I always believed stories for young children were the most basic, easiest stories to write… until I was challenged to write one. Having never written something for someone who is younger than seven, I approached the writing no differently than I'd approach writing my middle-grade novels.
My first draft was filled with wordy conversations between all the different species of animals in the book. It was filled with metaphors and subtle humour and messages about tolerance and acceptance. It was wonderful (in my opinion), but as I quickly learned, not even close to suitable for the age group I had set out to write it for.
It took a friend of mine, who was once an elementary-school teacher, to put my writing (and me) in its (and my) place. She took the hardcopy of my first draft and she took a big red pen, and for half an hour she hacked away five thousand of the seven thousand words I had written. She also hacked off a big chunk of my ego. What remained was SCUTTLED. To my astonishment, it was all there the first time around, but it was hidden underneath all that literary fat I so often rely on in my more mature novels.
SCUTTLED is not the greatest thing I've ever written, but for something I pieced together in a couple weeks after being challenged to write it, I'm pretty happy with the outcome. More than that, what the challenge showed me is that sometimes it's okay to get rid of the fat and show the muscles stretching… the bones moving. It's okay not to have some kind of 'clever' in every sentence. Simple and straightforward can be a good thing.
I will take the knowledge I gained writing a story for a three year old and I will incorporate it into my future writing for children (and adults)… and I think my writing will be better because of it.
Wednesday, 13 August 2014
Monday, 9 June 2014
The Findings From My Literary Experiment
In July 2012 I set off on a literary adventure unlike any I had been on before. I began writing an online serial novel for teenagers. I knew the market was virtually nonexistent, but I felt it was a great way for me to flesh out a science-fiction story that had been boring its way through my brain for more than three years.
Every week I wrote a new chapter and sent it out into the world via a dedicated website where it was read and critiqued in real time (read more about THE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT experiment HERE). After I completed the story, I compiled the chapters and notes and suggestions, and I slipped everything into a folder on my desktop, where it all matured and evolved for more than a year.
When I returned to THE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT two months ago, I had never been more excited to get down to editing. I worked diligently to turn the story, which relied heavily on cliffhanger chapter endings (due to its serial nature) and uber-fast pacing, into a more complete novel. I worked on world building and character development. I honed a lot of the dialogue and improved a lot of the science. In the end, a compelling, thought-provoking, touching and thrilling YA science-fiction novel was in front of me.
And now it can be in front of you.
THE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT is currently available as an eBook. You can download it HERE.
Excerpt from
THE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT
By Christopher Millin
Xavier liked living, if not in the darkness, then just on the edge of it. The past -- the time before "The Film" and HelperBots and curfews -- was considered a dark spot in human history and was one of the only things in life that interested him. He constantly thought about the past. He wondered about silly things like what people one hundred years ago thought the future might be like. Did they envision homes in the clouds and flying vehicles? Did they think people would vacation on the moon and aliens would be their next door neighbours? He wondered what these people would think if they had a time machine and suddenly found themselves in this future. His present. Sure, there are robots that look after kids and do the housework, and sure, cars hover a few feet off the ground. But space is still a mystery. Houses are still poorly built. Government money is still being divvied unfairly. "They" talk about the need to evolve, to better ourselves from our animal relatives, but "they" are still doling out trillions of dollars to advance warmongering technology and the technology needed to control the masses. Xavier had once heard a statistic about how much it cost to develop "The Film" and to fit every newborn child on the planet with it. In the first year, the cost exceeded four trillion dollars. In the years to follow, the cost rose significantly. In school, he was taught about the good behind "The Film" and the curfew and obedience. He tried to endure school, but the lesson plans focused way too much on the now…on rules and numbers and so-called requirements to move forward and advance as a human being. As a race. True history was a side lesson of bullet points and short paragraphs, focusing mostly on the time just before "The Film" was introduced and the time just after. It was against the law to skip out on school, but it wasn't against the law to mentally check out of school. And that's what Xavier did on a regular basis...
Every week I wrote a new chapter and sent it out into the world via a dedicated website where it was read and critiqued in real time (read more about THE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT experiment HERE). After I completed the story, I compiled the chapters and notes and suggestions, and I slipped everything into a folder on my desktop, where it all matured and evolved for more than a year.
