Rachel Neumeier's Blog, page 389

BLACK DOG — cover reveal

Hey, check this out:

Here is the official back cover copy, and then we will have a brief Q and A session where I provide the Qs you ought to ask plus the As.

Natividad is Pure, one of the rare girls born able to wield magic. Pure magic can protect humans against the supernatural evils they only half-acknowledge – the blood kin or the black dogs. In rare cases – like for Natividad’s father and older brother – Pure magic can help black dogs find the strength to control their dark powers.

But before Natividad’s mother can finish teaching her magic their enemies find them. Their entire village in the remote hills of Mexico is slaughtered by black dogs. Their parents die protecting them. Natividad and her brothers must flee across a strange country to the only possible shelter: the infamous black dogs of Dimilioc, who have sworn to protect the Pure.

In the snowy forests of Vermont they are discovered by Ezekiel Korte, despite his youth the strongest black dog at Dimilioc and the appointed pack executioner. Intrigued by Natividad he takes them to Dimilioc instead of killing them.

Now they must pass the tests of the Dimilioc Master. Alejandro must prove he can learn loyalty and control even without his sister’s Pure magic. Natividad’s twin Miguel must prove that an ordinary human can be more than a burden to be protected. And even at Dimilioc a Pure girl like Natividad cannot remain unclaimed to cause fighting and distraction. If she is to stay she must choose a black dog mate.

But, first, they must all survive the looming battle.

This is basically accurate, which I do think is a plus. Obviously it is not completely accurate, and I remind you all that encapsulating a book in a couple of paragraphs is not at all easy. Hopefully this description also sounds, you know, intriguing and engaging and like the kind of book you might like to read.

Now, Qs you might possibly be asking:

Q. Why did you make your protagonists Hispanic?

A. Because they walked into my head that way, and then because it made sense in plot terms.

Q. So you didn’t deliberately set out to have non-White protagonists in order to contribute to diversity in the SFF young adult genre?

No. That’s just a perk.

Q. Did it complicate your life to have Hispanic protagonists?

A. Yes. I don’t speak a word of Spanish. My friend Abi Borrego was super-helpful in making sure my horrible computer translations come out in colloquial Mexican Spanish.

However, it’s important to note that, to Natividad, Alejandro, Miguel, and everyone around them, the most important component of their identity is whether they are Pure, black dog, or an ordinary human.

Q. Why did you name your main protagonist “Natividad”? Isn’t that a bit hard to pronounce?

A. Not once you get used to it. Just think of “Nativity”. Naturally you all know already that I like names that are a little out of the ordinary, but I’m not the first SFF author to use this name. Octavia E Butler named a minor character Natividad in PARABLE OF THE SOWER and I totally fell in love with the name. I’ve wanted to use it ever since.

Besides, the name is actually kind of plot-appropriate.

Q. How can the name “Natividad” be plot-appropriate?

A. Because in this world, vampires are demonic and black dogs are tainted by demonic influences, and if you’re going to have evil stuff arising from demonic influence, then some of the good stuff is probably going to be religious in nature, and Natividad is from a family that has been involved with supernatural stuff since forever. So there you go.

Q. There are vampires in the world of BLACK DOG?

A. Not anymore. They all got killed in the recent backstory.

Q. So, no vampires?

A. No.

Q. But the black dogs are essentially werewolves?

A. Yes, but they are not at all wolf-like. Nor are they humanoid like the one that represents Alejandro on the cover. Only one black dog in the story can take an intermediate shape like that, and it’s not Alejandro. The humanoid appearance of the black dog on the cover is artistic license. Black dogs actually look more like this:

Only not quite as much hair, no orange markings, and about the size of a bear.

Q. That is one scary dog. What the heck is it?

A. That is a Tibetan mastiff. I’m sure that dog is very nice when you get to know him. Probably his owner just held up a treat and yelled, “Cookie!”

Q. Wow. So, about the size of a bear? So conservation of mass, not so much.

A. Magic, right? Black dogs also take their clothes with them when they shift, so that’s one detail they don’t have to worry about when they shift back.

