curio killed the cat

The New Curio Killed the Cat Site

Head on over to www.curiokilledthecat.com to view the new website.

I. Love. It.

After a painfully long hiatus, we're back--I have new chapters written (five of them), and I'm winding down the current arc. This weekend, I'm going to do some final cleaning of the site and add a character blog for Briar, and then start getting the store sorted out. And what will we sell at the store? Well, you'll see. ;-)

So why do I think you need to check out this serial? I mean, besides the fact that it's written by me...

Well, it's funny. Probably. If you're into my humour, you'll find it funny.

I got the idea because I was really sick of angsty urban fantasy. And I say this as someone who WRITES her fair share of angsty urban fantasy with ass-kicking babes and melodrama. But...sometimes I just think it's way too serious.

One of my favourite shows ever is The Office. I like that it's a bunch of people working together who, often, really don't want to be. I like that very little happens, and that it's very real. So, naturally, in my brain I thought, "Well, I should write some urban fantasy that's less Anita Blake, and more like The Office. A bunch of supernatural characters in an occult store."

Voila. Curio Killed the Cat was born.

The first character to enter my brain was Lilith Mare (right). Lilith is a succubus. She has seductive powers over men.

But she's also a feminist. She thinks it would be totally nifty if people would just love her for her brain rather than her smokin' hot bod and succubus powers...so she very rarely has a date. She's also an organizational nut, a little bossy, and has issues with her mother.

Then we have Briar (left). It kinda bugs me that all the mainstream versions of African Diasporic Religions and practices are very distorted. Usually, they're spooky and evil. I very much think it's based in racism.

Briar practices hoodoo. She's not some scary woman sacrificing chickens. Okay, I grant you, she curses people, but usually they really deserve it. Briar and I share the same dislike of working in the service industry and having to deal with customers. (I luckily don't have to work those kinds of jobs right now.)

While doing research for Briar's character, I came across some interesting stories about hoodoo practitioners having a hard time dealing with Wiccan run occult stores, because the Wiccans turned their noses up at the "dark" stuff. My immediate thought was...perfect! So I threw a Wiccan Priest, Liam, into the mix.

Other characters include a Goth kid named Alastair Nightshade who is in love with Liam, Briar's first dependable paying client, the employees at a rival occult shop (specifically a witch with it in for Briar), and the frequently drunk, totally out of it boss of the curio store. Oh, and a bunch of religious protesters who picket in front of the store, including my favourite character evah: Sara Gosling.

So anyways, you can now easily catch up with the thirteen short chapters currently available, and be allll ready for Monday's installment, "Legba and the King of Cups."

Curio Killed the Cat Update

So I actually have the rest of the current Curio Killed the Cat arc planned out.

I'm going to get the chapters all written, and then posted once a week throughout the end of June and all of July (and possibly into August). Then I'm going to take a break, get some written ahead of time, and launch the new arc in September/October. (By the end of the current arc, you WILL learn whether they save the shop or not.) After this arc is done, I'll work on fixing a few errors (like forgetting that I changed my mind about what months it takes place in), and put out a paperback.

Upcoming chapter titles include "Legba and the King of Cups", "The Chapter Before the Karaoke Chapter", "The Karaoke Chapter", "Wherein Characters Hook-Up", "Goofer Dust Swing", and then there'll be one or two more.

With the relaunch in a few weeks, expect a new logo (that the boyfriend made for me), a new look to the website, a new store (which may or may not be running, but you'll at least get a preview), and a new character blog for Briar where she'll bitch about customers, share spell tips and hints, and...bitch some more about customers. ;-) I'd like to have Lilith guest blog...

I've noticed that my blog has this "file attachment" thingy, so I'm trying it out this time. Attached, you *should* find a PDF with the first thirteen chapters of Curio Killed the Cat, which is perfect for downloading and reading at your convenience, or for printing off a million copies in order to spam your family and coworkers, and possibly destroy the environment.

Here be the blurb:

Welcome to Curio Killed the Cat—an occult shop in Kensington Market, Toronto. Meet the quirky employees (a lazy hoodoo spellcaster, a feminist succubus, and a snobbish Wiccan priest), their perpetually drunk (and confused) boss, and their strange customers, as they try to keep the shop from closing.

Now, you TOTALLY want to check it out, if only to read bad love letters by the resident emo/goth, Alastair Nightshade, and the brief chapters from the point of view of a religious teen protester (including The NEW Chronicles of Jesus by Sara Gosling).

Temporary Curio Hiatus

I've decided to put Curio Killed the Cat on hiatus for a couple of weeks. I have student reports due soon at work, I'm working an extra long shift tomorrow for my boss, and I need to start packing 'cause I'm moving next weekend. I don't want the added stress of scrambling to finish a bunch of chapters too. So I'm thinking no Curio chapter tomorrow due to my work schedule, none the Monday after 'cause I may not have my internet up and running, and none the week after that due to it being Easter weekend (I'll be out of town).