When I returned to THE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT two months ago, I had never been more excited to get down to editing. I worked diligently to turn the story, which relied heavily on cliffhanger chapter endings (due to its serial nature) and uber-fast pacing, into a more complete novel. I worked on world building and character development. I honed a lot of the dialogue and improved a lot of the science. In the end, a compelling, thought-provoking, touching and thrilling YA science-fiction novel was in front of me.
And now it can be in front of you.
THE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT is currently available as an eBook. You can download it HERE.
Excerpt fromTHE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT
By Christopher Millin
Xavier liked living, if not in the darkness, then just on the edge of it. The past -- the time before "The Film" and HelperBots and curfews -- was considered a dark spot in human history and was one of the only things in life that interested him. He constantly thought about the past. He wondered about silly things like what people one hundred years ago thought the future might be like. Did they envision homes in the clouds and flying vehicles? Did they think people would vacation on the moon and aliens would be their next door neighbours? He wondered what these people would think if they had a time machine and suddenly found themselves in this future. His present. Sure, there are robots that look after kids and do the housework, and sure, cars hover a few feet off the ground. But space is still a mystery. Houses are still poorly built. Government money is still being divvied unfairly. "They" talk about the need to evolve, to better ourselves from our animal relatives, but "they" are still doling out trillions of dollars to advance warmongering technology and the technology needed to control the masses. Xavier had once heard a statistic about how much it cost to develop "The Film" and to fit every newborn child on the planet with it. In the first year, the cost exceeded four trillion dollars. In the years to follow, the cost rose significantly. In school, he was taught about the good behind "The Film" and the curfew and obedience. He tried to endure school, but the lesson plans focused way too much on the now…on rules and numbers and so-called requirements to move forward and advance as a human being. As a race. True history was a side lesson of bullet points and short paragraphs, focusing mostly on the time just before "The Film" was introduced and the time just after. It was against the law to skip out on school, but it wasn't against the law to mentally check out of school. And that's what Xavier did on a regular basis...
Thursday, 22 May 2014
Making Vikings Envious
Remember 1993? Nah, me neither. Except for... wait... I remember liking a song called CREEP by a band called Radiohead. I wonder whatever happened to them. I also remember I wanted to be anywhere but the place I was in at the time.
I was living in a place called Abbotsford, an hour and a bit east of Vancouver. My disdain/respect for Abbotsford can be more closely examined in my "fictional" tale NEW FATHERS (available as a free download from HERE HERE and especially HERE). I had a few cool friends in Abbotsford and I was just learning about just how much trouble I could get into before I actually got arrested. But I was bored. And I wasn't happy. At 17 I wanted so much more. Not the selfish more: more video games, more money to waste down at the mall, more...
I wanted more of the outside world I knew existed, but seemed so far away from me. Even at my young age I felt like I was stuck, because Abbotsford was a big ol' bubble I just couldn't pop. Or didn't know how to pop, until I saw an ad in a local paper for the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Without a second thought, I applied to be an exchange student. Then I said a few clever things in my interview. Then surprisingly, I was accepted.
Hah! Those foolish Rotarians!
Having never really travelled anywhere far, other than Disneyland, I had a long list of countries I wanted to go to that were as far away (in distance and culture) from Abbotsford as I could get. Africa and Germany and Japan were on this list. What I didn't know was I didn't even have a choice as to where I would be sent. The sister club of the Rotary club I had applied to was in Finland. Finland. All I knew about Finland at the time was that Jari Kurri (of the Edmonton Oilers during their dynasty years) had come from there.
In late July 1993 I boarded a plane en-route to a small city in Finland called Pori. I didn't know then just how life altering the journey would be. Though Pori was the same size as Abbotsford (population and size-wise), it was nothing like my Canadian home. The people were mysterious. The language was impossible. And everything was invigorating, because it was so new and different. I learned to drink coffee and appreciate world music in Pori. And though Finland has no mountains, I learned how to snowboard. I could swear like a trucker in Finnish, but kids my age wanted to improve their English so badly, they never gave me a fighting chance to learn their language. But that was okay. I came to love Pori and Finland. And when I returned home a year later all I could think about was going back.
