Book Chaos
ICYMI (look at me using sexy acronyms I have to google to ensure I’m using them correctly)…
This Halloween, three book monsters shall unleash their wrath upon the world!
The Mortality Experiment
GRIMDARK SFF NOVEL
Secrets are sentient. In the far, foreign future, a deep-space mission turns catastrophic when the crew’s personal demons become literal demons and seek revenge.
Read a free sample › | Pre-order for $0.99 ›
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Burn the Sun
SFF NOVEL
Five worlds compete in the Space Olympics to determine which should survive a supernova.
Read a free sample › | Pre-order for $0.99 ›
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Girl of Dust and Smoke
DARK FICTION NOVELLA
In the heart of America’s Second Dust Bowl, amid drought and raging heat, Isobel Walsh weaves a web to survive.
Read a free sample › | Pre-order for $0.99 ›
ARC Readers
If you’d like an ARC of any of the above book monsters in exchange for an honest review, please DM me on Twitter with the weirdest photo of Nicolas Cage you can find. Girl of Dust and Smoke is 34k. The Mortality Experiment and Burn the Sun are about 90k. In terms of mood, I’d say GDS is the weirdest, TME is the darkest, and BTS is the most hopeful—well, my brand of hopeful.
Finding Voice
My undergraduate degree was in music, where I focused on music composition, so I always compare the structure and tonality of sound language to verbal language. There are so many different elements that give a creation its identity: rhythm, melody, harmony, form, repetition, tempo, etc. In music and writing, these combine to evoke mood and emotion. If the tonality changes, the impact also changes.
One of my film-scoring professors gave an excellent example of this emotional manipulation. Take Mary Poppins. In the original, the music is light, buoyant, so the mood is similarly playful. However, if you change the music to make it dark and sinister, Scary Mary is born.
Similarly, with books, the writing tone should match the content. For my three upcoming books, I played with voice A LOT. I can’t write a book till I find its voice, and that often takes me months. I try a bunch of first lines to see if they’re working, then scream into the void when they all fail.
The voice for Girl of Dust and Smoke came the quickest (I will not make that joke, I will not make that joke…). I wanted to write in third-person POV with a creepy, childish lilt. There is one timeline in the present and one in the past to show how Isobel’s childhood affects her adulthood. Isobel has had a hard life, and because of this, she hasn’t fully grown up. I wanted the voice to reflect her immaturity while also lending a prickly air to the atmosphere. There is some highly messed-up shit that happens to her, but using an almost nursery rhyme cadence gives it an eerie, disturbing vibe.
In The Mortality Experiment, there are four POVs across five timelines—one for each MC’s childhood, and one for the mission where they meet in adulthood. RJ’s voice was probably the easiest, because she’s a cynical, chaotic creature like me. Kaj’s voice was tough to find, because he’s very timid and apologetic at first, so I couldn’t have him go on killing sprees and make poop jokes. Mazha’s voice is very clinical, almost sterile, which was difficult to write in a way that didn’t sound too lifeless. Last, Jace’s voice floated to the surface and snuck up on me. His backstory is one of the most tragic, and it made him very fearful and shut down, so his chapters are infused with lots of emotional intensity and anguish.
Burn the Sun has three POVs in one timeline. Camroc’s voice was extremely hard to find. He is an elite athlete, and I am as athletic as roadkill, so crafting an authentic voice based on his experiences took much research. I scoured Olympic events and interviews to see how athletes spoke and what their lives were like. From this research, I decided on a short, raw, punchy voice that is almost stream of consciousness at times. His entire life has been training, so he doesn’t always think in full sentences for efficiency and productivity. Also, from the massive pressure of fighting for his people’s future, he suffers from anxiety and panic attacks, so these fuel his choppy sentences. As the plot progresses, his voice changes while he grows a bit calmer and more cohesive, but in the beginning, he is a shotgun blast. In contrast, Ketra is a princess and has been taught proper etiquette. Her voice is thus eloquent and intricate, because politics raised her. She’s also incredibly submissive at the start, so her voice reflects her initially timid nature. Throughout the book, this changes as she gains agency. Last, Bazi was a ton of fun to write. In dire, shit-the-bed situations, I always like to have a bit of relief. Her voice is irreverent yet kind, a no-nonsense, no-bullshit roundhouse kick of language. She has the immense strength to stay levelheaded and help others through the apocalypse…and she stress-bakes cupcakes, because I want cupcakes.
Anyway, thanks for reading my mind belch. Voice has always fascinated me, so I figured I’d give some background on how I construct my characters’ voices.
Reviews
Publishers Weekly was kind enough to choose I Will Kill You to review! I am honored and flabbergasted that they wanted to read my brain vomit about rage and organ fondling! Check it out here.
“[A] sharp-edged satirical thriller. […] Astringent prose is a plus. […] Readers able to stomach gore will be entertained.” ― Publishers Weekly
Also, Neen Cohen and Jude in the Stars spoiled me with their reviews of The Heartbeat of a Million Dreams.
“...beauty and poetry...literally brought tears to my eyes and reminded me that I not only love stories, but I am in love with words.” ― Neen Cohen, Author & Reviewer
“There’s music to Halo Scot’s writing. Poetry and rhythm. It should slow down the pace yet it doesn’t. It feeds the fury and the thrill.” ― Jude Silberfeld, Jude in the Stars
Infinite thanks to all those who have reviewed my book monsters. Writing is rife with doubt, insecurity, and fear spirals, so every review means the universe. 🖤❤️
Rage Journal
Because I am ridiculous, I created a void-screaming notebook. For only $4.99, you can get your own personal abyss in which to offer high-decibel sacrifices. Pour fury into its pages, and earn its loyalty through explosions of wrath.
Buy Your Own Personal Abyss Here ›
New Interviews
Talk Wordy to Me featured me for the month of September, and I am itchy with gratitude!
Recent Reads
I spanked chaos into submission a bit more this month, so I was able to read some delicious tree corpses!
Hunters by Jon Ford
The Star Gatherers by Anya Pavelle
Captive Hearts by Kelly Miller
The Bird and the Sword by Amy Harmon
The Arrangement by Kiersten Modglin
Podcasts/Channels to Stalk
The Writing Community Chat Show, Story of a Storyteller, The Tiny Bookcase, Boomers on Books, The Shadow’s Project, Steve Talks Books, What The Book, Human Chapters, Words & Pictures, Talk Wordy to Me
Aggressive Love
Sorry for the brain flood. This was a girthy newsletter. I hope you are doing well in your neck of the woods—which is an odd saying, one that conjures a cannibalistic, multi-headed tree demon in my corrupt mind. How many necks and heads can a forest truly have?! Let’s decapitate some of them!
ANYWAY……
Conquer your dreams. Or weaponize your nightmares.
Lots of love & chaos,
Halo