The Caves of Etretat by Matt Chatelain Virtual Book Tour Guestpost

The Caves of Etretat

by Matt Chatelain

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Join me in welcoming Matt Chatelain, author of The Caves of Etretat to his stop at Celticlady's Reviews for Goddess Fish Promotions!

 What is a typical writing day for you? What kind of research do you do?

Writing for me is a visual experience. It was my brother who made me realise it. After reading 'The Caves of Etretat', he called me and asked if I was watching a movie in my head when I wrote the story. Thinking about it, I had to reply: 'Yes!'

When I get a new idea for a story, it appears almost full blown in my mind. The details aren't there, of course, just the broad strokes, but you get the idea. It's like a DVD. I can stop and start it, rewind it over and over again and watch my favorite scenes so I can write them exactly as I see them.

Mornings are my best time for creativity. It wasn't like that when I started writing my four-book series, The Sirenne Saga'. I had no schedule back then. Writing was still a part-time venture. It took years to evolve the schedule. Most of it spent was training the creative impulse to come on demand. Writing is hard to explain to those who aren't obsessed by it. It's an inner drive that won't let go. No matter what you do, you keep ending up at your table, pen in hand, mumbling and grumbling, but writing anyway.

There was a lot of grumbling in the early days. Writing was difficult. I was always resisting the process. Once I got underway it was all right but starting was almost impossible, like doing the dishes. It's why Book One, 'The Caves of Etretat' took two and a half years to complete.

Of course, by then, the story had taken hold of me. I knew it was going to be four books long. I couldn't stand the idea of taking ten years to write the thing. I had to speed up, to get serious. Out of that determination came a schedule. The mornings were mine. The afternoons were for the rest of the world.

Sitting down day after day eventually trained my creativity to expect use in the mornings. It became easier to write on demand. Another quirk appeared. I was writing a heroic story and it helped me to feel heroic when I wrote it. I began listening to heroic music, settling on the 'Voyager' album, by Michael Oldfield. I listened to that album consistently, for two entire books. Books Three and Four had the second album from Pink Floyd's 'The Wall' Berlin concert version.  I still listen primarily to that. Sometimes, for a change, I would listen to 'Radio Ga-Ga', by Queen, on loop mode. It was the ultimate heroic song. Don't ask me to explain, I can't.

So, I'd sit down and turn the movie on in my head, become a fly on the wall, and write as fast as I could describing what I saw. There were no niceties about it. Just get it down on that paper. Don't worry about the order of things. Write!

It took me a while to figure out my problem when I got writer's block. The movie reel would snap and the screen would go blank. More 'Voyager' didn't help. Feeling heroic wasn't the problem. The problem was that I didn't have a clear story in my mind. I couldn't write what I didn't know. It sounds stupid in retrospect but it's exactly how it was.

That's when research came in. My story was steeped in history, like a teabag in hot water. You couldn't separate the two. It meant that my description of history had to be exact. I couldn't have mistakes. It would dispel the illusion. If you wonder about my research and what it was, it's clearly spelled out, in exact order, in my series.

Discoveries happened as I went, complexifying the story until I could no longer keep track of the darn thing. Writing my first serious fiction book was one thing but holding a multi-level, four-book long circular storyline in my head was a bit much.

I began breaking the story down into small, chewable bits. Eventually I realized that life itself was like that. There were no big storylines, it was all small bits. It was better to do my research before writing, to allow for an uninterrupted flow of creativity. I started to write a story synopsis. Characters needed to be developed more to be written properly.

I was becoming a writer.

Book One was a monster. Because it was the first I wrote, it was the worst in original quality. Every time I wrote more of the story in the later books, I created new elements or changed old ones, requiring constant revisions to Book One. In the end, it had more than fourteen significant re-writes. I removed over sixty-five thousand words from it. My last year prior to publication was spent editing the books in a constant loop, over and over again, until I could bear it no more.

Today, I know I can write a book quickly, the result of six years of training. I know how to impose structure to my projects from the beginning. The problem is that it takes forever to clear the time to write creatively. Promotional efforts have taken the place of writing in the mornings. These days, I am trying to imagine writing two projects at the same time, to double productivity, but I still have too much learning curve to get there soon, if ever.

I had a goal of writing three books this year. So far, they have been put back three times, in order to finish releasing the Sirenne Saga in less than one year. The earliest I can see to start my next project is August or September.  I'm not complaining, exactly. It's just that drive in the back of my head that won't let me go, telling me to sit down and write. Just write!

