ago I was impressed with the rocky mountains near the monastery of Montserrat.  I thought that this would be a great

place to set a grand estate where a mysterious and powerful stranger could show the children some of the amazing delights of this region of Spain.  I found inspiration for the huge mansionof Casa Segovia when I visited the National Museum of Art of Catalonia in Barcelona.  This grand building with its neat terraces and sculptures is filled with hundreds of rooms and stairways where it would be easy to get lost.  There are lots of amazing pieces of art but I have to tell you that once you have seen four or five paintings of unhappy looking bearded men standing in front of their horses with dogs lying at their feet all the pictures begin to look kind of the same!  However, the building itself gave me ideas for Casa Segovia. My description of the ballroom in Casa Segovia where the American visitors are given a welcoming reception was based on the magnificent interior of MNAC (Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya).

The ballroom at Casa Segovia was the grandest room Alina had ever seen.  The floor of polished green granite shimmered all around her like she was walking across a frozen pond.  Tall marble columns supported high arches, balconies, and alcoves where statues of naked gods stared down critically from above.  Higher still, in the domes ceiling, colorful frescos depicted Catalonian workers fighting for their freedom.  Lights shone down in thick golden shafts that angled through the air from recessed windows.  It sparkled off the crystal chandeliers and made rainbow patterns that danced above Alina's head.

The magic of Sagrada Familia

In the heart of the city of Barcelona you will come across a contruction project like nothing else you have ever seen.  The enormous cathedral of Sagrada Familia will be regarded as one of the great wonders of the modern world when (and some people would say IF!) it is ever finished.  The project was started over 100 years ago when the Catalonian artist and architect Antoni Gaudi was alive.  Gaudi loved to give his buildings curves and features that reflected the living world and so it looks very different from most cathedrals built hundreds of years ago.

In Twilight Cave: The Scourge Of Catalonia (Book 1) Hadley is taken on a tour of Barcelona that includes a visit to Sagrada Familia with her school class.  Although most of her classmates are quickly bored Hadley is astonished at the strange and moving carvings all over the cathedral:

    Hadley finds it mesmerizing to stare up at some of the strange sculptures carved above the four entrances to the cathedral.  One of these is a green cypress tree covered in white marble doves of peace.  As Alina looks at this she is suprised to see that one of the white doves begins to move all by itself.  Her friend Alina is the only other person who sees this.  The white marble dove moves away from where it was sitting and disappears behind the tree.  Where the dove had been sitting a small cloud of greenish yellow smoke rises up which reminds Alina of the cloud that was left when the evil gome Desperandum stole another Gaudi sculpture from Parc Guell.  Here is a picture of the cypress tree and the doves:

I hope that the pictures in this and other weblog posts give you a better sense of what the city of Barcelona is like.  If you ever get a chance to visit Barcelona then I advise you to take it.  It is a very exciting city with lots of interesting things to see and great food to eat.

Desperandum-The-Great

If you enjoyed meeting Bluebeard-The-Pit-Bing-Gome in Blackhope Scaur, and thought that he was scary wait till you meet Desperandum-The-Great.  He appears in the first chapter of Twilight Cave: The Scourge Of Catalonia (Book 1).  I got the inspiration for this character when I visited Barcelona a few years ago and was surprised to see how much graffiti was scrawled everywhere in the city.  When I visited Parc Guell there was even graffiti on random rocks lying on the ground.  I imagined that for a gome spending time in Barcelona it would come in handy to be covered in graffiti so that you could blend in...

Throughout the city there is graffiti scrawled on anything that stays still ong enough to get the attention of the "tag artists."  Store fronts, the sides of vans, yellow post boxes... I even saw graffiti on a cactus leaf!  

Desperandum may look like an ugly and uninteresting rock when he is lying around but as Alina discovers he can do some amazing things:

A split appeared at one end of the graffiti rock and formed two sturdy legs.  The rock walked stiffly to where the tortoise lay on its side, put a hand under the tortoise's shell, and began dragging the entire sculpture towards the park gates a few feet away.  The power and strength of this "living rock" was quite terrifying... the creature began to change shape again.  The top third of its body grew a little taller and thinner.  It seemed a little less stiff, a little more fluid, like soft clay wobbling on a potter's wheel.  It began to move directly towards Alina, its cold yellow eyes never leaving her face.  The middle part of the creature's body became thicker, and seemed to quiver with excitement and anticipation.  It seemed in no great hurry; confident and complacent as it moved closer and closer.  A rippling wave fluttered up and down its length in a rhythmic pulse that turned Alina's blood cold.  When it was about ten yards in front of her Alina thought she could see an evil yellow smile forming in the rocky surface below its eyes.  It slowly arched its back, threw back its head, and opened its mouth... And then it spat.

If you would like to hear me reading the opening chapter of Twilight Cave: The Scourge Of Catalonia (Book 1)  where I describe this scene with Desperandum go to this weblog posting: http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/03/the-scourge-of.html

Alina Joanna Llimona

In Chapter 1 of Twilight Cave: The Scouorge Of Catalonia (Book 1) we are introduced to this spirited young woman who has grown up among the poor working people in Barcelona.  When we meet her she has sneaked into Parc Guell in the evening when the tourists have gone and the park is deserted (... or so she thinks).  She practices her soccer skills among the strange cloistered walkway designed by Antoni Gaudi.  Here is a picture of it. Here is a description of Alina from Chapter 1: 

Slim and willowy, with olive skin, she moved through the city streets unnoticed.  Her honest brown eyes were often downcast or hidden behind her long black hair.  She wore the uniform of Barcelona street kids - scuffed up sneakers, baggy Capri pants and a cut-off T-shirt in the blue and red stripes of F.C. Barcelona, with the number 10 of her hero Gerardhino on the back.  Just another unremarkable alley kid, unloved and unnoticed.  but on the soccer field all that changed.  Alina could move with such grace, change direction so silently and deceptively, that her friends called her Fantasma, the Catalunyan word for ghost.