As it is with so many of our intentions in life, life always seems to get in the way. In my case, life kept me from leaving Canada for five long years.
I returned to Finland while backpacking around Europe in 1999, but I was a poor traveller at the time, having spent my year's worth of money the three months prior to arriving. I couldn't do much more than sleep on the couch I was offered, eat cheap meals of bread and cheese and entertain myself with NHL 99 on the PlayStation. It was more hanging out than visiting.
So when 2013 rolled around I began to think about how cool it would be to return to Finland and celebrate 20 years since first arriving. The only problem was I still had no money (a running theme in my life). 1993 passed and so to did my lifetime of money woes. I didn't win the lottery or anything, I just learned how to manage what little money I did make. And in no time I had squirreled away enough money to go back to Finland and do it properly.
But why constrict myself by going only to Finland?
Being part Danish, I thought it would be fun to go to Denmark as well. As luck would have it, my girlfriend also has friends in Denmark, where we were welcomed to stay as long as we wanted. With so much lodging offered up, we decided to go all out and make it a Scandinavian adventure. Finally, after six months of planning, on May 5th, 2014, I boarded a plane to Copenhagen, Denmark. Over the next two weeks my girlfriend and I visited Copenhagen, LEGOLAND in Billund (Denmark), Helsingborg (Sweden), Oslo (Norway), Helsinki, Turku and finally Pori (in Finland).
It was the trip of a lifetime. I mean, we spent a whole day in LEGOLAND. Does it get any better than that?
In Pori I walked all the same streets I had walked as a cocky foreigner all those years ago. I met up with old friends who now had families and careers, but had changed very little in all other ways. I fell in love with the city and its inhabitants all over again.
And despite the jokes about making it a tradition I return every twenty years, I know I'll be back much sooner. Just looking through the pictures, I kind of want to be back there right now...
NORWAY
I was living in a place called Abbotsford, an hour and a bit east of Vancouver. My disdain/respect for Abbotsford can be more closely examined in my "fictional" tale NEW FATHERS (available as a free download from HERE HERE and especially HERE). I had a few cool friends in Abbotsford and I was just learning about just how much trouble I could get into before I actually got arrested. But I was bored. And I wasn't happy. At 17 I wanted so much more. Not the selfish more: more video games, more money to waste down at the mall, more...
I wanted more of the outside world I knew existed, but seemed so far away from me. Even at my young age I felt like I was stuck, because Abbotsford was a big ol' bubble I just couldn't pop. Or didn't know how to pop, until I saw an ad in a local paper for the Rotary Youth Exchange program. Without a second thought, I applied to be an exchange student. Then I said a few clever things in my interview. Then surprisingly, I was accepted.
Hah! Those foolish Rotarians!
Having never really travelled anywhere far, other than Disneyland, I had a long list of countries I wanted to go to that were as far away (in distance and culture) from Abbotsford as I could get. Africa and Germany and Japan were on this list. What I didn't know was I didn't even have a choice as to where I would be sent. The sister club of the Rotary club I had applied to was in Finland. Finland. All I knew about Finland at the time was that Jari Kurri (of the Edmonton Oilers during their dynasty years) had come from there.
In late July 1993 I boarded a plane en-route to a small city in Finland called Pori. I didn't know then just how life altering the journey would be. Though Pori was the same size as Abbotsford (population and size-wise), it was nothing like my Canadian home. The people were mysterious. The language was impossible. And everything was invigorating, because it was so new and different. I learned to drink coffee and appreciate world music in Pori. And though Finland has no mountains, I learned how to snowboard. I could swear like a trucker in Finnish, but kids my age wanted to improve their English so badly, they never gave me a fighting chance to learn their language. But that was okay. I came to love Pori and Finland. And when I returned home a year later all I could think about was going back.
As it is with so many of our intentions in life, life always seems to get in the way. In my case, life kept me from leaving Canada for five long years.
I returned to Finland while backpacking around Europe in 1999, but I was a poor traveller at the time, having spent my year's worth of money the three months prior to arriving. I couldn't do much more than sleep on the couch I was offered, eat cheap meals of bread and cheese and entertain myself with NHL 99 on the PlayStation. It was more hanging out than visiting.
