Somnova Studios

Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Fillet of a fenny snake, In the caldron boil and bake; Eye of newt and toe of frog, Wool of bat and tongue of dog, Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting, Lizard's leg and howlet's wing, For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble. Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and caldron bubble. Cool it with a baboon's blood, Then the charm is firm and good. William Shakespeare, Macbeth : IV.i 10-19; 35-38  The season of fear has descended upon us in full strength, howling winds and cold rains (in some places fiercer than in others - keep safe), and with it, Halloween! Ghouls and Goblins and Ghosties, oh my! These may be the final few hours of the holiday proper, but don't think we've forgotten our dues. While we've had a bigger pic for you in mind, I'm afraid you'll have to wait for next year to see it... See, the little demons he...

I am not a professional writer. None of us here are, so we're all -- to some extent -- learning as we go. As part of that learning, I've been reflecting more on my creative process than I have in the past. analane touched on this earlier in the month, but I thought I'd go into more detail regarding one aspect of our job in particular: how do we create our characters? More to the point, how do we figure out who they really are? How do we get to know them? Because that's what you have to do: know your character as though she was your closest friend. Of course, methods will differ between writers. Some maybe take a walk and run over scenarios in their heads, working out how the character would react in each. Others might be inspired by real people and real interactions they experience in their everyday life. The really weird ones might role-play their characters to truly inhabit their skin; I assure you all of us here at Somnova Studios are perfectly well...

The leaves around here are turning all sort of pretty colors. The wind and the rain just don't seem to let up for days at a time. It's autumn, at least in my neck of the woods. I love this time of year, so I'm doing pretty well. But how does the change of season affect Missing Stars? We're a volunteer outfit, and that means we all have lives outside the team. A lot of us are also pretty young, with school starting up again and consuming a lot of what would have been free time. Oddly, though, the last week or so has been the most active, productive period for months. Some of you will be surprised by this; most will probably be shocked it didn't happen sooner, but Somnova has had its first real roadblock, the first major hiccup, the first time I've personally had reason to step back and wonder, "Are we going to make it?" Of course, I'll never know the answer for certain -- not until Missing Stars is released, anyway -- but for now, I'm conf...

It is my belief that there is a moment in every writer’s life when they realize they’re trying too hard. Mine came not when I started work on Missing Stars in mid-January, but on a dreary November long before I “got my shit together"— when I started my love/hate relationship with National Novel Writing Month. In an attempt to write the new science-fiction young adult hit, I decided the best way to do so would be to cram every plot device, every trope, every iota of every sci-fi movie, book, or tv show into one 50,000 word novella.  There was space warfare melodrama (of course), but there was also teen-angst melodrama, sloppily added lesbian melodrama, father/son melodrama, and my personal favorite (only because of how horrible I realized it was later), sad, orphaned children melodrama. The book was a train wreck. But not because I didn’t create each character with care, not because I didn’t spend time drafting scenes, and definitely not because I wasn’t dedicated enough. It wa...