Process and Progress on Alex Van Helsing #3

The AVH Notebook (V. 2)

Not much blogging this week due to Holidays and a lot of work on Alex Van Helsing #3: Whatever It Will Be Called. Here you can see my notebook-- my process basically involves outlining first on paper, then in Excel, then back to paper for individual scenes. Honestly when it comes to real brainstorming it's better for me to use paper.

For instance, you can't really see it but the header there says SECHERON DARK, with dramatic beats underneath, corresponding with the bits of action in the scene. This scene is in (currently) chapter 4 of the first draft. The notes say:

SECHERON DARK

Into town-- body armor

Police lights cutting through the dim-- people milling about

The Docks--

Army of vampires coming up from the water (L. Geneva)-- attacking

a bony horse and the Skull Lady

Vampires with other skull faces covered-- attacking--

ELLE!

Alex saved by the GIRL

"It's Claire."

Claire sends a message

That's for a scene-- scenes need to have dramatic beats and its easiest to write them down. I continue this way, going from electronic to paper outline, throughout the first draft.

Meanwhile I had a quick call with my editor to pick her brain about what to do with some of the characters. A 10-minute call and we're out. The editor is warm but sharp and efficient. We bat some ideas rapid fire and settle on a direction, and each return to our lives.

And on we go. The book is currently 15,000 words into draft 1, and due in February.

The Book Buzz on Alex Van Helsing: for "anyone who likes good adventure"

Over at the Book Buzz, "book fanatic" Jill Bellomy weighed in with a kind review of Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising:

I've grown weary of the vampire mania.... but I heard a lot about it and decided to give it a try.  Boy, am I glad I did!  I loved it!  Mr. Henderson's vampire storyline is fresh & new and filled with delicious literary & historical references.  I just ate it up!  It's a an exciting, suspense-filled adventure that is anything but a Twilight copycat.  One review calls it a "modern-day spin of James Bond meets Dracula" which sums it up perfectly! Fans of Vladimir Tod, Alex Rider, Alfred Kropp, the Young Bond series, or anyone who likes good adventure, try this new series by Jason Henderson.

That does my heart good-- I did realize when Harper Teen and I started this series that we had an uphill battle because of the familiarity of the vampire genre. But just like in courtroom dramas, there is always a new angle. (At least the writer always tries for a new angle, anyway.)


Read the full review here.


Speaking of Harper Teen, no sooner did my kind friends over there sent me a box of Advanced Review Copies of next Summer's release, Alex Van Helsing: Voice of the Undead but that I turned around and passed them out. In this case, I gave out copies to 9 different Texas middle schools, where students in book clubs will get to read the book 8 or so months early, and with any luck can write me some helpful notes in the marginalia. I actually hope they enjoy it, but more than this I'm hoping to get a feel for what's working for them in the series and what's not. It can have a lot to do with the new project, "AVH3," whatever it's going to be called.

In New York and an awesome Alex Van Helsing review at Goodreads

So it's a busy week-- I'm in New York for a conference and visiting a lot of people I work with, a whirlwind of panels and business cards and catching up over lunch. But the evenings are a treat-- last night I went to the Bowery Poetry Club to hear slam poetry, while tonight we're headed to hear an event called The Moth, the recording of stories for that fantastic podcast. Literally, people get up and tell quick, short stories without notes. Fantastic.

We have a new review of Alex Van Helsing over at Goodreads-- the first online review! "Can't wait to read the next installments." This one calls out that it's an adventure book of the kind I used to like to read. That's my goal-- rock-em-sock-em adventure with vampires. What kind of vampire series is this? This is the kind with motorcycles and humvees and secret underground spy complexes.

The review was from an ARC, an advanced review copy, a soft-back version that's available in very limited quantities months before the book comes out. Who makes that possible? A lot of planning from the publisher.

I had the opportunity-- a tremendous gift, given these people's schedules, to get cocktails with my editor at HarperCollins, and I shook hands with a whole army of people who touch the books along the way-- editors, assistant editors, art directors and designers. What does a publisher do? They spend thousands of man hours making the book the best it can be. I get a sense of how seriously they take their work. My work is to churn out the best story I can, and then hope we all get it more or less right.

And I guess we'll see!

A Look at Alex Van Helsing ARCs and an interview with Laura Arnold of HarperTeen

A couple of interesting items today:

First, Inkpop has a very interesting interview with HarperCollins editor Laura Arnold, my own editor on Alex Van Helsing, the series I've been working on but which, of course, hasn't seen the light of day yet.

In the interview, Arnold talks about what must be a maddening part of the job: offering critiques of works in progress. Now, I have to say I've never actually worked with any editor as thorough as Arnold, so I don't know if all of them are this detailed, but you gotta be impressed at the process:

Arnold will often talk about the plot and discuss whether it makes sense, is logical, and moves at a good pace. Then, onto characters. “Are the characters acting in ways that seem consistent with, well, their characters?” Arnold says. “We’ll talk about the voice of the narration: does it feel too young or too old? Is the content of the story in line with the voice and the audience? Later on we’ll work on the details—individual sentences, word choices. I go line by line through the manuscript, and then I send it to the author for his or her review.

It's a thorough, back-breaking process. It's got to be mind-numbing. I've seen massive, three-page, single-spaced critiques. By the time the book sees print, AVH#1 will have been edited more than any work I've ever done-- which, honestly, I'm thankful for. I don't know about other writers, but my favorite part of writing is the big push, laying out heaps and pages of work. The details are every bit as important but I have to be dragged to them. The first one is a sort of art, the second is craft, and craft is work, and you have to compel yourself or be compelled to work. With a good editor, you've got someone forcing you to work.

Mind you, I love the craft. I love the nuts and bolts. But I'm still in awe of how these guys love it more.

Oh, hey- as noted on my official Alex Van Helsing blog:

Check this out-- just got back from Christmas travel and waiting at the front door was a box of Alex Van Helsing: Vampire Rising "ARCs"-- that is, Advanced Review Copies, essentially paperback versions of the upcoming hardback. The typography for the cover is not final-- in fact, there's a big red PROOF label on the cover indicating that nothing whatever about it the book is technically final. But of course it's pretty darn close, because now is that time.

Still and all, Alex's first adventure in print is for the first time in some sort of printed form, and that's pretty cool.