Carolyn's Blog

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Well I started something all right

Oh my good golly. It's been something the last few days.

Sigh.

Right. Monday is a total blur. Number one it was a Monday and that's hard enough. But I'm doing my grocery shopping on a Not-Sunday so as to preserve Sundays for non-drudgery stuff. That part of the plan worked brilliantly. So, I went shopping after work Monday and got 3 homework related calls while doing this. Got home, dealt with the homework situation and then someone says, Say, isn't today the [insert REALLY important meeting]? Long story short, yes. It was. In 30 minutes. So I cooked a pizza, sliced it up, left the kid to fend for himself and was at the meeting 15 minutes later. Got home fagged, but the Fudgester wanted to play and so we went out and I threw a stick for him. Blogger wouldn't post my blog, so I left it in draft.

Yesterday is a blur, too. Some stuff happened which I can't remember what it was only it was busy stuff. Then at 9:30 pm the darling child remembers important homework. I did get Monday's blog posted.

Today is becoming a blur. The DC calls me at 2:15 to tell me he'd forgotten he was getting a ride to soccer practice with someone else and was on the bus home instead and calling from a friend's phone because he'd left his at home EVEN THOUGH I called him at 7:00 am to remind him it was on the charger in my room.... I had to leave work early in order to get him to soccer practice 15 minutes late. Then we got home just in time to leave for his Jr. High Open house at which his French class sang a French song. They were very charming. Got home from that and now after a bit, I'm here doing this. It was so freaking hot today I took a shower when I finally got home.

In reading news, I finished Lisa Kleypas's Sugar Daddy which was fantastic except maybe the ending wasn't strong enough for how fantastic the rest of the book was. But still a big thumbs up. I also finished Sherman Alexie's Reservation Blues which was brilliant and his fiction debut. I will buy more of his books soon. This weekend if I make it past Friday.

In writing news, I did officially start notebooking the next historical. The heroine's name is Camilla, I think. And the hero's name is Lysander, I think. Nobody has a last name or title yet. But the idea has fleshed itself out in my head over the last week or so of down time and now it's ready to get fleshed out on paper. I'm pretty sure what chapter one needs to be.

Labels: notebooking, reading, Regular life, writing

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Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Done Gone and the Post Book Glow

All righty!! I've emailed Xia, which I have titled His Wicked Witch, to my editor. We'll see if the title sticks. So, I got in some last minute changes and now it's done and I can't do anything to the story until I hear from my editor.

What an odd feeling. I have Monday the 28th off, which I had thought to be spending in last minute panic. I'll be getting a massage and maybe a facial that day. Mmmmmm.

Then I went outside and took some pictures with my spiffy new replacement camera. There were three black widow spiders under a vat. Never mind how I found out. Some of the pictures came out good. I got the chills looking at the spider pics. It looks like I was much closer to them than I was.

I'm in the Post-Book Glow period and feeling a bit at sea. What to do with myself? Go to bed and read.

TBR pile, here I come...

Labels: writing, Xia

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Carolyn Good Faker

Yesterday was a very good day. And today, why, it's Friday, so that's 2 good days in a row. Yowza! Today, I worked and worked on Chapter 16 and at the end, I was only up 400 words. Rats. I'm doing the book trailer plunge with this release, and that revealed a wee problem unrelated to the money I'm spending on it.

Of course I had to write a synopsis in order to sell My Wicked Enemy but other than the protagonists' first names, that synopsis bears no resemblance whatever to the book I actually turned in. I knew that would happen. The whole time during the sale process for this book I knew the synopsis I had to slave over like a dog was written in disappearing ink. I told my agent, when she asked about stupid stuff I put in it, I don't know! I have to write the book first! None of that stuff is going to actually happen. And yet, I had to provide a synopsis anyway, of some other book from some other universe. They gave me money anyway. Carolyn good faker.

So the problem is the book trailer people want a synopsis. And I only have a fake one. And a book trailer based on a fake synopsis? Bad. Bad indeed. But the next book is due May 1. I did not have time to spend 3-4 days bleeding out my eyeballs to write a synopsis. I paid those dues already, Bub! I am not agonizing over this while I pay them. Oh, no never. That's just sick and twisted. So I whipped something together, mostly resisted the urge to edit and sent if off with the last round of edits copy of the book.

Which is most of the reason I'm only up 400 words. That means 1600 words tomorrow.

off to bed.

Labels: Book Trailer, Faking It, Synopsis, writing, writing freaking writing

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Thursday, March 06, 2008

Friday!!!

Tomorrow is Friday. Yippee!! Xia is still coming along. I have 66K words now. A goodly amount. Can I be at 70K by the end of the weekend?

My agent has been nicely nudging my historical editor for revisions on Scandal. They better come soon given the May 1 deadline for Xia. I'm told they are. Also, my Berkley editor sent me a cover (not mine!) by the guy she'd like to use to do the cover for Scandal. He's a wonderful artist. That was pretty exciting, actually.

I now have my artwork-only jpg for My Wicked Enemy which I need for bookmarks and I have my preliminary order in. I'm on the fence about a book trailer. Does anybody know if they make a difference? Readers, do you like them? Do you care? Does anyone have hard figures on what the ROI might be?

It has occurred to me that it would be nice to have a title for Xia. Probably with the word Wicked in it. I have no ideas right now. Wicked Tired?


Off to bed.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing, Xia

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Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Astronomical Events

We've had rainy weather this week so I didn't think we'd be able to see the eclipse of the moon tonight but things cleared up, like magic! It was spectacular. Not reddish like the last two but still quite lovely. It was sad, though, to see so many city lights where there never used to be any. Rats. And the neighbors, who don't really know how to live in the country, keep on too many lights, and too many bright ones at that. You don't need 100 watt flood lights outside. It's disruptive to wildlife for one thing. It's wasteful and just plain light pollution.


At least on the other sides of the house if we get all our interior and exterior lights off it's possible to see how incredibly starry the night sky is. Amazing.

I have my minimum done for Xia and I'm heading off to bed early. I need to finish my RITA reading.

I'm pleased to report that Xia has at last been kidnapped and Alexandrine is on her way to rescue him. Yay!

Update: Went outside so the Fudgester could do his business, and I could hear the frogs and toads plus the owls. It was lovely. Not just a frog or two, but hundreds, quite possibly thousands, which is good because the last two years there were hardly any. And that's just wrong. I love listening to them. Not to mention the owls.

