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Caoimhe McCabe

~ Fantasy/Romance writer with an Irish twist

Caoimhe McCabe

Monthly Archives: July 2014

I used to write fan fiction

27 Sunday Jul 2014

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fan fiction, LOTR, writing

Over ten years ago, back when I was still at university I wrote a 20-something chapter fan-fiction based on Lord of the Rings.

I created an original character and placed her in that world, giving another view of the events in the books. Actually, come to think of it, I created two original characters and had a lot of fun with them as I re-lived the story through their eyes.

To this day, I still get mails from Fanfiction.net with reviews, favourites or story alerts from readers. Funnily enough, these always seem to come in at times when I’m doubting my ability as a writer. They really pick me up when I see them and I go back to the site, using my ancient login and marvel at the number of people who have bothered their collective arses to follow those 20-something chapters through to the histrionic end.

I loved writing it and to this day it might just be the most fun I’ve ever had at a keyboard.

I want to have that same fun when writing now. Having examined my conscience, I think what I loved back then was writing a story that was already well known. There was no need for tedious exposition and descriptions, everyone already knew the world and the characters. All I had to do was give it a fresh take through new eyes. What security! To be writing in a world familiar to and loved by so many.

And now, I create my own and I fear my imagination and descriptive powers are simply not up to the job. Oh well, that’s every writer’s worry, isn’t it? That one’s words will not live up to the worlds in your head.

Ah those magnificent palaces of the mind, how marvellous they seem as you stroll through them in your day dreams. But try to describe them in the waking world and your descriptions fall far short of the magnificence you know is there. And worse, as you age, you get more cynical with yourself, you look back at earlier work and wonder how you could ever have come up with those ideas. You would never think of them now. Settings and plots that would’ve filled me with enthusiasm and excitement then seem trite and childish to me now.

And yet, look at Middle Earth and its enduring appeal. It’s basically rural England with a few dragons thrown in. LOTR is a tale of good versus evil, the basic plot of countless books and films. But decades after publication there are writers all over the world inspired to write fan-fiction just like I did. And the original books still sell in their droves.

Maybe the earlier plots and settings I devised in my youth were not so silly after all, maybe there is something to be said for simplicity and telling a familiar story well.

Maybe I shouldn’t be so hard on myself when I look back on earlier efforts.

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Learning the business

21 Monday Jul 2014

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It’s been two months since I released Faerie Apocalypse and I have to say I have learned an awful lot since then.

I thought I knew it all really.

I’d purchased Catherine Ryan Howard’s awesome Self Printed book and read it religiously, taking notes and referring to it and other internet self publishing gurus like JA Konrath, Hugh Howey, David Gaughran and Lindsay Buroker.

But then you never really think about how much time you’re going to spend on the admin/business side. Honestly, you’d need an assistant to get through all the possibilities/opinions floating around for promotion and getting your little book visible.
I’ve just realised, two months in, how much time I’m wasting on KBoards (though they’re great there!) you can spend so much time surfing the threads and absorbing so much information.

All the chat about Kindle Unlimited in the last few days is a bit depressing as well. Why are Amazon making fish and flesh between trad pubbed and self pubbed authors? Seems a but unfair to me, see this article for what I mean.

I’m not in Select, I’m on D2D and Smashwords (sold 2 copies so far on these platforms – awesome!), but I never expected to sell anything at all, so I’m chuffed I even sold that many there.

I’m coming to the conclusion that the best thing I can do is simply forget about doing any promotion and keeping up with the latest hot new thing in self publishing, in favour of getting on with some writing. I’ve really let that go lately, which is ironic as it’s the reason I ever started on this crazy path in the first place.

So from now on, I’ll try to stay away from the lure of the Kboards and all the various blog updates and try to keep going with Part 2 of Faerie Apocalypse and my little Roman story.

When they’re ready to publish, I’ll do another Bknights promo which netted me 9 sales when I ran it last weekend.

Look not for me on the forums (or should that be fora?), I shall be scribbling away at home instead….

Excerpt from WIP – Chap 2 of Roman and the Goddess

13 Sunday Jul 2014

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fiction, goddess, roman, sample, WIP, writing

Chapter Two

Sadbh knelt on the hut’s earthen floor to examine the bodies more closely.

Pity engulfed her when she saw how young the boys were, not even old enough to grow warrior’s beards. The mournful keening of the mothers filled her ears. Their jagged solo wails and shrieks cut the autumn air with grief, audible through the clamour of an outraged clan outside. Sadbh heard the mothers’ agony as though they keened for her ears alone. It was overwhelming, the tearing pain of loss as a future was ripped from the woman who’d given it birth. Sadbh blew out a long breath and drew another in an effort to slow her heart’s racing.

The cruel wounds inflicted in a style she knew all too well stirred memories of an old loss to the surface. Her vision blurred and then darkened as a wave of panic crashed over her. Not here, not in the land of Eire, dear goddess, let it not be so.

The Morrigan’s divine presence threatened to come to the fore as it always did in times of great distress. Black wings beat at the edges of her mind, a rage that no mortal could ever hope to bear began its corrosive journey through her veins. Sweat ran down her back as Sadbh exerted every drop of mortal strength she possessed to keep the goddess from taking control. Over the years she’d learned how to stop the Morrigan from using her as she saw fit and sometimes, if Sadbh caught the onslaught in time, she could force the divine presence back into its customary place deep inside her heart.

There must be vengeance!

There will be, my goddess, with you by my side, the guilty cannot hope to avoid it.

After a few moments of intense effort, the tide of the Morrigan’s great strength receded within her and Sadbh set about her duty.

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