So when 2013 rolled around I began to think about how cool it would be to return to Finland and celebrate 20 years since first arriving. The only problem was I still had no money (a running theme in my life). 1993 passed and so to did my lifetime of money woes. I didn't win the lottery or anything, I just learned how to manage what little money I did make. And in no time I had squirreled away enough money to go back to Finland and do it properly.
But why constrict myself by going only to Finland?
Being part Danish, I thought it would be fun to go to Denmark as well. As luck would have it, my girlfriend also has friends in Denmark, where we were welcomed to stay as long as we wanted. With so much lodging offered up, we decided to go all out and make it a Scandinavian adventure. Finally, after six months of planning, on May 5th, 2014, I boarded a plane to Copenhagen, Denmark. Over the next two weeks my girlfriend and I visited Copenhagen, LEGOLAND in Billund (Denmark), Helsingborg (Sweden), Oslo (Norway), Helsinki, Turku and finally Pori (in Finland).
It was the trip of a lifetime. I mean, we spent a whole day in LEGOLAND. Does it get any better than that?
In Pori I walked all the same streets I had walked as a cocky foreigner all those years ago. I met up with old friends who now had families and careers, but had changed very little in all other ways. I fell in love with the city and its inhabitants all over again.
And despite the jokes about making it a tradition I return every twenty years, I know I'll be back much sooner. Just looking through the pictures, I kind of want to be back there right now...
DENMARK
 |
| Copenhagen, Denmark |
 |
| The unfinished pedestrian bridge in Copenhagen, Denmark |
 |
| A taste of Eurovision 2014. This was the French band Twin Twin. Copenhagen, Denmark |
 |
| Copenhagen, Denmark |
 |
| Helsingør, Denmark |
 |
| LEGOLAND front entrance. I was nine years old again. |
 |
| LEGOLAND |
 |
| LEGOLAND |
 |
| Hoth in LEGOLAND. This was my favourite part of LEGOLAND. Of course! |
 |
| LEGOLAND |
NORWAY
 |
| Oslo, Norway |
 |
| Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway |
 |
| Vigelandsparken, Oslo, Norway |
 |
| On the roof of the Opera House in Oslo, Norway. |
 | |||
| Admiring unique architecture in Oslo, Norway. |
SWEDEN
 |
| Helsingborg Castle. Helsingborg, Sweden |
 |
| Helsingborg in miniature. Helsingborg, Sweden |
 |
| Helsingborg, Sweden |
 |
| Rain won't stop me. Helsingborg, Sweden |
 |
| Helsingborg, Sweden |
FINLAND
 |
| A band shooting a video in Helsinki, Finland. |
 |
| Flower Festival in Helsinki, Finland |
 |
| Helsinki, Finland |
 |
| The Sibelius Monument, Helsinki, Finland |
 |
| Helsinki, Finland |
 |
| Our hostel (which is also an Olympic Stadium) in Helsinki, Finland. |
 |
| Our hostel on an old cruise ship in Turku, Finland. |
 |
| Turku, Finland |
 |
| Turku, Finland |
 |
| Turku, Finland |
 |
| University students in Turku, Finland. |
 |
| Annankatu 6, Pori, Finland. Where I used to act (and act out). |
 |
| Everyone in Pori is in a band, or so it seems. Out for one of many gigs. |
 |
| Pori, Finland |
 |
| A day at the cabin in Pori, Finland. |
 |
| Street art in Pori, Finland. |
 |
| More art in Pori, Finland. |
 |
| Pori, Finland |
Sunday, 10 November 2013
It's Finally Time To Get The HOLE Story
It has been a long time coming, but THE KING OF ARUGULA (the first book in THE HOLE STORIES) is finally available as an eBook. You can now read the trilogy in its entirety on your digital reader.
BOOK I: THE HOLE STORIES
THE KING OF ARUGULA
Available at:
iTunes (iPad/iPod)
BOOK II: THE HOLE STORIES
FOWL, SWINE AND THINGS THAT
SEND SHIVERS DOWN YOUR SPINE
Available at:
BOOK III: THE HOLE STORIES
THE HEALING SAND
Available at:
Wednesday, 23 October 2013
Diversions
I was always a storyteller. My mother more appropriately called me a liar. I could spin a fantastical yarn that would get me out of trouble, get me into someone's good books, get me free stuff, get me to where I wanted to be. So it was no surprise to anyone in my family that I wanted to be a writer when I grew up.