My apologies, but I need to cut out stress right now.

I'm reviewing April's Children of the Apocalypse chapter (shoulda been March's--this is the one that got lost) for posting, so at least you have something to read.

As always, I encourage readers to keep an eye on this blog so that they know what's going on--I try to keep people up to date.

Thanks!

Officially A Dumb Blonde...

So I did some writing at my mum's. Got another chunk of April's CotA chapter done, more or less finished next Monday's Curio Killed the Cat chapter and started the next, as well as some other stuff. Transferred it from the Alphasmart, cleared out the old files, saved, and was ready to do some editing...

Or so I thought.

Turns out I saved over Monday's Curio chapter. I'm left with the crappy 500 words I had before I left.

*headdesk*

I've had this happen before. I've lost files. I've intentionally deleted them all and destroyed backup disks during a total mental/emotional breakdown. I've had my ex refuse to give back my old computer long enough to let me retrieve needed files. So I've had to Rewrite before.

It's not the same as an edit rewrite. It's awful, especially if you have no memory, like me. Trying to remember some of the great lines, or, like, trying to remember what the hell happened...

Guys, this Cuiro chapter had another love letter by Alastair to Liam. It was comic gold!

And now it is gone. And I weep. I could probably put out a chapter in a couple of hours, but the wounds from losing it are too fresh...it would be painful to continue right now.

So you'll probably get it late on Monday.

At least I still have the chapter after that one complete...

Yes, my roots have apparently always been blonde. Please, go ahead and mock me.

Obligatory First of the Month Post

So I've got lots of new stuff coming your way.

New Children of the Apocalypse chapter has been posted. Yay! Now I have to scramble to get the next one done--it's too short, needs a serious rehaul, but I've been too lazy to do anything about it). We're on Chapter Two of Part Three: The Ritual, and the girls are--of course--getting themselves into a spot of trouble...read it all here: http://www.apocalypsenovel.com

Tomorrow (well, likely tonight) will see the posting of the next Curio Killed the Cat chapter. Chapter Five: Praise Jesus, Not Satan sees more trouble befalling the shop. Is there truly no such thing as bad publicity? Head over to http://www.curiokilledthecat.com shortly to find out.

I also added a little poll on my main website, asking who your favourite of my heroines is? http://www.skyladawncameron.com/poll/1

I'm otherwise doing okay. I'm on medication right now and the (hopefully temporary) side effects have kicked in full force today. I can barely sit up to work on the computer, and am incredibly thankful I don't have to walk to work today. Lots of pain = badness. I have a few covers that I'm trying to get finished today, as well as some acquisitions work. Between all my jobs, I think I've been working fourteen hour days for the last couple of weeks...ah, the life of a poor person. ;-)

As an aside, WTF is wrong with some people who insist on kicking you while you're down? I'm so happy that all of the new people I have in my life now are quite the opposite (although I still think I'm doomed to always have potential in laws who dislike me). At the very least, it's incredibly comforting to know that they can kick me all they want--they invariably underestimate me and the things I'm capable of doing...

I'm going back to work now, where I shall continue listening to this awesome album Voodoo Blues, which I highly recommend.

I Hate Coming Up with Subject Lines

Do you ever wake up from a dream seriously thinking that something you dreamed is an actual memory and it takes about an hour to realize that it's not?

That has nothing to do with this blog entry, but I just thought I'd pose the question.

I just heard last night that Wolfe has been assigned an editor. I'm both happy and sad about this fact. Happy because the novel is moving forward, readers will finally get to read it ("When is the River sequel coming out?" is probably *still*my most often asked question!), and because god knows it needs a good edit. I'm sad because I turned in the draft a year ago and I was not in the best head space when I did it...so I'm half expecting to hear, "this sucks!" or something, LOL. It's a decidedly dark book and I'm not sure how people will respond to it, but here's hoping readers will mostly love it.

There's a new chapter of Curio Killed the Cat online for your reading pleasure. It was a kind of awkward chapter to write, but I'm totally stoked about the next three--I introduce a new character and it gets really fun.

And because I've been watching a whole lot of Twin Peaks lately...here's an awesome video I stumbled upon:

(Have I mentioned what a Cooper/Audrey shipper I was? Annie was great, but...I loved him and Audrey. Also, Bob still scares the hell out of me.)

Careful What You Wish For...

Because I haven't seriously planned out much with Curio Killed the Cat, I'm at that stage where I'm wondering, "What's this about?"

I mean, besides the obvious stuff like, "silly people do wacky things and try to keep their store from closing." Not premise, and certainly not plot (I suck with coming up with those anyway). What it's about. At it's core, what are the themes? What am I trying to say with this?

I don't plan these things--I just have to trust they'll present themselves. Which probably means I'm a hack, because I'm sure real writers actually think about this shit rather than run away with the story immediately.