Labels: lunar eclipse, writing, Xia

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Tuesday, February 19, 2008

DeFacto Monday

I know it's Tuesday but it's really Monday in disguise. I had a 4 day weekend that wasn't long enough. I guess they never are. But still. The weekends fly by and the weekdays crawl. Sigh. I mailed off the page proofs for My Wicked Enemy today. I also mailed my taxes to my CPA. That's two big things crossed off the To-Do list. The next one is to finish Xia. Ha. Ha. Ha. I crack myself up. Really. The Fudgester, aka, Speed Brick, aka my dog Fudge is trying to get my attention. So I'm off to cook dinner and throw the stuffed toy for the doggie. Oh, and this morning at the gym (I made it! Yay!!) I was notebooking and not getting anywhere near the issue I wanted to have resolved for tonight... How does Xia get kidnapped without being de-alphabetized? and I was beginning to think I'd have to have some kind of writerly hissy fit with myself. In the last 15 minutes I started discussing that with myself and came up with a couple of ideas. After dinner, we'll see what I write. Something completely different no doubt.

Labels: Mondays, writing, Xia

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Monday, February 18, 2008

Slings and Arrows Plus Bows

My son is doing a history report on Genghis Kahn, and while reading about the great man, he suddenly came to me and said he wanted to make a bow and arrow. OK! So we googled How to Make a Mongolian bow and what do you know? Lots of hits and videos and the like. Unfortunately, a Mongolian bow requires the use fish glue (recipies available!) and yak horn. That last one, as you can imagine, was a show stopper for us. There are no yaks around here. So, he decided an English Long Bow would be an acceptable substitute. The preferred wood for an English Long Bow is yew.

Further research revealed that the Northern Coastal California yew is considered among the best bow-making yew in the world. Another excellent choice is cypress. As it happens, we live in Northern Coastal California. So I gave the Darling Boy a hacksaw and said go cut yourself a six foot branch off the yew tree down by the fence. And if that doesn't work then get a branch off one of the cypress trees by the sheep chute. We live in long bow heaven it seems. Who knew? Off he went with his size 9 1/2 feet and the hacksaw and he came back to the house with the perfect yew branch. One of the websites said to ask the tree's permission first. He says he did, but that it was on vacation at the time. Right now he's out sanding his yew stave.

update: I thought perhaps he'd chosen a limb that was too thick, but I was just looking at it, and now that he's shaved it some, darned if the thing isn't just springy enough to imagine Robin Hood bending it.

I've been through the first round of the page proofs for My Wicked Enemy. Now I'm off to check all the corrections. I'm hoping I'm able to get some time in with Xia.

Labels: My Wicked Enemy, writing, Xia

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Tuesday, February 12, 2008

The Carolyn Character Meld is Tricky

I'm still in the middle of pulling an excess character out of the Work in Progress (WIP). I've done three chapters, and had to stop at the last one because it's late and this chapter will be the most work. Some interesting stuff happened and also, quite happily, I've solved the problem of the disappearing hero. Tip: when your hero is unconscious for a chapter and a half, this is bad. Especially when those are the chapters you were thinking would be hot. ::sigh:: A couple of years ago the spectacular Mary Balogh was on a list I was on and she said she'd been told never to have her hero and heroine apart for more than 5 pages. Probably in a longer work you could get away with a few more pages, but not many. I've found I have fewer boring passages when I try to follow that advice. So, 15 pages or so of an unconscious hero is bad. Very bad indeed.

Anyway, today was a boring day except for when I was watching Buffy and doing my character-ectomy some of which I did in the car at lunch time.


My editor emailed me to let me know the page proofs for My Wicked Enemy should be arriving tomorrow. I'm kind of excited to read it. This is Carolyn ignoring the unpleasant fretting in her head, hey it'll only cost me thousands of dollars to re-write the whole book! I have a day off Friday, and Monday is a holiday so, I have a 4 day weekend coming up. Yippee!


Still obsessed with Spike, though.

Labels: Buffy, My Wicked Enemy, Spike, writing, Xia

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Monday, February 11, 2008

Today's Subject: Obsession

Today as I was noodling on about something non-writing related, the writing portion of my head was obsessing about Xia. Major breakthrough involving some forward motion, as in now I have some. It's nice to know where to go from here. Also I'm deleting my first character from the story and folding him into another one. Yay! Bloody carnage, agreed, but this is going to be way better. My stories seem to start out with multiple personalities -- 2 or more characters playing the same role/function. I am ::sigh:: not one of those writers who easily handles a cast of dozens. A dozen makes my head spin. Heck, half a dozen is uncomfortable. So, obsessing was good to me today.

Tonight, The Darling Boy and I watched the last three episodes of Buffy, Season Six. Which brings me to my obsession du jour.



The episode ends with Spike having endured horrific trials in an attempt to return to his original bad and evil vampire self. Make me what I was originally so Buffy gets whats she deserves, he says, all mean and vampire-nasty. Uh-huh. And that's exactly what happens, because, who doesn't deserve a hottie like Spike?

Thank goodness I have it all on DVD, because I don't think I'd make it waiting for TV time to get me to season 7.

Off to remove a character and then have my hero demon-napped. Or is it mage-napped?

Labels: Buffy, Spike, writing, Xia

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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

The Write Stuff Plus Monsters

Sigh.

This is the hardest part for me... early on when the core of the book isn't established, yet I know what I want it to be. Sometimes the words just aren't there, and sometimes the words that are there are the wrong ones. Double Sigh. Times like this I'd rather do anything than write the right words.

So, one of tonight's episodes of Buffy was Fool for Love which I'd noticed made Joss Whedon's top 10 list of episodes. For about half the show I was wondering why. And then it happened. Oh. My. Gosh. I am now a Joss Whedon Fan Girl. Spike is a very bad vampire, just really bad. He seriously hates Buffy yet has come to realize he loves her. Even though (because of?) he wants desperately to kill her. Really. He's let at least part of his secret out and she delivers a resounding and rather heartless slap down. He is determined to kill her and sets out to do so. He goes to her house, ready to do the deed. Only she's sitting on the front steps by herself, crying. (Because of some terrible and devastating news about a family member). He has all the opportunity in the world to kill her. But instead, he asks "What's wrong?" Shot of her tear stained face... She doesn't want to talk about it. She's plainly devastated. "Is there anything I can do?" he asks and you can tell he truly, sincerely means it. Then he sits beside her, leaving ample space between them, and awkwardly pats her shoulder. End of the episode.