Check out my website www.mattchatelain.com to read more about what happened to me, in a bio-narrative about writing the series. While you're there, don't forget to sign up for my free draw for signed copies of my books. 

Thank you for your time Matt!!

BLURB:

In 2007, Canadian bookstore owner Paul Sirenne is suddenly thrust into a quest for answers, when his parents are found brutally murdered, their bodies cut up and shaped into the letters H.N. Finding a note inside his father's copy of 'The Hollow Needle', by Maurice Leblanc, Sirenne is determined to uncover the roots of his long-forgotten family secret.

He heads to the town of Etretat, France, on the trail of a hundred year old mystery hidden in the pages of the 'Hollow Needle'. Falling in love with Leblanc's great-granddaughter, he deals with puzzles, theories, codes and historical mysteries, leading him to believe that Leblanc held a secret war against Adolf Hitler, fighting for the control of an incredible complex of caves hidden in Etretat's chalk cliffs.

'THE CAVES OF ETRETAT' is the first in a four-book epic adventure following Paul Sirenne, an average man unknowingly manipulated into becoming the key in the final phase of a complex conspiracy spanning millennia. Inextricably woven into history, the series re-writes everything we know in a non-stop rollercoaster of a ride where nothing is ever as it seems.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Read an excerpt!!

Excerpt

While I drove toward my father's place, my rear view mirror allowed me the occasional glimpse of a familiar vehicle and its driver, Norton. His companions were nowhere to be seen. Perhaps he was intent on protecting me but I doubted it. His comments had seemed disjointed to me, despite the circumstances. Everything he said had come across insincere, as if he were following another agenda. I resolved to ignore him for the time being. Let him do his watching.

To some, police protection might seem comforting. To me, it felt like an irritant. I preferred to mind my own business and for others to do the same, even in dire circumstances. That way I hurt no one and no one got hurt. I almost changed my opinion when I arrived at my father’s house. Even Norton's company would have been preferable to that of my own thoughts. I hurried up the entrance staircase and stopped in front of the door, taking a deep breath. I felt frozen in place, unable to open it.

Breaking the spell and forcing myself to move, I removed the police tape with a trembling hand and entered, closing the door behind me. I looked around the entrance hallway. Everything looked normal but it felt wrong, empty, too quiet. I walked into the living room and there it was: the bloody outline of the H and the N. I was horrified by the bloodstained dots after each gruesome letter, knowing what had left those imprints.

Seized by a sudden, irresistible impulse, I ran to the kitchen, filled a large bucket with hot water and picked up a heavy bristle brush.

Those stains had to go!

I returned to the living room, trying to stay calm, to think nothing about what the stains represented. I knelt down, splashed some water on the floor, and began scrubbing the dark stains. I didn’t care if I scratched the wood. At some point, I started crying in great, wracking sobs, the tears streaming down my cheeks, dripping onto the bloodstains on the floor.

By the time I was done, my tears had dried, evaporated by a burning resolve unlike any I had before. I did not know how, I did not know when, but I would catch that monstrous killer. He would pay for what he had done.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

Born in Ottawa, fifty-two years ago, I have been the owner of a used bookstore I opened in Ontario, since 1990. I have been writing since I was ten. Beginning with poetry, I quickly moved on to short stories and non-fiction pieces. I stayed in that format for many years, eventually self-publishing a franchise manual (How to Open Your Own Used Bookstore), as well as a variety of booklets, such as 'How to Save Money at Home', 'Build a Greenhouse with Style' and the ten booklet series of Eddy Brock, Brockville Detective.

Having semi-retired from the bookstore, I embarked on the project of writing my first serious novel, which I expanded to a four book series after discovering an incredible mystery hidden within Maurice Leblanc's books.

My interests are eclectic. I like Quantum Physics, Cosmology, history, archaeology, science in general, mechanics, free power, recycling and re-use. I'm a good handyman and can usually fix just about anything. I'm good with computers. I love movies, both good and bad, preferring action and war movies. I can draw and paint fairly well but am so obsessed with perspective and light that I cannot think of much else. I am too detail oriented. Takes too long to finish anything.

Website:   http://www.mattchatelain.com

Facebook page:   http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=100003486781507

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PRIZE INFORMATION

Matt will be awarding a $20 Amazon GC to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour as well as to the host whose post receives the most comments (excluding his or the host's) during the tour.

http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/03/virtual-book-tour-caves-of-etretat-by.html