Alina discovers thieves trying to steal one of the famous and much-loved Gaudi sculptures from Parc Guell.  Here are a few pictures of Parc Guell to give you a sense of what it is like:

   

The view from the top of Parc Guell out over the city to the distant Mediterranean Sea beyond is amazing.  The beauty of Parc Guell contrasts with the squalid alley where Alina lives with her frightened mother and her ugly and evil Uncle Ramon Vasquez.  It is amazing how quickly the scene can change in Barcelona from the beautiful public spaces to alleys that are filled with smelly garbage and mangy dogs:  Here are a few pictures of those:

  As Alina runs away from the danger and tries to get back to her apartment in the alley off Del Carme she runs through the old part of town called the Barri Gotic.  Here is a picture of what this looks like, although it is a lot less scary during the day when it is filled with happy tourists than when Alina has to run through it at night time:

  If you would like to hear me reading the opening chapter of Twilight Cave: The Scourge Of Catalonia (Book 1) you can go to this weblog posting:

http://gomeworld.typepad.com/gome_world/2008/03/the-scourge-of.html

Discovering Barcelona

The second trilogy of Wullie-The-Mahaar-Gome stories, Twilight Cave takes place in the Catalonian region of Spain in the city of Barcelona and in the mountains in the countryside near Montserrat.  I know that when I am reading a story I love to be taken to an exciting or exotic place where I have never been before and fell as if the author is painting a vivid enough picture that I can imagine being there.  When I visited Barcelona and the surrounding region of Catalonia a few years ago I couldn't resist the idea of setting one of my stories there.  Barcelona sits on the Mediterranean coast on the north east of Spain.  The city just fizzes with life.  The broad street called La Rambla boasts that it is the world's most exciting street.  Although cars and scooters rocket up and down a narrow path on either side the center of La Rambla is a broad pedestrian walkway with tourist stalls, entertainers, "living statues," con artists, booths selling food and with quaint alleys leading off into other parts of the city.    Nothing gets going in Barcelona until about 10 or 11 in the morning.  People have lunch in the late afternoon and things only really get lively after 9 o'clock at night.  On warm summer evenings it is wonderful to wander the streets and smell the heavenly spices from food being prepared in the cafes and restaurants.  When I visited with my family we tried to do some sightseeing in the late morning and early afternoon before it got too hot and then we came back to our little apartment in an alley off Del Carme to have a quiet "happy hour" in the air-conditioned living room before setting out for a delicious meal of tapas (small dishes of delicious food, like appetizers, that you can share with friends).

There is so much to see in Barcelona.  We loved Parc Guell so much that I had to begin the story, Twilight Cave: The Scourge Of Catalonia (Book 1) in Parc Guell.  The wacky sculptures and architecture designed by Antoni Gaudi give the place a playful fairy tale feel to it but as you will find out in Chapter 1 this very quickly turns into a nightmare for Alina, one of the new characters in the story.  Although Alina has been born and raised in Barcelona she finds herself fleeing for her life through the dangerous streets into the Barri Gotic district.     In a later chapter both Alina and Hadley spend a day in Barcelona during the daytime when things seem a lot less scary although they still find weird things happening to them.  They see the tourist buses and police cars which all look rather strange to Hadley.  They visit the amazing cathedral, Sagrada Familia, that is still being built after 100 years.  When it is finally finished it will probably be considered one of the wonders of the modern world.  Even half-built it is an amazing sight.  Here are a few more pictures of Barcelona.   

  I hope that you will enjoy exploring Barcelona with Hadley, Alina and me by reading Twilight Cave.  If you ever get a chance to go visit Barcelona for yourself you should jump at it.  It is one of the world's most exciting and intersting cities.

The Inscrutable Jade-Tsi-Dong

In Twilight Cave: The Depths Of BarcelundaHadley and Wullie must travel deep underground to try to find and rescue Finn who they believe is being held in a jail in the vast and dangerous gome city of Barcelunda.  Luckily they meet a few old friends of Wullie amidst the thousands of hostile gomes and humans in the city.  One of these is the master magician, Jade-Tsi-Dong.  Here is how Hadley first meets him:

As she approached the high wooden counter Hadley could not see Jade-Tsi-Dong at first.  Wullie, who had clambered up onto the counter at Hadley's head height, was addressing himself to a silk and bamboo parasol that seemed suspended in mid-air behind the counter.  but just as Alina joined her the parasol moved up and away so that the girls found themselves staring face-to-face with the strangest gome they had ever seen.  Like a pale green icicle his thin pointed body glistened with a polished shine.  A sky-blue silk robe flowed behind him.  The parasol appeared to be attached to the back of the robe to shade his eyes, which shone with a penetrating yellow glow from within narrow slits in his face.  A long nose and turned down mouth completed the picture of sad intelligence.  his arm, hands, and fingers were long and thin.  In one he held a small mallet; in the other a small chunk of brown rock.  Hadley had never been face-to-face with a gome whose face was at the same height as her own.

Jade-Tsi-Dong is a fierce and scary character who rarely smiles and does not seem to be very nice to Hadley and Alina but he is a loyal friend of Wullie's and helps them tremendously with some magic potions.  Here he is at his workbench:  

You will see more of Jade-Tsi-Dong in the story I am working on right now.  It is called Chondrite Vaultand takes Finn, Hadley and Wullie on an adventure that goes from a remote Scandinavian island back in time to ancient Peru...