Now, that, people, is a real villain. Not cardboard bad. This is not one of the bad guys from The Fairie Queene where bad is just bad and the outward appearance and action stands in for the inward person. Not a psycho for whom reality is but a distant memory.

I want that guy for my hero. I'm twisted that way.

Fine.

Back to work.

nooooooooooooo!!!!

Labels: Buffy, procrastination, villains, writing

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Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Why some Rat Poison maybe isn't so bad

I started reading this book last night and I can't stand it so much, I'm not going to read past page three, which is I think how far I got. I know all about Mary Sues, the heroine who is too perfect and so brave and all that. And I think the male equivalent is called a Gary Sue or something. But what is it when the whole world is like that? There's a scene in the movie 9 to 5 in which Lilly Tomlin is skipping through the lunchroom with Disney characters and bluebirds and cutsey animals swooping and trilling around her while Lilly T makes her boss coffee and spikes it with rat poison. This book was like that, only without the rat poison or the coffee. This world needed some rat poison.

I'm just saying, is all. No Planet Sue's or Culture Sues. Please.

Labels: craft, reading, writing

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Sunday, January 27, 2008

Somedays are not fun

Today was not a fun day, pretty much on any level. The writing was hard. Nothing was easy. Yuck. But I made my minimum and today have 29K words.

Saw 27 Dresses today. Although I loved the actress who starred in the film (sorry no idea of her name) Ok I looked it up, it's Katherine Heigl. I thought the male lead was unworthy of her. And there's a point where she strikes back at her sister by publicly humiliating her in front of friends and family. Not good. The movie died for me right there. Not even Heigl could save the movie for me at that point. And then sometime later she's at least expressing some remorse, the male lead actually tells her at least you stood up for yourself Oh come on. Whoever wrote this movie should be ashamed. Ok, I looked that up, too. It was Aline Brosh McKenna and she should just be ashamed. Somebody give that writer lessons in what it means to be despicable. That scene was despicable. Don't see this movie. Ever.

Labels: movies, writing, Xia

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Monday, January 21, 2008

Despite Everything, Progress Has been Made

I have a little over 23K words on Xia. That's nice. But I'm freaking over my tight deadline. Given that you'd think I'd be working even more frantically, but that's just not going to work. For me, writing without a clue leads to Delete-Key-itis. I need some tiny clue, so that I can then do the exact opposite.

Oh well. I'm tired and so's the dog. Bed is calling to me.

Labels: plotting or the lack thereof, writing, Xia

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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

In Which Two (2!) Funny things Happen Today

I was busy all day and feel like I have nothing to show for it. That's not so uncommon, I suppose, but I do get tired of all the little things that eat up my days. Honestly. Anyhooo.... Today I mailed back the copy-edits for My Wicked Enemy. That feels good. And, I'm told the cover will have special effects on the flames and some decorative bits. That's pretty neat. Can't wait to see the final! Then I had a few website updates to do. That always takes longer than I want it to and there's managing or posting on the social sites like Twitter and My Space. Sigh.

The first funny thing that happened today is one of those, it's scary to be a writer things: I'm going to be doing a few chapters of Xia in the Point of View (POV) of Kynan, the hero of the next book (this is assuming my publisher will want to go to contract on more; with a fancy cover, let's hope so!) and I've been wracking my brains about the circumstances of the chapter and the fact that I want him to meet his heroine (but not know it) in at least one of those chapters. How to do that, I've been muttering to myself these last few days. So in an unrelated plotting dilemma, now that I have my first crucial fight scene drafted, my vague intention was that someone -- didn't know who, would call Kynan who would then do some stuff -- careful, that's advanced panster plotting there! I mulled over a bunch of lame-o or otherwise unsatisfactory ideas and moved on. I started thinking about the fact that my heroine has called her best friend (Kynan's heroine-to-be) to arrange a get together, only the big fight comes along and by the time of the meeting Xia and Alexandrine are long gone from the house. So, I'm driving home and thinking about this and admitting that I cannot leave this appointment thing unresolved. What to do? I'm sure some of you are shouting the answer at me. Bear with me, please. So, I'm imagining the heroine-to-be standing at Alexandrine's house where it's obvious something awful has happened, and I swear to Dog, this is exactly what happened in my head --- Kynan walks up to her and says, "Are you Alexandrine Marit?"

See, the whole time, Kynan has been trying to get a hold of Xia but can't because Xia's cell phone was crushed in the big fight. So he finally drives over to talk to him about what's up and there's the heroine-to-be wondering where her best friend is. Two problems solved with one frightening glimpse into the writer's mind. Sometimes it's best not to look too hard. But it was like I was watching T.V. or something. Kynan just walks up and voila!

Another funny thing happened today. Over on the Crimson City blog where no one has posted for ever and ever, because, well, we're done with the City for now, it seems, someone posted two comments: Here they are for your reading pleasure, along with my response since, for good or ill, they were directed at my book:

my mom is reading "a darker crimson" with the characters Korzha, and Claudia Donovan, and I think the third is Lath. she's almost finish[ed] reading and wants to know if their story line continues?

Nice! I think. But, hey! not so fast, Carolyn!

never mind about the continuation, she finally finished the book. And is cursing..." how the hell can an ultra alpha gorgeous male die at the hand of a twit who didn't know her own lust. As she is banging on the table and cursing at the characters. it is a anti- climactic book. why could they both have her. love on one side lust on the other, the dumb twit didn't deserve her. he wasn't evil just true to his nature, i didn't agree with him but that twit should not have be able to kill him and he deserved better than her twit ass self." "maybe she could write that he vanished and he really wasn't dead. he deserves love too and make the twit jealous. maybe when he died he regenerated and now can have someone else better than her and make her jealous he just should go out like that"

Oh. But the thing is, I don't really disagree. My response:

Dear Anonymous:

In the un-revised version of A Darker Crimson Lath did not die. But my editor, and others, strongly believed that Lath had to die. ::Sigh:: So, I did the dirty deed. I didn't want to do it. Honest. But, I understood the Lath-Must-Die faction's point. It's not a traditional HEA ending if Tiber has a rival for Claudia's affections at the end. Still...