Q. So black dogs in this story don’t have anything to do with the kind of black dog that is supposed to appear when someone is about to die?

A. No. Sorry. That coincidence of names is just a coincidence. Except of course that black dogs may very well kill someone, so in that sense, it is indeed bad luck to see one.

Q. So, paranormal. That’s new for you. Whose fault is it that you decided to write a paranormal, anyway?

A. Glad you asked! This is entirely Patricia Briggs’ fault. I’ve never met her, mind you, but she is the author who made me want to write a werewolf story.

There are now other paranormal / urban fantasy authors I love, but Patricia Briggs was definitely first.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Sometimes it’s bit too easy, isn’t it, to focus on things that are annoying or things that have gone wrong. Or that might go wrong in the future, come to think of it.

This is just as true for book- and writing-related things as for general life. So it’s nice to take a moment and appreciate the writerly things that are excellent.

Top Ten for a Writer’s Thanksgiving.

1. I’m grateful for the bookish section of the blogosphere. I would miss so many ultra-fantastic books if it weren’t for Chachic and Heidi and Kristen and Maureen and Liz Bourke and Thea and Ana and all the rest of you, seriously, because I know I check in on a lot more blogs than this.

2. I’m grateful there are way, way, way too many fantastic books out there for me ever to read. It would be horrible to think there was a chance of running out. I’m grateful (really!) for my overflowing TBR pile!

3. I’m grateful for my Kindle, I guess, even though it lets me hide half my TBR pile, which is a bit dangerous. But so good for when you’re traveling! And comfortable to hold! And you can get a book instantly, which is so cool.

4. I’m grateful for Twitter. Not only does Twitter constantly point me toward great posts I would otherwise miss, but it is a wonderful way to connect with readers or other writers. These days I feel bad if I read a book I just love and can’t send the author a tweet to say so. Not to mention that getting a tweet like that from a reader provides a great lift to my day.

5. I’m grateful for Goodreads. When I am thinking of getting a book from Audible but it’s a new-to-me author, I head right for Goodreads reviews to check out the title. Plus, hey! Naturally I appreciate having a zillion good reviews for my books.

6. I’m grateful for Caitlin Blasdell, my agent, who was instrumental in giving me a chance to build the life I wanted. And my first editors, Michelle Frey at Random House and Devi Pillai at Orbit who gave me a huge ego boost by supporting my earlier books. And my newest editor, Amanda Rutter at Strange Chemistry, for giving me a way to go forward with a book I love in a subgenre that has become increasingly hard to break into.

7. I’m grateful for the way the publishing world is opening up with so many options for self-publishing, so that now writers, including me, can decide to write exactly what we want even if we’re pretty sure editors won’t be interested. I swear I will indeed try self-publishing in the next year or two.

8. I’m grateful that it looks like I will probably have contracts and deadlines that will keep me busy next year and possibly the year after that, because even though I do want to try self-publishing, I don’t want to depend on self-publishing. I am pretty sure I can work on both contracted and independent books in the same year, even though I bet that will keep me pretty busy.

9. I’m grateful my current revision is going well — so well that I’m actually enjoying the revision process. That’s not a first for me, but it’s close. I’m grateful that I’m truly looking forward to getting back to my next WIP, which is waiting for me to pick it up as soon as Christmas break arrives. I’m grateful that I have no dearth of ideas for what to work on next and can see myself getting excited about working on any of them.

10. And most of all — I’m sure you could see this coming — but seriously, people, I’m grateful to each and every one one of my readers. Thank you all for devoting a few hours of your lives to MY books. It means a lot.

Brief update, plus cookies

Yes, the revision is going great! I got *so much done* this past Sunday because it was cold and nasty and I didn’t want to leave the house anyway. I have twelve bulleted points left to fix, but the big ones are done and most of the rest will be quick.

Well, yes, one of them requires me to write a whole new scene, but I know where to PUT the new scene, which is half the battle! (A small half, admittedly.) Plus, writing a new scene is often kind of the fun part of revising.

