Tell me about yourself. What got you started in writing?
As far as I can remember,
writing has always been a part of my life since high school. Strange ideas for stories would come to me
and I would have write them down; I even remember when I was 15 and submitting
a short story to my teacher called Murdering
the Orient Express about a newspaper called The Orient Express and how a
despicable villain was killing journalists who had stumbled across his
nefarious ways. My teacher enjoyed the
story but wasn't convinced that the content truly reflected on the subject
manner; which was about investigative journalism and what costs are involved with uncovering the truth. That
said, given that I explore the very tiny would of atoms, no one has ever told
me to curb my enthusiasm for a good story and to take it as far as possible.
Some time ago, I self-published a collection
of short stories called Heroes, Monsters and other Miscreants, and although not a best-seller, I enjoyed the experience of actually being
in print.
How and where do you write? Do you prefer a lap top or do you prefer writing
freehand?
I always write at home and begin
plot and character development using freehand as it gives me a storyboard and
far better flexibility to link plots, sub-plots and minor characters; and given
that I am currently working on a sequel to my first novel, I need to do as much
research as I possibly can and interweave science into a novel primarily aimed at
students. Once the ideas have borne
fruit, I then use a laptop for the actual story.
What's your favorite part about
writing? Your least favorite part about writing?
Writing allows me to challenge myself and my imagination and this is truly
the magical part for any writer; the way a simple idea can be transformed to
your very own piece of art much like a sculptor can make a lump of clay into a
masterpiece. I don’t really have
anything that could be classed as my least favorite aspect of writing; however,
when I find my story with no logical path to explore, it can be frustrating.
How do you come up with your
characters? Why would readers want to get to know them?
I believe that the most important
facet of writing is to create a whole spectrum of characters, whether the
reader is empathetic to their plight or indeed angered by their shameful
actions, I think that character development is the single most important tool a
writer can possess.
What types of marketing do you do
to promote your writing?
As atoms, my first novel, has only just been completed, this is a
whole new experience for me; that said, I want to get my story out there to the
widest audience I can and for the readers to see what the exciting world of
atoms can be.
How do you schedule your writing
time? When do you write?
I write whenever I
can, whether it be one short chapter or twenty or thirty pages, I write when I
have new ideas or simply just have the urge to tap into my imagination and jot
thoughts down, despite how odd these ideas may be.
What are you currently working on?
Do you have a new book out?
I am currently working
on a new novel titled physika which
is a sequel to my first full-length volume called atoms and I am about half-way through, with the story defined and
the characters from the first novel that have been reintroduced but in a far
more harsh atomic-world than they were when we met them in the first book.
Do you have a project on the back burner? Tell me about it.
I have a couple of ideas that I have begun to
sketch out to develop further once physika
has been completed. One involves a reality
competition of couples who renovate a block of old Georgian (c 1830) apartments
set in central London and broadcast by the competitors themselves as they
transform the old buildings and discover old secrets, but one apartment also
has someone, or something who doesn't want to leave. The idea came from and expression that I feel
fitting for the title: 9/10ths.
What would you tell a beginning
writer who wants to publish but doesn't believe he/she has enough talent?
As my old English teacher once told
me, and I still hold dear to this day: start
small. Start with a small idea and
don’t try and turn it too intricate by introducing an army of characters or
more twists and turns than a roller-coaster and the rest will come easy. Start small, she reminds me in my head,
everyday…every single day.
***
Thank you, Alan!
atoms
by
alan
livingstone
an adventure on a completely different level…
overview
atoms is a completed four part adventure
story of 135,000 words that introduces readers to a whole new world with characters
based on the elemental Periodic Table and with personalities and traits based
on their elemental properties and chemical interactions.
The
characters in atoms are generally
spherical in shape with facial features, arms and hands and orbiting electrons
and they float just above the surfaces in their own little world. The names of
the characters have been chosen based on the atomic abbreviation in the
Periodic Table. Cee-U is the main
protagonist and is a play on Cu, the abbreviation for copper; Plum-bum is a
massive grey lead atom and the abbreviation for lead is Pb given that Plumbum
is Latin for lead. Minor characters also
follow this convention; Little Stevie G is the name given to Steve Seaborgium
and the abbreviation for Seaborgium is Sg;
Ferrous, the loveable iron atom wants to be known as Iron Tyke given the
weakness that Ferrous projects, although the abbreviation for iron is Fe. Name dissections have been employed
principally to introduce female characters with first names such as
Rutherfordium has been dissected as Ruth E. R. Fordium and Molybdenum as Moly
B. Denum. Movement is an important part
of the atoms and there has been a great deal of care taken to avoid verbs and
adjectives to indicate standing, walking and running and instead words such as
float, glide and hover have been used; and rapid movement is described as
scampering, scooting and scurrying. The obvious
exception to these rules are words chosen to describe the movement of the heavy
metal atoms who bounce their way along given their high atomic numbers and
associated weight; and this peculiarity also inevitably leads to their
downfall. The shapes of the characters are
also important and are based on the physical properties that they represent: for
example; Cee-U is the hero of the story and is a brilliant copper coloured
sphere who is resilient to most chemical effects except that he turns green
when exposed to acetic acid which will prove pivotal in his success; Al, the aluminium atom and Cee-U’s best
friend is a rough pyramid of soft metal and prone to dents and creases in his dull
shell; Ferrous (a.k.a. Iron Tyke) the iron atom, is cuboid in shape with a rust
coloured birth mark and Plum-bum, the lead atom is a heavy teardrop shape to
represent his plumpness. This also
applies to the villains of the story, the Heavy Metals; who are generally disfigured
and ugly ellipsoids with distorted gothic or sallow features and include
Plutonium, the barrel-shaped cruel monster with talons for hands, froth coated
tusks and a myriad of crude tattoos emblazoned on his shell. Uranium, who is more cold and calculating than
Plutonium, is a blemish free chrome coloured atom and resembles a thin, smooth upside
down cone with tiny, inadequate electron whizzing around his shell.
atoms differs from all other
stories in this genre by combining both loveable and detestable characters in an
adventurous battle for self discovery; and at the same time, atoms is educational as the
interactions between atoms are explored to deliver a unique learning experience
for the reader. For instance; we witness
the wedding of O, a tiny oxygen atom
who is getting married to the two giant hydrogen sisters and during the wedding
(explained as covalent bonding) it becomes evident that the union produces a
water molecule (H²O). Also, during the procession of atoms going to the wedding
they collide with a giant door that is blocking the way and several unplanned
molecules are created. A small nitrogen
atom collides with three rather large hydrogen ladies and the result is ammonia
(NH3) which causes a burning in the eyes; there are also the three
oxygen brothers on their way to meet up with the scandium sisters but they
suddenly get pressed into on ozone molecule (O3) and vanish in the
atmosphere.
As a
reader we don’t just arrive in the atomic world we must be seen to be examining
it and we are introduced to the tiny world in a prologue as a laboratory
assistant who narrates the events surrounding a failed experiment which leaves
only water and a few basic elements and wonders if we look deep enough surely
there must be something else there.
atoms is divided into four
parts based on experiences during sleep; dreams,
nightmares, awakenings and dark corners.
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