Lath was a total hottie. But with writing, you cross some lines, which I did with Lath, and see if you get pulled back. Which I did. If it helps, my story (DX) in Shards of Crimson, features a demon who doesn't die. And I have a book coming out where I got pulled back at a different line, a little further out. (Heh, heh!) So, yeah, I totally get your frustration.

Thanks for the comment, though. If you see this, feel free to email me directly, and I'll send you the original chapter where he doesn't die.

And I added my email address. I'm hoping she sees my reply either over there at the Crimson City blog

Labels: A Darker Crimson, plotting, writing, Xia

(2) comments

Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Addiction is such an Ugly Word

And yet, I am addicted to Buffy and want to marry either Spike or Angel. Don't know which for sure.

My Grand Central (Warner) editor emailed today to let me know the copyedited MS for My Wicked Enemy is on its way to me and they need it back the 23rd. That's the publishing biz. Wait wait wait wait wait (Hum the Jeopardy Theme....) ohMyGoshHowSoonCanThisBeDone? But I like it. I'm funny that way. 23rd should be no problem.


Xia's going more slowly than I like right now. Back to it.

Labels: Buffy, My Wicked Enemy, writing, Xia

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Monday, January 07, 2008

Just a Few odd Thoughts

This weekend, I took my son and his cousin to the bookstore. They went off to the children's section and I wandered around. There weren't any new bestselling mass market paperbacks on the display. Most of them I'd already read or didn't want to read. Rats. So I wandered over to the Romance section to see if maybe whoever at the store hates Romance had maybe moved on to some other section to hate, but no. The Romance section still stucks there. So, there I was in an extremely large bookstore (my local independent is doing pretty well, they just expanded again) and here's what happened: I went over to the children's section because, I thought to myself, that's were most of the really interesting books are.

Oh. My. Gosh.

It's true. I can name off the top of my head, at least five fantastic books (or series) that are marketed YA or Teen:

1. Harry Potter, JK Rowling


2. Bartimaeus Trilogy, Johnathan Stroud


3. Faerie Wars, Herbie Brennan


4. Twilight etc, by Stephanie Meyers


5. Inkheart, Inkspell, Cornelia Funke


6. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman

See? Right off the top of my head. And what am I reading right now? City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. It's really good.

Why is that? I mean, it's fantastic that there's so much great stuff out there for kids to read. But where's the neat stuff for adults? Now, one reason for having teenage characters is nobody has to have a job. And it would be terrifically un-PC to have the characters doing -- you know. Those two things alone decrease the plotting and plausibility burden by about two thirds.

Here's the inappropriate NON-PC comment list to the above list. The anti-list list that will get me in trouble I bet.

1. Professor Snape (OK-- Alan Rickman) I have the hots for you. But if you're busy, send over Lucious Malfoy.


2. I'm quite sure Bartimaeus would have had the hots for me, too. You could be anything you want. Please pretend this is a footnote.


3. Lord Hairstreak. Oh. Yes.


4. Eric, you can bite me any time. If you're too hung up on Bella, then well, send over Jake. I'll distract him.


5. Dustfinger rocks.


6. Lord Asriel. Need I say more?

Just some odd random thoughts.

Labels: reading, writing

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Sunday, January 06, 2008

Can I just Scream now?

I recently suddenly remembered I'd agreed to judge a contest and yeah, the entries were due back soon. So I spent Fri-through now doing that. I think I must get a pretty good taste of what it's like to read slush, except I have to keep reading instead of stopping when it's plain there's no hope. When I'm judging, I am as nice and constructive as possible, but when I'm done, it's like the niceness balloon just flat out pops. I'm venting here.

It's true you can tell if something's going to work from sentence 1. Editors and agents are completely justified in stopping after that. 98% of the time you can tell on page one.

This most recent batch had much of the same issues in common. I like to think that most of us go through life understanding there are rules. For example, the law has rules and even if we don't know specifically what they are, we mostly know there are rules. The police, airlines businesses etc have their own policies and procedures which they must follow. So why, for the love of Dog, do writers think they can make up their own policies or ignore the ones normal people must know exist? Suppose that you're a screener for the TSA. (that wasn't in any of the entires) Don't you suppose that TSA screeners get trained in a policy and procedure for dealing with suspicious people? So why on earth would you have a TSA screener ON THE JOB call some number they saw on a flyer in order to report a weirdo? I mean, why would a normal person think for even a moment that such an action is even remotely plausible? Why would you decide to base a novel on that premise? You don't get to make up your own rules for say, Family Law. I mean you just can't. Can. Not. Well I guess you can, but you won't get your novel published.

Suppose you have a character located in, say, the middle of a room, and another in the doorway and a third halfway between those two. If the person in the middle of the room can hear normal conversation taking place in the doorway, then logic tells you that they can also hear the normal conversation of the person between them and the doorway. That simply must be true. You cannot suspend the laws of physics for the convenience of your story. Can't!

Argh!

Anyway, now I have to go shopping and then try to catch up with Xia. I'm behind now.

Labels: contest, writing, Xia

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Thursday, January 03, 2008

Feels like Friday

Only it's not Friday. If that's not cruel, I don't know what is. I'm just past 10,000 words for Xia. I like what I have so far. Lately on the drive to and from work, I've been turning off the radio to think about where I'm going with Xia, or to mentally play or replay a scene. I've never really done that, but then for a long time my commute was only 15 minutes. There are 3 big storms ready to hit my part of California. I think the first one just got started. Hopefully the trees stay upright and rooted.

Oh, and last night my son and I were only going to watch 1 episode of Buffy, on account of it was a work day for me, only the first one was the episode were Buffy and Angel... you know. And ohmygosh. Well, we couldn't not watch the next one. I got sniffly. The stories are getting better and better.


Now I'm off to write and check the laundry.

Labels: Buffy, writing, Xia

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Tuesday, January 01, 2008

New Year's Grump

Yeah, it's 2008. And I'm grumpy. Shouldn't be. But I am. Why? Tomorrow I have to get my car looked at. That's one reason. I may have to drive it 50 miles away if the issue is serious, since it's under warranty. Only the only dealer is 50 miles away in the commute direction in what I believe is, in fact, the official worst commute in the entire United States of America. Sigh.

