Tuesday, January 30, 2007
The Late Post
Well, I did it. I finished the synopsis for Scandal (as well as I am able do a synopsis) and sent the proposal to my agent. Honest to Fudge (that's my dog, not a stand-in for a curse word) I think the chapters rock. Whacking those 2500 words out of chapter 2 fixed a lot of stuff. Like boring nothing's really going on stuff. And you know, it just about killed me, but heck, I had to do something, and those words were mucking up my project.
Yeah. There's a killer on the loose and she's not sorry.
Labels: Scandal, Synopsis
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The Early Post
Couple of things:
First, in writing news, I think the chapters for Scandal are ready to go. The synopsis needs more work, but I know what I need to do so I'm not utterly cast down.
The Spare is being translated into Italian. Go figure! Very nice. I think
Dorchester Publishers's new president is being more aggressive about monitizing their books, which is good for authors. Now all those Italians who requested bookmarks from me will be able to read something of mine in Italian! Some of the emails, by the way, were entirely in Italian. Bablefish made a hash of translating them, but I have enough French to muddle through, plus the context was pretty apparent. For all I really know, though, some Italian is even now looking at a bookmark for
A Darker Crimson and saying the Italian equivalent of WTF?
I had something else, but I forget. I'll remember later.
Labels: Scandal, The Spare
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Monday, January 29, 2007
Review of Shards of Crimson
Reviewed by Sinclair Reid of
Romance Reviews TodaySHARDS OF CRIMSON - L. Maverick, C. Jewel, J. Lee, P. O'Shea
Crimson City ~ the Not so Distant Future
Welcome back to Crimson City, once known as Los Angeles. A city split into three divisions: Vampires, Humans, and Werewolves. Unfortunately, someone is trying to open a portal that will allow demons to run free. Will they succeed?
A Time to Howl - Liz Maverick
Leader of the Rogues, a misfit group of werewolves, a vampire, and a human, trying to make a name for themselves, Tajo Maddox and his compatriots are waiting outside the Dumont Towers where they were told to be for a meeting. When a limo arrives carrying the betrothed of one of the Dumont brothers, a sudden explosion puts Tajo and his team right smack dab in the middle of the perfect opportunity. Tajo takes Princess Gianna Asprey as his prisoner, at least for the time being. They will return her in time. Tajo never expects to fall hard for Gia or that she's made of sterner stuff than meets the eye.
Princess Gianna "Gia" Asprey from House Royale arrives at Dumont Towers to meet her future husband. An arranged marriage to cement their two houses, Gia will do her duty...although, just once she'd like to see what it's like to live dangerously. Just once! Gia gets her wish when she wakes in the arms of Tajo Maddox. He's handsome and makes her heart go pitter pat. Unfortunately, he plans to return her as soon as possible. Well, she'll just have to change his mind, won't she?
In Ms. Maverick's A Time to Howl, readers get a chance to see what has been going on with several characters from her other two stories. We get to see what Tajo has been up to, what his plans are, and who he's been hanging out with. And...She also promises us die-hard fans the story that I'm sure we've all been waiting on sometime in the future.
DX - Carolyn Jewel
Private Investigator Helen "Hell" Marshall is called in to help her former employer, B-Ops, on a case. They want her to bring them a rogue werewolf named Elijah Douglas. She's not too keen on the job, but the promise of her reputation being restored and compensation given makes up for it. Or it did until they assign Agent Gorgeous, I mean, Jaden Lightfeather to be her partner. There's a demon on the loose, and they believe Elijah is working on a new portal. Hell learns a lot about Jaden, including that she is very attracted to him. After one very involved and heated kiss, Hell finds it hard to concentrate on anything but Jaden. However, work does come first. Then Hell learns the truth about Jaden and what he truly is...Bak Faru. The worst demon around. Fantastic! Fan-freaking-tastic! Does B-Ops know about Jaden? If so, why assign a demon to work with her?
Carolyn Jewel's DX is fascinating. Hell is my kind of woman. Tough as nails, couldn't care less what people think of how she dresses, and totally cool. And the way she handles learning that Jaden is Bak Faru and could easily bend her to his will, is awesome. Is she brave enough to bond with Jaden? Can she handle it? Read the story to find out.
School Bites - Jade Lee
A teacher at Ben Franklin Middle School , Toni Freedman never expected to be bitten by a werewolf. But that's precisely what happens. She's given a shot to counteract the bite, but it's a fifty-fifty chance whether or not she'll turn furry. It's troubling to learn that Principal Ben Wong is taking it so easily in stride and promises to be by her side and help her through it. Does this mean he's a wolf too? Nope! Ben is a Druid, and he's going to teach Toni how to maintain a perfect balance between her wolf and human sides. Of course, that's going to be difficult when all Toni can think about is getting Ben into her bed. Plus, there's the fact that a mob is forming outside the school just waiting for Toni to go all furry and start attacking people. As if! Hmm...what happens if she can't control the wolf?
Jade Lee writes an interesting tale with a hint of humor. I like Toni's character and enjoyed watching her evolve throughout the story. And Ben...well, let's just say, "spank me." Principal? Paddling? Get it?
School Bites captured my attention just as the other tales did, holding me enthralled to the very end.