I think . . . I think . . . yeah, not much chance of getting this all the way done before Thanksgiving, but maybe by the end of the long weekend and ALMOST CERTAINLY before December 1st. Which is fabulous! THEN I can read, oh, I don’t know, THE CHOCOLATE HEART by Laura Florand, before really getting into the real WIP.

The last thing for this revision will be, or ought to be, a complete read-through from top to bottom, adjusting this and tweaking that. If I have the patience. Which I guess I do. Sigh.

Okay, in the meantime, cookies! Because it is definitely cookie season, right? Plus I promised to bring The Best Cookies In The World to the Cavalier party on the 8th, so gotta get it in gear.

So I made these today. I don’t know if these are The Best, but they are new to me and interesting. They will freeze well because they are shortbread cookies and shortbread cookies always freeze well. I got the recipe from somewhere. Epicurious? Bon Appetit? Sorry, I don’t remember, but now that I have searched, I see they are around here and there on the web, so I guess it’s okay to post the recipe here, too. Besides, I’m changing the directions kind of a lot, though the ingredients are the same, and I will also suggest a possible glaze, though I haven’t tried that yet.

You may like these, though they are weird. This is a cookie where you eat one and then pause. The flavors sort of develop gently over a minute or so. I would say that these are for adults, unless you have kids with unusually adventurous palates.

Curry Shortbread Cookies

2 tsp coriander seeds

1 1/2 tsp Madras curry powder

2 sticks butter

1/2 C sugar

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp salt

1 3/4 C flour

Heat a small skillet for a couple of minutes and toast the coriander seeds for two minutes, shaking the skillet frequently. Pour seeds onto a plate and let cool. Toast the curry powder — I made mine, with coriander, mustard seed, cumin seed, cloves, fenugreek, dried cayenne chilies, and turmeric, but I am sure you can use any Madras-ish curry powder you like — for fifteen seconds or a bit longer. The recipe said a minute but I think my skillet was a bit hotter than theirs.

Grind the coriander seeds in your handy Preethi spice grinder, which is one of the more delightful kitchen gadgets you can have, btw. Or grind them somehow. A mortar and pestle, maybe even a food processor, whatever. I suppose in a pinch you could use ground coriander, but that would be a much, much finer grind and produce a different effect in the finished cookies.

Soften the butter — fifteen seconds in the microwave gets the job done if you forget to set it out a couple of hours beforehand. I always just microwave the butter. Don’t get distracted, though. Melted butter does NOT behave like softened butter in cookies. (Ask me how I know.)

Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla. Combine the spices, salt, and flour. Add that mixture and stir until the dough comes together. Wrap in plastic and chill an hour or longer. If you chill this particular dough overnight, you may want to let it set at room temp for a couple of hours so it will be easier to work with, but that is strictly up to you because it’s fine either way.

Anyway, divide the dough into fourths. Now into eights. Now you can take each of those portions and make it into eight little balls. The original recipe said to make 38 1-inch balls, but I wanted at least five dozen cookies, so as you see, I made 64.

Place the balls on cookie sheets as you go. I lined the baking sheets with parchment paper because I always do, but in fact shortbread cookies are not likely to stick anyway. When you’ve made all the balls, take a small glass or whatever, dip it in flour, and gently press each ball into a rather thick disk. This is not rocket science, but I think my disks were between 3/4 of an inch and an inch across before baking.

Bake at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes. The original recipe says 20-25 minutes, but those cookies were bigger. I suggest you look at yours after 10 minutes, but I expect you will not take them out quite that soon. Cool before removing to racks, because they’re pretty fragile when hot.

Now, as you may know, coriander seeds have a sort of citrus-y resin-y flavor. If you want to drizzle a glaze across these cookies, one option is to bring out the citrus a bit and use orange juice plus powdered sugar to make a glaze. Or, since there is vanilla in these cookies, milk plus vanilla plus powdered sugar. Either way, I think these cookies would be pretty if you pipe thin stripes of the glaze across the cookies. You could even add a dab of orange food coloring to the glaze, but maybe that is too Halloween-y for the season. Yellow, maybe, for the curry.

