Sunday, January 11, 2009

Empire: After The Fall

So, I've finally figured out the ending of my current WIP. It even has a title! Empire: After The Fall. Hopefully, Empire will become a series for Changeling (although I've planned series before, and after the first book has completely failed to sell, the rest have been cancelled, dammit).

Empire is my post-apocalyptic near future cyberpunk drowned world. The premise is, er, well post-apocalyptic near future cyberpunk drowned world. Okay, okay. The ice caps have melted, and half the world is underwater. Most of the most important cities, built by the sea or on rivers, have disappeared. Treaties, alliances and unions broke down. Nations crumbled. Humans died in their millions. This is referred to, obliquely, as the Fall. It happened a while ago. I don't know when.

(image borrowed from Dragon Cave RP)

Out of the wreckage emerged one superpower. It's known simply as the Empire, and it controls everything. It knows everything. It controls everyone though fingerprint and retinal scans (variable to suit species. Since the world's human population has vastly diminished, it's populated heavily by vampires, werefolk, fae, and various other beasties). Every bit of technology is scanned and recorded.

There have been wars and revolutions against the Empire, but none of them have been successful. Yet.

I'm trying to write a blurb and a cover art request. It's not easy, since the blurb will require some of the above information, vastly condensed, and also some of the incredibly complicated set-up between my tiger-shifter heroine and vampire mercenary hero. Or anti-hero. Or something. See?

Currently, I'm being aided in this by my Empire playlist. It includes: Kasabian: Empire (naturally); Vast: Touched; Coldplay: Viva La Vida; Jamiroquai: King For A Day; Rufus Wainwright: Hallelujah (do NOT get me started on whatserface from X Factor); Robyn: With Every Heartbeat; and if I can get iTunes to play along, Take That: Greatest Day. I'd also have the music from C4's The Devil's Whore on there, especially the piano piece, if it was actually available as a music track. Eclectic? You have no idea. Imagine what a mess the story is right now!

(Incidentally, why is it that Mozilla flags Kasabian as not being a properly spelled word, but has no problem with Jamiroquai?)

So, what do you listen to when writing? Or can't you bear to listen to anything? Often, unless it's one particular song strongly soundtracking a particular scene, I don't listen to anything. This is more like mood music.

And yes, I am mildly obsessed with The Devil's Whore right now. The DVD is on my birthday list. And no, my birthday isn't for months. My hero, Carver, has more than a touch of Edward Sexby about him. Apparently, both John Simm and the production team wanted to deliberately make Sexby unsexy, especially considering his name. Hence the scar and the hair and the many references to enjoying cutting people's throats. Unfortunately, they failed. Miserably.

Image from Channel 4)


PS: Still no Yahoo mail. Useless bastards.

3 comments:

  1. I have various soundtracks for each of my novels, although the songs tend to overlap. Lots of Misfits, My Chemical Romance, Disturbed, and *cough*SavageGarden*cough*. Lots of melancholy folk music too, for when things get angst-ridden.

    I have to say, I'm a sucker for shape-shifters and post-apocalyptic scenarios, so I'll be following the progress of this project with interest!

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  2. Yes, I have angsty songs, too, for certain scenes. This book is turning out to be more than a little angsty...but I think this might be a bit of a chicken-and-egg scenario with regards to the music.

    Any minute now I'll be breaking out Garbage 2.0. Actually...

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  3. I adore disaster books and movies, post-apocalyptic worlds and such things! I'll throw some money at this book and hope that helps it turn into a series, even though I'm desperately broke. Maybe by the release date, I'll be solvent again!

    And when I write? Usually I'm listening to my kids argue and complain. Hardly a sexy soundtrack... yours seems better.

    (And Naomi, you're not alone with the Savage Garden thing. If I ever get married again, I'm walking down the aisle to Truly, Madly, Deeply.)

    (Of course, I'll have to get a date first...)

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