Dark Awakening - Patti O'Shea
Kimi Noguchi has learned that she's a kijo -- whatever that means. It must be something pretty good, or else a Dark One called Augustus wouldn't be wanting her magic. Oh yeah! Kimi's a witch. Anyway, Kimi escapes and summons a demon for protection. Who does she call? Nicodemus, or Nic for short. Kimi met him eight months ago at her cousin's wedding and something clicked. Unfortunately for Kimi, Nic considered her a nuisance and stayed away from her. So it's rather funny that he tells her what kijo means and that she's his mate, the only woman he will ever love. Well ain't that grand! Kimi is Nic's mate, and he thinks human women are weak. It's going to take everything the two of them have to keep Augustus from taking Kimi's magic. Plus, Nic's got his work cut out for him convincing Kimi that she's the only woman for him.
In Patti O'Shea's Dark Awakening, readers are swept up into the storyline by the lead protagonists, Kimi and Nic. Nic has known for a long time that Kim was his vishtau mate, but because she's human he wanted to give her time to mature. When she summons him for protection, Nic knows the time has come to claim what is rightfully his. Will Kimi fight it? I'll let you be the judge of that.
Once again the talents of Liz Maverick, Carolyn Jewel, Jade Lee, and Patti O'Shea are showcased beautifully in SHARDS OF CRIMSON. Returning to Crimson City was a stroke of genius, in my humble opinion, and I'm glad they did. It was nice to see what's been going on with past characters and to meet some new faces. I can only hope...or beg, as the case may be, that these ladies will continue to write stories about Crimson City and its occupants. (Hint! Hint! Ms. Maverick)Labels: Shards of Crimson, writing
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Sunday, January 28, 2007
Some inspiration
Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. Colette, writer (1873-1954)
We shall succeed only so far as we continue that most distasteful of all activity, the intolerable labor of thought. Learned Hand, jurist (1872-1961)
[I]f you torture words enough, they confess to anything. Anu Garg
The simplest questions are the most profound. Where were you born? Where is your home? Where are you going? What are you doing? Think about these once in a while and watch your answers change. Richard Bach, writer (1936- )
There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in. Leonard Cohen, musician (1934- )
Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. Arthur Koestler, novelist and journalist (1905-1983)
If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers. Irwin S. Cobb, author and journalist (1876-1944)
Labels: inspiration, writing
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Not exactly crying
I read through Scandal today, then whacked 2500 words out of chapter 2. I think that fixed things, but I have to read through it again to be sure. Chapter 1 seems to be fixed, which is nice. Anyway, have to get my son to bed. Then back to work.Labels: Scandal, word whacking, writing
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Saturday, January 27, 2007
Stick a Fork in it!
Photo by amodiovalerioverde
Yeah. The synopsis for Scandal is done, as in it now tells the story from start to finish. This doesn't mean it's polished but it's done. Yay! I'm off to bed. The read through will have to wait until tomorrow since if I try to stay up late enough to read it all I won't be fresh at all. And so, to bed.Labels: Scandal, Synopsis
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Another Saturday Night
My son woke up with a fever this morning, which meant we stayed home and kept a low profile. I made an Angel Food cake, and since you have to do something with all the left over egg yolks, I make a yellow cake, too. Both came out great. I bled my synopsis today. Slow agonizing progress, but progress nonetheless. I finished all my RITA books. Fun reading. What else? Nothing. Today was boring. But the synopsis is almost done and in a bit I'm going to print out my first 3 chapters (if I can get the cat off the printer) and see where things stand. Crap? Not crap? I'll find out. Could be I'll cry myself to sleep tonight. Or not.Labels: RITA, Scandal, Synopsis
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Friday, January 26, 2007
One of those days
Today was a day filled with petty irritants which I won't bore you with. My son is suddenly consuming mass quantities and I therefore suspect he's about to grow out of all his pants (vertically, that is). Rats. I didn't have time to grocery shop, so I took him out to get a burger, and he complained he was tired. Tonight was soccer awards and his team was getting one for being in 1st place in their league. He was falling asleep and well, anyway, I think he's going to wake up sick tomorrow. We left early and he went straight to bed. Uh-oh. Then I had to do stuff for work. I got some writing in, but only in snatches. I'll try to get a bit in tonight, only I'm pretty tired myself.
I managed to make an appointment to meet with a photog. I think a meeting first is good. He can see what he's got to work with, and I can convey to him that I don't want a boring pic but that I lack any visual creativity at all. Then sometime next week I will make my agent happy and get the darn photo taken.
Regarding Magellan's Witch, I've committed to my shift in what my hero is. It's working already. I'm closing in on finishing the synopsis for Scandal. Then I'll take a look at the 1st three chapters and send them off to my agent so she can see (we hope) that I actually can write historicals. This dratted story is cursed. Cursed I tell you. Last year was kind of a black hole for me in some ways and this MS suffered greatly because of it. I should post the new chapter one and beg people to comment on it. Hmm. What do you think?Labels: Magellan's Witch, Scandal, writing
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Thursday, January 25, 2007
Fill in the Blanks
OK. Right. Blah Blah Blah, Yadda blah. Etc. Got a little writing done (I worked on the Scandal synopsis) but then had to go to a Junior High orientation thing, for parents of Jr. High School students to be, which shot most of the evening.