If you don’t have a decorating set, or don’t want to bother getting it out, get a large piece of plastic wrap, double it over, poke a hole in the middle with your thinnest knife, spoon the glaze onto the plastic, and presto! A pastry bag, quite suitable for piping glaze across cookies.

If you try these, I’d be interested in what you think. *I* think they are quite good, and I do remember that the original recipe declared that the test kitchen filled up with fans. If you are the sort of person who likes cayenne in your dark chocolate truffles, I bet you love these.

Math experts split the check

I have to share this with you all. I laughed out loud twice!

I don’t *think* it’s necessary to like math to love this but it does help to be a bit familiar with stereotypes like real mathematicians can’t add and economics is ridiculously jargon-laden.

Okay, anyway, here. Our math experts are: a mathematician, a physicist, a computer programmer, an engineer, and an economist, btw, so something for everyone.

Enjoy!

Sometimes you want to wait for reviews before you commit.

Did you all already know that Diana Wynne Jones’ last book has been completed by her sister Ursula?

I didn’t know that till I saw this post over at Charlotte’s Library.

So, yeah, ISLANDS OF CHALDEA.

This is the UK cover on the left and the US cover on the right. Which do you prefer? Normally when there is a choice between the UK / US covers of a book, I wind up preferring the US cover, so as far as that goes I guess I am just another sheep following the herd.

BUT this time I really prefer the UK cover by kind of a lot. Curious, but there it is.

So who plans to rush out and buy this DWJ + Ursula Jones book? And who plans to wait for reviews?

I personally can’t help but be suspicious when a *family member* is asked to complete an unfinished work by a well-known author. I can’t help but feel it might have been a better idea for the publisher to ask someone who is already known to write with a kinda-sorta similar style to do the job of completing the work. For DWJ, I would have thought of Francis Hardinge. I have seen a DWJ-Hardinge comparison more than once, and given the one book by Hardinge that I’ve read (FLYTRAP), I agree.

And if Hardinge wasn’t interested, I bet I could come up with other authors if I tried. Um. Nina Kiriki Hoffman?

Anyway! I’ll be watching reviews with interest.

Busy busy

So, yeah, sorry, relatively few posts because EVEN THOUGH I have recovered internet from my home — yay for fall and the disappearance of signal-blocking leaves — but, as I say, I am busy.

You would think that I would be halfway through the revision of PURE MAGIC by now, but no. I am changing one protagonist’s characterization all the way through, so that is a BIG job and also a fiddly job that just takes time. I meant to tackle it last, but decided it made more sense to do it first.

I also reordered the first six chapters, so I’m having to keep track of the flow through the story and that involves re-reading more than I usually would at this point.

I am not yet bored with the revision, though. In some ways, dealing with bigger issues is easier than you’d think, just because the job is more interesting. But what I need is a week where I can do nothing but concentrate on this, and instead I’m snatching hours here and there.

Also, Giedre just came into season, which Yay! But that is also going to complicate my life until the breeding is done. I meant to really concentrate on the revision over the Thanksgiving weekend, but instead, well, yeah, no, I will be running around a lot instead. First I will do blood tests to check progesterone levels almost every day starting the day before Thanksgiving (but I suppose skipping Thanksgiving day itself, since I don’t imagine the vet will be open Thanksgiving). Then I strategically pick a day to drive up to the reproductive clinic in St Louis and have an LH test run and probably another progesterone. Then — having been communicating on a daily basis with the stud dog owner in Atlanta — I will have the dog’s contribution shipped to the repro vet, and drive back up to St Louis to have the insemination done. I’ll do that twice. This whole thing takes very careful monitoring of timing for about eight to ten days minimum and is a huge pain in the neck, as you can imagine.

After that I have to just keep my fingers crossed for a whole month before I can find out if she’s pregnant!

I have at least three or four people waiting for puppies and this time I hope to keep a really classy boy and also maybe a girl, if I am lucky enough to get two outstanding puppies. The odds of getting enough puppies to go around is, well, I’m not holding my breath. We’ll see what we get. Anything over three live puppies will mean a massive celebration for me because this girl’s mother had only live puppy in a whole litter — twice.