Also I didn't write a word today. I worked more on uploading the new website, which was more work than I expected and then I overlooked a typo and had to re-upload a bunch of files. There's more clean up to do. Rats.

Then I watched 4 episodes of Buffy with my son.

Now it's late.

But, it's still a spanking new year and I haven't broken any of my resolutions yet. This is good. Plus, unless Scandal gets pushed to 2009, I should have two books out this year which is a good thing.

So, yeah. Happy New Year everyone!

Please think good thoughts about my car. That could help avoid a big bill just when my son is getting braces...

Labels: big fat hoo-ha, holidays, writing

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Monday, December 31, 2007

Happy 2008!

For a lot of you, it's already 2008. Not yet here, but I'll be in bed before the year ends. Now that I've gotten the rant out of the way, I can reflect a bit. First off, I expected to be watching Buffy The Vampire Slayer with my son, but his cousin ended up inviting him over, so I'm all alone tonight. With no further ado, here's my imitation of Samuel Pepys.

2007

Considering there was a period when I thought my writing career might be over, 2007 was good for me, writing-wise. Of course, in late 2006 I signed with my agent, Kristin Nelson, and boy. I'm in the right place. In 2007, she sold two more books for me one of which was Scandal. For anyone who thinks once you're published all your worries are over, let the history of this book put that myth in a well-deserved coffin. Nail it shut, people.

I sent Kristin 4 proposals, one of which, yes, was Scandal, then called The Rake, and before that called The Heir. She loved one of the 4, really liked My Wicked Enemy (which she quickly sold in at auction in a two-book deal) didn't know what to make of Shift (Me neither, but it will be cool when I turn my attention to it.) As for Scandal? That proposal almost sunk me with her. She told me if that's all she'd seen, she'd have rejected me out of hand. Ouch. And, she also told me, Just start over. So, okay. I did, and when she blogged about editors looking for historicals, I sent her the revised stuff and she sold it, too. A book that went through two really wretched drafts and one misbegotten rewrite hash of the first chapters. My rewrite went back to what I loved about Sophie and Banallt. The final result this time was, I really do think, pretty spectacular. And let me tell you, around November or so, I thought I'd never finish on deadline. Impossible. I turned it in early. Go figure.

So, as far as I'm concerned, writing-wise, the sale and completion of Scandal ranks as one of my biggest accomplishments of 2007.

Another, naturally, is finishing My Wicked Enemy and then revising the hell out of it in something short of three weeks to turn it into something totally neat.

Starting Xia's story is another.

Finishing my MA is English. That was huge. Yay!!

Have a wonderful 2008 everyone. Now, back to Xia, I haven't hit my minimum yet.

Labels: agents, My Wicked Enemy, Scandal, writing

(2) comments

Sunday, December 30, 2007

More stuff and stuff

Unfortunately, the blog title is only funny to about one person in the world besides me. Whatever. I got writing done today. Up to Chapter 5 in Xia. Interesting things going on. At the moment, I'm very happy with my progress.

Last night I finished the 2nd MaryJanice Davidson mermaid book. Swimming Without a Net. It was cute.

Tired. Off to bed.

Labels: reading, writing, Xia

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Saturday, December 29, 2007

Saturday Afternoon Post

I've been working all day, but in spurts. This precise moment is a non-spurt. Last night I watched several episodes of Buffy with my son instead of writing, so I have to make up the difference today. I'm halfway there.

In other news, it's been raining, or at least constantly drizzling. A couple of counties north had snow. But it's not that cold here, much to the darling child's dismay. The big fuzzy cat is asleep on my lap, which is nice.

Regarding my switcheroo to the Mac, I'm pleased to report further good progress. The keyboard that comes with the iMac is a thing of beauty. It's awesomely gorgeous. But if you type for several hours at a stretch, which as you may well imagine most writers do, it's a torture device. Ergonomic this keyboard is not. And, some of the keystroke combos for WordPerfect don't work on the iMac keyboard: Alt-F3 for example. So I pulled out my extra Ergo keyboard -- I'm pretty hard on keyboards and one time I spilled something on my keyboard and kablooie I was left high and dry until I could get another one. Ever since I've kept an extra keyboard around. So anyhoo, I plugged the Ergo keyboard into the iMac keyboard and voila. The Ergo keyboard works in Parallels exactly as you'd expect. I can reveal codes and everything. And, even though the iMac doesn't quite recognize the keyboard, in fact, it works just fine on the iMac even though the box said it was Windows only. I am back to being a pretty fast typist and my hands don't hurt.

Note to Patti: Thumbs up for Word Perfect in Parallels. I'm happy.

In reading news, I read a Romantic Suspense by a major author and was pretty disappointed. By the end, I couldn't remember if I actually finished it and I didn't even care. The heroine was supposed to be computer genius, but the author conflated programming ability with technical support skills and business sense, too. Not to mention, it was blatantly clear she didn't bother to run the geekish pages past an actual geek. It was pretty sad.

Sigh. Back to work. Mommy wants to buy a MacBook Pro. Or whatever Apple announces on January 14.

Labels: Mac vs. PC, reading, writing

(1) comments

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Carolyn Wrote

My sister took my son to the movies and then out for burger tonight. I got to stay home and write. Over 1800 words. Chapter two had some interesting revelations for me, just as did chapter 1. I find that with a full time job and family etc, that I just don't often do much more than 1000 words a day. So that may not seem like so much, except at that rate, in 90 days I'll have 90,000 words. Have to, actually.

Then I ran into some trouble with zipping files. I forgot how much the file zipper program that comes with XP sucks. Awful! I'm not going to deal with WinZip again, though I like it a lot so I ended up downloading 7-zip which is a nice, free little program. Then I re-discovered the fact that the Mac OS assumes a file drag is a file MOVE, where as Windows does a Copy. Oops. So I had to mess around with getting my zip archives (one for the thumb drive, containing only the chapters and a few supporting documents) and a daily zip of everything -- I just add the stuff that's new, and save it with the date name. That way I have a daily archive of my work. And, as happened recently with Scandal, I did have to troll through my archives looking for a certain file in a known state. So, now I have two daily archives and one to transfer to the laptop. Whew! Plus I found a version of 7-zip that works on the Mac, so I think I'm good there.