Moving right along to the point of this post. I am reading a book to my son in which just about every bit of dialogue is in this form:
"Blah blah yadda yadda," pronoun verb, gerund phrase.
Example:
"Stop that, you twit!" he complained, turning to the talking monkey.
This is invariably followed by yet another gerund phrase. Ohmybutlerjames! Save me from weak lazy-ass writing like this. I'm dying reading this book. Seriously, it's killing me. Sigh.
Lookit - the gerund has its place. (In the example above it's the word "turning") It can even been effective. But I am here to tell you I wholeheartedly agree with John Gardener when he said, and I paraphrase, that the gerund is the sign of a writer who does not have command of her craft. The gerund makes transitions too easy. It's so simple to slap in that gerund phrase to get you to the next bit instead of putting a period after "said" and thinking up some detail that provides depth and complexity to the moment and also lets the reader make her own conclusions about what's going on.
Really. It's absolutely true. For one thing you should never ever put your reader in a place where he knows well beforehand the rhythm of the coming sentences. The minute he's thinking, Yadda yadda blah blah instead of "what is that talking monkey going to do next?" he's out of your story.
This is a draft-itis problem and if is the writer's job to edit it out. Search your MS for words ending in ing. How many are gerunds?
OK, off that subject. I'm going to bed.Labels: Scandal, writing craft
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Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Mind Food
Here's some interesting posts to chew on:
First, this from the Cosmic Variance blog: Do you Believe in Magic?
And this related link from the NY Times: Magic?
I love the Cosmic Variance blog. Love it. Yes, it's about physics, but this blog is always thought provoking. It's my go-to blog when I need to jump start my brain with a dose of something I never knew before from frighteningly smart people. Poke around, you'll see physicists of gender and color. We've come a long way. Give your mind some thing meaty to think about.
And then this post from Creating Passionate Users.
The coda to these links is that writing inspiration can (and probably should) be found in the most unexpected places. The Creating Passionate Users post applies to novel writing, even though that's not what it's about.
Fascinating, creative things spring from minds that make unexpected links, and you can't make those creative leaps unless you expose your mind to an array of mental fare.
P.S. I've been working on the synopsis for Scandal. I thought I had to start from scratch, but then I found the file where I was using tips and tricks from the synopsis class I took a while back and waddya know? The heavy lifting is done. I'll be done way sooner than I thought.
P.P.S. Also, my agent posted twice about author photos. Is it mere coincidence that she's now reminded me three times that she needs an updated photo from me? Maybe. But the honest truth is I was sick twice over Christmas, once with a big huge cold sore which meant I was unpresentable for any photos for over 10 days, and then it was New Years and back-to-back weekends of soccer 150 miles away. Sigh. I gotta find a good photog. fast. Maybe now with no soccer and hardly any school I can set something up on a weekday.Labels: atuhor photos, crreativity, Scandal, writing
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Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Writing Helpers (Or, stuff on Carolyn's Desk)
This is a figurine I painted while I was waiting for my son to paint something else. Fun. He keeps me company. 
Below is a pebble that's been polished on this top surface only. I often hold this and smooth my fingers over the various surfaces. Very soothing. 
And over there (to the right) is one of those Japanese thingees where you fill in one eye, make a wish, and fill in the other when the wish comes true. It's on my desk. Both his eyes are filled in. 
All these things help me write. They're items that have positive associations or that help me shift my mind just one-off while I'm thinking. Rubbing that pebble lets my conscious separate from my unconscious and stop interfering.
Labels: writing tips
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This and that, particularly that rather than this.
Don't even try to make sense of the post title. First this very funny post from Paperback writer. More agents should employ that negotiation technique, don't you think? snarkel snarkle snort wheeze.
What else? Apparently I should have fixed my form email a lot sooner than I did. I've been getting emails from it... And thanks, by the way, to everyone who emails me. Getting emails about my writing ALWAYS makes my day.
Last night I worked on the updated synopsis for Scandal. I should be working on it now, but I want to get a few hundred words in on Magellan's Witch first. Back to it.Labels: email, Magellan's Witch, Scandal, writing
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Monday, January 22, 2007
What a Day
[complaining deleted]
Today, the weather was sublime.
That's it. I have to go write.Labels: writing
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Sunday, January 21, 2007
Beef, Jaguars and writing
Now that I'm all registered for school and filling out the forms for graduation, and now that soccer is over for a bit, it occurs to me that I now can think about starting back up on some of the things I gave up for grad school. I had to stop the Tae Kwon Do, for example, when I was just a year or so away from getting my black belt. But now I want to take Tai'Chi, so I've started looking around for classes. I found a place that has Tai'Chi on Mondays and Pilates two other days a week, so maybe I'll do that, if it's not too expensive. There's also a place that teaches Flamenco, and I have always wanted to learn Flamenco. So I'll call around tomorrow and see what I can do.