So, as I said, busy! But I will try to continue posting at least a couple times a week. Meanwhile, I can just *see* PURE MAGIC improving before my eyes, which is so satisfying. Really great beta readers are so priceless.

Agency in the Foreigner Universe

Okay! I know some people bounced off the Foreigner books pretty hard (Hi, Craig!), but for those of us who LOVE the Foreigner series, here is a great couple of posts. I’m grateful to Maureen E, because I only spotted this because of her tweet.

So, look at this, a review of FOREIGNER, by Stefan, over at Far Beyond Reality.

In case you are actually not familiar with FOREIGNER, here is the idea in a nutshell (from Stefan’s post):

As the third section of Foreigner begins, we meet Bren, the human paidhi who lives with the alien atevi. A combination of translator, observer, and diplomat, the paidhi position is an essential link between the two cultures and the only human allowed to leave the island where humanity has settled. About two hundred years have passed since the human/atevi war that created this delicate balance.

Okay, so there’s your orientation. This whole series is the best example of sociological SF ever written (and still in progress, as you may know), by the best sociological SF writer ever. Just as a reminder, though Stefan states that the first sixty pages of FOREIGNER are basically a prologue, I personally think you will have a more satisfying reading experience if you think of the entire first book as prologue.

Now, here is the bit of the review that got the discussion rolling:

As a result, Bren is both the best and worst possible narrator for this story if, as a neutral observer, you want to understand exactly why the atevi are in such an uproar. Worst because he just doesn’t know what set off the chain of events depicted in this book, until someone bothers to tell him towards the very end. He is clueless when it comes to the main driver of the plot of this novel. Partly because of this, he lacks any sort of agency until late in the book. He has no power to steer the narrative. He is physically weaker than the atevi. He is lost, off the grid, unable to contact any other human. And, to cap it all off, he just has no idea about what happened.

You see that about agency and Bren’s lack of it?

Okay, there are immediately issues with this, because a character being physically weaker than everyone else, that has nothing to do with agency, right? But how about that being in the dark and lacking the power to steer the narrative?

Here is a fabulous response by Ann Leckie about that. Ann Leckie, btw, is the author of the debut novel ANCILLARY JUSTICE, which is getting rave reviews all over.

So here is Ann Leckie, in a nutshell: “It seems like sometimes we reserve words like “agency” and “action” for only certain sorts of agency and action. “Well, sure, they acted, but it doesn’t really count.” But sometimes–in real life, often–the only available actions are very small, very constrained. . . . And as it happens, those tiny things can have momentous consequences. Not just by accident, but by intention. It’s not that such actions aren’t really actions, or aren’t really important, it’s just that the space to make them in is very, very small. . . . You can tell incredibly gripping stories, in such a small space, with such (apparently) tiny actions. But often those stories get dismissed, their main characters described as “passive.” . . . But this is why I think it’s really, really important not to limit the idea of “agency” to situations where the characters in question have wide-ranging obvious power and/or knowledge, or can make large-scale decisions. It erases the very real agency of people who have to work on that very small scale–and who in some cases do some amazing things with it.

I think this is a perfect response. Perfect. And you simply have to get this about agency if you are going to read (or write) some kinds of stories about, say, slaves. Or women in a historically accurate setting. Or, for that matter, non-nobles of either sex in an historically accurate setting. Or anyone else whose ability to act is, as Ann puts it, constrained. A dog! Look at Sirius in DOGSBODY. One take-home message for the writer here is that constrained action does not mean that the character is not driving the action, because tiny acts can in fact have huge consequences. In Bren’s case, a decision about whether to have tea with the dowager may decide the fate of every human on the planet, which is about as momentous as consequences can get.