Labels: writing, writing freaking writing, Xia

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Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Mostly Back to Work

Yeah, gotta go back to work tomorrow. Sigh.

Worked on Xia tonight. I have an interesting chapter 1 in which I learned a lot about my heroine. For example her name is Alexandrine, and she ran away from home shortly after her brother disappeared. She lived on the streets for a while. Who knew? I didn't. Not until I started writing. This sort of thing is why plotter strategies would never work for me. I could plot until I'm blue in the face, but it wouldn't work. Not until I started writing, and that would be completely different anyway.

Off to bed.

Labels: writing, Xia

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Friday, December 21, 2007

Sliding Back to Work

This morning at the gym I notebooked Xia's story. I have some ideas. And need to get cracking, too.

I'm still not sure about this Mac thing. NeoOffice, which I was thinking showed some promise isn't going to work. Today, I used it to read and comment in a very large document for a writing buddy. Things were going pretty well until I hit save and discovered that saving takes you back to the top of your document. Argh!!! If you're on page one, who cares? But if you're on page 243 and suddenly you're back on page one? Can you say completely stupid? Not to mention there were enormous latency issues. Toward the end I had to wait several seconds for the typing to show up on the screen. I bet I'm not the only writer who saves compulsively. To get booted back to page one after every save? No. I would have switched to WP, but Word Perfect can't read the neoOffice files and I didn't want to redo what I'd done already. I haven't used WP for anything big yet, but I'm bothered by the appearance of it. It's critical that I be able to type quickly and I have this awful suspicion that certain keystrokes are not available. Tomorrow I'll find out for sure.

I don't want to return the mac. I really, really don't, but I may have to.

Labels: Mac vs. PC, writing, Xia

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Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The Sad Tale of A Failed Novelist

Yesterday I read the Portfolio interview with Andrew Wiley. An absolutely fascinating interview. Alas, he also called commercial writers (ie, genre writers) failed novelists. Huh? Failed, I guess, because such writers are unable to write literary fiction. As if they secretly want to but can't and so must muck about with mystery and SciFi and Romance. Because it's not possible, is it, that there are writers who aren't interested in writing literary fiction. Interesting assumption there, Mr. Wylie. Or is it more an interesting revelation about Andrew Wylie? Some writers in the canon today were considered hacks in their day. I say thank God we're not all trying to write literary fiction. I wonder if Mr. Wylie would argue that a singer who isn't Pavarotti is a failed singer, because, after all, Pavarotti's voice will be heard for years after his death. Surely, it wouldn't be the case that there are commercially failed novelists whose work might actually be read through the ages, if not for a rather pernicious chauvinism? Consider Andrew Wylie Exhibit A.

There are more of us failed novelists than novelists because genius is actually rare. The way Pavarotti's voice is rare. It's not a matter of will. If I just wish hard enough will I write a book like Beloved? And if instead I write a story that entertains, why am I a failure? Just asking. When I was growing up, I read a lot of books by failed novelists, and those stories made me fall in love, and stay in love, with reading. They're why I read Toni Morrison and Michael Chabon and Virginia Wolff. There's not just room for us all, failures or not, but a need for all of us.

Just wanted to point that out.

Labels: Rants, reading, writing

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Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Catching up

Looks like my (very) brief post from yesterday got munched. Oh. Well. It went like this: Working on Scandal. Back to it.

That is still a true statement. I'm having it read back to me. Catching a lot of pesky typos and fixing a lot of continuity stuff. I have this habit of (need to?) moving stuff around, and then I forget where things are and either don't delete or don't conform enough to the new (for now) home. There's a lot of that in this one. To quote my favorite TV show ever (::Adrian Paul::) Highlander: There can be only one. Meaning, typically, your characters can only meet for the first time once, not once in each of 5 to 6 chapters. Sheesh. Looks bad, you know? So I'm fixing that.

The best part is that little things are getting settled and elicited. Things that make a story resonate. Which is better than if it sucks. Back to work.

Labels: editing, Scandal, writing

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Sunday, December 02, 2007

No Drama, Please.

You know, I wish there was a button somewhere that said No Drama Here. If there were, I'd have pushed it several times today. I don't have time for drama. How the hell can I finish a book with all this freaking drama exploding around me?

Deep breath, Carolyn

I'm ignoring it.

My son's brain is going to melt from all the TV he's watching. No drama from him at least.

Labels: No Drama Here, Scandal, writing

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Thursday, November 29, 2007

Can you say -- well never mind, it's not polite

Right. I have the joy of a cold. But I'm feeling better than I did yesterday or this morning. At least I can breathe through my nose.

The Great Title Search is coming down the to wire. I think my agent and I have sent close to a hundred suggestions. No exaggeration. They would like to put flames or fire on the cover somehow, which actually sounds pretty cool, so they want a title that suggests fire. They'd also like an active title, so we need a verb of some sort. This is actually much, much harder than it seems. They need a title by tomorrow. That would be Friday, November 30. Ack!!

Don't think I got much work done on Scandal today. Rats. I will be busting my butt this weekend.

Labels: Book Covers, Book Titles, Scandal, writing

(2) comments

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Early Exhaustion

I'm exhausted so I'm doing an early post. That allows me to build up a good level of anxiety before I start working as well as fall straight into bed when I'm done for the night. Which may be early. At lunch time I started writing the new chapter and it went OK. Then on the drive home I thought of this totally better setting that for it. Yay! I'm going to go do that.

Labels: Scandal, writing

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Sunday, November 25, 2007

where does the time go?

I actually have the answer. Time flies because it's a hurry to join all your lost socks. They put on a great party, you see. And whenever time seems like it's slowing down? That's what happens when someone discards all their onesie-socks. The time-space continuum flexes when the missing socks are returned to the poor fool. Inevitably some other schmuck gets stuck in one of the creases. For him, or her, time inexplicably slows. This is most noticeable at the dentist's office or fifteen minutes before it's time to go home from someplace boring. Mostly we don't notice. But it happens, I assure you.

What, you never read A Wrinkle in Time? I'm sure that was in there.

Working on Scandal. Not looking forward to going back to the day job.