I've now read three of my RITA books, and unlike last year when I had serious issues with almost all the books I read (it was painful, really painful for me) so far, they've been darn good. One in particular is by a new and really talented writer. I think this book has some flaws, but they're flaws from someone who can write, and there's a big difference between that and the kind of flaws that crop up in books by a writer who doesn't have the beef, if you will.
I didn't get all that much done this weekend, on account of Saturday being sucked up by soccer, and last night reading a RITA book, and then another one this morning. Then my son had an indoor soccer game and since the other team didn't show up, the parents went out on the field and played the kids instead. What a hoot! I was on defense, and I have a whole new respect for my son's position. We were losing until my son came out of goal and went on offense, then the proud parents scored several goals. Yeah! The kids who played goalie after my son had never played goal before and we took shameless advantage. We had to. Those kids are in shape!
There was a report in the local paper about three sightings of a "large black cat" about two miles from here. One by a biology student on her way to school. There are mountain lions around here, and there's a local park, a big wilderness type park here where my son's class actually saw a mountain lion, but we don't have black panthers here. If the sightings are real, there must have be some jerk who had one for a "pet" and it got free. Scary. If it's true, I imagine we'd hear shortly about livestock being killed. Lots of cows and sheep out that way. We have foxes, coyotes and bobcats out here, and, as mentioned the occasional mountain lion, but panthers? Yikes! Hopefully, it's not true.
I've been working on Magellan's Witch and will fail the word count minimum, of course. But things are going OK. I've started the 2nd of the two new chapters, and darned if I didn't find out that my hero has a tragic love in his past. I like when that happens. All the planning for writing just doesn't substitute for actual writing. Back to it for a bit.Labels: Jaguars, RITA, writing
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Saturday, January 20, 2007
The 800 Club
This is my 800th post. I haven't been as prolific a blogger as some considering I started this in 2001, but gosh! It's fun.
This is a post worth reading: Elmore Leonard's blog. I wish he posted more about himself, but this is quite poignant. Sounds like his sister was a major influence in his life, and it sounds like he was a lucky man, too.
I've solved the bookmark request entry. Indeed, I showed up on some freebie websites, two of which are in Italy. That explains all the requests from Italy.
In other news, I fixed my form mail problem. Hopefully the spam doesn't start up again. I shouldn't have left it broken for so long. I still have a headache, darn it, so I caught up on my favorite blogs, fixed my webmail form, and checkout out my site statistics. Sharply up, as I figured would be the case since I have a release. And, it means that the rash of newsletter sign ups are not so coincidental to the bookmark thing, which is nice to know.Labels: futzing around, Writers
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Muddling Along
Well, we're back from Ripon today. My son's soccer team was missing two players which put them down to just one sub. One broke his leg. These things happen, the other, from what I read between the lines, was the collateral damage of parents who've separated and, well, it's just sad. Your children come first and you don't keep a kid from a championship game just to prove a point. But, the players hung in there.
Hey, check out this Crimson City Authors on Revision 14 post. All four of us talk about Shards of Crimson. Check it out.
I have to go make dinner, then maybe my headache will be better and I can get some work done.Labels: Shards of Crimson, writing
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Friday, January 19, 2007
Have Laptop, Will Travel
Tomorrow morning we head 120 miles southeast to Ripon CA for more soccer. If my son's team wins, we stay the night for another game Sunday. If not, we come home Saturday. I have my GPS and am hardly stressed at all with respect to the once-certainty of getting lost. I'm having a hard time calculating when to leave because I no longer need to factor in getting lost. Strange. Very strange. I have the laptop ready to go in case I have some afternoon and evening time.
Yesterday, I sat in the car during soccer practice since practice was from 4:00 until too-dark-to-see-the-ball and got LOADS done. I more than exceeded even the secret minimum. For one thing, I was working on an idea I had on the way home from work yesterday and it involved a new chapter or two inserted early on. I wrote one of those in the car and after we got home and got settled etc, I fixed it up. I'll be continuing on with that. But I also need to get my historical proposal to my agent. I don't think I have a synopsis for it, so I need to work on that. Ick.
What else? Oh, right. This is a writer's diary so yeah. I do have a release, Shards of Crimson and the usual review stuff is going on. As ever, people either love my stuff or hate it. There's so rarely an in between. One review I'm not sure what to think of because it was riddled with misspellings and other language issues. I'm doing pretty well at avoiding Stupid Web Tricks, but some review links have come my way and I didn't delete the emails fast enough. I don't need the stress. But, just to give a flavor, one review said DX was outstanding, and another said it was the weakest of the stories. Geez, I'm stressing just writing about it. See, this isn't good for me.
In other news, the bookmark requests have trailed off from 40 a day to 3-5 a day. There must have been upwards of 150 or more. About 10-15 people also signed up for my newsletter. I still have a few Crimson City Safety Tip Cards, so I'm still sending newsletter subscribers a free set. Quite a few of the bookmark requests were from other countries: Canada, several from Italy, then Pakistan and India to bring up the rear. No other countries that I can recall. So, why so many from Italy? Why none from France or Spain or Asia? A couple of nights my son and I sat down and stuffed and stamped envelopes.
Now, I'm going to get into bed and start on one of the RITA books. With luck, I'll get to sleep early and then, off to Ripon.Labels: bookmarks, reviews, writing
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Wednesday, January 17, 2007
More Progress! Exept what if -- somebody make that whiny voice go away!
