The blog of D Kai Wilson-Viola

Author, advocate, designer, mental health advocate and parent. 

Change – introduction

Change – introduction

Time Travel on the A27

Image by Adcuz via Flickr

Zoe

Eyes burn scant inches from the glass, my voice is hoarse.   I don’t manage to explain it the first few times, instead gulp and blink dazedly at a world untouched by the heat and pain I’d stepped away from.  It wasn’t a balm – instead an earlier time, and I knew it.  Even if I didn’t believe.  Even if I thought it was a fever dream – that I’d come down with another bad infection and I was lying in a hospital bed, or against a thick leaded pain of glass in the ward, my hands draped lifelessly over the edge of the bay seat in that quiet, still, cocooned ward.

Change, a breakout scifi novel by D Kai Wilson features a dizzying blend of perspectives, an honest and raw look at what people would do if thier world suddenly changed, and a touching, moving conversation with past and future selves.

From tomorrow – I’ll post where I’ve gotten to – and a request for random input – so please check back/subscribe to the site (sidebar) and I’ll thank the person who gave me the ‘random’ element each day 🙂

Nanowrimo day 0 (midnight 1st November)

Nanowrimo day 0 (midnight 1st November)

NaNoWriMo: the home front

Image by mpclemens via Flickr

I’m so excited right now that I can’t sit still – I don’t usually get to start till around 1am on the 1st anyway, because I take care of all the last minute support, cheering and shoving that gets my region into full swing – from the people having cold feet, to those with writer’s cramp, I’m the voice that hopefully talks them into going from it anyway.

I don’t get talked into it myself though – which is why this year, I’m doing my level best to be actually accountable.
And here it is.

First book is my alt-sci fi Dissertation (at least part of it will be), Change.

I’ll get to start in 7 minutes…woot!

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Why nine tales?

Why nine tales?

Bassariscus.

Image via Wikipedia

One of the first questions that gets asked when people see the name of the site is ‘why nine tales?’

And I thought I had an answer when I started this blog – it seems kinda selfish to start *yet another* blog all about the facets of me that no one sees, but I think one of the most important things that I’ve been learning lately is that there’s a running joke that I’m bipolar, so only have two sides – creative and technical; because I write and I code, I’m seen as part anachronism, part regular joe, but I learned to my cost last year that I’m far more complex than I’ve given myself credit for.

So Kai-o-9-tales is a bit of a play on words, a bit of a joke, and a bit of a showcase.  I hope you enjoy it here – but I’ll be talking everything from writing to publishing, to parenting, to everything else.  And while it’s true that I have other blogs that I do all that stuff on, I’m hoping to cross post selectively, and maintain an overall presence while splitting off into a niche where I can.

Welcome along for the ride!

And the 09 Nanowrimo Novels are….

And the 09 Nanowrimo Novels are….

Change (7.5k more or less is part of my dissertation)- science, technology, and the understanding of how knowledge affects our decisions.

Glass Block (redux, last rewrite, from scratch) – seven years after writing the original, I’m going to rewrite it one last time, and it, with all of my other stories are going on a pen drive in our safe – no more deleting them in a fit of pique.

AND

Valubaby(creative non)fiction (which will be more fiction than non) about the pain of working out whether it’s possible to have children in certain situations.  Of all three, this one is going to be the hardest.  There’s been a lot of conversation about family in my units of friends – perhaps because, in most circles, I’m either the youngest, or appear to be the youngest of my friends, and in other circles, I’ve got friends that aren’t even there yet (in a relationship and having kids), so I’ve got few people I can talk to about it – which means my feelings, worries, fears, and all the other things that affect our personalities anyway, grew into a shadow of a person of their own. (I’ll explain more on that on Friday!).  If I ignore her, she’s only going to get louder, so I’m going to write her story, and see where it takes me.  Much like ‘Sleepless’ which I wrote in 2005, and 21 Doors in 2006, this one is fairly close to the bone in many places, so I’m carefully working out how to handle it.

Anyone else got thier titles and blurbs worked out yet?

Who’s ready for the Nanowrimo?

Who’s ready for the Nanowrimo?

I’m so excited.  Not only did I get to meet Stephen Fry AND Mark Carwardine this weekend at the Cheltenham Literary festival, who both signed my book, and join Neil Gaiman (05)John and Carol Barrowman(08), and Toni Morrison(08) on my pride of place ’signed’ corner, but we’re nearly at Nanowrimo 09!

For those of you that don’t know what it is (where have you BEEN, it’s been running now for 11 years!) basically you go mad for 30 glorious and (legal) stimulant of your choice fuelled days (mine is Coca-Cola and fresh air, alongside copious hugs from the kids and my other half, and write 50k. I take it a step further and aim to do three books during that time – two main, one alt (and I’ll announce what they are this year on Wednesday). Not only do I write three books a year (or at least try – and make it most years to around 120k), but I’m also an ML and a full time student.

I’m actually ready (writing wise at least) this year. I have two different writing software projects – Liquid story binder and WriteWay Pro. I’ve *got* both because they suit the different styles of writing I use, and makes it easier for me to spend time actually writing instead of bending the program to my will.

I also, as a first, grabbed the spreadsheets that have been published for the Nanowrimo – I’ve seen lots of nice ones, but this one (by salzke (nanowrimo username) ) is really cool. Easy to customise to what I need (because it’s a pain in the ass to unlock a sheet and find all the different places that it’s using 50k in it’s calculations instead of, say 150k), and pretty too :) .

I’m already having to make concessions to my other plans – one Nano is part of my dissertation, and I’ll probably be submitting a fragment of the other one for my assignment in December, because there’s no other way to handle it, without going noisily mad.
So, who else is ready?