Ann provides a wonderful, wonderful analogy about this which I can’t really trim. Here it is in its entirety, and I hope you will love it as much as I did:

“And [Bren] is in a situation where things are changing fast. The frequent references to skiing are not, I’m quite sure, an accident. He’s flying downhill at tremendous speed, and the only control he can exercise is small movements that might mean success, or a broken neck. But he’s not just passively tumbling down that hill–he’s an expert skier, for all his agonizing over his ignorance and inability, and his every move, his every tiny adjustment, is part of his effort to avoid disaster. The fact that Cherryh has obscured his view of the slope doesn’t change that, it only makes the ride more thrilling. The fact that he’s only got a general outline of the slope to go on and is making those adjustments on the fly, very quickly, with little confidence in his choices doesn’t change that. For all a skier’s course is entirely dependent on gravity, she’s still acting, exercising control, making choices that could mean her death. Gravity’s pull is unavoidable, she can only go downhill, but she’s not passive. And Bren’s not in a situation where he has no knowledge of the slope at all–he actually knows the slope pretty well, and knows there’s an obstacle he can’t see that he’s got to avoid somehow. This is absolutely not the same, not even remotely the same, as his sliding downslope blindfolded only able to make random guesses because he doesn’t know what’s going on.”

Yes, this.

But I get that when the whole first book is prologue, and when neither the protagonist NOR THE READER knows what’s going on until right at the end, and when momentous decisions are about things like drinking tea, of course this is not a series that is going to appeal to everyone.

Stefan’s original post is actually very positive, btw: Foreigner is one of the most in-depth, uncompromising examinations of the way cultures interact in science fiction. Rereading it after all this time and with the added benefit of having read some of the later books in the series, I discovered a whole new level of complexity that’s probably almost impossible to appreciate on a first reading—complexity on almost every level, from Bren’s personal life and the subtle interactions of the atevi characters on the micro-level to the incredible socio-political depth on the macro-level.

I didn’t want to leave anyone with the impression Stefan doesn’t like the Foreigner series, see. Because that is so not true, as is totally obvious if you click over and read his whole post. Plus, everything he says about FOREIGNER being impossible to really appreciate the first time you read it is perfectly true. But, for immersion into an alien culture — not entirely alien, despite other comments, or it wouldn’t work — but anyway, the entire Foreigner series is just one of SF’s masterpieces. But not if you stop with the first book.

I know this series is intimidatingly long if you are just now thinking of starting it. But if you love sociological SF, honestly, it is a must-try.

Does writer’s block exist?

So I happened across this post over at Nathan Bransford’s, and though I usually like Nathan’s blog and find him thoughtful in his opinions, I have to say, I could not disagree more with the point he is making here.

Here is what Nathan says: “When people encounter the phenomenon otherwise known as “writer’s block,” what they are really describing is one thing and one thing only: writing stopped being fun.”

And then he goes on to give advice about how to get over yourself and write even when it’s not fun. Which is all very well. But he is missing the OTHER kind of writer’s block. You know. The real kind. The kind that honestly does crush a writer’s ability to write. The kind that Judith Tarr describes here.

What Judith Tarr is describing, and Nathan Bransford is missing, is writer’s block as an expression of serious clinical depression.

I should add that this is not Tarr declaring that writer’s block can arise from clinical depression. This is me stating that what Tarr describes fits clinical depression to a T. If you have ever feel the way described in Tarr’s post, then I hope you seek help for depression rather than waiting it out, because I’m convinced that depression is the underlying issue.

Clinical depression is not something that you can overcome by an effort of will. If I’m right that some cases of writer’s block actually arise from depression, then when a writer is suffering from this kind of writer’s block, it will not help to have anybody deliver well-meant advice that there is no such thing as writer’s block and they should just sit down and the words will come. Because they won’t.

I am not, happily, speaking from experience. I think I have mentioned before that my family seems to have lucked out on that particular genetic lottery.

But it would be nice if those who, like me, are spared the ravages of real honest-to-God clinical depression, hesitate to declare unilaterally that no one else suffers, either.

The psychology of writing and revision

You know, I honestly was not feeling at all secure about the overall structure of PURE MAGIC (which, you may recall, is the sequel to BLACK DOG, which is coming out in February.) I introduced a new pov character — and I already had two! I divided the plotline and didn’t really pull it together till right at the end! These things made me nervous, especially because as you fiddle around with revising, it gets harder and harder to tell whether the story is at all successful.