Today my life didn't implode and I actually wrote and slightly exceeded my secret target. I was oh so tempted to get up and do a bazillion other things. Organize my socks, look for some stuff, straighten the bed. But I didn't. I wrote words. One after the other and kept going and after spending two days planning what I would be doing with the scene I was working on, darned if something else entirely didn't happen. I think it's cool, but the best part now is that if it turns out not to be, I have words that can be fixed.
I think I spent too much time at Miss Snark's Crap-o-Meter because even though I mostly skimmed the stuff, every time the Great Snark pointed out some failing, I immediately saw that failing in my own writing. and I think it's been sneakily paralyzing me from pulling out all the stops these last couple of weeks. Cuz, like, what if I overwrite? Or babble? Or start too soon and have only set up? Or what if it's just plain stupid? Folks, this is writer's neurosis in full swing. It's ugly. Get out of the way. I think I'm over it because, well, I have to be since I have a book that has to be finished.
In other news (psych!) It's not other news, it's still about writing -- I'm making a significant change in the nature of hero. Like he was one thing in the synopsis and now he's going to be another. If it works it'll be way cool. Unless it's not.
Urk.
Anyhoo, it's late, I need to make sure I keep getting enough sleep, which too often lately, I haven't been. I have my RITA books to read and sometime I have to read them. Urk again. ANOTHER delay.Labels: Writting. freaking writing
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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Writing Tension
Ah, I love a phrase with multiple personalities. Today's post title is one such phrase.
Tension in Writing (1)
This newspaper article strikes me as a perfect example of the kind of tension necessary to a novel. A little set up first: Here in Northern California, we have a mushroom called the Death Cap. The Death Cap is extremely toxic. Most people need a liver transplant if they are to survive, and many don't. Unfortunately, the Death Cap mushroom looks almost exactly like several other edible and delicious mushrooms that grow here, as well as in other countries. Even experts have been known to mistake the Death Cap for one that's safe. This is an area with a large immigrant population, and every year about this time there's typically a poisoning with tragic results. This article is about such a poisoning and how the treating physician tracked down a possible antidote. The article has everything required for dramatic tension, and the tension ratchets because he met red tape, corporate greed, corporate good will, bureaucrats who did the right thing and international time zones and seat of the pants thinking across borders, all against a ticking clock-- an entire family will probably die if he can't get his hands on this possible antidote. It's a riveting article. Read it and think about what's at stake in your story. There's a mostly happy ending, by the way. Only one family member died, the others have survived and without a liver transplant.
Tension in Writing (2)
I don't know if there was any, I haven't done any yet. I had an eye doctor appointment this afternoon, but had to cancel it to take my car to the mechanic to tell me if the dashboard light that kept coming on was something serious. Normally I'd just wait for the car to break down (OK, not really, but practically) only I have to drive 150 miles or whatever to Ripon this weekend, and then back, so I really don't want to break down far from anyone who could bail me out. My car didn't come with a manual, so I needed a translator. (Translation: the tire pressure is low) So either I have a leak (unlikely but possible, was the second opinion at the tire shop) or I needed more air in one tire (which they did for me) or the sensor is broken (which I don't have to care about right now.) So I didn't get home until 5:00 pm, and at 5:30 I had to take my son to soccer practice, only, as one other parent and I discovered, practice today was at 4:00, not 6:00. So... my son and I went to the book store to look for a biography on Attila the Hun because, as he told me at 5:29 pm, he loses 5 points on his book report if he doesn't bring his selected biography to school tomorrow. We haven't had time to go to the library because of soccer, but this is not all that common a biography, let me tell you.
He got one on Alexander the Great instead which he will bring to school tomorrow to preserve his 5 points, and we'll continue The Search for Attila in the meanwhile (because Attila the Hun killed people in reputedly gruesome ways and my son, being a boy, is wild to know the details). We got home from that at 7:00 because, well, we were at a book store (in the used section) and I found several neat books (Who's Who in the Ancient Near East, Ancient Mystic Rites, Byzantium: the Bridge from Antiquity to the Middle Ages and The Medieval Underworld) which I just had to have for the Work In Progress. Then I had to get dinner, and now this blog post.
So, after that long way around, I am tense about writing right now because I was expecting to work during his practice and couldn't, obviously, because the book on Alexander the Great cost me $64.70.Labels: Attila the Hun, tension, writing
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Sunday, January 14, 2007
Home Alone -- Not Really
We're home from Modesto. My son's team won the two games they played (both shut outs!) they won the 3rd by forfeit since the other team missed the team check in. This means they advance in the tournament and next weekend we're in beautiful Ripon CA, not so far from Modesto, I'm sorry to say. Sigh. Now it's win or you're out so we'll see what happens.