And sorry, despite the tag, this post has nothing to do with Navy SEALs. I just wish it did because that would be better than just about anything, including fixing that wretched chapter 8. Plus, you know, why not think about Navy SEALs now and again? I'm sure it's good for me.

Labels: editing, Navy SEALs, Scandal, writing

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Saturday, November 24, 2007

A Whole New Chapter

Literally, I'm afraid. It's the next to last chapter of Scandal and I knew there were some issues because my outline contained the words This is a mess. Fix it. So yeah. The fix was to start completely over. Sigh. Had to happen. It's going slow, because, like, has anything about Scandal EVER gone quickly? Answer: No.

So, yeah. I'm procrastinating like heck. But it's getting done. Slowly.

Back to it.

Labels: polishing, Scandal, writing

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Friday, November 23, 2007

Friday. Now it seems like you came TOO soon!

Well, golly. I've been working away at Scandal. It's going sloooooww. So, now it seems like Friday came too soon because I could use another few days before the weekend and back to work. Anyway, got to work. Hopefully I'll post again later in the evening or something.

Labels: Scandal, writing

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Monday, November 19, 2007

Snail's Pace

I wrote a lot tonight, but then I got to an older chapter and had to cut a bunch so my net word gain is only a couple hundred. But, the old stuff has to make way for the new. Tired. Looking forward to some time off, during which I will probably ignore my family as much as I possibly can so I can write.

Edited to add: I forgot, today I was sitting staring into the ether and suddenly I was channeling Patti O'Shea because my heroine for the next book started talking to me. OK, like I don't know how it happens with Patti, but I know the character wasn't really talking to me, despite my being more than happy to listen, but there she was in my head and I knew all kinds of stuff about her that I didn't before. She will be referred to as FH which stands for Female Heroine until somebody coughs up a name. She kind of kicks ass.

Storywise, Scandal is done, so I don't have any notebooking to do. Just writing, freaking writing, which I did a lot of tonight notwithstanding the low word count. I think I have two maybe three chapters to get through before I can even think of some one reading it raw.

OK, off to bed.

Labels: Next Book, Scandal, writing

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Sunday, November 18, 2007

The weekend's ended. Rats.

Today was a very busy day. I slept later than I wanted to but given my typical sleep deficit, it's probably a good thing. The Darling Child spent the night at his uncle's house (that would be Uncle Geography for readers of this blog) so I worked all morning but wasn't as productive as I hoped. Then I had to go shopping and then make cookies because today was the DC's end of League Play party, and I said I'd make cookies. Then I had to call the uncle to bring the DC home, and off to the party. And, the party was pretty fun, there were parents this year who like to talk about literature! One of the parents had met Michael Chabon. Whoa. Golly, I love talking about books so for once I wasn't standing around feeling like a dork. The kids had a good time, they ran around outside and when it was too dark to see they came in all sweaty and hot and ready for cake.

When we came home I got some good work done, though.

Now I just get to buckle down and polish and hopefully have time to send it out for outside reading.

What else? Nothing. I have to go to work tomorrow and that's always kind of depressing, especially when I wish I had 10K more words than I do. Although, come to think of it, I always wish that. And the words I have I've beginning to suspect are quality. Let's hope.

Labels: editing, Scandal, writing

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Saturday, November 17, 2007

In Which Things Get a Little Better

Tonight, I wrote my ending chapter. It needs a little work, but it's there where yesterday there was nothing. I also made back the word count I lost from cutting the two sucky chapters yesterday. Yay for me. I have one or two more chapters that I know need some work. I hope to get that done tomorrow. And then I'll have a crappy draft. But, as every writer knows, crap can be fixed.

In other news, my brother was supposed to come over to give my son a man-to-man talk that would reinforce The Talk that I've had with him about S. E. X. I consider this especially important now that girls have discovered him. So, pretend for a minute, that this girl who is interested in my son and who my son is (supposedly) just friends with has a name that sounds like the capital of a country. This is true. Pretend that it's Paris. Her name isn't Paris, but pretend. My brother's conversation with my son went like this:

Uncle: Hey, I hear you really like France.
Son: Yeeahhh. Why?
Uncle: I hear one city in particular is your favorite.
Son: What?
Uncle: Yeah, it's the capital of France. Paris.
Son: (whispering to self) I gotta talk to my mom.

I am not kidding. I was in the kitchen at the time, and I overhead it and while I may not have the exact words, this is pretty darn close. I did not ask my brother to talk to my son about geography. We have an enormous map of the world on the wall in the hallway. My son and I often stand in front of that map and talk about geography. He's actually very good at geography.

The conversation should have gone like this:

Uncle: Never have sex. But if you do, use a condom. You know what a condom is, right?
Son: Yeeahhh. Why?
Uncle: Do you know how to use one?
Son: Umm.
Uncle: [Manly talk that women never hear, but that conveys respect for women and mastery over the use of birth control.]
Son: Thank you. But I'm going to listen to my mom and never have sex.

Geography. Oh, for crying out loud.

Labels: editing, Geography, Scandal, writing

(0) comments

The Nerve! Honestly.

Now, as some of you may already know, I have a lot of fun with my MySpace Page. I've met some great people, readers, artists, photographers, musicians and even a writer or two. Sometimes I find myself with two copies of a book and I've sent off the extra to one of my MySpace friends. So it's been just really fun. I don't mind friending writers, sometimes I'm kind of giddy. Barry Eisler friended me!! So, you know, yay! and all that.

But when a writer leaves me a comment that is an nothing more than an ad for their new release? That's spam. That's despicable. That's no different from those stupid, spammy here's a new ringtone for you (that probably hits some server in China all ready with malware, just for me!) comments.

I have no problem with getting MySpace email from writers announcing releases. Hey, that's why I friended them. I often click on bulletins announcing releases. But I don't want your spam comment. If you want to sell something, go use your own site. Don't try inserting an ad on MY MySpace page. I'm so glad I turned on comment moderation, because that spam comment never made it to my page. I denied it. And I'll deny any one else who tries it too.

If you're a writer, please, don't do that. I'll un-friend you and hate you, too.

OK, back to work on Scandal.

Labels: bad marketing, Scandal, writing

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Thursday, November 15, 2007

Forecast:: Same as Yesterday

I cut 15 pages tonight.

Had to. It was boring.