It’s not like revision is so very much fun, generally. And when you can’t tell whether the book is any good, it’s worse.

This is why *really good* beta readers are so extraordinarily important, even if they give you a whole lot more revision to do.

Sarah Prineas — who, as you may know, is the author of the MG MAGIC THIEF series — happens to have killer editorial skills, especially when it comes to characterization. So when she declares, “Natividad continues as one of my most favorite YA characters. Her voice is so great — I love her balance of sweetness and power and uncertainty. I love her fluffy pink bathrobe!” — well, that is a great relief. Especially when she immediately adds, “The Justin intro scene is terrific. Introducing a new character at this point is a really good idea.” Even when she goes on to critique his characterization — and I hate fiddling with a protagonist’s overall characterization, such a tedious fiddly sort of job, and impossible to know whether you’ve got it right except by sending it back to your beta reader — anyway, knowing that the basic bones of the story are working is so reassuring.

Especially when my agent, Caitlin, adds, “I loved PURE MAGIC! This one is particularly sure and strong. I like the addition of Justin’s pov and your action scenes are fantastic throughout.”

Particularly sure and strong? *I* did not feel that way. Whew!

And you know what? Despite the fact that both Sarah and Caitlin then go on to load me down with stuff to fix, that first positive reaction is the most important part. Because without that, I feel like, Is this even worth bothering with? But after these brief positive statements, I feel so much happier, even almost enthusiastic about leaping back into revision. This is independent of now having a much better idea of where the ms. is weak and how to fix it.

I mention all this because I just thought: if any of you are thinking of writing or are now in the process of writing a novel . . . it’s important to know that the process really may generate a predictable roller coaster. After finishing the first complete draft of a new story, I *often* feel that it may not be very good, that there may be huge structural problems that may not be fixable, that the characters may not work, that (if the book is a sequel) I might have missed re-capturing the protagonists’ voices. I felt that way with Land of the Burning Sands and with House of Shadows and with a ms I am (still) not supposed to talk about and now with Pure Magic. And in every single case, the ms. was basically fine. Even if there is always more revision to do.

Being confident of that is totally crucial for creating the basic willingness to continue messing around with the revision process.

Knowing that the It’s-Not-Working feeling frequently arises and has never been accurate in the past is one big advantage a writer gets only as she completes one ms. after another. Especially because I don’t *always* feel that way, which makes it harder still to tell whether the feeling is based on anything real. Here’s what experience has taught me: for me, this feeling — that at a very basic level, a story may not be working — is completely untrustworthy. You should never trust it. Or at least, *I* should never trust it. It’s important to let your (extremely competent) beta readers make that call.

Revision usually does not take all that long, provided you tackle it with some determination. I hope to have PURE MAGIC completely revised by December. Or no later than midway through December, which is when my month-long Christmas break starts and I like to work on something new.

In case you ever do need to tackle a complicated revision, what works for me is to make a bulleted list of Things To Do and cross them off as I fix things and never, ever go back to revisit an item after it has been crossed off. If you want to *finish* a revision, letting it be done is kind of crucial. You can trust your beta readers to let you know if there is something that still needs work after you have done the revision. But generally, if you work on, say, fixing a protagonist’s characterization, you will find that even if you can’t tell whether you’ve succeeded, you have. Feelings of insecurity about this are just another iteration of the unjustified insecurity that is (often) part of the writing process. Tolerating those feelings and moving forward is one key skill for a writer.

Or at least, for me.

Recent Reading: ROYAL AIRS by Sharon Shinn

Yep, didn’t take me long to read this one! I went ahead and put my own work on the back burner for a couple of days because, you know, you have to have priorities. Besides, not like I’m on a tight schedule, plus I’ll need to interrupt myself anyway when Caitlin gets back to me with editorial comments for PURE MAGIC so what’s another minor interruption here or there? Plus, after the INDA marathon, I was totally in the mood for something non-epic. (For me, a little epic fantasy goes a long way. If there is such a thing as “a little” epic fantasy.)