But I do think maybe I've hit upon it.

Although you can hear the "official" theme music by viewing the opening credits (the song is "Monster Promenade" by Kevin MacLeod, and you can download it at www.incompetech.com), the unofficial song struck me when I was walking to work one day listening to music. The song "Careful What You Wish For" by Jonatha Brooke came on. And it really stuck with me.

You can hear the song here: http://www.jonathabrooke.com/music/careful-what-you-wish-for

Lyrically, let's look at the chorus for a sec:

Now that I have everything
I'm a puppet on a string
Someone's got the end and I'm unraveling
And here's the thing
I would throw it all away
If I could only hear you say,
"Baby I'll stay, baby I'll stay"

(You can see the rest of the lyrics by going to the page above and clicking on "more" under the song title on the left.)

Curio Killed the Cat is about being trapped.

There's a sense of claustrophobia in that song, IMO, and that's very much what the CKtC characters are feeling a lot of the time. You'll see this more over the next few chapters. But everyone has something they want, and either they get it--and life isn't so peachy keen--or if they do get it, they'll regret it.

I'm not sure if this counts as spoilers yet or not--it's information from the Wiki, but it hasn't appeared in the story yet. Please avoid the rest of this entry if you're a spoiler-phobe. ;-)

Briar wants her boyfriend back. She's consumed by the idea--trapped by it. And if she gets what she's wishing for--which may or may not happen at this point (I don't know yet)--it'll likely never be the way she wants it to be. But I think at this point she's trapped by being in the pattern of the wanting. And she's so certain that she should always get what she wants that she won't look beyond that.

Lilith is trapped by both internal and external forces. She's very much the kind of person who will stick to her ideals so much that she won't follow what she really wants. And now she's possibly losing her job--which she really does love--and there's nothing she can do about it. Because of Lilith's heritage (being a succubus), and her demonic powers--which a lot of people would wish for--she's stuck into box where perhaps in her heart, she doesn't want to be.

Liam has always had lofty goals. He's always wanted bigger and better things. He's worked his way up to High Priest at a small coven, but he still doesn't have the prestige and that he desires. And even if he had everything he wishes for, he'd still want more.

Other characters--Alastair, Sebastian (whom you haven't met yet)--all wish for something, and at the same time, it's holding them back.

So I'm just glad I think I figured that out. And so ends my nerdy writer post for the week. I'll stop babbling now and talk about puppies or something.

Rambles

A new chapter of Curio Killed the Cat is live! I'm loving this story. I mapped out the highlights of this first arc today on my break from work (and I took my break at the fabulous Espresso Legato in Bowmanville, which you should visit often, if possible), which will take me through another fifteen chapters or so (beyond the five already written). Good times.

Last night we finally watched The Dark Knight. I think I'm officially the only voice of dissent--no, I didn't dig it. Yeah, fine, it's well done. But art? No.

I think my problem with it boils down to a story standpoint. I just feel like it has no heart. I didn't care when anyone was in danger (or killed). Well, except for the dogs. Yes, Heath Ledger as The Joker was quite engaging, but, you know, that's not out of the ordinary. Who hasn't been engaging as The Joker? Nearly all of the villains were more interesting than Batman, and I really think that's a fundamental problem. You can go on and defend it by saying it's supposed to be dark and all that, but at the end of the day, I should be rooting for the hero, no? I think it's critical to write an interesting, believable villain (not sure I've ever done that, but that's beside the point), however it's equally critical to write an interesting, believable hero. That's what I always loved about Spider-Man 2--when the whole train sequence goes down, I don't think I've ever rooted for a hero more than for Spider-Man when he's trying to save those people. And I'm not typically the kind of person who ever roots for heroes, so Sam Rami did something right there (pity he didn't carry it through to S-M3).

So yeah, I was lukewarm on The Dark Knight. Please feel free to throw rocks at me. :-P

I participated in the process of interviewing new people at work today. It was interesting--I can see the similarities with acquisitions. But I'm too tired to think about it, so I'm going back to finish watching SVU now.

Curio Killed the Cat is LIVE!

Now, onto cheerier topics...the new serial is finally live! And there are multiple ways to read. You can read it on the website or you can read it on Livejournal (all chapters will be posted there, so you can get updates in your friends page). You can also download and print out a PDF version.

Also, I'm giving everyone permission to repost the first chapter ANYWHERE you want to. Your website, blog, Facebook, etc. Just ensure that a) you don't profit from it (so don't sell the chapter!), b) I'm credited as the author, and c) you link back to www.curiokilledthecat.com

On the website, you'll find lots of fun things like the opening credit sequence, a cast list, playlist of my personal sountrack, and lots of other things (*cough*donation button*cough*). Take some time and browse around. :-)

The next chapter will be posted next Monday. Enjoy!