villia

A Year in the Life

12 September 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

It’s been a year since I completed the first draft. As of 12 September 2015, Blood and Rain existed. The novel was scheduled to be published in spring 2016, but things happened.

Blood and Rain - concept cover — Blood and Rain – concept cover

First, the website went down and my hosting company killed the backup. This is why links to old blog posts on my social media sites are broken. It took a few weeks to fight them, but I lost. My blog was gone. I made some effort to salvage the site, but it’s still in ruins. Never set up a site with FatCow. Never. Absolutely don’t.

Then Bowie died on the day my review copies were returned. He was my idol, someone I looked to for inspiration. I spent the next few weeks clearing out the attic, going through my Bowie collection and disappearing into a dark world that was mine and mine only. Except when I needed to work, do groceries and things. Creativity wasn’t there, my story seemed irrelevant.

Then I created a book of Bowie lyrics for a closed group on Facebook. I also wrote a novella based on his album, Diamond Dogs. Got half way through it. I need to finish that project as well. It was well on its way to become an interesting novella.

And I was busy working with the Pirate Party in Iceland in the weeks before the pre-elections. My work there is done. Elections are at the end of October and it looks like it may turn out extremely well for the party.

A year flies by in an instant. It is interesting though, that I finished the final draft of Blood and Rain two days ago. Pretty much a year after finishing the first draft.

And so here we are. Now it’s time for a cover design and finding the best way to publish the novel. I leave you with a cover idea I coughed up at the time.

It’s good to be back.

HUNGER CITY 4 – Diamond Dogs

25 March 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

Part four of the Hunger City saga is up and things are getting out of control. Hunger City is loosely based on Diamond Dogs, an album released by David Bowie in 1974.

Luna crawled in the ashes and tried to get a view of the hall outside the shop. There was panic. Mutants running, screaming. Inside the shopping centre. Wasn’t that something new? They usually came in groups of three, four, maybe a few more. Killed a couple of freaks they’d run into in the streets and be gone. This was different. Luna counted nine of them and they shot anything that moved.

“Diamond Dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees. Hunt you to the ground they will, mannequins with kill appeal.”

The prophesy. David Bowie had seen this before it happened. The killers wore white masks and they hunted the mutants to the ground. It was massacre.

This was genocide.

Download the four chapters by clicking the links below. Feel free to leave reviews or suggestions.
1. Poachers Hill
2. We Are The Dead
3. Temperance Building
4. Diamond Dogs

HUNGER CITY 3 – Temperance Building

17 March 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

It’s Friday and time for another instalment of Hunger City.

Hunger City 3 Luna finds herself hunted by the poachers and her life is about to change forever.
As has been said earlier, Hunger City is based on the world of Diamond Dogs, created by David Bowie in 1974, which in turn was based on 1984 by George Orwell.

Part four will be published in a week. Until then, feel free to share this, spread the word and comment on it. Say what you think.

Get the chapters here:
1. Poachers Hill
2. We Are The Dead
3. Temperance Building

HUNGER CITY – 2. We Are The Dead

10 March 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

Two days ago, I published the first part of a new series. Hunger City takes place in the dystopian world David Bowie created after being denied the rights to create a musical based on George Orwell’s 1984.

Part two is named We Are The Dead. It is muttered by one of the characters. It is a song from the Diamond Dogs album and Bowie lifted it from a conversation in Orwell’s novel. I hope I’ll be able to do the two creative geniuses justice in the series. You tell me.

As readers of the first part may have noticed, part two was supposed to come out on 18 March. That has changed. It’s available now. I realised that I uploaded part one exactly two months after Bowie’s last birthday. Today is exactly two months since he left us. That must be honoured and remembered.

The schedule will continue as planned after this. One chapter each week. Part three will appear on 18 March, part four on 25 March, etc.

Get Part 1. Poachers Hill
Get Part 2. We Are The Dead

HUNGER CITY – New Series

8 March 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

As many may know, I was about to finish my second novel at the beginning of this year. I sent the manuscript to six readers and gave them a deadline on 9 January to turn in their findings. I would then go about ironing out typos and inconsistencies, creating the final draft. Blood and Rain would be published somewhere in spring 2016. Nothing could change that.

Or so I thought. David Bowie has been a huge part of my life for more than 30 years. I studied his music as a teenager, immersed myself in his world. I was fascinated by his sounds, words and looks. He was different, somehow above the rest.

David Bowie died on 10 January this year. One day after the deadline and two days after his 69th birthday and the release of his latest (and last, we now know) album, Blackstar. I was devastated. It affected me more than I thought it could. A huge part of my life was gone. It was, literally, like losing a close relative.

January passed and I had no desire to revisit Blood and Rain. February passed and things were still not getting any better. I would look at the written pages and try to get into the world of Barcelona in 1937, but it felt distant. One day I will finish it, but first this…

We went to Venice on a mini holiday at the end of February. The masks were fascinating, the city beautiful. Something happened in my head. I remembered a line from a Bowie song.

The Diamond Dogs are poachers and they hide behind trees
Hunt you to the ground they will, mannequins with kill appeal

And this.

But there’s a shop on the corner that’s selling papier mache
Making bullet-proof faces, Charlie Manson, Cassius Clay

The Diamond Dogs wore white masks and went hunting for mutants. A story begun to form in my head. The story of a girl that is forced to leave her home on Poachers Hill and go back into Hunger City to find Halloween Jack. The story is writing itself. I sit here and I type, but almost feel like it’s being channeled through me. I don’t want to sit here alone and work on this in solidarity. I want to share it with the world now. One chapter at a time. Get your feedback as we get through the story. Discover the mysteries of Hunger City together.

This is not the story as written by Bowie himself. It is not a copy of his storyboard. This is a story about a girl that lives in the world of Hunger City. And yes, Halloween Jack will make an appearance later in the series.

Enjoy. Here is the link to CHAPTER ONE. A new chapter will be published every week until the story has been told.

David Bowie’s 100 Favourite Books

21 January 2016 by villia Leave a Comment

As the fallout from Bowie’s death settles, we collect our thoughts and try to make sense of his life and legacy. As I mentioned in my previous post, I fell in love with him in my teens. He was larger than life and he sang about feelings of isolation and anxiety. Something I was only too familiar with after the death of my father.

I believe what turned me onto him wasn’t just the music, the costumes and whatever doomsday thoughts he dabbled in. I have always been curious about life, the universe and everything. Bowie was extremely well read and seemed to share this curiosity. In fact, I think his curiosity far exceeded mine. His ability to express his findings in art certainly did. He opened up strange doors that would never close again. My life was richer because of him.

Having been a fan for more than 30 years, I know his music inside and out. All periods, also the incredible and overlooked 1990s. I could go upon a stage and give an unprepared lecture about his life and influences. I have all his records and a few books on him and his art. While the world scrambles to get to know him – Blackstar is no 1 in 69 countries and his album sales rose 5000% in the week after his passing – I can sit back and enjoy what I already am familiar with.

So how can I get to know him better without reading another biography? How can I get into his mind and tap into that universe of his? The answer is, get to know his influences. As mentioned above, Bowie was extremely well read. There are countless photos of him reading through the decades. He posted his top 100 books on his Facebook page in 2013. I have read a couple of them, but most are a mystery. Many I have never heard of.

So here is how I’ll commemorate David Bowie in the coming year and beyond. Read the books he loved. Let him continue to expand my mind and horizon. His music may just take on a whole new meaning.

Only question is, where to start?