You know, the setting for TROUBLED WATERS and ROYAL AIRS is pretty unusual. How often do you find a fantasy where the medieval world is just now giving way to the Industrial Revolution?

Granted, this particular Industrial Revolution involves technology with quite a large magical infusion along with the engines. But. Smoker cars. Elaymotives. Aeromotives. Factories where all the above are made. We’re mad about vehicle technology, in this world. It makes so much sense that Rafe in particular — Rafe the gambler — would fall in love with the idea of aeromotives and flight and become a test pilot. And I like how Shinn doesn’t candy-coat the dangers of testing new planes. Though I must say, Rafe did not need another way to get himself beaten up or nearly killed; he seems to spend the whole book recovering from one pounding or another. AND I like the way Shinn doesn’t candy-coat that, ether. No getting your ribs broken one day and bouncing cheerfully out of bed the next.

So, yeah, Rafe. I like him a lot. And Josetta. I did find myself rolling my eyes a bit about the shelter she runs for the poor of the city. That whole thing is a bit simplistic, but then trying for a realistic treatment of poverty and the poor and shelters would probably have been out of place in this book, which is not meant to be an Issue book (thankfully), but rather the kind of warm, comfortable story you can relax into. (Which it is.) I definitely thought Rafe and Josetta were perfectly suited and really enjoyed the romance between them. Because you know romance tropes are central for most of Shinn’s books, right? The more restrained, less explicit treatment of romance in this series is perfect for me.

Still, in this book, I actually liked Corene more than Josetta — more any other female character. She’s the one with the biggest issues to deal with — my goodness, her mother! — and I love her combination of vulnerability and fierceness. I was SO pleased that she would not give an inch over that thing with Dominic. Go, Corene! And it’s plain that Corene is being set up to be the protagonist for a potential third book, which is great!

I liked seeing Darien again. I loved him in the first book and I love him in this one and I really enjoyed the little twist at the end, which I didn’t see coming, though I can’t imagine why not. Oh, well, yes I can, it’s because I thought I knew how that particular dilemma would be resolved, so Shinn took me by surprise when she did something else. Yes, and the discussion involving this issue — yes, I know, I’m being very vague — but that suggestion of Kayle’s about how to handle this particular problem offers a great and unexpected hook for a potential future book, too.

Okay, let me just add, if you had to pick one fantasy world to live in for the rest of your life, Welce would be a good choice. It really would. Much more so than your typical fantasy country. But its neighbors! Ugh. Berringey is almost as bad as Soeche-Tas, not that any country can be quite as creepy as Soeche-Tas. You remember Soeche-Tas from TROUBLED WATERS? Corene was going to be married off to the viceroy? Ick ick ick, right?

Well, Berringey isn’t necessarily a huge improvement on Soeche-Tas, though less creepy and more just . . . sort of smugly vicious. I did think it didn’t seem altogether reasonable that the princesses of Welce would know so little about Berringey’s more eye-popping customs, but then there are very clear implications that Welce is protected by some fortunate accident of geography from the aggression of other countries, so perhaps people in Welce just don’t have to care about the barbaric / violent / creepy / horrifying customs of their neighbors. Which is lucky for them, but if you visited this world, you would definitely want to land in Welce and not anywhere else.

Plus, the blessings everyone draws in Welce are just . . . charming. They really are. It says just about everything you need to know about this country that every single one is a blessing, right? I mean, you can draw honesty, but not deceit; resolve, but not obsession. Sharon Shinn should totally set up a way to draw blessings at her website, if she had a website. Or a personality quiz to find out what kind of person you are! That would be fun. I think maybe I’m more torz? Or hunti? Definitely not elay or coru.

Anyway, if you’ve already got this one on your TBR pile, enjoy! And if you don’t, yet, then if you want a warm cuddly book to read while curled up on the sofa drinking hot chocolate, this would be a good choice.

Want another take?

Here’s Heroes and Heartbreakers