Anyway, the GPS was worth every freaking penny it cost. EVERY ONE. Of course I missed a turn on the way to Modesto, in the dark, right where there are no fewer than a bazillion intersecting freeways (580, 680, 880, 980, 24 all with east and west flavors.) If not for the GPS I would have been hopelessly lost in a very bad part of Oakland with no clue how to get where I was supposed to be. GPS - how do I love thee? Let me count the ways: times spend actually hopelessly lost: 0. Number of Carolyn-esque wrong turns that turned out OK: 5. I spent practically no time feeling stressed. In fact the only really stressful moment of the trip was in the garage when the thing you're supposed to affix to the dashboard to hold the GPS came un-affixed. Duct tape fixed it back up. Yes, my dashboard looks totally stupid and crass at the moment, but I'll track down a better class of GPS dashboard holder and all will be well.
I got very little work done, but while I was staring at my laptop, thinking about chapter 10, I had a very interesting thought and decided what the hell? So I wrote one sentence of what-the-hell idea and it was good. Then I fell asleep.
Now we're home. The laundry's done. The car's unloaded. I made cookies with my niece. My dog and Jasper the cat are excited to have me home. I am glad to be home and going to bed early.Labels: the art of being lost, writing
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Saturday, January 13, 2007
Reporting Live from .... Modesto CA
I'm here in Modesto CA (not far from Yosemite) because my son has a soccer tournament here this weekend. They won this morning's game and have 2 tomorrow. I'm exhausted right now. I've worked a little on revising my outline for Magellan's Witch, I can see things are lined up better now and I have a place to go forward to, as it were. But now I'm so tired I can hardly think. Thursday I was up until 11:30 pm writing a blog post for Magical Musings. It took me until then to figure out what to write, which ended up being about where and how to start a novel. It's a subject I think I'll expand on and add to my website later. At any rate, I had to get up an 4:30 am for work, then take my son to a soccer game then leave for Modesto. I still have sleep to catch up on, which is why I'm dragging badly now. Also sadly, I have to work Monday so no sleeping in. Drats.
I'm going to try to get something done with my chapter 10. In a bit I expect we'll be heading the kids out to dinner. Tomorrow morning's game is at 8:00 am. Modesto is in Central California and there's actual weather here. The low is 29 deg tomorrow, so it's going to be freaking cold for this N Cal girl.
Off to see if my brain can write OK.Labels: novel openings, writing
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Wednesday, January 10, 2007
From the Basement
Dracula's Castle is for sale. It's very pretty, so if you have a few mil to spare, send one to me, and use the rest to buy Vlad's hangout.
The cover of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted glows in the dark. Ask me how I found this out. Well, since you insist. I got up in the middle of the night and as I was walking out of my very dark room, I happened to glance down at my TBR pile and I saw was this hideous glowing white face. I was a bit startled. By the way, under a green light bulb the face is even scarier. (Look it's a long story, about the green light bulb.) The image you see here (I hope) does not begin do justice to the cover when glowing. The cover is actually medium purple rather than the blue shown. This has to rank as one of the greatest book covers ever. A keeper even if it turns out I hate the book which I don't think I will.
Somehow, somewhere on the web that doesn't seem to by my website, young (I assume college or fresh out of) people have learned that I will send a free bookmark upon request. This has never been onerous. Until now. I had nearly fifty bookmark requests just today. I have run out of envelopes and stamps. Some of the requests are obvious college addresses, but I figure if even just a few decide maybe they'd like to read A Darker Crimson, that's to the good.
I have to write up a guest blog post and I pretty much have to do it tonight. I tried yesterday but everything I wrote was stupid. Ack! I have to do that now.Labels: Book Covers, Bran Castle
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Monday, January 08, 2007
Getting There
I exceeded my minimum word count tonight and hit my secret target count. Plus some cool stuff came out of all that agony, and I had an idea I can run with. Yay. So, right now, all's happy here.
My really exciting news is that today I used the credit card (sigh) and bought a GPS for the car. This weekend, my son has a soccer tournament down south a couple hundred miles (moved from the previous weekend) and I have spent the last two weeks feeling sick with the certainty that I will get lost. We're driving down Friday night, so gosh only knows we'd probably end up at Yosemite Lodge before I realized I really did miss a turn. It's just horrible and I hate it. So I bought the GPS and it took less than five minutes to set up and get working. Really really really easy. And when I picked my son up at Aikido, I told it I wanted to go home, and waddya know, it found my house. The dear child may possibly be MORE excited than I am.
Okay. It's late, I wrote more than 1,000 words, and I'm deeper in debt but not dreading the weekend quite so much.Labels: GPS, plotting, writing
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Sunday, January 07, 2007
Some Post Title Here
Here's an interesting post from Joe Wikert's Publishing 2020 Blog. I'm not sure I agree with everything that's said, but the notion that used book sales on Amazon have hurt publishing is quite an interesting idea. I don't know if that's right, but I know that when I see my January 2007 release on Amazon, practically on the day of release, mind you, with links to used copies at a less-than-new price, I don't feel so good. I need people to buy my book new. Otherwise, my publisher thinks I can't sell books for them.
I disagree that agents and publishers act as a closed door to publishable projects. My own experience with reading MSS by unpublished authors says 99% of the books aren't good and probably 98% are really, really bad. I know these same people are sending their stuff to agents and editors and getting rejected --- because their books are bad. If the author of a good book doesn't keep revising and submitting, that's not the fault of agents and editors. For proof, I offer up this post from Marjorie M. Liu in which she talks about her submittal process for her first book, a sale out of slush.