The first real, structured storytelling I attempted was while I was living in Finland. I was seventeen and expected to attend school as part of the exchange program I was on. Attending school was only a formality, because the Finnish language is one of the more difficult languages in the world to learn and to understand (in a year, I basically learned how to swear and how to say thank you). So I'd show up to whatever class it happened to be -- History, Math, Science, etc. -- and I'd write stories. Terrible stories, but stories nonetheless. After my year in Finland I had several exercise books filled with violent, offensive, aggressive, sexist, hilarious, terrible stories (you know, the types of stories a seventeen year old abroad for the first time in his life might write), which I never read again. What these stories did was make me want to improve. They made me want to write more.
When I returned to Canada to finish my grade twelve year, I put most of my energy into my creative writing class. We talk of the people who inspired us... who helped us along our paths. My grade twelve Creative Writing teacher Mrs. Martin was one of those people for me. She spoke a lot about the potential in my writing. About the quality of my ideas. She taught me to always write for myself first. She taught me to use my environment and the characters in my real life to help me give life to my stories. She taught me the importance of rewriting and editing.
At the end of my grade-twelve year (1995) I looked at my friends and the growing city I was living in and I began writing a story that has lived with me in drawers, on floppy disks, on zip disks and CDs for almost 18 years now. It is a story that has been rewritten a dozen times and has helped me define my path as a writer. It is a story that has always had a grand idea, but an unachievable outcome.
We all have that 'first novel'. My first novel was called DIVERSIONS. It was born out of the confusion and fear I faced after getting to the end of high school and not knowing what was to come next. When I received a diploma in Journalism in 1997 and was faced with that next task of getting a job, DIVERSIONS became something altogether new. As I struggled to get a job and to get back into life living at home again, I began to ponder the whole nurture vs. nature question. Are we the person we are because of the innate qualities we are born with or are we the person we are because of what happens to us along the way?
Then I began to think about cult leaders. I began to wonder how someone goes from average member of society to leading people in a new way of believing. Of convincing people to take their lives for that new belief. I was writing this in the mid nineties when the Waco siege and Heaven's Gate was in the news. I combined my own struggles at the time with the concept of the rise of a cult leader, and I wrote the majority of DIVERSIONS. It took me five years, but in the end I had an epic 120,000-word piece of "literature" I sincerely thought would be my blockbuster debut novel. It was anything but.
I was so happy to have finally completed it, I packaged it up and sent it off to publishers all over the world. DIVERSIONS taught me very quickly how to deal with rejection. There was so much rejection... And with each new rejection letter that came in, my skin got a little thicker. My focus got a little more narrowed. I eventually accepted I wasn't going to be the adult-fiction writer I had once imagined I would be. And I was okay with that, because through good luck and a series of strange events, I began writing children's literature, where I have actually found a modicum of success.
But DIVERSIONS stayed with me. It haunted me. The idea was always there. If anything, the friends I grew up with in Abbotsford in the 90s deserved to read it, because I know they experienced a lot of the same things I did: a town growing into a city, boredom, coffeeshops, Pearl Jam. If anything, I needed to finally let the darn book go. And so, a year ago I blew the dust off the last incarnation of it and I took to finally polishing it off enough to put it out in the world.
I also added a new element to my final incarnation of DIVERSIONS, which brought forth a new title: NEW FATHERS.
We all start out somewhere. Our first attempts are never that great. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be shared. There are still gems to be found in those great piles of words. And as rough and inaccurate as my first novel might still be, I believe it is full of little gems about growing up, about finding our place in the world, about dealing with change and death and life.