Labels: panic, Scandal, writing

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Progress Report -- Panic with a Chance of Hysteria

Things are developing as I edit like crazy. Trying to combine a read-through with regular editing. At least I get a lot done during soccer practice. It's not been cold at all lately, so I'm OK sitting in the back seat with the laptop. Very few distractions.

Any hoo - I need titles for the novel formerly known as Magellan's Witch. Fiends. Mages. Witches. They all hate each other. People fall in love anyway. Warlord Fiend. Witch who can't use her magic. They shouldn't get together but they do. Any and all suggestions appreciated.

Labels: Book Titles, editing, Magellan's Witch, Scandal, writing

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Friday, November 09, 2007

Picture This

I wish a had a picture but I don't. I had to do some day job stuff tonight. But at home, there's no bandwidth, so I have to drive to a Starbucks, buy some tea and use their internet. So, picture this:

Carolyn arrives at Starbucks with two laptops and two mobile phones. One for work, one for me. I get my tea and sit down and begin to set up the command center. The work laptop is on the table, eventually VPN'ed to work and connected to the first server I need to work on. My work phone (a smart phone that does REAL email) is next to it waiting for the go ahead call. My laptop is on a chair and I am typing away on Chapter 19 while I wait for the phone to ring... I got some good work done on chapter 19 actually. A small but huge bit of work that brings things together nicely.

The work phone rings. It's a go. I kick off SQL job number one and then transfer a file from one server to another. During the file transfer, I go back to working on Chapter 19. When the transfer is done, I disconnect from the COLO facility and connect to my work domain and then connect to the next server. I kick off that SQL job and while I wait for that to finish I fish out my phone, call the pizza place and order a Margarita for my son's dinner. Then I go back to work on chapter 19. When the job is done, I grab the work phone, call the work guy and tell him to check while I back up my Chapter 19 and start to shut down my laptop. All is hunky dory so I can also disconnect the work laptop, pack up and go pick up the pizza.

Come home, feed the child, shoot the breeze with said child, and wonder if I should ask him about the girl who keeps texting him and who he texts back. Too controlling, I decide. They're just friends he says. I've been told by parents of other boys that I must understand this is not necessarily the exact truth. Uh-oh. We've had The Talk but now I need my brother to have The Talk with him, too. Just to make sure.

Oh, and part of the reason for this post is to demonstrate that writing time can be found anywhere. I did some important work there, and I was only there 45 minutes. So no whining about time for writing. If you're a writer, you find the time. More likely, the time finds you, because that's what you're looking for. Those moments when you can write. If you don't look for them and use them, you may never finish your book.

In 45 minutes I drank some green tea, worked at day job stuff, ordered dinner for the child, and made important progress in chapter 19.

Just saying.

Apparently, I can't get over the Whiner from Grad School. Honestly. (TWFGS couldn't find time to write because she couldn't write during lunchtime at work because it was too noisy, and outside at work was too distracting and the car was too whatever, and she had schoolwork and a boyfriend and SO much reading to do. Right. Oh, please. But I'm sure none of you are that way. Right?)

Labels: Scandal, writing, writing time

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Wednesday, November 07, 2007

My Cup of Tea

My son's school did this fund-raising thing that involves holding parents up at guilt-point and forcing them to buy stuff that costs too much for what you get. (sarcasm alert) But the kids get prizes!! -- that are broken five minutes later or else unusable straight from the plastic bag (which is NOT a toy, by the way) and (sarcasm over) now I have to report on one of my purchases. It's a visual report, too. Grin.

I bought this coffee mug, see, but the surface is a chalkboard. So if the cheap chalk that comes with it was any good, you could write stuff on it over and over. Like this:




Yeah, it's kind of hard to read, but I wrote I am not a rat -- Banallt on one side and Yes, you are -- Sophie on the other because that's the essence of my hero and heroine in Scandal. Or you could write other stuff. Which I'll do tomorrow. It's kind of fun.

In writing news, even though the above qualifies as writing news, Scandal is going almost all right. I've fought my way through several chapters, reordered several more and am reasonably pleased with the result. I wrote two new ones, which was good because I deleted a bunch of crap, too. Now I'm closing in on the ending. I'm hoping that by next week sometime I'll have a crappy but complete draft and a month to tear it apart and put it back together. It's funny how I always have an ending in mind but it keeps slipping away; like a wave, it's there, and then it's gone and I keep trying to pin it in place and I just can't. Then somewhere around 60 or 70 thousand words I realize that the ending of my story is actually in the "middle" (those are air quotes, by the way) and all the time I've been spending stressing over the fact the my middle is moving further and further away from the actual middle just means the "middle" is actually more like the end. Which is what happened with Scandal two days ago. My outline had an ending blocked out, a good thing because it gave me a direction, but the book would have to be 175,000 words in order to get there. And then I realized I'd already written everything but the end, which was just at a different place than I thought. And it's a gosh-darned relief, too.

Back to work.

Labels: endings, plotting or the lack thereof, Scandal, writing

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Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Boo! Goaaaan Creaakkkk Eeek! mwahahaha

Happy Halloween to everyone!

Well, I took my son over to my brother's house -- where we live, we have exactly 3 neighbors.... There's no Trick or Treating here. So off we went. I admired a few costumes (they were cute and/or scary) said Hi to friends and family and then I took the laptop into the living room and started working on Scandal. I had to fix my outline so that it's useful as I try to find the right home for everything. When I'd finally done that, I wrote a new chapter and it came out pretty good, I think.

Then home, at which point my son complained about having any portion of his 5.6 pounds of candy confiscated. I was going to put in picture, but it's taking too long and I have to get up early.

So, anyone who thinks they can't find time to write, hey, if you're rude and anti-social of course you can. And let me add that I did this work while a truly wretched series of remakes of halloween songs was looping on the sound system. I plugged in Aretha and managed to mostly drown it out while ignoring the kids and various trick or treaters. You take your time where you can.

Labels: halloween, Scandal, writing

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Monday, October 29, 2007

Marching onward

For good or ill, I'm on to Scandal now. I'm pushing through the read-through I was able to do only sporadically for the last 3 weeks or so. I have little memory of how things hang together with what I've read so far, but what I've read today isn't awful. I know I have a chapter to write. So, back to it.

Labels: Scandal, writing, writing fast

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Friday, September 28, 2007

Friday... I love you madly, if only you came after Monday....