Rejection is typically a sign that there's something wrong with the project. If all you get are terse form rejections then, sorry to say, the problem is almost certainly with the project. But if you get nice rejections, encouraging rejections, referral rejections (and by the way, I've had all kinds) then your project is probably pretty good and you should be reading those rejections closely and re-reading your MS even more closely. And you should continue submitting.
I've read a few POD books by acquaintances who said they were frustrated by their rejections, some even said they thought NY simply wasn't ready for their opus. Without exception they were not good books.
Fellow writers: Rejection is trial by fire. Rejection tells you to keep working at your craft. So far, NY is The Show for writers. If you want to have the public read your book, then a print publisher with a editorial review board is where you need to place your manuscript. The editor's job isn't to reject worthy books. It's to publish books that readers will buy. (New. Not used.)
In my opinion, POD means you're accepting less from yourself. It's the worst thing you can do to yourself as a writer. You can't grow as a writer without rejection. I really wish it were otherwise, but it isn't.Labels: publishing, slush, writing
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Ahem. Madam Muse? Move over please.Thanks.
Liz Maverick has a cool post over on Magical Musings. I was laughing pretty hard while I was reading but at the end, waddya know, the message was darn uplifting. Easy things you can do to get yourself in front of the keyboard. Check it out.
So, here's the muses:
- Calliope: Chief of the muses and muse of epic poetry
- Euterpe: lyric song
- Clio: history
- Erato: erotic poetry
- Melpomene: tragedy
- Polyhymnia: sacred song
- Terpsichore: dance
- Thalia: comedy and bucolic poetry
- Urania: astronomy
The question for me is, which one is the Muse of Romance writers? Calliope, Erato, Melpomene or Thalia?
Gee, no wonder it feels so crowded around here, what with the dog and the cats wanting lap space and all the muses fighting over who gets to inspire me.
Anyway, like Liz (if she's not telling a big fat whopper) I, too, have a voice to frighten people witless which kind of put a crimp in my plan to become a lounge singer. But that doesn't stop me from singing along to my favorite writing songs. Yay. Apparently, Liz's is Vanilla Ice (maniacal laughter from Carolyn). Currently, I've been singing along to most of the songs on Alan Jackson's Like Red On a Rose. What's your sing-along-music?Labels: Music, New Years, The Muses
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Saturday, January 06, 2007
The Fritter Queen
Shards of Crimson is available for purchase. If you like to read, support 4 authors at once by buying the book. All the stories are terrific. You can purchase it at your local bookstore or via Amazon or B&N.
I managed to fritter away my entire day. I read Darkly Devoted Dexter this morning. Then a friend came over and we drank tea and chatted for quite a while. Then I had to update my website and send out the Release Announcement for Shards, which I should have done a few days ago, and then start work on the February book signing announcement, and then make dinner and then watch Mission Impossible with my son.
Oh, my gosh. What a horrible, horrible movie. Beyond bad. How is it that I recall this movie got decent reviews? That just can't be right. If I hate a movie WHILE I'm watching it, it has to be bad, because, normally, I love every movie I see. It's not until the next day that I realize a movie was only mediocre. MI isn't even that. My son hated it too. At one point, he said, "Why are we watching this?" It's stupid and idiotic and confusing beyond words. If I'd known this movie would be agonizing, I would have spent the time writing, because at least then I wouldn't hate myself afterward.
I've started in on my Golden Heart entries. Ahem. OK. I'm having flashbacks to last semester, only without the snotty comments. I think there needs to be a hotline for the punctuation impaired. Commas are not fairy dust, to be sprinkled liberally and randomly througout one's writing in order to bring good luck. Such an approach only causes mayhem.
I have a huge TBR pile and I feel like I have nothing to read. Everything I pick up starts out stupid. Except the Dexter book from this morning. I'm in a funk. Whatever. I blame it on Mission Impossible.
Tomorrow I have to make up for today's frittering.Labels: books, Fairy Dust, Golden Heart, writing
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Wednesday, January 03, 2007
Effin Good Stuff Here!
The Dystel " Goderich Agency has this great post of New Year's Resolutions for writers. Check it out.
***Don't read the rest of this post if you're offended by 16th century vocabulary.***
On February 10, 2007, a number of authors and I will be doing a book signing at the Dublin Barnes & Noble. The exciting thing is there will be actors reading a 6 minute scene from each book. Someone in my local RWA chapter has connections to actors, real deal actors, by the way. Hopefully, I'll get the announcement page up soon, because he's gorgeous and so is she. Wow! Plus, she looks just like I imagined Hell Marshall looks. I'll be providing a scene from DX in Shards of Crimson but seeing as it's a novella and given the nature of the story and the plot, I was hard pressed to find a scene that was safe. I'm probably going to have to sanitize a bit, or better, just tell the actors to substitute less Anglo-Saxon words if they deem it necessary. Although, as an aside, I've heard but have not personally confirmed via the OED, that the F-word is NOT Anglo-Saxon, that it didn't come into use until the 1500's. But I don't think the earl of Rochester was using a new word, so one of these days I'll go look it up for myself.