The first real, structured storytelling I attempted was while I was living in Finland. I was seventeen and expected to attend school as part of the exchange program I was on. Attending school was only a formality, because the Finnish language is one of the more difficult languages in the world to learn and to understand (in a year, I basically learned how to swear and how to say thank you). So I'd show up to whatever class it happened to be -- History, Math, Science, etc. -- and I'd write stories. Terrible stories, but stories nonetheless. After my year in Finland I had several exercise books filled with violent, offensive, aggressive, sexist, hilarious, terrible stories (you know, the types of stories a seventeen year old abroad for the first time in his life might write), which I never read again. What these stories did was make me want to improve. They made me want to write more.
When I returned to Canada to finish my grade twelve year, I put most of my energy into my creative writing class. We talk of the people who inspired us... who helped us along our paths. My grade twelve Creative Writing teacher Mrs. Martin was one of those people for me. She spoke a lot about the potential in my writing. About the quality of my ideas. She taught me to always write for myself first. She taught me to use my environment and the characters in my real life to help me give life to my stories. She taught me the importance of rewriting and editing.
At the end of my grade-twelve year (1995) I looked at my friends and the growing city I was living in and I began writing a story that has lived with me in drawers, on floppy disks, on zip disks and CDs for almost 18 years now. It is a story that has been rewritten a dozen times and has helped me define my path as a writer. It is a story that has always had a grand idea, but an unachievable outcome.
We all have that 'first novel'. My first novel was called DIVERSIONS. It was born out of the confusion and fear I faced after getting to the end of high school and not knowing what was to come next. When I received a diploma in Journalism in 1997 and was faced with that next task of getting a job, DIVERSIONS became something altogether new. As I struggled to get a job and to get back into life living at home again, I began to ponder the whole nurture vs. nature question. Are we the person we are because of the innate qualities we are born with or are we the person we are because of what happens to us along the way?
Then I began to think about cult leaders. I began to wonder how someone goes from average member of society to leading people in a new way of believing. Of convincing people to take their lives for that new belief. I was writing this in the mid nineties when the Waco siege and Heaven's Gate was in the news. I combined my own struggles at the time with the concept of the rise of a cult leader, and I wrote the majority of DIVERSIONS. It took me five years, but in the end I had an epic 120,000-word piece of "literature" I sincerely thought would be my blockbuster debut novel. It was anything but.
I was so happy to have finally completed it, I packaged it up and sent it off to publishers all over the world. DIVERSIONS taught me very quickly how to deal with rejection. There was so much rejection... And with each new rejection letter that came in, my skin got a little thicker. My focus got a little more narrowed. I eventually accepted I wasn't going to be the adult-fiction writer I had once imagined I would be. And I was okay with that, because through good luck and a series of strange events, I began writing children's literature, where I have actually found a modicum of success.
But DIVERSIONS stayed with me. It haunted me. The idea was always there. If anything, the friends I grew up with in Abbotsford in the 90s deserved to read it, because I know they experienced a lot of the same things I did: a town growing into a city, boredom, coffeeshops, Pearl Jam. If anything, I needed to finally let the darn book go. And so, a year ago I blew the dust off the last incarnation of it and I took to finally polishing it off enough to put it out in the world.
I also added a new element to my final incarnation of DIVERSIONS, which brought forth a new title: NEW FATHERS.
We all start out somewhere. Our first attempts are never that great. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't be shared. There are still gems to be found in those great piles of words. And as rough and inaccurate as my first novel might still be, I believe it is full of little gems about growing up, about finding our place in the world, about dealing with change and death and life.
NEW FATHERS
by Xavier Kind
Download it free HERE
Xavier Kind is the pen name I use for my adult fiction. I have released one other book called VANILLA under this name. Xavier Kind is also the name of the protagonist in THE BALTHAZAR EXPERIMENT, the online YA science fiction novel I worked on last year.
Saturday, 17 August 2013
These Are The Zombies In My Neighbourhood - Vancouver Zombie Walk 2013
I had survived the last three years of the Vancouver Zombie Walk with only one lost finger and a ruined pair of sneakers to speak of. Nothing was going to stop me from heading into the madness for a fourth year. I armed myself with a baseball bat, a crowbar, a ham and cheese sandwich and a camera, and I headed down to the Vancouver Art Gallery where the zombies were congregating before making their way through the streets. Below are the pictures I snapped just before the hordes turned on me.
Photos from the 2012 Vancouver Zombie Walk
Photos from the 2012 Vancouver Zombie Walk
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