OK, just did that. As a verb, the OED has the F word placed in 1503: Be his feiris he wald haue fukkit. As a noun, the usage is even later: 1680, wherein one finds reference to the infamous Rochester: Thus was I Rook'd of Twelve substantial F*cks. And by the way, I recommend reading his poetry at least once. It's great poetry but so plainly he was a troubled, troubled man. The sheer violence of the phrase f#cking post will probably never leave my mind. And to then read Aphra Behn right after, honestly, you'll never look at the 16th century in the same way. And then there's the lovely young and in love John Donne, who was so passionate about his wife. Back to the F-word. I suspect that the word was in verbal use for some time prior to 1503, though come to think of it Chaucer was swyving, not f%cking. I should go check my Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology. OK, alas there, Barnhart goes from fuchsia to fuddle. Effing chicken.
Um, anyway, speaking of my f'n career, as I was saying, there's this book signing on Feb 10, and there will be honest to goodness real actors reading from DX (among other find works) and they may, or may not, use the language of Shakespeare.
I will not hit my minimum word count tonight because I've been here, f@cking off.Labels: Shards of Crimson, vocabulary, writing
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Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Back to the Grind
Yes. It was HARD to go back to work today.
Yes. I DID stay up too late reading last night.
Yes. I did SOLVE yesterday's writing dilemma, but not at the gym. In a little flash right as I was falling asleep.
Tonight, I went to Starbucks and worked while my son was at soccer practice. Then I finished up at home later. I have to go to Starbucks now because our local homegrown cafe, Deaf Dog Coffee, has been driven out of business by Starbucks. And me giving up coffee, probably. Very sad.
Words written for Magellan's Witch so far: 22,028
Me: tired. Going to bed.Labels: day job, plugging away, writing
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Monday, January 01, 2007
Words, She Bought
Today, I worked on the writing. Things went OK. But I hit a problem chapter. There's stuff going on, but nothing's happening. Drats. And, I know this chapter should totally rock, if only because of who's in it. But I'm not sure how. I slightly exceeded my minimum word count, and then had to go grocery shopping before it got too late. I was kind of hoping I'd have a far-away-from-the-writing moment and come up with a solution, but no such luck. Still, I made excellent progress in working on the mood I want. I'm not there yet, but I can feel it getting there. Chances are good I'll hit on the answer at the gym tomorrow morning.
I've been reading more. Eloisa James has been in my To Be Read pile for a long time, and this weekend I finally read Much Ado About You which I totally enjoyed. I discovered I also had Kiss Me Annabel, also very enjoyable. So today in the grocery story I saw Pleasure for Pleasure and bought that. My hand just kind of shot out all by itself. I don't seem to have the Duke one which I really want to read, so I'll have to get that.
I took my son to our local independent bookstore so he could spend his gift cards ($60.00) for books. He came back with $90.00 worth of books so I told him to start adding up the prices and come back when he wasn't over his limit. My sister came along, and we're all there in the store, perusing our various sections and calling each other on our cell phones: Are you done yet? Where are you? What did my son get? Well, they didn't have any Bone Comics (a book, not paper) that he doesn't already have -- isn't that a reader frustration? but he got lots of Asterix and Obelix and the next two Golden Compass books. That put him only a little bit over, so I gave him the gift card and my frequent reader card to get stamped and off he went to the cashier. My sister was behind him with her mysteries, and as usual, I ended up undoing any progress in the TBR pile. Oh, well.
Strange thing in the Romance section of the store. The section is tiny, which I've mentioned before, and now the books are shelved all weird and sh--- stuff. On the very top shelf where you'd have to be 6 feet tall to reach, the books were stacked on the sides 5-6 books high, then right-side up and spine out across the top of those. It was impossible to see what was there. And on other shelves, a bunch of books were laid side-down across the top of the row of spine out books and a few were face out directly OVER books that were not the same. Anybody with more books than shelf space knows exactly what I mean. And then, at the very bottom, there were two shelves of westerns. Partially blocked by the back of a display. So, now westerns have the very worst shelf allotment in the store. But, they did seem to have more authors than just Nora Robers and Danielle Steele. The actual selection was pretty good.
I bought Jeff Lindsay's Dearly Devoted Dexter, Haunted by Chuck Palahniuk, Dead Man Rising by Lilith Saintcrow, Stephanie Laurens's An Unwilling Conquest, The Witch of Cologne by Tobsha Lerner and Night Pleasures by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Where to start?
Well, I have to go to work tomorrow so I guess I'll start by getting my files backed up, logging my word count, and then getting ready for bed.
Oh, and hey, Happy New Year!Labels: reading, writing
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Photo by amodiovalerioverde
The cover of Chuck Palahniuk's Haunted glows in the dark. Ask me how I found this out. Well, since you insist. I got up in the middle of the night and as I was walking out of my very dark room, I happened to glance down at my TBR pile and I saw was this hideous glowing white face. I was a bit startled. By the way, under a green light bulb the face is even scarier. (Look it's a long story, about the green light bulb.) The image you see here (I hope) does not begin do justice to the cover when glowing. The cover is actually medium purple rather than the blue shown. This has to rank as one of the greatest book covers ever. A keeper even if it turns out I hate the book which I don't think I will.
